Legionnaires: Saturn Girl

Do You Mind?

by Martin Maenza

It was a beautiful Spring day in 30th Century Paris. The sun was shining down and the smell of fresh blossoms filled the air. It was the perfect time for one to enjoy a break at an open air, rooftop cafe as many patrons were indeed doing.

The dark haired waiter approached the small table where a blonde haired woman dressed in a blue shift of a dress sat alone sipping her drink. “Will there be anything more, mademoiselle?” he asked in a slight accent.

“Non, merci, serveur,” Imra Ardeen Ranzz replied in his native tongue. “Juste le controle, svp.”

The waiter was surprised by her grasp of the language and with such an accent. “Oui, ma’am,” he said with a smile, touching the surface of the table. Suddenly, a small display appeared and allowed him to quickly review her order. “Voici que vous allez.” He departed the table, allowing her to handle payment whenever she was ready.

The woman reached back to retrieve her handbag, which matched her dress. It was small, for she really had little need to carry much with her today. Not like having to tote around a bag for Graym’s things, she mused to herself. The young mother was happy that her husband Garth and sister-in-law Ayla offered to watch the child for a few hours.

I can take some time to go shopping for myself, she thought. She took out a small card from her purse and swiped it into a grooved slot at the edge of the table. Immediately, the system registered her account and took the creds to satisfy the cost of the meal. Before she could even put the card back away in her purse, the transaction was completed.

“Still,” she said, leaning back in the chair to finish her drink and enjoy the scenery, “there’s no rush. Its my day to relax, and I’m going to enjoy it.” Imra smiled just thinking about it. She couldn’t imagine how quickly this euphoric feeling would fade.

“…we’ll take out the big man permanently! He won’t know….”

The thought, those words, blared like morning reveille in her head! It caught her by great surprise, but she knew the sensation in an instant, having grown up on the moon of Titan that orbited Saturn.

She had picked up someone’s thoughts! But not normal human thoughts. This was a snippet of a powerful telepathic conversation. The inflection was unmistakable too. The person was angry, almost violent. These had to be the thoughts of a killer!

Imra glanced around the restaurant very quickly but was not picking up anything more. She then looked skyward and saw the vapor trail of a public transport disappearing on the horizon. It had to come from there, she concluded as she grabbed her handbag and rose from the table quickly. She wasn’t sure who the thoughts had come from or what they had planned, but she could tell it wasn’t anything positive. With a thought, she took off into the air and in pursuit.

Thanks to her Legion flight ring, standard issue for the famed intergalactic super-team, it wasn’t hard for Imra to follow the transport. Still, the vehicle had a good lead, which forced her to push the ring to its limits in order to catch up. As the gap narrowed, she was able to make out more about the ship.

“It is what I thought,” she said to herself, “a public transport as opposed to some commercial or private vehicle.” The ship could easily have over a hundred passengers on it, not counting crew, she calculated. That might make things a bit more difficult, but not impossible.

She considered, for a moment, on contacting the Legion Headquarters back in Metropolis. Being a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes had its pluses, mostly in the fact that the team was so diverse. If she needed backup, these were the best people to have in her corner. She’d known these folks for over half her life now.

Imra was fourteen years old when she came to Earth from Titan, one of Saturn’s moons, to join the Science Police Academy. On that fateful, she met Rokk Krinn of Braal and Garth Ranzz of Winath, and the trio managed to rescue billionaire R.J. Brande from being attacked. This single event lead to the formation of the super-team that Imra was proudly a member of to this very day.

Still, it wouldn’t hurt to get some information. Using the communicator within her ring, Imra contacted the LSH headquarters. It was Chameleon Boy who happened to be on duty at the time. “What can I do for you, Imra?” he asked.

“Reep, can you run me some information on a transport vehicle? Identification marker R3-2TW79. Current flight plan, please.”

There was a pause for a moment while her Durlan teammate ran up the information. “A public carrier that makes routine flights about the European circuit. Currently running a circuit from London to Paris with stops in between. You’re in France, are you not?”

“I am, Reep,” she said, having her visual identification of the vehicle confirmed. “Thanks for the info.”

“Need any other help?” Chameleon Boy asked.

“Not right now, thanks. Saturn Girl out.” And with that, Imra ended the communication. The transport vehicle had slowed to dock at an enclosed station atop a five story building. I need to be there when the passengers disembark! And with that, the blonde rocketed towards the landing bay.

***

 

By the time Imra was near the departure ramp, the double doors to the craft were wide open and the passengers were well on their way to departing. With a keen eye and an open mind, she scrutinized everyone that passed through the doors.

Over the years as a Legionnaire, Imra had encountered a number of telepathic races, most with distinctive appearances that could not be missed. A Hykrain, like my teammate Tellus, or a Gil’dishpan won’t be hard too hard to spot, she admitted to herself. But others are a little more trickier to locate. Most Titanites, like herself, could easily pass as any citizen of Earth since it was humans from Earth that colonized the largest of Saturn’s moons back in the 22nd Century. However, Imra was extremely gifted with her mental abilities to the point where she could easily pick up the psychic imprint of a native from Titan with not too much difficult.

One race though that was known for its telepathic abilities would be very difficult to spot. That would be a Protean, a shape-shifting native from a small planet that orbited the star Antares. Having the uncanny ability to change their forms and assume any shape they desire, Proteans were nearly impossible to pick out in a crowd. Luckily though, Saturn Girl had first hand experience with the race and knew that they were quite friendly and almost devoid of hostility. I think I can pretty much rule out one of those as the source of the telepathic threats, she thought.

Her eyes were being of little help. If anything, they were distracting her. Imra would see couples in love, parents with small children, and various individuals from many of the races she’d seen over the years as a super-hero. No, to catch this telepath, I need to focus on that, she thought to herself. Her eyelids fluttered closed for a moment as she relied exclusively on her ‘sixth’ sense.

For a moment, there was nothing. But Imra knew she had to be patient.

“Hurry, you oaf! In order to catch him unaware, we must strike while he is still vulnerable!”

There it was! The same exact telepathic voice she had caught a snippet of before! The killers were here still!

Imra opened her eyes once more, glancing around the room. Which ones? she thought. She turned to where the mental voice had appeared to come from but only saw a lone figure – a large, hulking figure with orange-pink skin. He, she assumed the gender, was hairless with a heavy thick jaw and broad shoulders that slumped as he lumbered along. His soiled clothing was tight over the rather muscular body, and he had a large humped back.

Imra paused for a second.

The figure was alone; obviously no one was traveling with him. In fact, many of the people in the crowded station seemed to shy away from him, either because of his impressive size, his unattractive features or possibly some foul odor that came from his body. Where’s the other one?

“Down the stairs!” the telepathic voice blared in her head. And the hulking figure seemed to follow the command.

He’s got to be one of them, Imra thought to herself. The other must be nearby. If nothing else, I need to keep an eye on him to prevent this murder, whoever the target is. She was thankful for all those years of training in surveillance that Lyle, Tinya and Reep had imparted to her. While she wasn’t a regular member of the Legion’s Espionage Squad, Imra did know a thing or two about tracking a suspect.

She hurried down the stairs after the man.

For one so large, the man moved quickly through the crowds as he wound his way out of the commercial districts that made up the area around the transport stop. His path seemed fairly clear and straight forward though; he was heading for the Seine River which had a number of industrial facilities as well as more seamier locales.

The man was not joined by another, nor did Saturn Girl hear any more from the telepathic voice as she followed him. His partner and he must have had some established plan, she surmised. But as long as I do not lose the one, I should be able to locate the other as well. She kept to moving by foot so as not to draw too much attention to herself. Still, in the section of the city that they had entered, a woman like she was bound to start standing out sooner or later.

The man moved passed an alley way and continued down a set of stairs. Imra was about to do the same when a pair of rough-looking men dropped out of the alleyway.

“Look at what we have here!” the one with the scruffy beard said. “A fine specimen of womanhood whose lost her way.”

“Maybe we can help her along!” joked the other who wore a patch over his eye.

“I don’t think so,” Imra said, starting to move past them.

“Well, I think you’re wrong!” the patch eyed man said, and he grabbed her arm firmly.

Imra reached around, grabbing the man’s wrist with both her hands. First, she applied pressure in some very specific spots, forcing his grip to loosen slightly. He let out a yell as a sharp pain shot up his arm! “Aaaaaah!” But she wasn’t finished!

Imra then bent her knees, shifted her weight and tossed the man over her back with a smooth, fluid motion. He went crashing into the side of a sanitation dumpster with a loud thud!

She heard the click-click of a weapon as the bearded man pulled something from his jacket pocket. An eight inch blade gleamed in the afternoon sunlight. “You want to play rough, lady! I can play rough!” The man lunged for her.

Imra spun around, sending her right foot into the air. The man noticed it and feigned to his right to avoid it. That’s when her left leg snapped into the air, allowing her to land on her right. She then kicked out with her left foot, connecting solidly with the man’s wrist. The knifelike weapon clattered to the ground.

Imra’s left foot came down; she pivoted to the left and swung her right foot into the air. It connected squarely to the man’s left temple, knocking him down to the ground. Good to know all those moves Val taught me still work, she thought.

With both would-be attackers down and out, Imra turned back to her quarry and rushed towards the stairs he disappeared down.

The stairs led to an underground walkway that was dimly lit and slightly damp. Its proximity to the river could account for the later condition. Imra moved carefully but quickly as she sought to find the man before he was able to reach his destination.

The tunnel opened to a large cavern. Supplies in crates could be seen stacked up against the far wall. Water dripped down slowly in spots from cracks in the ceiling above. As Imra arrived at the outside wall of the entry way, she heard the telepathic voice blaring loudly.

“There you are! The time has come!”

“Perhaps we should discuss this,” another telepathic voice blared.

“No more discussion! The time is now!”

“Please, reconsider. I can share the profits with you.”

“No! He who has been a traitor to our race must die!”

Imra had heard enough. It was time to stop the killers before they were able to strike.

She burst into the cavern to see the large figure she had been trailing along with another massive figure of a man, this one less muscular and more of an Earth like appearance. This second man wore a dark suit, fairly fashionable.

“Hold it right there and put your hands in the air! You’re both under arrest for conspiring to commit murder!” Imra wanted to give them a chance to surrender to her.

“Who is the girl?” the heavyset Earth man asked.

“Science Police, no doubt!” the familiar telepathic voice said. “Get her, now!” The hulking orangish-pink figure responded and lunged for her with a guttural yell. The heavy set Earthen reached into the folds of his dark suit and pulled out a pistol.

Saturn Girl tried to get the man to drop the gun, but a mental presence caught her off guard. She was able though to force him to pull his aim, and the shots ricocheted off the ceiling. Still, she needed to move. He must be the telepath I was picking up, she assumed.

The powerful alien was quickly upon her. “Kill her, Gorowan!” the familiar telepathic voice commanded.

Saturn Girl was surprised and taken aback for a moment. That telepathic voice seemed to have come from this one! There are two of them? she exclaimed.

A large fist struck her down hard, knocking her to the stone floor. She groaned as she slipped unconscious for a moment.

***

 

When she awoke, Saturn Girl was still in the cavern right where she fell. Startled, she rose to her knees only to realize that neither of the men had left the room! Nor had they bothered to detain her further. Something must have distracted them!

Glancing about, she saw them. There they were standing in the center of the cavern, engaged in some kind of struggle. The two men had locked arms which kept them less than a foot and a half apart. Yet, given all her years of battle experience, the two appeared as though they were almost statue-like. Almost in some kind of bizarre stalemate.

I don’t get it, she thought to herself. What’s going on here? She decided that perhaps it was time to use her mind reading abilities to get to the bottom of this strange situation. But as soon as she did, something unexpected happened!

Saturn Girl felt as if her mind was pulled out of her body, only to be deposited elsewhere!

The feeling was jarring, but not something completely foreign to her. The environment seemed to swirl about her, only to form the landscape of an alien world. The soil had greenish-brown color to it and the vegetation was unlike any she’d seen before.

She reached out to touch a nearby plant, but her hand passed right through it as if it wasn’t there. Or, perhaps, she wasn’t there. “Its some sort of mindscape, a psychic battlefield!” Saturn Girl concluded. “What’s the meaning of this?”

She ‘heard’ the sound of combat coming over the next ridge. With a thought, her mind moved her astral self to the top of the slope. Wherever she was, it did not hinder her powers in the slightest. In fact, they seemed extremely focused, well beyond their usual levels. Imra took some comfort in that.

From the edge of the ridge, she cautiously looked down as two large replicas of the two men on Earth fought. Here they moved with such grace and such power, slamming their fists down hard and trying to bury the other. She crouched down to remain hidden as she watched their gladiator style battle unfold.

“You were a fool to come after me!” said the one who looked like he came from Earth. The voice matched that of the second telepath.

“You cannot escape your final fate, big man!” the orangish-pink alien said, but it was the voice of the first telepath she had heard. This one seemed to be by far the more angry and violent of the two.

“We’ll see about that!” The other one was not about to go down quietly.

With each blow, the mindscape shook!

“Their fight,” Saturn Girl said as she ‘balanced’ herself, “even though it takes on physical manifestations, it is still wholly composed of mental attacks!” Indeed, her mind could feel the backlash of each blow.

These were powerful, mental creatures but lacking in refined controls. That was most likely the reason she picked up on the conversation from the transport ship. Their power was raw and savage! She had no doubt that one would eventually kill the other unless she intervened. She had no choice in the matter.

“Still, I don’t know the whole story,” she said. “And for that reason alone, I have to take them both out! Later we can get this mess sorted out.” Saturn Girl readied herself, preparing her mind.

She studied for so many years on keeping her mental abilities in check. Being a strong telepath, she naturally had to keep many guards in place. Otherwise, her mind would be filled with the thoughts of everyone around her. But, when she needed them to be, her powers could be quite effective from an offensive standpoint. Especially against ones such as these who probably had little training in mental defenses.

Saturn Girl unleashed a very strong mental attack, one to send a neural shock through both combatants. As the charge hit them both simultaneously, they screamed out in anguish.

The whole mindscape shook as they began to fall, and it then shattered apart like a broken stained glass window!

***

 

Saturn Girl snapped to, her mind back firmly in her own head. She recovered from the experience very quickly and saw that both men were on the floor. “They must have collapsed when the mindscape was broken.” As she got closer, she noticed something curious. The humpback on the alien was squirming about, and an anguished mental cry was coming from it.

She lifted the man’s shirt and was startled by what she found.

There, imbedded into the spinal column of the orangish-pink alien behemoth was a dark gray mass. As Saturn Girl looked closer, she could make out the tendril appendages of the mass that bore through the aliens’ skin to attach itself to this host body. The mass also had some very rough features that could be taken to be a face of some sort.

“Its some kind of telepathic parasite,” she concluded. “Somehow controlling this creature, making him do its bidding.”

She used her Legion communicator to signal the Science Police and to get some emergency assistance to her present location. She wasn’t sure what the gray mass was, so she certainly did not want to make any attempts to remove it herself. For all she knew, the mass and the alien had some kind of symbiotic relationship.

Imra then went to examine the other large man. Sure enough, under his coat, she found a similar entity attached to the man’s spinal column.

“Obviously these creatures were using these men as a means to travel and such,” Saturn Girl said. “If the medi-facilities can successfully remove the parasites from the men, we might be able to learn what happened, and where these telepathic creatures come from.”

Those answers would have to wait, though, for another time.