The Profane Dog

Crossing Ginnungagap 3

Excerpts from the Encyclopaedia Mimirica

***

Bey had not thought that he could possibly sleep while they approached the unknown world awaiting them, but the past few weeks of intense activity had caught up to him when he settled into his acceleration couch. Twenty days of constant planetfall drills in the simulators, often to the point of exhaustion ("If you can guarantee that you'll always be rested and fresh when you have to go down," Commander Palmqvist had said, in his best 'you-idiot-must-I-explain-everything-to-you' voice, "then I'll let you perform the drills only after a full sleep shift. Otherwise you'll prepare for every eventuality.") and beyond, had taken their toll. He dozed while the pilots manuvered to put them into geosynchronous orbit.

The world had been thouroughly surveyed while the Fleet was still decelerating. There had been no trace whatsoever of any technological civilization; no neutrino or radio emissions; no evidence of the by-products of manufacuring processes; no evidence of any extraplanetary travel. The night side of the planet showed no lights at all.

Which signifies nothing, thought Bey; Jotunhein had been extensively settled for millenia, and only the capital of Utgard was visible from orbit.

He dreamed uneasily of his home as he had last seen it; a star of violet radiance, as the light from massive laser batteries drove the Fleet out and away into interstellar space. Violet light flared before the Fleet as well, reflected from the huge solar sails, tens of kloms across, that impelled the last free children of Jotunheim away from their homes.

Those laser batteries should have been used as planetary defenses, to try to fight off the massive flotilla from the Asgardian Empire that was fighting its way through the skeleton-crewed ships of the Home Defense Fleet. The Althing, however, had known for years that, when it finally came, the Asgardian invasion would have been too powerful to defeat. One world could not fight off an Empire.

So they had done what they could to preserve their people. Constructing Arks of their own, they had long planned the evacuation of every citizen they could. The Jotuns had never been as numerous as those peoples blessed with more congenial worlds; so evacuating a signifigant portion of the population had not been the impossible task it might have.

When it became clear that the Jotuns and their allies had lost the decades-long war with the Aesir, the space elevator had begun operating incessantly between the planet and the Arks, ferrying men, women, and children to the vast ships and their coldsleep capsules. When the last Ark had been filled, the orbiting factories had begun producing military vessels to escort the civilians.

Bey's parents had refused transit. "There's been a Lindstrom here at Torshaven since the First Settlement," his father had growled, standing on the rocky strand that contained the pounding surf of their home, "and there will be one here to greet the Aesir when they land. This is my home - should I run from it?" When Bey had protested, the old man had silenced him with a glare from his eyes, cold and blue as the glaciers in Niflheim in the southern seas, his grey-shot red beard bristling. "It is enough that I've allowed you and your brother to go - ask no more of me."

The remainder of Bey's visit had been subdued, and the subject had not been broached again. But when he left, looking back through the rear port of the last military transport to the space elevator, the old man had raised a hand in farewell; and then, in a completely unexpected gesture, clenched his fist; the sign of Thor's Hammer, a blessing. Bey had kept looking out the port long after his home had faded into the distance; not in hope of seeing anything more, but so the crew of the transport would not see the tears that shone upon his cheeks.

He awoke from his uneasy slumber as he sensed a difference in the motion of the small orbiter. A moment later the pilot's voice had crackled over the intercom; "Sir, we've achieved stable orbit - ready to begin planetary scans."

"Very well, Mister," the young officer said, "carry out your orders. I'll come forward in a minute." Standing, he shifted his vacuum suit to a more comfortable position, and left his tiny stateroom to begin learning whether or not they had found a home at last.

***

The boy and girl laid together in the grassy field, hand clasping hand, and watched the stars as boys and girls had done since the race had first noticed the stars. The boy was pointing out the constellations.

"There's the Harp; see that bright red star? That's the base. Then look north, that's the grip. And right next to it, see that long row of six stars? That's the Shepherd's Crook. If you look close, you can see the - look! A falling star!" He squeezed her hand, and tried to catch her gaze. "Let's make a wish!"

The girl snorted. "You mean a meteor - what good would wishing on a meteor do? Besides, what would you wish for?"

"It's good luck!" he protested. "If you see a falling star, and wish on it, your wish will come true! And I'd wish," he continued in a softer voice, "I'd wish that you'd love me forever, Emmy."

She caroled laughter. "Piotr, please! Sometimes you're so immature! Besides, I don't think that it's a meteor at all." She could sense him stiffening in hurt, and squeezed his hand to take the sting out of her words.

"What do you mean, 'not a meteor?" He bridled. She sat up and pointed at the moving light.

"Well, a meteor is a space rock that burns up when it hits the air, right?" He nodded, knowing himself defeated, when she put on that pedantic voice. Realizing that she couldn't see his nod in the darkness, he said, "Yeah, I guess."

"Well, it's not burning; where're the flames, and the smoke trail?" Suddenly she bounced to her feet. "I know what it is! It's a ship - a spaceship!" He could hear the excitement in her voice, and sighed. She had never gotten that excited about him. He rose to stand beside her.

"A space ship? Emmy, don't be silly - nobody ever comes here. The Elders see to that." She turned a gaze on him that shone in the starlight.

"I know - that's why we have to go and wake the Elders! To tell them about this ship! C'mon!" She bounded away, towards the village, leaving him open-mouthed in surprise and dismay.

"Wake the Elders? Now? It's the middle of the night - we'll be cleaning the public sty for a week! Emmy, wait!" Piotr began running after her, vowing that the next time he took a girl stargazing, it would be Niobe's daughter, Leah. She wasn't as pretty as Emmy, but she didn't know as much science, either.