The Dark Defiance

by A. G. Claymore

  “We want to know how your ship came by its name,” Caul stated before taking another pull on his ale.

  “Are you kidding me?” Harry glanced over at Tommy. “They took a break from pillaging entire planets because they like the name of our ship and want to know where we got it?”

  “I call bullshit,” Kale added in a casual voice, so as not to add to the tension. “They’re up to something besides naming games. Hell, if I wanted smoke blown up my ass, I’d go to my cabin with a pack of cigarettes and a short length of hose.”

  “Tommy,” Harry began, waving Kale to silence, “you remember Ed’s speech from the commissioning?”

  “About the name? Yeah, sure.”

  “Good.” He nodded over at Caul. “Give them the basics.”

  Tommy launched into a brief history of Völund, the mythical smith of Norse mythology. As he talked, it quickly became apparent that his audience was hanging on his every word. Finally, Caul interrupted the tale.

  “Does the name ‘Odin’ mean anything to your people?”

  “Odin was the chief member of the Norse pantheon.” Tommy picked up a tablet from a corner table and brought up a data query. “He appeared in Norse mythology roughly fifteen hundred years ago, after being cast out of his homeland. He…” He stopped in surprise at the reaction of the two visitors. They were conversing, excitedly, in their own guttural language.

  “Tommy?” Harry’s air of nonchalance was taking a beating.

  “He asked about Odin,” Tommy said slowly, “then he went ape-shit.”

  After a few moments, Caul turned to Tommy and explained. “This legendary smith,” he said excitedly, “was a real man. He built my ship as well as some twenty or thirty of the ships in my war band.” He leaned forward, gazing intently at Tommy. “He was lost here, along with my own father, some twenty-five centuries ago.” His gaze shifted to the right, looking past Tommy at the ravaged moon of Ghela. “I see, now, how that might have come to pass, but I am no closer to learning the why of it.”

  “Twenty-five centuries?” Harry kept his tone mild, but he raised an eyebrow.

  “I know, right?” Tommy replied. “Doesn’t look a day over five hundred. Wouldn’t Jan love to get a few samples...” He looked over at Harry. “Is that why you gave them those bottles? They aren’t likely to let us take cheek swabs, but saliva on the bottles will do nicely.”

  “Huh,” Harry grunted. “Didn’t know they lived so long when I offered the beer, but I’m willing to pretend it was all a clever scheme.” He took another drink. “We still need more information so we can figure out how to get out of this mess in one piece.”

  “Fella like this, he doesn’t get that excited about finding the guy who built his ship.” Kale commented. “It was Odin that got his skivvies in a bunch.”

  I wonder if the captain is keeping Kale here because he’s the most likely to think like our murderous guests? Tommy saw Caul’s eyes twitch towards Kale as he said Odin’s name. There was a hunger there – a yearning to know more. “You said that Völund was lost along with your father. What was your father’s name?”

  “Odin.”

  Somehow, perhaps because it was so completely preposterous, Tommy believed him. He felt a tingling sensation run across his skin. It’s not every day you get to meet the son of a god. “Odin was his father.”

  “Alright,” Harry answered. “His father has a famous name, I don’t see…”

  “No, Captain. This man is Odin’s son. The Odin. He must have made it through the collapse of that moon before the wormhole collapsed twenty-five centuries ago. Then he wandered for a thousand years before dropping by Earth.” Tommy shook his head. “I don’t know how they live so long, but look at him.” He gestured to Caul, who looked back inquisitively, a trace of annoyance on his features. “He looks like a man whose father might still be alive.”

  Harry looked out the window to the ravaged moon. “Lord almighty!” he muttered in quiet awe. “If their shields can survive something like that, I’d sure hate to take ‘em on with conventional projectiles.” He looked back at Tommy. “So, you figure the chief god of Norse mythology might be living in a dingy bachelor apartment in downtown Trondheim, checking the obits to see if his semi-immortal pals are alive?”

  “Probably has his own island by now.” Both Harry and Tommy turned to look at Kale, who shrugged. “Fifteen hundred years is a long time to accumulate wealth, especially on Earth. Hell, these guys have the same disposition as most corporate leaders and politicians back home.” He finished his ale and set it down. “If Odin’s alive, he’s probably richer than the entire roll call of the US senate.”

  “Alright, we’re leaving the guy hanging while we chit chat.” Harry waved at Tommy. “Ask him what he wants to do, now that he knows his dad might be on Earth, as if we didn’t already know the answer to that one.”

  “I intend to come to your home world to search for my father.”

  “I suppose he plans to bring along all of his friends?” Harry grimaced. “I’ve seen their handiwork; I’m not keen on leading them to Earth. Matter of fact, tell him that.”

  “I swear that I will leave your world as I found it. We will not attack you.”

  “And how do we trust that his captains will honor his word?” Harry nodded out the window to where their attacker had been. “We’ve already seen that some of them like going into business for themselves.”

  “That captain amply demonstrated the folly of attacking your vessel. I feel that the rest will now be more inclined to trust my judgment.” Caul paused as his companion began to speak in their own language. He listened for a few moments, his expression ranging from surprise to anger as the other man talked. Finally, he cut him off.

  “Start over, in Dheema,” he commanded.

  The man took a deep breath. “My name is Lothbrok Kleykir, my father, Heimdallr, served as navigator to Odin. My father’s actions are believed by most to be the reason why the Velentsgaat failed to remain open.” He pointed a thumb over his shoulder at the remnants of what had been a moon. “Now they will say that the matter has been solved and that my Father guided the advance guard straight into the middle of a planet.

  “Why, then, would one of Liev’s captains attempt to prevent us from further discovery?” He shook his head. “Because what we have seen so far is convenient to his own ends, as he doubtless knew before we came here. What he fears is what we might discover in talking to you. The name of this ship, and the fact that you wrote it using our futhark – our runes – proves that there were survivors. Liev does not want us talking to survivors; it might reveal that his own family had a hand in the disaster. A successful attack while we were aboard your ship would have eliminated any evidence that may exist and would have removed his only obstacle to power.” He gestured to Caul with his hand. “He cannot be attacked while aboard the Ormen because it carries the only Velentsgaat generator. Without it, the fleet is stranded.”

  “That’s a bit of a leap, isn’t it?” Harry scratched his chin. “One rogue captain can’t possibly lead us to that conclusion, regardless of who he owes allegiance to.”

  “Liev is behind every move made by one of his own,” Lothbrok replied firmly. “And he has proven his willingness to suborn the retainers of his enemies.” His face grew angry. “He has tried just such a thing with me, buying the debts of my house in an attempt to control me. One of his schemers demanded that I meet him, thinking I would actually bring him the codes to access my lord’s finances. I threw him to his death.”

  “You just told your lord about this meeting now?” Tommy asked after translating for Harry.

  Lothbrok nodded. “Such things are of no import. My lord would not care to hear stories of another Hauld’s perfidy. Such gossip is unworthy.”

  “But an attempt to access his accounts…”

  “Such an attempt could never have succeeded.” Lothbrok waved a dismissive hand. “No retainer of an honorable household would ever consider stooping to such schemes
, regardless of his debts. This is something that Liev does not comprehend. He believes that every man has a price. He sought to destroy my lord by bringing him to financial ruin, giving himself the chance to become the leader of this band. That alone should tell you everything you need to know about him, and the Hauld who was his father.”

  Caul nodded his agreement. “That captain meant to destroy us, along with whatever evidence we might have found here, and he did it at Liev’s bidding.” He drained his bottle and set it down on the coffee table with an appreciative nod. “One way or another, we will find Earth. I will learn what happened to my Father’s ships.” He looked out the window. “If your commercial vessels are so heavily armed, I doubt you have much to fear from us.” He turned from the window to gaze at Harry. “It would be best if we did this as friends.”

  “I think it’s the stupidest Goddamn thing I’ve ever heard of.” Bernie was leaning against the bulkhead that separated the kitchen equipment from the crew lounge and looking over the heads of the seated crew from behind.

  Tommy saw at least half of the assembled crew nodding to themselves. How can anyone agree with that knobber? He turned to look at him. He always leans there, trying to give us the impression that he’s taking a few minutes out of his important schedule for us and that he might be called away for something important at any moment. Where would the silly wanker go? We’re all here except for Bill in engineering and Carol on the bridge. “Why don’t you park your arse, Bernie? There’s lots of empty seats.”

  Bernie shot Tommy a murderous glare, no doubt for calling attention to his petty tactic. He recovered quickly enough, though, and assumed an indifferent air. “I’m fine here, thanks.”

  “Well, here’s the thing,” Tommy began, still looking back over his shoulder at Bernie, “those guys will find Earth on their own. Far better that we stay on friendly terms with them for as long as possible.”

  “Sure they will.” Bernie smirked. “But don’t forget that it took Odin a thousand years to find us. Imagine how much better our defenses will be in a thousand years.”

  “It’s not going to take these boys a thousand years to find Earth, Sherlock.” How can someone with all that education still not have the sense to look at all the angles? “All they need to do is go down to Khola, round up the lads in Orbital Control and squeeze ‘em till they cough up our arrival profile from last week. Then they follow that to our previous transit station, rinse and repeat until they finally end up with a vector for Earth.” He turned his back on Bernie. “Tucking our tail between our legs and running for home might buy us a few hours but it buys us new enemies as well.”

  His speech was punctuated by the distant thump of a gas lighter, docking with the Völund’s loading umbilical. Despite chaos in the city below, Kobrak remained true to his word. The ship’s holds were nearly full.

  “I’m no idiot…” Bernie began.

  “Don’t sell yourself short, Bernie,” Kale, grinning, jumped in before Bernie could finish his sentence. “You’re a hell of an idiot.” He gave the room a few seconds to laugh but kept going while he had the momentum. “Tommy’s right: we need to keep ‘em friendly. We’re the only thing keeping them in check right now. If we took off, nothing stops them from tearing this planet a new one. They’re scared to gang up on us because of what we did to that ship.” He waved a fighting knife – still in its scabbard – towards the window where half of the Midgaard fleet could be seen. “They’ve gotta be pissing their fancy metal pants over the possibility that we might blow up their flagship and strand them all here.”

  “That’s the heart of it, though it was foolish of Lothbrok to let that slip out,” Liam added. “Their wormhole generator is their greatest strength. It lets them strike from unimaginable distances without any warning.”

  “Big deal,” Bernie cut in. “So we know they have strengths. All the more reason to…”

  “Either you’re a complete waste of atmo,” Kale spoke over Bernie, “or that school you went to owes you a refund, ‘cause you’re in way over your head, little man. Any enemy’s greatest strength is also his greatest weakness. You just need to know how to turn it against him and I already explained just how we do that – we maintain a constant readiness to destroy the Ormen...”

  Bernie had no response.

  “If we ran for home right now,” Elise spoke up, “they wouldn’t just go down to the surface and interrogate Orbital Control. They’d do the same thing here that they did on Cera.” As heads began to nod in agreement, she finished her thought. “That would buy us a few days to prepare the defenses back home.”

  Silence. Tommy looked around at his crewmates. Some looked shocked, including Fredo, her own father. Unfortunately, a lot appeared to be wrestling with their consciences. It was only a week ago that I would have chopped off a finger for a chance to talk to her. Amazing how quickly everything can change.

  “You can’t be serious…” Jan exclaimed, first to Elise, but her gaze took in many who wouldn’t meet her eye. “There is no way we can justify sacrificing an entire planet of innocent people just to give ourselves a few days to prepare for an attack that we may be able to avoid altogether.”

  “When they see our fleet, they’ll have the sense to play nice.” Everyone looked over to Harry, standing with his back to the windows. Behind him, at least twenty vessels floated with an air of controlled menace. “I know it’s not a popular decision, but I really don’t see as how we have any other path through this mess. We take them with us to Earth. From now on, someone will be at the weapons station every single second, ready to blast the Ormen into the afterlife.”

  As the meeting broke up, Elise came over to stand in front of Tommy. “You could have backed me up.” She glared down at him, arms crossed.

  Tommy sighed. Things had moved along very quickly for them. From her perspective, it must seem that he was a love-‘em-and-leave-‘em sort of guy. He wished he had known what she was really like before getting involved but, considering the effect she had on him, he wasn’t certain that he would have done things differently. “You and I have very different ideas. I’m not going to abandon my own convictions to support your argument simply because we had a relationship.”

  She looked like she had been slapped. “Had?” She appeared as though she was about to say something particularly damning, but she didn’t seem to have anything at hand and so she stormed off towards the med bay.

  I probably should have broken it off with her before referring to our relationship in the past tense. Tommy watched her walk away with a mixture of relief and regret.

  The few crew members who remained in the lounge pretended not to have noticed the confrontation, except for Kale. As the rest made nervous small talk, the mercenary leaned across the corner of his chair. “That there is gonna make for one helluva long return trip,” he said in a low voice. “Tell me – what’s waiting for you back on Earth?”

  Tommy shrugged but, before he could answer, Deirdre did. “Nothing, really.” She was sitting in a low chair across from her half-brother. “Guernsey is lovely, but it would be a touch stifling to a young man recently back from a trip like this.” She smiled at Tommy, daring him to deny it. “London holds even fewer fond memories, I fear.” She sighed. “I’ve never met his uncle Leo, but he sounds like a real prize.”

  “Let’s just say the planet doesn’t have much going for it.” Tommy didn’t want to go into the details of his childhood. He had barely been eleven years old when his uncle Leo had ‘rented’ him out to the West Ham Syndicate as a drug lab worker. He had seen other boys beaten and a few killed. He had seen the worst of humanity during the year that his father was presumed dead. It was typical of the government that their meddling caused more harm than good. The police had found Tommy about to board a ferry for Guernsey, where his aunt lived. ‘For his own good’, he had been placed with Uncle Leo instead.

  He wished he could have killed the man who had beaten those three boys to death at the meth lab. He shivered
. Was that why it felt so good to kill that guard down on Khola? He had felt a great many conflicting emotions as he stood there on the landing pad, but the strongest, the most disturbing, was elation.

  Little bastard was ready to kill Willie. William Simpson had been one of the SAS men who had volunteered to rescue Tommy from that drug lab in East London. He was family. If it came to a choice between saving his uncle Leo or Willie, Tommy knew he wouldn’t have any trouble making up his mind.

  “I don’t much consider it to be home either.” Kale’s voice held a sad longing.

  “How’s that?”

  “Fiancée got hit by some drunk in a high-priced SUV. Real piece of work, that guy. Kind of reminds me of Bernie.” He looked over at Tommy but didn’t really seem to see him. “Jumped the curb and flattened the bus shelter she was sitting in. Then he fled the scene – all the way to a bar around the corner. Cops found him behind a pile of empty shot glasses.”

  Tommy could see Kale’s knuckles turning white as he gripped the hilt of his knife. “So they couldn’t prove he was drunk when he hit her, yeah?”

  A slight nod. “Reckless endangerment. Son of a bitch had to pay some higher insurance premiums but that was it.” He shook his head slowly, his hands twisting the blade inside its nylon scabbard. “Didn’t even lose his license.”

  “Bet you know just about everything there is to know about the bastard.” Tommy knew he wouldn’t be able to let go if something like that happened to him.

  “I did,” he agreed. “Wasn’t sure what I was going to do, aside from obsess about him, but I managed to find out he was throwing a big bash to celebrate beating the rap.” His mouth curled up into an evil grin. “Some careless soul left a shaped charge with a mercury switch underneath his driver’s seat. Right around three in the morning, he staggered out to his shiny new SUV, put it in gear and set off the charge.” He turned his unsettling grin on Tommy. “He wouldn’t have had time for regrets. Last thing to go through his mind would have been his pelvis.”