Nick Fury was clearly unwilling, but he had no choice except to obey Solomon's orders and allow the Sisterhood to take over the facility. To ensure the corridors were clear of defense measures, the Sisterhood and technicians from the Mars Foundry had already seized control of the central control systems and power grid, leaving only essential systems operational. Even so, the assault squad still carried shields to guarantee that not a single bullet could harm their sovereign.
"Why can't you have a little more faith in the Skrulls, Solomon?" Nick Fury kept grumbling on the way to his office. "They're homeless, and they're working for an agency meant to protect humanity from supernatural threats. They're fighting for our safety. They're not the enemy—same as the Asgardians. Sure, they've got guys like Loki, but they've also got people like Thor. Look, we can settle this peacefully. Hey—easy, ma'am! They're not criminals!"
"If you're placing the safety of the human species in the mercy of aliens, then we have nothing more to discuss," Solomon said coldly, walking behind the escort formation. Aside from Fury, several Skrulls were also among those being led away. The Sisterhood's assault squad was responsible for guarding this command team, and any suspicious behavior was met with harsh countermeasures. One female Skrull disguised as a human was already struck for attempting to escape. Fury had anticipated this but still chose not to resist, because he didn't want Solomon killing anyone—human or alien.
"I was in the middle of something important when my Praetorian Guard reported an alien breach," Solomon said. "You have no idea how busy I am—or how urgent my work is. If I wasn't trying to figure out how many aliens you've smuggled onto Earth, you'd already be dead. I want everything, Nick Fury. This happened because you broke our agreement."
"See? I told you—you're just like me. Can't trust anyone, always have to control everything. Now I finally get how my old S.H.I.E.L.D. agents felt. Agent Coulson's probably glad he escaped me." The former director sighed. "I'll give you what you want, Solomon—but you have to give me something in return. You know how well I keep secrets. If I don't want to tell you, killing everyone here won't help. By the way, is Agent Romanoff working for you now?"
"You haven't changed, Nick Fury," the magus replied. The procession halted at a biometric security door requiring both iris and fingerprint scans. "Open the office. Our administration team will extract the intel," he said. "This has dragged on for years. By now, those Skrulls on Earth have probably started having kids."
Fury didn't resist much and unlocked the door, allowing Eternal City's administrative personnel to storm in and begin the search.
"What are you going to do if you find those Skrulls?" Fury asked after being forced into a chair, Solomon seated across from him. "Kill them? Lock them up? Experiment on them?"
"Why not all three?" Solomon replied, watching as his team hacked into the station's firewalls and transferred the data to Eternal City's secure servers, where Earth-based analysts would filter and interpret the information. "I've repeated my terms more than once, and you know I don't change my mind. Eternal City will hunt and eliminate every Skrull on Earth. The ones here will be detained and interrogated—"
"—and executed," Nick Fury finished.
"Yes."
"You don't think they could be more useful alive?"
"It's tempting. Biologically and psychologically adaptive shapeshifters would make great spies. But your management of them has been awful. I suspect this operation predates S.H.I.E.L.D.'s collapse—and that you misappropriated funding not to build global safehouses, but to construct this station. Tell me, Nick—how many Skrull agents have defected? Did you ever get them back?"
"Since when do you manipulate girls into fighting your wars?"
"Don't change the subject." Solomon's tone remained even. "We'll identify that corpse, and we'll calculate exactly how many Skrulls you let loose on Earth. I'm taking over this facility, and you'll work under me. From now on, you're my subordinate. Happy? During the Hydra uprising, I got three sky-battleships from S.H.I.E.L.D.—now I'm getting a space station from you. You've been very generous."
Through the office's armored glass, a massive black silhouette glided silently through the void—like a whale swimming through the abyssal deep. It was one of Eternal City's retrofitted sky-battleships. Its gun batteries were all aimed directly at the space station, which was easily twice the length, width, and height of a standard Sky Carrier. With current human technology, building such a station was a massive endeavor—something only someone like Nick Fury, with access to alien tech and embezzled S.H.I.E.L.D. funds, could have pulled off. But he had never anticipated an attack on this scale. Now, under the firepower of the sky-battleship, the station had surrendered.
"My lord," said Ola, removing her helmet and approaching. She glanced in disgust at the restrained Skrulls on the floor before delivering her report. "Eternal City has received the data. The intelligence division is working on decrypting it, but their encryption format is incompatible with Earth's."
Nick Fury raised an eyebrow.
That Solomon's team had managed to breach the firewalls and start data transmission was impressive enough. Though he couldn't hear what the armored woman said, it was clearly about encryption issues. He feigned ignorance.
"Looks like we'll be staying here a bit longer," Solomon said, fixing his gaze on Fury's one eye. "If we can't take control of S.W.O.R.D., I won't mind adding more debris to Earth's orbit."
"I'm out of time, Nick Fury. My patience is running out." Solomon stood, issuing orders to Ola. "Detain all Skrulls listed in the manifest. Restrain them. Have Tita coordinate a full interrogation for each one. If this station holds no intelligence, I believe these aliens will still know something." He turned toward the window. "Prepare to assume full control of this facility. Tell the Foundry to begin conversion protocols."
"Yes, my lord!"
"You didn't used to be like this, Solomon," Fury said. "I thought you'd handle this differently. Are you trying to become a tyrant?"
Solomon didn't respond.
He turned and walked out the door.
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