A guttural groan stirred Thor out of his dark dreams. He flipped to his back, feeling the cheap mattress collapse under his weight and tried to identify the source of the noise. But the Statesman now seemed as silent as space itself. Thor scrambled to his feet. There was no spaceship in the universe that did not make some sort of sound as it moved.
As he stumbled out of the cramped crew quarters Loki had appropriated for him earlier, he nearly collided with Bruce. The man jumped back and winced.
‘My apologies —’ Thor cut himself off. He understood the threat his physique represented and while he was careful when he moved, accidents did happen. But it wasn’t pain or injury that inspired Bruce’s wince. At least, not his own. ‘It’s still unsightly, isn’t it? Loki did what he could.’
‘It… took me by surprise, that’s all. I figured magic could fix an eye.’ Bruce’s jaw quivered with indecision for a moment. ‘And you, how are you doing?’
‘I believe there may be something wrong with the ship,’ Thor replied.
He knew what Bruce was really asking, but this was not the time for that conversation. Instead, he motioned for Bruce to follow him. The Statesman seemed to be a typical inter-planetary carrack, so Thor gambled that its layout would be similar to other ships of its type, which meant the mechanics were on the bottom. He paid no attention to the twisting corridors, focusing only on finding the way down to the ship’s bowels.
‘It’s too quiet,’ Bruce said when they reached the lower cargo bay.
‘My thoughts precisely.’
The further down they went, the more alarmed Thor became — it was hot and acrid smoke wafted through the passageway. They were not the first ones at the scene, however. The Valkyrie and several Sakaarian rebels were already searching for the source of the problem.
‘Brunnhilde?’ Thor called out.
‘The engines overheated,’ she said, wiping sweat off her temple with the back of her hand. ‘This ship is typical Holden junk. Looks top of the line, but unless you do weekly maintenance you’re bound to blow something the moment you take it off-world.’
Thor raised an eyebrow. ‘The lights still function.’
‘Probably supplemental battery reserves. They won’t last forever, ’Bruce said.
‘What do we need to restart the engines?’
‘Don’t know. This’d be Tony’s area of expertise.’ Bruce shrugged. ‘I mean, I can have a look —’
‘We can cool the engines easily enough, give us a couple of hours,’ Brunnhilde said.
Thor studied the former Sakaarians. Brunnhilde he had faith in. She had survived as a scrapper on Sakaar, she had to be familiar with ship mechanics. He had no idea, on the other hand, what the backgrounds of the former gladiators were. But looking at them, he had a feeling that if they did make trouble, Brunnhilde could set them straight.
‘Do what needs to be done,’ he said. ‘I had better go back up and ensure no one is alarmed. Let me know if you need extra hands down here.’
----------------------------------------
If the engine bay looked troubling, the upper deck, where the survivors had huddled together the previous night, left Thor incredulous. Everyone seemed oblivious to the state of the ship, their attention drawn to the violent argument underway in the back of the room. Fists had already been bloodied, but that had only spurred the agitation. He had never expected such behaviour from Asgardians. Trying to make sense of the shoving and the abuse the warring parties hurled at each other, Thor stepped between clusters of people sitting on the floor or rising up to their feet to get a better look.
‘What has happened?’ he demanded.
Shouting stilled, but no one offered an explanation. Thor pulled one of the bloodied trouble-makers off the floor — just a boy, barely old enough to start training with an edged sword. A few of the others looked to be about the same age, but there were as just many grown women and elderly men involved in the argument. He knew one of them. Arnfinn, one of Loki’s old tutors.
‘Master Arnfinn,’ he said. ‘Would you be so kind as to explain the source of this disorder?’
The man nodded his head repeatedly, which immediately brought to Thor’s mind a memory of Loki complaining about the man’s incessant nodding. ‘These boys here have raided the ship’s food stores and made a feast of what they found. Others then discovered what they had done and berated them for their selfishness.’
‘We were hungry,’ one of the boys replied. While he sported neither a split lip nor swollen knuckles, but a dark, near-throbbing bruise dominated the left side of his face.
‘We’ll all be hungry soon enough,’ Arnfinn retorted.
Both the old tutor and the boy turned towards Thor, clearly waiting for his judgement. Behind them, everyone on the deck had clambered up and formed a tight circle of spectators. Silence lingered — that respectful, anticipatory silence only the king could inspire. Thor curled his hand over the handle of a hammer that no longer existed.
‘Boy, where are your mother and father?’ he asked.
‘Brandr, your majesty,’ the boy said. ‘They are dead. My mother died when the Dark Elves invaded, then Hela killed my father.’
Although pity coursed through him, Thor forced all emotion out of his voice. ‘When was the last time you ate?’
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‘Not since Hela came.’
‘That would’ve been some time ago. Well, I trust you are satisfied now.’ Thor took a step back and let his gaze sweep over the Asgardians. ‘No more raiding of ship stores and no more fighting. What supplies are found must be reported, so that they can be distributed fairly. If you do have a quarrel with someone aboard this vessel, you do not resolve it with fists. Take it to me, I will pronounce my judgement.’
‘To whom do we report what we find?’ someone called out.
It was the one question Thor picked out from at least a dozen hurled at him at once. His gaze lingered on Arnfinn, but he decided against it. The old man had become involved in the arguing. Likely some of the other participants and perhaps even the bystanders would remember that. Whoever Thor appointed, people had to have faith that person was impartial and would not hoard supplies. Thor scanned the hall.
‘Bruce Banner,’ he declared and chuckled at Bruce’s mortified expression. ‘He is—’
‘What about the boys?’ Arnfinn called out. ‘No punishment for them?’
Thor swallowed a grimace. ‘I will make use of Brandr and his friends, Master Arnfinn, which will be punishment enough. Brandr, come with me to the bridge.’
Although he wanted to get out of the hall as quickly as possible, he moderated his pace. A king had to comport himself like a king, not a schoolboy already late to his classes. Brandr trailed behind him and Bruce was even further back, having first paused to deliver instructions about the remnants of the food the boys had found.
‘Where is the bridge?’ Thor wondered aloud once they were beyond the threshold of the hall.
Bruce hurried to catch up and jerked his head to the left. ‘This way.’
As they walked, Thor rested his hand on Bruce’s shoulder. ‘If it starts to become too arduous a task, you must tell me. I don’t have another ship to evacuate people to.’
‘Focus on the Asgardians; I will handle myself.’
Thor hoped it was true, because as the doors to the bridge slid open, he was faced with another person aboard the Statesman, who had the potential to be deadly to everyone on board. Even more disconcerting, Loki had traded his usual sly smile for an expression of bewildered horror.
‘Who is the kid?’ he demanded. ‘Get him out of here.’
‘Brandr, please go down to the engine bay and check what their progress is,’ Bruce said.
Thor watched the door shut behind Brandr, then pivoted on his heel to face his brother — now that the range of his vision was more limited, side-glances had lost their efficacy.
‘What do you know that I do not?’
‘Some fool rerouted the water supply towards the engines.’
‘Brunnhilde said they needed to be cooled. Must be that.’
Loki flicked a switch on the control panel in front of him. ‘Who was moronic enough to trust a Valkyrie with something like that? Did anyone check water levels in the tank? There were already at nineteen percent. Then she mixed nista-coolant into the water. The onboard filtration system cannot clear it out, so now ninety percent of our water supply is contaminated so badly it would kill an Asgardian. I don’t even know what it would do to the insides of your Midgardian pal.’
‘That can’t be true.’ Thor strode over to Loki and studied the lit up screen above the control panel.
The bulk of the screen was vibrating with neon-orange warnings. You didn’t even need to understand the text in the warnings to realise something had gone wrong.
‘How much water do we need? Fandral had always had a mind for logistics, not me.’
Loki frowned. Thor suspected he too was struggling to remember their lessons on military logistics. Dagrun, the crusty dwarf, who had been appointed to instruct the princes on the subject had been the driest teacher Thor had ever suffered. Whatever minuscule shards of knowledge she had managed to impart to them at the time had been lost long ago.
‘I did a bit of humanitarian aid work back in India,’ Bruce said. ‘Anything less than ten litres per person per day is considered a crisis situation. That’s only for healthy people too. Once you start accounting for the sick, you need about a hundred litres per person. Of course, Asgardian physiology is hardier, so… maybe you need less.’
‘And how many people are on board?’
‘Three-thousand-twenty-seven Asgardians,’ Korg replied from an armchair by the larger control panel that bounded the right-side of the bridge. ‘And seventeen of us from Sakaar. And me. So eighteen.’
Thor was stunned for a moment, not quite comprehending how someone of Korg’s stature could make himself so inconspicuous Thor had missed his presence altogether. Then the Kronan’s words themselves sunk in.
‘Only three thousand made it to the ship? That can’t be. How did you get that number?’
‘I counted them.’ Korg lumbered over to Thor and Loki, then flicked through the options on the control panel until he brought up a map of the ship, but it was Bruce who explained.
‘The ship’s sensors can pick up how many people are in each room and identify the approximate species. It was just a matter of adding up the totals,’ he said.
‘So that’s accurate then,’ Thor muttered. ‘Three thousand left. I… I condemned everyone else to die. We can’t even know how many died, can we? We’ll never know.’
Loki sunk his head and played with a strand of stray hair. ‘It was not your doing, Thor. How many died when the Frost Giants came? Then there was Malekith. Then Hela. We are fortunate anyone survived at all.’
Thor did not feel fortunate, and he doubted anyone else aboard the Statesman felt any different. After Loki had worked on his eye, he had been considerate enough to vanish all the blood, dirt and ash that had clung to him. The others had not been offered such kindness. Dirt had stained Arnfinn’s once white shirt ochre and Brandr’s boots had been speckled with blood.
But never mind the aesthetics. How many times had Thor returned from adventure looking as if he had bathed in filth? Rather, what mattered was that Asgardians now fought over scraps of food. Soon they might be fighting over water too.
No, not while Thor was king.
There was always a way forward. He needed only to rise to the challenge.
‘Is there a ship manifest?’ Thor asked.
Loki snorted. ‘We commandeered this ship. Do you have a manifest drawn up when you commandeer a ship?’ he replied. ‘A ship, by the way, which is now idly floating without a single functional engine. Did she poison everyone on board and not manage to get the engine running again? Because that’d be truly disappointing.’
‘Brunnhilde assured me she would have the engines working.’
‘And you took her at her word?’
‘Brother,’ Thor cautioned. Once Loki threw up his arms in a melodramatic show of contrition, he continued, ‘The water situation is unfortunate, but I have to trust she will repair the engines. I’m coming to see this will be a difficult journey, too difficult for any one man. So I hope I can trust others on board to help me.’
‘Of course,’ Bruce said and was almost immediately echoed by Korg.
Loki, in the meanwhile, flicked back a strand of loose hair, then replied, ‘I know better than to agree with any plan of yours before I hear it.’
Thor couldn’t help it, he chuckled. ‘You can breathe easy; it’s no grand scheme to conquer the Nine Realms. What I want is information. Who are the people we have on board? What are their needs and what are their skills? And that stores do we have on this ship? The more we know, the more manageable this situation will be.’
‘Eight Realms,’ Loki said under his breath, but everyone in the room heard him nevertheless.
‘Loki, people might like you better if you stick to helpful commentary,’ Bruce said. ‘Thor, you’re right. Korg and I will work on auditing the ship’s stores and compiling info on the passengers. You just keep your head up. If people see that you are optimistic, they will be too. As we say back on Earth — a leader is a dealer in hope.’
‘Midgard has so many curious sayings,’ Thor replied.
He was about to say more, but the hiss of the door sliding open interrupted him. Brandr, red-faced and panting, hurried over to Thor.
‘Your majesty, they say the engines will be running in half an hour,’ he said.
Thor threw Loki a satisfied grin. ‘Thank you, Brandr.’