Star Wolves - The Tribes of Yggdrasil: Book 1

Chapter 15

Hal’s mind raced as he piloted the Gungnir’s pinnace out of her docking bay. He couldn’t process the fact Nila might be the murderer. He was just jumping to wild conclusions, wasn't he? There had to be some explanation for her taking the shuttle. Nila was like family, like a little sister. He cared about her. Hal could feel his eyes burning as he pointed the pinnace toward New Midgard.

He was going to have a bumpy ride in through the atmosphere as he didn’t want to slow down—he was pushing the pinnace to its performance limits. The buffeting and yawing slammed the pinnace when it pierced New Midgard’s atmosphere, which was just as thick as Earth’s.

Six-hundred kilometers north-west of Norvik, Hal spotted the Sleipnir’s pinnace on the ground by a grassy hill. He circled around a couple of times to get a view before landing. Everything seemed ok. On his third pass, he touched down ten-meters from the other pinnace. 

It occurred to Hal he had no armor or weapons. Why would he need them? Why were these thoughts intruding—this was Nila for gods’ sake. Hal kept berating himself for allowing these ridiculous ideas to intrude. He had to reserve judgement. Maybe Nila was in trouble?

Hal stepped out of the airlock on the port side of the pinnace and onto a grassy field. It was a beautiful day—the sun was shining, the sky was clear—it was a day for quiet walks, not trouble.

There was a rectangular, grassy hill with a door on the south-side of it. Not a hill, Hal thought. He approached cautiously. The door was open and he could see into a corridor that went a few meters then angled ninety-degrees to the left. As Hal stepped across the threshold of the door, he felt a rumbling—the dust on the sill of the door danced to the tune of the harmonic vibration. The rumbling was followed by a whine and Hal ran back outside.

He watched as the top of the hill opened up. Two large rectangular doors parted, dust flying, and he could see a small starship rising from inside the hill. It was much bigger than a pinnace. It looked like a hundred-tonne scout ship.

Hal ran back to the pinnace and scrambled through the airlock. He jumped into his seat and put on a headset.

“Nila, is that you in the scout ship?”

Nothing.

“Nila, this is Hal do you read?” No reply. Maybe comms are out, Hal thought.

And then…

“Hal? What are you doing?” came Nila’s voice through his headset.

“Nila. What am I doing? What in Odin's name are you doing? Why did you take the pinnace?”

“I’m sorry, Hal.”

“Sorry for what? What did you do? Get your ass back down here now, that's an order!”

“I wish things had turned out differently,” she said gently, “I’m so sorry about Siobhan and Ailan. I loved them too, Hal.”

“Captain -" another voice interjected on the comm.

“Get off the gods’ damn comm, now!” Hal ordered.

“What are you sorry for? Nila, please … talk to me …” he pleaded.

“Let me at least do one thing for you before I go, Hal. Let me give you some closure.”

Hal’s mind was going numb—the whole situation was unreal, it was like he was watching a vid or reading a book about someone else, this wasn't happening to him … was it?

He nearly choked on the words. “What do you mean, closure?”

“They’re dead, Hal. I’m sorry.”