The Tempest Class Freighter was powered by 4 Plasma Turbine Pyroclast
Engines, which allowed for a very quick turn of speed once airborne, and four
vertical take-off jumper engines whose purpose is self-explanatory, they could
also be used independently to provide auxiliary power on board while they were
on the surface for periods when the solar converters were inadequate.
But with only two of the main Turbines on line they couldn’t hope to
outrun even the slowest of the Scav Raiders and they couldn’t take that chance,
so they had to fix them on Alwi.
“Argh!!!!” Merri screamed from inside the engine housing “You total
fuck”
“Is everything alright?” a deep cultured voice enquired
“Not really” she replied without looking for the source of the
questioner
“Engine trouble?” he asked
“Damn you’re good” she snapped facetiously and lifted her head “How did
you…”
She left the sentence unfinished when she saw that her interlocutor
was a Visitor.
Visitors were a Christian sect who took to the stars with the first
migrants to visit new worlds, spreading the word while seeking enlightenment,
and they had established Visitor enclaves in every corner of the known
universe, they even thrived in Mehreen space and they were the least spiritual
beings to ever draw breath.
The difference between Visitors and the established Christian Church
on earth was its spontaneity, they didn’t wait until Sunday to worship, they
did it wherever and whenever it was desired and it didn’t need to happen in a
church, Visitors worshipped everywhere.
Merri straightened up and brushed her rebellious lock off her face,
though a few strands remained stuck to her forehead as she perused the man
before her.
She thought him somewhere beyond fifty with his long white hair and
short trimmed beard.
He was tall and disproportionately thin, and wore a full length pale
blue robe tied at the waist with a royal blue cord and this was beneath a full length dark blue leather jerkin, and
he carried a simple roughhewn staff which was undecorated but for a carved
cruciform relief a few inches from the top.
“I’m sorry Brother” Merri said flushing scarlet as she scrambled out
of her oily tomb “I didn’t realize you were a Visitor”
“That’s ok” he said “I’ve heard worse cussing than you’ve been
producing”
“Oh God, you heard all of that?” she asked and grimaced
“I did” he confessed and laughed
“I’m sorry anyway” she said and wiped her oily hand before offering it
to him to shake “I’m Merionwen Strong, Merri for short”
“I am Visitor Parham” he said formerly “But people who know me call be
Bagg”
After a short converse involving her detailing the nature of the problem
with the engines and her lack of an engineer he said
“Maybe I can help”
“I don’t think God can fix what ails these beasts” Merri said with a
giggle
“I would agree, but he has provided the solution to your predicament”
“You?” she asked which produced a deep roar of a laugh
“Good heavens no” he retorted “I am not of a mechanical bent, no my
talents lie in another area entirely”
“Then I don’t really see how you can help” she said
“Well the key to everything in life is a question of balance and it
just so happens that God has provided the perfect opportunity to attain balance
by placing on Alwi, the greatest need and the greatest abundance, in short,
your defunct engines and the two best engineers in the quadrant”
“And you can vouch for them?” she asked
“I can”
“So if they’re so good how come they ended up on Alwi” Merri asked
“Because the vessel they were on was bound for Mehreen space, and the
neutral zone is as close as they ever want to get to it, so they disembarked”
“Do they have a reason for not crossing into Mehreen space?”
“If I was to tell you that Pulsat Rad is from Prinsloo and Vanzyl is
Kesslerian would that answer your question?” Bagg asked
Merri knew from her father that both civilizations had suffered
greatly at the hands of the Mehreen so she replied
“It would”
Bagg nodded and looked at the ground and uttered a short prayer.
“Why don’t you get then to come and see me tomorrow and we’ll see if
we can redress the balance” she said and smiled smugly at her paraphrasing of
the Visitor.
“Why not meet them now” he suggested and gestured over her shoulder
“They’re here now”
Merri turned around and perused the two figures walking toward them,
one was slightly shorter than the other, who she recognised as a Prinsloovian.
He was heavy set and had a rough bony skull which raised up like a
crown which receded to give way to a Mahogany scaled brow, cheekbones and
jawline which framed an ivory coloured face, and he had yellow eyes and his
entire countenance betrayed his reptilian ancestry.
His companion in comparison was slender and although they also owed
its origins to reptilian DNA its scaly countenance was more akin to a fish than
a lizard, with large eyes and pursed lips, and on closer inspection Merri could
see its gills.
“This is Merionwen Strong, Captain of the Tornado” Bagg said
“Good meeting, I Pulsat Rad, this Vanzyl” the shorter of the two 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 telling, I telling” Pulsat retorted and to Merri he explained
“Vanzyl say we very much like fix engines, very much like join crew Tornado”
“You fix the engines and you have a deal” she said “on one condition”
“What is?” he asked
“The condition is that you don’t have any strange eating habits” Merri
explained and then she observed as the two engineers in waiting looked at each
other in what she supposed was puzzlement until Vanzyl made a long whistling
noise followed by a succession of clicks and Pulsat snorted.
“No, no, we eat everything” he said and then he and Vanzyl proceeded
to investigate the engines.
“I hope they meant anything and not everything” Merri said
“Only time will tell” Bagg said and laughed
“Talking of food, will you stay and eat” Merri asked
“That depends, are you a better cook than you are an engineer?”
“Actually I’m a better engineer” she confessed
“In that case I’ll stay, providing you let me cook” he retorted
“That was the best meal I’ve eaten in three years” Malena said as she
pushed her spotless plate away from her.
“At least three years” Merri echoed
“Mmmm” was all that Shiyne could manage
“I’m glad you enjoyed it” Visitor Parham responded
“As it might make you more receptive to what I have to say next”
“That sounds ominous” Merri said
“It’s not at all” Shiyne said and smiled because she knew what was on
his mind because she was a Vann and the Vann were telepaths.
“So what is it?” Malena asked
“It’s time for me to leave Alwi and continue my travels” Bagg said
“So I would like to join you”
“Well I think I can speak for the whole crew when I say that,
providing we can get off this damn moon, you’re welcome to tag along, as ships
cook” Merionwen said just at the point Pulsat and Vanzyl appeared
“Engines fixed” the former said
“What already?” Merri asked “You’ve fixed them both?”
“No” Pulsat replied
“We fix four”
“I already had two working” Merionwen said indignantly which prompted
Vanzyl to make a long whistling noise followed by a succession of clicks and
Pulsat snorted, which clearly denoted laughter in the former and derision in
the latter.
“We fix four” Pulsat repeated and everyone laughed
“So you’ve done in four hours that I haven’t been able to do in almost
as many months”
“We are engineers” Pulsat said and everyone laughed again
“Then it looks like we’re getting off this rock at last” Merri said
“and we have three new shipmates”
Then after the introductions were made Merri said
“Now sit and eat”
“We eat here?” Pulsat asked
“Where else?” Merri said and Vanzyl uttered a soft whistle like a
plaintive flute
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