12. Young Men Dead
. . .
Loki didn't move from where he was, seeming to loom protectively over the two humans while he continued to study their rescuer. It was clear he was the sticking point. "I'm not looking to cause you trouble, Lady Tam. Whatever your business is, it's yours and I'm not about to stir it. I only want to know what we're in."
Tam's face tweaked, a wrinkle at an eye. Then she shoved her hands brusquely into the pockets of the thick coat. Her voice was dour and grudging now, her elbows flapping to make her point. "Aghhh. I'm a blockade runner, aye? I go to the wrong side of the line and make my deliveries." She seemed to flow with the new tension, smiling with less good cheer than before. "Food, medicine, mostly. Things some people can't get easily when others are pressing down."
"Arms?" Ross's voice was quiet.
"No." Tam's jaw set, the look of someone that knows offense couldn't have been intended, but still felt stung. "I won't run weapons. All I do is help those that are trying to survive, survive that much longer." She looked at Loki, her eyes hard. "And if you don't mind, my reasons are personal. But they're true."
Loki nodded, knowing how to test boundaries without crossing them. "You'd need support if you're doing that, long term. What outfit are you with? You don't fly Ravager colors. Or anyone I recognize, to be honest."
"Family fleet. We're small. I range pretty far from our roost." Still grudging, still brusque, but sounding truthful enough. She gestured at the door behind her. "Look, I'm not a fan of lightfooting it, Your Highness." Daisy jerked, the question of tension now answered. Tam shot her a glance. "It's not rare knowledge out here, miss. He's known, and not for good reason. Your face is new, though, and your third, and I want to assume the best of you all. So let me put this plain. I'm in between runs when I catch your distress. My muscle is off-ship. It's just me, my engine crew, and my luggage, so to speak. If you want to rustle me, take my ship, you can do that. Rather you didn't. I came out because I don't like standing by when someone yells for help. Not to start a fight with your kind. I wouldn't win."
Loki dipped his head, conciliatory. "I'm not looking to fight. I don't want to steal your ship, Lady Tam, and I appreciate your rescue. These two are humans, under the protectorate of the Nine Realms. No matter what you've heard, you should at least believe that I'm obliged to prioritize that."
Tam stared at him, her eyes widening slightly. "Earthlings." She glanced at the pair, intrigued. "I'll be damned, then. That's an unusual crew. And definitely civilian, aye?"
"I'd like to get them back home without trouble." Loki gestured at the ruined jumper, ignoring the look Daisy was giving him. "If you can help get this online again, or if you've got a shuttle that we can borrow, that would be enough."
Tam snorted, with the snort trying to evolve into a laugh. She took a hand out of her pocket to tap the palm to her nose, calming herself, then put the palm out, waving it back and forth. "I'm sorry, that was rude." She pointed at the ship. "That thing isn't hardly worth more than its remaining metal."
"A shuttle, then. Or some other transport you could help arrange."
"Wait." Daisy cut in front of him, her shoulder nearly jabbing him in the chest. "Do you know this area, Tam? Like, general space area?"
Tam studied her, puzzled. "I'm prone to staying in this arm of the galaxy lately, yes. There's been a fair few conflicts. I get plenty of work."
"Kree," said Daisy, nodding at the blink. "And mercs, moving into the power vacuum after Thanos. Lots of business out here, for all kinds."
"Better informed than I'd have guessed of Earthlings." Tam inclined her head, amused but not condescending. "Aye, fair assessments. There's a number of spacelanes outside your region that are getting increased activity. It's not all because of your world."
"And some of that activity stays under the wire." Daisy took another step towards her.
"Daisy," said Loki, like a warning.
She kept ignoring him. "I believe you. You don't run weapons. But do you know who does, who operates around here? Where they go, who they deal with?"
Tam kept looking at her, and now her expression was unreadable.
"Daisy."
She half-turned on him. "Listen to me. I could pull rank, say I'm in charge, but I don't want to. I'm gonna tell you how I feel. These guys got onto our planet, made their time trying to sell bootleg vibranium to a bunch of jerks, and we don't know why. We took a chance, followed them, and they tried to kill us. We still don't know why, not for certain. We know they're a crap team. We know they panicked. But these guys had a freakin' battleship, and they came at us, and I want to know why. You told me I had a choice. I made it. Maybe you didn't want me to feel guilty about it, fine, but I also haven't changed my mind."
"You got shot at by what?" Tam swept past the group as if completely forgetting the tension a minute ago, examining the ruined gap in the ship. "You took a broadside from a battleship and came away with just that and your lives after?" She pointed at the torn metal, looking at the three of them in turn. "That's some frellin' fantastic flying, whichever of you was on stick. What was the make of your combatant?"
Loki didn't say anything. It was Ross that spoke up. "Decommissioned Shi'ar? I don't know what that-"
"Fuck!" Tam laughed, startled. "How did you survive? No, never mind, tell me later." She shook her head. "Battleships… oi." She looked up, realizing something. "You're right. I may have a little information, after all. I think you got hit by some of the local meat boys."
Ross cocked his head forward and on an angle, looking for all the world like a deeply befuddled rooster. "I'm sorry, we got hit by what now?"
Tam looked at the gap, then settled herself down to lean back on an intact portion of the wreck, bringing her down a few inches. Still not quite eye level to the humans, but there was an attempt. She palmed her hands together, looking wry. "Take a mercenary or three that maybe did all right on their own careers. They get older, they're missing some fingers or tendrils, maybe can't take a full breath anymore, who knows. But years on, they've got enough rep to still pull the jobs in. They establish a corp. Get themselves a base of operations - maybe it's a stable asteroid base if they're fancy, maybe they pull together a bigger ship to live in. A rusty old battleship, say. From here, these kinds of operators go a few different ways. All of them have to start recruiting, keep the business fresh. Your guys go the easy way. The greedy way.
"They doll up their base nice. Make it known as if they're a good corp to start brand new mercenary careers. They sop up the bottom feeders, actually, the ones that honest corps look at and decided they wouldn't make it in a real operation. And the corp head will take any job that'll pay so long as at least a partial completion happens, tell the feeders they'll get a good cut. If they make it back, which is the unspoken part. A few make it out this way, save up some cred, maybe move on to better crews who still look at their history with distrust for a long time. Because most of their last crew didn't come home." Tam gave Ross a grim smile. "The money comes in. The bodies go out. Meat boys. Throw them at the grinder and pocket what's left."
Ross swallowed hard.
Tam looked at Daisy, apologetic. "The man's right. The smart move is to go home. These folk live fast and messy lives, and whatever they were supposed to do on your world, they've already cashed in on it. The money's been spent. The survivors will party for a day or two, then get shipped out on another bad job. Probably die."
"That doesn't tell me what I want to know." Daisy kept looking at Tam. "We're not important, not yet. We're a kid planet. But someone came up with a good idea on how to hit us. Like I said, they shipped vibranium to us, put it out there on our markets. Do you know why?"
Tam shook her head. "Expect you're not actually asking me, miss."
"I've got a theory, and I want to know how close I am. They did this to shake us up. Throw some chaos out there. Make a mess. Someone figured out this one specific way to come at our whole planet. And they threw a bunch of expendable guys at us to do it. They wanted to not leave a trail, but the crew did anyway because they panicked. I think that's the big thing here. We can still catch up. Maybe." Daisy looked pleading. "Do you know where this crew might've gone?"
Tam shared a look with Loki, who might as well have turned to stone. Whatever she was looking for in his face, she didn't find it. Instead, she looked at the floor of her bay, scuffling a soft boot-heel across it. "If they were skirting along the closest lane to here, taking jobs in restricted space, then…" She sighed. "There's a ring of junkers lashed up into a station in the next nearest system, orbiting the red dwarf star. Proxima Centauri. It's the sort of barely habitable nest we call one of the Ends. Because sure as shit, nothing good starts there."
Daisy gave a startled little laugh. "Good place for meat boys and old battleships?"
"Very good." Tam looked away, her lips curling with distaste. "I know this one, personal. Been there for refueling, picking up a few spare parts. Not a nice place to stay long."
"I wouldn't plan on doing that." Daisy walked towards Tam, then leaned next to her on the wreck. "Could you please take us there?"
Tam looked at her, then at Loki. "Miss-"
"I agree with her," said Ross, abruptly. He looked around, feeling everyone's eyes on him. "I think she's right. It's what Loki said, when I asked. Vibranium is unnaturally rare. It doesn't really matter to anyone but us on Earth. And we've only got the one major source. But that's enough for us. And then… even one shield, in the hand of an Avenger, is enough to change a fight. The play was to use imported vibranium to disrupt the balance of power across a number of countries. Simple. We do it to each other all the time." He grimaced. "Even us. Bring new weapons into a region ready for instability, push one side against another…" He spread his hands, mimicking a pow!
Ross looked around, but didn't meet Loki's stare. He shoved his hands in his pockets. "If we don't figure out the source, or make sure this really is a one-off job, then… then we could be looking at more operations like this one. Until someone gets the result they want. Chaos. Worldwide war. I don't know." He shrugged. "We need at least some kind of answer. Or to send a clear response: Don't mess with Earth. We can and will push back."
Loki sighed, walking away from the two humans towards the large bay door. His shoulders were tense as he moved. Then they relaxed. A little. "I can offer financing." He looked back, at Tam, and he looked resigned, somehow. "Not a bribe, but an offer. To the local End, so we can finish our business, and then transport back to Earth. I'll also handle any legal and Nova Corp issues that creates, that's a given. I will transfer you enough funding to cover your next several deliveries, as I know such aid is often hampered by money, and to cover your operating costs. All I need is an estimate, not a line by line. I'd trust in your helpful nature."
Tam looked at the floor of her ship, scuffing her heel again.
It wasn't clear if Loki was gauging her refusal or not. "The wreck of the jumper is also yours. That's throwing a cheap coin after, but it's one of the better optimized short range ships I've seen. It's worth a little scrap, yes, or to fix and give to another group that could use even the barest vessel."
"Fine." Tam put her hand up before he kept going. "It's fine. That's fine, I'm sold." She looked up, then rolled her eyes, as if finding something personally hilarious. "The newsfeed report I saw on you sure got some shit wrong." Both hands came up in a full surrender. "All right! I'm your ride. Better or worse." She looked down at Daisy, still leaning next to her. "Guess you're boss on this trip, huh?"
"I keep trying."
"Good girl. Keep the men in line. Right. I'm going to bring my crew in, since we're all on the same track now. They'll be working the junker over while we do our business. I do know someone that could use a cheap scout, as it happens. They'll be thrilled at my surprise stock." Tam shoved away from the wreck, then gave a short, sharp whistle along her lower lip. Something scrabbled along the outside corridor, then the door opened again.
Ross did that cockeyed rooster thing again, now with a faint choking noise. Daisy, somewhat more hardened by exposure to a stranger universe than he, still blinked twice and whispered a stunned 'dude' under her breath.
Half a dozen basketball-sized black roly-poly furballs tumbled into the bay. They half-circled around Tam, an odd little churring noise rumbling out of them. She clicked back, obviously talking to them in some language the basic translator patches couldn't catch. Even Loki had an odd look on his face. Tam nodded to one of the furs. "Yeah. But use the short can, from the Trosco job. Don't go overboard. Ill'ish can finish the refit himself."
More churring, rising into a satisfied and happy purr. The furballs bounced for a few seconds, and then unfurled long, spindly, black-furred limbs. Six each. Two legs, bringing the core of the fuzz up about two feet, and four unnervingly bendy arms. Stretchy enough to reach the toolkits and high shelves scattered around the bay. One of them grabbed what was sort of but also entirely unlike a can of WD-40, turning towards the wrecked ship. There were eyes deep in the fuzz. Small, gleaming eyes in a brackish sea blue, with no whites. The chirp it made at Daisy was friendly, but also capable of getting across a request for her to move her butt from the ship. She did, watching the creature shake the can and aim at it the gap.
"Uh," said Daisy to herself. The gap was somehow regrowing new steel? "…Right."
Tam looked at the trio, pretending to ignore their confusion but also clearly enjoying it. "The crew has it from here. Come on up. I've got food I can spare. Won't be fancy, hopefully won't be too strange for your stomachs. But after a day like you've had, you should probably eat and rest while I plot the trip."
. . .
Tam, like a concerned but not particularly overbearing mother hen, had opened up a number of secure cupboards to reveal an awe-inspiring amount of storage-stable food, put utensils and bowls on the table while waving at the cleaning cabinet, and let them at it before disappearing up a shallow gangway to begin prep for the Centauri Ends.
Daisy, sitting at the table and taking what she realized was an absurdly long time to eat what seemed to be vaguely fruity-flavored Grape-Nuts gravel with what was not milk but was also tasty, let out the heaviest sigh of her life. "She's right. I need rest. I'm frickin' exhausted."
She looked around at the fairly small meal nook, all of it as brightly lit and clean as the bay. The table was spartan. Nothing left out to be lost if the ship had to do some fancy maneuvering. It also reminded her, prickling, of something. "Does this look a little like the mess room in-"
"Alien." Loki kept staring into his stirred bowl of whatever the hell, equally tired. Actually, probably more so. Maybe, Daisy realized, that's part of how she actually fought him down. "Brute industrialism is a galactic standard. I was startled at how well that film got that across. No corporation anywhere is going to pretty up a workhorse vessel without charging out the arse for it."
Ross looked between the two of them, then down at himself, poking once at his chest to see if anything was about to wriggle inside his ribcage. He was fine. He expected he would be, but it was hard to resist. Hoping no one had seen him do it, he went back to chewing on some sort of jerky. He didn't know if it was meat or fruit or even maybe just some weird flatbread, but it was also pretty good. Filling, strangely, for how narrow the strip was. Space lembas, said his brain, and hell, he went with it.
Daisy clacked her spoon along the bottom of her bowl, thinking. "How would you play it, at End? If it was just you, going for revenge or whatever?"
Loki made a soft noise, not quite a sigh, and shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Daisy… I'm not the right person to ask that."
She kept stirring the remaining not-milk, watching it take a soft blue dye. "Yes, you are. I'd like an answer. You're the one that fits out here. I've gotta take being a human into this. So tell me what you'd do, and I'll decide what parts of that work for us."
He shook his head. "My decisions are part of what got us into this today. I suggest other counsel. It may be that Tam-"
Daisy slammed the spoon onto the table, making a loud bang. Loki didn't blink, but a flinch traveled across his shoulders, brief as a shadow. Her hand stayed atop the spoon. "Stop that. You do that, you know that? You make one mistake and suddenly you think you've sentenced everyone around you to death." She put her hand up and then rested her forehead in the palm. "I'm sorry. I didn't need to snap."
Tam poked her head into the mess hall, studying the group. "Everything all right?"
"We're all right," said Loki, looking at the top of Daisy's head with a mixed expression that didn't lead to easy reading. "Only worn out."
"Yeah, that scans." She frowned, then jutted her chin at Ross. "Hey, you. Hot shot pilot guy."
Ross winced. The story had briefly come out when Tam set the food, with him realizing that yes, he had managed to dodge two more potentially fatal shots from the battleship. He still didn't think his piloting was worth that much interest. "Just Ross, thanks."
"Ross the pilot-guy. Come on up to the nest. I'll show you how bigger ships prep for jump. Then everyone's got a couple hours to nap. We could go right after we set the flight plan, but I want to run some systems checks, let the crew secure the junker."
He had a choice. It wasn't a difficult one. He looked down at the jerky he was eating, then at two agents too tired to fight but giving it their best. "Got a no-eating rule in the cockpit?"
"Technically, but since I break it every day m'self, I can't hardly pass judgment on a guest." She jerked her head towards the gangway. Ross went.
"He's taking this way better than I would have dreamed," said Daisy from behind her palm. She followed it up with a sigh. "I'm really sorry I yelled at you. I'm punching above my weight here, but I honestly feel like we need to do this. Like there's going to be a lot of moments, big and small, that tell the universe where Earth stands. And this is a small one, but it matters. It matters because it's our law, and it's space law, and right now we're the only ones who can take care of it.
"So my stress is out there. And you… like. I know. You get wrapped tight if you think you make a mistake, and I get where that comes from. You know I do. I'm not going to get into a big therapy talk. But I don't feel like you screwed up today. It was my call, and you and Ross held the job together when it went bad. So really, it came down to whether or not you guys think I'm taking us in the wrong direction."
"Ross has taken your side." Loki leaned back in his seat, apparently giving up and pushing his bowl away from him. "His logic is good. And on the whole, Daisy, I can't say I have an argument against further investigation, either. I'm currently invested in ensuring both of you return to Earth safe and alive. I told Lady Tam the truth. That, necessarily, is my priority."
Daisy dropped her palm, tucking it under her chin to look at him instead. "Okay. I want to do this, and you want to keep us breathing. Both goals can work together. So, back to my question. The three of us can't take on a battleship straight on, and we're not going to ask the nice huge lady to do it for us, either. Is she Kree? I know some of them can pass for human. But. Like… she's huge."
Loki mustered a faint smile. "I actually don't know for certain, Daisy, and it would be rude to ask. Many little fleets like the one she mentions live lives similar to those people of no country on your world. Out here they rarely like the topic, and for her kindness, I'm not going to push. Regardless. This is not much of a warship, I'm afraid." He flicked a hand. "I think even her crew are outcast. They seem to be Druffs, or rather a unique offshoot of them. I've never seen quite their like before. They are clearly not warriors. It's unusual to see a species like them as engineers."
Daisy rubbed at her forehead. "Yeah… I can't even handle the puff guys. So, we know where our guys probably are. Let's take this back to the beginning. How would you go at it from here?"
Loki looked up at the ceiling of the mess, but not by way of dismissal. She knew that look. He mentally edited every thesis or speech at the speed of light. "Reconnaissance, intelligence, and pressure. Similar to certain of our SHIELD operations, but escalated for purpose of rapid results. This is far safer if one doesn't hang around for long."
He pulled his bowl back towards him, recovering his appetite. "I arrive at the port and proceed to blend with the local color as quickly as possible. Everything I hear matters. Details lead to specific individuals. Move closer in, and begin to collate information about my central targets. I am operating without backup, so that information is itself my primary weapon. They're mercenaries, that's already a useful starting point. I take what I'm learning and begin to press on their contacts, their buyers, their alliances, their competition. If I've focused correctly on my intel, the cracks appear swiftly. Chaos enters the organization. Vulnerable strike points appear. I will abuse those. If I have to make someone disappear, this is where that happens. Until I get access to my desired target."
He looked at Daisy, wry. "My plans at this stage typically either end with a necessary amount of dead people, something useful exploding, or the target now fully convinced I can and will destroy them if they cross me again. I can provide multiple documented examples of these results, if you like."
"Jesus, dude." Daisy didn't sound that surprised, though. "Alright, we're… probably going to dial some of the end bits back."
"I would assume that, yes." An actual, if dry, smile crept back onto his face. "All this will hinge on our first impression of that port ring, of course."
Daisy nodded, then looked into her empty bowl. It was now completely stained blue. "What the hell was I eating?"
"I'm definitely not going to answer that. You'll thank me someday." He jerked his chin towards a different hallway. "Meanwhile, I endorse getting some rest. We're all exhausted, and I'm going to need some of my strength back for the port."
"Cosigned."
