Alfheim Read online

  I mumbled a question, “Far Striker?”

  The overlays spun to life, in my vision, providing tactical and historical data on Kara as she asked, “Far Striker? Is that what they call you?” Then she hmmed and said she nudged her chin over my shoulder at my bow, “Fitting.”

  I started to reply then hesitated and asked, “Shamed?”

  My eyes widened when the message scrolled. “You did not acknowledge us until now. We will do Far Striker proud. We will protect our charge.”

  I sputtered out, “I'm not ashamed of... Zeus' Balls, I didn't even know I could communicate with you.”

  Kara crossed her arms with an infinitely patient and amused look on her face as I spoke to the air, and shared, “You look like a crazy woman speaking to the air. You can just think to them, they are part of you now and are monitoring all your brain activity.”

  I smirked and shoved her shoulder. “Who says I'm not crazy?”

  “Fair point.” Then she paled. “Kroth, Father is going to have a fit.”

  The Verr seemed satisfied with my confusion. And me thinking about Odin had an informational data stream about him show up in my peripheral vision. I asked Kara, “Is it... do they feed you information at all times like this? Can you shut it off?” With that thought, ten or twelve overlays seemed to blink out of existence leaving only one, identifying items and their composition that were around me.

  She sighed. “Pretty much. You can limit the input, but again, they are part of you now. It is a symbiotic relationship.”

  I blurted, “Far Striker? So what name did they come up with for you?”

  She stilled, and I froze, feeling like I was in the presence of a wild animal who was about to bolt as she said in a slightly hoarse tone, “We don't speak of the names our Verr give to us, just like we don't speak about each other's auras.”

  Oh.

  I felt as if I had committed a social blunder. Even with the centuries I have spent in Valhalla with the Asgard and the United Races, I still find there are things I don't fully understand. I diverted the conversation, “How can you deal with some of the bright auras? I mean, looking at the Three Embers now is like staring into the sun.”

  She chuckled and nodded at that. “It is, isn't it? You will get used to it over time. You're like a baby Valkyrie right now, never having had the Valkyrie sight, it can be disconcerting.”

  I saw Aphrodite poking her head around the corner at the end of the... hall... behind me? What the? I realized I was being fed information in a three hundred and sixty degree view. Dite's smile bloomed and her hair swirled from blonde to purple as she started toward us. Tych, just what we needed was a mischievous Dite.

  Under my breath, I blurted quickly, “Valkyrie? Would I not be just Asgard?”

  She shook her head and whispered, one eye watching the woman swaying seductively down the hall, “They are not the standard Asgard nanites, they are the evolved, sentient Verr of the Valkyrie. We are now sisters in more than one sense now.”

  Then my sister smirked at me and said as she nudged her eyes toward the predator stalking us, “Looks like someone has an admirer. Is there something you'd like to share?”

  I muttered one of Kate's favorite curses, “For fuck's sake, Kara. She seduced me... now I'm doomed.”

  “Poor baby.” She chuckled at me and I shoved her shoulder again.

  Dite called out, “There you two are. Zeus and Hera are ready to continue. And you naughty girls are hiding out here, whispering sweet nothings to each other. I can show you two more... interesting activities to...”

  I blurted as my cheeks burned in a blush, “Dite! Behave!”

  She smirked at Kara and asked salaciously, “Behave? Now, where's the fun in that?” Then she winked at us and looped her arms in ours and started dragging us down the hall to the control room. Kara blushing as profusely as me over the prolonged contact with the tittering woman who knew exactly what she was doing.

  Kara started breathing again when Aphrodite released her then glommed onto my arm, laying her head on my shoulder as her hair streaked itself in blondes, pinks, and purples, calling out to those gathered around the holographic displays of a myriad of people of all races who we have been discussing tactics with from multiple worlds, “Found them! They were in a passionate embrace down the hall, the naughty girls.”

  Kara spluttered out, “We were talking, not...”

  I held a hand up to stop her and said, “Don't let her get a rise out of you Kara, or you'll be a priority target for her teasing. Just go with it and it will be less painful and embarrassing.”

  Dite pouted and asked, “Painful? I can kiss it and make it...”

  Zeus and Hera snapped out, “Dite!”

  She smirked, telling me who her real targets had been. She feels slighted that they have not been including her in the talks, she's just been crashing them like now. As... distracting, as the woman can be, she is actually one of the more deadly fighters and tacticians we have. She just prefers to be a lover instead of a fighter.

  The wide gold bracelets on her wrists were anything but. They were some of Hephaestus' best work. An achievement with nanobots that rivaled Asgard nanite tech. With the flick of a wrist, one bracelet folded out into an almost impossibly thin bow constructed of pure carbon enhanced trilithium alloy. Stronger than titanium.

  The other supplied her with almost three dozen impossibly thin arrows of the same alloy, that had a vibro core in the arrowheads spun of a silklike spiderweb of trilithium. Each had penetrating power twice that of my broader arrowheads into that ungodly Jotunn armor.

  She was, for lack of a better word, Olympus' seductive assassin.

  I noted all of the techs were in the meeting. Over half our population had already gone through the Bifrost on Windriders, the rest who were gathering materials and supplies would follow long before the star killers were in range.

  My heart was still heavy, knowing the Titans would likely obliterate the citadel in our absence. Zeus and Hera were thinking about setting an automated self destruct once the last of us abandoned our home, just so that the Titans wouldn't be able to discern how we have hidden from them all these eons.

  Likely that is why everyone was gathered tightly around Arina, murmuring in low voices. I had to shield my eyes as the Little One was almost as bright as the Three Embers who were sitting at some consoles on the other side of the control room, their eyes tracking something. They were likely in talks with representatives from the other races on the various planets about relocating some of our people or allocating supplies for our refugees.

  They didn't need any consoles or any other equipment to tie into the information and communications systems of Valhalla, being the first children ever born with evolved nanites flowing through their veins. It was supposed to be impossible, as a fetus is isolated from the mother's body, and nanites are supposed to only affect the person they were keyed to. Yet here they were.

  They had that odd synchronicity that unnerved many people, as their Verr were in constant contact with each other, sharing sensory information. Unlike us, they saw this as normal, since they, unlike us, had had the input from the Verr since birth and viewed it simply as any other sense like hearing or sight. Though they do not speak of it, and we do not ask, we believe they share more than we believe. We think anything one sees or hears, the others do as well. And if true, they likely have a way to gain some privacy from the other two when needed. If not, it must get really awkward for Samantha whenever Essa or Brunie get intimate with their mates.

  Odds were each of the girls were conducting a half dozen conversations each over the interstellar communications network without uttering a single word verbally here. They were so amazing, and by Asgard tradition, they were my nieces and I was so proud and awed by them.

  Kara called out as mother, father, and about a dozen holograms, turned toward us, “Well met, everyone. What has the brainiacs all atwitter?”

  Arina's eyes
widened and she rushed over, Thea lumbering beside her, towering over all in the room. “Well met, Kara, Artemis. We've devised a way to charge the citadel's jump drive, cutting centuries off the process.” Her lips scrunched to one side in an adorable manner as she added when Thea gave her a patient look, “Or burn it out completely.”

  She was bright and chirpy about it. Then I realized why. It didn't really matter if they succeeded or not if we were going to destroy the Citadel anyway. But this news had hope singing through my veins. I thought, “She's such a treasure.”

  The Little One blushed and squeaked out, “Thank you.” Then she froze when she realized I hadn't voiced anything. Tych! Was I broadcasting on that nanite communication frequency Kara the girls always speak of?

  Her eyes started going wide in horror, and I sighed heavily and raised a hand to stop the inevitable questions. I was about to just get it out in the open when Brunie's eyes regained their focus and she pivoted in her seat toward us as she stated matter of factly, “Aunt Artie got her ass all Valkyried. She's been trying to hide it. She thinks things will get awkward.”

  The other Embers tittered, their eyes still glassy and focused on something we couldn't see.

  The room was silent, even some of the holograms who were conversing with each other or people off screen stopped and turned toward me. Kara looked overly smug. Grr. I shrugged and said sheepishly, “Umm, hi everyone, I suppose I'm the First Valkyrie of Olympus then.” Not that Olympus would exist in less than two weeks.

  I saw a million questions in everyone's eyes, and before they could start in on me, I turned to Arina again, “So, you can save the citadel? Charge the jump capacitors so we can space fold out?”

  She was nodding as Thea shook her head. They looked at each other, then Arina shook her head as Thea nodded. They grinned at each other, and Thea reached out to caress Arina's hair like one would a favorite pet. It was one of the habits the Titan was trying to break herself of, but it was so ingrained in her from eons ago, back to the very creation of the Olympians. She had to remind herself constantly that we and the other races were equals, not pets.

  Arina didn't mind. Instead, she blushed at the contact. She may look barely older than a child, but she is still old enough to remember the taboo of touching in public, though she is quite an enthusiastic hugger now.

  The blonde Valkyriefrior supplied, “Yes... but it will take too long. The Star Killers will be within range of their main weapons thirteen hours before there is enough energy stored to make a safe jump. Eleven hours if the Citadel folds to Alfheim instead, since the gravitational wakes and eddies are almost nonexistent along the axis between them and Olympus.”

  I sighed, knowing why she looked dubious. The Elves barely tolerate Valhalla transitioning to their planet every five thousand years in the cosmic cycle. And only do then because the Asgard have been visiting their planet for eons before the Elves ever existed. The odds of them allowing yet another race to co-exist with them was slim to none.

  So this revelation was irrelevant anyway, since the odds we could hold off a Star Killer, let alone two, for thirteen hours were almost nonexistent. The makeshift Asgard shield Arina devised for the citadel could take a few direct hits or even a sustained blast from the Star Killer main weapon, but two? Even if it didn't overwhelm the shield systems, that much energy being deflected would turn the planet surface for hundreds of miles around to slag and we would be lost anyway.

  Kara sighed, reading something into the situation that I wasn't grasping. “So what you're saying, is that we need to delay the Titans for thirteen hours. A diversion.”

  Arina bounced on her toes as she and Thea and all the other techs said in unison, “Yes.”

  Again, the Valkyrie that gave pause to entire Ragnarok armies, sighed. I looked at the hologram of Odin's workshop in Valhalla when someone chuckled. I grinned at Kate as Kara smirked, “That's enough out of you love.”

  Then she looked back to Hera as the Valkyrie started striding toward the door without hesitation. “Thirteen hours? Alright... I'll need as many of those portable jump packs as you can spare.”

  Zeus called out, “What are you planning?”

  It would have sounded foolish coming from anyone else's mouth, but the First Valkyrie of Valhalla called out as she disappeared down the hall toward the courtyard, “To draw a line in space, and dare the Titans to cross it.”

  Father sputtered out, “That's madness. You can't do...”

  Kara's final words as the doors closed behind her, “I will hold the line.”

  And as impossible as it sounds. I believe she could buy us those extra hours we would need at the end of the two-week journey the Star Killers were undertaking.

  Father spun to Arina as Inatra stepped up behind her to rest her hands on her shoulders, and he asked, “Is she insane?”

  Arina was shaking her head as Inatra said with all the pride in the world, “No, Zeus, she is Valkyrie.” She said it with so much reverence and admiration.

  Mother was in motion, calling out to Hephaestus, “Bring the Asgardian any jump packs we can spare!”

  I corrected. “Asgard, mother, not Asgardian,” as I followed Hep out with mother, my mind whirling, wondering just what improbable plan my Asgard sister had in mind. I suppressed a smile as I realized the Three Embers were almost stuck to my side.

  I also realized I still heard Kate chastising from the hologram in the control room as we went, “Kara! Kara, don't do anything reckless. I know you can hear me you impulsive Valkyrie. Kara?” I noticed the holograms were all accessible to me in my peripheral in an overlay in my vision. I had to think out, “Stop giving me everything I think of, I'm not used to it and it gets confusing and overwhelming. I need my focus.”

  I swear the tiny machines infesting my body were amused as the overlay blinked out of existence, it was just an impression. Then my eyes widened when a message scrolled under my vision with the spaces of the letters far apart, “We Verr can speak slowly to our confused charge so Far Striker can understand.”

  They were... teasing me? Why the smartass little... ok, I definitely felt their amusement now. I was going to have to have a long talk with them if we all survived this encounter with the Titans. Their idea of humor was similar to... ah ha! Pegasus and I were going to have to have a talk too, as it seems that Sky humor is rubbing off on the Verr.

  The Three Embers turned to me and Sam asked, “Stop giving you what?” They... heard me? Then they all exchanged a look and hid their smiles behind their hands.

  Essa laid her head on my shoulder as we walked. “You have to learn not to broadcast like mom does, Aunt Artemis. You can isolate your thoughts to address just one person with evolved nanites, or your nanites themselves. Otherwise, you are just shouting out into the void for all of us to hear.”

  I sputtered out, “You can hear my thoughts?”

  Brunie assured me, “Only when you are wanting to communicate with someone. It is almost subconscious. You must have wanted to tell your Verr something so the intent of communication opened you up like an intercom. Think specifically of who to address when you think of communicating, and a dedicated link is created, sparing us all from your silly thoughts.”

  The way they rotated in speaking with people had long ago stopped being disconcerting to me. So I nodded and thought of Brunhilde and thought, “Thanks short stuff.”

  When the three girls giggled at me like I was a fascinating new project, Sam sighed out in my mind, “Well for the others. Our Verr...” She made a motion with her hand including the other two Embers, and Essa finished, “Are shared between us.”

  Brunie pouted out loud, “And I'm not short. I'm taller than you.”

  I winked at her and said, “You are the shortest, sweetest, and most caring Ragnarok I know.”

  She blushed under the praise and it looked so good on the delicate features of the muscled girl. She got the best of both worlds from her parents. The powerful strength of the
Ragnarok, and the exquisite beauty of the Asgard. She looked so much like Arina when she smiled.

  Dite asked from behind us, the three hundred and sixty-degree data feed kicking in even before I turned around, “What are you four talking about? It's a little confusing to follow.” Then she winked at Sam who started blushing the moment we realized we weren't alone. Had Aphrodite been behind us the whole time?

  I hid a smirk as the other two Embers moved slightly to impose themselves between Samantha and Dite. They were so very protective of the most innocent of the three and knew how Dite already liked to tease her suggestively. Samantha was the thinker of the three, and pursued knowledge over most anything else. Her mother, Kate uses an old Terran term for her... bookish. But she always applies it in a loving and proud manner.

  We arrived in the courtyard by the makeshift Bifrost terminal just as a Windrider slid through the event horizon, frost sizzling off the nano-lattice protecting the vessel and the people inside.

  I had to smile at how Samantha seemed to perk up, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear and biting the corner of her lower lip when the cultural ambassador from Alfheim bounded off the ship when it settled beside the others that were ferrying Olympians and supplies through to Valhalla.

  In recent years with my time in Valhalla, I've had the pleasure of knowing a total of seventeen Elves personally, or as they call themselves, Ljósálfar, Light Elves. Their current society has developed to what would be the equivalent of the medieval era of Earth but rapidly modernizing as they fraternize with us more advanced races and they see what is possible. Though many still say that technology is nothing but trickery or magic.

  The Elves are a lightning fast, wiry race, with fine features and of all things, pointy ears. Those ears, when coupled with the rare smile we can coax from them, made them devastatingly sexy. That alluring look can distract from the fact that they are the quickest of all the races, with reflexes bordering on the improbable.

  They, unfortunately, have exceedingly short lifespans, like those of the few humans unaided by Asgard nanites. So I have seen the Alfheim diplomatic peace ambassador assigned to Valhalla age and pass on, time and again, just to be replaced with another. They are a beautiful and brilliant light that flares in the darkness and dies like a flame on the wind just as quickly as they came.