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.

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”

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.

 

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.

The Tornado Sojourns (3) – Chapter 10 – Objective Reknar 5

 

The Tempest Class Freighter Tornado was making good time and were less than half a day from their destination when Shiyne said

“I’m picking up something”

“What on the scanners?” Merri asked

“Not exactly” Shiyne replied “The scanners are clear”

“So you have something on your other scanner then” Merri said, which of course meant that Shiyne could sense someone telepathically, and she could do that because she 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 being tantalised, she closed her eyes and it only took her thirty seconds before she said

“Got them”

“Who?” Malena asked

“Legion” she replied, “A small ship, a Blue Marlin I think, one occupant”

“That must be our man” Merri said and then she saw Shiyne smiling

“It’s Lt Nulak” she said “no I stand corrected, Captain Nulak”

“We have an incoming message” Malena said a moment later

“Put it on speaker” Merri said

“This is Kolan Nulak requesting permission to dock”

“Permission granted Captain” Merri said “cutting engines and standing by”

There were two docking rings on the Tornado to facilitate transfers to and from the freighter while in space, one in the belly below the loading bay and the other was amidships above the cargo bays which was also the mooring point for shuttles or ancillary craft.

Merri had killed the engines and was using the thrusters to hold the ship steady as the Blue Marlin maneuvered into position and locked on to the belly docking ring, as the Spider Hawk was docked above.

 

When the hatch opened Merri had joined Malena and was waiting to greet their visitor who was not wearing a Legion Aeronautica uniform

“Welcome aboard Kolan” she said “It’s good to see you again, and congratulations on the promotion”

They had first met him when he was a lieutenant on the operation to capture Kurla Babic.

“Thank you” 

“Let’s go to the mess room” she responded “the crew are eager to discuss the plans”

 

The plan was in essence a simple one, Kolan would navigate the unmarked Blue Marlin through the Proximity Sensor field and land on the surface, then Shiyne, Malena, Asti and Parse would proceed on foot to the transmitter, break in and send the data, well that was the plan, although until they got there they weren’t sure how they were going to manage the last part.

Duff Tarver had preprogrammed the data tablet with all the routing destinations so all they had to do was plug the tablet in the port and hit send, so that bit was easy, the difficult part was reaching the terminal, that they couldn’t plan until they got there.

 

Much to her annoyance Merri had to remain aboard the Tornado as someone from the command crew needed to be on the bridge, as he co-pilot and navigator were aboard the Blue Marlin and the Skeet Brothers were in the Spider Hawk acting as an armed escort, should they attract any unwelcomed attentions.

That left Pulsat and Vanzyl who were keeping themselves busy doing minor maintenance, Sciberran Healer Terrell Vorton was in the sick bay planning for the worse and Bagg was in the kitchen cooking.

 

As the Blue Marlin approached Reknar 5 Legionnaire Captain Nulak handed Malena, who was in the right seat, a small data tablet containing navigational coordinates to navigate through the Proximity Sensor Field.

“Give it to Shiyne” she said

Shiyne was the beautiful cerise skinned Vann girl sitting in the navigator’s chair and Kolan Nulak knew that it was her he should give it to but he found that she was so beautiful he was in awe of her.    

His hand was shaking as he put the data tablet in her hand and she was smiling because she knew what he was thinking because Shiyne was a telepath.

Once she had made him as uncomfortable as possible she took the tablet and plugged it into the port and after a moment she said

“Ok, coordinates set”

 

It took ten minutes once they passed the outer navigational marker to traverse the maze of sensors, zigzagging a circuitous route until

They finally set down on the surface about a mile from their destination.

Nulak couldn’t get any closer because of the rough topography, which meant that Malena, Shiyne, Asti and Parse had a perilous uphill climb over rough terrain in gloomy light, while the Captain stayed at the controls should they need to beat a hasty retreat.

 

It took more than an hour to make the one mile climb to the transmitter and when they got up there they were more tired than they expected to be.

And that was because although the atmosphere was breathable the oxygen levels were lower than they were used to, so they had to take some time to gather themselves before they proceeded, but studied the target through binoculars and planned their next move. 

 

In addition to the navigational information Supreme Commander Salmin also gave them a 3 dimensional plan of the relay station and its environs.

So they knew there were no hazards on the approach and there were no sensors.

When they had caught their breaths the four of them got up and walked to the door and were immediately confronted by a Bioscan entry panel.

“How do we open that?” Malena said and Shiyne smiled

“Asti knows, she opened one of these before”

“More than one” She retorted

“Yes, I can vouch for that” Parse said

“She was always breaking in and out of the Palace”

Princess Asti Alegionaris, was the youngest granddaughter of the Regent of Gouveia and was born and raised on Gouveia in the Dania system, at the same time Parse Sacrod was a Legionnaire of the Royal Guard stationed at the Palace.

A blush bloomed on her Ivory skin and her Silver eyes twinkled, then she brushed her platinum hair off her face and crouched down in front of the scanner.

After removing a small panel she reached her childlike hand into the opening and after a moment pulled out a cable loom with a small transparent module attached.

She removed the top cover of the module and put her thump on the contact in the center and the door opened.  

“I don’t believe it” Parse said “It’s that easy?”

“It’s that easy” She repeated and they were all laughing as they walked through the door, but their jollity was short lived, because  after 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

The Tornado Sojourns (3) – Chapter 09 – Clandestine

 

Nothing happened for 24 hours following the cryptic message that Malena sent on Merri’s behalf until the Tornado lifted off from Eikon Minor when the comms burst into life and Oshwin Lemik’s voice said

“Golbolt Interstellar, Soman calling Tempest Freighter Tornado”

Merri was in the left seat and responded

“Go ahead Golbolt”

“Change in your itinerary, proceed to Soman and collect a shipment of bakery items” Oshwin said and Merri turned to Malena and smiled.

“Message received Soman, will proceed directly, Tornado out”

Then Malena headed towards Eirkos’s second Moon Soman.

It was on Soman that they had decided to make their base as it was the location of one of the largest Interstellar Freight Distributors in the system, Golbolt Interstellar, and they had collectively decided to sign up with them rather than operate as independents and find their own work.

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.

 

Merri entered the atmosphere of Soman, with her piloting and Malena in the co-pilot seat and she used the Tornado’s four vertical take-off jumper engines and landed softly on the apron, adjacent to a Legion Aeronautica Firedart.

The Tornado 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, but it dwarfed the Firedart.

The front section comprised of a sizable pressurized hold for large freight, accessed via a front loading ramp, and as soon as the ramp lowered the Pilot of the Firedart, in Aeronautica flight suit and helmet walked up the ramp and inside the hold, where Merri was waiting, and then the ramp was raised again.

 

As soon as the door was closed and sealed the Pilot removed his helmet and then Merri said

“It’s good to see you again Supreme Commander”

“You too Captain” Emad Salmin said and then the two of them followed the smell of fresh baked scones to the mess room, where apart from Bagg, who was in feeding mode, Malena, Shiyne, Lyris, Parse, and Zerrad were also present.

Once in the mess he was plied with coffee and scones and when he’d had his fill he said

“So now I’ve been suitably bribed, how can I help?”

    

The gathered members of the Tornado crew repeated verbatim what Duff Tarver had told them and his reasoning and finally

Merri said

“There is an unmanned relay station on Meknar 5 which would suit the purpose”

Meknar Prime was the furthest planet from the sun in the Eikon Cluster, and was circled by four moons, the largest of which was Meknar 5, in addition it also had the highest orbit and the longest transit time, and that meant that for most of the Solar year it was the furthest object in the system, which made it a perfect location for a deep space relay station.

“I think Meknar 5 is a good solution but you know that I can’t openly assist you, I can’t be seen to just hand over the keys” Emad said “and although the station is unmanned that doesn’t mean that it’s not protected”

“We realise that,” Lyris said “But it would be nice to know where the mines are”

“Well I don’t know all the details on the defence measures in place but one thing I can tell you for certain” Salmin said “There are no mines”

“What about pulsar batteries?” Lyris asked suspiciously

“There are no pulsar cannons either” the Supreme Commander assured him “the systems in place are a little more sophisticated than they were during the Shaxon Rebellion”

“So what can we expect?” Zerrad asked

“The main defence is a proximity sensor field, and if you trigger one of those an Electro Magnetic Pulse will be targeted at you and the ship will be left disabled” Salmin explained “But there is a safe route through”

“How do we find it?” Malena asked

“You won’t” he replied “but I have someone who will”

“Someone we can trust?” Lyris asked

“It will be someone you know” he assured them “However, he will only deliver you to the surface, once you are down, you’re on your own and you will have to use your own guile, and exceptional talents to do the rest”

“That we can do” Merri said proudly

“So when do you want to do it?” Salmin asked

“As soon as possible, the transmitter is in its optimum position at the moment and will be for another five days” Parse said “And it will take almost three to get there”

“Do you have a legitimate reason to be at that end of the system?” Salmin asked

“Yes, Oshwin has given us some deliveries to Reknar itself so we shouldn’t raise any suspicions” Merri said

“Good, then I think you should get underway as soon as is possible I will have my navigator intercept you on route” he said “Now I just have time for another scone before I have to go”

 

Supreme Commander Salmin replaced his helmet and then nodded to Malena, who then lowered the ramp and the Salmin walked down it to the apron and then ran towards his Firedart. 

By the time he was airborne Shiyne had driven the Stroller down the ramp were Bagg and several crewmates climbed aboard as they needed to re-provision for the trip.

Merri and Malena and the Skeets stayed behind as there were tasks to be done before they collected their cargo prior to departure.

Also with work to do was the short heavy set Prinsloovian engineer, Pulsat, he had a rough bony skull which raised up like a crown and then receded to give way to a Mahogany scaled brow, cheekbones and jawline which framed an ivory coloured face, and yellow eyes.

His entire countenance betrayed his reptilian ancestry, and his fellow engineer, who was Kesslerian, also owed his origins to reptilian DNA but his slender and sleek form, scaly countenance, silver scaled skin, large opaque eyes, pursed lips, and gills clearly indicated that his kind evolved from fish.

As they walked down the ramp Merri called down after them

“We leave in three hours”

“We be ready” Pulsat said and Vanzyl uttered a soft whistle like a plaintive flute, then he looked at his friend and whistled again

“More adventure, yes” Pulsat agreed

The Tornado Sojourns (3) – Chapter 08 – Snagging

 

After spending the weekend on Eirkos at the agrarian settlement of Montrose they took off from Cranack and headed for Eikon Minor, where they had to return Wisma to Gipki before picking up their cargo.

Wisma had been with them for the weekend so that Bagg could introduce her to his brother and family.

 

Merri entered the atmosphere of Eikon Minor with her piloting and Shiyne in the co-pilot seat and she used the Tornado’s four vertical take-off jumper engines and landed softly.

 

After arriving at the port the loading didn’t take long and then Merri parked the Tornado on the apron and then everyone got ready to depart for Gipki where they had a variety of chores and errands before they left later that morning.

The short heavy set reptilian Prinsloovian, Pulsat Rad, was first down the ramp, holding his rough bony head proudly high.

On reaching the apron proper he turned stiffly to address his amphibian companion Vanzyl, who was uttering a string of whirls, whistles and clicks.

“I know it, I know it” Pulsat said to his Kesslerian friend, who was a more slender and sleek form than he, and he had the hint of a smile about his pursed lips and Vanzyl whistled and clicked again and Pulsat snorted.

Pulsat was the only one of the crew who could understand every tone and toot Vanzyl uttered, as if it were in his own tongue, but that was common place for his species, there were very few races he had met on his travels that he couldn’t understand, although he couldn’t speak back to them in their language, but he nonetheless understood every word that they spoke.

While they stood to one side of the ramp in conversation Shiyne drove the Stroller down the front ramp and the rest of the crew followed in a group in her wake, with Visitor Parham bringing up the rear wearing his more formal attire of a full length pale blue robe tied at the waist with a royal blue cord, which 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, which he held in one hand while Wisma Berita held the other.  

The Tornado’s APMTV, (All Purpose Multi Terrain Vehicle) was nicknamed the “Stroller” which was an ironic name because when Shiyne or Merri were behind the wheel it did anything but stroll.

The moment it came to a halt the group climbed aboard, Malena paused before remotely closing the ramp and the joined Zerrad in the back and the healer Terrell got in the passenger seat beside his lover Shiyne.

 

With all their tasks completed they returned to the Tornado two hours later, after an uneventful visit into Gipki, to find a worried looking Duff Tarver waiting on the apron beside the ship.

Bagg immediately jumped down and rushed over to him

“Are you alright? You don’t look as if you’ve slept, since Friday”

“I haven’t, but I’m fine” he said and hugged his friend “but we need to talk”

 

When the crew and the Stroller were back aboard the Tornado Bagg spoke to Merri and immediately called a crew meeting in the mess room.

When everyone was present the first thing she did was introduce Duff to those who didn’t know him and explained what he was doing for them, although that they already knew.

“So Duff is an ally, and he has a problem”

“So how can we help?” Parse asked

“The material on the tablet you gave me is mind blowing” he said enthusiastically “And I know precisely who to send it to”

“So far so good then” Lyris contributed

“But I’ve hit a snag” Duff admitted

“How so?” asked Malena

“There’s just so much data” he said “and if I try and dribble it out it could easily be supressed and sanitized before it’s reached the publics ears and eyes, and then there is the possibility they could track the source and prevent me from getting the rest out  

“So what’s the alternative?” Bagg asked

“Well In order to get the information into the public domain and to ensure it stays there for maximum exposure I need to fire it out into every corner of Legion space simultaneously, because if Amery’s as powerful as we believe he is, and I send it to one system at a time, his allies will close down the dissemination before it’s even properly out, but if I can do a blanket broadcast then there is no way they can stop enough of it getting out to silence the truth”

“But?” Bagg asked

“But he doesn’t have anything powerful enough to achieve even a fraction of what he hopes to do” Shiyne said

“That’s really spooky how you do that” Duff said “But yes you are correct”

There was a resigned silence in response to what Duff had said until 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 the assemble group he explained

“Vanzyl say, Meknar 5”

Then more clicks

“He say, relay station, big transmitter, no people”

“Meknar 5” Parse mused

Meknar Prime was the furthest planet from the sun in the Eikon Cluster, and was circled by four moons, the largest of which was Meknar 5, in addition it also had the highest orbit and the longest transit time, and that meant that for most of the Solar year it was the furthest object in the system, which made it was a perfect location for a deep space relay station.

“That’s not a bad idea” Merri said

“That would do the job” Parse agreed

“Well done Vanzyl”

“Yes, well done” Merri said and Vanzyl uttered a soft whistle like a plaintive flute, then he looked at his friend and whistled again

“Head very big now” Pulsat said and snorted, while everyone else laughed, except Lyris who was frowning, which Asti had noticed.

“What’s wrong” she asked

“It’s not going to be as easy as you all think” he replied

“What’s worrying you?” Merri asked

“Well I agree that the unmanned relay station on Meknar 5 will definitely suit our purpose, but unmanned doesn’t mean unprotected” Lyris cautioned

“Ground to air weapon systems, space mines, anti-navigational pulse wave emitters, and that’s before you even reach the surface”

“And you know this how?” Asti asked

“We attacked one during the Shaxson Rebellion” Zerrad replied

“But we were just trying to destroy it, not hijack it”

“And?” Asti asked

“And we got a pasting” Lyris said

“But we learned a lot” Zerrad added “And no one is at war with the Legion in the Cluster, so it may not be that well protected”

“Well there’s one way to find out” Merri said and turned to Malena “send a coded message to our Aeronautica friend, “Your favorite baker needs help to send his scone recipe to some friends””