The USS Ragnarrson brings the body of E.G.R. home

The USS Ragnarrson brings the body of E.G.R. home

Then the body of Grandfather arrived, and Uncle Hogun took me with the flier not to the Spaceport but to the empty plain outside town and what I saw brought back what I really wanted. Before it was only a dream, now my desire to become a Starship captain lit a fire inside me. A real 3000 meter Union Battleship had landed.

It was taller and more massive as any surface mountain on Niflheim. A gleaming wedge-shaped man-made object, dwarfing Mount Asgard nearby to insignificance. Every skimmer and floater of Niflheim was there, and yet they all would have found room in just one of the ship's cargo holds. To my friend Yngve it was the sight of Pluribus that made him realize the awesome power of the Union. To me, it was this ship.Union Marines in their crisp midnight blue Uniforms came marching down a ramp lowered to the ground from the ships bottom side. Uncle Hogun who had brought me right to that ramp and a man in black Uniform, bare of decoration, except for three golden rings on each of his sleeves flanked by the marines stopped before me and saluted with crisp precision movement.

"I am Captain Horatio Reynolds of the new battleship USS Ragnarsson.  I am tasked with the sad duty of bringing home to you, Eric Olafson, the body of your Grandfather, Representative Erik Gustav Ragnarsson ." He performed an about-face, step forward two steps, stopped and saluted, holding the saluted and eight beings, not all of them human carried the coffin down the ramp, where it was received by eight Elders. The old men, without help, took my grandfather all the way to the Thingstead roundhouse.