Nova Prime meets some Asgardians
Nova Prime had expected the Guardians to come back with the new members of the Nova Empire, of course, that had been too much to hope for. But at least they had managed to convince the surviving Asgardians to relocate to a planet within the Nova Empire and not some isolated planet which didn’t even have a contact anywhere in the universe. She looked forward to meeting their representative and include them into the empire. There were rumours and concerning news floating around. Since they had found out that it was Thanos who had given his support to Ronan and almost destroyed everything they had strived to accomplish over the last decades she was even more worried than she had been when it was only a phalanx of Ravagers between her and her beloved planet.
And now not just rumours stated that the mad titan himself was on the move again. She felt as if the hidden infinity stone was burning a hole in her back even through the tons of hardened alloys protecting it.
But how much protection could anything really be if Thanos came?
It didn’t take long until Rhomann Dey neared with two Asgardians, the rest hopefully enjoying the first aid and welcome feast the Xandarians had prepared as a warm welcome. The woman and the man looked as impressive as one would expect of Asgardians who never denied if being called gods. But tiredness and dubitation dimmed the impression somewhat.
Well, after all, they had lost their home world, hadn’t they?
Nova Prime had tried several times got instigate negotiations between this old race and Nova Empire for some time now but had been rebutted again and again. Who’d know what they might have been able to do, how many more Asgardians might have been able to escape at least if they hadn’t been so goddamn stubborn. She blinked once, the only outer sign of her remarkable self-restraint when she pushed that thought aside. She had not been elected to be the holier-than-thou goodie-two-shoes who pushed others noses onto their mistakes, she was meant to be a diplomat and that’s what she would be.
She donned a genuine smile, let all her honest wishes for mutual benefit overtake her mind and stepped in front of the new arrivals. She definitely planned to present herself as an equal, no way a bit of superior strength and lifespan would deter her even one bit but she didn’t want anybody to doubt her authentic respect either. Damned if she couldn’t pull that off! She was a carrier politician!
“I am honoured to welcome you on Xandar, the representative home of the Nova Imperium and also welcome in the name of Nova Corps.”
She stepped a bit closer and bowed to both of the others respectfully. “I am elected Nova Prime, formerly known as Irani Rael.”
The two Asgardians looked at each other, then they bowed too. Then they hesitated again while she waited patiently. After a while the man nodded and the woman shook her head almost panicky, with a sigh the man turned to her and after another little bow with his head, he went on.
“The honour is our milady. My name is Heimdall, former gatekeeper and protector of Asgard, this is Brunnhilde, last of the Valkyrie.”
Nova Prime’s sharp senses easily caught the slight hesitation in his introduction. She felt a wave of sympathy for the man. She herself could be viewed as some kind of gatekeeper and protector, she felt the weight of that responsibility and remembered how she’d felt when her tries to solve the Ronan-affair with diplomacy had failed.
“We are grateful for your offer and your help.” The man went on. “However, since I am not a diplomat as you are, I hope you don’t mind if I’m blunt?”
She smiled at that. “We had to accept to be rescued by some Guardians you should know by now. I can assure you they’re not even the worst people we’ve dealt with so far. I’d be in the wrong place if I couldn’t deal with bluntness.”
The man looked her straight into the eyes with a very disconcerting look that made her feel naked. “I’m glad to hear that since we’re really not the most used to situations like this. So, bluntness it is…” He got interrupted by Valkyrie who seemed to have found her voice after all.
“What the two of us are asking ourselves the whole way here is: What exactly are you getting out of this?” She blurted out.
Nova Prime smiled. “Since you’re so ‘blunt’ I’ll be so on my own. Even if I’d prefer to call it ‘honesty’ rather than ‘bluntness’. Lately, a lot is going on in the galaxy, all around are rumours and news so terrifying it led even the Kree to become almost bearable in negotiations, stepping closer to us than anybody ever imagined. It’s been said that Thanos is coming.”
She looked at the two of them and stepped a bit closer for emphasis.
“It is Xandar’s and Nova’s goal to unite people and to help people as far as reasonably possible. It is part of our ethics to offer people a home if they lost theirs and we have the capacity to do so without hurting our people but having the Asgardians as allies, let’s say with the doom in the guise of a mad titan looming at our doors and an infinity stone under our protection we are not above being grateful to resettle a bunch of Æsir within our imperium, hoping they would protect it alongside us if necessary.”
The two Asgardians looked at each other and smiled again. “Well, that’s a pretty solid reason and one that’s absolutely agreeable to me,” Brunnhilde replied. Her worse nightmare would have been to find herself at the receiving end of pity all of a sudden.
“Well then I’d suggest you step over here and I show you the options we can offer to you and your people. I think we will come to a fast agreement where it would be best for you to settle down.” With that Nova Prime turned, her assistant didn’t fail her and the holo activated on cue.
The negotiations went smoothly, Heimdall stepped back a few times to get in contact with Thor and get his agreements now and then but in the end, they agreed on a Moon ready for the last stage of terraforming. They would be able to recreate their home as closely as possible, the Nova Corps would provide the necessities in exchange for some shared knowledge from the more forward aspects of Asgardian technology. They would settle under the standard contract for mutual benefits such as a defence pact and participation in government costs and personnel. Nova Empire agreed to put down any claims for now as a way of development aid though. This and other agreements went smoothly. The contracts Nova Empire offered were fair and sensible. One could easily see they had done that a lot. Both of them hoped they weren’t in for bad surprises but they had a good feeling. At least Heimdall could sense no malice from Nova Prime and he was used to looking through even Loki.
When Heimdall contacted Thor the last time for confirmation they got interrupted by some disturbances though.
He didn’t turn back for some time and when he did, he looked enervated.
“What happened?” Valkyrie inquired.
“It looks they had an incident with Quill on earth.” Heimdall shook his head and could not suppress a bewildered smile.
Nova could not stop herself and showed some concern. The man had saved her world after all. “With Quill? What happened?”
Surprised the two looked at her and Heimdall went on. “It looks like Quill managed to activate his Celestial genes somehow and …” he hesitated in surprise when the Xandarians groaned simultaneously. “He became earth.” He finished uncertainly.
Now everybody in the room stared at him with shocked surprise. “He did WHAT?” Dey finally exclaimed.
Brunnhilde was very impressed with the Xandarian bureaucracy. She had always thought, that concept was something for people too lazy to simply talk. The Asgardian way of handling things was much more straightforward and simpler. But while being forced to be part of a process like this she realized the main reason for that was that Asgard didn’t really care for any of the planets within their reign. Maybe with an administrative organization like Xandar’s, it would even have been possible to keep peace with Jotunheim. Even if it was just to avoid the governmental hassle that would come by violating any agreements.
Especially Nova Prime impressed her greatly. The woman had a force driving her that dimmed even a Valkyrie’s lust to battle. She had given everything up to become Nova Prime, she was Nova Prime. No one could be more deserving of that position. She put everything and anybody above her own needs. Then she put her own people first without leaving burnt earth when it came to others. That way she had managed to wrestle an imperium several sizes bigger than any Asgardian territories into peaceful interaction.
Brunnhilde was very happy Heimdall handled most of the logistics and not her.
After the most pressing matters had been dealt with and the only thing left was to say their ‘thank you’s’ and move on the Valkyrie wandered the headquarters in search of the stern leader. She found her looking out of a window in a quiet little meeting room.
Silently she stepped closer, suddenly at a loss of words. She had wanted to express her gratitude, her adoration to some degree. Now she didn’t know what to say.
Nova Prime turned and smiled at her. It was a practised politician’s smile that could not mask the worry in her eyes anymore.
“Hello, Brunnhilde, ready to move on?” She asked friendly enough though.
The warrior blinked and stepped closer. “No, not really.” She felt a bit insecure still but she went on. “I don’t think I’ll be very useful in what’s to come next. Besides… I wanted to ask since I’m the most replaceable person within my people maybe I could do something to repay you personally.”
The other one looked surprised and ready for an interruption, probably rejection but Brunnhilde didn’t let her.
“I mean I know you had your reasons and all. One could say maybe we deserve everything we get for what you want from us but that’s only true if you don’t know our people, we need to be powerful. We need to be warriors fighting for a higher cause, so I have the need…” she would have rambled on had Nova Prime not held up her hand and stopped her.
“Actually, there really is something you could do for me.” She smiled much more warmly at the warrior’s maiden, Brunnhilde felt good knowing already she was about to give some relief to that woman she already admired so much.
The ruler led the woman over to some chairs at a little table.
“Since I know now there is at least one infinity stone and a newly awakened celestial on earth I think it is prudent to establish contact.” She started. “Thanos is threatening the galaxy. Rumour has it he plans to destroy half of the population for some kind of equilibrium only he understands. His first goal will probably be the infinity stones, for they are the only known means powerful enough to reach such a goal. As a kudos to our new alliance and since it seems you are a very straightforward person, I’d like you to accompany some of my men to establish the first contact with earth. It’s a delicate matter since Nova Empire usually desists from mingling with the development of planet-bound species and having the Asgardians on board would ease the ones I have to sell that too. You already had contact; the influence can’t get any worse.”
Brunnhilde smiled at the other woman. “I admire your cunning talent for politics.” She remarked. “Sure, let me be your sword. I’d be happy to serve such a reasonable master for a change.”
Both smiled at each other. The Valkyrie had the sure impression this could be a very good affiliation for her, maybe she’d even learn to somewhat control herself.