Chapter Text
Hundreds of faces looked back at Thor from where he stood behind his makeshift throne. He did not know what to do. They had a course, but no organisation. He didn’t even know who was flying – or indeed whether they were flying on the correct course for Earth. There was not a face in the crowd more then passingly familiar. These people watched him patiently, waiting for some sort of order, but what was he to say?
“Brother.” A voice whispered at his ear and Thor almost whirled and attacked. But no, now was not the time to attack Loki, he was merely being cautious that none other heard, as he often did when speaking to him in public – in the old days.
Thor tilted his head fractionally, he was listening.
“Perhaps we should organise a meal in this hall for the people while a group of representatives reconvenes elsewhere to form a course of action.”
And – yes that was a sound plan. Thor would not blindly trust Loki’s plans for a long time – if ever again – but he could see no harm in this.
Thor drew in a breath to speak, then hesitated. Giving this order to his people would make him truly king, it seemed. Speaking now would bring finality to it all, his father was dead, Asgard was gone, its once thriving population reduced to hundreds and this would be the beginning of his reign as king.
With more effort than any word before he said, “I need volunteers! First some to find the kitchens and prepare a meal.”
The crowd was silent for a moment and Thor was suddenly afraid none would come forward. Then a small portly woman strode out from the crowd, her eyes were bright and her cheeks splotchy from tears freshly fallen, she wore simple clothes of a peasant woman.
“I am Fenja – Your Majesty – I worked as a cook in the Green River Inn, if there is anything resembling a kitchen in this place I can make food but –“ She looked around in apprehension “- I will need help.”
It took a little time but eventually they had fifteen volunteers to set out to find the kitchens in the ship and create a meal for all the people. Miek had announced (through Korg) that he’d found what he thought to be a dining area on the other side of the ship and they had decided to start their search there.
Next Thor asked for volunteers to confer with him over their next move. He left the hall with four volunteers, the Valkyrie, Korg, Heimdall and Loki and almost sighed in relief to be away from all those eyes but caught himself at the last moment when he caught the awed gaze of Rolf, the carpenter.
“Where to?” Korg asked as the group stalled just outside the door.
“There should be a smaller observation room near the hull, there might be a table we can sit at or at least something to write with.” Valkyrie suggested. She looked to Thor and he nodded for her to lead on.
They did in fact find an observation room smaller than the hall, there was no table, but two long padded benches faced each other and that was enough. When everyone was seated there was an long silence for a moment before Thor realized that he was expected to lead this meeting. With what he had no clue.
“So,” he began, “any ideas?”
Silence for a moment and then, “We should asses our situation.” Loki said. He was seated directly across from Thor and looked decidedly uncomfortable, although to most he knew Loki likely looked completely composed. They looked at each other for a moment in silence.
Is this permitted? Loki’s eyes asked.
For now, Thor’s replied. Loki continued.
“We need to count our number as well as the amount of beds – I doubt this ship has the capacity for the people on it so we must figure out how space must be divided. We must also make assessment of our supplies and figure out how exactly we get to Earth from here and how long it will take. A direct trip from Asgard to Midgard has not been done in – “ he frowned “- I am not sure if it has ever been done.”
“Why do we go to Midgard?” A woman asked, she wore an intricately designed dress that had been dirtied and torn from days of use, her golden hair had been tied about her head in the ridiculous ways ladies a court often did, but that too was frayed and loose in chunks. Thor did not remember her name. “Why not one of the other, more civilised realms?”
Thor had to swallow back a harsh reply. It was true, after all, Midgard was not the most civilised of realms – but then again Asgard was no longer a realm at all.
“The other realms are in chaos,” Heimdall answered, much to Thor’s relief, “with Odin’s absence, many of the anti-Asgardian movements that once simmered in the dark have boiled over into outright rebellions. Midgard was the only realm which only governed itself so now it is our only option.”
“Anyway our destination isn’t our current problem,” said Rolf, the carpenter, “the prince is right, we need to sort out what we have and figure out where people are to sleep. That is our immediate problem.”
“We also need to figure out what to do with the children.” Another woman spoke in a small cautious voice and immediately appeared shocked at herself for doing so. Hilde the teacher if Thor recalled correctly, she sat to the left of Loki and to the right of her wife, Turid, back straight as a rod and gazing at the floor. She was thin and delicately lined along her eyes and mouth and appeared as if she had not slept in days.
They all watched her for a moment waiting for her to continue but she did not.
“What do you mean?” Thor prompted.
The poor thing nearly jumped out of her skin, she glanced up, caught his gaze for a fraction of a second and looked away. She licked her lips nervously before continuing.
“Many of the – many of the common folk who chose to stay and fight against – her – sent their children into the woods to flee – and many of them never followed after. There are many young children among us who no one is looking out for – who no one knows needs looking out for.”
And that was a sobering thought on a sobering day. Now that Thor thought back there did seem to be a disproportionate number of children in the crowd. An idea came to him then.
“We can find these parentless children when we do our count,” he said, his gaze flicking briefly to Loki as it always used to do when he was forming a plan, before focusing back on Hilde, “we can record what family members each person has with them on the ship. If we can find these children we can begin to care for them.”
“You’re right.” It was Loki again who spoke and their eyes met once more, Thor felt an old, almost forgotten spark of pride, the kind he’d had Before. Loki saw it – of course he did – his eyes danced with mirth. “We need a more comprehensive survey – a census – to tell us what we’re really working with. We find out their names, their age, the family they have on board and their previous vocation should do.”
“Anything more than a headcount will take time.” The Valkyrie said from beside Thor.
“We have time,” Loki replied, leaning back, eyes not moving from Thor’s, “it would be better to do the job correctly, but slowly the first time than to rush through it and need to redo it anyway. We need this information to function. I suggest we set teams to survey our situation immediately.
Thor nodded. “Then we shall begin. Valkyrie, you gather a team to label all the living quarters so we know how many beds are in each individual one; Hilde take a team to begin surveying the people so that we may assign living quarters for tonight – don’t forget to survey those who have jobs outside the hall; Rolf assess our food and water stores; Korg, you take a team to asses any cargo we may have and our fuel; Heimdall, Loki and I will try to figure out our navigation. The rest of you join a team or go to your loved ones in the hall. We shall reconvene here after our tasks are complete.”
Thor felt better with a clear purpose. Given their own tasks, the others filtered out of the room but Thor stayed seated, watching his brother opposite him. He wasn’t sure that he trusted Loki with navigating them toward Earth – scratch that he absolutely did not trust Loki with this task – but he knew of no others on the ship who had ever had cause to travel to Midgard at all.
“Where do we start?” he mused allowed.
Loki heaved a very put upon sigh and rose to his feet. “There’ll be maps on the bridge.”
*
Loki entered the bridge first only to stop and unleash a vicious growl. Thor dropped his hand to hover over his weapon as he followed Loki into the room.
The bridge was unlike anything Thor had seen on a spaceship before. He had come to expect complicated computer panels with various switches and buttons and a steering mechanism of some sort. Instead the only things of notice in the room was a window viewing the front of the ship and a large black table in the middle of the room.
There was also absolutely no one present.
Loki turned on him, visibly seething. “Who was assigned to man the bridge?”
“I don’t know – maybe no one.”
The god of mischief was turning red – in a way Thor was all too familiar with from his childhood.
“Who exactly do you think was going to do that for you?!” His brother roared, “we have been sitting here for hours, just waiting to be set upon by Ravagers! Who exactly did you think would do this for you?”
Thor felt his face also heat up, with shame rather than rage. Loki was right, damn him, on this ship right now the only person who held any responsibility was him – he could no longer assume someone else would take care of matters.
“Loki enough.” Heimdall rumbled, stepping forward to grab Loki’s shoulder before he – well Thor didn’t know what he was about to do. Loki shoved him off and turned his back on the pair. His shoulders rose and fell three times slowly before he spoke.
“The table is a series of computer terminals, just find a space and tap and it will give you a screen to work with. Let us find Thor’s precious planet.”
The going was slow as the computer system was alien to all of them and the names for places were all different. They had to work off memory, trying to find familiar locations in maps that spanned three galaxies.
Eventually Heimdall said, “I think I found it.” And with a gesture brought up a holographic map. Thor peered through it trying to determine what Heimdall saw, for a moment all he could make out was a bunch of different sized dots but then a memory trickled through and one of the dotted collections formed the familiar pattern of the Midgardian solar system.
Loki appeared to have seen it too. “How far?” He asked, apprehensively.
Heimdall shrugged, “By the ships calculations it will take a little over two years to reach.”
Thor nodded, calculating. Two years was a long time but it could be much worse. Still, they really needed information the others were gathering to truly assess their situation.
“Are there any planets suitable for trade on our path?” He asked.
Loki tapped some command onto the table. “According to this there are four, all Novan colonies. Three, four, eight and thirteen months away respectively.”
That wasn’t too bad. Hopefully the ship could provide for them for three months, though Thor had no idea what they could trade for after that. The stretch of an unbroken eleven months between the final colony and Earth would be the most difficult, but it was to be expected with how isolated Earth was.
“Would we be able to use the Tesseract to warn Earth of our arrival?” He asked his brother.
Loki froze.
The new king had to hold back a grin. He was beginning to understand why his brother always sought to create mischief as did, getting one up on someone was addicting. Beside him, Heimdall laughed.
After a moment Loki seemed to compose himself again. “I – well –“ he swallowed and straightened his shirt “- without a stabilizing agent I couldn’t create a portal, but I would be able to take one or two things through if I was touching it. But I wouldn’t be able to do so very often, it would take up much of my energy and I would have to prepare for it and recover after.”
Thor did grin then, at Loki’s obvious discomfort and clapped him on the shoulder. “Good man. Right, who piloted the ship on the way over?”
The other god rolled his eyes and shrugged. “The three headed beast, I believe he was slain on Asgard. Who flew us away?”
“You know I might have been a bit busy fighting the goddess of death to pay attention to that sort of thing. Do you know how to fly it?”
Loki glared.
Thor smiled.
“Why don’t we see if anyone else has finished?” Heimdall said.
*
They hadn’t.
The Hall looked much the same as it had an hour ago, although now people were now sitting on the floor looking morose. When he entered the people around him looked up before bowing their heads in deference. Some people were walking through the crowd with electronic tablets, still in the process of taking the census.
After asking around he discovered that a former gladiator names Phora knew how to pilot the ship and so he sent her and Heimdall back to the bridge to start them on their long journey. He would need to find more pilots or train them. Hopefully it wouldn’t be a difficult job to conclude.
Looking around he saw Loki sitting on the arm of his makeshift throne, looking out into space. That was mildly surprising, he wouldn’t have expected Loki to show any sort of deference to the throne. Alhough he had been rather docile since he had arrived. Perhaps he was on his best behaviour. Seeing no better option, Thor made his way through the crowd and sat on the throne, Loki didn’t shift.
They were silent for a while then, watching the stars outside, listening to the murmur of the hall. After a sort while the cooks came into the hall and started sharing out food. Thor found himself with a bowl in hand without any recollection as to how it got there. Loki had a bowl too, and a loaf of strange, green bread which he and Thor passed between them as they ate in silence. It was good soup, although strange with a strange sweet-savoury flavour that Thor found himself enjoying. When he finished the bowl was removed without him realizing yet again and he found himself wondering if the Wizard, Strange was secreted on this ship somewhere.
Some time after the soup, Turid, Hilde’s wife, approached the brothers, electronic pad in hand.
“Your majesties,” she said, “we’re trying to do families at the same time, will you do it together?”
“Of course.” Thor smiled at the woman. She was tall, almost the same height as Loki, with slicked back ash blonde hair and harsh features. Perhaps once she smiled, but today it looked like she had forgotten how. She merely nodded and tapped on her pad.
“Names?”
“Thor Odinsson.”
His brother hesitated a moment, tilting his head at the woman. Eventually he said, “Loki Friggasson”
Thor deliberately didn’t swallow around the lump in his throat. He wasn’t surprised. If Turid was surprised by Loki’s choice, she didn’t show it, just continued going through the list of questions, each with relatively simple answers. When she asked their what relations they had aboard the ship Thor said brothers and Loki immediately corrected by saying adoptive. He told himself he wasn’t hurt.
“What were your last three vocations?”
“Avenger, gladiator and King of Asgard.” Thor answered with a laugh. When it came for Loki’s turn he grinned sharply at them both.
“Villain, traitor, impersonator of the King of Agard.”
A moment of silence. Turid blinked up from her tablet in shock, then the flood gates opened and Thor was doubled over in fits of laughter.
Thor recovered from his fit quickly but he still had the eyes of hundreds of Asgardians fixed upon him. Clearing his throat he glanced up at his brother. Loki watched him from his perch, eyes filled with mirth. Turid looked at the brothers in askance but Loki merely shrugged.
Not long after Turid left them, the Valkyrie, Korg and Rolf returned to the Hall with news. According to the Valkyrie there were four hundred and twenty living quarters in total, ranging from small dark rooms with shared washrooms to large private suites big enough to fit a family of ten. One suite in particular, she said, held its own kitchen, dining room, lounge, private observation deck and an extravagant bedroom with a bed that could fit at least ten.
“I assume you’ll be taking that one, oh glorious majesty.” She added.
Thor frowned in thought, “Perhaps that particular room would be more suited for Hulk.” He had been deliberately avoiding thinking about the great beast that shared their small space. They had to figure a way to keep the Hulk docile, or at least explain to him that piercing the hull was a Bad Idea. From Loki’s stiffening beside him and the Valkyrie’s widening eyes, clearly neither of them had thought about it either. “In any case,” he continued, “we cannot make any plans until the census is complete and we know how many people we need to fit into these rooms.”
Next came Rolf with the cook, Fenja in tow and baring worrying news. While the kitchens were well stocked, Fenja believed that there would not be enough to feed everyone for more than a few weeks. What was worse was that much of the stock was perishable fruit and vegetable, they had already placed as much of it as they could into freezer storage, but there was not enough space for everything.
“What we really need is some way to convert the main storage space into a freezing unit. If we cannot do that our supplies will be greatly limited.” Rolf warned, wringing his hands.
“What of our supply of water?” Loki asked, he had taken a note pad out of thin air and was taking notes.
Rolf was taken by surprise at this. “I – I’m not sure your Majesty, I didn’t look into it.”
Loki narrowed his eyes in anger and Thor decided to intervene before he scared the poor man to death – or actually killed him, you never knew with his brother these days.
“Thank you for your report, Rolf. You should search to find out about our water supply next, try starting by searching the ship’s computer.”
Rolf, visibly relieved, bowed and left.
Thor heaved a sigh and leaned back in the throne. “You shouldn’t be so harsh, Loki.”
The god sniffed, “I said nothing to him.”
“And you weren’t about to?”
“Correct. I would never go above my station, your Majesty.” Loki paused then, looking contemplative, “Although I suppose I did a little. He called me Majesty.”
Thor snorted. “Does that please you, then brother?”
“Perhaps. It is good to be respected, even if they use a title above my station. I suppose you’re going to make me correct him if it happens again.”
“Eh, your Majesty, your Highness, really they are not so different and even then their differences are not important.”
Loki appeared contemplative at this. “Perhaps,” he said after a short while, “perhaps it is important, though, Thor. Look around us, once we were thousands living on our homeland, surrounded by history both written and not. I think if we are not careful we will forget our past, our culture, and that may be a dangerous thing. We forgot about Hela and she nearly destroyed us.”
If that wasn’t a sobering thought Thor did not know what was. Loki was right of course, as he often was. Thor did look around. His people could now fit into a single hall in a space ship, and so many of them were children, too many young faces would grow up without Asgard even as a memory. Of Asgard’s great, famed warriors there was only he and the Valkyrie left. How many healers with Asgard’s secrets resided in this hall, broken? How many of the mighty sorcerers? Was Loki the last?
He had never cared much for books and things metaphorical, but in that moment Thor was ready to weep for all the knowledge lost in Asgard’s great Library. He wondered how much Loki managed to secret away before Surtur forced him to flee. He wondered whether Loki would return these things to the people.
“Hey bro – or your Majesty bro I guess, what with you being King and all. Isn’t it neat, you being King of your own space ship?” Thor was broken out of his reverie by the rock creatures nonsensical musings.
Thor smiled, despite himself. “Hello Korg, you bring news of the cargo?”
Korg nodded amiably and beside him Loki took out his notepad once more. The ship, as it turned out, didn’t run on fuel so much as it was battery powered. According to the manual – which, how Korg had managed to find a manual was beyond him – the batteries had to be recharged with a strong electrical current every year or so with constant use. This was the first truly good news Thor had heard all day. As long as they landed on a planet with an atmosphere – and there were plenty of them in this universe – he could provide the power for the ship himself.
The cargo on board was less pleasing. The ship was another of the Grandmaster’s leisure vessels, according to the Valkyrie, designed for long sustained parties. As such its cargo hold didn’t hold trade items but supplies for the parties. No extra food or valuable metals, there were some medical supplies but not much, there was quite a lot of alcohol, streamers, balloons and contraception. When they reached the Novan colony they would be lucky to trade for what they needed and may have to resort to theft, as repellent as that idea was.
The good news was that there was also much in the way of clothing, bedding and entertainment. Korg believed they had at least a hundred mattresses that could be used by the people if needs be.
After meeting with Korg, there was not much that could be done before the census was complete, so Thor decided to assist with the census. People looked up at him with awe when he approached them, and Thor wondered if this was part of being King that he would have to learn to deal with.
He spoke to Ragnhild Rolfdottir, blonde and young and barely three hundred years old, she had been apprenticed to her mother, a seamstress along with her two younger sisters. The only family on the ship was her father.
Snorre Autisson was a noble of the court for ten thousand years and had with him seven sons and twenty grandchildren. Once he had a daughter and twenty three grandchildren.
Signy Karsidottir was a child of twenty, small and serious and on the cusp of womanhood, she held her squalling brother, Thor in her arms, an infant of but five.
With each name he recorded, a weight set on Thor’s shoulders. Every person on this ship was in mourning for someone, all had seen horrors and been hunted. He ached for those they had lost, as he ached for those he had lost. His father, his companions of hundreds of years. All he had left now was Loki.
After every completed record, Thor wanted to stop, he wanted to run and hide or to go find the Valkyrie wherever she was and drown his sorrows. But he would not stop, he would continue with the others set to this gruelling task.
There was Vigi Iarlsson, a farmer Thor’s age who once had an extended family of fifty but was now the last of his kin. Johan Ljotsson, an adolescent who had watched his father cut down by the draugr and had to pick up his fallen sword. Alfdis Iricdottir a healer whose age-worn eyes shone with tears she refused to shed as she clutched her now orphaned granddaughters to her side. The names went on and on, the stories all different yet achingly similar. But eventually he looked around the hall and everyone held the piece of blue cloth that marked them as counted and the census was finally complete.
They convened once more in the observation room, now perhaps more prepared to make decisions than all those hours before. Someone had installed a spare computer terminal table and found chairs to sit around rather than the bench, and Thor felt more familiar with this setting, almost like a council meeting and yet it did not make him more comfortable. Now he sat at the head of the table, Loki to his right side, his blind side, a place deserving of him as the next in line for the throne. It made Thor itch.
It was Loki who spoke first. He had gathered all the information relayed to Thor on his notepad and read it now to this makeshift council. After Loki finished they looked to Hilde to relay the results of the census, her expression was grim as she tapped open the census data onto the table.
“There are six hundred and ninety-three Asgardians and thirty-seven ex-slaves of various species. Of the Asgardians, two hundred and seventy-three are children, of these children, ninety-eight are here without any adult relatives.”
Thor felt bile rise in his throat. Six hundred and ninety-three was all that was left of thousands. The whole table looked at each other uneasily. It was all at once too little and far too many.
“We only have beds for four and twenty,” The noble lady from before spoke, Thor thought her name may be Astrid, “how will we house everyone?”
“Many of the beds are large enough for multiple people, family members will have to share. Husbands and wives, parents and children, siblings.” Thor put in, “The families should get the larger quarters, while people alone get the smaller servants quarters. Some by themselves will also have to share.” People nodded in agreement at this.
“What about the orphans?” Hilde demanded.
To everyone’s surprise it was Korg who spoke up. “There’s an empty storage bay near the rear of the ship, its close to the servants quarters so there’s a bathroom nearby, we could lay out some of the spare mattresses for the kids, maybe have the younger ones share. We could assign whoever wants to look after them to the quarters nearby.”
“I can look after them,” Hilde put in immediately, Thor had expected as much, “but I will need help.”
“I can help,” Astrid added to everyone’s surprise.
Hilde looked over to her with narrowed eyes. “Do you have any experience with children?”
Astrid glared right back, “I was a governess, before.”
They watched each other for a moment more but this seemed to make Hilde concede. “We’ll still need more people, looking after nearly a hundred children will be difficult, I’ll go through the database to see if anyone is suitable.”
Thor nodded, appeased, “Good thinking, Korg. Valkyrie do you know the chamber of which he speaks?”
The Valkyrie shrugged, “I think so, I’ll assign them to the servants quarters near it.”
“Good, I want you and Hilde to work together to assign everyone appropriate quarters – I want everyone to have a place to sleep tonight.”
Valkyrie nodded, “What about… what about you sire?” She asked, Thor blinked. Before he could say anything though, Loki answered.
“See if you can find Thor and I a quarters to share, If we can get a private bathroom and a window I will be pleased.”
Thor looked at Loki in shock, it hadn’t occurred to him that he and Loki would share, but it made sense, they were brothers after all, Thor probably would have recommended it himself. But still the idea of sharing a living space with his brother after all this time as enemies was… disconcerting. The rest of the table also seemed a little shocked by Loki’s announcement, but Valkyrie took it in stride, making a note on the table.
“I think we’ll leave it at this today,” Thor said, rising from the table, the others scrambled to rise with him. There was still work to be done but for now the people needed to sleep. “Tomorrow we reconvene.”