ch. 5 – SWORD and SHIELD

The meeting with the SHIELD delegation started badly. Before Colonel Seirce and Lieutenant Carter had even met them face to face, they heard an irritable female voice with a Chicago accent ringing from the corridor: "…so what you are telling me is that these Chair Force weenies have been given more money than they know how to spend, for almost no visible result, while we have to lobby for every penny and never get as much as we need?" And then a shush. Colonel Seirce gave Sam a twisted smile.

The SHIELD people, when they came in, were certainly an unusual group. There was Maria Hill, the one with the Chicago accent, an athletic dark-skinned woman who looked like her name should not be Hill so much as Hernandez or Gonzalez; Captain Walter Lawton, an airman; and most striking of all, Abigail Brand, director of SWORD. Silent and reserved – so silent, indeed, that at first Samantha Carter had the slightly absurd feeling that she might not speak English – she wore sunglasses so dark that her eyes behind them could not be made out, and a long braid of green hair. Yes, green. For a few seconds, Samantha Carter wondered how she was allowed such a non-regulation indulgence, but the more she looked, the more the hair did not look dyed.

Introductions were made, and Captain Lawton took the role of spokesperson – clearly neither he nor Colonel Brand trusted Major Hill's mood or diplomacy.

"I'd like to start," said Colonel Seirce, "with a possibly embarrassing question. How come I never heard that there was a government agency for super-beings?"

"We might ask the same, actually. I think it's pretty much the same for both of us. We are ill-regarded and poorly advertised. Both our agencies are led by a colonel, not by a general. The Air Force takes you to be a joke and only puts up with you because a couple of senators make funding available, and we suffer from the poor image and marginalization of superhumans. Captain America is still spoken of, but that was sixty years ago. Today they are seen as mobsters, mercenaries, circus freaks, and the occasional petty vigilante. People don't realize that if super- beings are not a worse menace than they are, there has to be a reason. The comics don't help."

"I see."

"We both get sent the people other agencies don't want. Captain Hill here started out in the Illinois state police, and annoyed certain politicians to the extent that they would not leave her alone even after they had driven her out of the force. Me..."

"Because you're a lecher," said Maria Hill coldly.

"Maybe so. But if an officer in his fifties marries a gorgeous blonde half his age, he would do well not to be too jealous."

"As if that was the only occasion."

"Aw, Captain, are we going to start on this over again?"

"Only if you insist on defending the indefensible. And on wasting our time doing so."

"Oh, all right. Well, few of us started out with this career in mind. That is the point – and it is with you as well, Colonel, Lieutenant – that ours are despised fields. Nobody... almost nobody..." (and he glanced at Abigail Brand) set out to make their career here.

"Now, of course, things are changing. I understand you, Lieutenant, had been spending your time mostly doing astrophysics research?"

Samantha blushed. She could see where this question was going. "I never just took advantage of Federal funds to follow my own interests. I can honestly say, I did keep an eye out for evidence of alien activities. But until last week, I did not have much luck."

"Absolutely. And by all I hear, if you had not pursued your research interests, it would have been a sad waste of a great talent. But now things are different, aren't they?

"We had an advantage, of course, because we have had reason to take aliens seriously for some time. But things are changing for us, too. We are finding more and more evidence and piecing it together to get an actual picture, even a map of sorts.

"Well, Colonel, it seems our two agencies followed similar goals without knowing anything about each other. Can we find a common path now?"

"I... would like to think so. But I need to be clearer on what you do and why. SHIELD, I understand, is concerned with superpowered humans. How does that lead to aliens and outer space?"

"Why, because, to the best of our knowledge, some superhumans had extra-terrestrial origins."

"So it's not just the comics?"

"No. So far as we can see, the comics only put together a couple of common topics of discussion at the time, but they guessed right… to that extent, at least.

"Of course, comics being for children, they only pushed their imagination so far. They did not want to have their little readers imagine what an alien, or an alien-human hybrid, might really be like. All their aliens were human and humanoid."

"How much do you know about real aliens?"

"Not nearly as much as we would like to, Colonel, especially since we have been investigating them for years. We are certain that they exist, and that at least a small number of them have made a home on Earth – mostly as the result of crashes and strandings.

"By the best we can make out, aliens in this galaxy – other galaxies are really too distant to worry about – live so far from us that any alien who ends up on Earth is effectively in the situation of Robinson Crusoe. And they may be so different from us that we would not be able to recognize them as intelligent beings. The only ones for whom we have certain evidence and some contact are the Cotati, who could pass as trees."

"Trees," said Samantha in a hushed tone.

"Trees," repeated Captain Lawton. "We have video and recordings. But the last Cotati left the Earth a few years ago, and I doubt they concern us.

"There is one matter you should be particularly aware and alert about. There seems to be at least one race of proficient shape-shifters in the universe. They are called the Skrulls, and data we have only recently received suggests that their particular area of settlement is closer to Earth than that of any other alien race. They are also supposed to be rather on the aggressive side – though the source of the information is from a Robinson Crusoe type whose race was at war with them, so we have to take his view with a grain of salt. Anyway, being shapeshifters and really good at it, they might even be here as we speak."

"But no pressure," said Colonel Seirce with a hint of a smile..

"No pressure, sir. After all, everything we move through is vague and very far away."

The meeting seemed to have come to a natural end.

"Well, Colonel Brand, Captain Lawton, Captain Hill, this has been a very interesting meeting. Of course we cannot make decisions just yet, and I understand that neither can your superiors" (this conveyed to the SHIELD representatives that Colonel Seirce understood why neither Director Fury, nor Deputy Director Stilwell or any of their inner circle, were present) "but we shall keep lines of information open and keep you appraised of any relevant developments, and I trust you will do the same." There were nods and murmurs of agreement. "Lieutenant, would you give them a tour of our facilities and a good lunch before they leave? I would do it myself, but" and he let his face droop comically, "I have a meeting with a brace of three-stars."

"OUCH" said Captain Hill unexpectedly. "You have our entire sympathy, sir." And everyone laughed.

…...

Six months earlier.

"Calling Yon-Rogg, Calling Yon-Rogg, Calling Yon-Rogg. Xenobiologist Captain Mar-Vell reporting."

"Mar-Vell! Is that you? What happened to you? Have you been captured?"

"Nothing of the kind, sir. I am however in a peculiar situation. I have to send a confidential report to the Supreme Intelligence."

There was a silence on the other side.

"I assume you will need a private channel, Captain?"

"Regretfully so, sir. I promise to fill you in as soon as possible."

…

Commander Yon-Rogg fumed. He had detested that pansy scientist with the undeserved captain's marks from the moment he had been assigned to his ship; and it did not help that supplies deputy chief Una, the loveliest female on shipboard, had all too obviously fallen for him.

….

[from Xenobiologist Captain Mar-Vell's confidential report to the Supreme Intelligence]

…we had reduced the original 43 candidates for replacement to 5, whom we subjected to advanced scrutiny according to procedure. The one I particularly liked was one Captain William Lawton of the United States Air Force. He was, for a start, almost my twin This man had almost no attachments, and, having been frequently moved around, had few people who knew him well, but plenty of acquaintances who could be useful contacts for information and manipulation. His sexual and social activities were all of a piece. As Your Wisdom well knows, humans are quite like us in tending in general to mate for life, or for long periods, monogamously and with progeny, but with a quite large amount of variation. Lawton was at a fairly extreme end of the range, widely promiscuous and unwilling to have or care for progeny. While such a figure does not allow us insight into the central human procedure of child-rearing and socialization, it gives us a fine insight into natural and conditioned restrictions on behavior and social patterns of reaction to their violation.

I decided that the time to replace Lawton had come. My laryngeal implants had been fully conditioned to reproduce his voice, and my pseudepidermoid mask and skin coloring had been perfected till I could pass for his twin. A local holiday, Labor Day, fell that day, so that Lawton would not be expected back at work for a certain amount of time.

According to his usual practice, he took home an attractive female, this one with yellow hair. Unlike most, this one was a casual encounter, met in a bar, who had evinced a strong interest in Lawton's looks and build. As procedure suggests, when I replaced him, her reaction to me would make a good early indication of the success of my impersonation.

Except something utterly unexpected happened. I was monitoring Lawton and the female from my pod. They stopped in a dark alleyway (human cities are remarkably ill-built and full of clutter) for some preliminary sexual activity, as I thought; but suddenly Lawton's vital signs started collapsing. Homing in on the couple, I could see that the woman had been practically ripping his throat, and floods of blood were pouring from it. The astonishing thing is that she had clearly torn his carotid artery with her teeth, which is impossible for humans; and was greedily drinking the pouring blood, which is contrary to every human feeding habit known.

Lawton was beyond saving; but then something equally unprecedented happened. Another female came running upon the scene and assaulted the blood-drinker. Attached to the report you will find a multispectral video of her assault; I am personally willing to say that no one Kree fighter today could stand up alone against such an attack, whatever may have been the case with the heroes of ancient times. And when she struck the final blow, beheading her enemy, the blood drinker disintegrated into something that may best be described as ashes and dust, as if every last molecule of water in what had been her body had vanished at one and the same time, leaving only the non-aqueous mass in the shape of inert flakes of an ashen substance.

This of course made it easier to replace Lawton, and I will be using his identity from now on. His body has been sent to the medical investigators, whom I have directed to report to you.

….

Part of the response from the Supreme Intelligence:

Captain, you are authorized to show your report to Commander Yon-Rogg and his crew. Indeed, it is important that every Kree operative who is or may at any time be on Earth be informed of its content. The blood-drinking human was clearly affected by a disease known in ancient records as the Burning Fire, which was at one time widespread in some peripheral parts of the early Kree empire, especially Dahsona k-9, Dahsona W-202, and Keyhsona. Records are not as complete as we would wish them – that was over nine thousand years ago – but it is clear that this disease operated some sort of parasitic energy matrix which devastated the cohesion of the body, to the point that, where a sufficiently severe injury was inflicted, water vanished into violent evaporation, leaving a detritus of ash-like flakes. The affected victims were not able to feed except on pure human blood, but in spite of their vulnerability, enjoyed extreme strength and speed, enough to catch any human by surprise and slaughter them. Krees must be on their alert against any other cases. Being caught by surprise would be dangerous; but warriors not caught by surprise may easily deal with victims of Burning Fire by decapitating them.

…

"So, Captain… you are Captain William Lawton now? Great Hala, what names these humans use.."

"Indeed. Well, Commander, I think I can engineer a transfer to SHIELD, one of their secret agencies, who have been looking at – from their point of view – alien races. With any luck, I can maneuver them towards the Skrulls and the Badoons and cover up anything that points to us. And I will continue to cultivate the looser kind of young human woman."

This was aimed at Una, who was listening. Mar-Vell absolutely did not want a workplace romance, and, even if he had not yet realized the state of Yon-Rogg's jealousy, certainly knew of Una's feelings. Yon-Rogg thought he heard her choke a whimper; and irrationally, and despite his intense desire to break her affection for Mar-Vell, he resented his brutality to her.

….

The night after Samantha Carter had met the SHIELD representatives, she got a call from her aunt Joyce. Joyce was in tears and needed to speak with someone. Hank had got his secretary pregnant.