Excerpt: Greylag

AD 994
Bamburgh, Northumbria
The first thing that Andy McKenzie noticed on his arrival was the extraordinary freshness of the air, albeit air fragranced with the smell of wood smoke and animal manure. His twenty first century senses simply weren’t accustomed to the lack of pollution. As a brand new city, Eureka had been constructed with the highest ecological principles in mind, and was surrounded by redwood forest on three sides and sea on the fourth. But even the most environmentally friendly new conurbations like Eureka had a much higher level of pollution than this farmstead in rural Norway in 994AD.
Andy McKenzie - the youngest member of The Nucleus - was ninety three years old, but thanks to genetic modification and multiple rejuvenation procedures he had the strength, agility and stamina of a twenty eight year old - a fact he frequently tormented his sixth wife with. It was his fitness and adventurous spirit that had qualified him to become the first human time-traveller, and he had been charged by the rest of The Nucleus to retrieve their quarry. Months had been spent teaching Andy Old Norse linguistics and culture, honing his body to peak fitness and learning all about the object of his historic historical mission: Gunnar Órækjasson, the most feared Viking leader of his time. Throughout all history, he was the individual identified as being most suitable; a brilliant tactician and ruthlessly efficient hunter, it was felt that his mind would be most susceptible to re-education and his personality most amenable to control by The Nucleus. He was the perfect candidate for the task of eradicating the remaining faithful of the future.
Andy had arrived with an explosion of orange sparks and a loud bang on the edge of pine woodland bordering Órækjasson’s farmstead. He was dressed in a thick woollen tunic with a leather belt, animal skin leggings and a black cloak fastened at the shoulder with a large iron pin. Underneath, however he wore something that would not be seen on earth for over a millennium; an uncomfortable harness designed to rip open the fabric of space-time and propel him forward and back through time and space. A breastplate packed with electronics and an immensely powerful cold fusion cell nestled in the small of his back completed the apparatus. Although he knew the noise of his arrival would arouse suspicion, Andy waited until his eyes became accustomed to the darkness. The intense piercing darkness of this indigo night was another surprise to Andy; light pollution simply didn’t exist here. Once his eyes had accommodated, Andy checked his relative chronometer; 1:28am 17th May, AD 994 - he’d successfully travelled more than one thousand years into the past. In the distance he spotted the only source of light outside of the night sky itself; two blazing pitch torches on either side of the hefty door of the farmstead’s wooden central hall. Andy’s briefing had suggested that at night the door would be barricaded against intruders and animals, so instead of heading straight for the main entrance, he sidled up to to the longest wall of the structure and proceeded to a large low window. As stealthily as he could (grateful that glass manufacture was over 300 years in the future) he pushed against the shutter.
“It takes a brave man or a very stupid man to try to enter the hall of Órækjasson without permission,” rang out a high voice in the darkness. “Which are you?”
McKenzie turned sharply to see a tall, slim figure dressed in a grey flaxen tunic, over draped with chainmail, leggings similar to his own, and leather boots. The warrior’s head was protected with a metal helmet and a crude mask of iron shielded the face.
“Cat got your tongue?” taunted the guard. “It doesn’t matter - brave or foolish, we kill both on sight.”
The last thing Andy McKenzie saw was the glint of firelight on the cutting edge of a cold heavy sword as it swung through the air and pierced his heart.
The last thing Æsa Gunnarsdottir saw were the electrical sparks venting from the electronic panel covering Andy’s chest where her sword had caused a short circuit. In fear of this trickery, she instinctively gripped the bone Valkyrie amulet for good fortune. Before she could withdraw her blade, their two bodies were engulfed in microscopic blue-white photons, and they were sucked out of existence.