Sipping Sturm, eating Topfelstrudl, publishing fanfiction. Not bad for an evening in.
In this chapter, Thor gets some worrying news, Loki takes advantage of his earlier access to Jane's laptop, Jane worries about the direction a conversation turns, and ninepen predicts you will be running a Google search as or after you read this chapter. ;-)
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Beneath
Chapter Thirteen – Theories
"Heimdall requests your presence, my prince," the gold- and black-clad Einherjar guard announced once the striking of his staff against the floor brought the council chambers to silence. Volstagg's mouth was still hanging open, mid-sentence.
Thor rose. His face remained impassive – or he hoped it did – but silently he asked, What now? "Volstagg, Bragi, come with me."
Volstagg fell in on his left and Bragi on his right, and they had not yet left the room when Volstagg resumed his argument. It was a classic conflict, and one which until recently Thor would have had no trouble coming to a decision on – he would have ignored them both and rushed into a confrontation, prepared for battle should it not go well. Just like on Jotunheim. Precisely what had set off the chain of events leading to these tense circumstances in the first place.
Volstagg, urging strengthened physical defenses and expanded protection enchantments, and Bragi, urging only a continuation of the increased training tempo for Asgard's warriors so as not to appear to be preparing for war, fell silent again as the three came to a halt before Heimdall, outside the makeshift observatory near the still-lifeless bifrost.
"What news have you, Gatekeeper?" Thor asked.
"My prince, the delegation from Svartalfheim has left Jotunheim."
"And what were you able to learn of their purpose?" The question pre-supposed that Heimdall had been able to learn something, but Thor knew well it was little more than wishful thinking.
"Nothing, my prince. I have seen their meetings and gatherings but I cannot hear their discussions. I remain uncertain of the nature of the magic involved."
Thor nodded. He wasn't surprised. "Thank you, Heimdall. And-"
"There is more."
"Yes?" he asked with raised eyebrows and a sliver of hope. And a sliver of dread.
"The delegation did not return to Svartalfheim. They have instead travelled to Vanaheim."
"Vanaheim! Why would they go to Vanaheim?" Volstagg asked. Bragi, Thor saw when he glanced his way, seemed to have paled beneath his long beard.
"I do not know. They have been greeted, and are being led before Gullveig. It is as on Jotunheim; I can see but not hear."
"What is it, Bragi? Say what you're thinking." The old man's eyes had narrowed and his gaze had drifted to the side.
"That would be impolite, my prince."
Thor glared down at his chief diplomatic advisor. Few could withstand that glare, and Bragi wasn't one of them.
"It is too soon to say. It could be anything. The Frost Giants have no means to leave their realm, that much we know. And what little else they had was severely damaged by- Perhaps they merely seek assistance from the other realms to make repairs. They may have asked the elves to visit Vanaheim on their behalf. They would not reach out to us; they will have recognized that it was the bifrost that wrought this destruction. Vanaheim has the means to assist and Jotunheim lacks the same animosity for Vanaheim that it has for us."
"Or?" Thor asked. This was the optimistic view, not the one that made Bragi pale. Not the one that made Thor flush with anticipation for battle.
"Or Jotunheim and Svartalfheim are looking for more allies," Volstagg said.
"If so, they will not find them in Vanaheim, will they?" Thor asked – stated, really – turning back to Bragi.
"The Vanir are our allies. They live among us and we among them."
"Bragi…" Thor warned in a low voice. Bragi did not like saying unpleasant things, and Thor did not like having to drag out of him the unpleasant things he was clearly thinking.
"My prince…it's unfortunate but true that the Jotuns have a story to tell that paints us in a rather bad light. They do not know exactly what transpired here, though they may know that Prince Loki brought their king to Asgard. Whatever they know of Laufey's actions, they know he did not return to them. They do not know that it was Loki who wrought their destruction of his own accord with no sanction from the All-Father or yourself or anyone else. It is possible that the delegation goes to Vanaheim to convey a saga of a spiteful, cruel, and unjust Asgard that these many years later has a renewed desire to end Jotunheim's very existence."
"How will we know which it is?"
Bragi shook his head. "I do not see how we possibly can, as things are now. And it is not just these two possibilities. The dark elves' travel may have nothing to do with us, nothing to do with the destruction on Jotunheim."
"Then why would they conceal their speech?"
Bragi opened his mouth, then closed it again; he had no immediate answer.
"We must journey to Vanaheim, Thor. Meet with King Gullveig. Asking is the only way to know which theory is correct. Gullveig has always been fond of you; he will answer."
Thor nodded to Volstagg. He was right. But could he risk leaving Asgard with his father still in the Odinsleep? No, he quickly decided. He could wait at least until the delegation left Vanaheim, and Odin should wake soon.
He turned back in the direction of the palace, stopping after a few steps. He'd almost forgotten. "Go on ahead, I'll just be a moment. Bragi, fill the council in fully, and I'll want to know if this changes either of your opinions on how we should be preparing."
Both men pressed fist to chest and lowered their heads before continuing on their way.
"Heimdall…Jane?"
"I see her less often when I seek her," the gatekeeper said, having waited in still, stoic silence. "Yesterday, only once."
"And now?"
He paused for a long moment, shifting his gaze from Vanaheim to Midgard and searching for the mortal woman. "No, my prince."
"And you still do not know why?"
"I do not."
Thor worked his jaw, frowning. Jane would be working with her machines. Her technology, her science. Her version of magic. Things she had built with her own hands, things that sought the stars. Heimdall had not thought likely Jane's idea about being hidden from being in the sky instead of on the ground. Could her machines hide her? It also seemed unlikely, but he didn't know. And it worried him that he didn't know. There was more than one way to be hidden from Heimdall's view, but only one he was familiar with – only one that worried him.
"You still have not seen Loki?"
"I have not."
"And Jane remains unconcerned."
"I would have informed you had that changed."
"I know, I apologize," Thor said, accepting the rebuke. Anything other than a direct response, from Heimdall, was a clear rebuke.
"There is no need to apologize. Thor…"
Thor drew himself up to attention. Heimdall had not addressed him by his given name since childhood. "Yes?"
"You may continue to ask after her as often as you wish, and I can continue to look for her. Whatever you seek I will not deny, unless the All-Father forbids it. But…I have not seen any cause to doubt that she is safe."
It took a moment, but Thor swallowed and answered. "And Asgard is in peril, with events in three other realms in question. I understand." He paused, nodded. "I understand. I shouldn't have interfered with your duty. Please indulge my occasional inquiry, but in the meantime, keep your gaze upon the delegation and the three realms and any other source of trouble should it appear."
Heimdall bowed his head, but kept his eyes locked on Thor's.
Thor nodded again, then turned to follow Volstagg and Bragi, jaw clenched tight. So this is what it feels like to be king, he thought, and could hardly imagine how much he'd once desired it.
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During their morning meeting with the winter site manager Jane, Lucas, Rodrigo, and Gillian were reminded of some of the station's rules – particularly fire safety – and were assigned to emergency response teams. Every winterover was on one; if an emergency happened no rescue would be forthcoming, it would be up to them. Jane was put on the fire team and Lucas, who'd not had any fire response training, on trauma. They learned that their doctor was still to arrive on one last passenger flight – a last-minute replacement for the doctor who should've arrived a week ago but had broken his pelvis in some kind of freak accident. Jane was surprised to learn of an additional passenger flight; she'd thought hers was the last. She mentioned that she'd hoped to see the doctor about her Diamox side effects, and was assured that a summer doctor was still here as well as a physician's assistant.
A couple of hours before the lunch Jane had scheduled for her and Lucas with Selby and Wright, she offered to give Lucas the tour of the station she'd had the evening before. It would be a good refresher for her, she figured, and indeed found herself relying heavily on the labels found on most of the doors, which Lucas could have just as well read on his own. But she tried to add in little bits of information she'd learned on her own tour, deliberately leaving out only the 300 Club that Wright had relished describing even though it was too early for him to have had a chance to join. Lucas would have to find out about that one elsewhere.
"What do you like to read, Jane?" Lucas asked when they entered the "Quiet Reading" room with its collection – impressively large given the location – housed on tall black metal bookshelves and its hodgepodge of yellow, blue, and gray chairs.
"Well, assuming you mean non-work-related stuff, I guess you could say I like to keep it light. Murder mysteries, romances, science fiction, sometimes just stuff that makes me laugh."
"You find murder mysteries light?" he asked, again in that tone that left her not entirely sure whether he was poking fun or indulging in dry humor.
"They're pretty much guaranteed not to have any complex mathematical equations or Greek letters in them, so yeah. In case you were wondering, yes, that does rule out any murder mysteries in sorority houses," she said with a grin.
He didn't return the smile but instead glanced around the room; Jane was certain he was avoiding her eyes. She grimaced, wondering if she'd touched some unexpectedly raw nerve – maybe he had a sister in a sorority and didn't appreciate the flippant joke. Her sense of humor had always been a little on the goofy side, but she was pretty sure any of her physicist friends would have laughed at least a little bit at that, no matter how lame it was.
"Okay, moving on," she said awkwardly, and he fell back into place by her side; they paused inside the laundry room; there wasn't much to say about it. It was a laundry room. Washers and dryers and big boxes of powdered soap. And they'd already been told they could only do one cold-water load of laundry per week. "So what about you? What do you like to read?"
"Me?" He smiled. "Oh, ancient history, philosophy. Cultural anthropology. If you mean non-work-related."
"Oh," Jane said with a slow nod and slightly widened eyes. Romances now sounded a little more embarrassing than when she'd actually said it. The truth was she curled up with a scientific journal and a notepad and pencil more often than a murder mystery or romance, but geeking out was reserved for friends. In any event, when she really wanted to take a break and escape from a particularly bothersome problem for a while it was one of those grocery store paperbacks she'd turn to instead of a journal. Though even then there was always a pencil nearby to scribble in the margins in case the distraction ironically allowed the solution to surface.
"My mom was an anthropologist," she said, more to break what was for her at least another awkward moment than out of any desire to actually talk about personal stuff.
"Oh? You've travelled far from her footsteps."
Jane laughed lightly. "That's true. I wound up more in my dad's footsteps. He was a physicist."
"I see," he said with a slight upward nod.
"Okay, well, let's keep this show moving, huh?"
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The tour over, Jane led Loki back to where their luggage from the plane's cargo had been left; only his single suitcase and two other orange bags from the CDC remained. Loki eyed them for a moment. With Jane at his side he would have to physically carry them to his room. Where was Wright when you needed him?
"Here, let me get one of those," Jane offered, reaching for the suitcase.
"No, I've got it," he said, placing himself between her and the suitcase and taking it in one hand and the orange bags together in the other. Wright carrying his bags was one thing, Jane Foster another entirely. Besides, he'd noticed how she'd breathed heavily when they went up the stairs to the second level; she might have collapsed if she tried to carry a suitcase. Her injuring herself would not be helpful.
"Okay, well…so I guess you're all set, then? I know after lunch Selby and Wright will show us around the Science Lab, and then I guess we'll go out to the Dark Sector Lab and we can start getting set up for work. I want to meet the Ice Cube team, and everybody else here on the dark sector projects. I want a plan of action in place by tomorrow so we don't waste any time. Nine months seems like a long time but I think it's going to fly by."
"Time is relative," Loki said. Nine months didn't seem like very long to him at all. And he would also rather not waste any of that short time.
But Jane inexplicably broke into light laughter. "Einstein jokes. Okay, this might just work out after all. Come on, we've still got some time before lunch. The satellite's up so I want to check my e-mail, and you can put that stuff away. Did you really only bring one suitcase?"
"Mm," he murmured, and she didn't seem intent on pressing him further; she'd already seen him with one suitcase so he wasn't sure why it occurred to her to ask about it now. Probably just an off-hand remark. And another thing to look up, Einstein. He recalled the name from a brief mention in the physics book he'd read the first couple of chapters of, apparently a key figure in the development of the current understanding of science here. Still, despite the gaps in his knowledge and his initial mishandling of their meeting, things were already working out very well indeed, if even his attempts at minimalist communication elicited friendly laughter.
A few minutes later they were back in the A1 berthing wing, Jane in front of her door and Loki in front of his. He had just set his luggage down in the room when he heard a knock. He went over to open the door and saw Jane's diminutive form. Although there was no one else it logically could have been so soon after they parted, still he was surprised.
"Hey, Lucas, sorry, I just…could you help me out with something? It'll just take a minute.'
"Yes, of course," Loki said after the briefest of hesitations. This Lucas was much easier to embody, but Loki now struggled to keep his expression neutral. Lucas should not be nearly this pleased.
He followed her the few steps over to her room and past the threshold. His eyes widened. Her belongings were scattered over the room; only the unmade bed was clear of what to him looked almost like debris after a battle.
"Oh, sorry, don't mind this, I haven't finished putting everything away."
"Is that what you needed my help with?" he asked, hoping the answer was no while trying to decide how to respond if it were yes. He could live with being an assistant, but he didn't think assisting should extend to duties carried out by servants on Asgard. He had an image to maintain – above and not beneath – and a self-image that simmered and flared beneath that one – I am a king! Both led him to the same answer in no more than a second.
He was relieved by her laughter. "Uh, no. Actually, I got this poster in the mail here," she said, stepping over to her desk which seemed to function primarily as open-air storage for clothing, "and I want to put it up on the wall above the desk but I need you to hold it on one end while I take care of the other."
She showed him what to do, then tossed a pile of shirts from the desk to the bed and climbed up onto the desk while Loki watched in mild amusement. She was probably accustomed to scrambling up furniture to reach the things she needed. He followed her lead, unrolling the poster and stepping back until he stood against the wall. She taped her end, then got down to check that the poster was level, and upon deciding that it was she tossed him the tape and he fastened his end to the wall in the same manner she had.
She stepped back and examined the poster. "Perfect," she declared with a big smile.
"What is it?" Loki asked, moving away from the wall to stand beside her.
"It's…well, it's from a friend. Or, acquaintance, I guess. Tony Stark?"
Loki froze. She was waiting. Her intonation was that of a question. She was asking. But he wasn't sure what she was asking. And then he remembered; Lucas should know that name from an entirely different context than he himself did. "The man behind the Stark Institute for Scientific Innovation? He's your friend?"
"Not really. I mean, I haven't actually met him in person. We have a mutual friend. And he believes in my work. You'd like him; he's all about challenging assumptions."
Loki nodded, not trusting himself to utter a word. He had decidedly not liked that man, the most arrogant of that little band of "avengers" – which was after all saying quite a lot – the one who'd spat out childish insults even as the scepter was pointed at his chest. He wouldn't mind meeting him again someday, though…absent Odin's curses.
"Anyway, it's the view from a house he owns in Malibu. Hey, you don't get out much, huh? Tony's famous. SISI's brand new."
"I've heard the name," Loki allowed.
"Okay, well, I better get to my e-mail before we lose the satellite. Thanks for your help."
She'd said Thanks for your help, Loki heard You're dismissed. It rankled him, but he merely nodded, adding, "You're welcome."
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Alone in her room again, Jane took another long look at the poster – how did he know exactly what size to make it? – then sat down at her desk. Checking her e-mail, it turned out, didn't take long, since she didn't have any. Jane was disappointed, particularly since she probably wouldn't have another chance to check it again before the satellite went down for the day and they lost their limited connectivity.
She decided to use the time she'd expected to spend reading and answering e-mails by stopping in to see the doc, since all those symptoms were still there. Most annoying was the tingling – it felt like her fingers and toes were constantly just being woken. Dr. Brissett, who was rather harried and explained that he was trying to write down everything he would have told and shown his replacement in person were it not for the last-minute substitute flying in on the same flight he himself would be flying out on, assured her the tingling and numbness were symptoms of the Diamox. He considered taking her off it early when Jane asked if the medicine's efficacy was really worth all the annoyances, noting that she was experiencing more of the possible side effects than most, but when he checked her blood pressure and found both pressure and pulse high he insisted she stay on it.
"I know it's unpleasant, but let it do its job. And I want you to come in here every day for a blood pressure check, around noon, let's say?"
"Okay. You don't think this is…that I'm having a really bad reaction to the altitude, do you?" Jane asked, trying to mask her fear. Acute mountain sickness, if it got worse, would result in a swift evacuation.
"There's no reason to think that at this point. AMS symptoms are pretty common here but it usually resolves itself within a week. Double up on the water, see if that gets rid of the headache. And no exertion. No alcohol, no coffee, watch your salt intake. Take it easy the next week, no exercise, then we can reassess. Or Dr. Ellison can reassess. Don't go out today."
"But I was-"
"I know, you want to get out to the dark sector. It doesn't look very far but you'd be surprised how much energy it takes out of you to walk the half mile out to those buildings. You just got here, give your body another day to get used to it."
Jane sighed and acquiesced. It was in her nature to push boundaries, but pushing this particular boundary could put her on a paratrooper jump seat next to Dr. Brissett. Or worse. The dark sector could wait another day.
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Prompted by Jane's comment, Loki sat in the computer lab next to medical and worked through his backlog of e-mails, all of which were addressed either to or from Jane Foster. It was tedious and engaging all at once. He should have just scanned for the keywords that would require action on his part, words such as assistant and Lucas and Loki, but he found himself doing something in between a thorough read and a quick skim of every e-mail – incoming, outgoing, and the archives since the account had been created, about three weeks ago.
The words – in both their presence and their absence – provided a fascinating glimpse into Jane's thoughts. No mention of SHIELD at all, and yet he knew it to be frequently on her mind. Was she barred from mentioning them? Or afraid they were reading her e-mails? She was certainly paranoid. The thought made him smirk. She had reason to be paranoid. After all, he was reading her e-mails, and he'd used a basic, minimally protected SHIELD program to do it.
No mention of Thor, except to someone named Darcy, whom she'd told about the Tromso visit that Loki had deduced. But Jane's telling of that story included auroras and cheesecake and table manners – Loki had to roll his eyes at how amusing she seemed to find Thor's newfound ability to restrain himself from hurling a mug to the ground – and no mention of Loki himself or any other reason for Thor's visit. And yet the reason was clear. Perhaps Odin had meant what he said, about not being hunted. If that were true, then perhaps Thor had only gone to Tromso to ensure Jane was not being kidnapped or tortured by his dastardly monster of a brother. Or he may have told Jane and asked her not to tell anyone else. It would be helpful to know for certain, but there was no further e-mail evidence, and absent further evidence Loki thought the latter more likely. As he'd assumed earlier, Thor would have wanted to warn his mortal love.
Since she'd met "Lucas," she had written about Sydney and Christchurch and kayaks and sheep farms and extreme cold weather gear and McMurdo and Observation Hill and an intriguing line of poetry from someone named Tennyson - To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. Loki's eyes lingered over the quote, over each word. Striving and seeking – yes, he knew these well. Here he would find again; he knew this even though he was still seeking, because he also knew he would never yield, to anything or anyone in the Nine Realms or beyond. He added Tennyson to his ever-growing list of things to look into later. It wasn't entirely out of the realm of possibility that a few mortals had interesting things to say.
There was no mention of him at all – perhaps because she'd thought him a minion of SHIELD? – and nothing of concern in her incoming mail either. He approved the incoming and outgoing mail, sending the incoming ones to Jane's account and the outgoing ones to their intended recipients. Logging out of his account, he permitted himself a self-satisfied smile at this particular bit of cleverness. SHIELD or Tony Stark's SISI getting word of an assistant they had not in fact sent to Jane would have unnecessarily complicated matters – Loki was fully aware but could not fully acknowledge even to himself that it would more than likely have thoroughly ruined matters given the restrictions Odin had placed upon him.
For the first time Loki wondered if any intervention at all at the South Pole would be possible once winter settled in, if somehow he drew suspicion despite his precautions. Earth's traditional military forces would probably be helpless. He was less confident about Earth's non-traditional forces. Would the extreme temperatures here stop the Hulk from getting this far inland? He shuddered and hoped so. Would Tony Stark's suit of iron freeze up like the airplanes that could no longer land? Steven Rogers, should he devise some means of getting here in the first place, would freeze but apparently wake up no worse for wear once defrosted. Barton and Natasha…lovely, vile Natasha…wouldn't stand a chance, they would never even make it here. Thor might be slowed, but not stopped. But he had taken extra precautions for that, hiding himself within hours of arriving in that forest on the other end of the planet while ensuring that a carefree Jane was visible whenever she was apart from him. Outside interference should not be a problem.
Loki looked at his left hand, turned it from side to side. Though he'd experienced that metamorphosis more fully later, when handling the ice casket, this hand and forearm in impossible unnatural horrifying creeping blue would always be his most visceral image of the other him, the him that lay beneath all the other layers and facades. He should thrive in this environment, the one of endless snow and ice and, eventually, perpetual darkness that lay just beyond these walls.
Time would tell. But he rather thought he dreaded it.
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During lunch Loki listened intently as Wright, who had spent the short summer season here as well, discussed the South Pole Telescope or SPT, a ten-meter diameter telescope through which scientists sought to observe and measure the Cosmic Microwave Background and through it other things such as galaxy clusters, dark energy, and neutrinos. Loki filed all the terms away, his interest particularly piqued by "dark energy," which Jane had also mentioned and which reminded him of the magic of the elves of Svartalfheim.
Jane also listened with rapt attention, interjecting questions frequently. The Ice Cube telescope came up a number of times when Jane asked about the neutrinos she was so fascinated by; apparently this telescope was somehow buried in the ice, which seemed a rather odd design for a telescope. They would get a fuller explanation of it later that day when they met the two people working on Ice Cube.
Loki's hopes grew even as he increasingly recognized the challenge ahead of him. Reading a book, he realized, may not be enough to bridge the enormity of the gap. How much easier it would be if these scientists were not so obsessed with numbers and names and could simply see and touch and manipulate. When he had studied the workings of the universe he simply toyed with those workings until he understood them.
Momentarily distracted by centuries-old memories of those lessons and the eagerness he'd had for them, Loki's attention was drawn back to Selby when he pulled a photograph from his wallet and held it out. Jane took it, and held it so Loki could see. The small, poor-quality photo was of Selby and a woman with long blond hair in ringlets, smiling and resting her head on Selby's shoulder, his arm around her back.
"This was about a week before the wedding."
"She's beautiful," Jane said.
Loki nodded his head and murmured his polite agreement.
Selby smiled; Loki thought he looked a little embarrassed. "Yeah."
Wright rolled his eyes. "Don't get him started. He won't shut up about her. 'I was just a lonely nerd and she was the prom queen and-'"
"She wasn't the prom queen."
"No?"
"Homecoming queen," Selby corrected with a small smile.
Loki saw pride and insecurity competing behind that smile.
Wright continued his good-natured teasing until Jane asked if he had photos from the wedding. "Hold that thought. Wait until you see his desk in the Science Lab."
"I'd rather look at her all day than you," Selby said, making Jane laugh.
"You've got me there. I'd rather look at her all day than you, too."
Selby laughed, but his cheeks colored a little.
"It must be difficult."
All eyes turned to Loki, who'd said next to nothing throughout lunch.
"Being so far away, for so long, from a new young bride. You aren't worried?" He tacked on a smile and a lighthearted laugh to soften the words.
Selby returned the laughter. "No. She should be worried about me. What happens at the South Pole stays at the South Pole, isn't that what you said?" he asked, turning to Wright.
"Sure. Unless it happens to get mentioned on our blog."
"Oh, come on, cut it out. I can't wait to see the pictures," Jane said.
Loki let the rest of the inconsequential conversation roll over him and in a few minutes they were up and dropping off their trays, headed to the Science Lab where Loki was no longer certain if they were going to talk about science or look at wedding pictures. He suspected either would be dull – they apparently weren't going to be talking about Jane's science – but he had a spring in his step and smile on his face regardless.
His manipulation of Jane was business. There was no reason business had to preclude pleasure, but ultimately he wouldn't be doing it for fun. If he was going to be forced to tolerate these others, however, there was no reason he couldn't have a bit of fun with them. There was no surprise in Selby's reaction to his question. Hesitation covered with laughter and a joke that both rang false to Loki's practiced ears, but no surprise. He was worried. It might be entertaining to make him more worried.
/
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In the B2 wing Science Lab, Jane and Lucas were given desks with computers linked in to the various data feeds from the dark sector and introduced to the Ice Cube and other science techs; each team gave them a run-down of the ongoing projects they were making sure ran smoothly over the course of the long winter.
Wright then said he was going to head out to the Dark Sector Lab and asked if they wanted to go out and see the SPT and connected Dark Sector Lab next.
Jane grimaced. "Dr. Brissett told me not to until tomorrow. Altitude symptoms."
"No problem, it'll still be there tomorrow. Lucas, you want to go?"
He raised his eyebrows, took a sideways glance toward Jane. "No, I'll wait until tomorrow, too."
Jane hid her pleasure at the answer. It didn't seem exactly fair for her assistant to get to be the kid in the candy store before she did. "Hey, by the way, is my equipment in here?"
Selby shook his head as Wright left the room. "We already took it out to the DSL. We assumed that was where you'd want it."
"Yeah, I think so. Thanks."
Lucas cleared his throat. "Jane, if you don't think you'll be requiring my assistance" – she couldn't help noticing the slight emphasis he put on the word – "for the rest of the day, I'd like to go take care of a few things so I'll be ready to get to work tomorrow."
"Sure, I think we're basically done here, right?"
"Until we get outside so you can get your own things set up, I think so. You're welcome to start looking through the existing data now if you want, of course," Selby said.
"See you tomorrow, then, Jane?" Lucas asked.
"Or maybe at dinner."
He nodded his head and turned to go.
Jane then asked to see Selby's wedding photos, but after seeing the framed one on his desk she spotted something else and forgot about the rest. "You went to Caltech?" she asked, pointing at his logoed mug.
He nodded.
"Me too, grad school."
"Same here. Actually, I met you once. You wouldn't remember me, I was in my first year and you were already through with your coursework, I think. It was for Dr. Boudreau's retirement."
Jane stared hard at Selby but couldn't place the name or the face outside of the South Pole. "Sorry, yeah, I remember going to her retirement but I don't remember meeting you. I guess it's been a while, and I'm sure I was distracted. I usually was. Still am," she said with a laugh.
Selby smiled, but something uncomfortable crept into the smile. Jane hoped he hadn't taken offense that she didn't remember him.
"So…do you miss it? I had a lot of frustration there, committee issues, but there were a lot of good times, too. It's such a crazy campus."
He didn't answer immediately, and when he did, it wasn't an answer at all. "Jane…can we go somewhere and talk? In private?" he asked in a lowered voice. He glanced around, but a flimsy partition kept them out of anyone else's view if not out of hearing range.
"A…About Caltech?" Jane asked hopefully, eyebrows raised as her stomach sank.
"Uh…no. About…other things. The things you want to work on here. And…New Mexico. And New York. And other places further away."
/
Dear readers, you, like Loki, will have to find out on your own about the 300 Club.
Teasers for next chapter: Jane wonders if she's stepped into the role of a stereotypical victim in a South Pole horror movie, Loki studies Midgardian science and evaluates his options, and there is some heart and soul...but probably not the kind you're thinking of.
And the excerpt: But, he reminded himself, his smile settling into one of determination and the mischief that Odin sought to rid him of, all of this was contingent upon a functioning Midgardian bifrost. And that was contingent upon Jane, who knew not only Midgardian science but also Midgardian technology. His plans had changed, but Jane was still the key. Keys needed to be shaped to properly do their jobs.
As a big picture teaser, because it is becoming harder and harder for me to keep a lid on it, the main "plot" (you know, beyond Loki-and-Jane-go-to-the-Pole) is actually already underway…you just don't know it yet. Neither does Jane. And neither does Loki. And I'm pretty sure I can guarantee you it's nothing you've guessed.
Please review, I so love hearing from you!