by Troy Snyder
She looked up at him and he jumped startled. Her intense sapphire like eyes bored into him. Before he could react, she pounced. She began opening and closing his mouth, then looking inside. With her thumb she lifted his nose and began poking and prodding all over. As she leaned further in to look at Antonio’s ear on the far side she slipped.
Antonio caught her in his arms and brought her back up and she sat down next to him. Her face began to color differently, which Antonio could only assume was her blushing. “You should be more careful you klutz,” He said in Craxi.
“What is Klutz,” She asked, her curiosity sparked again.
“A clumsy person. Anyway, what were you looking for with all the poking?”
“Oh I… Well I realized humans are like us. I thought they were much different, but we are quite alike. May I listen to your heart?” Without waiting for permission, she moved her ear to his chest. “It’s beating fast. Are you stressed? Or is that normal? How often does it beat per minute? Are all human hearts smaller than ours?” She asked bringing up a picture on the screen comparing the two.
Antonio let out a genuine laugh. “That’s quite a lot of questions. Not sure I know the answer to some of them.” She gave him a look of disappointment mixed with annoyance which made him laugh again. “Tell you what, let’s take it one question at a time and I’ll answer what I can.” He was rewarded with a smile.
The pair of eyes that was watching them across the hangar let the mask fall away. Alexander was pleased with the way things went. He turned and walked away to let his friend enjoy himself, never intending to tell him he completely lied to the Valkyrie about Odin’s orders for Antonio’s mandatory checkup.
________________________
The ship had been traveling several days before it finally came to a stop. As the ship drifted Alexander stared outward into space through the window in his room. He shared the room with his men, they were only allowed there and in the rear of the ship. Alexander found it odd they had not been brought food as customary, but he figured there must be a hold up especially since the ship was stopped.
A knock on the door caused everyone to look up. Alexander walked over and opened the door to see Raixo standing there. He had not seen the big green giant in days and was beginning to worry. With a swift gesture he invited him in and shut the door.
“Hey Raixo, what’s up?” Alexander asked as he walked toward the seating area in the middle of the room.
“I have been stuck in the front of the ship mostly. Going over and over what happened when I found you on Earth and what we did. Then explaining the story of how you stopped the missiles. They asked a lot of questions about you, Alexander,” Raixo said not realizing he had slipped into his new favorite tongue, the human English.
Raixo looked tired, mentally more than physically. He seemed to stare off into space as if his mind were wandering. They must have made him think of almost every detail.
“Why did they want to know about Alexander?” Trent asked.
“Not just him, the Demon Boys. They asked more about Alexander then the rest of you, but they wanted to know all about you.”
“Why?” Alexander asked the question for everyone.
“No idea to be honest. I am just glad to be out of there, made my head hurt.”
“You were never good at thinking too much,” Antonio said with a smile that caught Raixo off guard.
“Wait, he smiled. He never smiles.”
“Funny how much difference a girl can make.” Alexander said.
“A girl? What girl? I hope you have not fallen for a shield maiden. They could kill you.”
“What girl can’t when angry?” Trent asked causing everyone to laugh.
“So Raixo, why are we stopped, is there a problem?” Alexander questioned curiously.
“No, no problem. However, you all have been summoned to the great hall to meet with Odin.” Raixo said but seeing his friend’s wariness he rushed to reassure him. “It is nothing bad. He just wishes to speak with you all.”
“I see, well we better head there then.”
There demon boys piled onto the elevator with Raixo and it began to rise. Alexander knew it would let out in the middle of the great hall but did not know what he would find. He did not expect soldier, Odin would not do such a thing, but still his mind bounced all over at the possibilities. As the elevator neared the top the noise began to raise, voices, a lot of voices.
The voices died down as the four men appeared in the center of the room. All the circular fires were lit with the green energy emanating heat. Every bench was filled with bearded men of varying colors, women were amongst the group too Alexander noticed, shield maidens, only discernible by their smaller stature and clean faces. All eyes were on them and suddenly Alexander felt extremely exposed.
Odin called them forth to stand in front of his table. Flanking him on each side were Hugin and Munin, then officers of his council. The entire room seemed eerily quiet as they walked toward the table. Their footsteps echoed off the walls of the great hall. Raixo bowed as they reached the table and Alexander followed. Trent and Antonio copied Alexander, more for appearance than deference.
Odin stood up and cleared his throat so all could hear. “Welcome Alexander, Trent, and Antonio,” He boomed in Craxi and nodded his head in acknowledgment. “Here you stand before the fighting men and women of Asgard, our home world. Not our full army, but the best.” His words were greeted with a roar from those at the tables. Odin let them indulge a moment before motioning for silence. “For days Hugin and Munin questioned Raixo all about you, your men, and your deeds on the planet we have come to know as Earth, rather than Midgard.
“After much thought and deliberation, I have come to a decision. You, Alexander are not only a strong leader, but a strong warrior as well. You lead from the front and have shown initiative and cunning. You are now named one of us, a citizen and warrior of the Craxi. However, I understand you will not accept without your men being given the same treatment. I can accept them as citizens, but none of them as warriors of the Craxi, not yet. Though under normal circumstances we would not allow regular citizens to dine with warriors on a ship of war, your men may now dine in the hall with the warriors. What say you to this honor?”
Alexander bowed deeply to Odin. “Lord Odin you honor me with such kindness. My men and I lost our home world because of arrogance and ignorance. You taking us in is the greatest honor and privilege. We accept.”
“Then so shall it be.” Odin hammered down his spear Gungnir sending off a spark of energy and a boom that shook the air.
The noise from the staff seemed to linger a moment. After it died down people began flooding from the kitchen with trays of food and drink and serving the men and women warriors. Munin took a moment to lead the three men and Raixo to a table and then left them. The large bearded men stared at them for a moment.
A huge deep purple man with fire red hair and silver eyes stared at Antonio for a moment. His meaty hand came down on the table with a loud crack and everyone looked at him. He pointed his large finger straight at Antonio. “You’re the one who my sister talks about all the time,” He said.
Alexander, being the one who set him up with the man’s sister became extremely nervous. Though Antonio had gotten better over the last several day’s he was still volatile and unpredictable, and borderline insane Alexander thought. This confrontation could end up bad.
“You don’t approve?” Antonio asked raising an eyebrow.
“Not one bit. How can someone so tiny and weak protect my sister? I can’t accept that. You will leave her alone or deal with me.”
Alexander noticed the direct challenge and was about to intervene, but Antonio beat him to it. Antonio slammed his own fist down and looked straight into the man’s grey eyes. “I’d like to see you stop me little man.” Everyone stared at Antonio. He was six-foot-five-tall, but the large purple man he just called little was over a foot taller than him.
The tension was r
ising at the table and even now the tables around were beginning to stare. However, it was quickly broken by the booming laughter from the purple man. “You have a fighting spirit. Tell you what scrawny human,” He said slamming a wooden goblet on the table, bigger than any the humans had seen. “We’ll drink to see who wins.”
“First to pass out loses. I hope your friends are strong enough to carry you back to your barracks.”
Another roar of laughter went around the table. The drink began to flow like water all around. The celebrations began to take hold of the entire hall. Antonio had downed two of the giant goblets and Alexander was surprised he was even conscious. As Antonio was about to begin to chug his third the entire ship rocked sending food and drink flying. An alarm began to sound loud in everyone’s ear, the ship was under attack.
Chapter 16:
“I thought you said you only fight in melee combat.” Alexander said panting as they ran down the hall. They had crowded on the elevator with a large number of others all attempting to make way to the hangar area.
“We do, but in space we may fire projectile weapons. I thought I went over that. Also, we try to board and take each other’s ships.” Raixo replied keeping up the jog.
The ship kept rocking as it was bombarded by enemy fire. Alexander and the others reached the hangar. They were immediately stopped by Athils and told only Alexander and Raixo could board the landing vessels. The others would have to return to their barracks.
“You heard him guys, sorry.” Alexander said with a placating shrug.
“Go,” Antonio replied. “We’ll catch up.”
“You’re not planning something crazy, are you?”
“Who me?”
Alexander laughed and headed off following Raixo onto a boarding craft. Antonio and the others watched as one by one the crafts lifted off and headed toward the enemy ship. Antonio went up to Athils and grabbed him by the arm before he could board.
“Who are we being attacked by, and who is going to defend the ship of you all go,” Antonio questioned.
Athils looked away for a moment before responding. “We’re in no one’s territory. My guess is pirates; we must have stumbled near one of the moons they hide on. They’re a jumbled mix of factions only out for gold, and blood. As for the ship, no one has been able to break through our energy shields. We’re not concerned.” With that he headed onto the craft and lifted off.
With the last ship off Antonio looked around. The hangar was bare and empty of everyone besides Trent and himself. Then he noticed movement. Trent’s goat appeared. He found it odd he had not seen it for some time but gave it no more thought. Trent greeted his goat friend with a scratch behind the ears.
A thought struck Antonio; he could not leave this place undefended, no matter how ‘impenetrable’ the energy shields were. Antonio headed out of the hangar and straight for the armory followed by Trent and his goat. The door, of course, was lock when he attempted to enter. Thinking quickly Antonio solved the problem. He formed the metal from his brace on his fist and concentrated as hard as possible. Then he slammed his first straight into the door and tore it from the wall.
“I suppose knocking would have been too simple.” Trent said sarcastically.
“Well no one is home, so I figured I’d let myself in with the key.” Antonio replied with a smile shaking his fist still covered in the brace.
Trent followed Antonio inside the armory, but the goat stayed outside bleating at them as if telling them they should not go in. “Calm down, goaty. We have to do this to protect the ship.” Trent said, but the goat stood there eyeing them with angry eyes.
“You should really name that thing,” Antonio said while looking through the crates of items. “I don’t think ‘goaty’ is a very good name for it.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Antonio finally found what he was looking for in a locked cabinet, of which he tore the door off. They were solid weapons, not like the one’s made from the braces. The weapons were stacked high and judging from the dust, not used in some time. On the top were swords and Antonio took two handing one to Trent. Then at the bottom were stacked shields, quite well made and light weight.
Quickly they exited the armory and headed back to the hangar. Just in time to see the energy shield break by direct hit from what looked to be a missile. Antonio expected the abyss of space to suck them out, but a thin membrane of energy remained. It was not enough to stop boarding, but enough to maintain hull integrity.
“So much for never being boarded,” Trent said with a nervous grin.
One ship passed through and landed. It was a triangular ship like the ones he had seen back on Earth, but less taken care of. Pieces seemed to be missing, he thought. Immediately upon landing the bay door opened and men of all races stormed out with a myriad of different weaponry and armor.
“I count fifty, much less than I thought. I say we surround them and ask them to surrender.” Antonio said the seriousness in his tone made Trent almost laugh.
“How are we going to do that with only the two of us?”
“Three,” Antonio corrected. “We have goaty.” He gestured to the goat standing next to Trent. The goat was in a prepared stance with its head down ready to spring into action.
“What do you know, we have a battle goat.”
The men that filed out of the ship saw the two men and goat standing there. They mockingly laughed and pointed making jokes. They had never seen a human before, but they were tiny and looked fragile. Even the dwarves amongst them laughed, they may be smaller, but they were ripped with muscle.
One man stepped forward from the crowd. He wore a golden chain in addition to his torc and a helmet that looked extremely strange to Antonio. As the man removed his helm it became clear why. He was a snake man, and although he looked nothing like Quetzalcoatl the anger inside Antonio flared.
The black skinned snake spoke in Craxi. “What are you puny creatures?”
Antonio took a step toward the snake. He was as tall as the snake creature and looked at him straight in the eyes. “Me? I am your worsht nightmare.” Antonio’s words began to slur and his vision became less clear. All at once the alcohol he had drunk came and struck him like a truck. He began to wobble.
The pirates found this quite amusing and each of them let out another laugh. “Look at this drunken fool, he can’t even stand.”
“I may not be able to shtand, but I can shertainly kick your ass.”
Again, the crowd laughed in his face, but the snake man took it more seriously. “Well then, let’s have at it!”
The snake man charged straight for Antonio. He wielded two axes and struck with incredible speed. Antonio took the blows on his shield; the alcohol was causing his to stumble with each strike. After several strikes Antonio could no longer contain the bile rising in his stomach. He lurched forward as the snake man went for an overhead strike and let out his stomachs contents onto the man’s boots.
Watching this, the crowd laughed more, this time at the snake man for letting the puny one insult him. It raised his anger even more and began to rain more blows down onto Antonio. Antonio knew, even in his drunken stupor, he had to come up with something.
A glint of light from his wrist caught his eye, his brace. Stealthy while continuing to fall back he moved the metallic material under his leather clothes and over his stomach. Soon he felt a tingling sensation as the energy from his suit began to break down the alcohol inside him. He could feel it sapping at his strength, but there was no other option.
Finally, after several minutes Antonio could not feel his shield arm. The shield dropped from his hand and the arm hung limply at his side severely bruised. It was then that the snake man saw the metal flowing back into the brace on his right wrist. This puny one would no longer be a drunken enemy blocking all the blows, but rather an enemy that would attempt to strike back.
The two men circled one another as if trying to find a weakness. Antonio had never fought in melee like th
is; the Craxi did not allow him to train in weapons. The snake man charged in once more feeling he had the advantage. He went in low swinging the axe toward Antonio’s gut. Antonio had to jump back to avoid the blow and in return swung his sword down at his enemy’s head.
Snake man bent on one knee and took the strike on the handle of his axe. With his other he sliced upward straight across Antonio’s chest. Antonio lost the grip on his sword and fell back holding the wound. He fell to his knees clutching where the strike had hit him. The snake man walked up and placed his axe on the back of Antonio’s neck.
“You should have thought twice before challenging me,” He said with a victorious grin.
Raising the axe into the air the snake man let out a laugh at the one who had challenge him. Seeing his chance Antonio pivoted his body upward slamming the spike he had formed from his brace straight into the snake’s throat. The laughter turned to gurgling and the blood began to spill. He clutched at his throat as if to try and stop the bleeding. Within moments the snake man thudded to the floor in a growing pool of blood, dead.
Antonio retrieved his sword and looked to the crowd who was stunned in silence. “Who’s next?” He asked.
Once the group finally processed what had happened they began moving toward the two men as a group. They were not going to fight one on one again; they intended to take advantage in numbers. It was as they began to become surrounded Antonio had a plan.
Trent saw the look in Antonio’s eyes speaking their human tongue. “Oh man I hope you have an idea. We’re in such deep shit and we can use some of your crazy.”