Page 3 of Vikingr
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Njal
We'd broken at least a dozen intergalactic laws and I couldn't have cared less. If we were lucky, no one would ever find out. And even if they did... We'd all agreed that the risk was worth it. We didn't have anything to lose. So what if the Intergalactic Authority caught us entering a forbidden zone? No punishment could be worse than what we'd already endured three rotations ago. I rubbed my chest at the memory. The pain had gone, but the grief lingered.We carried it with us wherever we went, even to this faraway solar system that few had ever explored.
A small moon circled the blue and green planet. Picturesque, but I'd seen prettier. A few thousand satellites showed up on our scanners, most of them primitive without the capability of detecting us. A few IGU and Intergalactic Authority satellites orbited Peritus, but none of them were a threat to us. We'd circumvented much tighter security before. With our upgraded cloaking technology, our enhanced weapons and scanners, nothing could stop us from landing on the planet undetected.
The Valkyr barely resembled the ship she'd been a few rotations ago. Turns out that when your entire planet dies, everyone's inheritance is split between those who're left. Overnight, we'd become gazillionaires. I still felt like laughing hysterically every time I saw my bank balance - and then wished I could give it all back. I'd hand them every single credit for the chance to say goodbye. But life didn't work that way.
We'd upgraded the Valkyr, turning her into one of the most-advanced ships in the galaxy while keeping her rugged exterior. We didn't want to become targets for pirates. Technically, we had no reason to pillage, but we were Vikingar. It was in our blood. So we continued the life we'd lived before. As if nothing had happened. Pretending that we still had a home to return to. Yet every time I looked at my crew, thegoði's words echoed in my mind.
Everyone is dead. You're the only chance for our people to survive.
Only four Vikingar ships had been far enough fromJörð to survive the carnage. A few hundred Vikingar had been living on or visiting space stations and other planets. All in all, less than a thousand of us remained, strewn across the galaxy. One of the captains had been driven mad by grief and tried to kill his crew. They'd overpowered him, but there had been losses.
Such a waste.
Usually, hundreds of ships would have been off-planet. If it had happened only a few IG days later, hundreds of thousands would have survived. But almost all Vikingar had assembled for the þing, a meeting that I should have been at. If I'd followed my orders, if I hadn't done a detour to capture that trading ship, we would have been among the dead. Some days, I wished I was.
But now we had a new mission. After three rotations of grief, violence and fucking our worries away, we had a goal. I hadn't realised how sorely we needed a shared purpose. If I'd been a better captain, I'd have noticed before. I would have kept a better handle on the crew. Would have seen what they needed to move past their pain. But I'd been in the same dark hole as them. I'd had to force myself out of bed each morning while all I wanted was to stay in my cabin, hiding under the blankets like a child.
The past three rotations had taught me a lot about myself. None of it good. I'd thought I was strong. Turns out I was as weak as anyone.I had only been able to lead my crew as well as I had because I'd given them what they'd wanted. Raids, riches, the chance to crush their fists into faces and let off some steam. I'd only had a few rules: no murder, no rape, no blood spilt on the Valkyr. And it had worked for the ten rotations I'd been their leader. Until that fateful day when everything had fallen apart.
They'd needed someone strong, but I had been just as broken as my warriors.
But things were about to change. We had a purpose again. Raiding ships no longer gave us any satisfaction. We'd searched for ways to take revenge, but how could you do that when your planet had been destroyed by natural disaster rather than an invading army? I'd not believed the IGU scientists at first when they'd said that no one was to blame. My planet had been blown to smithereens. Of course, there was someone to blame. They hadn't listened when I'd told them that thegoði had mentioned an attack. He'd apologised. No Vikingar would do that unless he had a genuine reason to atone for. But the Intergalactic University ignored all that. And so, we were left without anyone to kill for what they'd done to our home.
"Njal, we're ready."
Runepressed his fist to his chest in respect when I glared at him for disturbing my thoughts. The berserkr was our interim pilot while Arne was on shore leave visiting a distant relative on Riva Four who'd survived the catastrophe. He wasn't the best, couldn't do any fancy manoeuvres, but he was good enough to get us from ? to ?.
I turned to Torsten. "Do we have access to the planet's communication systems yet?"
"We do. It's primitive to say the least, but I've hacked into all the systems that seemed of interest. I've instructed the Valkyr to search for suitable females."
That's why we'd come to this forgotten part of the galaxy. Females.
We were a dying species.The only way to honour our people, our lost planet, was to keep on going. For that, we needed females.
My crew was almost entirely male. Not because I had a problem with females fighting alongside males, but because I'd grown up with most of my warriors. We'd been a team from the moment we'd met at the nursery war camp. An all-male war camp. We'd had a few new crew members join us over the rotations, but only two of them were female. One was mated to Bjorn, although they'd not managed to conceive yet, and the other was past child-bearing age. Some of the other males had had kvenna – females who weren’t their true mates, but who they loved nonetheless – like Errik, who'd been planning to take some time off to start a family before the unthinkable had happened. Now they were widowers.
After all the pain of the past rotations, we needed something to look forward to. I hoped that the prospect of breedable females would help with our healing.
Half a rotation ago, I'd secretly contacted the Vikingar Department at the Intergalactic University. I knew there were some species we were compatible with - Vikingar had explored the galaxy for hundreds of generations and sometimes settled on distant planets with their native mates and kvenna - but not which ones. We needed females that we could not just fuck, but also breed. To ensure the survival of the Vikingar race, we had to procreate.
The IGU had run some tests, then given me a list of species. I'd gone through them one by one, finding issues with almost every species. Some had too small chances of success. Others were too docile, too peaceful to produce warriors. Others still were in the middle of conflicts themselves and I couldn't risk losing a second planet.
In the end, only one species had remained on that list, although the IGU scientists had already crossed out the name. It hadn't taken me long to find out why. Peritus, the planet of the Peritans, was under intergalactic protection. They'd been deemed too valuable and too defenceless to be left open to scavengers, pirates and crazy scientists.
I'd begged the IGU to give us special permission. They'd done it for another alien race, the Albyans. What had those kilt-wearing bastards given the IGU in return? I'd promised them everything. All our money. An entire department sponsored on an IGU campus of their choice. But their answer remained the same.
But we were Vikingar. We took what we wanted. Which is why we were now in orbit around Peritus, ready to abduct some females. According to the IGU, Peritans were Vikingoids with a similar physical build as us. They were a warrior species that constantly fought wars among themselves. Peace rarely lasted more than a few decades. Just what I'd been looking for. Their females would be tough enough to deal with battle-hungry Vikingar. And hardy enough to carry our offspring.
"How long until the system finds us compatible females?" I asked Torsten.
"Hard to say. Could be a few clicks or it could be days."
"We don't have days," I snapped. "The Valkyr's cloaking tech will only keep us hidden for so long. It's only a matter of time until we're discovered."
