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

[mjolnir_retriever]

Thor nods, accepting the information. It seems sensible to him!

The teleportation beam, at any rate, certainly does. Not walking half a mile is the kind of 'oh yeah, inability to fly' thing that might not immediately occur to him, but is sensible once pointed out. And moving the doorframe is a smart thought.

As he follows Ellen's lead, he's mostly interested in the landscape. His brows have drawn together slightly. He knew she lived in a wasteland, but it's different to see it -- how dry the ground is, how little grows. New Mexico's desert looks sere to his Asgardian eyes, but it's dotted with scrub brush and small creatures in a far healthier aridity than this.

He's wearing jeans, the workboots Jane Foster found for him, and a flannel shirt hanging loosely over a grey t-shirt. If the weather's warm for that, it doesn't seem to bother him.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"There are better places in the Wasteland than this," says Ellen, who's feeling just a little fidgety. She's brought people to her world before, but not usually quite so many as are coming today. "We're working on rehabilitating it all. It's just that we're starting from areas where people live, and from areas with a local water supply. The Great War left a lot of scars we might not ever be able to heal."

But they're trying, and that's part of why she's got Thor here today.

"All right," she says as they come to the top of the hill. Beyond lies a long, irregular, elliptical crater; a fair-sized round craft struck the ground at high speed and skidded to a halt some time ago, burying its front end in the soil. The craft is gone now, but the scorched rock and rubble of is passing remain. "I buried the beacon under one of those piles of rock to keep anybody who might spot it from trying to take it for scrap. Are you ready?"

[mjolnir_retriever]

Thor glances down at her with a faint half-smile. "You need not apologize for your world, Paladin Park," he says. "Nor your priorities in helping it. My father... taught me that a wise ruler must choose his priorities with care and hold to them."

Someday maybe he'll be over the need for that instant's pause, the need to wet his lips and keep his pain from showing. Not today.

"I am ready," he adds, more offhandedly. "Must we do aught but wait for detection?"

It's more primitive technology than the Bifrost, but also far shorter-range. And presumably humans have been using this teleportation beam already. He can't imagine he'll have any trouble with it.

This sort of blithe confidence gets Thor into trouble more often than anything else, except his temper. But it's probably justified in this particular case.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

( "If they could just bring themselves to make something of that place. They don't know what it really takes to run a city..." )

"Very true," Ellen says, and pushes the thought of Lord Ashur out of her mind. "Just a moment. I'll go set off the signal."

She jogs down to the center of the crater and clears away a stack of rocks that resembles pretty much every other stack of rocks in the area. At the bottom, something made of pale metal periodically gleams blue. Ellen takes a moment to check her Pip-Boy's clock, glances skyward, and presses something on one side of the device.

A moment or two later, the central area of the crater is filled with golden light, and the air begins to swirl madly. "That's our cue!" Ellen calls. "Come on in!"

[mjolnir_retriever]

Now this is what a teleportation bridge should look like. None of this weirdly undetectable door-changing stuff Milliways does. It's not exactly like the Bifrost in any detail, of course, but all the same it makes Thor's heart lift a little, unexpected and welcome.

He strides down the slope, only sliding a little in the dust and tumbled stones, and carries on unhesitatingly into the golden maelstrom.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

There is a moment- just a very short one- in which Thor might feel the beam lift his feet off the ground. Then everything goes a dazzling white.

When the light fades from his eyes, he's standing on a round, glowing platform in a room of white metal walls covered in instruments and readouts. Ellen is standing not far away; she's used these things before. The person at the console is a tall (for a Midgardian), blond, faintly worried-looking human in white
armor, marked with a few painted insignia. The butt of some silvery weapon sticks out from behind his head. "Wow," he says. "You weren't kidding when you said you knew people."

Ellen smiles. "It gets better," she says. "Viltrum isn't the only world out there whose people have an interest in Earth beyond what these little green fellows have... Elliott, I have the honor of introducing Thor Odinson, of Asgard; Thor, this is is Dr. Elliott Tercorien, originally of the United States Army."

"Back when there was a United States, anyway," mutters Elliott. "It's an honor to meet you, Mr. Odinson."

[mjolnir_retriever]

Thor inclines his head slightly. (Regally.)

His clothing is thin and casual, his boots dusty and marked by a couple spatters of ice cream. To another America's eyes, it might mark him as a blue-collar man; to Elliott's eyes it might be different, but it's still nothing fancy or tailored, without armor, without flash.

But that doesn't matter, because Thor has been royalty in Asgard all the many centuries of his life, and he's Odin's son and Frigga's. And he's here in a diplomatic capacity, even if it's for another Midgard instead of on Asgard's behalf.

He may be disgraced and banished and powerless now, but there's thoughtless authority and calm command in every inch of him, in the tilt of his head and the straightness of his spine and the easy way he surveys the room before he returns his attention to Ellen's introduction of Elliott. There are reasons people follow Thor even into dumb plans, and it's not just his rank; when he wants to, he draws the eye like a flame.

(The sheer size of the guy does help, though.)

"It is good to meet you, Doctor Tercorien," he says, with slightly perfunctory courtesy. He means it enough, or at least he means the courtesy behind it, but Thor's priority has never been small talk. Still, a warrior and scholar both deserves respect.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Unconsciously, Tercorien draws himself up a little straighter and does his best to wipe the worried look off his face. It can't be helped; the man's presence fairly commands it.

Ellen quietly leans over and murmurs, "Dr. Tercorien is from two hundred years before my time. The beings whose ship this was kidnapped him from his battlefield unit and froze him in order to study. He's only been awake again for a few months."

Tercorien clears his throat and says, "Ellen sent a message that she would be bringing people here who could help with some of the problems we've been having. Especially with the aliens still on the ship. Is there anything I can do to help?"

[mjolnir_retriever]

"I will help to defend Earth as I can," Thor says. It doesn't sound melodramatic coming from him, although possibly it wouldn't anyway, in this crowd and on this spaceship. "But I have come primarily to translate. Ellen wished to attempt negotiation with the green ones who remain, and I should be able to communicate with them."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The man linefaces for a moment at the mention of the green ones, but Ellen throws him a narrow-eyed look. "All right," he says. "I suppose that makes as much sense as anything else. If it gets them to back off for good-"

"I sincerely hope so," says Ellen, "for all our sakes. Where in the ship were they last seen?"

"Sally says she catches sight of them sometimes in the Steamworks," says Tercorien, "and once in a while I see them in the engineering core area trying to get at the equipment. I've made a point of running them off but they keep coming back when they think I'm not looking."

"Then that's where we'll start, I think," says Ellen. "Thank you, Elliott." To Thor she says, "Is there anything else you need to know before we head that way? I can fill you in as we go."

[mjolnir_retriever]

Presumably the wider interplanetary politics are both outside Ellen's knowledge, and irrelevant to the group he'll be talking to.

"Not that I am aware of."

There are things he'd ask if Ellen or anyone else had been able to communicate with the people in question, but he's here precisely because they haven't. So.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen nods. "All right, then," she says. "We're going to want to head this way. Elliott, we'll be back."

The doors on this ship are mostly round, dividing into six parts and pulling apart at their approach. Ellen waits until they've stepped through one and it's closed behind them to say, "Elliott's whole unit was originally kidnapped by the aliens who took us all. One of the first things he saw after we woke him up was two of his squadmates on an alien autopsy table, with the aliens still working on them. He was able to revive two of his other squadmates but they only survived a few minutes of fighting before what the aliens had done to them brought them down. He blames the whole species for what happened."

It seems like an important sort of thing to know.

[mjolnir_retriever]

Thor tips his head, granting the point and accepting the information.

"Unwise," he says gravely, "but understandable. It is easy to listen to anger above all else, especially when it is justified."

There's the weight of experience in his voice.

Thor's experiences in Jötunheim are recent enough, and were disastrous enough, to be very much on his mind. But if he's aware of all the reasons why anger can carry someone past righteous vengeance and straight into catastrophe, he's also aware that he of all people has little room to chide another for it.

"It's a hard pain to bear for friends to have died so." If any of Thor's friends had died in such a manner... this is a thing Thor's not thinking overmuch on, because he'll get furious at the very thought. "These kidnappers were villains and cowards to have treated brave folk so."

Which he knew, but it bears restating.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I can't honestly blame him for his outrage," Ellen says as they continue through the ship. "I've... I know how it feels. Not against a whole species, but- I know how it feels."

There are very, very few people in this world that she has ever genuinely wanted dead. Four of them are. One of them is trapped forever in the virtual reality realm he used to torment his victims for the past two hundred years; he's only alive because her father stopped her.

"But if you've ever seen a kicked dog cringe when someone looked at it the wrong way, even a stranger- the aliens we're looking for suffered as badly as we did, I think. At the hands of their own people, though, not strangers. Not one of the ones we're looking for had the nerve to fight back, or to open a locked door and run away, even to save their lives. Villains and cowards is probably the kindest thing that could be said about the kidnappers, if I'm right."

There are no elevators in this ship, only long stairways and the occasional teleportation circle. The aliens seem to have been quite fond of those. Eventually, one delivers them to a broad, dimly lit, multi-storey room full of moving machinery and instruments.

"This is the engineering core," Ellen says. "The steamworks isn't far from here, if we have to go there to find them."

[mjolnir_retriever]

Thor's face, already grave, sets into harder lines as Ellen talks. If the ones responsible weren't already dead --

but they are, and if any remain then it's Thor's job to help seek them out among their erstwhile chattel. He came knowing that.

Rash anger has already cost him enough. But in any case, his anger now is one of moral outrage and stern judgment, not personal temper.

So he follows, and ducks when they pass through those iris doors, and nods as he looks around the engineering core. It's the first room he's seen in a long while that's of a proper size, even if it's full of catwalks and unfamiliar machinery. "Very well. Shall we search?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen nods. "No time like the present," she says. "That door there, on the right, the one that's wedged open- that leads to the cargo hold. The one just past it goes to where they keep the robots, although we haven't been able to get it open. The two on the left go to the hangars where they keep their scout ships and to the steamworks, and that big door just behind us goes to the cryo hold- where they freeze the prisoners they've taken until it's time to thaw them out for study."

Or other things, which she would rather not remember.

"I've never been down to the lower areas around the core, but I think they lead into the steamworks too."

[mjolnir_retriever]

Thor accepts the information. Ships aren't really his area of expertise, space- or otherwise, but the basic layout is simple enough.

With half a smile, "Then lead on, my friend."

Thor will always think of himself subconsciously as a heavy hitter next to a human, even a human in power armor, regardless of whether that's actually true at the moment. But they're not here for hitting, and Ellen's the one who knows the territory.

[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."