Eric Olafson, Neo Viking Vol. 01

She folded her hands."Now you know most of it Eric. We are a small community down here, always have been, too small to maintain a healthy gene pool over the normal flow of generations. So we used the old knowledge and technology we still guarded to genetically extend our life spans and only reproduce after one died. We are not immortals, but some of us are more than a thousand years old, and your old friend with the great appetite is called the Ancient one because somehow the life extending Gene treatment worked especially well on him, he is here since we started. So yes he is the first Keeper. He came here from Earth with the first Ark."

The Old man giggled. "See? I am no ghost I just forgot how to die, but it is catching up on me Eric, my body is now deteriorating and while my aging genes are turned off, my cells are now to tired I guess to reproduce. I am not planning to die anytime soon of course but I know my days are numbered. I am saying this to assure you I am not a god either."

I simply had to ask." But what was this show with the soak stones all about? Why did you disappear in the morning and no one knew about you and how do you know so much about me?"

"Because we keep this a secret, Eric. You know all about traditions. Tell me what would the Circle of Elders do if they found out there are about 200 of us that used Gene technology to survive that long and use fusion suns to heat and light our caves?"

I suddenly understood."It would give them all the excuse they need to accuse you of hypocrisy and put you out of business so to speak. I somehow understand that you are a very old institution and a thorn in their side."

"Indeed you are quick to pick up between the lines. They always fear we might become more active and interfere with their way of running things and we were tempted to do just that a few times."

I squinted my eyes."If you are indeed that old." I shivered involuntarily realizing just how old he really was." You are perhaps not a Citizen of the Union?"

He shook his head." Again you do amaze me young Olafson. We would not be protected under the same laws indeed."

"Don't get me wrong, but what are you still keeping? I mean the technology from the Ark ship must be more than outdated and even the most traditional families, the one I know of keep a GalNet terminal in the house, even if it is hidden and locked away as in our Burg. And any adult can buy a space bus ticket and leave. You included, and seek citizenship."

He sighed deeply. "You are more like your grandfather than you realize, Young Olafson." His observation was perhaps the greatest compliment he could find.

The old man said."One of the groups that joined Erikson's movement back then was a similar one called the Church of Odin."

"I remember the Keeper with the White beard told me about that."

"They arrived here with the last Ark, but they decided not to stay. They left right away and went on to settle on a world sixteen light years from here called New Sweden. A world not unlike Nilfeheim, but with a much better orbital path around its sun, so they have no Longnight winters. The vast oceans just like here teem with fish that can be consumed by humans and to top it all, a continent with forests and easy mineable resources.

He paused for a moment and then said. "Today the Church of Odin is a major religion with an impressive temple on Pluribus. New Sweden however has no forests left and enormous fleets of robotic fishing ships emptied their oceans. They now have fish farms raising Terran herring and mackerel, but you won't be able to buy their famous Butterfish filet, a fish that once was so abundant you could catch one with a blank hook on your fishing rod. The High Priest of the Odin Church was arrested and found guilty as they found out he organized the sale of illegal drugs via several of the temples. New Sweden is a progressive world and has many big cities and I am not pointing a finger at them, but I like us the Keepers of Hasvik keep our world a little longer the way it is and keep our real traditions remembered not by enforcing them with an iron rod.

This is what we still keep, not the rusted and obsolete pieces of Ark ship technology buried in a cache beneath the Halls."

He fell silent.

After a long moment he, drained the last of his mead and said." I know you want to ask the 200 credit question. So go ahead."

"I understand why you keep this part of the Halls of Hasvik secret and I certainly learned much about our world and how it all works, but why did you pick me? What was this Soak stone business all about and why do that rotten trick with the ghost number? Why pick me?"

"I test every young man that comes up these stairs, you are not the only one and I am doing this a long time. Not always with soak stones but to see who has the heart on the right spot. Out of hundred boys that climb these stairs and don't give up that is, perhaps twenty actually help me. But less than 5 go back down to keep their word and get the sack or whatever I left behind. There are only few what you call Low Man that have a chance to come here. It is usually the sons of clan Chiefs and they are raised to think they are better than their servants. There are those who laughed at my peril, but most of them simply ignored my presence and went straight on by. In some case there are those who demanded me to make way or step aside. Even fewer pass the fire test and when I appear the second time some attacked me in anger.

"I was there at your naming day, Eric. I always kept an eye on you. When your Grandfather contacted the First Guardian that he was sending his grandson, I inquired about you and learned much about your situation. All this made me curious and I tested you."

I was thinking about what he said and he was right. My brothers and much of my school comrades did not think much about the servants and low men. I wondered if I would have been the same if I was not the outcast son.

"But why did you choose to disappear and make me think you are a phantom of some kind?"

"Your grandfather is what a Neo Viking should be. He is strong, one of the most feared fighters, a swordsman without peer on a world of fighters; he is also smart and well educated. He is the very definition of honor. If he gives his word, there is nothing short of him dying that would keep him from fulfilling an oath or a promise. If Nilfeheim would ever elect a king, he would easily be elected. If he speaks others listen. If he gives a suggestion it is followed as if it was a royal decree and he is a very important voice inside the Inner Circle of Elders. He sent you here Eric. He does not know about the truth beneath Muspelheim or that I still exist.

"You experienced that your very father managed to have eyes and ears inside the walls above and enough control to make an attempt on your life. You had to arrive above and be seen doing it, as I am certain your Grandfather has someone among the Keepers up there acting as his eyes and ears."

"You saying in one breath my Grandfather is honorable and then you say he has spies here and wants the Halls of Hasvik and the Keepers gone?"

"I am saying Eric that once he gave an Oath and his word he will follow it to the end. When he became an Elder, he took an oath to defend and uphold the Book of Ancient traditions. Not the love of his wife and not the love to you could make him go against that. He could have killed your father for what he did to your mother but he does not, because that book gives Isegrim all the rights to beat a woman to death! He could kick the Olafsons of his burg, but he gave his word and not the lamentations and complains of all his clan members can change that. He could take you and give you to someone else to raise, if he had no time to do it himself. Something he could demand, he knows about how your father tortures and treats you, but the Book of Ancient Traditions give your father that right and while I have no doubt in my heart that your Grandfather cares much about you, he will rather die of a broken heart than to go against these traditions.

"Eric, he would be the first tearing these walls down and raise his famous broadsword if he thinks we are against the Elders and their Rules."

The words of the Old man put in words what I had felt since I seen him sit with my father in the great hall, but hearing them like this hurt me more than I could describe. I knew that every word the old man said was true. Grandfather himself had told me so.

The most painful realization in all this was that he could have done something to save mother, if he had put her well being above those cursed traditions. Traditions I learned were far from what they supposed to be.

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Chapter 10: Caught

They had shown me to a small cave in the big caverns wall. Inside, behind a curtain was a real bed and I slept deep and dreamless. This time I did not wake on my own but was called out while I still felt tired. The perpetual small fusion sun made any guess what time it was completely impossible, at least to me. The woman stood just outside the curtain and she was dressed very much like I expected a woman warrior to look. Hard leather armor molded to accommodate her female shape. Underneath a short white tunic that revealed much of her shapely legs. Her curly hair pulled to the back and tamed into a pony tail with a leather strap adorned with feathery things to the side. She held two long spears." Good Morning Eric!" She handed me one and said. "The spear is one of human kind's oldest weapons. In our old languages man with a Ger became to be known as German and the word describing an entire culture."

The spear had a wooden shaft and was set on the top with a pointed double edged tip of metal. I wanted to impress her and said after I had bowed. "Odin's spear is named Gungir and it is infallible and its tip cannot be broken. The Elders of the Circle and the clan Chiefs swear on Gungir the most sacred oaths!" I then hastily added." Your Ladyship."

She did nod with a knowledgeable smile." My name is Siegfrida and you may call me by my name."

She turned the spear and drew a simple arrow in the dirt." This is the Tir rune in the writing of the old Vikings on Earth and it t has the meaning of war, victory, law and cosmic order and is associated with the ancient Germanic and Aryan sky god Tir. This rune also resembles Irmunsul the world tree."

I followed her to a different cave and she explained that these chambers once were formed by hot magma bubbles and flows while the Volcano was more active.

She was a patient but demanding teacher and the fact that she was a woman somehow spurned the male warrior ego that was part of perhaps every Neo Vikings personality. I think I would not have tried as hard if she was a male instructor. For the next 3 weeks I hurled spears, fought with shield, spear, ax and sword until I could no longer feel my arms. Unlike our fight instructor at school, she was not cruel and inflicted injury and mars on purpose but I still thought there was not a spot left on my body without a bruise. Her training was much more akin to the mysterious man who had saved me from falling.

When we did fight with swords she did notice."It seems your are not a novice when it comes to the sword. Eric, someone taught you well already."

Every night I was allowed to the baths and the warm water was a better remedy to my aching muscles than anything else I could imagine.

But training with her was also a wonderful time. She was full of stories and wisdom about our culture and the gods. When she told a story about the Gods and then explained the meaning of the story and the symbolism and why that story was told. I had not really thought about father. I felt somehow accepted. There was no one making fun of me or teasing me, no one told me what a looser or how unwanted I was. No one was beating or kicking me and I did not have to be afraid of noises or heavy footsteps that would announce the appearance of father.

I did not see the Old Man during that time.

How many days I had been here I could not really say, I did not keep track of time, but it felt early in the day when she put the training weapons back in their racks and said. "I have to tend to a sick friend and won't be back till tomorrow evening, but that means you have four extra hours to pass today, so I would like you to do a chore for us. Everyone around here does them, so don't feel I am punishing you."

"I don't mind doing chores and I am not afraid of work, I do them since I can remember."

"Great, do go to the baths and mop the tiles in both areas and the change rooms. You find the cleaning tools and supplies in a storage corner in the change area. No one will be there at this time so please do the women's side too."

"No problem, I can do that."

"You should have plenty of time to enjoy a long bath as well." I heard her say. I stopped and faced her again. She smiled and added." The Ancient one will fill in for me tomorrow I am sure you can find your way to the baths and then to dinner yourself by now."

She left and I did make my way towards the baths. In that corridor that linked the baths to the Big Cavern were other passage ways branching off to the left and right, About halfway to the Baths was the Elevator that would lead up to First Guardians Study. The light came from old Lumi Plates, not all of them working anymore. It was a small miracle in my eyes they lasted that long, they came so I had learned from the Settler arks. I understood that they had some sort of ingenious way of turning radioactive radiation from a small piece of plutonium into the spectrum of visible light.

Some of the corridors that branched off were completely dark and I wondered where these corridors ended up. The inside of this old volcano was occupied by a secretive group for almost 3000 years now and their numbers were slowly but steadily declining. Despite their effort to keep themselves alive and to replace those who died, the Old man had told me that there were now less than two hundred and they started out with about eight hundred. I did the math in my head and felt they did not really have any immediate problem of disappearing, if they declined in numbers at the same rate as they did till now, they still had 2000 years before the last one was gone.

It was easy to think in terms of someone being over a thousand years old and accept the fact that my female teacher really was that old, since I could not really fathom what it meant. There was simply no reference I could apply to really understand, but whenever I was thinking about it, I felt a little uneasy and shivered and wondered if a being that could look back on a thousand years of life experience really was still human.

From Union Class I knew there were member species that looked upon very long life spans. Of course I heard about the Stories of the two hundred human immortals who were guiding human kind since the beginning and like most I believed them to be legends and myths at least until know. Mr. Walters said that medicine could easily extend the life of most any carbon based life form including humans. Brains could be implanted in Robot and Android bodies and eliminate most biological limitations and brain pattern activity could be imprinted on a Computronic. Ever since the Insane Robot Coup attempt of 2412, uploading and individuals personality and brain into a Computronic was prohibited. All manufactured robots and Androids were by law determined to be things and had to be base programmed and imprinted with the Robotic Laws. I heard of the X101's a member species of sentient machines but they did not provide other species with their own robot bodies.

In that lesson Mr. Walters said that the average lifespan for humans was 250 years. Even though longer life was medically possible he said that most minds simply got tired and a strong longing to die developed and the suicide rate among those reaching the bicentennial age increased drastically with each passing year. It was not against the law to extend life beyond the age of 250 but as Mr. Walters said no one really wanted too.

While I was pondering the long life span of the Keepers I had reached the baths and decided to use that extra time not just to bathe but to swim, the pool basin was certainly big enough for that, but I would do my chore first. By know I knew there were two bath areas one for men and one for women. They looked identical except the tiles on the male side were blue and the tiles in the women's bath were red. In between them was an area with showers and toilets and places were you could dress and undress. It all had been built to accommodate the population of Hasvik that never used it. Of course the Keepers had kept it in good repair all that time. As she said the place was deserted and no one was there.

I could not find any mop or bucket or anything else on the men's side so I knocked at the separating swing door then opened it and said aloud." Anyone here?"

My voice slightly echoed and appeared louder than intended but no one answered, there was only the drip of water. So I went in and sure enough there was a corner with buckets, mops and the wonderful smelling lemon stuff they made themselves to clean pretty much everything. So I mopped the women's bath area and there around the corner in the dressing area on the bench lay that leather breast harness molded to Siegfrida's body. Not far from it, on a peg a blue dress and white apron. A small shelf next to it held artful little glass bottles, decorated ceramic tubs and jars.

This was not mother's boudoir and not her dress. There was no reason for me to wear it and yet felt the urge to do just that. If I would wear that breast harness underneath it would give the dress even the right shape.

I pushed the mob and shook my head. "It was wrong what I did in mother's boudoir even though it made me feel close to her. I was a Neo Viking and I needed to become strong and big. A warrior would not wear women's garments.

Thor did it.

But he didn't like it and did it only once out of necessity. So why did I feel strangely excited every time I mopped past that dress?

I forced myself to think about something else and left doing the other side of the baths, but when I was done. I knew it was still early and I had time. I wished someone would come, Women perhaps using the baths but it remained eerie silent. I had to return the cleaning supplies.

I almost could hear my own argument, on the one hand I tried to ignore my feelings as I knew they were wrong, but then what would it hurt? No one would ever know, just to see how it looks.

I undid my braids.

The chest piece fit real nice and as I slipped into the dress it really did what I hoped it would and along with the white apron looking into a mirror I really looked like a girl now, even the shape was no perfect.

I felt free for some reason and while something in me warned me that inner voice felt silent and somehow it felt so right.

As I turned a little to see me myself from the side I noticed Siegfrida standing there, her arms crossed. Seeing her hit me like lightning and I wished the ground would open to swallow me. I started shaking and the sensation of utmost shame came over me.

She looked around and then nodded." I see you did a good job cleaning."

I tried to say something, but my throat was constricted and even if I knew what to say I would have not been able to utter a single word.

"I had a chance in plans and came to fetch you for dinner. Ulrike made dumplings today."

Then she came closer and said." The ancient suspected this and that is why he asked me to leave those things here."

I shivered and could not bring my shaking hands and knees under control. I finally managed to say." He knew?"