“It still won’t work,” Elana sighed. “They won’t let an untagged ship enter their home sector. We would be attacked immediately.”
“We need to stowaway on a Jotnar ship right from the start,” Paula said.
“Or steal one.” Kasta made eye contact with Sivaha, and the two women nodded at each other.
“So we’ll step back a bit,” I said. “We need to find a Jotnar ship. How?”
“We could take one from a mining colony,” Elana winced as she spoke, and her statement half sounded like a question.
“They will be guarded as well,” Madalena said. “We would need to attack with our fleet and hope we did not damage one in the process.”
“These mining colonies have to make shipments back to Jotnar’s home sector often,” I said. “An attack might be too heavy handed, since we would probably have to replace all the pilots and crew of a ship with our own people. It would be better to stow away.”
“They will attack Persephone if we fly to one,” Madalena said. “So we will still need another ship.”
“So,” Aasne said as she leaned forward. “We get one ship that is not Nordar. Then we fly it to one of Jotnar’s mining colonies. Then we get on board another ship that is heading for Jotnar’s home sector. Once we are there, we find a third ship that will get onto the battle fortress. After that, we find the king, get through his security, and then kill him. Zea’s plan is insane.”
“Just so we’re all on the same page, it’s not my plan anymore,” Zea laughed. “You are right, it’s too crazy.”
“It is a great plan,” Sivaha said as she smiled at the hacker from across the table. “The best part about it is that King Uffe Jotnar won’t expect it. Well, he’s expecting assassination attempts, but not from Adam, Madalena, or me. I can’t wait to see the look on his face when he--” her mouth opened suddenly, and then she sighed.
“What’s wrong?” Paula asked.
“I can’t go,” Sivaha groaned. “Neither can Madalena. Okay. I’ve changed my mind. This is a stupid plan.”
“Why can’t you go?” Zea asked.
“Because they know what I look like,” Sivaha gestured to her face. “Same with Madalena. Well, especially with Madalena. I might have gotten away with it at the Prism Palace, but the skald there still recognized me, and he would have put the pieces together if he saw me again.”
“Well, shit,” Kasta said. “Can we disguise you?”
“How?” Sivaha asked as she gestured to her face and body again. “My beauty would pierce through any disguise. Even if we could find some sort of makeup that would cover me successfully, it might come off in combat, or in dozens of other situations.”
“We might be able to control the situations,” Madalena said as her lips frowned. “I would be fine wearing a disguise. As long as--”
“There is no disguise that will cover you, Prime Valkyrie,” Sivaha laughed. “Consider that it might take them days or weeks to figure out the transitional parts of the plan. We could be stuck out in some backwater mining colony and then bring the entire planet’s security team on us if a guard recognizes us from a picture. It is too risky.”
Madalena was silent for a few moments, and the two women stared at each other.
“If you are saying it is too risky, then I will concede the point,” the Prime Valkyrie finally said.
“Okay,” Zea sighed. “So, we need a new plan then.”
“No,” Sivaha groaned. “You did a good job with the plan, Zea. I still like it.”
“You just said you didn’t like--”
“I don’t like that I’m not going,” Sivaha growled, “But I still like the plan. My husband is wise in his assessment of everyone’s abilities. Eve will handle the people, you will handle the computers, and Paula and Kasta will handle drones or other machines.”
“What about us?” Aasne asked. “Elana might wish to stay here, but I will join my husband in--”
“What makes you think I do not wish to go?” Elana hissed.
“You both are Nordar,” Sivaha huffed before Aasne could reply to Elana. “You are born warriors; Eve, Zea, Paula, and Kasta are not. Protect our husband and your sister wives from harm. Understand?”
“Yes,” both Aasne and Elana replied in unison, but the two women shot quick glares at each other.
“I still wish to think about the plan,” Madalena said. “We will need some time to study our combined intelligence on the Jotnar mining colonies. Then we will also need to find a ship that we can--”
“I know where to get a ship,” I said, and then I saw Calisto, Hegeia, Uma, and Waiola walk into the galley, and I stood to greet them. The four women each held long garment bags, and they shot me quick smiles.
“Where will you get a ship from?” Madalena asked, but everyone was staring at the garment bags that the four newcomers held.
“We’ll go over that tomorrow,” I said to Madalena, but then I turned to Eve, Zea, Paula, and Kasta. “Tonight we are going to celebrate, and I am going to marry four women who I love very much. I asked them to get dresses for you, and we are going to have the ceremony inside Persephone’s hold. The four of you have a few hours to get ready while the rest of the crew sets up the festivities.”
Chapter 2
The crew of Persephone, all of my admirals, my sister, and my mother all gathered in the hold of Persephone for the wedding ceremony. I hadn’t been able to plan much in such a short amount of time, and my crew told me earlier that the Vaish really didn’t have much of a ceremony beyond submitting to the other person and swearing to be loyal.
So I had to improvise.
The skald who had entertained Paula and me at dinner the night we had been attacked would be officiating the event. I’d given him a brief overview of what to say and then I allowed him to add whatever bits and pieces he wanted to include from traditional Nordar culture. The rest was going to be from Ganymede culture, which had been taken from a mishmash of Japanese and western American culture.
I stood at the front of the seating area with the skald. Traditionally, I was supposed to have groomsmen and a best man, so I asked Dragon, Mikhael, and Admiral Birger to stand with me. We all wore new uniforms, and the two Nordar men were insistent that I wear my two massive revolvers on my waist.
The skald had a perfect memory, and as soon as the signal at the end of the hallway was given by Hegeia, the man began to sing a Nordar ballad while motioning for the audience to stand. They did so, and everyone turned to see Paula and Kasta walk down the aisle between the seats we had set up.
The twins wore dresses that matched in cut but not color. They were fashioned as a blend between a more western style dress at the top and a kimono style Japanese flowing folded garment at the bottom. Calisto, Hegeia, Uma, Waiola, my sister, and my mom had worked with tailors on Odin Geirr since last night designing the dresses, and I was more than happy with the result.
Paula’s dress was mostly white, with canary yellow flowers that danced downward from the tight neckline toward the waist of the garment with fine embroidery work. At the skirt of the dress, the fabric folded open with thick yellow fabric like the hem of a kimono and then pulled back to expose her lace covered legs. Paula didn’t wear a veil, but her blonde hair was braided high up on her head like complicated celtic knotwork. Yellow daisies and baby’s breath flowers were held in place by the complicated knots in her hair, and she carried a bouquet of matching flowers in her hand.
Kasta’s dress was a burnt orange instead of canary yellow, and she wore her hair down in a long braid that was studded with orange poppy flowers. She carried a trio of sunflowers in her hands as a bouquet, and she smiled at everyone as she walked down the aisle beside her sister.