ARE YOU WEARING SPACE PANTS?

Are you wearing space pants?

Well your virtue may be imperilled

Because wearing those pants

Your arse is out of this world

The Tornado Sojourns (4) – Chapter 11 – Sleuthing

 

Dwynwen Strong, Parse Sacrod, Malena Endia, Vann telepath Shiyne and Andraxian agent Ambor Etra were stood in the security office of the Galileo Hotel.

And among the group, dressed in her official uniform of a blue skirt and jacket with a crisp white blouse, was head of security, Stradd of the Vann, and like Shiyne she was a Telepath, as were all of their kind, though by varying degrees, and many of them left their home world at some point to use their gifts to earn a wage.

Those at the zenith of their talents worked as corporate negotiators or in the justice systems of the Legion. 

Shiyne was a Vann with mid-range capabilities and she could read most species to some extent, her skills were limited with the more sophisticated or complex brains, lesser minds were easier for her to explore.

In addition to reading minds she could also implant thoughts and the suggestions would stay in place longer with someone who was more intellectually challenged.

Stradd’s abilities however were much lower, but for her job, it was only reading skills that were required, she couldn’t scan deeply but she knew who was telling the truth and who was lying.

Stradd was a small woman and like Shiyne and the rest of the Vann women she was completely bald, and had cerise coloured skin and purple eyes, though she was a good many years older than the Tornado’s navigator.

It was clear that the two Vann were deep in conversation though they didn’t speak, and this went on for almost ten minutes, until they broke their telepathic bond and Stradd said

“We caught the moment of the abduction on our video scanners” 

She nodded towards a large screen on the wall and everyone turned around to look.

The first image they saw was of Merionwen walking into the lift followed by two humans, one tall and one small, the small one was shabbily dressed, with weasel like features, and the other was cut from very different cloth, tall good looking and well dressed, but they were clearly together.

They reached the lift at the last possible second, just before the door closed the big man used his arm to halt the doors progress and then the two men joined her in the lift.

The next image was a bird’s eye view inside the lift and the door had just closed and the good-looking man said

“It’s Miss Strong isn’t it?”

Merionwen turned to look at him and replied

“Yes, it is, but I don’t know yo…”

While the good-looking man had her attention, the small one paralyzed her with a jab to the neck with a needle and Dwynwen gasped.

“Oh God this is all my fault”

“Nonsense Dwyn” Malena corrected her

“Are they known to you?” Parse asked

“No, they’re not” Stradd replied “But one of my people thinks they are mercenaries, he recognized one but couldn’t recall his name”   

“Mercenaries, that’s good news” Mal said

“Why is that good news?” Dwyn asked “it sounds like terrible news to me”

“It’s good because it means they are in it for the money” Parse explained

“If they wanted to kill her they would have done it and left her body in the lift” Shiyne added “I suspect they want your evidence as well, and they need her alive for that”

“Where did they go when they left the lift?” Andraxian agent Ambor Etra asked and Stradd pressed another button and some more footage appeared

“We tracked them all the way through the Hotel until they went out of this exit which leads to an alleyway” Stradd said “But I have nothing else after that I’m afraid”

“So, we have no idea where they could have gone next” Dwyn stated

“No, but if I have to hazard a guess as to where they took her, where they wouldn’t look out of place, despite their differences, then I would say they’re at the Concord” Stradd said

“We appreciate all your help” Malena said

“Yes, thank you” the others chorused and Shiyne and Stradd stood with brows touching while they shared a farewell.

Once they had left Stradd’s office they were instantly barraged with questions by the rest of the crew and Ambor said

“Ferro and I will see if we can track down any other footage, from outside the Hotel”  

 

In their shabby Hotel room, Geloc and Hatt had just finished searching Merionwen’s sedated body and were angry as they had found nothing.

They were searching for the data tablets that Dwynwen had secreted the damning evidence about Captain Bersian of the Alexandretta, two of the Science Directorate aboard, Brenhol and Ocec and the Captain of the freighter Hollander, Ca Erdd, and the corruption.

“Can we just kill her now?” Hatt, the little weasel of a man asked

“Of course, we can’t you idiot” Geloc replied 

“Stopping her reaching Andraxis is only half the job, and half the money, so No we can’t kill her”

“Half’s better than none” Hatt retorted

“Listen to me, this is the biggest score we’ve had for years I’m not going to let it slip through my fingers, so we need the tablet and then we’ll get the other half the money”

“Yes, but where is it, we searched her room and now we’ve searched her and there’s no sign”

They had bribed one of the Hotel staff to let them into Dwyn’s suite and the two of them had searched every inch, but to no avail.

“We simply wait for her to wake up and we ask her” Geloc said

“What if she won’t tell?” Hatt asked

“Then we cut chunks off her until she does” he replied

 

After updating their crew mates, they all headed for the door were Merri and her abductors were last seen but Dwynwen was stopped by Ferro and Ambor

“It looks like Stradd was right about the Concord” Ferro said

“Great let’s go and get her” Dwyn said

“Hold on, you can’t go” Ambor said

“I have to” she replied “it’s my fault”

“We are under orders to protect you” Ferro said “and protect you we will”

“Then you’ll have to come with us” Dwyn said “Because I’m going with them”

“Excellent idea” Ambor said “a bit of action at last”

 

Once outside they made their way towards the Concord Hotel with Shiyne stopping every 50 yards to scan for signs of Merri and after the tenth stop Shiyne closed her eyes and tuned her mind in and scanned the vicinity and after a few moments she smiled.

“Well?” Dwyn asked

“Yes, she’s there and she’s fine” she replied, and they all breathed a sigh of relief

“Is she awake?” Parse asked

“No, but she’s not as heavily sedated as before” Shiyne replied

“Can you pin point the room” Mal asked and Shiyne tuned her mind in again and after a few minutes she said “Got it, 14^th floor room 34”

“Great let’s go get her” Parse said

“Wait a minute we need a plan, and as our chief planner is the one that needs rescuing, it’s down to Malena to take charge as the Tornados second in command”

Asti said, and Murmurs of approval went around the group

“Wait a minute I’m not a leader” Mal protested “Second in command is just an honorary title, Parse is far better qualified, or Lyris”

“Nonsense” Lyris said “I’m too hot headed”

“And I have too much at stake” Parse added

“Well ok then” Malena said reluctantly “but we need to give it some thought, before we go blundering in”

“Agreed” they chorused

 

A DAZZLING ARRAY OF STARS

A dazzling array of stars

Carpet the night sky

Enlivening the heart

And making spirits fly

The Tornado Sojourns (4) – Chapter 10 – Doppelgangers

Merri was lying in bed semi-conscious when Dwyn walked in carrying a coffee and she said

“You’d better drink this, you look awful”

“Thanks for that” Merri retorted “but I’ll be fine if I get some more sleep”

“I thought you and the crew were going out on hover buggies this morning” Dwyn added

“Not until later” she answered sleepily “What is the time anyway?”

“Later” Dwyn replied and after a few seconds Merri sat up in bed a look on her face like a startled rabbit.

“Oh God” Merri said with panic in her voice “I’m going to be late”

“Well only just” she said with a smile on her face

“I need to get dressed” she said panic stricken “I’m in the wrong room”

“Ok just take a breath” Dwyn suggested

“That’s all very well but what am I going to do?” she ranted and picked up her posh frock and threw it on the bed.

“Well don’t panic for a start” Dwyn suggested

“But I can’t walk back to my room wearing that, everyone will think I’m doing the walk of shame” Merri snapped

“Alright calm yourself” Dwyn said trying to control her laughter,

“Calm down? Calm down? It’s alright for you” she shouted “You’re not the one that’s going to look like a tart”

“Nor are you” Dwyn said but Merri continued her rant and then when the penny dropped

“What?”

“You can wear something of mine” Dwynwen suggested

“Really?”

“Yes really” she said “I sorted some out already, they’re on the chair”

“You mean I’ve been ranting and raving all this time for no reason?” Merri exclaimed

“That’s about the size of it” she said

“I should thump you, But I won’t” she said and hugged her instead

 

Merri dressed quickly and said

“Ok I’m off, I’ll quickly pop to my room and then join the others downstairs”

“Ok I’ll meet you down there after I’ve spoken to my minders” Dwyn replied and quickly embraced her, then Merri opened the door, and Ferro Scanner and Ambor Etra immediately sprang to their feet.

“It’s ok” Merri said “I’m the other one”

Ferro nodded and opened the door and Merionwen slipped out and then walked briskly towards the elevator.

She only had to wait for a minute or so before the door opened, and once inside she said

“Level 3”

But just before the door closed an arm halted its progress and two men joined her in the lift, both were humans, one was small and shabbily dressed, with weasel like features, and the other was cut from very different cloth, tall good looking and well dressed.

As soon as the door closed the good-looking man said

“Its Miss Strong isn’t it?”

She turned to look at him and replied

“Yes, it is, but I don’t know yo…”  

Her sentence tailed off because while “Good looking” had her attention, “Weasel” paralyzed her with a jab to the neck with a needle.

 

Once Dwynwen had finished dressing, she and her bodyguards, Ferro and Ambor left her suite and took the elevator to the ground floor and then they walked through the busy reception until she spotted the Tornado Crew laughing and joking in one corner, so she headed straight for them and said

“Hello Tornadons”

“Hi Dwyn” Parse responded, “Where’s Merri?”

“She’s not with me” Dwyn replied “She went back to your room to change ages ago”

“I’ve just come from the room and she’s not there” Parse retorted

“Well she should have been” Dwyn repeated “She must have got distracted, or….”

“Or what?” Parse asked urgently, and the rest of the group stopped their chattering, as Dwynwen turned to gesture towards Ferro Scanner and he immediately moved towards her.

“She left MY room this morning” she said but got no response, so she added “She looks like ME”

But still the penny hadn’t dropped

So Dwynwen took a deep breath and said

“She left MY room, looking like ME, so what if someone grabbed her thinking she was me?”  

“Oh God” Parse exclaimed “What are we going to do?”

“Do we know who might have done it?” Asti chipped in

“It could be anyone” Ferro admitted “Mercenaries or bounty hunters, we just don’t know”

“So, what can we do?” Lyris Skeet asked

“We can check to see if she left the hotel” he replied and left the group to consult with Ambor Etra and after a few moments Ambor rushed off.

Meanwhile Malena and Shiyne exchanged a look and discreetly stepped to one side.

“Time to switch your radar on Shiyne” Malena said, which of course meant that Shiyne should use her telepathic gift, because Shiyne was a Vann and all of the Vann were telepaths, by varying degrees, and many of them left their home world at some point to use their gifts to earn a wage.

Those at the zenith of their talents worked as corporate negotiators or in the justice systems of the Legion. 

Shiyne was a Vann with mid-range capabilities and she could read most species to some extent, her skills were limited with the more sophisticated or complex brains, lesser minds were easier for her to explore.

In addition to reading minds she could also implant thoughts and the suggestions would stay in place longer with someone who was more intellectually challenged.

But in this instance, it was her reading skills that were required.

“Just what I was thinking” she responded and closed her eyes, creased her cerise coloured brow with concentration and began scanning.

Malena and Shiyne’s discreet withdrawal hadn’t gone entirely unnoticed by Dwynwen so while Ambor was checking with security and Ferro Scanner was in communication with the Embassy she also sidled over to join Mal and the Vann and arrived just as Shiyne said

“I’m getting nothing”

“Oh God they’ve killed her” Dwyn exclaimed 

“No, it’s not that kind of nothing” Shiyne explained “it just means that she’s unconscious, probably sedated”

“Are you sure?” Dwyn asked

“She’s sure” Mal said “It’s what she does”

“So, what can we do?” she asked

“Keep trying” Shiyne replied 

“The problem is that I can’t get a fix on her because of her sedation”

“Is there anything we can do to help that?” Dwyn asked

“Yes, we can get closer” Malena said

“Good, let’s go” Dwyn said

“In which direction?” Mal asked

“What?”

“We need to know which general area she might be in” Shiyne said

“Can’t we do it by a process of elimination?”

“Sure, but it they move her while were searching I might never find her” the telepath explained

“So, it’s hopeless” Dwyn said resignedly

“Not if your Andraxian’s can tell us what direction the abductors were heading in” Malena said

“Then I can start my search there” Shiyne added

“Let’s go and talk to them then” Dwyn said and made a bee line for Ferro Scanner, who took a step back as Dwynwen and the Tornado crew bore down on him.

 

AMIDST THE MYRIAD STARS

 

Amidst the myriad stars

The bright crescent moon

Hangs in the midnight sky

And palely paints the ocean

With its gentle lunar light

The Tornado Sojourns (4) – Chapter 09 – Distant Cousins

 

The planned posh frock and dinner jacket grand dining experience that the Tornados crew were looking forward to, never happened, and was replaced by beer and burgers in the hotel bar where Merri and Dwyn tried to make sense of the doppelgangers in front of them and the rest of the crew watched with fascination as Merri and her carbon copy found out about each other.

 

Dwynwen Strong, like Merri, was born on Earth Secundus in the Overtonis System, but a year later than her cousin, and to Ben Strong’s younger brother Owen, and the reason neither of them knew of the others existence was because the brothers had a falling out when Merri was three years old, which was why Ben Strong left the Overtonis System to work for the Garangon Mining Company, and from that moment on, the Brothers raised their daughters in isolation and with no mention by the fathers regarding the existence of their cousins.

 

At the time the Garangon Mining Company went out of business, after inadvertently destroying the moon they were mining, and Ben Strong kept the Tornado in lieu of payment, Owen Strong was pursuing his own career as an archeologist, and Dwynwen followed in his footsteps, and by the time of Ben Strong’s death, when the Tornado passed to Merri, Dwyn was well respected Archeologist in her own right, while her father Owen had found that his strengths lay in the halls of academe, and was a Professor back on Earth Secundus.

 

Because of her reputation in her field and a recommendation from her father, Dwyn had spent the previous three years aboard the Alexandretta, which was an exploration vessel, searching for all things of mineral, zoological, agricultural and archeological interest, and she had planned to spend a further two years aboard, but something happen and she disembarked at the Aurora 6 space station and took a berth on the first vessel to depart in the opposite direction which was a heavy transport called the Agamemnon, bound for Eikon Major, a journey which took three months.

But she surprised the whole group, including Merri, when she said that her first port of call, after three years away and three months on the Agamemnon, was the Andraxian Embassy in Rendon.

 

Dwynwen explained that the mission brief for the Alexandretta scientists was to ascertain if planets had ever sustained any significant civilizations in their past and gather data by the least invasive means and document their findings, this did involve taking samples, but again these were kept to a minimum, but when evidence pointed to significant sites of a former sophisticated culture, and their locations were identified, Dwynwen and her team were allowed down to the surface to investigate further which ultimately lead to some excavations, and if any artifacts were recovered they were again documented and packed for return to the museum on Andraxis.

However, after three years it came to Dwynwen’s attention after she quite by chance came across a data packet, which contained shipping manifests, but not the ones she had initialed, after completing the loading, but substitutes, detailing that of all the artifacts shipped to the museum, less than half of them completed the trip.

After further discreet investigation she discovered that Captain Bersian of the Alexandretta, two of the Science Directorate aboard, Brenhol and Ocec and the Captain of the freighter Hollander,

Ca Erdd, had all signed off the falsified manifest.

She continued to gather information until the Alexandretta docked at Aurora 6 Space Station to take on supplies which was when she made her move and without telling a soul aboard she gathered up her most precious belongings, and the data tablets, and while everyone else was looking for some fun she was boarding the Agamemnon bound for the Eikon Cluster.

 

“So, what now?” Merri asked

“I have to get to Andraxis and give evidence to the Messengis Science Congress”

“Wasn’t the physical evidence enough?” Asti asked

“No, I have to give a verbal account as well” she explained

“So, until you do, you’re a target” Parse pointed out

“That’s why I have the body guards” she replied and indicated with a nod, the two Andraxian Agents, who couldn’t have looked any more conspicuous if they’d had signs around their necks.

 

The senior agent was Ferro Scanner, tall dark and strikingly handsome, with jet black hair and the typical Andraxian opaque grey green skin which darkened or lightened depending on their mood, he was physically fit, well-toned and could no doubt look after himself and Dwynwen, his second in command was Ambor Etra who was five foot eight with short black hair, in a pixie cut, mesmerizing eyes and a very decent figure with a pert derriere and disproportionately large breasts and long slender legs.

“How long before you leave?” Merri asked

“I have to report to the Embassy in Rendon tomorrow night, then leave the next morning and later that day we have to Rendezvous with an Andraxian Frigate, which will take me all the way there” she replied

Andraxis was two systems away from the Cluster in the Messengis System and the Andraxian’s were an ancient Culture and considered themselves to be the moral guardians of the known universe.

“So soon?” Merri asked

“I’m afraid so” Dwyn replied

“The universe can be very cruel, one day I discover I have a fully-grown cousin and the next she’s off again” Merri said

“Yes, but I know you exist now and where you are” Dwynwen said and hugged her newly found cousin.

 

After a prolonged hug Merri pulled herself free and discreetly wiped a tear from her eye and said

“Well if you’re off leaving tomorrow we need to make the best of the time we have left so let’s get partying!”

 

In ones and two’s, the rest of the crew called it a night, including Merri’s lover Parse, but Merri and Dwynwen partied long and hard and Merri ended up crashing in Dwyn’s suite.

It was far better accommodation than Merri and the crew could afford, but then Dwyn couldn’t afford it either, the only reason she was there was because it was provided by the Andraxian Embassy where she and her body guards could stay and keep her protected. 

 

I SEE THE BRIGHT STARS HIGH ABOVE ME

 

I see the bright stars high above me

I almost feel they are a part of me

But as each one sparkles like a gem

I know one day I will be part of them