Chapter 8

Usual disclaimers, science fiction, contains graphic scenes of sex, mind control, hypnosis and a little violence and we got a little anal retentive here last week. Chapter 8 has very little sex.

“Sweden, has always been the home for the legends of Odin and the Valkyrie especially the city of Kråktorpsgård, Småland, and the great burial mound known as Helvetesbackke, Swedish for “Hell’s Mound“. The place where the hero Sigurd supposedly rides up to Hindarfell and confronts a great light, “as if a fire were burning, blazing up into the very sky itself”. Sigurd describes it as a skjaldborg, a tactical formation or shield wall, with a bright banner flying overhead. Sigurd, according to legend, enters the skjaldborg, and sees a warrior in shinning armor lying upon his shield, apparently asleep and fully armed.

Sigurd approaches the figure and removes the helmet, and is surprised to sees the face of a beautiful woman. The woman’s corselet is so tight, the poem Sigrdrífumál relates, that it seems to have grown into the woman’s very body. Sigurd uses his magical sword Gram to cut the corselet away from her body, starting from the neck of the corselet and working downwards. He continues cutting off her corselet until he finally has it off her, where upon she awakens. She then relates to Sigurd her tale of injustice at the hands of Odin.

The woman is named Sigrdrífa, and she is one of many Valkyrie, a female beings referred to as nonnor Herians, or “the ladies of Odin”, associated with war, the battlefield, and Valhalla. A realm that Odin oversees with his wife Frigg. Odin receives half of those warriors who die bravely in battle, they are the Einherjar. The other half of the chosen are given to the goddess Frigg for her afterlife realm, they are the Fólkvangr. Sigrdrífa, herself was part of a wager between Odin and his wife Frigg which gave the gift of life to the first two humans Ask and Embla.

Sigrdrífa explained to Sigurd that there were two kings fighting one another. Odin had promised one of these kings, Hjalmgunnar, victory in the battle, but when Hjalmgunnar cheated Sigrdrífa killed him with one true blow in a fair fight on the battlefield. This proved to all the gathered host that Hjalmgunnar was a coward. For this act Odin pricked her with a sleeping-thorn, and told her that she would never again be victorious in battle. He then cursed her to have a “loveless marriage”, if she were ever awakened again.

In response to Odin’s curse, Sigrdrífa tells Odin that she has sworn a great oath, “she will never wed a man who knows fear“. Hearing this oath, Frigg, Odin’s wife, unknown to Odin, granted Sigrdrífa a mortals love life and happiness with the warrior brave enough to free her from Odin’s curse of eternal sleep. The hero Sigurd, in the story, asks Sigrdrífa to share with him her wisdom of all worlds, and Sigrdrífa provides Sigurd with knowledge to inscribe runes, mystic wisdom, and prophecy. Presumably they live happily ever after.” Nina finishes her tale.

“Okay, it’s a nice fairy tale I guess.” Max conceded.

“They say that every legend and myth have something behind them Max.” Nina said.

“Okay I’ll bite, what’s behind this one?” Max laughed.

<This!> Fred put forward. Showing Max a large aerial view of somewhere with a large X marks the spot.

“And!” Max prompted.

“That is Helvetesbackke, Swedish for “Hell’s Mound“, in Sweden today. This is where the city of Kråktorpsgård, Småland is today. One of the new satellites we just put up has some new form of ground penetrating radar. This is what it scanned a few hours ago.” Morgan put in.

“Which is?” Max wanted to know.

“We don’t know, but we want to find out and we need you.” Morgan pleaded.

“Why do you need me.” Max wanted to know.

“Because of the legend.” Nina blurted out.

“Oh, now you want to bring up 7th Century myths and legends?” Max laughed.

<There is a power source down there, a little under a mile, 5,000 feet deep, in a hollow cavern in a solid granite formation. The chamber is too perfect to be natural Max, something made it. I feel that there is a connection between the Norse Valkyrie legends and this Artifact. If there is we are going to need our fearless male champion to kiss the enchanted princess.> Fred joked.

“Well that certainly lets me out ladies. I’m certainly not fearless, ha, ha.” Max shot back.

<We have always found you, if not fearless, at least steadfast Max!> Came back over the link from the other girls.

So in a matter of hours we were in the giant cavern thanks to Fred. Since we didn’t know what we were porting into we were all wearing Hazard Suites and our own air tanks. We also brought along huge battery powered work light arrays. Thought they make all kinds of atmosphere testers today the, poor little canary bird is still the gold standard to prove the air is breathable. In a few more hours we had air, light, and a view of twenty five softly glowing coffins. As in the legend there was a human figure in what appeared to be silvery chainmail armor, complete with a full helmet with wings on each side of their heads. Wings like you see on duplications of the Roman God Mercury’s helmet. The helmets also had what appeared to be a liftable face visor. The coffin or container they were lain out in was shaped like a full sized kite shaped Crusader’s Infantry Shield with a clear glass or plastic cover over it.

After running tests Fred and the girls were convinced that the coffins were some form of status chamber, every molecule in the coffin thing being frozen from the time the coffin was sealed, and originally turned on. Half the girls argued that the coffin had a timer that could only be operated from inside the coffin. They looked for the control panel inside the coffin. So far we hadn’t even found a power source for the damn things. Max, on the other hand, argued that they had to have some way to manually open and revive them from the outside in case the timer failed. Fred agreed with Max that it was reasonable and logical.

Of course it was Sweet Eve that finally discovered the two places on the transparent cover to place her hands. She explained it by saying that those spots felt warm to her. Though they glowed for her they didn’t activate anything. It took Max to activate one and revive whoever was in the coffin. All three of our doctors, July Jones, Helen Collins, and Stacy James were now standing by with oxygen and heart stimulants.

When Max applied both his hands to the coffin lid something began to happen. After holding his hands there for seven minutes or so, the transparent lid just disappeared with a loud pop, and the figure in the coffin arched it’s back up off the shield and then collapsed back limp. Max grabbed the face plate and lifted it up to reveal a beautiful female face seemingly smiling up at him.

“Well at least part of the legend is true.” Max stated.

“Dud, now how do we get this thing off her.” Doc Jones said as she started examining the suit of armor.

“It may not be meant to be taken off.” Stacy offered.

“But the legend...” Max was interrupted by July.

“Is just that, a legend.” July stated.

Using a mirror to check for respiration Helen discovered that our supposed Valkyrie were indeed breathing, but so shallowly that she appeared to be dead. More searching and the catches and latches on the armor were found and the armor was removed, along with the massive two handed double edged broadsword resting in her lap. Unlike the legend though the Valkyrie didn’t awaken and arise, she remained deeply asleep.

“Maybe you have to kiss her Max.” Morgan laughed.

“If that doesn’t work we can port her over to our lab and try some scientific methods.” Doc July put in.

Max leaned down and lightly kissed the beautiful woman on the lips. He then moved back and waited. When nothing else happened, acting on a wild impulse he latter explained to all of us, he leaned back down again and kissed her deeply. This time breathing life back into the beautiful woman on the shield at the same time he used his mind to will life back into her fair young body. This time the lady on the shield gasped for air and arched her back up off the shield before collapsing back onto her shield limply, but panting now. After a few more seconds of heavy breathing she finally reopened her eyes, sat up, and addressed Max in an unknown language. She didn’t appear to be too concerned about being naked either.

Since we hadn’t uploaded a copy of Fred into her yet we had no way to understand what she was saying.

“That’s Swedish Max, old old Swedish, but still recognizable as Swedish Max. She just said her Valkyrie name is Sigrun, the rune symbol for victory in her language. She asks what your name and title is Max. She also want’s to know where her sisters are. How do you want me to answer?” Nina, who had a gift for language told Max.

“Your the head of my Valkyrie Nina, you handle it, tell her what she want’s to know. It’s your job to recruit her, well them I guess, into the Sisterhood.” Max laughed.

“Is that what your calling us now Max, the Sisterhood.” Morgan laughed.

“The way it’s going maybe I should have said “witch’s coven” Morgan.” Max temporized with Morgan.

Hours later Nina and Morgan updated Max on their progress with Sigrun. It appeared that back in about 900 BC their space ship had crash landed here on Earth. The only persons that survived the crash were her and her sisters, who were in the cargo hold of the ship when it crashed. They, her and her sisters, were in status pods, being shipped as insured luxury cargo in the hold of the ship that crashed. Status pods it appeared were terribly expensive, and are damn near indestructible once they have been activated with the massive charge of electricity needed to establish the field around the status pod, and yes there is a timer built into the pod.

It appeared that Sigrun and her sisters were bio-constructs made by the planet Asgard’s Techno Wizards for delivery to the planet Midgard. They were to have been a wedding gift from the Emperor of Midgard to his new wife as her royal bodyguards, and Ladies in Waiting.

In Old Norse mythology, Odin is depicted as a one-eyed man, wearing a large eye patch, and with a long full beard that concealed most of his visible face. He is also depicted as wearing a large dark concealing cloak and a broad hat which further conceals his features. He frequently wields a journey staff or spear named Gungnir, and he is often accompanied by his animal companions and familiars, the two wolves Geri and Freki and the ravens Huginn and Muninn.

He was the primary god of Sweden, Norway, Iceland and the other Scandinavian countries, and remained a popular god of the Germanic peoples for hundreds of years. Even though the English kingdoms were converted to Christianization by the 7th century, most of the royal families still list Odin as their original founder.

Sigrun and her sisters soon learned that neither the Germanic peoples nor the Romans would readily accept women into their societies as equals. So they established Oden and his messengers the Valkyries by creating and impersonating Odin. Disguised as Odin they could travel freely anywhere. Their names were, Sigrun, Kara, Göndul, Hlökk, Eir, Hrist, Mist, Herja, Hlökk, Geiravör, Göll, Hjörþrimul, Guðr, Herfjötra, Skuld, Geirönul, Skögul, Randgníð, Ráðgríðr, Göndul, Svipul, Geirskögul, Hildr, Skeggöld, and Hrund. Nina laughed and assured Max and the other girls that they would work on the names.

It also turned out that the wolves and crows were also bio-constructs made by the planet Asgard’s Techno Wizards too. They were made to operate as teams, communicating by tight microwave bursts for up to twenty miles under ideal conditions. The wolves were their scouts, the crows their aerial recognizance. The animals, if you wanted to call something with the intelligence of a eight year old child an animal. They even had their own status pods it turned out.

It also turned out that there was a tunnel out of the chamber, and the energy source we were detecting was a well shielded TEC (total-energy-converter). One of the few things they were able to recover and salvage from their space ship’s wreckage before they destroyed it. With the TEC to recharge their status pods they were able, disguised as Odin, to travel the world for fifty years at a time. At the end of that time they came back here to “Hell’s Mound“ where they placed themselves back in status and waited another three hundred years. Their three hundred year cycles of hibernation/regeneration renewing their bodies over and over again.

Nobody knew what a Asgard Techno Wizard actually looked like, they went to great lengths to conceal what they really looked like from the public. On the other hand Sigrun and her sister’s basic DNA was still human though their bodies were highly modified. We assumed that the people of Midgard were the same, which brought up the theory again that our planets were all seeded some time in the extreme past by a common progenitor.

Our doctor’s examinations of Sigrun’s body did turn up some interesting facts. Their muscles were reinforced. Their skeletons were also reinforced bone, the rib cage now protected the heart and lungs better, and the spinal column was reinforced too. In fact there were improvements to the heart itself. They were all sterile too, their tubes were tied, but Doc Stacy assured us it could be reversed, if they wanted it, which Sigrun and the other Valkyries didn’t. They were unsurprisingly all bisexual, but with a marked preference for male companionship. As female Valkyrie, messengers of Odin himself, they could have any man that struck their fancy. Later after they had tried him out, they could kick him out of bed if he didn’t perform up to their high standards, which legend said they often did.

Nina and Morgan warned Max to avoid, and this is their term, “sexual entanglements” with the Valkyries until they had somewhat tamed them and their sexual appetites, whatever that meant.

Turns out that the Cree did know of the planet Midgard. It was an independent planet with strong ties to the Cree Empire. The Empress also knew of the Asgard planet and the Techno Wizards, but informed us that their whole planet had moved thousands of years ago. Nobody knew where it was now. The Empress assured us that nobody was looking to recover the Valkyries today. She even suggested that they were property since they were made by the Techno Wizards and subject to salvage law. Neither Max nor Nina were willing to apply salvage law to human beings. So in the end they remained free. Well as free as twenty five identical women and their four intelligent familiars, I hate to call them pets, can be. Wherever they went they wanted to stay together Sigrun flatly stated when asked.

“So in the end what did you do with them Nina.” Max asked a week later.

“I assigned them to be Rangers and set up the protection of this solar system and the guarding of the Empress. Sooner or later the CAI is going to realize they missed the Empress and they might try again. We already have manned outposts on the fringes of our solar system to warn us of any hostile intrusion in mere seconds thanks to them and Fred’s Point-to-Point ports.” Nina informed us.

“But how, there’s only twenty five of them.” Max shot back.

“Your forgetting that there are four familiars for every Valkyrie and they are all intelligent and in communication with each other all the time.” Morgan laughed at Max’s shock.

“But ... but, they haven’t got hands.” Max sputtered.

“Hell everything is touch pad friendly now Max. Even the crows have learned to run the outposts.” Morgan laughed.

The globe of not-metal had been on station out past the Ort Clouds for only an hour when the first alarm went off. The first alarm meant that something had exited nul-space and reentered real space relatively near Herfjötra’s crow Huginn’s little ship. He recorded his message and transmitted it back to Herfjötra at our base on Earth. There was still a chance that the CAI would detect him and destroy his little ship at this point. Herfjötra’s crow Huginn’s had done it’s duty and could only silently perch now as he waited for the intruder’s next move.

After several hours of doing nothing the intruder once again moved forward. The crow noted it’s speed and direction and notified base again. There was very little likelihood the CAI could detect Fred’s Point-To-Point transmissions at this point. Right now we were all waiting for the CAI vessel to get so deep into the solar system that it couldn’t use it’s FTL drive and reenter nul-space to escape.

At the proper time Fred fed in just enough extra energy to destroy it’s TEC, but not enough to destroy the entire ship. We now had a repairable Saucer inside the orbit of Mars. It was now the job of our new Rangers to board the ship and capture the AI’s onboard.

“You do know that this would be much easier if we could just use our swords on these damn things.” Hlökk complained as she sat there and spun her sword on it’s point like it was a top.

“What do you think you can do to those AI’s with that oversized pig sticker Hlökk?” Morgan sneered.

“True our swords may not have any real reach, but watch this. That’s a solid block of steel.” She said as she plunged the sword straight down into the block, then let go. “Okay you remove it ... just pull it out, ha, ha.” Hlökk laughed. After everybody tried to remove it at least once Hlökk finally explained about the super conductor material sandwiched between the two plates of chrome steel and the power pack in the handle of the sword itself.

<When the current flows through it the electrons create a cutting edge on the sword. A cutting edge a single molecule thick that vibrates the whole sword at the same time. In this state my sword could cut through just about anything it is likely to encounter. It also has a variable stun setting that will knock out just about any organic creature we would likely encounter here too. Our creators, the Asgard Techno Wizards, thought it was the perfect weapon for royal bodyguards, and close in fighting. These swords are both a symbol and tool of great royal power.> Hlökk finished smugly.

“Has it got a name like Excalibur or something Sigrun?” Morgan joked.

<I hadn’t thought about it, but you are right Morgan. Anything with a sole should have a name. I shall talk it over with the other Valkyries.> Sigrun answered looking very serious.

<Hey guys if you need help with naming your swords I’m your girl. I’m really into like Terry Goodkind and Fritz Leiber’s Gray Mouser, and wasn’t it terrible how they didn’t name the sword only it’s maker Hattori Hanzo in Kill Bill. I mean like every great sword deserves a cool name like Scalpel or Graywand, I mean it’s like a tradition since Arthur and Excalibur. Every great sword needs a name to go with the soul we imbue it with.> Sweet Eve gushed over Fred’s open party line.

<I’ll have to think about that Eve.> Hlökk added on the open party line for everybody to hear.

“Any gimmicks in your armor itself Hlökk.” Nina questioned her about the chainmail armor her and her sisters insisted on wearing all the time.

“Mainly it is immune to the electro-vivrator knife effect for one thing, and if not outright able to stop, at least deflect any bullet we are likely to encounter on Earth, if the data you gave us is right Mistress.” Hlökk acknowledged.

“See there Nina, looks and functionality too in a Playboy Bunny body, and they hide it all in that shapeless suit of armor. I do wonder though how well that getup they insist on wearing would go over in public back on Earth. I mean you need to get them to loosen up some Nina.” Max laughed and half joked with Nina and the girls.