“I agree,” Madalena said. “We should focus on the Draugr. That is the real threat.”
“What about setting up a meeting?” I asked as I nodded to Sivaha and then Aasne. “It has been a useful strategy so far.”
“They will not meet with you privately,” Elana said. “Their king is cautious. From what I know, Jotnar’s king almost never leaves his battle fortress, and that is in orbit around his homeworld just as the Odin Geirr is.”
“We warped into Idonan’s home sector, battled them, and then forced their king to surrender,” Sivaha said. “We can do the same with Jotnar.”
“They had fifty thousand ships,” Madalena pointed out.
“Yes, but now we have the combined armadas of Vaish, Skyad, Idonan, and Waymund.” Sivaha shrugged her shoulders, and one of her straps that held her dress on slid down to expose all of her perfect skin there.
“Might I interject?” Aasne asked, and we all turned to her. “My father was no coward, but he was one to try negotiation before fighting. We knew we were the weakest clan, and we did not wish to fight unless we were backed into a corner. Jotnar will know they are backed up into a corner as soon as we show up with the entire Vaish armada.”
“What about what we did with Aasne’s wedding to Alrick?” I asked as I winked at Elana. “Is there some way we can sneak onto the Jotnar battle fortress under a false pretense and then get to the king?”
“It would be next to impossible,” Madalena said.
“Except that a group of assassins tried to kill Adam and me just a few weeks ago,” Paula said with a shrug. “It can’t be that hard to get in.”
“Those assassins were waiting for years for an opportune moment,” Madalena said. “Although, I do see the merit in the suggestion. It seems too difficult to plan.”
“And it might take a long time,” Zea said as she leaned back in her chair. “Unless…” The blonde hacker paused with her mouth opened and then shut it with a clicking noise of her teeth.
“What are you--” Elana started to ask, but Zea inhaled through her teeth sharply with a hissing sound and then turned to Madalena and Sivaha.
“I’m thinking like a hacker, so you all come with me, ‘kay?”
“Okay?” Sivaha raised her eyebrows.
“So the harbor,” Zea said as she pointed out toward Persephone’s bay. “There are hundreds of ships coming and going every day out of the Odin Geirr. Those can’t all be military vessels.”
“Half of them are carrying supplies,” Madalena said with a nod.
“And where do the supplies come from?” Zea asked.
“Nordar 13 - a, b, and c,” the Prime Valkyrie answered.
“So there is a hole,” Zea said as she crossed her arms.
“No,” Madalena answered. “Each ship is inspected thoroughly and their contents documented, especially after the attempt on Adam and Paula’s life.”
“Yeah,” Zea said, “but my first counter argument is that you all are Vaish, and you are all about organization. Second counter argument is that a group of spies just tried to kill Adam and Paula, so we are on high alert. Will Jotnar be like that? As a hacker, I look for all the possible holes in a security network, but almost ninety-five times out of a hundred I can wiggle in because someone else is just lazy and made the password their kid’s birthday.”
“So what is the plan you are thinking of?” Aasne asked.
“We get into the Jotnar home sector, get to their homeworld, stowaway on a ship delivering stuff to the battle fortress, get out, find Jotnar’s king, have Adam kill him, and then Kitty-boy is the new King of the Nordar. Easy peasy.”
“I like this plan,” Sivaha said. “Let’s do it.”
“How is it that Zea is coming up with the crazy plan this time?” Paula said.
“Hey, I just spent two weeks in the wilderness hunting my breakfast with a spear and killing giant monsters. I’m feeling a bit more confident that we can do anything.” Zea laughed, and the other women joined her.
Everyone except for Madalena, who shook her head and looked pensive.
“There are many variables to Zea’s plan,” the Prime Valkyrie began.
“Of course,” Zea shrugged her slender shoulders. “I was actually kind of joking. I just thought that, since we were throwing out crazy ideas, I’d start with the craziest. The point is that they have holes in their security, and we--”
“I like it,” I said, and everyone turned to me.
“But I was actually joking though,” Zea said. “Madalena’s right, there are too many variables. I’d always get full details on a system before I try to break in, but we can’t do that with this.”
“Why not?” Aasne asked.
“There is no way we can investigate the system,” Zea said as she laid her long fingers on the table. “If it was a corp’s database we were breaking into, I’d find out where the servers were located, I’d figure out who the admin was, I’d figure out who wrote the original code, I’d try to figure out who the live security team operators were when I wanted to make an attempt at hacking, and I’d have a bunch of back up plans. I’d have a map. I’d have information.”
“We cannot do that with this plan,” Madalena said. “We have no way of getting into the Jotnar home sector. We have no way of knowing what ships deliver the main battle fortress goods, and we’d have no way of getting on board.”
The women all frowned, and the room was silent for a few moments.
Then I cleared my throat, and they all looked at me.
“We do not need a plan that complicated,” I said. “We also don’t need to know all the facets of Jotnar’s security setup. Look.” I gestured next to me where Eve sat. “We have a vampire who reads people’s thoughts, and can move objects with her powers.” I gestured to Zea. “We have the galaxy’s best hacker.” I pointed at Paula and Kasta. “We also have the galaxy’s best engineer and her twin sister who can speak and read any language as well as build stuff.” I smiled at Sivaha. “We have a woman who can manipulate people’s emotions and mesmerize any man.”
“And most women.” Sivaha shrugged and smiled.
“We have the Prime Valkyrie,” I said as I gestured to Madalena, and then I nodded to Elana and Aasne. “And I have two young women who understand the clans and can fight. We can improvise the middle part of Zea’s plan.”
“Okay, wait,” Zea coughed and cleared her throat. “It’s not really that great of a plan, and I’d like to unattach my name from it. I’m all for improvisation, but we won’t even be able to get step one done.”
“Fly into the Jotnar home sector?” Aasne asked.
“Yeah,” Zea replied. “All of our ships are stamped with the Vaish branding.”
“She is correct,” Madalena said, “and we could not just take Persephone. As I said before, the Vaish are known for having the Shadow Eagles.”
“I don’t own a single ship that doesn’t have clan branding on it?” I asked, and Madalena shook her head. “How is that possible?”
“The Nordar scanner technology refers to a database based off design and build aspects,” Madalena said with a shrug. “Even if we remove the etching on the side of our ships, the Jotnar’s computers would still recognize our craftsmanship.”
“But haven’t we captured any other ship from any other manufacturer?” I asked. “There are hundreds of thousands of ship builders across our known space. We don’t have a single one of their ships?”
“No,” Madalena said, “The only ships we have found close to build quality were those made by Elaka Nota inside of Persephone, but they just retrofitted her, and it is obvious they used their best components for the chairs and internal systems. The Nordar ships are far superior, so we do not care to keep the others. They are recycled for metals that we can use to build more of our own.”
“So I’ll buy a ship,” I said with a shrug. “Then we’ll jump on it, fly to Jotnar space, land on the planet, and figure out how to get on board of the battle fortress. Then we stick to Zea’s plan and kill the last king.”
“I disowned the plan,” Zea laughed. “Why are you still calling it my plan?”