Synopsis
Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers) herself gives us the lowdown on the previous issues. In #1-2 the Ultimates changed Galactus from the Devourer to the Lifebringer. In #3-6 they went outside the Omniverse to see how broken the timestream was. However their spacecraft was destroyed in the process but Big G rescued them and brought them home. While they were out there he showed them a (partial) view of how time really worked, not as linearly as they believed (even counting the known existence of alternate timelines). (But he didn't show them that Eternity was currently caged in chains.) Also along the way they rescued Blue Marvel's frenemy Anti-Man (Conner Sims) from Neutral Space, and he's now awaiting trial for crimes against humanity.
Carol is still haunted by Galactus' revelation but she's jolted out of her reverie on the Alpha Flight space station by a holographic call from Commander M'Korr on the Shi'ar monitoring station Sharra-IV orbiting the great K'ythri wormhole. (These are named after the 2 major Shi'ar deities Sharra and K'ythri.) He tells her that they've detected a large Cosmic Cube energy spike on Earth during their treaty-agreed (by her predecessor as Ambassador Of Earth, Abigail Brand?) yearly check for Phoenix activity. He offers 'help' in dealing with it, which CM declines and he gives her the coordinates.
She suspects SHIELD of Cube-dabbling again, even after the Pleasant Hill debacle (in the Avengers: Standoff event), but her anger with them and M'Korr causes her to crush the holographic communicator, observed by Spectrum (Monica Rambeau) bearing coffee. Carol confides that she was shaken by the idea that the past is fluid, because she *lived* it. She's also concerned about the multiple possible futures, some of them catastrophic. (We see:- The King Thor future as depicted in the Thor: God Of Thunder series. An Ultron future, probably from the Age Of Ultron event. Sentinels, maybe from the Days Of Future Past tale. And the Phoenix Force destroying Earth, maybe from What If? #27.) She doesn't know how they can steer the future to avoid them, and all their early-warning systems are of no help.
Directly below them on Earth in the Triskelion Blue Marvel (Dr Adam Brashear) is watching Conner Sims in his special cell which has an energy-opaque field to hold him in, designed by his son Dr Max Brashear. He asks Conner if he's still having his strange visions. He turns away as Conner says sometimes he still sees things he can't describe, except the chains of the cage. But we see the inside of the cell transformed into the nothingness of the 'outside' and Conner now in his Anti-Man costume. He now adds that outside the cage he sees the jailer, and we see 2 eyes in the darkness. But BM hasn't heard any of this and asks his question again.
Then Black Panther (T'Challa) and America Chavez enter the room and Conner and his cell are back to normal. BP wants to know what's happening re Sims' trial. Adam says that the US want to try him in New York and the EU want the Hague. Obviously wherever it's held Conner will be there only in video because they don't dare move him from his cell. T'Challa has a better option, execution without trial. He speaks now as King Of Wakanda, not as their friend and teammate. Adam objects strongly, BP commends his conscience but says he'll be monitoring the situation and if Wakanda is threatened he will follow *his* conscience.
Captain Marvel goes to Project PEGASUS, the top-secret research institute on advanced energy sources. She's surprised to be greeted by Adam's daughter Adrienne Brashear, the Assistant Administrator who says she's about to be upgraded to the boss. She shows Carol their latest project, a very magnified hologram of an ISO-8 'crystal' (like the 1 Blue Marvel used to power the Incubator that transformed Galactus in #1-2). CapM thinks it look like a Cosmic Cube and Adrienne agrees that the 2 things do share some similarities. They're using some CC fragments they got from SHIELD to compare with. Colonel Danvers gets very angry and demands they shut down all Cosmic Cube research immediately. As well as the inherent danger it's alarming the galactic neighbours who it's her job as Ambassador for the human species to keep from attacking them.
On the way out she contacts Puck at the AFSS and advises him that M'Korr will use this to score points to increase his political status in the Shi'ar. He tells her that Medusa, Queen of the Inhumans, wants to talk to her.
Back on the Sharra-IV a subordinate informs Commander M'Korr that they've detected something humanoid emerging from the wormhole from Exo-Space. He dismisses it as trivial compared with the opportunities for leverage provided by the Earthers meddling with a Cosmic Cube again. Then he learns that they've lost contact with the docking bay, and with the security detail they sent to investigate. Then something breaks through the wall of the bridge and we see it's Thanos. He kills everyone but M'Korr and asks him what he knows about this Cosmic Cube.