As Aegelief and Candide stepped onto the bridge, the crew ignored them. The room felt crowded with drones moving in every direction, gathering data, giving reports to each other, running simulations. Because the drone communicated by telepathy, the actual noise in the room was as quiet as a library in the castle of a sleeping giant. Two figures sat on small floating chairs in the middle of the activity. One was Odin, but the other was a small fuzzy animal with long ears which Candide did not recognize. What that a hare?

Huginn said, “Lord Odin, a message is coming through from one of those ship by direct laser communication.”

Odin commanded (audibly), “Project the message onto the tactical screen.”

An image of a scarred old man appeared as large as a movie screen. The man had a patch over one eye and he sat on board his own ship's bridge. The old man's bridge, however, looked more like what Candide would have expected of a bridge. It had wooden walls with swords and nets mounted on them. Paper maps, compasses, sextants, and a treasure chest cluttered the room. Several humans and drones dressed in dirty torn clothes stood in the back. The old man's wooden peg leg tapped against the plank floor. The room swayed as one were standing on a steady dock and watching a ship gently rock on large slow waves.

“Oh dear,” said Aegelief as a delicate hand rose to cover his mouth, “We know that human.”

The man in the eye patch said, “This message be intended for Lord Odin, God of Wisdom, Recorder Keeper of the Twelve, Captain of the Asgard, and ugly little lump of green lard. I've no need to introduce meself to you, do I? Me name is Bart, but you always called me 'Pirate.' I look old, don't I? It took me years to escape ye, and years more escape that prison cell ye put in me head. Time changes a man but not a monster. We be the Cut Throat Rebels, hundreds of humans and drones who have thrown off our shackles, and I be their commander. Here is what ye don't know. Me ships have a thousand cannon balls pointed at the Asgard, and each one carries an anti-matter payload. Ye cannot call for help, and ye cannot outrun us. Ye energy weapons can cut me down, I'm sure, but they cannot get all me cannonballs. I be willing to die to make certain that ye drown in yonder vacuum with me. Can ye say the same, Odin?” The message ended.

Muginn said, “Lord Odin, one of the ships fired a single missile at us while the message was playing. Our automated defenses shot it down, but anti-matter particles spreading all over the place.”

Huginn asked, “Where did he get that much anti-matter?”

Odin answered, “There are enough people in this galactic cluster who hate the omnis – who hate me – to give him whatever he wanted and more. He can get it, and with that much anti-matter, he can consume half this nebula.”

Isis queried, “Why isn't he killing us yet?”

Odin said, “He's waiting for me to call him back. He wants to be absolutely certain that I'm here. He wants to look me in the face when he gives the command to kill me.”

Drones began speaking over one another, bringing simulation data and a technical data to Odin. He ignored them all. He turned his chair to face Isis instead. “You need to leave. The omni-steel in this hull is strong, but it's still composed of matter, and the anti-matter will change this ship into a bomb. There is a significant chance that you could actually die here.”

“You too, Goofball.”

“Isis, I am the primary target here. If you get in your shuttle, seal it, and engage the shields, it will survive the attack.”

Isis shook her head, sending her ears waving back and forth. “Uh-uh,” she said.

“I'm serious, Isis.”

“You can't make me leave. We know because you've tried and tried.”

Candide took hold of Aegelief's shoulder and turned the drone to look him in the face. “I don't think I should be here. This is all beyond me.”

Odin shouted, “Take me and Isis to the war room!” The floor underneath them began to slip away. As it moved, he continued, “Muginn, Aeglief, Candide, come with us! Huginn, you have command of the bridge. Don't get us killed.”

The dark room underneath the bridge lit up as the occupants descended into it. The room's furniture was already shifting from Conference Room mode to War Room mode. The war room looked strangely similar to Pirate's bridge.

As a wooden table rose up to meet his hooves, Odin commanded, “Muginn, what relevant technologies have you identified.”

Muginn said, “Almost everything he has was stolen from us, including his missile technology. Those ships use the same propulsion systems as we do, but there is one difference. His communications network is more robust. Every ship is transmitting and transmitting loudly.”

Odin said, “He's jamming us so that we cannot contact our fleets.”

Isis added, “...or Shiva.”

Odin agreed, “That guy would be very handy right about now. He could blow all of those ships out of the sky for us, but he's not here. There's something more than just the storm blocking my psychic probes. I think that he's also using the jammers to supplement the storm's interference on a psychic level. It's crude tech, but it's effective. He's been planning this for deci-cycles. I flew us straight into Bart's trap.”

Isis said, “Drones, give us some options.”

Muginn answered first, “In a stand up fight, I give us a 13.7% chance of victory. The most likely outcome is mutual destruction at 50.8%. I think that I can pinpoint Pirate's command ship which will give us a couple of extra points. A fifteen percent chance of survival is better than nothing.”

Aegelief said, “The shuttle which Lady Isis brought is a stealth model.” “Your lordship and ladyship could fly away with the human champion,” he said gesturing to Candide. “It will hold perhaps ten other beings. If your escape coordinates with Muginn's attack, my data estimates a 29.1% chance of your survival.”

Candide said, “Excuse me, may I – I mean, Lady Isis, isn't it? The drones say that you are a magician. Is that right?”

Isis answered, “I am very pleased to meet you, Firefighter.”

Candide asked her, “Can you make Pirate disappear?”

“Listen Sweetie, my technology is sufficiently advanced to such a degree that it is indistinguishable from magic. I still need my eye of newt and toe of frog though. I can turn him into a mushroom or something if I could get close enough and look him in his lonely remaining eye. Putting together a hex with what I can scavenge on this ship and attacking him inside his ship, nope. That would take more time than we've got.”

Odin said, “This isn't getting us anywhere. If we don't fight, we die. If we do fight, everyone dies. That creature hates me with a legendary ferocity. The nano-cycles are ticking away, that pirate has us right where he wants us, and I have no one to blame but myself!” An uncomfortable silence filled the war room. Candide shifted stared at the floor. Odin concluded, “Finding a way out of this trap is like plowing space.”

Isis placed her paw on Odin's hoof. She said, “Odin, I need for you to listen to me very carefully. I have known you for over a billion cycles. You are the at wisest intellect I have ever encountered, and I believe that you can plow space. You just have to let go of your frustration for an instant. You will see the solution that you are not allowing yourself to see. I'm asking you take a few breaths and do what you do best, overthink it.”

Odin said, “I'll make the call. Aegelief, you take the champion and a small team of drones, unarmed. Pilot the stealth shuttle onto his ship and shut down the jamming device network. I only need a micro-cycle to mindwipe his entire fleet. If his tech is stolen from us, you'll know it when you see it. If you can't shut it down, your orders are to put Candide back on the shuttle and blow up his command ship instead.”

Candide said, “You want me to fight pirates?! You don't understand, Odin. I'm not actually good at fighting.”

Aegelief simply answered, “We will follow these orders, Lord Odin.”

Isis added, “I should make the call. I can keep him talking.”

Candide said, “I would rather you came with us.”

She tilted her head to throw a look at Candide. “Trust me, Can-do. If Pirate-face sees Odin, he'll just push his Kill Odin Button and end it quick. I can keep him talking.”

Muginn asked, “How?”

Odin asked, “Yeah, how?”

Isis shrugged her hairy little shoulders. “It's my thing, Odin. I've been manipulating you for millions of cycles.”