Buttons clicked quietly on four separate stations, a holo popping up with arc and distance as the Starholder rotated slowly. “Damn, his heat sensitivity is high,” Gwen muttered, staring at six different screens. “Nothing here.” Confirmations came from all the other stations. Without active scanning, that cloaked ship paralleling us was quite hidden.

“Masering Primus,” Gwen murmured, sending off the tight beam. This time, Primus was also going to be dark, and he didn’t have an exhaust signature. “Confirmed. He’s closing in on it.”

You had to be really fine on the gravimetrics to track Primus normally, and if he was actively suppressing his mass effect he was invisible unless he got above half-c. Spotting him visually was of course freaking impossible in space. Space was much too big, and he could turn himself void black in a second. He wasn’t a technophobe.

We weren’t worried about an attack, of course. There were three spider-senses active here (well, four, but the Red Eyes gave me stink-eyes every time I thought of them that way), who could pop up the shields before an attack reached us or the sensors were even aware of it, and all of us had the command authority to do so. Timesighting for disaster avoidance...

“Tracker placed,” Cindy confirmed with a smile, as a point of light went up on the main navigation holo.

“Primus said it was a modified shuttle, so it should return to a larger ship before anything happens,” Gwen reported a minute later.

“Thank him for his help, and keep course for Titan,” Rich said, satisfied with how things had turned out. “Ice, any problems staying out there for the whole trip? If they try something ahead of us, I’d like to know before they expect anything. I don’t expect it since Primus was seen leaving with us, but I’d like to be careful.”

“Pipe me in some music, and I’ll be fine,” Iceman replied. “Just chillin’ in the country club out here...”

I thumped my head as everyone else smirked at me, including Rich. “Thank you. Mr. Grimm, put some legs on her.”

“Aye, aye, Cap’n!” Ben grinned, and acceleration picked up markedly. We weren’t going to hyperspace for this trip, but no reason not to test out the sublights... and making the scoutship run to keep up with us.

I reviewed the list of maneuvers Ben was going to put the ship through, smiled to myself, and considered the last week as my eye drifted to the new golden-skinned woman standing on the bridge, watching everything in fascination.

Kismet Rantha. In the comics, Her. Youngest adopted daughter of Sama Rantha...

=========

Several days ago...

Come under your own power.

I grimaced slightly as I exited the hangar bay, breaking the containment field and hitting hard vacuum.

My form-fitting gorget/Necklace prickled just slightly. Adaptation kicked in, meaning I was instantly adjusted to the vacuum.

I was already immune to the natural cold, any heat, and any radiation, so the Necklace didn’t even have to compensate for that. The only thing it was worrying about was breathable air and the lack of air pressure.

The urge and reflex to breathe left me, and air circulated in my lungs, constantly refreshed and replaced. Vacuum kissed my skin, but found nothing to hold onto.

The others would be kind of irritated that I could do this. Well, Ben could do it, too, but the rest of them needed suits to survive in a vacuum unaided. Even Rich wouldn’t get tough enough to do so without reaching Core Five, but that was what his uniform was for.

I turned on Vampire’s Veil to full power, basically erasing me from any sensors, and without wearing a locator, I could flit away as I pleased.

So, I did.

As expected, out in hard vacuum the Beaubier Core could really stretch its legs out, and the Mach 10 top speed in-atmosphere was a laugh. I accelerated without even feeling the g’s building as sparks popped and all my atomic vibration was bent in the direction I wanted to go.

Miles per hour became the same miles per minute, then per second. The hundred and fifty thousand miles to the Blue Area of the Moon passed by in remarkably little time as I hit a fraction of the speed of light, and then decelerated with impossible ease as I neared my target, all that momentum just returning to its normal omnidirectional uses.

Physics-breaking stuff. I was pretty sure the Core could hit near-light speed, and if there was any way to bend space, could hit hyperspace.

I zipped on over the massive crater that actually held ruined buildings, scanning the layout into my Visual File, noting the area where the Watcher had his place and staying away from it. The Skrull and Kree buildings below were literally millennia old, but the destruction on them was more from conflicts than environment.

They also extended many levels down, I’d been informed.

That shell over there was actually a force effect and cloaking field masking the Crystal from above, looking like just another section of the ruined city here. I glided down towards it, only sparking somewhat as I did.

Hitting the atmosphere being maintained at a steady 68 F was strange, but there was superscience for ya. It had no defensive power whatsoever, merely a mild cloaking effect from primitive scanning tech and visual observation... meaning Terran eyes and radar, among other things.

I touched the edge of a Full Interdiction area, and immediately descended just outside it. Gravity here was also Terran-normal, as opposed to the 1/6th of the rest of the moon.

Some powerful tech the Skrulls had, the environmental stuff working so well even after all this time. Only the limited water in the air had kept it all from being overgrown.

The sword banner hanging on the sign was the entry point to the holofield. I came down in front of it, stared at the straight-edged sword hanging on what was obviously a pub sign, and sighed to myself.

I pushed open the door and stepped inside.

It wasn’t very well-lit inside, but it didn’t need to be. Devasight and Devilsight adjusted instantly, and I headed in through the flowrock of the buildings to the inner areas. The crimson light bleeding around the corners and stuff wasn’t hard to follow.

----

The M’Krann chamber was actually open to the sky, but the holofield obscured everything. I guessed that the crystal was required to be under the stars. Perhaps the Phoenix wanted to be able to see it, or natural radiations had to fall on it? Surely it would have been much more secure if it was deep underground.

Nova and Jewel were already here. They were curled up in energy spheres just at the edge of the quasi-ruby crystals that made up the Crystal, curls and wisps of strange energies rising up to them and getting absorbed.

There weren’t many people around, maybe a dozen. All of them were Tribal or Russians, obvious by badges and attire, and the air was buzzing with telepathic conversations going on, no audible words at all.

Sama Rantha was there, standing under the two floating lovebirds, and watching them closely. She turned around the second I was framed in the door and noticed by one of the people here.

“Come in, Dynamo,” she waved me over.

I pulled down my Mask and scooted over that way. “That looks a whole lot less painful than the normal methods he’s been using,” I commented as I came up next to her.

“There’s Phoenix-level energies mixed into the bunch, making them higher-order. The Novaforce can’t get enough of them. They are probably going to have all-night sex once we let them out.”

I made an appropriate expression. “Benefits of testing the power of a universe-destroying ancient artifact?”

She grinned with eight canines. “Relax. No chance of that happening.”

Said absolutely. NO chance. Not very little chance. “Ben Parker keeping an eye on things, huh?” I guessed.

“I did mention it to him. He and his wife regularly play cards with the Phoenix and Eon, or something.”

“Nice arranging Terra to actually have a competent Molecule Man.”

She gave me a glance. “Figured that out, did you?”

“You had THE Sersi sitting outside his house. Come on. Strange didn’t send her, or make sure Owen Reece had a nice job in golf course maintenance down in Florida, with a wife and three kids to keep him busy and happy.”

“Ben was already a point of temporal conflict after we saved him from being killed earlier,” she mentioned. “He’s taking his responsibility seriously, although he’s got a great deal to learn about things at the cosmic levels, micro and macro.”

“True, but he’s got the time, power, and patience, unless something comes after him first. Eon helping with the Cosmic Awareness helped, I’m sure.”

“Interested in that?” She gave me a sidelong glance.

“Yes.” I couldn’t deny it. “Dealer marking all that cosmic stuff coming in, and you asking about it didn’t help.”

“I’ll talk to him about it. Eon’s generally pretty cool about those things.”

“Thank you. Why am I here? You don’t need me to oversee what’s going on, and you obviously managed to replicate Rich’s Nova Core for Jewel.”

“Do you want a Nova Core?” she asked me directly.

Despite myself, I blinked. “That came out of left field!”

“We aren’t the Nova Corps. Our criteria are somewhat different. They do psyche evals and stuff for their Corpsmen, but their primary filter is not being overly capable just in case the power gets to their heads.”

“Which naturally limits the power and internal danger from the Corps, sure,” I acknowledged. “I wrote those notes, you know,” I reminded her.

She flashed a smile at me. “True. Our Nova Corps’ criteria are somewhat different. First, we want Good people. Secondly, we want capable people who aren’t afraid to fight. Third, we want people with a talent for violence when it’s time to be violent.”

I’m sure my expression was interesting. “Interesting requirements. Shouldn’t you start with the Shielders, then?”

“If they are willing to give up loyalty to their homeland primacy, certainly they’ll get offers. The Nova Corps has to look after the whole planet, and extraplanetary events as humanity pushes out into the stars. No Captain Brazils or France in a Nova Corps.”

I understood that. “And they’d make awesome Centurions,” I had to agree. “I can’t say I’m not interested. Getting my face bashed in by Champion wasn’t fun, after all, and here I’m throwing myself into basically a warzone with an advanced race. Are you sure I’m a good fit?”

“Pretty sure. Are you willing to drop that Astral Ward you keep up to verify it?” she asked me directly.