The order of the Mortal Knights
( Help wanted!
Currently I do not have a beta reader, and I need someone to read my story to warn me
if I write some nonsense. While I try to check twice, I am i still have many mistakes.
I need some to check it in order to clean at least the most horrendous parts)
By Javier Delgado R.
Fan fiction, inspired by "Oh My Goddess" by Kosuke Fujishima.
Multiverse
Chapter XLII
Commander Brynjar Leifsson was looking at the starry sky. In this era where people barely looked at the skies he was proud to be able to name all the visible constellations, even in this particular sky so far from his homeland. It was a bit annoying realize that despite the great distance, the position of the stars had changed so little, after all, the main difference was only a new star in the sky.
Despite the commanders name, which in the ancient language meant "warrior in armor", his slender body and his smoldering and dreamy gaze seemed more worthy of a romantic poet looking for inspiration under that magnificent sky, removed for the noisy chat of his crew,
He sighed under his ideas, What would his ancestors would have thought about his mission?, a mission that have taken to distances inconceivable to them. He looked around and marveled at the sight, the surrounding spectacle was imposing, without wind that distorted the view, the stars could be seen in all their splendor as fixed and solid points, and although sometimes he could see some flickering lights, he knew they were not stars, but objects created by man, all of them under his care. There were thousands and thousands of them, extended over a distance almost equal distance from the earth to the moon.
Brynjar felt a shiver of pleasure, his dream was finally a reality. It seemed incredible that just a few years had passed since the publication of his fantastic project to until it became reality and that was a sign of the times that were coming. After that humanity had abandoned the useless wars, a lot of resources had been diverted to science and research. Now if a scientist required a ton of gold, the problem was simply logistics since the problem was no longer getting the gold, but when and where it would be needed ... And of course, his project had cost far more than just a ton of gold. The logistics had been incredibly complex, but the new magic words that mankind had developed, as CAD / CAM, robotics, AI, 3D printing and others had achieved the impossible.
Now he was now floating freely in the Lagrange point, perpendicular to the plane of the orbit of the solar system, at the very limits of the Oort cloud. At that distance the sun was just another star in the sky. It was necessary to be as far as possible from the influence of the gravity of the planets so it will not interference, as the mission was extremely delicate: To perceive the distortions of space-time in order to find out what was beyond our universe. In order to accomplish this, his crew had deployed nearly 20,000 small satellites, each one able to establish its position with respect to others with an unimaginable precision never before attained. And now they allowed to perceive the delicate distortions of space-time and thus able to observe gravitational waves from other universes. It was like using the waves in the surface of a pond to measure its form and size,.each wave progressed and reflected back at the edges, and measuring how they move and interact with the others could use to guess the shape of the pond. Along very long months they had been collecting data and more data, while computers on earth absorbed that information as quickly as possible and now, he was only waiting for their verdict.
Suddenly a disembodied voice distracted him.
- Commander Leifsson, we have received the carrier signal and soon we will receive the first data packet, by the header seems it would take just 10 minutes.
The man felt a rush of adrenalin... At Last! Soon he would know if this long trip was worth it. So the commander and doctor in astrophysics Brynjar Leifsson left the astronomical observatory in the space station Fafnir I, on it´s mission to detect abnormalities in the gravitational waves.
The voice continued:
- I must say I am very committed to the objectives of this mission. After you receive the data, would you like to play a nice game of chess.
While the impersonal voice continued talking, the commander bent his legs to his chest and spun on its axis until he was able to place his feet against the wall and then pushed hard to float across the module in the direction to one of the tubes that intersected the modules that made up the station.. Months of living in weightlessness gave his movement an elegance that would be impossible on earth. But before entering the tube he gripped form a handrail and looked toward a small camera mounted on the wall, then said with some annoyance.
- Please do not insist!. You know I do not like chess and no, I do not want to hear you sing "Daisy Daisy". I don't know who was the nerd that put the name of HAL on you, but please stop trying to imitate it ...
An electronic noise was heard, it was sound used by the AI from the space station to impersonate laughter, it rang through the speakers and then in a voice that was indistinguishable from that of a human being said:
- Sorry commander, but I was programmed with sense of humor and find it very stimulating. If you wish, I can tune down my mood parameters, I do not wish to cause you any discomfort.
- "HAL, I do not mind your sense humor, it´s just that, from the human point of view, you are too obsessed with some of it. If you repeated a joke many times, it loses its effectiveness. "
This time the voice answered imitating a military recruit form an old movie:
- "Yes sir, I understand sir, no more repetitions, sir ..."
Faced with so unexpected response commander Leifsson could not help but laughing.
- "Okay, Okay, please, no more...! That is new, I think you got the idea, but now we have important issues to attend. "
The commander left the observatory module and went into the control module, the largest module in the station, after the entertainment area. He paused and looked at his subjects of this little kingdom.
As expected, all were present, even those who should be in their sleep period. Twenty men and women had been carefully selected for the mission, they were some of the brightest minds on earth, and ...
... His smile froze at the sight of a couple who were obviously trying to hide from his sight and thought he needed recant, not all were bright.
That couple had an "achievement" he would have wished not to have ... the first baby born in space was on his way due a stupid oversight. Both crew members had thought that the other was the one who was taking contraceptives, and since pregnancy tests were not part of standard medical equipment in a space station they did not realize until it was too late ...
He was still thinking about an appropriate punishment, but at least banning them access to social networks had them pretty unhappy and that gave him some satisfaction. Yet he could not help thinking about the good old days when discipline could include whips, dungeons or at least mountains of potatoes.
The commander groaned and tried to think of something else. He greeted everyone and sat in place, ignoring the unhappy couple, then proceeded to verify the transmission. Of course, it was completely unnecessary but he needed something to conceal his own nervousness.
The data package was now on its way, though it seemed strange that it was so small. Of course sending audio and video in real time was out of question, it was very inefficient so the information was sent in packets of highly compressed data. Sending a signal to many millions of kilometers was not easy and the bandwidth was limited.
Finally, the data packet was completed, but he felt that something was wrong. It was only a compressed video file!. Where was the data he expected? There was not even a text file to explain.
He looked at his crew, who seemed just as confused as him. Everyone was ready for the celebration, they even had liquid containers filled with spirited drinks, they have been packaged and stored carefully just for this moment ...
Fearing the worst, he opened the video file and send it to the main screen, so everyone could watch it. On the screen appeared a man, he seemed to be Japanese, somehow his face was familiar. He recalled he had seen him on some newscasts, and that puzzled him, he had nothing to do with his mission ... the man gave an ample smile and began to speak.
- "Greetings from Earth, commander Brynjar Leifsson, allow me to introduce myself, possibly my face look familiar to you, I am professor Shugahara Kenji, from Chiba University, I am an expert in ethnobotany and ancient traditions, and surely you are wondering why I'm talking to you, so please have a little patience. - "the man on the screen, looked at a paper he had and then to the camera, smiled and said - "by the way, judging by your name I was expecting you would look different, the name Brynjar has an ancient history behind, but surely wearing an armor in gravity zero would be an inconvenience"- the man laughed merrily and that annoyed commander Leifsson, somehow his sense of humor reminded him HAL, who also told jokes at the most inopportune moments ... He had no way of knowing that professor Kawazu and his"nerds" had designed HAL using some of Shugahara personality as template!. Meanwhile, the man continued -" excuse me, I am digressing. First I must offer an apology for disturbing the mission protocols sending this video instead of the data analysis you were waiting, but your discovery is much more important than you can imagine, so it requires some explanations. Second "- he made an extremely melodramatic pause and then exclaimed -." You did it! You and your crew really were able to go beyond our local time and space and have detected other universes ... "
The crew burst into shouts of joy, while on the screen the man took a small porcelain cup served from a bottle, greeted towards the camera and then took a sip. Then the camera image changed to the control center from the International Space Agency where there was a big celebration and everyone was shouting with joy.
After a few minutes the image of the man reappeared and said smiling - " If you wish to celebrate, I suggest putting pause to the video"-. The transmission was already 20 hours old, yet he must have guessed the reactions on the Fafnir I Station. - but instead of doing so, commander Leifsson let it running. He was very intrigued. The man continued talking.
- "But as I told you before this discovery is greater than you can even imagine" ...
This time the commander put the recording pause, surprised by those words. He looked at his crew and a desperate voice shouted:
- "Everyone, be quiet, there is more to come. There is something very strange here. "
The euphoria of his crew subdued with difficulty, but eventually everyone calmed down and returned to their places, then he put "play":. The voice, which already came from 20 hours from the past continued.
- "Yes, your discovery managed to penetrate into the structure of space-time and allow us to see something we only dreamed before, other universes. But you must know we are not the first to see them. "- The man spoke to someone off camera and said- " Please, Put the picture ..." - Finally that was an image of the data analysis they want to see.- "please observe, this is a three dimensional representation of the data generated by your system. Of course the original has more than 14 dimensions so this is an oversimplification "- On the screen they saw blurry shapes joined by gauzy ribbons. The image was allowed to have some rotational movement so they could examine those clouds at various angles. - "In the middle we can see our universe and around it there are others island universes. Ours is the biggest, and therefore it has some different properties, also you can see that there are some anomalies. In your project you reported that you expected to see something like that, but there is something else that you had no way of knowing ... You can see the universes are connected by some energy ribbons. They are like wormholes that connect these universes ... "
A gasp was heard from the crew ... until then they had been quietly discussing what the man said, but those words had been a total surprise.
The commander thought ... "Impossible, there is no way that those holes can be maintained naturally ... they have to be ..."
- "Yes Dr. Leifsson, surely you have come to the conclusion that these wormholes can not be natural, otherwise you would have expected in your theoretical work. Indeed, these wormholes are artificial, created by beings more advanced than us. I am sure that after examining the image, you would fell it looks familiar and you do not know how it can be. Let me show you of where it comes, you should be especially familiar with this: ".- On the screen appeared a photograph, it was from a very old document -" This is part of a manuscript of the XII century, do you recognize it "-?
The commander gaped ... and stammered:
- "The… the... Yggdrassil tree! How can it be possible?"
- "Yes, our near multiverse with these energy ribbons has some resemblance to the Yggdrasil tree of Norse mythology, and there is good reason for it. So please, have a little patience, the explanation is much more fantastic than you can even imagine. Let's advance a step an at a time. Soon you would receive another transmission, it will contain two articles, one from Professor Yukiko Ohta, it´s about the inner working of those ribbons, we call then "portals" to other universes, the other is from Professor Jenny Rosenthal about the space time structure of multidimensional universes. In due time your work will be published along the articles from Yukiko Ohta and Jenny Rosenthal. The three articles will change our whole conception of the universe and I am sure that the Nobel Committee will be in problems deciding who will get the Nobel prize first, since those three works deserve it. Surely at this time you must have hundreds of questions, you wonder how it is possible that Dr. Ohta could know in advance about wormholes before you detected them and why we know they are artificial?, well that is because Professor Ohta has seen them operate and had meet their travelers. "
At this moment the station control module became something that might resemble an old seventeenth-century madhouse ... Screams, discussions, questionings, people fainting ...
The man on the screen, which had probably anticipated the effect of his words paused, he waited patiently for a few minutes and then continued, this time everyone became silent instantly, trying to hear what he said:
- "Surely everyone has heard many rumors that CERN had contact with ... er ... Beings from other dimensions. Rumor that had never been accepted or denied, CERN issued communiques asking not to speak about the matter ... Now I must tell you that the rumors were true. We are in contact with beings from other universes, and they can open portals to our universe. Those beings have been in contact with humanity since out beginnings, and they are so advance we can only call them gods... and demons. Moreover, we have signed an alliance with them in order to explore the nature of the multiverse. The authorities of CERN and other scientific institutions are very sorry for having to withhold this information, but it was necessary that you would find this answer without any preconceived ideas. Your mission is part of an alliance that we have signed with the gods and demons. Now, in order to give you a better explanation, we will send you someone who can answer your questions in real time. "
By that time commander Leifsson was on the verge of panic, then something happened that made him think this was all a dream or a nightmare ... The image of the man disappeared and from the screen began to emerge a pair of beautiful female legs ...
xxx
Keiichi was heading to the room he now shared with Belldandy, carrying a steaming cup of coffee. That was a side effect of having Jenny Rosenthal as a guest for almost a year, only just then it had been considered it was safe for her to return to CERN. Although, even if she still had a direct connection with Galileo, Jenny and her husband like to return to visit them very often, and that meant more strong coffee was needed. So now, Keiichi inhaled the aroma of coffee that Jenny had taught him to appreciate. Keiichi could not help but been excited knowing that some of the most revolutionary ideas of the physics in the XXI century had originated in the garden of the Tarikihongan temple.
Keiichi looked around and listen carefully. The place was unusually quiet. Belldandy had joined Lind in their work educating children, Kenji was in Jaxa, the Japanese space program, that was part of the giant complex known as the International Space Agency ... Urd was now on the Fafnir I, some million kilometers from the earth and probably she would by a couple of days off, because as the writer AC Clarke had suggested, not even the gods could go faster than the speed of light.
He yawned lazily and entered his room. With such peace this could be a very productive day.
He sat at his Japanese style low desk, and as she took another sip of coffee he opened a drawer and pulled out a paper, he contemplated it with some nervousness. It was a registration form given to him by Kenji. There, in a coldly bureaucratic way, this was a simple request to add to Belldandy to the family register of the Morisato family.
He put the paper on the table, left the coffee cup and took his personal seal. Now he had sweaty hands ... but he could not back down, not after all they had been through together. Finally, he applied the seal to the paper and felt a shudder. Officially, before the Japanese laws, Keiichi and Belldandy were now recognized as husband and wife.
He and Belldandy had already been living together, yet he had not thought before about performing this simple procedure, it was not until Kenji and Urd informed him something that left him speechless. Kenji wished to adopt officially Somasindhu and Gyrid and he was already doing the necessary paperwork ... And that included updating Shugahara´s family register with Urd´s name.
True, when he heard the couple plan Keiichi had responded with giggles, since they already they had been acting as foster parents of those two. Probably it had been Kenji´s idea, since in Japan adult adoption is quite common, but to think that Urd was to officially become a mother was simply hilarious, even if it was a mere formalism. But Keiichi laughter frozen when Kenji had offered him a family registry format ... for him and Belldandy, it already had the signatures of the witnesses. This time it was Urd turn for laughing.
Keiichi stared at the plain printed paper sheet ... It was so strange that something so important would be that simple. Belldandy had explained him the importance of rituals, so surely they need to have some sort of ceremony to complete their union. Keiichi smiled thinking that Belldandy would suggest doing a double ceremony ... then Keiichi laughed merrily, or maybe would plan for a triple ceremony! Soon Sentarō would reach the legal age for marriage, and so far he seemed to be really very committed to Skuld.
Then Keiichi´s smile froze thinking about one of the normal consequence of marriage: Children.
He knew it was biologically impossible for he and Belldandy to have offspring. Simply his biological body and the goddess energy body were not compatible enough to begin a new life and that meant they would have to adopt a baby ... And that was a problem. Knowing Belldandy, she would be willing to adopt half of Japan´s orphans ... just for starting.
Keiichi took the cup of coffee and drank the last sip, that idea was too much for him... the last time he searched, he found there were about 39,000 orphans in Japan... He shuddered!. He needed to ward off that idea, at least until the time it came to discuss that issue with Belldandy. For the moment he was happy and the world seemed so be a wonderful place. Of course, it was not perfect. In the brief conversations with Chrono, the young Valkyrie. In her brief visits to earth to get more lunar bracelets for the gods, she told him that in heaven using Belldandy´s name had been declared anathema. Any mention of her or her acts had been forbidden and even there were plans to restore the doublet system that Belldandy had suspended in her deal with Hild. Kamisama apparently was creating an atmosphere of fear of demons. Fortunately the dealings between Heaven, Hell and the mortal world could not be canceled, having been sanctioned by the three judges ... That is Kenji, Sentarō and himself, specially gods really depended on the lunar bracelets and they could not risk losing them, specially since the wish granting system had been suspended. Yet communications had been restricted to a minimum.
Keiichi shook his head with sadness, then decided it was time to start working. He spoke:
- "Good morning Galileo, can you show me where we left yesterday´s wok?"
A friendly voice answered:
- "Good morning Keiichi-san. Happy to serve you. This is the current design, you were planing to make some changes in the feedback systems. "
Having at his service the most advanced artificial intelligence of the planet, a powerful server, and access to the most advanced computing facility on earth, plus the latest technological advances, definitely had its benefits.
In the middle of the room appeared a holography projection for an advanced vehicle, it was a kind of hybrid of motorcycle and quadcopter. This design had been possible thanks to new energy sources based on solid-state systems, a byproduct of the technology behind the lunar bracelets.
Keiichi smiled at his creation, he rose from his desk to walk around the 3d image. He examined it from all angles.
He made some gestures in the air that made the CAD system graphical interface to appear. He executed some commands and the image was amplified, and turned partially transparent, revealing its internal parts. He examined its details carefully, then with another gesture he returned the image to the original 1: 1 scale.
Keiichi scratched his chin, thinking, the mounted over the image as if it were possible to drive the vehicle. Although this was only a virtual three-dimensional image he almost felt as if it were real. He gave a gentle slap to the machine and finally stepped aside.
He closed his eyes imagining and recreating in his own mind the vehicle doing some maneuvers, opened his eyes and pointed to some parts saying:.
- "Galileo, here and here need we need other pressure sensors, in order to get a better feel of the driver's position. With the existing ones the driver can guide the vehicle with only the movement of your body without even touching the handlebars, but that can be improved. We must also reduce the response from the automatic stabilization of movement by 32%."
-" That will make the movement a little more abrupt, it that not a drawback ?" - Galileo asked.
- " The driver needs more feedback, otherwise he will feel he does not have enough control. Since the vehicle moves in three dimensions, not just two, there needs to be a better coordination between human and machine, with these changes the system will be so intuitive that will not require much training."
- I understand, it's like when humans drive that vehicle called bike, they can do it without using their hands, just with their bodies balance. Is that desirable or efficient? The AI of the vehicle could drive people from one place to the other by simply by giving the address.
- More efficient, perhaps, but less fun and challenging, in fact I'm thinking that a better analogy would be like riding on a horse, the animal can feel and even anticipate the rider´s actions. Have you incorporated the biometric data on the standard responses of the population? I do not want the vehicle AI would think the driver is at the border of a heart attack when he is just enjoying an adrenaline rush."
- "They are already built in, and as the AI of the machine collects biometric data system it will even be able to detect medical problems and report then on time."
- "Excellent, that will be an excellent argument for sale" - Keiichi laughed with pleasure at the results of his work. - "Now, let's see the operation of the additional sensors, show me the control subroutines."
In the air it appeared the flow chart of the system. There were many branches dedicated just to ensure the safety of the driver. Then he marked several function modules. - "Please, alter the order of this sequence, and we need to add here the data stream of the new sensors, then show me the standard simulation flight test"- The diagram was replaced by an image of the machine, with a simulated driver, flying through a series of obstacles. Keiichi observed data of the machine / driver interaction and, he asked Galileo for some corrections and run the simulation again. After nearly an hour of work Keiichi finally smiled with satisfaction and declared:.- "That's all. You can send it to 3D printing and machining. I want to feel this machine and not just a simulation. "
After a brief pause Galileo answered: - Done, It´s now into the production queue. Estimated processing time: 6 hours 31 minutes. You can get it into the assembly line this afternoon if you want.- Galileo paused and changed his intonation to the voice he used when he wished to discuss more personal issues - "Keiichi-san, may I ask some questions, I am curious about something."
- "Of course, you are free to ask any questions you want. What do you want to know?"
- "You just made several changes in the AI programming and they significantly improved performance, however, as far as I know you do not know the inner workings of the system's algorithms. How is it possible?"
Keiichi scratched his head pondering the problem ...
- Mhhh. Interesting question. I'm not a scientist as Kenji, I'm not as interested in knowing the most elementary reason why things works, instead I need to know it has the specifications I need. I do not want to see the code for each algorithm, I want then to fulfill properly their functions, I guess that is why I am an engineer, some people call this engineers intuition.
- I understand, for you algorithms are like black boxes, what is inside does not matter, only matter the input and output. Interesting.
Keiichi laughed at the AI curiosity, it was so human!.
- "I'm sure you'll do more research on that, I have curiosity to see what conclusions you can arrive, but for now lets back to work, please contact Chihiro".
In the middle of the room appeared a holo screen with a sign announced "call in progress", a few seconds later it was replaced by the image of Chihiro, her ex-boss and now a partner in Whirlwind, the most advanced company in the field of personal vehicles. As usual Chihiro had her hands stained with grease, she held a tool in one hand and a mechanical part in the other. She was in a crowded workshop, surrounded by several young and smiling engineers.
The scene was not what one would expect from the office of the president of the company, but Chihiro had abandoned a promising career in a big company to open her small workshop in order to have total freedom and like Keiichi she did not want to lose it, she was happy to have a tool bench instead of a desktop. She smiled at him and waved:
-Hi Keiichi, When will ready our new baby ? -
- The labor went without problems and its already in it´s way to the nursery... the prototype has been already sent to print and machining, but remember, this time I want you to wait for me to make the assembling. I also want to have some fun. I'll take Sentarō with me to try it and got his opinion.
The woman laughed and said ...
-" I do not make any guaranty, besides.. I WILL TRY IT FIRST, I am supposed to be the director of the company."- They laughed like children in anticipation of having a new toy. Then Chihiro scratched her head and asked - "There's something I do not understand, I've reviewed your changes log and I have some doubts. Were so many security measures really necessary?"
- "Ah.! Definitely yes!, If we knew only experienced pilots would ride it, the redundant safety would not be needed and even it could be considered limiting, but the vehicle will be so easy to handle that I am sure many inexperienced users are going to do some really stupid things with it ...
The woman laughed at the response and trying to imitate a stern voice she said:
-"Remember, It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious."- both burst out laughing, then Keiichi replied:
- Still, I´ll do my best. Also I would like to design a variant that could be perfect as rescue vehicle, I am sure we can sell a good batch to the global self-defense forces.
The woman's eyes twinkled, if there was anything that she enjoyed more than a good machine, was a good deal ... No matter what kind of deal.
- Well, I'll take care of talking to them. I will salute Mr. Valois in your name. Perhaps ... I will invite him to YOUR house, it seems that his wife enjoys visiting you." - Then the woman became more serious- "You know, there's something I do not understand. Although the main purpose of self-defense forces is now rescue and relief for the general population, they still have a substantial budget devoted to weapons. I can't understand the reason and Valois tells me nothing, I feel there is something strange behind. "
The question took Keiichi by surprise ... After all, he knew the reason. There was a hidden enemy, perhaps human weapons were useless against those powers, but still humanity should try to be prepared.
- "Well, yes, hardly we will see wars between human anymore...
- Then against whom, Extraterrestrials? Do you think those rumors about gods and demons that are running lately have some truth?
Keiichi was silent a moment, he knew that social scientists were creating a network of stories, rumors and ideas in order that humanity would accept as a matter of fact the existence of gods and demons, specially without falling into religious problems ...
- "Maybe, I do not really know, but Kenji has told me some extraordinary things. I think we should wait a few years to know what is behind this..."
Chihiro looked unconvinced,
- "Okay, never mind, I just need he would buy what we can offer. So, I will TRY to wait for you before assembling the vehicle, meanwhile I need to think a good name, Air Vehicle DF-2345 Version 3.2 does not sound very interesting, something aggressive would do, maybe the name of a bird of prey. I´ll do the christening of the baby. Bye"
The image of the woman disappeared and now Keiichi´s smiling change to a serious look, he told Galileo.
- Lets back to more important matters. Were you able to finish disassembling the code?
- "75% of it, there still some routines that I can not fully understand ... But I know what they do, so... following your working style I will mark them as Black boxes for now." - Keiichi nodded with satisfaction - "Here it is".
In the middle of the room came the image of a pedestal with the small cylinder. It was the weapon of the first born that had been given to Keiichi. The weapon glowed and the room was filled with a holo of it´s complex magical code. Keiichi had already seen somethin similar to this code, at the timne he became a data entity and got into Yggdrasil, yet this was different, for starts it was much more ancient.
Keiichi sighed, as expected, the code seemed completely incomprehensible, but he hope that with Galileo´s aid he it would be able to make some sense of it. So, with the AI help he began to examine the algorithms and functions, to find out how this weapon work. He explored the I / O interfaces and memory modules . A couple of hours later, Keiichi finally gave up. He could understand some subroutines and functions, but the programming logic completely eluded him.
There was only one people that could help him, and he did not wish to do it, but maybe it was time to face that problem.
xxx
Anang Reng woke up and opened his eyes ... Then he yelled in surprise. In the past, his consciousness had simply been activated without any physical sensation, but now he had opened his eyelids!. He had a physical body!.
He was in a large room and tied to a metal chair. Metal strips fastened his body and his head preventing him from turning to look around. He tried to get up and break free, but the tapes were extremely strong, to his surprise, he could feel the effort and pain on his muscles as he struggled. He yelled in pain. It was a new and terrifying sensation, not only he had a physical body, but it was an organic body. He froze when he heard a hoarse, deep voice laughing ominously.
- "It seems you like the pain. I can help you to feel more if you wish. There are some techniques that I would like to try in the organic body of an ex-demon "-
- "Who are you, or what are you?, free me! ... - he shouted with all the fury of an ancient demon, ignoring completely his civilized part.
- "You know who I am, we made a deal ... remember?", You will be freed as soon as you stop fighting and accept my propose "- the deep voice spoke with a calm tone that made his blood boil. After all you are here because you wished take the Hild´s place and you can still do it. With the knowledge you had, you helped us to penetrate into Hell defenses and we were able to got into Nieghood deepest levels ... "- he paused to let the demon digest that information - "... and I am not ungrateful. Soon we will begin our righteous vengeance and our race will ultimately prevail. We will bring despair to gods and demons and will take them down almost to extermination ... so in order to thank you, you will have rule on the survivors. Think about it, you can become your race savior, or what remains of it. "
Anang Rengh howled in pain trying to free himself from his bonds, but it was useless. He tried to cast a spell, but he did no possess magic.
- "I will not let you harm my people. I just wanted to be their leader to prevail over those stupid gods. They killed my son"
The stranger laughed again and said,
- "I gave you that chance and you failed. So instead I simply took your memories and now we have everything you need. Think about this, you can refuse to help us and your people will be completely exterminated. Help us and we will give some survivors ... Of course ... We'll have some fun with them first, enough to make then beg you to be saved. And then you can choose who will live. Perhaps a hundred demons and a few slave gods, will be enough to be able to start a small kingdom, as they did with us ... "
Anang Rengh fought harder to break free, his howls and roars seemed more of a wounded animal, he felt the metal strips sinking into the skin causing pain, but it was useless, he could not get free ...
- "No, never, will not help" -
- "Excellent, I could not expect less from a great demon lord like you. But we have seen into your mind. We know that as soon as you realize you have no other option, you will cooperate with us, we just need a little time ... we can wait. Meanwhile, you will be an excellent entertainment. "
Anang Reng heard the footsteps go away, the were not of a demon nor a god. It belonged to a big creature, maybe barefoot with his claws scratching the ground. What kind monster could it be? Why he was speaking about revenge against both demons and gods?
Anang Rengh´s new body was almost as strong as the original, the demon fought for hours and the hours became days, his skin was ripped, his muscle and tendons were torn ... until the new body reach its limits, and eventually he lost consciousness amid intense pain.
Suddenly, he woke again, opened his eyes and saw that his body was intact ... A voice said ... -" It has been so fun, I want to see it again, but this time we will help you to have more pain. I'm curious to see how many times we need to repeat the process."
Anang Reng howled again, but this time it was not anger but despair.
xxx
In the main display at the command center in the space station Fafnir I, a man with a strong Italian accent was finishing his speech. A new file had arrived and had a very interesting story.
- "And so this is the summary of the events that took us to participate the alliance between humans, gods and demons. Now a new chapter is starting, and you will be an important part of it. Your names are already have a place in history alongside Columbus and Magellan, and I assure you I am not exaggerating. Commander Leifsson, I'm sure you and your crew still have many questions, many of them are rather technical and are out of my area, but I am sure goddess Urd, Norn and the goddess of the past can answer them. Soon we will contact you, end of transmission."
An absolute silence reign in the command module. It was like waking from a dream realizing that everything they knew about the world was wrong and that their trip, millions of kilometers away form earth now seemed a tiny small first step.
Commander Leifsson was the first to react. He floated slowly to stand in front of the goddess and somehow managed to make a bow and awed he said:
- "Siguió kvað: Segðu mér, Fáfnir, alls þik fróðan kveða mok vel margt vita, hverjar ro þær nornir, er nauðgönglar ro ok kjósa mæðr frá mögum"
He looked at the goddess who stared at him in joy at his words, then continue saying:
- "As a child I learned that poem form the Völuspá, and I was trilled by the sagas from the Eda, but it was beyond my imagination that one day could meet the goddess Urth."
Urd contemplated the man with watery eyes and then looked around. These men and women had gone to the edge of space in fragile vessels, their journey had lasted months, and new there will be a least a year before their return to earth, knowing that they were completely alone, millions of kilometers away from their home planet and therefore more alone than any other human being in the history of the earth, and all that by a thirst for knowledge that his own people had abandoned eons of years ago.
Urd floated toward the man who kept his eyes down, not daring to lift them to meet hers. She gently touched his face and make him meet her eyes, then said.
- "Commander Leifsson, you are an extraordinary man, you remind me of another mortal I know. Your own thirst for knowledge makes you forget how extraordinary are your achievements. I can tell you that one day you too will be part of those legends, I'll add a song about the saga of your his trip to the inhospitable confines of the solar system. - Urd looked around and started singing a protective spell.
- "Komið einir tveir, komið annars dags; ykkr læt ek þat gull of gefit verða "-
The command module of the ship emitted a soft glow, and the crew for a moment felt that invaded a sense of joy and healthiness, then Urd floated to the young couple, she smiled at the girl and to her surprise, she touched her belly. Urd recalled those babies she had help to born, centuries ago on earth and smiled.
- "I'm a Norn, the goddess of the past and can not make prophecies, yet I can see that your son will be the first emissary of men to the stars. My spell will give him a little luck, but the merits will be theirs alone. "
Then Urd floated, she looked around the module until she found some containers filled with liquids that had been secured to the table with Velcro and added, forgetting her former solemn attitude to replace it with a mischievous tone:
- "Now, if I remember correctly, you were about to celebrate, and someone at the ISA told me that the commander of this station had secretly brought a good supply of brännvin."
The commander was trying to say something, but he just stood with his mouth open ... then he floated to the table and solemnly he offered to Urd one of the liquid containers. It was filled with this favorite brännvin, it was an aquavit, a distilled liquor made from potatoes and spiced with some herbs ... Urd took the "offering", she savored first with a small sip and then took almost half bottle in one take, with a grin she cheerfully exclaimed.
- "Excellent tastes, commander. But fear not, I know that a million kilometers away from earth this is worth a lot for you ... So I'll have just one bottle! And now we have to work, I know you have several thousand questions for me "- Urd went along to the center of the ship and said: -". HAL, please display the hologram of the data analyst I gave you "- floating in middle air, there was an image that had some resemblance to a phantasmagorical tree, Urd explained: -" This is an analysis of the gravitational waves you have detected, and HAL has now the algorithms developed on earth that allow us to create this crude image of our near multiverse. But we can tweak it to have better details. No, I can say to you, that even for even for most gods this image is unknown. Yet the ancestors of gods and demons, people that were not very different from you knew about it, but it was forgotten and distorted until it became this: ".- Urd extended her hand and the virtual image was replaced with the image of an ancient documents, then the commander exclaimed:
- "But how can it be the Yggdrassil tree? How could my ancestors new it?
Urd laughed and then said to the commander in an embarrassed tone.
- I confess that I am guilty for that. More than 800 years ago I came to earth and teached your ancestors many stories, based on my world legends, although I took some liberties with the originals. So, there is no snake biting the roots or any squirrel running up and down the tree, that was a poetic exaggeration on my part when I wrote that myth. I was a young and irresponsible goddess and never thought that one day I would have to correct those little exaggerations to the descendants of those people. To my in the blink of an eye humans have grown much" - She looked at the commander with a big grin, meanwhile, as he saw the goddess more human and less distant, soon he found it was increasingly difficult to take his eyes away from the places her dress did not hide... and Urd was very pleased with that. She continued: "- Those parts that looked like branches are flows of energy. Hell and Asgard have been taken energy from your universe in order to prevent their own collapse, also you can see the paths of wormholes used to travel from universe to universe. The biggest universe, it's your own universe, this other is Asgard or heaven ... The las one was name that started being using between gods when Christianity become popular "
The crew of the ship listened fascinated and were gradually forgetting they were with a goddess. They began to tweak the image parameters, and argue with each other, after all most of the crew had at least a doctorate in astrophysics besides other academic titles. The commander pointed to some blurry areas and comment ...
-" So these island universes should be, Álfheimr, Niðavellir, Dökkálfar, Midgard, Jötunheimr, Vanaheimr, Niflheim, Muspelheimand Hell. ?"
- That's right commander ... We call this universe Midgard, the world of mortals, as you can see is the biggest of all. And this is Asgard, the world of the gods, and Kenji ... er ... Professor Shugahara asked me to use the original name instead of Heaven in order to help the mortal world to assimilate more easily the existence of gods, without religious problems. -
- So is it true that they will make everyone known all about this? It will not be keep hidden to the rest of the, huh!, mortal world?" - asked one of the crew.
- "The rivalry between gods and demons is the reason that led us to hide our real existence and kept it secret from most mortals, but the situation has changed radically, mortals are now our allies. This is something we have agreed. There is a group of social scientists and intellectuals led by Professor Shugahara that are paving the way for all this in order to became public knowledge, but for that reason will delay the publication of your findings "- In the cabin a collective gasp was heard indignation, but the goddess gaze reduce it to silence, then continued -"but you should not worry, we hope that within a year, maximum two this work will be published simultaneously with other related scientific papers and also of great importance. It will be a great impact for your world, so it was to be done carefully, but I assure you that it will be publish. "-
Murmurs and expressions of approval and relief were heard. They were scientists, so there was nothing they hate more than to keep something secret. Soon they forgot about it and continue trying the image algorithms examining it in more detail. Soon a heated argument began between two groups, and after a while one scientist floated toward Urd. The goddess smiled at him and said:
- "Let me see, you are Professor Alexander Dubyago from Moscow University? Astrophysics, astrometry and gravimetry? If I recall.
Through his great black beard the man smiled at the goddess and proudly spoke with a heavy accent:
- "And quantum mechanics, if I may say." The man bored a big grin, proud of his own accomplishments, then added, " I noticed that some of those universes have very weak echoes ... they remind me in some way to the clouds of gas that remains of a supernova, perhaps they no longer exist and we only see the products of their decomposition. "
Urd felt a chill hearing those words, there were old legends from the god and demon about a golden age when they coexisted with other races, and then they suddenly disappeared, and the old portals with their universes became inoperative ... Could it be they had being destroyed? . She slowly approached the image and observed the anomalies noted by the Russian. The room was silent, it was obvious goddess was distressed. Urd ignored them and began communicating directly with HAL, and began to apply different analysis algorithms, correlations and models to the data. Finally, she confirmed Dr. Dubyago observation. Those universes no longer existed. Urd slowly floated away from the image and began to mourn.
The commander Leifsson was taken aback when he saw floating in the cabin the shining tears of the goddess ... He extended his hand and touched one of them, and was invaded with a depth sorrow, he was at loss at words, then he came up with an idea, quickly he went to the drinks table, took one and offered it to the goddess, as he gently took her by the shoulder .. .
His gentleness and shyness remembered Urd about the mortal man she loved ... and could not help a small laugh, then she took the container and took several sips. Then she took commander hands and said:
- "I had so many hopes meet them again. There are some wonderful legends about them... and I mean the real ones, not the tales I created on earth centuries ago." - She sighed and said - "When we analyzed their data you send us, I recognized the tree, and remembered those legends about the Dwarves, the Ljósálfar, the Jötnar, the Vanir. There are so beautiful legends about their inhabitants, and so many stories about the time there was a great council where each race had a voice. It was the times of the great judges that ruled over the multiverses and any dispute between them could be settled by their authority. I had Imagined that we could meet them again, I had to convince myself that we only had lost communication with them and maybe we could get it back, but Dr. Dubyago is right, those universes do no longer exist, are had been destroyed. To Imagine that those great civilizations had been destroyed ... It´so hard to accept, all were races that were on par with the gods. "
Meanwhile, Dr. Dubyago was still doing some calculations using HAL powerful capabilities, then he scratched his beard and offered an answer:
- "I think it was inevitable. Our theories say that the universes began in a Big Bang, which is the beginning of time, matter and space for that universe. Each multiverse may have its own fundamental constants, but most of the multiverse are unstable, Universes are formed constantly but most of them are destroyed after just a few milli-seconds of their origin, yet others may last for billions of years, but still, eventually there is a big crunch and they are dissolved back in the chaos of quantum foam. But our universe is different, it´s so big and gravity is not strong enough so the expansion of the universe never ends, in our universe there will never be a "Big Chrunch" but I think those other multiverse were no big enough so they were unstable and ... they collapsed by themselves. As you told us, your universes, Asgard and Hell, would have been destroyed long ago if your had not been using energy from our local universe to prevent their collapse. Maybe the other universe were unable to do the same. ... "-
Urd paled at the implications, with a barely audible voice, almost talking to herself, she said:
- Gods and demons were in contact with them. We could have tried to save them and we did not do it...
Leifsson tried to calm down the goddess.
- I'm sure there must be a reason, I do not think such advanced civilizations like yours would have tried to anything possible...
They were interrupted by a voice,
- "Commander Leifsson, maybe they were not completely destroyed ... observe this." - the Russian scientist amplified a section of the hologram reaching the limits of it´s resolution, there was something. In the middle of one of those diffuse clouds, and it seemed a bit little more solid ... - "I think this is a small emerging universe, its very young yet it has traces of power lines connecting it to other multiverses and we know those are artificial. Perhaps there may be survivors there! "-
... They all looked at each other. The silence was absolute, then Urd spoke with trembling voice.
- "Yes !, Maybe that young universe could harbor some survivors ... There must be a way to make contact with them, but we can not try to open a portal to a barely known location, we need more data. They may know something about of the threat that hangs over gods and demons, and even over your own world.."
Urd stood silent, thinking and pondering what to, then looked at the commander decisively.
- I think you have a mission that would be even more important than I have imagined. The data we you have gathered to far still has low resolution, but now we know that is what we seek. I dare to ask all of you to continue this mission, please try to get more data, get higher resolution, so we can find a way to go contact that universe. And we need to look more into the remains of the other universes. The old legends say their civilizations were equals to us, maybe they have found a way out. If there are survivors of those races, we must find them.
Commander Leifsson looked at his crew and smile with satisfaction, it seemed everyone agreed with their new mission, so he told Urd.
- My Goddess Urd, our plan was to continue the observations a few months before returning to earth. But we will stay longer, as much time as needed. Our system is passive, in order to obtain better data we need to wait for something that emit signals traveling through the multiverse as an earthquake on earth serves to see the inside of it. I may be a supernova in our local group or something else. We will wait. WE know Its reverberations in time and space will allow us to obtain better data. We will stay as much time as it needed, I promise.
xxx
Keiichi was nervously looking at Skuld´s door. Despite so many years, he still found difficult to talk to her, but it was time to face his fears ... He knocked the door and a voice said:
- "Go ahead, it is open" - Keiichi entered, Skuld barely gave him a look and with some discomfort said- "Ah, it's you. Do you need help with one of your machines? At last you have realized that I'm better than you ...
Meanwhile Keiichi looked at her . Skuld no longer looked like a child, Belldandy had told him that the appearance of a god has nothing to do with age but with maturity and currently she looked like a teenager ... and certainly she seemed to have the character of one. Even the angry reception made him smile, at least he had not been threatened with some of her explosive devices.
- Actually, yes, I need to consult you something, It´s a technology probably you are more familiar than me- Skuld was surprised, but she tried to hide it, meanwhile Keiichi looked at the mechanism she was working on, and asked - "Is that a new version of Bampei-kun ?, excellent, I miss him along Siegel. "
- Do you? - she said, this time she could not suppress her emotion. - " I thought you did not like my creations". "- She looked down, then said in a barely audible voice,- " By the way, thanks for the memory backup that you gave me, I will be able to restore Bampei and Siegel personalities.
- Of course I like your creations, even if sometimes they have some engineering problems ...- Keiichi knew he was treading on dangerous ground, but decided to ignore her glare, so he began to examine the mechanisms of the little robot under her gleaming eyse. He found something odd in the mechanism from the robot´s leg, it used cables to transmit power, it was a simple and efficient mechanism, any engineer would be proud of its design, but Keiichi had much more experience now, so the detected it´s problems. Suddenly he asked: - Have you heard about Murphy's laws? Everything that can go wrong will go wrong?
- Of course, it's an excuse to say that everything may fail no matter what you do ...
Keiichi interrupted her.
- "No, you got it wrong, it´s not about making mistakes, but accept that in the real world always may be situations beyond your control and that we should be prepared to take them into account."
- "My creations do not fail!-
Keiichi sighted, she still was to headstrong, so he took a pair of pliers, pointed to a section of the mechanism and spoke with the authoritative voice that had learned to use when dealing with some younger and inexperienced engineers:
- I guess you calculate the maximum stresses this cable will sustain under normal conditions" - "Skuld opened her mouth, but said nothing and just nodded- "but also there are factors that are not predictable. The cable may be have some impurity in its manufacturing, there may be metal fatigue, or the operation can exceed the nominal values, even if you have taking into account the fear factor ... So what happens if this cable breaks ...? "
Before Skuld could answer, Keiichi cut the cable and the little robot collapsed.
- "What have you done? It´s bovious, if the cable breaks he can not walk or stand ...
- "Exactly, it's something that can fail and the result is a useless robot.
- "Of course, what else could ... ?.
- "So, you accept that it is a fault that can occur, and therefore it can be prevented. Do you know about the emergency brakes used in elevators? "- Skuld nodded, she could not understand what technology from the XIX century had to do with robotics -". If the cable breaks it will not fall "- Keiichi pointed to a spot in the joint of the robot -." If you add a similar brake here, and the cable breaks, the leg will be immobilized, but the robot would not collapse, even more it could keep walking. That is what Murphy´s law is about, to anticipate what can go wrong. "
The teenager Skuld looked at the fallen robot, trying to say something , she had her mouth open... Keiichi demonstration had hit her right on target ... She had witnessed the success of the young engineer´s creations. While most of her creations failed rapidly, in contrast, Keiichi's creations were now in the hands of millions of people, suffering all kinds of abuse and mistreatment and yet still working. She had admired Keiichi for that, his success made her feel like she was an amateur.
Keiichi, who now had a hard-won experience treating people, did not let the young go, he began to review the little robot´s mechanism, while commenting ...
- Look here, I think there are to many stress forces in this join, don´t you think they could be better distributed? I'm sure you can do better? Galileo, could you do me a simulation of this piece? "- In the room appeared a holographic image of the piece, and Skuld was puzzled , until she found the problem, after a few seconds she said ...
- "maybe if we move the support center form here to there ..."- she said pointing to a section in the socket.
- Excellent idea.- Keiichi said with enthusiasm - Galileo, show me the change in the stress of the piece." - A mesh of light appeared on the piece showing the internal forces . What do you think?- he asked to Skuld, as if the were a colleague- It´s better, however I think you can still do more ...
- "But not with that configuration, I would need to re-design the entire piece, and I would lose all my work ...
- "But it would work better … remember a work of art is never finished" - with his experience Keiichi ordered to Galileo to show several alternative designs ... - "Look, there are so many options, it´s fun to imagine what each one of them can offer. It does not matter if nothing of your original design survives. "
- "But that's inefficient ... To get rid of your own work? You remind my of Dr Kawasu, when we built the data center, he and his students added so many unnecessary systems...
- "You have to explore, play, discard, reinvent, that´s part of your work, also you must also think about unforeseen factors, like material failures and misuse. You have a lot of creativity, you just have to put it to work and give you freedom to explore ... You are a genius and you can conceive things I am not able to understand. Your skills are much larger than mine.
The teenager looked at the pieces, and began to imagine many possible combinations ... But still she had some trouble organizing her ideas following Keiichi´s explanations ... finally she turned to take look at him, hesitated and then said with voice that sounded like a faint whisper.
- "Could you teach me how to do it ...?".
xxx
Today professor Shugahara Kenji was unusually nervous, he walked back and forth in the main hall of the temple house, he checked once again that there was no dust in the furniture (something completely unnecessary in a place taken care by Belldandy), he looked around to see if everything was in place, he smoothed imaginary wrinkles in his clothes, and even more, he had to resist the urge to wear his old tie again ...
Of course, the idea that the Odin himself would come to drink some tea and have some chat a little would put at the border of collapse any academic. Knowing that he was not actually a god but a demon, did not help. He even already knew that most of the stories he already knew were made up by Urd, since she was trying to mock what she had thought was a pompous old scholar ... Still, he was Odin no matter what, and knowing he was a specialist in old traditions made him even more nervous.
And to add to his nervousness, Urd was not with him, She was in the Fafnir I space station, and there was no way to know when she would come back. And it was at this time when Odin has chosen to pay a visit to earth. He still had not digested the implication of the findings from the Fafnir project. Just the data obtained by the expedition was more than enough to put anyone to the brink of a collapse. His hearth still was pounding at the idea that those other mythical kingdoms like Álfheimr, Niðavellir, Dökkálfar, Midgard, Jötunheimr, Vanaheimr, Niflheim and Muspellheim could really exists. That was an awesome idea. Hell´s announcement that Hild was ready to pay her debt and give him all the information he had requested had been a complete surprise. Urd had told him that her mother would take her time to respond, since it would look bad, in the eyes of demonkind that their lider would comply immediately to a mortal man request.
So, professor Shugahara found himself walking up and down the corridor, suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder, he felt like an electric shock, and suddenly he felt better. He smiled... he knew that had been magic, so he turned around and greeted Belldandy.
- "Shugahara San, please to not worry so much. We still have a few minutes, you have some time to relax, everything will be fine. Meanwhile, would you like a cup of tea."
Although she was no longer goddess, Belldandy had recovered much of her power by absorbing Gaia energy, usually that energy could dangerous to a god, but the people under Kawazu, not only had been able to repair her code, but they have changed it so she was now able to absorb the earth energy directly.
But at this moment, the most important thing was that Shugahara was relieved by Belldandy's presence, so the felt necessary to explain his feelings.
- "Belldandy San. I confess that I feel like a teenager about to meet for the first time to his favorite Idol ... so please tell me, Do you know something about Odin ?, How is he like? Urd was not eager to tell me more, but she warned me that he is much more powerful than his appearance may suggest."
Belldandy smiled and said
- "Unfortunately I never meet him, and there is very little about him in the files we got in heaven. I only know the stories Urd told me when she was still a child and it´s better if we ignore them. "- Belldandy laughed- "It seems that at that time she only saw him as a pompous old scholar, interested only in ancient legends and songs, but since Urd returned from Hell, it seems her opinion about him has changed radically, and now she respects him. But you must not worry, remember that this temple has been declared sacred ground for gods and demons, so nobody would harm us here. Also do not forget that Hild has a debt to settle with you. She is a demons so, she will honor her word.
Shugahara nervously scratched his head...
- "Not that I'm complaining, but considering what Urd told my about her mother, is surprising that such important demon will come here to bring me the information about mythology and hell ancient folklore. I had expected she would send me books, data crystals or whatever they use there to store information. Even if his is not really the same god Odin from Norse mythology, still he seems to be a really a very important demon.
Suddenly a burst the energy that preceded the opening of a portal was felt, but it was powerful, it was almost as powerful as the one that preceded Hild, he must have almost her same power.
In response, Lind appeared in the hallway along Ghadril, both wore their Valkyries dress uniform.. When Shugahara had informed Lind about Odin´s arrival, she told him that he would arrive with a guard of honor, so according protocols, Shugahara must had his own guard, or it would be considered that he was not taking him seriously. But somehow, since Lind and Ghadril have been living among mortals for a long time their martial attitudes have softened... as a result Shugahara found himself escorted by two beautiful goddesses dressed in a very tight uniform that now exuded a sexiness that it was VERY distracting. Well, at least his distinguished guest would found that this was not a primitive and backward planet...
So Belldandy and Shugahara, escorted by the Valkyries went to temples garden, where Keiichi and Skuld were already waiting. In the center a portal was beginning to take shape..
Shugahara watched fascinated. While he had already witnessed many portals, just thinking he was watching the result of the artificial deforming the space-time continuum to cross the gulf between different universes was overwhelming.
As soon as the portal was completed, various demons with large fangs and muscular bodies materialized, they bore uniforms that were both wild and elegant with their striking decorations. In a neat martial way they aligned at the sides of the portal carrying a some kind of very ornamented weapons ... Kenji was surprised at the guard, Belldandy explained to him in a cheerful voice
- "That's their gala uniform. I have witnessed many encounters between demons and gods yet i´s the first time I have the opportunity to see it. Shugahara San, that's a sign that Hild see you in high esteem. That is an honor that only a few gods have received. "
The professor swallowed to hide his growing nervousness, Belldandy's words did not help calm much.
Finally, among the huge demon guards, Odin materialized. He was tall with a corpulent and beefy body, and had a big beard ... but unlike the mythical god from the Norse mythology he had no patch on his eyes, nor his face showed he was not a warrior god, instead his smile was friendly and invited to speak to him. Shugahara could not help to think that with some less elaborated clothing his look would be similar to some of his colleagues, and like them he looked around to the world with a curiosity typical of a ten years old boy, paying little attention to the guards around him or even to his own dignity. The first guard, carrying the most elaborate uniform began to speak with a throaty tone.
- "Shugahara Dono, judge of the order of the Mortal knights, the great Odin, a member of ..."
- Enough of that, commander, Professor Shugahara already knows who I am. It´s already enough for the protocols. You can leave.
The demon commander looked at him with his mouth wide open, and tried to protest.
- But it´s my duty to follow the protocol, milady Hild could take an offense if ...
- Yo do not need to worry, I'll talk to Hild and inform her that you have fulfilled your duty with the utmost care. She will be pleased. So please, get out of here!. Remember this is sacred ground, there are no threat here ... Except what I could tell to Hild.
The demon commander looked nervous, he was torn between his duty and Odin´s authority ... finally he put one knee on the ground, bowed his head and putting as much dignity as he could he commanded his demons to follow him back through the portal and disappeared. The portal vanished as if had never existed.
Shugahara scratched his head and slowly advanced toward the demon escorted by the Valkyries. It was obvious he had a very high rank. The demon looked at goddesses in surprise and smiled with joy.
- I never imagined that some day I would meet a mortal man escorted by two Valkyries. And it´s obvious they respect you. You must be Lind." - The demon bowed his head in a formal greeting -" Many great demons fear you and respect you. We have songs about the cold and haughty Valkyrie that have been always invincible in the battlefield. It´s an honor to know you, I have some favors to ask you, I have a student witting a thesis about those songs and a preface written by you would be great. And yes, I know you have been unjustly exiled from heaven, I am sure that would inspire new songs.
The "cold and haughty Valkyrie" blushed... those words of praise coming from a demon were completely unexpected. The demon continued
- "Shugahara dono, I'm impressed. Not only you have won Urd´s hearth, but also you have won the respect of the Valkyries, that´s and achievement many gods and demons would envy. "
For the first time in his life, Dr. Shugahara was rendered speechless... fortunately Belldandy came to his rescue ...
- "Welcome to the Tarikihongan temple, would you like a cup of ..."
-" A mortal temple! "- exclaimed suddenly Odin-" I had read about the mortals religions. If I recall correctly, in this area the main religions are Buddhism and Shintoism. They are fascinating ...Can I enter the temple?"
Before anyone reacted, the demon walked directly to the entrance of the temple, with Shugahara running after him. Odin began a series of questions, and soon both scholars were embedded in a lively discussion about the millions of gods of Shintoism. Shugahara soon forgot about the high rank of his visitor. Lind looked at the pair with a resigned smile she commented to Ghadril.
- It seems we can forget about the gala uniforms. - Ghadril nodded and with her magic she change their clothes to something more appropriate for the mortal world. Meanwhile, Belldandy smiled and said to Keiichi.
-It would take some time before they remember about us. The tea is ready and we must not let it cool, we better leave them alone and wait.
It was almost two hours before Kenji and his colleague, Odin entered. It was only then when Odin recognized Belldandy, and said in a contrite voice.
- "Please have my apologies for not paying my respects to you before, it must be my old age" - he used a mellowed voice that made them remind he was a high official from Hild government and not just some random scholar. - "Not every day one can be in front of someone who held the title of Megamisama. Even though if you no longer bore that title, still it was very impolite for my part."- the demon bowed to her. Belldandy with the dignity of the former ruler of heaven, did the same. Odin said:-" I only know part of your story, but I have some colleagues in Heaven that inform me that there are many gods that love and respect you, so even if your name have been banished, there are already song about your story. - Belldandy closed her eyes and trembled at those words, Keiichi embraced her. - "it´s so unfortunate those songs are banished as soon as the authorities found about them, yet seems that make them still more popular. Belldandy, the great Megamisama has won heart of her people."
Belldandy trembled in Keiichi's arms. The exiled goddess, officially declared dead by the current Kamisama, was taken aback by the demons words. He put one knee on the ground and bowed his head, and waited for Belldandy´s words.
Belldandy took Keiichi's hand and pressed, to gain some confidence. Then she looked at the demon and said.
- Thank you, knowing that comforts my hearth. To know that I am not being forgotten eases my pain"- then Belldandy left the comfort of Keiichi's arms, and tried to act as her role as host. -" I want to know more so, if may I offer you a cup of..."
The demon interrupt her! - I could not accept that a great goddess like you would attend me. Allowed me to be your host.
With an elegant gesture the demon materialized a low table with snacks and drinks, then invited everyone to sit. With another gesture and the demon multiplied, younger and smaller versions of him appeared, They were his avatars, who began to serve them.
Soon he initiated a lively chitchat, but suddenly the demon said, in a tone that indicated that it was time to get serious...
- "This has been a pleasure, and I wish I would have the opportunity to return to this place, but it's time fulfill the contract between Hild and this mortal man. Needless to say it is quite unusual for a mortal to have a contract with the ruler of Hell, so this must be addressed with all solemnity. Your request for something as seemingly simple as our traditions and legends in exchange for saving the life of the supreme ruler of Hell, it seems hardly fair, so I have one question. "- The kind voice of the demon suddenly transformed, now was the voice of a senior demon lord -" What do you really want?"
Although the demons voice had a menacing tone, Professor Shugahara could not help but feel calmer. At least now he understood why Hild had sent an official of such a high rank. Shugahara rose and stood in front of the demon, he had already shown his cards, it was his turn to the same.
- "You are right, it's time to talk, we must deal with this subject and forget any subterfuges. We know that there is a hidden threat, a strange enemy that seems to have something against heaven and Hell, I thought that it wold be easy to identify it using the ancient records Keiichi got from heaven, but we found there were omissions, deleted or distorted data, tampering of their history and even more, it seems that the inhabitants of heaven have a blockage in their memory about some ancient events.
The bearded demon open his mouth in awe...
- You got access to ancient files from heaven? How come you could get them?
- Keiichi with the help of artificial intelligence we called Galileo, was able to enter into Yggdrassil, using high level access and he found an encrypted file vault almost forgotten, there he had to contend with alien intelligence that we are sure it was created by this unknown enemy. Galileo, please display some of those files.
The room was filled with hundreds of screens with different data. The demon stood in amazement and began to examine them, with increasing disbelief.
- I thought these files had been destroyed. I've spent half my life looking for them ...
Shugahara looked Keiichi questioningly and he nodded
- "We can give you a copy if you wish ..."
Odin looked at stunned by the mortal, and nodded with some disbelief, the information was so valuable he had not even dared to ask for it, and yet those mortals were offering it freely, then he scratched his beard, as if he were trying to decide something. Suddenly with a simple gesture he cast a spell ... all screamed in surprise as the world turned dark.
Belldandy was the first to react.. She extended her hand and a luminous ball appeared, bringing light to the room again and asked:
- An opaque physical barrier? Are you afraid that someone may spy on us? This temple is holy ground for gods, demons and mortals.
Odin looked at her with worried face ...
- I fear the enemy that threatens us does not have much respect for a sacred ground. You are not he only one that have been looking into ancient records the identity of our aggressor, but there is something you don't know, you are entering into forbidden knowledge, both gods and demons to land. Even Hild or Kamisama are not allowed to peek into them.
Keiichi interrupted him.
- Is there someone higher than them? Are not they the supreme authority in their universes.
Belldandy gently nodded and said ... - "Actually there is something above them... Yggdrassil and Niedhog. Am I not right Odin?
The demon nodded wordlessly, Keiichi not insisted, he already knew that those two systems were more powerful than any god or demon. Odin spoke softly, as assuming that even his physical barrier might not be enough.
- "That's right, and it´s not just that we fear that whatever has infected our systems also allows them to spy on us, but maybe they would do it on their own. My mission was to prevent you from finding out much, but from what I heard, you already know much more than I have imagined.. What else do you know? "-
Professor Shugahara spoke:
- "A few years ago, a goddess was murdered in our world."
- "I remember, it was tragic since the doublet of that goddess was the son of Shaikh Anang-rengh, probably that incident that led Anang Reng to order the attack to this temple and then challenge Hild. Otherwise, there is no explanation on why he acted like that. But we don't know who was responsible for the goddess death ".
Shugahara nodded and say ...
- "We have a witness, the goddess was about to grant a wish to a mortal when she was attacked. The attacker left him for dead, but he managed to survived. The goddess used her last energy to save him. Galileo, please give me Somasindhu blog. "- A new information screen appeared,-" This is the story of the survivor from the attack. You will find interesting the description of the attackers "-
The demon began to read, while Shugahara remembered that blog had been the reason he was now in this strange situation. As Odin finished his reading his face showed fear and disbelief. Almost in unison demon and mortal uttered the same word:
- Jötnar! -
Shugahara continued:
- I can not prove it, the sources I so far have been contradictory, I know that the beings from heaven and Hell have the same origin, so your oldest legend must be similar, and then as they became different cultures the began to differentiate, so comparing the two traditions could know if the description is real. Still, the description in the blog suggest it was that mythical race.
- "That's Impossible" - the demon almost screamed - "Jötunheimr, was destroyed eons ago, there is no way they could survive until now.
- And yet it was the first word that came to your mind ... - Said Shugahara - I even think you already suspected it. We also have new evidence. Galileo, please projected the findings form the Fafnir I station.
All the previous information screens disappeared and a holographic image appeared, it was the lace like image of the multiverses revealed by the space station, then professor Shugahara pointed to several clouds in the image while saying:
- Midgard, Álfheimr, Svartálfaheim, Vanaheimr, Muspellheim, Niflheim, Asgard, Hell ... and Jötunheimr
The demon looked awed at the image, and then screamed in panic
- The nine realms! How come you have that information? Our people believes those realms are mostly legends, and the must continue to believe it, that is why the stories about the Yggdrasil tree were created, so the became legend. I can not let this knowledge to get out of here.
Shugahara asked to the demon in accusing tone:
- So it's true. Both Hell and heaven are hiding their past. Something happened that led to the destruction of six realms, yet you are hiding it. What happened? What is it that you far so much?
The demon drooped on his knees covering his face with his hands, and screamed with despair... but suddenly he became silent the spoke with a cold voice:
- "Urd told me a lot about you, Shugahara dono, but I never imagined mortals could have such insight o that they could have the technical to dig into our secrets. I told you before, you are stepping into forbidden knowledge and its´dangerous. I know it and I must protect Hell. In the past there had been some curious demons who tried to peek into those secrets, but always they brought disasters to our realm them as if they had awakened forgotten evils. That is why I became a guardian of the ancient traditions, not to preserve them, but to protect them from prying eyes and prevent the evil to awaken"- Then the voice of the demon change to a menacing tone -" The question now, is what am I going to do with you? How I will be able to face Urd after what I am going to do.?"-
Before Shugahara could say anything, the demon stood up and with a piercing scream cast a spell of destruction. The place became hell.
-xxx-
End Chapter XLII
Notes:
Gravitational waves:
The existence of gravitational waves was demonstrated in the 70,s after observing distant binary stars, in 2015 the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) could observe gravitational waves produced by the collision of black holes. Here I describe a similar system, but on a much larger scale, to be used like a window to the structure of the universe.
HAL and Daisy Daisy.
I think everyone would remember HAL, the intelligent computer in 2001 Space Odyssey ... I was unable to resist using that reference.