Thank you too all of you who commented on the last chapter. I'm sorry I haven't quite managed to reply to everyone yet, but I should get around to that within the next day or two. I really wanted to get this bit out as closely on top of the last one as I could.
Act V, pt i.2
HARMONY
Stars sparkled far in the depths of space; giant balls of flaming gas that looked beautiful from a distance, but were deadly up close. And surrounding those stars – at that point called suns – would be planets, some inhabited, some not. The vastness felt infinite and cold, a frontier of neverending possibilities, of neverending nothingness.
But that was far away. Closer there were eight planets orbiting a single sun: the Solar System. Despite its size, it felt relatively small, isolated from the rest of the galaxy, though most of the billions of people living on the third planet from the sun wouldn't think so. Of course, most of them were looking at ground level, at their cellphones, wristwatches and sometimes at each other; they weren't looking up towards the skies. The vastness of space was too abstract to comprehend and nothing to do with them in any case.
Apocalypses and alien invasions only happened in movies.
None of them saw the blue vortexes of light that suddenly appeared at the edge of their planetary system. Or the five giant battleships that flew out of them.
Colonel Ellis was looking. Had been waiting for this moment for days, but his breath caught anyway and for several precious moments he couldn't find the words. He swallowed his fear down and straightened his back as he stood from his command chair.
"Major," he said, his voice steady. "Contact the SGC. Tell them we have visual."
"Fair Jane, my love, I have returned with the blessed dark beverage of the gods!"
Jane cringed at the sudden exclamation that exploded into the silence of her research lab. Her eyes slipped from the computer screen she'd been staring at to the doorway, where even in civilian clothes, Thor still somehow managed to look golden and shiny. Darcy walked in from behind him, looking amused.
"He means coffee," she told Jane.
Jane perked up at that. "Oh, oh my god, you are wonderful!" she said, springing from her chair and running towards Thor. She grabbed the extra large paper cup from Thor and inhaled the aroma of lovely, fresh coffee. "Mmm, I love you so much."
"So, did you and Selvig get anywhere?" Darcy asked while Jane reached up on her tiptoes to kiss Thor quickly on the mouth. And then again. "Where is Selvig anyway?"
"I think he went to get lunch..." she answered when she finally stepped away from Thor feeling a bit light-headed. She went back over what Darcy had asked before that and then frowned. "And, yes, we managed to counter-hack the hack and remove it from the satellite feed. It wasn't that difficult actually... I somehow don't think anyone was expecting us to find it."
"That was poor judgement on their part, as your mind is quite formidable," Thor rumbled.
Jane patted his chest, but her frown deepened. She took a long sip of her coffee while she thought about her response.
"Well, they weren't exactly wrong," she said eventually. "I mean, we wouldn't have found it if Coulson hadn't told us to go looking for it. From what we could tell, it wasn't really doing anything. At least not actively and not right now."
She could feel Thor frown. "Perhaps it was laying in wait for the opportune moment."
"An ambush program?" Darcy asked as she rolled the computer chair back to the desk. She plopped down and froze. "Uh, Jane, is this the satellite feed you have on-screen right now?"
Jane blinked and turned to Darcy. "Yes, it should be?"
Darcy was squinting at the computer screen. "And it's running in real-time?"
"With a minute or so delay, yes. Why?"
"So those spaceships here are actually real?"
"The-wait, what?!"
Jane ran across the lab, Thor on her heels. She immediately leaned over Darcy's shoulder, her jaw dropping at sight that greeted her. They were tiny, barely visible on the edge of the Solar System: really, they could be anything. Shooing her intern out of the chair, she sat down and magnified the image.
Those were definitely not asteroids.
"Holy shit," she whispered.
"I do not recognize them, Fair Jane," said Thor quietly. He sounded worried.
She felt her pulse speed up as she counted five giant ships. "Oh my god, this is... this is..." She took a deep breath. "I need confirmation of this."
Her purse was laying beside her desk, where she'd thrown it when she'd arrived earlier. Grabbing it, she began to rummage through it for her cellphone. She was relieved to find it charged and immediately dialled Stark Tower.
Sam saw Tony startle out of the corner of her eye and curse as he dropped a wrench when the intercom came on with the loud squeal of a barely-used system no one had bothered to upgrade in over a decade. She was used to working in labs where klaxons and alarms periodically went off for various – usually life-threatening – reasons of one sort or other. Tony obviously was not.
She exchanged an amused look with Siler.
"Attention all personnel, this is General Wellesley. We've just received word from the SGC: the Apollo has reported that five Ori battleships came out of hyperspace approximately two minutes ago. Whatever projects you were working on, people, you just ran out of time. I want reports from all project leaders immediately. Wellesley out."
The amusement vanished from her face, a black hole of fear suddenly materialized in its place.
"Shit!" she heard Doctor Lee say from the computer station behind her.
That one word was all it seemed to take to galvanize Tony into action. "JARVIS, I don't care how you do it, but hack into the communications systems and satellite feeds," he said, his eyes wide and movements frantic. "Keep us updated on what's going on–"
"No!" said Sam firmly. She turned to look at the suit standing in the corner. "JARVIS belay that order."
"Hey! You can't tell my AI what to do!"
"I can in my lab!"
She looked at Tony Stark: genius, playboy philanthropist... and loner. This, she realized with sudden clarity, was a man who was every bit as smart as her and Rodney, but who'd had the resources to not have to ever depend on anyone else for a pay cheque. He'd never been a simple cog within a giant machine of people.
"Look, Colonel, I realize you're used to being a soldier and following orders, but we need to know what's going on so that we can figure out how to help them. The suit might not be able to go into space, but I can fly it into the lower atmosphere if one of the ships gets close enough."
She snorted. "The armour wouldn't even make a dent," she said bluntly. She looked him in the eye. "No, Tony, I realize you've never had to work on a larger team before and I don't care, because right now this is a learning curve you're just going to have to get over. The Earth doesn't need Iron Man, it needs us. Not just you, not just me: us.
Earth has its own fleet of ships waiting to fight the Ori fleet, but what don't have is the firepower to take out five battleships. No, let me rephrase that: we might be able to take out the first five battleships but the Ori have a lot more than five battleships and this is probably just the first wave. We don't know. What we do know is that right now, there are four Earth ships with an international crew compliment of fifty to seventy-five each getting ready to put their lives on the line to stall, to give us time to finish this arch reactor and power up the phase-shift device so that we can save the billions of lives on this planet. We owe it to those people to think about nothing else but finishing this. It doesn't matter what's going on anywhere else, because we already know we've run out of time: we need that arch reactor now."
She took a deep breath and looked away from Tony's wide eyes to Siler "Sargent, get the men to bring the palladium core into the lab. We'll fit it into the arch reactor."
"It'll burn out," said Tony quietly.
"I know, but it might give us just enough time to finish making the vibranium core. That's why we made it."
"Right away, ma'am," said Siler.
Sam turned around to the sound of the Sargent's footprints disappearing down the corridor. "Doctor Lee, how do those energy levels look? Is the converter Jeannie helped us design going to hold?"
The balding man twittered for a moment before looking down at the computer screen. "Uh, yes, uh... all diagnostics show steady energy levels." He looked up. "It should work."
She nodded. "Good."
Tony had moved to look over Lee's shoulder and nodded thoughtfully. "The math is incredible I just wish we had more time to test it with the palladium core, but as it is it'll take us about another forty-five minutes to an hour to assemble everything."
"Now that I might be able to help you with, sir."
Sam turned to the open door to find a familiar face standing just inside it wearing military fatigues and a lab coat. Her hair was tied back into its usual pristine tight bun and her face was serious. She nodded to Sam. "Ma'am," she greeted.
"Captain Hailey," said Sam with a grin. "You managed to successfully complete your project?"
"Yes, ma'am. We should be able to buy us just over two hours before one of the transmitters overloads – assuming someone doesn't shoot one down first." She stepped forward and held out a tablet for Sam to take. "Was hoping you wouldn't mind going over my figures just in case."
Sam was certain the young captain's math would be fine, but she took the tablet anyway. This had been the woman's first large project as leader and a lot was riding on it, though being Hailey she didn't show any of her nervousness.
"It's pretty fortunate that you finished it on time," said Sam.
Hailey smirked, looking smug (the brat). "Oh we finished yesterday, but you were still busy with the arc reactor, so I decided to get an early night."
Tony frowned. "Is this the weapon most of your scientists were working on?" he asked. "That, uh, multi-phase ion wave cannon?"
Sam cringed inwardly. Hailey frowned. Doctor Lee blinked at Tony in confusion, before turning to Sam.
"Are we working on something like that?" he asked.
"Of course we're not," Hailey answered. "That sounds completely ridiculous, if only because an ion cannon of any sort would be a severe downgrade from the Asgard plasma beams we already have." She turned her gaze to Sam, face perfectly blank. "Ma'am?"
Sam shrugged, glancing over at Tony sheepishly. "I needed you concentrating on this project. And, well, that was sort of the first thing that popped into my mouth."
Tony gapped at her. "But why? What the hell is junior over there working on that you thought would take my concentration away from building an arc reactor for a phase-shifting device?"
Hailey's eyes narrowed at the moniker 'junior'. "That would be classified, Mister Stark," she said.
Which was when the General walked in.
The phone rang, the shrill sound violently disturbing the peace within the spacious office. Sun shone into the room through a long wall of tall windows behind the desk, bathing the phone, the desk, and the man sitting behind it in a blanket of warmth. President Hayes felt a distinct chill at the sound of the phone. His front lawn had been full of crows this morning. It had felt like an omen.
He took a deep breath and picked up the phone. Maybe it was only General Vidrine informing him that something had come up and Iron Patriot was running late flying into Washington.
"Hello," he said. "Hayes speaking."
"Good afternoon, Mister President."
No such luck. "Jack, I wish I could say it was good to hear from you, but I have a feeling you're not about to tell me anything I want to hear."
"No sir. The Apollo just reported five Ori battleships exiting hyperspace at the edge of the Solar System."
"Damn, that's what I was afraid of. Where are we with that phase-shifting shield?"
"Carter's working on it, sir."
"And you're heading to the airfield now?"
"Yes, sir, just as soon as I hang up."
"Well then good luck, Jack."
"Thank you, sir. You-what the..."
President Hayes straightened as Jack's voice trailed off. "Jack? Jack, what's going on?"
From the other end of the line he heard crashes and screams followed by shouting. And something that sounded like gunshots. Then the line went dead. The President was staring at his receiver when the door to his office opened and the Secret Service walked in to escort him to Air Force One.
"Excuse me, Doctor Banner, there is a Doctor Jane Foster on the line. She claims to be a friend of Prince Thor and says she is attempting to contact Mister Stark with urgent news. Unfortunately, I am unable to contact with the Iron Man suit and thus relay the message. Would you mind taking her call?"
Bruce blinked and looked up from his microscope. The metallic trace elements he'd found in Cassie's blood were fascinating – and easily-spotted when he knew to look for them. But try as he might, he couldn't figure out how they made a bomb.
The small part of him that wasn't a scientist realized this was probably a good thing.
"Er, Jane Foster?" he said to fill space as his mind re-orientated itself away from chemical analysis to the more mundane aspects of life. "Oh, that must be Thor's 'Fair Lady Jane'. Yes, alright, put her through."
"Thank you, Doctor Banner."
There was a beat of silence and then a single telephone ring, followed by silence.
"Hello? This is Bruce Banner," said Bruce tentatively into the empty space around him.
"Bruce Banner...? Oh! Of course, you're Thor's friend Bruce who turns into the Hulk: I've heard a lot about you. I'm Jane, Thor's girlfriend and astrophysicist."
Bruce's lips curled in amusement. "Thor's spoken of you as well. JARVIS said you were trying to contact Tony, but unfortunately he's not around at the moment. Was there something I could help you with instead?"
"Do you have access to any of the Stark Industries satellites?"
"Um, I'm not sure. JARVIS?"
"Yes, Doctor Banner, I am capable of accessing the imaging from all Stark Industries satellites."
"Then I guess I do, Doctor Foster."
"Call me Jane. And could you aim your satellites just to the right of Jupiter and tell me what you see."
Bruce blinked. "I... um, JARVIS, can you do that?"
"Of course, Doctor Banner," said JARVIS and Bruce thought he sounded rather affronted. "If you would please make your way into Mister Stark's lab, I shall bring up the footage on the projection screen."
Bruce nodded and made his way to the back of his lab, where a private staircase led down to Tony's lab and workshop. Tony enjoyed loud music to drown out the other loud noises he made while working. Bruce did not. Which was why Tony had designed Bruce's primary workspace on a separate floor, adding in the staircase so that the two of them could easily move between their labs without feeling like they were leaving their 'sacred science-bro space'. Of course, Tony frequently forgot the staircase was there and used the elevator anyway, but Bruce liked having it there.
When he arrived in the workshop, JARVIS already had the satellite feed projected onto a large blank wall. Bruce stood in front of it and stared.
"I'm looking, Jane, but I'm not seeing anything unusual."
There was a pause. "Oh! You might want to check the satellite's base code. I found a small program in mine that looked like it was waiting for a command to disrupt the feed. Maybe you've got one too."
"Alright, I'll take a look," he said slowly. "JARVIS, bring it up on one of the terminals."
"Yes, sir. I'm bringing it up on Terminal Three."
Bruce sat down in front of the computer with a sense of foreboding. Daniel had told them an alien armada was headed to Earth, shortly after which Tony took off in the suit to meet Cassie's Aunt Sam, and now an astrophysicist was calling and asking them to look at what amounted to deep space satellite imagery. It was too much to be a co-incidence. But, Bruce was a scientist, so he would stay calm and get all his facts before he decided whether or not there was reason to panic.
He and JARVIS found the small program – it was well-hidden in the system files – and was neither uploading nor downloading images, just looping the satellites' previous images. Tony would've likely had the problem fixed in half the time it took Bruce, but with JARVIS' help he still managed to shut off the program in about fifteen minutes.
He refreshed the satellite feed and looked back to the projection. The sense of foreboding became cold fear.
He took a deep breath. "Jane, I'm assuming you're talking about the space ships."
He heard her in-take of breath over the phone. "Crap. I was sort of hoping it was a glitch. I-we have no idea who they are. Thor doesn't recognize them."
"I'd imagine they're the Ori." It looked like Steve and Daniel were going to be late. "JARVIS, can you transfer everything up to the conference room and tell everyone to meet me there?"
"Right away, Doctor Banner."
"Thank you."
Bruce ran to the elevator. The doors opened to an anxious-looking Pepper.
"Bruce, I just got a call from the air force," she said before the doors had shut. "They told me to go home and pack a bag, that they're coming to pick me up in about half an hour. They're here, aren't they: the Ori?"
"I'm afraid so." He paused thoughtfully. "Or rather, I hope those spaceships on the satellite feed aren't from a second alien race that wants to kill or enslave us."
Pepper chuckled nervously. "Good point." She blinked. "Wait, you can see them on the satellite feed?"
They arrived in the conference room minutes ahead of Cassie and Ms Everhart. Cassie took one look at the projection on the wall and paled. Ms Everhart looked annoyed. Bruce tried to remember if she'd gone home yesterday. He assumed so as she'd taken the vial of Cassie's blood he'd given her.
"You called us here to watch sci-fi movies?" she said, crossing her arms in front of her.
"That's not a movie," said Bruce calmly, his hands in his pockets so he could ignore how much they were shaking. "That is real-time satellite footage. Well, mostly real-time."
"Daniel's late," Cassie whispered.
"Well, classically the hero doesn't arrive until the very last minute, when all hope is lost, so he's technically still got some time," said Pepper absently. "Although personally I'd rather keep my hope intact."
"I need to call my editor," Ms Everhart said, though she made no immediate move, her eyes glued to the giant warships heading steadily towards Earth.
Yes, I am evil. ;)