Page 111 - The Chronicles Ser2 (6-10)

your... er… I believe the vernacular is “wedding tackle,”” Jonas laughed. Mortimer glowered then
smiled as Lorna drew close
“What’s this all about Lorna?” He asked
“I have no idea other than the orders to ship out came from Councillor Magridson. So your guess is
as good as mine. I do know where we’re headed though…The Hellion Marchioness an expeditionary
craft headed to do a mineral survey of some place in the Hub” she replied. Jonas whistled then the
pilot signalled them aboard the shuttle
“The Buraxin Freighter will meet us a Parsec from here; they’ll take you to The Hellion from there.
The Captain is a Buraxin woman I used to go to the Academy with so this is sort of a favour she owed
me” The young pilot said, his name was Mc Michaelson.
“Thanks… Eddie isn’t it?” Lorna asked he nodded as he helped her off the ramp. They all settled into
their seats, the shuttle manoeuvred to the launch bay, and then it took off into the space beyond the
force shield covering the docking port opening.

The flight to the Freighter; the H’nur’G’ Fan, was short at the speed they were travelling. It
was one of the larger craft that the Buraxin used for long distance trade routes. The Captain; Mircha
Kuflarn-Hadesh was a youngish, raven-haired woman with olive skin and quite affable.
“You’re lucky I owed Eddie a favour; not many Buraxin ships do the route we do, hence our vessels
size. Does he still have that awkward looking smile?” she said in conversation as her crew, mostly
young men, stowed the teams’ belongings.
“Yes; it’s down to an injury he got while riding a Horga on Celica Minor as a young boy. Not that he’s
much older now. I know his older brother Mark from the Academy on Thule Nova” Lorna replied and
winked. Mircha laughed and they headed for Mirchas’ private quarters. Lennie; on the other hand,
went off to explore the engine room and the fast Hyper-Warp drives.

On board the Hellion Marchioness, the Coms crews had worked out a
means of sending a compressed signal through the rift. It would consist of the
Old standard hail with added instructions of how to send a signal back all in
standard Interlac text as used in the early days. Klute Halaran ordered one of
the coms techs to send the burst transmission, wait for thirty seconds, and then
repeat the pattern on the chosen response channel; another coms tech would
listen for the reply. Melissa Hart was in the Coms room when word came that
the Xenobiology team were approaching at high speed and would rendezvous in around twenty
standard minutes.
“I’ll best get to the Trans pad deck to meet them, you carry on with this.” She said to Klute and
departed. Klute and Jason also listened in, as Jason had been the first to hear the original signal.
Captain Melissa Hart had known Lorna Felix’s Father while she herself was a young officer in
training. She had grown up with Lorna effectively and had a long lasting relationship with the family
as a whole. She was looking forward to see her childhood friend.
Lorna, Jonas and Lennie arrived on the pads just as Hart walked in. Their equipment arrived
shortly afterwards. Melissa greeted Lorna with a hug and shook the hands of the other two.
“What’s all this about Mel?” asked Lorna. Hart explained about the signal and the conclusion that
they’d come to. She also explained what they hoped Lorna and her team could help them with
regarding attempting travel into The Veil to make further contact…
“I have my research notes on Behemoth physiology, Jonas here has knowledge of rift distortion
effects he uncovered on Gulea Prime at an archaeology dig, and Lennie is the best Warp Field expert
in this sector of the Galaxy, so between us we should be able to come up with some kind of solution”
Lorna finally said after listening to Hart, Klute and Jason.
“Have you got your ships engine specs handy?” Lennie asked
“They should be in the Ships Hive archive, along with recent modifications made in the last few
months” Hart replied adding “I’ll get a crewman to take you to engineering. But first: I’ll show you to
your quarters” she finished and took them to the accommodation deck…