Page 18 of Alien Viking's Plunder

She watched him walk out, suede pants stretched and flexing with the muscles of his remarkably pert butt. The torchlight made his intricate tattoos glitter as if he had been wrapped in golden threads.

Josie let out the breath she had been holding, lowering her shoulders. Bragr had this way of totally commanding all her attention. Everything else shrunk away and became unimportant the moment he stepped into a room. Partly because he was clearly deadly, and he activated her prey instincts. And partly because he made strange things happen to her. She knew she should be furious that he abducted her, that he attacked her station, that he had turned her life upside-down in a matter of minutes. And shewasfurious. But she also enjoyed having him close to her. He was a force of nature, like an earthquake, but an extremely confident and sexy one.

She was relieved he hadn’t leftUnityto leak all its air into space, killing everyone. Of course she had to take his word for it, but he wouldn’t have any reason to lie.

She couldn’t help wondering what his other sides would look like. When he had rescued her from those zombie-like creatures, his touch had been warm and careful. He had gotten that cut because he had deflected a sword slash that had clearly been meant for Josie. It would have killed her; she knew that.

She activated the comms again. “Aretha, you there?”

A minute went by, her comms filled with creepy, wailing noises.

Then Aretha replied. “Hey. I’m still here. Just had to go somewhere they can’t hear me talking. Hey, Josie! How you holding up?”

“Still alive, and right now that feels like the best we can hope for. Ari, are you on a Viking ship?”

“See, I didn’t want to be the first to say it,”Aretha chirped. “But this is totally a Viking ship in space. They let me walk around, too. There are masts and sails and a rudder. But there’s no air and no wind, so how does it work? Anyway, have your Vikings told you what they want with us?”

“I don’t think they know,” Josie said, feeling much better after hearing Aretha’s voice. “Looks like a spur-of-the-moment thing. They sayUnityis fine, though. They sealed it up again, apparently. Hey, was your ship attacked by zombies just now?”

“Zombies? Not that I know of. Pro tip: if you go up on the deck, don’t look at the sky or at anything around you. It’s not good for the brain. Anyway, why do you ask? Are you okay?”

Josie sat down on the high chair. “I’m fine. Just trying to figure out if we’re on the same ship or not. Sounds like we’re not. It’s okay, the zombies lost. Good lord, Ari. I’m sitting in a wooden chair with dragon carvings. In space. With actual Vikings that have horns growing out of their heads. Is this a dream? Is it some kind of simulation? A game?”

“It’s not a dream,”Ari told her. “Could be a simulation, but I’ve never been in one without knowing it was fake. I know you and I are the lowest of the low, but I can’t imagine they’re allowed to run sims on us without our consent. We have to assume it’s real. What do we do?”

“I guess we’ll have to see where we’re going and then find each other. My captor is called Bragr. Big blonde guy. Yours?”

“We haven’t been introduced,”Aretha said. “Anyway, you’re still recording everything, right?”

Josie checked her headset. “Until the batteries give out.”

“Because when we get back to Earth, those vids will be worth a huge fortune.”

“I think so too,” Josie agreed. “And I like that you say ‘when’, not ‘if. Wearegetting back home, Ari. We won’t rest until we’re back on Earth. We can both pay for our enhancements and get out ofthatwhole scam.”

“Of course! This is just an unexpected field trip with a real nice reward at the end of it. All right, I have to show myself before they come looking. I want to know more about those sails. I think they’re dipping into another dimension or even another universe, which makes them invisible in ours. They’re being pulled along really fast. You’re not limited to the speed of light if you can do that. Anyway, if I can figure it out, that’smyfortune made. Earth space travel, meet your revolution. You could zoom from Earth to Jupiter in minutes. Minutes, Josie!”

“Umm…” Josie scratched her cheek. “Have youseenthese guys? They’re Vikings! They use swords! They drink something that looks like fuckingmead!Butyouthink they’re dabbling in cross-dimensional superluminal propulsion?”

“Hey, the idea isn’t new. Lots of smart people on Earth have proposed stuff like that. Come up with a better idea, and I’m all ears. Josie, if we look apart from the abduction part and the attack part, this is actually kind of exciting! Anyway, talk to you later.”

There was a click as Ari turned off her comms.

Josie smiled. Only Ari could even think of calling this an exciting field trip. Her friend’s optimism was rubbing off on Josie, and that felt better than the dread she’d had of where exactly this was going. She might as well look at the bright sides, such as they were. Nobody had died in the raid, and that made her feel much better. These guys were maybe space Vikings, but they weren’t murderous.

All right. She had her little headset, some utility stuff in various pouches in her belt, an opened first-aid kit and… not much else. She doubted her Security badges would make much of an impression on the Viking aliens. Her baton was long gone, and she hadn’t even put on her helmet.

She got out of the chair and looked around. This was some kind of cafeteria, like they had back onUnity. Except this one was all wood and fireplaces and animal skins. But it also looked like a place where cooking was done.

It took her ten seconds to find the first big knife, then twenty more to find another that was more her size. She wrapped the blade in gauze from the medpack and stuck it inside her waistband. Josie had never trained with edged weapons, but she had been well trained in using the telescoping metal baton. With a knife she was more deadly, which seemed appropriate right now.

She went out into the corridor.

“Wood everywhere,” she said softly. If she was recording, she might as well provide some commentary. “I don’t know what to make of any of this. A wooden ship shouldn’t be able to travel in space. How does it stay airtight?”

The corridor looked like it ran the length of the ship from the bow to the stern. She slowly made her way back to where there was an open wooden hatch in the floor.

Getting down on her knees, she looked into the space below.

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