After engaging the Tornado’s
four vertical take-off jumper engines the Tempest class freighter landed softly
on the apron at Cranack and when the freighters ramp lowered the Tornado’s
APMTV, (All Purpose Multi Terrain Vehicle), nicknamed the “Stroller”, followed
on foot by Asti,
The name Stroller was
an ironic one because when Shiyne or Merri were behind the wheel it did
anything but stroll, the moment it came to a halt Asti paused before remotely
closing the ramp and then climbed aboard, and as the Stroller pulled away
Malena looked long and
hard at the blackened scars on the Tornado and said
“Let’s go and give
Pulsat and Vanzyl the bad news”
It was mid-morning
when they reached the settlement, and everyone was surprised when the Stroller
pulled into the yard.
There first port of
call was to find their crewmate Visitor Parham, known as Bagg, who was staying
with his brother Trebreh, who was also a Visitor, and his wife Xandra and her
brother Ale who was Bagg’s boyhood friend.
As they disembarked
from the Stroller Malena turned around and perused the two familiar figures
walking toward them, surrounded by children, Pulsat Rad was slightly shorter
than the other, and the heavy set Prinsloovian was unmistakable, with his rough
bony skull raising up like a crown above his Mahogany scaled brow.
He was clearly
enjoying himself, his smiling ivory coloured face bore testament to that and
his yellow eyes were twinkling.
His friend Vanzyl was
slender and although they both shared reptilian ancestry Vanzyl was more akin
to a fish than a lizard, with large eyes and pursed lips, and of course gills.
“Good meeting again” Pulsat said and clicks
and whirls began to emanate from Vanzyl which were clearly directed at Pulsat
“Ok I speak” he said,
and more clicks and whirls followed
“I ask, I ask” Pulsat
retorted
“Vanzyl say why you
early back?”
“It’s a long story”
Malena replied and in response Vanzyl made a long whistling noise followed by a
succession of clicks and Pulsat snorted.
“Yes, Yes, I ask, I
ask” Pulsat retorted
“Where Captain?”
“That’s another long
story” Mal replied “Come and sit with us and we’ll explain everything”
The Strollers arrival
had been met with mixed feelings by the children of the village and Pulsat and
Vanzyl, a sign that it would soon be time for them to leave was not well
received by the children and there were vociferous calls of disappointment when
Pulsat and Vanzyl had to join the crew, but their displeasure didn’t prevent
them from walking with their friends to the courtyard and hugging them when
they got there, and the two engineers were reminded of how sad they would be
leaving the “small humans”
After the greetings
were over with the first task was to introduce the injured Andraxian, Ambor
Etra, to them who was confined to a stretcher and discharged her in Xandra’s
care who they knew would ensure she got the bedrest she required.
Once Ambor was
settled, as she had been clearly tired by the journey, the crew told the tale
of the meeting with Merri’s cousin Dwynwen, and what brought her to the Eikon
Cluster, the mistaken identity which lead to Merri’s abduction and the
subsequent rescue, and the perilous voyage to the rendezvous.
Vanzyl started
clicking and whirling agitatedly.
“I do it, I do it” Pulsat
said to his Kesslerian friend, and Vanzyl whistled and clicked again and Pulsat
snorted.
“Tornado shot?”
“A little bit” Mal
replied and Vanzyl became very excitable and clicks and whirls began to emanate
from him which were clearly directed at Pulsat
“Ok I speak” he said,
and more clicks and whirls followed
“I telling, I telling”
Pulsat retorted and to the group he explained
“Vanzyl say we must
look”
“There’s plenty of
time to do that, we’ll look later” Malena said
Then there were more
Clicks and whirls
“I telling, I telling”
“Vanzyl say we look
now” Pulsat insisted
“Ok” Mal said in
surrender
Shiyne accompanied
Malena as moral support for the journey back to Cranack, she would have
preferred to have spent the time with Terrell, but he was busy attending to
Ambor.
As she approached the
Tornado Mal braced herself and when they had an uninterrupted view of the ship
Pulsat screamed and he and Vanzyl jumped out of the Stroller.
“Argh!” The former
exclaimed repeatedly while running back and forth, while the latter stood
transfixed while uttering repeated strings of whirls whistles and clicks.
It was a full five
minutes before Pulsat could utter a sentence
“What kind Holiday,
you have?”
Vanzyl whistled and
clicked again and Pulsat snorted.
“Tornado broken, yes”
Pulsat agreed
“Can you fix her?” Malena asked
“We fix, yes” Pulsat said sadly as he realised it would be some months
before they would return to Montrose and their friends.
“We go Soman soon?”
Soman was where Golbolt Interstellar was based, which was where they
got most of their work and the main
reason for that was that the Operations Manager was Oshwin Lemik and he fought
against the Legion in the Shaxon War with the Skeet brothers, they as pilots
and Oshwin as Logistics Commander.
Golbolt also had an
abundance of hardstanding where the Tornado could stand while it was repaired.
“I thought we’d just
stay on Eirkos while you fix it” Malena said
Vanzyl uttered a soft
whistle like a plaintive flute, then he looked at his friend and whistled
again.
“Yes, we fix”
So, over the next
three months, while Ambor Etra convalesced amidst the gentle people of
Montrose, the two reptilian engineers worked on the Tornado to get her back to
her best, however they actually got her to beyond her best.
The rest of the crew
weren’t idle either, and took the opportunity of their downtime to get the
inside back up to snuff, although thanks to Oshwin, who loaned them a clipper
called Darios, Mal and Shiyne did some local freight hauling and the clipper
also allowed them to keep the supply of parts coming to facilitate the
engineers repairs on the Tornado, but the Skeet Brothers used the down time to
fly the Spider Hawk to Eikon Major because they were concerned about an old friend.
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