Alfheim

by Erik Schubach

  I noted how the entire control room was so silent I could hear my own heart beating. When all of the other representatives from the other races who were present only via holo-display were silent and leaning in, all eyes on the enormous projection of the Star Killer vessel in the center of the control room.

  She repeated her message, adding, “If you do not respond, we will take that as a refusal, and you will force me to show our resolve.”

  Then an armor-clad face appeared on the communications overlay in my vision and next to Kara on the holo-display. A honey-dipped voice, almost hypnotic in its power and authority of a Jotunn woman, a Titan, chimed out, “Pet. This is your Goddess Tethys. You know not what you do when you make demands of your goddesses. For that alone, you and your kind should be wiped from this existence. But our other pets shared that this waste station houses an Olympian outpost. As they are our property, we are within our rights to claim them. The Asgard claim of a protected system is null and void. Unless you challenge our rights to what is ours.”

  As the woman spoke from behind the mithreal armor faceplate that elongated her face and looked almost insectoid with the large black eye lenses, first dozens, then hundreds of tiny vessels spit out from the two massive ships. We couldn't pinpoint from where they emerged from the angle of Pegasus' scans. Data feeds showed them as the same Halfling vessel type which were scavenging on Olympus before our location and identity was revealed to them by Charon.

  Kara said simply, “We do. Cease your approach now.”

  We were reading powerful sweeping scans of the space around the Star Killers emanating from the two juggernauts and the hundreds of smaller vessels. They realized the communication was coming in realtime and were hunting for her. I worried that Pegasus' cloak would fail under the magnitude of the energy emanating from such intense scans.

  Zeus asked Arina, “Can we communicate with them?”

  The blonde Asgard woman nodded. “We have near realtime communications through Pegasus' whisker net channel.”

  Mother asked, “What if they call her bluff? We will have lost three jump packs when she returns and the Citadel will still be lost.”

  Thea stepped up to the display, and her fingers moved rapidly. Measurements and calculations were flashing faster than I could follow as the Titan studied the data. She whispered, “Tricky, Kara, very tricky. Your ingenuity never ceases to amaze me.” She looked over to my parents, the rulers of Olympus and said, “She isn't bluffing. She spent time on one of our vessels and knows certain things about them that she is about to take advantage of.”

  Hera looked up to our Titan ally and prompted, “What does she know?”

  With a swipe of her hand, all of her calculations vanished from the display and she stepped back to my side and said as she looked down in shame, “I have already said too much. As I stated before, I am no traitor to my people and will not disclose their secrets. But Kara, the Wild One has her own free will and is about to use her autonomy to exploit the knowledge she has gained in her own explorations of Titan vessels.”

  We turned to the screens when Kara stated, “You have five of your time cycles to comply, or I will be forced to show you the folly of crossing blades with Valhalla, as I did your Queen Rhea when she presumed to hold me prisoner.”

  Nice touch. Playing on their hubris.

  Zeus made a hand motion to open a com channel. “This is Zeus, ruler of Olympus. Kara of the Asgard speaks for us, Tethys, and we are not your property and never were. The Frost Giants had created our race, and we rebelled when given free will. You are the aggressors here and have taken our men against their will. We are our own people now, please retreat from our space, and return our men to us.”

  The woman chuckled and with the hiss of venting gasses, removed her face mask. Like the rest of the Titans I have seen before her, she was a stunning beauty. Her eyes bore into us, reflecting her belief that she was a god within them. “You would make an adorable pet, so very feisty. Deigning to make demands upon us. The Jotunn created you for a purpose, and you failed in fulfilling that purpose. As we Titans are Jotunn, we have repurposed you to serve. But insolence cannot be ignored, as dumb animals, we understand you must learn by example.”

  She beckoned someone out of our sight. “Pet, please approach.” A man... an Olympian I recognized as a thirdborn taken in the first culling, but couldn't place his name, stepped up to her and bowed, his eyes upon her his face slack in complete adoration, in the thrall of the manufactured pheromones that held him enraptured by Tethys and her kind.

  Her massive hand reached down to caress his head and cheek and he seemed to bask in her attention. She pulled a wicked looking dagger from somewhere and offered it out to him. “Pet, be a dear sweet darling and kill yourself with this.”

  The glassy look in the man's eyes never wavered as he smiled as if he would be praised by doing her bidding and everyone gasped as he started reaching for the blade without hesitation. I did not miss Jania pulling Samantha's head to her shoulder protectively so she would not see, though I knew she would through Essa and Brunie who were looking on, eye wide in horror.

  But then Kara's voice boomed out, “Hold, Tethys!” The Titan clasped her hand around the knife reflexively and looked up to Kara's image as she brought the knife up between them. The Olympian looked to be completely despondent that he couldn't fulfill his goddess' command. And Tethys looked between her knife in her fist and the projection and looked incensed that she had taken on a defensive posture, which showed weakness.

  Kara smiled coldly and said, “Your time has expired. Will you comply, or will you force me to act?”

  The Titan regarded her and her pretty face took on a sneer, marring her beauty as she said slowly and deliberately, “Our queen has gotten weak. Allowing you to escape with one of our sisters. To throw the balance astray. While she wallows in the Ragnarok sector, repairing her damaged ship and systems. We faithful will do what she could not, pet. We will...”

  Kara cut her off. “Wrong answer. I shall fire a warning shot, and if you still do not comply, I shall rain down the Hammer of Thor upon your vessels.”

  The Hammer of Thor? That was a weapon that Thor of Asgard had used to destroy the capital city of Ragnarok during the war, when Valhalla was in danger of falling. It was destroyed with him when he activated it. It no longer exists.

  But then I smiled. Kara was good at bluffing, if she could make them think that the weapon was real and still existed, it would give them pause, and hopefully buy the hours we needed. But how would she strike? And Valkyrie do not strike first.

  My eyes widened as Pegasus dropped her cloak, and point defense weapons started firing upon her where she sat attached to the hull of the Star Killer. I sighed and closed my eyes as her nano-lattice flared to deflect and absorb the energy. She'd never survive a strike from the main weapon, but she could take quite a few hits from these lesser weapons.

  Then I smirked as I realized why they had reveled themselves. Kara was Valkyrie, and would not strike first so she exposed them to the enemy in hopes of an attack just like this.

  Kara's battle cry, which has evolved to incorporate Kenatar's after her death, rang out throughout the control room. Then in a flash, she was gone. I took a quick step toward the displays as I gasped. I heard distressed sounds all around as the live feeds were replaced with data that was light hours old.

  I could feel Arina's distress, but the Three Embers seemed as calm as the Folkvangr Trident Sea at night, while the little one wiped away the main display with a motion of her hand and pulled up the last moments before we lost the signal. She was swiping through the display a millisecond at a time.

  I blurted, “There!”

  And she froze and we all stared at the impossible. We saw the distortion of a space fold starting, but also what looked to be a breach in the Jotunn armor as we saw a corridor behind the breach. I mumbled, “But the Star Killer mithreal hulls are over a thousand feet thick... and their o
wn weapons do not work against it...”

  Thea spoke, almost sadly, “Kara knows of the placements of the airlocks on the vessels. The only weak points, which we hide. From an era where we explored and left the ships to experience all there was to see in the worlds we created. There are access corridors to them which haven't been used in eons, until Kara.”

  Zeus whispered, “She used a jump pack while against the airlock, taking a piece of the Star Killer vessel with her. She yet lives?”

  Eros said from beside Apollo, sounding confused, “It would cause explosive decompression to that area. There are heavy bulkhead doors at the main corridors that would close to isolate the breach. The damage would be minimal and easily repaired.”

  I looked at my brother and saw the memories painting his expression and my heart went out to him. He had lived in a fog, enslaved by Rhea herself as her pet. The pheromones made sure he did it willingly, as they made the Titans his world for so many eons. Being treated as a pet, then bred with the Titans to create the army of Halflings that were also enthralled by the nanophage in the pheromones.

  He knew some of the systems on the ships, though not enough for any tactical advantage, as the Titans made sure the enslaved men believed it was the magic of the Gods which ran the vessels. So his assessment, with Thea's, gave me hope that Kara would unnerve the approaching ship commanders enough for them to slow their advance long enough to determine if Kara posed more of a threat than they gave her credit for.

  Proximity alarms started blaring and Citadel tracking and defense systems bloomed around us on the consoles. Then Kara's voice boomed out over the speaker as I became aware of her nearby through the nanite link, “Olympus Control. Kara, the Wild One, requesting permission to land.”

  Hera was diving on a console, blurting out, “Permission granted!” as Zeus made a cutting motion to Apollo, and the alarms all silenced and the systems put on stationkeeping.

  Seconds later, my Asgard sister strode into the main control room, looking calm and smug as she said, “That ought to give them pause. Though when they figure out what happened, and that there is no Hammer of Thor, they will resume their advance. It should buy the time the Little One needs to do whatever it is she does to get this Citadel of yours space worthy.”

  We all just stood there in stunned silence, mostly because she acted as if what she had done was just in a day's work. It was Jania who spoke first, as she looked around brightly and chirped out with a silly smile on her lips as she swung a thumb toward Kara, “That lady, is crazy.” Then, “Oooo something for me to steal.” And she took a holopad from a workstation and tucked it into her pack before reclaiming Sam's arm.

  Was everyone I knew, insane? Worse, were they all normal and I was the one who was insane? Dite's hot breath in my ear whispering, “Yum,” as she eyed Kara, gave me my answer. It was all of them.

  A cheer went up in the room, but Kara held up a hand. “Do not celebrate yet. It will take a couple of hours before data comes in to see if my ruse is successful. In the meantime...” She turned to Arina as the Three Embers swarmed her for a group hug. “Shouldn't you be implementing whatever brilliant plan you have to recharge the jump drive here?”

  Jania took it up from there, “So why do all you silly people need to speak with me? And do you know any good secrets you don't want my people to know that I can pass on to my Queen? It'll make me look good, not that I don't already look good. Best spy ever!” She actually struck a pose.

  How does one respond to something like that?

  Chapter 3 – Delegation

  Less than an hour later, a thoroughly vexed Jania was having Samantha set up a relay to the Elf council representatives and Queen in Aelfheim, complaining to the group, “I'm telling you, this is highly unorthodox, the Queen speaks with no kleshnie. That is why she assigns ambassadors to relay information for her.” She pointed at herself, “That'd be me, Alfheim ambassador, suspected spy but too clever to be caught, consumer of Earth chocolate in its various forms, and best dressed in this room.”

  A kleshnie was an outsider, one not to be trusted by their people. Especially after the Ragnarok had enslaved their race for so long.

  She added with a squeak, “She'll have my head for her having to speak with you.”

  She actually looked nervous and concerned. Odin's hologram assured her, “Jania Sure Step of the Ljósálfar, if we were to go through the normal channels, it would be weeks before we received a reply from your Queen. We have but eight days plus whatever time Kara may have bought before the Citadel of Olympus must escape.”

  Jania was quick to offer, “Eleven.”

  As a group we turned to her and she sighed and said, “Kara of the Asgard has bought a minimum of eleven hours.”

  We all looked at each other, and I started to correct her, “We still won't have sensor data confirming if Kara has successfully delayed the Titan advance for another hour. We...”

  She shook her head and offered, “She succeeded.” She bounced on her toes, the nervousness of contacting her ruler directly, leaving her for a moment, as she grinned and explained, “Because if she didn't, then Olympus is already lost, and you can't afford to think that way.”

  Then she moved her lips to one side and faux whispered to Samantha at her side, “Which is why I suggested waiting another hour before bothering my Queen with this, but nobody is listening to me.”

  Sam looked down at her hands and looked about to speak when Essa said, “You know why Elfie butt. If Arina, Loki, and Thea do not start the energy shunt through the Bifrost from Valhalla to the Citadel Jump Drive within the hour, then the drive won't be ready even with any time Kara may have gained for us.”

  Bruni sighed out, “Which means everyone needs to evacuate to Valhalla before then since the Bifrost will be unusable during the transfer. The skeleton crew monitoring the energy transfer will have to set the self destruct and use a jump pack to escape if time runs out before that. And you know it, Jani.”

  The blonde started walking in circles looking behind her as she squeaked out, her eyes wide, “By the fourth gate, I do have an elf butt!” Then she stopped and looked at us all sardonically. Of course, she knew all of this. I swear the woman just likes the drama. It is hard to remember how sharply intelligent she is when she acts so aloof and playful all the time.

  To her race, all Olympian and Asgard technology is simply magic to them, as the Elves had just left their bronze age to the age of steel at the last visit from Valhalla to Alfheim. While most of the Elf ambassadors over the years had been awestruck and confused by the advanced races, Jania has embraced it all.

  She was almost at home using advanced tech as if she were born to it, and she has gone through the effort of learning some of the major languages of all the races since she was assigned, rather than just depending on the Asgard universal language translators.

  Most worlds have distilled their pool of languages down to one, their native language with heavy Asgard influences in their lexicons. Earth had literally thousands of languages and dialects before Valhalla had offered their protection from the Ragnarok. Now, after so many centuries, they speak a single dialect which is a mashup of old English, Chinese, Arabic, and Asgard. But the common tongue spoken on all worlds except Alfheim and Olympus is Asgard, as they are the protectors of the United Races.

  With the universal language translators, it makes it unnecessary for people to have to learn the native languages of other planets anymore, but some, like Jania, make the effort. She says it gives her more insight into each of the cultures in a way simply reading about them cannot.

  The Elf tries to hide the fact that she is almost frighteningly intelligent that way. Maybe not the facts and figures kind of intelligence that Arina possesses, but she can read a person within seconds of meeting them and adjusts her personality accordingly, either to endear her to them or to cause friction to keep them off balance. She used it quite successfully on that first encounter with Dite. And now the
Goddess of Love keeps a wary eye on the Elf instead of engaging her directly.

  I took a moment to really look at the woman who I call my friend. Though only twenty-five Earth years old, a third of the way through her race's short-lived lifespans, less than a blink of the eye in ours, she always held herself in a confident manner. I could tell she felt in over her head in these foreign lands, though many of us felt as if we were true friends with her, but the laws of her people actually forbade friendships or... I looked at Sam and was hit with a moment of insight... or more, with a kleshnie.

  I looked at her graceful form and I could see something in her delicate features I don't think I noticed before this epiphany. Jania is lonely... being isolated from her own people and not allowed to make any personal connections. You could see it around her eyes where those raised markings on her cheeks are drawn up a bit.

  When we asked about the tribal markings, she had explained that they are given to a Ljósálfar when they face the trials of Sund. It is a rite of passage that the Light Elves must undergo when they reach the Ripening when a child becomes an adult. From what we gather, when a youngling approaches their Ripening, they are trained in the ancient ways of Elvish combat and thrown outside the gates of the cities to face their mortal enemies, the Dökkálfar, or Dark Elves.

  The Dökkálfar are the other sentient race that evolved on Alfheim, they are a subterranean species that shares many of the same aspects of the Ljósálfar, except their bluish-black skin tone and inability to walk in the sunlight. Over the last thousand years or so, during the rise of the Light Elves civilization after the Andskoti, or the 'Enemy' as they called the Ragnarok, who had enslaved them for so long, had just left them and their planet without an explanation, the Dark Elves started attacking without provocation. They do not share the same language and it seems neither side is willing to try to come to peace as the Ljósálfar fear any outsiders now and trust no one.