Eric Olafson, Neo Viking (Vol 1)
Copyright© 2000 by Vanessa Ravencroft
Chapter 14: Swine and Dine
The eating and drinking, mostly the drinking, went on well into the early morning hours.
As the guest of honor, I had to remain, of course, until the very last guest finally left, was carried away, or slipped under the tables. It was always windy on Nilfeheim, now during the height of Shortsummer, less than usual, but a sudden surge of wind made me turn, and I saw the enormous ship slowly climb into the sky! Even though I knew about Arti grav, our fliers used it. To see such an enormous object defy gravity and climb like an air bubble was something almost incomprehensible. I wondered why it climbed so slowly, and there was no sound associated with it. The Starblazer in the Virtu would always blast off riding on a plume of fire.
I must have said my question aloud as Hogun, who was finally sitting down and eating, said, “The Volume, Eric! Do you feel this surging wind? It is caused by the ship. Can you imagine the volume of air something like this displaces? Even moving slowly, it causes this strong surge. Now think what would happen if it leaps into space under full engines. The storms caused would destroy much of Halstaad Fjord and bury the rest under a flood wave of water.”
After over an hour, it had shrunk to a small point, and there was a flare of bright red light, and the dot was gone. After long moments, an enormous boom, just like I imagined Thor’s hammer would sound, struck us. Hogun said, “Now she’s under full ISAH thrust of the main engines, and I imagine she’s reaching the Transluminal threshold by now.”
“For a Neo Viking and a Tech-hating Nilfeheim warrior, you know an awful lot about spaceships.“ I recognized Carl Lindgren. He looked different now, wearing a hooded leather vest that hid his bald head and cast a shadow over his evil-looking face.
“Since you spend more time in the Brig, passed out on booze than anywhere else, I am sure you would not know shit!” Was Hogun’s strange answer.
School had been canceled because our teacher was one of the few off-worlders who had stayed till the end. I was certain he was just as drunk and hung over as the rest. Not so Uncle Hogun. As the sun came up, he, me, and four of his helpers I knew only by their first names, Jan, Class, Hein, and Pit, were left with quite a mess. First, we loaded the sleeping guests in fliers, and they were brought either home or to guest houses around town. Then, we gathered empty mugs and tankards, picked up plates and knives, put tables and benches away. We extinguished the still-burning grill fires, and gathered trash.
I knew he had emptied more than a few tankards, but my Uncle appeared as fresh and good-spirited as always. He never ceased to amaze me with his enormous strength as he carried two of the heavy stone wood tables, each one on a shoulder to his cargo flier. His helpers were not small or weak by any standard, and two of them struggled with the weight of one of the tables. I was barely able to lift one of the benches, and I said, “One day I want to be as strong as you!”
He bellowed a good-hearted laughter and set down the tables on the cargo flier’s bed, then he said, “I guess I am strong, but strength means little without control. Do you remember that Star ship Captain?”
“Of course, Uncle, he is what I want to be!”
“Don’t let your father hear that. Despite the fact that he despises you, he now expects you to marry that pretty Sif of yours.”
“You are not against me leaving Nilfeheim and becoming a Star ship Captain?”
“No, Eric, I have nothing against it. I think every man should find his own destiny, be it on a planet or out there in space.”
“That is what Grandfather said, too.”
He turned to get more tables.“Don’t just stand there and listen to my stories. We can talk while we work. There are still lots of tankards to wash, and then we got to sweep the whole place and gather and burn the garbage.”
Duty-full, I followed him, eager to hear more. He did mention the Star-ship Captain. “What about the off-worlder, Uncle Hogun?”
“I would not dare to go against him. I am probably three times as strong as he is, and yet he could kill me with his bare hands, not losing a drop of sweat, and I arrive in Valhalla totally surprised and unable to say how it happened.”
“I have seen you fight five men at once, trained warriors, and you cleaned house.”
“Because as much as we Norse pride ourselves on our strength and fighting skills, we are just brawlers. These Space fleet officers are trained in the Academy with the combined knowledge and techniques of a thousand cultures. There aren’t any non-humanoids on Nilfeheim, but the Union has many non-humanoid species, as it became quite obvious yesterday. Some of them, like the Petharian, are many times stronger than the strongest human being ever could be. The Shiss are just as fierce, and those men are trained to take on such aliens, and if it has to be in unarmed combat. Even more dangerous and deadly are the Space Marines; a single one of them could go against twenty Neo Vikings and each one armed to the teeth and that marine naked and bare-handed, one hand tied to the back. Still, the Vikings would all be dead in less than five minutes. I am not over-exaggerating either!”
I had seen Virtu Images of the Nul-Nul, Petharians, and the Shiss and many others, but I still was highly skeptical. “Even armed with swords and axes?”
“I told you, strength is rarely a deciding factor in a real fight, even here on Nilfeheim. It is skill and technique. What good is the best and sharpest ax in the hands of a man who never wielded one? You bested that Stoner kid with skill. He was stronger than you. You killed Rock Sharks and the Tyranno’s; how much stronger are they compared to you?” What he said made sense, but I didn’t like to be reminded of Ardalf; his face was never far from my inner eyes.
I gathered plates and placed them in the wheelbarrow. “Even under water? In fight school, Gunter Eikson offered to train me, and he says no one could beat a Neo Viking under water in a fight.”
He stopped and wiped his hands on his apron. “Gunter is training you? That is indeed something special. He teaches a very old and almost secretive style of underwater fighting. He and his clan are very protective about it.” He rubbed his chin. “Well, he could be right, of course. I mean, no matter how good an Off Worlder is, he would have to come up for air. We don’t; we have gills.”
Then he grabbed the handlebars of the full wheelbarrow. “It would be interesting to find out if the Ult have some kind of underwater fighting. As you may know, they evolved from a fish creature and are, as we are, amphibious, but it was Mother Nature that has adapted their bodies to the water through millennia of evolution and not some genetic tailors as an added afterthought. I bet an Ult could give Gunter a lesson or two.”
I took the basket of mugs, and it was heavier than I thought. I barely managed to lift it off the ground and staggered with my load behind him.
“It is a good trait for a Norse to be more stubborn than a heavy load, but it is actually quite stupid if you think of it...” He said, taking the basket and putting it on top of the load of dishes. “A guy less strong than me, but smarter, invented the wheel, and soon someone added a box and long handlebars to that wheel, that act as a lever, and a weak man can move a load with ease in his wheelbarrow; even a very strong man could not without one.” He grinned. “It is always about technique, but you are right; especially here on Nilfeheim, it does not hurt to have arms like these. With these words, he lifted the loaded wheelbarrow off the ground and onto the bed of the now fully loaded flier.
“Do you think I could be as strong as you one day?”
“Well, there are plenty of genetic options, synth muscle implants, and other cybernetic enhancements to guarantee you could be stronger, much stronger than me, but honestly, I doubt you will become as big as I am. You have too much from your mother’s clan, and they do not grow as massive as the Olafsons, but look at their history. They have been the smarter ones. I would not so much think about how strong and big you can become, but instead, how good you can be with what you have. There is always someone stronger than you, so it is better to use your brain than your brawn.”
We had worked for most of the day, but finally, the last dish had been washed and put away.
Uncle Ragnar untied his apron.“Well, I must say you certainly earned your keep today. That was quite some work you put in.”
I shrugged.“It was something to do, and it kept me away from the Burg.”
Well, sit down, and I fry us a Blue Finner or two, and you can have all the Sparkle Fizz you can drink.”
I loved Sparke Fizz Soda, and of course, it was forbidden in the Burg as “Off-Worlder Garbage”. Uncle Hogun was not as strict and usually allowed one can a day. He placed an ice-cold one right before me and disappeared into the kitchen. The guest room of the Inn was deserted. It was Monday, and most men were either out fishing or working, and on this Monday, many were still sleeping. Since it was a Monday, no miners from our neighbor planet Balder would be here either. Occasionally, miners and workers from the mines on Balder would come to Nilfeheim the weekend, mostly to drink and eat. They weren’t really considered Off-worlders, since most of them were from Halstaad Fjord with no families or otherwise not as traditional as most of the rest. Of course, the locals looked down on them, but they always had lots of money. The mining company even had an office in town as it was owned by Grandfather. That thought stung me, and I corrected myself: “Used to be owned by Grandfather.” After a week of mourning, the Elders would arrive at the Burg and collect my Grandfather’s shield and a symbolic flag. Then they took it all to the caves and deposited it in a stone alcove and sealed it with bricks. Grandfather’s signet ring, used as a signature seal on official clan business documents, would be smashed with a hammer and thrown into the ocean.
Uncle Hogun came out of the kitchen but not wearing his apron. He looked me over and said, “Go wash your face; you got a purple Soda beard, and that won’t do for what you are going to do next.”
“What exactly am I going to do, Uncle Hogun?”
“There is no school today, and you always work around here, so I decided to put you on the payroll. He put a Credit Strip on the table. This is yours. I need to go to the Xchange and to the bank for some business, and I thought you might enjoy an afternoon downtown.”
I actually had never been to the actual downtown area of our biggest city. I knew Halstad Fjord had over 500,000 inhabitants now and was, according to Uncle Hogun, growing in leaps and bounds. Hogun’s Inn was located with several other inns and businesses that sold nets, harpoons, and other fishing and boat gear at what we called the Harbor Row. The houses all in a row and before a wide cobblestone area, officially called Oslo Plaza (Uncle Hogun lived at 15 Oslo Plaza, Harbors Row Planet Nilfeheim), that would be under many feet of snow during Longnight. All businesses downtown, so I heard, were connected with tunnels that would be opened for public access during that time.
The Plaza was about 200 meters deep and ended at the seaside on one side and at the tall seawall on the other side. It was right before the sea wall, where all the businesses, including of course my uncle’s place, Hogun’s Inn, faced to the east. If you stepped out and looked down south, you could see the large building of the planetary Xchange. There, locals would sell their wares and products in the XChange for Union Credits or products of other planets. Next to the Xchange and closer to Hogun’s Inn were the docks and repair facilities for fishing boats and subs. At Falcons Boat Inc., you could have your boats repaired, buy spare parts, or even purchase new ones. Then came the boat berths. At night, they would hold many fishing boats, but they were all gone before the first daylight and would return after the last sun ray. They would fix skids to their boats for Longnight and slide over the frozen oceans to either fish at open spots or hunt for Snappers and Nubhirs. But like Tyranno Hunting, there were fewer fishers now, and more of them tended to fish and Nubhir farms. This provided them with steady and consistent catches and quality. Only Snappers didn’t really do well in farms, but I knew that some managed to get them semi-domesticated in herds and used the word ranch rather than farm. The wildest and most rugged men were the snapper herders, so I heard.
From Uncle Hogun’s Inn, you could look clear across Oslo Plaza. You had a great view over the Sea Harbor and the ocean all the way to the horizon. If you kept following the shoreline to the north for about three clicks and then turned inland, you could walk to the roundhouse and Mount Asgard. Right behind the inn was a ridge of piled-up rocks and sand that ran more or less uninterrupted all along the island’s north-south axis. Called the Sea Wall, it was supposed to protect the city from floods, but since Nilfeheim had no moons and no tides, there were no floods. The first settlers believed that when all the ice melted, the seawater would rise. None of them seemed to think about the density of ice and that it would, of course, not raise the sea levels one bit. Siegfried Lane, a street a few houses down from the inn, crossed underneath the seawall in a tunnel and led you to the Outskirts, that was a residential area. After that, Siegfried Lane would widen and meet with Odin’s Path, and that was downtown, where all the business was. I knew you would turn on Odin Lane, follow it south, and it ended right at Halstaad Port. Not the sea port but our own Class D Spaceport, frequented once a week by Space Bus and twice a week by the post ship. Of course, freighters also landed there, but they did not follow any schedule I knew about. Not that I had ever been to the spaceport before. The school flier always came from the east, as school rock was more or less right before Hogun’s in if you could see the twenty-five klicks out to sea.
Dietmar always dropped me right by the inn. I was actually a bit excited to actually see downtown.
It took us only a few moments to get there, and we landed before a stone and glass building. This and the other buildings around Aseir Park looked like a mix of old burg buildings that had been modernized with large windows and metal facades. I knew from Yngve that there were shops and stores where you could buy food and clothing and readymade meals. There was a Swine and Dine; I could see the mechanical cartoon Pig waving. I wondered what they served. I felt like a visitor to another planet already, and I yet the Burg was not that far away, and Uncle Hogun’s Inn I could reach walking in an hour or so. Hogun pointed to the rock and glass building, “I am in the bank and then off to the Xchange. When you have enough, take a taxi flier or walk along Siegfried Lane. Just don’t stay out too long and don’t start any fights if you can.”
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