Thor

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The door from Milliways opens on the early morning landscape of the Capital Wasteland. Beyond the door is stony, blighted territory, the shadows of burnt, weathered stumps long in the morning sun. "The crater where we'll be picked up by the ship is just over that hill," Ellen says, indicating a swell in the landscape ahead of them. "I got kind of tired of walking half a mile to reach the nearest house with a door to get to the Bar, so I tore out an internal doorframe from the building and brought it here instead. It doesn't actually connect to anything, but it gets me back and forth- and we can always go to the house again if we need to, on the way back."

She glances at the Asgardian and adds, "We'll be traveling to the ship by a teleportation beam. There are two humans on board who can operate the controls, so it'll either be Dr. Tercorien or Sally on the other side."

Comments

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen nods, and starts towards the cargo hold door. "This had to be forced recently," she says. "I know it's not the steamworks, but I'll be honest- there's a lot of space in here, and a lot of stuff in here, and if I had to pick a place on this ship to hide, it'd be in the enormous open dimly lit room full of hundreds of years' worth of gathered supplies."

Of course, that's her, and she might be wrong- the supplies are, after all, at least partly taken from Earth. Which might not be of interest to the aliens as anything but study objects; they probably wouldn't be able to lift a human-sized melee weapon or handle some of the rifles the humans have used over the years. Or-

(If Thor is paying any attention to his peripheral vision at all, he may catch sight of something green off to the left, high up where one might expect an air duct or a maintenance passage.)

[mjolnir_retriever]

Thor's not as hyper-attuned as some warriors; he's not really a sniper, nor a scout. But he is a warrior with hundreds of Earth years of experience, and he's part of a very small party in unknown territory, and he's on the lookout. And he doesn't have the same blind spots many humans do about where it's likely or physically possible for opponents to lurk.

So it doesn't take him too long to spot the green form.

His head turns, and his steps pause.

"Greetings," he tells the room, his deep voice pitched effortlessly to carry across the distance. "We wish to speak with you."

To Ellen, his words will sound like the same ones she's been hearing all along. But to the green people -- not so much.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen's head whips around to see who Thor's speaking to. Up in the shadows, the green form freezes; then, very carefully, a high piping voice says, "Please don't kill me."

Ellen looks blankly at Thor, as all she heard of that was strange yammering sounds, but if this Allspeak works...

[mjolnir_retriever]

"It asks us not to kill it," Thor says in an undertone. It's not a particularly hushed undertone, so the green creature may be able to hear him, but he's not projecting quite so much.

To the worker: "Unless you attack us or our allies, you will come to no harm from us. You have my word."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen blinks, but nods. The green creature hesitates. "Thank you," it says slowly, as if not entirely sure it can believe what it's hearing. "The- human who wears the armor- that one isn't here, is he? Hunting us?"

[mjolnir_retriever]

Thor chose from us carefully. He'll argue if he feels it's warranted, and he wouldn't be here with Ellen if she didn't seem sensible by his lights, but his word is important to him. He will not promise more than he can be certain of.

For Ellen, Thor says, "It asks if the male human who wears the armor is here hunting them." Dr. Tercorien, presumably, but Ellen knows better than Thor whether there are others aboard this ship who might fit that description. "It's worried. Frightened."

Or faking it very well. That's an option, although Thor is mostly convinced otherwise. But Thor doesn't have a very suspicious mind.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"He's holding the bridge," Ellen says. "And probably sulking. But as far as I know he won't have followed us down here- he doesn't like to leave the bridge unattended if he can avoid it."

(Mostly because he's afraid of the aliens taking it back while he's gone.)

Then it occurs to her- "If it means Toshiro, the human who wears armor and carries a sword... I don't know where Toshiro is, but I won't let him hurt anybody unless we're attacked first."

[mjolnir_retriever]

"No," Thor tells the worker. "We have come as you see, without others. To speak, not to hunt. If an armored human does come, we will not let him hunt unless we are attacked first."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The alien is silent for a while. Finally it says, very cautiously, "All... all right. I can talk to you, I think. I should come down..."

It disappears from behind the grill, but a few moments later there is a pattering sound of feet from the darker parts of the cargo hold. The alien is perhaps a foot shorter than Ellen, dressed in a dark red jumpsuit that comes halfway up its ridiculously slender neck, and moves as if it either can't or won't straighten up completely.

It stops some distance from the two (seeming) humans, black eyes wide- but then, they always are.

[mjolnir_retriever]

It really is of a people he's never seen. This isn't surprising, by now, but it's fascinating.

He hopes Heimdall is watching. Just in case this is something Asgard should know about. Odi-- Loki should be told.

Thor inclines his head slightly to the green worker in greeting, and then glances at Ellen. Is there anything she wants to say?

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Um. Hello there," Ellen says cautiously- even knowing this one is one of the workers, or seems to be, it's still got the face of a species that was trying to blast her to ashes the last time she saw one. "My name is Ellen, and this is Thor Odinson; we mean you no harm. We'd... we'd like to find out about your people, and about this ship, if we can."

[mjolnir_retriever]

If Thor were used to being a self-effacing translator, rather than an envoy in his own right, he would repeat this word-for-word as she says it.

But he's Thor. So he does speak, overlappingly, but there's some paraphrasing going on.

"My friend cannot speak your language," he says, "and nor can the other humans on this vessel. Her name is Ellen. I am Thor, son of Odin."

"Ellen also means you no harm. She would like to learn more about your people and about this ship."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The little green creature tilts its head to one side, then seems to accept this. "Thor son of Odin," it says, "my name is Zur. I am a servitor aboard this vessel, which is called Zeta. It did not come here in peace, but those who brought it here are either dead or in hiding. Neither I nor any other servitor will raise a hand against you or your people or your planet."

Zur says this as a human on Earth might say, if I let go of this brick, it will fall towards the ground: as a self-evident fact of nature.

"We who are left don't want to cause trouble. Our job is to keep the ship from failing."

[mjolnir_retriever]

This one, Thor does repeat word for word, in an undertone overlapping Zur's words, after a quick "It says" preface. Paraphrasing is one thing, but this seems important to be clear about, and it's harder to pick out the important parts for an unfamiliar speaker of an unfamiliar society. He's not negotiating merely on his own behalf.

To Zur, it will probably sound weird, because to its ears Thor is simply repeating the exact same thing in its own language. So it goes.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Well, that would explain why they haven't been fighting Elliott," Ellen mutters under her breath. "Poor guy. I'd like to ask him if there are enough of his people to keep the ship running, but I don't want it to sound like I'm asking how many there are left to wipe out, or anything like that. And it would be good to know if there's any kind of damage or anything threatening the ship, too. I just don't know how to say it without it coming out sounding like I'm trying to get intelligence on enemy resources."

[mjolnir_retriever]

Hmm.

Thor considers that dilemma for a long moment, weighing words.

"We will protect this planet and its people," he says to Zur at last. "But if this ship in your hands does not threaten them, there is no cause for us to obstruct your job. And perhaps there may be cause for aid, if you need aught you lack to maintain yourselves or Zeta. There are those who hold a grudge against your people as well for your masters' acts, but Ellen and I do not."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"All we want," says Zur, "is to live here in peace, and to keep the ship from failing. We can keep the atmosphere generator working, and we have control of the worm tank that fed the whole crew, when there was one. The engines were damaged in battle, but we can repair them- enough to keep us from falling. There is not enough fuel to take us back to our planet, after the last battle this ship fought."

[mjolnir_retriever]

Yeah, Thor's repeating that one back, too.

It seems the kind of thing Ellen should hear in Zur's own words, or as close as the Allspeak allows, without the risk of some detail being elided.

Especially since all of it is hopeful news, as far as Thor can tell from the summary of the situation he's gotten.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

".... huh," says Ellen, blinking. "Really."

She thinks about this for a bit.

"If they're going to stay here, they may have objections to some of the things I'd had in mind..." She rubs at her temple with one gloved hand. "I really need to use the death ray. And to get the frozen people off the ship, preferably either thawed or stable enough to give the Brotherhood time to thaw them out." A terrible thought occurs to her. "Does the death ray even still work?"

[mjolnir_retriever]

Hmmm.

To Ellen -- although Zur, perforce, will understand it too -- Thor says, "Then we have reason to come to an understanding on both sides. Is there aught else you would require?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"The cargo hold is full of stuff taken from Earth," says Ellen suddenly. "This ship might belong to his people, but everything in this hold was taken from humans, as far as I know. There are a lot of frozen humans on board this ship, and you can't feed or supply humans with good intentions alone. We're going to need the Earth stuff back if we're going to take them down to the planet and bring them out of stasis."

(She's still a little cranky at her father for having devised a brilliant system for purifying the Capital Wasteland's water, but never having bothered to figure out how to distribute the stuff. If she's going to thaw out all these people, she has to make sure there are supplies for afterwards.)

[mjolnir_retriever]

Thor nods.

And mulls this over. He's not sure how much authority Ellen has to make final decisions -- she's here negotiating, and she hasn't said anything about the need to delay, but she does have superior officers. In any case, they're not Thor's to make.

"I would propose an agreement," he says, thoughtfully, to them both. "If it is acceptable to Ellen and to Zur's people."

"Zur and his people will have freedom to remain on the ship as they will. None will molest them, including those who have done so in the past. If they have need of supplies or aid from Earth, they may ask, and see what surplus may be given without depriving others."

"In trade, Ellen and her people will claim the frozen humans that were brought here. They will claim the human supplies stolen with them. If you know how to stabilize or thaw them safely, that aid too would be appreciated. Ellen will have use of the ship's death ray at need, as she and her comrades claimed it from the ones who brought this ship here in an act of war."

Plunder is a totally valid claim, in Thor's book.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I'm good with that," Ellen murmurs, and turns to watch Zur.

Not that the alien's face is readable or anything, but she has to try, right?

Zur is quiet for a while. Eventually, the alien says to Thor, "The other servitors- may I speak to them first?"

[mjolnir_retriever]

Thor glances at Ellen to see if she has any objections, although it's pretty much for form's sake. He can't imagine why that would be a problem--

oh, right. She didn't catch that.

"He wishes to speak to the others of his kind before giving you a decision."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"He's welcome to do so," says Ellen, "although I would like to follow him there if we can, if only to make sure that there aren't any surprises."

Zur doesn't seem particularly surprised by that request when it's relayed to him, but only nods and sets off at a gait somewhere between a jog and a scamper, first back into the engine core an then through the previously inaccessible robot maintenance area. It's a fast pace, but nothing the two of them can't keep up with.