Perhaps surprisingly, the Strontian Praetor of the Imperial Guard, Gladiator, was informed by Xavier of our discoveries.

While he was unsurprisingly livid about the traitorous actions threatening the Majestrix and embarrassed that the Imperial Guard hadn’t caught it themselves, he also cooled down with remarkable speed when we gave him notice of some of the tricks we’d thought up to counter those who wanted to pull something.

While he vastly preferred a straight-up conflict where he would be able to dominate, he also had appreciation for cleverness and irony. Soon enough there were quiet plans put into place by the most trusted members of the Imperial Guard, watching and waiting for the traitors to enact their subtle plans.

The Coronation itself was a grand affair, with wealthy and powerful Shi’ar mixing with wealthy and powerful alien visitors invited along, us Terrans just one entourage among hundreds. The Skrull and Kree had both sent representatives, and if the former were wary of us, and especially a Nova Corpsman, they also knew he was a Terran and so were mollified somewhat.

Peggy ended up speaking to the Xandaran Ambassador, who was assigned right next to us fortuitously. They were having an interesting discussion about many matters as I stood behind them, pretending to play honor guard or something.

Thor, Sif, and Hercules were along for the celebration, as was Tony Stark, who was out and around making friends and influencing people. Rich was here with Jessica, but the rest of the crew, the Asgardians, and the Terran contingent, including Ben Grimm, were out and toodling about doing various things that certainly had nothing to do with sniffing out traitors and those getting ready to do exciting things here at the Coronation, nod-nod, wink-wink. If the Imperial Guard were a little off-put at having a bunch of remarkably skilled and well-trained barbarians working with them, well, it was a strike against the Terran Consort, and so entirely believable, right?

“Doth this bother thee?”

Sif still had a couple inches on me while I was Wrecker’d, which seemed to mollify her somewhat when she considered how much stronger I was like this. Her voice was firm and godly and strong, and didn’t carry more than a foot or two further than my ears.

“Which part of what?” I asked, looking around and analyzing everything. “You’re a swordswoman of the Aesir, you’ve seen courts. These people may be mortals, but you should have a sense of the seething politics going on. I don’t even know what’s going on or why, and I’ve already seen a dozen alliances being made, half that broken, and some shadow wars of influence building this way and that.” I actually paused. “Lady Sif, might you want something to alleviate some of your boredom?”

“That wouldst be most wonderful,” she admitted, narrowing her eyes. “What dost thou propose?”

“Stark’s tongue is a weapon, and he is not slow to pick up on things, but he does not have your Awareness nor your experience. He’s negotiating stuff on behalf of Terra... would you be willing to sit at his elbow and give him some timely advice on who to speak to and what else might be going on?”

“Thor findeth him extremely entertaining, but his attitude towards women...” the goddess sniffed.

“Thor’s ego is big enough that Tony’s brains don’t threaten him. On the other hand, Tony isn’t impressed by brawn at all.

“You rarely get a chance to show off your cunning, especially given who you hang with.” She smirked slightly despite herself. “Your weapon is Stark’s tongue. Who can you unleash it upon, and who will you spare?”

She considered that point, and nodded slightly, her eyes narrowing as she took in the conflicts and cooperation taking place. “This be a place ripe with martial zeal. It be very easy to read...” She strolled off towards Stark, who I Messaged she was coming, and she was going to put some Divine Awareness at his fingertips to use, and he best exploit it for all he was worth if he really wanted to do some dealing.

Sif came in at his elbow, Stark said to the starry-skinned nebulon speaking with him, “A moment, a messenger from the Greater Aesir Lady’s Goodwill or Delivery Service has arrived,” and he turned to her without missing a beat. “Most Resplendent Valkyrie of Asgard, what have you got for me?”

“This one and his race’s representative on the Imperial Guard be of different factions,” she replied calmly, mostly ignoring his words. “His words should be taken lightly, at best. The Mephistoids over there, however, have a somewhat more elastic sense of obligations to their Empire, and be looking for opportunities. They hath something of a conflict with the Lords Shi’ar there and there, who, most interestingly, be not happy with the new Majestrix...”

Tony promptly began to circulate, keeping her at his elbow. “Be a pretty Valkyrie and stop a lowly mortal from stumbling over his feet while you fill my ears with more of those sweet words, would you?” he half-whispered, liberating a pair of cocktails from a passing tray and handing one off to her.

“Oh, certainly. I be interested in seeing what thou doeth with them...” Her eyes sparkled darkly.

“Compliments are the diplomacy of warriors. I am going to make the war of peace!” he smiled, not stopping in his quest for riches and upgraded tech.

“Also, I believe there was a substantial set of bounties out there for the destruction of Zorr and his band of pirates. That matter is currently being registered at the Intergalactic Bank of Credit by the stony Mr. Grimm, and it seemeth a substantial number of their ‘credits’ should be immediately available for thy use,” Sif noted for him.

“I will never argue with more money to use,” Tony answered, shooting a glance at her. “You know you’ve got a balance in our collection of credits, too, right? The videos of you goddesses get a lot of views in certain places.”

“And what wouldst I do with mortal funds?” she asked archly.

“The standard answer to that is furs, silks, or stones, but in your case, it’s definitely going to be all three.” Both of her eyebrows rose. “There’s going to be a lot of dancing after this, but there’ll still be time to take you around and get you looking like something that will knock Thor’s teeth out.”

Her smile was suddenly very deadly. “Dynamo be right, thy tongue be a weapon. Keep wagging it, little man!”

“Of course! Ah, Ambassador Nipinzi, a coiffoti I overheard was making some interesting remarks about you, and I found myself dying to hear more. Tony Stark, Ambassador Plenipotentiary of Terra, a good friend of the Imperial Consort!” he beamed to the furry mephitsoid, a species that looked like anthroid weasel-cats with bushy tails, very cute and sexy.

---------

Still an hour to the main ceremony. I would have liked to say I had lots of math to do, but I didn’t, and really, only four of my thoughtstreams really liked dealing with that stuff. I was mostly occupied with tracking everyone and everything, who was speaking with who, trying to read alien body language, and generally just spending time.

“I had not had time to thank you for your healing magic in person,” Hercules rumbled from next to me, stepping up as his eyes were also scanning the colorful crowd.

“It was nothing. You showed the Big Blue Ego what was what, forced him to back down and do something he never had in his arena. Getting you back on your feet was the least I could do for that. Thank you for your service, Master Hercules!”

“Always so polite!” he smiled slightly. “I felt you give me your strength, too, you know...”

“Well, yeah!” was all I had to say to that. “What’s your Godly Awareness telling you here?” I had to ask him. “Sif can see points of conflict or alliance...”

“Relative strength and power, weakness cloaked in strength, true weakness,” he answered after a long moment, studying everything. “It is not as finely tuned as a goddess of war and her ability to differentiate between many factions. Mine is mostly along racial lines, or very large groupings.”

“Interesting. How do the three main Empires here compare?” I had to ask.

He turned his head, gazing at gatherings where the Kree and Skrull parties were basically holding court in the court, ambassadors and envoys moving back and forth between them frequently. “The Shi’ar are perhaps stronger overall than either the Kree or Skrulls, who are largely dead-locked and know it, but they are certainly not strong enough to beat both of them. There have been major conflicts in the past between them, tests of strength played out in economics and war and intrigue, but they were inconclusive.” He paused significantly. “The Skrulls outnumber both forces by over an order of magnitude, but do not have the same society-wide martial culture. The numbers of civilian Skrulls vastly outnumber their military, and they don’t have the same martial focus.

“Thus, when you fight the Skrull, you are fighting their military forces. For the Shi’ar and the Kree, their military is almost what they are. Those who are conquered are the civilians; there are not many civilian Shi’ar, as it were.”

“Xandar?” I asked. He glanced over at the small delegation, who Peggy Carter seemed to have wrapped around her arm right now, focusing on the Corpsman still frowning at Richard.

“They are strong for their size, but not strong enough were the Skrulls truly to press them. It could be said that the Kree are keeping them alive, for if the Skrulls were to commit enough forces to take Xandar, the Kree would probably overwhelm their borders,” the God of Strength judged. “If I may ask, why is that Nova Corpsman so irritated with young Ryder?” he chin-pointed.

“The Xandarans can be snobs about rank, too. Rich is wearing the uniform of a Centurion without it being actually conferred upon him. However, Rich has a five-star Core and is captaining an Xandaran vessel, who by custom must be Centurions, so the Corpsman can’t do more than express his displeasure. I imagine he wishes he had been the one who established a rapport with the Acanti, too.

“I’ve heard mumblings among some Terran politicians who are thinking about an alliance with the Kree. Your thoughts?” I asked him.

“Unwise,” he said firmly, without rancor. “Were it not for the presence of the Celestials and their Eternal minions, the Kree likely would have conquered Terra and turned humanity into another source of soldiers, a breeding ground for Powered beings to serve them against the Skrulls.

“That, of course, would have led to their destruction eventually, as Powered humanity rose up to overthrow them. There have been ominous portents as to the true plans of the Kree for humanity now, and most of them end in fire, particularly now that the Celestials have withdrawn.”

“So, Sama and the Great Bear will never allow it.” I nodded once as he inclined his head slightly. “But the Kree love war...”

“Yes.” His face held no judgement, but his eyes were cold. “My brother Ares would enjoy their company. The Shi’ar are a militant race, but the Kree... all they have is war. Their own genetic structure is hard and cold, bereft of imperfections and the uncertainties that lead to evolution, I’ve been told. They do not evolve or adapt, they simply are.” His eyes shifted down the court. “The Skrulls are the same. They do not evolve without outside genetics, either. Their ability to take any shape in the end restricts them to their own. Although their empire is vast and their numbers great, they are also at a genetic dead-end, and the numbers of enemies they’ve made is great, as well.”

“Why the continued interest in Terra, then?”

“They have an interest in any world with sapient life, Dynamo. They subsume and replace. If they can absorb the human evolutionary genetics which create and enable the Powered, it could mean a new dawn for their race, and they might become unstoppable.”

“Does this process include gods?” I asked, and he glanced at me.

“Yes. They absorb and replace the gods of those they’ve taken, as surely as the species themselves.”