The Last Valkyrie

by Dietmar Wehr

  “As it happens, the Spitzbergen island off the coast of Norway, has just come over the horizon. My long range opticals are showing lots of blowing snow with wind speeds estimated to be high enough that the air-jeep might experience stability problems. A gust of wind might be enough to flip it over and crash, Troy.”

  “Thank you,” said Ronson as he turned back to McKnight. “Well?”

  McKnight shook her head. “That sounds too risky for the Flush too if you really want to know what I think. Sure the Flush is a lot bigger and harder to flip over, but she could still be damaged during landing or takeoff if a gust of wind pushes her sideways too quickly. I was told to co-operate with you and Val Ky Ree, but I’m still responsible if anything happens to the Flush, and I still have the right to say no if I think my ship will be exposed to unnecessary risk.”

  “Are you saying no?” asked Ronson.

  McKnight hesitated and then said, “Yeah. I’m saying no.”

  Turning away Ronson said, “Val Ky Ree, is there anywhere near the vault where you could set the ship down?”

  “Nothing within walking distance, Troy. There’s a plateau about 15.4 kilometers away, but I would not recommend you trying to walk that distance, and if you take the air-jeep, then there’s no reason for me to land instead of hovering right over the vault.”

  Turning back to McKnight again, Ronson said, “If you won’t take me down to the surface, will you at least keep the Flush onboard Val Ky Ree’s ship?”

  She shook her head again. “Nope. There’s no sense in doing that. I may as well take the Flush back to Vesta on my own while you and Val Ky Ree poke around in the snow and ice to your heart’s content.”

  Ronson started to feel some anger. “So if I take the air-jeep and a gust of wind flips me over and I crash upside down, I’m on my own then, because you won’t be there to help and there’s nothing that Val Ky Ree could do to help, right?”

  McKnight shrugged. “I guess so, but no one’s holding a gun to your head, Troy. If you think it’s too risky, then don’t do it. We don’t even know if the incubator data can be retrieved from the Command Base, so why not get an answer to that question first? If the answer is yes, then you can worry about the damn seed vault!”

  Ronson took a deep breath to calm himself down before replying. “Because we’re here now, and Val Ky Ree doesn’t need to be anywhere else at the moment. I’m guessing that trying the get the data from Command Base will require some serious preparation. Am I right about that, Val Ky Ree?”

  “You are correct, Troy. Some specialized equipment will have to be manufactured first, and the actual attempt can not be done by one person. I’d estimate that the minimum complement would be six people who will have to get some training in the Aesirian language first. You’ve already done it and know how long that took.”

  “So before we go to all that trouble, it makes sense to determine if we can get access to the vault and if the embryonic seeds are still viable. That being the case, I’m asking you again to take me down in the Flush or at the very least accompany Val Ky Ree down there and stand by in case I need help.”

  “Sorry. I won’t risk the Flush, not with conditions on the surface as they are now, and I’m not prepared to wait until conditions improve. You’ve got your cold weather gear, so I’ll be taking the Flush home now.” With that she nodded to him, boarded the Busted Flush, and closed the cargo hatch. Ronson watched as the tiny ship carefully taxied over to the large hangar airlock which closed off the rest of the hangar bay during depressurization. By the time he got back to the Bridge, the Busted Flush had exited the larger ship and was accelerating away.

  “Waiting for calmer weather may not be such a bad idea, Troy. I would feel terrible if your air-jeep crashed and I was unable to render assistance. We’re not in a hurry right now. Let’s wait at least a couple of days to see if condition change.”

  Ronson very much wanted to say no because he was anxious to find out if they were wasting their time on this entire concept, but he also felt some fear at the risks involved, and those cancelled out the impatience. “Okay, we’ll wait a few days. Can you at least determine if the vault entrance is still intact?”

  “Yes, Troy, I can, and I have. Now that I know where to look, I can see the entrance tunnel quite clearly, and it appears to be intact. How about a game of chess to get your mind off of this delay? I’ll spot you a two-pawn advantage this time just to make it interesting, okay?”

  Chapter Ten:

  Two days later, Ronson was standing in the cavernous hangar bay, watching the large screen that was showing the external view as the ship descended into Earth’s atmosphere at supersonic speed. According to Val Ky Ree’s radar scans, they were over water, but it was impossible for Ronson to confirm that visually due to the fact that all he was seeing was endless ice.

  “We’re coming up on Spitzbergen island, Troy. That’s a funny name for an island, don’t you think?”

  Ronson laughed. “If you ask me, it’s a funny name for anything, but I’m sure it’s not considered funny by the people who used to live in this part of the world. I think I see the island now.” After a few more seconds, he was sure of it. The island had enough rocky terrain that some of it was actually poking out of the ice and snow. The ship was slowing down rapidly now. When it came to a complete stop and was hovering roughly 50 meters over the surface, Val Ky Ree brought the bow of the ship around so that the external optics were looking at the vault entrance.

  “That’s it?” asked Ronson in surprise. “Are you sure you have the right location, Val Ky Ree?”

  “To the extent that this is the only island within a thousand of your kilometers that has any kind of underground structure on it, I’m sure, Troy. What you’re seeing is just the end of the sheltered access portal. The rest of the portal extends another 34 meters and is presently covered by snow and ice. My radar scans show a metal door at the far end of the portal. I suspect it will be locked and may also be jammed due to stresses from the asteroid strike earthquake. One of my repair bots equipped with a laser cutter should be able to cut through the door for you.”

  “I’d like to check out the door myself before we start damaging this structure. I’ll get the cold weather gear on now.” By the time he had the thick pants, coat, gloves and insulated boots on, the massive external hangar bay hatch was fully open, and Ronson could feel the wave of frigid air rush in. He nodded with approval at Val Ky Ree having rotated the ship once again so that rear of the ship, where the hangar bay entrance was, was now only a few dozen meters from the vault portal. She had also brought the ship down so that it was hovering less than five meters off the ground. Since the vault was on the edge of the island with rocky ridges over the vault itself and ice-covered water close to the entrance, actually landing the ship was impossible.

  “Okay, Val Ky Ree, I’m ready to go. How fast are the winds gusting?”

  “I don’t think you have to worry about that, Troy. The winds are coming from offshore, and the ship is blocking most of the winds from around the portal entrance. You might experience a little bit of turbulence from the air flowing underneath the ship, but it should be manageable.”

  “Good. Here we go!” The air-jeep rose from the hangar bay deck and flew out of the open hatch into the natural light. Ronson was surprised how hazy the light was considering that there were no clouds in the sky at the moment. It’s gotta be the damned dust in the atmosphere, he thought. As the air-jeep descended, he made sure that any gusts of wind from under the ship would hit the air-jeep from the back and not from the side, having reasoned that it would be easier to flip the air-jeep side to side versus end to end. When the air-jeep did drop low enough to be in the path of the wind from under the ship, Ronson did notice an increase in turbulence, but Val Ky Ree was right. It was manageable. He settled the air-jeep down on a relatively flat and level section of snow-covered ice about three meters from the portal entrance. The rectangular entrance looked like it was made of concrete sides and
a concrete roof. The floor was covered in snow. With the air-jeep now powered down, he climbed out and sank into the snow up to his knees.

  By the time he was inside the portal, he was panting from the exertion. As he continued deeper into the portal, he noticed that the depth of the snow cover was diminishing, and it was getting a lot darker. Halfway to the door, the snow cover was gone, and he was walking on concrete. His portable light provided plenty of illumination, and he was able to see that there were a lot of cracks in the floor, walls and ceiling. The steel door at the far end looked like it had come out of a bank vault except that there was no spoked wheel to turn. Instead, there were seven handles, one above another. There was also writing on the door, and some of it was in English.

  “Very clever,” said Ronson. “They designed a lock that is mechanical, simple enough not to become inoperable after a long period of time, but also difficult enough to discourage anyone tempted to raid the vault just for the hell of it. There are seven bolts that slide sideways. The vault won’t open until all seven have been pulled to one side BUT they have to be pulled over one at a time and in the right order. If someone tries it with the wrong order, the vault door will stay locked. Do you have something that can detect the layout of the lock mechanism inside the door so that we can figure out what order to move the bolts?”

  “I do. I’ll send a repair bot that can scan the vault door interior with ultra-high sound waves.”

  Ronson waited, trying not to think about how cold it was even with the heavy clothing he wore. It wasn’t long before one of Val Ky Ree’s repair bots floated down in front of the entrance. Ronson’s initial surprise at its ability to levitate itself was soon gone when he realized that these repair bots had to be able to move around outside the ship in deep space if needed and therefore had their own propulsion systems. There was barely enough room between the portal roof and the snow bank for the bot to get through. Once inside, it quickly moved toward that door, and Ronson had to flatten himself against one wall to make enough room for the unit to pass by. The scanning took a full minute, and then the bot used a mechanical arm to manipulate the bolts in the required order. It then grabbed the door handle and pulled. The door began to swing open, but very slowly, and Ronson heard a loud screeching sound of metal scrapping against metal.

  “The door is no longer perfectly aligned with the frame, Troy. The earthquake has clearly shifted the overall alignment. Once we get the door open, we may not be able to close it again.”

  Ronson shrugged. “Well, if we can’t, then we can’t. We don’t have to worry about someone else stealing samples now.”

  As the huge door swung open, the bot moved back, and Ronson squeezed past it. He aimed his light inside and saw another less imposing door at the opposite end of a small room. There were indicator panels on one wall. Ronson surmised that they were intended to monitor the interior of the vault. They weren’t showing anything, and a quick check confirmed that the panel was without power. When he looked at the second door again, he noticed that it had a very ordinary-looking knob. With a shrug, he walked over and tried turning it. To his surprise, the knob turned, and when he pulled on it, the door opened.

  His light revealed row upon row of metal shelves that contained plastic containers. As he stepped inside and walked over to the nearest row, he said, “I’m into the vault now. I see lots of storage shelves with containers. They look like they’re all labeled, and I’ll know in a second if my hunch that these are plant seeds is correct. Ah, yup. These containers are for seeds. The labels all have pictures of plants in addition to written description in a language that isn’t English, but there’s no doubt in my mind that these are not the frozen embryos or sperm of animals. I’d expect those to be stored in something a little more complicated than a plastic container. At least the temperature in here doesn’t require power to keep the place cold. It’s just as cold inside as outside. My initial impression is that this vault is huge, so you may not hear anything from me for a while as I explore this place. Is my signal getting through okay?”

  “I’m detecting some loss of signal strength, but I can still understand you so far, Troy. I can tell the repair bot to follow you just to make sure you’re okay.”

  “Well, if it can squeeze through the second door, okay, then sure, let it tag along.”

  Ronson walked down the row to the far end looking for another door, but found nothing. The repair bot, apparently able to get through the second doorway, was following him about two meters back. Turning to one side, Ronson went as far as he could, and when he hit a corner, he turned left to head back along that side wall. At the far end was another door with another simple knob that opened when he tried it. And on the other side of that door was another very large room with more rows containing seed containers.

  As he panned his light from one side to the other, he suddenly realized how quiet it was. There wasn’t even any static from his radio link with Val Ky Ree. He gave a chuckle and said, “Can you hear me now?” No reply. He recognized the irony that Aesirian technology could communicate faster than light, but still couldn’t penetrate meters of rock.

  The exploration of the second room revealed nothing new, and there were no signs of any frozen animal embryos or sperm. With no more doors to check out, he came back to the first room and stopped at the doorway leading to the entrance. “Can you hear me, Val Ky Ree?”

  “Yes, Troy. I can hear you now.”

  “I found and explored another room just like this one. I tried calling you, but clearly the signal didn’t get through. No sign of the frozen genetic material yet, so I’m going to look at the opposite side of this first room. We’ll probably lose contact again. How’s the weather out there now?”

  “The winds are starting to pick up, and visibility is starting to drop due to blowing snow. I would recommend that you finish your search as quickly as possible, Troy.”

  “Understood. I’m resuming my search now.”

  Ronson walked more quickly this time, but he was conscious of the need not to exert himself so much that he started sweating. As he had suspected, there was another door in the far wall, which opened into another large room. His initial reaction upon seeing more rows of seed containers was a sense of despair, but he checked out the room by looking down each row and making a complete circuit of the outside walls just as he had done with the second room. When he saw the metal structure that looked like a high-tech refrigerator, he gave a shout of eureka that echoed so loudly it made him jump in surprise. The metal cabinet had writing on it, but none in English. He grabbed the handle and pulled. There was a click, and the door swung open. Inside were stacked trays holding tiny containers. Each container was labelled and had the outline of an animal.

  “Bingo.” After checking that all the containers appeared to still be frozen solid, he closed the door and heard the mechanism click. Turning around, he saw the repair bot and said, “Okay R2D2, let’s get back to the Millenium Falcon.”

  As soon as he reached the first room, he tried calling Val Ky Ree. When she finally heard him, he told her the good news and that he was on his way back. With the help of the repair bot, he was able to get the massive door closed. He was dismayed to see lots of blowing snow when he reached the portal entrance.

  “Flying the jeep up without being flipped over is going to be a bitch, Val Ky Ree. Any suggestions?”

  “Actually, I do, Troy. The repair bot is almost as massive as the air-jeep, and it’s much more compact and therefore less likely to be flipped over by a gust of wind. If it grabs on to the air-jeep, it can act as a counter-balance to any wind gust.”

  “Sounds good!” yelled Ronson in order to be heard over the sound of the wind. “I’m climbing into the jeep now!”

  When the bot was in position and had used its mechanical arm to grab hold of the air-jeep, Ronson applied power to the anti-gravity lifters very slowly. As soon as the air-jeep started to lift, the repair bot did the same. Ronson’s plan was to go straight up until the air
-jeep was in calmer air directly behind the ship and only then move the air-jeep forward toward the open hangar bay hatch. Even with the attached repair bot, the air-jeep wobbled alarmingly from the wind gusts for the first few meters. As soon as they were high enough for the ship to block the wind, the turbulence disappeared, and Ronson applied forward thrust. Ten minutes later he was on the Bridge, and the ship was on its way to Vesta.

  Chapter Eleven:

  The Emergency Committee was pleased with the results of Ronson’s excursion to the planet’s surface and the potential for the recovery of a lot of Earth’s indigenous flora and fauna. They were less pleased when they learned what it would take to exploit that potential. Trained engineering and tech specialists were not in plentiful supply, and what few there were already had long lists of projects to work on. Taking six engineers away from those tasks and training them in the Aesirian language for up to two weeks would have all kinds of ripple effects on the completion times of dozens of other projects that were deemed important. In addition, the Aesirian manufacturing system would have to be reprogrammed to assemble the specialized equipment that the engineers would need to re-activate the Command Base. With the second Spearthrower craft still being assembled, a decision to shift production over to the Command Base equipment would mean delaying completion of the second craft. If the craft were to be finished first, then the engineers would have to wait another week or more for the equipment to be produced.