Chapter 106: Amends

Chapter 106: Amends

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.

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."