Excerpt: Breaking Light

Chapter Thirteen: Dwarf Fortress

Tasha need not have worried about the sunlight issue. When they arrived on planet Svartheim, they discovered that the entire colony was subterranean, far from the barely-habitable surface. The Viking ship landed in an enormous docking cavern with vast bay doors high above.

"You said you were going to let us go," Tasha said quietly to Captain Warphammer. "We've done all that you asked of us. Please let us go."

Captain Warphammer just grinned broadly at her and shook his head. "Not just yet, I think. There's just a few more things that I want of you lovely ladies first."

"What more do you want, Captain Warphammer?" Tasha asked. "What else might please you?"

Several dwarven Vikings standing around them poked at Tasha unpleasantly and guffawed. The captain licked his lips and said, "I want you to make me a vampire."

Tasha blinked in surprise, and the other Vikings roared in amusement at her expense. She hadn't realized that they'd even known vampires existed. Was there such a thing in this universe, then? Were there vampires even on planet Svartheim as well?

"Don't look so surprised, Tasha," Captain Warphammer drawled. "Did you think that I was so blind as to fail to notice it? The way you nipped at my blood, but took no other food or signs of going hungry despite being locked in my quarters for two weeks? Don't take me for a fool. Your secret is out, and I want it."

Maybe they didn't know about them after all, Tasha thought. Beyond the obvious folklore, anyway. "Yes, Captain Warphammer," she murmured. Perhaps it was a good time to bluff her way out of this.

"Excellent," Warphammer said, grinning at her wickedly. The sadistic man was far too eager for this. She hated to see what he might do if she actually gave him vampiric powers, just what sort of abuses he might find to do with them. She had no intention of actually giving him that gift, however.

"You'll need to untie me to perform the ritual, though," Tasha said. "And there are things which your crew will need to assist with."

"Very well." Captain Warphammer reached over and undid her bonds, releasing her, then turned aside to his men and said, "Do whatever she tells you to do, you got it?"

"Yes, sir," said the dwarves.

Now it was time to improvise. "Tell me, firstly, how many moons does Svartheim have, and what are the time cycles of them?"

"Three moons," Warphammer replied. "One large one with a month of forty days, and two smaller subordinate ones that are faster. Why?"

"The power of the vampire is tied into the night. It would not do to perform this ritual only to fail due to a miscalculation on the celestial side. Who is your second in command?"

Captain Warphammer pointed to a black-bearded dwarf on his left. "Durgan Blackblade is my second."

Tasha nodded. "Blackblade, sir, I will need you and some of your crew to acquire thirteen black candles for the use in the ritual. Can you do that?"

"Can do," Durgan Blackblade replied, nodding to some of the other dwarves and gesturing at them to follow.

Captain Warphammer asked, "Are there any other preparations which need to be taken?"

"You'll need a coffin, of course," Tasha said. "It must be made of ash wood and filled with the dirt of your homeland." She had to keep herself from grinning. She was enjoying running them around in circles far too much.

"Ash wood?" Captain Warphammer repeated. "We don't exactly have a lot of wood around here, and I'd never be able to recognize a specific type of wood if my life depended upon it."

"Nonetheless, the coffin must be made of wood," Tasha said. "Other types may be an acceptable substitute if ash cannot be found, but you may be weaker than if you used an ash wood coffin."

"Fine," Captain Warhammer said, turning aside to his crew members. "Fine me a wooden coffin somewhere. And you two, bring in a couple bags of dirt."

A few more of the dwarves ran off to try to cover these errands as well. Tasha quietly wondered to herself just what more of this she'd be able to get away with, as well as if enough of the Vikings were out of the ship running around to give her friends a chance to take advantage of the situation...

*

Once they landed but had not yet been released as promised, Jannika realized that they'd have to take matters into their own hands, but would hopefully stand a better chance of it now. With any luck, the majority of the crew would be planetside and have left only a skeleton crew behind to guard the ship.

"Nastya," Jannika said to her quietly. "Now's our chance. Think we can manage it?"

"There are probably still guards outside," Anastasia commented. "And we as yet lack weapons. They took from us those we had managed to acquire."

"How about the replicator?" Jannika said. "We can replicate something simple, like clubs, and take the guards by surprise and then take _their_ weapons."

"We would _need_ the element of surprise to take on armed and experienced Vikings wielding better weapons than us," Anastasia said.

"I don't think they realize there's an upper hatch, too," Jannika commented. "We could climb up there and drop something down on top of them."

"I think that would have a far better chance of success than an outright confrontation."

Jannika headed to the replicator and conjured up a pair of clubs, as well as a couple long knives for them. She handed Anastasia her weapons and tucked a knife into her belt. Then she pulled out from the replicator a large pot full of boiling oil. As Jannika gingerly took it and carried it toward the door, Anastasia followed her lead and replicated a second bowl of it herself. They headed up toward the ladder for the top hatch, setting the implements on the floor temporarily, and tried to open it as quietly as possible. Once it was open, Jannika poked her head out cautiously and took a look around.

There were two dwarves still stationed at the main hatch into Sleipnir. They didn't appear to have noticed or heard anything from the top of the ship. Jannika nodded down at Anastasia and they carefully passed the two bowls up, very gently so as not to inadvertently spill any on themselves. Then the two of them edged to the side of the ship and poured the scalding contents of the bowls onto the dwarves below.

Jannika slid down the ladder again and grabbed her club, then opened the door to the front hatch, followed shortly by Anastasia. The dwarves were in pain and still very disoriented, and a swing of Jannika's club knocked the blazer out of one's hand with a sickening crunch. Anastasia slipped on the oil on the floor and went tumbling to the ground, tangled up in her dress. Jannika grabbed the fallen blazer and turned it on the guards, and managed to down them after several shots at close range, although taking a burn of her own on her arm in the process.

"Nastya, are you alright?" Jannika asked, snatching the second guard's blazer and going over to where Anastasia had fallen.

"I am unhurt, I believe," Anastasia said. Jannika offered her the blazer, and she took it. "Where do you think we might find Loki?"

"I don't know, but I've set my wrist-comm to beep and open a channel to him if it gets somewhere that it can do so. Hopefully there aren't too many more dwarves wandering the ship. Be on alert. And we'd best also turn our blazers up to high. Don't want to be having to shoot them multiple times if we can help it. Just make sure not to point it in the general direction of anyone friendly."

"I understand," Anastasia said, peering at the blazer for a moment. "How do you use one?"

"Ugh," Jannika said, making a face. Of course she wouldn't know how to use one. Even Jannika had only the most basic, intuitive knowledge of it. "Setting is adjusted with that dial there. Then point it at what you want dead and push the trigger-button on the bottom. Did they not even have basic projectile weapons on your world?"

"Yes, but I never used one," Anastasia replied.

"We'll just have to make do. Just remember, don't point it at me!"

Anastasia nodded, and Jannika headed off out of the cargo bay. Thankfully, there didn't seem to be many dwarves still wandering the corridors. They must be all off getting drunk planetside or restocking their supplies and making preparations to put Jannika's schematics to not-so-good use. Jannika grew more and more nervous as they wandered the narrow corridors, surprising and dispatching the occasional dwarf, without any sign of Loki. Finally, much to her relief, her wrist-comm beeped at her.

"Jannika!" Loki's voice said through it. "So good to contact you again."

"Loki! Where are you?" Jannika asked.

"I've been taken off the ship by some grubby-handed Viking-wannabe." The watch display switched to an overview of the area around Loki, a rough map of the tunnels in their part of the city.

"Crap," Jannika said. "Hold tight, Loki. We're coming for you."

They found they weren't far from one of the hatches leading out of the ship, the only reason they'd managed to establish a link to Loki from here, and went and opened it up. The dimly lit cavern outside was wide open and filled with numerous other ships. Off to the left, Jannika spotted in the distance Tasha speaking with Captain Warphammer, with several of the other dwarves around. They didn't appear to have spotted the two of them.

"There's too many of them to try to rescue Tasha right now," Jannika whispered to Anastasia. "We'll need to try to sneak around and retrieve Loki first. I hope she can keep them busy long enough."

Darting between the other, smaller ships and using them as cover, Jannika and Anastasia snuck to the edge of the subterranean landing area, following the map which Loki had provided. The colony on Svartheim was a complex tangle of underground tunnels arranged in a manner that probably made some sense to the dwarves who had originally carved them out from the black stone. Most of the walls were elaborately carved with stone murals depicting dwarves, weapons, mythological figures, and spaceships.

Thankfully, the dwarves outside the docking area hadn't gotten the memo that a couple human women shouldn't be running around, and pretty much ignored them to continue their work hauling rocks from one part of the fortress to another. They passed doorways leading into a number of storerooms holding crates upon crates of stone blocks, then some other storerooms holding piles upon piles of rough stones, some with metal bars, and some with stone crafts of various sorts.

"How are you doing, Loki?" Jannika asked quietly into her wrist-comm as she continued down the corridor.

"Hurry, please, if you can," Loki said. "I am in grave danger. Oh, this is horrible, horrible I say!"

Jannika glanced aside to Anastasia, raising an eyebrow at Loki's tone, and said, "Alright, we're on our way, we're almost there."

They went down a flight of stone steps and down another corridor into a housing area. The map indicated that Loki was in the residence on the right-hand side. Carefully, Jannika crept up to the doorway and eased it open, peering inside. On the floor in the center of the room, she saw Loki, being manhandled and drooled over by a fat, ugly, bearded dwarf toddler. She didn't see anyone else in the immediate vicinity.

Jannika stepped inside and said quietly, "Excuse me, kid, but that's _my_ toy." She snatched Loki out of his hands, causing the dwarven child to bawl loudly, and headed for the door.

"Oh, thank you, Jannika," Loki said to her. "You've saved me! Ugh. I am going to need a thorough cleaning after that."

"Yeah, well, we still need to get out of here with Tasha." She headed back toward the docking area, on the lookout for any of the Vikings spotting her along the way.

They reached the end of the tunnel and peered into the landing cave. "What is Tasha doing?" Anastasia wondered softly.

"Looks like some sort of bizarre ritual," Jannika murmured. "Whatever she's doing, let's hope she keeps doing it a bit longer. Loki, can you access the Viking ship's controls from here, or do you still need to get into the control room?"

"Need to get to the control room. From the looks of things, Tasha has most of the ship's crew busy here with whatever she's doing."

"Let's take advantage of it while we can," Jannika said, going to sneak across the landing cave again back to the larger Viking ship. Once at the hatch again, she murmured to Loki, "Can you get me anything on the layout of the ship at least?"

The watch brought up a rough map of the ship. "Best I can do, I'm afraid. I _think_ that the control room must be over here." An area flashed red on the map. "If only because of its positioning and the fact that I can't scan it."

"Then that's where we'll go."

Blazer in one hand and drool-dripping Loki in the other, Jannika crept down the deserted corridors toward the marked room on the map. When they reached it without further incident, Jannika poked absently at the door panel beside the sliding doors, directing Anastasia to stand ready on the left side of the door and herself positioned on the right to shoot anything that might be inside. Loki managed to activate the door panel and get the door open.

The two women fired blindly into the room, then Jannika cautiously peered inside. She almost got her head taken off by a plasma bolt for her trouble from a dwarf hiding behind a console. Anastasia fired at him and managed to score a hit. Swearing in Icelandic could be heard from inside the chamber. Jannika fired some more in its general direction, darting into the room and ducking behind something herself. More plasma shots came out, one of them searing her in the shin. Jannika yelped and yanked her leg back.

Anastasia ran into the door and darted around the opposite side of the room, and managing to scramble up behind the remaining dwarf and fry him at close range.

"Room is clear," Loki announced. "Repeat, the room is clear."

"They didn't get a message off to the ones outside, did they?" Jannika asked, rising to her feet and looking around at the slightly scorched room.

"No," Loki said. "You kind of shot out the communications console."

Jannika smirked. "Can you get Sleipnir free?"

"Already on it. Almost got it... there. I've also set it so I can remotely open the cargo bay doors when we're ready to get out of here. I've also made sure not to leave any record on their computers of the engineering schematics you gave them."

"Great," Jannika said. "Let's go see if we can get Tasha and get the hell out of here."

*

The dwarven Vikings had managed to collect the items Tasha had demanded for the 'ritual', and gathered around with them. She looked over the items disdainfully and said, "These are crude, but they will suffice."

"Dwarves are unparalleled artisans with stone, lady, not wood," one of the Vikings put in.

"Have each of you hold a candle and light them, and stand in a circle around me and the captain," Tasha directed them. "Empty the soil into the coffin and place it in the center of the circle as well."

The dwarves did as directed, and Captain Warphammer, still grinning in an evil, eager manner, stood next to the coffin waiting for her. "If all is in order, then, begin the ritual, my dear Tasha."

"Very well," Tasha said, looking around appraisingly at the dwarves who were gathered around. "You must chant something for me, do you think you can do that? Repeat these words: Diabolus noctus libero minimus. Say it."

"Diabolus noctus libero minimus," repeated the dwarves in sync.

"Keep repeating that undo I raise my hand above my head," Tasha said.

"Diabolus noctus libero minimus," chanted the circle.

"Now, Captain Warphammer, your neck, if you please."

Warphammer nodded, and pulled aside his beard and extended his neck for her. Tasha leaned close and began to drain the blood from his body, slowly drawing out his lifeblood into herself. Gradually, his heartbeat began to slow and his breathing grew fainter, until it finally stopped. Solemnly, Tasha took the dwarf's body and laid it among the dirt inside the coffin, then raised a fist above her head to signal the chanting to stop.

"On the third turning of the great moon, he will rise from his grave and walk the galaxy as a mighty creature of the night," Tasha told them.

"You've done it, then?" Blackblade said, coming up beside her to look into the coffin.

"It is done," Tasha said, inclining her head solemnly.

"Good," Blackblade said, then pulled out a wooden stake from his coat and plunged it into Warphammer's chest. Laughing darkly, he turned to the circle of Vikings and said, "Captain Warphammer will never rise! I'm your captain now! To me, my brethren!"

Blackblade drew out another stake and tried to stab Tasha with it, but her quick reflexes allowed her to duck aside and avoid the attack. That didn't help the fact that she'd now found herself surrounded by a number of irate dwarves intent upon blood. They began to draw knives and axes from their belts.

Just as she as beginning to panic, Tasha heard a rumbling sound from somewhere nearby, and saw several heavy metal-laden mine carts rolling their way just in time to leap out of the way and on top of one of them as it went crashing through Warphammer's coffin, splinters flying everywhere. Most of the Vikings were bowled over in the sudden assault, and Tasha found herself clinging to the top of a wildly moving cart for dear life.

The mine carts crashed into the side of the Viking ship with such a force that Tasha was flung backwards and into the ground nearby, a couple metal bars landing on top of her. The bay doors on the ship slowly began to open on their own, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jannika and Anastasia running across the landing area toward her.

"Tasha!" Jannika said. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine," Tasha said. "Fortuitous timing there."

"What was it they were chanting, anyway?" Jannika wondered.

"Very bad Latin?" Anastasia replied with a crooked grin.

Sleipnir eased out of the cargo bay and set itself down on the floor nearby. Jannika said, "Let's shove a few of these mine carts into the cargo bay and get out of here. No sense leaving here empty handed." She grinned.

Tasha realized that they were _powered_ mine carts -- No wonder they'd been able to build up such a speed and been able to so accurately flatten the congregation of dwarves. They got three of the carts into the cargo hold and sealed the doors shut behind them, then headed to the bridge.

Jannika settled into the pilot's seat and brought them to take off. "Loki, can you convince those doors up top to let us out?"

"Will do, Jannika."

As they ascended up the subterranean shaft, at first Tasha didn't think they were going to manage to get away, as the doors didn't open immediately, but as they got close, finally the doors started sliding open slowly, dim light pouring in from outside. The surface of Svartheim wasn't particularly bright and clear, either. Clouds of roiling black smoke blotted out the stars, and the wan sun did little more than leave even daytime in a state of perpetual twilight.

"Is anyone coming for us or trying to stop us?" Tasha wondered.

"Negative," Loki said.

"And hopefully the thrusters won't rip a hole in the ass of the ship this time," Jannika said. "I'm taking it a bit easier on them with the heavy cargo, but with any luck, my repairs will hold."

They didn't fully relax, however, until they had cleared the atmosphere and escaped into hyperspace. It seemed that if anyone had figured out what had gone on down there, they didn't care what happened to the Vikings anyway.

"Let's come up with some way to detect those damned nets. I don't want another repeat of that incident," Jannika said bitterly.

"We can probably swing that," Loki said. "But first, would you mind cleaning me off, please?"