The Multiversal Road-Trip: Book Five

30

They returned to the ship and left the Robot Heaven, and Loki flew the ship for about half an hour before anyone broke the silence. They weren't going anywhere in particular – just away from where they'd been. Wanda, Stephen and Scott were hanging out at the table, all of them fidgeting anxiously. Stephen kept meaning to start up a conversation, then thought better of it. And no one else wanted to speak.

Wanda hadn't even made eye contact. She'd kept her face down, staring at the hands in her lap, playing with a little red flame in between her fingers. Scott had retracted his helmet, and looked like he wanted to start up a conversation too, but he never did. And Loki hadn't spoken either, so who knew what he was thinking right now.

Stephen was just leaning back in his chair, twiddling his thumbs, occasionally gazing up at the others, or out the windshield into empty space. But at one point, he couldn't take the silence anymore. "So..." he started, but only Scott gave him any sign of acknowledgement. "Uh, what are we doing next then? Wandering around space forever?"

Suddenly he realised that might not have been the most sensitive thing to say in front of Wanda, who was clearly still dealing with previous events.

No one spoke up, not even Scott, so he spoke again. "Are we carrying on with the plan or not?" Looking at Wanda, he said, "It's fine if you don't want to."

Wanda shook her head, still staring into her lap. "No. I still want to go ahead with it. If I don't, I don't think I'll ever accept that I've done all I can, y'know?"

Stephen nodded, then turned around in his seat towards Loki. "Hey, are you coming over? We still need to figure out how we're going to do this."

"Oh, I think I know how to do it," Loki said, slowing down and stopping the ship in Hover Mode. He joined them in the seat next to Stephen and exhaled deeply. "Depends if the rules have changed. Because if they have, you three probably won't survive."

"Woah, what?" Stephen asked, suddenly waking up. "Why didn't you think to mention this earlier?"

"You didn't ask earlier," Loki said, activating the touchscreen on the table, making Scott and Wanda jump, and doing something Stephen couldn't see. "Just let me check. You guys chat amongst yourselves."

"Is this a touchscreen?" Scott asked, prodding the table interestedly. When it glowed pink all of a sudden, he pulled his hand away in shock. "Woah, what the hell?"

"Please don't put disco setting on," Loki muttered, tapping twice to change it back to black.

"Your table has a disco setting?" Wanda asked, blinking in confusion.

"No," Loki said, rolling his eyes. "I just call it that. For obvious reasons."

"Oh," Wanda and Scott said, in unison, then they exchanged a glance and burst out laughing. Consequently, Stephen and Loki exchanged a glance, shrugging. Well, they were all a bit weird in this group. And this was helping to diffuse the tension a little.

A few more minutes passed, and then Loki found what he was looking for. At first, he was relieved to have found it, but then he stopped in shock, staring at the table in a way that put Stephen on edge, because he only ever pulled that face when there was either danger or something to worry about. "Shit," he mumbled. "Shit."

"Are we going to die?" Scott asked, blatantly. White-faced.

"Um. Not die," Loki frowned, looking up at Stephen, for some reason. "But the rules have changed, so we've got to go through a hundred jump points so you're going to be feeling very, very ill afterwards, and I've got no more of that nice drink you all seem to like either."