Page 17 of Vikingr
"What if they come back for me? What if he abducts me again? It's not like there's anything stopping them. And-"
An Albyan burst into the room and all eyes turned to him. "They've seen through the ruse. We're under attack."
10
Njal
It was not going to plan. In fact, everything was falling apart. The Albyan ship had been empty, but it had taken us several clicks to realise. They'd done a great job in messing with our scanners. I didn't know how they'd done it, but I'd find out.
I was surrounded by a horde of bloodthirsty, disappointed Vikingar when I got a call from the Valkyr's bridge.
"She's gone."
Torsten sounded grim. I didn't have to ask who he meant. The two female members of my crew were on the Albyan ship with me.
"Then get her back," I snarled. "She can't have got far."
"You don't understand. She didn't run away. She was taken."
My heart skipped a beat. Taken. It had to be the Albyans. They'd tricked us even more than I'd realised. Skitr. When I found them, I'd tear out their innards. I would-
"I'm trying to locate her. It was a good thing you had her scanned while she was unconscious. We've got her bio-signature."
"We're on our way back to the Valkyr," I said grimly. "There's nobody on this ship. They left in a hurry. Scan for any nearby vessels; they may have taken a shuttle or an escape pod."
"On it. No loot at all?"
"Nothing worth spending time here any longer." That wasn't quite true. We'd not even checked what the Albyans were transporting in their cargo hold. We'd been focused on finding the alien scientists, and now that I knew that Steff had been abducted, I couldn't focus on raiding. The loot was irrelevant. We were all among the richest people in the galaxy. We only raided because it was part of us, part of our culture and history. And right now, I couldn't care less about stealing the Albyan's cargo.
I set our coordinates back to the Valkyr's porting chamber before engaging the transport beam. A moment later, we were back on my ship. I hurried to the bridge as fast as I could, ignoring the questions my crew asked. They could wait. Nothing was as important as finding Steff.
I arrived at the bridge slightly out of breath. Torsten's expression was grave as he looked up from his console.
"I don't know how they did it. No alarms went off. Their cloaking tech must be even better than ours. They came, ported right into the simdeck, took the female and left. Here, I've got the surveillance footage."
I watched as three Albyans appeared behind Steff. They were only on board the Valkyr for a few clicks, but how had they not set off any alarms? I'd thought our security was impregnable. And yes, our shields had been down so we could port over to the Albyan ship, but there should have been enough other hurdles to stop them.
The iron taste of blood filled my mouth. I'd clenched my teeth so hard that my incisors had pierced my bottom lip. I swallowed, relishing that familiar taste. I was a Vikingr. Nobody stole from me. These Albyans would pay.
All around me, my crew took their stations, while I watched the footage again and again from different perspectives. Steff never got to see the intruders, but she did hear Donail. Her expression was one of surprise and recognition, not fear. She knew that male; I was sure of it. Which only made me angrier.
Watching her dissolve into thin air as they ported off the Valkyr made me growl with suppressed fury. She was gone, out of my reach. But I'd bring her back, no matter how many Albyans I'd have to kill. I would no longer hold back. They'd stolen from us. From me. And they would pay in blood.
"Any sign of them?" I asked through clenched teeth.
"Nothing," Rune reported without turning around. "It's as if they're invisible. They can't have gone far, not without their main ship. Do you think they'll take her to Albya?"
"She kept insisting on being taken back to Peritus, so I doubt it. If we can't find their ship, we will set course for Peritus. If they drop her back in the settlement where I first found her, she'll be easy to abduct a second time."
"Or third, if you count the Albyans taking her," Errik quipped. "But why are we focusing on her? We need the Albyan scientists, not a random female."
Roaring fury burned through me and I had to grip the sides of my chair to stop myself from attacking him. He was right; a tiny part of my mind knew that, so why was I so angry at the thought of never seeing her again? Not just angry, devastated. I'd never got to say goodbye.
"Yes, why does it matter where they took her?" Torsten asked.
"Because the scientists will be with her," I snapped. "Did you see any Albyans on the ship we just raided? They're all together. I doubt they'll simply port her back to her home. They'll take her there personally. We'll either snatch the female or some Albyans to give us bargaining power."
Rune turned around, looking at me curiously. "I still don't understand why we're so focused on Albyans. Torsten is building an AI that can find our mates. We just have to be a little patient."
