Chapter 10: Caught

They had shown me to a small cave in the big caverns wall. Inside, behind a curtain was a real bed and I slept deep and dreamless. This time I did not wake on my own but was called out while I still felt tired. The perpetual small fusion sun made any guess what time it was completely impossible, at least to me. The woman stood just outside the curtain and she was dressed very much like I expected a woman warrior to look. Hard leather armor molded to accommodate her female shape. Underneath a short white tunic that revealed much of her shapely legs. Her curly hair pulled to the back and tamed into a pony tail with a leather strap adorned with feathery things to the side. She held two long spears.” Good Morning Eric!” She handed me one and said. “The spear is one of human kind’s oldest weapons. In our old languages man with a Ger became to be known as German and the word describing an entire culture.”

The spear had a wooden shaft and was set on the top with a pointed double edged tip of metal. I wanted to impress her and said after I had bowed. “Odin’s spear is named Gungir and it is infallible and its tip cannot be broken. The Elders of the Circle and the clan Chiefs swear on Gungir the most sacred oaths!” I then hastily added.” Your Ladyship.”

She did nod with a knowledgeable smile.” My name is Siegfrida and you may call me by my name.”

She turned the spear and drew a simple arrow in the dirt.” This is the Tir rune in the writing of the old Vikings on Earth and it t has the meaning of war, victory, law and cosmic order and is associated with the ancient Germanic and Aryan sky god Tir. This rune also resembles Irmunsul the world tree.”

I followed her to a different cave and she explained that these chambers once were formed by hot magma bubbles and flows while the Volcano was more active.

She was a patient but demanding teacher and the fact that she was a woman somehow spurned the male warrior ego that was part of perhaps every Neo Vikings personality. I think I would not have tried as hard if she was a male instructor. For the next 3 weeks I hurled spears, fought with shield, spear, ax and sword until I could no longer feel my arms. Unlike our fight instructor at school, she was not cruel and inflicted injury and mars on purpose but I still thought there was not a spot left on my body without a bruise. Her training was much more akin to the mysterious man who had saved me from falling.

When we did fight with swords she did notice.”It seems your are not a novice when it comes to the sword. Eric, someone taught you well already.”

Every night I was allowed to the baths and the warm water was a better remedy to my aching muscles than anything else I could imagine.

But training with her was also a wonderful time. She was full of stories and wisdom about our culture and the gods. When she told a story about the Gods and then explained the meaning of the story and the symbolism and why that story was told. I had not really thought about father. I felt somehow accepted. There was no one making fun of me or teasing me, no one told me what a looser or how unwanted I was. No one was beating or kicking me and I did not have to be afraid of noises or heavy footsteps that would announce the appearance of father.

I did not see the Old Man during that time.

How many days I had been here I could not really say, I did not keep track of time, but it felt early in the day when she put the training weapons back in their racks and said. “I have to tend to a sick friend and won’t be back till tomorrow evening, but that means you have four extra hours to pass today, so I would like you to do a chore for us. Everyone around here does them, so don’t feel I am punishing you.”

“I don’t mind doing chores and I am not afraid of work, I do them since I can remember.”

“Great, do go to the baths and mop the tiles in both areas and the change rooms. You find the cleaning tools and supplies in a storage corner in the change area. No one will be there at this time so please do the women’s side too.”

“No problem, I can do that.”

“You should have plenty of time to enjoy a long bath as well.” I heard her say. I stopped and faced her again. She smiled and added.” The Ancient one will fill in for me tomorrow I am sure you can find your way to the baths and then to dinner yourself by now.”

She left and I did make my way towards the baths. In that corridor that linked the baths to the Big Cavern were other passage ways branching off to the left and right, About halfway to the Baths was the Elevator that would lead up to First Guardians Study. The light came from old Lumi Plates, not all of them working anymore. It was a small miracle in my eyes they lasted that long, they came so I had learned from the Settler arks. I understood that they had some sort of ingenious way of turning radioactive radiation from a small piece of plutonium into the spectrum of visible light.

Some of the corridors that branched off were completely dark and I wondered where these corridors ended up. The inside of this old volcano was occupied by a secretive group for almost 3000 years now and their numbers were slowly but steadily declining. Despite their effort to keep themselves alive and to replace those who died, the Old man had told me that there were now less than two hundred and they started out with about eight hundred. I did the math in my head and felt they did not really have any immediate problem of disappearing, if they declined in numbers at the same rate as they did till now, they still had 2000 years before the last one was gone.

It was easy to think in terms of someone being over a thousand years old and accept the fact that my female teacher really was that old, since I could not really fathom what it meant. There was simply no reference I could apply to really understand, but whenever I was thinking about it, I felt a little uneasy and shivered and wondered if a being that could look back on a thousand years of life experience really was still human.

From Union Class I knew there were member species that looked upon very long life spans. Of course I heard about the Stories of the two hundred human immortals who were guiding human kind since the beginning and like most I believed them to be legends and myths at least until know. Mr. Walters said that medicine could easily extend the life of most any carbon based life form including humans. Brains could be implanted in Robot and Android bodies and eliminate most biological limitations and brain pattern activity could be imprinted on a Computronic. Ever since the Insane Robot Coup attempt of 2412, uploading and individuals personality and brain into a Computronic was prohibited. All manufactured robots and Androids were by law determined to be things and had to be base programmed and imprinted with the Robotic Laws. I heard of the X101’s a member species of sentient machines but they did not provide other species with their own robot bodies.

In that lesson Mr. Walters said that the average lifespan for humans was 250 years. Even though longer life was medically possible he said that most minds simply got tired and a strong longing to die developed and the suicide rate among those reaching the bicentennial age increased drastically with each passing year. It was not against the law to extend life beyond the age of 250 but as Mr. Walters said no one really wanted too.

While I was pondering the long life span of the Keepers I had reached the baths and decided to use that extra time not just to bathe but to swim, the pool basin was certainly big enough for that, but I would do my chore first. By know I knew there were two bath areas one for men and one for women. They looked identical except the tiles on the male side were blue and the tiles in the women’s bath were red. In between them was an area with showers and toilets and places were you could dress and undress. It all had been built to accommodate the population of Hasvik that never used it. Of course the Keepers had kept it in good repair all that time. As she said the place was deserted and no one was there.

I could not find any mop or bucket or anything else on the men’s side so I knocked at the separating swing door then opened it and said aloud.” Anyone here?”

My voice slightly echoed and appeared louder than intended but no one answered, there was only the drip of water. So I went in and sure enough there was a corner with buckets, mops and the wonderful smelling lemon stuff they made themselves to clean pretty much everything. So I mopped the women’s bath area and there around the corner in the dressing area on the bench lay that leather breast harness molded to Siegfrida’s body. Not far from it, on a peg a blue dress and white apron. A small shelf next to it held artful little glass bottles, decorated ceramic tubs and jars.

This was not mother’s boudoir and not her dress. There was no reason for me to wear it and yet felt the urge to do just that. If I would wear that breast harness underneath it would give the dress even the right shape.

I pushed the mob and shook my head. “It was wrong what I did in mother’s boudoir even though it made me feel close to her. I was a Neo Viking and I needed to become strong and big. A warrior would not wear women’s garments.

Thor did it.

But he didn’t like it and did it only once out of necessity. So why did I feel strangely excited every time I mopped past that dress?

I forced myself to think about something else and left doing the other side of the baths, but when I was done. I knew it was still early and I had time. I wished someone would come, Women perhaps using the baths but it remained eerie silent. I had to return the cleaning supplies.

I almost could hear my own argument, on the one hand I tried to ignore my feelings as I knew they were wrong, but then what would it hurt? No one would ever know, just to see how it looks.

I undid my braids.

The chest piece fit real nice and as I slipped into the dress it really did what I hoped it would and along with the white apron looking into a mirror I really looked like a girl now, even the shape was no perfect.

I felt free for some reason and while something in me warned me that inner voice felt silent and somehow it felt so right.

As I turned a little to see me myself from the side I noticed Siegfrida standing there, her arms crossed. Seeing her hit me like lightning and I wished the ground would open to swallow me. I started shaking and the sensation of utmost shame came over me.

She looked around and then nodded.” I see you did a good job cleaning.”

I tried to say something, but my throat was constricted and even if I knew what to say I would have not been able to utter a single word.

“I had a chance in plans and came to fetch you for dinner. Ulrike made dumplings today.”

Then she came closer and said.” The ancient suspected this and that is why he asked me to leave those things here.”

I shivered and could not bring my shaking hands and knees under control. I finally managed to say.” He knew?”

She smiled and nodded.”He is very old and has seen it all. Human nature holds no mysteries to him.”

The old man’s voice spoke and he had appeared behind me next to the mirror. “I visited your burg to learn more about you and when I heard your Midril speak about that servants had seen the ghost of the fair lady in the windows of the First ladies old rooms, I asked Sigfrida to do this little test.”