I put my hand on the hilt of my sword and said to one of the shadow women raising her arm, "Try to use that glove against my friends and I’ll cut it off!"
The black-dressed guard glared at me but as she met my gaze she swallowed whatever she wanted to say. I guess I managed to express my resolve adequately. Now Elfi noticed and added, "This is Krabbel, a dear friend of mine. Stand down!"
Krabbel was clearly confused. "I am sorry if I caused trouble or a breach of protocol. I …"
Elfi wrapped her arms around Krabbel and said, "You did nothing wrong. You are my friend and nothing else matters."
While Elfi and Krabbel talked, I noticed that onlookers and bystanders seemed embarrassed by their reaction – all went back to whatever they had done before. Seth's Shadow Guard disappeared, but the woman I had threatened said, "You could not stop me, man!"
I shrugged and made it to the table. Egill actually got up to look me up and down and then introduced me. "This is Eric Olafson, something like a grandson of mine."
I saluted the Admiral and gave everyone else a military-style acknowledgment and nod. Exa literally flew from her chair and wrapped her arms around my neck. She had grown considerably. "Eric!"
Elena was right behind her and did the same. Exa's eyes no longer had that sorrowful, tortured look I remembered she had when I first met her, and for all the bad things I did and was not proud of, having sent her to Nilfeheim was one of my best decisions and I felt proud of her. "Eric, everything is amazing here! We have seen the parade and Papa Hogun is here and Aunt Freydis too and little Eric Narth Olafson is here too! He is already three weeks old and we flew in a big …"
Elena curbed her with a laugh. "Exa, I think you need to give him a chance to say hello too!"
"Oh right!"
I hugged both of them as well, but before I could ask something everyone at the table rose to their feet and bowed as Elfi, followed by Krabbel, came over. I already hated the stiff formalities as the introduction game started again. I learned that one of the men at the table was Rex Schwartz.
Sif was there too, but she had not joined the others to greet me and only gave me a cold stare. I guessed she decided that she hated me after all. I had thought our last mutual adventure had changed things for the better. Seeing her I remembered Astrid too, and as I did, I had the feeling she too recalled those events.
Meeting and seeing my friends and family was great, but the greatest surprise was Narth. There were two of them and except for small differences on their shrouds they looked exactly alike, yet I knew who one of them was. He got up and I looked at his glowing eyes and I grabbed his underarm and he did mine. "It pleases me far beyond any logical reason to see you, Eric."
"I missed you too, Narth."
The other Narth also got up and said, "All that is Narth rejoices to physically behold the sharer of Narth."
INTERLUDE: SHEA
The elevator carried Shea up and the system voice said, "Destination reached. Alternative bathroom facilities can be found across the hall in the performer and staff dressing rooms."
Shea found the door right away, opened it and stared at 11 girls in skimpy chiffon dancer outfits.
One of them hissed at her, "You are late! Sharpton will kill you for this! Hurry and get into your costume." The woman spoke in Naidian to her. That was a secret codified language used by the VMA, the criminal association known as the Violent Mothers’ Association. It had its headquarters on SIN 4. The Sojonit Order considered them enemies, as it was founded by a former Sojonit Sister who used her training from the old sect. Shea knew right away there was something wrong and that the 11 women weren't here for the party, but for sinister reasons. She responded in the same language. "I am sorry, I had to evade Security."
"That security won't matter, the pheromone gas will make all males our willing slaves. We've got less than 12 minutes!" By the mirrors two women handled underarm-long glass rods with a greenish liquid. It was Shaill bio-genetic pheromone gas, a nasty concoction of oxygen-activated microbes which spread an extremely complicated neural trigger molecule based on the Piostla Psionic spores. Her analytical mind not only identified the stuff and explained how it worked, but she also envisioned how to make a counteractive agent.
The woman handed her a costume and a deactivated TKU handgun. Just then another woman came in, most likely the one they expected. Shea realized how well she was trained as she reacted right away. She performed a spin kick and racked her heeled shoe across the face of the newcomer. Her heel was made of Ultronit and she switched the symmetry to razor blade configuration with a toe flick. Simultaneously she activated the TKU handgun and fired at one of the women at the mirror, using the beam of the weapon to cut her arms off, thus preventing her from releasing the gas. Shea yelled, "On the ground all of you, I can burn most of you before you can draw and activate your guns. I am immune to your chemical tricks."
Two of the VMA actually went to their knees, the rest decided to fight. One of them managed to activate her blaster. Shea dropped as the hot beam singed the air where she just had been and used her deadly heels to execute a leg sweep with a bloody and gory result. Her weapon malfunctioned and did not fire, but neither did the guns of her opponents. Some sort of security field or feature had kicked in, rendering the weapons useless. They were good, well-trained hand-to-hand experts, but she had trained with Har-Hi, Hans and Eric, intensifying the already master-level training of the Fleet and the deadly training of the Sojonit Order, not all was love and sex. Sojonit sisters were trained to survive on Sin 4. Since she could not wear her Sojonit outfit and be here at the party, she did not have access to many of her hidden weaponry, but she would not be a Sojonit to be completely without them. Her fingernails grew to three inches in length and the tips were razor-sharp. Her stepfather had arranged to have her Sojonit implants updated to the most modern SII standards, complete with molecular carbon fiber finger bone reinforcement. She took out three more before the entire wall behind her collapsed into molecular dust and Union Special Ops arrived.
The Security Officers stared at the blood-splattered blonde and six gruesomely maimed dancers.
INTERLUDE: STEVEN
The Elevator overwrite program was active and the doors opened. Steven commanded his group inside and then the dumbest thing ever happened, he dropped the spore bomb and the baseball-sized doom device rolled away!
He yelled at his followers. "Go! I will be right behind you in the next one!"
The program could not be stopped. The timing was crucial.
He ran after his bomb, hoping the device was not damaged, while the elevator doors hissed closed and his team went up.
Sharpton sighed. "What a clown! Let's hit the rich bastards and mow down a good lot and that will give us all the ears we need. My girls will have done their part by now. Let's cause some mayhem, make our demands and get rich!"
The elevator ride should have not lasted more than two minutes but it seemed to last much longer.
Sharpton said, "Activate your guns now! "
The doors opened and they stormed out. Sharpton and the Gore Defenders stared into the ready weapons of a platoon of Ultra Marines and Cerberus robots and a woman in a long black dress with long white hair said, "Welcome to the party. Nice of you to stop by. Now fight us or give up, makes no difference to me."
Sharpton immediately thought Steven had sold them out, him dropping the bomb was just a ruse! If he got out of this alive he would kill that traitor.
The fanatic girl with the shrap gun yelled and fired. Or at least tried to, her gun did not work. One of the Ultras backhanded her across the face.
The woman glared at Sharpton and the most hidden deepest fears suddenly surfaced in him; he cried like a baby in total horror and wanted to tell the woman anything she ever wanted to know. She laughed coldly. "They really thought they could succeed, their Saresii Psi shields are not bad, but you forgot your regular bio-electric signatures. We had you on our monitors for the entire time. Now, where is
the bomb?"
Sharpton coughed blood, the horror of the mental attacks were so utterly frightful. He cried, "He is still down there with the bomb!"
The elevator door opened again and Mao stomped out holding Steven in one fist and a spherical object in the other. "Midshipman Mao Vouza reporting, I found a loon in the basement with an active spore bomb."
Alycia Lichfangh, the Psi Corps General, smiled. "Well done, Midshipman. A friend of yours cleaned house upstairs and the situation is under control. The VIPs will never know."
"Eric rounded up the rest?"
She laughed. "No, surprisingly not. Now let's get these clowns interrogated and out of here. We need to find their helpers too."
INTERLUDE: SIF
Much to everyone's disappointment Eric and the Princess had to return to the table of the Queen as the official part of the evening began. Sif was still brooding and tried to get a handle on her own feelings. Eric had changed greatly, but at the same time he was still the Eric she knew. Did he still think about the girlish things or had he grown out of it? Did she really hate him? The last days they had spent on Nilfeheim seemed so far away and so much had changed. Perhaps she had given him too much of the cold shoulder and he now had too many choices of beautiful girls who had no problem being nice to him. Sif was sure she had missed the boat. She was no longer on his mind and perhaps this was the way things needed to be. She tried to tell the Saran Princess with a glare what she was thinking! Why did the Princess have to look so incredibly beautiful? The next time Egill suggested something she decided would take his advice.
Another Saresii woman arrived. She looked the part, but Sif was sure she was a woman. Her hair was not silver as with all Saresii she had seen so far but truly white, and her face was much finer cut than that of Algear, her eyes were almost impossibly big and made her look alien despite her human appearance. The youngest daughter of the Schwartz family was with her, the one introduced as Shea. Why and how the masked girl managed to change her dress she could not guess. Maybe the Schwartz family had a portable auto-dresser everywhere they went.
Admiral Stahl got up and introduced the white-haired woman as Alycia Lichfangh.
Egill leaned over and whispered, "This is the Commanding officer of the Psi Corps and rumors have it she is the most talented Psionic user alive. Now that there are two Narth on our table it is perhaps an overstatement but Algear and the Narth speak of her with the utmost respect."
She crossed her arms. "I don't really care who she or who anyone is." She tried to find someone else to be responsible for her feeling miserable and lashed out at the old man. Even as she did it she knew it was wrong and very childish of her. Egill was nice and so was Eric. He had never done anything to her and had tried to be a friend. It never was anyone else, only her own arrogance and self-importance that got her in trouble. In all this she forgot that Egill could easily read her mind. Instead of snapping back he took and patted her hand and said, "I am torn between giving you a real good spanking young lady or giving you a hug. Neither is really appropriate for me to do of course, but I think before you continue your studies, you need to find yourself and make sure you are going on the right path."
"But I must become the next representative and seeing our people today becoming more involved, I actually understand the dangers Erik Gustav had seen. The dangers cost Astrid her life, and we barely averted a horrible catastrophe to our world." As she spoke she found her center and smiled at the old man. "No, Egill, I know what I want to do. I am just not clear about myself, but if you help me I'll figure that out. Seeing Eric, I remembered Astrid and why I agreed to do this." She sat up more straight and paid attention to what was going on.
To her surprise she saw little Exa in a deep conversation with the mega tycoon and wondered what they talked about, Exa's face was quite serious.
Elena laughed and giggled, talking to Algear while servers brought the food.
***
I wished I could have stayed with Egill and the others but my mood could not be dampened, not with Narth being back and in full health. I was telling him everything that had happened and he told me that he was fully restored and well, but not able to join us on the Devastator just yet. He had to complete his third year at another posting but he was confident we would see each other after we graduated.
Elfi elbowed me in the side and made me pay attention to the events around me. "The Emperor of the Pan Saran Empire has just asked you a question," she whispered.
I tried to save the situation and addressed him in Latin, the language of the state of the Pan Saran Empire. "I am sorry Your Highness, I was in such awe in the presence of all the nobility around me I was overwhelmed."
The man looked a little like Lt. Merkus. He had the same coiffed locks around his head, had a very sharp-looking nose and wore a golden breastplate. He looked down his beak-shaped nose and a faint smile curled his lips. "It is understandable, being in the presence of Queens, Princesses and Emperors can have such effects. I noticed your military decorations and must say I am deeply impressed. It shows me that you are quite the soldier. What do you think of the current Nul situation? Do you think we should simply declare war on them and get it over with?"
"Sir, my political knowledge and experience are not deep enough to call for war. Wars are easily started but very hard to stop. I am just a Midshipman and I will, of course, do whatever is asked of me to fight, defend and protect this Union of ours. Yes, I believe in war as a last resort and it is sometimes unavoidable, but in my humble opinion it should always be the last resort."
He nodded ever so slightly. "Your words echo those of Egill Skallagrímsson, who is a relative of yours if I understand correctly. It seems your world Nilfeheim's reputation of being a world of Neo Viking pirates is misleading, as it appears to bring forth men of reason and caution."
"Your Highness, you humble me with your praise. I am but a shadow compared to the experience and wisdom my great grandfather Egill possesses and as much as I would love to agree with your assessment of my home world, we are still far from being a civilization of reason and caution."
The Klack Queen moved her drop-shaped head and looked at me with her black almond-shaped eyes. "We think you should enjoy your evening and not pay too much attention to our titles and positions, simply speak your mind and don't worry about protocol. It is even confusing for me sometimes."
I responded as best as I could, reaching high notes while speaking Klacktic."Thank you, Queen of the First Nest."
She wiggled her antenna. "How delightful, a human taking the time to learn Klacktic and speaking it well too! How come?"
"I spent several months aboard the USS Hyperion. She has a Klack XO and he taught me during the night watch hours."
Elfi, who specialized in communications and linguistics, added, also speaking Klacktic, "Eric is always good for a surprise and is full of hidden talent."
The Emperor applauded. "Well done! The Navy schools its young officers well! I was surprised at his good Latin and now they both speak Klacktick without the aid of Computronics or implants."
The affair dragged on with artists and entertainment, none of it really very interesting and the music was also not my cup of tea. What I did like, were the faces of Suppor and Clusen, they and the other Midshipmen sat at the Captain's table with nothing but Fleet officers. Suppor especially was glaring over at me with a mixture of envy and hatred. To my delight, I learned that the Blue and the Yellow Team had been invited by the Daoine and had a great time judging by the merry laughter from their table.
Finally the Klack Queen rose, declared the evening a great success and crawled into her tub to leave.
That was the beginning of the end and more guests started leaving. The Saran Queen said, "We will leave within the hour as well, so we can celebrate the Night of Baseth, but until then I know you are eager to talk to your friends, so join them until we also need to go."
I thanked her and rushed to talk a little more with Egill and the others be
fore I had to go. Egill actually intercepted me halfway, obviously he wanted to talk to me alone.
He put his hand on my shoulder and said, "You have grown Eric, in many ways. I used to be able to talk to you the other way but can no longer."
"I am sorry Egill. I apparently received some sort of Psionic shield when I merged with my friend Narth to save him. I don't know if I can be turned off or something like that."
"It is all right. I know about your friendship with the Narth. I meet the representative of the Narth almost daily. You know me, I am a grumpy old man from Nilfeheim, who spent centuries in a filthy tower all by myself. It was you who suggested me to go to Saresii Prime for treatment and it not only saved my life, it changed it completely and I gained new and true friends."
"I am glad it is so, but why you are saying this now? Are you trying to tell me something difficult?"
He grunted. "Of course not. I am not going to die or anything, at least not yet. I am here to talk to you about Sif."
"About Sif?"
"You must set her free, Eric. Tell her you are in love with the Princess and you are going to marry her or something like that."
"I like Elfi, she is a dear friend, but I don't love her. All this was just a show for her people or something. I was ordered to be her protector."
"I know, it makes no difference what you tell her, one lie is as good as the other, but she must know that she is not the one."
"She never was! She never liked me in the first place! When I thought she changed she turned out to be as cold as before. Besides, it was you who told me that she had quit University and run off with another girl."
"For a guy who loves being a girl, you sure don't know much about women. Sif has crossed that line, she is not a girl anymore." Egill made a sad face that reflected something like guilt. "She had to make a few mistakes, we all are allowed to make a few of those Eric, it's our mistakes more than our triumphs that make us what we are. She is as stubborn as you are and I neglected her. That is another story altogether."
Eric Olafson Series Boxed Set: Books 1 - 7 Page 35