Who: Yondu Udonta, Anakin Skywalker, Peter Quill, Jessica Jones When: Backdated to Early April Where: The Quadrant (Yondu’s ship) What: Launch and maiden voyage of the Quadrant! Rating/Warnings: None. Status: Complete
Yondu Udonta was excited, and his huge grin - crazy teeth and all - showed it. Finally he and Anakin had finished rebuilding (and even upgrading) the Quadrant, the ship from Yondu’s dreams. Months of hard work piecing her together had finally paid off, and as he stood on the bridge of the ship that overlooked the junk yard, he couldn’t wait to replace that view with the stars.
He laughed and clapped his hands together, rubbing them with anticipation. “All righty! Today’s the day!” He turned around to look at the others who had joined him. “I’d’ve cracked a bottle of champagne on the hull, but then that woulda been a waste of good champagne. So we’ll just drink it instead. Once we’re in orbit, o‘course.” He threw a wink to Jessica.
Anakin knew Peter and Yondu. He didn’t know the woman with them. But he figured he didn’t have to be concerned, if only because he naturally had a dangerous lack of fear.
He was casually leaning against a railing, arms crossed.
“Everything should work. I can’t feel anything is wrong.”
“Well duh,” Peter said, rolling his eyes from his seat by Yondu. “If something was wrong, we’d already be dead by now or something.” Well no, that was not likely to be right, but Peter still felt like rolling his eyes. “And come on -- didn’t you help with it? So if something IS wrong, it’s all your fault and I’ll curse your name as we crash into a fiery ball of pain.”
He grinned and glanced at Jessica.
“Feeling safe yet?”
“You know I would have had to kill you if you wasted champagne like that,” Jessica teased Yondu, only half joking. She was glad that he hadn’t had the sense not to actually waste good alcohol like that.
She likewise didn’t know the other man on the ship, and she wasn’t entirely sure if ‘can’t feel anything wrong’ was supposed to be reassuring or not. She assumed Yondu had brought him along for a reason - and then Peter confirmed it. He’d helped build the ship. Jessica really hoped that she knew what he was talking about.
Especially once Peter started going on about a fiery crash. She crossed her arms across her chest. “You sure we can’t start on that champagne now?” she asked Yondu.
Yondu shot Peter a look then replied, “Ignore the chucklehead. Ain't nothin’ bad gonna happen.” He sat down in the pilots chair - Peter was of course in the co-pilot's chair as if somehow Yondu was going to let him drive. Fat chance. His fingers flew over the console before he announced “All right, buckle up folks. Get ready for lift off.” He locked the controls on the co-pilots console; he remembered Rocket stupidly putting them through too many space jumps and worried Peter might do something stupid like that.
Firing up the engines the mammoth ship shuddered before heavily lifting off the ground. Slowly the junkyard dropped beneath them.
“Engaging cloaking.” Yondu called out. Nothing changed for their view except a brief shimmer. But to anyone in the neighborhood, all there was was open sky and a mysteriously loud roaring sound.
Anakin just shrugged at Peter. “If we have cabin pressure, we’d liquify before you could say anything. If we’re sucked into the vacuum of space, well you can’t scream in a vacuum.” He said this as if either outcome were no big deal, like strolling through a park.
He reached into his pocket for s fidget spinner and started absentmindedly playing with it.
“If I had a choice, I’d take liquefying.”
A grin spread across his face as he watched the ground recede from the view port.
“See,” he cock his chin towards the view port. “Everything is working.”
Peter made a face. “Always with the positive vibes, Anakin. Your sunny disposition is mind-boggling.” He also looked out through the view port and couldn’t help the smile that was blooming on his face.
Good-bye Earth, and good fucking riddance. There was a whole world up there -- SEVERAL worlds actually -- and he was so so stoked to see them all.
“Frick. I’ve never even left the US before, and here I go into space and beyond. I wonder if I should’ve told my PO, or if this would be an acceptable leave of absence.”
Teasing. Of course.
If Jessica was being honest, all the talk about crashing, liquifying, or being sucked into the vacuum of space wasn’t helping much, and she was beginning to wonder if she shouldn’t have let Yondu do his test run with just Peter and this Anakin; she could have come up later, once she was a little more sure that she wouldn’t end up in another horrific crash.
But she sat down in her seat, put on her seatbelt, and tried to steady her breathing a little. And then, suddenly, there was nothing in front of them but the vast expanse of space, the stars glimmering distantly in front of them, and her breath left her completely. Wow.
“I think your PO would think you were insane if you tried telling him,” Jessica said, not quite able to take her eyes off the windows in front of them.
The trip through the atmosphere had been quick and with minimal shuddering; this ship was just as powerful as in the dreams. Before Yondu knew it the blue sky had given way to the inky black of space and her glittering diamonds of stars. He was as breathless as everyone else, and an appreciable silence filled the bridge. Yondu almost forgot to slow the Quadrant to a stop - they would have continued rising, leaving Earth far below them. Repositioning the ship, he watched as the Earth pulled into view, a blue and green orb the size of a beach ball.
"That should be far enough." Yondu finally found words. He sat back and smirked. This suddenly felt like home. Like for the first time in his life he was where he belonged. "Ain't that somethin'." He said quietly, staring at the Earth.
Anakin had watched the footage that had made Apollo 8’s mission so momentous in 1968 so many times. The full color image of the Earth rising above the horizon of the moon was hauntingly beautiful. But it wasn’t something he thought he’d ever get to see personally in his lifetime.
And this was unique from the experiences in his dreams, in which he’d been to many planets now. Because this was “home,” spinning there in the inky black of space. A fragile, insignificant dot in the vastness that was the universe and all time.
“Can we swing by the moon?” he asked not looking away. With the Earth that size in viewport the moon wouldn’t be that much further out from their orbit.
“The moon…...you know what that would be?” Peter had prepared a song just for this moment, and even though he knew Yondu had probably blocked any and all access to the sound system, Peter always had a way. Turning on his little pocket speaker, he pushed play and started to croon along with the master, Barry Manilow.
“You wouldn't believe where I've been The cities and towns I've been in From Boston to Denver and every town in between”
Peter crooned along, and then sang even louder to answer Anakin’s question It's a miracle (miracle) A true, blue spectacle, a miracle come true (whoa oh-oh-oh-oh)
He grinned widely at everyone. “Come on, sing along! Jessica, you gotta know Manilow! You seem like a Copacabana kinda girl.”
Swing by the moon was a phrase that Jessica didn’t think she ever would have heard, and yet, here she was. Somehow, the phrase only managed to make the whole experience seem even more surreal. At least, it was until the music started playing.
“I’m more of a Nirvana kind of girl,” Jessica said, and then followed it up with “Besides, I already told you I didn’t sing.” But, despite what she said, she was smiling. The music was oddly fitting, and really, not the worst thing that could be seared into her brain at this moment.
“So, Yondu, is it time to celebrate or wha?”
He hadn’t had a chance to answer Anakin before Peter butted in. A familiar scowl formed on Yondu’s face as Manilow’s irritating voice crooned from Peter’s pocket speaker. He hated Barry Manilow. With a passion. And Peter knew this.
“I’ll celebrate when Peter shuts that damn thing off. Dammit, boy! You’re ruinin’ the moment!” Yondu barked fiercely, red eyes flashing. Why couldn’t he like Aerosmith or The Red Hot Chili Peppers like a proper millennial? Or hell, he’d even take that Bruno Mars kid over this.
He set the ship on course to turn about so they could head towards the moon, then swinging with one arm at Peter to try to get the tiny speaker. “Shut. That. OFF! Or at least put some real music on!”
Anakin just rolled his eyes at Peter but smiled. If there was another way to keep the peace, he wouldn’t mind keeping the music on. It wasn’t his favorite, but it didn’t annoy him either.
With the Force, Anakin reached out just enough to nudge the off switch on Peter’s player.
The music stopped.
Peter slouched in his chair, arms crossed, pouting. “You guys all suck,” he grumbled, toeing the floor in front of him. He’d find a way to get the music going again later. Or else put up with whatever crap Yondu decided was ‘real music’. “If there’s no music, then we’re all going to have talk and discuss life. Like our favourite fart stories or like the one time I got food poisoning.” He grinned and looked at Jessica.
“You start.”
Jessica was a little surprised that Peter had decided to turn off the music with minimal protest, even if he was pouting about it. “Trust me Peter, no one wants to hear about the time you got food poisoning,” Jessica said.
Not that Jessica had too many stories herself, at least, not ones that she was willing to share. “And I doubt anyone wants to hear about the time that someone hired me for a week to tail their cat either. Spoilers: It was about as boring as it sounds like it was.” Still, it was one of the strangest jobs she’d ever been hired for, and it was the one she normally brought up when people asked about her job.
Yondu knew Anakin had used the Force to shut off the radio, because Peter sure as hell wouldn't have that quickly. He'd seen Anakin use his Dream powers to help him organize the Quadrant's parts and while they were building her. It was damned useful, that was for sure.
He threw a smirk in Jessica's direction. He was tempted to make a dirty joke about chasing a cat but opted not to. "All right, all right. Let's pop the cork on that champagne, eh?" He rose from his chair and fetched the bottle that had been sitting in a bucket of ice off to the side. Grabbing a cluster of small, metal cups with alien designs on them he filled each and passed them out. He strode over to the controls and slowed the Quadrant to a stop, the pale, cratered visage of the moon hanging before them so close he thought he could spot the American flag on the surface. Yondu spun around and lifted his glass. "To the Quadrant's maiden voyage."
Anakin actually did want to know what the cat was doing but he didn’t try to keep that line of conversation going. Yondu had already jumped to toasting the Quadrant and Anakin just went with it. He didn’t drink anything, because he didn’t drink alcohol, but he raised his cup along with the rest of them.
He kept his eye on the moon. It was barren and looked deep to the bone cold hanging up against the black. But it was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
“I sure hope there isn’t a secret Russian or Chinese military base on the dark side of the moon,” he wondered out loud.
Peter’s eyes widened as he held his cup up. “Oh! I hope there IS! Yondu! Let’s go see that! You can paint my face green and I’ll wear an eyepatch or something. We’ll let everyone think there’s Martian pirates!”
He completely ignored the fact that Yondu was an OBVIOUS choice for trolling military bases.
“Now you’re speaking my language,” Jessia said to Yondu, finally unbuckling and getting up to her seat. She took her place standing next to Yondu, and cheered with the rest of them before knocking her champagne back in a single gulp and holding her glass out for a refill.
She shot Yondu an amused look at Peter’s idea. “Yes, you’re obviously the logical choice here to trick everyone into believing there’s Martians on the moon,” she said, straightfaced.
Yondu laughed, refilling Jessica's glass as well as his own. Oh, Peter. Sometimes he wondered how stupid things just left his mouth so easily. It was something that usually chafed him but it was times like this it was endearing.
"Eh. Might as well take a looky loo. Always wondered myself." Knocking back his drink he set the glass aside, sat down at the controls, and cracked his knuckles. "Dark side of the moon, here we come."