Page 10 of Alien Viking's Plunder

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- Josie -

Josie had seen spaceships before. Apart from theUnity, she had been inside two, first the one that took her to theUnity, and then one that went to the asteroid belt to pick up mined metals. Both had been bare and sterile on the inside, all composites and aluminum, filled with gauges and instruments and thin screens, all to save weight. Everything was slender and fragile and thin. The walls would flex when you touched them, and every move you made would cause the entire craft to tremble.

This one was completely different. It was like being in a log cabin in the woods. Everything was wood, even the deck. It was all roughly hewn and uneven, as if with an ax. Thick skin pelts hung on the walls, and in one corner there was a heap of them. Some white, some brown and some bright red.

“Are you kidding me,” she groaned when she spotted the fireplace. It looked well used, too. “Firein a spaceship? Andwecan’t even have stun guns!”

On any spacecraft, includingUnity, the last thing anyone wanted was anything that could make sparks. People were carefully checked for lighters or matches or even certain metals before they were allowed to even get into the rocket that would lift them off Earth. A fire inside a spacecraft could turn to total disaster in seconds. And here the aliens were clearly lighting fires in their fireplace. The little pile of firewood beside the fireplace confirmed it, as did the faint smell of smoke.

The room was dominated by a big, round shield hanging on one wall. It was bright blue and was emblazoned with the red profile of a curled-up dragon, wings and all.

Josie didn’t spend much time admiring the interior of the room. She had already tried to open the door, including breaking it down with her full strength. The locking mechanism must be on the outside, and she didn’t waste much time on trying to find it.

She’d dropped her baton when the brute had grabbed hold of her, and she carefully searched the room for anything she could use instead. This was clearly not a room where anyone actually lived; it was just a place to sleep and maybe sit and enjoy the fire.

There wasn’t anything loose except for the firewood, so she grabbed the most suitable of the pieces, just to have something to throw or whack with whenever that horned guy returned. Then she got busy with the shield and managed to lift it off the wall. But it would be too heavy and cumbersome a thing to fight with.

Planning how to deal with the man, she realized there was nowhere to hide. She’d have to go for a frontal attack.

And then what? Even if she were able to ward him off, or even knock him out, she was still aboard an alien spaceship full of enemies.

She leaned against the wooden wall. The horror of the situation was lurking in her mind. Aliens had attackedUnity. What was happening to the station right now? When those ships left, the holes they had punched would drain the station of all its air in thirty seconds or less. All six thousand people could be dead now.

The thought made her nauseous. No, she couldn’t dwell on that. There was nothing she could do about it.

Whatever happened, this was one of the most important moments in the history of Earth. And it occurred to Josie that she was uniquely suited to record it. If she could make a vid from this, that would also strengthen her position if she ever got back to Earth. It would be worth millions, enough to pay her way offUnity.

Security personnel carried tiny headsets by their left ears, and they all had cameras and microphones integrated. In the chaos back at the station she hadn’t turned them on, but now she flicked the small switch at her ear.

“This is the inside of an alien spaceship,” she began, then stopped. There was a strange hissing in her earpiece, as if the comms had started to work again.

“Um. Josie?”

She frowned. “Aretha?!”

“Hi. So, are you aboard an alien ship, too?”It was clearly her.

Josie checked her comms. The main switch on the headset had turned it on at the same time as the camera. “That’s right! Where are you?”

“In a cabin somewhere. They burned through the wall and dragged me out. It’s so crazy, it’s all wood in here!”

Hearing her friend’s voice made Josie feel a hundred times better. The comms could work independently from the station’s systems, but that was usually not the way it was used because it drained the batteries faster.

“It’s insane,” she agreed. “I’m glad you put your headset on. Are you locked up?”

“Totally,”Aretha said, her voice as cheerful as ever. “Josie, there’s a damn campfire ring here. On the floor! With a hole for the smoke in the ceiling! It’s all charred and burned.”

“I’ve got a fireplace,” Josie laughed from relief. “Is this for real?”

“I think it is,”her friend chirped. “And if so, I’m happy you’re here too. I mean, not happy that you’re abducted. But you know what I mean.”

“Hey, the feeling is very mutual. This is too crazy. They’re aliens, Aretha! They have actual horns!”

“And they look just like Vikings. I mean, it is the craziest fucking thing that’s ever happened, pardon my French.”

“I know. I’m recording it all.”

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