Malena Endia was from Obgaron Prime in the Alandis system which was now deep in the heart of the Mehreen Empire, though she, like many of her species, fled into Legion territory after their world was invaded, but many of her kind died after the invasion and she wasn’t sure exactly how many were left because they weren’t easily recognized as they were a race of shape shifters.
The Mehreen were a brutal regime who conquered world after world
without warning, either for tactical and strategic reasons or for want of the
planet’s resources, but in the case of Obgaron Prime there was no strategic
value and it was poor in minerals and Orr, their destruction was for a very
different reason altogether, fear.
The mighty Mehreen Empress feared the Obgaron because of a long-held
prophecy that the Empire would been brought down by beings who could transform
themselves into Mehreen High Councillor’s and seize power unnoticed, so they
thought those beings were shape shifters, so they slaughtered everyone they could
lay their hands on without mercy.
The Obgaron were a peaceful insular people who had had minimal
exposure to the universe outside their own system so the majority of the
inhabitants weren’t fearful of an impending invasion.
Malena however was not among them and fled, stowing away on a deep
space exploration vessel with a few of her like-minded people and slipped
through the Mehreen net by transforming.
Though she could change form at will she could only transform into a
being she had touched.
Only the briefest moment was required and then it was in her memory
banks and could be recalled whenever required.
But that need to touch a subject in order to shift cost many more
lives during the invasion among the Obgaronian’s who had no suitable form to shift
into to when the time came, in order to evade the Mehreen hordes.
The form Malena took was that of a 27-year-old human whom she met on a
remote mining colony when she first entered Legion space, that was more than 20
years earlier and she still looked exactly the same.
It was on another mining planet 12 months later that she first met Ben
Strong and joined his crew aboard the Tornado where she quickly proved herself
to be invaluable, firstly as just one of the crew but she soon showed a natural
gift for navigating and she also excelled as a nanny to 9-year-old Merri.
But in all that time she had never once seen or even heard of another
Obgaron, which was why when Terrell
injected the errant Sister, dispatching her with a jab to the neck so she crumpled to the floor,
and she transformed from the Sister dressed in traditional white habit with the
face of a human, shimmered and faded to be replaced by a very different
Mercurial form of liquid silver glass, she was stunned.
“My God she’s Obgaron”
Malena said and sunk to her knees, as did the other sisters, and then rest of
the Tornado crew appeared.
“I’ll get the
Prefects” Parse said
“No, please, not yet”
Malena pleaded “I need to talk to her first”
Never have spoken to or seen another Obgaron in over twenty years she couldn’t
hand her over to the Prefects without a word.
The Sisters
temporarily closed the Chamber and locked the doors leaving the two Obgaron
alone inside, the rest of the crew were anxious, no more so the Zerrad Skeet,
but Shiyne kept up her own line of communication going.
“What if the Sister
changes into some Dragon thing?” Zerrad asked
“Then Malena will
change into a bigger one” Lyris retorted
“What’s your name?”
Mal asked the Sister who had now returned to her human form
“Sister Tabatha” she
replied
“You’re real name”
“That is my Church
name” she insisted
“Very well” Malena
said and instantly transformed into her natural state and said
“My name is Malena
Endia, what’s yours?”
This made Sister
Tabatha gasp and prompted her to change as well
“Amota Tricona” she
said “I thought I was the only one left”
“Have you never seen
another of our kind either?” Malena asked and Amota shook her head
“The Sisters took me
in more than twenty years ago and I have stayed with them ever since” she explained
“I would have died if not for them”
“And they have you
steal for them in return” Malena said
“No, no, they didn’t
know” she replied “I did it to repay them for their kindness to me, I told them
they were donations, and they didn’t know I wasn’t human”
“Very noble, but it’s
still theft” Mal pointed out
“But I only take from
the wealthy” Amota said defensively
“I don’t take anything
they can’t afford to lose”
“But you have taken
precious things, not precious because of their value but of the sentiment
attached” Mal explained “Irreplaceable things”
“I didn’t think of
that” Amota said “I’m sorry”
“So where are the
things you took today?” Mal asked
“Over here” she
replied and led Malena into a dingy corner and opened a cupboard.
“I’m looking for an Androsin Gold bracelet
with an intricate design inlaid with platinum and a handcrafted leather bag”
she said “Both taken today”
It only took Amota
about a minute to locate the two items and hand them over
“What happens now?”
“I don’t know” Mal
replied “Under the law you should be handed over to the Prefects, that’s what
we intended before I knew you were you, so now I don’t know”
“What will the
Prefects do to me?” she asked
“I suppose it depends
on the Sisters, and if they will speak in your defense” Malena replied and
Amota’s shoulders slumped and when they did Mal closed her eyes and said “done”
in her head.
Shiyne gave the signal
and they all walked towards the door where Visitor Parham had been in deep
conversation with the Mother Superior.
“We can go in now”
Shiyne said
“Ok, but I need to
talk to you all first” Bagg said
“We are not going to
hand her over to the Prefects” Bagg said
“What?” Parse
exclaimed
“The Mother Superior
will send Sister Tabatha on their next transport, to one of their closed orders,
away from the faithful” Bagg said “That will be punishment enough”
“What about the
stealing?” Parse asked
“Stop thinking like a
policeman” Bagg said “She wasn’t doing it for personal gain”
“What about the
bracelet?” Lyris asked
“Malena has it, and the
old ladies’ bag” Shiyne announced
“I think it’s the best
solution” Bagg said “I’m sure Malena will agree”
Malena was visibly
relieved when Bagg told her what had been decided, Amota would have been little
more than a girl when she fled her home world, and she believed she was merely
repaying the Sisters for their kindness.
The Sisters didn’t
care that she wasn’t human, and she would always be Sister Tabatha to them and
Malena knew she would be safe in a closed order.
A month later Malena
had Zerrad fly her back to Marikya in the Spider Hawk when it was time for
Amota to leave so she could say goodbye.
“Do you think we are
the only two Obgaron left?” Amota asked
“If I’d been asked
that a month ago I would have said I was the only one” she replied “but now I
know there are two of us so I suspect if there are two then there are a lot
more, we are very good at hiding, but we must stay hidden, because the Mehreen
still want to kill us”
They stood on the
landing field at the foot of the loading ramp and embraced
“We will see each
other again” Malena said “So stay safe”
“You too”
Zerrad put his arm around Malena and she had mixed emotions
as they watched the transport lift off, she was happy that she was no
longer the last of the Obgaron but sad that Amota
Tricona had to leave, but as she stood with the comforting arms of her lover
around her she felt at peace and she knew for certain sure that she would see
her again, even though she didn’t know when.
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