Amalthean Quests One

by Jeri Dion

  “Ladies, Gentlemen and Honoured planetary guests, we are gathered here like any past yearons to pay tribute to the many humanoids or alien races, teams or individuals who has made a difference in what they have achieved in serving Questa Headquarters Base, this past yearon, I would like to bring to your attention, a young woman who came to this base with just one other member of her crew, she had lost her home world less than three yearons ago, to cut a long story short, this young woman had promise, she put to me a new concept in fighting crime, a Quest orientated crime fighting team and this yearon to date, she has achieved great success in bringing some of the most notorious leaders to justice, my son Lance is part of this new concept, Ladies, Gentlemen and honoured planetary guests, please show your appreciation for the Amalthean Quests team,” said Jonathan proudly gesturing for the team to stand up.

  Tom stood to his feet first, followed by Tayce and the rest of the Amalthean Quests team. They all walked out with ‘Cargo’ down the isle towards the platform. A loud thunderous applause sounded around them as they went. Tayce had no idea that they were so widely recognised by so many seated guests, as she received nods of thank you, as she passed, from people she didn’t even know.

  Outside unbeknown to Tayce and the inside gathered audience of the award ceremony, the young woman that had entered Questa earlier with long dark hair and wearing a sparkly black suit, signing in as Sallen Corford, had now donned a sparkly mask and was back in the crowd. The mask she had donned made her look like one of the many entertainers present on this celebrated night. But she concealed something more under her jacket, something that would aid her in her forthcoming act asked by her guardian to undertake at all costs, this was a Slazer weapon and she was making her way to her point of mission. Her aim was to terminate one person in particular inside the hall. She carefully made sure she was not being eyed suspiciously, as she sauntered towards the halls entrance. Waiting until silence was heard from within, she stepped onto the under foot sensory pad in front of the entrance doors, bracing herself for the duty she had to do ahead. The glassene and stealex doors drew apart before her. She stood staring at the platform ahead coldly and unemotionally, at none other than Tayce. Everyone present inside turned to look in her direction, to see who it was. Silence filled the air, so much so it could be cut with a Slazer knife. For this young female assailant was none other than the evil daughter of Countess Vargon, not as she had booked in as Sallen Corford. Sallen outstretched her black gloved hand and in it was the powerful looking Slazer weapon. Aiming it at none other than Tayce. She began to prance forward warning that if anyone moved, they would join the target in question. Adam Burnford who had come from Micacer was seated in the area nearest to this black clad beauty, as she made her way forward. He discretely opened his jacket and reached in for his small handgun. He slowly withdrew it thinking it was a good idea that he always carried his gun for protection in the Universe. He was also thinking that he may have to use it. He had hoped to have a night off duty and claim his reward without any trouble but he had a hunch it was not meant to be, somehow it was all about to change. Sallen took aim at Tayce in the sudden sounds of gasped surprise around her. She announced, “This is one award you won’t live to receive Colonel Traun,” spoke Sallen coldly.

  “Get down everyone,” shouted Adam, as he sprang into action and took aim at Sallen.

  Everyone in the Celebrational Hall bent forward, lowering themselves to avoid being shot. Adam open fired on Sallen. The shot struck her in the upper shoulder and for a few minons she grimaced in pain, at the feel of impact. She looked daggers in Adams direction. Then dropped her Slazer and ran from the hall, holding her arm. Everyone slowly sat up and looked at Adam in surprise thanking him.

  “Damn I missed,” cursed Adam under his breath, as he lowered his weapon.

  Tayce was quickly comforted by Tom, as she was shaking at the sudden thought she could have died right there on the platform. Lance saw how hurt she was and left the platform, running up the isle to join Adam to go after female assailant. Jonathan crossed to Tayce and Lydia. He was disgusted to think that this had happened when security had been extremely tight all evening. He left Lydia and the others to comfort Tayce and address the audience, apologising sincerely.

  “Ladies, Gentlemen and honoured planetary guests, apologies for our somewhat untimely and unnecessary entertainment, but I assure you it’s all in hand and I ask you not to let it spoil what is planned to be a lovely occasion,” said Jonathan hoping that it wouldn’t.

  “Colonel Traun, are you all right?” asked a Questa guard discretely, as he had come to her side.

  “Yes… I’m fine a little shaken, but I’m fine,” replied Tayce.

  She found her heartbeat slowly coming back to normal she hated feeling like she did, she’d been a vulnerable victim. The team that was except for Lance, who had left the hall with Adam, in search and pursuit of Sallen. Regrouped on the platform, putting the intrusion behind them. They were pleasantly surprised when they were awarded the trophy for new concept in Universal crime busting. There was a special appreciation award for Tayce, in what she had undertaken in rescuing the Greymarians. The rest of the team all won awards for various achievements. Duncan received an award for single handedly trying to stop the Yarrick Raider from taking a cruiser of the Questa Fleet. He was stunned and totally taken by surprise to receive such an award it was his first ever. He had claps on the back and shoulder by the team of congratulations. The ceremony went on for almost two hourons. Various people and beings received awards for their various achievements. At the end of the ceremony, Jonathan Largon announced that refreshments were being served in the next room. With this, the audience slowly stood to their feet and sauntered on out, discussing the somewhat spectacular intrusion. Guests that weren’t staying, sauntered on back to their vessels but stopped to talk with Jonathan Largon for a few minons before walking on. Upon Lance entering the hall with Adam, Jonathan walked down from the platform and towards them. All came to a slow pause in the middle of the near empty hall.

  “Somehow she’s disappeared, it’s like she just vanished,” said Lance mystified at the fact.

  “Lance and I caught sight of her for a moment, then she was gone, we did go in pursuit, but rounding the walkway she’d gone down, there was nothing, sorry sir,” backed up Adam.

  “Never mind, nice work you two, Councillor Traun has your awards, what we want to know is, who was she and why did she threaten Tayce in such a way,” expressed Jonathan in thought.

  “I guess we’ll have to wait and find out, I know one thing, I won’t be off guard next time,” assured Tayce coming to a stop by them.

  She was convinced that whoever this young woman was, she was not out for a simple act of vengeance, there had to be someone behind her pulling her strings so to speak. Tayce thought about it and she couldn’t be sure, but the young woman, Sallen, had more than a striking resemblance to Countess Vargon, of all people. Tom saw her in thought, as he approached.

  “You think there’s more to this unsuspecting outburst then we witnessed first hand, don’t you?” he asked.

  “My intuition says there is and she resembled someone I’d rather forget,” replied Tayce glancing towards the Celebrational Hall entrance in thought.

  “Colonel Traun, we haven’t met, I’m Adam Burnford the pilot that rescued your Mother and returned her to Micacer.” Adam introduced himself politely.

  “Hello, thank you for what you did, it’s just a shame you didn’t find my Father out there,” said Tayce grateful for what he had done in rescuing her Mother.

  “Don’t give up hope Colonel, if he’s out there, he’ll be found one dayon,” assured Adam kindly.

  “Thank you that’s reassuring,” replied Tayce feeling hopeful on his kind words.

  Tayce turned once again looking towards the Celebrational Hall entrance, she had a feeling that this was not over with this you
ng woman assailant. Tom shook hands with Adam thanking him for going in hot pursuit of the uninvited intruder. Lydia could see Tayce was unnerved by what had just unfolded she fully understood it as it, had slightly unnerved her too. As she approached she put her arm around her and guided her to the side of the hall comforting her as she went. Mother and daughter stood talking, Tayce talked and Lydia listened in an understanding way. The rest of the Amalthean Quests team walked on into the next room. Tom stayed waiting patiently in the hall, waiting for Tayce to finish talking with Lydia.

  Elsewhere on Questa unbeknown to Tayce and the team, was the assailant, whose, true name was Sallen Vargon. The daughter of the notorious Countess. She was fighting off the burning pain of her injury. She was finding that the side effects of being shot were making it hard to concentrate on what she had to do next. She was drifting in and out of drowsiness and everything kept going from blurred to clear vision in cencrons, she knew she had to find some kind of medical help soon, otherwise she would end up dead and not her intended victim Tayce Traun. Once she’d completed her packing, in between fighting to stay conscious, she pulled her jacket over her wound, hiding it from prying and concerned eyes. She slipped out of the overstay Apart-House entrance, cautiously, making her way back down the corridor back to the ‘Check In’ desk, where she had booked in earlier as Sallen Corford, waiting for someone to spot her, for what she had done earlier in the hall. She could feel the pain worsening and throbbing by the minon, as she fought to stay on her feet and not look suspicious. She could hear her Mother’s words telling her, to get on with it stop being such a snivelling child in her head. Vargons never gave into pain, it was insignificant. Avoiding eye contact with anyone that walked into her path, she pulled the hood of her jacket over her long black hair. No one seemed bothered by her, as she had changed attire and she merely looked like just another traveller passing through. Suddenly Sallen heard a male voice shout out that seemed to be aimed in her direction. She looked to where it was originating from discretely. It was Lance, he’d passed luckily not noticing who she was, just another traveller and he’d seen some friends, lucky for her she thought. Quickly she crossed to the ‘Check In’ desk quickly presenting her de-locking key the moment she came before the young desk clerk.

  “Excuse me madam, you have to declare who you are by signing the screen as acknowledgement of your payment for the duration of your stay,” he said, handing Sallen a pen shaped instrument to mark the screen.

  Sallen signed the same name she’d signed in with, when she had arrived. Then picked up her holdall turned and ran back to the awaiting shuttle, that was about to leave. As she fought against the immense pain as she went, she began thinking ahead avoiding the prying eyes of Questa Security. Watching and mingling with the crowds of departing passengers, sauntering along with them like any other boarding passenger. All she wanted to do was sit down and close her eyes, as she felt like death warmed up. Lance couldn’t believe his luck, as he left his friends, he spotted her. Adam Burnford who was with him, nodded to the fact that it was her that they were seeing. Both once again sprang into action, but unfortunately for them, they were on the next level up from where Sallen was, moving forward in the queue. Both broke into a sprint, running along the glassene balcony walkway taking their Slazer handguns out of their side holsters as they tried to make their way as quickly as possible down to where Sallen was.

  “Guards stop that woman boarding,” shouted Lance down to the nearest guards in Sallen’s vicinity.

  “Don’t let that shuttle leave,” backed up Adam in urgency.

  Screams of panic rang out as Lance and Adam moved through the crowd on the moving walkway, that would take them to the ground level. One group of ceremonial guests were right in their way at the bottom and it didn’t matter how hard Adam and Lance tried to push their way through, the people ended up nearly in a push and shove tussle, finally Lance ordered them to move by order of General Largon, telling them that they were in pursuit of an assailant, they needed to stop them. The group, three men and two women gave an unimpressed look and moved aside. Lance ran towards the port, where the departing Shuttle had been. It was slowly under way, moving forward and off into the stars.

  “Damn it we’ve lost her again,” said Lance in angry frustration, hitting the nearest wall with his hand.

  “Take it easy mate, she’s gone, there’s nothing we can do,” said Adam smacking Lance on the back in a calm down gesture, he understood his frustration.

  “Look she didn’t board, come on lets get her,” said Lance thinking he was seeing who they were after.

  Security now had joined in the pursuit, having heard the real reason such a commotion was being caused in the Arrival and Departure Area. They fell in with Lance and ran with him to where they thought Sallen was heading. Upon reaching her, as Lance was thinking that he had done Tayce a favour, this female assailant was not going to strike again, he reached out and grabbed her round roughly to face him, with the look of shear anger in his brown eyes. He was immediately cut dead, as this young woman was not the person he thought she was, she glared back at him.

  “What the hell do you think your doing, let go of me,” she retorted angrily

  “Sorry ma’am, I thought you were someone else, my sincere apologies,” said Lance extremely apologetic.

  “I should think so, General Largon will here of this, who are you?” demanded the posh princess like beauty.

  “Lance Largon, I’m General Largons son,” he replied casually.

  “Oh… then I accept your apology,” she replied feeling somewhat awkward.

  The young woman continued on leaving Lance somewhat amused. The guards all glanced about hoping that they would find some trace of Sallen, but it was hard to make out anyone properly on such a night like it was. The night of the awards ceremony, was the busiest time of the yearon. Lance ordered them to stand down, but suggested they keep an eye out for a young woman dressed in black, that had threatened Colonel Traun earlier. They agreed and headed away. Lance decided to head back disappointed that the young woman had not been who he had hoped she’d been. He guessed it was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. On the walk back, half way he was greeted by Jonathan and Tayce. She looked far from amused. She had heard that one of her team had been brandishing a Slazer weapon and causing hysteria in the passenger hall. Jonathan when he had found out it was Lance, was also far from pleased, as it was against the rules to brandish any kind of weapon unnecessarily on Questa, unless you were security. He had told him time and time again, that it was against the rules and he hoped for his sake, that he had an extremely good explanation.

  “What the devil is going on Lance, I have told you time and again about the ban on brandishing weapons unnecessarily on this base?” began Jonathan, giving his son an angry look.

  “This isn’t a good example of one of my Amalthean Quests team to behave in this way with all these innocent people around,” backed up Tayce.

  “We found the young woman who tried to shoot you earlier, but we were up on the next level, we thought we had pinned her down, but it turned out to be someone else, I’m sorry,” expressed Lance.

  “You involved innocent bystanders, Lance really?” said Jonathan furious, at his sons actions.

  “It’s all right General, I can see that Lance and Adam here were merely trying to protect me, there’s no harm done,” assured Tayce trying to calm down from being angry.

  Lance knew what his Father said was true, he had warned him about the unnecessary use of weapons on Questa. It was a peace rule and he had just broken it, he could understand that he had done wrong and didn’t know what to say, to make it right he had apologised to Tayce. He glanced at Adam, expressing that Adam was merely assisting him and that he should not be blamed for breaking the rules. Jonathan still looking far from amused which wasn’t good for him, nodded understandingly. Tom walked out to meet them, c
urious about what happened and why Tayce had left his side in such an urgent manner. He came to a stop, listening in on the fact that if Lance had managed to apprehend the young woman and found out who it really was that wanted Tayce dead, it would have avoided putting her in any more danger. Jonathan calmed down, as he could see his son’s point in his actions he’d done to try and apprehend Sallen. He suggested they return to the rest of the celebrational evening. Tayce walked beside Lance and informed him, that even though he had tried to apprehend her assailant, he was not to try anything like it ever again, especially in brandishing a weapon on Questa, was that understood. Lance nodded.

  Sallen Vargon had made her mark, but had escaped. But only for the moment. She would return again. Now Tayce had another of the Vargon family to face. The shuttle that she had escaped on, was lucky for her, a long haul flight, that had a medical facility on board, where she could get away with being treated without questions being asked. Whether they believed that she had been in a shooting practice accident and hadn’t had time to stop off at the Questa Medical facility, she didn’t care. All she knew was, that she was on the way home to her Mother and by the time questions were asked about her injury, she would have left the shuttle and been picked up the connecting shuttle home.

  When the party after the awards ceremony was finished and the evening had wound down, the Amalthean Quests team and Cargo, who many of the guests had been impressed with, returned to the cruiser. The team had, had one terrific celebration and were pleased with the awards that they hadn’t expected to be awarded, including the one that was awarded to the whole team, in the shape of a golden ‘Q’ on a gold stand. It had been a night to remember, even if it had been marred by the intrusion of Sallen Vargon. Tayce had a feeling there was more to come from the young woman, that nearly ruined her evening, she may have caught her off guard this time, but next time she would be prepared for her sudden appearance should it happen. Once they boarded, the Docking Bay doors closed and Amalthea departed from Questa, heading out into deep space. Midge had set the cruiser in a smooth running warp 5, until a new destination had been decided.