“
Kottur
.”
He hastily withdrew his hand and sucked his fingers into his mouth. His blood flowed as sluggishly as a frozen river. Cats were beloved of Freyja. Perhaps this was a sign that he was not alone in this strange world? The sound of the cat jumping down to the floor and rubbing against his ankles was surprisingly comforting. When was the last time he’d been touched by another creature?
Moving further into the chamber that smelled like food, he found another door and went inside. Even in the darkness, he could make out the sight of the loaded shelves. The cat had followed him, and was now meowing, but Einarr’s focus was on feeding himself. He picked things up at random and discarded them, his mouth watering as his sense of smell returned. Eventually, he found something he recognized and fought with the strange wrapping, using his teeth to rip off the strange coating so that he could bite into the bread beneath.
Carrying the loaf in his hand he searched for a jug or a barrel of ale but found nothing. Frustrated now, he left the food store and returned to the outer room, his keen hearing honing in on the drip of water onto a metal surface. Moving quietly around the space, he found the water and patiently cupped his hands beneath the trickle of liquid until he had satisfied his thirst.
It probably wasn’t wise to eat or drink anything in this strange place, but he was too hungry to care if the spirits intended to lure him into another world. He was beginning to believe he was in a cursed realm anyway. Since stepping over the body of the man who’d been caught up in his violent release from the ice, he’d seen no one but the cat. Yet he sensed someone, had recognized the female’s thoughts from the moment he’d regained that first sense of himself within the ice.
Someone touched his mind, and he immediately went for his weapon and then paused. Didn’t he want to be found? Didn’t he yearn for someone to confront him and tell him what was going on? And if it was the female whose presence had reached him even through the ice and his magical entrapment, he might even welcome her…
There was another door that led into what looked like a hall with benches and tables set out for eating. But as he came through it, that wasn’t what caught his attention. Set in the wall was two large clear rectangles that looked out into…
nothingness.
His newly beating heart almost stopped as he tried to comprehend what he was seeing. Somehow he was flying through the night sky and the stars. But he didn’t recognize any of the constellations.
Closing his eyes, he sank to his knees and prayed desperately to his Gods.
Frey paused at the junction of the two passages and listened carefully. Something was moving around in the kitchen attached to the mess hall. Gripping her weapon tightly, she advanced toward the half-open door and peered into the darkness. A faucet dripped and somewhere Armstrong, the ship’s cat was purring.
Armstrong only purred when he was fed or he had company. There was another door that led out of the small galley kitchen back into the mess hall. It was possible that her Viking was either hiding in the galley, or had moved through into the next room.
She relaxed her psychic shields a little more and stifled a gasp. He was close, his thoughts a strange mixture of overwhelming fear and murderous intent. It made her want to find him and help him through this terrifying transition into a new and unfathomable world--if he didn’t kill her at first sight. In preparation for the trip she’d read a lot about the Vikings and their reputation as fearless warriors and ruthless enemies.
And he wouldn’t be happy right now.
She forced herself to keep moving and entered the kitchen, inhaling its usual uneasy blend of cooking oil and harsh cleaning fluids. The door to the food storage unit was open and Frey hesitated outside it. The Viking wasn’t there. Considering the mess he’d left behind, he’d obviously been foraging for food. She could only imagine what he’d made of space rations.
She went onward, ignoring the cat, and headed back into the mess hall. The door was ajar. She crouched down to look through the small gap and immediately saw the silhouette of a man kneeling on the floor. The ground level security lighting was minimal, but she knew she wasn’t looking at a member of the crew. This man was too large and too
different.
“
Komdu hingað
.
”
She stiffened as a brusque command infiltrated her mind. The language was unknown, the compulsion to stand up and meet her fate was almost impossible to resist.
Readjusting her grip on her weapon, she pocketed it and drew out her FREN authorized stun gun, making sure it was loaded and ready to rock. Getting to her feet, she pushed the door fully open and took one unsteady step forward.
The Viking turned his head toward her, and she caught a glimpse of sharp white teeth and a ferocious scowl. As he rose to a crouch, she pointed the stun gun at him and aimed at the place where his neck met his shoulder. The next few seconds were a blur as he lunged for her, knocking the gun from her hand. His fingers wrapped around her throat and she had no choice but to look at him.
“
hver ert þú
?
”
Frey tried to swallow. “I can’t understand you.”
He repeated the question, his mind echoing the same words.
“
I don’t know, what you
are
saying, let me help you, I can…”
“
Frey? What’s going on
?” Slavin’s voice cut across the Viking’s unintelligible answer.
“
Can’t…”
Frey was wheezing for breath now, unable to get through to the man squeezing the life out of her.
Security alarms blared, and with a snarl, the Viking dropped her to the floor and ran toward the door. The sound of running feet and a sudden yell reverberated down the hallway, and then Brown was by her side, his expression furious.
“Are you all right?” He hauled her onto a chair and held her steady as she gasped for breath. “What the hell happened, Tecky? Why didn’t you sound the alarm sooner?”
“Was trying to find the Viking, to see if he had really survived.” She coughed. “Was going to call for back up as soon as I’d verified that.”
She leaned back against the table as the mess hall filled with crew members in various states of undress and aggravation. Slavin arrived and came over to Frey.
“Are you okay? I thought you were going to die.”
Frey managed a shaky grin. “I’m fine, honestly.”
“
Heeze…don’t ever do that to me again. I thought—”
Frey cut across her friend. “
Can you sense the Viking? Telepathically I mean
?”
“
I’m not sure.”
Slavin frowned. “
There’s something there, but it’s very faint
.
Why, can you
?”
“What the hell is going on here?”
Frey jumped as Captain Travis strode into the room.
“Turn off the alarms,” he barked at Brown. “What’s the situation, Tecky?”
Frey stood up, aware of Slavin at her shoulder, and faced the irate captain. “The Viking appears to be alive and somewhere on the ship, sir.”
Travis opened his mouth and then shut it again. “
What
?”
“I don’t know what happened, sir. I woke up early and decided to go down to the lab where I found Security Officer Prism dead and all three of the security doors blown apart.”
“So you’re suggesting our frozen cargo somehow managed to get himself out of a block of ice, kill one of my team and escape into the ship without anyone apart from you being fucking aware of it?” He glared at her. “Why didn’t you fucking sound the alarms the instant you realized Prism was dead? Why didn’t the alarms sound in the first place?”
Slavin cleared her throat. “FREN took responsibility for security in the lab. It’s highly probable that they disconnected the area from the main sensors.”
“Which still doesn’t explain why Tecky here didn’t raise the alarm herself.”
Frey met his enraged gaze. “Because I thought it was my responsibility to locate the Viking before I called in security.”
“And what the hell made you think that?”
Frey raised her chin. “My orders from FREN were to take control of the situation and direct others on the ship as I saw fit.”
“FREN told you that?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Fuck them. I’m captain of this ship until I’m told otherwise and you, Science Officer Frey, are suspended from duty while I find and catch this Viking and put him in a holding cell.”
“Sir, I have to warn you that he is bound to be confused about where he is. He doesn’t even speak our language.”
“I’m sure he’ll understand a gun pointed at his head.”
“No, sir he
won’t
. He’s never seen a gun before in his life.” Frey swallowed with some difficulty. It wasn’t in her nature to stand up to anyone in authority or create problems. “FREN have authorized me to deal with him. I would appreciate it if you let me carry out my orders. I—”
He cut her off with a decisive wave of his hand. “I’m the captain of this ship. You are confined to quarters. When I have the Viking in a controlled and secure environment, I will allow you to check him over and pass the information on to FREN.”
“But—” Frey took an impulsive step forward. Brown’s hand closed around her elbow and proved impossible to shake off. “Please, don’t kill him, Captain.
Please
let me deal with him. I have the necessary tools to sedate the male and to help him understand what we are saying to him.”
“Your observations and objections have been noted.” Captain Travis paused in the doorway to look back at her. “As I said, you can check him out when I’ve found him and prevented him from damaging my ship or killing any more of my crew.”
The remaining two security members followed the captain out, leaving Brown waiting patiently at Frey’s side. Frey turned to him.
“Please make sure Captain Travis checks his messages this morning. I’m fairly certain he will have heard from both FREN and the TSA about this situation and how I’m expected to deal with it.”
Brown lowered his voice “He’s already checked his messages. That’s why he was delayed. He just doesn’t choose to acknowledge the orders.”
“But that’s…”
He gripped her elbow tighter. “Come on, Tecky. Let’s get you to medical to check out your throat and then back to your quarters.”
As she was marched along to the medical center, Frey’s mind was in turmoil. If Travis cornered the Viking and killed him, her career would be over and FREN would probably make sure no one on the ship ever went into space again in any capacity. And the Viking would be dead, and that was unacceptable.
“What can I do to help, Frey?”
Frey hesitated at Slavin’s gentle question. “
Nothing unless you’re prepared to go against captain’s orders
.
I need to get to the Viking before Travis corners him. I have a feeling he won’t give up very easily
.”
“
Who, Travis or the Viking
?” Slavin asked.
“
The four-thousand-year-old warrior
.
The one with the axe and probably a few daggers hidden around his person
.
Vikings believed that the best death imaginable was in battle.”
“Damn.”
Slavin paused. “
He didn’t kill you though, did he
?”
“
No, he just punched the tranq gun out of my hand and tried to choke me
.”
She didn’t tell Slavin that the Viking had attempted to communicate telepathically with her. That was still too complicated to think about, let alone share. For some reason, they were linked and now she’d been denied any opportunity to find and secure him.
Brown opened the door into medical and guided Frey through it. A body lay on one of the gurneys with a sheet drawn up over it. She guessed it was the unfortunate Prism who’d either been caught in the explosion or killed by the emerging Viking. Rehm, one of the pilots from the bridge was also there holding a cloth to a deep slashing cut on the side of his head. He must have been the guy she’d heard scream after the Viking dropped her to the floor.
The medic looked up as he tended to Rehm and gestured to a chair.
“Take a seat, Tecky. I have to seal this wound up.”
Frey sat and concentrated her attention on anything
but
the smell of blood, and the unmoving mound on the gurney.
Someone was coming and it wasn’t the cat, or his female…
Einarr crouched between the two towering metal structures and focused his gaze on the outline of the door several lengths away from him. He wasn’t sure where he was, but the cylinders gave him good cover and the ability to ambush his adversaries if it became necessary.
But what if he killed them all? From what he’d already seen, these men didn’t carry any weapons. Were they like the Christian monks his ancestors had plundered and robbed when the Vikings first discovered the riches of England? A defenseless peaceful people who had no ability to fight back?
But the female had pointed some kind of weapon at him, he was quite certain of that. He had no idea how many people inhabited this strange place that seemed to float through the night skies like a giant bird or a sea-less wind-less ship.
He hunkered down as the voices grew louder. She’d been a little thing with hair the color of an autumn leaf and wide startled brown eyes. But she hadn’t understood him at all, even in her thoughts, which worried him immensely. If these people were peaceful and were simply a means to get him to Valhalla or wherever the Gods wanted him to be, he needed to speak to them. He wasn’t like his ancestors. He’d learned to parley with those who deserved it.
And in this instance, he was the one who needed to understand where he was and exactly what was going on. He considered putting away his axe and stepping out with his hands raised, but he couldn’t do that either. He might not be as rabid as his ancestors, but he was no coward, and until he gauged the intent of the men coming after him, he would be a fool to relax his guard.
He squinted through the darkness. There were three of them in a single line, one carried an extremely bright source of light that he directed into every shadowed area. The others carried something in their hands, which he had to assume were weapons of unknown strength. He slid his axe back into his belt and selected a throwing dagger instead.