Bend Around the Wind by Scyllaya

Chapter 52: Laufeyson

Chapter Fifty-Two

Laufeyson

Milky Way Galaxy

Tilnast System

Planet Sarka

Their day started out well enough. The only thing that truly bothered Tony was how annoyingly useful it was to have Hatchet around. He was constantly helping out, the bastard. Tony would have enjoyed it if he had more reasons to be hostile, but other than Hatchet's attitude and irritating personality, he had no reason to be pissed at him. For now. He promised Loki that he would not interfere, that he would let him handle the elf for the few days it took to see whether he passed or failed Loki's honesty test. On one hand, he wanted him to fail, because the guy seriously was too shady to simply confess who the hell sent him after Loki. If he kept silent, they would have a reason to just ditch his ass and not mention him again. But he also didn't want him to fail. Because with everything Loki turned his back on, his issues with his family, it would suck if his friend let him down too. Tony really-really did not like the guy, but he was the first person from Loki's past who did not incite some sort of murderous rage in the god. It would be the shittiest thing ever to hope for Loki to lose one of the last friends he had from before.

So yes, Hatchet aside, their day had been fine. Until a group of five - armed soldier looking guys - marched inside their dock. His mind was immediately yelling "Danger, Will Robinson, danger!" and he tensed as he turned towards them. Only Juyu was outside with him when they approached and Tony wasn't sure whether to call for Drongo and Bee. They were close, would probably even hear if he yelled. He decided against it for the time being, hoping to solve whatever was going on with words alone.

'Just stay silent, okay?' he glanced at Juyu and the girl nodded firmly in return.

He put on one of his most charming press conference smiles as the men stopped in front of them.

'How can I help you?' he asked.

'Are you in charge of this spacecraft?' the leader asked.

'Yes, I am,' Tony answered without hesitation.

'I am Ulcan, this is a routine search and by Council Law #5 you are requested to cooperate while we search your ship for hostile life forms.'

'No hostility here,' Tony told them with a smile. 'That I can tell you right away. We're just harmless traders.'

The leader gave him a look that meant that he heard those lines a hundred times before.

'Your cooperation is appreciated,' he said. 'It shouldn't take long and as long as you do not hide Dire Wraiths, Gramosians, Kodabaks, Chitauri, Skrulls, Yirbeks, Ul'lula'ns or Solons, there should be no problem at all.'

Tony had never been more proud of his poker face and that his smile did not falter hearing the word "Skrull". He was also ridiculously glad that Juyu did not understand what they were saying. She was not really good at hiding her reactions. His mind was immediately racing a mile a minute and he was talking before he even thought about it.

'Wow. That's a lot of hostile races. I'm kind of new in this part of the galaxy. Should I be worried, what kind of precautions do we need to take? Are there systems we should avoid? I mean, are any of these attacking ships around here or something?'

The only thing he could think of was to stall them while he thought of something better to do. At least Ulcan looked like he was willing to indulge him.

'No need for concern,' he said. 'Most of these races inhabit the Andromeda Galaxy and are unlikely to approach us, but some of them possess skills that can be used for infiltration. You do not need to worry about being attacked either, trading ships are unlikely targets.'