The Viking crews quickly boarded their boats and cast off. The healthy men mounted the oars and begun to row back towards the sea. As they headed towards the mouth, several lookouts spotted several Scottish boats heading towards them from the north. From the south, they saw several English boats. Standing at the stern, Olaf shook his head in disbelief. He was heading right into the middle of a Scottish - English battle. No wonder the Scottish were able to mount an army against him so quickly. He ordered his men once again to row hard out towards the open ocean. Olaf had no desire to end up in the middle of someone else’s war. Fortunately, the Scottish and English boats were not interested in him.
Olaf and his two boats successfully escaped the two fleets. He headed his boats again towards the north. They sailed for almost two days wanting to put significant distance between their next attempt to obtain supplies and the evolving battle between the English and Scots. Again, Olaf’s ships found a small river and sailed a single boat about 100 yards in front of the other boat into the mouth of the river. All was quiet.
Olaf sent several men to scout the shore to look for food supplies. The scouts found a small farming village about 2 miles inland. They returned with this information to Olaf. Olaf then organized a small raiding party consisting of 20 men.
The raiding party came upon the small farming village guarded by only a few men. Most of the men had left to join the Scottish army taking on the English much further south. Olaf was happy for this development. His men quickly overpowered the guards and entered the village. His band rounded up some horses and wagons and loaded them with food and supplies. A couple of his men took liberties with some of the village women. He slowed most of his men down from their usual activities after conquering a village. Olaf was more interested in getting the supplies back to the boats and getting back underway. Olaf believed the old raiding days were over.
Once the boats were loaded, they headed back out to sea. They traveled several more days northward and then proceeded to sail to the west. They traveled this way for a month before nearing the southern coast of Iceland. Once Iceland came in view, Olaf ordered his boats ashore to get fresh food and water.
Having completed their landing in Iceland without incident, Olaf ordered his boats back to sea and they continued traveling westward. He had heard of a great land far to the west. This land was Olaf’s goal. Olaf’s boats sailed over another month in a westerly direction. The North Atlantic was extremely cold and rough. His crew managed to make it through several storms only loosing several more men. Some of the women and children had gotten sick and died and a few washed overboard into the chilly Atlantic Ocean.
It was mid-January when lookouts finally spotted land. After a long harsh trip, Olaf’s people were excited to make landfall off what the world currently knows as the northern coast of Canada. The boats carefully approach the coast navigating tricky currents and a strong northwest wind. Olaf had his boats sail south along the coast of Canada. He was looking for a good location to make landfall. Most of the coast was rocky and quite dangerous to attempt a landfall.
Olaf’s boats sailed several hours before they spotted an inviting cove. Again, Olaf had his boats sail one behind the other into the cove. All was quiet. The lookouts spotted a small beach and Olaf ordered both to run up onto the beaches. Olaf dispatched several scouts to scope out the area within several miles of their landing. Several hours went by before the scouts returned with the news that the area was isolated. There were signs of inhabitance, but they did not find any other people.
Olaf and his clan set up a small settlement just inside of the cove to sit out the rest of the winter. They took a boat to check out the shoreline north and south of their camp to hunt for food. On one voyage, they sailed a week to the north and hunted walrus. They returned with fresh food for their new village.
Scouts explored further inland in both the north and south directions. The scouts returned with disturbing news. It appeared that the area near the cove was inhabited during the spring and summer months. Olaf had heard stories from other Viking leaders that the land could swarm with well-armed savages. Earlier Viking attempts to establish settlements had eventually ended in failure with the people killed or forced to return home to Scandinavia. Since going home was not an option for Olaf, he decided to have his clan sail south once the weather warmed.
In early April, Olaf ordered his clan back to the boats and back to sea. They planned to head south. Olaf knew this would be a difficult change for his people. They were not used to living in the warmer climates and would be unable to hunt for walrus and their normal food sources.
Olaf’s two boats again took to the Atlantic. He had them sail south for a week. They came upon a large island that people would later
call Manhattan. As they approached the shore, Olaf’s lookout spotted bands of armed men. They were too numerous for Olaf to consider coming ashore. He ordered his boats to continue south.
After several days, his boats came upon a large bay, later known as the Delaware Bay. They sailed into the bay’s mouth and its northern shoreline. Lookouts spotted many small narrow boats heading towards them and they did not appear friendly. Olaf ordered his boats back into the center of the bay and back towards the safety of the Atlantic. After several hours, the small boats appeared to have given up the chase.
Again, Olaf ordered his boats south. They sailed several more days before coming upon an even larger bay currently known as the Chesapeake Bay. Olaf’s boats sailed into the bay along its north shore. All was quiet. Olaf felt encouraged and ordered his boats to sail several more days into the bay occasionally coming ashore for food and water. On each excursion, they found the land uninhabited. Eventually the small band came upon a small river, later known as the Choptank. Olaf liked the safe harbor that the river provided and ordered his clan to proceed into the river. The two boats sailed several miles up the Choptank. Eventually the lookouts spotted a small village. Unlike their other experiences, the local villagers welcomed them ashore.
Olaf presented gifts to the villagers and his clan enjoyed a peaceful evening of food and drink. Communication was difficult since the two groups had no common language. Olaf could tell that even though they were welcome as visitors, the local group did not want them to become neighbors. The local chief indicated that Olaf might find land further up the Choptank.
Early the next morning, Olaf and his two boats sailed further up the Choptank. They sailed almost half a day up the river before it became too shallow for his boats. Olaf thought the land was nice, but he wanted to be closer to the bay. Olaf decided to return to the bay and sail further inland.
As Olaf’s boat came upon the small Nanticoke village they had just left that morning, Olaf could tell something was wrong. As they came closer, Olaf saw another group of people attacking the village. The attackers numbered close to 40 men. Even with the losses that Olaf had sustained in his trip to America, he still had close to 70 healthy men. He ordered his men to prepare for battle. The women and children all climbed on one of the boats leaving 50 men aboard the remaining boat.
Olaf took the one boat to the shore of the village. His men jumped off the boat in full battle gear attacking the band of Susquehanna’s raiding the village. The battle lasted a quick 20 minutes before Olaf’s warriors forced the Susquehanna to retreat. Olaf led his men in pursuit after the retreating attackers killing all but two warriors who managed to escape.
When Olaf and his men returned to the village, the Nanticoke chief welcomed them back to the village. Where several hours earlier, the chief did not want Olaf
Stoneax and his men to stay, he now welcomed them and indicated that Olaf should be free to make a home with his people.
The rest of Olaf’s clan came ashore and joined in building a small Viking-style village about a mile upriver from the Nanticokes. The two groups frequently got together and the Vikings in time learned the local language. As the years passed, the two groups intermingled and grew as one people. The Viking blood became one with the Nanticoke people with the people maintaining many of the Viking customs and traditions.
With the combined power of the Nanticoke and the Vikings, they consistently thwarted subsequent attacks by the Susquehanna. Olaf and his men laid out defensive perimeters and taught the Nanticokes the Viking Art of War. This relationship between the Viking clan and the Nanticoke continued until the days of Oria as the two people become one people.
March 2017: Eastern Shore of Maryland
“Hey Charlie, stop that shovel. It looks like we ran into more Indian stuff.”
Charlie halted the shovel. "Oh man, let’s just pretend we didn’t see it. We’re never gonna to complete this project if we stop now. That jerk boss of ours will be up our butts if we don’t make the schedule.”
“You gotta be kidding; do you remember what happened to the last crew that screwed up an Indian burial ground? Man, they all did time. I got a family; this job ain’t worth giving them up. I’m going to call it in. Besides, this is part of a State Park. I think they’d notice if we try to hide this.”
Linda StalkingWolf was sitting at her desk in her University of Maryland Archeology Department office in College Park, when the phone rang. It was Bob from the Interior Department.
“Hi Linda,
it’s Bob; we got another find for you. This time, it’s close to your home town.”
“Hi Bob, that’s great! Did you get any of your Interior guys out there yet?”
“No, I called you as soon as I found out. You’d better get there. I’m sending a team to cordon off the area as we speak.”
Linda called her assistant and told him that she had to make a quick trip to the Eastern Shore and to reschedule her meetings.
As Linda drove around the Beltway towards Rte. 50, she was getting excited. Maybe she could get some answers to her people’s history from this latest find. There were not many Nanticokes left on the Eastern Shore. The encroachment of the white man by 1748 had forced most of the Nanticoke to join the Susquehanna and the Iroquois people further north. Others moved even further north and into Canada. The new occupants and their slaves assimilated most of the Nanticoke people that remained in Maryland and Delaware. There were very few people left who still identified themselves as part of the Nanticoke people.
Linda was involved in several fights with the State and Federal Governments to raise money for her people. She
hoped to prove that the earlier settlements had forced her people from their land and stomped on their rights. If she could do this, maybe, the Government would return land to her people and money to help them restore what they would otherwise have achieved. She also hoped to earn back the respect of her people since many of them resented her success and education.
The find was just south of the mouth of the Choptank River. As Linda drove up, a team from the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and representatives from Interior were standing around and greeted her.
“Dr. StalkingWolf, I presume?”
“Yes.”
“Dr. Kathy Johnson, Department of Interior” The two women shook hands as they walked over to the site.
“Good to meet you Dr. Johnson. Has anything been identified yet?"
“Please call me Kathy. You’re going to be surprised. We found some Viking artifacts along with artifacts from your tribe.”
“Viking artifacts?” exclaimed Linda.
“Yes, I couldn’t believe it either.”
“Anything else?”
“No not yet, like you, we just got here.”
Friday, May 19, 2018: Arrive Destination Earth, Rendezvous USS Hercules
Oria was in a deep sleep when his intercom system rang. It was Captain Borella. Oria growled, “Yes, what’s up?”
Borella replied “Admiral, we are approaching Earth and are slowing to sub-light speed.”
“Thanks, I will meet you on the bridge in about 15 minutes.”
Just as Oria turned off the intercom system, the ship’s alert system sounded. The ship's sensors had detected a fleet of starships approaching similar in class to the Hercules.
Captain Borella continued “Admiral, we have a fleet of starships approaching us. They appear to be Azortec. Moreover, one of the ships is identifying itself as the Hercules.”
Oria replied, “That's good. President Shalat said this would happen. Only he did not mention that there would be an entire fleet. Can you raise them on the radio?”
“I’m already working on it.”
“Good, I’m on my way to the bridge. When you get through, please connect me with them.”
“Aye sir.”
Oria quickly dressed and headed towards the bridge. When he arrived on the bridge, Borella had set up a Com link between the two Hercules. Captain Borella looked at Oria and said, “Admiral Oria, Admiral Oria of the other Hercules.”
Oria addressed the Com link. “Greetings, this is Admiral Oria of the Starship Hercules.”
“Greetings, I am Admiral Oria of the USS Starship Hercules. I’ve been waiting for this moment.”
“This is a bit strange. You are me after going back in time and spending a year on Earth.”
“I know. I can’t say much since we don’t want to create any more temporal anomalies than necessary.”
“I understand. President Shalat said that we are supposed to exchange ships.”
“That's correct. Everything that your crew needs is onboard this ship. Strange as it seems, there is no reason to exchange personal belongings and possessions. The same items are on board this ship.”
“Ok. Shall we have our CO's setup the logistics?”
“Your thoughts mirror mine.”
“They should, you are me.”
When the two Admirals completed the exchange, the two Borella’s setup the transfer of crews between the ships. They exercised extreme caution not to reveal any of the history over the past year. The Oria’s ordered that the arriving crew should not know if their counter parts made it through the year. The fabric of the space/time continuum could easily be distorted causing severe temporal anomalies and forever change history across multiple time-periods.
When Oria and his crew completed boarding the new Hercules, they discovered that English programming on all of the ship’s systems and education centers were set up to teach English. Fortunately, the crew had already begun learning English by reviewing intercepted video and radio signals
Admiral Oria hailed his counterpart one last time and wished him and his crew well as the new Earth fleet cruised out of Earth's orbit. Once the fleet departed, Oria ordered his crew to prepare for their flight back into time and through the space/time continuum.
The Hercules’ crew entered the sedation chamber slowly and prepared for their ride through the continuum. The tension and excitement on board was thick, everyone was nervous and anxious about traveling through the continuum. It took almost an hour for everyone to get into one of the sedation tanks. Captain Borella was the last crewmember to enter a tank. Oria flipped the final switch that sedated his crew for the ride through the continuum.
Admiral Oria headed back to the ship's bridge and climbed into the combat bridge. The departing crew had already programmed the complex codes into the ship’s computers and navigation system required to send Oria and his ship back one year in time.
Once in the combat bridge, Oria took control of the ship’s navigation system and headed the Hercules towards the sun. The sun's core provided a known constant for flight into the continuum. The maneuver required to enter the space/time continuum was tricky. Oria had to create a wormhole and fly the Hercules into it. In order to create a wormhole, Oria had to fire simultaneously plasma torpedoes and high-energy lasers at the core of the sun. This process created a wormhole in the space/time continuum for only a small moment in time. If the Hercules arrived at the hole too early, he would fly right by it and accomplish nothing. If he hit the wormhole too late, the instability could throw the Hercules into another part of the universe or worse the Sun could burn and vaporize the ship. Oria had to time his entry into the hole at the precise moment in the wormhole’s life.
Oria activated the ship’s weapons control system and linked the firing of several torpedoes and the ship’s lasers to the stardrive throttle. Finally, Oria and the Hercules were ready for the flight into the space/time continuum. Oria took a deep breath and pushed the stardrive throttle to 100% power. Almost
immediately, an explosion occurred at the core of the Sun as the Hercules slammed into the wormhole and entered the time/space continuum.
The instant Oria entered the space/time continuum, he became confused and felt pain just as he experienced on his last trip through the continuum. Oria reached deep into his subconscious and grasped at sanity. He managed to set the ship's autopilot and let the computer take over the ship's controls. Oria would have liked to engage the autopilot prior to entering the continuum, but he could not count on the ships navigational controls remaining synchronized with the ships computers. He would have to synchronize them several times on his trip through the continuum.
Oria felt his pain grow exponentially. He started having multiple flashbacks and his sense of reality bounced like a Ping-Pong ball between his childhood, scalping and torture and the pain he endured during biological experiments conducted by the Azortec military elite on his body.
All of a sudden, Oria was at the helm of the AFS Saratoga in the middle of a battle near the super star Exsquisadar. Fires were burning throughout his ship as Creytes beamed aboard the Saratoga. There were numerous hand-to-hand fights raging throughout the Saratoga.
Oria guided the Saratoga towards the Creyte warship and released a salvo of torpedoes. He scored a direct hit and the Creyte ship burst into a ball of flames. Oria did not have time to dwell on this victory. There were already another dozen ships lined up ready to attack the Saratoga. The Creytes were hoping to capture the Saratoga and obtain the latest in Azortec battle technology. It would be a major disaster for Azortec if their technology fell into the hands of the Creytes.
Oria started to consider risking a flight into the space/time continuum. He was hoping the new technology would prove more successful than all previous failed attempts to fly into the space/time continuum. Oria turned to the computer and started to set the lasers, torpedoes, and star drives for a flight into the continuum. He was about to set his flight controls when six Creyte warriors blasted their way onto the bridge. Oria’s mind went blank.
When Oria’s mind finally drifted back into consciousness, he was no longer on the bridge of the Saratoga. He was in another time with his conscious thought trying to reach out of a deep fog. DNA altering drugs had forced his mind into unconsciousness. As Oria awoke, he found himself staring into the eyes of several doctors busily working over him. Dr. Hastenforf was the first to see Oria’s newly conscious state. “Oria! Oria! Are you awake?”
“Yes, I think so”, answered Oria while attempting to sit up and clear the fog in his head.
“I'm glad to see you're still alive. You're the only one who made it. I was worried about you. How do you feel?”
The controls of the Hercules began to fade into Oria's consciousness. He quickly glanced at their calibration and made a few adjustments. He was mentally bouncing between multiple realities and was having difficulty determining
what was real.
Oria took a deep breath; suddenly he found himself blasting through a wormhole in the space-time continuum aboard the Saratoga. He heard screams on the bridge from both his crewmembers and the Creyte warriors. In seconds, all was silent. Oria entered a more confused state as his pain intensified. He wiped his brow with the back of his right hand. Bloody perspiration covered his hand. Oria was sweating a mix of blood and perspiration all over his body. Every cell in his body had burst and was oozing blood.
“I'm a bit confused and light headed. Why am I here and just where is here?”
“You don't remember?”
“No, the last thing I remember is graduating from flight school.”
“After you graduated, you volunteered to become part of an elite unit.”
Dr. Hastenforf was hoping Oria didn't remember his kidnapping and someone forcing him to undergo DNA therapy. He didn't need kidnapping charges added to his problems with the failed experiment. Several members of the Azortec Council wanted to create a unit of “super humans” to fight the Creytes for them. That way most of Azortec could keep their hands clean and let the “primitives” do their dirty work. Unfortunately, it did not work out that way. Oria was the only survivor out of the original 1,000 conscripts captured for the experiment.
Oria was still in a daze. The Saratoga’s control panel started to look like the Hercules’s control panel, or was it the other way around. Oria tried to calibrate the navigation controls. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to be near Earth or Exsquisadar. The pull for Earth felt stronger. Oria struggled with his subconscious and concluded he really needed to set the controls for Earth. Oria managed to calibrate the navigation system as his mind began to shift into multiple realities.
Oria felt his skin burn as it bubbled up and charred in places. The Susquehanna Warriors were dancing around his stake letting out blood curdling screams. One of the lead warriors had a piece of Oria's scalp pierced on the end of his spear. He waved it several times in Oria's face as other warriors poked him with their spears. Oria was barely maintaining consciousness. He wanted to black out and have the pain disappear. Then Oria heard a loud noise and saw lights flash through his burned eyes. He thought the end was near as the Hercules finally blasted through the other end of the wormhole. Oria slowly regained his sense of sanity. The trip was over and he had no idea how many of his crew survived the adventure.