The Valkyrie Chronicles: Titans (15 page)

Rhea had not called for me since that meal.  I started sleeping on the floor in Thea's chambers instead of the cage in Rhea's quarters after that.  It was as if Rhea didn't want to be near me and reminded about what she was about to subject me to.  I stayed with Thea at all times, watching her fine tune the harness and battle computer they were going to attempt to graft to me.

That was until that morning.  We were summoned for an audience and showed up and Rhea just sat on her throne and ordered Thea, “Install the harness.” She stood and strode out of the chamber saying over her wrist console, “Pets, prepare to leave this system for rendezvous with the fleet.”

I just stared up at Thea as we walked silently toward her workshop.  We stopped in the crossing of the corridor between one of the airlock tunnels and her workspace.  I reached up and tore the collar from my neck as the Verr deactivated it.  I felt power rushing into me and my healing kicked into overdrive.  I could feel the scars from the months of abuse stitching and healing into undamaged skin as my Verr attacked the hairline fractures that they hadn’t been able to adequately address.

Thea didn't even blink at me or make a move to stop me.  Instead, I was taken off guard by her smile as I pulled up my nano-lattice and started gathering the power of Thor in my cupped right hand.  She almost chuckled. “You could have done that at any time couldn't you have?”

I hesitated at her lack of aggression and nodded. “I was trying to devise an escape plan.  I almost have your transport grid figured out, but it appears to be locked out.”

She nodded. “Rhea encoded the transport terminals the moment we had exchanged you for the other pets, just in case you were clever enough to attempt an escape.”  Then she tilted her head. “You... you can read our language?”

I nodded.  “Yes, my Verr had it figured out within days of my imprisonment.”  She looked amazed.  Then I frowned.  “I'm sorry but I could not allow you to enslave me.  My only choice it to fight and die on my own terms.  I truly do not wish to harm you Thea.”

She nodded and said somberly, “I know Kara, and I can not bring myself to do that to you.”

I said, “Then help me escape.”

She shook her head. “I cannot break Rhea's encryption on the transport terminals.”

I blinked, she really would have helped?  I looked at the narrow corridor to the airlock and started moving that way indicating for her to follow, but keeping the power of Thor ready in case she made a move.  “All I need to do is to get to your quantum entanglement tunnel, my people will do the rest.”

She looked at me, her face furrowing in question. “Your people?  How can they possibly assist or even know you are attempting escape.”

I smiled. “You do not know my people.  I just need to get out there.”

She shook her head. “Then you would die.  The vacuum of space would cause your blood to boil and the proximity cannons would shred you.”

I shook my head. “I'm more durable than you might believe, I'm no stranger to the harshness of space.  And I do not plan on dying... again.  I've tried that once and it didn't suit me.  I can survive for about ninety seconds before I run out of oxygen in my lungs.”

We arrived at the airlock and looked at the shimmering dot in the distance that was the event horizon of the space bridge almost one thousand miles away.  She said, “I can disable the weapons array for approximately sixty of your seconds.  That intrusion would lock out every system on the ship from this location.  You would need to gain a velocity of around twenty-seven hundred meters per second.  I can give you an initial kinetic boost with the gravity systems, but it would not be enough.

I brought my hand up with energy arcing between my fingers.  “Leave that to me.”  Then I looked at the woman.  “Come with me?”

She shook her head. “I cannot.”

Then I felt movement under my feet, the familiar sensation of inertial compensators pulling against me to negate the motion of a space-faring vessel.  It was too late!  But then there was a horrendous explosion as the mammoth vessel shook.  Alarms and klaxons started blaring as the ship shuddered again.  Gravity fluctuated for a moment.  The ever present hum of the engines sounded wrong, strained as they brought the ship to a full stop.

Thea was at a console scanning the data. “This cannot be possible, the Quantum Gateway destabilized and collapsed, part of the ship was sheared off on the other side of the gateway.”

I smiled, that would be either Father, Loki, or Arina's doing.  They were not going to allow the Titans to leave with me on board.  This reinforced my faith that they would be waiting on the other side of the space bridge.  I smiled. “Do not underestimate us Asgard.”

She first looked at me in disbelief, then the look changed to panic.  “We cannot get the proper angle from here to launch you toward the tunnel.”

I growled out, “Kroth!”

Then she looked even more panicked as she looked at her chiming wrist console and lights flickered in her eyes.  “Ymir's Horn!  Rhea is pinging my location!”

We started running back down the corridor as she said, “We need to get to the airlock near junction three.”  We sprinted, my enhanced speed barely keeping up with her and her battle armor augmented speed.

We skidded to a stop as three Titans appeared in the intersection at the main corridor with their weapons drawn.  Thea looked at them and said, “Sisters.  Why do you raise arms against me?”

One of them said, “Our queen says we are betrayed and we are to bring you and the stupid animal to her.”

Thea pulled her sidearm and raised it at them as her bubble helmet shield rose.  “Please Phoebe, we need not fight each other.  We are Titans, we are eternal.”

In answer, Phoebe fired on her sister.  Time slowed down as my Verr started feeding me tactical information.  As the energy weapon fire struck Thea harmlessly, I rolled off to the wall of the corridor, creating as much space between myself and Thea as I could and let fly my battlecry, warbling my intent as I sent the power of Thor lancing down the corridor and striking Phoebe.  Her weapon was turned to slag and her hand went whipping back from the force as her armored gauntlet began to sizzle while the magnetic energy chewed away at her Mithreal armor.

The other two Titans jockeyed for a good angle in the narrow corridor and started concentrating fire on me.  The shifting frequencies started attenuating my lattice but then it stopped as Thea fired on their weapons and then dropped hers as Phoebe came barreling into her and the two giant women grappled.

I dodged to the side and used the wall as a springboard to alter my course and threw myself at the nearest Titan as she set her feet in a predetermined programmed attack sequence for her armor to execute.  Too bad for her I had spent hours studying all of the pre-programmed strikes when I battled Ymir and the Frost Giants.

I landed in front of her but rolled under the pile-driver and slashed up with my most powerful Odin's spear. The crackling blue blade of energy struck the almost invisible seam in her armpit and sizzled through the weak point, eliciting a shriek of startled pain from the Titan.

She backhanded me and I hit the opposing wall like a ton of bricks.  I rolled away from a swooping strike then gave a predatory grin when I realized the others couldn't engage in the narrow corridor.   I hit my opponent with rapid fire strikes from the power of Thor at her shoulder.  Then had to defend against a hurricane of strikes.  Batting them away or dodging.  The ones that got through felt like I was being hit by meteor strikes.

Kroth that, I slid into my three-point striking stance and struck upward toward an incoming punch.  I adjust twice in mid swing to attain the optimal strike vector as I strengthened the lattice around my fist, digging into the floor with lattice spikes under my feet to anchor me.  Our fists connected and there was a sharp crack, like a baseball bat striking the ball and pieces of splintered Mithreal went flying as I shattered the supposed unbreakable armor of her gauntlet.

I took her moment of shock, to quickly grasp her armored arm and twist my body, and tear with all my might.  The armor tore from her arm at the weakened spots I had created at her shoulder and armpit.  She tried to strike me and I backhanded her unprotected arm, snapping it like a twig.  She fell to her knees, holding her arm.  My hand shot forward and grabbed the ragged edge of the armor at her shoulder and neck yanking hard and tearing the control circuits out, and her bubble shield helmet flickered out.

Phoebe went flying into the wall beside us as Thea reached my side.  I pulled my hand back and let Odin's spear crackle to life for the killing blow.  I was in mid swing when Thea screamed, “Kara!  No!”  I stopped my blow with the blade against my oppnent's cheek, sizzling away her skin and I looked back at Thea.

Her eyes were pleading as she shook her head, saying, “No, please do not kill her.”

The beast inside me growled in fury, I wanted nothing more than to kill, I was the bringer of violence.  I took a deep breath and pushed the animal inside me down and nodded.  With a swift motion, I instead, punched the woman in the face, fracturing her nose and she fell limply to the ground, unconscious.  I gave Thea a nod of acknowledgment as we engaged the other combatants.

As more Titans and Titanspawns arrived, filling the corridor with energy weapons fire.  We were slowly pushed back.  I concentrated the lightning of the power of Thor on disarming them and dispatching the unarmored Titanspawns to the ages.

In such close quarters, we were fighting a retreat.  I had incapacitated three Titans and Thea had taken Phoebe down with a verbal apology as she knocked her unconscious.  The corridor was about to widen at the entrance to the airlock.  That would be bad, the remaining Titans would be able to surround us then and there was no way the two of us could face the five remaining Titans like that.  But I would be no one's slave!

Just as we reached that point, Thea reached out and threw me backward with a sweep of her arms and she rolled into the airlock with me and hit a control then fused the door controls after it closed.

She looked at me then out to the corridor as she started typing on the console.  I swallowed and she looked at me with profound sadness as she said, “Looks like I will be going with you after all little Valkyrie.”

A new alarm started sounding as an automated voice announced, “Weapons grid offline.”  She put her arm out to me and I looked up at her in amazement and stepped to her.  She hugged me to her securely and raised her weapon toward the outer door.

Now that my Verr were not providing energy for battle, they were finally able to restore the nanite link with Kat.  She was awash in frantic emotions, panic, anger, determination...  and then shock as I said, “I'm coming home love.  I may need a ride.”

Relief and joy and more of that determination flowed from her as she laughed and said, “We are already on the way Kara.”  I just took a moment to share warm thoughts with her before I turned my attention back to my situation.

I looked back and four Titans had their weapons raised and ready to fire when Rhea stepped in front of them. She stretched out her arm and made a lowering motion and the Titans stepped back.  Rhea stepped up to the window and placed her palm against it as she looked at me with sad eyes.

Thea faltered so I took the decision out of her hands and took a deep breath and fired the power of Thor at the outer door and blew it out into space.  The sudden explosive decompression threw Thea and I out into the soundless void and harsh environment of space.  I remembered this sensation and I hoped I would never repeat it.  My Verr were screaming in pain, providing as much power as they could to the nano-lattice to keep me alive.

I tried to twist in Thea's arms to fire of the power of Thor to try to aim us back toward the space bridge.  But before I did, Thea hit a stud on her belt as her arms tightened on me, almost crushing my ribs and we shot off at an almost terrifying acceleration.  A chronometer was counting down in my vision beside a velocity and vector readout.  We accelerated to just barely the speed we needed and made one last adjustment to aim us directly at the event horizon of the quantum tunnel when whatever was powering our thrust died away.

I twisted and looked up at her face, she was crying.  Then her photon helmet started to fade.  Kroth!  The woman had used her armor's power pack to power our escape, she used all of it up to get us on the proper course.  She couldn't survive the vacuum of space without her helmet shield.  The woman was sacrificing herself for me.  She gave a sad smile.

There was no way I would ever let that happen!  It was my duty to protect those who could not protect themselves, it was the reason for my being.  It defined who I was, I am Kara the Wild one, and I am VALKYRIE!

I dug deep inside my reserves and could feel Valhalla's power feed increasing as we neared the tunnel.  I screamed in pain as I channeled all my energies into encasing Thea in my nano-lattice from our point of contact to protect her.  Leaving my body open to space as we hit the event horizon while the air was ripped from my lungs and I could feel capillaries starting to burst across my skin in the unimaginable cold while my blood began to boil.

An instant later we emerged on the other side and it felt like we struck something with great force and there was suddenly oxygen and gravity again.  I mumbled to the weapons that were all suddenly drawn around us, “Hold Valkyrie... she's a friend, she's with me.”  I lost consciousness.  The wonderful warm blackness cradled me and took all the pain away.