Northstar Rising: Book Summary
After narrowly escaping the ruins of Moscow, Ryan Cawdor and his band are surprised to discover that the Russian Commissar Major, Zimyanin managed to get into the chamber just as the jump begins. The Russian manages to slip past Ryan and out into the control room, closing the door as he makes his escape, thus triggering the jump again. As Ryan passes out, he hears Zimyanin scream and glimpses the Russian firing his hand gun at a huge, sickly yellow creature. The jump overtakes him.
The second redoubt they arrive in is quite dim and cool. A smell of death and decay permeate the control room. As soon as they open the doorway leading to the rest of the complex they are attacked by a small group of Troggies. The muties are small and weak, easy to defeat, but they find that way too many of the mutants are present and elect to jump a third time, rather than fight to the death.
They all suffer horrible nightmares from the jump because of a malfunction in the gateway. When they come to the pup Doc Tanner adopted in Russia is dead, the stress of the three jumps too much for it. Doc slips into insanity from a combination of the triple jump they had to endure, and the loss of the puppy. They decide to spend the night and explore the redoubt the next day, as the triple jump was very taxing on the entire group.
The first thing they notice is the fact that the air inside the redoubt is very warm and quite humid. Nearly all the walls are covered in green lichen and mould. They know that the redoubt is open to the outside as they see insects flying around in the corridor. As they explore the redoubt, they hear a strange sound approaching. It turns out to be a huge swarm of mutie bees They step into a side corridor and barely manage to get a door open, slip inside before the main body of the swarm reach them. Several dozen of the muties slip in just as they close the door and several of the party members are stung.
As they travel deeper into the redoubt, the air cools and the signs of plant and insect infestation all but disappear. They finally find the dormitories and stop to clean, rest and eat a meal that J.B. prepared for them. Doc is still lost in his insanity as they finally drift off to sleep. Around five in the morning Ryan is awakened by something he can't place his finger on. Heading out, he finds Doc wandering the corridors looking for Emily and his children. He manages to convince Doc to return to the dormitories.
The next day they load up on ammunition, explosives and grenades and head out from the redoubt. They are quite certain that they are no longer anywhere in the Deathlands as they see a lush tropical jungle when they reach the outside. J.B. use's his ever present sextant and determines that they are in the middle of Minnesota. Disappointed, they head out into the steaming jungle to explore.
A short time later they come across a cluster of buildings surrounded by a tall security fence. They discover that this is the Wendigo Instate of Botanical Research, incorporating the Blackwood Centre for Chemical and Neurological Research, Military Division, with the Shelly Cryonic Institute, Private. This is one of the two Cryogenic facilities Rick Ginsberg told them about before he died. This is also the source from where the jungle originated. Excited at the prospect of finding more 'freezies', they all enter the facility and begin to explore.
Much to their disappointment, many of the buildings are suffering from damage caused from both seismic as well as the hot tropical environment. They are just about to give up and continue on their way when they find the Cryonics' facility, which, unlike the other buildings, is undamaged. They have to use explosives to gain entrance to the building.
Once inside they discover that it is in mint condition and looks like it's ready to be used at a moments notice. After a short exploration they discover a section known as the non corporeal section. It is filled with no less than one hundred heads, all waiting for the day that they can be re-attached to a healthy body. This will never happen. Jak, his curiosity getting the better of him, hits the emergency de-thaw procedure and the heads begin to revive. As the horror begins, they discover another doorway located in the room and head through it, just as a fire breaks out and begins to consume the re-animated heads.
Inside this new chamber they discover a total of three cryo tubes. One contains a little girl named Hope Future, another chamber contains an eighty seven year old man who is suffering from a brain tumour, and the third contains a woman named Mildred Wyeth.
They decide to revive Mildred Wyeth, because nothing seems to be wrong with her and she is not only a doctor of medicine, but appears to be healthy as well as an expert marksman. After several hours waiting, she finally wakes up, seeming fully aware of her surroundings and in total control of her faculties.
After a short while they salvage some clothing for her and bring her up to speed on what has happened to the world since the war occurred nearly one hundred years before. The riving of Mildred finally seems to snap Doc Tanner out of his insanity and the friendly rivalry begins between the two of them. The spend the night in the facility and get some much needed rest.
Late in the night Mildred wakes Ryan up. They talk for a few minutes. She states, not asks that Ryan is the leader of the small band and they, for the most part, are the good guys. Satisfied, she goes back to sleep.
After eating a meal next morning they head out and continue to explore the region. Mildred, upon seeing the lush vegetation, has a very hard time believing that they are in Minnesota. They talk about why she had to go in for surgery and the fact that she won a silver medal in the 1996 Olympics. Doc challenges her to prove her bold statement. She does so with flying colours. Everyone, including Doc Tanner, are quite impressed with it!
They pass a river and somehow Jak actually manages to slip and fall in. Ryan is able to drag him out by his hair and Mildred revives him, proving her skill as a doctor. After he recovers, they continue on their way.
A short time later they begin to spot animals running past them, from the direction the are heading. Krysty knows something bad is happening but is unable to determine what it is. They discover soon enough what it is. A swarm of huge mutie ants are destroying everything in their path. They are forced to race through the living stream and find shelter in a huge tree. Many of the mutie ants attempt to try and climb the tree, but are killed by the group. The ants surround the tree and they are forced to spend the night in it. Fortunately the next morning the swarm has passed and they are able to continue their way. The path of devastation is over eighty feet wide.
They come across a small pile of bones which were picked clean by the mutie ants. Around the neck bones is a collar with the name 'Odin' on it. They know that a ville must be close by. The further they travel, the tropical vegetation begins to give way to more normal vegetation that should be found. Eventually they come across a small ville named Markland.. The ville's baron, Jorund Thoraldson, greets the party and insists that they stay with the ville. As usual, they claim that they are traders who's wag broke down several days ago and have been travelling on foot ever since.
The most startling fact about the ville is that the inhabitants seem to be Vikings. The dwellings resemble the Viking homes, the two ships docked at the lake shore are of Viking design, and the people themselves have Viking names and wear clothing that you would expect a Viking to wear. As with a lot of the ville's the group have encountered, women are, at best, second class citizens.
They mention that they found the corpse of a dog. A young man breaks down in tears at hearing that his dog is dead. As punishment for his weakness, he is forced to work with the women for a full months time. They learn that Jorund wants them to stay as permanent residents as the ville has lost a lot of people to a sickness as of late. It is not a request. At this time Mildred finally removes her hood. At seeing her black skin, the villagers go into hysterics as they believe that she is the Death Goddess, the widow maker. They are about to attack.
Ryan is able to convince them that an attack would cost the ville many of its warriors and would not be worth the price it would cost. The townsfolk slowly return. They all blame Mildred for the death and sickness that have been plaguing the villager for several months. They cannot accept that black skinned folks are natural.
The warriors are about to attack, regardless of the outcome when Mildred suggests that a duel be fought, with her life as the prize. The baron reluctantly agrees and Odo Crookback, the ville champion swordsman will fight who ever takes on the position as champion for Mildred. Doc takes on this role, much to everyone's surprise.
The duel begins, and it is soon discovered that Odo is not very skilled as a swordsman. The only thing he has going for him is his youth and strength. He nearly takes Doc out when Tanner grabs a handful of sand and blinds Odo with it, disarms him, and then kills the man with a thrust to the heart. Mildred is allowed to live.
The group is given the home of a family that recently died after coming back from the hills with water that they would use to make ale. Mildred is quite certain that it is radiation poisoning. They learn this from a thrall, a slave girl who brought them their meal. The food is excellent, but they don't touch the ale as they are sure that it will be contaminated. To cover their tracks, they explain that from where they come from Alcohol is forbidden.
After the meal is finished, the baron comes and informs them that the women must leave and stay with the unmarried women, and that in the morning they will be tested to see if they are worthy to become members of the ville. Reluctantly, Krysty and Mildred leave.
After breakfast the next morning, the tests begin. The first test is a spear throwing competition. Ryan wins it hands down. At the same time Jak offers to toss one of his leaf bladed throwing knives into the air and catch it in his mouth. They are all eager to see it and he does so, showing off his remarkable agility.
The second competition is axe throwing and then finally a test of skill with Blaster's. Krysty senses danger is near by and is able to warn Ryan of her feelings. Jak is quite certain that he heard something in the thick mists that are surrounding the ville. Ryan, sure of his skill with a Blaster, offers to shoot an apple off a man's head. As he fires, a bullet wound appears in the forehead, below the apple. Ryan shouts out that he wasn't responsible for it just as the group are attacked by a band of muties armed melee weapons and a few black powder weapons. The Vikings insist on attacking but Ryan wants to head back to the ville.
When they make it back to the ville they discover that one home is now ablaze and several people are dead. If not for the superior firepower held by Ryan and his friends, the ville may have been destroyed. After the muties are defeated, the ville's wise woman say's that Mildred is the cause of the attack, that she brought the muties in. Once again, Ryan is forced to make Jorund keep his word and allow Mildred to live.
Three of the muties survived and they are stripped naked and beaten. At dusk they are placed in huge man shaped wicker's and are set ablaze. They are killed to accompany the three men killed in the attack. Once the muties are dead, the warriors are sent out into the lake and set ablaze. Three of the female thralls were strangled to death to join the three warriors in death.
That night they consider several possibilities for escaping, including stealing a boat and leaving in the dead of the night. But, they want to make sure that everyone will be able to get away.
The next day Ryan spots Mildred and Krysty. It is obvious that they need to talk, even though the women totally ignore them and head into the woods. A short time later Ryan catches up with the two women. He tells them that in two days they will make their escape and head towards the swamp, there, they will set up an ambush to take out any pursuers and then head back towards the gateway. As they make their way back towards the ville, they encounter a patrol and end up taking a side trail to avoid being discovered. It leads to a sacrificial alter. With this disturbing news they return to the ville.
Around noon two of the children in the ville die from radiation poisoning, and nearly at the same time the ville is hit by a small quake. Erik Stonebiter asks Jak to go and bless the children, as they believe that he is a god of light. He refuses saying that it wouldn't do any good. He can't believe what he is hearing.
About an hour after that, Jorund brings Krysty and Mildred to the building where Ryan and the rest are staying. He tells them that they are to stay here and not leave, or else they will be chilled. The way things are going, they are sure that someone, either Mildred or Jak will be used as a sacrifice.
Late that night they quietly slip away and steal a small boat. Heading out into the lake they paddle off into the night. By dawn they make their way towards shore. They discover that the area is incredibly hot with radiation, but no where as much as the stream coming out of the hills. There has to be a slow leak somewhere in the hills, that is the only way to explain the radiation poisoning and the muties they encountered.
Fifteen minutes later they discover the source of the radiation. A quake several months earlier opened a hidden storage facility, spilling tons of radioactive waste into the environment. This is what is killing the people of Markland. Mildred is horrified at the discovery. Knowing that continuing on this path would ensure death from Rad poisoning, they turn around and head back to the boat they stole.
As they arrive back at the boat, they are intercepted by the Vikings. The group is taken prisoner once again. When they attempt to tell the Karl Jorund about their discovery, he will not hear of it. Promises that they will pay for their treachery with death once they return to the ville.
One the way back they are once again attacked by the muties. During the battle one of the Vikings go berserk and kills five of the muties before he is in turn killed. This distraction turns the tide and the muties are beaten off once again.
By late afternoon they finally reach the ville. Mildred does everything she can to convince Jorund of the danger they are in, but he refuses to listen. They are placed back in the building and find out that a total of twelve men were killed in the attack and that two more are not expected to live. They also discover that the ville has something in store and that it involves Jak, but they are unable to learn anything else.
Just after midnight the baron, Jorund comes and tells Ryan that if they leave Jak and Mildred behind the rest of the party will be allowed to leave unharmed. Mildred offers to stay behind and be sacrificed as it will allow the rest to survive. Ryan agrees, which angers everyone else. He say's that they gave her life, and it is theirs to take away.
The baron agrees to this and say's that after Jak kills Mildred the rest will be allowed to leave. Jak is taken to see the ville's wise woman and to be instructed as to what part he will play in the sacrifice. Turns out all she wanted was for young Jak to have sex with her. He refused. All he has to do is cut her throat and the sacrifice is complete.
At dusk Mildred and Jak are taken away. They all say goodbye and the rest are forced to stay behind during the ceremony. Once it is over, they can leave.
They time their escape so they can attempt to rescue Mildred. To do so they set the mattress on fire and get the guards to come and open the door. They attack, brutally and viscously, killing the six of them. Krysty spots an old man near a huge dinner gong. He is about to ring it when Krysty is forced to kill him. They race towards where the altar is located.
While they are trying to escape, Jak is drugged and Mildred is stripped naked and placed on the alter. Jak, drugged, is about to strike and kill Mildred when the rest of his friends come in. Ryan making probably the best shot of his life, shoots the knife out of Jak's hand. In the first fifteen seconds of the fight, twenty of the villagers are killed outright. The shot snaps Jak out of his trance and they are able to head off into the darkness in the confusion, but not before Mildred strangles the old wisewoman with her bare hands.
Next day they finally find themselves back in the swamps. By the late afternoon they know that Jorund and some of his followers have set up a trap and are waiting for them. Sure enough, when they reach the river Jak fell into they spot the baron and twenty of his men, including Erik Stonebiter.
Ryan tries to reason with the baron but it fails. When one of his men tries to get him to listen to what Ryan is saying, Jorund kills him with a blast from his shotgun. Ryan, having had enough of this, grabs an implode grenade and tosses it to the baron who catches it just as it goes off. The implosion kills the baron and Erik Stonebiter takes over.
Mildred warns Erik that in order to save the ville they have to move at least fifty miles up the coast. If they don't all will eventually die from the radiation poisoning. Erik agrees to this and allows the party to leave. The two groups part company.
Eventually they make it back to the redoubt and jump out.
End of Northstar Rising.
A total of 8 days pass in this novel