Skrymers Glove

by Per Holbo

  Chapter 11: Thor´s Hammer

  Loki and Freya were shaken. Here they were, a Yetten and a vane, both battle hardened soldiers, who had in this war received more medals for courage and ability than anyone else. And now they witnessed a little human girl taking a stand against Skrymer with pride and defiance, while they stood there tripping like a couple of teenagers about to pee their pants out of fear! Freya particularly felt her manhood being hurt, although she technically wasn´t a man. Despite the fact, that she was a Vane and thus came from a people, who cherished peace and through cultural definition was a pacifist race, she was after all from a family of fighters, who were well known for their courage and battle competence. And now she was just standing there doing nothing, while Roeskva, a small human child, was the one taking action on her behalf. She had only just decided to back up Roeskva, when she heard the well known sound of the Aseir transporter system and the room was filled with the usual mini cloud of organic material. She just managed to catch the tiny murmur in the cloud telling her that something was not quite right, when a formidable force lifted her from her feet and pulled her sideways across the floor all the way to the wall, where she hit her head and was knocked unconscious.

  Loki watched as Freya´s slender, but fearsome body of a war machine fly by, but before he could even begin to react, he himself was thrown in the same direction as Freya and almost landed on top of her. He smashed his head into the wall with the same force he had just seen render Freya harmless and he couldn´t fight his body´s natural defenses. It was calling for rest and he had to give in and give it rest. His eye lids fell heavy as led and there was nothing he could do as they closed and reality disappeared while his mind shut down and he entered a dreamless sleep.

  The only one of the three, who realized in time what was happening was Sif. Not only did she catch the murmur, but she also eyed the slightly uneasy way the organic cloud moved. And she knew immediately what it meant. There were two options: either someone had made a huge mistake when setting up the transporter - or, the best option of the two: Thor had figured out how to use the Hammer to make a double displacement and thereby get around the Yetten cruiser´s massive shielding. She responded quickly and threw herself toward Roeskva ripping her away from the danger, mili seconds before the cloud embraced Skrymer and pulled him away with his hand reaching out inches from Roeskva´s neck. Then he was gone...

  “What just happened?” Roeskva whispered chocked as she clinged herself closely in Sif´s arms. Sif let a tear of relief drip from her cheek, realizing she had saved Roeskva only inches away from being transported with Skrymer to Brimir. Sif tried to stop her thoughts as pictures came up in her head. Pictures of what Skrymer would do to a human child, who had interfered in his plans to overtake the entire galaxy, if he had time alone with her. There would´ve been no limits to his anger or to the ways in which he would´ve acted out his rage.

  “There, there, Roeskva.. You´re safe now.. that´s all that matters.”

  “Where´s Tjalfe?”

  Sif let her eyes pan the room as she realized she hadn´t even thought about that. Being so eager to save Roeskva, it hadn´t even struck her that naturally Tjalfe would want just as much as Sif to do what ever it took to save his sister. Then a terrifying thought entered her mind: what if Tjalfe had tried to do exactly what Sif had just herself done?? If he had - and failed - he would right now be aboard the Brimir with Skrymer!

  Suddenly there was a sound from the corridor. Beyond her conscious control Sif´s body jerked sending her anxiety through to Roeskva, who clinged to her even harder than before. Sif put her finger to her mouth as a sign to keep absolutely silent, while she at the same time grabbed hold of Roeskva´s hand and pulled her around Skrymer´s desk and they both squeezed in against the wall, where they weren´t visible to anyone standing in the door. Sif hand signaled Roeskva to keep still and stay where she was, and then she crawled a bit forward stretching her neck in an effort to see what was going on. Through the hole in the wall where a massive door had previously been before the explosion yanked it away, she could see the flickering of a shadow in the light of the corridor and the shadow was most definitely moving closer, growing in size for each second that passed...