by Per Holbo
Chapter 9: The Traitor
The virtual keys on the screen in front of Baldur were almost burning red hot as he entered the final changes in the systems controlling Miolner. As a pilot, he was accustomed to having to do things quickly, but algorithms and other math was not his usual territory, so this was more of a challenge than flying a new craft as a test pilot. He had only two minutes to fix it before the cannon had to be ready for firing again. At least there would be plenty of time to retype the next few sequences, when his friends were floating between the third and fourth membranes. The distance between them he had calculated to be less than a body length and they would experience it as no more than a split second. But since the time lag between the two membranes was about 953%, so for him there would be about half an hour between the two firings. The trip through the final membrane they had to do without his help, because Miolner couldn´t reach that far. On the other hand, it was important to get to the other side of Skrymers thumb very quickly, so that he could get into the non gravity pocket via the route Thor had just told him about. A route he had to take to save Thor. Baldur felt his head spin just thinking about it and he had a hard time understanding the principles of time. Thor had instructed him how to save Thor! Time travel... whew... insanity, that was! No one in his right mind could find that kind of science interesting and Baldur would never have agreed to any of this, if it hadn´t been for the sake of saving his friend. It was just too weird. Finally! That´s it! I´m done!
Baldur started up Miolner again with fingers crossed. Hopefully it work as intended. His three friends were to be thrown through the penultimate membrane with such speed that they would easily get to the final membrane and penetrate it. He waited impatiently for the humming sound of Miolner telling him everything was ready and then he fired the gun three times in rapid succession. Blam! Blam! Blam! He knew in advance that only the first two shots would reach their intended targets, but Thor had been very specific about this.
“You must act as if you know nothing. If you change anything based on what you think you know, you risk changing the chains of events in space and time. And then we have no way of knowing how everything ends.”
The first shot hit Freya as it should and she came safely through the final membrane. The second hit Thor in the very last moment, but the last shot bumped right into the wave, shortly after Thor pulled Sif through to safety. Now to the next phase of Thor´s plan: getting the ship turned around and hurry to save Thor at the exact coordinates, Thor had given him, however strange it all still sounded.