The Valkyrie Chronicles: Titans (6 page)

We had strategized into the early morning hours before we retired to get some sleep.   We wouldn't do anyone any good if we were sleep deprived.  I slept restlessly.  I felt like I had failed my people.  It is the job of the Valkyrie to protect our innocents and ensure things like this didn't happen.  I am just a tool of violence, and in this case, my huge capacity for violence did us no good.

When we woke and donned our armor, we heard Arina's entry chime in the great room of our quarters.  I grinned, even after all these eons she still acts like Kate's Second and prepared breakfast for us each day.  I loved the Little One with all my heart.

Inatra was with her and Artemis came out of her room and we all ate solemnly.  She shared with us at long last, the details of the first and only meeting between the Olympians and the Titans.  Then she finished with, “Then when the Frost Giants returned and confronted us on our failure to fight the Titan's, they attempted to kill us all.  The beasts said that we were a failed experiment that needed to be terminated and reset.  We lost most of the Olympians who remained after Rhea had used her siren's song to lure our men away, and most of the population we had restored.  We were able to escape with fewer than one hundred.  We continued to evade and hide from the Jotunn until we found Olympus, the prefect hiding spot... in plain sight.”

I laid a consoling hand on Artemis'. She said, “We have never known the fate of the others of our race who were enslaved by the Titans. Except for glimpses of their offspring, the Halflings that the Titans send out to hunt for us.”  Then she took a deep breath. “As our numbers grew slowly over the eons, having only twelve men in the genetic pool, we stopped procreating when we numbered five hundred.  Our genetic diversity wouldn't sustain much more inbreeding.”

Then she chuckled.  “That's why none has ever won me over to their bed here in Valhalla... it is almost instinct for us Olympians to not breed.  It is a mental block I need to get over.  You have such great genetic diversity here.  I have almost forgotten what it is like to be intimate anymore.”

I nodded slowly at that, I could not imagine what her race had gone through, they were an endangered species.  Even the Ragnarok, who were virtually annihilated by the Frost Giants so very long ago, had almost a half million people sprinkled across the galaxy to rebuild their race.  They now number twenty-three million.  A far cry from the twenty billion that used to live on this very planet, but an insurmountable number for a race that was thinned to just twelve males and eighty-eight females.

Odin's beard, they had to breed from necessity, to restore their race.  Artemis was there!  Had she had been one of the ones to breed?  She never speaks about family or children.  Though we have been her friends for so many centuries, there is still much we don't know about our secretive Olympian.  Most of her long life she has had to think about what her race has been pressed to do to endure.  I can't imagine the things that may have bent their own morals to ensure the survival of their people.

Olympians have an almost perfect genetic makeup, with such a dense chromosomal and DNA structure that their cells can regenerate almost infinitely.  We Asgard use nanites to accomplish the same, but to them, it is a natural ability.  They can heal almost any damage in days, their variable metabolism sees to that.  In all physical ways, they are a superior race to the Asgard, we only surpass them with our technology.  This seeming immortality must be like a silent torture to a race that has seen themselves brought to the brink of extinction but can not ever bring their numbers beyond five hundred for fear of degrading the genetic pool due to inbreeding.

We finished our meal and made our way to Father's workshop.  He was, of course, already there.  I know that mother had stayed on Earth last night to assist Loki and to slap some sense into the artificially lovestruck Mist.  I shuddered to think what would have happened if she has followed Rhea as her thrall.  Mist, my Second, my sister, was the most dangerous non-evolved Valkyrie with a fury like my own.

I believe that whenever mother does not share father's bed, he never sleeps. Instead, he just putters about in his workshop.  There is no man that loves his wife like Odin does, their love has inspired more songs that any other and is the stuff of legends. Arina liked to always remind Kat and I that the songs of our romance number almost as many, much to my chagrin.  The ballad of the human Valkyrie, who tamed the Wild One has been my eternal embarrassment on multiple planets.  I snuck a glance and a smile at my Kat. 
Kroth do I love that woman!

I heard her sweet raspy voice in my head across our nanite link, “Love you too troublemaker.” Then she bumped hips with me.  Arina was smiling cutely suddenly.

I gruffed out, “Is my link always broadcasting?  Or am I that easy to read?”

In unison, all of the evil women including Artemis, who does not share our link said, “Yes.”

I growled in confusion and shook my head as I stepped up to father and laid the back of my hand on his cheek and stole one his lines, “Well met father.  I swear that the women of my family will be the death of me.”

He chuckled heartily. “God morrow daughter.  How do the humans say it?  Welcome to the club.” We exchanged cheesy grins and then everyone greeted father, Kate kissing his hand like she always did.  This always put a smile on father's face and made him forget about the pressures of his position for a moment.

We started the ritual of pulling up our virtual consoles.  He mentioned, “Samantha has asked when she can come back to Valhalla from Folkvangr.  I told her that you would probably prefer that she stay at Brunie's until this Titan matter is resolved.”  Kate nodded thanks to him for that.

I glanced back at the empty tactical station and asked, “Tyr?”  The big man was always on station when we needed to make plans.

Father shook his head.  “ He is still not fully recovered from the heavy concentration of pheromones he was exposed to.  But he is functional and is overseeing his men still stuck between the shields, making sure they have food and supplies until their compulsion wears off.  Many still want nothing but to kill Artemis for Rhea to please her.”

Then he got a little quiet. “I also believe he is shamed and does not wish to face you Valkyrie yet.”

I shot father an incredulous look. “How can he think that?  He resisted when others could not, and was able to sway others from her hold.”

Odin took a deep breath.  “He is ashamed that couldn't fire on the woman even when she stood in front of him, so many lives could have been saved.”

I pursed my lips, I had nothing but pride for Tyr, how could he believe we would think ill of him.  I locked eyes with Odin. “I shall speak with him.  There was nothing but valor in his actions at the gate.”

Father gave me a single nod of appreciation then turned to the door as it opened.  Loki strode in with a purposeful gate with mother and Mist flanking her.  They love-struck look in Mist's eyes was gone and she looked almost embarrassed and...  angry.

Loki gave us greetings then held up a case to father, she seemed more in control of her unhinged side at the moment.  The rest of us greeted mother and Mist.  Loki spoke with a slight smile on her lips, “We have found a solution to counteract the nano-phage.  She opened the case and handed a holo-pad to father.  This adaptable self-morphing code can be uploaded to all Asgard nanites to target any biologicals with Titan signatures.”

Then she was lost for a moment. “It truly is a remarkable piece of engineering that phage, and quite enjoyable too.”  She blushed then straightened up.  Then pulled out a canister,  for those without the nanites on any of the worlds, this will give them the antigen needed to combat this type of Titan bio attack.  I have sent one to each world to release into the atmosphere.  It should go global within ten to twenty hours of release.  Use this one in the citadel atmospheric processing plant.”

I nodded at that, there were still thousands of Ragnarok and humans that did not want to accept Asgard nanites even after all these centuries.  They preferred to live natural lifespans instead of our pseudo immortality.  This would protect them from Titan biological coercion.

Without a word, father took the canister and walked over to one of his consoles and plugged it in and we heard a hissing sound as the contents were dumped into the citadel's environmental systems.

Then he reviewed the data on the holo-pad then nodded in appreciation as Arina looked over his arm and her eyes went wide as she smiled.  She was one of the few people who could actually understand Loki's genius.  Odin ran his fingers through the instruction-set and flicked it toward the nanite control console.

Then he pulled up a com session with Tyr.  “Tyr, the antidote for the Titan pathogen has uploaded to the nanites in the citadel.  You should see results...”  He paused and looked at Loki, who was slowly spinning around with her arms wide.

She murmured, “Clickity clack, we take our will back.”  She noted Odin's eyes on hers and she smiled and added, “In but an instant numbering one, Titan will is all undone.”

He smiled and turned back to the hologram of Tyr. “Immediately.”

Tyr's hologram glanced at Mist then back to Odin and looked embarrassed and said, “I felt the umm... arousal leave.  The men at the gate look suitably confused, I am letting them out now.”

Mist chuckled at him. “Do not be embarrassed husband, I would have killed to share Rhea's bed.  When Loki used me as a guinea pig for her solution, I felt the same when my attraction was suddenly gone.”

Father just rolled his eyes and cut the transmission. We all turned to the man holo-display to discuss how we could get our people free with Loki singing something in the background about, “Terran bats,”

I said to him, “Freya's cloaking shields do not work against Jotunn scanners.  Any attempt to try to insert a boarding party on the Star Killer would be swiftly dealt with by their primary weapons.  There is no way to get close enough to surprise them.”

Then I looked at him. “Would the nanite update reach the men on the Titan vessel?”  He shook his head. “Not through that ungodly armor of theirs.”  My shoulders slumped.

Loki was now swooping through the room flapping her arms and singing, “When the bat goes squee, she gets a squee back.”

Arina stopped and slowly turned toward the woman and a smile slowly bloomed on her face with her “I have an idea!” look.  I cocked an eyebrow at her when she glanced at me.  She looked back at Loki.  “As usual, dear sweet Loki is ten steps ahead of us all.”  Then she turned to a virtual console and said, “One moment.”  She typed a few things then her smile got bigger.  “You were right Loki.  It is exactly like our Bifrost.”

In recognition of what was going on Odin said, “Oh!” Kate made an exasperated noise and hissed out, “Do you three care to share with the Neanderthals of the class who can't calculate the the location of an event horizon of a black hole in their head?  Remember to dumb it down by an order of magnitude for us normal people.”

Arina smiled almost patiently. “But an event horizon is not something that...”  Kat cut her off with an extremely humorous glare.  Arina a giggled and said, “Sorry.”  Then she pointed at the quantum tunnel on the main display and said comically like a mother talking to a small child just to be funny.  “The tunnel, it goes both ways.  It is always on.”  She started bobbing up and down dancing in place with Loki's singing for the long moment it took for it to sink in.

Oh... OH!  Kate smiled and shoved Arina's shoulder just to have Inatra with the same realization on her face. She shoved her back the other way with a predatory grin on her pretty Ragnarok face, as she hissed in anticipation of the hunt like a Terran cat.

I voiced it, “We can use their own Quantum Entanglement Tunnel to park a wind rider on their doorstep before they knew what was happening!”  I didn't add that it would also be within their main cannon range as well.

Loki stopped dancing and her madness seemed to vanish as she deadpanned, “Duh.”  The workshop broke into boisterous laughter.  Odin's beard, we were one probable suicide mission away from attempting a rescue of our people.

Within an hour, Tyr had joined us and we were discussing possible mission plans when we were hailed by the Titan vessel.  Father took a deep breath and cleared the main display and then accepted the hail.  A strange looking person was on the display, he had Olympian features but had the pale blue tint to their skin of a Frost Giant.  There was what I assumed was an Olympian man sitting beside him who wasn't that much smaller.  Was this a small Frost Giant?  But then my eyes went wide, a Halfling!

I heard Artemis gasp. “ Eros?”

The Olympian looked up from his station and looked torn between his duty and ignoring the woman.  He looked a little confused. “Artemis?”

There was the guttural clicking offscreen, the Jotunn language.  A female voice was telling him to get back to work.  He looked away quickly like he was embarrassed.  “Yes mistress.”

Artemis was saying, “ Eros?  Eros, I thought to never see you again.  Eros?”  But the man ignored her.  He had that same dreamy look on his face as the people we saw that were enraptured by Rhea.

Then collectively we all jumped slightly as a deep bass voice came from the Halfling.  “Fetch me Odin of Asgard.  Our Queen demands it.”  The man didn't seem to be as distracted as Eros and he seemed put out to be speaking with people he obviously believed were below his station.”