Chapter 5:
"Why do you need it?" Sam asked.
"Just… I just want to know what kind of people that I'm dealing with," Hiccup scratched his hair.
"All right," Sam turned on his laptop and opened a file. The file contained five pictures of five different people captured by the cameras in Hiccup's lab. He revolved the screen of his laptop and showed Hiccup the photos."So, who do you want to know first?"
"The blond girl who almost caused a gun fight."
"Let's see…" Sam said as he clicked on the photo. "Facial identification system is on… connecting to internet…go green...hmmm…ok, here we go: her name is Astrid Hofferson, 18 years old, and was born in Charleston, South Carolina. She graduated from Olympus-Alveresz Junior Officer Training Camp, Class of 2016, a private professional military training camp for 12 to 16 year old boys and girls. Right now she works for DPA, Direct Protection Agency, a half governmental, half private agency… hey! Where are you going?"
Before Sam could finish Astrid's descriptions, Hiccup turned around, dashed out from the office, leaving a bewildered CEO alone. He ran all the way down the corridor, trying to avoid eye contact with everyone. Engineers and guards all stopped and turned their heads and watched the crazy man, whispering at each other.
"What the fuck?" A guard said.
After reaching the end of the corridor, Hiccup leaned on the wall, staring blankly at the ceiling. He didn't care what job Astrid had, how good or bad her life was, and whether or not she got a new boyfriend. The news that Astrid showed up in front of him was all he cared about. His mouth curved into a smile, but also a drop of tear rolled down his cheek.
"What happened, Hiccup? Your eyes are all red," Fishlegs asked as Hiccup stepped into the lab.
"Nothing," Hiccup walked to the sink at a corner of their lab and rinsed his face with cold water. "Let's get to work. What did you say about BEC?"
"Oh, all right then. If you don't want to say, I don't want to know," Fishlegs took out some documents from a drawer. "They said that they want to use BEC as a weapon, but I don't see a way of doing so. You know that BEC is so fragile that we can't put it in room temperature. That means, we can't use it to kill someone or destroy something. Also, we can't use it to freeze things because even though it's close to absolute zero, but it generates too less energy."
"Those are some bad news. I know that you have been studying states of matter for years, but I studied how to build stuff for years, so in this project, you know more things than me," Hiccup flipped through the document. "Man, I don't get any of these."
"Don't worry, I'll be a good assistant."
As they talked, Gobber kicked the lab's door open. He stepped into Hiccup and Fishlegs' room followed by a brunette.
"Fishlegs, Hiccup, meet Emma VischKwades," Gobber pointed at the girl.
She wore a black vest and light blue jeans. A tattoo of Medusa's head on her right shoulder, screeching like a raged female tiger, and the green snakes of hers extended across her exposed arm. Her dark brown hair reached all the way to her waist and the bang was held up by a light green headband.
"Uh…why is she here?" Hiccup asked. He was a little bit confused. If Muspelheim got a new employee, Gobber and Sam had no reason to tell that to him and Fishlegs.
"Fishlegs, pack your stuff," Gobber grabbed a giant cardboard box and threw it to Fishlegs.
"What? Am I…fired?" Fishlegs shivered. Usually when a boss says "pack your stuff", you usually are going to lose your job.
"No, no," Gobber comforted the engineer. He patted Fishlegs' shoulders like an old man giving advice to a youngster. "You are not fired. England, you are going to Plymouth."
"In England? I'm going to England? For how long? I still need to work with Hiccup on this project."
"We established a new lab in Plymouth, and we need someone experienced to go there and act as the lead engineer," Gobber sighed. "I know this is going to be pretty hard for you, but Emma is here to replace you. She is a good girl."
Fishlegs froze there for a moment. What? He had to leave Hiccup? They were a package deal. If Fishlegs weren't there to assist Hiccup, Hiccup would never be able to reach his success. Also, Fishlegs was the only one in Muspelheim that Hiccup could work with. They have worked so closely with each other that there were some rumors in Muspelheim about Fishlegs and Hiccup were gay.
"That's bullshit," Fishlegs objected loudly, pointing at his chest. "I may be the best Assistant Engineer, and that means I stick with my Lead Engineer. I'm good with aiding an engineer, but I'm not good with leading a group of engineers."
"Used to be," Emma crossed her arms before her.
"Excuse me?" Fishlegs turned to the young brunette who had been pretty quiet.
"I'm pretty sure I'm the best Assistant Engineer," Emma said sharply.
"Hey! You two are not kids anymore!" Gobber tried to cut off the meaningless romp.
"Oh yeah?" Fishlegs laughed. "Let me see your previous project result and the final document."
"Here we go…" Hiccup murmured in the background.
Emma took out her phone from her pocket, scrolled across the screen and opened a document. She showed the document to Fishlegs.
"Next Generation Aerospace Defense Project? You were having problems with that?" Fishlegs sounded surprised as he read the document. "Look at this: your lead engineer chose to use bistatic radar with, but you decided to change the plan and use pulse-Doppler."
"Well, I believe that my plan is better than his," Emma shrugged. "He could be a little bit stubborn sometimes."
"I'm not so sure about that…Mmmm, you are focusing too much on optics."
"And why is that a problem? We need that for ground-to-air tracking scope."
Their argument lasted for more than ten minutes. Fishlegs tried his best to find drawbacks in Emma's plan, and Emma tried her best to convince Fishlegs that his "constructive criticisms" were nonsense. Hiccup watched with interest. He heard about Next Generation Aerospace Defense Project and he knew the Lead Engineer of it.
"Fishlegs, Emma, that's enough," After hearing his two engineers arguing and getting sick of it, so Gobber decided to shut it down. "Fishlegs, get your ass to England right now."
"Yeah, hit the road, genius," Emma added.
"This sounds more like I'm getting fired," Fishlegs said to Gobber. Then he turned to Emma. "Let's see how you'll survive in this lab."
Fishlegs packed his laptop, lab clothes, and some personal equipment into a box. He took out a blue USB flash drive from his pocket and placed it in Hiccup's drawer with caution as if the drive was a diamond. Gobber held the door open by his hand, waiting for Fishlegs to follow him patiently.
"Good luck, buddy. I'll visit you later. I put all the knowledge I have about the state of matter in that drive. Feel free to use it, and call me up later if you need anything explained," Fishlegs trudged to Hiccup and pulled his friend in for a hug. "She is actually pretty good, so don't get your ass kicked," Fishlegs whispered to Hiccup.
"Quick, move your oversized body, Fishlegs. Your new research team will be waiting for you in the parking lot," Gobber commanded.
After watching Fishlegs trudge out of the lab, Emma turned toward Hiccup, her dark brown eyes stared at the Lead Engineer. From the outside, she didn't look like an engineer, and Hiccup thought she was a tennis player or something when she walled into his lab. Also, not a lot of engineers wear vests and sport headbands in labs. But Hiccup trusted Fishlegs, so he wouldn't let his guard down on her.
"All right, let's get started," Gobber said, gathering Emma and Hiccup to a table. He picked up a pen and pointed at the two engineers. "We are restarting Project Bifrost."
Emma's eyes widened with both surprise and horror when she heard the word "Bifrost".
"Yep, that is right, Project Bifrost," Gobber repeated after Emma reacted.
"What is Project Bifrost?" Hiccup asked. He felt something was happening between Gobber and Emma.
"Around four and a half decades ago, Muspelheim gathered some of the best engineers we had at that time and started to research and try to create, function, and control Bose-Einstein Condensate. The name of that project was Bifrost," Gobber told the story in a deep tone. "Hogan Don VischKwades was the Lead Engineer of that project."
"He was my grandpa," Emma said, looking down at the table.
"Ok, that's interesting," Hiccup commented. "They didn't make it, right?"
"Of course, otherwise we don't need this talk anymore. At that time, we didn't have the technology to cool dilute gas down to near absolute zero. But that didn't stop the research team," Gobber continued with the story. "Those people were a group of crazy geniuses, especially Hogan: they found a way to decrease the speed of molecules. I'm not sure what way the used, and I think nobody knows what way they used except for the research team, but it worked. The process was slow and very complicated, but that was not the main problem that the research team faced. They had a competitor."
"Competitor?" Hiccup asked. "Another lab was doing the same thing as well?"
"Yes. Another private laboratory, their lead engineer was Davis Alchensentrik. Hogan and his team lowered the temperature to thirty Kelvins. Man, it was a miracle at that time, thirty Kelvins, forty-five years ago," Gobber nodded his head gently with awe. "And Davis's team reached fifty Kelvins, not bad either. But Davis and his team were competitive, they didn't want to see others being successful. So, they murdered Hogan Don VischKwades."
"What?" Hiccup wasn't ready for a dramatic change of the story.
"Yep, and that's why Sam finally decided to have that Security Division. So, after Hogan's death, the rest of the team didn't live long as well. They all died for different reasons: I know that the First Assistant Engineer got into a car accident and died before the ambulance could reach the hospital, and Sam told me that when the team was in their lab, trying their best to finish the project, hydrogen tank got accidentally ignited, and blew up the whole lab. You can see that these 'accidents' were all planned, right?"
"Yes, I can see that. But why did Davis try to kill them? Just because they were their competitor?" Hiccup asked.
"I don't know, but that is the only possibility we could find."
"And now you know why I'm here, right?" Emma turned to Hiccup. "You need my help with this thing."
"And how do you prove it?" Hiccup shrugged. "You are the granddaughter of the previous Lead Engineer of this project, good for you, but that doesn't mean you know more about this than others."
"You don't know that," Emma said slowly, looking into Hiccup's eyes.
"Then let me know."
Meanwhile, in Zurich, Switzerland.
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, one of the best universities in Europe, masters almost every topic related to science and technology. Wilhelm Rontgen, Albert Einstein, Wernher Von Braun, and countless famous scientists received their degrees from this school.
More than a hundred students filled an auditorium with their notebooks and laptops in front of them. On the stage, their physics professor used a slideshow to teach his class. The professors clean, white shirt was a tugged into his khaki trousers. His heard had already turned white and some wrinkles crept up his face. Silver hair mixed up with his dark brown hair. Even though he was no longer that young and dreamy professor, his energetic and joyful style had always been entertaining to his students.
"As we all know, the faster molecules move, the more energy a substance has, but it produces more heat," the professor said as he presented a graph. "That means, warmer means more energy, and cooler means less energy. Hot substances can heat up its surrounding substances easily, but cold substance can't."
The students listened, and the sound of notes writing dominated the room when the professor paused for a breath.
As the professor continued with his lecture, a man with short, blond hair quietly walked into the auditorium. A pair of sunglasses covered his face. He stood at the back aisle, against the wall, watching silently at the aged man on the stage.
"Professor Alchensentrik, how do we control the movement of molecules?" A student asked.
"Well, that's quite hard," Professor Alchensentrik replied. "We can cool down the molecules by using laser and other technologies, and these are all listed in your textbook…Um, if you mean how to make the molecules do what we want to do, at least I don't think that's possible…"
As the professor looked up at his students, he spotted the man standing in the back. He narrowed his eyes trying to get a better vision.
"Well, consider it's almost time, so I'll release you guys early today, a lot of information to review," Professor Alchensentrik turned his laptop off. "Test will be on Friday. Good luck and have a nice day."
The sound of backpack zipping filled the room. More than one hundred students paced toward the exit with their friends and complained about their upcoming test. They totally ignored the man.
Professor Alchensentrik also packed up his book and laptop on the podium and put them in his bag, not looking at the man.
"You don't remember me?" the man said. His voice echoed in the empty space.
"The class is over. You can visit me in my office," the professor replied.
The man walked down the middle aisle until he reached the stage, hands in his pockets. "C' mon, Davis, we used to be friends."
The professor slammed his books on the podium, still not looking at the man. "You can't just show up like this, Axl," he growled. "This will get me into trouble."
"What harm can I do?" the man, or Axl shrugged, leaning on the stage. "I just want to meet with an old friend."
"Are you sure no one was following you?" Professor Alchensentrik, or Davis pointed at Axl.
"In this world, less than a dozen people have the ability to follow me, and I don't think anyone has the ability to follow me without letting me know."
"You are a monster, Axl. I'm pretty sure the people you killed can fill an entire football stadium. Anyway, what are you doing here in Zurich?"
"I already told you. Not every scientist can get the name Davis the Alchemist."
"I'm just a university professor right now."
"But how about your private laboratory. You spend every night there. If you are just a professor, then why you are still doing it?" Axl asked, even though he already knew the answer.
"Because forty-five years ago I failed," Davis sighed, running his hands through his hair. "Fucking Muspelheim. Bunch of sissies. How is Heimdall?"
"As always, being chased by every intelligence agency, but we got out every time."
"No troubles?"
"If there were problems, Eric knows what to do."
"Anyway, you are not here to just trash talk with me," Davis added. "Tell me why you are here."
"Well, if you insist" Axl scratched his head. "We got info about Muspelheim is restarting Project Bifrost."
"I thought you already killed every engineer associated with that project."
"Yes, we did, but a god damned customer ordered it from Muspelheim."
"Customer?"
"Another old friend," Axl smiled. "DPA."
"DPA? Those assholes? Fuck them," Davis slammed his fist on his podium.
"I wish," Axl chuckled. "They are our deadliest…companion."
"Companion? Team Echo almost wiped out the entire Heimdall: three casualties, at least no death, and now you are joking to me?" Davis growled. "I still care about you muttonheads."
"I know."
"So, you said that Muspelheim is restarting Project Bifrost?" Davis asked. "I need you to do me a favor."
"What?"
"Do the same thing you did forty-five years ago."
Valka stared at the world map on her desk, her bayonet dangled on her belt. More than a dozen red pins scattered across the map. Her right index finger ran from pin to pin, and her eyes trailed from country to country.
"You guys showed up in Brazil, then went to Texas," she murmured. "Where are you guys now…"
"Valka, we got movement," Astrid rushed into the room with a laptop in hand.
"What, about Heimdall?" Valka looked up at Astrid, eyes lightened with excitement.
"Yes," Astrid nodded her head. "A few hours ago, security cameras of Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich captured Axl McDowell walking into their physics class."
"Switzerland?" Valka opened her drawer and took out another red pin. After finding Zurich, Switzerland on her map, she placed the pin on the map. "Was he alone?"
"Seems like it. Security cameras only captured him," Astrid handed the laptop to Valka.
"Mmmm…why would he go there?" Valka.
"Valka, Heimdall showed up in Charleston," Heather yelled as she ran into the room.
"Charleston, South Carolina?" Astrid asked.
"Yeah, why?"
"Nothing."
"Ok, we are not far from Charleston," Valka said as she placed another red pin on the map. "Tell everyone, we go there, and try to at least gather some info."
"Ok," Heather replied and walked out the room.
"Astrid, I have another job for you," Valka laid her right hand on Astrid's shoulder.
"What?" Astrid asked. "I want to go with you guys."
"No, you are going back to Muspelheim."
"The company we went to buy some stupid stuff?"
"Yep, and I want you to… reunite with your boy," Valka whispered, smiling.
Astrid's face flushed. "How…how do you know?"
"Well, when we went to Muspelheim, you were…infatuated by that young engineer, we all saw it. You always yell his name during sleep, gods know what you were dreaming," Valka smirked, winked her right eye. "And finally, to prove my suspicions, you were drunk once, and we…extracted the info out of you."
Astrid froze in Valka's room for more than ten seconds. Valka laughed at the dumbfounded girl. "So, your mission is to rebuild your relationship, otherwise you don't come back, ok? We'll take care of Heimdall. No problem."
To be continued
Thank you guys for reading my story, and I really appreciate that.
From now on the updates will be slower, and I'm sorry about that. Right now I'm in another country, visiting my family.