“I know your heart, my love. The error was Kasta’s.”
“Yeah,” I said. “It was weird, I wasn’t in control. I felt a bit of it in their apartment. Now it makes sense since she had carried that bag with her.”
“Let us go to bed,” Eve said as she took my hand in hers. “Zea was waiting for us, but I believe she has already drifted off to sleep.
“Ahh,” I said as I felt a bit of disappointment. The day spent with a bunch of naked women had driven me a bit crazy, and I was still feeling the effects of the catnip.
“Ha!” Eve laughed mirthfully. “If Madalena is a Prime Valkyrie. You are a Prime Male. Always thinking of sex.”
“Can you blame me?” I asked as I smiled at her. “I’m part animal and was surrounded by beautiful women all day.”
“I understand,” she said. “I am not asleep, my love. If you’ll have me without Zea, I would enjoy you.”
“I think you already know the answer to that question,” I said as I pulled her to me.
Then I took her to one of the infirmary beds.
Chapter 13
The next day, Madalena took my friends into the battlefortress for some basic combat training. I offered to go with them, but they all agreed they wanted some time alone. I saw the logic in that and spent the day resting in my room, cleaning my guns, and walking around Persephone. In short, I was bored, but I was used to boredom from my time in the Jupiter Marines, and my solitude didn’t make me too uncomfortable.
Most of the Vaish crew wasn’t on the ship, but I did bump into Hegeia, Uma, and Waiola cleaning the galley. They offered to make me lunch, and we got a chance to catch up while we ate.
“The Prime Valkyrie has found places for the women you saved,” Hegeia said.
“Oh good.” I realized that I’d forgotten about the forty or so women we saved from slavers. They had been good about staying in their quarters, and I hadn’t really seen them in the past few days.
Uma said a few words, and then Hegeia translated for me, “Uma asks if you will be completing Odin’s Rite.”
“We are going after Tanal Vaish,” I answered as I looked at Uma. “I don’t know if I’ll complete the rite. Madalena says I still should, but I don’t like the idea of hanging from my neck. If I kill the old king, I might earn the respect of the Nordar.”
“He is a powerful man,” Hegeia said after she translated my words for Uma and Waiola. “The Vaish respect you because their queen is submitted to you, some of the other clans will respect you because the Prime Valkyrie is submitted to you, and others will respect you if you kill the old king in combat, but the Jotnar and the Vaish are bitter enemies. They will not want to follow you until you are blessed by Odin.”
“That was what Madalena said,” I sighed.
“We three believe you are an avatar of Odin, but those sent by the gods normally do not know it. That is what gives them power.”
“What do you mean?” I asked as I took the last bite of the fish on my plate.
“If you knew Odin blessed you, you would not work as hard.” Hegeia laughed.
“I guess you are right,” I replied with a chuckle.
“We will clean up,” she said as she took the plate for me. “You have much to think about. Adam, thank you for taking us with you. You have honored the three of us, and we are grateful beyond words to be on Persephone with you. If you decide to do the rite, we will pray to Odin for you, but if you do not perform the rite, you are no less a man, warrior, or king in our eyes.”
“Thanks,” I said as I got up from the chair. Then I bid them a good day and walked to the elevator.
The bridge was empty when I got there, so I sat in my chair, watched the flow of air traffic through Persephone's display screen, and let my thoughts wander.
I didn’t know how long I sat there, but eventually, I heard voices on the bridge, and I turned to greet my friends.
“Did you have a good time?” I asked them.
“Fuck yeah!” Zea said. Eve, Paula, Kasta, and Zea all wore wide smiles on their beautiful faces. Even Madalena looked to be in a good mood, and I turned to face the Prime Valkyrie.
“They are quick learners,” Madalena said. “There is still much more to teach them, but that can wait until after we find my father.”
“What is the status?” I asked.
“I sent five destroyers to Nyr Valhalla earlier today. The last of our supplies are being loaded into the hold, and we will be ready to leave in less than half an hour. We will exit warpdrive at the same moment as the destroyers will.”
“Good plan,” I said, and I turned to see Nikki, Josefinna, and Lux step around the elevator and onto the bridge.
“We are going to go look at the new drones,” Paula said as she grabbed Kasta’s arm. “We’ll be back before we exit warpdrive.
“Have fun,” I said to the twins, and they turned to walk past Nikki.
“Prime Valkyrie, we will be ready to launch on schedule. It will take us thirty-seven minutes to reach Nyr Valhalla.” The Vaish pilot saluted us and then took her seat in front of the screen.
“Thank you, Nikki.” Madalena sat in the chair next to mine, and then Eve and Zea took their seats.
We were soon lifting off the floor of the harbor, and the flow of air traffic parted so that we could exit the battle fortress, and Nikki turned and asked me for approval to engage the warpdrives. I gave it, and then the view of the Vaish armada disappeared from my view screen.
“I kind of feel bad about this,” Zea said as soon as we entered warpdrive.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, this guy is Madalena’s dad, and we are going to hunt him so we can put him down like a rabid dog.” The hacker winced and then looked at the Prime Valkyrie. “No offense intended, Madalena.”
“None taken,” she replied. “Do not feel remorse for my father. He would feel none for you, and he tried to have Adam killed many times. He has dishonored me, my husband, and our clan for his own selfish reasons. I regret I was unable to kill him when I had the chance, but it will be better for Adam to do the job.”
“We have added four additional drone fighters to Persephone,” Madalena said to me as she pointed at my armrest controls.
“I’m guessing we’ll need them once we get to Nyr Valhalla,” I said as I keyed the controls and pulled up the documentation for the new craft.
“The five destroyers meeting us are the best in their class,” Madalena said. “If my father’s forces are not on the planet, I will send them back to Nordar - 13. We will not need them for our visit to Jey-Lune.”
“Got it,” I said.
I hoped I could get this over with as soon as possible. While it was true that I didn’t like Madalena’s father, and he had tried to kill me, I wasn’t famished for revenge. The only reason I was doing this was to get out of the rite, and I still wasn’t sure if this would help me in that situation. Hegeia’s words resonated with me, and I knew I would have to make a hard choice once I killed the ex-king.
It was going to be my life or the lives of millions of others.
I could either try for the rite, or I could bring the Vaish Clan to war against the Jotnar. Both choices were unappealing, but I didn’t think my life was worth the lives of millions of Nordar.
Maybe I shouldn’t have been in a rush to hunt the man down and kill him.
There might be another way. We may be able to use diplomacy with the Jotnar. From what I understand of Madalena’s thoughts, such a tactic has not been attempted for generations. The Jotnar respect Madalena since she is the Prime Valkyrie. There may be a way to leverage that and appeal for peace.
I nodded at Eve and considered the possibilities of being able to just smooth things over with the Jotnar by delivering a fruit basket and a box of chocolates. I doubted it would work. Well, diplomacy might work with them, but I imagined that their idea of ‘diplomacy’ probably involved some sort of blood sport or mortal combat.
“Hey, Captain,” Paula’
s voice came over my transponder, and I pressed the receiving button.
“I’m here,” I answered.
“Kasta and I have done a once over with the new drones. They are going to be a lot of fun. You mind if we control them if we get into a battle around Nyr Valhalla?”
“Hmmm,” I said as I looked at the bridge. “I need either you or Kasta here in case we need to plot a quick hyperdrive.”
“Ahh drats,” I heard Kasta say.
“We’ll figure it out,” Paula said. “Be up in a few minutes.” The transponder beeped, and I tried to pull my mind away from what Kasta had tried in the infirmary. I probably should have been mad at the android for attempting to have sex with me, but the larger part of me found it amusing she concocted this scheme to get me alone and ambush me. And that the catnip worked.
“We’ve got some time to kill, and we might not have time when we get to Nyr Valhalla. I’d like everyone to be armed and armored.” I rose from my chair and faced Madalena. “We might need to make a quick landing, or board another ship in a hurry.”
“Agreed,” Madalena nodded to Nikki, and the blonde woman turned to her controls.
“Attention crew, report to the armory for weapon assignments. Then take battle stations.”
The next fifteen minutes we spent in the armory equipping weapons and putting on armor. I grabbed my revolver, twin heavy pistols, and my drum magazine shotgun. I recalled the last time I faced Madalena’s father, and how his suit laughed off all of my conventional shotgun shells. I loaded all four of my drums with armor piercing ammo and hoped that the deadly slugs would be able to cut through his magical heavy armor.
We were back on the bridge a few minutes before Persephone was set to exit warpdrive, and we sat in tense silence as we waited for the timer to finish its countdown. Kasta had joined us on the bridge, and she gave me a tiny smile as she moved to take Paula’s usual seat.
“One minute,” Nikki said as she cracked her fingers and stretched her neck.
I buckled my chair’s harness over my chest, and everyone else followed my example.
“Thirty seconds,” Nikki said, and I hoped we didn’t have a whole fucking fleet ready to blast us into dust.
“Ten,” she said, and I focused on one last relaxing breath.
“Exiting warpdrive,” she said, and the display screen shifted to show a beautiful blue and green planet. It was surrounded by orange rings that glittered with light from the system’s sun.
“No ships on the scanners,” Zea said with relief.
“They might be on the other side,” Nikki said.
“Ahh, yeah,” the hacker replied.
“Our escorts will arrive now,” the pilot said, and there were suddenly five bird-like destroyer class vessels flanking us.
“Zea, open communications with them,” Madalena asked.
“You got it,” the hacker said as she pressed a few buttons on her controls. Five uniformed figures in chairs appeared on the side of Persephone’s display, and Madalena spoke to them in her language. There were three men and two women captaining the vessels, and they nodded after their queen gave them the instructions.
“I will command my squadron to your wishes, Adam.” Madalena turned to me. “What are your orders?”
“I don’t see any structures on the surface,” I said. “Kasta, can you run a scan?”
“Yep,” she said as her fingers drummed over her controls. “Nothing on this side of the planet.”
“Have you been here before?” I asked Madalena.
“No,” she replied. “I am too busy for vacations. My father has spoken of the world often, and I know he has a luxury estate here.”
“Nikki, take us to the other side slowly. I don’t want to stumble into a waiting fleet.”
“Yes, Captain,” she replied before she turned Persephone to the edge of the globe.
“Damn, looks nice down there,” Zea said. “Look at all the waterfalls and jungles.” She pressed a few buttons on her terminal, and a small part of our screen zoomed in to show a beautiful array of waterfalls cascading into dozens of pools. Each looked as amazing as the spring we all lounged in yesterday.
“Now you know why he enjoys this world,” Madalena said, and Zea flicked the image away on her terminal so that we had more screen real estate for the front view.
The other five destroyers took position surrounding Persephone, and Madalena spoke a few words to them.
“What do your captains think?” I asked.
“They think he is not on this world,” she replied, “but we’ll know as soon as we complete our orbit.”
“Scanners still don’t see anything on the surface,” Kasta said after we flew for another ten minutes.
“Got something!” Zea shouted, and Persephone’s alarms sounded a half moment later. “Shit! It’s them!”
The screen zoomed, and I saw a cluster of twenty-three ships in orbit on the far side of the planet. Persephone highlighted them in a red outline, and the right side of her display screen began to scroll through the information of each vessel.
“They are angling toward us,” Nikki said.
“Do we have to fight them?” I asked.
“They will protect my father,” Madalena replied. “We must destroy them.”
“It’s twenty-three against six. Can you try talking to them?” I asked. “You are the Prime Valkyrie and their Queen.”
Madalena considered for a few moments, and I felt her emotions churn. She felt anguish about this situation, and just wanted it over as soon as possible, but she also realized that we were going to be in for a difficult battle.
“Do it quick,” I urged, “Or they will hyperdrive over to us, and it will be too late.”
“Zea, please open communications with them,” Madalena asked.
“Sending them a request,” Zea said. “Wow, that was fast. They answered.”
“Audio and video on screen, please,” I said, and Zea nodded as she pressed the buttons on her terminal.
A man with a dark black beard appeared on the screen. His face was scarred around his mouth, and his skin looked as if it was made of flesh-colored granite.
“Admiral Birger,” Madalena greeted the man.
“Prime Valkyrie,” the weathered man sighed. “We meet during troubling times.”
“Yes, indeed,” she agreed. “You know why we are here.”
“I am glad it is you,” he said.
“Why is that?”
“I would have killed anyone else.” His words were filled with sorrow, and I realized this old warrior had already made his decision. He wanted to die.
“You will not be killing anyone today, nor will you die.” Madalena stood and stared into the screen.
“Oh?” He raised a bushy eyebrow.
“I once sat on your knee. You gave me my first spear and then gave me a second when I broke the first one. Return to Nordar - 13. The Jotnar have attacked us, and we need your expertise.”
“You know I cannot, Prime Valkyrie.” The man frowned, and his voice cracked.
“I am the Prime Valkyrie, and your queen. I will reinstate you in the armada. You followed my father’s orders once, now follow mine.”
“I am submitted to your father, Madalena. You know this. If I return to Nordar - 13, I will die.”
“Then you will die as Vaish serving me.” Madalena continued to stare into the screen, and the burly old warrior met her eyes. Neither one moved, or even seemed to blink, for a few minutes, and finally, Admiral Birger let out a long breath and nodded.
“We will return to Nordar - 13, Madalena.”
Everyone on the bridge exhaled slowly, and I felt my heart began to beat at a normal rate.
“I am happy to hear it,” she replied, and I could feel her joy. “Is my father on the surface of Nyr Valhalla?”
“Yes,” he said. “Valravn is with him. You will need to be quick if you wish to extract vengeance. As soon as we leave, he will know of my betrayal and attempt to flee.”
“You are not guilty of betrayal, Birger. He cast aside our ways and spit on Odin. Return now to Nordar - 13. I will hope that your bond is severed cleanly, and we can share a mead when I return.
“Yes, Prime Valkyrie. My Queen.” Birger saluted, and then the screen closed.
“What is Valravn?” I asked as the group of ships on the far side of the planet began to stretch and enter either hyper or warpdrive.
“It is my father’s Shadow Eagle,” she said. Then she turned to the images of the destroyer captains and said a few words to them in her language.
“I’ve got the estate on the scanner,” Kasta said. “On screen.”
“That’s an estate?” Eve asked after she let out a long whistle. “Looks like it is bigger than the battle fortress we were just in.”
“It is three kilometers wide but two kilometers deep,” Kasta said.
I studied the map of the estate and tried to think of the best way to enter the place. Our view was directly above, so it was a bit hard to see the elevation of the land where the fortress rested, but I figured it was on a hill. The estate consisted of five large buildings surrounded by a massive wall. The north and east sides of the wall touched a long sprawling array of springs, waterfalls, and lakes that cut through the planet’s jungle. The south and west sides looked to be a field for a few kilometers, and then it turned into more jungle.
“Will your father try to escape if he knows we are coming for him?” I asked Madalena.
“If he knows you are coming, yes,” she said. “The captains of the destroyers will patrol in case he does leave, but Valravn is fast. She will easily be able to break into orbit and warpdrive away.
“Is she faster than Persephone?” Zea asked.
“No,” Madalena answered.
“Alright,” I said. “We’ll take a shuttle down. Nikki, you’ll stay up on the bridge and stop him from escaping.”
“Yes, Captain,” she said.
“Who will go down with you?” Madalena asked.
“Any idea of how many warriors he’ll have?” I asked as I started to think about who we would take. I needed to leave enough people on Persephone in case he did try to escape.
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