We had found Black Bolt the old fashioned way – He'd managed to pick a fight with the cops in Seattle and flipped a car. We found his three cousins, Triton, Karnak, and Gorgon, the new fashioned way – Space based gene searching. Then we just did a sweep for activated Inhuman DNA and we found Medusa. Those DNA reading satallites were a big help. Then we used about twenty Fireflies each to isolate and arrest them. It may have been overkill, but it worked.
Now I was interrogating Medusa, Queen of - apparently - the fucking moon. Not in person, obviously, but over a screen with her in a secure holding cell. "So, your brother in law is a creep and he conducted a coup against your husband."
"Yes," Medusa said, her red hair shorn short. That had been Maximus, her brother in law.
"Well, I'll certainly be contacting him for his side of the story." More bluntly, I didn't care which particular band of oligarchs ruled the moon or what their issues were. I just wanted a peaceful neighbor who kept their mouth shut.
"Maximus does what he does because his wounded ego cannot bear that he is one of you," Medusa said.
"Well, you're… not very good at this. I, Michael Trent, represent humanity at large." I pointed at myself and held up a finger. "You, Medusa, are a non-human sapient of extraterrestrial origin." I held up another finger next to it. "That means that SWORD, which I work for has complete discretion on your life and existence." I put down the finger that represented Medusa.
"I'm not scared of your threats," Medusa said, stiffening her spine with the sort of pride I well knew from being a powerful, unquestioned leader. Gao was right, whenever you saw it from the outside it was visibly pathetic and stupid.
"You should be. Especially as your exist on the moon, the 'rightful property of all mankind' which we hold on the moon. What that means is that if I wanted to find and nuke your little space hovel, I could."
Medusa lurched backward in her cell, staring at the screen, "You humans are all the same. There is something stronger, different, better than you and you decide that it has to be destroyed or enslaved."
"I am only concerned with what is beneficial to humanity. You are a ruler, or the spouse of one, you should understand that. I think the Fireflies could easily put your husband back on the throne, welcome you into the family of nations, maybe even give you a few yourself."
"And the price would be?"
"I would want your more exotically and dangerously empowered to work with us here on Earth in the event of an invasion. We would require the release of everything you know about inhuman physiology and Terrigenesis, as well as a list of powers that you presently have and identifying markers. We would want to be able to compare and copy your tech knowledge, so that our own space capabilities could be brought fully up to snuff."
"You're talking about vassalage," Medusa said, her voice angry.
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She wasn't wrong. "Listen," I said, trying to put a positive spin on it for her benefit. "Humanity is growing. We can deliver material riches, abundant air and water to your city, help you expand Attilan and continue to terraform the moon. We can even give you eternal digital life. But you're not going to be allowed to enter our system without sharing."
"Well if the chains are made of gold..." Medusa said, not very impressed with my offer.
"A few years of military service and then a lifetime on emergency call is not slavery, Queen Medusa, it is an offering to show that you're interested in working with us."
Medusa shook her head, "Inhumanity will not be enthralled to humanity. We broke the chains of Earth to do it, we will not return to them."
"Very well. Good day, Queen."
---
It had taken very little time to get Maximus on the line once I started broadcasting a message along the lines of, 'We're willing to solve your problems, get in touch!' at the moon for five minutes.
"I would be willing to accept your proposal," King Maximus said. He was a young guy, younger than me, with black hair and a beard. "And those are the terms? Military service, our biological and technological knowledge, in exchange for abundant air and water and aid in the construction of expanded domes." The sub lightspeed communication was causing a five second lag.
"That's about the size of it, King Maximus" I said, grateful to be dealing with someone who could see mutual benefit when it hit him in the face.
"I would only add…" King Maximus said, as if considering carefully. "That I would like to be one of the subjects of the Firefly procedures."
"It's down to your discretion which twelve Attilans get the position," I said, smiling. "If you want to be an invincible god king, well, I have no problem with that, at least."
"And that's it – I sign on the dotted line, Attilan joins a mutual protection treaty with earth and shares our technological advances in space habitats and agriculture, and you render me into a nearly invulnerable demigod and give me the ability to take my people out of the mines." Maximus looked like he couldn't believe his luck.
"The procedure hurts a lot?" I offered, trying to convince him it wasn't too good to be true.
"I have suffered my entire life," he growled. I held up my hands in surrender. "I want my brother and the royal family to stay imprisoned and I want their imprisonment to be a secret."
Man, the drama these people brought to their disputes for power. I didn't care what we did with the existing Inhumans, except the knowledge that Black Bolt's sonic attack would be a problem for the Fireflies. Thank goodness for that old fashioned, heroic restraint the king had or he might have been a problem. Now we had him hooked up to a Osiris cell like Gao's. "That's fine, we can do that."