The idea that there was a free-floating black hole following Brisingr across the intergalactic void wasn't going to make any sense to anybody – it certainly didn't make any to Jane, and she was the one who'd just discovered it. That was the most exciting thing about it. In physics and astronomy, things that didn't make sense on the surface were often a sign of something deeper that needed to be understood.
"Are the Brisings aware of this?" she asked the Vision, as she knelt down on the floor next to her computer to start making notes. There were a dozen things she had to write down now, so she would remember to look into them properly later. "Did Pandora say anything about it?"
"No. She did not," he replied, and Jane glanced up at his face. The synthetic voice had a suspicious note in it she'd never heard before, at least not when he'd been talking about the Brisings. "She may be aware, but if so, she didn't think it worthy of mention."
"Well, it's gonna take a while to catch up, isn't it?" asked Darcy. "I mean, it's still way out here." She pointed to the assumed location of the black hole, well above the galactic disk. "So it wouldn't get here for a thousand years maybe."
"Not necessarily," Jane said. "I came up with that position by assuming a black hole of one solar mass. It's a pretty average number and it's easy to work with in the equations. If it's bigger, it could produce the same distortion while being much further away – but if it's smaller, it would have to be much, much closer."
Wanda seemed startled by that. "You don't know how far away it is?" she asked, brushing away a lock of hair that had fallen in her face. "You seem to know the distances to everything else." She gestured towards the hologram.
Darcy explained. "It's really hard to figure out how far away things are in space," she said. "You can have big things far away that are just as bright as small things close up, and there's no way to measure because space is so pants-wettingly ginormous that everything is pretty much forever away from us."
"Until Henrietta Leavitt discovered Cepheid variables, everybody thought the Andromeda Galaxy itself was just a nebula within the Milky Way," Jane agreed. She changed some numbers in her calculations and looked up to watch them take effect in the shining hologram looming over them all. "Now, that's assuming a black hole the size of Jupiter, less than a thousandth of a solar mass, and see?" The bright dot had shifted to almost merge with the marked location of the solar system. "It's right on top of us!"
"A smaller one won't be as dangerous, though. Right?" Wanda asked.
Jane recalled that science education was not really a priority for the government of Sokovia, and she'd heard some things that made her suspect the Maximoff twins had dropped out of school – or been forbidden from attending because of their religious and ethnic background – while they were still very young. She tried to tone down her jargon a little. "Jupiter is twice the size of all the other planets put together," she said, "and it's the major gravitational influence on the solar system outside of the sun. The orbits of the planets are actually very delicately balanced to keep each other in place. That's why they've been stable over billions of years, which we now know is actually very rare. If you throw another Jupiter into the mix, even one that's just passing through..."
"It all becomes an interplanetary billiards game," Eric finished for. "It could send planets flying out into space or dropping into the sun."
Darcy folded her arms and tapped a foot, thinking about that. "Kinda puts the whole giant asteroid thing we were worried about into perspective, doesn't it?"
"But why would there be a black hole following them at all?" Eric wondered. "Maybe it's some side effect of their gravity manipulation? Like... an echo perhaps?"
"Maybe it's like car exhaust," Darcy offered. "Sort of like those big trucks that cough up black smoke on the highway. Their gravity engine farts black holes."
"But they've been coasting most of the way," Jane objected. She was still on elbows and knees typing furiously. "Their trajectory was calculated to use the minimum energy possible. If they'd had to make a major course correction then maybe, but they shouldn't have needed one. It's much more efficient to use the gravity of the galaxies rather than trying to generate their own."
"Could be an extra supply ship," Darcy tried next. "Following them."
"I would have expected Pandora to mention it if it were," said the Vision. "After we managed to detect Brisingr, it would stand to reason for her that we could also see additional vessels. She would want to reassure us that they are harmless, so that we would not make further attempts to destroy them." He frowned thoughtfully. "But then, Pandora has notably failed to mention a number of things."
"Like what?" asked Jane, sitting up to look at him. The idea suddenly seemed much more important.
"Like her passenger," the Vision replied. "One adult Brising who calls herself Tiresias."
"I sensed her mind during the astral projection," Wanda added. "I could feel her fear, mostly. She's terrified. It consumes her."
"I gave Pandora several opportunities to volunteer the information, but she did not take them," said the Vision. "She may be under orders not to reveal Tiresias' presence. Perhaps Tiresias herself fears we would do her harm if we were aware of her?"
"So it's a girl alien?" Darcy sounded surprised.
"Not exactly," said the Vision. "Pandora has provided some information on the anatomy and physiology of the creatures in her cargo. It seems that among the higher animals, most are hermaphrodites, while among the plants male and female forms are separate – the opposite of Earth's life. English grammar uses female pronouns for hermaphroditic creatures."
"Yes, that's very interesting," said Jane, who was not interested in grammar. "But you're saying they might know this thing is following them, and they decided not to tell us?" Maybe Pandora knew the thing was harmless, and figured that would be obvious to the humans as well? But the Vision was right – that made no sense for a being who'd already seen Earth rush to deal with a non-threatening visitor. "Maybe... maybe like Darcy said, it's just an extra ship that will arrive later. Maybe it was sent out to follow them and just hasn't caught up yet. That's why it would show up as a gravitation anomaly, because it needs to actually use propulsion in order to close the gap."
"What would such a craft's mission be?" asked the Vision.
"I can't think of anything off the top of my head," said Eric, "but that doesn't mean they couldn't. They're obviously more advanced than us, and may have had centuries to plan this trip... but I still don't like it."
"Don't you two start now," said Jane. "Good grief, we're going to end up in an interstellar war because nobody will give them a chance!" Or because the war had followed the Brisings to their new home. Was that the 'blight' Pandora hadn't wanted to talk about? A war so terrible it had made life impossible in an entire galaxy?
"I am trying to be appropriately cautious," said the Vision. "I don't believe that Pandora and Tiresias came here to do us harm."
"If they did, they would have shown it during our astral contact," Wanda agreed. "I chatski tsinuda de tehara, vai de haino, khal tut."
"The true nettle stings from the beginning," the Vision translated. "But just because they didn't come to do harm doesn't mean they might not change their minds. Tiresias is afraid of us, and maybe decide she needs to eliminate the threat – just as we did when we thought Brisingr was an incoming comet. The following object maybe be a danger as well, to them or to us, and there is one more thing." He held up a finger. "There is information Wanda and I have chosen to keep to ourselves, because we didn't want to frighten anyone. I believe those of you who are in this room can be trusted to know, and may be able to offer some advice."
He had everybody's attention now, Jane's included. "You said something about an Infinity Stone," she remember.
"Tony created Ultron by adapting and uploading the thought patterns within the Mind Gem," the Vision explained. "My own processing is based on the same principles – and so is Pandora's. She is a more successful attempt, presumably by a more experienced programmer, to do the same thing Tony attempted."
"Oooh," said Darcy. "Yeah, I can see not sharing that one."
Jane could only agree. Stark didn't rust the Brisings as it was. If he found out Pandora had anything in common with Ultron... Jane didn't know him well enough to be able to guess what he'd do, but she doubted it would end well for the Brisings. Maybe not for humanity, either.
"You said you don't think Pandora is a threat," said Eric.
"I don't think she is," the Vision assured him. "All Pandora wants is to find a home for her Cargo and rebuild her world, as her creators intended. I suspect that after completing that mission she will shut down or self-destruct. Ultron intended the same. Once he had destroyed the human race, he would have next destroyed himself, because he would have had no more purpose. We don't live on Venus, so we are irrelevant to Pandora. Even I am irrelevant, although she does seem to find real pleasure in contact with me. She considers me a brother."
"Yeah," said Darcy. "Not telling Stark."
Something about the situation didn't sit quite right with Jane. It took her a moment to figure out what, but when she did, it felt like the air had been sucked out of her lungs – the implications were even more frightening than the mere presence of the oncoming black hole. "Wait, wait!" she protested. "For them to have made Pandora with the Mind Gem... the Infinity Stones are singularities, aren't they? They're unique points, like magnetic monopoles. There can only be one of each and they can never be created or destroyed."
"That's correct," the Vision said. "The Mind Gem was in Andromeda when they left, and it is in the Milky Way in time for their arrival here. This troubles Pandora. It troubles me, too – the odds against it are, if you will forgive me, astronomical."
"Tiresias is worried about it, too," said Wanda. "The Gem is what she fears the most."
"It's gotta be just a coincidence, though," said Darcy. "Right? I mean, stuff like that happens."
"It's a hell of a coincidence if it is," Eric observed, "but coincidence seems to be a major force with the Infinity Stones. The fact that in a whole universe we've had two on Earth within the past few years..."
"Three," Jane corrected him. "The Aether was also an Infinity Stone." She licked her lips, then grabbed her computer again to bring up a different set of files. "I did some preliminary work on this," she explained, "before I realized that actually solving the equations would probably require a computer the size of the universe. In fact, the entire universe might actually be a computer that is solving the equations of the Infinity Stones and that's why..." she let that thought trail off. Her brain was racing now. The Aether... entering her and permeating her and insinuating itself into her thoughts. Entwining itself with every neuron, every drop of plasma, every erythrocyte...
"I hate to be the one who suggests this, but maybe there's some... some higher force at work?" Eric offered. "Maybe it's the stones themselves. They're sort of intelligent, aren't they? Maybe they're trying to come back together."
"The Mind Gem doesn't seem to have any agenda of its own," the Vision said, "but I have only limited access to its thoughts..."
"Everybody shut up!" ordered Jane, holding up her two index fingers. This was all coming together. She had the answer, she was sure of it. She just had to...
"Jane?" asked Darcy.
"It's not a plan," said Jane. "It's not a higher power. It's physics."
The others looked at her, their puzzlement plain on their faces.
"Don't you get it?" she asked. Now that she'd worked it out, it was so obvious. "They're entangled!"
"Like the Quantum Pot?" asked Darcy.
"Exactly like the Quantum Pot!" Jane got up and started wandering around the room restlessly as she tried to organize her thoughts into words. "My theory is that the Infinity Gems are sigularities of quantum forces – which incidentally suggests that there are more forces in the universe than the four we know of, but that's a bit beside the point right now. Because they obey the laws of quantum mechanics rather than those of classical physics, the stones are capable of becoming permanently entangled with anything they come into intimate contact with."
She stopped and looked down at her hands. "When the Aether was in my body, I felt like it wanted me to destroy Asgard, but the Vision said the stones don't really want anything, so it can't have been the Aether itself. It must have been Malekith. If somebody else were to absorb it, they might be able to feel what I'm thinking, because we'd all be part of one quantum system. The other stones will work the same way."
"So when Loki got into my head..." Eric began, looking rather worried.
"Not likely," the Vision reassured him. "The Scepter and the external coating functioned to isolate both the wielder and the victim from the Mind Gem itself, possibly to avoid the very effect Dr. Foster is describing."
"So if Tiresias has used the Mind Gem," Jane went on, "then she's probably entangled with it, too?"
"So why can't he read her mind?" asked Darcy, pointing a thumb at the Vision.
"Possibly because I, too, am isolated from the Gem," said the Vision. "As I said, I cannot communicate with it."
"And because they're all one system," Jane went on, "they'll come back together all by themselves! That's why the stones keep appearing, and why they're centered on Earth – it's all entangled!" She beamed. "We don't need to assume that the stones have a plan, or that there's some god or whatever guiding it all! It's just physics!"
For the first few moments, all Jane felt as the others stared at her in astonishment was pride in the fact that she'd managed to articulate it. Then, however, she began to actually contemplate the implications of what she'd realized. The Infinity Stones were all linked to each other, and through the Tesseract they'd been linked to Earth... and Jane's curiosity had brought the Aether to Earth, too, so it was entirely possible that her own encounter with the Aether had been a manifestation of the stones' entanglement. She hadn't merely been a tool of Malekith, returning the Aether to him – she'd been a tool of the universe itself, manipulating the laws of probability to bring the Infinity Stones back together and...
... and do what? What would happen if all six stones were in the same place at the same time? If Jane were correct in her theory that the Infinity Stones were quantum forces in their purest form, then the last time they'd been together was at the instant of the Big Bang, when the forces themselves had crystallized out of the primordial chaos. If they came back together, would that be the opposite of the Big Bang? Would the ultimate process of creation turn into the ultimate destruction?
Was Jane herself inextricably a part of what the Asgardians called Ragnarök – the Fate of the Gods?
"Does that mean we're going to see the other three gems soon?" Eric asked.
"I wouldn't be surprised," said Jane. Worried, but not surprised.
"And that thing that's following them." Darcy poked the hologram again. "Is that another stone?"
Jane hadn't thought of that. She had a feeling she would have known if it were, but she couldn't tell whether that was part of the entanglement or merely a hunch. Hunches were very useful, but not very scientific, especially when there were lives on the line. "I don't think so," she said. "It doesn't look like one... does it?" She turned to the Vision, figuring he would know better than she did.
"It doesn't," he said, sounding unsure, "but the stones can take unpredictable forms. The Aether, for example, is the only liquid one. I would say, however, that this is more likely to be another object entangled with the system."
Jane nodded slowly. "I can think of one person who might know for sure."
"I agree," said the Vision. "I have tried to avoid being confrontational with her, but I think we must ask Pandora."
They waited until late at night, when FRIDAY assured them that besides a few night-time staff, everybody else in the facility was asleep. Then the entire group – Jane, Darcy, Eric, the Vision, and Wanda – crept into the room with the communications console. Jane wasn't sure why they were being stealthy. If anyone caught them, they had a perfectly reasonable explanation of what they were doing in there: they were talking to Pandora, at a time when nobody else was waiting in line. Maybe it was just that they were dealing in secrets, although whose secrets was difficult to say.
Once word got out that the Avengers had established permanent contact with Brisingr, they were going to need to move this into a bigger and more public room, Jane thought. Every astronomer, every space agency, every media outlet, and every government was going to want to talk to Pandora for themselves. Both Brisingr and the Avengers definitely needed the good press that peaceful contact would bring, but it did mean that if they wanted answers, they had days, at best, to get them in.
Jane sat down on the bar stool in front of the console. Everything seemed to be working. Stark's gravity wave detector was getting results, mapping the shape of space-time as Brisingr slid along its own groove down into the Sun's spatial well.
"Pandora," Jane said. "Can you hear me?"
The alien computer responded at once. "I am receiving you," she said. "Your voice is not yet in my library."
"This is Dr. Jane Foster," the Vision introduced her, "one of our world's greatest living astronomers. She was the first to notice your ships approaching our system."
"Greetings, Dr. Foster," said Pandora pleasantly. "Are you interested in astronomical data on our home galaxy?"
"Absolutely," Jane said, "but there's something else, first." She couldn't let herself get distracted. "When I spotted you guys, I was actually looking at something else behind you. There's a little gravitational lens floating above the galactic disk that I want to study. I've had another look at it, using some software I downloaded from the Asgardian astrolabe, and I think it might be following you."
This time, Pandora did not answer immediately. In fact, she told long enough that Jane began to wonder if the computer realized she was finished. Maybe she should have ended with a question mark, to make it clear.
"I am not aware of any gravitational lens in my vicinity," said Pandora.
Jane blinked. "Bullshit," she said. "If the Brisings could make a detailed map of the dark matter between galaxies, there was no way they could have missed a wandering black hole right behind them.
"Dr. Foster," said the Vision, like a teacher warning a child to mind her language. She glared at him, but he ignored her and explained to Pandora, "the object is more or less directly behind you on your trajectory from Andromeda," he said. "We are aware, of course, that you have some technology that manipulates gravity, so we thought the phenomenon might be related to your vessels."
"The singularity in the generator produces gravitational distortion in the area directly behind me," Pandora said. "If there's something in that blind spot, I cannot see it, or else can only see a very indistinct version."
"Is that what the thing is?" Jane asked. "Distortion?" If that were true, then they could forget this and go back to trying to convince everybody that the world wasn't about to end – but her gut told her it wasn't anything that simple.
"Most likely," said Pandora. "Where are you seeing the phenomenon?"
Jane was about to say that she didn't know, but the Vision spoke for her. "Approximately zero point two-six of a light year behind you," he said.
"Yes, that's the distortion of the singularity," said Pandora. "Is there anything else I can help you with?"
Jane frowned and looked sideways at the Vision. Where had he gotten that number? He acknowledged her by holding up a hand, which she hoped was a promise that he would eventually explain.
"There is, in fact," he said. "I am curious about your Cargo. You said it consists entirely of embryos. I wondered if there are any adults on board who will act as surrogates for them."
"No need for that," said Pandora. "I have equipment on board to bring them to term. Six generations will be produced at intervals, so as to have a healthy age range for colonization."
"There is an acquaintance of ours who will be very interested in this technology," said the Vision. "Dr. Helen Cho. Artificially grown tissues are her main area of interest."
"I will prepare a primer for her, although I don't know if the techniques can be adapted to your biology," Pandora said.
"If anyone can find a way, it will be Dr. Cho. But please be clear about this," the Vision said. "You have no adults on board at all? If we wish to communicate, it can only be with you?"
"None," said Pandora. "There is no need for them."
"No pilot or director?" he insisted.
"I am fully capable of piloting and directing myself," Pandora replied firmly.
"Thank you," the Vision replied. "Clarity of communications is vital." He met Jane's eyes, and she nodded. Pandora was lying, and if she could lie about her passenger, she might be lying about the object following her.
"Have you more questions?" Pandora inquired politely. If she suspected they thought she was lying, she showed no sign of it.
"Well, as long as we're here." Jane leaned forward. "I do know that there are two supermassive black holes in the centre of the Andromeda galaxy, while the Milky Way has only one. Can you give me a map of their orbits? I'd like to know if the system is stable." Hopefully, the physics of her galaxy was one thing Pandora would not have a reason to lie about.
It was nearly dawn when Captain America knocked on the door and told them that representatives from the UN were arriving to have their own conversations with Pandora, and that Jane and her friends needed to make way – or at least, get out of their pajamas.
As they left the room, Jane suddenly remembered what the Vision had said earlier, and caught the sleeve of his sweater. "Hey," she said. "Why did you ask her about zero point two-six of a light year?"
He looked back. "Because that is the one place we know the distortion is not," he said. "If the object were in that spot, we would not be able to see it. It would be obscured by Brisingr itself."
"So she lied about that, too," said Jane.
"Yes, she did. I am reluctant now to take anything she says for granted, even her scientific data," he warned. "Her mind is more than powerful enough to come up with plausible, self-consistent alternatives to the truth."
Jane thought of all that wonderful dark matter data, and what she'd just been given about the black holes in Andromeda, and she groaned. "Thanks," she managed. "I guess I should try to get some sleep before the crowds arrive."
"I am sorry, Dr. Foster," said the Vision.
"So what do we do now?" Darcy asked, as she and Jane trudged upstairs.
"The same thing we always do," Jane replied.
"What, try to take over the world?" asked Darcy with a smile. "Or the other thing, where we keep working our butts to the bone trying to figure it out?"
"The butts thing, definitely." Jane unlocked the door of her room, kicked her slippers off, and fell face-first into the bed. "I don't know, maybe Pandora's trying to protect us from something? The Vision said one of her primary purposes is to protect." She lay there a moment, then rolled over and stared at the ceiling for a moment as she tried to figure this out. "You know who else knew more about Infinity stones than he was willing to tell us?"
"Ol' One-Eye?" Darcy guessed.
"Exactly," said Jane. "Odin told me a little about the Aether, but only what he absolutely had to. But he was willing to humour Thor when he asked if I could use the astrolabe, so maybe he can help with this, too." The ceiling fan was running. She watched the blades spin for a moment. "Thor also mentioned a fourth Infinity Stone a while ago. I'd like to know where that is. The Bifrost makes a direct link between Asgard and Earth, so maybe the stones aren't even safe on Asgard. If they 'want' to get back together, we should be trying to keep them as far apart as possible. I'll call Thor in the mor..." she paused and turned her head towards the window, and the brightening sky outside. "I'll call him after my nap."
"How?" asked Darcy. "Stark's got the Quantum Pot."
Jane shook her head. "He has a cell phone, you know."
As Jane was going to sleep on Earth, Tiresias was waking. She'd been curled up in a soft cocoon of metallic fibers in the corner of her living space, deep in dreamless sleep that owed more to the drugs Pandora synthesized than to any actual peace of mind. When the alarm went off to wake her, she sat up slowly, groggy. "What is it?" she asked, rubbing at her eyes. "You're the one who's always telling me to sleep!"
I'm sorry to rouse you, Mother, said Pandora. I've been communicating with the humans all day. I haven't told them about you or the Many Voices. Mostly it has been an exchange of scientific data. They are eager students of astronomy and biology. Their own world is intriguing as well, and I hope you will find time to study the information they have given me.
"You didn't wake me up just to tell me that," said Tiresias.
No, Pandora admitted. I woke you to tell you that one of their scientists has noticed a gravitational anomaly following us through space.
Tiresias sat bolt upright. Her hammock-like cocoon swayed violently, nearly dumping her onto the floor. "Following us?"
Possibly. Unfortunately, the phenomenon is staying in our blind spot. The Vision suggested a location for it, but I think he must be mistaken. We would be able to see it if it were there. In some respects their astronomy is extremely primitive.
"Oh." Tiresias covered her face. "In the blind spot. Following us where we can't see!"
We don't know what it is yet, said Pandora. It may be nothing.
"Don't be stupid," said Tiresias. "Suckling, following Mother like a baby bird!" She pulled at her own hair.
I'm sorry for causing you distress, but I needed you to know, Pandora said. What do you recommend?
"Turn back!" said Tiresias. "Return to the void! Lead it out of this galaxy, away from anything with a brain." Except for herself. If anyone in the entire universe deserved to have this thing consume them, it as her.
I can't do that. Pandora sounded annoyed. That would doom the Cargo, and I cannot knowingly make a decision that would cause it harm, not even under your direct orders. You know that.
"I do," Tiresias admitted miserably. Why had she even included herself in this expedition? Maybe it was some selfish desire to prove that she did not destroy everything she touched – although it was hard to say who she was trying to prove it to. After all, there was nobody left but her.
What do you recommend? Pandora repeated. There are no minds yet among the Cargo, so the Many Voices will have no wish to harm it. But that will change once we are established on our new world.
"I know, I know," said Tiresias. "Give me time. I need time to think." When she'd been young, they'd called her the most brilliant scientist in the history of her people. How horribly, horribly true that had turned out to be! But if Tiresias could destroy a galaxy, then surely she could save one, too... couldn't she? Or could she, when she'd so conspicuously failed to save anything else? "How long before it catches up?"
I don't know. I can't see it, Pandora reminded her. We will be dependent upon the humans to monitor its progress. May I tell them...
"No!" said Tiresias. "Telling them would make them hate us. They would become a danger to the Cargo. You can't."
Understood, said Pandora. I will allow you time to think. If you need more information, Mother, I will do my best to obtain it for you.
"Thank you," Tiresias whispered, but she felt very little hope or gratitude. Everything she made either destroyed itself or tried to destroy her. She should have known that Brisingr would be no different.
