Page 4 of Drengr
"Right, everyone, please stay in your seats. The shuttle's captain has engaged artificial gravity to make the adjustment easier for you, but if you want, we can turn it off for a bit. Everyone always loves floating in zero gravity. Let's have a vote. Anyone for turning off artificial gravity, raise your hand."
My arm shot up. There was no way they'd be able to fake that. The only way you could be truly weightless was during falling or in space. The hoax would come to a quick end. Most of the other women also raised their hands, some more hesitant than others. Two kept their hands firmly clutched in their laps. One of them, an Asian-looking woman with a huge tree of life tattoo circling around her right arm, looked like she was about to throw up. I hoped for her sake that the hidden cameras would be revealed soon.
"Lovely, looks like the majority is for a little Zero-G," Pam announced cheerfully. "Once gravity has been turned off, you can deactivate your chair's restraints by stroking the bottom two straps at once. Like so."
She demonstrated, looking very silly indeed as she stroked the strange fabric with two fingers. Her seat belt opened, the straps floating for a moment as if waiting for further commands, then disappeared behind the chair. There had to be an explanation. Magnets, probably. There was a logical explanation for everything.
"Get ready, the captain is about to disengage artifical gravity in three... two... one..."
The strangest feeling took hold of me. Suddenly, I was no longer sitting in my seat. I was floating just above it, touching the seat without putting my weight on it. It was impossible. Couldn't be. But when the first woman released her seat belt and started drifting around the metal tube, I could no longer deny it.
We were in space.
And since none of this technology made sense, it had to come fromelsewhere.
Aliens were real.
4
Errik
Putting a group of horny, impatient males together into one building was a terrible idea. I escaped back outside after only a few clicks, having dropped my belongings into one of the small rooms. We had to share with one other male each, which soured my mood further. I was the last one to arrive, so all the good rooms had already been taken. At least my roommate was a friend. Rune, the berserkr. He would only stay here for a short while, since he wasn't one of the males who'd been matched with a female.
Captain Njal and his mate, Steff, had decreed that it would be best if the Peritan females had a few days to get used to the idea of being mated to aliens. Peritus was a backwater planet that had only recently developed spaceflight, and they'd not officially made first contact with other species yet. Sure, many of them had been abducted in secret, and the Hot Tatties agency had been matching Peritan females with Albyan males for three rotations, but most Peritans had no idea life beyond their planet existed.
It made sense that the females would need some time to acclimatise. A few select Vikingar would remain on the ship to keep everything running and provide security, but they had to stay out of sight at all times. If everything went well, Steff would be the only person the females saw for the first two days. Then Captain Njal would be introduced, and based on their reaction to him, Steff would decide when it was time to let the matched males return to the Valkyr.
I was one of them. I spat in disgust at the situation. I'd have to disappoint a female when I told her that I wasn't going to take her as my mate. It was Njal's fault. He'd submitted my DNA sample to the agency. Somewhere deep inside my icy heart, I knew he'd not done it out of malice, but it didn't matter. It was wrong. So very wrong.
A raindrop landed on my nose, making me look up at the dark grey clouds reaching down from the sky. This soft, curved landscape wasn't at all like the tall peaks and narrow fjords I was used to fromJörð. My kvenn's home had been on a small island surrounded by raging waters, a river so wild it couldn't be crossed by boat.My kvenn had been just as passionate as the water around her house. Even though she was a warrior by nature, she'd stayed planetside to look after her ailing parents. She'd always planned to join me on the Valkyr one day... now that day would never come.
The rain fell like sheets as the clouds dropped their heavy load. It didn't taste the same way as the rain did onJörð. This rain was fresher, sweeter. I lapped up a few drops, still looking up at the sky. The gods ofJörð had died with the planet. All we had now were our hamingja, our guardian spirits, and even those had forsaken most of us. Njal had been lucky. His had returned and had brought him to Steff. My own, even if she was still there, was just as helpless as I was. My kvenn was gone. She couldn't be brought back to life. All I had left were the memories, tinged by guilt and despair.
"You can go," I said softly. "My hamingja, I no longer have use for you. Go and help someone who truly desires it."
Only silence met my words. I'd not expected an answer. The hamingja communicated through deeds, not words.
It was getting cold out here. I should return to the others, to watch the arrival of the females. After much discussion, Steff had agreed that cameras would be set up around the communal spaces on the Valkyr. That way, we would watch the Peritans and get a first glimpse of our females. All the other Vikingar were so excited. I only dreaded the moment my matched female stood in front of me. I'd have to disappoint her. She didn't deserve that. But she also didn't deserve a life with a stone-hearted male who could never love her.
I'd given all my love to Randi. My kvenn had been the one and only love of my life. I might feel physical attraction to that female once I saw her, but I knew that it could never go beyond that. My heart was frozen, dead. I couldn't give my match what she deserved. It would have been kinder if she never found out she had an alien mate. She could have taken a Peritan partner, not a mate destined by the gods, but still a loving relationship like I'd had with my kvenn.
"Errik!" Rune shouted from the building, his voice barely audible over the sound of the rain. "Come in! They're about to arrive!"
I considered staying in the rain, but despite all my misgivings, I was curious. So far, I'd only seen two Peritan females: Steff and Pam, the owners of the Hot Tatties agency. Those two had many similarities but also differences: while Steff was tall with curly black hair, Pam was short, wide and had much lighter skin. Her reddish hair was streaked with grey, which she said was due to age. I wasn't sure if she'd made fun of us or if that really was true. It seemed strange that hair could change colour naturally. If a Vikingr wanted to change his colouring, he had to resort to dyes.
I slowly walked back to the building, every step heavy and full of regret. The ground was becoming softer under the onslaught of rain; soon it'd be nothing but mud. We'd been told that it rained a lot in this area, but I hoped it would stop again soon so that I could go out and explore. Clear my head, get away from the other males.
Everyone was sitting in the large communal dining room. The tables had been shoved aside, creating an open space in the centre for everyone to sit. Someone had set up a projector, turning one of the walls into a screen.
A few heads turned when I walked in, water dripping from my clothes and hair, but they focused back on the live feed when they saw it was only me. With a shrug, I took a seat. On the screen, I saw the familiar sight of the Valkyr's mess hall. It had been transformed in the past few days, turning it into a warm, colourful space. Cushions in all the colours of the rainbow sat on chairs and benches. According to Steff, cushions were important. I didn't understand why, but if it helped the Peritan females settle into their new lives without too many hysterics, so be it. Steaming pots of Peritan tea had been placed on the tables, together with delicate cups that were nothing like the drinking horns and large stone mugs we usually used. Steff had even got her mate to provide them with flowers. There had been drama this morning when Steff had discovered that we didn't have a single vase on board.Now the flowers were stuffed in all sorts of containers, including some the female had found in engineering. It looked ridiculous to my eyes.
For now, no females were in sight.
"Where are they?" Torsten muttered next to me. "The shuttle arrived twenty clicks ago. How long does it take them to walk from the shuttle bay to the mess hall?"
Other males grumbled, similarly impatient. I was beginning to find it amusing to watch how some were staring at the screen in concentration, desperate not to miss anything, while others were beginning to get emotionally unstable. Bless my dead heart. I wasn't going to be affected like them.
"Silence!" someone shouted from the front. "I can't hear anything with you all talking!"
