The Mission: Part 2

Author’s note: Way back in 2010, I decided to give NaNoWriMo a shot. I’m not sure why. I’ve never had a grand design to become a writer, and I didn’t even stick with it through the month. I did have a lot of fun writing about space vikings, though! As a fun side project, I’ll be posting all four chapters here, unedited, between regular articles.

The Dream Team

Looking in the mirror did nothing to improve my mood. My helmet off, I tried to brush out my long, matted blonde hair and squinted at my own face. Gross. The red star birthmark under my right eye seemed brighter this morning and I still had sleep crust all over my eyes. After a quick shower things were looking a bit better. The mirror now showed braided hair and a scrawny face. Green eyes that looked a bit glarey at all times. I’d never been able to afford eye adjustment procedures so my glare was a result of squinting at objects close to my face. I was also far too scrawny for my own good. Lucky my mother wasn’t here, she’d be on my back about eating enough for a good Northern woman. It was always embarrassing when she insisted on squeezing my boobs in front of the crew before I left and told me to make sure they were bigger when I got home. I scowled at my knobby knees, a barrier to marriage in my traditional town. It was no surprise I’d taken to space.

By the time Dast arrived in the temple room I was back into standard uniform and trying to repair the altar. I didn’t think Loki would be pleased at the footprints on the wood. Damn pirates had to choose a creepy jotunn to mess with and then skip ship. We’d be lucky if the whole of Cobra didn’t freeze up and crash land on an Inner system planet. I’d heard the people there are complete pacifists, eat only sim-food, and forcibly convert all visitors to their religion. I was feeling disgusted at the thought when Dast marched into the temple and gave his customary nod of hello.

“Dast! How are you buddy?” I tried to maintain an air of friendliness despite my annoyance that he had actually shown up at noon precisely. In my book that counted as midmorning, not afternoon. “Do you think the ship has enough petty cash to replace this?” I held up a fragment of wood from the broken altar. “I don’t want to piss Loki off more than I already have.”

He grimaced. “We have hardly any petty cash as it is, Norn Tofa. I will see what I can do but it may be in your best interest to repair it as best as possible and bring extra offerings until we can afford a new one.” The look on his face clearly suggested that I should know how best to appease the spirit of trickery and deception. I scowled back but didn’t protest; I knew the robbery had killed our chance at having any extra coin this mission. “We have an important matter to discuss. Our newest mission assignation will require your… feminine touch.”

I almost gaped at him. Feminine? It took two weeks after signing on to this ship for any of my fellow officers to notice that I wasn’t an unusually skinny Norse lad. The only one who didn’t lose his cool the first time he saw me in my casual dress was Oswald. Instead he tried a pickup line about men from his planet being known for the size of their “phaseguns.” I hit him in the face. After that when we played cards he never mentioned my gender.

Dast continued on, ignoring my look. “Our latest transport cargo is of a sensitive nature. Command wants us to move people, specifically women. Be assured this is not a shipment of slaves or prostitutes, but much more delicate ladies.” He was warning me, of course, because of the incident on Renlon where we found the trio of nice young women who had booked passage with us attempting to turn tricks for drinks at a bar before our departure. I was all for letting them aboard but Command gets pretty fussy when it comes to the illegal stuff. Pretty lame considering it’s legal on some planets.

“I need a drink before you keep going.” I discarded my altar rubbage onto the top of nearby padded cushion and went to the back of the temple room where the libations were kept.

“It’s barely noon, Tofa.” Dast deepened his perpetual frown. I simply glared and kept pouring wine into my glass. He sighed and continued his story as I settled back into some cushions, gesturing for him to sit as well. “As I said, these women are not our typical transport. They are from Earth, all five of them, and they are religious women.” I choked on my wine and spat up a bit in Dast’s direction. Calmly he wiped his uniform shirt as I spluttered.

“Well if they’re from Earth of course they’re religious!” I shouted. Earth had gone full on Christian by sometime mid last century and hadn’t let up since. Dast waved his hand and shook his head to cut me off.

“They are nuns, Norn Tofa. They spend their lives in religious thought and solitude. In fact, these nuns in particular have not been out of their convent all of their lives. Their house of worship is known for rejecting all visitors. None but those in the nunnery have seen the inside of their home for more than two centuries.”

I considered this a moment. “Why are they leaving? And why are we taking them?” Cobra was possibly the least known transport ship in our corner of the galaxy. “Are they paying well?”

“Earth is the richest planet in our system. You know the Church can pay us much more than an ordinary job.” He raised an eyebrow at me and I shrugged. Just because the Church could pay didn’t mean they would. A hard lesson I had learned before I even jumped a spaceship. “As for their leaving their reasons are their own but it is suspected that their lives are in danger. We’re not asking any questions beyond that.” His tone included me in that “we.” More reason to be annoyed by this mission. “I prefer that you be our liaison to these ladies while they are aboard. They are not used to speaking and being around men. A woman, and a religious one at that, will make them more at ease.”

“With all respect, Officer Dast, I don’t believe you understand the differences between our faith and the Christian-”

“Your faith, Norn Tofa. Simply because we are required to have a religious officer on board does not mean I am an observant of your beliefs. Please spare me the lecture on the petty differences and allow me to insist that you take charge of these ladies.”

I was stumped. Technically Dast was my superior officer and he did have the power to force me into babysitting these girls. “How long will they be aboard?”

“Standard mission.” Dast smiled. “Two weeks maximum aboard, 3 days to Earth to pick them up. Horger may give us a day on Earth for a bit of R&R, we’ll see.” He stood up. “I’ll let you know more about our destination after we get to Earth. In the meantime, try to get this place patched up will you?” he nodded towards the cushions covered in altar bits.

I walked Dast out of the temple room and locked the door behind him. All the blame went to those damn pirates, kicking the shit out of Loki’s altar. They may as well have pissed in my ale for the trouble they caused me. We wouldn’t need the money so bad if we hadn’t had our cargo stolen. For the millionth time I considered airlocking a crewmember to let off steam. I was just cleaning up and deciding whom when a pounding interrupted my fantasies.

Grindor was knocking as hard as he could, ignoring my yells to stop as I opened the door. “What? What? What? Stop that! Knock it off! What the fuck!” Grindor was now first on the airlock list. He stood in the doorway, white hair flying in crazy directions as he swung his fist to pound again. “Stop!”

“I’m sorry I’m Sorry!” He managed to reign his body in for a moment before he began jumping from foot to foot. “It’s important! We have a mission!” Grindor leaned close enough for me to see his unbrushed teeth. “There are nuns!” He said the last in a whisper that would have woke the dead. Grabbing him by one dirty uniform sleeve I hauled him into the temple and shut the door.

“How did you hear about the mission? And the nuns?” He was pleased as punch that he thought he knew a secret. His cat-like grin faded when he realized I was already in the loop and heard about the nuns.

“Rus told me. Said I had to be good. Said I had to behave and treat the ladies with respect. Fah!” It was unclear whether Grindor had ever encountered a woman who would be considered a lady. “Heard you was gonna be in charge of ‘em.” His wicked grin returned.

“Grindor, you’re not going anywhere near any of the nuns. Horger’d have my hide if I messed this one up for him and you know it,” I sighed. “Besides, I don’t think any of these girls are going to be much fun.”

Grindor pulled a face and tugged at his beard. More of a scraggle than a beard, really, and he kept different parts of it trimmed to different lengths. “Right! Well them religious types never are.” With that statement he turned on one heel and went on an exaggerated march down the corridor. No fun? I was the most fun of the whole damn crew. I shook my head and retreated back into the temple. Rus must be on extra stupid pills today if he decided telling Grindor anything was a good idea. Grindor was good for a lot of things: pulling hair clogs out of the shower ducts, polishing armor, skinning bears, causing awkward silences, but keeping secrets and behaving himself were two things not on the list.

By the time I had the altar of Loki back into decent shape and the temple cleaned my stomach was rumbling. No one had stopped by with food offerings yet today. Deciding that talking to First Officer Rus was better than starving to death by a slight margin, I headed down the hall to the mess. It was a short distance; religion and food are never far apart.

Rus was reheating leftovers from breakfast for Oswald and humming gently. The mess was otherwise silent except for the creak of Oswald’s chair as he tilted back with his feet up on the table. Horger would yell at anyone else for sticking their feet on the table, but not Oswald. Oswald could probably murder one of the crew and Herger would thank him for lightening the ship’s load. As I slipped into the room Oswald pulled his feet off the table and onto the floor with a thud. He looked at me with his typical half-smile.

“Hey Norna.” His nickname for me was goofy but I accepted it. Usually Oswald referred to women in less flattering terms. “What’s crackin’? Here to deliver Thor’s lightning? I won fair and square last night and Grindor knows it.” He looked too sure of himself for that youthful face. I couldn’t help but grin back.

“I’m here for some food. Even us most holy have to eat now and again.” I sat opposite of Oswald and peered over at Rus. “Got any grub for a hungry woman?”

“Coming right up, Norn Tofa.” Rus saluted at me and turned back to his food prep. He was unusually quiet. I cocked an eyebrow and Oswald and his smile got bigger.

“I was just telling Rus here about our new “cargo.” Seems good old Rus here had an auntie who was a nun.” Rus had no reaction to Oswald’s words, so he continued. “It also seems Rus has a thing for nuns. Must be the uniform.” Rus was growing red and seemed to be pushing the leftovers around on his heatpad a bit too hard. I bit my lip to stifle a laugh. “In fact, Rus gets right turned on by holy women. They remind him of his dear auntie, bless her soul. Or should I say, he’d like to bless her soul in his own special way…” Oswald would have went on but for Rus clanging a pan top on the back of his head.

“YOU TAKE IT BACK! She was a good woman! Nuns are good women! You can’t speak of holy women that way! They may not follow our gods but they are sweet and special and you can’t-” Rus blustered on as Oswald rolled his head back with laughter and I clutched my sides. “Tofa! You are Norn on this ship! I would expect him to be amused by this disgraceful talk but you!”

“I’m sorry Rus but the thought of you drooling over a bunch of Earth nuns is pretty funny. He’s not serious, is he?” I looked from Rus to Oswald. “He is!”

“I am your First Officer and I order you to discontinue this conversation immediately.” By now Rus was seething. “The Commander frowns upon this type of talk. Especially once they are on board!” He was close to growling so I choked down my laughter enough to apologize with a straight face.

“It won’t happen again Rus.” Oswald winked at me as I said it and I almost lost it again. Rus made little noises of indignation as he finished heating up lunch and slid it onto the table. “Thanks.” I dug in while the eggs were still way too hot and burned my tongue. “Glarg!” I croaked to Oswald, who passed me a mug of ale. Nodding my thanks, I looked over to see Rus looking a bit too smug. Stuffed shirt must have burned me on purpose. I still had my concerns that he was sent from the land of the dark elves to cause misery on this ship. No one normal could cook so much while getting nary a drop of anything on his uniform. It was unnatural.

I didn’t get any new information from either Oswald or Rus after lunch so I headed back to the temple to pray for guidance. I chose the altar of Odin for my offering. It was unlikely that he really appreciated my gift of burned eggs and bits of toast crust. Marking it down as an IOU to the god of…everything really, I knelt to the altar.

“Odin,” I whispered, “at least your altar was not smashed to bits.” I thought a moment more and continued whispering. “Loki probably deserved it anyway.”

Raising my voice I prayed with as much earnestness as I could muster. “Oh great god! Help me in these times! Have we not worshipped you well as we travel the great creation of our ancestors, your forebearers?” I hoped he really didn’t consider the answer to that and hurried on. “Will you hear me now? I must travel with women whose only purpose is to worship falsely! And these women are boring! Boring women! What could be worse, oh great master of all?” I was appealing to Odin’s legendary sense of fun. And violence. ‘They don’t fight! They don’t drink! They neither party nor play! What horror is this?” Now I was frightening even myself. Time to finish this up and have a soothing nap. “Odin please hear my pleas and send a message to guide me.”

The quiet of the temple was my only response so I blew out the candles on the altar. Huginn must be awake and hungry by now. With a quick prayer for forgiveness I swiped a few crusts from the offering bowl and headed back to my own bunk.

My raven Huginn was definitely ready to be let out for the day. The damn thing was its usual lazy self this morning, so I had left it in the cage for the first half of the day. Huginn was squawking like a devil and beating its wings against the bars. “Tsit tsit tsit.” I hissed at him the soothing words I had been taught. Huginn merely stopped flapping and stared at me with it’s beady little eyes. Huginn’s gaze was supposed to impart deep wisdom over time but all I felt was a slight annoyance. Despite all the trouble I had gone through to take care of the bird we maintained only an uneasy partnership. Hel had given me Huginn as a parting gift when I left my studies to journey spaceward. Revenge must have been on his mind when he passed on the creepy little bird. Huginn had outgrown three cages in our time together.

With a loud beating of wings, the black raven whipped out of his cage, snatched the bread from my hand and disappeared from my quarters. Huginn liked to spend part of the day sitting close to Oswald in his pilot’s chair. I had no doubt he could see the wonders of the universe flying past our main screenglass. His gaze reflected the stars so brightly at times that it was almost more compelling to watch him than space or Oswald. I did spend a considerable amount of time on the bridge staring at Oswald. Finding ways to pretend that I wasn’t staring had gotten harder the past few weeks. Huginn didn’t make it any easier; I swear that he could read my mind at times. A holy witch shouldn’t have anyone peeking into her head. If he could ever speak, Huginn could blackmail the shit out of me on this ship.

I flopped down on my bunk and stuck my head under my military issue pillow. It was just thick enough to block the sound of the engines out as I closed my eyes and crashed into a dream.

There was fog. Fog that was thick and shimmery and almost made shapes at the corners of my vision. It left me feeling as though I hadn’t even passed a barrier from the waking world to the dream one. Each step I took forward into the foggy light brought me no closer to anything. I started to run and nothing changed.

Frustration seeped into the calmness that the fog tried to push into me. I stopped running and sat on the ground. If the Gods had a message for me, I’d sit and wait for it. I’d be damned if I kept chasing it through this fuzzy dreamland.

The fog thickened around me as i sat in anticipation. It formed an almost solid barrier to the gray world beyond. Even in dreams I couldn’t escape that horrible gray color. Even the brown of dirt would be better than this.

“That’s because you have a dirty mind, Witch,” came an amused voice beyond the fog.

“Ah! Who is that?” I swiveled around trying to figure out what direction the voice was coming from. It chuckled.

“There’s no playing dumb with me Tofa. You’ve been here before.”

It was true. I had visited the dreamland before, encountering strange signs meant to guide me. Always came thus voice from beyond. I was sure it was one of the Gods. Odin would be too happy to act all mysterious, hanging out in the fog trying to frighten a Witch. He’d never told me his identity. As a student of the mysteries of the other worlds along Ygddrassil I was expected to commune with the Gods. Such dreams had happened a half dozen times in my space journey. It was hard to brag about meeting spirits if they never told you anything juicy, however, and I didn’t feel all that blessed.

“You were asking for help?” the voice prompted.

“Er well yes. The nuns. Why should I take care of them? How should I take care of them?”

“Hmph. So many questions over a few women. Why? Because that is your mission. Today you spoke of luck. Your luck is your fate and your fate is to be on this ship transporting these women. Why question fate?” He paused a moment but I didn’t think he wanted an actual answer to the question. “The how is up to you. You will know it when the time comes. Just know that this journey is important for both you and your crew.”

Before I had a chance to ask anything more laughter surrounded me. The fog became dark and cold. The dreamworld faded as I felt a tingle of fear.

I awoke. The Gods had not been comforting.