Excerpt: The Guardians of Terra

The Guardians of Terra

Prologue

Above Earth, some time in the future so distant that even those charged with keeping track are unsure, there were no satellites. There were no space stations, or ships, or little bits of metal floating around. It was, in fact, as if the planet had never seen a visitor, until one arrived.
The ship arrived in a flash, and settled into a near-stationary position well outside the local gravity well's main pull. It could hardly be described as a sleek vessel, even in space, where such conceits are rarely necessary. Most of the body is taken up by a large, bulbous drive section, with the only habitable section being a small cockpit attached roughly to the front end. One would think this meant it was built for speed, but its engines could barely turn it, much less move it. No, the major part of its mass was taken up by a faster than light jump drive, built on an exaggerated scale so as to reach farther targets in interstellar terms.
Inside the cockpit, a human pilot marveled at the sight of an Earth unknown to him. He knew it was important, but his...guide...had yet to tell him why. He spun the drive up again to engage a communications link with the nearest relay, a little under fifty light years away.
“You were right.” he said. “It's here, right where you said it would be.”
“Did you doubt me?” asked a familiar voice.
“I...” The pilot thought for a moment on how to reply. “Forgive me, but you have a reputation for deceit.”
“So I do.” said the voice. “But that is not my fault.”
The pilot couldn't believe that, not really. How could one's reputation be entirely the fault of others? Still, it would do no good to argue. “Should I descend? I would like to get a better look at the planet.”
“No.” said the voice. “There's nothing for you to see. In fact, that is the point of this. There truly is nothing to see. It is a beautiful world, but not interesting beyond that. No, return at once, before the jump point is out of range.”
The pilot hovered a hand over the throttle, thinking of detaching from the jump drive and flying to the surface. Of all the worlds he'd seen, only Midgard rivaled the beauty of the blue marble in front of him, and he wanted to see it closer. He knew his Avatar would override him if he tried, however, and instead activated the jump drive.
The ship had been there for only minutes before it left with another flash, having left nothing behind but a thin trail of exhaust which soon dissipated.

Chapter 1

Life for Sindri Olafsen was far from interesting. He didn't really pay much attention to his present, as his classes at Bjartr Tertiary were not engaging to say the least. Instead, he dreamed of joining the Aesirheim Fleet Academy as soon as he was able, where he would learn to one day become a ship commander and battle pirates and explore the unknown reaches of jumpspace. He had the grades for it, if barely, and even his parents had to admit that they wouldn't be able to stop him when he reached his seventeenth year. So, as was usually the case, his tablet wasn't filled with notes about the history of his people. Instead, he was animating a moderately detailed account of a battle between three Viking transports and a squadron of pirate fighters. It was looking as if the pirates might even win when he realized that his teacher, Snotras Gerasdottar, was staring straight at him.
“Perhaps you can answer me, Sindri. What is the name of the home of the Guardians?”
It was a loaded question. Depending on the context, which Sindri could only guess at, there could be three or four mutually exclusive answers. The odds weren't in his favor, but if he didn't answer, the penalty would be worse. “Asgard.” he answered, trying to sound confident. “They came from Asgard.”
“Correct in a sense, Sindri, but that is not what I was speaking of. Eydis?” she asked, targeting another student. As usual, Eydis Korisdottar had had her hand up for some time.
“Europa.” she said.
“Excellent, as usual. And Europa is?”
Hoping to regain some credibility, Sindri raised his hand again, but Eydis got it first. “Europa was a world of ice far from the old home of Sol.” she said. “It was there that the Aesir and Vanir lived among the Alfar and Dvergar before it was destroyed in the first Ragnarok.”
Given that old Koris was a priest of Frigga, it wasn't surprising that Eydis knew the material by heart. It didn't make any difference in a priest's family if things made sense. Inga, Sindri's mother, as a follower of the Guardian, the real Snotra, valued truth and wisdom above all else. It had to have been painful for her that his teacher was named for her chosen Guardian, and yet told only lies propagated as myth and legend. Europa, she would say, was both a name for a region on Terra, the old home of humankind, and for a moon orbiting one of the outer planets. It was an ice moon, to be sure, on account of its location, but no gods or Guardians ever lived there. But the followers of Odin and Snotra, were small and shrinking in number. Most moved to the secular enclave of Sagassland rather than be subjected to the culture of the overly religious followers of Frigga and Freya. At least they couldn't say that the worlds were connected by the Great Tree anymore, not since the exploration of space began.
“Now, I'm going to ask you a harder question,” Snotras said to the class. “I've been going on and on about why the Guardians came to this system. Why did they create us when they got here? You should have a two page essay about the question by Wodensday.”
On cue, the final bell rang, and Snotras quickly sent the assignment information out before anyone could turn off their tablets. It didn't matter, of course, but it was depressing to look at as the screen blinked off.
A two page essay 'about the question'. That was the problem with Friggaslanders, they never wanted answers. If anyone actually answered the question, Sindri thought, they would have to say that the Guardians didn't actually create humans, or any life for that matter. As he left the building and headed for the transit stop, he heard something land in a tree nearby. He stopped and started to look for it, hoping it was one of Snotra's messengers, but before he spotted it, Eydis caught up with him.
“Sindri, wait.” she said.
Still distracted, Sindri asked, “Did you notice anything weird around here just now?”
“Huh?” Eydis asked. “No, not that I can think of.” Chuckling, she added, “Well, except for you.”
Sindri laughed it off. She wasn't exactly what he would call a friend, but she wasn't the kind of person to actually insult anyone, probably owing to her religious upbringing. No, she honestly thought he was a bit weird.
“Seriously, though, Sindri. You know what Snotras will do if she catches you like that too often. The only reason you didn't get a reprimand was because you came up with an even remotely correct answer. I know you know this stuff.”
“I don't believe it.” Sindri said. “And why are you so concerned about me all of a sudden?”
“Because I have a feeling I know what you want to do when you get out of here.” Eydis said. “Transit should get here in five minutes, and my stop's on the way, so why don't we take this conversation over there?”
Sindri nodded. At least that would mean it wouldn't be an overly long conversation. Transit usually only took five minutes to get to his house, and so she'd have to leave before then. Taking one last look at the tree, he followed her.
“You want to join the Academy, don't you?” she asked along the way.
“How did you know?”
“It was what you were doodling. The battle of Hel's gate, right?”
He'd never heard of that particular battle, though he could only guess it happened at the main jump point into the Hel system. “The what?” he asked.
“Don't pretend you don't know. Nobody joins the Academy without studying military history first.”
Somewhat embarrassed, he decided to play along. After all, he had studied military history, but not all of it by a long shot. “Alright, let's say I do want to join the Academy. I have the grades. They don't care about...about religious history, just strategy and math and leadership skills and things like that.”
“Be that as it may, you should be careful.”
It was painfully obvious that that wasn't everything she had to say. “Is there-”
“Are you looking for Terra?” Eydis asked. Sindri almost didn't hear her over the wind from the approaching Transit. The question didn't make much sense.
“You don't even believe in Terra.” he said.
Eydis grabbed his arm and pulled him onto the Transit. They made their way to one of the private compartments in the back, and she pushed him down onto one of the couches before closing the door and swiping her ID to lock it. It was a bold move, considering how expensive it was to use a private compartment. Also, Sindri thought with more than a little dread, her ID was the only one that would open the door. He looked up at the camera in the ceiling, praying for help from anyone, but it retracted. Their identities had been recorded, anyway.
Thoughts began running through his mind, each one worse than the last. Of course, the first was that she had been captured by the fires of passion and wanted to make love to him – everyone knew that people occasionally used the compartments for that. Unfortunately, her worried expression made that an unlikely possibility. He wondered if she was on some religious crusade, if she would kill him for not believing in the divinity of the Guardians. That was another not-unheard-of activity. Maybe she was going to brainwash him somehow, or just rob him. But then, someone who could afford a private Transit compartment didn't need to rob middle class kids such as himself.
He considered fighting back, but it seemed shock had him pinned at the moment. Eydis continued to pace back and forth across the compartment, maintaining her balance expertly as the Transit took off.
Finally, she stopped, and sat down next to him. “I...” she began, but stopped. Then, presumably before her body could disobey her, she said, “i'mnotadeist”.
Sindri thought for a moment, trying to parse the sentence. “What?” he asked.
Eydis took another deep breath. “I'm not a Deist. I'm a Terist.” she said. “Please, please don't tell my parents. They'd never understand.”
Terism was the belief that the Guardians had created humans on Terra and brought them to Midgard thousands of years ago, and as such, wasn't anywhere near as controversial as Sindri's own belief that humans had actually evolved naturally on Terra, which fell squarely into mainstream Transism. Therefore, it hardly got her sympathy in his eyes.
Seeing his blank stare, she said, “Don't you get it? My father and mother are in the Deist priesthood! They might actually, literally kill me if they found out.”
“I still don't see how this affects me.” Sindri said. “Did you just feel the need to tell someone?”
“You're practically the only other person at Bjartr who's not a Deist.”
“You can blame my father for that.”
“It doesn't matter. Three months ago, I was approached by Fenrir.”
Sindri's mouth fell open. “The servant of Loki? It exists?”
Eydis shot him a condescending look. “Of course he exists. All the Guardians have servants. Look, he said that the time was coming to return to the old home! Do you know what that means?”
The transit had already stopped once during their conversation, and Sindri's stop was approaching. “All I know is that I want to get out of here.” he said, getting up. “Please, just let me go, we can find some other time to talk about this.”
Eydis got up, and looked into his eyes for a moment. He wasn't sure, but it almost seemed like she didn't think it would happen. Of course, until she did, he didn't, either. Another month of avoiding her in a student body of twenty-five hundred couldn't be difficult. And he wasn't looking for Terra. He was looking for adventure.
But then, he thought, wouldn't that be the greatest adventure of all? Finally vindicating his beliefs and those of millions of his fellow Transists? He needed to know more. “I promise. I promise that I will talk to you about this again...just...not today.”
Eydis' face brightened a little, and the beginnings of a smile appeared on her lips. “Thanks. I'll hold you to it.” She turned and swiped her ID again, and the door opened.
The Transit was already landing, so Sindri wasted no time heading out the door. Before he made it two feet, however, he was yanked back around, and quickly found himself locked in a kiss. It didn't last long, but, whether it was love or sheer surprise, it felt like time stopped for just a moment. When it broke, he knew he was probably as red as a skus in heat, but tried not to show it.
“Remember me.” Eydis whispered into his ear before letting him go.
He hurried off the Transit, trying all the while to avoid the gaze of the other passengers. A part of him was saying that it was probably just a cover, so everyone would think they had been enjoying some youthful passion in there, and not a dangerous conversation. Still, as he stepped onto the platform, he couldn't help but think she would be quite difficult to forget.