The Search for Gram (8 page)

“System entry into the Nu2 Lupi system,” said Steropes. “The star is a yellow-orange main-sequence star located approximately 48 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Lupus. Nu2 Lupi is very similar to your sun although Nu2 Lupi is significantly older.It
s
habitable zone is also similar to your sun, from about 0.7 AU to 1.4 AU from the star.”

He paused and then added, “I do not see any indication of alien activity, nor do I have any unusual readings. There are three planets, all Super-Earths, but they all lie outside the habitable zone.”

A collective sigh filled the bridge; everyone had been keyed up, expecting a fight.

“Let’s keep the fighters manned a little longer, just in case,” said Captain Sheppard. “Helmsman, proceed to the next stargate.”

“Aye, sir, proceeding to the next stargate,” replied the helmsman. “Uh, sir, the navigation records the Aesir provided show three other stargates in this system in addition to the one we came through. Which would you like me to go to?”

Captain Sheppard looked over at Captain Nightsong, sitting in the observer chair. “Do you have any recommendations?”

Captain Nightsong considered for a few seconds and then said, “If memory serves, one of the stargates goes to an uninhabited pocket system with no other stargates out. I can’t imagine how anything would have popped up there that could have caused our ships to go missing.”

“I see that one,” said the helmsman.

“The other two stargates go to chains of star systems,” said Nightsong. “One of them, the gate to 14 Herculis, leads to where the frost giants live. The other goes to a system owned by hostile insectoids. It is unlikely they are to blame. Although they have space flight capabilities, they have some sort of hive mind and tend to stay close to their home world. If they go too far away, they go insane.”

“So you are recommending the gate to 14 Herculis?” asked the CO.

“That would be my guess,” replied Nightsong. “The giants are our traditional enemies and have no reason to wish us well. If they somehow made a technological breakthrough which gave them the ability to destroy our ships, they certainly would. My only question is, if they have the capability to destroy our ships, why haven’t they shown up at Golirion to take back Asgard? It doesn’t make sense for the giants to be the ones responsible for the loss of our ships; however, it makes even less sense for it to be anyone else.”

“Perhaps there is an unknown race or some other factor that has yet to make its appearance,” suggested Steropes.

Nightsong shrugged, something he had learned from the Terrans. “I do not know. We have explored many systems further down both chains of stars and never found a hostile race. That is why we moved the giants where we did.”

“Well, we’re not going to find out anything sitting here,” decided Captain Sheppard. “Helmsman, proceed to the stargate to 14 Herculis.”

“System entry,” said Steropes. “Launching probes.”

“Contact!” said the Defensive Systems Officer (DSO) and Steropes at the same time.

“What have you got, DSO?” asked Captain Sheppard.

“I’m picking up a lot of power spikes, Skipper,” replied the DSO. “I’m still locking it in.”

“Can you provide any more information, Steropes?” asked Captain Sheppard.

“Yes, I believe I can,” said Steropes. “Give me a second, and I’ll have it on screen.” He paused for a few moments, and the picture of a Super-Earth planet appeared on the screen…along with the fuzzy image of a ship in orbit. “Based on the Aesir star charts, we are in the 14 Herculis system. The star is an orange dwarf with about 9
0
percent of your sun’s mass, 7
1
percent of its radius and 3
6
percent of its luminosity. The star has a lot more—”

“
What about the ship?
” demanded Captain Sheppard.

“Oh! Yes!” said Steropes. “The ship is a quite large. Initial analysis indicates it is approximately a mile and a half long, with a mass of nearly six million tons.”

Calvin shook his head. “Another damn giant-sized ship to fight. I am so looking forward to a battle where we have the larger ship.”

“Battles do not always go to the largest ships,” said Steropes. “In this case, however, you are more correct than you know. I believe it actually
is
a giant ship, as it is crewed by the Jotunn. Although the ship is equivalent in size to a Mrowry dreadnought, it is a Jotunn battlecruiser. It is orbiting a Super-Earth planet in the star’s habitable zone. There is also a gas giant about twice the mass of Jupiter three AU from the star and a planet about five times the mass of Jupiter seven AU from the star.”

“Sir!” interrupted the communications officer, “we’re being hailed by the ship.”

“On screen,” said the commanding officer.

“Damn,” said the helmsman, in awe, as the screen lit up to show an enormous humanoid. Although hard to tell, as everything around him was oversized, the being seemed colossal. Dressed in red-spotted pelts, the Jotunn had a chain-metal shirt over his torso. Light blue hair flowed out from under an outsized helmet with immense horns. The Jotunn’s red eyes glared as he slowly surveyed the bridge of the
Vella Gulf
.

“Whoa,” said Calvin under his breath. “He’s got to be 13 or 14 feet tall.”

Steropes shook his head. “Probably more like 15 or 16. Most of them reach at least 15 feet and weigh well over a ton.”

The Jotunn’s scan stopped upon catching sight of Captain Nightsong, and it laughed a long, deep belly laugh which was echoed by several of the other giants who could be seen at stations behind him. “This is the best you could do, Aesir?” it asked. “You come into our territory with this toy ship and these puny creatures to aid you? We had expected more…even from you.”

Captain Nightsong’s eyes narrowed, and a small growl escaped his lips. “This is not your system,” he replied. “By treaty, this is our system, and we are here to find several of our ships that have gone missing.”

“You banished us to Jotunheimr,” said the Jotunn, “but we stay there no more. We have ventured forth to reclaim the worlds which once were ours. No longer will we do as you say. We have new friends who will restore us to Asgard. As to your ships, we have your
Blue Forest
, or what is left of it. You are welcome to come and get what few survivors remain.”

“You destroyed our ship?” asked Captain Nightsong. “There will be war!”

The Jotunn laughed again. “Destroyed it? No, we did not. Nor will we destroy your puny ship, or seek to harm you in any way if you want to come and get your people.”

“I am Captain Sheppard of the Terran ship
Vella Gulf
,” said the commanding officer. “May I ask who it is I am addressing?”

The Jotunn turned and glared at him. “I am Fenrir, son of Loki, and captain of the Jotunn ship
Soaring Eagle
,” the giant replied. “I am also the military commander of this system. Who or what is a Terran, and why have you come?”

“We are from Terra, a planet many light years from here. The Aesir asked us to help them find out what happened to their missing ships.”

“Ho, ho, ho,” the Jotunn laughed, “since you have come so far, I will make it easy for you and simply tell you what happened. The elves came into our systems and were destroyed. Now that you know, you may carry this word back to their leaders. You may also take them a warning. Tell them we are coming for them.” He smiled and then added, “Ragnarok has begun.” The screen went blank as the transmission ended.

“Huh,” said Captain Sheppard, turning to face Captain Nightsong, “that was kind of abrupt. What do you make of it?”

“Like I said,” the Aesir replied, “there will be war. I don’t know how they destroyed our ships, but now that we know it
was
the Jotunn, they won’t be able to fool us again.”

“How do you know it was the Jotunn who destroyed your ships?” asked Steropes.

“Because Fenrir said they did,” replied Nightsong. “His own admission damns him! We will muster our fleet and come back here to teach them the consequences of their actions!”

“Steropes is right,” said Calvin. “How do you know it was the Jotunn? Fenrir didn’t say the Jotunn destroyed your ships; he just said they were destroyed. Isn’t that right, Solomon?”

“That is correct,” replied the ship’s artificial intelligence. The front view screen lit up with a replay of the conversation. The image of the Jotunn leader filled the screen and said, “Destroyed it? No, we did not.” The tape jumped forward a little, and he added, “They came into our systems and were destroyed.”

“You said before that the Jotunn periodically attack you, correct?” asked Calvin.

“Yes,” agreed Nightsong. “They were actually overdue to attack, based on historical patterns. It has to be them.”

“Wouldn’t your ships’ commanding officers also have been aware of this, especially after the first ship or two went missing?” asked Calvin. “Wouldn’t they know to be on the lookout for a Jotunn attack? How could something so big have snuck up on one of your ships?”

“I do not know how it is possible,” admitted Nightsong. “They have never been able to surprise us in the past. They must have developed some new technology; either that or they were given something by the new ‘friends’ Fenrir alluded to.”

“Or maybe it was the new friends who destroyed your ships,” said Captain Sheppard. “Steropes, do you have any indications of other ships in the system?”

“No sir, I do not,” replied Steropes. “That does not exclude the possibility they exist and are cloaked, however.”

“Understood,” said the commanding officer. “Keep looking. Let me know if you find anything out of the ordinary that might be a cloaked ship.”

“Aye aye, sir,” said Steropes, turning back to his console.

Captain Sheppard turned back to Captain Nightsong. “So,” he said, “what do you want to do?”

“If they have any of the crew of the
Blue Forest
, like he said they do, I want to get them back. If nothing else, the crew would be able to tell us what happened.”

“Umm…how much do you trust them?” asked Captain Sheppard. “I’m not in a hurry to get close to that ship and have whatever happened to the
Blue Forest
happen to us.”

“They
do
have a sense of honor,” said Captain Nightsong, “but that doesn’t mean you can necessarily trust them. They are very literal. For example, if Fenrir says the
Soaring Eagle
won’t attack, all it means is that one ship won’t attack. It
doesn’t
mean any other Jotunn ships in the system won’t attack. You have to be careful how you word things.” 

“Steropes, are there any other ships in the system besides the two of us?” asked Captain Sheppard.

“No sir, there are not, although my earlier warning still stands,” replied Steropes. “There does appear to be the wreckage of a ship near the
Soaring Eagle
, possibly the
Blue Forest
, but that is all I currently see.”

“Okay,” Captain Sheppard said with a nod to Captain Nightsong, “so if I can get them to agree to give us safe passage, it
should
be safe to approach them closely enough to launch a shuttle and retrieve the remaining crew of the
Blue Forest
? Remember, you are risking not only your life, but the lives of all of the members of my crew in this assessment.” Several members of the bridge crew turned to watch Nightsong’s response.

The Aesir scanned the Terrans watching him before returning his gaze to Captain Sheppard. “Yes, it should be safe,” he said finally.

Captain Sheppard turned to Calvin and raised an eyebrow. “Well, hero, what do you think?”

“I think I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t call me that, sir,” answered Calvin. “It’s bad enough when Steropes does it. Regardless, we need to know what happened to the Aesir ships if we are going to find an answer. The only way we’re going to do that is to get the remaining crew members from the Jotunn. Of course, I’d still say we ought to man all of the fighters and weapons systems…just in case.”

“I agree,” replied Captain Sheppard. “Communications officer, raise the
Soaring Eagle
. On screen.”

Within a few seconds, the face of Captain Fenrir appeared on the front screen. “Yes?” he asked. “Is there some reason you haven’t left yet? You are trying my patience.”

“Captain Fenrir,” said Captain Sheppard, “when we spoke earlier, you said you had some of the members of the
Blue Forest,
and we were welcome to come and get them. We would like to do so before we leave.”

The Jotunn looked off-screen. “Did I say that?” He turned back to the
Vella Gulf
. “It appears I did; however, I never gave you the terms.” A giant smile crossed his face.

“Terms?” asked Captain Sheppard. “What terms?”

“Well, you can’t expect us to just
give
them to you. We rescued them from their derelict spaceship and have given them food, drink and comfort ever since. There is the matter of payment for our time and services. I choose to take that payment in the form of entertainment. One of you Terrans will fight me in the arena. If you win, you may take the survivors of the
Blue Forest
and leave. If I win, you leave and return with payment for your people.”

“How much is the payment?”

“One billion mega-credits.”

Captain Sheppard heard a sharp intake of breath from Captain Nightsong. Before he could say anything, Captain Sheppard said simply, “We accept,” and ended the transmission.

“I do not know how you will get us out of this,” said Captain Nightsong into the silence that followed. “You cannot beat him in hand-to-hand combat, and one billion mega-credits is more than the cost of a super dreadnought. There is no way the Thor will pay that with war upon us. He
can’t
.”

“Well then, Calvin, I guess we’d better not lose,” said Captain Sheppard.

“No, I guess we’d better not,” Calvin replied. “Night is better-suited for this, even if I wasn’t still recovering. I’ll go get him.”