Star Wolves - The Tribes of Yggdrasil: Book 1

Chapter 13

The Sleipnir had a complement of vehicles to accomplish its varied mission profile, two of which were a pair of incredibly advanced aircars designed specially for the types of activities S3 would be undertaking.

They were large vehicles, if one compared them to an old personal ground car; they were more like the size of the Old Earth Humvees, which the American military had used. To call them cars was a misnomer; they were more aircraft than automobile. Dark matter taps and the resulting contragrav technology turned these aircars into surprisingly versatile vehicles, capable of 2,000 kph, and with an endurance measured in years; the anti-matter reactor was small, but incredibly efficient.

It had no weapons, but was lightly armored, had marginal stealth capability, life support for a week with two occupants, and could seat six. It wasn't quite space capable, but could dock with a low orbiting station in a pinch, arriving very slowly once it hit the upper atmosphere.

Hal was cruising at a modest 200 kph to afford him a better view of the surrounding plateau. It was fairly flat where they landed, and the same topography went on for hundreds of kilometers in every direction.

"Anything interesting on scanners?" Hal asked Eva.

"Well, this is not exactly a scientific vessel, Captain," she said with a wry smile.

"Fair enough," he said. Ok, emotions under control, he thought. I can do this.

Hal's eyes swept across the rusty red landscape.

"Reminds me of Mars," Hal said.

Eva nodded agreement. "It does. Bigger though, and a little warmer. This would be a better terra-forming candidate than Mars, certainly. I wonder if there was any life here once?"

Hal shrugged. "There seems to be a lot more life in the multiverse than we ever though possible," he said.

"What do you think of these Hrymar?" Eva asked.

"Not much to go on really. We have one subject who is apparently an outcast and a reject, physically. Gina was impressed by the larger Hrymar she fought on the transport though. 'A big tuff bastard', I recall her saying. And I don't think Gina says that lightly, she's a tough bitch," Hal laughed.

"She is rather intense," Eva said with a little shudder.

"That's her job. I hope you're not getting any flack from her?" Hal asked.

"No, why would I?"

"Well, apparently she knows about our history."

"And? That was years ago. Is she concerned about some conflict of interest?"

"No, and for the record, neither am I. We can work together like two adults. Just because we dated once, doesn't mean we have to be uncomfortable together."

"If you say so," she replied, sounding unconvinced.

They were jarred momentarily by an updraft as the aircar rocked, then returned to level flight. They looked at each other and smiled.

Eva was perusing the landscape, looking for anything of interest, but it was an unremarkable vista. Planets worked over by an active atmosphere and biotic agents were vastly more interesting-this planet was dead for all intents and purposes ... and then Eva saw something that looked a little out of place.

"Hal, down there," she leaned over toward him and pointed to a black shape going by on their port side.

"What is it?" Hal asked.

"I don't know, but it looks peculiar. A very dark, black rock? I don't know, let's just go have a look, I need to stretch my legs anyway."

Hal swung the aircar around smoothly and vectored the vehicle toward the black rock. The aircar touched down gently, in contrast with the sharp clunk of the Sleipnir earlier. The ground did look softer here, more sandy than rocky.