Chapter 1
So it happened that Thor stepped forward, and embraced his brother, and found he was not so alone as he had feared.
*
"We're completely alone," Loki said, swiping another star chart off his screen with an irritated flick of his hand. He, Thor, Heimdall, and Valkyrie had been poring through the Statesman's navigational databases all morning, only to find they were dated, incomplete, and encoded only the jump sequences for pleasure stations that hadn't been operational in centuries. They were months, at any kind of sustainable speed, from their nearest allies.
Thor had long since suggested all the solutions that came to his mind. Send a signal to said allies? Might as well jump up and down and wave to let deep space raiders know you were vulnerable. Use the remaining fuel reserves to jump toward Earth and shave time off their journey? An excellent way to find oneself totally dead in the water, with a hold full of resentful gladiators who might have voted for different destinations.
Loki was capable of traveling alone by other means, and had offered to make his way to Vanaheim or any ally of Thor's choosing in order to request assistance. Thor had preferred to avoid such a separation unless absolutely necessary. Based on the knowing look Heimdall had given him, he might not have successfully obscured how terrifying he found the proposition.
So for now they ambled vaguely Earthward. Heimdall spied a supply station some six weeks’ journey away, where they hoped to replenish their food and fuel stores, and perhaps take leave of any passengers who wish to find their own way home.
"Fewer mouths to feed, if they leave," Loki said. Then, considering, "They'd be handy in a fight."
"If they fought on our side," Valkyrie said cynically. At the moment she was tipped back in a seat with her feet on the console, and a bottle of something clear and pungent resting on her chest. "What? It's not like they voted for Thor."
Loki scoffed. "They voted for Korg.”
"And then followed you." Valkyrie grinned, raising her bottle like a toast. "So I suppose you're right. They'll follow just about anyone in a pinch."
Thor smothered a smile at Loki's offended expression, then turned to Hulk, who had followed them onto the bridge and gamely attempted to operate his own console until Loki had herded him away from the delicate instrumentation. "Either way, we need to see where they stand. And we'll need their help in the meantime to keep the ship running. Will you speak to them?"
Hulk brightened at being asked to help. "Hulk talk. Fighters listen."
"Do tell them their cooperation is voluntary," Loki said. "It's so much more pleasant when you tell people that."
"Voluntary," Hulk repeated carefully. "More they cooperate, less we have to make cooperate."
"Careful, Thor." Valkyrie laughed, as Loki gave Hulk an only-slightly-condescending smile of approval. "Or we'll have two kings on board."
*
For her part, Valkyrie enjoyed three days uncovering all the booze hidden throughout the ship, occupied another four cataloging them and hiding them in different places, and finally found herself bored to tears.
Late into the artificial night she prowled darkened halls, telling herself she was doing her duty. Securing what remained of the Asgardian people. Ensuring the refugees of Sakaar had what they needed. She did not admit that she was looking for trouble. She found it anyway.
Loki slouched in Thor’s makeshift throne, wrapped to her figure’s advantage in black leather and green silk, one golden horn and the snapped-off root of second gleaming in the low light. It was a lot of armor, for sitting in a dark empty room. She didn’t look away from the glittering starfield when Valkyrie approached, thought she did accept a drink from the bottle she silently held out. “I’m bored,” she said finally.
“Me, too,” Valkyrie said, tossing the empty bottle behind her and holding out a hand. “Let’s spar.”
*
As the first weeks aboard the Statesman passed and the immediate questions of food and water, sleeping quarters, and task assignments found resolution, a new set of problems arose.
The first, and most troubling to Thor, was the reaction of the remaining Asgardians to Loki’s presence. He had worried there would be conflict. He had worried the people would resent Loki for usurping the throne, for deceiving them, for leaving them vulnerable, for the final destruction of Asgard itself.
In fact the people seemed to be reclaiming their prince in a manner he didn’t understand and with which he found himself increasingly uncomfortable. He had not seen Loki interact in any meaningful way with anyone, save Thor and his advisors. Mostly he drifted quietly about his own work at odd hours, yet when he did pass through a crowded room an oddly expectant silence fell. Elders who would continue their work or conversation with nothing but a respectful nod to Thor passing, would stop and give a small bow to Loki if they saw him.
"Better to be bound by common need than not at all," Heimdall said, after a moment’s consideration, when Thor asked if he should put a stop to the small tokens that had lately begun to appear overnight outside the doors to Loki's quarters.
"I'm not sure if need is the right -" The chuckle died in Thor's throat at Heimdall's narrow look. "If the people are in need, surely it lies with me -"
"Thor, can you recite the lineage of the least person on this ship to their mother's mother's mother? Can you persuade the stale air to smell of Idunn's fields at harvest?" As had become his habit, Heimdall stood at the conn before the wide viewscreen, relaxed yet alert, like an ancient explorer with one strong hand on the till. Thor was fairly sure a ship this advanced required nothing like that kind of sustained attention, but he kept that to himself. Certainly it was a reassuring image, which perhaps was the point. “When the first Asgardian child is born on this journey, will you bless the birth and weave spells of protection around the nursery?”
Thor was reduced to honesty. "That doesn't sound like Loki."
"How many have said the same," Heimdall said, "and where are they now?"