"Show me?? Show me what?" Narvik asked confused. Eirik didn't blame him. He was turning the poor things worldview upside-down and he was about to shatter it completely.

"What would have happened, if you had succeeded" Eirik sighed as unlocked the cell door and held out his hand again.

"Are you worried I might try to run away?" Narvik asked as he took Eirik's hand.

"Where would you go? We are not at the station anymore. What you see out there." Eirik gestured to the little window in the cell. "Surrounds us on all sides. Outside of this ship, none of us would live past 15 seconds at most." Eirik stated. He had nothing to fear from Narvik at the current time.

Leading the strange creature along the corridors to Signe's workshop, he had to stop several times as Narvik stopped at marveled at the simplest of things. Automatic doors were a wonder, a water faucet was a treasure, electric lights a godly invention, and the elevator, oh, the elevator. That was a true miracle in and of itself. Eirik could sympathize though. Stepping into a small room, seeing the doors close, and when they open again you are somewhere else.

Finally, after many stops and many more attempted explanations, they arrived. "What kept you so long captain? We were ready half an hour ago!" Came the admonishing voice of Signe. "We have other things to do down here, you know."

Signe led them over to the far end of the workshop that had been cleared of work stations and transparent blast panels had been set up to dispose of the explosive. They could have put it back in the armory, but Eirik felt like he needed to prove a point to Narvik. Enamored as he was with the religious bullshit Dalle had filled their heads with, the only way to show him the truth was to show him the fate Dalle had intended for him.

"You recognize the thing you were sent to retrieve?" Eirik said as they came up on the blast chamber.

"Yes! It is in there, behind the clear wall." Narvik said in a guarded tone.

"Good. Signe, put the ballistic gel dummy in there, next to the charge." Eirik turned to Narvik again, "What she is carrying in there is a special construction that will mimic the effects of what is about to happen, to the body of one of my people. Can we agree that we are stronger and denser, and thus, more durable, than your people, Narvik?"

"Most certainly, the messenger demonstrated his strength and resilience several times when he first arrived." Narvik agreed and look into the blast chamber. Signe had propped the dummy next to the explosive charge and was locking the room down behind her as she left.

"Please cover your ears and watch closely, Narvik" Eirik directed him before he pressed the button of the radio detonator he was offered by Signe and the 3-second timer started ticking down. A moment later an ear-splitting explosion rocked the workshop, contained by the blast chamber.

Narvik had fallen over and was sobbing incoherently as he stared at the gory display in the blast chamber. Or rather, the lack of the same. A red mist had coated the inside of the chamber and had immediately been burned to a crisp on the walls. There was nothing left of the dummy and only a scorched mark where it had been moments before, next to the explosive charge.

It took almost 20 minutes and a mild sedative from Knud to calm Narvik down enough to understand the noises that came out of him.

Eirik kneeled in front of the ant/spider thing and looked as deeply into Narvik's eyes as one can do to compound eyes. "Narvik. Are you feeling better?"

Narvik didn't say anything at first. "You say you are not divine or godly, yet you display the destructive power of nature, harnessed into your hand. You claim that anyone can do it and that the messenger intended for that very same power to end my life. Why?" He said after a long moment of silence.

"Because he and I are enemies, Narvik. We have been enemies for many years, ever since he betrayed me and my brothers and left us to die. for the longest time, I thought I had lost them. But I found them and brought them back. Now, I want to end this feud. The man you call messenger has been out of my reach ever since he betrayed me. Now, I have a clue and with that clue, I shall hunt him down and watch the life leave his eyes as I strangle it out of him!" Eirik had clenched his fists as he spoke.

"He wanted to use you to kill me so he didn't have to expose himself to danger. And by having you be directly beside the explosion, there would not have been enough of you left for us to identify. It is the actions of a coward and I will make him pay. He is an outlaw, a criminal, a damn murderer!"

Eirik's tirade gave Narvik pause. It was clear to him that there was bad blood between the messenger and this prophet that insisted on not being called that, instead of using a strange name like *Eirik*. It was also clear from the story that the bad blood was old and very personal. He would never have imagined the prophets spending time on something so petty and trivial and for a moment, *Eirik's* words made perfect sense. Prophets would not squabble like children, but regular beings most certainly would.

His head was hurting and he decided to stop thinking about it. It was not his place to contemplate these things and so he would wait with making up his mind. for now, he would remain steadfast in his belief. But one thing HAD changed. He no longer believed the messenger wanted the best for him or his people. Even amongst the prophets, unworthy souls were bound to find their way through the great net.

__________________

Tai'Tanu was pacing in her war chamber. She had long since healed from the injuries her body had sustained during her last defeat to Eirik. She had taken his arm though. She had put up admirable resistance. The loss of so many troops had diminished her political power in the Kloxna council and her repeated defeats to Eirik had become a constant whisper behind her back.

They didn't' dare defy her openly, still. She still retained considerable power and she had more than enough dirt on the other high caste that opposed her support of ramping up the offensive operations in favor of digging in and consolidate their power, to silence their voices in the council. Permanently, if she had to.

She stopped her pacing and faced the table with the different reports strewn about. Her thoughts, like they had done so often in these last few months, turned to her last fight with Eirik. more specifically, Eirik himself. He was a mystery. He fought just as hard and with the same conviction as she did, but he also showed his enemies mercy, in ways that she would never have thought of.

She would never admit it to anyone, but she was secretly thankful to him for letting her mend the broken bond with Las'Tai. While she could not take her back in any official setting, having reconciled with her had lifted a great burden off of her shoulders. And she had told the truth to Las'Tai. She had become a remarkable individual already. In time, she would rattle the very foundation of the Kloxna empire. Outlaw or not.

Letting her live had been another surprise. She understood they only did it so they could achieve victory and dominion over the planet. She was not sure she would have done the same, had the situation been reversed. The satisfaction of taking revenge would be too great a temptation for her to resist. So, she also had to respect his self-control. A valued trait for a warrior and one that made him dangerous. A patient warrior was a deadly warrior.

A sharp *PING* pulled her out of her thoughts and she looked at the screen that displayed a message from an unknown contact

Honored high caste, Tai'Tanu. You do not know me, nor do you need to know me. What you need to know is that we have a common enemy. An enemy that refuses to lay down and accept death. We have both tried, separately, to kill this Terran. We have both failed miserably. This brings me to why I am contacting you.

I propose a temporary alliance.