by Tim Allen
“I do not understand, but I will remain silent,” Nala promised. “May I sit with him for a while?”
“Stay as long as you want, Nala. I will have Wolf fetch your family.”
Wolf followed Syn out of the med bay. Once outside, he grabbed her arm and demanded, “Syn, what is going on?”
“Commander, release me. Take your hand off of me now and never place it on me in anger again,” Syn said with cold intensity.
Wolf released Syn and looked into her eyes. “I’m sorry. I worry about you, Syn. When these surprises happen, it makes me a little crazy. Forgive me.”
“I feel the same about you, Commander. I have done nothing to jeopardize us. Nala is a good woman…she will not betray us. I had questions my database could not answer. She helped me, and I still need her help.”
“We need a plan to get you and Haakon into the castle,” Wolf said, changing the subject. “I want you to come to the gate with Haakon on a stretcher. How can we accomplish that?”
“You will take a trip to the woods alone. A day later, we will return to the castle together carrying Haakon on a litter.”
“How can we do that? The ship is stuck here, holding up this gigantic tent.”
Syn laughed softly and kissed Wolf’s cheek. “You forget the watch, Commander. I will augment its programming slightly so it can maintain my hologram long enough to get us back up here. Have Trulane guard the stairwell. I will ask Nala to see if her sister and the Nannas can relieve Trulane to keep the curious away from here while you’re gone.”
“I’ll inform the king and depart within the hour,” Wolf said.
“Give me your watch, Commander. I will adjust it and have it ready before you leave.”
Wolf hugged Syn and then went to speak with King Waylan. The monarch was in his throne room with his commanders and Skylla, Titus, and Eras. Wolf greeted them and told the king, “I need to leave for a day or two, my lord. Syn will need my help getting Haakon to the castle, so I am going out to meet her.”
“I will send a squadron with you for safety,” the king offered.
“No, my lord, I will go alone. I can travel faster by myself, but I appreciate the offer. I will depart as soon as I return to my quarters and pack some gear. Nala and her family will stay in my quarters while I’m away. Can your men ensure that they're undisturbed?”
“I will place a guard on the lower stairs with instructions to let Nala and her family pass. I do wish you would take guards, my friend, but it’s your choice. Be safe, my friend,” the king said as he limped slowly over to shake Wolf’s hand.
Chapter 23
Wolf departed the castle and headed into the forest towards Haakon’s farmstead. After thirty minutes, he activated his redesigned wristwatch. Syn’s hologram flickered and then stood before him, appearing vibrant and alive.
“Let’s walk a few more miles and set up a secluded camp,” Wolf suggested. “We’ll wait a day or two and then return. Can the watch keep you here with me that long?”
“Yes, Commander.” After a pause, Syn asked, “What are our plans for the future? We have been here a few weeks, and already we’ve been involved in combat and killed many people. Have you decided to live in this little kingdom, or will we move on and explore this world?”
“I don’t know, Syn. We are alone here. No one is coming to save us, and we have no way back to our age. You know I like these people. Once we eliminate Jonar, this land could become a paradise. Let us help in this battle and then try to set down roots. We can use this land as a base of operation until we decide where to go from here.”
“I only ask because you seem to relish being the legendary warrior. I know you believe you are invincible, but you were knocked senseless for hours by a crude bomb. What will you do if Jonar uses something bigger? He made those explosives, and he can make more, refining his method until he develops a weapon that can seriously injure you. It might have been the crude LRAD system that knocked you unconscious. I believe you are vulnerable to a sonic attack. If amplified sufficiently, Commander, it could kill you.”
“Jonar must be stopped,” Wolf said. “Hell, not many people are left on this planet, Syn. After this battle, there will be fewer. How can humanity rebuild if petty warlords keep waging wars and killing everyone? I admit Jonar is smart—maybe he is this era’s Albert Einstein. If we can get him to give up his mad dream of conquest, perhaps we can use his knowledge to make this world better.”
“There will always be those who aspire to rule, Wolf. It is in the human genome. The other thing you overlook is that many people prefer to be governed. They want to follow a strong leader with lofty ideas, and they want someone else to make their decisions. Why worry about food when it will be provided? All the people need to do is proclaim one man or another as king and the process begins again. It’s just the way it is.”
“You’re becoming cynical,” Wolf observed.
* * *
Wolf and Syn spent two nights in the secluded woods. On the second night, they were sitting by a small campfire, stargazing. Wolf rested his head in Syn’s lap as they discussed the politics and customs of this primitive world, the inhabitants they had befriended, and the future. The night wore on, and the fire burned low. Syn’s eyes were closed and she hummed a tune with a dreamy look on her face. Wolf had never felt so at peace with a woman before and wished the night would never end. He fell asleep thinking, If only…
At sunrise the next morning, Wolf reluctantly announced, “It’s time to head back to the castle.” Syn took his wrist, adjusted the holo-emitters on his watch, and disappeared. Moments later, she reappeared in her Tomb Raider outfit, standing next to a cot with Haakon’s body. Wolf lifted the back end of the stretcher and Syn took the front as they set out for Waylan’s castle.
For the next hour, Wolf’s eyes were locked on Syn’s shapely posterior as they walked. Finally, he asked, “Syn, are you enhancing yourself?”
“What do you mean, Commander?”
“Never mind,” Wolf answered, his eyes still glued to Syn’s derriere. He was so entranced watching her sensuous curves that he stumbled several times. On each occasion, Syn stopped and turned to ask, “Are you all right, Commander?” Wolf mumbled an unintelligible reply, and they resumed the journey.
By the time they reached the castle gate, Wolf had decided that he would need a gallon of strong liquor and an ice-cold shower. They passed through the gates as onlookers offered to carry Haakon’s litter, but Wolf declined the help. After what seemed like a long, tedious walk, they reached the bridge and made their way up to the crown and the holo-tent. Haakon’s children greeted them with excitement, but when they saw their father’s unconscious body, they began asking questions. Wolf explained that they needed to move Haakon inside and promised to return for them after Haakon had been put into bed and hooked up to monitoring equipment.
As Wolf was speaking, Nala walked out and saw the litter with Haakon’s body. She had just left Haakon in the med lab with Syn sitting at his bedside—now, here was Syn with Haakon on a cot. Wolf saw her startled expression and gave her a reassuring grin as they walked past her with the litter.
Once they were inside the ship, Nala blurted, “You two are the strangest people I have ever seen! Is this my husband that you carry, or is the one inside that room my husband?”
“Nala, the one we carry is like me—just a hologram,” Syn responded. “We needed an explanation for how Haakon came to be in the castle, so we thought carrying him in this way would satisfy the people’s curiosity.”
The cot bearing Haakon’s body vanished as Syn shut down the software generating the hologram. With a look of confusion, Nala said, “I trust you two, but this is terribly scary. I don’t know if this is real or I am dreaming and I will wake up in my home.”
* * *
The next morning, Syn alerted Wolf that Jonar’s army was on the move and would arrive in less than a week. She also reported that she had isolated a crude jamming signal and adjusted her senso
rs to filter it. Wolf relayed the news to King Waylan and warned, “They are bringing siege weapons that will hurl rocks at the gates and rams to batter what is left. He has about twenty thousand fighting men with him.”
“A vast army,” said the old king with a scowl. “We have prepared for this attack. We will withstand this army as we have all the others. The surgery you offered to perform must wait. I can’t risk being stuck in bed while Jonar threatens my gates.”
“My lord, I can do several things to help you. We need to get that piece of metal out of your left thigh, and at the same time, I will fix the cracked bone and broken ribs that have not healed properly. I can also fix your right arm. It will be sore for a few days, but you’ll be able to use it. You’ll need to wear a patch on your left eye for up to five days. I can fix the sore knee and reduce the swelling. Then, I will examine the fractures in your back to see can be done quickly to stop the pain.”
Waylan turned to his brother and said, “You are in command, Onel. I will go with Wolf to his tent for the ministrations he has offered. Defend the castle at all costs.”
“Aye, my brother, it will be as you say.”
Wolf and Waylan walked to the tent. The aging monarch was ecstatic at the prospect of suffering less pain. Once inside, Waylan looked around. Nala was sitting next to Haakon’s bed, which had been moved to the other side of the medical bay. Syn was standing near an operating table, dressed in her candy striper outfit. When Waylan caught sight of her, his jaw dropped, and with a lusty gleam in his eyes, he said, “If I die today, may I wake up in this woman’s arms.”
Syn walked to the king and leaned forward to kiss his cheek. “I see you’re a feisty old man,” she said with a smile. “Come, you need to wash before I can work on what ails you.”
“Woman, I washed last month. I do not need to bathe again until next month.”
“Wrong, old man. You will wash, or I will have Wolf hold you down while I wash you.”
“Ha! I might let you, lass! Show me to the bath.”
Wolf led the king to the shower. As Waylan removed his clothes, Wolf was amazed by the muscle mass the elderly monarch retained. When the warm water hit Waylan’s skin, he stared at the shower spigot as if it were magic. Wolf explained the principle to him, and the king asked if it could be built into his castle. Wolf assured him it was possible.
“With water feeling like this and making it so easy, I might bathe every week,” Waylan laughed.
When they returned to the med bay, Syn had moved Haakon to the lab area, away from the operating room. She directed the king to lie on the table and started an IV with anesthesia. Soon, he was snoring peacefully. Syn inserted an airway in his mouth and put him on oxygen. Operating on the thigh with the metal shard was the first challenge. Soon, she discovered Waylan’s limp was caused by a two-inch piece of a broken sword tip. She made the necessary repairs with the precision of a world-renowned surgeon, using a laser to stimulate bone growth, and then moved to the ribs. Opening Waylan’s stomach with a scalpel, she repaired two damaged ribs and replaced two others with titanium bars.
Wolf helped turn Waylan on his stomach, and Syn worked on his fractured vertebrae and compressed disc, using a special polymer to repair the fractures. Wolf turned the king over again, and Syn worked on the torn bicep. The damage was worse than she had expected, and it required more time than she had planned, but the result was satisfactory. She then drained Waylan’s bad knee and, using dissolvable stitches, she fixed the tear in the meniscus. Finally, she repaired his detached retina and gave him an infusion of antibiotics to complete the operation. The surgery had taken sixteen hours.
“Amazing work, Syn. When will you wake him?”
“I will keep him under sedation until after Jonar’s army arrives. We should be able to repel one or two attacks before we will need his sword.”
“I will lead the battle while he is incapacitated,” Wolf said. “If necessary, I will destroy the siege engines myself.”
“Commander, again, do not underestimate Jonar. He is exceptionally intelligent. By now, he knows you are vulnerable to something he has created. He may have a nasty surprise for you.”
“Regardless, Syn, I will prevail. This world is all that is left of my time. We can’t allow them to repeat our senseless wars. I might only stun Jonar’s men. I don’t want to kill any more of these drug-crazed fools. We need to run some tests. The drug Jonar uses must have an antidote.”
“I agree. We will need blood samples from several of the men. I can place a mobile emitter up here to keep the tent in place. That will allow me to take the ship into battle and end this war with no loss of life for Waylan’s people.”
“That’s too much technology, too fast,” Wolf cautioned. “Maybe a few stun grenades or something.”
“I will see what I can come up with, Commander.” Syn paused for a moment and then said, “It is time to wake Haakon. He is well enough to put him off the ship. I can rig the holo-emitters to look innocuous in the tent area for his care. Let’s go to Nala.”
Wolf followed Syn to Haakon’s cot and saw that Nala had fallen asleep holding his hand. He reached down to touch her shoulder, and the moment his fingers made contact, she sprang awake, holding a knife to his throat. She stared at Wolf with a crazed, disoriented look for a few seconds, and then recognition came into her eyes.
“I’m sorry. I was having a nightmare.”
Wolf frowned at the once gentle woman, deeply troubled by her reversion to the violent, bloody past she had lived. With sadness, he realized Nala might never again be the smiling beauty he once knew.
“It is time to awaken Haakon and move him out into the larger area,” Wolf said.
“Let us wake him immediately. I long to hear his voice,” Nala said with a happy smile.
Preparing Nala for what was about to happen, Syn explained, “He will awaken slowly. He will open his eyes and then go right back to sleep. His body is healing, and it will take time. When we wake him, I want you and your children to talk to him, call his name calmly, and tell him to wake up. It may be days before he recognizes you. I don’t want you to be alarmed at the slow progress. Are we clear on this?”
“Yes, Syn, I understand.”
“Good. Now move away from him, please, so I can disconnect this equipment and give him an injection to wake him up slowly.”
Nala stepped away from the bed, giving Syn room to maneuver. Syn began removing the IVs and sticky EKG patches from Haakon’s body. She left two IVs mounted on mobile poles connected. With Wolf’s help, she lifted Haakon onto a rolling cot and pushed it out to the other side of the tent. A cabinet materialized on one wall, and Nala pretended she didn’t see it happen, but her face paled anyway. The cabinet had all the medical equipment that would be needed for Haakon’s recovery, and Syn began hooking him up. Wolf brought in chairs so they could sit while they waited for Haakon to regain consciousness.
Nala sat by the head of the bed, and Syn instructed, “Ask him to wake up, Nala. Talk to him as you would if he were awake.” Nala called Haakon’s name. His eyes fluttered open for a few seconds and then closed again.
“Is he all right?” Nala asked in a worried voice.
“Yes, that’s normal, Nala. This will go on for several hours. You must be patient.”
Wolf whispered to Syn that he needed to discuss the king’s surgery with Onel, and he quietly exited the tent, making his way down the stairs to the throne room. As he entered, Onel was talking to a group of advisers, and he glanced up asking, “How is my brother?”
“The king is doing quite well. We will let him sleep for seventy-two hours and then awaken him.”
“That is good. He should rest. We are reviewing the castle defenses for the hundredth time,” Onel explained.
“Have the new acquisitions been deployed yet?”
“Yes, they are positioned throughout the city. Skylla’s warriors will range outdoors to harry the supply lines.” Looking across the table at Skylla, Onel warned, “
It will be dangerous out there. We will not be able to send reinforcements if you become trapped.”
“Is that wise?” Wolf asked in concern.
Skylla gave Wolf a condescending smile and snapped, “We are Nanna. We will be fine whether Jonar sends five hundred or five thousand of his pathetic troops. The numbers won’t matter. We will strike like the wind and disappear. My only concern is that we will encounter other Nanna who are not sworn to you. That will pit sister against sister and mother against daughter. If only you could meet my mother, she would pledge to you and switch her allegiance. But alas, we will be at war before you can meet her.”
“How many Nanna warriors are there?” Wolf asked, leaning forward.
“Including my warriors, two thousand, and another four thousand Fenrir.”
“What are Fenrir?” Wolf frowned at the unfamiliar word.
“It’s the name we give our animals—you call them wolves. They are life mates to us. When they are weaned, we raise them as family and treat them as members of our tribe. When they are killed, we mourn them as brothers and sisters of the hunt,” Skylla said.
“Fenrir, huh?” Wolf said, recalling the details of a legend from his own distant past. “The story of a mighty wolf named Fenris was told in my land among my people.”
“Please, Wolf, tell me the legend!” Skylla’s face broke into a delighted smile.
Wolf looked at Onel, who nodded for him to continue. “I will give you the short version. A long time ago, people known as the Norse believed in many gods. One god named Loki was evil and mated with a giantess. They had three children. One was the wolf Fenris, who was forever hungry. Its jaws were immense and its teeth were as sharp as swords. Odin, the father of these gods, knew he had made a mistake by letting Loki’s children live. He split the children up, sending them to different places. One he put in charge of hell, another he put in the ocean, and the third child, Fenris, he kept in his home, called Asgard. Because Odin did not want to fight it, Fenris was kept as a pet. He was allowed to roam about Asgard because everyone, including Odin, was terrified of the wolf. Odin had foreseen in the Last Battle between good and evil his own destiny was to be destroyed by Fenris. The great wolf snapped his powerful jaws at the doorway to the council chamber daily, and the other gods were afraid to attend the meetings. Something had to be done.