Star Wolves (The Tribes of Yggdrasil Book 1) (12 page)

“Ok, I’ll take it in my office.”

Hal hurried over to his office, which was through a hatch on the right hand side of the bridge. The iris opened as he approached, and closed once he was through. Hal sat down in front of his desk and looked at the message on his screen:

H
al felt
like every drop of blood had drained out of his body. He was ice cold. He deliberately didn’t think about his family. He couldn’t. Not if we wanted to keep functioning. And he needed to keep functioning.

Hal got up and stumbled back to the bridge almost on autopilot. He slumped in his chair and just stared at the view screen and the planet and stars in front of him.

“Anything important, Captain?” Idwal asked.

Hal looked down at him with a blank stare. No emotion, his face was like a mannequin. Idwal looked back, but didn’t ask him again.

Hal keyed the intercom button on the arm of his chair. “Crew, this is the Captain. A few hours ago, New Midgard was attacked.”

G
ina was
in her stateroom reading a book when the message came over the intercom. “Dear Diana, not again,” she whispered.

“
W
e know little
,” Hal continued, “except perhaps a dozen ships of unknown origin landed and started gathering up our people. The Hrymar are suspected of course, but I have no more information, so don’t ask,” the Captain continued, “we have fourteen days to get ready. Use that time well. Someone has picked a fight with us twice now, and I intend to finish it. Captain out.”

There was an icy fire to his words. Words that would paralyze any man standing toe to toe with him. He pushed thoughts of Siobhan and Ailan to the farthest corner of his mind; he had to plan for war now. There was no time for love and sentimentality, that would get him killed. If something happened to them, he would mourn later, if they were safe he would celebrate, but now, with the flick of a switch, he was a cold killing machine. His mind was filling with stratagems, tactics and a cold lust for death.

L
ater
, Hal lay in his quarters with the lights off. The black of hyperspace as seen through his window offered no illumination for his room. To say a darkness filled Hal’s soul would have been a pitiful description; it was so much more, pervasive, almost an abstraction. It was suffering on a level not easily imagined or defined. Were his family dead? Captured? If captured, were they in some slaver’s pen suffering? No definition of the situation would bring him comfort, only pain and agony in different forms.

This was not the first time Hal was faced with such tragedy; at fifteen years old, Hal had been at his home in Lillestrøm, a town to the East of Oslo, when a policeman and policewoman had come knocking at the door of his home. He wasn’t sure why. He was a good kid, and he knew he’d done nothing to warrant a visit from the police. Maybe there were looking for someone else? They had asked to come in, and of course Hal had allowed them to enter. When they’d told him to sit down, he’d immediately known something bad had happened. And it had.

His parents, Birger and Karin, had both been professors at the University of Oslo, and commuted everyday into the city, then back into the suburb of Lillestrøm via the Strømsveien Road, crossing the Nitelva River.

Apparently on that October morning, their car had hit a patch of black ice just as they’d begun their westward journey across the river and the car had veered out of control, then dove into the Nitelva’s freezing water. The shock of the freezing water had likely paralyzed their limbs in seconds as they tried to escape, Hal had been told. They had drowned in the car—together at least. Had they not been driving Birger’s fifty year old ground car, they might have lived; the new contragrav cars would have floated on the water, but the old Volvo convertible, which he’d refused to put out to pasture, had sunk like brick.

His grandfather, Magnus Olsen, named after the famous Magnus Olsen, was his only living relative, and so Hal had gone to live with him, leaving behind the comforts of the city, for the wild beauty of the West Coast, and the town of Stavanger. His grandfather was a kind old man, and had treated Haldor well.

Old Magnus was still building wooden rowboats back then. Just like his ancestors had, hundreds of years before. Mostly he’d sold them to rich tourists who were unlikely ever to dip an oar in the water, but they paid him well and he could continue to work with his hands as his forefathers had. It was a tradition in the Olsen family, at least for men to take it up as a hobby. Magnus had been a Nautical Engineer before he retired, and had designed some of the very last seafaring vessels on Earth. Now with contragrav, Ocean going vessels were redundant.

Hal’s consciousness faded back into the present morass and he confronted the weight of the multiverse pressing down on him; it was so visceral, he was panting, trying to catch his breath. He reached for a bottle of potent sleeping pills, which Doc McGregor had given him,
just in case
. He opened the small plastic bottle and took a few more pills than were required, and soon his mind and thoughts dissipated into nothingness.

T
he journey
to Epsilon Eridani took only twelve days instead of the planned fourteen; Hal had ordered the engines pushed to military acceleration for the entire journey, which was not good for the long term life of the engines, but he didn’t care.

Once in the Epsilon Eridani system, Hal contacted the warship he detected on long range sensors: The SSS
Skofnung
which was orbiting New Midgard. Given
Sleipnir’s
distance, he had to wait an hour for the reply.

There was a long message with details and condolences, but only one fact registered with Hal: New Midgard had been
nuked
.

As Sleipnir approached New Midgard he saw the planet on the view screen as he expected, green and blue, and alive. But as they got closer, and the resolution increased, and they could see down to Norvik…

Hal stood slowly out of his command-chair and ambled close to the view screen, reaching out and touching it. Where Norvik had been, there was now a crater and scorched earth for at least a one-hundred kilometer radius. Destruction out to a twelve kilometer radius was absolute. Everything in that circle was gone. Including his home. Hal could hear Ailan’s music box playing in his head, over and over.

Hal shook his head gently, took a deep breath and walked back to his command-chair and sat down.

“Comms, hail the
Skofnung
,” Hal said..

“Aye, sir,” O-1 Idwal replied.

The
Skofnung
was Earth’s new interstellar destroyer and was named after the sword of legendary Danish king Hrólf Kraki. She was the class’ namesake. She was a typical destroyer: with middling arms and armor, but fast and versatile, and although not atmosphere capable, she had pinnaces for that. Her nine-thousand tonne class was the workhorse of the new SID Stellar Fleet.

On the
Sleipnir’s
view screen appeared an image of a young Hispanic man in his thirties, sitting in the Captain’s chair of the bridge, O-4 Antonio Cadena, who happened to be an old friend of Hal’s

“Tony, good to see you old friend.” Hal’s voice was flat and emotionless.

“Same here, Hal. Although I wish our reunion was under better circumstances,”
he replied.

“What can you tell me?” Hal asked.

“Honestly, not much more than in Saeran’s message. There are no survivors, and of course we know they used a nuke. We’re estimating a one-hundred mega-ton yield. Seems they only used one, but a big one. Once we arrived, we stayed as picket and the LSS Llangernyw went back to Alfheim at max speed to pick up a new stellarcom array and to bring back reinforcements.”

Hal nodded. “Saeran contacted us twelve days ago. Governor Zelinski called her on the stellarcom as the attack happened. Apparently there were dozens of ships abducting our people; most likely those Hrymar bastards. Once they breached the MAC, the Governor set off the self destruct to the ERBT and they lost connection to Alfheim, so we don’t know what happened after that … until now. We made best speed here right after we talked with Saeran.”

“That’s good news, Hal. I mean, there’s hope your family is alive if they abducted people. The Hrymar are slavers, so they probably gathered up the local population, then dropped the bomb.”

“I can’t think about them right now, Tony.”

Tony nodded with understanding. “Well, apparently you and this new S3 outfit of yours outrank us fleet squids. Orders, sir?” Tony asked.

“I’m gonna go down to the planet.”

“Hal, there’s nothing within the ten clicks of Norvik, not a damn thing.”

“I know. I’m going anyway.”

S
leipnir’s
pinnace
touched down near ground zero in Norvik, followed by a pinnace dispatched from
Skofnung
.

Hal stepped out of the pinnace in his RCA suit, which also doubled as a vac suit, shielding him from radiation. He saw Antonio Cadena leaving his pinnace in a standard vac suit.

Hal looked out at the destruction spread out before him in all directions. Destruction was the wrong word. It didn’t look like anything had been destroyed. There was no evidence that anything had ever been here. There remained only a green, glassy depression with smoke around the periphery. He felt like he was standing in a crater on a moon.

He walked over to where the MAC building used to stand, and saw the ground littered with green glass; the same glass lined much of the crater. It was called Trinitite, after the Trinity nuclear tests carried out by the Americans a century and half ago. The ground for half a mile or more was littered with it. Some huge contiguous chunks, like the crater, other smaller pieces. It was macabrely beautiful. He picked up a small piece of the beautiful greenish stone. Ailan would have loved this … if not for the radioactivity, which would do him no good.

Beyond the MAC’s former location, Hal saw what looked like a picket fence made from black charcoal pencils—Iarn Forest, or a smoking shadow of what it once was.

The iarn trees, which had given Iarn Forest its name, had bark so tough it would have made great medieval armor, and it was that bark that enabled those slender charcoal staves to remain standing.

“Tony, I’m heading over to the edge of town,” Hal said

He got back into his pinnace and it accelerated smoothly skyward and made the short ten kilometer journey to where his farm used to be. He told the pilot not to land, just to hover for a minute.

There was nothing. Just scorched, blackened earth and melted lumps of other metals. His home, his family, everything … gone. How could someone grieve and recover from this? Surely this was too much for anyone to bear, but it wasn’t. He wasn’t the sole owner of such wholesale tragedy, there was plenty of it, just not in recent memory. Hal felt a new age dawning . The ancient Icelandic Eddas had foretold such an age:

The Wolf Age was dawning, Hal thought.

“Back to the ship,” he said evenly.

O
nce back on the Sleipnir
, Hal made his way to the multi-purpose room which was acting as a cell for Devrim. The marine guard stood at attention when he saw Hal approaching. Hal heard footsteps behind him and saw Cadena walking up to him.

“Hal, can we talk?”

“Not now, Tony. But you can listen. I’m going to have a little chat with our prisoner.”

Hal nodded to the marine to open the door, which he did immediately.

He stepped through to find Devrim laying on the bed with his hands locked behind his head.

“Get up,” Hal ordered.

Devrim looked surprised. The tone of Hal’s voice was level, even; there was no overt threat, but the implications of his tone and the look in his eyes were clear.

Cadena walked in behind Hal and shut the door to the stateroom.

“Your people have declared war on us. They have now nuked my home—erased it from existence.”

Devrim said nothing, he just stared in shock at Hal.

Hal stepped closer to Devrim with teeth clenched. “Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“Yes,” Devrim replied.

“Why?” Hal pleaded, “Why would they do this? What have we ever done to your people?”

Devrim didn’t reply, but began trembling.

Cadena spoke up. “If your people are slavers, as you have said, why would they destroy a settlement beyond re-habitation? That’s a bit like sowing the fields with salt after you steal a crop, no? It does not make sense."

“I do not know,” Devrim replied.

Hal walked up to Devrim face to face, breathing down on him. “You are going to take us to your people, so I can get my family back. Understand?”

Devrim didn’t answer.

“Understand!” Hal yelled, spittle hitting Devrim’s face.

Cadena put his hand on Hal’s shoulder. “Hal.”

Hal shrugged it off and turned to Tony with a primal look. “Step off, Tony!”

Devrim sat back down on his bed to put some distance between himself and Hal’s fury.

“Your family should be fine. We have never bombed a city with people in it. That would be like burning money. They would have all been captured first.”

“Then why bomb it at all?” Hal asked.

“Maybe the commander felt threatened?” Devrim replied. “Perhaps your people resisted?”

“There was no military power on New Midgard at all, even the people had no weapons except rifles to hunt with.”

Then, it donned on Hal—the ERBT self-destruct. Maybe the Hrymar perceived that large explosion as a military response?

Hal slumped into a chair beside the door and hung his head.

Devrim spoke up. “I will help you find your people, Hal. I will help you get revenge. We can help each other as we agreed.”

Hal looked up at him. “If you cross me, Devrim, I’ll kill you slowly. I might take weeks. You’ll beg for death.”

Devrim just stared at him.

“Do you understand me?” Hal asked. Hal would do it.

Devrim nodded.

Hal got up, opened the door and left.

H
al sat
at a large circular table in
Sleipnir’s
War Room—which was literally that. It was designed to enable the crew to do their tactical and strategic planning. It had a huge six-meter diameter holo projector in the center of the room. This could call up star charts, battle formations, or any data required.

Sitting around the table was the entire crew of the Sleipnir, including the steward. Hal treated everyone on his team with equal respect and deference. There was no special social deference shown to officers, certainly, he expected orders to be obeyed in the chain of command, but otherwise, they were all human beings first; or Alfar, as they case might be.

Hal spoke, “For those of you who just moved to New Midgard to join this mission, this event, is troubling. For those who made their homes on New Midgard and have missing loved ones … my heart aches with you.”

Hal paused and made eye contact with each person around the table. “But now is not the time to mourn or grieve. We can’t be certain who is dead or alive at this point, and if we understand the Hrymar like we think we do, most of them should have been captured as slaves. That’s good news. It means there’s a good chance they’re alive, and we can rescue them, or even ransom them—whatever it takes.”

He paused again.

“I make an oath to you here,” he said, again looking at each of his people, “I pledge my life to find our loved ones … though I’ll spend it wisely.” Hal stood up and paced. “It’s taking every ounce of my self control not to rage, and try to find the first Hrymar I can, and kill them with my bare hands. But I must retain control. We must. This is the greatest test you have ever faced. It certainly is for me. And I won’t fail it. I prayed to Odin to counsel me, for he’s the wisest of my gods. I’ve asked Heimdall to guide me to my foes, and to Tyr for justice. And when I’m done, I’ll ask Freya and Hlin for comfort. For those of you who are spiritual, I suggest you do the same; ask your God, gods or goddesses to intervene—we can use all the help we can get.”

The crew mumbled agreements and encouragement, and Hal sat back down.

“The Eddas, epic stories of my ancestors, foretell of a Wolf Age. I believe it has arrived. For hundreds of years men lived in the Sword Age—consider my Viking ancestors, or the Anglo Saxons, or even the Spanish, Portuguese, French and British Empires, or American military domination. But that Sword Age is over. Once we left our small planet, I suppose, it was inevitable we would meet the wolves, and so we have. The Norns who weave the web of our existence don’t give a damn about our suffering, but don’t lose faith; we can choose which threads pluck. We can face our challenges with determination and courage, as our ancestors did. In the old days of sail, a captain couldn't control the wind but he could adjust the sails, and make the best of what he could control, and that's all we can do.”

The crew nodded and Hal could see their spirits lifting, if only slightly. That was one thing aliens might not understand about humans—their resilience and steadfastness, traits they shared with their Alfar cousins. The Hrymar were bullies, which was usually a sign of inherent cowardice and moral weakness. That might be the enemy’s downfall.

“
N
o matter
what your specific job,” Hal said, “I want you thinking about the big picture. If you have an idea that’s outside your normal area of expertise—share it.”

There was general consensus around the table.

“We have a few weeks until reinforcements from Earth and Alfheim get here and as much as I would like to leave now and find our people, I won’t. We’ll get one shot at this, and I intend to do it right. So let’s make good use of this time. S3’s mission is to do reconnaissance and gather intel. I want to have a plan in place before reinforcements arrive so we don’t lose any time. Our respective leaders have given me operational control over this mission, so put on your thinking caps.”

E-4 Tameka Harris spoke up, “Sir, how reliable is the intel we’ve gotten from this Hrymar Devrim?”

“Good question, Harris. I would say….above average. Like any prisoner, he’s probably got his own agenda. But remember, his people left him. Also, from what we gather, he’s the chieftains’s son, and his whipping boy. So I think he has an axe to grind.”

Harris nodded. “Makes sense, sir.”

“Captain, I am quite concerned about leading other ships deeper into Hrymar territory without a prior assessment,” Cadfael added.

“What do you suggest?” Hal asked.

“Well, sir, if we have three weeks, why not start probing a little farther into their territory as we continued operational planning. Given our stealth capability, we should be able to gather some intelligence and have a better lay of the land before reinforcements arrive.”