Although she didn’t show it Malena Endia was very relieved when Pulsat
Rad announced in the mess hall “Engines fixed”
She had been a part of the Tornado’s crew for many years and felt at
home and the thought that she would have to leave the comfortable cocoon she
had inhabited for so long terrified her, she knew that Merri had been worried
about it for weeks but she never shared her fears, not with Merri at any rate,
and she didn’t have to with Shiyne as she was a telepath.
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 planets
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 every one they
could lay there 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.
Over the years, as the Tornado plied its trade, crew members came and
went but she remained loyal to the Strong’s and in the three years following Ben
Strong’s death the bond between Malena and Merionwen strengthened and she loved
her like a best friend, mother and a sister.
When she knew the 9 year old Merri she was indeed old enough to be her
mother and now appearance wise at any rate they were the same age.
The relief was palpable among Merri, Malena and Shiyne, the day after
Pulsat and Vanzyl had repaired the engines, and there was a distinct air of
optimism on the Tornado with two new engineers aboard and even better than that,
Visitor Parham had joined the crew, and he could cook.
And as their departure from Alwi was now expected in the following few
days Merri was keen to take the Tornado off world to test drive the engines and
find out if their engineers had done as good a job as they thought they
had.
So with Merri piloting and Malena in the co-pilot seat and Pulsat and Vanzyl
monitoring the engines the Tornado’s four vertical take-off jumper engines were
engaged and the Tempest Class freighter lifted off.
It wasn’t a huge ship as freighters go but pound for pound the
Tempests had the highest freight to fuel ratio yield of their class.
The front section comprised of a sizable pressurized hold for large
freight accessed via a front loading ramp, above which was the flight deck,
living and sleeping quarters, mess facilities and bath rooms, at the rear was
the main propulsion and amidships were the universal pod bays, which allowed
for a mixed cargo option, which allowed for quick inspection and loading,
although sometimes pods were sealed which meant it was either very valuable or
very illegal, either way Merri didn’t mind and transporting sealed cargo paid
much much better.
The Tornado always flew with at least one pod but then that was because
it was where they stowed their gear and where the hidden compartments could be
found, or not, which was where they hid the contraband, when necessary.
After watching the ship take off, Clergyman come cook, Bagg went into
town in search of provisions, which were seriously depleted on board while
Shiyne went to see if she could secure them a cargo.
Merionwen took the ship effortlessly out of the atmosphere and into
space and then said
“Well so far so good”
“Yes but we need to go a bit speedier than that if we’re going to
cross the system without being trashed by raiders” Malena pointed out
“We had better put the pedal to the metal then” she retorted and
flicked on the comms to the engine room
“Pulsat I’m about to put the engines through their paces, let me know
if there are any problems”
“Engines good” Pulsat said
“I know, but let me know, if engines bad” Merri said
“Engines good” Pulsat repeated and she rolled her eyes
“Ok here we go” she said and slowly accelerated
“Wow they’ve never been that smooth before”
“Everything’s good on the monitors” Malena said
“Give them some more”
So Merri smoothly took them up to maximum speed and they ate up the
space as they left Alwi and headed towards Aragon which was the planet that
Alwi orbited.
“Engines good” Malena said and they both laughed
They spent the next hour putting the Tornado through speed and manoeuvring
trials in their small corner of the Cammaratian System, which was of was
moderately sized, comprising of 7 planets and some seventy moons, only one of
the planets was an M class, Lazarion, the fourth planet, all of the others were
either gaseous, volatile or just plain unpleasant.
There were various mining operations in the system mainly on the
numerous moons, the largest of which was on Alwi the fourth moon of the seventh
planet Aragon.
The trials passed largely in silence until Merionwen said
“It is so nice to get back out into space”
“You mean it’s nice not to have to swear at the engines” Malena said
and laughed
“Very funny” Merri retorted and then Malena noticed some unusual
readings on the monitors
“I’m picking up something on the long range scanners” she said
“What exactly?” Merri asked
“I don’t know, get us a bit closer and I might be able to identify it,
head towards Zandros”
“Ok here we go” she said and made a bee line for the coordinates
Malena gave her, which was in close proximity of the second planet in the system
and a few minutes later she added
“It’s a distress call, a freighter, a Scav Raider attack”
“How many?”
“Two for sure, maybe three” Malena replied
“Any ID on the freighter?”
“Only that it’s an Omega class”
Omegas were very common freighters less than half the size of the
Tornado and were unarmed so with three raiders attacking them they were in deep
trouble so Merionwen squeezed every ounce of power from the engines and then a few
minutes later Malena said
“Oh no”
“What? What?” Merri snapped “What is it?”
“It’s the Phoenix” she replied gravely as they knew the Phoenix well
and the Skeet brothers who owned it.
“Shit” Merri said
Apart from being in the same trade and often competing for cargo the
Skeets were friends, so it was a bit of a shock.
“We had better go and rescue your boyfriend”
“He’s not my boyfriend” Malena said
“Not for the want of it on his part” Merri pointed out “Or yours”
“Don’t exaggerate” Malena snapped although she could not deny the
truth of it to herself.
She really liked the younger brother Zerrad but she had long since
decided that there could never be any kind of a relationship for a number of
reasons and although she was attracted to Zerrad she saw no reason to change
her policy.
Apart from the fact they were on different freighters and their paths
didn’t cross more than a handful of times a year, she was sixty years older
than him and a different species entirely.
He was attracted to 28 year old slender brunette and not her natural
Mercurial form of liquid silver glass.
But regardless of her misgivings she still found herself thinking
“I hope we can get there in time”
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