by Per Holbo
***
Baldur closed the airlock´s outer door from the console, jumped up from his chair and ran as fast as he could down the corridor. He had to be quick if he was to save his friend in time. Thor had obviously lost consciousness and if Baldur couldn´t get his helmet of in time, he would die of carbon monoxide poisoning. Baldur had closely observed the data from Thor's spacesuit, ever since he came close enough to read them and according to the reading he had less than 2 minutes to remove the helmet before it was too late .. He hurried through the corridors, while regularly checking his watch. 32 seconds, 45 seconds, 57.
He came around the last corner before the airlock and hammered his hand on the button to the inside door. Nothing happened ... He pressed the button again, but the door still wouldn´t budge. Shit! He had forgotten to restore the automatic functions after he had sent Thor, Freya and Sif on their way. Baldur looked at his watch again. 1 minute and 23 seconds. Less than 40 seconds to go! There was nothing else to do than take a chance with the manual door opener and override all safety procedures. He quickly found the panel and with a heave he got it opened. Baldur pulled the handle as hard as he could, and to his great relief he soon heard the cleats inside the door move inwards followed by the sound of gas seeping through the hydraulic pipes. Klonk ... Klonk ... 19 seconds left ... tsssszz ... 15 seconds ... The door opened with a click ... 13 seconds. He threw himself into the airlock and fighting the pain from the low pressure threatening to cave in his eardrum he started the override procedure. 9 seconds ... Clamp ... folding ... fortunately the locks on the helmet were easy to get off and soon he could hear the beautiful sound of clean air and vital oxygen flowing in through the slot just below Thor´s chin, which was already starting to get a touch of blue. Please, he thought, please let it not be too late!
Baldur removed the helmet as soon as the pressure was equalized and then he lay down in agony barely focused enough to observe Thor´s face completely blue of anoxia. He pulled all his strength together and lift up his body to a crouch leaning over Thor.
”Come on, Thor,” he cried and slapped his face, ”wake up!”
Slap! Slap! it sounded for each blow on the cheek.
He saw something in Thor´s face. Twitching around the eyes? One more time! Yeah, definitely twitching! Again! Suddenly Thor coughed and squinted trying to adjust to the bright light.
”Where is ... what? happening? ... Am I? .... Valhalla? ”
”Ha!” Baldur almost burst with joy.
”Hahaaa! Yes, ” he laughed as Thor started to wake up looking more and more alive.
”Baldur?”
Baldur nodded.
“Yup!” he said through his laughter, “Sorry to deprive you of the joys of the afterlife, but Valhalla´s got to wait for the honor of your prominent presence. You´ve got more important things to do than endless battles and wild parties.”
He handed Thor his arm and led him up. Thor looked around, clearly confused and not having a clue what was going on.
”I thought I was dreaming...” he got to his feet, ”I saw visions... or...”
”Come on, we have to get to the bridge,” Baldur demanded and helped Thor through the corridor. He was obviously not entirely well yet, but with a little support he was able to move and soon he could sit on a chair by the console At the bridge. Here he sat for a while coming to while Baldur entered algorithms at the Miolner controls.
”How did you get through the non gravity pocket?” Thor suddenly said as he began to realize that he was sitting safe and sound in a chair on the Alfheim and that they were actually flying inside the non gravity pocket he had thought impossible to enter. Baldur thought for a split second. He had promised Thor not to tell to anyone how he knew the entrance to the glove that only the Yetten knew about. He couldn´t even tell Thor, although Thor was the one who had told Baldur about it.
”Sorry, Thor, but that´s just got to wait” Baldur brushed his question aside, ”right now our focus is to save our friends and I can´t do it without you, so you have to get up to speed.”
”Yes.. yes, of course” Thor nodded, still a little absent, ”I´m ready.. Fill me in.”
Baldur fished out a data plate from under the console table and handed it to Thor.
”It´s all in there,” he explained, ”the plan is that they transport themselves to one of the Yetten Farbauter´s and use it to come to us.”
”Transport?” Thor interrupted him, ”But they don´t have the equipment for it. I have.” He clapped his hand on the side pocket of his spacesuit with a puzzled expression on his face.
”And to make matters even worse, none of them can compensate for the time distortions inside The Glove. Not even Sif has this kind of expertise. ”
”No, they haven´t ”Baldur replied, ”but Loki does.”
”Loki?” Thor was surprised. How could Loki be here? Quite a few details had escaped him while he was enjoying his hallucinations out there.
Baldur gestured with his hand to show Thor that he did not have enough time to explain everything right now.
”Please, just trust me,” he asked. Or trust yourself, Baldur thought to himself, you´re the real master mind behind all of this, however strange it all sounds...
”Loki has already set the children free and now they are on their way to the transporter room with Sif and Freya,” Baldur continued with a look that said 'do not interrupt, or we will lose valuable time' which made Thor shut up and listen .
”When we see the first Farbauter come out of the hangar, it´s them,” Baldur explained while Thor wondered how Baldur could know. If the Yetten got a Farbauter close enough to Alfheim to move behind the shield, they would not have a chance against its arsenal of weapons. It was, after all, what their fighters were built for - attack on defenseless ships with no time to react. But he didn´t say anything, because with everything that had happened in the past ten minutes Thor was aware that he could not count on anything being consistent and meaningful. It was better to listen and try to follow the plan, Baldur presented him with.
”I´ve disengaged the shield for now in order to prevent the Yetten from discovering our presence here too early,” Baldur continued, ”and as soon as they get aboard the Yetten fighter, they will blow off the hangar door on Brimir opening an exit. Loki has placed bombs in various places throughout the Yetten ship and some of them have already exploded to provoke a systems failure and force an emergency shutdown of their shield. They won´t get it up and running before...” He checked his watch. “...at least 20 minutes from now. ”
Thor nodded and smiled. It sounded like a well planned exit strategy. This way the Yetten would be quite vulnerable when the action began.
”Now, the remaining bombs should be triggered by the explosion from the bomb in the hangar and if our calculations are correct, Brimir should be split into two pieces engaging the automatic separation procedure, so that the container section boosts away from the rest of the ship. The downside is that all their weapons will be fully operational, so we should expect heavy weapons fire the moment they manage to pinpoint our location.”
”And they will, as soon as we turn on the shield again,” Thor commented.
”Under normal circumstances that would be true, yes,” Baldur said, ”but unfortunately we cannot turn on the shield before Loki and the others come real close and we should expect the Yetten to figure out that something is wrong when there is a huge gap in the middle of their warship ... ”
”I suppose they will,” Thor said sarcastically. He wasn´t exactly proud of it, but he couldn´t help being amused at the prospect of Yetten soldiers running bewildered and confused back and forth inside the Brimir in panic. Then his face changed from amusement to worry and looked tensely at Baldur.
”We are really going to be vulnerable, Baldur! I certainly hope you know what you are doing!”
Baldur seemed extremely confident and it worried Thor greatly. Not that it was unusual. Baldur was always confident, but right now it seemed as if
he felt completely invulnerable. And if there was one single thing that could get even the most skilled warriors killed, it was arrogance and the feeling of being immortal.
At the same time, Baldur was struggling to keep certain details from Thor and he felt as if he was about to burst. He wanted to tell Thor, why he was so sure of the outcome of this mission. He wanted to reveal the truth. The truth that while Thor had been out there floating in the vast nothingness and Baldur had almost lost every hope believing that Thor was dead, suddenly Baldur had been visited by another version of Thor, who had survived and presented Baldur with a bullet proof plan. A plan, which would save them all and free them of the claws of the Yetten and on top of it all would set several hundred prisoners free. But he couldn´t say anything. He wouldn´t. He had made a promise. As odd as it sounded and as much difficulty, Baldur had trying to really understand it all, he had promised Thor not to tell Thor, that he had been visited by Thor... It almost made his head hurt trying to sum it all up in his mind. Time travel certainly wasn´t something Baldur would ever find pleasure in dealing with in the future. Not if he had anything to say about it.
But right now, the important thing was to present Thor with the most essential parts of the plan. Nothing more, nothing less. Baldur cleared his throat and as he explained the plan in detail - as much as he could without revealing too much - Thor alternately looked worried, laughed, was frightened and even protested from time to time. Specifically when Baldur told about Tjalfe´s role, Thor reacted. He practically jumped out of his chair with a wild expression on his face and pointed angrily at Baldur with his index finger.
“Tjalfe? Tjalfe should not be involved in this at all, Baldur! He's just a child! What´s next? Roeskva as a designated gunner?”
Baldur sat still trying to find the right words for what he knew for sure to happen in the near future.
“Well, actually,” he began, “Roeskva is going to play an important role with this plan, Thor ... She is the one who is going to bring down the Yetten commander...”
Thor's anger disappeared as quickly as it had come. He was so surprised at Baldur´s reply that he had to sit down. Knowing about Roeskva´s part built up a strange feeling in him. In his head it sounded completely insane, but somehow he felt a certain peace to it. As if he knew, deep in his heart, that it was true and that everything would proceed exactly as Baldur explained. Including Roeskva being the catalyst of the Yetten commander’s downfall.
***
