Eric Olafson, Neoviking 31

Chapter 31: Thingstead

I had one spear left. Two of the Rock sharks floated belly up to the surface, the Slayer harpoon meant for Tyrannos was good enough to kill these triangle snouts. Even now fighting for my life I wondered why I called them that way.

My last spear missed! Not that it mattered much, four sharks were now busy with the carcass of the ones I killed, fighting each other for the meat, there were three more now aiming for me, also that immense presence beneath me came closer. This was the largest Tyranno ever. The rock sharks suddenly hesitated and then turned and swam away as fast as they could! I opened my eyes and saw something white almost glowing shooting up from beneath. Too fast for me to evade. A huge white Tyranno with a maw big enough to bite a normal sub in half came up with the speed of a torpedo. This was it. I would be devoured like a Silver flicker! Strangely though I knew I had to die I did not fear that white shape. It hit my feet with its snout and pushed me out of the water! The same moment as if a veil was removed from my mind. I remembered and yelled with full lungs.” Tyr!”

Sif could not believe her eyes and the men holding her hostage suddenly trembled with fear. Eric shot out of the water, like a reborn God standing on the snout of a white Tyranno! It was the biggest she had ever seen!

Adolph Lindberg was the only one turning his spear gun aiming at the immense presence, and fired! The spear turned in mid air and nailed Adolph Lindberg right through his chest where it exploded.

“Tyr!” I yelled again with the intensity of my relief. I knew everything would turn out well! Maybe Tyr wasn’t a god but the next best thing and he was certainly the biggest friend I had. The men surrendered and dropped their weapons.

I learned that several of Bendixen’s men were already in the water when I surfaced and had entered my boat as soon as I was in the water. This time I took no chances. Sif armed with the Neuro ripper gun held them in check while I used every drop of Stick and Bond to glue their hands together. Bendixen did have some fight in him but Sif dropped him with a short shock of the beamer and after that he too was no problem. Father’s split his men up to crew the captured boats and to tow his damaged sub. After all this was done I went back out and looked at the huge white fish floating next to us.”Why did you take my memory of you? I would not have told your secret!”

“Eric you have a long road ahead of you and I did not want you to be influenced by the knowledge I gave you, I will erase the memory of these men about me. I must remain to be a legend. However I had to come and safe you, little fish! You have a habit to swim in the middle of trouble a lot and the next time you decide to swim with Triangle snouts, make sure at least one Tyranno is nearby, or you carry a whole lot more of those harpoons.”

“Tyr I don’t know how to thank you and for the short time I actually know you, you have become a dear friend.”

“If you call me cute, Eric I throw you in the water myself!”

“No worries, I still don’t think of you as cute. But when this is all over I would love if you show me more of our oceans.”

“Maybe my little fish, maybe!”

Sif came out and she was clearly afraid but came closer anyway.” Is this Tyranno tame? I never knew how pretty they are.”

She went close to the edge and stretched out her hand to touch Tyr.” You are so beautiful! Look at his gorgeous eyes and he is all white!”

“I am not tame!” Thundered Tyr, but his voice grew softer.” Well perhaps she is not totally wrong with the other statements.”

“He doesn’t want to be called tame, Sif. You also better not call him cute!”

Her eyes widened.”Is it talking to you somehow?”

“Sif that is Tyr! He is very old and wise and powerful.”

“Hello Tyr! I am Sif and I am a friend of Eric. I never saw a Tyranno so close and never one as big as you.” She touched him.” I bet he doesn’t like that we kill his brothers and sisters. We must stop that!”

Her eyes widened and I knew she was hearing his voice as well now.” Sif, I know who you are and it was me who suggest you to become our next representative. Maybe we could discus culling quotas when you are at that point. For now let my existence be a secret.”

INTERLUDE 12 CLEANERS

David Moyes greeted the new client in his office and he said. “I was told by our mutual contact that you are in need of special services and represent a larger organization?”

His visitor certainly dressed the part, and had arrived in a private Yacht. A 120 meter Bombardier executive no less. Whoever his client was had the means to hire Galactic Solutions, no doubt.

The person was not human but had distinctive Attikan features. The Attikan had only recently joined the Union and ruled pretty much the entire Larger Magellan Cloud. While he had the overall shape and size of a human he walked more like an upright hyena and his face shared the of the characteristic features of this Terran canine species. The Attikan spoke with a cool accent free voice. “Indeed you could say that. I am representing Schwartz Intergalactic; to be precise I am here to express the distinct displeasure of my employer using his personal image, name and reputation. He especially wanted me to point out to you that he is even less amused about the fact you used his image in the conduct of highly illegal activities.”

David tugged at his collar.” I can understand that and I will gladly make amends. You can tell your employer it will never happen again.”

“It pleases me that you understand, Mr. Moyes. You will indeed make amends and yes it will never happen again, at least not done by you or anyone in this company.”

“How much will it cost me?”

“Right now my associates have cleaned this building, Kevin Atkien has certainly caught up with his last cigarette butt, he really shouldn’t litter you know.” The Attikan tugged at the thin leather gloves he wore.” I am a Cleaner you see and my job is to clean this office!”

David pulled the little Walther Laser and fired. The beam was absorbed by a force field that was visible for a fraction.” Please Mr. Moyes. You pride yourself to be a professional and your company is in business for many decades. Schwartz Intergalactic plays in the first league since the Union was founded, give us a little credit! And I do apologize for making it a little messy, but my Employer wanted to make your execution a statement for all similar ventures operating in this unsavory field. I am sure they understand why I feel it is necessary to decorate your office with your entrails!”

The Attikan went to do exactly that.

The ship was a real space bus, manufactured by Leyland Ship yards. Just like the million space ships operated by Grey Lines, it was an old model, sold many decades ago as surplus. Hog Crafton had spend considerable money and a great amount of effort to refurbish the ship and make it look like a new one even the paint scheme down to the logos was just like that of a space bus. Hog was a pirate and he called his ship the Trojan Horse as it could slip in and out Union Territory unnoticed, he usually used it to smuggle illegal goods but this time he had only one item in its freight bay. A genuine Terran Mil tech P-Bomb, he had to pay an astronomical sum to the Worm, the Criminal Organization that operated within the Union Fleet to get his hands on this thing.

Officially it was designated as a Planetary Incendiary device, but as it was typical Terran custom they came up with funny names for their most deadly weapons. Parking Lot Bomb, because it would turn a planet into one gigantic parking lot once it had cooled down. He didn’t like the mission one bit. Committing genocide was a big step up, even for a hard boiled pirate and smuggler like him and he knew the fleet would try to hunt down whoever dropped such a device on a Union planet. He decided to hide in Free Space space for a long time after this job. He actually regretted taking the job and wished he could change his mind, but once he had agreed to do a job, he had a reputation to see it through. In three days he was to reach planet Nilfeheim, drop the bomb and high tail out of Union Territory. The target world was deep in Union space and he hoped his ship’s disguise would buy him the time he needed to get away.