Beowulf Hero's Journey

The heavyweight, airtight bay door of the W.G. Scyld closed. The circular spacecraft detached from the Angel on My Shoulder repair base above Gyth, a tidally locked exoplanet orbiting a red dwarf star. In addition to the light sails retracting, the Scyld’s ion thrusters simultaneously fired a short burst as the ship moved away toward the Einstein-Rosen Dark Matter Bridge.

Beowulf, the captain of the ship, wore a slimming blazer which was garnished with many metals from past military achievements. His mission was to aid the Spear-Danes against one of their malfunctioning quantum computers. The artificial intelligence (AI) had gone rogue earlier in the week and was murdering workers.

The Scyld was now approaching the Einstein-Rosen Dark

Mater Bridge. Gravitational turbulence grew as they came closer to the spherical wormhole, which had been created by the Bridge. The ship began to orbit the spherical hole, coming closer and closer after each rotation, until it was pulled into the spherical wormhole. Lights flickered. The ship jolted and rocked. They lost contact with Command. Red lights flashed on the consoles.

Then suddenly, they reached the other side and the ship slid silently through, exiting the spherical hole.

Ahead of them was the Spear-Dane colonial outpost on the planet Feoshnel. The Spear-Dane watch post haled them. A guard asked, “What kind of men are you, who arrive rigged for combat? Do you seek trouble?” Beowulf refused a reply.

The watch post’s tungsten window covers rolled down and their magnetic accelerator cannon targeted the Scyld. “Wait!”, Beowulf shouted at the monitor, “We have come to help you eradicate your faulty AI”. The guard looked back. He asked, “Are you Beowulf?” Beowulf nodded. The guard motioned to someone off screen. The window covers rolled up and the magnetic accelerator cannon moved back to its original place. “You are free to dock on the right. Once you’re inside you will be questioned, and we will see if you are really who you say you are.”

He was Beowulf, Prince of the Geats, to be questioned like a liar was below him. Beowulf roared at the screen, “Gunman, fire the Tsar missile!” The pod door on the Scyld opened and the missile shot through space, destroying the watch

post.

The Scyld moved through the space that the watch post once occupied, its debris shooting through space away from them.

The Scyld stayed behind Feoshnel’s moon Pamla, cloaked and shielded from the various scanners on the planet. Already a small ship had gone to the investigate. One of the in-atmosphere crafts aboard the Scyld was launched, carrying Beowulf and some of his best men. it moved past the investigating ship and into the atmosphere of the planet. The entry of this vessel alerted ground-to-air missile silos, one fired. A the heat shield of their ship sizzled and popped, another noise was heard, one that sounded like a jet engine. Then, suddenly, it collided with one of the wings on their ship. sending them in a spiraling turn toward the earth. warning signs flashed. Those who unbuckled began to float. some hit their heads on the wall as the ship tossed about. The Danes tracked the ship as it plummeted down and reached terminal velocity. “Strap in, eject, and lock your armor, men”, said Beowulf. Their armor was made of titanium, with a shock absorbing gel between the armor and the person wearing it. All at once the seats on the craft shot up and out of their places. Flying through the air. They had no parachute to slow them down. A land craft was sent to each of their trajectories to find, capture, and bring them back to one of the Spear-Danes’

prisons.