Chapter 2: Home

As I stepped off the space-bus, a stiff breeze of wind howled over the landing field. The last time I left, it was still Longnight and winter had a hard grip on the planet of Nilfeheim. While it was still Longnight, for fourteen more months, the planet was already thawing and Shortsummer was soon upon this world. I filled my lungs deeply with the cold crisp air that carried the scents of Soakstone and Kelp brick fires, but also the savory smell of fried fish and Fangsnapper.

I knew I was no longer really home here, but the Neo Viking soul in myself was deeply satisfied.

I steeled myself as I stepped on the slide belt that would carry me to the spaceport terminal, I was no longer Eric and decided to remain as I know was, Erica.

Yet of all challenges and monsters I had faced recently, this was the most frightening one.

The Viking at the checkpoint wore Space Port Authority Uniform and a Border guard patch on his sleeve. It was and always has been practice to check the CITI of everyone landing on a Union planet.

To my mild surprise, it was the same officer that checked my CITI over three years ago, during my first return.

The big man in Union-Customs uniform, braided beard and hair glanced at his readout as I passed my ID implant under the reader.

“Erica Olafson?”

“Yes, is there a problem?”

“The CITI checks out, it must be some coincidence. We have an Olafson Clan here and it is a very prominent one. Its heir and first born, Eric Olafson and he too is off planet.”

His face stayed puzzled as he checked his readout.

“Your CITI shows you as a native of Nilfeheim.”

“I think you are going beyond your task and duty, Master Leik of the Stavanger Clan. Either let me pass or point to the issues that make you prevent me coming home.”

He did let me pass and I could feel his eyes on me as I entered the terminal building. Should I have told him who I was? Should I really go home like this? I could take the same bus and leave. My change was quite deep and there was no Saresii level auto dresser anywhere within the next 5000 light years for sure.

No, I made my decision. This was my home and I would take my stand, damn them all.

I was not going to stay long anyway. Shea wanted to introduce me to her parents and I promised Har-Hi to speak with his father as well. Yes, this was my birth home but my family was not just here anymore. I found one aboard my ship, one I cared for and one that cared for me.

I was wearing my Union fleet uniform, my sleeves showed Captain’s gold. I was not just an officer, I was a Union starship captain. There should be no situation I was not capable of handling.

This time, I did call before I came and sure enough, my beautiful sister was right there waiting for me.

She knew my secret that was now in the open and difficult to hide.

Elena had no inhibitions, she shouldered herself past others apparently also waiting for arrivals and simply took me in her arm.

“Welcome home, Freya.”

“It is good to be home, Elena. But I do not use the name of my unborn sister anymore. I am Erica.”

She held me at arm’s length.

“Odin’s wife must have had a hand in your transformation, however, you are absolutely stunning.”

“So are you, sister. I agree with Egil, you have become the most beautiful woman of Nilfeheim.”

She wore her red leathers, a billowing cape with white fur trim. Yet she carried a sword and two knives in her belt. This indicated to me, some things were changing on Nilfeheim.

I had met Elena right here at the spaceport just a few years back. When I first had a chance to explore my female side and she, holding a steel sword in secret.

I sighed.

“What do you think? Am I doing the right thing?”

“Of course. There is nothing in the book of traditions regarding this and if it isn’t there it is not forbidden.”

She turned and made a wide gesture.

“Besides they are all here.”

Beyond the passenger barrier, the crowd of people waiting wasn’t just a crowd. It was my clan. The hulking shape of Isegrim, only dwarfed by his brother Uncle Hogun. Exa the adoptive girl had grown to a good looking lanky teenage girl. Aunt Freydis holding a small child was smiling.

There was tall Sigfrieda, who as always looked like a real Valkyrie had her hands on her hips and she too was smirking in a friendly manner.

Even Greifen and Midril were there, but the biggest surprise was Egil, a statuesque Saresii and a Narth.

Father’s gaze was unreadable as he stared at me.

“Welcome home, First Born.”

“It is good to be home, although I will not spend much time on our beautiful cold world. I have not come to claim my rights.”

“Come then, this is not the venue to greet and welcome anyone. Let us return to the Rock, Midril has not stopped working and preparing food since Elena told us you are coming home, twelve days ago.”

“I came on the fastest route, our planet is still not served by clippers.”

Egill grunted.

“You are just too tight and stubborn to pay for a charter or buy your own damn ship. I know you have the money.”

“And you have probably hitched a ride with the Saresii, too cheap to buy even a Space Bus ticket.”

His smile only reached his eyes as he hugged me.

“I am so proud of you. So very proud.”

He looked towards the Saresii and the Narth.

“Alegar, Narth. This is Erica.”

I instantly knew this was not my friend, but another Narth.

The Saresii was a typical exotic beauty of that society and smiled.

“Your grumpy great grandfather has told us quite a bit about you. I also see you are a Union Fleet captain, congratulations indeed.”

The shrouded Narth’s eyes glowed in a warm yellow.

“One is very pleased to behold you in person. One was able to share with your Huhgavh sharer. All that is Narth celebrates this magnificent bond.”

I send him non-spoken greetings and curtsied.

I also thanked the Saresii and then I said.

“I expected much more difficulties I must confess.”

Egill grunted.

“Oh don’t you think most of Nilfeheim will understand, but they are getting used to Alegar and I and a few gifted friends smoothened things using gentle persuasion. They are still as stubborn and almost as unflexible as when you have left.”

Alegar the Saresii smiled.

“Just a little honestly and besides it does help that you are about as beautiful as a woman can be. Looks still count for a lot.”

I sighed and smiled.

“I realize that.”

It was not without awkward moments, Father was friendly and polite but treated me like a stranger. Not that I minded, he carried unatonable sins and the blood of my mother was on his hands. It was the others, Greifen and Midril, the other warriors that were not certain how to act or react.

I myself was not as confident as I had grown to be out there.

It started with the challenge what to wear, a traditional Nilfeheim dress with braids or my warrior leathers that no longer really fit my new body.

Elena, never shy around me came into my chambers giggled and laughed and then presented me with a beautiful warriors outfit made of the softest black Nubhir leather, styled both very feminine and yet very practical and with a cape that bore the Olafson wolfs head.

It still was a much-subdued affair, despite the good food and drink.

The next day, however, after donning a wet suit and slipping through the submarine tunnel into the open ocean all my doubts and insecurities washed away in the crisp cold waters of Nilfeheim and I felt free and one with my world. While I was gliding through the ice cold depths a warm white glow appeared deep below and a voice spoke in my mind, despite all my psionic shields.

“I should still sleep and I should not reveal myself to you, but you wear the ring and it would have guided you to the other things without err.”

The voice melted away all the veils and blocks that prevented me from remembering.

“Tyr!”

I swam as fast as I could towards the whitish shimmer that merged into the outlines of the largest Tyranno Fin there was, this terrifying creature of Nilfeheim depths was my friend, the white Tyranno Tyr.

He was so humongous, I always felt like a Silver Flicker fish next to him, his maw big enough to crush a hunting sub held no horror to me. I swam right by it and its rows of teeth, just past the huge eye that directly looked at me, with outstretched arms I connected with the yellowish mark right behind the eye.

“Oh Tyr, with you there everything always seems less complicated. I really missed you even though you robbed me of your memory.”

“I spend much time sleeping, but I missed you very much little fish. I could not stay away and hidden while you came to our world. Disregarding all wisdom and precautions, I supposed to have.”

“In remembering, Tyr. I remembered it all. No longer am I oblivious that there is something inside me. Something that is very much part of me, but I have also decided that it can not define me. Whatever I am to be in the future, will not be predetermined by old contracts or legends.

I met several so-called entities and immortals and they all predict this and that for me. I was and I am still somewhat afraid of it, but it is I who will shape whatever I become and no one else.”

I kept on touching the yellow spot.

“I know you know more of what I am supposed to become, I rather remember you and not some prophetic what if maybe things of a far distant future. So don’t tell me and you won’t have to wipe my memories.”

“No force I know can affect your mind anymore, but I see wisdom has grown in you. I will not speak of these things to come, however, I am guarding aspects of that future of your future. You have already realized that you have outgrown this world, you can come back but it will never be your home again.”

“But it is my home, and it is Egil’s, Elena’s and it is yours.”

“It has ceased to be that of Egil, he has become a true Union citizen and spends more time on Pluribus than here. He is friends with the Saresii and the Narth, speaks with Mothermachine and the Klack Queen very frequently. Like you, he will never return to this world seeking his home here.

Once my task is over, I might see Narth Prime and leave these cold oceans too. I am like you, I look and act like a child of this world. Neither one of us can ever deny our roots to Nilfeheim, but we do not fit in. No other Tyranno is like me, and no other Neo Viking is like you.”

He paused just long enough for me to realize the truth in his words. Defeated I said.

“I love this world and I love its oceans.”

“I do too, and ones love does not die with distance, it gives it a new perspective. You can always come back.”

“This is farewell isn’t it?”

“In a way yes, if you ever come back here. You won’t find me, the ring you wear will guide you and that what grows in you will take what is yours alone. When this happens I can not be here, but we will meet again I am certain.”

A strong invisible force gently pressed me tighter to the giant fish.

“I love you very much, little fish and only a little time will keep us apart.”

“I love you too, Tyr. You are the only one I never have to pretend anything and always can be me.”

“Your friend Narth and the Narth Supreme know much and eventually will know it all as well.”

“You know it all?”

“Yes, little fish. I do, remember your words of wisdom. Do not ask, the questions you have are already answered, you just have to wait for the time the answers are revealed to you and you have the ability to understand.”

Five days later I had visited the Halls of Hasvik, made a detailed tour of our remodeled burg, visited mother’s and Freya’s graves; I was ready to leave. Har-Hi had sent me a note with the urgent request to meet him at Dai-Nest, whatever that was.

Tar-Ka-Hi his father was sending a fast Dai ship to pick me up. It would be here early the next day.

Elana and I had been to Hogun’s for lunch and now slowly walked down Siegfried Lane, that was now officially called Erik Gustav Ragnarsson Lane, but most still called it the Siegfried Lane.

We had been to the Astrid Mossberg park, where my old Poseidon Sub was encased in transparent Duranium. This part of Halstaad Fjord was the closest thing we had for a downtown business district.

Not far from where we were was the community center, where I met a Union Fleet recruiter and made my decision to join the Union Fleet. A little further down was Arthur’s Swine and Dine. Across the street a new gleaming Fast Food restaurant. Its color scheme was red and black, was called the Hungry Viking and from the sizeable lunch crowd, it seemed quite popular.

Elena grinned in an elfish way.

“This is the flagship restaurant so to speak, we going to open number twenty in a few days on Twilight.”

“We?”

“I decided to take a page out of your Grandfather’s book. We are selling traditional Viking food with a modern twist.”

“And it is an Olafson venture?”

“It is and you are in charge as soon as you come back for good.”

“Elena, I am not coming back for good. Nilfeheim will always be my place of origin, but it has ceased to be my home. The Clan is in good hands with you and I am proud as can be of my savvy and beautiful sister. My home is out there.”

She made a sad face.

“I somehow knew that when you left for the first time, but you will always be the firstborn.”

“Look at me, I am no longer male and I doubt I will ever go back. I am comfortable as I am, as much as they try a freak in their eyes. I know Nilfeheim and I know how they, how we all think.”

“The Burg is always your home and I am so very proud of my new sister, I was the first one who got to know your true self after all.”

The Dai ship didn’t seem to belong on the landing field of Nilfeheim where usually only space buses and freighters occupied the Durocrete surface.

It was red of course and looked sleek, fast and dangerous.

But not as dangerous as the man standing before it’s boarding ramp, the tall Dai Warrior with a pair of swords carried in a cross-shaped rig on his back. He tried to be dignified and aloft as a Dai was supposed to be, but he grinned all over his face as he saw me coming.

“Your world is sure a cold one, Captain. I am standing out here for five minutes and I think my feet are frozen to the ground.”

“Come back in a year or so and it will be balmy and cozy for sure, Mr.Hi.”

We simply hugged, not that even a month had passed since we left Para-Para.

I made a gesture encompassing the terminal and the world behind.

“Ready to see my home, old friend? I have a banquet prepared for your honors.”

“Yes, I would love to do this as we planned, but father just messaged me to hurry, it is about Thana Shoo and Cam Elf-Na. The next meeting at Thana Shoo is soon.”

“Then let me shed my Nilfeheim garments, and let us get some vacuum under that ride of yours, what is it?”

“It is the Dai version of a Courier ship, and it is mine.”

Another Dai warrior came down the ramp and looked at me disapprovingly.

“Prince Hi, we came all this way for a female? And you are touching her?”

Har-Hi sighed.

“This is Wut-Hi, a high warrior of the Hi tribe, and part of an honor guard my father sent to honor you.”

“He is not doing a very good job in that regard,” I said.

To Wut-Hi, my friend said.

“Wut-Hi, one more word out of you disrespecting my best friend and I will challenge you, mostly to prevent her from dicing you to fish bait.”

“Then challenge me, I am not going to soil my blades with the blood of a weak human female.”

I still wore Nilfeheim leathers and of course Mjördaren. With my memories restored, I knew the real one was with Tyr. Part of me had a great urge to retrieve it, but I had no problem suppressing that urge, with the respect and love I felt for Tyr.

Har-Hi gave me an apologizing look.

“We work hard on changing certain things of our society and culture, but some encrusted old minds are still there and it will take the purge of time and death to make these obsolete traditions fade away.”