by Per Holbo
***
To the port side of the ship close to the hangar and counting from the back of the ship, first there was the hospital department, or the sick bay, as the crew called it, and after that the kitchen with direct access to the dining hall.
In there the almost 200 people aboard the ship could eat in shifts of up to 50 people at a time, so the place was almost always filled with Aseir and Vanes side by side.
Coming from the dining hall and turning down the hallway there was about 25 yards to the main bridge. This was Baldur´s place, though he obviously wished it wasn´t. During the battle of Earth he had been severely injured and was unable to fly a Skarfi, at least for some time, and now the buttons and consoles of an old cruiser had to do. Everyone knew he wasn´t all that excited about it. He was born to fly a fighter and enjoyed the twisting and turning inside a Skarfi. He never complained, though. He knew, after all, that it was only temporarily and that he would soon again be in the front of some coming battle. Furthermore, he had to be pleased with the fact that he had even survived. When Svalinn plunged to the ground during the battle he found himself completely alone and surrounded by Yetten Farbauters and while the entire expedition fleet had been evacuated, a massive Yetten war machine had flown right pass him and conquered the Fyrkat Fortress and he had to accept the frustrating truth that there was nothing he could do about it.
At least he had felt a bit useful as he realized that both Loki and Thor had arrived at Fyrkat and were fighting to the best of their ability to prevent the Yetten to obtain the new technology. He brought it the Aseir fleet´s attention and for that deed the Yetten had tried to shoot him down with everything they had. They were quite focused on having their revenge and they would probably have succeeded if it hadn´t been for Sif, who had jumped into a Skarfi and singlehandedly shot down no less than 14 Farbauters. Number 15 managed to shoot off the tip of Baldur’s plane just as Sif had a lock on it, so she had to let it go and try to save Baldur instead.
Usually transporting people between fast going vessels is virtually impossible, but Sif was a genius and crushing numbers in her head was one of her greatest strengths. Within a split second she actually managed to lock on Baldur, separate the information flow of Baldur´s body from that of the ship plus calculate for differences in speed and direction and voila! There he was, safe inside of her Skarfi. It wasn´t till he looked down he had realized he wasn´t his usual self. He had lost both of his legs due to a slight glitch in the information stream, but at least he was alive. To Tjalfe and Roeskva, all of this sounded very disturbing, but with the Aseir medical technology it really wasn´t that big of a deal giving Baldur a new set of legs. They´d been attached immediately after his return to Alfheim and all he had to do was wait till his body accepted these new legs and then start training them. If everything went as usual, he would be up and running in a few weeks. Patience wasn´t his greatest strength, though. In fact, waiting for his own recovery was without doubt much more difficult for Baldur than all the battles he had fought and he longed to get inside a Skarfi and kick some Yetten butt!
For now the consoles of Alfheim would have to do and even though he didn´t like it, he still performed his duties with the same level of professionalism as he would commanding a Skarfi fighter.
Every afternoon the children went to the infirmary, where Thor awaited them eagerly with all of his equipment consisting of both electrical devices, needles and the like. Everywhere you looked there was a screen open showing all sorts of diagrams, tables and numbers, he needed to perfect whatever it was he was working on to ensure that the children wouldn´t suddenly disappear from the ship and be transported to some distant base or enemy vessel where they would very likely be tortured into telling all their secrets. Thor took blood samples, scraped off skin samples, scanned every inch of their bodies and entered all the data into the computer, where those data were crunched through programmes of algorithms and other mathematical calculations.
Usually Sif was there with him working as an assistant, but mostly she was the one doing the mathematical and theoretical work. As time passed, Thor became more and more frustrated and it seemed as if he was beginning to doubt that he would be able to produce a serum that would actually work.
On the third day his frustration was brought to extreme levels and during an attempt to get yet another blood sample from Roeskva, he missed her vein repeatedly. Roeskva was quite the hero and during the past days of undergoing several painful procedures, she hadn´t even twitched. But now tears were running down her cheeks and Sif rushed to comfort her.
“#!&*!” Thor said something in a language the children heard from time to time when the crew communicated with each other and they didn´t know the children were present and though they didn´t understand it, there was no doubt that he was cursing. He dropped the syringe angrily on the floor and left the room for a while. Then he returned and sat down in a chair in front of the children looking them in the eyes.
“I´m sorry, Roeskva,” he said, clearly feeling guilty from the look in his eyes, “I didn´t mean to hurt you... It´s just that... Well, I´m very, very frustrated...” He paused and sighed deeply before going on. “Look, kids,” he continued with a hurt look in his eyes, “I am beginning to realize that I can´t make the serum... Not here in the ship, anyway... I lack the necessary equipment...”
He paused again and let the message sink in with Tjalfe and Roeskva. Then he suggested a solution.
“Listen, kids,” he said, “If I am to have any chance of actually producing this serum and make you safe from the Yetten, I´ll have to take you with me to Asgard. What do you think about that?”
As he asked, he prepared himself for their reaction. After all, it was much to ask of them to go to a distant planet they hadn´t seen before and trust Thor and the Aseir to solve their problem.
Much to his surprise, they reacted in a very different way. They didn´t seem to have anything against the idea, but looked rather excited at the thought of going to the home of the gods. Tjalfe had the broadest smile you can imagine and Roeskva was jumping up and down in joy. But then Tjalfe´s smile stiffened and he looked at Thor with a very serious and concerned expression on his face.
“But... what about our parents?” he bluntly asked, “they must be going out of their minds with worry...” Thor shook his head.
“I´m sorry,” he said, “but we can´t risk bringing you down to Earth. Not even for a while to say goodbye.” This made Roeskva´s excitement vanish and she looked at the floor with tears in her eyes.
“Thor...” Sif began, but she was quickly interrupted by Thor. “No, Sif,” he said with a firm voice, “there is no way we can do that. It´s too dangerous and we can´t take that risk!” Sif nodded her head. “I know, Thor,” she said softly, “we can´t risk the Yetten locking on to them... But...” she paused for a second, trying to find the right words and then continued. “I think I might have found a solution to that problem,” she said and showed them a bracelet. Thor raised his head and looked at her with an astonished expression, frowned eyes and wondering eyes. Tjalfe recognized the bracelet. It was a device he had seen the gods using when they traveled short distances like from one part of the ship to another and he felt a hope growing inside, although he didn´t dare to put too much trust in that hope.
“I modified the bracelets,” she said, “and I think it´ll do the trick. The ship´s shields can protect the kids for shorter periods of time, right? So that the Yetten can´t lock on to them too easily?”
“Yeah,” Thor said, “That is the theory... But it doesn´t work on the surface. The shields only work right here on Alfheim.”
“I know,” Sif smiled, “but what if the bracelets could be modified to make a connection through the transportation system and be linked to the shields?”
Thor lit up in a big smile. “Then it would be possible to generate a personal shield around them and prevent the Yetten from locking on - in the same way as it does on the ship...” he said, “prob
ably not as effective as when they are on board the Alfheim, but yes... I do think it would work!”
“That´s the idea!” Sif said, “ and I´ve managed to modify two of the bracelets to do exactly that! It should work for a little under half an hour before the link is disconnected, but shouldn´t that be enough time to meet their parents and say goodbye?” Thor smiled and looked at his wife with pride. Sif was really something and to Thor, there was nothing she couldn´t manage, if she set her mind to it. She was always able to find a solution, however crazy her ideas might seem.
“And you´ve probably already tested them?” he asked knowing the answer to that question. Of course she had...
So that was it. Now they knew exactly what to do. First they would go down to the surface close to where Egil Bowman and his wife lived. The children would be accompanied by both Sif and Thor just in case the Yetten forces hadn´t completely left Earth as intelligence claimed they had. As soon as they had scanned the area and Sif and Thor felt there were no enemy forces nearby, the Aseir would leave the children on the surface to say goodbye to their parents alone. They would then have the remaining time of the half hour the bracelets should give them to say their goodbyes and then Sif and Thor would go back to fetch them. Then they would all leave Earth and go as fast as possible to Asgard together and get to work solving the problem and produce the serum.
