Notes: I've been thinking about this story for quite some time now, although the (one-off) cameo appearance in this chapter is a direct result of… some stuff I have been talking about on Tumblr recently. No idea how long this one is going to be but definitely not planning another Five Year Mission! It might take a while for further chapters to appear, but I thought I'd post this one now because I've had it in my mind for quite a while.

Chapter One

Tony was already talking as he and Steve walked into Jane's research station, but he stopped as he realized she was on a Skype call. From the computer an unfamiliar male voice with an English accent said,

"I should have the data analysis completed for you within two weeks, but I hope it won't take quite that long."

"Thank you, Bri. Much appreciated," Jane said with a smile.

"Pleased to be able to help," the English voice said cheerfully. "Goodnight, Jane. Say hello to Darcy for me." Jane ended the call and turned to her visitors.

"Hi! What brings you here?" she asked.

"I heard a rumour you were working on a new theory regarding Einstein-Rosen bridges," Tony explained.

"And I just happened to be at the Tower when Tony decided to pay you a visit, and he invited me to come along," Steve said. "Hi, Darcy," he added, as Jane's research assistant walked in carrying two cups of coffee.

"Hi guys. Coffee?" Darcy asked, handed over the first two cups and was back in a moment with two more.

"Yes," Jane answered Tony's original question. "I think- I think- it might be possible to predict where they're going to open. It looks like there may be characteristic activity in the zodiacal dust cloud that could signal ERB activity. I've collaborated in the past with some researchers in London, and they put me in touch with a guy connected to Imperial College whose area of study is the dust cloud. He's very kindly offered to analyze some data for me. That's who I was just talking to."

"Cool," Tony said. "Who is it? I wonder if I know his work?"

"Maybe," Jane replied. "Dr. May?"

Tony's eyes widened. "Dr. May? Did I just hear you call him Bri?"

"Yes. Dr. Brian May. His dissertation, on motion in the dust cloud, is fascinating. I have a copy of it, if you'd like to read it- " Jane started toward the bookcase by the window.

"No, I mean- you're collaborating with Brian May?" Tony repeated, with heavy emphasis, then looked at the three bewildered faces staring at him and burst out, "Oh come on, please don't tell me you don't know who Brian May is."

"I don't," Steve spoke up.

Jane looked equally bewildered. "Of course I know who he is. I just told you I'm collaborating with him, and I've read his dissertation and a couple of papers he's co-authored."

"Darcy?" Tony pleaded, and was slightly heartened to see she was obviously trying not to laugh.

"You know what's weird," Jane remarked, with wide-eyed, science-geeky innocence, "Erik had exactly the same reaction as you, when I told him about it." She paused, and said deliberately, "Sheer heart attack. He turned sort of green and said, 'Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?' And I said, 'Open your eyes, look up at the skies and- " Darcy joined in and both women sang, "seeeeeee." Darcy finally broke down giggling and Jane went on, "Come on, Tony, of course I know who Brian May is. Darcy and I squeed like two little girls when Dr. Jaffe- that's the head of the Astrophysics Group at Imperial- told us he'd been in touch and Dr. May was willing to help with our data. We've been trying to stay cool, though."

"Jane's been staying cool," Darcy corrected. "I still have to leave the room and shriek a little when she's talking to him. Fortunately there's a big desert out there."

"Yeah, I have no idea what you're talking about," Steve said. "I take it this Brian May isn't just a scientist? Strictly a scientist, I mean."

"No. He played- well, more or less still plays- guitar in a really big rock band called Queen," Tony explained. "Geniuses. They were after your time."

"Which explains why I don't know their music."

"I bet you do," Jane said. "You like sports, right? Well, have you ever heard a crowd do- " she leaned over her desk, banged on it twice with flattened hands and then clapped on the third beat. Pause. Bang-bang-clap. Darcy joined her on the bookcase. Bang-bang-clap.

"Okay, yes, that I have heard," Steve admitted. "I remember thinking it was new since I used to go to ballgames before the war. I mean, before the war I was in. You know what I mean. People didn't do that rhythm thing in the Thirties."

"And the reason they didn't is, Brian May wasn't born then, and he didn't write that song until the Seventies," Tony explained. "We should probably introduce you to Queen, since the Springsteen experiment is coming along so well. And I think you've encountered the Beatles, right?"

"Hard not to," Darcy noted.

"Thar was Loki. He was horrified when he found out I had never heard the Beatles," Steve said. "Apparently 'everyone has heard of the Beatles'- there's a book about them in the library at Asgard and everything."

"Yeah, well, we'll see what you think of Queen. And I can't believe you're on Jane and Bri terms with Brian May, Jane. I'll get you for that. In the meantime, do you mind filling me in on the new theory?"

~oOo~

Much later that evening Jane and Darcy were in pajamas, eating ice cream, when they were startled by a crash from outside, around the back of the research station. It sounded like a garbage can being tipped over.

"Dammit," Jane exclaimed, jumping to her feet. "Do you remember whether we put the cement blocks back on top of the trash cans?"

"If it's raccoons, that won't stop them for long," Darcy replied. "Hey wait, where are you going?"

"Where does it look like I'm going?" Jane replied, trading her bunny slippers for sneakers and grabbing a jacket and a broom. "Outside to run them off, the little jerks."

"Suppose it's coyotes instead of raccoons?" Darcy argued. "And either way, a broom will only make them mad at you."

"Then go find the Super Soaker. You had it last, right?" Without waiting for a reply, Jane let herself out the side door and disappeared into the darkness.

Darcy had found the Super Soaker and was about to head to the kitchen to fill it when the Skype alert sounded for an incoming call. Detouring out to the main room, she checked the computer screen to see who was contacting them.

It was Jane's new research collaborator. Darcy briefly debated ignoring the call and letting Jane get back to him tomorrow morning. Then it occurred to her that it must be some ungodly hour of the night in England- or rather, it was tomorrow morning- and if he'd stayed up all night and was calling now, there was something going on that Jane probably needed to hear about right away.

Darcy accepted the call, activated the video, and there was the friendly but understandably tired looking face of Dr. May.

"Good morning, Darcy" he said. "Or rather good evening, isn't it?"

"Yes," Darcy squeaked.

"It's Brian," he said, as if she wasn't looking at him right now. He did the same thing when he spoke to Jane, always introduced himself. It was sort of charming but also kind of funny, since obviously he knew how cameras worked. "Is Jane there, please? Dr. Foster?"

"She, uh, she just stepped out," Darcy replied. "Can I take a message?"

"Is she at her observatory? And yes, could you please tell her this as quickly as you can. I started looking at her data straight away, beginning with the reference data from the known phenomenon."

Which was one way of saying "that time Thor crash-landed in the desert and we ran over him with the old research truck."

"And then I started looking at the most recent data, for comparison. Jane said it was from observations actually taken yesterday?"

"Yes?" Darcy said, the back of her neck beginning to prickle because his tone and expression were so much like Jane's when Jane felt like she was onto something.

"Well, it actually looks like there's a phenomenon of interest happening now. Right now. Please tell Jane as soon as possible, if she isn't at her observatory she should be."

"I will. I'll go find her right away. Thank you."

"Good night."

Super Soaker almost forgotten in her hand, Darcy was running for the side door when everything outside lit up like a giant floodlight.

~oOo~

"Come on, you little creeps, leave the garbage alone," Jane muttered as she stomped over to the outbuilding where the trash cans stood. She felt a little stupid holding the broom- she wasn't planning to actually hit the raccoon, or whatever it was- and was beginning to be sorry she hadn't brought a flashlight.

Or waited for Darcy. Or in fact just left the whole thing alone. Darcy's comment about coyotes nagged at her, and she certainly hoped whatever had been at the garbage was already gone.

And it was, or at least she didn't see anything moving. There was one trash can tipped over next to the tree by the outbuilding, but nothing else-

Wait. Tree? There was no tree by the outbuilding-

"Grab her!" a voice shouted, from behind Jane and somewhere below her elbow. Jane whirled with a squeak of alarm, and looked down. In the dim light radiating from the research building and the moon, she could see-

- A raccoon?

Oh God, a huge raccoon, standing on its hind legs, wearing bandoliers and carrying what looked like a ray gun or something, and-

- And something dropped over her head, heavy rough cloth, and she was being picked up, kicking and struggling, by strong hard arms that felt for all the world as if the mysterious tree had grabbed her. Jane tried to scream, but she was too breathless to make enough noise to be heard.

As something lit up the night around her, so bright she could even see the light through the bag, or whatever it was, over her head, Jane remembered who she could call on and be sure of being heard.

And seen.

"Heimdall!" she croaked. "Heimdall, help!"

She could hardly hear her own voice over the growing humming sound above and around her, but she was sure Heimdall would hear her.

And then she felt weightless, a bit like the feeling of traveling by Bifrost but not quite.

No one needed to tell her she wasn't in New Mexico any more.

Note: I am probably the last person to learn that Brian May completed his PhD dissertation some years ago. There is not point in my even trying to read the thing, but if any of you are physicists, here is the citation:

May, Brian Harold. "A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud" (Springer and Canopus Publishing Ltd., 2008)