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]

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.

[mjolnir_retriever]

And, indeed, they do.

Thor's looking around as they go with an interest that's half tourism and half tactics. (And, it must be said, with a little bit of gratitude that this ship was built with taller beings than Zur in mind. He appreciates not having to hunch under a low ceiling.) But he keeps pace easily, interest or no.

Long legs help!

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The robot maintenance area is probably about one and a half floors high by human standards, and two by Zur's. Fortunately they're staying on the ground floor. Possibly more fortunately, the only robots in the area are inactive, and apparently unarmed as well. "I was here before, when we were fighting our way out," Ellen murmurs. "The combat version of those things is nasty. They have an energy cannon that could wipe out half a man-sized target without even trying."

(She'll leave it there. She's got too many stories these days that end in "but it's okay, they're all dead now" or "but we're safe, I destroyed them".)

Zur glances briefly at an assembly line that looks as if about half its length was abruptly removed some time ago and comments, "We could not repair that, but the drones it made were for maintenance, not for defense. We can manage maintenance on our own."

He then pushes aside what looks not unlike a cabinet door set into the wall, revealing a room beyond full of similarly red-clad members of his species. Several of them are working on this or that technological object, and one is tending to what might be some kind of chemistry set or similar, but the majority of them are hunched over instrument consoles not unlike the ones upstairs in the transporter room. The screens are circular and glow with a blue light that does the startled, furtive expressions on the other aliens' faces no good. Several of the nearer aliens shut their screens down immediately, in a fashion any office manager who has nearly caught a worker playing World of Warcraft would recognize.

"It's all right," says Zur, holding up both three-fingered hands. "These two are here in peace. They have an offer for us."

[mjolnir_retriever]

"Greetings," Thor rumbles again.

He pretty much can't help looming, and isn't disposed to try, but he's aiming for casual and with peaceful intent. At least by his own species' body language, which matches up with human pretty well.

Sadly, he doesn't hang out in the right circles to think gosh, this looks like a LAN party while the boss is on vacation.

"My companion and I mean you no harm."

He'll see whether Zur or Ellen wants to add any further preface or start on the explanation, or if they want him to do so again.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

One of the aliens swallows a mouthful of what might've been some kind of worms- hard to say in this lighting- and comes to its feet. "My name is Mox," it says. "I'm the eldest here. Zur, what do you mean, they have an offer?"

The ensuing conversation is rapid-fire and twittering to Ellen's ears; to Thor it's probably just rapid-fire and a little on the high-pitched side. Zur, for his part, is relaying the earlier conversation faithfully. Mox looks a little suspicious about the whole deal.

And Ellen, well...

"I don't know whether to feel sorry for them or envy them," she murmurs, looking around the room. "It's small, and it's not like it's their home world, but it's still a lot nicer here than it is down in the Wasteland."

[mjolnir_retriever]

Since Zur's not misrepresenting anything, Thor is happy to leave this part to him.

To Ellen, he nods a little, though to be honest Thor has no real comprehension of either lifestyle. Even in his exile, he has a whole (and reasonably healthy) planet to find his way in. He's never lived in a resource-starved wasteland, or an enclosed self-sufficient ship, or anything less comfortable than Milliways or a small town in New Mexico -- certainly not for longer than the duration of a training exercise.

"It seems a good enough place to them," he agrees.

The to them is tossed in because of Thor's not-quite-belated realization that, without the context of Ellen's statement, it might sound like they're plotting to acquire this space. At least to a potentially suspicious group of people who actually value the idea of living among computer banks and worm vats, which Thor does not.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"If it works for them, they're more than welcome to it," Ellen says. "I just- I don't know. Zur said they can't go back to their home planet. Being stuck on a ship your whole life, never being able to go outside, maybe raising another generation of little green men who've never actually lived under the light of a natural sun? It seems kind of sad, even if they're okay with the idea."

She glances down a moment, right hand resting on her left forearm.

"I grew up that way, the whole first nineteen years of my life. Underground, not in space, but- I don't know. People deserve better than living in confined quarters their whole lives."

All of which is more or less moot, because Zur and Mox are done talking by now. Mox clears his throat and says, "The offer is acceptable. It will be easier to maintain the ship when the humans are gone and the cryo labs can be shut down. And you may have the use of the death ray, but we would ask one favor in return for that."

[mjolnir_retriever]

Thor is just as glad for the subject change away from discussions of spending the rest of one's life away from one's home planet. (That's the part that has resonance for him; confined quarters would be a hardship, but they're enough outside his experience that he can't quite wrap his brain around the prospect enough to feel the emotional hit.)

He repeats Mox's words for Ellen, in an undertone. "What favor do you ask?" he inquires at the end, regarding Mox and Zur seriously.

He's been listening to their discussion, of course. But in truce-making, the terms should be stated plainly and for all to hear.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"We do not know if our homeworld will send any other ships to this planet," says Mox. "This ship's mission was set many human lifetimes ago. There may not be any more coming. But if others do come, and if they attempt to take this ship by force, we will not be able to defend ourselves."

"Servitors cannot defend themselves, even to save their lives," Zur adds. "It's not that we don't want to. We can't."

He doesn't seem to want to explain, but there's discomfort in his tone, and he looks away as he says it. Mox nods and says, "Your companion led four other humans against all the warriors and defenders and ekurac on this ship, and took it from them by force- and then defeated another ship of equal size and armament in battle. If any others of our people come to kill us or take Zeta, we ask that she come here to stop them, if she can."

"It will probably involve using the death ray anyway," Zur notes.