Valkyrie Hunter

Miranda’s way station was a bit of an eye opener and something I’d never expected. It consisted of a living room although all the furniture had been carved from stone. With stone table and chair even a stone desk. The stone chairs had comfortable cushions in muted colours. There was a terminal attached to the desk. Three doors led off from the living room. A well-stocked kitchen, A bathroom with a shower and a dormitory bedroom with the beds carved into niches in the walls. In fact it could have been classed as a home, albeit a home away from home. Miranda’s last surprise was a holo projector that disguised the door into the tunnel. I had to applaud Miranda’s forward thinking.

“You certainly plan ahead?” I said to her.

“Some of these tunnels were already here. I just made better use of them. And as to this place I wanted somewhere I could work instead of having to traipse backwards and forwards.”

That made sense to me.

Miranda crooked a finger at me. “Come here Gwen!”

“Why?” I responded automatically.

“I want to check those blisters on your heels, the one I saw looked bad enough? And don’t go stubborn on me I did warn you earlier about it. Now take off those boots.”

“I’ll be ok,” I replied. I hadn’t felt pain for a while I guess the nanobots were really working a fact I was glad of.

“No you won’t. It can’t be good for you walking about in boots that don’t fit you?”

I took off my boots uncertain what I’d find. The blisters had gone so the nanobots were working. I reluctantly showed Miranda my heels.

“See I’m fine!” I said sharper than I had intended to.

Miranda’s eyes narrowed suspiciously as she examined my feet. “Where’s the blister?” She pointed to my right heel. “I distinctly saw a large blister on your right heel. No one heals that quickly outside a cell regenerator.”

“I do!” I replied tersely.

“Who are you really?” she demanded.

I noticed Ella come alert as the barrel of her gun swung towards me.

“I’m Gwen Hunter. That is true!” I stated. I forced myself away from reaching for my own weapon. “I truly am me. It isn’t my fault ask your precious Elders. They did this to me.”

Miranda made a gesture and Ella lowered her weapon. I noted she hadn’t eased her finger away from the trigger guard. “The Elders only awakened your hidden Valkyrie blood. Blood I asked them to hide?”

“Their meddling did more than that. They awakened my Keeper DNA.”

“Keeper DNA?” Miranda asked sounding confused.

“Who are these Keepers?” Ella added suspiciously.

“That I’m unsure of,” I admitted. I didn’t know that much about the Keepers as such. All I knew that they were pacifists and were slaughtered by the Guardians. I knew nothing about their civilisation. “It’s a long story.” From the looks of it the two women where waiting to hear it. If I didn’t say anything there would always be an element of doubt as to who I was. “Do you want me to tell how I found them?”

“Yes,” Miranda said directly.

“Or how they used my DNA to remake themselves because I already had theirs?”

“Both, but start logically,” Miranda said with a nod to Ella.

“And, you will tell no one else. The Keepers are a secret.” I pointedly looked directly at Ella. “Note I am only telling you because you have a gun pointed at me. Also note that I am not your enemy. I’ve plenty of those for the both of us.”

“Cinders put it away,” Miranda ordered Ella. “Let’s hear what Gwen has to say. This should be interesting?”

I tried hard to compose myself but old fears came to the fore. My throat went dry and my heart rate sped up. “Did you know that the Elders sent me to Saros. I was told Vanessa was there. Frankly I was worried that she would be gone by the time I reached the planet.”

“They kept me informed once I made it clear I didn’t want you there.”

I brushed that aside I could ask that question later as to why she didn’t want me there. “Did you know that I couldn’t have her arrested I wasn’t a Confed.”

“Neither am I,” Miranda replied.

I realised she had come to Alfheimir before even the Empire existed. So she technically wasn’t an Imperial either. “So why send me if they knew I’d fail it doesn’t make sense?”

“They sent you because they were confident in your abilities,” Miranda said with an affirming nod from Ella.

“They could have at least warned me?” I was afraid I already knew the answer Miranda confirmed it.

“It’s not the Valkyrie way. You got around that hurdle by becoming a citizen of the Confederacy. Which I am not.”

“I just wanted to put Solstrid’s soul to rest. But the Elders made that almost an impossible task.”

“I know how you feel I can’t put Jenna’s soul to rest,” Miranda said sadly. “I need to know the truth. The Orsini don’t just attack a colony on the Confederacy side of Disputed Territories and in doing so only target one part of the colony?”

I was startled by Miranda’s revelation. “Sorry,” I apologised. I seemed to be doing it a lot lately. “We’re both burdened by guilt.” A lame statement I know but it was heart felt. I still felt uneasy about talking to Miranda about the Keepers.

“Which makes you truly of my blood despite everything else.”

With Miranda’s words Ella eased her fingers away from the trigger of her weapon and clipped it to her front.

Miranda quickly glanced at Ella. “But you still haven’t told me how you ended up with Keeper DNA as you call it?”

“Stupidity on my part,” I admitted honestly. “When I heard you were coming for me I had to act.”

“We never asked for your recall, that was an after thought when I heard the Elders wanted you back.”

“Why?”

“That is unknown. But you haven’t answered my question?”

I hadn’t I didn’t know how to frame it without making myself to be a total fool. In the end honesty won out. “Xenai ordered me to stay on the ship.” Another friend I’d betrayed with my actions. She had been fine afterwards when she had walked through my mind. She was a telepath or tepe as the Confeds designated her. She didn’t mind be called that it had helped us dealing with the traitors on Saros. Then I panicked and ran off on my own. Jervic and Kelli had taken me to task over it. They were part of my team. In hindsight all the problems I had with the Keepers’ computer could have been avoided. Then when I thought about it I shivered at the realisation. Had I not done then Saros would have been destroyed taking innumerable lives with it. How could I live with myself knowing what I knew now. I took a deep breath. “I slipped off the ship not letting anyone knowing what I was doing.”

That was careless Gwen,” Miranda admonished me.

“I realise that now. At the time I wanted to get Vanessa before the Valkyrie got me.”

“Aren’t you Valkyrie as well?” Ella asked mildly.

Ella’s question made me hesitate. “I’m vaihdokas,” I stated bluntly.

“No you are a Martin!” Miranda assured me. “Please continue.”

“I avoided Xenai’s searchers and found a way into Vanessa compound only to be led into a trap. I fought and brought the tunnel down over my head.” Which probably where this particular phobia with tunnels had come from.

Miranda took a deep breath. “That explains much. I sorry you had to relive that coming through these tunnels but there is no other way.”

I shuddered as she hugged me in a comforting way. “Thanks,” I replied.

“Please go on. If you don’t want to we can stop here?”

I guess I had no option. “I got knocked out by the cave in. When I came to I had a bad gash in my leg.” I told her how I stanched the bleed with my medkit and hobbled on looking for a way out since I was on the wrong side of the collapse. I took a further breath and launched into how the wall lit up under my touch and how I found the door. Just as I was getting to the where I exited the doorway into the cavern. Ella’s comms chimed.