The Tornado Sojourns (3) – Chapter 14 – Healer

 

Sciberran Healer Terrell Vorton had spent five years working his way from moon to moon, planet to planet and system to system, on ships of every shape and size, in search of something, though he didn’t know what that something was, he just knew that it was not on his home planet of Sciberras in the Hennis system.

He was a small stout man standing 5 foot 5, and was quite striking in appearance with chalk white skin, short hair of midnight blue and hypnotic violet eyes.

He was a quiet studious man who apart from medicine, loved science, and had a fascination for off world travel, although it would have remained just that had it not been for the untimely deaths of his wife and child.

Their loss had been particularly acute because he was helpless to cure them despite his high regard as a Healer.  

On his world, Healers started their training at the age of 5, but it wasn’t for everyone, but those like Terrell who reached adulthood and remained in training were destined for a lifetime in medicine, but for him he was destined to be the cream of the crop.

But with the premature deaths of his wife and child he came to doubt his ability and that prompted him to leave his home world and try and regain belief in himself and since leaving Sciberras he had learned a lot about the anatomy of other species, who he hadn’t come in contact with before, because Sciberras was quite an insular world, but travelling off world had opened his eyes and he was left hungry for more.

But when he reached the moon Alwi and saw the beautiful Vann telepath, Shiyne, he knew that the next leg of his sojourn was to go wherever she went so he joined the crew of the Tornado and very quickly won the heart of the beautiful little cerise coloured Navigator.

 

He was just finishing up in the sick bay where he had been stitching a cut on Lyris Skeets hand, sustained in a fight with and ex Legionnaire, and looking forward to spending some quality time with Shiyne when there was a commotion outside so he opened the door and found a dripping wet Pulsat Rad carrying a bloodied body in his arms.

He couldn’t see who it was or the full extent of their injuries, but he calculated they must have been severe to get the Prinsloovian to go out in the rain.

“Bring him in Pulsat” Terrel instructed so he carried the casualty into sickbay and laid him on the nearest bed.

“Thank you Pulsat” he said “Have you told the Captain?”

“Now I get” he replied and then as he got a better look at the casualties face he added

“And fetch Bagg as well”

“I get, I get” Pulsat said and rushed off leaving Terrel to continue his examination.

 

Visitor Parham, not for the first time in his life, found himself standing outside of sickbay or equivalent awaiting news.

They were due to depart that morning but Merri had delayed it for twenty four hours, and it was still raining hard outside and was showing no sign of stopping.

 

As he waited he wasn’t wearing his more formal Visitor attire of a full length pale blue robe tied at the waist with a royal blue cord, beneath a full length dark blue leather jerkin, or carrying a simple roughhewn staff decorated with a carved cruciform relief a few inches from the top, instead he wore a simple oatmeal coloured robe tied at the waist with a simple cord, because he wasn’t, first and foremost there as a Visitor but as a friend, Bagg.

 

At some point, he wasn’t sure when, he was joined by the Captain. 

“How’s he doing?” Merri asked “Has he regained consciousness?”

“Not fully”

“Has he said anything at all?” Merri asked

“No” Bagg replied, and Merri thought for a second and asked.

“Is anyone with him?”

“Just Terrel, he’s changing his dressings” Bagg replied just as Malena walked towards them, she had driven into the city to collect Duff’s wife and family.

“Chani is in the mess, Pulsat and Vanzyl are entertaining the children” Malena said

“Thank you” Bagg replied and walked passed her and headed for the mess and as soon as Chani saw him she leapt up to greet him and then broke down in his arms.

 

Bagg found the time dragged very slowly, even baking couldn’t hold his attention and after burning the second batch of scones he gave up, so he walked to the nearest Visitor Church and prayed, there really wasn’t anything he could do aboard the Tornado for the time being, so he would return later that day unless there was a change.

 

The next morning, Supreme Commander Emad Salmin was feeling very pleased with himself following the successful capture of 90 percent of their target suspects after the earth shattering revelations, more than double of any other system, but it did help that he knew the shock wave was coming, as a result he was to be decorated and get another pip on his shoulder.

But his good humour was soon dispelled when he received a message from the Tornado to tell him that Duff Tarver had been severely beaten and was still unconscious.

His first reaction was to summon Captain Kolan Nulak and relay the news of the attack to him.

“What’s happened sir?”

“Duff Tarver, has been attacked” Salmin answered and “He’s been unconscious since it happened, have my Cutter readied, we’re going to Eikon Major, immediately”

“Immediately?” Nulak queried   

“Yes I blame myself, I should have foreseen this, and assigned him some protection, but I didn’t so I want to get there as soon as possible just in case”

“It’s that serious?” Nulak asked

“I’m afraid so” he replied

 

The “Cutter” as Salmin described it was actually a sleeker variant of a Blaze Command Ship, with a small crew of handpicked men, who had all served for Salmin before.  

On the journey Nulak asked.

“Was it a robbery?”

“No, nothing was taken”

“Were they interrupted?”

“No, they had plenty of time to strip his body of everything, the taxi dropped him at the Space Port gate and he was found forty-five minutes later” Salmin replied

“So he was beaten up for no reason?” Nulak asked in disbelief

“That’s what I intend to find out” Salmin said as the Cutter set down on the Apron next to the Tornado.

 

 

ALL-TIME CLASSIC MOVIE FAVOURITES – JOHN CARTER (2012)

 

“John Carter” is a Sci-Fi, action adventure, screenplay written by Andrew Stanton, Mark Andrews and Michael Chabon, based on the story “A Princess of Mars” by Edgar Rice Burroughs and Directed by Andrew Stanton.

 

Despite trying to live a normal life in 1868, Civil War veteran John Carter (Taylor Kitsch) is a fleeing both Indian fighters and the Army and is forced to take refuge when the shooting starts.

Inside the cave a figure suddenly materializes and tries to kill him but John turns the tables on him and as he lies dying on the ground he notices a glowing medallion in his hand and when Carter touches it and repeats the dying figures muttered last word, Barsoom, he finds himself transported to Mars and encounters many strange, often hostile creatures and a Princess in desperate need of a saviour.

 

Lynn Collins plays the princess, and the star-studded supporting cast includes Samantha Morton, Willem Dafoe, Thomas Haden Church, Mark Strong, Ciarán Hinds, Dominic West, James Purefoy and Bryan Cranston, to name but a few.

The Tornado Sojourns (3) – Chapter 13 – Reprisal

 

Duff Tarver was primarily a raconteur, his office was a bar or tavern and his audience were his fellow patrons.

But he didn’t merely tell stories he also collected them from his loose tongued admirers, and he always got stories of worth.

He was a freelance journalist who sold his work to whichever media outlet fitted the bill and he distributed his copy across the known systems of Legion space, and he made a steady living, not enough to move up in the world, but he did ok.

He was a heavy drinking, down to earth man in his early fifties with a long-suffering wife, Chani, who managed to bring up their three children virtually single handed.

With Duff the phrase, “what you see is what you get”, fitted him like a glove.

He was a popular man, despite all his faults, as it was very difficult not to like him, even if he could drive you to despair.

Due to his heavy drinking he often needed assistance to get home but because people liked him so much he was never short of a chauffeur.

Most literary types have a favorite quote, from one of the classic novels or from a Shakespearian play but his favorite was

“If I ever read about the dangers of drinking then I’ll give up reading”
Apart from being popular and sociable he was also a more intelligent man than he would have people believe because he found that if people thought him an idiot they were more likely to open up than if they thought they were dealing with somebody who was more switched on.

 

Duff had already written his exposé of events in the Eikon Cluster prior to the system wide distribution of the data regarding the widespread corruption and criminality within the Legion, so he was the first to get anything publishable to the media outlets, and was used far and wide so in the aftermath of the revelations Duff was in great demand.

On one particular evening, he had been celebrating with friends and other members of his profession, and had been for several hours, and was a little drunk.

He would have stayed later but he had arranged with his friend Visitor Parham, better known as Bagg, to get a lift from Eikon Major to Linden for the next celebratory evening, so as he was later than planned, he got a taxi to the space port.

He was dropped at the main gate and proceeded on foot to the apron where the Tornado was parked.

Duff had been walking for a little over ten minutes when it started to rain, but he didn’t mind as he was only a few minutes away, but when his destination was in sight four men blocked his path, but only one of the men spoke.

“In a hurry are we?”

“I am as it happens” Duff replied

“Well that’s a real shame” the man said menacingly.

 

Pulsat Rad and Vanzyl were the engineers on the Tornado, Pulsat was born on Prinsloo in the Rexenor system, a dry desert world, rich in minerals and ore, which he hadn’t seen for more than 20 years.

He was one of the lucky ones as his parents were able to arrange for him to get away from his home world before the Mehreen Empire conquered the planet and enslaved the Prinsloovian’s putting them under the yoke in order to rape their own planet of all that was precious.

He had never returned and had no idea of what fate may have befallen his parents, he had met several of his own kind over the years, but none of them could enlighten him, as they were in the same boat as he was.

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.

He was incredibly strong and found no difficulty in finding work among the many mining operations he came across as he worked his way steadily, from world to world and moon to moon, moving inexorably away from the Mehreen, it was on one of those worlds, Kordesh, that he met his friend Vanzyl.

 

Vanzyl was from Kessleria, the third planet in the Omeghard system, he was of slender stature and like Pulsat he owed his origins to reptilian DNA, but his kind evolved from fish and possessed a scaly countenance and silver scaled skin, a sleek form, large opaque eyes, pursed lips, and gills.

He also left his home world because of the Mehreen but in Kessleria’s case they wanted the water, and in taking it they essentially brought genocide to the peaceful Kesslerian’s.

Vanzyl was more fortunate than Pulsat as he escaped from his home world with a large group of friends who supported and comforted each other, but over the years following their exodus, as they endured harsher and harsher conditions his friends perished one by one until he was finally left alone.

Subsequently his loneliness was keenly felt because his solitude was so extreme, and that was because he could only communicate in clicks, whirls and whistles which none but his own kind could understand, until that is, Pulsat Rad arrived on Kordesh.

 

As it was pouring with rain, Vanzyl, as he was from a watery world rushed down the ramp and stood outside getting wet, while Pulsat who was from an arid planet was inside staying dry.

Vanzyl walked up and down the apron and relished the falling rain while Pulsat looked out shaking his head.

But all of a sudden he stopped and began to emanate clicks and whirls

“No I dry” Pulsat Rad responded but the clicking and whirling became continued.

“No, I stay hear” Pulsat replied “I not come outside”

Pulsat’s response was met with loud agitated emanations, the like of which he had never heard before, so much against his better judgement he proceeded down the ramp muttering and snorting as he went.

“I wet, I wet” Pulsat said when he reached his friend and then Vanzyl made a long whistling noise followed by a succession of clicks and Pulsat looked down to see Duff Tarver’s battered body and Vanzyl let out a number of low whirls

“I not know” Pulsat replied to his Kesslerian friend who was uttering another string of whirls whistles and clicks.

“I do it, I do it” Pulsat said as he picked up the bloodied body.

“We show Captain” Pulsat said “We show Terrel”

 

ALL-TIME CLASSIC MOVIE FAVOURITES – BLUE THUNDER (1983)

 

“Blue Thunder” is an action, crime, drama, written by Dan O'Bannon and Don Jakoby and Directed by John Badham.

 

Los Angeles Police pilot Frank Murphy (Roy Scheider) is chosen by Capt. Jack Braddock (Warren Oates) as test pilot for an experimental police helicopter, Blue Thunder, a specially modified, heavily armed helicopter designed to counter street insurgencies.

Unfortunately, his trainer for the trials is Col. F.E. Cochrane (Malcolm McDowell) with whom he has issues dating back to their time in Vietnam which adds to the tension.

But when Frank and his Observer, Officer Richard Lymangood (Daniel Stern) prepare to put the aircraft through its paces they discover the sinister implications of the new aircraft and the top-level conspiracy behind it, and with that knowledge comes danger.

 

A great movie of its time, although the technology dates it, but it is still very watchable and among a very accomplished cast Candy Clark stands out above the rest as Frank’s love interest, Kate.

The Tornado Sojourns (3) – Chapter 12 – Escaping Reknar 5

 

In high orbit above the moon the Skeets were waiting anxiously for the Blue Marlin to leave the surface and navigate its way back through the Proximity Sensor Field when they picked up another vessel on their long range sensors.

“Oh shit” Zerrad exclaimed

“What?”

“I’m picking up a single Firedart heading our way” Zerrad replied

The Firedart in question was on patrol in that sector when they picked up the beacon and decided to investigate.

 

The decent back down to the ship was easier than the climb up but it still took half an hour and they still found the atmosphere uncomfortable to walk in and they were very fatigued by the time they got aboard.

 

“War Horse calling Delivery Boy, War Horse calling Delivery Boy” Lyris said and a moment later Nulak’s voice came back 

“Delivery Boy receiving”

“We have a Firedart heading our way” Lyris said

“Lifting off now” Nulak responded

 

Relieved to hear they were leaving the moon the Skeets decided to play possum and switch off all non-essential systems and let themselves drift away from the moon and hopefully be invisible to the Legion vessel.

 

As soon as Captain Nulak had navigated his way through the Proximity Sensor Field he activated the Stealth Cloak and was not concerned by the imminent arrival of a Firedart as he would easily be able to out run them, but the Firedarts pilot managed to lock on to the Blue Marlin before Nulak had full deployed the Cloak so unknown to the Captain the Legion craft was on an intercept cause, the Cloak didn’t make the vessel invisible in the accepted sense of the word but hid it from detection by sensors and scanning.

What the Legion pilot was unaware of however was that there was a Spider Hawk in the vicinity, which was biding its time to strike.

The Skeets had seen the Blue Marlin leave the moons atmosphere and head towards the rendezvous with the Tornado and were tracking the Firedart so they knew both vessels were coming their way.    

“Now just Remember we’re no longer at war with the Legion so there’s no need to splash him, just disable his main engine” Zerrad cautioned

“I know, I remember” Lyris said just as the Firedart appeared ahead of them, then he brought the main engines on line and gave it maximum thrust and was on the Firedart before the pilot was even aware of their presence and only knew they were there after Lyris had fired four precisely aimed Laser Pulses and his ship was dead in space.

Zerrad noted the coordinates and then the Spider Hawk left the disabled fighter in its wake and set off in pursuit of the Blue Marlin although he knew he had no hope of catching it, and didn’t expect to see it again until they reached the Tornado, and as it turned out he was not wrong.

 

There was a real sense of celebration aboard the Tornado after they successfully completed their mission, and with no loss of life or limb to boot.

Bagg provided them with a hearty supper and some alcohol was imbibed

But behind closed doors in their quarters when the couples had time to themselves the feelings were more about relief and gratitude.

Lyris Skeets first task when back aboard, after embracing Asti, was to send an encoded message to Supreme Commander Emad Salmin detailing the coordinates for the becalmed Firedart Fighter, he had been stranded in space more than once so he knew how it felt, and he was relieved to hear a few hours later that the pilot had been recovered safely.

 

The moment that the Blue Marlin and the Spider Hawk had docked, the Tornado set course for Soman, and the crew had to man the bridge in shifts.

The next day Captain Nulak took his leave and had to return from whence he had come.  

 

When the Tempest Class Freighter Tornado arrived at Soman with Merri piloting and Shiyne in the co-pilot seat, she used the Tornado’s four vertical take-off jumper engines and landed softly on the Apron, and when Merri and Shiyne emerged down the ramp they were amazed at the quantity and variety of craft on the apron.

 

“Is this our doing?” Merri asked quietly and Shiyne read the minds of some of the nearest lifeforms and smiled

“Oh yes”

As they walked across to the main building Oshwin Lemik suddenly appeared at the top of the steps, he was a huge man, built like a bear, with a barrel chest, a full beard and a booming voice.

“Captain Strong, so good to see you”

But as they embraced he whispered

“My God you’ve stirred up a real hornets nest”

Since heading back on the return journey they had had no meaningful contact with the outside world, they had a number of deliveries to remote communities on Reknar but apart from that they had been quite insular during the five day journey, until reaching Soman, when the news caught up with them.

 

After the data packets were transmitted they spread like a wildfire from system to system and with it the sordid tales, revelations and recriminations, and many a well-respected figure had fallen from grace.

Some of them were politician’s, or public figures, community leaders and captains of industry, while others were major criminals, protected by corrupt members of the justice systems, but the mostly the sinister figures were men like Neff Abery, who were the deviant pullers of strings, the master manipulators, who did whatever they had to, including murder, to get what they wanted.

 

The moment that Supreme Commander Emad Salmin got word that the data transfer had been successful he immediately deployed the task force he had on standby on Zenden’s moon Linden, and they moved to secure Lindens moon Miah to prevent Neff Abery from slipping through the net, there were other prime targets on his “to do” list, but Neff Abery was the top target.

He had wanted to be there for the arrest but there were so many operations happening simultaneously he had to remain at his headquarters overseeing everything.

But it still gave him great satisfaction when everything went like clockwork and everyone on the list were detained, as well as a considerable number who weren’t, but the cherry on the cake was the news that Neff Amery cried like a baby when he was restrained.

 

ALL-TIME CLASSIC MOVIE FAVOURITES – QUATERMASS AND THE PIT (1967)

 

“Quatermass and the Pit” is a Horror, Sci-Fi Mystery, screenplay written by Nigel Kneale and Directed by Roy Ward Baker.

 

While digging a new subway line in London, a construction crew unearth a mysterious artifact along with a skeleton.

it is initially assumed an unexploded German weapon from World War II but upon closer examination it seems that it’s made of materials not of this world, so famous scientist Bernard Quatermass (Andrew Keir) is called in to divine its unearthly origins and explain the strange effects it has on people in its vicinity.

Along with assistant Barbara Judd (Barbara Shelley) Doctor Roney (James Donald), and Captain Potter (Bryan Marshall) and his sappers, Quatermass uncovers the age-old question of how humans came to be on our planet.

But their biggest challenge comes when trying to convince Colonel Breen (Julian Glover) and Government Minister (Edwin Richfield).

The Tornado Sojourns (3) – Chapter 11 – Relay Station, Reknar 5

 

After entering the relay station and the door closed behind them and the lights came on they were confronted by web of tightly packed multi-coloured lasers stretching the full length of the inner sanctum to within a metre of their objective.

“This I can’t help with” Asti admitted

“Malena, I think this might be more up your street” Shiyne said

“I don’t know how” Parse said

“Oh ye of little faith” Malena said as she threaded a boot lace through a hole in one corner of the data tablet and then tied it tightly around her neck and then she transformed herself into an

Obgaron Skunk Rat.

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 of contact 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.   

 

“I’d forgotten you could do that” Parse said

Although the web of tightly packed multi-coloured lasers prevented a large biped from proceeding, a Skunk Rat was able to hop and weave its way across the maze with considerably more ease, although Malena did have to backtrack and change her route a couple of times but eventually she reached the terminal and transformed back to her own form.

“Ok I’m here” Malena shouted as she untied the lace from around her neck

Shiyne closed her eyes and tuned into Malena and said

“Put the tablet into the port”

Malena nodded her head and did as instructed but nothing happened, Duff said it was pre-set and it would start transmitting automatically,

“Nothing is happening” she shouted

“Let me see” Shiyne said and Malena relaxed and allowed Shiyne into her head so she could see the console through her eyes.

“Ok let me have control” Shiyne said and Malena relaxed completely and felt her limbs moving independently as her hands flicked switched and pressed buttons, and then suddenly the transmitter burst into life and the data was on its way.

Shiyne maintained her control of Malena however, because she had to watch its progress, because they couldn’t leave the tablet behind as it could easily lead back to Supreme Commander Salmin and by extension to them, but because of the volume of information being transmitted and the multitude of destinations, it was taking much longer than any of them anticipated. 

 

In high orbit above Reknar 5, the Skeet Brothers was sat in silence behind the controls of the Spider Hawk waiting nervously as they both had their significant others on the surface and their last experience of a Legion Relay Station during the Shaxon Rebellion ended with considerable loss of life, and they were silent because neither of them wanted to vocalise their fears.

But then an alarm sounded on the console and they looked at each other because the security beacon was transmitting.

“War Horse calling Delivery Boy, War Horse calling Delivery Boy” Lyris said and a moment later Nulak’s voice came back 

“Delivery Boy receiving”

“What’s happening down there? We’ve got a security beacon broadcasting loud and proud” Lyris said

“I’m picking up no alarms down here” Nulak confirmed

“Well they’re sounding” Lyris said

 

The landing party inside the relay station were totally oblivious to the beacon broadcasting as Shiyne still had control of Malena at the transmitter terminal until Nulak opened comms to them.

“Delivery Boy to Landing party, delivery Boy to Landing party”

“Receiving” Parse said

“Time to get out of there, they know we’re here” Nulak said concisely

“Message received” Parse replied and then added

“Time to go Shiyne, the alarm has been triggered”

“It’s close now” she replied without breaking her concentration “Very close, almost there, and it’s finished”

“Ok Mal, do your skunk thing and get out of there” Parse shouted

So Malena removed the tablet and reattached the boot lace and tied it tightly around her neck and transformed herself back into an

Obgaron Skunk Rat, and quickly repeated her journey through the laser maze to re-join her companions.

“Right let’s get out of here” Parse said “Asti, do your thing on the door”

Asti walked to the door, turned and gave him a quizzical look reached out a finger and pressed the door release button and the door opened and Shiyne and Malena went out first.

“Come on Einstein” Asti said and she exited and Parse followed shaking his head.