Chapter 14
Ivar
Normally, we prefer to cleave our way to our destination.
But we respect stealth, too. When we’re raiding, our enemies usually don’t know we’re there until they feel my axe in their neck. Our ancestors won a lot of battles, simply because they had the element of surprise. Nothing like waking up to an army of angry Vikings storming your city.
“May Thor’s hammer bless us,” I say, clutching my axe in my hand as we gather around the door.
“We’re putting a lot of trust in you now, Avery,” Erik says. “Once we leave here, if you start screaming or trying to get away, this could go badly. We could all die.”
“I suggested throwing her over my shoulder and slapping her ass every time I kill something,” Sigurd grins. “She could keep score for me.”
“I’d like the score to be zero when we get to the cargo bay,” Erik mutters. “If they know what we’re doing before we get that ship out of the cargo hold, they’ll blow us up before we can hit the hyperdrive.”
“Yeah, I know,” Sigurd says. “Doesn’t mean I won’t welcome the chance to split a few skulls if the need arises.”
“Not today, brother,” I sigh, patting him on the shoulder. “Today we go home.”
I miss home the way it used to be. Before the plague. But that was fifteen years ago and all we have are our memories. Once we get back, we’ll start making new ones. With Avery. Our mate. We’ve got a future now because of her. For all we know, it could already be growing in her belly.
Erik opens the door and we peer outside before we step into the hallways. It’s still quiet and deserted. No sign of soldiers, social workers, or scientists.
“Once we get to the stairs, I’ll disrupt their scanners and cameras,” Erik says. “The modifications I made to our armor should hide us, but it won’t hide Avery. That means we have to move fast.”
“Understood,” I say, leading the way down the hallway.
I’m in front. Avery is directly behind me.
Sigurd and Erik are bringing up the rear.
I want to believe our mate won’t try to escape again.
We left her restraints loose last night.
Left the keycard nearby and didn’t set up a watch.
It was another test, and she passed it. Unless she was just too exhausted to run.
If we’re going to make it out of here, we have to trust her.
Everything relies on it. If she goes running down a hallway, screaming her head off, the mission is over.
We’ll fight, but we won’t survive, since we don’t have a decoy ship.
We’ll either slaughter aliens until the warship shows up and we’re overwhelmed or get blown up by the lasers.
“Careful when we get to the bottom of the stairs,” I whisper. “There could be some scientists, and they have a strong sense of smell.”
“Glad I showered,” Avery quips, nervousness in her voice.
“It’s the wolves they’ll notice,” I clarify. “Not you.”
“Oh.” Avery follows me down the stairs.
We get to the bottom of the stairs. I peek out the door and see a scientist in the hallway, so I throw up a hand signal for the rest of them to halt.
Erik and Sigurd do. Avery bumps into me.
I guess I should have taught her some of our signals.
We were too busy fucking her to think about that.
She’s one hell of a distraction. Her scent is impossible to ignore.
Glad the other aliens don’t seem to sense it like we do.
“Okay, it’s all clear,” I say once the black-horned alien disappears into one of the rooms.
“I think that was Dr. Grix,” Avery whispers. “Or maybe all those demons look the same.”
“Similar,” Erik says. “They’re not really demons, but that’s what most everyone calls them.
They were quite offended when they found out most of the universe considers them hell spawn.
Their fault, though. They were the first to travel the stars as far as we know and they visited a lot of worlds before some of them were civilized. ”
“Definitely must have visited Earth, considering how many people believed in demons,” Avery says.
We get down to the first floor. The cargo bay isn’t as active today, which is a good thing. Erik reviewed the logs and there are no deliveries scheduled, so it’s the best day to get out of here. It would be a lot more difficult if it was full like it was when we arrived.
“Don’t forget I need something to wear,” Avery whispers. “I don’t want my clothes to rot off me when we get out of here.”
“Haven’t forgotten,” I say, looking around. “There are some soldiers near the cargo bay. We’ll need to wait until they start their rounds.”
We lean against the wall and wait. I’m tense, but not overly worried now. All we have to do is get into the cargo bay, and then we should be home free. Things are going how we planned them. Hopefully, things keep going our way.
“The way is clear.” I give the hand signal for everyone to follow me.
The tentacle-faced soldiers walk by us, their suckers flexing as they speak to each other.
I can’t make everything out due to the distance, but it sounds like they’re discussing a girl they’re both interested in and something about Egg Bearers.
As long as they aren’t talking about us, that’s all I need to hear.
We carefully creep down the hallway and stop when we get to the cargo bay. I scope it out and see several scientists, but they’re working, so they shouldn’t notice us if we’re careful. I signal for them to follow, and we slip down the stairs, immediately ducking behind one of the ships.
“There are some uniforms in those lockers,” Erik says. “I’ll grab one for our mate.”
“Careful, brother,” I warn, watching the scientists as they scurry off.
Erik opens the locker, snatches a uniform, and gently eases the locker closed. The scientists don’t look away from the screens they’re focused on. The uniform looks like it’ll be a little big on our mate, but at least she won’t be naked. Not that I would mind.
“Okay, which ship are we taking?” Sigurd asks.
“Let’s see,” Erik mutters, pulling a device out of his pocket and studying it. He looks at the ship and points one out. “That one has cloaking technology. That’s what we need.”
“Alright, let’s get the fuck out of here,” I say, leading everyone over to the ship. “Bigger than the one we came here in.”
“Yeah, but that was scraps,” Erik chuckles. “We’re lucky it flew.”
Erik accesses the panel outside the ship, hooks up his device, and a few seconds later the door hisses as it opens. The scientists still haven’t noticed us, so we slip onboard. We all know how to pilot Intergalactic Alliance ships, so we quickly take our positions.
Great thing about the will of the gods making things similar across the universe is that if you know how to fly one ship, you can usually fly them all unless the technology is too advanced to understand.
“Sit over there.” I gesture to a seat near mine. “And put on your seatbelt.”
“Even spaceships have seatbelts,” Avery observes as she sits down.
“We’ll have to do everything fast,” Erik says. “We won’t make it to the atmosphere shield before the alarm sounds. Once the ship starts moving, the scientists will sound it. Once that happens, we cloak the ship and pray.”
“May Thor’s hammer bless us,” I say, getting comfortable with the controls.
The ship roars when I start the engines. The alarm sounds even before we move, so I enable the cloak and punch the accelerator. The ship rumbles as it moves.
“Soldiers!” Erik calls out.
“Doesn’t matter now,” I say, taking the ship into the air and zooming through the atmosphere shield.
We’re cloaked, and as soon as we’re outside of the cargo bay, I slow my speed and perform a few evasive maneuvers to ensure they won’t easily spot us. Their scanners shouldn’t, as long as we don’t rush.
“Shit, they’re following us,” Erik hisses, pointing at the scanner as three red blips appear.
“Will they be able to detect us while we’re cloaked?” I ask.
“Yeah, they’ve got biometric scanners,” Erik says. “The scanners around the refugee center are looking for ships. Those are looking for passengers.”
“We knew this was a possibility,” Sigurd grunts. “Just keep moving until we’re out of range for the lasers. I’ll fire up the weapons system just in case we need them.”
I glance over at Avery and she looks scared. I wish I could alleviate her concerns, but now isn’t the time. We’re still in danger, creeping along, trying to evade detection.
“They’re gaining on us,” Erik says. “We’re going to have to shoot them down or they’ll follow us.”
“How long until we can engage the hyperdrive?” Sigurd asks.
“Five… four…” I say. “Fire on them! We’re not out of range yet.”
“If we don’t shoot now, they’re going to get the first shot,” Erik snaps.
“Then fuck them,” Sigurd snarls, aiming the ship’s lasers at the aliens behind us.
Sigurd fires a couple of shots. We’re cloaked, but that gives away our position. Not only do the ships start firing on us, but the laser on the refugee station lights up.
“Two… one… go!” Erik yells.
Sigurd takes out one of the soldiers pursuing us, but then we take a hit that causes sparks to fly across the bridge. That delays me from hitting the hyperdrive until the ship stabilizes, but I increase the speed enough to get out of range of the refugee center, right as the laser fires.
“Fuck, fuck, I need them to stop shooting at me so I can engage the hyperdrive,” I grit out.
“Got another one!” Sigurd calls out and there’s an explosion behind us that lights up the darkness. A second later, the ship rumbles again as it takes another hit. “Shit, they hit the weapons system. It’s offline! I can’t fire on them!”
“Fuck,” Erik shouts. “Hyperdrive, now!”
I hit the button and it engages. We planned to do a test jump first, to see if we were followed, but we don’t need it to confirm that with a ship in such close pursuit. They’ll pick up the trail easily, but we don’t have a choice. The portal appears and we hyperjump.