Chapter 16

May 16th, 2010
Hyperdimension
Bridge

 

The bridge raised at the top of the pyramid section of the Hyperdimension, they were hovering over the newly built Arcology. The ship was projecting even more shadow on the city of Los Angeles than the mountain sized megastructure. On the holographic screen of the communication officer, Alari, there were humans taking pictures or videos of the ship; the Tamaranean female had jokingly commented about the humans being curious monkeys.

Tilond’r, the tactical officer checked the ship’s weapons for the thirteenth time and scanned actively for any extrasolar incursion, or for if any of the primitives on the planet were about to launch another nuke at us. TALI had orders to swiftly retaliate in that eventuality; no one likes to be shot at with dirty weapons.

And I was sitting on the command chair on the bridge, perusing through the launch checklist of the Hyperdimension on my command chair’s terminal. 

 

Shields Online:

• Void Shield

• Reactive Shielding

• Angel Shield

• Storm Envelope (inactive) 

• Shield Hardening

• Goddess Halo (Locked)

Hull integrity at 400%

• Subspace Hardening

• Adaptive Hull

• Hypermatter Augment

Power Source:

 

• Hyperspace tap at 100%

 

• Back up Matter/Antimatter reactors (Ready)

Propulsion:

 

• Stardrive (Online)

 

• Subspace Trawl (Online)

Weapons:

 

• Buster cannons

• Particle beam banks

• Particle cannons

• [                     ]

• Warhead Launcher

• Blaster cannon

• [                     ]

• [                     ]

• Anti-Superluminal Warhead

• [                     ]

• Subspace Filament Control

• [                     ]

• Virtual Light Optical Batteries

 

…

 

I noticed that there were some systems grayed out or had placeholders with no names in the list. Those represented all the systems placed under the ethics locks or those my sponsor didn’t want me to access yet. I was aware that TALI was also hiding some huge chunk of the ship obscured behind spatial compression and in pocket dimensions. The mass of the ship was simply too big when I did some math and took a closer look at understanding the technology behind it.

With a sigh, I switched to the crew manifest. Everyone seemed to be strapped in throughout the passenger quarters and the biodome… yet I glanced as a human life sign appeared behind the armored bulkhead leading to the bridge, the cameras revealing that it was just Jane coming back from her gene-augment session and the knowledge download. 

The access door opened, showing a breathless, somewhat panicked-looking Jane; her lab coat trailing behind her, Jane wore a blue skin-tight bodysuit showing that she was a science officer. Jane was taller, curvier, more muscular, and the age lines on her face had smoothened out as she had been reset to her species' peak health.

“Sorry, I’m late!!” Jane yelled as she ran onto the bridge, her footsteps echoing on the deck's plates. 

I looked at the time, then stared at the human. She should be recovering from the effects of the education pod, given the daunting amount of data she’d have to comprehend.

"It’s been thirty minutes since you finished your stint in the education pod… you should be resting, Friend Jane." I said in perfect Tamaranean. 

She flinched and her face showed an expression of wonder. "Huh, I understood that! And oh my god! Blackfire, you're talking clearly!"

I rolled my eyes in the human way as I answered her with, "Of course I do, you were given the standard package languages: Tamaranean, Asgardian and Common Galactic. It is not my fault that my first contact with your English language was from a dying Tony Stark with a strange brain architecture."

The console integrated with my command chair made a chiming sound, meaning that I just received a notification. The message appearing on the holo-screen showed that their return was acknowledged through the deep space coms-satellite they had left in the Inner Planes and in orbit of Asgard to the authorities they were now beholden to.

Odin was still not used to the fact that I could come and go to Asgard as I pleased without the Bifrost bridge. The All-Father still thought that he knew everything about this universe, but TALI and I, we kept proving him wrong. I waved at the science console next to me and invited my friend to take her post, "Come sit at the science console, Friend Jane. This is where you’ll be operating on the Bridge."

There was nothing there, but quickly the flat ground near my command chair formed a pool of mercury-like matter which transformed into a chair and a console. Jane looked at the feat of advanced technology with wonder; but when I coughed to imply that she should just sit already, she blushed in response, swiftly taking her seat and looking over the console intently.

With a beep sound, it came online with multiple holographic screens with an array for computational modeling and analysis of stellar events, cartography, and auspex data appearing before Jane. While useful for long range analysis of potential navigational mishaps, it is also equipped with a plethora of sophisticated scanning equipment, allowing for pinpoint observation of minute targets that are hundreds of thousands of light years distant. This also allows for extensive side-scanning of higher dimensions for intrusive targets, should the need arise to locate and target hostiles within those realms.

This was powerful sensor tech here, and Jane seemed to know it as my empathic sense told me how giddy she felt at her new toy. Jane blushed as she felt my gaze upon her. 

“So, will you tell me why you ignored Healer Talonn’s order to stay put?” I grinned at her, making her blush intensify.

"I wanted to be on the bridge for when we depart Earth" Jane said in a little voice.

I shook my head and chuckled. “Fine, I will allow you to stay, Science Officer Jane. But bear in mind that you will be excused from your duties if you don’t respect the orders of the Healers. Understood?”

With a commanding presence I looked at the young woman; at this moment I wasn’t her friend Blackfire, but her Captain. Jane seemed to have caught the difference as her body stiffened, her blush disappeared and she nodded hesitantly. “Yes… Captain.”

I nodded back. “Good.”

I turned toward the viewing screen in front of me showing the sky my ship was floating in. Then I told her without looking at her, “In a sense this is a good thing; we will think of this as training for you.”

Jane recovered, her excitement rekindling in her heart as she said in a more happy note, “Yes, Captain!”

It was at this point that I became surprised by my human friend, she started to organize the console’s holo-screen by order of priority as we weren’t in any urgent situation like combat. She then took control of the sensors and started to check for anomalies around the planet. She gasped when readings comparable to New York came from Central Africa, the sensors piercing through what was a form of holographic forcefield dome over a city; then she had another reading coming from the Atlantic Ocean, under the water. There were a dozen contacts there that registered as crashed spaceships, then in the blue zone of the moon she noticed at least hundred of thousands life signs.

“Huh? What the-” Jane’s hand stopped moving from the holographic keyboard, her surprise evident at the readings she received from the planet’s surroundings.

I smiled at her shock. “I see that the education pod did its job, Friend Jane. As you can see, your planet is more interesting than you thought?”

It took half a second, but Jane’s head turned toward me as she asked in complete and utter shock, “Are you trying to tell me that there’s secret super advanced civilizations all over the planet and no one knows about them?!”

Showing a bit of annoyance at this on my face, I said, “Yes, and they haven’t deigned to contact me. As they didn’t, I decided to secretly uplift the majority of humanity with Lord Stark’s help. When technology should sufficiently advance for the unified power block to detect those other civilizations I presume that there will be… problems.”

“It could lead to war?!”

*Possibly.* I thought, but what I said to her was, “No, I will help broker peace if that ever happens or act as a deterrent if I must. Your people need to unify, Science Officer Jane.”

This seemed to mollify Jane who let her shoulders sag in relief; it seemed that she trusted me a lot, enough to put a stop to a bad situation at least. I shook my head, Tony really needed to start on this modernization project. I placed my arms on the armrest of my command chair and took in my bridge officers patiently awaiting my orders.

“Everyone is ready? No last minute problems or needs?” My eyes slid on every one of my officers.

One by one they started to report the completion of their checks.

The beautiful pink haired Tamaranean female in a black bodysuit at the intelligence console swiveled her chair and looked at me; her name was Amind’r and she was a no nonsense kind of gal. "All targeting, tracking, and infiltration systems fully operational. Optimal range and capacity." 

"Weapons systems set for maximum response and carnage! Preparations complete for any disaster scenarios. Staff reporting high morale and operational margins fully verified." Tilond’r, the tactical officer reported in turn in a peppy tone.

“Hoorah!” I heard through my enhanced hearing the mass cheer from the crewmembers maintaining the weapon systems through the Tilond’r’s headset, loud enough for the neighboring Intelligence Officer to hear clearly. Amind’r, the Intelligence Officer rolled her eyes then responded with a follow up report that, "VI on Decks 4-7 reporting 7.5% overall decrease in efficiency due to... associated high morale in weapons staff, Ma’am."

I chuckled at that.

Only Jane fumbled with hers. “Nothing harmful in the vicinity of the ship or in the solar system, Ma’am.” She mock saluted, making me roll my eyes.

Tali appeared before me, her long curly red hair reaching down to the middle of her back and wearing a new red bodysuit with golden glowing accents and my crest on her breast, a silvery black badge in the form of a flame. “All systems are green, Captain. We can leave at our leisure.”

The integrated console melted into the left armrest of my command chair, allowing me to cross my legs, making my armored black thigh high boots clank. I smirked, it was finally time to get out of this rock. “Very good.”

Still, I didn’t forget the thing I needed to do and looked at TALI. “But before leaving, I need to do something.”

I looked into the ship’s intelligence glowing green eyes as I commanded her, “TALI, send the messages intended for Tony and Fury from my personal PADD; and finally, send my instruction about our policies of Asylum to Attaché Xenil too.”

I was leaving Xenil here as my hand, eyes, ears and feet on Earth; she was the de facto governor of the land we bought in America. I’ve left a bunch of combat and manufacturing drones and three frigate class warships that TALI had fabricated thanks to her onboard shipyard; the Hyperdimension couldn’t go beyond this class of starship due to current space and energy limitations of the manufacturing systems. New Tamaranean Bioroid have been created to serve under her and protect the Embassy.

TALI cocked her head on the left, showing that she made an action. “Task complete, Captain.”

“Excellent.” I said then turned to the pilot facing the frontal viewscreen of the bridge. “Officer Darran, Start the planet tour, then take us out of Earth's gravity well and into orbit.”

“Yes Captain.” The pilot said in a sharp tone, he put on a focused expression as he placed his hands on the holographic controls.

I looked as the ship moved away from the arcology, passing over Los Angeles, and toward the eastern coast of the continent. It was time to give the world a bit of a scare, to make our presence real to the other human countries.

 

~/.\~

 

At a leisure speed, the humongous ship started to move eastward over the skies of Los Angeles. The people in the city pointed their cameras or phones at the moving spaceship until it left the horizon. The Hyperdimension then proceeded to pass over the states of Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and finally… New York, projecting a huge shadow over those places and into the US citizens’ hearts.

At the same time all over the world, talk shows and the News discussed the departure of the Alien Princess who has been an extraordinary fixture in their lives for the last three weeks. Princess Komand'r was leaving after the announcement that she wouldn't officially have ties with Earth after the attack on her person perpetrated by rogue US assets controlled by a thriving and still existing HYDRA.

A lot of people asked if she was cutting ties, then why did she build the ambassadorial megacity in America? Many so-called political experts tried to explain what Princess Komand'r did, with claims along the lines of: Princess Komand’r officially cut ties with us, but… unofficially she was giving the human race a chance of repairing their relationship with Tamaran and its Empire.

That the Princess built the Arcology and space station on and around Earth with the Embassy staff to show humanity what they could have if they put down their differences and unified to pool their resources.

A lot of people were suddenly reassured, since after being shown that life besides humanity existed, they feared they would be left hanging in a precarious position and open to invasion. It didn't help that the warning about Earth becoming inhospitable in one hundred years as a result of extreme pollution ignited more and greater existential fears among the population. 

As the Hyperdimension passed New York and crossed the Atlantic ocean, it flew over France and its northern departments. Some politicians and heads of state all over the world began to panic over the threatening stance that the Princess was taking by flying such a monstrous and formidable vessel over all those airspaces and borders. But the militaries across the world understood perfectly the message Princess Komand’r was giving them: ‘I’m flying here, and I could kill you all if I wished. There’s nothing you can do to stop me.’ 

The Princess may have been heavy-handed in her approach to teaching, but the forces across the world surely understood that if some superior alien force came from orbit, they’d be toast. The ship finished its short voyage as it passed most of the European countries, Russia, Japan and Australia (Let’s not forget the death continent) and then suddenly left the planet’s orbit.

NASA and the European Space Agency followed the starship as it left Earth’s orbit and past the moon; the satellites and Hubble registered the exact moment when the ship opened some kind of Einstein-Rosen bridge (a wormhole) halfway to Mars and disappeared.

The world breathed in relief when the Princess left, and thanks to the political moves she’d prepared, the UN was given real power to form a planetary government, however this was a story for another time. 

 

~/.\~

(Tony Stark)

 

At the same time…
Malibu
Tony’s house

 

It was just after breakfast and Tony and Pepper were on the white sofa, looking at Tony’s custom wall TV screen; nothing was said as they watched the capital ship do its tour of Earth. Pepper was threading her fingers through her man’s hair nervously, even though she knew that there was nothing to worry about. Komand’r wasn’t about to start blasting cities like in Independence Day.

“I like Space Princess’ style.” Tony, who was laying on his fiancé’s lap commented as he watched the starship leave the atmosphere with JARVIS switching the video stream with Tony’s own illegal satellites in Orbit. Now that he thought about it, Tony needed to place sensors in orbit and around the solar system…

This train of thought was interrupted by Pepper complaining. “Tony, how can you say that? She just threatened the entire world!”

Tony opened his eyes and looked into his future wife’s eyes. “No Pep, what she did was make a point.”

Pepper’s face became red, her expression switching between irritation and curiosity. “What?”

A smile that could only be described as naughty appeared on Tony’s face as he took Pepper’s free hand in his own. “She showed to all the big honchos that she could take them and bring us back to the stone age if she wished.” Tony explained without sounding patronizing, Pepper hated it when he did that to her.

“In her own way, she’s trying to protect us?” Pepper asked after some thinking.

The giant TV screen was turned off by JARVIS once Komand’r left the solar system and Tony sat back up and kissed his woman on the left cheek. “You got it, honey.”

Ding!

The notification chime of Tony’s PADD rang, the device vibrating on the low table interrupted the moment. Tony looked at it and said, “Ah, the Space Princess sent me something.”

Reaching for the PADD, Tony took it in hands and touched the screen with his palm, unlocking the device. On the screen a green holographic scroll was projected through a hologram with Komand’r’s crest signifying that this was an official message which couldn’t be faked.

Tony clicked on the light construct’s crest and it turned into another holo-screen with the Space Princess sitting on a chair into one of her ceremonial dresses, this one was completely black and sucked up the light and there were glittering little lights shining on the fabric like a beautiful night sky. The princess wore a lot of silver jewelry with purple gems encrusted into them: circlet, necklace and earrings;  as well as beautifully crafted vambraces at each of her arms.

Komand’r looked right into the camera, smiled and began to say:

"Greetings Friend Tony, as you can see I’m doing the leaving. I’ve left you in charge of the space station in orbit of your world, so don’t do the transferring of control to anyone else, or I will be cross with you when I do the coming back and you did. I hope you’re happy too, Thor left the infinite Mead cask in your basement and I did the teleporting of a few fertility Tamaranean dresses for Pepper to use to do the seducing of you in her bedroom in your Malibu house. When I do the coming back, I want to see little Tony and Pepper doing the running around."

The message had started with a warning, as usual; Tony felt like a kid being reprimanded by his teacher or Nanny. But the second part excited him! Infinite alien alcohol, this was the best present ever!

“She always gives us the best presents!”

Pepper glared at the Princess’ video, then when she heard that Komand’r had left some of those racy dresses that she had in her dresser for Pepper, the redhead blushed furiously, or was it because of the making babies comment from the Princess? Tony found Pepper adorable because of her really expressive face.

Komand’r leaned into her seat and crossed her legs, arms on the armrest and fingers spread out; she looked serious and Tony kept silent as the Tamaranean royalty said:

"Now that the pleasantries are out of the way, Tony I’m going to ask for your help. Why would I want it, you might ask yourself?"

*Yeah, I kind of want to know…* Tony thought in the sanctity of his mind.

Komand’r leaned forward, her neckline in full view, even though she was his friend, Tony found the view tantalizing. He saw how big her chest was and… 

Bonk!

Tony felt Pepper smack behind his head and cheerily asked him, "Where are you watching Tony?"

“Sorry kitten… but she did that deliberately!” Tony glared at the holo-screen.

Komand’r had an evil smirk on her face; and Pepper finally noticed it. “Well, I agree with that, look at how she’s smiling.”

Komand'r, who looked amused, continued to say, “I’ve been giving you sufficient knowledge and gave you the facilities to do the speeding up of the inevitable technological singularity on your world.”

The white-and-silver colored space station in orbit of Earth appeared in another holo-screen with the station’s schematics on a third one. Then it switched to a hidden level in the schematics obscured from the official; there were two devices called a nanoforge and a replicator hidden there. 

Tony’s eyes widened and he bounced up happily. “Ah! I knew she had ulterior motives! But… is she giving me some kind of quest right now?”

“Please Tony, help me do the saving of the trillions of lives which are at risk right now. Your country is playing with forces that they cannot understand or do the controlling; your entire world is at risk and the only people I do the trusting on Earth to get the job done while I’m away are you and the Furious One. We have a fifteen year window where you can sufficiently do the advance of your people to fight what’s coming for them.”

“Huh?” Tony knew who that ‘Furious One’ was and figured that he’d need to consult the wonderful one-eyed anger-machine himself later.

Komand’r then proceeded to drop a bomb that made Pepper hold onto his arm quite strongly; it hurt a lot.

“There’s a significant chance that your planet will get invaded by the most dangerous warlord in this universe because Earth has two things that he wants. But before speaking of doing the fighting with that being, I want you to be able to help your world to do the unifying under one banner. Joined to this message is a step by step plan which can be summarized like this: Advance the technology, do away with the greedy Zarbnof in power, help the Metahumans who are steadily increasing on your world as they’re your first line of defense…”

And Komand’r went on and on about the main point of her plan, and Tony and Pepper listened to everything well by the time lunch arrived. The files Komand’r had attached to her message were quite extensive, and full of research about those so called mutants by the governments around the world and how they’re all human in the end, but with some genes present in everyone on Earth, making it possible that anyone would be able to wield exceptional power…

Tony and Pepper decided that it was a good time to open that infinite Mead cask… by the end of this impromptu info dump.

 

~/.\~

(Nick Fury)

 

White House
Presidential Emergency Operations Center 

 

Underneath the East Wing of the White House there’s a bunker-like structure that serves as a secure shelter and communications center for the President of the United States and others in case of an emergency. And the alien Princess looming over and doing her world tour with her big ship qualified as one.

The Director of SHIELD wasn’t worried. Komand’r had honor and wasn’t about to stab them in the back after doing business with them and saving them from HYDRA. But if she did, it would mean that the Princess was the kind of psycho that needed to be put down hard. But Nick didn’t believe that her caring nature was fake at all; he remembered how she had asked him if he wanted her to fix his eye and get some tune up for his body because she wanted him to be one hundred percent for what was going to come. This touched him somehow and he took the offer… Fury looked young and had recovered his depth perception.

He had asked her why she was doing this but the princess had just smiled and cryptic and said, “You’ll understand after I do the leaving, Furious One.”

Then he left her ship after entering a drinking contest with the Tamaraneans and Asgardians onboard; not one of his best ideas… he had woken up with the mother of all headaches. *That Dwarven Ale had a kick to it though.*

Nick stayed seated at the table in the bunker with the President, his family, his entire cabinet (and their families) and the military advisors who turtled up in the room as well. Hillary Clinton was there with her Husband Bill, and Nick thought that the poor guy looked rather tired right now. Everyone hiding wasn’t necessary in his opinion but he could understand why they were doing it.

The huge two-kilometers-long ship was… intimidating to say the least, with its open weapon ports clearly visible to the expert retained by the white house, though those ports consisted of cannons mainly.

He looked around him, the Secretary of Defense was arguing with General Lane and Ross over what to do about the ship looming in their skies. Everyone was watching the video streams and TV news on the multiple screens lining the wall on their right hand. 

“Her hippie yahoo ways are just a front I tell you! She’s going to nuke us before she leaves!” General Lane slammed his hand on the  sturdy wooden table, his face showing a fanatical expression.

Robert Gates, the Secretary of Defense rolled his eyes at the crazy man and threw his pen on the table. “General Lane, why would Princess Komand’r do that? She’s been upfront with us, told us how it is out there in the stars and warned us about threats to our sovereignty, to humanity.”

General Lane took his beret and put it on the table, linked his hands and stared at the SoD with a mocking smile. “Eh, I don’t even think this intel is real, after all we can’t check it.”

The SoD’s face went dark as he glared at the man, “You’re too paranoid, general.”

“That’s what we are paid for though, to protect you from your own mistakes gentlemen, ladies.” General Ross added smoothly while straightening his black  army dress uniform.

The SoD’s glare slid from General Lane to the white mustached man at his side. “We won’t start an interstellar war with someone who could crack the planet.”

“You’re all being blinded because she walks around in belly outfits and smiles and hugs a lot.” General Lane accused their direct superior.

General Ross and Lane in the same room were pretty exhausting individuals to talk to. The President looked frustrated at the two; even more so when the Princess’ ship was about to leave the planet’s orbit and none of their fearmongering was proving true. But those two didn’t shut up and proposed to attack the Arcology and loot the technologies there.

The situation devolved into a shouting match between those who were for the unification project and those who wanted to preserve the status quo.

“Fury, can you believe those two idiots?” Joe Biden whispered to the SHIELD director.

Fury side eyed the white haired Vice-President. “You and Barrack should get them to retire, Joe.”

Joe Biden looked on in frustration at the stupidity of this new faction in the government; clearly led by corporations and oil companies. “Can’t even do that, they have powerful friends everywhere.”

Nick chuckled at the ridiculousness of it all; he was well aware of how dangerous the world was, and he‘d met the Kree and Skrull. They had infiltrated Earth easily and attained numerous positions in the more powerful governments and countries on the planet. The intel that General Lane didn’t seem to trust was clearly true just going off of their previous contact with alien life alone.

The simple fact that they found an ally in the Tamaranean princess who was helping them and giving them tech and knowledge under the table was a tremendous event, and those people in his own government wanted to kill the golden goose? Nick had that new faction under surveillance constantly, so if they were going to fuck things up, he would order their assassination without a shred of guilt.

The world needed to change, and going to space divided was foolhardy, Nick agreed with the Princess about that.

While he thought that, Joe Biden asked him, “So, Fury, did you get a face lifting…? You look younger. What’s your secret?”

Sighing heavily, Nick was getting bothered by everyone because of the rejuvenation treatment he got. “I got a turn in the regen tank from the Princess on her ship.”

“Damn! That’s a sly move, man. You got connections with her?”

Nick thought about Natasha and Barbara that he was basically ordering to seduce the Princess and keep her happy. He felt a bit dirty from basically selling attractive women to the sapphic lust of Komand’r, but as they say nowadays: happy alien princess, happy underdeveloped human planet. The Director was about to answer the Vice-President when the room was disrupted with a flash of blue light.

“WHAT THE HELL?!” Shouted General Lane who stood up quickly, surprised by the unanticipated interruption.

“Protect the President!!” Someone tackled the Potus and was pulling him out of the room with his family.

A white box with a nice red bow appeared in the middle of the table. Everyone at the table flung themselves away and Nick shook his head; he had expected the Princess to do something like that already… The Tamaranean Princess was making another statement, that she knew where they were and could get to them easily. This theoretically shouldn’t have happened, since their scientists had wrapped the bunker with a Faraday cage that was supposed to disrupt the teleportation, but it seems those geeks have watched too much Star Trek in that they anticipated only a situation similar to the tv show, whereas the technology possessed by Komand’r didn’t seem to be as limited as they thought.

The secret service started to evacuate everyone, but Nick wouldn’t have it; he stood up and shouted, “Everybody calm down!” 

Holding onto the lapels of his black coat, Fury walked to the spot on the table where the box had appeared; everyone looked at him

“Fury, what’s happening?!” The Vice-President hollered at the white package on the table.

Nick snorted as he pulled the box to him and said, “It seems that the Princess has left us with a parting gift.”

General Lane perked up at that. “Is it a bomb?! I knew it, she’s making a decapitation strike!”

The SHIELD Director gave a look of pure disdain at the general, then returned to what was important. There was a card under the bow, Nick took it and opened it to read the message inside.

For the Furious One

Nick mumbled about how the alien Princess should stop with her theatrics… He felt like Komand’r was trolling them hard.

“So what is it?” The Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates asked from behind a Secret Service agent who tried to push him out of the room.

Fury undid the bow, and opened the box. “Ah, don’t worry, I anticipated this. The Princess is used to sending me gifts like this; she also doesn’t have any concept of privacy. This is for me it seems.”

Inside the box was a silver PADD and its solar charging station; Nick hummed in happiness. “Ah, she’s finally giving me one of those.”

The screen lit up when Nick put his naked palm on the screen. A scroll-like hologram was projected from it. The Director touched the crest of the Princess; he had received enough messages from her on the space station to know how to use her technology. Komand’r in a beautiful long dress showing off her impressive cleavage and legs on a throne-like chair appeared in an impressive holographic construct.

She looked in Nick’s direction as if this wasn’t a recorded message, then she spoke:

“Greetings Furious one! You thought that I would do the leaving without saying ‘see you later’ like you humans say? Don’t forget that there are no words or expressions for goodbye in my language. You’re stuck with me Furious One.”

Nick rolled his eyes, he already knew that. The woman had him by the balls and she knew it; how galling, that’s why treating with Royalty was bothersome.

“I’ve sent this PADD to be able to do the contacting of you when I want; I’ve seeded your star system with deep space communication satellites. There is no use to do the looking of them, your primitive technology won’t be able to do the finding of them.”

“Hey!” General Ross interjected at being called a primitive.

Deep in his thoughts, Nick asked himself if the Tamaranean Princess was some kind of mind reader; she knew how he thought and anticipated everything he might do. 

“You must ask yourself, why am doing the contacting of you right now?”

*No shit, you have me curious, Princess.* Nick thought while Komand’r was playing power games here. 

Everyone around him looked raptly at Komand’r, she leaned in her seat and said in an amused tone, “This is easy to answer, I know that your immediate superiors are doing the hiding like Snittotl in their burrow with you, Furious One; I want them to be able to do the understanding of true terror. There will be no hiding when a superior civilization or organization from beyond the stars decide to do the killing of you all. Any decent star nation possesses powerful sensing technology and scans for life signs and structures, as well as technology to disrupt it.”

Everyone’s face morphed from curiosity into shock at that revelation. Komand’r, sure to have made a good splash, chuckled and had an expression showing as if she was lost in memories. “It was a good lesson, I remember getting the same one when I did the volunteering into my own Nation’s military. You have so many things to change and to learn.” 

Rolling his eyes Nick said out loud, “What’s the point, Princess?”

And the message must be interactive in some way because Komand’r answered back. 

“The point is I’ve left a lot of my people on your world; do the taking care of them for me, Furious One. You know what will happen if something untoward do the arising.” The threat was laid there for all to hear.

Some people around the table gulped; they were startled when Komand’r stood up and looked around the room and said, “And for you everyone in this hidey hole, I have an important thing to say.”

The President’s cabinet waited with baited breath for her to speak and deliver her wisdom. They weren’t disappointed… And for once, the Princess spoke in perfect English.

“What I hate the most are people who misuse their intelligence, the ones who get caught up in their own personal beliefs and prejudices and lose sight of the truth. It leads to misunderstandings, followed by discord and then by conflict. All I want is understanding between our people. But before that, Humans must learn to apply their intelligence correctly and evolve beyond their current state. You people must change, otherwise even if humanity expands into space it will only create new conflicts. Conflicts they’re not ready for, Furious One.”

“Furious One, joined to this message are files about the dangerous toy your nation is experimenting on. You call it the Tesseract. You couldn’t have made a worse mistake than to use it or play with it. This item is so powerful that it sends a powerful energy signature throughout the cosmos and unfortunately for you, by using it, you open your world to a type of war that you’ll soon find out that humanity is not prepared for. Thanos, the Kree and other space nations will inevitably come for you to take the tesseract from you and maybe enslave you as well.”

“You better coordinate with Lord Stark, I’ve given him everything you need to survive this trial. Ah, it’s time for me to cut this message short.”

“I hope to find you still here when I come back.”

“Fuck.” Nick found himself saying.

The hologram disappeared and there was a ‘ding’ notification sounds on the PADD in Nick’s hands; there on the screen there was a file floating in the device’s directory named:

The War for Infinity

 

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A/N: So guys this is the first part of the chapter, the second part is already on patreon; Right now I'm writing interlude number 3 and chapter 17. What do you think of this part? They left Earth for a while, we're going to see Asgard and the rest of the Milky Way!

If you are looking to get early chapters and read all the good stuff I haven't posted to the public yet, support with the link below:

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