The Conceptual Deck

Hello! I wanted to let everyone know I will be taking the final week of December off from posting and updating, to spend time with family and unwind a bit. The normal schedule will resume on the first of January.

Happy Holidays!

The process of building each component of the defense fleet took almost two weeks. Almost every component I used in the Void Skipper got pulled apart and upgraded, either by adding divine essence, Uru, or both. I had hundreds of small parts to design, everything from a network for communication between all of the battle groups, to equipment to keep clothes clean and an intercom system for communication throughout each individual ship.

The Navy experts I had designed the actual ships with had been a godsend in compiling a massive list of things that the ships would need, even if most of it was rendered overkill because no one would need to actually live on the ships.

When I was about a third of the way through the list, about five days of constant crafting, I took a break. Well, it was a break from crafting at least. I sat in the lounge looking at my phone for a long moment before typing "T'Chaka" into it and hitting send. I had put this conversation off long enough, it was time to buck up and get it done.

The phone rang for a few seconds before connecting. What I wasn't expecting, however, was for the phone to project a small image of the King of Wakanda. I had to quickly pull the phone down from my head so I could see the projection clearly.

"Who is this? How were you able to connect to this network?" He asked, more confused than angry, looking away from me to someone else in the room with him as he continued. "Someone track this connection!"

The angle of the projection was different, and it took me a minute to realize my phone had automatically accessed the Kimoyo beads that Wakanda had in the comics, and that I thought I had spotted before on T'challa and his warrior's wrists.

"Greetings King T'Chaka. My name is Carson Walsh, but you know me as Maker," I said simply, watching the Kings expression drastically shift, as well as the sound of people moving around him.

Despite his shock, the king quickly recovered, silencing those around him before looking back at me through the projection. During the silence I spotted Ema, making her way silently to the lounge area and sitting down across from me. She nodded to me and I looked back down at the projection.

"Greetings Mr. Walsh. I must admit, I did not expect to receive a call from you," He admitted. "And certainly not in this manner."

"I understand, we aren't exactly frequent pen pals," I agreed with a smirk. "But perhaps that could change. I would like to meet with you, as well as any advisors who you would like to bring with you. The location is up to you, either someplace neutral or somewhere in Wakanda, it doesn't matter to me."

For a long moment, the King of Wakanda is silent, staring at me through my phone, the hologram projecting him studying me.

"What is it you are looking to discuss?"

"Honestly I would prefer to wait until we are face to face," I explained with a shrug.

Again the Wakandan leader was silent, studying me for a long pause, before giving me a singular nod.

"Very well. With your word that you mean my people and me no harm, I will meet with you," He finally responded.

"You have it."

"Then I would invite you to come to Wakanda," He said. "We will be waiting for you.."

"Thank you King T'Chaka, I will be there shortly."

With a nod the foreign ruler hung up, the call disconnecting and the hologram fading into nothing before I stashed my phone back into my pocket.

"I didn't know your phone could do that," Ema admitted. "Did you add that in at some point?"

"No, I had no idea it would do that either. That communication concept is way more potent than I had thought," I said, shaking my head. "Are you coming with me?"

"A little warning would have been nice, but there is no way I would let you go to Wakanda alone," She said emphatically.

"Sorry, it was a spur-of-the-moment thing," I admitted. "I was starting to put it off so I just did it before I came up with another reason to push it till tomorrow or further."

"It's fine, though I would have been annoyed if I had plans with Jarvis or something," She pointed out, standing up from the couch.

We spent a while preparing some things, carding my emergency equipment and everything I thought I could possibly need. When I was finally done, I activated my instant shower and shifted my clothes to something business casual, a pair of dark grey dress pants, a slightly lighter blazer, and a forest green undershirt. Ema shifted her outfit into the same outfit she wore for our meeting with the WSC. She loved the ability to shift and change her clothes into anything she wanted, and enjoyed pushing the outfits to their limits, but was staying basic as she was playing bodyguard.

After a quick check to see if we had everything I activated my armor, the plates and bits of metal forming around me almost instantly, the usually flashy process cut down to an almost instant shift around me. I reached out and took Ema's hand, before traveling us to Wakanda.

I froze when we arrived, having expected to appear underwater in the river that ran through the Golden City, the capital of Wakanda. Instead, we appeared in a large, heavily reinforced room. Immediately six weapon emplacements swiveled and locked onto me, blue energy pulsing from several parts. I stayed perfectly still, while Ema moved to step in front of me, expanding a shield of her now Uru-enhanced exosuit body between us and the turrets.

"Huh… guess that's why they didn't give me directions on where to meet," I commented casually. "I really hope this doesn't turn into a fight."

Before anything else could happen the turrets swiveled back, the hum of energy they were giving off fading as their business ends spun away into their previous position. A thick metal door, just behind the turrets, opened with a hiss, and a single person stepped into the room. It was T'Challa, with two warriors armed with vibranium spears staying just outside the room.

I reached out and tapped Ema's shoulder, catching her attention. She looked back at me and after a moment nodded, her metal sliding back into her body. I hadn't felt a single hint of danger from my danger sense which meant they never really intended to shoot at us, and that this was just a show of force, a power play.

"You found my landing pad," I said, T'Challa nodding in response.

"A camera managed to spot you emerging out of the water during your last visit. Or at least the void in which you were inside, as you were clearly invisible." He explained, referring to when I had come to scan their vehicles, though he didn't know that. "We had to search the entire river to find it."

I shrugged and stepped forward, my armor fluttering off me in green flakes of glowing magic. When I was close, I reached out my hand. After a moment T'Challa reached out and shook it. His grip was tight, but not tight enough to hurt a normal person.

"I would have thought you would be annoyed we moved your landing pad," He admitted.

"Why would I be?" I asked with a shrug. "I never intended to use it nefariously. And if I did need a way to arrive without you knowing it would exactly be difficult to set up another one."

T'challa nodded, accepting my reasoning but clearly not happy their ploy to set me off center had failed. Internally I was cursing myself. I needed to find a way to keep anyone from ever moving one of my landing pads again. Or at least finding a way to keep from traveling to one that had been moved.

Before I could spiral into any deeper ideas of how to solve the new problem T'Challa gestured for me to follow him.

"Come, my father is waiting," He said simply, leading us out of the marginally secure room.

As Ema and I followed the warriors who had been escorting the prince fell in line around us, two more revealing themselves from around the corner of the doorway. I didn't comment on them as we made our way through the building, exiting after a few moments into the warm air of Wakanda. The city was bustling, but I could easily spot a dozen or so people who were watching us closely, ready to intervene if Ema or I tried anything.

We didn't walk far, T'Challa led us onto a floating transport of some kind, vaguely like a science fiction trolley. It was empty of course, and brought us directly to the Citadel, stopping by the front entrance. From there we were led through the impressive building, before stopping and entering an unfamiliar room. It seemed like we would not be having this meeting in the central meeting chamber, but in a room that, save for a few pieces of advanced technology, could have been mistaken for a boardroom in any large company on the planet.

King T'Chaka was already seated along one long side of the table, a few other people sitting on either side of him. He gestured to the empty seats.

"Mr. Walsh, please take a seat so we may begin."

Ema and I sat down on the opposite side, directly across from T'Chaka, who nodded once we were settled. A glass of water was poured for each of us by a man I hadn't even noticed, stepping away when he was done.

"Before you explain why you so suddenly contacted me, and in the process scared the daylights out of my security team, once again, I would like to apologize on behalf of my son," T'Chaka said, sitting rigidly in his seat. "He is young, and it burned him greatly that a man responsible for the death of our citizens walked free. His eagerness to bring him to justice, while righteous was… misjudged."

T'Challa, who looked suitably chastised, gave me a short, shallow bow.

"I appreciate that, but Tony, Pepper, and Jarvis are the ones you should really apologize to," I pointed out.

"Yes, that has also been discussed," T'Chaka admitted, looking at his son. "But that is a discussion for another time. For now, let me introduce those who have joined us. My wife, Queen Ramonda, Zuri, Elder Statesman for the tribal council, Umah, Merchant Tribe Elder, Izhnom, the River Tribe Elder, and finally M'Kada, my Chief Science advisor."

The king gestured to each person as he said their names, and I nodded with each introduction. When he was done I bowed slightly, showing respect but not deference.

"Thank you for agreeing to see me on such short notice, I understand you all must be very busy."

"I do not like it, rushing around on the word of someone who broke into the Golden City and laid threats on our council chamber," The Merchant Tribe Elder said in Xosa, looking to King T'Chaka "Why should we come at the call of an outsider, and a white man at that?"

"I would point out that I didn't set the time for this meeting," I answered in perfect Xosa. "I only asked for a meeting, your King is the one who set the time."

Everyone on the other side of the table eyed me, and I couldn't help but smirk. For this moment alone, the universal translation tattoo was well worth the effort it took to make.

"I understand that I am not exactly the most popular person in this room," I continued in Xosa, meeting the eyes of each person on the other side of the table. "But I have come in peace to do two things. The first is to make amends."

"Amends for what?" T'Challa asked, the suspicion in his eyes growing.

"I think I should start with an explanation," I said, looking to the King, who nodded after a moment. "Currently, I have two goals, both of them serving the same purpose, to protect the Earth and humanity as a whole. As you no doubt already know, the Earth came under attack not too long ago, by an alien force known as the Chitauri. Between Shield, the US military, and several other participating people, we were able to repel the attack. Unfortunately, the door has officially been opened, we are not alone and the universe knows we are here."

The group nodded, clearly, the intelligence forces of Wakanda had their fingers in a lot of different pies. The number of people who knew about the Chitauri invasion was supposed to be as small as possible.

"This revelation is a double-edged sword. There are endless opportunities in space, for growth, expansion, and trade, as well as forging diplomatic connections," I explained, noting that the Merchant Tribe Elder's eyes sparkled at the mention of trade. "Unfortunately, for every opportunity, there are a dozen risks. Threats that could obliterate the Earth. Threats that no one, not even you, as technologically advanced as you are, could survive."

"Wakanda will persevere," The River Tribe Elder responded. "Our spirit will not be broken."

"Could you survive the world burning?" I asked. "Not figuratively, and not metaphorically. But literally. Would your cities survive if the Earth was reduced to a ball of slag and fire? Would they survive if the air was poisoned? If the Earth was bombarded with weapons from orbit, would Wakanda survive?"

The Elder moved to respond, but a gesture from King T'Chaka stopped him before looking back to me.

"I assume that you are leading this somewhere?" King T'Chaka asked with a stern look.

"I want to make sure you understand the seriousness of the situation. There are threats out there that will crack our planet in two, simply to mine out its core. In fact, Wakanda might end up being one of the reasons why we would be attacked," I explained, getting a harsh look from multiple people before I explained. "Vibranium is almost as rare out there as it is here. Rest assured that there are plenty of factions, some of them which have been roaming the galaxy for hundreds of years, who sacrifice humanity as a whole just to get access to the metal that rests under your land."

I let what I had just revealed set in. Suddenly, Wakanda wasn't the technological giant keeping less developed countries from its riches. It was a target, one that could be raided by groups who technologically dwarfed them. When the full gravity of the situation made it through to them, I continued.

"My current projects would serve as a global defense. First would be an Earth Defense Force, one that would patrol the space around Earth and defend it from any force wishing to harm us. They would be restricted, unable to aim their guns at Earth or get within a certain distance of it, but I plan on making them as strong as I can. I've been working on space flight for a while now, starting with the Void Skipper."

I brought up a projection of the ship, rotating slowly to show it off from all angles.

"This was essentially a proof of concept. At this point most of the parts and equipment I used to stock and make this are far short of what I'm capable of."

"I am familiar with your vessel," T'Chaka said, eyeing the projection. "We don't know how or where you made it, but we have seen several recordings of the battle."

"Which I'm sure was given to you freely, not snagged while hacking the US or Shield. Well, I'm not exactly looking to share the details with anyone who asks, but Void Skipper was only a stepping stone. The first Earth Defense Force ships will hopefully begin construction within the next week or two."

"And what does this have to do with making amends?" T'Chaka asked.

"In order to build the thrusters, weapons, and a few other subsystems, I scanned Wakandan tech. There is no one-to-one copy that I used, but several Wakandan systems were used to combine with other tech to-"

The shouting was immediate, the Wakandan leaders cursing and shouting at me. Only King T'Chaka and Queen Ramonda remained silent.

I let them voice their understandable anger, listening silently as they condemned and demanded. After a long pause, the king thumped the table with a fist, demanding silence. He continued to stare at me before finally responding.

"Why?"

"My ability has quite a few quirks. One of the more helpful ones is that the more examples of something I have that are different, the more I can improve the final product," I explained. "Not to mention that Wakandan thruster systems are superior to every other method on Earth, besides perhaps Tony Starks repulsor tech. I wanted to get the testing phase of my shipbuilding up and running as quickly as possible, but I didn't have enough examples of thrusters to work into something cohesive and simple."

"So you stole from us?" The Merchant Tribe Elder said, sneering at me now. "You are no better than Klaue, thief!"

"I don't think that is a fair comparison," I responded coldly. "I am not saying I did nothing wrong, far from it. But I am not like Klaue"

"You wish to make amends," T'Chaka asked. "How?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "There isn't much I can't do these days, but in truth, I don't know what your people well enough to know what you need. Basically, name what you want and I will get it done. Within reason of course."