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The Ravager battleship slowed, then hung motionless in the void, still some distance from Xandar.
"Why did we stop?"
Hermione looked up from her book and settled her gaze on Yondu.
Yondu forced out a respectful smile. "My lady, Xandar's just ahead. The problem is — we're Ravagers. Flagged in every major empire. This ship is way too conspicuous. Any closer and the Nova Corps will classify us as invaders and open fire."
A thread of excitement ran beneath his words. He clearly thought this might buy him some temporary distance from the disaster standing in front of him.
If they couldn't fly the battleship in, she'd have to go alone.
Nova Corps, please save me.
Hermione nodded thoughtfully.
Fair point. This hulking, dark, brutish ship looked like anything but a legitimate vessel. It practically had "here to rob you" stenciled on the hull.
"I see." She stood up. "Fine. You're coming with me. We'll take my ship."
The smile on Yondu's face went rigid. "Huh? My lady, that's—"
"Is there a problem?"
"N-no problem!" He backpedaled immediately, while his mind let out a silent wail of despair.
Done. Just crawled out of the wolf's den, now walking straight into the tiger's.
He'd been banking on the Nova Corps to help him shake off this witch once they reached Xandar. Now it turned out he wasn't shaking her off at all, he was about to storm Nova Corps headquarters right alongside her.
The two headed to the battleship's hangar.
As they passed the ship's wing, Hermione seemed to remember something. Her steps slowed. She glanced at the spot where debris had scraped off the paint.
Yondu and the Ravagers trailing behind felt their hearts seize. Please, they thought, please don't bring that up again.
Hermione raised one hand, almost lazily, and gave a light wave toward the scratch.
"Reparo!"
Light flashed.
The scratch disappeared without a trace, as though the hull had never been touched.
Yondu and the Ravagers: "..."
Ten thousand space llamas stampeded through their collective mind.
You could fix it THIS WHOLE TIME?!
And you opened with a five-billion-Units demand?! Even scammers have standards!
But not one of them said a word. They already understood, that scratched paint had just been a convenient excuse. She'd grabbed it and run with it.
If they kept their mouths shut, everyone could at least maintain the fiction of "compensation for ship damage."
If they said something, she'd just find another reason. Something worse.
When faced with unreasonable, absolute power, surrender was the only option.
At least dying over "vehicular accident compensation" was more dignified than dying because you "stepped through the door with your left foot first."
Hermione walked aboard her ship, and the resigned Yondu followed behind.
Take care of yourself, boss.
The crew watched him go, eyes glistening.
Yondu had sacrificed himself to keep every last one of them away from this witch.
A true hero.
Worth shutting down work for half a day in his honor.
The moment Hermione's ship pulled away, the remaining Ravagers exchanged glances.
One of them cleared his throat. "So... who's up for next boss?"
...
The ship cruised smoothly toward Xandar.
As the distance closed, the planet's defense systems responded. Several fighters with distinctive silhouettes broke off from an orbital station, snapped into formation, and cut across Hermione's flight path.
The comms channel opened. A clipped, no-nonsense voice filled the cockpit: "Unidentified craft, you have entered Nova Empire defense space. Identify yourself immediately and submit to inspection. Failure to comply will result in enforcement action."
Hermione's fingers tapped the control panel. An encrypted data stream went out through the ship's comms, the Asgardian travel credential Thor had given her. Something like a diplomatic transit document, she'd thought. She tapped send.
A few seconds of silence from the other end. Verification in progress.
Then: "Identity confirmed. Welcome to Xandar, esteemed emissary of Asgard! Please stand by, a flight path has been cleared for you."
The professionalism was intact, but the astonishment underneath it wasn't quite hidden.
Then, still on the open channel, came a burst of barely-contained muttering:
"...An Asgardian? They actually came to Xandar? I thought they never left the Nine Realms..."
A second voice hissed immediately: "Idiot! Channel's still open! Shut your mouth!"
The first officer came back on, smoothly, with just a trace of apology:
"Our sincere apologies, esteemed emissary. Please forgive the lapse in decorum. Nova Prime has been notified and will arrange a meeting at her earliest convenience. Please follow our guidance to the VIP docking bay."
Yondu stood beside her, staring.
She actually is an Asgardian emissary.
He'd assumed the ship was just something else Hermione had lifted.
Hermione was mildly surprised herself.
She'd expected whatever Thor gave her to be the equivalent of a tourist visa. She hadn't anticipated it being the highest-tier diplomatic credentials available, the kind that stamped her as an official representative of Asgard.
She raised an eyebrow.
So. Asgard kept a low profile and rarely stuck its nose into affairs beyond the Nine Realms, but its weight in the broader universe was far greater than she'd assumed. Even someone like the Collector, Taneleer Tivan, a genuine heavyweight of the cosmos, had gone through every courtesy when meeting Sif.
In the circles that actually mattered, the name "Asgard" was still a gold standard. Anyone who didn't know what that name was worth simply hadn't reached a level worth knowing.
With a Nova Corps fighter escort flanking her on both sides, Hermione's ship descended into Xandar's atmosphere in formation, a small fleet, cutting through the sky with unmistakable gravity.
Down in the city below, vast and luminous and teeming with life, residents and tourists of a dozen different species all stopped to look up.
"Look at that — Nova Corps highest-tier escort formation!"
"Who could that be? That kind of fanfare? Could it be a Kree Empire emissary?"
"Doubt it. Kree ships don't look like that. And with Ronan, the Accuser, still a raw wound, the Nova Empire and the Kree are on awful terms. They wouldn't show up here."
"That silver ship, I've never seen that design before. But anyone the Nova Corps treats like that has to be someone serious."
Speculation rippled across the ground. Countless faces tilted skyward, watching the guarded, mysterious ship cut overhead.
The ship touched down in a wide, open landing area, clearly reserved for dignitaries.
The hatch opened. Hermione stepped out, with Yondu trailing behind her, bag in hand.
A contingent of Nova Corps soldiers stood in formation on the landing pad, waiting. At their head was a man in a senior officer's uniform. His features were sharp, his eyes sharper, and he looked, at a glance, almost entirely human.
Hermione found that faintly reassuring.
The Nova Empire welcomed all manner of species, however strange their shapes. But like the Asgardians, its dominant population happened to look remarkably close to human.
The officer's gaze landed on the person stepping off the ship.
A petite girl. Young. Didn't look particularly formidable.
A flicker of open surprise crossed his face.
➤ Next: Nova Prime — Face to Face
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