Broken Song

by Erik Schubach

  Tyr and Arin both laughed heartily at our display then Try confided in me. “You will not be able to match her little Ragnarok. The secret is... she cheats.”

  I raised an eyebrow at the huge Einherjer. I have grown to respect this man in the past few hundred Earth years. He and Jefferey are the only two Einherjer that can match the power and fury of the Valkyrie. He smiled at me, then looked over to the spectacular demonstration Kara was putting on as she added two Einherjer to the match and still held them all off with her ugly brute force fighting technique. He called out to her. “Kara, a little demonstration here if you would.”

  The sparring stopped and she excused herself. She came walking up to us with a cocky grin on her face and just kept walking almost into the device and punched it without slowing. The machine could not counter the entire transfer of kinetic energy and it slid back a foot along the floor and the shock frame bent. The self repair mechanisms began repairing the damage to the unit as Tyr pointed at the results. “Nineteen hundred and twelve.” He chuckled. This was four joules above his best.

  I looked between them as they apparently shared an inside joke. I hissed again. “Impossible!” Then I felt the calming touch of my Arina as her warm hand was placed on my cheek. I will not show weakness! May the war gods forgive me, I closed my eyes and leaned into her touch. I can never forsake my gentle Valkyriefrior. Tyr blushed and looked away from this open display of affection from my wife.

  Arina had a laugh dancing around in her sparkling eyes. “No my love, it is possible. You do not listen. Tyr told you... she cheats.”

  Kara feigned hurt at the words. “Hey. I'm taken aback by the accusation.” Tyr laughed and Kara backhanded him in the gut with a lattice hardened fist as Kate joined us from her workout.

  “Ooof!” the big man uttered.

  Kate grinned at Kara. “Oh don't act so innocent little miss cheater.”

  Kara gave her a loving smile and chuckled before she said, “I said I was taken aback, not that it wasn't true.”

  It was exasperating, these Valkyrie are all so frustrating! “Would someone explain how such a tiny wisp of a Valkyrie can possibly hit with more force than a Ragnarok?”

  Tyr looked at us all then said. “Alright, but first, Kara, would you care to show her the true power of the Wild One?”

  She rolled her eyes and walked away from us a few steps. “If you are sure Tyr, I like to leave you with some pride.”

  It was his turn to roll his eyes as she took two steps toward the machine and dropped into her familiar low crouch with her right leg stretched out behind her as she struck. I had seen that particular strike in so many of the visual records of her battles, it almost inevitably spelled the death of the recipient. The machine flipped back end over end with a thunderous crack as plasti-steel failed when the kinetic absorption mechanism was overwhelmed. Tyr's massive muscles flexed as he righted the machine and we saw twenty one hundred and fifty three flashing across the screen at the console beside it.

  I growled at the ceiling in rage. How!? I was pacing like a wild animal when Try started outright laughing at me. “Show her some pity Kara. Show her your real punch.”

  Kate slapped Kara's shoulder to stop her laughing. Then the Demon walked up to the machine one last time as it finished its self repairs again. She stood there then looked at me sheepishly and struck. I expected something... more. The machine just did its duty and absorbed the energy from her punch. The display showed a paltry seventeen hundred and ninety six joules.

  Now I was truly confused. But Shadow Fang showed mercy on me. I have always liked the human Valkyrie, as Kat didn't have the infuriating habits of the Asgard. Her raspy voice said, “Come little sister. I will show you my mates cheating ways.”

  We all followed her to a ceiling holo-display and she motioned and it activated. She typed on the virtual keyboard and an attack analysis overlay went over a playback of my attempt. It showed force vectors and prime vectors over my form, my actual strike angle was less than one percent off of optimum. I grinned with pride.

  Arina looked at me. “Well done Ina.” Then she grabbed my hand and squeezed it.

  We watched as Tyr's earlier strike was displayed for comparison. He was over four percent off of optimum but his sheer mass compensated and brought him past my best number. There was an “Ooof!” and we turned to see Mist had joined us and backhanded her mate in the gut. “Showoff,” she scolded him.

  Then Kate looked at me. “Now on to the cheater. Lets look at her real strike first.” Kara stuck her tongue out at her wife. The computer calculated the Wild One as only off the prime vector by one hundredth of one percent. Almost a perfect strike, but the number was so low. I chuckled at myself. So low? Even at that, it would crush the ribcage of a human or severely damage a Ragnarok warrior.

  Kate was looking smug when she continued sharing the information. “Now her first strike, where she first cheated.” The overlays were in constant flux adjusting to the movement of the Valkyrie's strike. Multi vector overlays sprang to life, energy transfer and load calculations slung out along all of the axises. Three separate optimal vector readings displayed, all well into the ninety ninety percentile. And Kate froze the playback, then stepped back for me to look at what was being shown.

  I looked at everything and studied the display, then played it back at on hundredth of normal speed. Then I saw it! She had cheated! It was actually an ingenious multi-layered cheat. Most likely developed because of her low mass and diminutive height. She weighed a sparse one hundred and seventy three pounds. With her dense Asgard mass, that was like a feather. If she had the mass of a human her size she would probably barely have topped one hundred pounds.

  As she swung, her body was in constant forward motion. Not stationary like all of our strikes, that motion carried her into the “guard” zone of a combatant as she struck and locked her elbow as her shoulder dropped. Her punch angled up by only two degrees but that sent the counter force down her arm and torso into her trailing right leg that was planted so the rebound energy was negated. This allowed for all of her strike force and kinetic energy to be transferred to the device instead. That was almost the perfect combination of variables for the optimal outcome.

  I turned to all of the frustrating Asgard gathered around, even more Valkyrie and Einherjer had gathered. I pulled up a couple visual records of some of Kara's battles and slowed them down and saw that most of her blows were done in this manner, she was always in motion, always striking in a slight upward angle. How had I missed this before?

  I pulled up her second strike and glanced back at the machine. I turned back and watched the replay. It was like the first one, she crouched into the imaginary attackers guard and I slowed it way down. Even with her right leg planted far behind her, her body was still in forward motion with her strike. The upward angle was more extreme this time and you could draw a straight vector from the point of impact to her rear foot. She was less than one hundred thousandths of a degree off of a perfect one hundred and eighty degrees, but the energy transfer amounts were beyond her mass capabilities. The numbers didn't make any sense.

  I looked around and hissed in confusion. Arina grinned and turned my head with a single finger on my chin back to the display. She whispered hotly in ear, “You look but you do not see my love.” She rewound two seconds and started playback even slower and zoomed the display into Kara's leg and lower back area. I tilted my head as I saw a blue flare at Kara's feet and along her spine and arm a moment before the impact. She was reinforcing that vector along her spine with her lattice. But her feet?

  My eyes went wide and I spun back around to look at where Kara had stood for the strike and there was jagged debris on the ground. “You dug in with Odin spears under your feet? You anchored yourself!” I blurted out the accusation and the entire training room erupted into laughter.

  I hissed at them all then I snapped, “This is not funny, the Wild One indeed cheats!” Which got another roar of laughter. I do not understand
Asgard humor, I gave up the effort centuries ago.

  In frustration I did the only logical thing and I backhanded Try in the gut and ignored his whining, “Why is everyone always hitting me? What did I do?”

  I stalked off to the force measurement device. Everyone wisely left me alone as I practiced adjusting my punches upward slightly and planting a leg back to increase my power. It worked better for Kara because she was so small, up was a natural strike to her as all Ragnarok are bigger than her. Then I spent the afternoon arguing with my nanites, trying to duplicate the Odin spears in her feet. The best the krothing nanites could give me were small claws on my feet, like the ones the nano-lattice formed on my hands, to dig into the plasti-crete floor. Causing more laughter as it made me look even more like my cursed nickname, the Fox.

  But the joke was on them. I was striking more powerfully than Tyr by the end of the day.

  I grinned and walked to Kara. “OK, sister. Let us trade a single blow!”

  Kara nodded. Arina opened her mouth to protest, she looked worried. I usually took almost a full day to heal fully from the damage I take from my sparring sessions with Kara. Neither of us hold back much against each other, unlike sparring sessions with anyone else.

  I shook my head at Arina. I could finally best the Demon here. I realized it was silent in the training room as we faced each other. Tyr walked up to us and dropped his arm to signal us to strike.

  My lattice flared and my thick lattice gauntlet appeared over my fist as my newly learned claws at my feet sank into the plasti-crete when I crouched and threw my most powerful strike. She dropped into her krothing crouch and her fist struck out like lightning, but instead of striking my chest, she actually punched my fist. The force of her blow deflected my arm down and my momentum carried me into a face plant on the training room floor. How did she do that!? Again the krothing Asgard were laughing at some inside joke. I swear by the war gods that one day I will unleash my fury on them all I will... I lost my train of thought as Arin broke social protocol and kissed me quickly on the lips in public. Kat is such a bad influence on her, I'll have to thank Kat later. As our lips parted, Arina giggled with a grin as she said, “Remember, she cheats.”

  I screamed at the ceiling again and punched the floor with all my might, cracking the plasti-crete surface and sending shrapnel everywhere. I made a note to myself to apologize to the workers that would repair it after we all left the room for the day. It is not their fault the Wild One infuriates me. But I sighed then grinned back at Arin and Kat. “Show me.”

  We walked over to a ceiling holo-display as Kara mouthed “Sorry” to me then grabbed a staff and wandered off to face a few comrades in another sparring match.

  Kate pulled up the brief exchange. Then paused. “How best to show it...” Then she nodded to herself and just played it at full speed. Then replayed it at one hundredth actual speed. I saw nothing but Kara's blow dominating mine. Kat grinned. “Did you see it?”

  I shook my head and she rewound it then ran her finger through her mate's face on the display, then along her neck. Kara's eyes highlighted and a vector was laid on her neck as the replay started again even slower. Then I saw what they were saying. In mid swing I saw the impossible, Kara's eyes actually moved and her head twisted slightly down to my fist as she was swinging and her fist dropped almost imperceptibly and toward the center to intercept mine. The instant before impact her fist rose a finger's width to strike just above my knuckles, forcing my strike toward the floor.

  She had seen my strike, adjusted for it and used my own energy by changing her strike to cause the wanted result at speeds too fast for thought.

  Kate looked proud of herself. “See? She cheats.”

  I shook my head. “But how?”

  Kat shrugged. “The best we can figure is that phenomenon she always describes when in battle, when she says it feels like time slows down as she fights?” She pulled up a visual record of a battle on the display, the Stand of the Sisters. All those centuries ago when Kara and I stood together against the Ragnarok and their human conscripts. I still find it odd that I have lived for centuries. She pulled up both nanite diagnostics and a vitals overlay over Kara's image. “Now watch.”

  In painfully slow motion I watched a male Ragnarok behind Kara, swinging his carbon blade down at her. Her eyes shifted as her head twisted around to see him and she slapped the blade aside harmlessly with her open palm as it flew downwards, in what should have been a killing blow. Kate was highlighting the nanite diagnostics against Kara's brain activity. There were spikes in both as her nervous system reacted almost instantly with the spikes.

  Kat smiled at me. “It seems that since Kara has had five thousand years more than any other evolved Valkyrie dealing with our evolved nanites. They have formed some sort of symbiotic neural network with her brain. In battle, they are constantly analyzing and feeding her data and assisting in reaction speed, faster than thought. So really, it isn't things slowing down in battle. It is just that her brain and reactions are sped up so much in times of stress that it just feels like that to her. I'm sure over time our crafty little nanites will adapt the same with us, but for now, she alone has the advantage of literally assessing the situation at the speed of light during battle.”

  She grinned at me then wandered off to join a sparring session. With Arin at my side, I watched the battle play on the display at a quarter of normal speed and watched as Kara even adjusted her body as she took a blow, to minimize damage she took. Multiple instances of her strikes adjusting in mid swing were now evident, and she had actually somehow crouched instinctively enough so that a Ragnarok blade being thrust toward her heart from behind went through her shoulder instead. I grinned because I knew that blade, I gave it to Hajart the Master Loomer years later.

  I looked back over my shoulder at the Demon as she took on all comers in the training room with her staff, then thought to her across our link, “Cheater.”

  She actually snorted as she fought, and may the war gods forgive me, but I laughed when she replied across our link, “I love you too Inatra.”

  When the training session expired we all made our way out of the room, I thought I was the last one. Just as I heard a horrific crunching sound behind me, I realized Arina was not by my side, I looked back in the training room to see the force measurement device crushed into a sparking and smoking ball as it started its own repairs. Arina's shield bubble around it faded as my mate smiled innocently at me when she walked past and out of the room. Oh come on!!!