New Edit: Chapter 45: Aunt Freydis

Interlude:
Kevin Atkien closed the GalNet Connection and switched of the Dream creator. "Finally!" He sighed and got up to step outside the tiny little balcony on the 432th floor of Coulter Tower downtown Cork City. The air tasted sweet with a hint of strawberry and grape as it always did when the wind came from the east and the huge Sparkle Bright delights factory occupying most of this large rock plateau surrounded by scorching deserts, but it was night and both suns were on the other side of the planet, not that the four hours of darkness helped much to cool the planet down, but soon the large weather control satellites would be operational and in a few months it would rain for the first time on a planet that had not seen a drop of rain in a billion years. All this was of little concern or interest to Kevin, he was neither a weather control engineer nor did the weather outside have any meaning to his work. He held to the chest high safety railing. He wasn't afraid of heights at all but being over 800 meters above the ground was still a good reason to hold onto the railing. He watched the light traffic of fliers and wished he could get a little time off to go to town and live a little of the real life.

He signaled a far away vent bot, still the machines visuals picked him up and the machine floated to his balcony. "Do you carry Terran cigarettes?"

"No Sir, I am sorry but I signaled your request to Terran Tobacco Timmy, what would you like?"

"A pack of Silver Hawks –Original Unhealthy"

It took about eight minutes and a Courier Bot arrived and handed him the pack after he paid the machine. One of his Avatars smoked and so he learned about this very ancient Terran habit that was so popular again, especially among those humans who weren't Terran but liked to pretend they were or show just how in and up to date they were. He simply liked it.

After he had finished a cigarette he flicked the butt and watched it fall till it disappeared, then he stepped back into his work office, just in time as David Moyes his supervisor came in with a smile and a big bag of Chocolate covered Green Hell Berries, Kevin's favorite snack."How are we doing on Cases six?"

"I have her hook, line and sinker now. I want to proceed to phase two and cement the illusion with a few reality presents. She is a chocolate addict and wanted to send her some real Mozart Balls from Vienna Earth."

"I take care of it!" David said and made a little note on his PDD. Then he looked over the transcripts and started laughing. "Are you serious? Does she really believe she will meet Rex Schwartz?"

"She is very serious. Murphy created a support Avatar after the only public image I could find."

David became serious. "Be careful, we don't want to make SII angry or even aware of what we doing here. I am not afraid of the bumblers of the police, but we don't want to tango with SII Security."

"Little chance, Boss. She believes everything and thinks all is real. She goes into Dream-maker as an Avatar and she believes it so firmly, you could tell her it's a SIM and she would not believe you. By the time we are at Stage four and she leaves the planet, we get rid of her anyway!"

David grinned. "Would be funny though to see her actually arriving at Azure-Delight and ask for Jon or Rex Schwartz."

Kevin laughed too. "As much as she is in the dark about the reality of what we do and where she goes, she is a gifted agent in terms of our agenda."

"So you think she and the three others we have working on that planet will get a Clan War started and eradicate these primitive brutes?"

"Oh most certainly, Adolph Lindbergh is as power hungry as Gretel and he has no clue that we play him exactly like his Psych profile suggests. He ordered a Submarine with artillery. High velocity rail guns!"

"Splendid! How about the Pearl fisher?"

"That is the best part. He isn't even working for us but gets advice from a Jewelry dealer on Para-Para and my girl does the rest. He ordered proximity mines to defend his little stretch of ocean."

"Very well then, carry on!"

David left the chocolate covered berries with Kevin, one of the best Psycho emotion manipulators he had and ordered the confectionery to be delivered via the Sweets shop on Azure-Delight. Of course this was four times more expensive than simply ordering them directly from Earth, but it was the little details that made all the difference, and what were a few hundred credits to the 5 Billion credit contract he had to make sure Planet Nilfeheim was soon depopulated enough for his client to move in and take over.

David was the President of Galactic Solutions Inc. A very successful firm, providing very special services to very large clients, below the rare wares procurement service his company provided as a cover for its real activities was a tightly run highly criminal organization, but David found it was simply a business like any other. His client, a major competitor to Tyson Galactic wanted that ocean planet. Water planets were rare, water planets teaming with life that was consumable by 70% of the Union population was even rarer, and the fact that most of the stuff the fishers pulled out of those oceans was delicious and fetched high prices was as rare as it gets. The stupid Neo Vikings peddled around with a few fish farms and a few hunting boats. His client planned to hang Sun mirrors into its orbit, no more Longnight winters. Warm sunshine year round and use big robotic trawlers to empty those oceans of all the useless stuff and reseed them exclusively with one or two of the best selling ones. In fifty or sixty years the company would have made five thousand times what they invested to get the place.

He smirked as he entered his big and flashy furnished corner office to make an encrypted call to his client, to deliver his monthly progress report. His client had eyes on the planet for a long time, but it was nearly impossible while Erik Gustav Ragnarsson was the planet's representative. That man had his fingers on the pulse of business and knew very well what prize his little water world was. He was however the only obstacle and just one man. The planet deep in Union Territory, close to all the major markets, had no Union Police, no Union law and was on a basically stone age tech level by choice. Kevin could not believe the facts when he heard about them almost 15 years ago. Nilfeheim was a treasure ready to be picked and the only guardian it had was single man. When he had his agents make an initial report on the planet, they made contact with a very ambitious woman. The fact that women had little to say in her society spurned her on so it seemed and she was married to a very influential Clan patriarch. After he had a psych profile of her it was easy to press the right buttons. She ordered Kermac Psych drugs, to control her husband, and managed to convince him to plot to kill Erik Ragnarsson. If the bumbling Union Police ever found out all they would find was a local plot.

David could not help but smile. He had no respect for Union Police. He was doing this sort of thing for almost sixty years and they had not caught on, but then he was an expert and his projects ran sometimes over decades, nice and slow and just by pulling the right strings. Easy as stealing candy from a baby, just much more rewarding.

The concern over a new Representative was unfounded as some supposedly mystical Old geezer never showed up on Pluribus. David had seen the local News footage of an old man boarding a Space bus, before he could send someone to make sure he did not arrive. Funny enough the Old fart got probably lost at the first space bus hub and had not surfaced yet. Not that anyone on that backwards planet could do anything about it, they had no clue and soon they would kill each other and whatever survived would be willing workers in the processing plants and accept corporate rule.

The masked woman in the red Cloak said. "Welcome Eric, or should I say welcome Freya?"

I blushed despite the fact that my secret was no secret here and they probably all laughed as they used me back then, but I tried to concentrate and said. "I don't care if you make fun of my secret and I told Astrid I am tired of being played and taken for a fool. It was you or one of you who wanted me here to discuss the very serious problems you have. I can leave right now."

She got up from her Chair. "Eric you misunderstood. We are glad you came and I believe you came because you care about your friends. I know you well Eric! This is why we want to offer you a chair in the Circle. Our rules prohibit a man to be present but Freya would be welcome."

"As much as it intrigues me and at another time I would have said yes, I don't trust you to be frank and on top of all that I will not commit murder or terroristic acts. I sympathize with your goals and your cause very much especially in the light of my mother's death but I believe there is another way to gain all your rights and much faster, and without any violence."

"We don't want you to commit crimes for us Eric, but our little theater here is our own little tradition as an answer to the oppressive laws of man. You always displayed a great sense of personal honor so honor us and let Freya take part so we can discuss the matters at hand we would not discuss with a man."

"You sure know to make an argument, it is against all common sense and I should not indulge myself in this sick and unworthy behavior."

"Come with me Eric!" the Red Cloaked woman said and waved her gloved hand and then, walked with billowing cape before me and out of the lighted circle into the darkness behind, before my eyes could adjust to the darkness, I suddenly had a clear picture in my head how the room looked like. I saw doors and furniture, felt the ceiling and the floor. The sensation was gone as my eyes had adjusted and I saw what I just had felt and wondered if that was affected by the sensory organ growing in me.

The woman let me through a door in a smaller room with a dresser, mirrors and warm light from a few brass colored lamps. She pulled the hood back and rolled the mask of her face and I could not have been more shocked to see who she was.

My lips formed her name but I was so surprised I could not speak it, but then whispered. "Aunt Freydis?"

Before me stood Uncle Hogun's wife! The merry faced, seemingly simple minded midwife duty woman married to my Uncle!

She nodded. "I told you I know you well! I am the sixth First Daughter of Nilfeheim and we all have been Midwives as it gives us the perfect reason to travel and talk to women behind closed doors without men present. "She gestured upwards. "This is Bredenberg Castle Eric, it is empty as the last male member of this family died almost 20 years ago, my father!"

It all made sort of sense and fit together, then I bit my lip and wondered if she knew. If my Aunt was a Bredenberg, then Snøfrid had to be a younger sister of her. "Aunt Freydis I have bad news for you!"

Tears glittered in her eyes. "Yes I know, my dear sister Snøfrid. I do not know what came over her. The attack was not planned at all!"

"I know what came over her. Or at least I am pretty sure I know. There is a dead Alien Woman in my boat, she was out to kill me I think and she disguised herself as Sif and used some sort of psionic powers to make Snøfrid and the others do what they did."

Aunt Freydis said. "I called you to tell you about a Killer woman Brunar Bendixen had hired, she was the one who installed Tech Stop projectors in his boats and then she disappeared. He hired her to protect his secret pearl business and to send a message to the Olafsons and Lindbergs. My source at the Bendixen Castle did not know about the Psionics however."

"We need to present the killer woman to the Assembly and get Hedda freed, before they execute her."

"Hedda is in no immediate danger right now and she deserves some punishment for revealing the names of the others. While we wait for more of our members to arrive you will have time to become Freya. You should find everything you need in here. Your secret is known only to Sif, Elena, Astrid, Hedda and me and it is safe with us. Your Identity will remain hidden to the rest of the Daughters, but all need to hear what you have to say and then we decide what to do."

It was strangely elating and I was certain now there was something wrong with me. All the time I tried to prove myself that I was a real Norse, a warrior in the eyes of my peers and yet the very idea to be Freya again excited me more than it was natural. I decided to talk to Dr. Dwyer about it after all. I had to find out why I could not get rid of this. I should have refused and told Aunt Freydis that I am a man and if they wanted my help they needed to accept me as a man or forget it.

While I put on the dress I shook my head. Aunt Freydis! She was the meek and simple wife, Uncle Hogun was so afraid of to lose and she was the Leader of a secret society and while she still had the same rosy face and the somewhat corpulent body, she seemed a different person.

I put on the cloak and gloves and went outside. Aunt Freydis was waiting for me. She handed me one of those white fabric tubes. "You need that too."

I put it on and she draped my hood around my face. "Remember you are a Daughter of Nilfeheim. No one needs to know you are Eric Olafson. No one here, but you knows who I am. It's part of the whole Secret Society thing, you know."

"I guess it's good. So no one can reveal much. I hope Hedda won't tell them about Freya or where she got the harpoon guns from."

"Not to worry. We took steps so she can't reveal that or the location of our meeting place."

"You killed her?"

I could see the outlines of her mouth smiling. "No of course not, she just sleeps for a few days."

Then Aunt Freydis explained. "Go in the circle, ring the bell and sit down on any free chair. It is a circle and all look alike so there is no seating order and then I want you to tell us how we can achieve our goals as you said, without violence."

"And what about Hedda and Sif and all that?"

"It too will be discussed, but I want you to hear some of the information as well."

I did as she had told me and after perhaps twenty minutes nine of the Chairs were occupied and Aunt Freydis in her red Cloak announced the meeting to be in session and sat down. After that another stood and spoke, I was pretty sure it was Sif. "Recent events have gravely endangered our Sisterhood and our goals. One of our members," she pointed at me, "was able to apprehend and eliminate an Off World Agent hired by Brunar Bendixen to find the killer of his father and to eliminate his competition in the fishing and crab business. This Off-World woman used Psionic Hypno-suggestive powers to make them act against their will. We must discuss what is to be done to free our Sister and limit the damage to our cause."

The Red Cloak spread her arms. "As it is our ritual. We share now the information we have gathered in the world of man."

Another woman stood up and I was sure I would not recognize her even without her mask. "From the House of Olafson I bring these tidings: The wife of Isegrim Olafson schemes with someone Off-World and she obtained advanced Psycho Drugs. She uses them to control her husband and laced the same drugs now in the drinks of Adolph Lindbergh and plans to do so with other Clan Chiefs as well. The drugs allow her, to plant suggestive blocks."

Again the information I received was quite shocking to me. Someone in the circle asked. "How does she know such things?"

"She used GalNet to attend a virtual University I think and learned much about Kermac and Shaill methods. I don't know what her exact plans are, but I think she plans to kill her husband. His servant Harkun has found out about the psycho drugs and is treating Isegrim with antidotes. Gretel is afraid of the day he is again fully in control over his own will."

All this made my head spin and I wondered if anything I knew was actually based on facts or if there always was another layer behind. I wanted to get to the bottom if it all. I needed to find out for my own sake if father killed mother on his own or if he was under the influence of Alien Drugs. I needed to find out before Gretel had a chance to kill him. What was Harkun doing messing with drugs instead of having the local clinic take care of it. I was sure Dr. Dwyer would know more about it than Harkun or at least would know someone that could help.

I was also amazed about the level of information these women had.

Aunt Freydis motioned me to stand. "Daughter of Nilfeheim, you mentioned an alternative way to gain our goals. Now speak to the Assembly so we all may hear."

I stood, the tight fabric rubbing at my lips as I spoke. "You all are Union Citizens and women rights are only impaired on Nilfeheim. Long ago Holger Olafson went to the Union Outpost to complain that the decisions made after Nilfeheim's Pirate days were only made by half of the population. The Union Judge agreed and they formed the Circle of Elders with representatives of all Clans. Why would not a woman simply go to a Union court and claim the very same thing? Women are half of the population on this planet and they have the same rights in Union terms as men. Nilfeheim would be forced to come to a decision or lose Union membership and I assure you not even the Elders want that."

There was silence.

Then Aunt Freydis stood. "So simple! So very simple! We should have taken a lesson right out of our own history! Yes you are right, that is what we need to do and it promises better and faster results than fighting and terror.

A new voice spoke. It was the voice of a man! "Wise decision girls!"

Two Old Men stepped out of the darkness into the middle of the ring. It was Egill and with him was the Old Keeper!

It was as if a big boulder rolled of my shoulders as I saw him. The women all jumped of their seats and Aunt Freydis actually drew a small blaster. "I didn't think you would betray us in this way!" She aimed it at me.