Eric Olafson, Neoviking 22

Eric Olafson, Neo Viking Chapter 22: TYR --

I turned to run up the stairs and was already inside the staircase entrance. I was certain the big fish had no problem snatching a little human from the narrow ledge. There had to be a Harpoon in the place somewhere!

“You won’t find harpoons or Slayers in old Egill’s home, Eric .” A thundering voice said!

I felt like hit by lightning and could barely find the courage to turn. It could not be! The fish did not speak!

“There is no one else here, Eric!”

I did turn, not even knowing holding Mördaren before me. The huge back of the fish and the sharp fin was above the water and so was most of his head. The immense fish had his head turned so it could look at me and right behind it the yellowish skin for the mark. It must be another illusion, perhaps a clever holo projection. Even though my mind raced to find thousand logical and illogical answers, I knew the fish was real and that this was no hologram and no illusion.

“Egill once was a very formidable Tyranno Hunter and he slew more the old fashioned way than most do with those Hunting Subs, but we sort of got used to each other and Harpoons were no longer necessary!”

The fish’s maw did not move as it spoke. I simply stood there not knowing what to say and how to react, this Tyranno Fin was sentient!

“No Eric my mouth does not move when I speak. I have no vocal cords and yes I am sentient.”

My mind raced and I wondered how to start a conversation with a talking fish that quite possibly was a God.

“Let us forget labels like fish, god and simply accept the fact that I am. I am not the greatest conversationalist but I learned humans often start by saying: Hello, Hi and go from there.”

“I expected anything but a talking Tyranno Fin down here. I am still coping with what I am seeing.”

“You saw Tyrannos before; you even slew two of us.”

“I never thought of Tyrannos as sentient beings.”

They are not Eric. I am the only one. Although I believe that in a few millennia my species might develop sentience, but since we lack all the other necessities to start a civilization it might not happen.”

“If you are sentient, even just one then this planet is yours and we are invaders. You could ask for Union Membership and have us all resettled.”

The fish moved ever so slightly but still caused massive waves in the basin. “You are starting to think like a Union Citizen and not like a Neo Viking, but I do not want the Humans to leave this world. It became your home as much as it is mine.”

“You want us to stop hunting your species, then?”

“If I was against that I could have stopped that long ago, by exactly doing what you suggested. As long as a few families hunt with and cull a few hundred every year, it will make no difference. There are many more Tyrannos than humans. I would oppose industrial hunting, but Egill is taking steps that this won’t happen.”

I was amazed at myself standing there talking to a fish who didn’t like the label fish, but I could not completely shed my nervousness or suppress my fear. Egill spoke about a god that was alive before the original Vikings on Earth thought about the Gods, if this fish was that old...

“I have no recollection how old I am. Time was a concept foreign to me until I met Egill and my species takes long and very deep sleeps in the folds of the below. “Would you want to see the folds? I can show you places on the bottoms of our oceans no Nilfeheim human has ever seen.”

The very idea to be in the water with ... it, made me tremble, but I was equally certain I would not standing there if it wanted me dead.

“Sure I guess there would be no better guide than a Tyranno, but I probably could not keep up with you or dive as deep.”

“I am aware of your limitations when it comes to my environment. Yet I know you love being under water and dive, more than most even among genetic enhanced divers.”

“I do.” Then I said.” How do I call you? Fish is out; God wasn’t to your liking either.”

“I never needed a name or label to identify myself, but Egill had the same request and he calls me Tyr.”

“My brother, well my half brother’s name is Tyr as well. You never talked to others, outside of Egill I mean?”

“Every so often he brings down a pupil of his he thinks is worthy of meeting me, all in all there were eight. Only two survived the meeting however.”

There was an unspoken warning there and I wondered what criteria Tyr used to decide who lived and who did not.

He answered my thoughts. “Ignorance, arrogance, self importance and cowardly behavior are among these criteria Eric and most of all dishonesty. One of your uncles was down here and he did not listen or see anything other than a white Tyranno he wanted to slay. He did try to kill me and frankly I value my own existence more.”

“I can understand that. I was just wondering since you offered me to bathe with you and then mention six who never went back from that bathing trip.”

“I never offered anyone to swim with me, not even Egill, but there is something I want to show you.”

Whatever it was Tyr wanted to show me, I felt it was important and so I said. “Alright how we are going to do this?”

“You simply come into the water and if you dare hold on to my dorsal fin.”

“Wait here, Tyr. I am going to get myself some fins and a wet suit. There is one in the boat!”

You can swim to the boat from here. It is much faster than running all these stairs back up, but then you are too afraid to share the water with me.”

I stripped to my pants and placed the sword on the small pile and said. “There goes nothing. I never thought I willingly pose as Tyranno Bait.” Then I jumped into the water.

Tyr moved and its enormous body created a powerful torrent sucking me helplessly close to his immense opening maw, instead of struggling. I streamlined my body, opened my gills, expelled as much air as I could out of my lungs and closed my mouth, so I shot forward. Tyr could have gulped me up; I was in size to it as newly hatched Silver Flicker fish. Newly hatch soup was a well liked menu item in Hogun’s in and I could easily fit two or three of them on a spoon, the maw passed and so did the huge eye and then I heard his voice.” You are different from the others. You were afraid, very much so and yet you jumped into my domain. Instead of trying to get away you went towards me.”

I almost opened my mouth to answer; only to realize that would have drowned me and I tried to formulate an answer thinking instead.” Never say Dare or you are afraid to a Neo Viking then, big Fish! That makes us think less and act more more stupid, and to be frank I am scared as a Nubhir Puppy”

“You have a sense of humor much like Egill has. I like that.”

The basin was much deeper than I thought and I saw the entrance of an underwater tunnel most likely connecting this grotto with the open ocean. The water was surprisingly warm and the light had no particular source but was like an aura emitting from Tyr. His grayish skin above water now looked white as snow under water.

Tyr turned to face the tunnel and again his body created currents that tossed me around without control, but since I no longer really feared the Tyranno, he seemed to have enormous Psionic talents and it would not matter if I was in the water or on land if Tyr wanted to harm me, so I enjoyed the wild ride.” The Old man has a sense of humor? You could have fooled me!”

“Oh, but he does and you and him are not so different, but that is no surprise as he is your kin!”

Tyr went for the tunnel so just like a kisser fish I grabbed hold of one of his side fins as the dorsal fin was out of reach. Tyr moved to fast for me already. “I guess all humans on this world are somewhat related, especially since we didn’t have a very big gene pool to begin with.”

“Egill is a great grandfather of yours and you can follow his line clear to your mother. The only other person who ever swam with me.”

We were in no time through a dark tunnel and the water became notably colder and Tyr slowed down. Did Tyr not say I was the first one? I was thinking to myself.

“Get on top of me now and behind my first dorsal fin. That is a better spot and I can swim faster without you being washed away by the streaming water.”

I swam along and I realized just how big Tyr was as it took effort and some time to reach that fin. Tyrannos had between six and twelve dorsal fins on top behind their heads. Starting small and getting bigger. The first fin was Tyr’s shortest but still at least two meters tall I sat behind it and held fast to it.

“I told you that you are the first I offered to swim with me. Your mother didn’t need an invitation. She simply jumped in.” Tyr’s mental voice almost sounded embarrassed but had a warm note to it.” She thought I was cute!”

Of all possible words I knew to describe Tyr, I would have never even considered the word cute. An almost 100 meter long white Tyranno Fin that could tear apart a hunting sub with ease was anything but cute!

“Exactly!”

“My mother saw you?”

“Yes she was with Egill for a while as the 0ld man tried to teach her brother, with little success I might add. She kept my existence a secret and told no one and she never was afraid of me not even from the first moment.”

I felt pride as he talked about my mother that way.”Are we not stopping by the boat?”

“No need, we go so deep, no wet suit would do you any good.”

“I am pretty sure I can trust you and all, but you do know that I can’t go much deeper than 450 meters.”

“I told you I am aware of human limitations and yours as well. We are way past that mark already. I do swim a tad faster than you, and I learned what meters and measure scales are. I would guess we are well past six hundred meters now.”

“Psionics eh?”

“That is what you call it. The Saresii are more specific and call it a Para-dim level induced, contour hugging psi force field. I simply think you safe, more or less.”

“You know a lot about the Union and such.”

“I like to listen in to the minds of kids and teachers when they are in school you know and when you get one of these Neural Uploads. I simply partake as well. Over time I got somewhat of an understanding what is going on out there and I like the ideas and principals of that society.”

“Maybe you should apply for citizen ship after all.”

“That has still time, but you are still planning to become a Star ship Captain?”

“Yes. I am not sure if I ever make it but I will try.” There was no light coming from the surface and I could not see anything anymore.

“Close your eyes, it is easier for me to show you what I see you when you don’t strain your visual, there aren’t many photons left down here.”

I closed my eyes and I somehow felt his thoughts like an invisible hand brushing over my forehead and suddenly I knew there was a rock shark no less than 400 meters away, chasing after a panicked snapper fish. I could feel and sense every flick of its tail I knew how big it was and then I “saw” the fish and the entire surroundings before my inner eyes but in a totally different way. There were no colors, not even black or white. I could sense the ocean floor far beneath, every ridge and rock and every fish and thing around us. I opened my eyes out of pure reflex to see a rock shark that came to close and everything vanished and it was dark again.

“Keep them closed! Your mind is not trained to process visual input and the input of the electro sense and sonar organ we Tyrannos use, I was relaying to your mind.”

I closed them again.”This is fantastic!” The Rock shark was gone, but I sensed and smelled the blood and part of a shark tailfin behind us. Tyr had not even slowed down to devour a 12 meter rock shark!

“It is foolish even for a dimwitted triangle snout to swim so close before me. Besides I do like the taste.”

“Me too! Rock shark steaks are one of my favorites!”

I was discussing sea food choices with a Tyranno, riding it and after it killed a Rock shark like nothing. I remembered my fight with the two Sharks near the school rock and my fight with tbe Tyrannos I realized just how lucky I was.

“Yes you were, but not entirely. You are a natural hunter and fighter. I respect you very much for triumphing over two of us. I know it takes courage to go against a lifeform so much bigger and stronger and even your slayer harpoons are by no means an equalizer.”

“The light I saw back then, it was you. Wasn’t it?”

“Yes Eric, I was watching you.”

We reached the bottom of an underwater mountain and could sense dozens of Tyrannos of all sizes all around us and the water becoming warmer again.

“This is a sleep mountain. It is a Volcano and warms the water even during the long Cold and it has many caves and one Cave in particular I want you to see.”

Tyr entered a side vent of the volcano and the water was even warmer. Through a labyrinth of underwater tunnels and channels we surfaced in another grotto and there on a small island of this underwater lake was something like a space ship! It clearly had been there for a long time as stalagmites had grown over and covered most of it, formed by dripping water from long stalactites containing calcite and lime above it. Ever since I had left the recruiting office, I had learned everything I could find on space ships and not just Union Ships, but from what I could see this was of no known configuration.

Ty spoke in my mind. “I came to be in this cave. I belive this object is the reason I am being sentient, I have brought other Tyrannos in all stages here, but I remain the only one that is sentient.”

“I can try to find out form what culture it comes, but this would most likely to be the job of a Xeno archeologist or Xeno Tech expert. I am neither.”

“I don’t want you to identify it. I want you to see and remember it Do not ever tell anyone of its existence. You may even end your life and never need to think about it, but I am sure that within your lifetime a very powerful enemy comes over this Galaxy and nothing will be able to stop it, then Eric come back here and you will receive an answer.”

He spoke in such a profound way that I had no responds at first. “Are you able to see the future?”

“I don’t think I can, but I have dreamt about you long before you were born. You are the first human of this world who wants command something like this. The Ancient One below the Halls of Hasvik, also believes something profound will come of this so insignificant world, it will change the fabric of the Universe itself. When Egill told me about your dreams to become a star ship captain and I learned that you were the son of that female I liked, I was compelled to show this to you. Even though Egill thinks I am akin to a God, I am just an old fish who thinks this is a wink of fate, an omen or signs form the real Gods whoever they may be.”

“There is no guarantee I will even be accepted to the Academy, much less make it to be a captain and now I think I have to become one!”

“That is why I will make you forget this and only remember if my dream about this comes true!”

“So I won’t remember you either?”

“No Eric, you won’t remember me for a while, but we will always be friends. You will return to Nilfeheim, either as star ship captain or after realizing that this career was not for you after all and then I reveal myself again to you. Besides you inherited the Pillar and if nothing else you can be the next Hermit and we will then spend a long time together.”

“I inherited the Pillar? The old man is not coming back? Did he die?”

“I am sure he will die. I have no idea when or where, but he did give you the ownership of the rock.”

“That is going to go over well with my father!”

“He cannot do anything about that.”

“If I don’t remember you, I might have to kill another Tyranno for the ancient challenge, you know!”

“I know. I just make sure I won’t be anywhere near you when you do that.”

Interlude 5: Flowerchild

The head waiter, most likely was a Stellaris, judging by his chrome metallic shimmering skin underneath the perfectly tailored tuxedo.

Hafez Safar slightest gesture was noticed and the waiter came over to his table. “I hope you enjoyed your pan seared Ilasian goat filet.”

“Very much so!” Havez agreed and wanted to order desert. The waiter snipped his metallic fingers and a Garbini flowed to the table on its walking tentacles and clearing the table and preparing it for desert in a spectacular ballet of tentacles, with speed and accuracy. Havez wondered how long it took for the auto dresser to figure out how to alter a Tuxedo to fit a Garbini. He ordered the Tiramisu and leaned back. From his table and across the candle and brass lamp lit, old Terra decor restaurant he had a spectacular view into deep space and the famous incredibly beautiful horsehead nebula in the Orion constellation. The restaurant was inside a deep space way station between the Orion and the Sagittarius arm and still 79 light years away from that nebula, just at a perfect spot to see it in its entire size with the naked eye. No one, so it was said could look at the nebula and not have a religious experience. Hafez agreed it was beautiful but to him the fine meal and the bottle of wine were much more important. The best part of it he would be on Para-Para in a few days, relaxing on the white beaches and under the double sun, with his new name and eat fine meals for the rest of his life. Thanks to the 5 million Credits now on a Cash equivalent Credit strip he carried in his pocket.

Only six weeks ago he would not have been able to afford such a. Well perhaps once a month and back then he was slaving for the Megabix Corporation in a close to the ground fourth floor office with thousand other GalNet Network Engineers supporting an enormous popular Virtu Emotion Game Series. A Game series that was so successful, it catapulted Megabix only five years ago into the top twenty list of the Ultra Corporation. It was pure chance that the security system was down and he could slip in the otherwise off limits test lab, snatch the latest, not yet released version and sell it to Bootleg-It, a company on Sin 4 where Union Law had no meaning. That his theft had cost Megabix many hundred billions of credits in revenue and caused more than twenty thousand employees lose their jobs, was unfortunate but it didn’t concern him much, he was rich now and that was the only thing important. He had purchased a new ID and CITI after getting such services via a Connector.

Havez paid for the meal and strolled with no particular hurry down the main concourse of the station. The luxury clipper that would take him to Para-Para was not due till late tomorrow. He planned his escape well and crisscrossed around Union space now for the last five weeks and no one would be able to find him.

He purchased a High Res Holo Print and a T shirt from a souvenir shop and watched a human female struggle with a broken heel of her stiletto shoes and since he was human as well he found the blonde hourglass shaped girl with the dangerously short tube dress quite alluring and walked over.” Nice shoes!”

She smiled at him and had gorgeous blue eyes. She was exactly his type! She almost looked like Annie the girl he dated in VirtuEmotio. Anna was a simulation. That girl looking even better was flesh and blood and even smelled good.” But only with the heels intact, Could help me hobble to my room. I think I strained my ankle a little that would be great.”

He offered his arm and her skin and touch felt warm and soft and while Anna was all these things, to know the girl was real was enticing. He followed her instructions down a short side corridor and then she suddenly pushed him, across a yellow and black striped section on the floor. She was much stronger than she looked and he stumbled three steps, a hissing sound behind him as an Ultronit partition shot up, He saw the blonde through a transparent panel and he heard her voice through a field speaker.” Do you really think you can get away after what you did?”

“Well so arrest me! I know my rights.”

“I am a Solution provider and not the police. Bye, bye Mr. Safar formerly known as Jim Hollwarth. I wonder how long that brandy you had after dinner will keep you warm out there!”

Now he realized where he was, this was an emergency Air lock. “You can’t do that! That is murder!”

“Exactly Mr. Hollwarth, I am glad we agree on that, since this is what I got paid for to do!”

The wall before him disappeared and there was nothing he could hold onto. The coldness was so instant it felt like burning him! His lungs expanded, the water in his eyes froze and so did the salvia and moisture in his mouth and throat. Hollwarth saw the blonde waving with a cold smile before his vision blurred out.

The blonde watched the bloated body carried by the initial momentum float towards the horsehead nebula. She found it funny he still held the Holo and wore his new T shirt. It was quite conceivable Jim would make it there by the time some of the new stars forming in that celestial dust and energy cauldron became real suns.

Satisfied she returned to her own rooms at the stations Hotel, she had no trouble now walking in her heels and the stiletto extension was once more firmly attached. In her rooms however she tossed the uncomfortable shoes onto the bed, along with the long blond wig and the bio-flex mask, shook the long black hair open then after a shower she slipped into a fluffy robe and sat before the GalNet Terminal. Her genetic data and her menta-print accepted she was now connected to the highly secure Comm XChange of her guild. She used to be a freelancer but for six years now, she was an active Solution provider for the Violent Mothers Association. Sure she was not as independent anymore but the VMA made up for it with steady work contracts, guaranteed pay and no hassle with customers. You got your mission, completed it and cashed in. In addition to good travel arrangements, access to a weapon delivery network and nice costumes and fun entertainment at the annual company picnic.

She uploaded the recording of the last execution and moments later the visual of VMA One appeared. The beautiful large eyed creature with almost impossible long flowing hair and delicate facial features and the flimsy dress was of course a virtual generated avatar and the First Mother looked completely different in real live, but then her Image displayed at the other end was equally misleading, she had chosen the Avatar body of a talking Flower as it fit her handle Flowerchild well.

The delicate Elfin creature spoke.” Well done Flowerchild. I have transferred your bonus.”

“It was simple this time. The fool left a trail so wide a blind Shail could follow.”

“Are you ready for a break or do you care for a new mission?”

“The last one was not very exhausting and I am saving up for a Red Ferrari Rosso Speciale. So what do you have?”

“Your client is a a patriarch of a family business on a Union world called Nilfeheim. It is an open end service contract and might include a few neutralizations. It’s a Type 191 P, so I thought of you that should be right up your alley.”

“Standard pay?”

“Standard plus 5 percent.”

“Make it Standard plus 12 and we got a deal”

“That leaves me no profit at all. Take eight or I send it on to someone else.”

“You are the shrewdest pixy this side of Disney Planet. Alright send the details. I take it.”

Brunar already had a female scientist working for him, so he didn’t mind dealing with another one. This one came prepared, he had to admit, she wore the dress of a Freewoman and had her hair done the local way. He was even more impressed as she talked in the distinctive Nilfeheim dialect, Union Standard heavily laced with ancient Nordish and pronouncing the “r’s” and “s’es” much heavier than most Off-Worlders did. At first he thought she was indeed a local but he did not only pick her up at the XChange where she had arrived inside a shipping crate but she came along with two Anti Tech projectors and a few other Off world things he decided to order to protect his business. Any doubt that she was a local vanished as she installed the projectors in no time in two of his subs. Despite her local appearance she had the flair of someone who got things done and without scruples.

She had listened to his troubles and then suggested a course of action he also agreed upon. She was expensive and charged by the day, but she was worth it, he could tell already.

Ulfred Lindbergh stood in the tiny control room of Sea Snake Three, the newest and biggest Hunt Sub of the Lindbergh clan. New was of course a relative term as this boat did already more than eighty years of service, but Subs were very expensive and only perhaps thirty clans still had Hunt subs.

The boat was a reliable piece of New Sweden technology. Like most subs on Nilfeheim it was kept clean and scrubbed and the boat owners prided themselves to always have the boats well painted. On the other hand real engineers were rare, clan sons did not want to learn off world technology and get their hands dirty with manual labor and Freemen did not go to any further schooling after basic school was completed, so the technical knowledge was usually handed down in a practical apprenticeship. Not that there was really much to do. The reactors were guaranteed to produce power for 500 years and most sub accidents happened when the boat hooked a big Tyranno, and not hitting the mark, but even that was rare.

Normally the Sea snake should be on her way to the Uhim grounds and hook a few Tri Fins or a Tyranno or two, but instead of going south they went north east towards the Bendixen grounds. There was nothing really special there so it seemed. The Bendixens fished and harvested crabs and shellfish for generations and never been an important or rich clan, but ever since Brunar had taken that had changed. That upstart arrived at the last clan Leader meeting in a brand new Saab Lux-454 flier, purchased no less than five bran new Submarines in only ten years. Not hunting subs but models with manipulator arms to tend their underwater crab farms. Everyone knew the colorful catalogs displayed at the XChange Café with the latest Submarine models one could order. Those Manipulator boats cost almost 2 Million Credits each. All this sudden wealth and the generous gifts Brunar had showered the Elders with to get his father elected went along with the Bendixens asking the Circle of Elders to declare the Bendixen grounds legal real estate. He already had set up buoys in the Bendixen colors and banners warning trespassers. Oceans on Nilfeheim were free and no one was allowed to declare a part theirs.

If this would be allowed, then someone else could claim the Uhim Grounds private!

There had to be something there that explained both the sudden wealth and the wish to keep others away. Adolph his father told him to take a closer look. Today he would not back down and float all the way to Bendixen rock and check out what was so special about the ocean grounds there.

He was now less than a klick away from the first Bendixen buoy. The Computronic enhancing the sonar images to a clear two Dee read out showed three of the five manipulator boats busy with cage boxes. The Bendixens had leveled the rocky ocean floor and large Duro-Crete foundations with even rows of hundreds of pillars on each. Some of these concrete pillars were encrusted with shell fish and immobile crabs.

The light flickered and the Sonar suddenly went dark. Now the light went out completely! He didn’t even know they had emergency lighting until now as the red lights came on.”What in Odin’s name? Who of you idiots leaned on the light switch panel?”

Magne the forty year old Freeman who was the boats engineer came up the ladder. “The reactor is out! We have no power. The red lights flickered now and then it was completely dark.

Ulfred and his small crew suddenly felt fear. There were no emergency procedures; no one had ever drilled for an emergency evacuation procedure. They weren’t even deep enough to be really dangerous for them. They all were Neo Vikings and even though some of them had not taken a dive since their childhood, they still had gills, but not even the Engineer of the boat knew that there actually was an emergency exit. The handle for it had been cut off and hatch painted over with many layers of paint, there even was an emergency blow out valve that would release pressurized air into the ballast tanks. It was a mechanical valve and not affected by any electronic system failure, but the purpose for the red painted hand wheel had been lost with the engineers handbook ever since the previous engineer, threw all manuals out, as he didn’t like to read and the manuals took room away from the bottles of ale he had stashed there

The boat sank towards the ocean floor. Even though it was not very traditional Ulfred had a modern PDD connected to GalNet.

PDD’s that could connect to GalNet from anywhere in Union Space were very expensive, almost unknown on Nilfeheim. The Elders considered the uncontrolled exchange of Off-World Ideas the worst threat to Nilfeheim Culture and prohibited the use.

Ulfred could not explain why this reliable piece of tech was as dark as the rest of the boat. Magne remembered that the air system did more than just make the air cold or hot; it also refreshed it with oxygen and removed Carbon monoxide.

Ulfred and his small crew suffocated about six hours later, shortly after that the lights came back on.

The clan chief of the Bendixen had to bite his lip to prevent the gleeful smile creeping on his face as he landed his luxury flier near the XChange, a large crowd had gathered by the wharf. One of the Olafson subs had towed in the white and red painted Sub of the Lindbergs. It was one of his boats who had reported the drifting sub on via Nilfeheim Radio.

He counted eight Elders and at least nine clan chiefs among a throng of Freemen, Low Men and workers. Adolph Lindberg and Isegrim stood in the first row as men carried the five bodies on shore. Bendixen suddenly realized that he went too far, as he saw the faces of the suffocated men. One of them was Adolph’s Firstborn. The Tech stop had worked just as promised, he expected the men to escape and swim to the surface. He wanted the Lindbergs to lose a boat or two, not five men.

But then he steeled himself inside and thought business is business and he wanted to play with the big boys from beyond the clouds. It was their fault for snooping so close. The plan he had agreed upon and paid the Off world women to execute had just unfolded and he knew these were only the first dead in a new war, not fought openly and with honor but underneath the surface with Off world tricks and tech.

Adolph Lindberg’s face was as hard as the rock he lived on and then looked in Bendixen’s direction and all he did was cramp his fist around the hilt of his sword.

Brunar walked over and wanted to offer his underarm and express his condolence, but Adolph turned his back, but Isegrim Olafson who was even among his peer a very powerful presence spoke. “Five men died like magic and without apparent reason not very far from what you claim your waters. We will investigate and if this is anything else than an accident be assured we will find out.”

Brunar did not feel as gleeful as he left the gathering and went back to his flier, but he decided to sink a few more Subs of the Olafsons and the Lindbergs and anyone else coming close, just this time he would not leave any evidence behind.