“He hurts,” the small Skrull said meekly.
“I know, I’m sorry. There are medical teams going through the camps right now. They should be here soon.”
Jessica doubted he was right.
“What’s taking so long to get these people help?” Manifold spoke to her softly.
“One hundred million refugees and counting,” she replied. “Most of the medical teams are screening new arrivals from plague worlds like Whaan Prime. It’s bad all around.” She wished she could offer more reassurance, but there was none to be found.
Shang-Chi nodded. “It could be much worse,” he said. “At least no one is hungry. Ex Nihilo has provided the ringworld with thousands of new gardens and has encouraged them to continuously yield food. Tending to them gives many of the refugees something to do. The hope is that being occupied will keep them from dwelling on what they have lost. Which I suspect is the point for him, as well. Doing good to occupy his mind, not dwelling on the dark actions of the Builders who made him.”
“That’s all well and good, but I look at all of this—how we don’t know where half of our team is—and I can’t help but be furious,” Jessica said. “When are we going to hit back against the source of all this misery?”
“I believe that matter is being addressed now.” Shang-Chi looked toward the largest structure in sight, a massive stone affair that had an air of age about it.
* * *
CAPTAIN AMERICA and Thor stood near a table in the center of a vast, almost empty conference arena. Seated at the table were members of the Galactic Council. Annihilus had his wings draped like a cloak behind him. J’son was agitated, frustrated and full of nervous energy. He sat only for a moment before he stood and began pacing.
An emissary of the Brood crouched in its seat, as if poised to leap at the next bared throat. Kl’rt of the Skrulls sat as far from the Kree as possible, but he attended and listened to all who spoke. The reptilian Badoon had sent a representative, though he seemed uncomfortable with the idea of sitting. Ronan the Accuser sat near Annihilus and held out his hand, above which a projection of the Kree Supreme Intelligence appeared holographically.
Finally there was Gladiator. “How were we so wrong?” he said, his voice filled with regret.
The Brood emissary responded. “Is it wrong to hunt a wh’ullo only to find it bound with a Gurddak? The beast had a second mouth that it did not show until we made it scream. Now we really know what we are facing.”
“Yes, we do.” J’son spoke up, his face set in a scowl. “And it’s even worse than you think. My warmasters have analyzed the readings we took of the Builder fleet as we left the Corridor. Have any of you?”
The Supreme Intelligence answered. “Seventeen thousand light cruisers. Three thousand carriers. Two thousand heavy cruisers and six hundred world ships. Twelve world killers.”
J’son nodded his head, and his scowl deepened. “Yes, and that is just the main arm of the invasion fleet. There is word of smaller groups tearing through clusters at the edge of council space. We are badly outnumbered, to say nothing of being outgunned.” He paced faster. “Our choices appear to be defeat or acquiescence.”
“Then let our deaths be gloriousssss!” Annihilus responded.
Kl’rt stared at him with undisguised disgust. “Dying with valor means we sacrifice achieving our goals. Has that happened? No. Not yet it hasn’t. The cost was high, but I have just reunited the bulk of the Skrull Empire, and I prefer living.”
“Of course.” Gladiator nodded. “But we do not know our enemy—and if we do not know them, how can we possibly find a way to defeat them? We are crippled by our ignorance.”
“And their superior numbers.” J’son was not optimistic.
Captain America cleared his throat.
“Excuse me, Gladiator,” he said. “But if that’s the case, I think there’s someone the council needs to see.”
J’son spun around as if slapped and shoved a finger toward the Avenger.
“No one wants to hear from you backwater apes!” he said, almost shouting. “When we need bodies to throw at the enemy or laborers to dig graves, then we will have a use for human help.”
Thor took half a step forward and placed his hand on Mjolnir’s haft. He calmed himself, but J’son was reminded that one of the “humans” he spoke of was, in fact, an Asgardian—and capable of pulping his entire body with a small gesture. The Spartax king did his best to look as if he were unfazed.
The small smile on Thor’s face said he failed.
The Supreme Intelligence spoke. “In encounters with the Kree, the Spartax have historically achieved victory in thirty-four percent of military engagements,” he said. “That is a percentage substantially lower than the humans have achieved. I think we should listen to what the Earth strategist, Captain America—who has defeated the Kree before—has to say.”
Gladiator looked toward J’son for only a moment, and then turned to Captain America.
“Will you bring your witness before the council, please?”
J’son fumed. Thor smiled. Captain America nodded and left the chambers. He returned ten minutes later.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
JUDAS
CAPTAIN MARVEL walked under her own power, but her arms were still cuffed behind her back.
The chamber she entered was filled with several differently shaped gold-skinned creatures, the things she thought of as Gardeners. Some were male, others female; with some she had no idea whether gender even existed. One looked twice the size of the Hulk, and another had four arms.
With them were a few of the Alephs, and there was another creature no larger than an average human but with an insectoid face and what looked like bio-armor encasing its form. There was a moment when she wondered whether it might be one of Annihilus’ creatures, but no. They had little in common.
“Ex Nihila.” The bug-faced thing looked at the Gardener that accompanied Carol. “This is the one you chose? You believe she has the information we need? These questions must be answered.”
“I want the knowledge just as you do, Engineer. She was clearly the leader of the captured human types. If any of them know, she will.”
“Very well.” The thing turned to face her at last. Its multifaceted eyes were a deep red. “Look here, human. We are not by our nature the destroyers of things. In fact, we cultivated all that is worth considering in this universal sphere. If not directly by our hands, then by the systems we created to do this good work. All that there is, flowing from our hands. Do you understand?”
She did not reply, and scanned the room. Against one wall, encased in some sort of vertical suspended-animation tubes, she could see Abyss, Nightmask, and Starbrand. These were their heavy hitters, and yet they’d been taken out of the game. The thing pointed to the captured beings and moved closer to yet another tube.
This one lay across the deck. She couldn’t see who was in it, but if the others were any indication, she was pretty sure she knew.
“How do you come to have these entities with you?” the Engineer demanded.
She smiled. “I dunno… just my good looks and charm, I guess.”
There was whispering among the Gardeners. They looked at Abyss again and again.
“It has been so long…”
“Are we sure?”
“Yes, she is real. How is it possible?”
“I don’t know, but it is wonderful, isn’t it? An Abyssil… alive!”
The bug-faced creep leaned in closer to Carol, scrutinizing her face. She fought to maintain her composure.
“The sentient systems are one thing,” it said. “One of the ancient Abyssi, all of which were thought lost. A Nightmask, arbiter of the change, even a planetary defense system like the Star Brand. But this?” It pointed to the case that lay on the deck in front of her, and the opaque glass cleared up as light washed from the interior.
She was right. Captain Universe rested inside, her eyes closed, apparently still in a comatose state.
“This is heretical,” the Engineer hissed. “You have the great Mother, who made us all and whom we long ago rejected. So we ask you again, how do you come to have all of these things? What sets you apart? What makes you so special?”
One of the Alephs chose that moment to speak up. “DECLARATIVE: A SHIP APPROACHES US. IT HAS ONE OCCUPANT. IT IS AN ENEMY VESSEL.”
The bug-thing turned toward the Aleph. Its mandibles clicked and moved as it considered.
“Is the vessel a threat?”
“DECLARATIVE: THERE ARE NO ACTIVE WEAPONS SYSTEMS. IT APPEARS TO HAVE TAKEN ITS CORE OFFLINE ONCE IT ENTERED OUR LOCAL SPACE. ALL EFFORTS SEEM TO SUGGEST IT WISHES TO APPEAR HARMLESS.” Another of the bug-faced things moved into Carol’s view. She had been unaware it was there. The second one spoke up, looking at the prone Captain Universe even as it talked.
“We should destroy it.”
“No,” Bug-Face One said. “We will wait here and see if the occupant has anything worthwhile to say or offer. We might even gain an advantage from this encounter.” It turned back to Carol and spoke again. “You have not yet answered my queries.”
Carol shrugged and felt the manacles pull at her wrists. “Maybe they came to help us stop invaders from killing off our planet for no good reason.”
The thing reared back. For a long moment, it did not speak. She hoped the damned thing choked on its fears.
* * *
EX NIHILO avoided making eye contact with any of the council members.
“I do not know why they are attacking,” he said. “Much of what I have seen confuses me. I have never met my makers, these Builders. All I know of my kind are the things my father-Aleph taught me. The first lesson I learned was that I am a life bringer. This death that follows the Builders wherever they go, it was not what I was trained for. Something has gone very wrong, and I do not know why.”
The Gardener turned to face them. “Watching another like me… kill himself to poison a world… Something has gone very wrong, and it must be stopped.” He was repeating himself, and Cap could see how distressed he was. “It must be stopped. Whatever you might need from me, you will have it.”
“Why?” Kl’rt the Super-Skrull asked.
“Why?” Ex Nihilo echoed. “What do you mean?”
“I mean why?” The Skrull’s face wrinkled into a mask of frustration. “I mean why are they doing this? What do they want? What is the damned point of these attacks?”
“I do not know,” Ex Nihilo said again. “But their behavior has been predictable, hasn’t it? The Builders are efficient. Direct. Linear. So perhaps—”
“Wait!” the Supreme Intelligence said abruptly from its hologram. “Plotting path, extending projection, factoring in orbital variations and calculating. The line extends directly through Kree space. Through our capital world, Hala.”
Ronan frowned. “Supremor, are you saying that we—”
“Calculating… extending. Through the Cygnus Arm, and then…” He paused for a moment, as if double-checking his figures. “…Earth.”
“So this is why you are here.” J’son glared at Captain America, nearly spitting the words.
“Yes.” Cap looked directly back at him and nodded. “Of course it is, but it’s why we’re all here, isn’t it? These Builders appear to be like gods who, for reasons beyond my understanding, are hell-bent on destroying everything that lies in front of them—which includes all of you.” He turned away from the fuming J’son and gestured toward the others gathered around him. Kl’rt, the Brood leader, Gladiator. “So far all evidence points to us being unable to stop them. But maybe that’s the key to beating them.”
“Are you suggesting some sort of deception?” Gladiator wasn’t getting what he was saying. At least not completely.
Three Spartax soldiers approached their king, and J’son nodded his head, moving away. Without letting it distract him,
Cap continued, but he logged the event for later.
“I think they’d see right through any attempts at subterfuge. There’s plenty of evidence to suggest the Builders are tactically superior to us in every way.” The Brood emissary moved closer, and Cap resisted the urge to shiver. “After all,” he continued, “they’ve proven that, haven’t they? No. I’m thinking more along the lines of an egg.”
The Brood emissary bobbed its head. “Ahhhh, infestation. That is a possibility, but how will we get enough of them close to the breeders?”
It was going to be a long discussion.
* * *
SOMEWHERE ALONG the way, the Engineer talking to Carol had gone preachy.
“And do you want to know why we have lived so long?” She resisted saying something like “clean living” and let it continue to ramble. “Why we have done all these magnificent things?”
She managed not to vomit up her lunch. “I’m dying to know,” she said, assuming the alien wouldn’t grasp something as subtle as sarcasm.
“Because we are the only ones capable,” it continued, proving her right. “Who else would do these things? You?” It gestured over its shoulder. “Them?”
As if on cue, one of the Alephs brought over a figure in what looked like Spartax armor with a helmet obscuring its head. It wasn’t a standard helmet—there were projection screens covering most of it.
“DECLARATIVE: HERE IS THE SOLE OCCUPANT OF THE CAPTURED VESSEL. DECLARATIVE: IT HAS A COMMUNICATION MECHANISM FUSED TO THE HOST. THE SOURCE OF THE SIGNAL WE DETECTED EARLIER. QUERY: TERMINATE?”
The Engineer turned to look at the captured occupant of the suit and considered for a moment.
“No. I want to hear its words.”
The mask of miniature screens flickered into a projected image. She recognized the speaker immediately. J’son of the Spartax stared up at the Engineer. He wasn’t there, but he was present just the same. Captain Marvel raised an eyebrow. This would certainly be enlightening.
“Greetings, Builders,” the hologram said. “I am J’son, king of the Spartax Empire.”
The Engineer tilted its head. “And I am more. What do you want, J’son the lesser?” The arrogance Carol had sensed was confirmed in that moment. She couldn’t read the expression on the insect face, but she could certainly define the words easily enough.
J’son frowned. Likely he wasn’t used to people of any sort responding that way. She knew plenty like him. They came from nearly every world.
“I seek a truce,” he replied.
The insect mandibles rubbed against each other, and the Engineer lifted its hands in a gesture with which she wasn’t familiar. The fingers waggled, and the wrists moved until the palms of the hands were facing upward.
“A truce implies that we both have something to gain and lose,” the Engineer said. “This does not seem to be our position, or yours.”
J’son continued unfazed. “Right now I am with all of the other council members planning your destruction.” Carol frowned to hear that. “I do not deny the impressive nature of your fleet. Perhaps we’ll fail, but we could get lucky —that is the nature of war, after all. So certainly there must be something we can offer you. Certainly there must be something you want.”
The bug-faced Engineer leaned in closer until J’son’s reflection could be seen in the facets of its eyes.
“What we want is the preservation of our universe,” it responded. “What we want is the destruction of a world. The one called Earth.”
“What?” Carol couldn’t stop her outburst, and she felt her stomach twist into a knot. Why the Earth? What possible significance could it have? It was her home and she loved it, but it was hardly a significant mudball in the grander scheme of things. The technology to move into the stars barely existed there.
J’son sneered. “I knew it! All of this over a useless backwater planet. I could give you the Earth. I believe I could do that if it means you would leave my empire alone. I’ll arrange it right now if it will end this war. All you have to do is say the word.”
She could unde
rstand his wanting to barter, but if she could have gotten her hands on the king of the Spartax, she’d have knocked him straight back to his damned “empire.”
Once again the hands aimed toward the ceiling and the fingers danced madly. It was silent laughter. The damned thing was laughing at J’son, and he failed to understand it. Cultures didn’t all use the same gestures in the same ways.
“Oh, you insignificant creature.” The Engineer turned and walked away from him. “This is not a war. It is a cleansing. Your worlds have been found wanting.” It turned back and again stepped closer to J’son. “Just the same, we thank you for what you have given us.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your signal. Encoded and encrypted by your people, but easily broken. You have given us your location, the location of your fleet and your commanders. For that I am truly grateful. You have saved us a minor effort.”
The Aleph standing near J’son’s emissary spoke up.
“QUERY: IS THIS ONE AWARE OF WHAT DAMAGE AN OBJECT TRAVELING AT POINT-TWO LIGHT SPEED CAN CAUSE TO A SUPERSTRUCTURE?”
“Oh, gods… no,” J’son said.
“DECLARATIVE: YES.”
The Aleph destroyed the king’s avatar. Whoever was actually in that armor never stood a chance. Carol hoped that wherever the sniveling king of Spartax might be, he felt some of the pain.
* * *
THE GATHERED council members listened and responded to Captain America’s suggested plan of action.
“It is a good plan,” Gladiator said. “There’s a problem, however. It will not work without a believable forward action. The price will be high.”
King J’son moved back into the group. His hands were shaking, his eyes were dazed, and blood leaked from one ear.
“You have to listen.” His voice was very weak.
Cap frowned and turned toward him.
“Can we pledge the full might of the Accusers, Ronan?” The Supreme Intelligence asked the question, and Ronan nodded.
“If you call for it, Supremor, the corps will answer.”
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