“What about me? I’m not real. Will I be okay going to your planet in my virtual body?” Ingrid asked.
“Yes. As long as we keep that portal open and active, Zoey remains alive, and you remain the virtual girl with a scar. Again, since we never met you – what is your name again?”
“Ingrid.”
“Since we never met Ingrid, we don’t know if you are Loki in disguise or not. We know for sure that one of you is Loki, and we need to figure out who it is before we free you. Harlee, and – who is that other young man?”
“Brian.”
“Harlee and Brian will be safe also. We’ll get you all back to Earth as soon as this debacle is cleared up permanently. In the meantime, I will have to imprison you on my ship. We’ll treat you as well as we can, but you won’t be allowed to do anything.”
“Will you need this? We took the story transporter from Loki when he was fighting with Stein.” Ingrid pulled the laptop out of her satchel.
Freya nodded, “Yes, that needs to be protected to keep Zoey alive. They were fighting? Hmmm, that explains all the blood. Guards, will you take that and lock it up in a safe place?”
“Yes, your Majesty.” One of the burly looking Viking guards bowed and took the computer from Ingrid’s possession.
“I will say one thing, Loki – you’re clever. You figured out how to attach this portal to my personal ship. No reason to cross over the Bifrost Bridge when you are already on my vessel.”
That wasn’t Loki’s original intent, but Ingrid knew he wouldn’t contradict the queen. She had told him he was clever, and an egotistical narcissist would love the compliment – even if things didn’t go as he had originally planned. He still managed to reach his ultimate goal, and that was to return to Asgard. Ingrid didn’t know how he would be able to escape prison, but she was sure he had ideas already forming inside his demented trickster mind.
The five shackled young people followed Freya up the ladder and into her ship. The guards were behind them to ensure that no one escaped. They shut the hatch to the room where Zoey sat unconscious, but Ingrid looked back to make sure it didn’t disappear. As long as that door to her real body existed, she felt she could believe that Freya would find a way to release her.
They walked behind Freya, and she took them past things that looked like miniature Viking dragon boats, except they were made out of metal and looked like they could fly like a ride at an amusement park. Ingrid noticed Brian mouthing to Harlee, “Star Trek”, which made her see similarities to the fictional television show – the vessels did look like some kind of spacecraft. Then they walked through doors that opened automatically when Freya waved her banded wrist in front of a scanner at their side. Ingrid could swear the sound the scanner and doors made resembled the computer generated noise of doors opening in a Star Trek episode.
Harlee and Zoey weren’t as huge Star Trek fans as Brian. He eventually got Stein to like the show, and they watched marathons of the movies and episodes together whenever the boys felt like binging the old sci-fi show. Ingrid longed for the simpler days of cheap date nights or for anything to end this nightmare that never seemed to have a conclusion. Her friends were more bewildered than upset, but they were getting to see a world that only existed in books and on the screen. Though they were frightened, the awe of this whole place was helping them deal better with their fears than Ingrid – at least outwardly. She recalled hating being the third wheel when her friends had invited her on their dates. She thought it was the worst thing ever, but now, if she could go back to that and forget bloodied beasts in a stinky forest, she would do it in a heartbeat. Stein had made them a foursome who could go on double dates, but now knowing he was from another world made her realize when this was over, she would probably go back to being Harlee and Brian’s single friend.
They walked into a hallway lined with doors. The flooring looked metal but it was soft, so the sound of their shoes didn’t clunk as loudly as expected. The corridor seemed to go on for a long time, but they finally reached a door that Freya proceeded to open with her security band. As they went through the door, Ingrid saw a large room with plasma-looking screens that half-circled the front of the room. She wondered if the displays were hooked up to a live feed of a space satellite because they all showed a vast darkness with what appeared to be stars and planets dotting a black void.
“What the-?” Brian nearly choked out the words.
Ingrid looked below the television screens and saw control panels of buttons and levers that lit up. It reminded her of an airport’s control tower or a mission control center for a space shuttle launch that she’d seen in a movie. Each section of the lighted panels were being monitored and manipulated by someone. As Ingrid looked more closely, they didn’t seem like average people; they were all dressed like Freya or the Vikings of mythology.
“What is this place?” Harlee asked. “It looks like the future and the past merged together.”
Ingrid didn’t understand what Harlee meant by the future and the past, but the longer they observed the goings on in that multiple-screened room, the more she understood what she was actually viewing – the television monitors were windows!
“Are we in outer space?” Ingrid questioned.
“Honey, you’re in another universe!” Freya said cheerfully.
“No freakin way!” Harlee exclaimed.
Freya pointed to a set of planets to the left. “Those planets belong to Thor and his people.” Then she pointed to a distant star to the right. “That is too far to see, but it is the planet called Asgard that Odin and I live on. We were heading there before Loki’s portal disrupted our flight.”
“When you said ship, I was thinking about something in the middle of the ocean,” Ingrid whispered out of embarrassment.
“We have to go a little farther to get you to the prison cells. We converted regular rooms so your stay will be more comfortable, since you don’t all deserve to be locked up. I took you to the ship’s bridge to show you around while the rooms were being transformed. Is there any other place you would like to see before getting put into confinement?”
“Do you have a galley? I’m starving,” Brian said tentatively.
Everyone laughed, and Harlee commented, “We’re probably a million miles away from home, Zoey’s life is in danger, and you want to eat. Leave it to Brian to worry about his stomach while our lives fall apart.”
“Correction,” Freya said, “You can’t measure your home from my planet in miles. We exist in a realm that is in between your minutes and seconds. That is why time is so different on our planet compared to yours.”
“That’s right; Stein explained to us why you stopped letting your people on Earth – because a year on Earth is only a second in Valhalla and that could cause issues. Does that mean when we return home, hardly any time will have passed?” Brian asked.
“That’s correct, because the story transporter is on the Valhalla time zone – not Earth’s.”
A beautiful blonde-haired girl not much older than Ingrid approached the group. She was wearing a gown similar to Freya’s. “Queen, the rooms are ready for our gues – I mean, the prisoners.”
“Thank you, Saga. Guards, take the prisoners to their chambers.” Freya looked at all of them, and then went up to Ingrid and said, “Don’t worry about your fate. I’m confident we can figure out how to detach you from that awful machine. You know, the name Ingrid means beautiful in my world. You may not feel like Ingrid, but it isn’t a bad character to be while you wait to go back to being Zoey.”
Ingrid felt comforted by Freya’s kind words and smile. She didn’t know what her fate was going to be, but she finally felt safe, even if they were going to be confined for a while.
Chapter 21
The five young people were all locked into individual cells that were adjacent to each other in one long row. The doors were actually an electrified barrier that anyone could see in or out of, but they couldn’t escape without the guards deactivating them.
Each apartment had a porthole to see outside the vessel into space. They also had a window that opened on each side so that the prisoners could communicate with the person in the adjacent cell. There were curtains and locks on each window in case the occupants wanted privacy. Based on the comfortable beds and individual lavatories, Ingrid could see these were actual guest rooms that were converted to a prison – all they had done was take off the doors and replaced them with electric bars to keep the inhabitants from being able to leave.
Harlee was in between Brian and Ingrid’s chamber so they got to communicate with each other through the adjoining windows. This at least made Ingrid feel less isolated. One of the Steins was in the apartment on the other side of Ingrid’s but she didn’t know if she should talk to him. What if he was actually Loki? Would she be able to tell the difference?
As time passed, Ingrid wondered if it was night or day, which was impossible to figure out by looking since the windows showed only the black void of stars and planets. Eventually, the hallway lights dimmed so Ingrid thought that perhaps it was evening. Harlee and Brian were already snoring like they had in the cave, so they must have felt like it was bedtime. Ingrid shut the window that connected to Harlee’s room to block out the noise. Stein knocked on the opening adjoining their rooms. Ingrid decided it couldn’t hurt to at least try to talk to him. She slid the curtain and glass to the side.
He smiled at her and said, “You’re a sight for sore eyes. I’ve been feeling a little left out, but I assumed you didn’t know if you could trust me. It sucks that my brother can look just like me, but I am the real Stein.”
“I want to believe you, but Loki could say the same thing. I’m angry with Loki, and I don’t want to give him the time of day.”
“I could tell you something Loki doesn’t know anything about, but I’m afraid you won’t remember it until you go back to being Zoey.”
“What’s that?”
“On our first date when we were on Earth, I took you to see the movie Thor at the theater. I whispered into your ear that I thought you were the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.”
“You’re right – I don’t remember that, and truthfully, that seems like a load of horse dung. I think Loki tried to tell me the same crap, but I didn’t believe him either. Now that I see the people from your planet, I know it’s a lie. Everyone around here seems like models or actors with their chiseled physiques and gorgeous faces.”
Stein sighed, “The problem with you, Zoey, is that you base your worth on your accomplishments and physical beauty – or lack thereof. I saw it on Earth and in Tuntre. Sure, you were the girl with the scary scar that looked like the Web of Tuntre, but there is more to a person than what is on the outside. I didn’t say you were the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen because of your face alone. I said that because I saw potential in you that you didn’t know you had.”
Ingrid didn’t know if she should be ecstatic or wary of his words. She didn’t remember how long they had known each other, since she didn’t have all her memories restored, but she assumed it wasn’t long enough for Stein to know her capabilities.
“You can’t know more about me than my friends. We haven’t been in each other’s lives that long. No one has ever said that I have potential. If that were accurate, I would hope that the people who care about me would have told me that before a stranger would.”
Stein frowned. “I know that it seems like we are strangers, but I was dating you for a long time. You wrote some amazing stories besides the one your body is currently stuck in, and you had a subtle sense of humor that most missed. I know, I know – I’m wasting my breath explaining this to you. I wish things could have been different.”
“You sound like you’ve lost hope. Have you just accepted the fact that I’m going to be stuck on that virtual machine and Ingrid is all I’ll ever be?”
“No, but I have accepted the fact that Loki isn’t going to stay in prison for long and the first chance he gets to deceive everyone, he’s going to take it. I will probably end up in prison for the rest of my life for the crimes he’s committed while he gets to go free.”
“Now who sounds pessimistic? Remember you told me to have happy thoughts in the forest? Maybe you need to think about unicorns and rainbows too.”
Stein laughed. “How is that going to help me?”
“Well, I got you to focus on something other than being locked up forever.”
“True.”
“Do you know what time it is?”
“The lights on ships dim in the hallways around ten o’clock so it is a little after that.”
“How do you know that?”
“I served as a guard on Freya’s fleet. She knew me before this. Remember her talking about my mom? They were actually good friends.”
“You served as a guard. Wow! I didn’t expect to hear that. How old are you?”
“Does that matter?” Stein smiled at Ingrid and she felt embarrassed by the question though she didn’t know why.
“Not really, but I just assumed you were sixteen or seventeen. Loki had told me he was eighteen, and you said he was your older brother.”
“Loki lied to get close to you. As I said, he has a wife. He’s thirty, but he is able to keep his youthful appearance with his special abilities. I’m twenty, but does age really matter?
“I just feel super young now. You probably think I’m a silly teenager with all my angsts and insecurities. I don’t want to even think about how immature I probably sounded with any conversations we had in the past.”
“Your ‘silly teenager’ comment does make you sound young, but I seriously don’t think of you that way. We’re only a few years apart, and in my world, age really isn’t a big deal. I haven’t changed my appearance; I’ve just always looked a little younger than my age.”
“How many girlfriends did you have on Asgard?”
“You ask a lot of personal questions.” He laughed. “I don’t have any currently, but in the past, I only had a couple. My brother alluded to the fact that I don’t know how to have fun, and he’s right. I was studying a lot to become an officer in Queen Freya’s Space Force. The guard job was part of the training. Since I am so young, I wasn’t supposed to be able to even take the officer’s courses, but I tested out of all the preliminary classes. I don’t say any of that to brag but to explain that I was too busy studying to really have a social life. When I wasn’t doing that, I was trying to keep my brother from getting arrested or cheating on his wife.”
“Why worry so much about your brother? He’s ten years older than you. He should be looking out for you, not the other way around.”
“I know, but our parents died and Loki blames himself for their deaths. I think he will never forgive himself. I feel like sometimes he is just self-destructive as a punishment. I don’t even know why his wife puts up with him, but she loves him the way I do. We both feel like some day he will get past our parent’s death and become a responsible adult.”
Ingrid inwardly rebuked herself for missing his previous comments that Freya and his mom used to be friends. She was too impressed by his age and job duties to catch everything he was saying. Now she was sad for Stein – and maybe even a little for Loki. She may not have felt the attachment to her Tuntre parents that Hilde and Bjørn had felt towards theirs, but in a way, her friends had seemed like family. The thought of losing them made her feel an emptiness she couldn’t explain. When you love someone, a piece of your heart belongs to them forever. If any of her friends had died in the Beyond, that part of her heart would have remained with them. She would have felt the void just like she imagined Stein and Loki had with their deceased parents. Ingrid didn’t fully remember Zoey’s family, but she hoped that they were more like Hilde’s Tuntre parents than Ingrid’s. Her jumbled memories tried to pull out something painful that involved Zoey’s true parents and perhaps that was the real reason she could empathize with Stein and Loki’s loss.
“I’m so sorry, Stein. You seem to be tak
ing on a lot of responsibility. In the end, aren’t we all in control of our own choices? It may not be Loki’s fault for killing your parents, but you aren’t liable for how he feels either.”
“Maybe I am responsible for how he feels,” Stein yawned and averted his eyes from Ingrid’s. “You know, I’m getting tired. I think I’m going to go to bed. People get up early on this ship, and since there really isn’t any privacy, you’re going to be woken up whether you want to be or not. We might as well get as much rest as we can.”
“Okay. Goodnight, Stein – or whoever you are.”
Stein grimaced, and Ingrid thought he was probably her friend and not Loki. Actually, he was her boyfriend, if what he told her about their relationship was true. Ingrid wondered what scars Stein had from his own past. She wore the one on her face, but she knew there had to be more on her heart. Sometimes it was the scars and wounds that made people who they were as much as their accomplishments and successes. Ingrid knew she had more of the prior than the latter, and that Stein must have had some also.
Ingrid barely had a chance to get comfortable on the bed when a loud alarm sounded. The lights went back on to full power, and it was evident that her friends were wide awake.
“What in the goddess’s name is going on?” Harlee yelled.
Freya’s guards were running past their secured doorways with frantic looks on their faces. Ingrid looked out the portal to see if there was anything on the outside causing this reaction, but space looked as peaceful as it did before.
Stein opened up his window and knocked on Ingrid’s. She hurried over to talk to him.
“Do you know what is happening?”
The Web of Loki Page 16