Page 8 of Vikingr
The heavy weight of responsibility settled on my shoulders when I realised that I may be all that was standing between these alien Vikings and humanity. If I said the wrong thing, if I made us sound weak and defenceless, it might have catastrophic consequences.
"Come in," Njal said as if he was inviting me for tea. As if he hadn't knocked me unconscious and abducted me. The smile on his face seemed genuine.
What a creep. A hot, half-naked creep that was confusing my hormones. I wished he'd been thirty years older, with a beer belly, droopy lids and a horrible squeaky voice. Not this perfectly orgasm-inducing symbol of masculinity.
I followed him inside and stopped in my tracks when I realised this wasn't the cabin we'd been in earlier. Or wait, it was. The screen was the same and there was the same stain on the floor that I'd seen before, but the bed had disappeared. It had seemed as if it was part of the wall, growing out of it like a huge branch, but now the room was completely empty.
"Guest mode," Njal commanded, and the floor began to bubble. What the fuck! The metal was quivering and shaking as if it was melting. I jumped back out of the room. The alien gave me a confused look, then laughed.
"You're not in any danger," he chuckled. "The Valkyr is all about saving space. It's a small ship with a large crew, so we have to use the same rooms for multiple purposes. Watch."
I stared in wonder as a metal mushroom seemed to bloom out of the floor, growing until it was about three feet tall. The top flattened, shaping into a table, at the same time as two smaller mushrooms formed into chairs. One was large enough for Njal, while the other seemed exactly the perfect size for me. Had the ship scanned my bum to determine how large to grow the mushroom chair?
The bubbling stopped, the new furniture looking like it had been there for years. Crazy. I'd thought the Starlight had advanced technology, but this seemed like magic.
Njal took a seat in the larger chair, his legs open wide. Turns out manspreading wasn't just a human thing. I was so tempted to knee him in the balls again, but it would have been violence without provocation and that was rude.
"Sit," he said, more an order than an invitation. "Drinks will arrive in a moment."
Would they rise out of the table with more bubbling metal?
Gingerly, I ran my hands over the chair's smooth back. It was completely solid. And warm. I'd expected it to be cold metal, but it was pleasantly warm.
I finally sat down, keeping my feet flat on the ground just in case the chair decided to turn back into floor.
Njal's navy lips were curved into a smile as he watched me. I was once again struck by the wildness of his beard. His features were fine and angular otherwise, but the beard turned him from aristocrat into barbarian.
"What happens once I've answered your questions?" I asked, forcing myself to stop staring at him.
"We will run some tests on you, then you will be released. With your memory wiped, obviously."
"Obviously," I echoed. "No way. I won't let you."
His smirk widened. "Yes, you will. But that's for later. Let’s start with your name.”
I was too exasperated to resist. “Steffanie, but everyone calls me Steff.”
“Do Peritans only have one name?”
I rolled my eyes at him. “Steffanie Clynder the… Vengeful.”
That was the best title I could come up with. Njal accepted it with a small smile.
“Tell me about Peritan females."
He was lucky that I knew about the intergalactic community's term for us humans. I didn't know why they called us Peritans, but I'd got used to it.
"What do you want to know?"
"Everything." He said it as if he didn't realise there was no end to the answers he wanted.
"That's impossible. If I asked you to tell me everything about - what do you call yourselves as a species? Vikings?"
"Vikingar," he corrected.
"Alright, Vikingar. If I asked you about Vikingar women, I'm sure you'd be able to talk for hours."
His smile disappeared in an instant. A darkness crept across his face, like clouds blocking out the sun. "No. There is only one thing of consequence to know about our females. They're gone."
