SD 04/15/06 - "Hammered With Thor" - Already we had an incident.
While Lynx and Tarra were sparing, a drunken Vinlander of the rougher faction burst in and charged. Lynx was getting up, her shirt torn, when I ran in, much to her embarasment. From her statement of "What happened?", sounds like she was surpruised before she could react. Didn't help the attacker by the looks of things. He was lying next to the wall with his warhammer beside him, a dent in his helmet, and a bigger dent in the wall above him. Looks like he tripped over something, but the only thing I saw lying on the floor was Lynx. Must have been an interesting, though breif, scrap.
The comotion attracted the atention of a few locals, "The offworlder shieldmaiden beat Dirty Dirk!" One in particular seemed a bit more boisterous than most, and a bit taller and musclebound as well. Talked a lot like something from a hoovid too. When Lynx was going over local armor in the place to replace her torn clothes, acting as if posing, his two friends were starring as had others. But this guy was actually admitting he found her desirable, in rather fanciful words. First I had noticed here.
I didn't have time to stay too long. I got a comm from the Freedom with some startling news. Lera had taken her kids, swiped a shuttle, and left the ship! They had tried to call her, but no response. What in the Great Bird of the Galaxy is that ditzy dinbat Romulan up to?! She's pulled some crazy stunts before, but this beats everything (except for the Risa incident).
I had come into the room with two locals, Rodger Jones and Ramon Abdul. They told me they had a working transporter available, so he and I along with Lt. Droolin, and Ensign Vak-Surak who voulenteered to help with the older equipment, left the longhouse. After establishing a link with the Freedom, Droolin was beamed over with orders to get Lera. She was last seen heading in the direction of Starbase 13. Hopefully the fear of losing the lady most receptive to his advances will keep him on track. I've given permission to Ensign L'acky and others permission to slap him if he gets fresh or distracted.
Desertion, theft of Starfleet property, Lera's in real trouble this time.
Jones and I will be going over to talk to the ambassador about this development. Presumably Abdul is talking to the others about what he and other civilians have witnessed in their time here. This world has seen quite a bit of internal conflict, and in more recent years two things have been making things worse. One is their practice of polygamy. Although women here have been treated with respect for most of the world's history in most places, polygamy has been practiced here, resulting in a number of men unable to enjoy what many of us reguard as the only form of low-tech recreaction aside from getting drunk.
And the result of this combined with fighting between villages, more fathers marrying their girls off to men more able to protect them from harm, even if they already have a wife or two, leading to more frustrated men, and thus to more fighting, making for a vicious cycle.
Jones and Abdul also told me about one of the more worrysome factions on this planet, one with men in a number of communities: the "Brotherhood of Odin." Although it tries to limit fights between it's supporters, they do attack more reasonable New Vinlanders whom they feel do not respect their ancestors. The irony here is that the more reasonable ones are more like them while the Brotherhood follow our old media stereotypes. Of the shortage of women, their leaders promise that any "true warrior" who falls in battle will be rewarded by being sent to their afterlife paradise of Vahalla and be attended to by seventy-two Valkaries.
To sex-starved males, this can be a particuarly enticing incentive.
Of special concern to us, they go beyond the usual distrust of outsiders, some openly claiming the Federation is out to get them. These zealots claim our technology weakens their manliness, our medicine makes them impotent, our entertainment polluting their spirits. Needless to say, they want us gone, some prefering more active means of causing it.
The majority of New Vinlanders do not agree with them, and there are those such as Eric the Green whom have promised to help in case of trouble with them. And some of the entertainment Federation personel provided has helped bridge some gaps with the locals. Jones says the holodeck they set up resulted in less fighting in the area as word got around about, certain programs. Unfortunetly, some Brotherhood zealots have siezed upon it as part of some neufarious plot. Despite the reduction in violence, Jones says he can feel the tension in the air.
Abdul compared it to drilling a small hole in a powder keg. Pressure may be easing slowly, but there's still great potential for a match to cause an explosion.
Wonderful, just wonderful ...
NARRATIVE - The friendlier Viking dropping in on the characters gives the girls a particuarly friendly greeting, "They call me ... Thor .... The ever-lasting! Thor ... The powerful. Thor ... the adored. Thor ... The weilder of the .... hammer!" And doesn't seem to mind their nonhuman apperances. Lott and Lynx in particualr swoon over him, and he sweeps them off their feet and takes them to a local bar for drink and a lot of flirting.