Chapter 116

RIVALS REUNITED

Annie turned abruptly from where she’d been staring through the viewport. “We should help.”

The bridge had been quiet since Carmen’s revelation about the invasion. Everyone processing what it meant.

“If there are gates open, then people will be in trouble,” Annie continued. “There might even be more of the cultists and their rituals.”

Augustus nodded slowly. “It’s an excellent opportunity to build rapport with the council or other players on The Nexus. We could use some goodwill.”

Talia and Felix said nothing, but Alexander could read the agreement on their faces.

He considered it. They’d come here for information and to help their rescued aliens get home. Fighting hadn’t been part of the plan. But Annie was right. People might be dying. And Augustus had a point about it being an opportunity.

He looked at Carmen. “Do you think they’d be open to it?”

She met his eyes. “If things are as bad as people out here think? Sure.” She paused. “It’s likely not as bad as they think, though. Spacers aren’t the most reliable information sources. We love to gossip.”

Alexander smiled at that. “Alright. Captain, would you… open a channel to The Nexus and tell them we’re willing to help.”

Carmen moved to the communications console, her fingers dancing across the controls.

She leaned forward, voice crisp. “This is the GSS Sleipnir out of Sol. We are carrying a team of Tier 2 superhumans with extensive combat experience. They are willing to offer their assistance against any ongoing multiversal invasion threats.”

Silence filled the bridge for a moment before a response came through. The voice carried the clipped efficiency of military communications.

“Sleipnir, this is Nexus Control. Confirm last. You have superhuman assets aboard?”

“Confirmed,” Carmen said. “A highly versatile combat team with a mixture of powers and prior experience with invasion events.”

“Stand by.”

The channel went silent. Alexander felt the tension settle across the bridge. The crew at their stations stayed focused on their tasks, but he caught glances toward where Grimnir stood.

Spencer cleared his throat. “Well, hate to hitch a ride and split, but I need to go for a walk. The Queen assigned me a few tasks while I’m here. Gotta get to work.”

Annie turned. “Wait, aren’t you going to help with the gateways?”

He smirked. “Nah, I’m more of a lover than a fighter. Besides, pretty sure this is a big chance for Grimnir to shine.”

Talia’s eyes narrowed. “How?”

Spencer shrugged. The sound of pages flipping filled the bridge. Soft at first, then louder. Like someone rifling through a book at incredible speed.

The space behind him began to ripple. Reality bent and folded like pages turning. The effect was unsettling, making Alexander’s eyes want to slide away from it.

Spencer started walking backward into the distortion, still smiling. “My powers don’t work that way!”

He raised both hands, finger guns pointed at Alexander. “I’ll see ya round. Thanks for the ride, cuz’.”

He stepped through and vanished. The rippling effect collapsed into nothing.

Annie stared at the empty space. “That was weird.”

“He’s always been like that,” Augustus said with a sigh.

The comms crackled back to life. “Sleipnir, authorization granted. Transmitting priority docking coordinates. Military escort inbound.”

Carmen’s fingers moved across the console. “Coordinates received. Thank you, Nexus Control.”

Two sleek vessels appeared on the viewscreen minutes later. Small fighter-class starships, their hulls marked with insignia. They took up positions flanking the Sleipnir.

“Escorts in position,” Yuki reported from the helm. “They’re transmitting an approach vector.”

The Nexus grew larger in the viewport as they closed distance. Alexander still struggled to believe it. Hundreds of miles of interconnected structures, docking arms extending like spokes from central hubs. Thousands of ships docked, besides the thousands more stuck in holding patterns.

The architecture was alien. Smooth curves where human stations would have hard angles. Metal structures joined with organic-looking segments flowing into crystalline structures. It shouldn’t have worked, but somehow it did.

He reached out with his powers when they were close enough. The station lit up in his awareness. Computer systems managing thousands of simultaneous processes. Communications arrays handling traffic from across known space.

All of it felt alien. The technology operated on principles he recognized, but the implementation was completely foreign. Like listening to a language where he understood individual words but not the grammar holding them together.

The fighters guided them toward a docking berth. Clamps engaged with a series of mechanical thuds that echoed through the hull.

“We’re secure,” Carmen announced. She turned to face Grimnir. “Good hunting.”

Alexander nodded. “Thank you, Captain. Keep the crew ready. And if things turn bad, don’t wait for us.”

They moved through the ship toward the airlock. Alexander adjusted his gauntlets. He could almost feel the focus of the others.

The airlock cycled open.

A delegation waited at the other end of the docking tube. Most were aliens, wearing vaguely similar uniforms despite the extreme variety in limbs and shape.

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One human stood among them, a woman in the same uniform.

An alien spoke. Droney translated smoothly for Alexander, directly parsing the meaning into his mind.

The human translated for them. “You are the superhuman assets?”

“Yes,” Alexander said.

“We require you to demonstrate power usage before we can continue.”

The group looked at Annie.

She blinked. “What, me?”

Alexander raised an eyebrow.

“Fine,” she huffed.

The officials observed her. One of them spoke in Galactic Common. The words were fluid, melodic in a way Earth languages weren’t. “Nothing dangerous.”

Annie responded in the same language. Her accent was rough, the words clearly unpracticed, but understandable. “I can show.”

Alexander stared. He hadn’t known she’d started learning the language, much less that she’d developed some fluency with it.

Annie’s arms rippled as liquid metal replaced flesh. She extended one hand and formed a blade. Then pulled it back and returned to normal.

The officials exchanged glances. The lead alien made a gesture that might have been approval.

“Acceptable,” it said. “Gate three is closest. Come.”

They were directed to a set of waiting vehicles. Maglev trolleys, six of them, hovering slightly above the deck. Each could hold four passengers. Grimnir split between them.

The trolleys launched forward smoothly. There was no sense of acceleration despite the speed. They shot through corridors and transit tubes, the station blurring past.

Alexander divided his attention between the conversation happening beside him and the technology flowing past his awareness.

Augustus was speaking to one of the escorts. Asking about the situation. Talia translated for him, her own questions teasing out technical details about the situation.

Three gates had opened suddenly across the station. Each gate had seen distinct threats emerging, though two of them were clearly humans.

Despite the sudden nature of the threat, The Nexus had the situation contained. Security forces were holding the lines. But it wasn’t sustainable indefinitely, and while most of the threats coming through the gates were manageable by station security, there were some capable of shrugging off the firepower being brought against them.

Which required superhuman support to deal with. But it had been days already, and even superhumans got tired. Injured.

Reinforcements from Earth would take up to a week to arrive.

Alexander absorbed the information while his powers continued to sweep across the surrounding station.

Everything was alien. The materials. The energy signatures. The way systems interfaced with each other. But his powers still recognized them as technology. Still felt the responsiveness, like the machines were still willing to communicate despite the language barrier.

They passed through a commercial district. The ceiling soared overhead, easily a hundred meters up. A long plaza ran down the center with storefronts on either side. The architecture was strange, but still comprehensible.

Most of the beings he sensed were aliens. Out of thousands of different bioelectrical signatures, only a couple of them were human.

Alexander’s awareness caught on an energy signature ahead. Complex. The power draw was staggering.

The trolleys slowed as they approached.

A giant dome stretched across the plaza. Semi-transparent, glowing faint orange. It covered nearly the full width of the commercial district, rising up to almost touch the ceiling.

Bodies were being dragged out through a section of the barrier that was walled off to allow passage. Alexander examined them as they passed. An eight-foot bipedal creature that looked like a cockroach. Something with thick muscled legs and a body like a shark. Other things, all wrong in ways that made his brain struggle to categorize them.

“What the hell are those?” Annie asked.

One of the escorts responded. “Unknown taxonomy. Coming through the gate. Other superhumans call it the Beastworld.”

Alexander exchanged a glance with Talia. They’d dealt with wizards and cultivators. Cultists and knights. Dinosaurs. But this was new.

The trolleys brought them to an entry point built into the dome. They dismounted and moved through the security gate on foot.

Alexander studied the dome as they passed through the entry system. Energy barrier tech. The power conduits fed into emitters positioned around the perimeter. The field itself appeared stable, the technology beyond anything humanity could produce.

He wanted to tear it apart and understand how it worked. Wanted to trace every circuit, map every energy pathway. Learn the principles and build his own.

Later. Mission first. I can borrow some of the tech when we’re done.

They stepped through the last barrier.

Heat hit him immediately. The air was noticeably warmer than the station outside. The air even tasted different. As if charged with something.

The gateway sat directly opposite the entry point.

It was massive. The same scale as the gate from their first invasion defence. Large enough to march an army through. But this time, there was no black aperture obscuring the view.

He could see through it.

Dense forest in the middle distance. Mountains rising beyond. A volcano on the horizon, smoke trailing from its peak. The sky on the other side was dark, with storm clouds gathering.

A hill overlooked the gate.

Something sat on that hill.

Alexander’s attention locked onto it immediately. An orangutan. Huge, easily twelve feet tall even sitting. Its fur was darker than any he’d seen before, almost black in places. Thick muscle visible beneath.

Other creatures milled about in the space between the forest and the gate. Keeping their distance from the orangutan. Some looked like wolves, but wrong. Others might have been bears or big cats, but all diverged from their Earth counterparts in disturbing ways.

A few of the creatures were fighting among themselves. Bickering over position or hierarchy. The orangutan ignored them.

It looked directly at Grimnir. At him.

The intelligence in its eyes was unmistakable, even from this distance.

Alexander met its gaze. Recognized immediately what he was seeing. Not animal cunning. It was evaluating them. Calculating. Showing patience.

Movement pulled his attention away. The defensive setup inside the dome formed a crescent around the gate, positioned at a safe distance. Mobile platforms mounted with weapons. Barriers providing cover. Automated turrets on articulated mounts.

The defenders looked tired. Aliens and the few humans both, their postures suggesting they were due for a shift change soon. But they remained focused on their tasks.

A creature burst through the gate.

Something vaguely canine but with too many legs. It charged forward three steps before concentrated fire tore it apart. The weapons tracked smoothly, overlapping fields of fire eliminating the threat in seconds.

A cleanup team moved in shortly after. They dragged the body toward the exit Grimnir had passed earlier.

The defenders never looked away from the gate. Prepared for the next threat.

The Nexus had things under control here. For now.

“Well if it isn’t the Machine God himself!”

Alexander turned. He’d been so focused on the gateway he hadn’t noticed the group lounging near the entry point.

A man stood up from where he’d been sitting on a supply crate. Lean build, easy smile. He held what looked like some kind of energy drink.

Cash.

“And the rest of Grimnir,” Cash continued, gesturing with the drink. “Didn’t expect to see you guys all the way out here.”

Several other figures rose from where they’d been resting. All human. All in costume or combat gear. All superhuman.

Their postures shifted immediately when they heard who they were. Hands moving toward weapons. Powers began to manifest in subtle ways.

“They’re supervillains,” one of them said. A woman with armor covering most of her body.

Another member of the Throne of Scales slid between them smoothly.

“Stand down,” Draven said. His voice was calm and professional. “Supervillains aren’t recognized as criminals in galactic space.”

The woman in armor didn’t lower her guard. “But what are they even doing here?”

Cash took a drink, completely unbothered by the tension. He smiled at Alexander in a way that was almost friendly.

“Eh, Grimnir are alright. Mostly. Just don’t trust that one to buy you a milkshake.”