The Gods Who Chose Us

by Michael J Roy

  The gravity was twice that of the average rocky planet in Olympia, but with half the potable water, making hunting all the more difficult. The atmosphere was thick and produced frequent downpours in the summer, with the periods in between consisting of sticky heat. In the winter, most of Valhalla was covered in deep snow and temperatures frequently plummeted low enough where exposed skin would immediately begin to freeze.

  On his hunting trips, Thor was always cautious of the beasts that roamed the land, creatures far more aggressive than those found throughout most of Olympia. Lupine creatures taller than adults wandered seemingly aimlessly. Enormous birds, with claws wide enough to grip the hulking Vili around the chest, with room to spare, swooped down from above. Their existence made his elders’ achievements all the more impressive.

  The Aesir, despite being mentally and physically drained from their degradation at the hands of Olympia, persisted through it all. They used the copious amounts of available wood to build their first shelters. They killed large game to pad their homes and weave clothes with fur. Children rarely went hungry as the Aesir developed methods to hunt and were never thirsty as they quickly worked out ways to store and purify the rainwater.

  Hunting and camping across the planet was Thor’s way of feeling kinship with his revered ancestors. He’d sometimes catch himself closing his eyes and concentrating on the wind. It was a habit formed from reading an old fairy tale as a child: Kari and Fenrir.

  Kari, a child, is deceived into leaving food out for what he thinks is an orphan, but is actually a wolf named Fenrir. Eventually, Fenrir grows and needs meals larger than Kari can provide, so he plans on eating the boy. Fenrir lures the boy far from his camp and traps him in a cave. The wolf then leaves to find herbs to go with his meal and Kari tries unsuccessfully to free himself. After accepting his ultimate fate, but before Fenrir returns, a soft breeze enters the cave. The wind fills him with enough strength to break his chains and then guides him home. A group of men from his camp later track down and slaughter the wolf. It was one of the only Aesirian fairy tales with a happy ending.

  Thor sometimes thought he heard whispers in the wind from his long-dead ancestors during his quiet hunting trips, hinting at where the best game would be and filling him with strength like it had Kari. He sought out additional ways, beyond hunting, to maintain his rapidly dissolving cultural roots and forge a deeper connection with his forefathers, but opportunities were shrinking. One reason was that Olympia was slowly chipping away at the Aesir’s ethos; even their spiritual bond with the galaxy was anachronistically mocked and regarded as primitive. It was causing his peers to embrace the more ‘logical’ perspective taught by Olympians, mostly to avoid ridicule.

  Moreover, another even greater opportunity was denied to Thor: he was all but barred from taking any conflict-facing role in the military. He begged his father and uncles for a chance to join the mission to Earth, but was summarily denied. Thor himself was somewhat of a celebrity in society as he was not only son to Odin, but one of the first children born after the alliance with Olympia.

  Shortly after the Olympians turned the Aesir into lab rodents, an unofficial oath was shared among the adults in society: no one was to have children. No Aesir wanted to be responsible for giving birth to a child in a world that only guaranteed despair. The only women that gave birth were those forcefully impregnated as part of the experiments—with either Olympian or Aesirian seed—but even those brave women attempted suicide rather than increasing the total suffering of the Aesir bloodline.

  Even after the alliance with Olympia, the Aesirian public was hesitant to engage in procreation. Odin was among the first to have children again, easing the worry in the population and sparking a new period of life for his people.

  Thor’s rumination on his hunt and lineage left him beaming with pride. His stupor was beleaguered by his galvanizing admiration for his uncle’s martial skill, and quickly losing its grip. Thor sat before a control panel suspended high above a rectangular arena that surrounded Vili. The floors and walls were designed to transform into various outdoor environments Vili might find himself in when roaming the Earth. Additionally, non-lethal props—turrets loaded with spheres of paint, simple metallic targets, and lightly padded wood clubs—were concealed throughout the room, but could be activated by Thor.

  He smiled as he watched Vili roll and jump to dodge fire, only to land and immediately shatter the whirling cudgels rapidly materializing from the environment. The blur of Mjolnir eradicating any obstacle in its path and immediately sailing back to Vili’s outstretched metallic hand was hypnotic.

  Vili’s strength matches his will.

  Thor’s uncle was more than just a formidable combatant. After the alliance between the Olympians and Aesirians was complete—a treaty that essentially amounted to the Aesir submitting to Olympia’s hegemonic rule—it was time to rebuild. Engineers of both races recommended that the Aesir build a new life on Valhalla, as it would be incredibly cheaper in terms of cost and labor; Vili and his brothers resoundingly rejected their advice. As Aesir’s leaders, they refused to begin free contact with the broader galaxy as a civilization without a home.

  Vili and Ve stayed on Valhalla to continue to build out the Aesirian military while Odin oversaw Asgard’s reconstruction. They were indispensable in molding Valhalla into the Primordial-rivaling military base it eventually became. Unlike Bellum, with their impressively sized and intricately designed buildings engulfing the landscape, Valhalla maintained its natural splendor. Small buildings were scattered among the flora and fauna, never reaching more than two stories in size, and barely more than 20 paces in one direction. The buildings led deep underground to a series of convoluted tunnels, connecting the various structures. The Aesir were keenly aware it would be relatively simple for Primordials to find and land on Valhalla, so they relied heavily on misdirection and camouflage to protect their secrets.

  Though their resources were extremely limited relative to their Olympian overlords, they applied strict and strategic investment to catch up to the godlike Primordials. Initially, they focused on survival. They used the majority of their labor and resources to engineer ships to carry their population to various stars throughout the galaxy. As a close second, they focused on augmenting biology to increase longevity and intelligence.

  Thor had been graced with the pleasure of his uncles’ company for quite some time. Both Vili and Ve had been stationed on Valhalla for the last 100 years, since the beginning of their plan to free Earth. Given the nature of the plan, they understood the need for Ve to be ready for an abrupt message from the ship monitoring the Earth system and for Vili and his team to keep impact on their surroundings low. No one knew what would happen when they passed through the Chronos Passage, but it was possible that Vili and his team would vanish from the universe when their future selves traveled back a year in time. If that happened, it certainly wouldn’t be optimal to have Vili or the others engaged in any serious or potentially lethal act (such as piloting a ship). It was also possible that nothing would happen; in that case, there would be two versions of Vili, Sigyn, and Loki within the universe.

  Thor chuckled to himself at the thought of two Vili’s wreaking havoc across Olympia. His daydream was short lived.

  Suddenly, as the hammer was soaring back to Vili, both he and Mjolnir vanished. His clothes dropped to the floor in a pile of water, blood, and a weird slurry of indeterminate composition. It was as if a beautiful work of origami suddenly unfolded back into a flat piece of paper or a raging ocean dropped to a still pond in the blink of an eye. All of the particles Vili’s his body, instead of existing as the frothy and chaotic excitations of various fields, suddenly quieted down and ceased their movement.

  Thor gasped and frantically looked around the room; as if he would find Vili hiding behind a target or under the pile of clothes and ooze that lay on the floor. His thick, shoulder length strawberry-blonde hair obscured his vision as he feverishly searched the area. Then he stoppe
d, realizing the shock drained his mind and left him automated by his instincts. The obvious reason as to why this would occur immediately donned on him. They did it! He exited the training arena and ran up a few flights of stairs to share the astonishing event with Ve.

  * * *

  “Vili is gone!” Thor said excitedly, catching his breath. “I mean, disappeared. No longer exists. He made it through the passage!”

  A look of concern flooded Ve’s face. His grey-yellow eyes opened wide and he inhaled sharply. “If Vili ‘disappeared’ as you say…” Ve hastily moved out from behind his massive wooden desk to the monitoring system on the other side of his office. Vili, Sigyn, and Loki were under constant surveillance. Both to ensure their movement was within the bounds of what would be allowed leading up to their entering the Chronos Passage (mostly for Loki) and to capture events such as the one Thor described.

  Ve inspected the live feed of Loki and Sigyn. “All three of them are gone, except for a wet pile of clothes…” Ve looked over his shoulder at Thor, who had moved behind him. He had to look up a bit to stare his nephew in the eye.

  “They did it.” Thor replied.

  Silently, Ve made his way back to his desk and slowly sat down. He looked down at his communication relay. “Let’s hope we get a message from Vili soon; otherwise, we need to prepare for the worst.”

  Thor sensed the implication in Ve’s sober tone and wordlessly exited. He returned to his personal quarters, unable to shake out the growing excitement spreading to his limbs. Pacing around his small room, moving hastily between the only three items in the dark green abode—bed, desk, and closet—Thor recalled the note Sigyn gave him.

  He had put off reading for so long that he forgot he had it. The contents were a summary of Sigyn’s theory on the effects of using a Chronos Passage. Even though Thor made it clear he wasn’t interested the technicalities of the mission, Sigyn gave it to him anyway. She told him he might change his mind once the effects materialized in the world around him. He was glad she did; the note seemed like the only way he could get a grasp on the situation and relax. He dug through his desk and pulled out the letter.

  *“Thor,*

  I hope this note finds you well. Below are my predictions, and associated explication, for the events that will transpire if our team successfully crosses through the Chronos Passage. If I’m right, then I want you, Odin, and Ve to understand this phenomenon in my own words. As you may not be aware, many other physicists doubt my claims and I fear their minds will be slow to change even with a deluge of empirical evidence.

  There is a growing body of support in particle physics of a fascinating feature of the universe that has largely been ignored by the scientists investigating these Passages: each fundamental particle, while seemingly identical to all others that play the same role (e.g. electron), is in fact unique at the quantum level. Almost indistinguishable differences in mass and energy levels, among other characteristics, produce a particle ‘fingerprint’ within the universe. Was this an accident of nature or do these ‘fingerprints’ play some crucial role in the overall functioning of matter within our space-time? My thinking pushes me to the latter.

  These ‘fingerprints’ may act in a way to preserve physical laws within our cosmos against actions that would otherwise break them. For instance, if a single particle is sent backward in time through a Chronos Passage, and no other changes occur, then the universe would have broken the law of mass and energy conservation, among others. The reason? We would be able to use Chronos Passages to increase the useable energy in space at a previous time. I think, in order for those laws to be maintained, one of the two twin particles must cease to exist. This concept is not novel—it is well understood to play a role in black hole evaporation.

  Following this logic, and applying the laws of entropy, we can conclude that the ‘earlier’ version of the particle pair should disappear from the universe. The universe will favor the ‘newer’ version of the particle because that increases entropy throughout space, a quantity of “disorder” that can only stay static or increase over time.

  According to this theory, if we make it through the Passage, then all of the younger versions of the particles making up us and our equipment will vanish. This means the versions of us you see today will disappear at the exact moment we emerge from the Chronos Passage.

  Of course, particles are replaced in bodies over time, so some ‘pieces’ of our earlier selves with a high particle turnover rate—such as water and blood—will have been mostly replaced by the time we entered the Passage.

  One interesting consequence of the theory is that it implies the universe doesn’t bar the existence of two Thors, but both of them need to be constructed from mutually exclusive particles.

  Sigyn”

  Thor read the note multiple times, relaxing incrementally on each iteration. His enthusiasm solidified into patience. Vili’s strength, Sigyn’s mind, and Loki’s cunning…a potent combination.

  * * *

  Ve spent 20 hours sitting and pacing around his desk, hoping a message from Vili would come through. Finally, his relay lit up with a communication from the automated ship monitoring Earth’s system: ‘Prepare.’ Ve curled both arms inward and flexed while he let out a quick yell, a way to burn off the sudden pang of excitement that comes with a celebratory moment.

  Soon after receiving the message, Ve dispatched one messenger to inform Odin and another to the hidden fleet he had near Earth in case, for whatever reason, they hadn’t already received Vili’s message. Barring any malfunctions in the currier’s equipment, the fleet should have received word of Vili’s successful passage prior to Ve, but Ve wasn’t willing to take that chance.

  The fleet consisted of re-engineered Olympian ships: two Storskips and 100 Nemesis fighters. The Storskips were an easy build as the Aesir had worked closely with the Olympians during their development, but they had no input on the design of the Nemesis fighters. The Aesir utilized their experience working as a labor force, as well as a few crashed fighters, to reconstruct the Olympian Nemesis ships. The fleet they constructed was currently positioned near Earth’s system, but further toward the edge of the galaxy. They were hidden in the void of space, far from any star.

  The message to Odin was more for his benefit than anything particularly strategic. Odin would merely ramp up rhetoric against the Olympians to ensure the Aesir would be ready for war when and if it came, but neither Ve nor Odin thought it would have much of an impact. Their people’s thirst for revenge was already reaching a boiling point. The message to the dormant force was much more important.

  It would be the job of the Storskips and Nemesis fighters, led by Admiral Skadi, to make sure no ships entered or exited Earth’s system. Vili and his team would do their best to destroy the research facilities in orbit and secure Earth, but there was no guarantee they could prevent every ship from escaping or even sending out a message. They relied on Skadi to clean up anything they missed and act as the vanguard if an Olympian fleet entered the area.

  Let’s hope there is nothing for you to clean up, Skadi. And let’s hope my message is redundant.

  Act II, Chapter 4

  Skadi’s Fleet

  Location: A Void Near the Edge of the Galaxy

  Without Skadi, Vili’s team would have surely failed…as would have I.

  —In Vino Veritas, page 191, note 4.

  * * *

  Gna was eating in the mess hall when the urgent news came through. “Admiral Skadi, report to the communications station immediately. You have a message.” The entire room fell silent. Gna, and the rest of Skadi’s fleet, had been working under complete radio silence. They couldn’t even use advanced tech to send messages to one another; the Aesir didn’t want to give the Olympians any reason to look for them in the darkness of space. This was the first contact they had received from the outside universe in nearly 100 years. Anticipation and fear invaded the room. The attack has begun.

  Gna watched Skadi, fit for her
age, push back from her table and briskly walk toward the comm room. Even in her haste, her stride maintained a regal quality. Her face showed some years but kept its sharp angles, and her ocean blue eyes hadn’t dulled with time. She wore her silvery white hair tied tight in a bun beneath a formal cap.

  Gna watched in reverence as Skadi turned the corner and moved out of sight. Skadi had successfully fought against the Olympians in their initial conflict, her naval techniques earning her the nickname “Shadow” among her crew. Her history of battle, while still used to engender inspiration for the budding Aesirian civilization, left her countenance harboring an indelible weariness. The Shadow is called back into action…and I’ll be able to witness her first-hand.

  * * *

  Skadi reached the communications station and quickly entered her credentials to view the private message from Vili: “Prepare.” Vili was Successful. We need to move into position.

  She grabbed the intercom to instruct her crew. “Attention, this is not a drill. Prep Thrymheim for flight to Earth system. Countdown to departure is sixty minutes. Messenger liaison should immediately report this news to Captain Njord.”

  Skadi’s Storskip— the Thrymheim – immediately sprang to life. The motion appeared chaotic, but every crewmember moved with a purpose: prepping navigation systems, checking fuel lines, running software diagnostics, and loading ammunition. Skadi’s approach would be to survey all known research facilities in Earth’s system and obliterate whatever Vili and his team hadn’t destroyed. She would lead one Storskip to the Jupiter facility and the Passage near the sun, while her second in command—Njord—would inspect the Chronos Passage exit in the Kuiper Belt.