Read Online Ragnarok by Ari Bach - Free Book Online

Håvamål -style discussion.
    By the time Valkyries were leaving dreamspace for the cafeteria, H team was already en route to install the canopy and dry out the cockpit. T team had returned in the night and rushed Tahir’s head and corpse from the pogo’s stasis alcove to Dr. Niide. Tahir was in good spirits when V encountered him at the buffet line.
    â€œIt’s mostly the cutting feeling, that itchy slice in your skin. Even the spaz-razors, even at two hundred kph you can still feel it. I just hate getting cut.”
    â€œNothing to lose your head about,” said Veikko.
    â€œYou know, you made that exact joke last time he got beheaded,” linked Vibs.
    â€œThe razors are just nasty,” said Tahir. “I’m ashamed we have the things. At least ours don’t fly. Maybe we should rig them that way. Just keep them linear so the Tiks don’t get jealous.”
    â€œNo,” Veikko explained. “They can turn in midflight too. Skunkworks’ can be link controlled, very simple, not a tenth of a Tikari, but they’re a little better than spear laun—Oh my goodness, is that spaghetti?”
    Between the gray cubes and yellow hemispheres was a new bin of what appeared to be seasoned spaghetti. Quite a rarity so everyone in T and V took a generous helping. The two teams sat together by the fire, which was extra pleasant in the middle of winter. Being open to the sky, Valhalla still sucked down the frigid air from the surface and their suits had all stayed furry as they entered the building. Only now were they beginning to pull in their fiber.
    â€œSo anyways. We’re in,” said Tahir. He seemed to be speaking to the V team half of the table.
    â€œIn what?” asked Violet.
    â€œFor the Bla—for the…. The Cracked Blag. We’re in.”
    â€œWe’re not going,” grumbled Vibeke.
    â€œYes, you are,” protested Toshiro. “C team forbade it!”
    Violet dug into the noodles, which tasted nothing like spaghetti. Almost how she remembered fish tasting, a meaty flavor, vaguely acrid. But not bad, she had more.
    â€œWhat’s the point?” Vibs mocked. “We’d get our brains hacked, then C would kill us.”
    â€œDaaark, Vibs,” said Toshiro. “My God, this stuff is good.”
    â€œWhat is?”
    â€œSpaghetti à la Kjetil,” he replied. “Really good stuff, suspiciously good.”
    â€œSuspicious?” laughed Veikko. “Like what, African conflict spaghetti?” He shoveled some off of Violet’s plate despite having his own and slurped up a few strands. “Wow, that is good.”
    â€œYou can’t go yourself, Vibs,” Tasha said, “but there’s no reason you can’t hire some goon to do it for you.”
    â€œWhy didn’t I think of that?” asked Varg.
    Veikko choked down his food to blurt back, “Because you’re a—” He stopped speaking as Kjetil emerged from the kitchen to refill the buffet. Veikko shouted out, “Kjetil! How’d you make this spaghetti? It’s awesome!”
    â€œNo spaghetti!” he explained. “Centauri chitlins. Little gremlins have such long intestines!”
    Toshiro pushed his main course aside in favor of some delicious green putty. Varg dug into the chitlins along with Veikko, who stated calmly, “You can really taste the chyme.”
    Violet didn’t write off the substance but switched to brown cylinders for a bit. There was a novelty in eating something from another star system. In the common world, gremlins cost several thousand euros a plate owing to the difficulty of cloning and raising them on Earth. It was only by chance that F team raided an illegal cloning plant that specialized in them. They managed to send the living specimens to the proper authority but arrived back in the ravine with several hundred kilos of processed meat and offal. Both at the request of Kjetil, who