14. SETI at Home

. . .

Fitz shook his head so fast it was more like a twitch, trying to find a way to approximate what Thor was trying to tell him into the science he knew. He scattered the electrical diagram sketches, frustratedly raising his hands. "If I'd had the foresight, I would have asked for the books on Asgardian ham radio when I had the chance. I don't know what you're trying to get this to do."

"These frequencies will tap into the galactic channels. It's just a matter of finding the right boost and the right pattern." Thor looked up as Loki walked into the briefing room. Gone was the familiar Asgardian tunic that made him look taller and more regally imposing. For now, he was back to those unassuming Midgardian clothes, almost passing for any other human in this place. If notably taller. In his thin hands was one of those simple tablets the humans used for their notes, and he tapped at it without paying much attention to their surroundings. "Our science works with harmony, good Fitz."

"Well, that's great when you've got a thousand years to turn your science projects into something that'll pass for art class, too, but my God, there's only so much I can piece together with what I've got on hand. I'm still astonished the damn crystal worked." Fitz looked up to try and get Loki's attention. "Can't we just redo what we did with that thing somehow?"

"No. Range is too narrow. That was a dedicated device, although you did well with it. My advice is think elsewhere. Instead of reinventing what he's telling you, try what you know first." Loki looked up from the tablet, his eyebrows coming together. "Aren't there some satellite networks you could fuss with?"

Fitz's eyes lit up as he snapped his fingers. "Arecibo. We've still got total security access. Moon bouncing might do the trick, plus some of the SETI programming is something I can modify. I can get a boost that way then narrow in on your frequency scans. Faint signal, probably, but there we go."

"Archaic." Thor straightened up, not intending it as an insult.

"But it'll work in a relative jiffy. Relative, meaning I've got to start right away." He tore the scratched notes away from Thor's hands, nodding furiously to Loki. "Should be transmission and reception both."

He was rewarded with a faint smile from the tall agent as the rest of the team filtered in and took their places around the table. Thor stepped away to take a place against the wall, watching his brother command the floor of the cool, ascetic-feeling room with an ease he seldom showed in Asgard anymore. "All ready to enjoy the bad news I bring?"

"How bad is it?" Coulson fiddled with a tablet stylus, watching him.

"No preamble. The All-Father is being manipulated by the illusion of his dead wife, a ghost intended to prey on his emotions and, through undermining his faith and belief, prepare him to embrace the concept of Ragnarok itself. Like any good warrior of that realm might." Out of the corner of his eye, Loki watched Thor drop his arms to his side in open horror. But he did not doubt or speak a challenge. He tossed the tablet onto the central table just in front of him. "I've already transcribed much what I've seen through the mirror of Munin's recollections, read it as you will. I will admit I've left out certain observances that were... more private. The salient information is complete. The document is uploaded to each of your devices."

"Holy shit," said Daisy under her breath, grabbing for her smartphone.

Loki looked at the rest of the team in turn. "You know why, of course, if you think a moment. Why I think you as well ought have this information. Why this comes around to Asgard first and through the hidden door. Why this plan holds worth enough to draw Thanos close. I do not know this for proven fact, true, but there is no other purpose it may reasonably be."

"The Tesseract." Thor was grim and still pale at the insult implicit behind Odin's use. "The gem that holds incarnate the mysteries of space itself."

"What I came to Earth for in the first damned place – here, I'll spare you all the awkward fact you're politely trying to not bring up. Save for what he already held, that was the key to Thanos's forward planning. With space itself unlocked to him, the rest of the infinity gems become only a matter of time."

"He doesn't have it yet, though." Coulson put down his tablet, rubbing at his forehead despite trying to find some optimism to offer. That goddamn thing again. No wonder Loki looked exhausted and horrified with the whole matter.

"May as well." Loki said, spreading his hands in near-defeat. "After the Bifrost's reconstruction, it was sealed away within Odin's vault. There are other routes in, but with him caught up in this bleak fantasy of the end times, all his controller must do is convince him to release it. The 'last defense of the realm' or some other ploy. It's where I would have started, once. The power within the stone alone is enough to end Asgard entire. The army is no doubt to ensure it – and to take what they can from the realm before the fall."

Thor shook his head at his brother. "The vault will remain sealed. I cannot believe he is that far lost among the shadows that he would unleash those artifacts he purposefully put away. We have time."

"Not much, and few answers as to the full nature of the plan in play here." Loki crossed his arms against the short black jacket he wore. "So our problem is rather large."

"Is this a bad time to screw around with your Ragnarok prophecy to try and make it fit what's going on?" Daisy looked up from her phone to study the look that crawled across Loki's face. "Okay, it is."

He followed up the look he gave her by giving Thor another one to match. "The story is being weaponized. That's not the same as it being an effective prophecy. Regardless, it is philosophical dithering and solves nothing of our problems. Whoever our agent in the house of Asgard is, they're not going to be so stupid as to use the story as a checklist, they used it to open doors. That's all."

Thor cleared his throat, then decided to hold his peace.

Fitz looked up from his design notes, puzzled. "So who did this? Asgard's had other internal problems, right? Everyone does, god knows. Are there prior suspects?"

"All are accounted for, and all those lost in the last prison break have since been reclaimed... or found some other purpose." Thor shifted against the wall, leaving the obvious at that. "No Elf nor mercenary plagues the land, nor has for some time."

Loki stared over Fitz's head, all but hearing something click in the back of his mind in the brief pause after the engineer's words. Painfully slow, he turned to look at Thor, not really seeing him. "Lorelei."

Thor shrugged in an offhanded response. "She sits in her cell, harmless and voiceless. No more does she charm us against our will."

"...Does she receive visitors?"

Thor shook his head in a firm negative, studying the poleaxed expression on his brother's face. "Not even her sister in exile claims the right to acknowledge a kinswoman. No messengers, no single word sent."

Loki said a word Thor hadn't heard him use since their youths, a particularly ornate vulgarity the older Volstagg brought back from some long-ago battle with an incursion force from elsewhere in the galaxy. "I saw. I saw it plain as I strode through the prison, thought of it even, and I didn't realize. I was too wrought over the mess at dinner and not yet looking for shadows cast so close." A moment of fury tightened the skin around his eyes, targeted for himself alone. "This is almost certainly Amora's handiwork, then. Her sister sits in the open and waits to draw the suspicious eye away. The only clue I've got; you say she receives no visitors and yet she looked to me as if she'd simply been waiting that eve for someone. Someone that could skulk the palace, no doubt. She turned away bitterly when I was not what she wanted. A thin theory, but I'll stand by it."

Coulson lifted his gloved hand. "Who's Amora? Sorry."

"A damsel of some renown in those sorcerous arts, an enchantress of great old lore whose skills are kin to the sister you know." Thor kept watching his brother. "I recall her, Loki. She had a fair eye on me – as did her sibling - but turned to you for a while instead before they then turned on us all."

"She settled, story of my life, but kept her ambitions elsewhere," Loki said, still finding those old memories a touch rueful. He looked to Coulson. "Those ambitions were always vast and proud both, leading to that attempted treason. Together the sisters sought to forge armies against the throne, either to take it for their own or end it. Didn't make a poor attempt, either. More time, more alliances made, they might have created a real and lasting scar on Asgard. Amora escaped when the plan failed, Lorelei faltered and was held. I had nothing to do with any of that." His expression was firm, creasing in annoyance as Coulson stared back, deadpan. "Now, I may not know the route she would take, but there are many paths to Thanos's service. One of them oft through ill-advised desires. It's possible that's what's occurred here. Distressingly possible. And at Thanos's side, what you want... tends to become what he wants."

"Okay." Coulson tried to keep his face as serious as the situation demanded. "If you're about to tell me this is gonna come down to an angry ex-girlfriend-" Both brothers stared blankly at him. He spread his hands. "Come on."

Loki shifted, the pinch in his face making it plain this was not a topic he was going to discuss overlong. "No doubt to your surprise, I don't maintain such ego in the matter. It was a long time ago and we didn't end on that much targeted hostility before I believe she simply lumped me in with the rest of her vengeance – don't give me that look, I say again it was a long time ago. Well before my reputation went to Hel strapped to a black star. Her anger would best be with the resolution of certain of her plans... and certain societal natures that form much of Asgard's structure. At most, I was an afterthought." He shrugged, thinking of the best way to draw the conversation back to the field of possibilities before them, if he were correct in his realization.

"...Was the horse upset?"

Dead silence filled the room following Daisy's question as they realized what she was getting at. Coulson rolled his eyes and slumped in his rolling chair hard enough to make it creak. Thor looked blank. Loki slowly lifted his head and fixed her with a look so frozen that she started to giggle out of sheer nervousness behind her hand. "I'm so sorry. I really am. I just wanted to kill the tension."

He studied her, seeing that she meant it. "I do believe you've properly taken it out back and shot it."

"Like a-"

"Stop now." He put up a hand, the last warning he was going to give and one more than he would have given anyone else. The tired expression came back. "All right, now there's a direction to look towards."

"We can't be gone from Asgard long." Thor straightened up. "We need a plan for when we get back – and a plan for getting back. You have another of those hidden paths home?"

Loki shook his head. "No. Nothing viable or safe, or I might not have been so easily dragged back to Asgard that once."

"Then we should have stayed!" Thor reached out to bang on the table, frustrated.

"Absolutely not. I know you; we'd have wound up doing an immediate gate charge or something else relentlessly hopeful with half of us dying outright. I have another way back in mind, don't fret overmuch at that. Fret carefully at what you intend to do when we return. First, we might have an idea now who's pressed the attack on the All-Father's mind. With that theory in play, we may undo some of what was done to the All-Father. I've some understanding of Amora's methodology, though she's no doubt practiced her skills along traits unknown to me. And we might find some way of pressuring her in turn." He looked thoughtful as he finished, already marking the idea that occurred to him.

"Grab up Lorelei?" Another shake of Loki's head answered Thor. He frowned, still grudging and not fully at ease with the way the room accepted Loki's tone of command. It occurred to him that this might well be normal for the humans. "True. If you're correct, she'll likely be released to her sister's side once they believe the situation is under their control. She'll be hard to corner. So, what then?"

"I'll muse on it. I may already have something in mind. The next step is whatever information we can gather before we must return. Help Fitz with communications meanwhile, if you will. I've two purposes to that in mind – firstly, inform Nova Corp and anyone else listening in on the line about the actual situation. Not only can we get some updates from them as well as through your warriors, but if this becomes truly dire..." Loki looked away. "There may be some need to gain assistance in evacuating what we can from the realm. Many of our people will fight to the last, but there's countless others that ought to be kept safe in case of the worst."

Coulson watched Thor turn red, cutting in before the upset dug in deep. He didn't like seeing the Avenger at a loss. "What's the other reason?"

"I need to make those arrangements for our return." Loki said, gesturing to him. "I want to speak with you more on that later."

Thor watched them exchange a look, Coulson's brow furrowing as he tried to puzzle out what Loki might need. "I think these good people have done enough, brother. Should we directly involve them any further?"

Loki reached out to pick up the tablet he'd dropped. He kept his voice calm and mild, belying the real fear that was starting to build inside. "If Asgard falls, brother, and we fail to halt any ruin to rise from it, Thanos still holds Earth plain in his sights. For revenge. For another stone to wrest from its keeper. Odds rise he comes here next. And even besides that, if Asgard falls, what occurs to the rest of the Nine under watch?" He paused to look at Thor, ensuring he was listening. "Tell me in all sincerity they have no vested interest in knowing what results from these possible last days of our realm."

Thor had nothing to say to that. He looked troubled to his bones, drawing a sliver of sympathy from Loki. No one wants to know their deepest fears are true, do they, Thor? He looked down at the tablet, trying to come up with some sort of viable plan.

Two princes, a handful of Asgardian warriors full of mistrust for him, and humans for distant backup. Little else to stop the end of a world, and all this against someone who he knew could be clever enough to adapt against what he might bring to bear. He felt freshly ill, a deep sickness worming its way through his guts as it had since choosing to brave Jotunheim for an answer. Answers, like the last time he'd gone to that place, he had never truly wanted.

. . .

Coulson caught up to Loki as the rest filed out of the room, Fitz all but dragging Thor down to Engineering to finish what they'd started. "I don't feel like waiting on surprises. What did you need?"

He allowed a wan smile, one that gave away more of his current discomfort than he would have once admitted to. "I need to borrow the car." The smile widened at one edge at Coulson's blank stare. "This is still technically a proscribed world to the greater galaxy and beyond. I had my ear filled by an angrily inconvenienced mammal with all the laws we broke touring back towards Earth after my trial. Not that he cared, precisely, but I had to cover certain of his legal costs in addition to resolving the matter of his hire, once he was properly ticketed. An avoidable nuisance. The moon will do for a loophole, to please him and to meet that rather familiar ride."

"No." Phil said it flatly, brooking no argument from anybody on this topic. Much less a man that qualified as some sort of god. His face then broke into a grin, typically capable of finding the bright side. "I got two hands again. I drive Lola."