Page 102 of The Viking in the Vault
“I need to explain something,” I continue, turning in a semi-circle to meet the eyes of the others gathered around. Their skarnhounds are lying at their feet, panting, some still sniffing each other. A few of my crew look broken, others look optimistic. I hate that I’m about to destroy that. “You’ve been…asleep a long time.”
Axl’s gaze sharpens. “How long?”
“More than four thousand years,” I breathe.
Gasps ripple through the group. One of the youngest of the crew, Wyman, stumbles back a step, visibly shaken. Another drops into a crouch, burying their face in their hands.
“Four thousand…” someone mutters.
“It’s not possible…”
“It is,” I say, sober. “The crash took us down into the ice on an alien moon, but the cold and the pods preserved us. The ice was later sampled and brought to an archive, and somehow, against all odds…we were inside that sample.”
“An archive?” someone asks. “Where?”
“M’mir,” I tell them. “We are on M’mir.”
“And the war?” Axl asks.
This is the one bright spot in the bleak news I have to give them. “The war…it’s over. The Borean Empire fell, and each and every one of those devils now lies dead. The stars we knew…they’ve changed.”
“Did Kanin survive?” someone calls from the crowd.
I nod. “Kanin survives, and thrives.”
A collective breath escapes the gathered crew, exhales of relief and awe. Some slump where they stand, others reach for each other—gripping shoulders, whispering prayers, swearingoaths. Axl exhales shakily beside me, their hand briefly touching their chest like they might steady their heartbeat.
“But…what happens now?” Wyman’s voice breaks through the murmurs. “Do we go back?”
A hush falls again. All eyes swing to me.
Do we go back?
That’s the question I’ve been dreading.
“You will find the world we emerge to is much changed,” I admit. “Our mission…our battle…everything we trained for belongs to a different era. Kanin, as far as I’ve been told, is now a planet of vast cities, safe villages, spaceports…the world we knew is gone. You are Skoll without a war.”
Axl tilts their head, studying me. “And what are you, Captain?”
I look to Elena, who stands just outside of the semi-circle, her arms wrapped around herself.
“I am a mated male,” I say. “My future is not in the stars—it’s beside her.”
Another ripple goes through the crowd. I don’t know what they expected, but not this; not a declaration of love in place of command.
But I am no longer the man who climbed aboard the Stormcaller with vengeance in his veins and war in his heart. I am the man who woke up to find the universe changed…and still found something worth holding onto.
“You’re um…” Elena chimes in, only to realize that my crew don’t have translators. “Ragnar, will you—will you translate for me?”
I nod.
“You’re welcome to stay,” Elena says. “M’mir is safe. There are settlements here, civilizations. It’s not the world you left behind, but it’s a good one.”
Several heads turn toward her, intrigued by this strange, small, antler-less female.
“You trust her?” Axl asks.
I nod. “With everything I am.”
