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“ H as anyone ever seen what the Supreme Intelligence really looks like?”
Vers stood in the crowded train car next to Yon-Rogg. They were surrounded by their fellow Kree, all of whom were busy going about their day-to-day routines, casting surreptitious and deferential glances at the elite warriors riding alongside them.
“No one can look upon the Supreme Intelligence in its true form,” Yon-Rogg chided. “You know that.”
Vers did, in fact, know that, but she also figured it never hurt to ask. As far as she could tell, not asking questions was the bigger sin.
As the train zoomed through Hala, Vers glanced out the window behind Yon-Rogg. Scattered in amongst the high-rise buildings were numerous public announcement signs, some as big as the train cars themselves. Each of the signs played the same message, a voice-over accompanied by visuals of Kree citizens. Vers knew the voice-over so well, she had it memorized:
One hundred and twenty days since the last Skrull attack...
The Skrulls. They were the reason that Vers and her Starforce comrades always seemed to be on a state of high alert.
“Our subconscious chooses the way it appears to us,” Yon-Rogg reminded, bringing Vers back to the train car. “No Kree divulges it, ever.”
Vers looked at Yon-Rogg for a moment. “Who do you see?” she asked, genuinely wanting to know. “Your brother?”
“No,” Yon-Rogg said shortly, clearly not wanting to answer the question. Which, of course, just made Vers want to keep asking.
“Father?” she pressed.
“No.”
“Your old commander?”
“Vers—”
“It’s me you see, isn’t it?” Vers joked.
“I see what you’re trying to do,” Yon-Rogg said, smiling.
“Is it working?”
“Yes,” Yon-Rogg replied. “But you won’t succeed in changing the topic.”
Vers sighed, holding up her fists. “What is the point of giving me these, if you don’t want me to use them?”
Yon-Rogg looked at Vers with piercing eyes. “I want you to use them,” he said, gravely. “The Supreme Intelligence gave me the responsibility of showing you how to use them.”
This didn’t sit well with Vers. “I know how,” she protested.
“Yeah, if that were true, you’d be able to knock me down without them,” Yon-Rogg countered.
Vers smirked, and then thumped Yon-Rogg in the middle of the chest. Playfully, not hard, but hard enough to let him know that she could knock him down if she wanted to.
“Control your impulses. Stop using this,” he said, pointing toward her heart. “Start using this.”
He was pointing at her head.
Then he rested both hands upon her shoulders. “I want you to be the best version of yourself,” he said.
The best version of myself? Vers thought. How can I do that, when I’m not even sure who I am... ?
How many times had Vers approached the platform? Five? Ten? More? No matter the number, communing with the Supreme Intelligence always left Vers feeling more than a little... unnerved. There was something about the way the Intelligence looked, the sound of its voice, the way it stared at her—into her—like it knew something about her past, but wouldn’t tell.
Vers took her place on the platform, her hands at her sides, trying to stay relaxed. Tendrils slowly rose from the floor, wrapping themselves around Vers’s feet. Longer, thinner tendrils then appeared, moving up the length of Vers’s body, covering her hands. They continued their upward movement, until the tendrils had reached her head, and slid across her face, beneath her eyes.
She took a deep breath, and blinked.
Suddenly, she was no longer in the actual, physical building that housed the Supreme Intelligence interface.
She was now in a flat, gray, featureless environment. On the ground, stretching out before her, into the vast distance, was a moving substance, dark, like graphite, constantly flowing, shimmering. Vers could see a shaft of light glowing before her. Then a shadow appeared, moved out from the beam, and came directly toward her.
“Vers,” came the voice.
“Intelligence,” Vers replied, addressing the Supreme Intelligence.
The tantalizingly familiar figure of the Supreme Intelligence looked at Vers, regarding her carefully from its assumed female form—an older woman, with short graying hair and a gray waistcoat to match. “Your commander insists that you’re fit to serve,” she said.
Yon-Rogg said that? Vers thought.
“I am,” she said without hesitation.
“You struggle with your emotions,” the Intelligence offered, looking at Vers. “With your past, which fuels them.”
Then the Intelligence gestured to the distance, to a series of small orbs that were hovering in the air above them. One by one, the orbs changed appearance, until they were purple in color. “You are just one victim of the Skrull expansion,” she said, motioning toward the orbs, “that has threatened our civilization for centuries.”
Vers nodded.
A history lesson? she thought. I know all this...
“Imposters who silently infiltrate, then take over our planets,” the Intelligence continued. Above them, an image appeared of a figure walking through a cloud of black smoke, brandishing a weapon. As the figure came into view, Vers could see the creature’s green pallor and ridged chin, its pointed ears... the telltale signs of the Skrulls.
“Horrors that you remember,” the Intelligence said, as the figure in the image slowly raised the blaster in its hand, then fired it. “And so much that you do not.”
Then the image disappeared.
“It’s all blank,” Vers said quietly. “My life.” She stared at the Supreme Intelligence for a moment. “You’re supposed to take the form of who I most admire. But I don’t even remember who this person was to me.” Even though Vers couldn’t remember who this person was, she could tell that there was something special about her. There was a kindness in her eyes, a twinkle of amusement or maybe even affection.
The Supreme Intelligence tilted its head, staring at Vers. “Perhaps this is a mercy, sparing you from a deeper pain,” it suggested. “Freeing you to do what all Kree must: Put your people’s needs before your own.”
Vers considered the thought briefly. It certainly didn’t feel like a mercy.
“We’ve given you a great gift,” the Intelligence continued. “The chance to fight for the good of all Kree.”
Vers felt the strange sensation in her neck of the photon battery, vibrating slightly, as if alive. Here, in the presence of the Supreme Intelligence, the battery was recharging. She felt the power growing steadily within her, and her energy beginning to glow.
“I want to serve,” Vers said, and she meant it.
Then suddenly, the photon battery stopped vibrating, and the glow that had been coming from Vers quickly faded.
“Then master yourself,” the Intelligence admonished. “What was given can be taken away.”
“I won’t let you down,” Vers said.
“We’ll know soon enough,” came the Intelligence’s slightly stiff reply. “You have a mission. Serve well, and with honor.”
Vers sighed, and closed her eyes.
When she opened them, the Supreme Intelligence was no longer there, and Vers had returned to the interface chamber.
What was given can be taken away.
Vers couldn’t stop the words from reverberating inside her head, no matter how hard she tried to make them go away.