“This is the Nova Corps ship Starholder, Captain Richard Ryder, last port of call the Sol System. I am carrying part of the Terran Delegation to the Imperial Coronation. Requesting permission to enter the Throneworld’s space. Also,” he paused significantly, “I have a large pod of Acanti with me, and they would prefer not to be shot as Brood carriers.”

The hyperspace buoy not too far ahead relayed the command into normal space, and the reply was prompt. “Starholder, this is Throneworld Command. You are welcome to exit to our space. Please have the Acanti hold formation until we can scan them and verify they are not infested.”

“Understood. We are exiting hyperspace.” He pointed, and Grimm shifted the controls. Energy fields condensed, the Acanti synched in, and normal space flowed open before us, disgorging us back into interplanetary space some tens of millions of miles from the Shi’ar Throneworld of Chandilar.

A lot of shipping traffic popped up on the displays, this time with proper beacons so they could be tagged and identified almost instantly and automatically. A considerable number of those were Shi’ar military, including their massive dreadnoughts that were nearly forty miles long.

“There is a LOT of commentary about the Acanti,” Gwen murmured as she listened to the chatter on coms.

“Well, a few hundred of them escorting a ship is pretty unusual, especially ones as big as they are,” Richard mused, watching a dreadnought pulling into position to scan the starwhales, actually large enough to loom above the creatures. “They’ve never seen so many so large together like this, at least without an alpha. Most of the alphas have been hunted by the Brood...”

“Remind the Acanti to let the Shi’ar know that other pods are going to be converging here, and they don’t want to be a tourist attraction. Also, there’s a chance the Brood might want to avail themselves of the presence of the Acanti, and Throneworld Command might find some exciting things lurking at the edges of the system shortly, given their nature...”

“The Shi’ar love for the Brood rivals that of boots for roaches,” Peggy confirmed. “I don’t know why Deathbird thought making them allies, however temporarily, was a good thing...”

“Desperation breeds idiocy?” McCoy commented, putting up the course they’d been assigned. “Let’s go get into an orbital holding pattern and start offloading cargo. The others are down on the planet enjoying themselves, and I think we can all use some time off.”

“Wow, that silly man thinks he’s going to get some time off!” I murmured to Cindy.

“If his popularity at the last one is any sign, he’s not going to get much rest at all!” she answered, her eyes moving a certain way.

Peter pretended not to hear, but his ears were flaming red. He’d probably be staying away from fertility drinks, but you never knew...

---------

With full control of the Starholder came access to its teleportation technology. Our cargoes were sent off shortly, including all the Terran food held in stasis and being sent to the Imperial kitchens for Dealer to start working on. The preliminary celebrations and revels were naturally in full swing already, and they’d been clamoring for this famous Terran chef to get to work and satisfy them.

Future combicha addicts lining up to prostrate themselves at her feet, soon enough!...

That, of course, was the absolutely boring way to get down there.

“Throneworld Command, five to go for planetfall.”

“Confirmed, Centurion Ryder. Enjoy your flight.”

Nova, Jewel, Cyclops, Kismet, and I promptly hopped off the ship and dove towards the planet below.

It was thousands of miles, of course, so we weren’t in freefall, which would have taken hours. Actually, this was a test for Cyke and Jewel, seeing how fast they could go. I had no problems dealing with the heat or the friction with my Repulse and heat immunity, Kismet was both invulnerable and could shield herself, and Rich’s suit took care of any problems on his end.

Jewel was testing out the unstable molecule coating on her own armor, synching it to her nearly Nova Core/5 power, and making sure it could handle a planetary dive at speed.

Cyclops was testing out the limits of his armor and ruby defense. The pauldrons on his shoulders were actually his engines, adamantium plates anchored to his suit and being pushed by his ruby beam for propulsion. Other emitters would scatter the air in front of him to take care of friction, and so we were off and picking up speed quickly.

I took point, as the Red Eyes would notice any problems, an optic holo giving me our course. We plummeted down from orbit, enjoying the view as we tested things out.

Seeing sapients flying free was unusual but not unique, so the chatter around commented on it, but we stuck to the flight path and there were no considerations other than our velocity, which easily outpaced most landing flitters.

There was naturally a hierarchy to this kind of stuff. Having to use landing flitters was a sign of lower-end technology, especially if they were slow and couldn’t ignore atmospheric friction. Above this were the people with teleportation technology, who would send on their guards and servants below, and then come down in style via a high-end shuttle. Making an image was all the rage, decamping your luxurious shuttle in style, and so on and so forth.

Then there was jumping out of your ship under your own power and heading down, while everyone else teleported down.

We hit atmosphere doing about Mach 50, watching Jewel and Cyke carefully as we did. We got several thousand miles down before Jewel had to call it, and I had Cyke take up point and expand the wedge his ruby beams were making ahead of us.

In a flying wing behind him, the air burning and moving away from his wedge, we slowed down marginally as we closed on the planet below.

Unsurprisingly, the planet below had cities the size of Murican States, Tribal Territories, or whole nations back on Terra. Equally unsurprising, there were also vast swathes devoted to both agriculture and wilderness, as the Shi’ar were avid hunters and liked their wild places. The air was clean and pure, for the most part, slightly different in mix from Terra, but not outside the bounds of personal tolerances. We’d already received immunizations to the standard microorganisms here, so there wouldn’t be any problems on that vector.

There were countless flying vessels around, of every size from personal jet bikes to kilometers-long cargo freighters shifting things that would take too much energy to teleport easily. Most were staying in their lanes, so there were no surprises as we came down, the controllers making adjustments for our flight paths as we swept by many other vessels on the approach, leaving an odd combination of ruby light, golden sparkles, arcs of lightning, and Nova Force particle effects behind as we did so.

It was indeed quite eye-catching. Had to paint everything to Visual File, of course. I was sure Mentor was cataloguing everything, too, and accessing the planetary datanet, finding out whatever was not restricted and useful for us... something a few dozen SHIELD people were also doing back on the Starholder. They’d still get their chance to go planetside and walk on an alien world, of course...

Then there was the fantastic, tree-like architecture, the avian nature of the Shi’ar contributing to high nests and panoramic views of society, forests of towers and buildings that only nodded to efficiency by increasing in scale. The towers had to be tall and slender, and if they had to be massive places for housing populations, that just meant they had to be made proportionately bigger.

The ‘forest’ naturally had branches, so the entire city was also crisscrossed with canopy layers of bridges and similar things, multiple layers of travel and economic wealth stacked up to the rarified heights.

I was sure the Spiders were going crazy looking at it all, and planning some very fun and acrobatic webslinging. The Shi’ar preferred flight, of course, not monkey-vining, but they should still be able to appreciate that level of agility...

The Imperial Palace was the size of Manhattan Island, except it also covered two vertical miles, housing as it did much of the central bureaucracy of the Shi’ar empire. The top of it was naturally reserved for the Majestae, the Imperial Family, and their personal use, as well as the top officials of the Empire. The capital of the Empire sprawled for a hundred miles in every direction around it, the pulsing heart of an interstellar government.

“Not much deviation in architecture,” I noted as we came in.

“Almost none, actually,” Richard agreed over coms, our flight speed slowing as we swooped in towards the Palace. “What you’re seeing as deviations are owned by non-Shi’ar or are outright embassies. The standard method of differentiating yourself via architecture is the accenting, not the fundamental structures. It’s an empire, they don’t change much.”

“Not much different from Xandar, for different reasons. How long has the stagnation been going on?” I had to ask.

His red star flickered as Mentor did some calculations. “There have been no meaningful changes in Shi’ar civilization for approximately twelve hundred years, save for the subjugation of several worlds in the interim.”

“Ah, yes, growth by war, always the solution for stirring up the populace.” Everyone made knowing grunts. “Well, it’s not as bad as the Kree and Skrulls, I suppose.” Their stagnation was reportedly something like ten THOUSAND years. Or longer. There was tech in the Blue Area of the moon which was still basically being used today, and they had no true evolutionary potential of their own. Their only way to evolve was to introduce alien genetics to their races, which naturally would leave the pure-bred Kree and Skrulls behind.

Kree/human hybrids could get hilariously powerful, if Carol Danvers was any indication. Probably why they were mostly scrupulous about not doing such things. Supposedly Kree/Skrulls could also be quite strong...

Eh.

Scott had more problems with fine control at slower speeds, but that’s what minor anti-grav and gyros were for. Richard moved up into the advance as we swooped in towards our landing area, all lit up and waiting for new arrivals.

Most such arrivals didn’t come under their own power, of course, so the one we were allotted was closer to the palace itself. Numbers of Shi’ar Royal Guards and diplomats, trying not to look as tired as they certainly were, were all lined up to receive the endless streams of visitors, although we certainly drew some attention for coming in under our own power.

But, Terrans. We already had a wild reputation, what was one more thing?

We set down together precisely, and turned our gazes on the Imperial Consort, who had popped out via the palace’s teleportation network to greet us.

He was looking very energetic, despite being in a hoverchair. The diplomatic corps there naturally ceded him right of way, and he had a firm smile on his face as he glided forward to greet us.

“Your Grace,” Richard said diplomatically, taking the proffered hand and shaking it firmly. “You are looking well. I’m surprised they haven’t gotten you up and walking yet!” he stated, glancing at the Shi’ar. Nerve reconstruction was definitely within the bounds of their science.

“My injury is not something just science can heal, Centurion,” Charles Xavier replied calmly, taking the words calmly as the slightly indignant statement they were. Richard nodded, keeping up the act, as he was aware Xavier could actually walk. “The rest of your delegation is already engaged in, ah, other activities.” He waved to the side, and we followed him and Richard down the walkway of the imperial soldiers, who tapped their ceremonial yet very deadly halberds in precise unison to salute his passage and our arrival.

Two of the envoys of the diplomatic corps trailed after us, ready to be of use if required. They looked at one another sharply when I spoke up, and their universal translators didn’t translate for them, “They can’t understand me or eavesdrop, Professor. How are matters going for you?”

He glanced back at me with a mixed expression. “Let us say there have been excitable moments, Dynamo.”