Eric Olafson, Fleet Cadet (Vol 3)

"And to what conclusion did you come?"

"I am just a simple Neo viking and all this PSI and Nether stuff is just beyond me. What good are space ships and blaster weapons if there are beings that can travel in deep space, able to tear apart pirate ships and make things happening with their minds?"

"You sound just like Richard. He too claims to be a simple marine. Yet neither you nor him are anything but simple anymore. You are not that frightened Neo viking boy, threatening the sound of your fathers heavy feet coming to give you another lashing. You have grown and developed and you are still growing and developing. So is humanity and the Union. Compared to just about any star spanning society, the Union is very young. Three thousand years is not much in terms of cosmic time spans. Yet I believe the Union has come further than any such society we remember. At the beginning, Terran Humans were defenseless against Psionics. Today there is technology that protects, prevents and shields. I have no doubt, Union technology will come up with ways to protect or perhaps even utilize nether space and nether energy."

I had to admit what she said made lots of sense."Looking at it that way makes it less spooky and uncanny."

She gave me a warm smile."The Coven has decided, we will join the Union and with our membership we open our archives and provide access to all we know. I have no doubt Terrans will come up with some sort of weapon first that will scare even the dwellers of the deepest pits."

"I would have never thought hell actually exists."

The dark skinned woman with the long white hair joined us just then and she said. "True hell is created by man and on this side of the Universe. I am wandering these parts for millennia and I have seen true evil and the manifestation of hell on battle fields and behind closed doors of human dwellings. In slave cages and torture chambers."

She sighed. "The Nether-worlds are not a good place, but no one of this plane is sent there for punishment. No one that dies here ends up there, at least as far as I know and I should know as I am the daughter of a very powerful entity. I am technically not a Coven, I was not born in a doomed universe and sought refuge in the Nether realms, so if there is a real hell as some believe there is for the souls of the evil doers, it is not where I come from."

I listened to all they had to say and could not help myself thinking that this was all knowledge and information they wanted me to have, for some greater purpose.

It was too much meta-physic mambo jumbo for my taste and while I was glad for the few days of peaceful vacation. I was more than ready to leave this uncanny place and return to Arsenal to begin my second year.

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The End

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Here ends Volume III.

If you liked the story and would like what life has in store for Eric. Join me in ; "Eric Olafson, Midshipman (Vol IV).