The Tornado Sojourns (3) – Chapter 02 – The Visitors Rest

 

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.

Visitor Parham felt blessed, and thanked God for placing him on Alwi at the moment of Merionwen Strong’s great need, and for facilitating his enrolment on the crew of the Tornado.

Which had given him new purpose in life at the time he was floundering, he felt needed on the freighter, admittedly more for his cooking than his ministering, but it felt good for him to be part of something.

Bagg, as he liked to be known, left his home world, Mars, as a young man and set off into the stars to spread the word, and he had never returned, and was still travelling thirty years later, and he had a lot to be thankful for, being part of the Tornado family for one and being reacquainted with his brother Trebreh and his family for another.

 

When you were a Visitor, meeting family was one of the rarest of occasions, when there were two Visitors in one family they were almost impossible.

Apart from his brother Trebreh, who he hadn’t seen for twelve years, and his wife Xandra there was her brother Ale, who was his boyhood friend and a host of nephews and nieces whom he had not met before, in the agrarian settlement of Montrose on Eirkos, where he and the crew were regular visitors.

But after being reunited with his family he found himself, for the first time in his life, regretting not having a wife and children of his own, thought his regret was short lived as he had enough blessings in his life to count, he did though occasionally feel lonely, especially on a ship full of couples, rare though those times were, but he always found cooking a batch of scones helped.

 

On the Tornado crew’s first visit to Eikon Minor they went into town of Gipki, they all went off in different directions, with different needs to fill and as he often did, Bagg headed for the market place and went in search of the herbs, spices, dried and desiccated fruits that he needed to replenish his cupboards.

He loved markets, even if he didn’t need many provisions he would never give up an opportunity to stroll around among the abundance of food stuffs on offer and allow him to indulge his passion for the exotic foods, and his vocation in one fell swoop and when he had completed his task he headed for the rendezvous point, which was a bar and restaurant.

He grew a couple more inches when he saw that the hostelry was named The Visitors Rest, and it quickly became a regular spot for him and the crew.

But the Visitors Rest didn’t take on its true significance for him until the day he met the new owner Wisma Berita, because that was the day he fell in love for the first time.

 

Wisma Berita was a mature woman a year or two younger than him and the first time he saw her he was smitten, she was certainly not in the first flush of youth, and she was a widow who had bought the pub from her brother in law, the previous owner, who had retired after a health scare.

Wisma was no stranger to hospitality, she had been doing it since she was a girl and that was where she had met her husband, and they had run a place together until he died and then she had run a bar on her own as well since, though not anywhere near the size of the Rest.

She could quite easily have lived a comfortable life with her inheritance, but chose to work instead, and she chose Gipki because that was where she had been born and raised.

 

Bagg was beyond fifty in years with long white hair and a short trimmed beard, tall and disproportionately thin, but cut an impressive figure in his 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.

Wisma was still a very attractive woman, 5ft 6 inches tall with nice legs and a trim figure, and kaleidoscopic hair, which could appear, red, blonde, brown, blue, or black depending upon which angle you were seeing it from.

They hit it off immediately, maybe it was because they shared a similar sense of humour, the same faith and a love of cooking, but in truth their mutual attraction was due to more than them having a lot in common.

When they were on Eikon Minor he found himself spending more and more time in the “Rest” and Wisma spent the time he wasn’t in there wishing that he was, and it went on that way for several months until one day when he was in the bar for lunch, after neglecting to walk the market again.

NEIL ARMSTRONG'S MOON-LANDING ANAGRAM - ONE SMALL STEP

 

A thin man ran

Makes a large stride

Left planet

Pins flag on moon

On to Mars

PLUTO

Unknown to Gustav Holst

Pluto, the Dwarf planet

Inhabits the Kuiper belt

And is no longer the ninth planet

Of our solar system

Not even the biggest Dwarf

But Second to Eris 

UFO’s

 

UFO’s are real unless

My guess is missed

It’s the Royal Air Force

That doesn't really exist

MARS

 

Gustav Holst’s bringer of war

The red planet

A place of high mountains

And deep canyons

Red dust deserts

And frozen Polar Regions

VENUS

 

Gustav Holst’s bringer of peace

Second planet from the Sun,

Earth's “sister planet”

To the ancients

The Morning Star

Or the Evening Star

Shrouded by opaque

Highly reflective

Clouds of sulphuric acid

The Tornado Sojourns (3) – Chapter 01 – Cruising the Cluster

 

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.

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, or even fugitives when necessary, but not so much in recent years. 

 

It had been almost three years since the Tornado, reached the Eikon Cluster with a full complement aboard, funds in the coffers and three pods of Thermalium mineral ore for delivery to Eikon Major, and two years since they finally shook off their Ghambran pursuers once and for all, thanks to the Gouveian Crown Jewels, Commander Emad Salmin of the Legion Aeronautica, and some cunning in planting the stolen jewels aboard the Ghambran’s Scorpion Cruiser.

 

They should have felt guilty after effectively framing the Ghambran’s for a crime they knew full well they didn’t commit, but they didn’t.

They may indeed have been innocent of the criminal, subversive and treasonable acts that landed them in court, but they were not innocent, they had committed many and varied crimes and had always gotten away with them because they were under the banner of Prefector Collis’s protection.

But the charges that they faced, they had to face alone, because Maxil Weltz and Vint Reganus were disowned by Prefector Collis, who chose to distance himself from his former employees fearing he might otherwise find himself in the dock for treason.

In reward for finding the Crown Jewels, Commander Salmin was made Supreme Commander for the whole of the Eikon Cluster and those aboard the Tornado, and their friends and allies felt the weight of his gratitude.

As a result of their action to preserve the life they loved in the Cluster they actually Malena Endia and Shiyne had their lovers, Zerrad Skeet and Terrell Vorton with them, Zerrad’s brother Lyris had been tamed by the member of the Gouveian Royal family among their number, Asti Alegionaris.

While engineers Pulsat Rad and Vanzyl, who were magicians with all things mechanical had also found love, a love for the children of Montrose, who loved them in equal measure.

Even Visitor Parham, who tended their spiritual needs, while his alter ego Bagg fortified them with his culinary prowess, had also found love in the form of his family on Montrose.

So, everything for the Tempest Class Freighter Tornado was set fare, and Captain Merionwen Strong knew that apart from a good crew, good food and a liberal quantity of love, that on the Tornado’s Sojourns around the Eikon Cluster they were bound to have more adventure, and she was not wrong.

 

Merionwen Strong was 32 years old and was best described as statuesque, she was tall, straight backed, proud and was blessed with an abundance of red hair that trailed behind her like a mane and penetrating green eyes to stare you down with, and overall, she cut a striking figure and along with her appearance went her forthright, volatile and feisty personality.

She was owner and Captain of the Tornado, and her love interest was Parse Sacrod, whom she called Beefy, a former Legionnaire of the Royal Guard of Gouveia who she met after Princess Asti Alegionaris was abducted at the space port by the Ghambran’s.

He was huge in stature, standing 6 feet 8 high and he was broad and powerfully built, his hair was short, curly and the colour of burnished steel, and with the characteristic ivory skin of the Gouveian race, and with his mercury-coloured eyes he was as arresting a figure as Merri and they had become inseparable, and always spent the long watches on the flight deck together.

 

Technically the ship belonged to the Garangon mining company, but as they went out of business when they inadvertently destroyed the moon, they were mining, Merionwen’s father Ben kept the Tornado in lieu of payment and it passed to her on his death.

Apart from Merri the only other survivors from her father’s crew were her co-pilot and navigator, Malena Endia and Shiyne, the latter being that rare commodity in any crew, someone who could and would perform any task required of them without question, but her real strength was in the role of negotiator and as an eternal optimist.

The rest of the crew arrived in dribs and drabs mainly as a result of being stranded on the stranded on the surface of Alwi, the fourth moon of the seventh planet Aragon, in the Cammaratian System.

The first to arrive was Visitor Parham, a Christian minister who it turned out set a chain of events in motion, firstly he brought with him two first rate engineers, Pulsat and Vanzyl, who were magicians with all things mechanical and the next day they lifted off and went for a spin among the stars.

It was during that test flight that they had to go to the rescue of the Skeet brothers whose ship, the Phoenix, was attacked by Skav Raiders, and the attack was so severe that they had to eject in a life pod which nearly cost them their lives anyway, but they were saved in the nick of time, and when they recovered from their injuries they joined the crew, and it was the Skeets injuries that brought Sciberran Healer Terrell Vorton aboard the Tornado where two significant things happened, firstly he saved Zerrad Skeet’s life, which was crucial in reconciling the unresolved love between him and Malena, and secondly it brought him into the close orbit of Shiyne where they also fell for each other.

When the Tornado left Alwi bound for Delta 500 they had a passenger aboard and that was Princess Asti Alegionaris, youngest granddaughter of the Regent of Gouveia, who was subsequently abducted and rescued, which introduced Parse to the captain.

Visitor Parham’s role aboard was to tend to their spiritual needs, but his alter ego Bagg, fortified them with his culinary prowess.

 

Once they arrived in the Eikon Cluster, so called due to the high number of M class planets and moons in the Eikon solar system, they quickly found an abundance of work with Golbolt Interstellar, based on the moon Somar.

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.

From the moment they were reacquainted, the Tornado got as much work as they wanted and regularly ran between Eikon Major and Minor, Eirkos and its moons, Soman, Rekar and Marikya, and neighbouring planet’s, Achrem and Zenden as well as Zenden’s moon, Linden, plus a host of other smaller moons and asteroids.

In the time they had been in the Eikon Cluster they had familiarized themselves with the planets and moons they visited and had cultivated great friendships along the way, so whatever part of the system they were in they always knew where to go where they would be welcomed, and they could relax and enjoy their down time.

Although Merri would have been just as happy to stay aboard with Parse and enjoy a bit of “alone” time. 

Similarly, the diminutive Princess Asti with her short platinum hair, ivory skin and silver eyes, would have preferred to keep her six-foot-tall, broad and muscular, black haired, dark eyed boyfriend, Lyris Skeet, all to herself.

Shiyne and Terrell just wanted to be wherever the other was, such was the depth of their love, though they were an odd couple.

They were both the same height but that was the only thing they had in common, he was older than her by 6 years and was stoutly built, while she was slim, his skin was of chalk white and hers was cerise, his eyes were violet, Shiyne’s were purple and Terrell’s hair was midnight blue and she was bald, the other difference was that he was very quiet, and she would often chatter incessantly.

 

Physically Zerrad and his brother were very similar and only blonde hair and grey eyes differed from his older dark-haired brother, and his lover Malena was a tall slim brunette, with olive skin and hazel eyes, at least that was how she appeared, her true form was more mercurial, but Zerrad loved her in any form.

Pulsat Rad, Vanzyl and Bagg had no significant others, but the latter would have indulged his love of baking in the Galley while the other two would have happily played with their engines.

 

So for differing reasons they would all have been equally happy staying aboard, but Merri insisted they should all spend time away from the ship, which was why they had so many places, recreational bolt holes, but their favourite would always be the agrarian settlement of Montrose on Eirkos where Bagg’s brother and his family lived, but there was one other location that held particular significance for him, and that was the Gipki on Eikon Minor where there was a small Legion Aeronautica Garrison, and a hostelry called the Visitors rest, and more particularly its proprietor Wisma Berita.