Our instructors would know by now I was missing, but every attempt to search for me without a working beacon would be absolutely futile.
The chances to see a space ship where just as astronomic, even if a vessel would come close, it would be so fast I could not see it and then there was no light source out here that could reflect enough photons so my eyes could see an object even close by.
I was tempted to open the suit and make a quick end. The Laser torch in my tool belt would slice it open fast.
The air became stale and my heart was beating harder, I listened to my labored breathing and closed my eyes. This was it. I wondered what would be after death. Was there something? Would I wake in Valhalla and be the laughingstock of all real Vikings for eternity? I was never very religious and considered the belief of my people artificial superstition.
Now this close to death, I wondered if there was a God and if there was anything I should have done differently.
With those thoughts on my mind I became sleepy.
When I came to my first thought was that there was life after death! But that thought was soon dispelled and I was sure I was still alive. I found myself in sick bay on a diagnostic unit. A Med-Bot hovered nearby in observation mode and a Med tech I had seen around a few times before grinned." Welcome back Mr. Olafson."
"They found me?"
"Well to be exact you haven't been lost, but you are back at the base and you can get up. There is nothing wrong with you."
I got up and feeling solid ground under my feet was a very welcome feeling indeed.
Commander Letsgo stood in the door." It was a test Olafson. We knew you had the possible markers of Deep space phobia in your DNA, so we gave you a psych drug to increase it; we had to make sure you are able to function besides your fear. Especially since you refused Psych"
I frowned." Deep down I knew it was a test, the failure of all systems was so complete, that no normal malfunction could explain it, but with all due respect Sir. This was a rotten thing to do!"
Letsgo grinned.' I agree it was rotten, but you want to be an officer and those tests are part of it. I personally believe you knew it was a test, none of your stress factors rose significantly even to the end."
"The end wasn't so bad. The worse thing was to find out I was lost and nothing worked. Once I knew I could do nothing I accepted the fact, but I think I am going to re evaluate my opinion on religion and see if there is one that fits me."
The commander stepped out into the corridor." Think of it as a shock cure. The next time you go out in space you won't feel that much fear, you survived the worst possibility already."
I wondered if he was right.
Narth waited outside for me and said." They had your helmet fitted with a Psi Shield, so you couldn't hear my thoughts, but let me say this. The Universe is not big enough for me to lose contact to your mind. You will never be lost. There is no Psi shield that can hide you. I am always your friend and you are never alone!"
I knew then space would never be as scary to me as it was.
Interlude: The Herald arrives
Carl Kerry leaned on his staff and let his gaze wander over the peaks of the mountains and the alpine meadows before him then he looked over his flock of goats grazing on the herbs and grasses. The orange sun in the sky would eventually be fixed by Wurgus Engineers, but there was no hurry. It would last a few million years before it would start to expand and become a red M Class star and swallow the Planet Annapurna he was standing on.
Annapurna was a lovely world very earth like with slightly more land than water and lots of high mountains. The fact that the planet had two large moons that pulled on the magma and lava and caused much tectonic activity especially in the planets early existence was the reason for the many mountain ranges.
There were eleven planets in the Buonanno System, Annapurna was the second closest planet to the sun. None of the other planets were settled or even much surveyed. The planet was about as far from Pluribus as you could be and still be in Union Milky Way territory. This was the Fornax Dwarf a so called satelittle galaxy to the large Milky way Galaxy and the Buonanno System belonged to the Fornax 4 cluster. Almost 460,000 light years to Blue Moon. Sixty five star systems were utilized and colonized in the entire Fornax Dwarf and so far no other sentient life form had been found native to this cluster. Even though Fornax was considered a dwarf galaxy and a statellite to M-0, it was still a galaxy and had six globular clusters. There was no real reason for the Union to be out here, but ever since the Attikan Commonwealth joined the Union there was an increased interest in these satellites.
When Fornax Four was surveyed by a Union explorer, they found a great number of star systems with beautiful Gardenworlds, just like Annapurna. Moderate climates, water, rich local fauna and flora but nothing sentient claiming it as their own. Sixteen light years from Annapurna was Hubble System and Fornax Hub. A Fleet outpost and one day would be the traffic hub of this region.
When Carl's group, the Simples looked for a world they could colonize and live away from the rat race of the Galaxy the Colonist Bureau suggested Annapurna. The planet was surveyed and no one had claimed it, so it was free for the taking. That it was not served by space bus was just what they wanted. A curier ship with mail would come once a week from Hubble and they were able to keep contact with the rest of the Universe via GalNet. Now the colony was in their second generation and existed for 48 years and all went well so far. The local fauna and flora was of consumable and nothing really terribly dangerous existed. Yes there were a few predatory animals but nothing more dangerous than a Terran Lion or Tiger.
The main settlement was twenty five kilometers from Carls hut, a small town of about 20,000 the rest of the 90,000 settlers were spread all across the globe. Carl used to teach prehistoric agriculture and husbandry at the University of Cambridge and was considered an expert in his field. He heard of the Simples movement and joined the society and never regretted his decision.
He made goat cheese and every two weeks he would take his rumbler and drive it down the mountain to sell his cheese at the local Exchange. During the first 20 years there was no space bus, but now it would come once a month. Annapura was a Union Planet and as such had a Union school, a Post office, an Exchange and space bus connection.
The Simples had no real rules, technology was not prohibited. The whole philosophy of being a Simple was to have the right to live a simple life style and do what they pleased away from social norm and pressure and free of violence. Weapons were considered the seed of evil and scorned. Carl was a fervent believer in pacifism. He believed that nothing ever justified war. When one of his students signed up for the Union Marine Corps, despite all his preaching and month of anti war preaching he felt he had failed that student protecting the young man from making a decision to become a state sanctioned killer and murderer. Carl hated everything military. It was useless! Anything could be solved with communication!
Not much of Carl's cheese made it off planet, it was bought right here and the rest was purchased by a restaurant owner on Fornax Hub. He would also sell goat furs, collected herbs and rocks he found. For the money he bought medicine for his goats, spices, coffee, beans and his beloved pipe tobacco.
As he looked over his herd he noticed Elsa missing. The salt and pepper fur stubborn girl wandered off again! She was to nosy for her own good!
Carl walked briskly towards the cropping of boulders he suspected Elsa to be somewhere behind. Here up in the Mountains was only one predator he had to worry about, Stone Scratchers. But he had not seen them attack anything during daylight, they were very shy and usually all had to do was yell loud wave his stick and ran towards them to scare them off, so he was neither concerned nor afraid of anything as he surrounded the boulders from where he could see into the valley.
A small space ship had landed right there , no more than 250 meters from where he was standing. It did not look like any ships Carl knew, but that meant little as he barley was able to te
ll the difference between a space bus and freighter. A four armed creature not unlike a Pertharian had emerged from the ship and held Elsa in one of its claws. From the way Elsa hung and the dripping blood he knew she was dead. His outrage over the senseless killing of one of his goats made him completely unaware of the situation and he approached the alien." You better have a good reason for killing poor Elsa! I have a good mind and calling the Ranger!"
The being threw the carcass away and said with a growling voice." I am the Herald! Your language is consistent with the language pattern of those defeating the hordes before!"
Carl now began to realized the situation, This was not something he could solve with a sit in, or a stern discussion with a disapproving note in his voice! He actually was sure the creature was talking about the Y'All!
"Now Mister Herald, there might have been a misunderstanding that made the Y'All hordes so angry at us? Maybe if you communicate to us what you want, war is not necessary!"
"You are of that group called the Union and you do remember the Hordes! War is not neccesarry no, but your complete extermination is necessary. We shall abstain from war if you commit suicide. All of you and without delay!"
"What is your reason for your anger about us? Is there nothing we can talk about? If you want us dead you must have some reason for your anger."
"We are not angry. You simply are not perfect and do not deserve to live. You carry the seed of the master and you must not be allowed to exist. Now you will answer me every question and then I will kill you."
"I am a man of peace and I will gladly answer all your questions"
"You would sell out your own kind on your free will? "
"For the sake of peace, of course!"
"How did you defeat the hordes?"
"I was not alive back then, but from what I understood. This war monger Admiral Stahl returned from some sort of Exile and brought along weapons and shields that could defeat the Y'All."
"Tell me the exact function of these weapons!"
"I am a man of peace! I don't know how Translocator Cannons work. I never touched a weapon in my life! But we have a GalNet terminal in the Village and you are welcome to use it. I am sure you can find such information there! You see no need for violence."
The Herald ripped Carls stomach open, with one swipe of diamond hard claws." If you do not know about weapons you usefulness has ended. Everyone on this planet will die."
Carl collapsed feeling horrible pain. Just before he died he wished he could stop the Y'All herald somehow or at least warn the others. There at the moment of his death he questioned his own philosophy and wondered if there was a justification for war after all.
Chapter 8: Master Alamea
Everyone thought it would get easier after we got used to the stress and workload, but it did not, our instructors pushed us even harder.
I was sent for 24 hours into the no light lock up for having a bad shave after returning from a 75 kilometer force march through the Jungle in just my underwear and a combat knife. The instructor argued that the knife was perfectly useable to perform a shave before reporting back.
Narth did not fare much better and was send washing dishes for the whole camp, having a mud stain on his robe.
Our martial arts instructor was an old Saresii and the general consent was that he knew every fighting technique and martial arts known to the Galaxy. I had trained our brand of martial arts but he was beyond everything they taught on Nilfeheim.
For some unknown reason he loved to demonstrate his skills on me. Narth told me that he was well shielded and it was even for him impossible to anticipate the next move.
I lost count as to how many times I left his class room on the stretcher of a Med-bot with a broken bone or a serious concussion. Master Alema never expressed apologies for what he did; when I was laying on the mat with a broken limb and almost passing out with pain. He merely pointed out the flaws in my attack or defense to the class and showed them the slow motion recording of my errors.
After we graduated we could get Skill Implants that would give us instantly the skills of a wide choice of martial arts, but the Navy insisted that we learned the Navy standard Style hand to hand combat the old fashioned way. It was so we were told the amalgam of the fighting techniques of thousands of cultures and civilizations honed and mixed into a technique and style very unique to the Navy.
Of course Master Alamea did it to other cadets as well (at least to those Cadets that could break bones), he even sent Limbur more than once with injuries to Sick bay and Limbur was three times his mass and much stronger. I just had the impression he picked on me more than the others.
One Sunday afternoon we had a few hours to ourselves and I thought I would use that rare free time to go swimming. Camp Idyllic had several swimming pools and bathing in the nearby lake was fairly safe but way to warm to my taste. The survival and diving pool was the largest and deepest and they usually kept the water much cooler than the others and that's why I liked it best. The water was still too warm for me, but it was clear fresh water and it was 20 meters deep.
Usually this pool was deserted outside of training exercises those other cadets that used their free time to swim preferred the warmer water pools or the lake.
So I was surprised to see Master Alema there. He was sitting at the highest diving board in the lotus position with closed eyes.
I cursed under my breath. I didn't want to go to another, especially since I didn't have too much time, but I really didn't want to run into that Saresii Transvestite.
All Saresii appeared to be female and stunningly beautiful, but some of them where men, made up do look like women. In Exobiology class we learned that the Saresii were among the oldest species with a continuous civilization. They had been traveling space for much more than million years. Some event millennia ago wiped out all their colonies except their home world and they blamed male aggression for the catastrophes and wars in general. So the Saresii banned everything appearing male. At first they had a matriarchate society, like the Saran's but it changed and developed differently. Why all Saresii men decided to dress and appear like women and make this aspect the core of their civilization I did not know. Saresii joined the Unites Stars relatively late. Their technology was considered to be far advanced and at Tech level nine.
Saresii were most famous for their Psionic powers and that every Saresii was a telepath of considerable strength, some had telekinetic powers and others were able to teleport. A well known legend told that the Saresii rearranged the eight planets of their system into perfect orbits using their Psionic powers. There had to be truth to the legend since the 8 planets where arranged in such a way.
Narth was not impressed by the Saresii Psionic abilities and he told me that Narth considered the Saresii to be like children who just managed to walk.
Master Alema appeared to be a woman in every visual aspect. She could have been any age between 25 and 200. The face was very female with much larger purple colored eyes than humans, long lashes and beautiful shaped lips. Saresii ears where pointed and usually hidden under their long hair, but I could see the tips of his ears between the strands of the long silvery white hair.
The Saresii readily adopted Terran and Saran make up fashions and used this ancient female art to enhance their faces and appearance. Almea's hair was straight and fell below the shoulder blades. It had the color of shiny silver. The only way we knew he was not a biological female was because Commander Letsgo always referred to Alema as him and we had to call him Master.
I turned and wanted leave but his voice caught me at the door.
"Come up here Cadet."
Alema had noticed me despite the fact; he was sitting on the ten meter tower with his back to me. I was sure he noticed me with his Psionic abilities.
I sighed and kissed my afternoon goodbye but I climbed up, stepped on the board and saluted." Cadet Olafson reporting, Sir."
"You think I pick at you more is that not so?"
"It
appears to me that way, yes."
"I do demonstrate on you more often than the others, because you have great talent and you never give up. I like that."
I did not know what to say so I remained silent.
So Alamea continied and asked: "You are from a water world?"
"Yes Sir."
"I believe they call you Neo Vikings. A culture modeled after an old Terran tribe of warriors."
"Yes Vikings, Nordic peoples—Danes, Swedes, Germans and Norwegians—who raided and settled in large areas of eastern and western Europe during a period of Scandinavian expansion from about 800 to 1100 Terran."
"Do you fight others while you in the water?"
"Yes we fight in every environment, and in the water, against each other and pretty much everything that lives in the ocean of Nilfleheim."
"Fight me in the water!"
Alema jumped and I dutifully followed right away. I was planning not giving this experienced master of all martial arts much time to adjust. This was my element and I was a good water fighter, even for Nilfleheim standards.
I was right after him .I did this many times during fight class as they did it to me if they could. I landed directly on him, buried my heels with force in his back and pushed him further down. My eyes where much better adapted to see under water than those of standard humans and I hoped Saresii eyes where human in that regard. Also I had another advantage, no matter how good he was, I had a virtually unlimited oxygen supply and did not need to pay attention to my oxygen supply.
He had to hold his breath and had air for maybe 2-5 minutes at best. Part of his concentration had to be diverted to that. My gills opened and the cool water rushed in me. It was always a wonderful experience especially after being on land and dry for a long time, being in my most favorite environment stimulated me always.
Water fighting with the intent to kill was completely different from fighting on dry land. Water put tremendous drag on everything you did, swinging chops or even straight punches where almost impossible and lost any damage inflicting energy. Hitting something fast was almost impossible. Instead it was better to use the entire mass of the body just like a missile and in close combat short kicks and straight stabs to soft body areas where much more effective.
Eric Olafson Series Boxed Set: Books 1 - 6 (The Galactic Chronicles Series) Page 265