Page 1 of Vikingr
PROLOGUE
TWO YEARS AGO
Njal the Bloodthirsty
It had been a day like any other: we'd pillaged a spaceship, ransacked its hold and tied up the crew. Now we just had to wait for their ransom to be paid. They were a group of Kletorians, a weak species that preferred trade over warfare. They'd been idiots not to hire an armed escort in this part of the galaxy. Everyone knew this was our territory. The crew of the Valkyr was feared and admired, and I was proud to be their captain.
I was in the middle of sorting through a large crate when I felt it. A deep pain, somewhere between my heart and stomach, so sharp it made me gasp. Tears sprang to my eyes as I clutched my chest. Similar gasps and cries echoed through the large cargo hold. My crew felt the same pain. That worried me more than just my own health. Had the Kletorians launched a biological weapon? They weren't affected. But their curious, startled looks told me that they weren't the cause. Hope blossomed on their orange faces. If this mysterious pain crippled us, they might have a chance to escape.
I rose to my legs, fighting against the agony. My chest felt like it was about to explode. I'd never experienced anything like it. To my right, Rune was pale, his expression contorted. He was a berserkr, trained in the art of ignoring pain and injury. If he suffered as much as the rest of us, it was bad news.
Looking around the cargo hold, seeing my crew in pain, I didn't know what to do. I'd faced wars, pirates, and the Intergalactic Authority, but this was something I didn't know how to deal with.
"Klav, run a scan," I groaned through locked teeth.
We didn't have a medical officer on the Valkyr, but Klav was the closest thing to it. He'd already pulled out his med scanner and directed it at me. I was about to tell him to scan himself or one of the crew, when another pain of agony crashed over me. My knees buckled. I reached out for something to hold on to, but it was too late. I collapsed to the cold metal floor. Blackness teetered at the edges of my mind. I couldn't lose consciousness. I was the captain; I had to protect them. Lead by example. I couldn't give in.
One of the Kletorians laughed. If I'd had the strength, I'd have pulled out my light axe and embedded it into his skull, but all my energy was focused on staying conscious.
"You're fine," Klav grunted, confusion and surprise warring in his hoarse voice. "The med scanner can't find anything wrong with you."
"Try it on yourself," I commanded.
I watched as he ran the device over his chest, his abdomen, while his eyes turned wide.
"Nothing. Not a-"
He yelled out in pain, his eyes clenching shut, his face a mask of agony. Around me, my crew groaned and whimpered; not sounds I'd ever heard them make before. We were Vikingar. We didn't whimper.
My cheeks were wet. Tears of pain. That had only happened once before, when a Kardarian pirate had given me the scar on my back. The wound had been so deep that it was a miracle my spine hadn't been cut in half. I'd kept the scar as a reminder not to hesitate. I'd tried to show him mercy, he'd stabbed me in the back, literally. Never again. The only people I trusted were my crew. They were closer to me than my family had ever been. Seeing them in pain and unable to do anything about it was worse than the agony tearing me up from the inside.
My pendant vibrated against my chest. I'd turned off all notifications in preparation for the raid. Only an emergency message sent from the Vikingar High Command could breach the settings.
A cold shiver ran down my back. This was no coincidence. For them to activate an emergency broadcast now, while we were incapacitated, meant it wasn't just us. This was bigger.
I curled my fingers around the pendant, letting it read my biological data to unlock the message. A hologram appeared in front of me. A shiver ran down my back when I recognised the male. The goði, the planet's spiritual chief. His face was covered in blood. A deep gash ran across his forehead, but he didn't seem to care that blood pouring from it.
"...lost...attack...late..."
His garbled message was hard to understand. I rubbed the pendant as if that could improve the strength of the transmission.
The goði peered behind him and saw something that made him swirl around again, his bloody expression grave and filled with urgency. I knew this was a recording that had taken a while to reach us so far from our home planet, but it seemed as if he was staring right into my eyes.
"I'm sorry. If you can...no help...you..."
Another wave of pain threatened to overwhelm me. Drums pounded in my head, in my ears, drowning out the goði's words. But instinctively, I knew what he was saying. I'd felt it in my heart the moment the pain had started. I just didn't want to believe it. Couldn't believe it.
"What's going on?" Errik shouted from across the hold, sounding like he was barely holding on.
The hologram flickered, then turned more solid than it had been. The goði looked at me, blood freely dripping down his face.
"Jörð is lost. Everyone is dead. You're the only chance for our people to survive."
He turned around again, cried out in horror before the hologram dissolved. I stared at the spot on the floor where it had appeared, hoping in vain that the transmission might continue. That this wasn't the end.
It couldn't be true. It couldn't be. Our planet, our home...
But I felt it. Knew it. The pain was proof of it. I didn't know why or how it hurt so much, but this was the pain of a billion people crying out as they died.
