Snippet #2824311

After a moment of inactivity in the otherwise seemingly still waters of Lake Vitality, the large Viking longship began to move. Large ramps slowly opened up on both sides of the longship, and from within the air-tight ports, two smaller vessels emerged. These karve-like silver convertiboats were much smaller in size, about 20 foot in length and shaped like silver almonds as they were released from the Stjornkona, drifting outward into the serene lake as if the larger longship had just given birth to two smaller oblong egg-like boats. As the convertiboats drifted ahead of the Stjornkona, the large ramps were retracted and shut like drawbridges against the sealed docking bay, pushing water outwards from the air-tight vacuum within like a giant aquatic whale exhaling spouts of water from its blowhole, or a mechanical shark through its massive gills. Such was the effort and technology of the Empyrean Norsemen, having worked for generations and generations to reach the stars while their own home planet Gaia was being destroyed by more primitive barbarian peoples that had been fighting and killing each other for decades, allowing the Empyrean Vikings to stay out of the limelight and advance far beyond other space-faring races.

The expedition to Senusret had been sanctioned by King Halfdan the Great for the purpose of exploration, star navigation, resource gathering, mapping, soil and water samples, weapons testing and new discoveries, all in the name of Empyrean Norse science, magic and alchemy. The small convertiboats began to push forward, moving side by side as they headed towards the open shore, while the captain of the Stjornkona and his two pilots took note of the other small ripple in the water roughly fifty feet away. By now, every Norsemen was familiar with the open seas, many of them having sailed back and forth across much larger and deeper waters back home. Most of them had already grown accustomed to whales, sea monsters and dragons, and many passengers on the Stjornkona had already been acquainted with Birger's maps and sketches, and his illustrious tales of Jarl Goffre and his crew's frightening encounters in Dracos Valley, something which every Nordic cosmonaut had been required to study before venturing into outer space. And while the Stjornkona had an entirely new and different crew from its twin sister ship the Stjornhestr, every vessel now had copies of Birger's journal and, coming well prepared for their journey across the galaxy, the Stjornkona's crew of 500 vikings felt like they had nothing to fear at this point in their journey.

The convertiboats drifted slowly ahead while the larger longship sat still in the middle of Lake Vitality, each one holding a small gang of 12 armed vikings who were already in the process of taking notes and studying this new foreign habitat on Dedelion as they approached the shore, well protected by the seemingly windowless two-sided silvery mirror casings and plate-like rooftops on each karve that allowed the gangs to have a 360° full view of everything around them, both above and below the water, so long as there was clear visibility to perceive everything. Although they could not see the bottom of the lake due to its sunless depths, as usual they did detect life forms in the water and determined that the planet's air was breathable by the sighting of small curious fish and scattered palm trees on the shallow beaches. The sealife was different from Gaia and the palms were shaped slightly different from the ones on the Empyrean Sea Beach, but they were not too dissimilar from home to the point of being unrecognizable, and even the climate and temperature itself seemed almost familiar to them as they approached the shore. Only once they reached the shallow waters did the bimini-like rooftops start to open and retract back, revealing the oarmen within the convertiboats as the vikings felt the fresh air and breathed the calming breeze for the first time.