[Archive] With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Story Only)

[Mr Zoat]

16th July
15:43 GMT

The Reach Negotiator tries to covertly reach under her robes and activate her emergency teleporter, freezing as she realises that it's inoperative. Another button press gives her emergency anaesthetic, causing her to gasp with relief.

The Convenor makes a vague twisting motion with his right hand. "Security, stand down."

"Aw, really?" Phil grins and heads towards the Convenor's podium. "You sure? I'll spot you my masers?"

"What do you want, terrorist?"

I drop my own invisibility and hold out my hands, projecting a construct image of an Urrigenian brain.

"No one?" Phil looks around hopefully for a moment, then sheathes his sword. "Alright, fine. Business it is. My orange friend up there is showing a picture of your brains." I generate a second image. "And this is your brain on Reach neurotech. Please pay careful attention to that bit near the front." I switch to a cutaway image which more clearly indicates the issue. "A lot of people in your military… And more than a few of your representatives in here have had this done. Improved short term memory and spatial awareness… And an inclination to be subservient to their Reach masters." He reaches the podium, kicking the body of a Reach soldier out of the way as he does so.

"Fortunately for all of you, we Darkstars know a Reach plot when we see it. We know everyone who's had this done and we know how to reverse it." There's a ping inside my armour. Our colleagues have hit the Reach planetside command centre. "And we also have recordings proving that the Reach violated what your government told you was their deal and used their military forces -including a Scarab Warrior- on your planet." He slouches against the podium. "Not to labour the point, but they've done everything we told you they would when we first got in contact eight years ago. We're releasing all of this onto your planet's communications network now. Check what I've said. Check our evidence. Ask your representatives why they've spent eight years lying to you."

He looks up at me. "Orange!"

I extend my right hand to my right, one representative glowing orange. A cut away image of his brain appears just above him. Clean. Another is highlighted, his brain showing the characteristics of Reach modification. I purge them and he collapses bonelessly into his chair. I know from the pilots that he'll be fine once his brain has had a few minutes to adjust. And the next…

As the assembled representatives see their colleague collapse there's a concerted charge for the exit. Phil shakes his head as I have the Hellwraith manifest between them and the doorway, then create an orange barrier just behind that.

The ground rumbles as I continue to work my way around the representatives, flashes of fear from those who know they're on my target list matched by the relief of those whom I pass over. One or two of the more intelligent ones are no doubt noticing that I'm not just striking down those in favour of more cooperation with the Reach… Or maybe that won't be evident until they've had time to review events.

"And that was the Reach trade mission. Hey, guess what?" He turns to the Negotiator. "That makes you the last Reachian left alive on the planet."

"We are a peaceful.. trading empire." She does her best to scowl, but her species don't have the most expressive faces and the drugs in her system are making it even harder. "We're trying to help this world advance. To meet its full potential."

"Just like all of the other places you wiped out. We'll be including them in the data packet too."

"No one will trust your word. You are a murderous thug."

"No." Phil raises his right arm and points it at her head. "I'm not a thug. I'm a soldier. I've got a cause and I've got discipline."

There's a hiss from his maser, then her body collapses as her head evaporates.

He watches her body for a moment as I continue to purge Reach technology from government officials. "Damn. I thought she might have some kind of super mode or something."

"She was a peaceful diplomatic envoy!" The Convenor finally recovers his voice. "You have no idea what you've done to our world by killing her!"

Phil turns back to him, a slightly saddened look on his face. "And you actually believe that, don't you?" He looks up towards me. "You nearly done?"

"I think so." Done, done, done, and a last beam illuminates the Convenor himself.

Nothing.

His brain is unmodified.

He looks up at me as I come in to land. "Surprised?"

"Regrettably, no. Still, I would like to hear why you sold out your world."

"Sold out…" He shakes his head. "I read your files when you people first arrived. You know full well that no world has ever successfully resisted the Reach. I knew that they would take us, one way or another. So I decided to help them conquer us with the least resistance in the hope that they would leave us to manage our own affairs under their dominion. I know from your own records that there are worlds that are permitted that much freedom."

"Yeah." Phil nods. "Until the Reach decide to take it away and their minds are too altered to think of resisting."

"And how many worlds have bled and died and been abandoned by your Darkstars?! How many knew they were lost the moment they started fighting?!"

"Every. Single. One." Phil looks contemplative. "Sometimes the Darkstars die with them, sometimes they fall back to fight again. We've resettled billions away from Reach space, but those places who wanted to fight to the last, they all knew what it would mean. They prepare, they train… Then… Someone in their government gets controlled or turns traitor and the next thing you know there's a whole fleet in orbit because apparently that's enough to make it Reach territory. Then they die, probably killed by expendable soldiers from other slave species. I've seen it happen three times and I admire the people who did it more than I can articulate. But… You?"

Another hiss, and another headless body hits the floor.

"You sicken me."

He floats up into the air, force field shimmering. "Alright! You all know what we've done and why. If any of you escape being killed by your own citizens, get in touch."

I pull in the Hellwraith and the Praexis Demons, following him up and through the hole in the dome. Police attack drones have formed a perimeter, but we both go into stealth mode far too quickly to get a weapons lock. Then we're both heading up, up and away, aiming for a point far above the city.

"I thought that went well."

"I bow to your superior experience. What happens now?"

"Not sure. Depends on their government. A planet that keeps its head can stay free of the Reach for hundreds of years."

"You really evacuate worlds? There wasn't anything about that in the Guardians' database."

"The Controllers can reshape worlds. It's not easy for them and it's not quick, but… Yeah. We can. We get about half of our recruits from those worlds. Threllian comes from there. The Reach butchered most of his people to use their brains as computers."

"Oh."

"If they weren't evil, I wouldn't be fighting them. Alright." He comes to a halt. "I'm staying on-planet, but Ferrin and Rayyana are taking our cruiser back to Maltus. They can introduce you to our bosses."

There's a ping inside my helmet as I receive the coordinates of the ship.

"Thank you."

"Any chance of the rest of us getting rings like yours? I know it's probably a big deal, but one or two-."

"Phil. I intend to do everything I can to ensure that the Darkstars get as many rings as they can handle."

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th July
03:06 GMT

The thing about not being a Lantern is that you're limited to the speed your ship's drive can manage. And when your ship is designed more for stealth than speed -and when there's a good chance that the Reach are sending ships after you because shooting criminals isn't covered by their treaty with the Guardians- it can take a good deal longer than I'm accustomed to in order to get anywhere. Having my awareness of the universe external to the ship blocked by those same stealth systems is also a little unnerving, but… Well. That's what most people deal with when travelling.

I exhale slowly as I sit on the floor in one of the ship's empty cabins, hands palm upwards on my knees with a ring floating above each one.

Finally, after over a year, I'm going to meet the Controllers.

This is either going to be a start of something magnificent or a complete car crash.

I mean, I sent them a Guardian ship with a request for a meeting. I'm having a hard time believing that they couldn't send a single person to Earth to say hello. I mean, there are only nine Guardians left and they still managed to send Appa Ali Apsa to spend a couple of weeks just.. driving around America with Lantern Jordan and Mister Queen. There's no way them ignoring me isn't supposed to be sending some sort of message. I just don't know-.

There's a chime from the door. "Orange Lantern, we've arrived in the Sto-Maltus system."

"Thank you for letting me know, Operative Rayyana."

"May I come in for a moment?"

"If Operative Ferrin can spare you, by all means."

The blue metal of the doorway.. vanishes, Operative Rayyana standing behind the space it occupied. Standard pattern humanoid female with skin that's a sort of.. pale orange, a black strip tattooed across her nose and cheeks. With her exo-mantle thoroughly wrecked by the same shot that nearly killed her she's wearing a partially armoured spacesuit decorated in Darkstar colours. Her eyes take in the room and then drop to me with an expression of mild embarrassment. "I'm not.. interrupting you, am I?"

"Oh, no. I completed the essential part of my meditations hours ago." Rings still floating over my palms I rise to my feet. "Is there something I can do for you?"

"I wanted to thank you in person for healing me."

"You're welcome."

She looks away from me, the slight movement of her fingers where they rest against her thighs betraying her discomfort. "I should have said something sooner, but with the rush to get everything together, then you closeted yourself in here…"

"It's not a problem."

Her eyes move to the rings. "I've never seen a Green Lantern do that before."

"Most don't learn remote ring control beyond what they need to call their ring to their finger from a few metres away. I used to find dimming the orange light's influence on my mind… Helpful. Now it's more a habit." I close my hands around them. "How long will it take us to reach the planet?"

"Only a few minutes. Since we don't have to worry about the Reach here they're going to reach out and grab us."

I frown. "Reach out and grab-?"

The ship shudders and oh that's weird.

Operative Rayyana nods. "Like that. No one gets to use FTL inside the system, but our bosses don't want to wait for us to report in."

I nod and walk slowly towards the exit, Operative Rayyana stepping back to allow me into the corridor. "Where will you be going?"

"We'll submit our report and recommendation to Regional Administrator Sleer Prigatz. He's the officer responsible for the part of the Reach periphery where we work. It'll be his job to decide how to prevent the Reach coming back."

I nod. "That's-. Oh, ah, which way to the nearest airlock?"

"This way." She gestures with her right hand. "I'll show you."

"Thank you."

"He'll probably want to meet you. If you're planning on sticking around there are plenty of places that could use someone who can fight Scarab Warriors."

"You can't?"

"Standard protocol for encounters with Scarab Warriors is to run and hide. We just don't have the raw power to fight them. When we can't do that… A squad of maxim-suits attacking from ambush can take one down if they catch them alone, but… It wouldn't be a sure thing."

I nod as we walk down the corridor. "Maxim-suits?"

"Like Tarant wears. They're the heavy combat variety. The rest of us are optimised for other things. Exo-mantles… I could fight a whole army from my homeworld wearing mine. The Reach just make better systems for their Scarab Warriors."

"Will you be reporting to the Controllers at any point?"

"If they ask for us. But I doubt they will. I've been a Darkstar for nine years and I haven't even seen one up close before. The only Darkstar who regularly speaks to them is the Director, Huvah Jeddigar. If you can wait a few days, he should be able to arrange a meeting."

"There are Controllers on planet now?"

"I… Think so? I don't really think about them too much." We come to a halt next to an airlock and she calls up a holoscreen. "Welcome to Maltus."

First good look at the place I've had. Huge, hive-like cities appear dotted across the continent below us. At the periphery they cut off suddenly, the area outside of them being what looks like pristine nature. In other places settlements in a strange mishmash of styles are visible.

"Population, twenty billion."

What? "There are that many Controllers? I assumed that they'd be like the Guardians, only a few of them."

"No, most of that's…" She hesitates. "Clickers."

"Clickers?"

"Their actual name is more like.. 'click, click-click, scrape click', but since most of us can't make that sound we just call them Clickers and have our translators worry about it. They're a pseudo-insectoid race that the Controllers… Indentured, in exchange for helping them alter their physiology. The other places are inhabited by Darkstars and our support personnel, and refugees. Not all Maltusians are Controllers. The Controllers only have about thirty or so members, and there are hundreds of other Maltusians all doing their own thing." She expands one of the mixed-design cities, focusing the holographic display on one particular building. "This is the Darkstar headquarters, where we'll be heading."

"And the Controllers?"

She moves the image to focus on a.. fairly nondescript building made out of what looks like red stone. "Here. This is where they spend their time when they're not busy with something else. I assume they live there, as much as they live anywhere."

"Thank you. Would you mind terribly letting me off here, then? I think I can probably get their attention and I do rather need to speak to them as soon as possible."

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th July
03:11 GMT

"You want..?" She glances at the airlock door and then back at me. "The Controllers are ancient, powerful and from what I've heard not the easiest people to get along with. Do you really think just turning up is the right approach?"

"I've got a creature more ancient and powerful than them inside my personal lantern. I want to establish a very particular dynamic in my relationship with the Controllers and… We have a saying on my world: start as you mean to go on." I fully focus on her, eyes glowing orange. "Why is it that you work for them?"

"My people's homeworld was taken over by the Reach centuries ago. The descendants of the refugees they helped get away live on a world they made for us. I owe them, and I owe the Reach."

"I don't owe them anything, as far as I know. I want to suggest something… Help them do something that's far more in their interests than mine. I'm not approaching them as a supplicant."

"I don't know what you could offer people who can build planets-."

"A Central Power Battery. An object that would let them stand as equals of their Guardian cousins. Not to-."

"More Lanterns! The exo-mantle's powerful, but it's nothing compared to a power ring!"

"Just so. So I'm going to be a little pushy." Rings settling on my ring fingers I wave my right forefinger at the airlock door. "So, would you mind?"

She nods and starts pressing buttons. "I'll let the defence systems know that you're coming."

I smile. "Appreciated. Being shot would rather put a dampener on things."

The inner door fades to nothing and I step through. Hm. What else could I do to make my point..? Ah, of course. My armour and robes vanish into subspace, the cloth which emerges to replace them pulling itself tight around me to create a uniform obviously designed to match what the Green Lanterns wear. A bright orange patch front and back, a little like a female one piece swimming costume. Dark grey for the arms and legs, then orange boots and… White gloves, I think. And… Okay, and a tiny mask. I'm labouring a point, not dressing in a way that makes any sense at all.

I open and close my hands, getting used to the pull of the fabric. I look like a… A superhero. Oh well, it had to happen eventually. At least there's next to no chance of me seeing combat around here.

"Good luck!"

"Thank you." The door behind me fades back into existence, then the atmosphere begins being sucked out. I float off the ground, drifting towards the outer door. So close. I hold out my right hand and call my personal lantern out of subspace, taking a firm grip on its handle. Having the lantern on hand should further reinforce the parallel.

You ready in there, Ophidian?

We will get many you now? And then squash the Gnat?

I like to think that it will take you a little while to find someone as good as-

You will always be my favourite.

-me… Um, thank you. It will probably still be a little while before there are any other Orange Lanterns, but dealing with Larfleeze should probably happen a little sooner. Hopefully days at most.

I will be patient.

You should also remember that-

The outer door fades away, giving me a clear view of the planet below. Sto-Maltus is shining brightly today, making the greys and pale browns of the inhabited areas blend into the surrounding countryside. At night I imagine that the density of inhabitation means that the cities are brightly illuminated while the other areas are pitch black.

-the people we're going to meet are the Guardians' cousins. They'll probably look fairly similar to you.

They will be mine?

In the sense that they'll be working to establish the Orange Lantern Corps, I hope so. Please don't try eating them.

I will not eat them.

Okay then.

I float out of the ship, immediately altering my velocity relative to the ship so that it pulls away. Right, mapping? Orange lines appear in my vision, marking out cities, busy areas of sky and my eventual destination. I begin flying towards the planet… Nah.

Ophidian.

Yes, my Agent?

Out you come.

Yes, my Agent! The Green Cousins will quake at my magnificence!

The core of my lantern erupts with orange light as the Ophidian pulls herself outward and into the material universe. She starts small, her head easily fitting through the aperture as she undulates into space. The ring starts sending me 'weapon lock detected' messages immediately… But if they had anything that could stop an Embodiment I doubt that the Reach would be giving them such trouble. The Ophidian continues to grow as she pulls more and more body free. Her head is now as wide as my shoulders and her body is now broad enough that it can't come directly out of my lantern. Rather, it emerges from the orange glow just in front of the core.

The Ophidian coils upwards into the space 'above' me, her face constantly pointing towards the planet. It is a fascinating sight when looked upon with empathic vision; more dots than I can casually count paired with areas where the colours just cut out. I'm not surprised that the Controllers have ways of blocking it. In fact, it's reassuring that they haven't abandoned emotional spectrum technology completely. That means that it's a virtual certainty that they can make rings. I wasn't significantly worried about that, but it's nice to know that I don't need to.

My lantern has one last blast of orange light as the Ophidian pulls the tip of her tail free, then drops down to its usual levels of illumination. Doesn't.. look.. any the worse for wear. Good. I tighten my hold and accelerate upwards, generating a construct saddle just behind the Ophidian's head.

"You wish to ride me, my Agent?"

"It would probably make a stronger impression."

She bends, her head descending underneath me. Then she stops. "Let them never forget our arrival."

"Tally-ho, then."

The planet's surface wheels past as she dips her head again, then we're shooting forwards in a way which would have utterly terrified me a little over a year ago. The Ophidian wants to go somewhere and we're going there. It takes seconds before the atmosphere is being shoved aside by a faintly glowing orange barrier, then a handful more for the closer two hive cities to shoot by as we head towards our destination. More weapon locks every second and I'm fairly confident that the Ophidian doesn't have my scry immunity. I can see our target growing larger ahead and the Ophidian dips again, aiming herself between the largest rows of buildings. The Controllers' building is in the exact centre of the city now flashing past us, showing that they haven't completely abandoned the Guardians' ideas on order and structure.

We're moving too fast for my eyes to really pick up on individual things. The air cars are clearing the skies, but the Ophidian casually flows around any that haven't got the message. I see… Oh, those are the click click-click scrape clicks. They look a bit like armoured caterpillars, their forelegs and mandibles acting as manipulator appendages. Interesting.

Up ahead I see our ultimate destination, and… A single individual stands before the front entrance, arms folded behind his back. I'm assuming his based on the lack of breasts, my scan isn't showing me a thing. His robes are blue and red and show a courageous amount of thigh. His eyes seem to be blank white spaces while the glow from the talisman around his neck is matched by the glow from the centre of his forehead.

Finally. A Controller.

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th July
03:14 GMT

The Ophidian slows, turning aside to fly into the space around the Controllers' building. As my saddle passes the point closest to the main entrance I unclamp myself and leap free, descending in a controlled manner towards the bottom of the steps leading up to it. The Controller's face is inscrutable, motionless but for the oscillation of the light coming from the dot on his forehead. I land lightly, keeping my eyes on the Controller as I begin walking up the steps.

What other traffic is in the area has come to a halt or is frantically pulling back in order to get out of the Ophidian's way. Having already completed a circuit of the building her head pulls upwards slightly for another circuit. Still no reaction from the Controller and no sign of any others. This isn't a sensible way to behave. If they think I'm a threat there should be more of them than this. If they've accepted my version of events they should have been a good deal friendlier.

On the other hand, these are the Guardians' cousins.

I reach the broad plaza before the entrance, the Controller about twelve metres away from me. Three steps later I stop, holding his gaze. Then I look upwards and slowly turn around, taking in our environment. The people of various species pressed to the overlooking windows or staring down from their air cars. Mostly -ugh- Clickers, but dozens of other species as well. Including a small group of three bald mauve-skinned humanoids with scalp tattoos. Unaligned Maltusians. Interesting.

I complete my circuit and return my gaze to the Controller. Then I bow my head and genuflect.

"Orange Lantern Two Eight One Four reporting for duty, sir."

The sense of yellow I'd been getting from our audience noticeably dips. Ring-based facial analysis -of the humanoids anyway- suggests curiosity and wonder. Perhaps they think the Controllers were expecting me? At least I don't appear to be seeking a fight.

…

How long is he going to-?

"Come."

There's a faint rustle from his robes as he turns, floating just above the ground. That's it? 'Come'? Well. Alright then. I come to my feet and raise my lantern high with my left hand.

"Ophidian. Return."

"Yes, my Agent."

She twists in the air, shrinking as she comes closer. The Controller slows in his passage, turning his head slightly to catch a glimpse of the Embodiment of Avarice flying back into my personal lantern.

"Interesting."

No, he's not looking at the lantern. The lack of pupils makes it hard to tell-.

He looks away again.

My lantern flickers as the Ophidian completes her entry, some of the air cars around us resuming their journeys. Most seem content to watch me follow my nominal superior inside the Controllers' building. Through the entrance and… From this side there isn't a door. Very nice.

"I was hoping for a little more than an 'interesting'. You did get the ship I-."

"It was the property of the Guardians of the Universe. I assume that the wooden boxes were part of your species' funerary traditions."

"Yes. I didn't know anything-" He continues moving, floating up a slight of stairs towards a doorway on the first floor. "-about yours. It didn't seem inappropriate."

"We are above casual offence. Only a deliberate insult would be received as such."

"You got the Burning Martian?"

He stops. "A fascinating specimen."

"Would you like to add anything to that?"

"We had already parted ways with our Guardian brothers when those events occurred. Your missive implied that you were interested in undoing the damage to their planet. This may be possible."

"Good, because I was-" He starts moving away again. "-hoping to-" I try flying directly after him. And I can't, I just stop when I get a certain distance from the floor. Inwardly rolling my eyes I fly towards the stairs and try catching up. "-establish a working relationship. I'd like your advice on recovering the Orange Central Power Battery from-" He moves through a doorway and turns a corner. "-Larfleeze and will you please stop and listen?"

"You are not reporting to me."

"No, but I'm trying to? Did you not-" I turn the corner and he's a little way ahead. "-read the rest of my message? I want to establish a Lantern Corps to fight the Reach."

"That is not how we conduct our affairs. You are not my direct concern. You are the concern of one of my sisters. Approaching you without her would have been inappropriate."

"Okay, so, why didn't she come and talk to me?"

"Physical incapacity."

I'm right behind him as he turns through another doorway, leading us to… Some sort of high technology laboratory. I don't have any record of what most of this stuff does but the ring's picking up about seven different sorts of exotic energy-.

That I do know. That's a bleed portal generator. Those are pretty darn uncommon. Usually the aim is to get through the Bleed, not get into it directly.

Further in I see a bier… No, a medical station of some kind. Another Controller lies upon it, motionless. She's also wearing blue and red, not robes but simple trousers and pullover. Thin white hair is bound in a tight bun. There are screens around the bier, and I walk past the first Controller to get a better look.

"Can you read it?"

I nod. "Hinon Hee Hannanan. Controller. Researcher. Forger of.. rings..." Oh. My eyes widening, I hold up my left hand slightly. "She made this ring."

"Yes. Doing so without the Orange Central Power Battery undid her connection to the orange light. She has remained in this state ever since."

"How long-?"

"Long enough. If we are to work together, we will do so through her. She forged the ring you now wear as a sign of her hope in the future. She believed that a bearer would appear, and so you have. Restore her."

"And if I can't?"

"Then you are not worth our time."

Okay… I walk over to stand right next to her. If she's lost her connection to the orange light, clearly what she needs is a replacement. I look down at the ring she made for.. someone. Maybe, but I'm really rather attached to it.

"Original ring? Stewart ring? Separate file and charge reserve."

"Compliance." / "Task complete."

"Stewart ring, blank database. Original ring, copy all files you had before I woke up in space onto the Stewart ring."

"Task complete." / "Compliance."

I put my lantern down on the floor and pull the Stewart ring from my right ring finger. Fingers crossed. Gently as I can I take hold of her left hand and lift it from the bier, then slide the Stewart ring onto her middle finger before laying it back down.

A wave of orange light passes through her, her eyes slowly opening to take in my face.

She blinks, then tries focusing again.

Then she sees me.

Her face remains neutral as she considers me for a moment.

"You shall have to do."

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th July
03:19 GMT

"I'll do? I think I'll do rather better than-."

"What happened to the database?"

"W-? I deleted it."

Her body shimmers as she pushes herself into a sitting position. I offer her my now-ringless right hand but she ignores it in favour of staring at the ring I just gave her.

"Whatever for?"

"I didn't know why you were unconscious and I don't know enough about Controllers to be sure what would happen when I put that ring on you. I thought that only having the data-."

"This isn't the ring I made." She frowns at me. "Where did you get it?"

"I had to disarm a Green Lantern who was being mind controlled. He didn't want it back afterwards."

"Green… Lantern..? Oh, they finally got around to upgunning those Halla people." She looks past me to the other Controller. "Who are you?"

I frown. "Halla peop-? They discontinued the Halla three bill-."

"Ah-t!" She gives me a stern look. "Wait your turn." She points at the other Controller with her right forefinger. "You. Speak."

"We no longer commonly use names."

"Oh, that nonsense. I've no idea what Kontross was thinking. And… Robes." Another shimmer and outer robes matching the male's garments appear around her, though she keeps her simpler clothes underneath. "What did you used to be called?"

"Jevek Jos Jar."

"Oh! I remember you now." She leans a little closer. "I do hope that face isn't standard issue. I had enough of that when I was a Guardian."

"If you are comfortable with your present form, you are welcome to maintain it. The Gathering will wish to acknowledge your accomplishment when you have finished interrogating your test subject. I will leave you until then."

He turns away and drifts back towards the doorway… Which disappears once he has moved through it.

"And you." She eases herself off the bier and stands on the floor. "Why did you give me this purloined ring instead of my original one?"

"Because I've gotten rather fond of it."

"Hmmm."

"Do you want it back?"

She turns away and starts walking towards a piece of machinery whose function I.. have.. no idea how to discern. "No. You can keep it. It's yours."

Propriety unlocked.

My ring flickers for a moment, then stills. Um. Okay?

"Thank..? You..? Okay… Mister Jar said that you made this ring-" She begins checking the device over. "-using your own orange light because you didn't have access to the Orange Central Power Battery-."

"Partially correct. I thought that the risk associated with sustaining my consciousness without it was too great to make the attempt."

"Okay, and that's a Bleed portal… Did you just throw it in and hope for the best?"

"Not quite, but that's not far from the truth. Where are you from?"

"Earth… Prime."

"And whereabouts is that?"

"The unfashionable end of the Western Spiral Arm. In a parallel universe."

"Ah. I wasn't sure that would happen. Which one?"

"Prime…"

She looks around from the thing she's working on. "Using standard notation?"

"That's… The only name I've ever heard used for it."

"And no one had it before you?"

"If they did, I don't have any record of them. You didn't send it to me?"

"I cast it into the void. I did so on the basis that it had to eventually come out somewhere and as I am immortal I would live to see it. I wouldn't have been able to aim it anywhere even if I wanted to."

I sag slightly. "Darn."

"Concerned that you're not quite so special?"

"I've been unable to contact my home plane for a year. I was hoping that you'd be able to guide me back. At least… Temporarily."

"Not immediately, but I can put it on the slate for you. Now, come over here."

"Why?"

"Because I haven't seen many examples of people exposed to the orange light before. A handful of thieves and Krona aren't really-."

"Krona!?"

"Oh." She smiles. "Have you met him? We worked together on the power ring project."

"He used time travel technology to try and view the alpha event, saw a giant hand and somehow fucked up the universe's development. The Guardians stripped him of corporeality, but he still manages to make a nuisance of himself."

"Ugh, there's always one. Though, in retrospect, that makes his interest in orange in particular make a good deal more sense." She picks up the device. "Now, hold still."

"What does that do?"

"Since you still haven't given me a database I'm going to have to work out how you're staying so stable manually. It shouldn't hurt, but if it does-."

A construct yanks it out of her hands at the same time as I flick an orange data packet towards her ring. "Here! Just ask!"

She blinks, tiny flickers of orange flashing across her eyes. "Then how would I confirm that you still had the ability to give people things? I saw the recordings made by the Guardians who confronted the ones who stole the Orange Light Fountain. Clearly they had been overwhelmed. You -on the other hand- haven't tried to take anything or to turn me into a construct. And I've been needling you in case your control was fragile."

"It's not about control. It's about achieving unity with your desires and-."

"Yes. 'Enlightenment' you call it. What fascinating soul structures your species must have. And you don't have any trouble with it at all?"

"I have the Ophidian in my personal lantern!"

She smiles. "Good show. Now, why are you here?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th July
03:23 GMT

"The Guardians have -at various times- reached the conclusion that there are groups whom… It's not that the Green Lantern Corps couldn't beat them. In most cases. It's that the casualties they'd take doing it and the devastation that would be unleashed are such that… They decide it isn't a good idea to take things that far. One such group are the Reach. As long as they capture systems through negotiation the Guardians won't stop them."

"You have a problem with that?"

"When the definition of 'negotiation' can be stretched to include drugging the planet's population so that they believe everything you say and when accession eventually results in the subjugated species being broken up for parts, yes."

"Oh dear. That wasn't a clever contract."

"I'm too far away from the time to judge it properly. In any case, the Controllers -via the medium of their Darkstar agents- are contesting the Reach's expansion. I think they could do better if they had a Lantern Corps to use either instead of or as well as."

"More to the point, we ourselves would be more powerful. But I'm not hearing why that matters to you."

"I have certain beliefs about the way the universe should operate."

"We've all got those. You still aren't-." Her eyes widen.

"What?"

"Nine. Only nine of them left."

"The.. Guardians? Yes."

"When we parted company there were thirty three. Even after the Manhunters did their level best to kill us." She winces, her right hand going to her forehead. "I should have.. realised that some of my old colleagues would have been killed. It simply shocks me that it's been so many."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

She lowers her hand. "You didn't know them well enough to be saddened by it." She twitches in irritation. "And they're all names and faces I recognise, they haven't recruited at all. Or had babies. Foolish."

"And that's one of the reasons why it's so important to put you on an equal footing. As peers, you could call them out on their follies. I tried asking my local Green Lanterns about what they would do if the last of the Guardians died and they couldn't come up with an answer."

"Yes, we're a stubborn people. But I think Ganthet at least would listen to me. What's in it for you?"

"Self-actualisation. I used a-."

"Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Interesting concept, though I don't think it's accurate. Not for all species, at least."

"I used it as a tool. Early on, structuring my desires helped me cope with the orange light. The point is, having dealt with most of the basic things, I'm left with… Altering the universe to be more pleasing to me. The fact that places like the Reach exist does not please me. They destroy the sorts of things I value existing, affront ideals I hold to be true. And if what a few time travellers have told me is accurate, they'll be coming for my homeworld… Ah, Earth Sixteen-"

"You can use standard notation!"

"-is due to be invaded by them at… Some point. I like my homeworld. My friends live there. I keep my stuff there and we're doing some really interesting arcanotechnological research and development… I've invested in the place and I'm not having someone mess it up for me."

"You want to deal with them while they're someone else's problem because they'll eventually become yours."

"You could put it like that. I doubt that the species about to be overrun by the Reach will be all that fussed. Look, I thought I made a pretty good guess about what the Controllers would want out of this. Given that you can see how mentally stable I am I really don't understand why we're still discussing this."

"Because putting you on the back foot is advantageous to me."

I blink, my mouth opening slightly and then closing again. "Thank you for letting me know. "

"And I'm interested in the sort of person the ring I created found. I'll have a look, later. See if I can track down that 'Earth Prime' of yours."

"You see? A convergence of interests. We both want things and the other can supply them. This is how a properly composed Orange Lantern Corps should work."

She tilts her head slightly to the side. "You don't have the Orange Light Fountain yet. It's a little premature to speak as if this is a done deal. There were reasons why the Guardians were reluctant to press Larfleeze after he killed Ogandu Onna Oslan."

"Which is why I'm talking to you rather than just taking it from him." I frown. "And why are you calling it a Light Fountain?"

"Haven't you noticed how much smaller it is than the Green Central Power Battery? According to the database you acquired the Green Central Power Battery is fifteen metres tall. The device Larfleeze clasps to his bosom is little larger than a normal personal lantern. Did you think all that extra mass was decoration?"

"I… Hadn't really thought about it."

"The green light was… Least complicated. It did as we willed it. Even the Manhunters could use it without experiencing further.. disruption to their systems. And their emotional range was extremely limited." She turns away, heading towards another piece of equipment. "Our studies in harnessing the orange light were far less advanced. It certainly wasn't ready for… Ring application."

"What do the extra mechanisms do?"

"Oh, thousands of things. Stopping the power constantly radiating outwards, for a start. I see that Larfleeze has had some interesting… Visitors, over the millennia? We could also make the flow of power a little less… Corrosive to the minds of its users. Not.. completely. We focused our efforts on the green-" She reaches the device and waves at it, a shimmer passing through its numerous spines. "-light for good reasons."

I remember Richard and Jade's reactions. "That would be helpful. Would it help Larfleeze?"

"Would it-?" She turns to me with a frown. "Help. Larfleeze?"

"Would it?"

She blinks. "An immortal marinated on the orange light for three billion years with only his own madness for company?" Her face relaxes slightly. "It would make a fascinating case study, but I honestly have no idea. Perhaps…" She strokes her chin with her right hand. "If we created a shielded environment and weaned him off it…"

I take a neural chaff generator out of subspace and float it over to her. "I was thinking… If we used something like this? Interfered with his mind so he couldn't use his power, then stuck the Battery-. Ah, Fountain, in something that blocked it off..?"

The chaff generator shimmers and disappears, reappearing in front of her. "Hm. No, this wouldn't work on his brain. Not anymore. Still, it's not a bad approach. Assuming you don't want to try wresting it from his cold dead hands..?"

"Knowing his life story, I just feel sorry for him. If I had to kill him I'd do it. He's too much of a menace to leave as he is, regardless of other considerations. But if taking him alive is a possibility…"

Another shimmer, and the chaff generator opens up in an exploded view.

"What a fascinating device…"

"So..? Is this something we can work on together..?"

"Perhaps. I'm certainly interested. Tell me how you see our working relationship developing in future."

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th July
03:27 GMT

"What, you and me?"

"I was rather thinking of you and the Lantern Corps you're intent on gifting us with. But yes, I rather imagine that I'll be taking a lead from the Controller side." She looks at me curiously. "Do you know why?"

"Social cache from your gamble actually paying off. I'd…" I look away for a second as I consider it. "You're a post-scarcity society. You have been for virtually all of your history."

"No, there's always a scarcity of something."

"Not food, shelter or consumer goods. Not the things most species -even quite advanced ones- think of when they hear the term. Why are there so few of you?"

"We intentionally limited our expansion so that we wouldn't overrun the universe. Something that was well within our abilities. We stopped breeding voluntarily to give the rest of you a chance."

"So… You value… What? Influence? Creativity?"

"Influence, mostly. As a species… We never really got fiction." Her face creases up. "I don't know why. Heru once suggested that it was because we'd never needed myths to explain things… That seemed a bit 'neat' to me, but he might have been on to something."

"Power rings -and my orange one in particular- are your development. Which means that you've earned the right to.. control how this happens."

"Well done. Six out of seven."

"And out of nine?"

She narrows her eyes slightly. "You know about those, do you?"

"Three guesses where the Guardians put the-" I make the 'seven-lines-radiating-outwards' sign with my fingers. "-for safe keeping. And which has at least one person capable of tapping into the black?"

She sighs in frustration. "What a fascinating planet you come from."

"Live on. I come from the Prime version, remember?"

She waves it off and returns her attention to her equipment. "Bah, we're getting off topic. My plans for this depended a great deal on exactly who turned up. You've been planning this for a while and you know you better than I do. How do you want this to go?"

"Three other members of my species have worn orange rings. Two started exhibiting extremely unusual behaviour almost immediately. The third had a mission… I didn't have the opportunity to talk to him while he was wearing it. And the Gordanian Admiral had an attack of megalomania when he put one on. I'm concerned about how stable potential recruits will be. And I don't want Controllers handing out rings to create fire-and-forget weapons out of people who want the Reach destroyed more than they want to live."

"Not unreasonable. But there seems to be a war going on."

"I have a list of names. People I think might work well for the first batch of recruits. I would teach them my techniques myself, and be on hand to bring them down if they started going off the rails. Though from what you were saying, having a proper Central Power Battery might help with that. Perhaps… Most importantly, I've also got the name of a man whom I think could run the organisation."

"You don't want to do it, but you know a man who does."

"I think he will. I need to.. check some things. Once we've got the Central Power Battery secured. And… Once that's done, he can probably come up with a way to screen potential recruits for the right psychological characteristics better than I can."

She looks back at me for a moment. "I may possibly have something to add to that."

"Most of the species we'll be recruiting from weren't even sophonts when you were last awake. And he's going to want to know that he has control over the organisation which he's organising."

"I'm.. not.. sure.. I.. like.. where.. this is going."

"The way I see it, orange rings -and the people who use them- work best when they're doing what they want to. We won't be finding the most avaricious people we can, we'll be selecting those who want things useful to us. Someone who wants to be in charge is going to want to be in charge."

"And what do you think we Controllers are going to do? Sit around looking pretty?"

"In theory, anyone with a connection to the orange light can make new rings. But it isn't quite that easy, is it?" She gives her head a small shake. "Larfleeze has piles of rings, but they all used to be people. We'll-."

"Except for the prototype Krona and I created. The very first orange ring. Bit of a kludge job, to be honest. We never thought that we'd use it in the field."

"Does it have any special abilities?"

"No! It was a first effort! I'd be embarrassed to see it now. No AI worth talking about, no control assistance… I'm much more pleased with the one I made for you."

"In future, you'll have the other Controllers to assist you. But my point was, your hold over the Corps comes from the fact that they need you for rings and guidance as well as everything you-. Ah, the other Controllers do for the Darkstars now."

"Unless you do that. I can feel the Ophidian in your personal lantern."

"Even better! You're very useful to them, they're very useful to you, but if relations totally break down you can both survive. Weakened by the separation, until you get over yourselves and patch relations over."

"You don't want us being in total control?"

"No, I don't think that's a good idea."

"Did you miss the nameplate on the door when you came in? I can't see the Guardians accepting that sort of deal with their Corps."

"Is it better for your ego to have people follow you because they have no choice, or for them to have a choice and choose to follow you? And in any case, I like to think that the Controllers still have the social skills necessary to negotiate the power arrangement."

"I wouldn't be so quick to overestimate us. We used to be Guardians, remember?"

"And then there's the Darkstars-."

"Who are used to us being in charge and will probably provide the majority of our recruits."

"I was going to say, who will need a new focus. And who don't have much direct contact with the Controllers save via their Director. They run virtually all operations themselves because that's the only practical way to do it. If the war was going to come more into the open… Well. You Controllers are capable of reshaping planets. How quickly can you build warships?"

"A good deal faster than we can now if we could replenish ourselves from a Central Power Battery." She looks pensive for a moment. "It's not a terrible idea. I'll want to talk to this Director-."

"Clarissi."

"Hah! Very well. This Clarissi candidate. Because your whole plan rather falls through if they can't hack it."

"Reasonable. Now, about Larfleeze…"

 

[Mr Zoat]

17th July
03:27 GMT -5

"…nice to meet a couple who are so open in their love for one another."

I watch the devices Scott is waving at me as I lie back in what feels unnervingly like a dentist's chair. I've never really had much of a fear of dentists, but I used to deal with the discomfort of having them prod and poke at the interior of my mouth by going completely limp. Now, that isn't happening.

"Uh-huh."

Barda isn't the tough-on-the-outside-but-soft-on-the-inside type. She's tough the whole way through, and having Ghia'ta chirping at her about her one emotional 'indulgence' isn't doing much to improve the usually surly attitude she adopts when forced to spend any time in my presence. Still, after 'still in love with his dead wife', 'in love with a woman who'll be spending the rest of her life in a supermax prison' and… My own… I suppose it's only fair that I show her a relationship that's actually working as it's supposed to.

To be honest, I'm not totally sure where I'm going with Ghia'ta. She has the potential to be tremendously useful, particularly if my ultimate plan is going to revolve around white light manipulation. Or just generally; that staff isn't a power ring but it's only one step down, and her combat skills are notable. I wonder if she can learn to use New God-.

"Ping!"

Scott glances at his Mother Box, then back at me.

"Alright Scott, what's the news?"

"You're recovering pretty well, actually. I was pretty sceptical about your violet light infusion, but it actually looks like it's really helped."

I nod sagely. "You see-."

"Though it was still pretty stupid." He leans back against a nearby bench, folding his arms across his chest. "You should have asked me to come along and check what they were going to do. Zamarons might be ancient and wise but they don't know New Gods like I do."

"Scott, that was an act of desperation and confusion. I clearly wasn't thinking straight."

"Should the fact that your instinctive response was to dash off without the guy who spent two weeks putting you back together make me feel better? Or worse?"

"Ahhh." I dip my eyes for a moment. "You… Have a point."

"When you first greeted me as your brother, I was pretty sceptical. And Barda…" He glances at his wife, who raises her eyebrows a little. "She was fairly sceptical too."

"I thought I was growing on her, after our sparring sessions. Though I suppose that may have been the concussion."

"My point is, if you want us to have an actual family relationship… You're going to have to trust me with a few things."

"I-. I do. I'm not… Used to having family I can trust either. Not… New God family. I mean… When I was on… Earth Prime…" Can't honestly say I had a particularly close relationship with my sister, either. We didn't get on badly or anything, just… Not much in common. I nod. "Okay… You have a reasonable point."

Scott looks up a the ceiling for a moment. "That wasn't as painful as I thought it would be."

"If you're missing that Apokoliptian flavour we could beat each other with pain sticks for a while… Though even.. now I'm still quite a bit stronger than you." Barda shifts slightly, a thin smile on her lips. "Probably not… Stronger than her…"

"Let's not. Look, Zatara tells me that you've got some kind of Vampire/Succubus hybrid in your mountain."

"Yes, I picked them up on an island-."

"And you're trying to teach them how to rise above their instincts."

"Yes?"

He sighs. "To free themselves from themselves?"

I flop back, my head hitting the headrest. "Ooooooh. Damn." "Ah. Sorry. That… Should have occurred to me… But it didn't." Um. "Are you free now?"

He bows his head, smiling. "I can be. But in the interests of honesty-."

"The Justice League want us to spy on you." Barda nudges Ghia'ta aside as she walks closer. "They want to be sure that you're not up to something."

I roll my eyes. "Yes, Barda, getting Anti-Lifed was all part of my master plan. You might want to avoid eating any jelly babies for the next few months."

She doesn't look impressed. "They'd probably be less worried if Darkseid hadn't paid you a visit. You nearly destroyed the whole Light perfectly, then you misjudged Darkseid. What happened to you could have happened to everyone."

"What Barda means is-."

"No, she's being pretty clear." I nod. Not as if I had anything critical planned that I need to hide from the League. "Alright. A bit of fraternal bonding wouldn't go amiss. And… In the interest of deepening our relationship… There's… Something I've been planning on doing for a while for which your help would be invaluable."

Scott looks mildly interested. "Oh? What's that?"

"I destroyed Father Box for betraying me to Darkseid. Thus: I need a new Box."

"Ping!"

"Alright, if you want to be pedantic about it: I'd like a new Box."

Scott strokes his chin with his right hand. "Any Box you got from Apokolips would have the same loyalty problem as the one you stole from Desaad. And I don't think you can really afford to steal one from New Genesis."

"That would be sub-optimal anyway. What I really want is a Box designed for me from the ground up." I smile faintly as I look from Scott to Barda. "I understand that you're both acquainted with their creator."

"You want Himon to make-?" Scott seems to find the idea amusing. "That's not going to happen."

"Why not? I mean, I can manufacture element x, which I don't imagine is easy for him to do on Apokolips. I can.. pay him." Scott and Barda glance at each other. "Oh, come on, the guy helped the flipping Captain of the Female Furies escape Apokolips and his daughter married Orion. I somehow don't think that he'll hold Darkseid against me."

"You can't go to Apokolips." Barda appears to be taking the idea seriously. "With that much Anti-Life in you, Darkseid will know the moment you step through the hush tube."

"Then it's a good job my brother is the sneakiest New God in existence, isn't it?"

Scott nods to himself. "Grayven having a Mother Box would help with-." Barda narrows her eyes at him. "It would. A Mother Box could monitor him to make sure Darkseid wasn't influencing him. She might even be able to work out how to exorcise the Anti-Life fragment completely."

"Ping!"

"Yes, I know it's optimistic, but it's possible. Okay. We just need to get in touch with Amazing Grace and then-."

I frown. "Why would you want to do that?"

"She's a resistance organiser. Himon has to move constantly to stay ahead of Darkseid's troops, but-."

"Wait no wait.. no. Amazing Grace is a plant. Darkseid has her draw people willing to resist him to her so that he can kill them and use their deaths as an intimidation tool." Scott and Barda stare at me. "She's completely loyal to him. I.. thought you knew that."

Barda's jaw tightens. "No. We didn't."

"Well… Shit." Um. "You have to-."

Scott nods. "We'll need your hush tube. Let's go!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th July
21:04 GMT

"…understand that 'indenture' is one of those words that puts me on edge. Particularly given who we're fighting."

There's a sort of.. wave of motion from the upper legs of the Clicker opposite me. Comprehension/appreciation. "Were you told what they did for us?"

Hinon went into closed session with her fellow Controllers, which gave me the time to do a little sight-seeing. Then I got to try finding a hotel on a planet that doesn't have tourism, which was mildly amusing. Then I found out that Director Jeddigar wanted to talk to me, but couldn't get in touch because no one knew where I was. And I only found that out by walking through the front doors of the Darkstar headquarters.

"A little while afterwards, yes."

"Please restate as you understand?"

"Your species used to have four sexes, three involved in reproduction and.. neutral, without any significant reproductive attributes. Your reproductive genders generally lived about a third to a quarter as long as the neutrals, and represented about one hundredth of your total population."

"Greater genders also reached physical maturity faster and lost mental acuity well before their final expiration age."

I nod. My current conversational companion is the veteran Darkstar who got the job of babysitting me until the Director becomes available. Perhaps most importantly, he-. Um. Oh, let's go with 'he'. Perhaps most importantly, he also gave me a Darkstar communications device, as it turns out that most Darkstar communications occur using techniques that are rather hard to eavesdrop on with a power ring.

"Okay. And your people regarded that as perfectly normal until you started encountering aliens… Humanoid aliens, whose reproductive systems didn't work like that."

"Yes. Strange though the idea of having live young erupt from your bodily orifices must have seemed, it was realised almost immediately that not condemning our progenitors to mind-rot and premature death was far more desirable than the arrangement we had."

"It was really that quick?"

"Yes. Why would it not be?"

"Because your evolutionary history would have adapted you towards accepting the way you did things already? I mean, your genetic-. Ah, your forebears' genetic parents didn't play any part in raising them, the way you did things was necessary for continuing your species…"

"Did your species never suffer deaths during childbirth?"

"Yes, but the rate was never that high."

"And did you regard a percentage as inevitable?"

"It… Kind of is."

"But you attempt to reduce them? Things that would have killed your gestators now seldom kill them?"

"Yes, but we haven't totally reengineered our reproductive systems to do it. We don't even do pre-conception genetic screening anything like as much as we could."

He rears back slightly. "That is strange to me. What is the reason?"

"I think the feeling is that it would be claiming that people with the characteristics not selected for are… Less people than the ones with the characteristics considered desirable. I mean…" I wave my left hand in a circle, showing off my power ring. "I'd have no compunction about using it if I were having a child, but… Some events that occurred in my species' history before we understood how genetics work rather gave that sort of thing a bad name. But… Anyway, how did your people get from that to this?"

"Originally we attempted to moderate the negative effects through drugs and surgery. There was some success, but there were clear limits to what could be achieved. Later, our efforts focused around reproductive cloning. Though not ideal, cloning either adult individuals or sex cells would have removed the requirement for sexed genders. Regrettably, we were unable to develop either technique to the point where it could reliably replace the existing method."

"Then you ran into the Controllers?"

"Yes. Their agents were looking for systems with small rocky worlds and they encountered one of our smaller warrens. We asked to trade for biotechnological knowledge. Two Controllers examined our problem and offered a solution."

"In exchange for your service."

"They have no need for conventional exchange media. In exchange for a reproductive system which would not kill us, we work for them for a span of time. Virtually all warrens considered it a fair exchange."

"That…"

"Are you alarmed? Some humanoid species react with great vehemence to interference in their reproductive practices."

"If you made the decision freely… No, not really. It must be fascinating how your society has changed in the interim."

"Our forebears gave the matter some considerable thought-"

There's a chime from both of our communicators.

"-before…" I rise to my feet as he uncurls into a walking posture. "The Director is ready for you. Please follow me."

He leads the way across the wide open interior space towards the internal teleportation system. While it is perfectly possible to walk around the building, the place is large enough that it would be too time consuming for the people involved. They also don't have stairwells or stairs, ramps between different floors being the norm. Probably something to do with the Clickers being the ones to build it.

"Will you be joining us?"

Flying inside appears to be a no-no. Clicker bodies aren't flexible enough to move in the way that caterpillars do, but on an even surface they can manage to move at a reasonable speed by having each foot touch the ground every third or fourth 'step', sort of like how running Humans don't have either foot on the ground for large parts of the motion.

"No, though I am being assigned to the analytics pool who will be trying to deduce what the Reach's response to your appearance will be."

"I.. hope you have fun with that."

He circles around as I step onto the teleporter. "I might. Usually new occurrences are not in our favour. Good fortune in your discussions."

I feel a tug a little like the one I felt as the ship came in, and then the room has been replaced by an office. The Director is standing at a small console in front of a circular holopit, another Controller part of the way around the circle. This Controller is dressed similarly to Jevek Jos Jar, but his robes are slightly longer and.. he has a greater physical presence. Perhaps he works out? No, more likely he maintains it through bio-control because he has to deal with fighters on a regular basis.

Noting the symmetry I walk over to a position an equal distance from both. "Director. Controller."

Director Jeddigar's eyes scrutinise my face. "Orange Lantern. Thank you for coming to see us."

"It's only sensible. I imagine that we're going to be working together quite a lot for the foreseeable future."

He nods, summoning up an image of the fight with Yellow Beetle. "You and Tarant made short work of that Scarab Warrior, but I wouldn't get too confident. From what we've been able to determine, she was probably a recent recruit. Certainly, she wouldn't ever have fought a Lantern before."

"If fighting the Reach with a power ring was easy, the Green Lantern Corps would have done it."

"Just so long as you understand that." He glances at the Controller. "This is Manu Mia Mosopo, the founder of the Darkstar organisation."

"Yes, I've gained… Some understanding of how that works in Controller society."

"I am glad." His voice sounds slightly… African, perhaps? "My interest therefore is how the organisation you hope to build and the one which I have built will exist together. I do hope that you have thought about it."

"But of course."

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th July
21:09 GMT

"Firstly, I should say that doing… The possibility of doing anything with orange light is going to depend on us being able to neutralise Larfleeze. And while Hinon Hee Hannanan sounded fairly optimistic about our chances, I wouldn't want you to assume anything."

"Of all of us, she is most familiar with the orange light. If she believes that it can be done then she is most likely correct."

"If you don't mind me asking, sir? Why haven't you gone after the Orange Central Power Battery before now?"

"It was stolen from our research centre after our split from the Guardians. If it is true that they located it and chose to allow him to keep it, they did not share that information with us."

"I'm pretty sure that I included its location on the file I sent you with the Guardian's ship."

"Yes. Along with a warning on the nature of its current owner and a recommendation that we not investigate it ourselves. I do not know what you were expecting, but we Controllers are not incapable of taking advice."

"And it was Hinon's thing."

"Waiting until she could be consulted was judged to be appropriate."

"I would be fascinated to know what the Guardians said about it."

"That they stood by the decision. That the orange light is inherently unstable and should not be used directly in the manner you intend. And that once we split from them we lost the right to be involved in their decision-making."

"Hm." I nod. "They don't intend to prevent you trying though, right?"

"They have never had the right to be involved in our decision-making."

"Fair enough." I return my attention to the Director. "If we assume that Controller Hinon and I are going to be back on Maltus in a few days with a Central Power Battery, I'd like your organisation to run psychological checks on its members for individuals who might be capable of using the orange light without going crazy. Hinon is probably better placed than me to describe what the precise trigger factors are. Once we have a list, we can request volunteers and start testing and training."

"And if they are people in vital roles in my organisation?"

"Then.. you.. should be glad that people who you know and have worked with will be playing such an important role in setting up an allied organisation. If Green Lantern recruitment is anything to go by a vanishingly small proportion of people possess the right mindset to use power rings. I'm not trying to poach your best and your brightest, I'm trying to get anyone who can use orange rings and stay sane. You just happen to have a large pool of well-trained people with detailed psychological profiles who are already motivated to fight the Reach."

The Director gives me a shallow nod. "That's… Reasonable. And how do you see these new Lanterns supporting my Darkstars in combat?"

"I don't know exactly what sort of Lantern-detection technology the Reach have. Lanterns are good at large effects, but giant glowing constructs are terrible for concealment. On the other hand, Lanterns can fight Beetles one on one."

"We could deploy a Darkstar infiltration team with a single power ring trained Operative. If they encountered a Scarab Warrior they could put the ring on and kill them, but otherwise carry on as normal."

I shake my head. "That would work… And maybe in the short term that's what we'll do. But in the longer term there are other things Lanterns can do that.. even your current generation maxim suits can't. Look, Darkstars are very good at getting onto worlds coming under or about to come under Reach control and operating there for extended periods. Heck, even attacking their naval docks further in upon occasion. But they don't have the power to fight off an actual attack, let alone push the Reach back."

"Do you know how many Lanterns it would require to do that?" He presses a button and a map of the Reach appears. "How big the Reach is?"

"Yes. And I know that we'd never get enough Lanterns to do it in time. But something I've discovered about orange rings-" My armour appears around me and I phase out and go invisible for a moment before reappearing. I take a cold gun and a purple healing ray out of subspace and brandish them. "-is that we can use them to build things. If we're going to take the war to the Reach, we're going to need a fleet. And a proper army."

He narrows his eyes slightly as he considers it. "We have ships now."

"Ships for transporting Darkstars and performing ambushes of opportunity. I'm talking about building up to the point where we can fight them openly and directly. It's an entirely different philosophy of design and action."

"If we press the Reach on one front they'll simply fortify and expand elsewhere."

I wave my left hand, an image of the worlds around Reach space appearing around the hologram. "Then we build up everywhere. We share technology, we police potential defectors-."

"If I had the people to do that I'd already be doing it."

"So we get them. Darkstars require very specific training, instruction and equipment. To say nothing of Controllers personally empowering their exo-mantles."

"That will become less draining once we have a Central Power Battery with which to replenish ourselves."

"A standard navy won't have that problem. We can pass technology to worlds under Reach threat… Not immediately threatened, but in the next decade or so. Build them up and coordinate them."

"A division of responsibility. Each part doing the thing it can do best while coordinating with the rest."

"Somewhat optimistically, yes. The Darkstars would keep doing what they do best-."

"While no longer being put into situations where they need to do things which they cannot." He nods slowly. "I admit, I had been preparing myself to compete with you and your Lantern Corps."

And nothing I said had anything to do with me seeing that clearly with empathic vision, no not at all.

"But this sounds like an arrangement I can support. Tell me, do you have someone in mind for organising this fleet?"

"Yes. But I'm holding off on making contact with him until after we get control of the Orange Central Power Battery, because without it we're not in a position to create the post."

"And what place is there in your grand vision for we Controllers?"

"We'll need rings, ships and equipment. And I understand that you can reshape matter on vast scales."

"I can accept that in good humour. But I imagine that my brethren will want an organisation they can control."

"Except they defer to you on matters concerning the Darkstars, and to Controller Hinon on matters concerning me. We're fighting a fight they want fought, one which will earn them the acclaim that the Green Lantern Corps has earned the Guardians. If they wanted operatives incapable of having their own initiative then they shouldn't have voted to destroy the Manhunters."

The gem on his chest crackles slightly. "I would recommend not making that particular observation to the other Controllers."

"I shouldn't need to make it. Give good orders and people will follow them. Demonstrate sagacity and people will listen to what you have to say. Do things for people and they will feel grateful. Do not demand obedience as your right; show that you've earned it and continue to earn it."

"I should meet with this.. 'individual' you have in mind for Grand Admiral as soon as possible. With you as head of the Orange Lantern Corps-."

I shake my head. "Ah, no. I don't have the administrative skills for that. I can teach other Lanterns and I can fight, but the job requires abilities I don't have. I was planning to recruit someone for that as well."

"Very well. You have my provisional support. I will begin the vetting process you requested."

"Thank you."

Now all I need to do is defeat Larfleeze. And how hard can that be?

 

[Mr Zoat]

20th July
17:48 GMT

"So how hard is this going to be?"

We're standing at the entrance to a small amphitheatre, the stalls around us populated by Controllers. I'm not completely sure whether this is all of the Controllers, or just all the ones on Maltus or even just the ones who could be bothered to turn up. Most look roughly like Controller Jevek, though there is a degree of individual variation. Longer robes and slightly softer face here, shorter and with hair there. Skin colour ranges from Guardian blue to purply-red and hair comes in black and white with nothing in between.

The general style of the robes appears to be set, but precise length, cut and colouration vary in a number of cases. The glowing crystal and glowing forehead are universal, though the one Controller Hinon wears is dimmer as she draws power from her ring. There are far more males than females… But I'm wondering if some of those I mentally designated as 'male' are actually gender neutral.

"I really couldn't say for certain." Hinon looks down at her ring. "Oh, if only Ganthet was answering me. We always worked so well together."

"Sorry, but I think they blacklisted orange rings."

"I'll go and bother him in person later. We will need to send a formal deputation once everything's up and running, and I do so want to see what they've done with Oa since I've been gone."

"Made lots of green stuff."

"But all of the people! I find it astonishing to think that they're prepared to tolerate an actual population when-. Oh, they're ready for us." The portal melts away in front of us to allow us access. "Follow me."

She floats through the air, feet trailing a little behind her as she goes. I fly after her while maintaining my upright posture. I didn't think that armour was appropriate, but with my initial impression made I've switched to grey robes with orange trim. I've only met a few of the Controllers while I've been here, and I'm not… I left Earth after haranguing the Justice League. Superman has been the iconic superhero on Earth Prime since the forties and I didn't think twice. So while even Guy hesitates to make cracks about the Guardians, to me? They're.. just some people in robes.

Maybe I'd feel differently if they weren't jamming my empathic vision…

Hinon occupies the centre and looks up and around at her fellow Controllers. "Brethren. You've all had the chance to consider the matter under contention. The Orange Lantern and I have given the matter a considerable degree of thought, and we believe that we have a methodology which offers us the best possible chance to recover the Orange Light Fountain. And neutralise its present owner."

There's a flash from the gem at the neck of one of the blue-skinned female Controllers. "The Guardians?"

Jevek's gem glitters. "What does it matter? The Vega Systems have been off-limits to the Green Lanterns since their inception. And now we know why." He looks around the room. "The light will be ours. The Controllers will be in control."

Another flicker from another Controller. "The continuous presence of Green Lanterns on the borders of Reach space slows the Reach advance. It would be advantageous for them to remain."

Another. "Alienating our Guardian brethren would serve no useful purpose, but it is a secondary matter. The orange light must be recovered and put to our use."

One of Jevek's look-alikes. "How do you intend to remove the Orange Light Fountain from Larfleeze's control? Your equations indicated that after so much direct exposure he will have become even more powerful than he was when he enslaved our brother Ogandu Onna Oslan."

"I'm glad you ask." Hinon raises her right hand and generates… I think that's the Maltus version of Atlantean rune equations. "I won't know for certain until we can observe him directly, but I believe that I have a model for how Larfleeze could survive his experiences, even remaining capable of coherent speech. The most likely possibility is that he had what we might call a natural affinity for avarice, for seeing everything in terms of wants and needs. Without anything very much to get in the way of it, the orange light could form a most intense bond with him. At this point I'm not certain he needs either ring or lantern."

A glimmer from Jevek. "But his link can be severed."

"Yes. With difficulty. Over time. In the short term we're going to attempt to neutralise his capacity to focus his desires on any one object, and so paralyse him. That should enable us to transfer the Light Fountain into a proper Central Power Battery housing."

"And we can control the link. Cut him off."

"Perhaps. Eventually. If we actually want to do that, we'd have to wean him off it and then feed in other colours gradually. It wouldn't be a quick process."

I form an orange gem on my own chest and forehead and flash it before anyone else can get in. "Yes, we do want to. Orange light damage is something we're going to end up having to treat amongst Orange Lanterns. We don't need crazy ones running around the place and making the rest of us look bad. Anything we learn from treating the worst case in existence would be invaluable in that regard."

"If it is inevitable, how did you manage?"

"I didn't-."

"Very weak desires, possibly aided by his lack of an attendant arcane construct. There was so little opportunity for the egress of orange energy that he had nearly enough time to learn to channel it without being overwhelmed." She brings up another chart. Me, presumably. "Then he had a construct created in such a way that it would encourage proper interfacing. Unfortunately, for those future Lanterns not fortunate enough to spend a great deal of time in high magic regions, it won't be practical to use it on others."

And also because you'd need to destroy their existing souls in order to do so.

"Larfleeze's current slaves?"

"Once we disrupt him, he should become listless and apathetic. He won't be able to direct them."

"I would very much like to see if restoring them is possible. If nothing else, Ogandu Onna Oslan's restoration to flesh would assist us in maintaining good relations with the Guardians."

Various Controllers look around the room, and there's a shining of gems.

Then a short, Guardian-looking one nods. "We have a consensus. You are to proceed. We will begin constructing a Central Power Battery and holding cell in line with your specifications."

Hinon looks pleased. "Thank you, brothers. The Orange Lantern and I will make our final preparations and depart."

She turns and heads back towards the door, me close at her heels. She eyes me sidelong as the door closes. "I thought you weren't going to talk."

"You told me not to. It isn't quite the same thing."

"Starting as you mean to go on?"

"Yes. I told you that I don't intend for the Controllers to completely control the Orange Lantern Corps in the way that the Guardians do the Green."

"And I agreed that their sort of control wouldn't work with orange light users. But we need to lure the other Controllers into accepting that situation. Tempt them into committing to it fully."

I give my head a small shake. "What's left to do?"

"I want to check the system with the Ophidian once more. Then, nothing. We're off to see the Beast."

"'We'? I thought you were keeping out of sight?"

She pats me on the shoulder. "I'll be with you in spirit. Ready to begin again more intelligently if you lose."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that."

 

[Mr Zoat]

21th July
02:57 GMT

Space bends around-.

"Are you sure you wouldn't-?"

"I'm sure."

03:04 GMT

Space bends-.

"I'm perfectly capable of-?"

"I know."

03:21 GMT

"You did say that it took you mere moments-?"

Space continues to bend around us, despite Hinon trying to be a back seat Controller.

"Yes. It did. I had been waiting to come and see you for a long time and the Reach represented the perfect mix of acceptable targets and no one I knew being in the firing line. My drive to return for a showdown with Larfleeze is much weaker."

"I would have thought that you would want to get it out of your way."

"Not really. On two occasions I have outthought Larfleeze, now I'm deliberately confronting him in a situation where I can't do that and where his advantages are strongest."

"I will eat the Gnat!"

"Not a good idea. I still don't really understand how he trapped you in the first place, but I would not want to rely on a technique we suspect that he can beat." Hinon looks around from where the Ophidian swims through space just behind us. "I don't remember her being that affectionate."

"Remember? You.. met her before?"

"Yes. Krona insisted on studying each of the Embodiments. We didn't find them all… Though, now that I consider what he's been up to while I was indisposed, perhaps he just didn't tell the rest of us."

"I do not remember you."

"I didn't look quite as I do now. I wore my hair long. And-."

"Warp terminating in three, two, one."

Normal space snaps back into being around us. We're just a little outside of the Moat. Ring update-.

"It seems that your recent travails remain largely unnoticed. Pirates are staying calm and the Citadel isn't doing much of anything. Oh, my word, this region used to be a lot quieter. There's some lovely music coming out of-."

"What are you… Doing?"

"Getting out and about for the first time in three billion years. I've already reviewed everything on the database you gave me." She looks me in the eyes. "You know that party trick some AIs like to do to show off to organic creatures, processing a few hundred lines of communication all at the same time?"

"The AIs I've met have been patterned after Humans."

"Ah. Well, one of the many things we Maltus-originating groups can do is process data in a similar way. Not multi-threading so much as multifaceted awareness. We're rather clever, you see."

"So you just..?"

"Checked out the entire region, yes. Except the area on Okaara you warned me about. It's so convenient to be facing people who aren't quite so good at countering our technology as the Reach are."

"The Construct-Lanterns?"

"A few are still loitering around Hny'xx, but as far as I can tell the rest have gone back to Okaara."

"And Larfleeze isn't reacting to the Ophidian?"

"Not so far as I can tell. I think my device is working." An orange line appears in space. "Check for me?"

I fly past the line, then turn around and raise my left hand. "Scan for orange light."

"Not found."

And I can see the Embodiment of Avarice just behind Hinon. Whatever that device is doing it isn't blocking my empathic vision… Any more than she was by default, at least.

"And visible light?"

"Power ring-like object and Ophidian-like object found."

"I wasn't trying to stop visible light. Now, come on." She flies past me. "We have a Light Fountain to acquire."

"People on my homeworld can do that with a bit of paper and a circuit pen."

"People from your homeworld should try doing that in a low magic environment. My device-" She holds up the machine, which resembles two glowing metallic Frisbees stuck together. "-should function anywhere."

"Alright. Ring, plot course for Okaara."

"Course plotted."

"Warp."

Space bends again, and a moment later Okaara lies before us.

"Doesn't look like much."

"They had a nuclear war. And a Larfleeze. I got the impression that several challengers stopped off in various places to get some practice in."

"And Larfleeze lives.. down.. there."

"Even during what is now referred to as 'The Time of X'Hal', no one dared launch weapons anywhere near it. There are a few plant species that survive there that no longer exist anywhere else on Okaara."

"Yes, so I see. If everything goes wrong, try not to destroy them. Now." She passes me a device which looks a little like a pair of headphones. "Put this on Larfleeze when you reach him. That should keep him in a daze until we can come back for him. Getting the Orange Light Well is your only objective."

"I know. Alright, wish me-."

"Oh." Something occurs to her. "And thank you for not making any Sleeping Beauty references. I understand that they're culturally expected, but I used to be a Guardian and I fear that my sense of humour will never quite recover."

"Ah..."

"Off you go. Shoo. I'll be waiting for you outside to receive Larfleeze."

"Right. Although, in case I do die... I think that I'm glad that you're not still a Guardian." She gives me a look of mild reproach. "Going."

I drop towards the planet, the thin air around me burning as I fall towards the small fort the Okaarans maintain to observe the Forest of Weeds.

 

[Mr Zoat]

21th July
03:52 GMT

Invisible and phased I float through the Forbidden Forest of Weeds. No sign that anyone has been this way… Ever. It turns out that it's called the Forbidden Forest of Weeds because a plant that is a combination of ivy and Japanese Knotweed covers… Pretty much the whole place. And it pretty much defines the ecosystem as well; just glancing around I can see four different types of creepy crawly feeding on it or cutting through it for building material. As far as I can tell it attaches itself parasitically to the local tree-analogs somewhere near the top and then drapes down, wrapping itself around anything it can reach. It's extinct everywhere else on the planet.

Lovely place. The way the canopy of leaves and vines almost completely blocks out the light really adds to the ambience.

I think I'm dithering, but at least I'm dithering with a purpose. The fort told me where the 'orange ghosts' usually appear from, but no one knows exactly where Larfleeze lives due to him killing everyone who comes looking for him. His presence here predates the Time of X'Hal and while they could do geophysics scans… Why poke the monster? I'm not using ring-scans for much the same reason.

I remember from the comics that the Controllers brushed aside a group of Okaarans on their way in, then went through the Forest and into a cave complex. Assuming the people in the fort were the same as the ones they barged through in the comic that was another example of Maltusian-descendant highhandedness. All I had to do was ask. They're not here to stop people, just give warning to the rest of the planet of anything Larfleeze does.

Thinking about it, that might well have been what killed the Controllers' comic counterparts as well. If they'd thought to stop and ask, they would have gained some idea of what they were walking into. Then again, if they'd done that they might have lost their Worf Effect awa-.

I see a flicker of orange through the foliage. I stop dead, increasing my armour's magnification…

That's a weird one. Sort of… Undead Battle-Dragonfly-Wasp? It appears to be drifting somewhat aimlessly, its construct-body rippling slightly as it phases through the tree trunks. I'm not seeing any other orange light… I could try usurping Larfleeze's control-. No. Ah. It came from that direction, so I'll try that way. At least I can check whether my stealth systems are achieving anything.

I drift closer. Its flight pattern isn't so much erratic as odd, swooping in one direction and then stopping dead before reorientating and surging into a swoop in the new direction. An apparently random movement causes it to head towards me and I float back, tensing as its… Is that a head? I don't have a record of this species and it isn't immediately obvious where its sensory organs are. One, two… And it carries on its way.

Okay. Scry wards are a problem for other people as well, good to know.

Ring, if you can do it using visible light scans only, try and work out if there's any pattern to how it's flying.

Compliance.

So this way.

I accelerate, not even flinching as I pass through trees and vines. Come on, caves, tunnels… Some sort of building..? There aren't that many areas within the Forest that should have caves. Wrong sort of soil and rock for the most part. On the other hand, it wouldn't have been hard for Larfleeze to just transmute whatever was around him… Ugh, a proper stealth search of this place could take days. I can't go faster in case I miss something and I can't do wide area scans in case Larfleeze picks up on it.

Some sort of ridgeline up ahead, the vines trailing down its side turning what looks like a sheer slope into something that would probably be climbable. Assuming that the vines held. I'll break away from my search pattern to look along its entire length, and then circle…

That bit looks darker than the rest.

Might just be a natural cleft in the rock, but I need to take a closer look. I alter my approach angle and accelerate again, moving through the outer layers of still-living vine, through the dead and hardened layer serving as their support framework and…

The passageway within is roughly-hewn, the floor covered in loose soil with a few ragged plants trying to grow in the faint light which pierces the vine-curtain. No orange. Ring, visible light enhancement.

Compliance.

The passageway continues downwards and to the right. If there were once steps here they've been eroded down or covered over long ago, but the fact that the cave moves steadily in a particular direction suggest that this isn't a natural tunnel. Could be a large creature of some kind, but there aren't any of that sort native to Okaara and I imagine that Larfleeze would have killed it by now anyway.

Accelerate.

The passageway continues for about fifty metres and then starts to head downwards at a steep incline. From the look of the rocks making up the side wall I'd say that whoever made it was trying to go around a patch of harder rock. Maybe it… Originally followed the path of natural caves and then got widened out? I'm definitely well below the surface level now. Yes, this is… Going to be it. Somewhere at the end of this tunnel is Larfleeze and the Orange Central… Light Fountain. I'm a little surprised that I'm not feeling drawn to it, but I genuinely can't feel a thing-.

I notice that I'm slowing down and make an effort to speed up.

The end of the passage ahead is dark, and I briefly wonder if it's a dead end. I'd be surprised, but...

No. Not a dead end.

The cavern-. No, the chamber beyond the end of the tunnel is vast in all dimensions. There are shallow stone stairs leading downwards to the floor twenty metres below me, and from there great pillars rise up a good sixty metres to support the chamber roof. The walls themselves have crumbled in places to reveal the rock and earth beneath, but in those places where they remain whole I can see pictograms in dozens of forms… A quick analysis from the ring shows a few to be taken from the myth cycles of species not native to this region of space. The others… The best the ring's translation system can do is translate concepts with no context. Wealth. Travelling.

Danger.

Stalactites point down from the ceiling, their mirrors on the ground appearing to be permitted to reach only a short height before being smashed down. I can see where two pillars have also suffered the same fate, the stump of one flattened to serve as a… Table? There are broken bits of bone on the upper surface and scattered around the base. The other has been left as a jagged spike of stone.

Scattered here and there are small braziers and fire pits, though at the moment only one or two still burn. The rest are only marked by blackened smears of ash and charred wood.

Not that seeing is a problem with all of the Construct-Lanterns around.

A woman with no eyes and a distended jaw floats in the air to my right. A regal looking… Thing floats in the centre of the chamber, near to the roof. Others sit, stand or float in all parts of the ro-.

Oh shit that's-! No. Oh, goodness me. Not Larfleeze. Looks like a member of the same species, but… Just another Construct-Lantern. And-. Oh, I recognise that one! That's Glomulus! None of them are.. reacting to me. Good stuff…

I drift out into the room, taking care not to get too close to any of them. I'm not seeing Blume. Is he too big to fit in this room? Certainly, he would be too big to fit down the tunnel I came in through. Also… I look around again, spotting for the first time that from this side the tunnel entrance is marked with the orange sigil. None of this is what I saw when I called to the Ophidian. No piles of jewels or other valuables. And all of the orange light is coming from the Construct-Lanterns. Given that I'm here for the Orange Light Fountain…

He hasn't moved it, has he? That would be a bit of a bother.

A flicker of light as a Wurm-like Construct-Lantern emerges from an opening in the wall draws my attention to a side passage. Okay. Time to do some exploring.

 

[Mr Zoat]

21st July
04:01 GMT

Narrow confines. Marvellous.

At least the glow will give me plenty of warning if any of the Construct-Lanterns come this way. The walls of this tunnel are far rougher than the one leading to the main chamber. I wonder how he made them? A ring-blast wouldn't be a good idea for tunnelling, cutting would require a degree of precision I'm not sure that Larfleeze is capable of… Did he get his Construct-Lanterns to dig it out by hand? Or… Maybe a pre-existing natural cave? The Okaarans didn't have any records of what this place was before Larfleeze made it his home. It certainly doesn't look Guardian…

Orange light ahead, and an opening into a large chamber. I stop for a moment to make sure that no Construct-Lanterns are heading my way, then move forwards to the very mouth of the opening.

Oh my.

Make that a very large chamber, far larger than the first room. Three things immediately draw my attention. The first is an unknowable depth of stuff on the floor. I see precious metal and jewels along with the occasional weapon and.. what I can best describe as lumps of machinery. Parts of starships, something that looks a.. little like a windmill. All things that a covetous being like Larfleeze would want. This is the chamber I saw in my visions.

Atop the valuables and detritus lie orange power rings. Dozens, certainly. My ring quickly counts 137 visible ones but the piles imply that there are more beneath. A person could start a Lantern Corps with that many, if he were willing to overlook that they used to be people. Between those piles… Biological matter. I didn't think to ask whether the First Ring had a bio-filter. If it doesn't, quite a lot of that is probably Larfleeze's shit. There are also bones… I think those are the shells of exoskeleton-bearing creepy crawlies. Some of the rest… Plant matter? There are small swarms of insects making the refuse piles their home and I can see eggs and maggots too.

I am rather glad that I can't smell like this.

The second thing I notice is Blume. The size of this room is such that he isn't the overwhelming presence that he would be somewhere smaller-. Wait a moment, he stole my cash pile six months ago… Quick check… Yep, a small portion of this is my property. I guess he picked it up and brought it back here. Somehow. Long range warp-vacuuming is well within the abilities of a being like Larfleeze. Or maybe he recalled Blume for long enough to drop it off and then sent him back?

Blume isn't alone. Two significantly smaller Construct-Lanterns also stand guard over Larfleeze's treasury. One is a vaguely Twi'lek-looking woman floating at something approaching parade rest near the cavern's ceiling. The second is closer to the glittering floor of the cave, a bandage-wreathed humanoid. As I watch he moves from one pile of rings to another, his single eye darting from ring to ring as if taking an audit.

None of them react to me. Blume has a wide variety of non-standard senses in addition to being a Lantern. If he isn't reacting I think that I can assume that I'm good as far as being spotted is concerned.

Which is good, because the third thing I see is Larfleeze.

There's a finger of rock poking out through the piles of stuff near the centre of the room, the upper point about eight metres above me. Orange power rings are scattered around it, a few resting on the spire at various points where they've been knocked aside and happen to have come to rest. Somewhere near the top and just outside my line of sight is a brilliant orange glow which I sincerely hope is the Orange Light Fountain. Closer than that, Larfleeze twitches in his sleep, curled up on the top of the bare rock promontory.

As I watch, his right hand rises to swat at some of the insects buzzing around him.

Hinon was right, his ring does look kind of rubbish. My own ring has a slightly recessed bezel with the sigil resting on it flush to the rest of it, and being made in a slightly different shade of orange. His looks like it was made of a single piece, having a uniform colour and the sigil clearly sticking out from a thicker hoop.

Okay.

That's Larfleeze.

…

I float forwards slightly, then begin rising up. Ring, monitor the other three and the opening as best you can with my armour's optical systems.

Compliance.

My right hand shakes inside my armour as I take hold of Hinon's device. My breathing gets faster, and I daren't do what I normally do and have the ring restore it to my resting rate.

That's Larfleeze.

"Sngrghgrahgrah…"

Larfleeze twitches again, his snout wrinkling and his breath coming in snorts. I stop dead.

Anything else..?

His right arm thrusts out, waving around until his hand touches the handle of-. Yep, that's the Orange Light Fountain alright. The design is even more archaic than what my personal lantern used to look like when it belonged to Alan. It's even doing the same flaming-effect lightshow thing his ring does when it's fully charged, though the orange flames are bolder and brighter. Larfleeze's fingers brush against the Light Fountain's flame-wreathed handle for a moment, an orange glow running along his arm and into his torso.

"Recharge complete. One hundred thousand percent regular charge available."

"Sngrgh."

His ring's voice is slow, masculine. Ring, is that Krona's voice?

Words spoken in ancient Maltusian dialect. However, no record of Krona's voice on file.

Okay, nothing else… Just got to approach the most dangerous Lantern ever and hope that he doesn't wake up. And that if he wakes up that he can't see me. And that if he can see me, then… I don't know.

I asked Hinon about doing something to the Light Fountain to weaken their connection, but she didn't think it would be possible in the field. I'm.. really wishing that she'd answered differently.

I drift a little closer, the armour's sensors combining with my ring to give me a really detailed view of Larfleeze's face. He isn't blocking my empathic vision, but all that I'm getting is orange. Deep orange, bright orange, connected to more and more orange. There's so much of it that I can't even make out details. I can't tell anything about his life, his past desires, why he… Did this to himself. The only thing I can see within is a clear picture of the Light Fountain, and even that is diffuse, spread out and connected to the rest of that… That mess of a soul.

I'm about four metres away now. Close enough that if I wasn't phased I'd be able to hear his breathing. My left hand strays to the hilt of the Sword of the Fallen. From this distance… A short lunge. I know the Sword nullifies lantern power; I've sent Praexis Demons to oblivion with it. Whatever power he's built up, it'll vanish like everything else. Shorn of that energy his meat body is about as vulnerable as everyone else's. A stab to the head or a decapitation stroke… Heck, just hitting his ring or cutting it off should be enough.

No. There but for the grace of Eris go the rest of us. And she's not the most graceful.

I move my left hand away from the Sword and extend my right, holding it so that it's over Larfleeze's head. Little closer, little closer…

A twitch and I back up two metres.

No, sometimes a twitch is just a twitch.

I take a quick look at the exit and the three Construct-Lanterns. No change.

Right.

I float around Larfleeze until I'm directly behind him, then lower the device onto his head. There's a tiny shimmer as it moves fully into phase…

I back up. It won't make much difference if he wakes up, but-.

Larfleeze's eyes snap open!

 

[Mr Zoat]

21st July
04:08 GMT

BACKUPBACKUPBACKUP!

I'm already on the far side of the chamber before his eyelids reach the limits of his eye sockets.

PLEASEWORKPLEASEWORKPLEASEWORK!

Larfleeze blinks slowly.

"Uugh?"

The Construct-Lanterns turn to face him.

Okay, okay, even if he's free and aware, there's still a good chance that he isn't aware of me.

He blinks, turning slightly so that he can see the Light Fountain.

…

And that's it. His… His eyes are open…

I float around the room, not coming any closer to him or the Construct-Lanterns than I have to. He's breathing slowly, his eyes are unfocused… Empathic vision shows… His desires are.. sort of.. smoosh.. y…

It worked.

It wor-. No, time for patting Hinon and myself on the back later. First, I need to check. I float upwards, taking a container from my armour's torso and stopping once I'm more or less in Larfleeze's line of sight. We weren't exactly sure what Larfleeze would most value, so we threw in a few possibilities. The gold and platinum coins, small amounts of element x and stellarium were Hinon's contribution. The bowl of beef stew was mine. Yeah, looking at him now… I don't know what Larfleeze's species considers good looking. Or even how they normally look. I mean, my body is totally hairless and that isn't normal for Human males. But while he doesn't exactly look unhealthy, there isn't much fat on him, and his fur looks… Unhealthy, matted, greasy. If I had to guess, I'd say that he hasn't been getting anything like the nutrients that he needs and his ring isn't getting told clearly what it should do about it.

Okay. I hold out the container and activate its spatial grip. That's a lot harder to detect than an anti-gravity device, but he still might be able to… No, looks like that's safe. Delay ten seconds and then back the heck off again.

And wait.

I'm at the far-interior of the room here and-. Oh, that's how Blume gets out. There's a very clearly discoloured part of the ceiling, the outline making a circle which would be large enough for him to pass through. He must have just shoved it out of the way and then put it back into place. Larfleeze must have been aggrieved enough to allow his treasure-trove to be momentarily exposed.

The container shifts back into phase. A couple of Blume's tentacles twitch but neither of the other two Construct-Lanterns respond. And Larfleeze himself? No response. Okay. A few seconds more… The container releases small platforms, spatially locked in the same way that it is. Coins, ingots and the bowl of food. If he's actually aware of it, the scent alone…

Nothing.

Some of the orange within him moves a little, but it's sluggish and meandering. He wants as much as he ever did, but without being able to focus on any one…

Right. Next step. Depending on what instructions he's given the Construct-Lanterns… Or does he not allow them that much independence? I… Don't remember any but Glomulus having any initiative in the comics. Have to hope…

I phase in, remaining invisible.

No response from Bandages or Twi'lek. Or Larfleeze, which is the main thing. Blume's tentacles twitch and he rises off the ground slightly. He doesn't seem to be behaving aggressively but I'm pretty confident that he just became aware of me. But that's okay; if Jordan and company could take him I'm pretty sure that I can.

And drop invisibility and raise railguns! And set the ring to take control of my body again. Oh, better, much better. My heart and lungs are now moving at a reasonable speed and the sweat disappears from my armour's interior. No response from Twi'lek or Larfleeze, a low murmuring from Blume as he rotates in my direction and Bandages is heading right for me. Two railguns immediately focus their attention on him. Can he recognise the threat? He slows so I'm going to assume so, his one eye staring madly at me.

Ring. Scan.

The orange pseudo-flames around the Orange Light Fountain flicker and then flare as my ring fills me in on the state of my environment. The pit below us is deep and filled with all sorts of interesting things. There are also others buried further beneath the rock through other tunnels. Some are sealed, perhaps from when Larfleeze went through a paranoid stage. Genetic material… Fresh meat. Looks like some Citadelians came in here recently and were killed rather than being assimilated.

Guess Larfleeze was hungry.

"Thief."

Looks like Blume remembers me. I keep one railgun pointed at bandages while the rest point at him.

"Lantern Blume." Tentacles wiggle and twitch, but unlike our first encounter his mouth remains narrow. "Do you want something?"

"I..." He shudders and actually fades slightly. "I think..." He turns, his eyes glazed, and floats away from me.

Oh flip the heck yes.

I cautiously move towards Larfleeze. Nothing. Great. Now, Hinon thought that the one thing that might break him out of it would be me taking the Orange Light Fountain from him, and having looked into him earlier I think she might well be right. We certainly don't want him storming Maltus to try and recapture it. Which.. means that we have to remove them both together. Hopefully, without his direction the rest will just float around listlessly as Blume is doing -and gosh he's big in a confined environment- and not follow us. Otherwise I'll have to use the Sword on them. Hinon was pretty clear that she didn't think they could ever be turned back…

Still no reaction from my main target. I would so very much like to pull this off without any fighting. I mean, I would have to try and kill him, and… The sheer number of things he must have seen in three billion years of life…

The flames from the Light Well are billowing, almost… Reaching out towards me. Larfleeze himself still looks fairly out of it. Okay, construct platform underneath him and lift… Still no reaction, good, need to keep him near it…

Making sure that he has an unobstructed view of it, I gently place my gauntleted hands on its outer case.

…

Huh. Nothing. No sudden super surge of desire, no burst of short-termism. Either that means that enlightenment makes me proof against it… Or I've managed to become sufficiently 'productively insane' that the difference isn't noticeable.

"U-ugh."

Larfleeze reaches out weakly for the Light Well… No harm in it I suppose. I gently lay it on the construct platform next to him and he curls up lightly around it.

Okay! Both objectives secure for now. Time to get the heck out of here. I don't warp -I'm not doing that until Hinon can check that her device is really working as advertised- but I drop my railgun constructs and fly very rapidly through the treasure chamber, along the tunnel, out through the entrance chamber where the Construct-Lanterns have stopped still and out through the entrance tunnel. Larfleeze doesn't react until we break through into the tree-shaded air, and even then only to wince and blink as a stray beam of sunlight strikes his eyes.

"Orange Lantern to Controller Hinon. Mission successful."

"Good show. Come up above the canopy and I'll take a look at the 'Beast'."

Orange filaments pierce the foliage above me, shoving it aside as I rise into clear view. No local aircraft go anywhere near this place. I see Hinon in the distance, then up close as she warps to me in order to look at Larfleeze.

"Oh.. what.. a.. mess."

"Will it hold?"

"With a little help from me. If you focus on getting us-."

"Warning: avarice detected."

What-?

I get a construct barrier up just fast enough to block an orange energy pulse as four Citadelian Orange Lanterns appear just above us.

 

[Mr Zoat]

21st July
04:15 GMT

The universe slows as they open fire.

Energy pulses rather than beams. They're firing them directly from their rings. Firing directly at me and not at Larfleeze or Hinon. Hinon isn't blasting me, which implies that she didn't set a trap for me. No, she's shielding Larfleeze. Sensible. The Citadelians are aiming and shooting not charging in stupidly. They waited until Larfleeze was down before attacking. No implants-

Bolts begin striking my barrier as construct armour appears around my body.

-visible, which means that they're either lightly modified or unmodified. But their behaviour is too intelligent for that. New Breed, produced in the facility I destroyed. Larfleeze wouldn't let people have rings, so-. They got them due to my summoning. And had the sense to sit on them and not put them on straight away.

I begin forming railguns.

Was Admiral Drolyk just fishing for information? They didn't know how to use them safely? Or know if they could? The Emperor wouldn't have wanted to move out until his new generation soldiers were ready anyway, so they weren't pressed for time… Empathic vision shows… Desire to follow orders and make the Citadel great. Must be why my barrier is holding out so well; they don't know me well enough to want me dead in a personal way.

I jam my complete railgun constructs through my own barrier and fire a one-two combination of a crumbler round followed by a tungsten at the closest. He doesn't have a barrier or construct armour of his own. Neophyte. No experience. The crumbler strikes home, impacting on the left side of his chest. At this speed I can watch both the physical force from the impact move across his armour and flesh and the crumble effect itself propagate across the surrounding matter. He's already reeling in the air as the tungsten round strikes the hole its predecessor created, blasting through the exposed wound. Normally it would overpenetrate, but as I fired as fast as I could rather than letting the power build up it isn't moving anything like as fast as it might have. Combined with the Citadel's high quality infantry armour-

"ARHHHHHHH..!"

-the result is the round bouncing off the inside of his back armour and being deflected back into his body. A perfectly manageable wound for someone with self-preservation instincts and an orange power ring, but he'll struggle to do anything else for the time being.

Mental pathway damage limit reached. Acceleration discontinued.

Even as I move my railguns to the next target, they're putting up barriers. Three barriers cover all three effectives as the one I shot falls from the sky. Shock rather than death, though I didn't specifically tell Drolyk that rings could be used medicinally. Are they assuming that he's dead, or just that they don't have time to help him during combat? Of course, if they don't know that he can heal himself I'm not going to tell them. Construct armour complete I drop my outer barrier and generate another couple of railguns.

"Would you care to explain to me what this is about?"

They hesitate for a moment as their brother crashes through the canopy. Citadelians are tough, but combined with the internal damage he's going to need to fix himself quickly. Then the one slightly closer to me floats forwards slightly.

"Fight test."

"Don't feel obliged to keep your answer to two words."

"After Larfleeze attacked our facility on Hny'xx and you fled rather than face him, the Emperor was concerned that you could not fulfil your part in any bargain we of the Citadel Empire made with you." He looks over to where Hinon is checking on our prisoner. "You didn't fight Larfleeze. We needed to know that you had the stomach for combat."

…

They don't know that was intentional on my part. They think I might still be interested in dealing with them. But… If the Emperor has Lanterns under his command he could just rebuild what Larfleeze destroyed. Unless he doesn't know that he can do that.

"I do. I also have the intelligence to realise that it isn't always the best approach."

He nods. "Good. The Emperor approves."

They might not have developed good Lantern combat skills yet but they've got pretty good focus and coherence. I'm still confident that I could beat them-. Kill them. As long as there aren't any more. And it wouldn't surprise me to learn that the Emperor kept a ring for himself. But what happens if they decide to visit Larfleeze's cave while I'm gone? Even if I left my own Construct-Lanterns, a well equipped strike force could penetrate and get an awful lot of rings. I had been assuming that a fear of the place would keep anyone away, at least for long enough for us to go there and back.

"And?"

"And he wishes to make his offer again. Join us. Instruct us to fight as you do. Lead his fleets and his armies as his mightiest warrior. The universe can be ours!"

"And if I say 'no'?"

The three of them look at each other for a moment, then back at me. The closest one shru-.

BLOUGHDUGHDOFF!

Uh. I push myself upright in the trench my impact just dug into the Somewhat Less Forbidden Forest of Weeds, the trees around me torn and shattered by the force of my impact. Construct armour held, just about. I generate a new set from beneath and let what's left of the old construct flake away. Giant orange beam. Didn't come from the three talking to me or the one who fell. And it was fast, relativistically fast. I remember from the Stewart ring's database that humanoids generally can't fight like that as they can't get their heads around the principles involved well enough. I can just about do it myself -out of combat at least- but there's no way that a rookie Lantern with no database could. Maybe their ring was made from a non-humanoid?

I add a bubble barrier and generate small railgun and cold gun constructs, charging the railgun's capacitors in preparation.

"And what was that in aid of?!"

The three Citadelians drift in my direction, moving apart from one another. They're not surrounding me as yet…

"I felt that perhaps they were not being clear."

Orange light flares in mid-air, and when it clears another Citadelian Orange Lantern is revealed. This one looks older and far more grizzled, grey streaks from old scars visible against the blue-black of his skin. No implants. Odd. An early prototype, perhaps?

"You will work with us, or you will die and we will continue our work without you."

Construct armour flares into being around him, and a beam from his ring hits the dying warrior I shot and knits his chest back together. The warrior jerks into a sitting position, hands grabbing at the former site of his injury.

"Emperor Damyn, I presume."

The old warrior gapes at me for a moment before throwing his head back. "HAHAHA! Damyn, you think me Damyn?! Hah!" He wipes his eyes with his right hand. "This is what happens when your entire species is cloned! No, Orange Lantern, I am not Damyn, and I will dispense with the illusion that he is in command of my empire soon enough."

Then who-?

"You're the First."

"Yes indeed! The first Citadelian, formed by the womb of X'Hal and the technology of the Psions. For so long I have been reduced to directing my people through their implants, my own aged body barely ticking over, but now..! Now I lead and fight and kill once more with my own hands! Restored by this wonderful ring!"

He brings the ring he wears on his right middle finger to his lips and kisses it.

"We are a perfect match for the orange light, not merely one people but different iterations of a single person! I would ask you once more to serve me, but we both know that you will not." He points his ring at me. "Now die."

 

[Mr Zoat]

21st July
04:19 GMT

His right hand glows and a spatial lensing effect appears to warp the background but I'm already moving. My crumbler round fires at full power, slamming into the construct armour covering his head even as his own beam flashes out and blasts a hole into the ground behind me. His visor fails, causing him to pull his head back slightly in surprise. As I fire my cold gun he raises his left arm and forms a shield construct, blocking the shot.

Not ablative as the construct armour I use when sparring with Guy and John is, but modular. One part can fail while the rest remains strong. That's actually quite-.

Energy pulses strike my bubble shield as the First pulls back, his escort advancing behind their own floating palisade shields. Not a problem. Just keep moving and-.

A shockwave of orange radiates outwards from the First, his escort shooting upwards just before it reaches them. I immediately mirror their action, simultaneously charging and firing my railgun at the closest. His palisade evaporates where I hit but the younger Citadelians have armoured themselves. Okay. I transition behind them and reload my first railgun while forming a second-.

"Yaarh!"

The Citadelian I shot earlier transitions into my bubble barrier, stabbing with.. an Nth metal cutlass. The bubble buckles and bursts as he fortifies the armour around his right shoulder and barges towards me. I retrain my railguns and dart left, getting a clear shot at the unreinforced armour covering his back. My guns hum as the crumbler rounds strike home, construct armour shattering, armour and flesh dissolving and then the cold beam hits. In a second hoar frost covers the Citadelian's body as he plummets to the ground for a second time.

Orange rings can't fix dead.

The three survivors pull back into formation with the First, forming a combined bubble.. with multiple layers. Okay. I fire a tungsten round at the one I killed, his body exploding into frozen lumps of meat. A filament snatches the ring he carried from the broken remains of his right hand and another grabs onto the pommel of his cutlass.

Holding up my right arm I phase out to allow his ring to pass through my armour and then phase back in, the ring fitting neatly over my right ring finger. Immediately, flashes of the life of a being I can best describe as being a tentacle elephant appear in my mind. He came to Vega to find a world to settle… A long time ago. Instead, he found Larfleeze. I take hold of the cutlass hilt a moment later.

Two rings again.

Inside the Citadelian bubble my enemies appear to reach a decision. Strands connect the First to his minions and then.. for an instant I'm confused as to what I'm doing here. It swiftly passes as orange flashes around one minion and transitions him into stabbing range. I swing my cutlass to intercept his as my railguns fire! There's a tremendous clang as his natural muscles try to overpower the muscle enhancements of my armour. I bring my left hand around to push on the rear of the blade as the railguns fire, the first hit destroying his construct armour and the second-.

I jerk forwards slightly as he disappears, a momentary flicker of orange behind me indicating that one of his brethren have transitioned into melee range as well. Before he can strike I transition myself to directly above the Citadelian dome, then drop so that I'm standing on it.

Corrupt and drain.

Compliance.

The orange light in the outermost bubble roils and spins for an instant before visibly flowing up my body and into my rings. I drop down slightly onto the next level and being to repeat the process as-

Alert!

-two Citadelians flicker into being next to me. Accelerating myself I slash at the one to my right with the cutlass while the one above and behind me is met with a destructive pulse. The pulse is met with only limited success; the construct armour covering his chest fractures but doesn't quite break but he's forced to back away and abandon his swing. The swords -ugh- achieve little either. Mine slices through his construct armour and body armour to cut a thin line across his chest while his cuts through my own construct armour and slices through the power armour covering my left forearm. But since I've got an opening…

I hunger.

Both of the Citadelians are pulled back inside the bubbles as another layer fails and is sucked into my rings. Okay, in theory I could force my way in like this, but somehow I don't think I'll need to as the Hellwraith takes full control of its new host and stabs another Citadelian in the neck with its cutlass before manifesting construct claws and grappling with him. The other two look around in astonishment, giving me the opportunity to create a laser construct attached to my right leg and fire it through the bubble at the First.

If I can see you, light can pass through your shield. Yes, only orange light in this case but it isn't hard for me to make orange light.

"Graagh!"

The First instinctively jerks aside and creates an extra barrier, neither of which impede my light speed weapon that passes through orange constructs. This is why we wear head armour. Credit to him though; he's pretty darn physically resilient anyway. Finally getting his brain in gear he reaches up into the beam of my laser with his right hand and bends spac-.

Ah! Cutting that out. He turned the laser back on me. Do I pull back and-? No, the whole area around his body is shimmering now, he can just deflect it wherever.

"Raah!"

The First drops to the bottom of his bubble where the Hellwraith and the younger Citadelian are wrestling, grabbing the demonhost by the head and… Ew. It looked like he just rubbed the fingers of his left hand across its head, but that head then came apart in blood-pumping slices. I feel a slight tingle as the Hellwraith returns to my ring. The Citadelian he fought is visibly injured, but a glare from the First prompts him to start healing itself.

So I shoot him in the left eye with a laser and fry his brain instead.

There's a puff of burned meat smoke as he collapses dead to the bottom of the inner layer of the bubble shield. The remaining younger Citadelian takes his helmet out of subspace and jams it over his head before I can repeat the process. Maybe he isn't familiar enough with ring scans to rely on them to replace the input of his own eyes in combat?

The bubble shield twitches and I transition to a point fifty metres away without much in the way of conscious consideration, a black beam piercing my former position. Oh great, he knows how to do beam -I transition again- singularities as well. Under other circumstances I might call upon the Ophidian but Larfleeze is right there. I can't risk destabilising Hinon's control of him. The other surviving Citadelian is gathering up his fallen comrades' rings. Shouldn't help him much, but I can't pierce the shields fast enough -I dodge another black beam, this one passing through a chunk of the forest and violently compressing the terrain- to stop-.

There were three of them maintaining the barrier. I think I've got the First's full attention and the other one isn't giving the matter his full attention. Simple solid shot might be able to get through it now. I dodge again, plotting a random evasion pattern as I charge up my railguns and load tungsten rounds. The First drops his singularity projector for a moment, frowning at me as he tries to work out his next move. I fire orange lasers at his eyes to make sure he has to focus on his own defence, then point my railguns at his remaining junior and firechargefirechargefirechargefire!

The bubble crumbles at the first impact, caves in at the second and then the rounds hit the younger Citadelian in the chest. His armour cracks, and I'm slightly faster with my cold gun than the First is with his barrier.

"RAAAAH!"

The First roars his frustration and his ring momentarily shuts down.

He blinks in confusion for a second, then my cold gun freezes him in that pose permanently.

Haah.

I watch as the bodies fall to the ruined ground. He didn't realise. Focus on something other than avarice and your ring stops cooperating. No, no way he could have known. The Greenies don't advertise it and neither Larfleeze nor his minions ever encountered the problem.

His body and that of his runner-up associate hit the ground and shatter while the other two just… Burst. I hold out my left hand and immediately realise that trying to call the rings is a bad idea. Instead, I transition down and pick them up with filaments.

"Are you finished playing yet?"

Three of the rings show me pictures of species I don't recognise, but the one worn by the First…

Ogandu Onna Oslan.

I nod inside my armour as I turn to face Hinon. "Yes. Yes, I think so."

 

[Mr Zoat]

21st July
06:01 GMT

Larfleeze's.. cell, gives me a mild headache just being near it. A room designed to.. nearly completely blot out the orange light. It won't exactly tear a person's soul apart, but a person would find it increasingly difficult to want things for themselves. In a way it's the opposite of the conversion crystals which the Zamarons used in the comics. Those forcibly converted people to their way of thinking, we're going to cure ours of… Not our… The way of thinking our light encourages if they lose control.

I hope he's the last person I put in here.

I glance at the Light Fountain in my left hand.

I don't believe that he will be.

The cell itself is relatively pleasant. A matter transmuter for food and.. whatever other materials the housekeeping drones require. The drones themselves are created and dismantled by the same device. We don't think that Larfleeze has any particular technical skills, but there's a risk that he might have picked them up from one of the people he assimilated. The walls, floor and furnishings are in various shades of blue. A sonic projection system is hidden behind the heavily reinforced walls and plays barely audible relaxing music. A Controller -one of the standard pattern Jevek-looking ones- is going to be here constantly to monitor Larfleeze.

I nod at… That Controller, as Hinon and I watch the trembling Larfleeze through one of the observation windows. "Did you have trouble getting a volunteer?"

"Not at all. Everyone wants to be my friend at the moment." She frowns. "A refreshing change, actually."

"From being comatose?"

That earns me a sidelong glance. "After the Manhunter Rebellion, a number of my colleagues expressed a degree of scepticism about the whole concept of sharing glow-technology with other species. It wasn't a popular field of research." Her eyes drop to the controls in front of me. "Do you intend to press that or are you going to watch him all day?"

At the moment Larfleeze is still wearing the system I put on his head in the caves. He's still wearing his ring as well. Taking it off in advance was just too much of a risk. Once the.. 'blue cell' starts work the ring will rapidly be drained of power, and there's a small and very secure slot for a drone to drop it into once he's sufficiently out of it for that to be practical.

I press the button and the air in the cell shimmers. Larfleeze himself stills, not even twitching. I can't scan him and I can't see him on empathic vision any longer. I have to stare at his chest for several moments before I'm certain that he's still breathing.

"That should do it." Hinon steps back from the observation window and starts walking towards the exit. "Do you want anything special done with his ring?"

Larfleeze's eyes open for a moment. No orange sigil. Not even any pain. They're just blank. Lifeless. He's gazing out at the universe and he doesn't understand what it is or why it's there.

They close again and I turn away.

"Do you?"

"Oh, I'd just destroy it. I'm not completely without sentimentality-" Her eyes drop to John's former ring. I wonder if she really still needs it? "-but that one doesn't have any good associations."

"No, I think we should keep it. It was the first ever orange ring."

We pass out of the cell block and into the central shaft, then rise off the ground and head upwards towards the night sky.

"All yours, then." She takes a moment to glance over the construction crew still putting this place together. This will eventually serve as our version of the Science Cell block which the Guardians have on Oa. Need to plug the Light Fountain into the Central Power Battery housing first… "I'll have it delivered to you when we finally get it off him."

"I was thinking.. more a museum or something. I don't want anyone forgetting that things like Larfleeze can happen to the rest of us as well."

"I thought you were leaving things like that up to this Clarissi candidate you still haven't told me the name of."

"Oh, sorry. Vril Dox. He's Coluan. Highly intelligent but with poor social skills. He and the other Controller-."

"Yes, the joke rather makes itself, doesn't it?"

We rise over the lip of the central shaft, getting a panoramic view of a formerly-pristine chunk of Maltusian wasteland. Now construction equipment and labourers are everywhere, the outlines of housing, training facilities and office buildings visible in several places. I can also see the dull glow as the Controllers working on the Central Power Battery housing make their last minute checks. Hinon smiles faintly at the sight before flying towards them, and I accelerate to catch up.

"Making sure the Corps is making itself useful will be his job. Making sure that its members stay sane will be mine."

"Mm." She frowns. "Aren't the Coluan people being mind controlled by a group of artificial intelligences?"

"Those were made by his father. The information I have suggests that he's in a Dominator-run prison, but I'll need to take some time to confirm that."

"Be careful if you go anywhere near Colu yourself. Losing you at this point would be awkward."

I nod. "I'd certainly hate for my mind being torn apart by monstrous AIs to be awkward for you."

"Do you intend to make a habit of saying things like that? I can see it rapidly becoming tiresome."

"Of course. You used to be Guardians. I need to make certain that you're not reverting."

"Hm."

We fly in silence for a moment, now close enough to see the detail of the Central Power Battery housing. The oval structure of it puts me in mind of a front-on view of a Portal turret. It's grey and inert at the moment, though that will change shortly. The upper part of the housing at the front is currently hinged up slightly to allow access to the internal systems into which I need to insert the Light Fountain.

"Speaking of the Guardians, I intend to stop off at Oa at some point. Zamaron as well."

"Aren't you bold. We don't have the same recent… Recentish, history with the Zamarons as we do with the Guardians. It should simplify things for you." She stops dead, something occurring to her. "If you see her, be sure to point out to Nadia Safir that she was completely wrong about the orange light necessarily excluding other colours, will you?"

"I think that a demonstration would be more effective than a lecture."

"But far less satisfying. You've no idea what that woman could be like." She turns to face me. "Sufficiently un-Guardiany for you?"

I fly on past her, heading for the opening on the casing. I had thought that the full gathering might want to show up, but it turns out that Controllers aren't big on ceremony. Once Hinon has made her checks each of the Controllers will come here and bind themselves to it individually under her supervision. The whole structure is about fourteen metres tall and about three thick at the widest point. I raise the Light Fountain, placing a hand on each side of the main body. Then I drift forward, holding it out towards the opening in the structure. The interior space looks plain, but from the parts of Hinon's description which I could follow it's a massively complicated partially extra-planar monitoring and projection system that they make look like a Lantern because that's what they used to do and there's no pressing reason to change it now. Bare, curved walls and a small plinth. I land, kneeling down to slot the Fountain in place.

Hm.

I rise off the ground and turn, flying out at speed. Hinon has come closer in order to supervise so I head her way.

"Link.. good."

As I reach her I turn, watching two of the other Controllers lower the front plate and make the unit whole.

"Bonding complete." She raises her left hand, ring glowing brilliantly. "And… Activate."

The core of the Orange Central Power Battery flares with orange light, shining almost painfully for a moment. Then the orange colour begins seeping into the rest of the structure and the core begins to calm. The light… Puts me in mind of the front of the nacelles on the original Enterprise. Moving, almost burning, but stable.

As stable as orange gets.

"And… Success. We have a functioning Central Power Battery."

We watch it for a moment, then she turns her head to face me.

"Well? What are you waiting for? Go and get me my Clarissi."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Headhunting

14th August
19:24 GMT

I get a few odd looks as I thread my way through the streets of the imaginatively named Korugar City. Actually, its name is rather emblematic of the political problems facing the whole of the planet. It used to be called Sinestro City, and before that it was a scrubby bit of nowhere whose sole claim to fame was not being part of the territory of any of the three belligerent powers whose conflict blighted the lives of everyone living on Korugar. When Sinestro took over he had the new planetary capital built here, making a point about new beginnings and moving on from old follies. The government he set up named it in his honour, a vote of thanks from the people he saved from neutronic self-annihilation. Then, when he was arrested by Jordan and his government collapsed, the new governors all wanted to move the parliament somewhere else but couldn't agree on where. Then they sort of agreed to a rotating system where they would go from old capital to old capital, but the money wasn't in the budget and the Anti-Nationalists didn't like the way it eroded central government and the smaller nations didn't like getting excluded and all the offices of state were in Sinestro City anyway…

"Wrong time place opportunity."

So they didn't so much agree to leave it here as fail to agree on how to move it. Then came the issue of the name of the place, which clearly had to be changed. It actually stayed as Sinestro City for three years while they argued over it, the names of various national heroes being mooted and dismissed, sometimes for blatantly partisan reasons and at others because they'd done truly monstrous things against the people now being expected to use their name for the planetary capital. For a while they were just going to call it 'Capital City', but it was pointed out that aliens would probably find that confusing and the generic nature of it was just sort of silly.

So, the Anti-Nationalists suggested Korugar City. The city that serves as the planetary capital of Korugar.

Makes perfect sense.

Not a lot of aliens come to Korugar these days, and those that do tend to stick to the areas around the starport. I'm not sure exactly why, but Korugarians don't have much variation in skin tone. Unless they're wearing makeup, the red-purple is pretty much universal, and black or dark grey hair is near-universal as well. Actual grey, rather than black interspersed with white as it is for Humans. I see a few dyed hairdos, but for the most part the locals seem inclined to leave the individuality in the styling.

"Colouration skin advertisement?"

Probably a fascinating case study for a sociologist. Humans might organise themselves into groups based on physical appearances, but a society of humanoids who don't have those differences? Maybe I could dump Miss Leelyu here? Not like she needs to stay on Tamaran any longer…

"Sexual consideration."

Quite a few security officers around, and even more monitor drones. I'm putting out a weak disruption field, but that's legal as long it isn't strong enough to obscure conventional power sources or chemical residues. Korugar knows what power rings can do, and having gone two for two I doubt that the police would make an exception based on colour. Violence has -unfortunately- become a part of Korugarian political discourse since Sinestro's ejection from office, all of those who embraced the gun to fight the tyrant finding that their interests no longer coincide. And since one of the few things that the nationalists agree on is that they don't want their current Green Lanterns setting foot here, that's probably going to rumble on until either the planetary government fails or…

Heh, until the Sinestro Corps occupies the place and reunifies everyone.

"Taste debris poisoning."

Shouldn't really.. joke about that. As far as I know, Sinestro doesn't have a Corps yet and he hasn't been back here for years. But if he ever did, an awful lot of people would die.

Target in sight.

"Thank you."

Since I'm not wearing a power ring, I've got.. limited translation. I remember reading a book a while ago where it was commented on that most of the world reads the internet in broken text because the stuff they want to read is in English and as they don't understand English they use Google translate to change it to something they can read. And since no one off Earth speaks English I.. really struggled to get a commercially available translator that would work at all. I'm wearing a pair of goggles which -after a second or two- will best-fit any text I look at. English is reasonably flexible, but it's not this flexible.

And the spoken version…

"Warm animal paste cup!"

Well.

Most travellers hear the universe like this, unless they take the time to learn the local language. In an area where the same few languages get used people might fine-tune the system to something a little less stupid-sounding, but the rest of us are stuck with something rough and ready.

Or we get a power ring.

The café up ahead does a good business at this time of day. It's close to the city's largest hospital and we're just past the shift change. It's also close to the city's medical school, which means that former students who have moved on to public practice tend to come back here. Including the woman I want to recruit.

I know full well that under other circumstances she might have ended up joining the Green Lantern Corps. But this Sector has at least one perfectly capable Greenie at the moment, and as far as I can tell she wouldn't have been recruited for… Let's see, newly qualified doctor to fully qualified surgeon… Six years? Thereabouts. In the mean time, I need a chief of medicine who can heal by wanting people to be better.

She's sitting at a table, distinctive double triangle tattoo on her left cheek. She's drinking… A tea, probably. The liquid is translucent and a sort of brown-orange. She's drinking slowly and trying to wind down from the work day. The café is busy and there's a spare seat across the table from her.

And here comes the awkward bit. Because while what I say is:

"Would you mind if I sat here?"

What comes out is:

"Seat object presence?"

She looks up in mild surprise, her eyes widening slightly when she realises that I'm no Korugarian. She blinks as she masters her expression, taking a moment to study the structure of my face.

And while I suspect that she says something along the lines of: "Ah, yeah, sure."

What I actually hear is: "Uncertain, acquiescence to request."

I smile. "Thank you." That's a reasonably safe bet. I sit down opposite her and a waitress hurries in my direction.

"Ingestion query?"

I know nothing about Korugarian food. As far as I know, the only other Human to have eaten anything here is Jordan and I never asked him about it. On the other hand, Dr Natu's tea smells palatable enough. I raise my right hand and point to her mug. "Copy, please."

Already I'm simplifying my vocabulary in order to be more likely to get a sensible translation, even if I do end up sounding like an idiot. Korugarians are probably used to the idea of how these sorts of translator make you sound. I hope. The waitress seems to get the idea, nodding and walking back towards the kitchen area.

"Alien presence Korugar?"

The level of illumination here is quite good, and the café's monitoring systems aren't as good as those on the main street. I could probably get away with using the ring to translate what she says to me, but going the other way contains far too much risk that she'll spot that my mouth isn't moving in the right way to create the sounds I'm apparently using. I reach my left hand into the pocket where my ring is secreted, touching the inner surface with the tip of my middle finger. I then raise my eyebrows and give my head a small shake.

"I said, what brings you to Korugar?"

I remove my finger. "Job. Headhunter."

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th August
19:33 GMT

Doctor Natu regards me with a look of discomfort. "I don't think that translated properly. You.. hunt heads?"

And naturally enough the translator struggles with metaphor. How to explain this while talking like a moron? "Not trophy. Head content. Ah, you labour?"

"I'm a surgeon."

I nod. "Your head, medicine. Want Korugar surgeon? Pay me, I find you."

She nods, exhaling slightly in relief. "You're an employment agent."

"I hunt rare head. Very special content."

"Oh, I didn't mean to insult-" We both lean back slightly as the waitress puts my drink down in front of me. "-your.. skills."

I wave my right hand. "No easy offend." I glance at the waitress, smiling broadly. "Thank you."

She smiles back faintly, then strides off towards another table.

"Are you hunting anyone here?"

"Big commission. Hunt many." I pause, as if giving the matter consideration. "Got important heads. Maybe more?"

"So you've got most of the people you're looking for?" I nod. "I don't recognise your species. Are you from.. anywhere near here?"

"Not close." I hold my hands up to my chest, making a circle with my thumbs and forefingers. Then I take my right hand away and point my right index finger at where the middle of the circle was. "Galaxy core." I move my finger again. "Korugar." I lower my finger slightly. "Earth."

Sector 1417 is north north east and 'up' from Earth. Closer than Maltus, further than the Vega Systems. Funny thing about distances in the galaxy when you can move as fast point-to-point as I can: approximate locations don't really matter. Exact locations matter as I do want to be able to find places, but rough locations are irrelevant as whatever the answer is it wouldn't prevent me getting there.

Doctor Natu's eyes unfocus slightly as she tries to put numbers to my mummery. "That's quite a way. Do you travel a lot?"

"Yes." I grin, nodding emphatically as I pick up my mug and raise it to my mouth. Ah, no, too hot. For a moment I'm reminded of the story of a coach load of English people on holiday in Texas, their introduction to ice tea and the resulting hundred person simultaneous spit-take. Heh, I'm only the second member of my species to ever come to this planet, and the last one overthrew their government. I should really be on my best behaviour. "This hunt, and before. You?"

"It's…" She looks away, shaking her head slightly. "Korugar's a lot more.. isolated, since we overthrew Sinestro. The other planets around here remember him as a hero. They didn't have to live under him. Oh." She wiggles her head slightly. "Sinestro... He was the.. Green Lantern who used to work in this region of space."

"Known."

"Right, you… Probably researched the whole thing before coming here." She looks out of the window for a moment. "Just about the only thing we agree on is that we hate him. And because he became so powerful because of a group of aliens and aliens still like him… People from Korugar don't travel all that much." She looks back at me, smiling slightly wistfully as she picks up her mug. "Not that I'd be able to afford to for years anyway. I'm going to be paying off my education until I'm forty."

I nod, sympathetically. "Ship surgeon?"

She shakes her head. "General practitioners and exobiological specialists work on ships. The only places that want surgical specialists are large mining outposts where they know they'll have work for us. And anyway, I'd have to pay back the government bursary I got for agreeing to work in a state hospital when I graduated. I'd be working in the mines until I was fifty, and there's only so much rock I think I could take."

"Ah." I nod. "Sympathy."

"So? Who are you working for? There can't be that many corporations who can afford to send someone all over the galaxy looking for employees?"

"Very old species. Few. Powerful. Not…" I make a vague circling motion with my hands to indicate our general environment.

"Not from around here?" I nod. "What sort of person were you looking for?"

"First; boss organiser."

Boss organiser? Really? That's the problem with ranks as opposed to jobs. They can be so culturally specific that they usually don't translate as anything sensible. Sergeant and Captain don't really have precise equivalents in languages whose people don't have the same peasant/aristocrat divide in their militaries that Earth does. At best I'd get 'squad leader' and 'military middle manager'. And director? What, they direct cars? Stage productions? I remember that in 'The Damned' series by Alan Foster the forces of the Purpose called their officers 'unifiers'. Literally, the people whose job it is to keep everyone working together.

"Boss or-? Oh." She makes an amused exhalation. "I think you need a better translator."

"Agree."

"So these… Ancient aliens are starting some sort of organisation and they want someone to run it." I nod. "And then, the rest of the management team?" I nod again, and she raises her left eyebrow. "And they decided that the best way to find the people they wanted was to hire you."

"Good previous employer report."

Which is a lie, obviously. I doubt very much that the League would give me a favourable write up.

"Must be very good." She takes a sip from her mug. "So what sort of person were you looking for?"

"Intelligent. Very intelligent. Motivated. Sagacious. Available."

"Did you have a list to work from..?"

"No. Already head, recruit. Lost individual."

"You knew who you wanted but didn't know where they were." I nod. "So where did you start?"

"Vega Systems." That's a nice and easy translation. Though that isn't what other species call it, it's a label for a place. The system can easily substitute the equivalent.

Doctor Natu frowns slightly. "Isn't Vega full of pirates and warlords?"

"Now?" I shake my head. "No. Close, mercenary. Match species hunt target."

"That doesn't mean they'd know them."

"Famous father." I smile inwardly at the obvious parallel. "All species know."

"Would I know them?"

I shrug. "Perhaps."

"Well, who are they? A musician? A merchant?"

"Vril Dox, the Maniac of Yod. Dictator of Colu."

"I.. think I've heard of him. He's also called.. Brainiac?" I nod. "And you wanted his son?"

"Yes."

"Did.. you get him?"

I pick up my mug to take a sip. "Interesting story."

 

[Mr Zoat]

22nd July
13:44 GMT

I'm not sure what I was expecting. Some sort of.. heavily armoured brick of a space station, probably. But apparently Amalak has more highly cultivated tastes. His training centre on Dryanna is situated amongst meadows of pale green grass analogues and a short distance from a large forest of.. youngish-looking trees. As I watch a platoon of heavily armoured soldiers begin what looks like a double-pace march out of the main courtyard entrance and down the main approach road.

"Sir?"

I look around and make eye contact with the gunner of one of the craft escorting me down. Picturesque as the environment is, this is still a military facility controlled by a very successful mercenary commander. Once I requested a meeting they weren't just going to let me fly around on my own recognisance. I mean, I'm perfectly capable of forcing my way in if I really have to, but that would waste an awful lot of effort on my part.

"Yes?"

"The Commodore is ready for you now on the southern veranda. If you'd like to follow us?"

"Lead the way."

The two aircraft dip and turn, heading for the south side of the facility where Amalak's personal accommodation is situated. I head after them. The design reminds me of GDI Orca aircraft, thrust provided by directional turbofans. It looks like Amalak believes that what works in space isn't necessarily what works in an atmosphere. And he's right, it's just that the cost of developing separate vehicles is usually great enough that most navies don't bother doing much work on the 'poor relations'.

Amalak himself is standing out on the wooden veranda, looking up at us as we come in. I can see a couple of bodyguards on standby, but they're clearly trying to be unobtrusive. The two aircraft come to-. Hah! They come to attention, stopping a precise distance in front of him and holding position perfectly for seven seconds. Then he nods and waves his right arm in dismissal. They take that as the signal to rise and move to the east until they have enough space to avoid hitting him with their backwash.

"Orange Lantern!" He waves at me with both arms as I approach, smiling broadly. "To what do we owe the pleasure!"

I float down through the air, landing on the decking just in front of him and inclining my head politely. "Commodore. Does the treaty hold?"

He nods, folding his arms behind his back. "For the most part. A few freebooters acted up a short while ago, but the matter was resolved with reasonable civility. Between the major parties, at least." He holds out his right arm in the direction of the entrance to his office cum living quarters. "Shall we?"

I nod. "Thank you." He leads the way and I make a point of looking around our environment. "Did you do the landscaping yourself, or did it come like this?"

"Alas, no." He sighs faintly, bowing his head. "When I purchased the land there was virtually nothing here. Everything I've had planted was cultivated from samples from my original homeworld, Timaron." He glances back at me. "Have you heard of it?"

"Timaron, Sector Two Eight One Three."

"Ah." He smiles again, pleased at the recognition. "And how did you hear of it?"

"My own homeworld is in the next Sector over, and I.. have access to Green Lantern Corps records."

"I don't suppose that… Your world plays host to any of my species, does it? Given what happened… There are so few of us left that I've been attempting to assemble a genetic database… Any new contacts at all…"

"I'm sorry, but-" We pass through the doorway. "-except for those of us who cheat, my homeworld doesn't have interstellar travel yet."

He nods sadly. "A pity."

"My.. records say that your homeworld was subjected to some sort of attack, but I don't know-."

"Krypton." His jaw hardens as he walks towards his private bar. "It was Krypton. They didn't have much of a navy, but we had even less. I'd have taken revenge for it myself by now but their world was destroyed not long after, while I was but a boy. Not that that does my people any good."

"That was… About forty years ago?"

"That's right. Drink?"

"Just water, thank you. Forty years ago General Zod would have been in charge of the Kryptonian Self-Defence Force. He was imprisoned for treason shortly afterwards."

"I'll remember that if I ever meet the man." He uses tongs to put three pieces of ice each into two glasses and then pours a finger of a cloudy pink liquid into one and water into the other. Then he picks up both glasses and walks towards me, holding the water filled glass out to me.

I take it from him with my right hand. "Thank you."

He raises his in a toast, and action I mirror. "Let no new thing arise."

"Cheers."

We both take a sip and then he lowers his glass, looking thoughtful. "I heard from some contacts of mine in Vega that the forces of the Citadel Empire are… Behaving somewhat erratically."

"I killed the First a couple of days ago. The cybernetic implants their higher-ups had in their brains were basically there to let him control them. With him dead, they're probably all stuck on stupid mode."

"Aah." His eyes grow a little distant as he considers the information. "And the Beast?"

"Disarmed and imprisoned. His slaves are still in his cave, but they won't go anywhere else without his direction."

"The Citadelians reduced to simpletons. There's an opportunity there."

"Tamaran's mine, and don't go near the Forbidden Forest on Okaara. Other than that, if you can create stability, go for it."

"I'm not quite that bold. But if I could tempt some of their soldiers to work for me, that would give me a substantial boost to my marines' forces."

"As you will." I take another sip. Huh. No drugs at all. Should I be insulted..?

"You still haven't said why you're here."

"I'm looking for a Coluan."

"You can't have mine."

I hold up my left hand in a 'stop' gesture, shaking my head as I do so. "I wouldn't dream of poaching staff from you. But I'm hoping that she can give me more information on the state of Colu and the location of the man I'm looking for. Is she in residence?"

He looks slightly puzzled. "You won't have much fortune finding Coluans anywhere other than Colu. And while the Computer Tyrants might be willing to sell one to you, I wouldn't want to risk it in your place."

"I believe.. that the individual I'm looking for is something of a special case. Would you mind..? Calling her in?"

"Not at all." He taps a metallic circle on his left forearm. "Vran, would you mind coming to my lounge? I have a guest who wishes to speak with you."

"On my way."

 

[Mr Zoat]

22nd July
13:52 GMT

"Orange Lantern."

"Miss Gozzi."

Her expression is neutral, looking neither pleased or displeased, surprised or expectant. I'm tempted to think that that's a Coluan thing, but I don't have anything like enough data to conclude that.

Commodore Amalak raises a decanter of something blue from behind his bar. "Vran?"

She doesn't look around, preferring to focus her attention on me. "Water, please."

"Both of you?" Amalak sounds mildly put out, and his tone causes Miss Gozzi to frown slightly, glancing his way and then back at me as I raise my own glass. "What's the point of owning these drinks if my business partners refuse to share them with me and be appropriately impressed by my generosity?"

I smile at his good humour, taking a sip of my water as I do so.

"How can I assist?"

Realising that she's not going to change her mind, Amalak tosses back his own drink and pours another of the blue stuff. "Orange Lantern wants to know something you might know, and I think that it's in the interests of our organisation to further improve our relationship."

She nods. "I have not yet been able to learn anything definitive regarding the Citadelian implants. If you wait a few days I can focus my efforts-."

She cuts herself off as I shake my head. "I already know. The implants connected every Citadelian to the First. He was able to keep them unified by sharing his own way of thinking."

"The First Citadelian?" She frowns. "I had assumed that he was long since dead. What evidence do you have?"

I raise my left hand and generate a construct image of our confrontation, letting it play with subtitles as I continue talking. "A few months ago I had to recall my ring from a considerable distance away, and inadvertently called rings out of the Beast's cave on Okaara. Five of them found their way into the hands of the Citadel. One he kept for himself, the other four he gave to new-generation 'smart' Citadelians." I speed up the images as the talking stops and the fighting begins. "As you might deduce by the fact that I'm standing here and the Citadel Empire is in disarray-."

"With the First's death the implants no longer serve any purpose. Or at least can't unify the Citadelians in the same way." She watches carefully as I shoot the First dead, then I dismiss the construct. "Their empire will survive on inertia and ignorance for a time, but you fought him openly. That information will spread."

"I had always aimed on taking down the Citadel eventually. This will just speed things up a little. But it isn't why I wanted to speak to you."

"Clearly."

"I was wondering if you could give me a lead on the present location of Vril Dox."

I see a coil of fear within her. "No. I have no idea where he went after abandoning Colu to his creations. And getting further information would be far too risky for me to attempt it out of mere curiosity. The security systems of the Computer Tyrants are exceedingly comprehensive." She takes a deep breath, her equanimity returning. "If you wish to look for him I would suggest asking the Computer Tyrants yourself. If anyone is still in contact with him, it will be them, and they may be prepared to trade knowledge to an alien."

Why-? Oh, she thinks I mean Brainiac, or… I knew Vril was a clone, I didn't realise they had the same name. Oh dear. I have.. assumed that Vril-. That Brainiac 2 exists here. But if Brainiac just never decided to create a cloned lab assistant…

"Ah, no. I heard a… Rumour that Brainiac had a clone-son..? It was him I was hoping to track down, not the original." Although… "Not yet, at any rate. I can't imagine Brainiac treating anyone as an equal, so I suspect that such a boy would possess his primogenitor's intelligence while utterly hating the man. Such a person would be very useful to me."

"During the period in which he ruled Colu, Vril Dox did not share information on his personal life with the population. If he did clone himself there-" She raises her hands into a typing pose and a holoscreen appears in front of her. "-would be little directly observable evidence." She begins typing, data scrolling across the screen in several directions as she accesses her own intelligence sources. "Can I assume that this 'rumour' does in fact have a solid espionage base?"

"I have… Access to unusual sources of information."

"That woman in the background. A Guardian?"

"Not any more. She quit about three billion years ago."

"Hm."

"Speaking of which…" I look over to Amalak. "Green Man hasn't given you any trouble, has he?"

He moves his glass away from his mouth and swallows. "He's watching us, but as yet he hasn't taken any action against us. The Crown Imperium have increased their force concentration near their border, but they're keeping away from Jarko's territory. It looks like a purely defensive posture. Reminding us that while they can't chase down every raider they can strike at our bases with a level of force which we can't stop." He smiles with the left side of his mouth. "Yet, at any rate."

"Commodore. Please, try to avoid antagonising the largest stable civilisation in this region of space."

"Oh." He waves his glass vaguely. "It won't come to blows. Just a little sabre-rattling to reassure Jarko that I'm on his side." He smiles suddenly. "Oh, that reminds me: your Spider-friend-."

"I may have what you want." I turn back to Miss Gozzi. Her text screen has now been joined by the image of an orange-yellow toblerone-shaped ship. "Most races with any sense have avoided Colu since Vril Dox seized power. The only exception is this vessel."

"Who owns it?"

"The Dominion."

The Dominators. I thought I remembered something about them being involved. Culturally, they're quite a lot like the Psions in an 'evil science race' sort of way. Unlike the Psions, the Dominators are tightly unified and tend to avoid direct confrontation. They buy small numbers of slaves for experimentation, but their most notable-.

"Is there a Dominator prison in the area?"

"Yes." Another image flashes up and oh my goodness me. That's a big one.

Dominator run prisons are famously hard to escape from. They're also fairly popular with interstellar civilisations as the Dominators are perfectly happy to hold prisoners cheaply. In return for a tithe of the prisoners for the purpose of biological experimentation, though the Dominators take care to generally only use the worst inmates. Unless they get someone really interesting. Ugh, very high end sensors, minefield and shields, and most likely exotic defences as well. Not to mention a small patrol fleet and Dominion fleet reinforcements not too far away. Getting in there is not going to be easy.

"Have you got precise details on their defences?"

"No, only a partial plan." I feel the data packet being relayed to my ring. "Obviously, you did not receive that from us. We have no desire to confront the Dominion."

"Any idea what they want with a Coluan?"

"If a clone of Vril Dox is indeed being held there, I would guess that they wish to use him to better predict the actions of his sire. Coluan neurophysiology is sophisticated, but if they simply wished to study our brains then there are far easier members of our species to acquire. I personally am more concerned with what they gave the Computer Tyrants in exchange."

"Problem for another day." I nod to her and then to my host. "Thank you both for your help. Now, if you'll excuse me. I have a prison to break."

 

[Mr Zoat]

22nd July
23:28 GMT

I'VE WANTED TO COME HERE FOR SO LONG!

I'm descending towards ground level past literal tree-skyscrapers! Not trees as big as skyscrapers or trees with habitats bolted on, no. These are literal trees that are literal skyscrapers. And from the glows I'm seeing from them, also sentient creatures! They have windows made from cellulose and a bio-engineered wax, interior spaces and exits, their leaves not only gather sunlight but generate electricity and act as satellite dishes!

J is the first world I've visited which feels completely alien. Like someone took the developmental path of a normal world and just span a load of dials to see what would happen.

Shame they couldn't come up with a better name for the place.

A cluster of broccoli-headed locals crossing one of the sky walkways between colossal tree-habitats stops to stare at me. They have turnip-dogs! That's a turnip-dog! I turn in the air and float closer, waving as I go.

"Hello, plant people!"

That warrants some stalk-twitching and mono-blinking as they look at each other nervously.

One with bark of mottled brown raises his right hand. "Ah. Hello… Meat person?"

"You!" I struggle to suppress a laugh as I jab my right index finger at him. "You are now my second favourite person on this planet."

"Oooookay..?"

"But I'm here looking for Lantern Medphyll. Do you know where I can find him?"

"Ah." He points in the general direction I was heading. "Head.. that way until you get to the lizard garden, then turn left?"

"Thank you!"

I turn away, accelerating towards the… Lizard garden. I remember from the comic covering Swamp Thing's visit here -and confirmed by John's ring- that the plant life forms of this world have considerably more sophisticated neural development than the animals. Most animal species which survive into the modern era are pseudo-reptiles with tiny brains, just about capable of moving, eating and mating under their own power in response to environmental chemical triggers. I wonder if I can see one of those weird art places where they splice animals together to create horrible monster-installations?

I mean, yes, I may be blocked off from the Green Lantern Corps' communication system but I can scan his location perfectly well. Then.. I could have contacted him by plant-phone or something. But I want to see all of this! And be seen, because that comic made it look like a lot of the people around here are neurotic messes. And not give him much warning, because then he would probably ask the Guardians for advice rather than make his own decision.

"No, don't do that. Phyllys, come away from them."

I glance down… And… No grass, obviously. Instead, the ground is covered in… Some sort of crab-like creature. They filter feed on soil bacterial! Fascinating! The locals stand on them without really thinking about it, and the creatures themselves appear to be unharmed by that treatment. A child is picking them up and throwing them at one of the chained lizards that are the garden's… Lizardbed.

"Phyllys, people spent a lot of time making the lizards look nice. You're messing up their work."

An individual I'm going to assume is Phyllys' parent is trying and failing to make their authority stick. Child acting up in public. I can sympathise. The… Ah, I think female, puts her hand on her hips. The child doesn't look around as they pick up another grass crab.

"What am I going to do with you?"

I drop down just behind her, most of the park's other visitors.. not fleeing, but certainly deciding that they have urgent business elsewhere.

"Madam? Perhaps if I tried."

She sighs as she starts to turn. "Look, I'm perfectly capabloh Great O!" Her head fronds fall back in shock.

"No, he's taller than me." I raise my right index finger to my lips. "Shhhhhh."

"Ah…"

"Just a little harmless prank." I walk past her, heading towards her charge. "Excuse me?"

"They don't move much." The child throws another crab, hitting a lizard right on the snout. Brown-grey blood leaks out from the point of impact, though the lizard itself doesn't react. There's… It has eyes, but… They don't focus on its environment.

Plants are animals. Animals are plants.

"No, they don't. But you're still not supposed to throw things at them."

"No one really cares."

"No, the gardeners do. In fact, I hear they bred a really big animal just so they could send it after anyone who messed up their work."

"Nuh-" The child throws another crab. "-uh."

"Un-huh. I hear it's really sneaky. I bet something like that could act like a person until it was right on top of you and ready to pounce."

"You're not-" The child starts to turn. "-my Muaaaaaggggghhhh!"

The child falls onto its bottom, frantically scrabbling for purchase on the crab-covered ground.

"Aaaaagh!"

I grin toothily, eyes wide. "Hello there."

The child turns its body around while still keeping their eye on me, scrabbles forwards and slams face first into a lizard. They bounce back and then look at what they just slammed into.

"Aaaagh!"

The lizard doesn't react as the child jumps to their feet and stumbles away, then realising that they're stumbling towards me. They stop for a moment and run around me in an arc before grabbing their mother around the legs and quietly hyperventilating.

"And that's why we don't mess with the-"

A green barrier wall appears in front of me.

"-lizards." I look up as Lantern Medphyll floats down to the ground. "Lantern Medphyll." I bow. "A pleasure to meet you in person."

The child's mother glances nervously at me as she leads her suddenly considerably more biddable child away.

"Orange Lantern." He dismisses the barrier. "Why are you on my homeworld?"

"I wanted to thank you for your help last year."

"Were you able to save the plant life form?"

I bow my head. "Sadly, no. Though, we did confirm that it wasn't mentally sophisticated, so the loss is less grievous than it would have been."

"I see. I have heard your thanks. Was there something else?"

"Could you possibly please teach me how to control plants?" Medphyll stares at me for a moment. "You see, I know that Dominator computers are plant-based and I-."

"No."

 

[Mr Zoat]

22nd July
23:43 GMT

"…possible for a member of your species-"

"It totally is."

"-it would still take years to learn." He flies ahead of me in the classical swimmer pose, heading towards a modest plant-building I assume is his home. "Are you prepared to stay here for all that time?"

"I'd… Rather not. Look, I don't need to get that good, I just need to… Disrupt.. a few plants. Briefly. In a way that someone who wasn't familiar with the technique couldn't block."

"Disrupt-?" Still lying onward, he turns his head back towards me. "Would you like me to teach others how to 'disrupt' all animal life?"

"You do have a power ring. I.. sort of assumed that you.. could already."

He turns his face once more towards his destination, coming in to land just in front of his front door. I come down just behind him, not quite touching the ground. Some.. bare earth, but the roads and pavements are… Modified root systems? The door is a vine of some kind, and it sort of… Twists away in a spiral as Medphyll walks up to it. I stay floating there as he walks inside and a small crowd forms in a semi-circle around me at what I think they think is a safe distance.

"Are you coming?"

Ah, good. "Yes, thank you." I turn my head to nod at the crowd, then land and go after him at a jog. The floor of his home is -obviously- wood, but it's bark, this house is alive-.

The door-vine closes behind me.

"Ah, house?"

"It won't work."

He's moved further in, into what looks like a living area. "Is it deaf?"

"My home can't perceive sound. Master.. Jothra considered it.. inappropriate, for a student of the spirit to use a materialist work-around."

"Doesn't that leave your house deaf?"

He looks back and makes a small beckoning motion. "I wish that you could ask him."

I walk down the short corridor and into his living room-. An elderly member of his species is laid out on a small bier, dressed in robes with their arms folded across their chest. "Um. Master.. Jothra, I presume?"

Medphyll looks down at his late mentor. "I had a brief discussion on Human funerary tradition with Lantern Stewart once. I imagine this seems strange to you."

"Some rituals have the body being physically present. But.. I thought that he died a while ago. Ah." I create a construct hat upon my head and take it off with my right hand, pressing it to the left side of my chest. "My commiserations."

"Our bodies don't rot, as yours do. Chemical processes will cause Jothra's remains to harden. It's.. traditional, for a master's student to host his body while the process takes place."

"I see." I dismiss the hat. For a moment I consider suggesting that he avail himself of the services of a necromancer. Saarek, for example. Talking to Swamp Thing as Jothra appeared to help him in the comic after all. But, I don't know how these people feel about necromancy in general. Best not. "How's is the.. new Lantern shaping up?"

Medphyll sits, not really looking at me. "Kilowog's initial appraisal was… Acceptable. With no pressing threat in this Sector it was felt that the Corps' best interests were served by giving them a longer training course."

I nod. "Good. Guy-. Lantern Gardner had.. a lot of good things to say about Lantern Kilowog's training."

"He joined the Corps later than me. When I was new, I was given over to Master Jothra for training. He was already a veteran himself. It was felt.. he would be better able to educate me than Lantern Deegan." He turns his head to look at me. "Why do you wish to learn how to connect with plant life?"

I grin. "Well, there's this Dryad back home…" He blinks uncomprehendingly. Right, true name, wouldn't translate. "There's a prison I want to break into. It's-."

"Dominator run." Understanding dawns. "You wish to be able to disable their security systems."

A nifty trick which I remember from the one bit of the Invasion! event I read. The Dominators waited until they were sure that Swamp Thing was off Earth before launching their attack because they believed that he could single-handedly ruin their forces. The Justice League knew the same thing, so Guy was dispatched to Louisiana to attempt to make contact with him. While there he did the most immoral thing I remember him doing in the comics; he fired on and destroyed an alien ship not participating in the invasion, killing the owner and her infant offspring. When Mrs Holland attempted to remonstrate with him he blew her off. That was probably before DC editorial decided that green power rings turned themselves off if they were used to kill someone.

It's interesting, now that I think about it. Guy was always supposed to be kind of an arse… At least when not in brain damaged mode. But because he was on the 'hero' side, I can't remember an incident where he did anything that was portrayed as being flat out immoral. Stupid, certainly, that 'one punch' thing will be around for as long as the character exists. Short sighted, reckless, aggravating. But that Swamp Thing issue had him both in-character and clearly in the wrong and I can't remember anything else quite like it.

"Dominators aren't the Reach. You aren't forbidden from picking a fight, if you've got just cause. And.. I'm not.. asking you to. You just need to show me how to-."

"What cause would I have?"

"They do.. habitually vivisect inmates."

"Do you have evidence of vivisections in this particular case?" I raise my eyebrows. "The Dominators' official line is that they only dissect the cadavers of those who die of other causes."

"Alright. I have evidence that they're dealing with the Computer Tyrants of Colu. I.. hope those.. things are on the shortlist for an Honour Guard visit, but in the mean time they are enslaving their whole planetary population with brain implants."

"That would be grounds for an intervention. However, I am a Sector Lantern, and I know that there are no Dominator-run prisons in Sector Five Eight Six."

"No, it's… In Sector One Two Eight Seven. And in case you're wondering, the Green Lanterns assigned there lack your skill in dealing with plants."

I really hope he goes for it. My backup plan involves going back to Earth and picking up Euanthe, and.. I.. don't want to do that quite yet.

"That is not an unreasonable target for an assault. But I am not a member of the Honour Guard, and I have not been assigned that mission by the Guardians. My responsibility is to ensure my Sector's safety-."

Ahh? "So as long as you're sure that the Sector is safe, you can leave, right? You said nothing was happening."

"By Green Lantern Corps regulation, I can only leave this Sector if another Lantern can be present. The mobility granted by a power ring makes us the perfect first line of response to an attack. A conventional fleet-."

I grin. "A Lantern, or a Green Lantern?"

"It.. doesn't specify. Do you have another Orange Lantern?"

…

Ah.

"No. But I.. think I know where I can get one."

 

[Mr Zoat]

23rd July
14:32 GMT

I clamp shut the last of the void-chests that Hinon gave me, and take another look around Larfleeze's inner sanctum. The First aside, it seems that the reputation of the place was enough to keep most sticky-fingered Vegans away. I had thought that perhaps some Psions might make a grab for them, but they seem to really be more of the éminence grise types. If they thought that the Emperor would trade some to them in exchange for their expanded support… Certainly they didn't have a reason to rush. Anyway, best check I got all of them.

I take a deep breath and try to ignore the assembled Construct Lanterns.

Come.

Immediately the Construct Lanterns float towards me.

No, not you.

They obediently stop.

With Larfleeze cut off from the orange light, becoming their domitor was easy. Unsettling as having more indisputably intelligent people as my slaves is, it's far better than leaving them just.. hanging around. And maybe with enough study we can turn them back into fleshy beings. If not… Perhaps an avarice golem or something? Working out that side of things can be a job for Hinon's new assistants.

Rings, come.

I maintain the call, my own ring shining brightly. I've scanned Larfleeze's caves as best I can, but I don't want to spend time digging through everything at the moment. Most of this.. probably belonged to someone, and while I did check modern Okaaran law on the subject it's silent as to what should happen to the Beast's property in the event of his defeat.

No, nothing. No more rings. At least, no more here. I float up from ground level and point to the void-chests. "Blume, you're on guard duty. The rest of you, take these to Hinon, then follow her instructions."

The mob comes forwards again, Glomulus wrapping all four arms around the closest and then appearing to struggle to rise off the ground with it. A brief flicker of orange as he nullifies the weight and he shoots up in an uncontrolled surge for a moment before regaining control. Flaasha uses.. its Lantern abilities from the offset, pulling a void-chest to its thorax before twisting in the air and heading for the exit, Glomulus close behind. Grubber dips down and picks up a void-chest with her right arms without apparent strain while Tammal Tayn coils various sets of tentacles around two. Nat Nat, Clypta, Sound Dancer and Blooch take theirs without issue and follow the others out.

One chest left. If I'm going to recruit, I've got to have something to recruit with, after all. Hinon's going to be too busy to create new rings for a while. Transformed Construct Lanterns will have to do. Alan managed perfectly well without an AI for decades, and these rings do have minds within them. I float the void-chest up to my height, flip the lid open again, then hold my hands out over the rings contained therein.

Ring, is it safe to put these in subspace?

This ring contains no data on rings created in this fashion.

Oh well. I put the void-chest into a construct safe and transition out of the caves into the air high above the Forest of Weeds. Flickers of orange below me reveal my Construct Corps flying out of the canopy, then disappearing as they surge out into the universe. That… Isn't a form of FTL I'm familiar with. Well, as long as they get there in reasonable time.

Ring, plot course for Tamaran.

Compliance.

A flicker as I transition outside of Okaara's atmosphere, then the stars leap around me. I had originally planned on recruiting Koriand'r and possibly Komand'r, but if their father could handle a ring… But… He probably can't spare the-.

The Liot'r system appears before me as the warp ends. Right, don't want to trigger my own defences. A brief transition and I appear within a few hundred kilometres of Scratching Post.

"Orange Lantern to-" Guns rotate to face me and prepare to fire. "-Thanagarian garrison. Friendly, honest."

"Orange Lantern, good to hear from you."

"Olio. How's the work going?"

"Aw, man. You would not believe how hard our techs are moaning about it. Once we got the basics done, Commander Andar decided to make them strip out everything that isn't up to our standard section by section. Heh, they say it would be less work to just make a new station."

"I'm sure that the Commander knows what he's doing."

"Yeah, me too. So how's that thing with the Beast going?"

"I already won. He's in-."

"When, exactly?"

"Well it… Um, I took possession of the Orange… Central Power Battery two days ago. Why-?"

"Aw, really? Damn it, I'll have to tell the betting pool. I thought it'd take you at least three more months planning and preparing. Thought you were the slow and cautious type?"

"I needed to put on a good show for my new employer, and I'd made.. just about as many preparations as were needed for the approach I wanted to use. And a little more for contingencies. As General Carl von Clausewitz said, 'The enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan'."

"Hah! Wise man. You want me to put you through to the Commander?"

"No, I'm here to talk to the King. Unless he has something he wants to tell me, I don't have a particular need to speak to him."

"Actually, there is a thing…"

"What is it?"

"We're out of contact here, which is fine, but we do need to let the Queen know where we are and why we're not calling in. And there's normal mail stuff. I mean, none of it's urgent…"

"Not a problem. I've got to drop by Thanagar on my way back to Earth anyway, and I do want to see Alstair." Maybe Medphyll would be interested in the place? The locals are meat-based, but magic-based plant manipulation is pretty common there. Or.. maybe he'd be rather put off by that. Yes, that sounds more likely. Eh, I'll ask him. "Since I don't know when I'll be coming back to Tamaran, please put a data packet together for me and I'll pick it up before I leave."

"You got it. King Myand'r should still be in the capital."

"Thank you. I'll head down now. Keep up the good work."

"Hawk's Nest out."

Hawk's Nest. Sure, why not? Heh. I transition downwards, appearing moments later above the.. ruined part of Tamarus. Huh. No Komand'r down there this time, no.. data networks for me to use to bring myself rapidly up to date.

I'm going to have to actually talk to people. Like a caveman.

Late evening here at the moment, Tamaran's rotational period being more or less the same as Earth's. Actually, all of the inhabited worlds in Vega have more or less the same day-length. Just another oddity of the place. King Myand'r is.. in the Hall of X'Hal, a sort of… Combination of museum and temple. Tamaraneans tend to regard X'Hal as being a war goddess, which… Probably isn't really true to her historical character. On the other hand, religion, historical authenticity…

I transition to the Hall's entrance and then land, the Tamaranean soldiers outside bringing their weapons to bear with commendable haste. I wave and they lower them again.

"Is it possible for me to speak with the king, please?"

The leader of the detail nods. "Yes, Orange Lantern. I know that he hoped to discuss the plans for the wedding with you."

I frown. "Wedding? What wedding?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

23rd July
14:38 GMT

"Wedding?"

King Myand'r nods, then looks up at the statue of his father. King Korithus is depicted as a proud warrior in his middle years, not the broken old man he died as when the Tamaranean home defence fleet was overwhelmed and shot to pieces. I can understand why he considered himself honour bound to resist, but I can't help but thinking that kowtowing could have prevented… So much death.

"Yes. I had intended to wait until Koriand'r's education on Okaara was complete, but… She is of age, and clearly it isn't practical for her to return there." He turns back to me. "I had it in mind to pass oversight of most of the modernisation program to her and to Prince Karras. The new Tamaran will be their world more than mine, and it will be better for it. Certainly, the pre-existing bad blood between myself and his parents would make cooperation between us… Fraught."

BABUM

Orange… Flames… Flicker and flare from my hands. I fold them behind my back.

"Easing her into governing seems perfectly sensible to me. And Prince Karras seemed like a thoroughly decent man fully enthused for the project. But I'm not clear why the situation requires her to marry him."

King Myand'r sighs. "Authority. Tell me, what system of government do your people use?"

"Earth isn't unified. My country has a small democratically elected body who rule in concert with a hereditary monarch. The nearest thing Earth has to a planetary government requires the largest and most powerful nations on the planet to agree before anything much gets done."

Myand'r nods. "That's actually not a bad model. My wife and I may rule Tamaran in theory, but in practice our ability to exert our will outside those lands we directly control depends on our personal authority. I have been a tributary king of the Citadel Empire for my entire reign." He looks down the hall and out into the city. "The day of my first daughter's birth…"

"I know."

"My personal authority is near-nonexistent. And I think that at this point in my life it is too late for me to gain that authority. But, by marrying Karras, his parents will give her the opportunity to build that authority for the pair of them. And the other principalities will follow them as well, for fear of being left out and left behind. It isn't what I wanted for her."

BABUM

He turns back to me. "But that's rather been the story of my l-." He blinks. "Are you well?"

BABUM

Orange flames are dripping off me, maintaining coherence for several seconds even as they part from the main mass.

BABUM

This is wrong.

"Does she want to marry him?"

"She.. sees the value in the match. They get on well enough."

"So, no. Does he want to marry her?"

"I-."

I hold up my right hand. "No, don't answer that. I know he doesn't. He'd much rather marry that bodyguard of his."

Myand'r's face stills. "Oh."

I turn away and start pacing, fists clenched and arms swinging.

"They love each other and have for some time. I can see the threads of violet light which bind them together. And if I was a Zamaron that would be my problem. And that's bad, I feel that's bad, but it's not the bad thing. The bad thing is that the marriage is entirely unnecessary. If it were the only way in which the rebuilding project could happen then I'd be fine with it but it isn't. From what I could tell just about everyone at the conference was all for it. They're just…" I gesture violently upwards with both arms. "Expecting this, like… They need confirmation that individuals' desires are being ritually subordinated to the collective idea of appropriateness!"

"And… You feel that a ruler should not subordinate their desires?"

"Not when they don't have to." I stop and stare at him. "If the wedding was called off tomorrow, what do you think Karras would do next?"

"I.. doubt that he would change at all, though his parents-."

BABUM

"His parents aren't the ones getting married to someone they barely know."

His face grows more sombre. "Are you telling me that I must cancel the wedding? Annul the betrothal?"

"No! You're the king, I don't.. give you orders. I'm.. simply.. making you aware of my displeasure with the situation. Is there really no.. acceptable alternative?"

"You could marry her. Or Komand'r, if you preferred."

"What?"

"For rescuing so many of our people and liberating Tamaran from the Gordanians and their Citadel masters you have earned considerable personal authority. If Karras were willing to step aside for you, that would be a functional alternative."

"But… You've been my point of contact. Don't.. you get credit for-" He smiles sadly, shaking his head. "-that?"

"Why should I get credit for your work?"

"And I can't endorse you in some way?"

"You already have, but I'm afraid that it isn't enough. Even if you ritually presented me the Citadel Emperor's head-."

"I can do that."

"I am aware of your ambition, but the wedding is set to take place in five days."

"No, I mean, the head of the First Citadelian-." I cut myself off and glance at the statue of X'Hal. Then I lower my voice slightly. "I killed the First Citadelian two days ago. His head.. sort of.. shattered a bit, but I could recover it and stick it back together."

"The First.. lives?"

"No, I just said-."

"He.. lived until just now?"

"Yes. Commodore Amalak told me that Citadel forces are in a bit of a mess. He wasn't fighting, but he was the one keeping them unified and focused."

"That's.. astonishing, but as I said; that increases your authority. Not mine." He pauses for a moment. "He's really dead?"

"Assuming that he can't survive his own physical death, yes."

But what to do? I open my empathic vision all the way up and look at him. Oh, not good. With his people and his daughters safe, he's just not.. spiking high enough into the orange. He could probably use an orange ring safely… But if his assessment of the political situation is accurate -and it seems reasonable to assume that it is- then if he died… That sounds like something that would result in chaos, with no one in a position to arbitrate…

Except for me, and I intend to be busy.

Hmm.

"What.. would happen… If the authority of the princesses increased?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

23rd July
14:51 GMT

I drift slightly aimlessly through the skies of Tamarus, heading.. slowly in the direction of the palace. I really wanted more time to assess the princesses for compatibility before.. doing anything like this. I don't really… If I make it clear that it's a field test with imperfect rings, perhaps that would salve their egos? Certainly, these.. people-rings-. No, I need a better name than that. Old rings. Yes, that'll do. Functional, but soon to be superseded.

Talking to Karras first will probably be easier. Though.. it is quite late. Well, if he isn't awake I can just wait until tomorrow. I'm not in that much of a hurry. Assuming that he's still in the same room as when I left… Yes, there he is. I accelerate towards the palace.

I'm still flaming, but not quite as badly as before. The shock of being.. confronted with this arrangement has dimmed the intensity of my response a little. From the way Myand'r was talking I assume that arranged marriages are a relatively unremarkable thing amongst Tamaraneans. My own exposure to them comes from the reactionary parts of the British Asian community, honour killings and kidnap-marriages. If I'd had a bit more exposure to functional examples I might feel less strongly. But as it stands this is very definitely triggering my 'This Will Not Happen' response.

The whole situation reminds me of the Meiji Restoration. And the end of the first series of Gundam. In both of those, both sides were trying to accomplish basically the same thing but decided that they couldn't until one or the other was defeated. There was no real benefit to the fighting, just the assumption that it had to happen. Here, there's no benefit to the marriage, just an assumption that it needs to occur.

And now I'm flaming again. Good job that Tamaraneans generally don't fly at night. They can, but as they're solar powered they find it draining and can dry up completely if they keep at it. Hope I'm not keeping anyone awake.

There are a couple of guards on the balcony to Prince Karras' room and they can see me coming their way from the other side of the city. As I drop down towards them one is talking through the narrowly-open outer doorway while the other steps forward to greet me.

"Orange Lantern. You wish to speak with Prince Karras?"

"If that's at all possible. It can wait, but I'd rather not lose the time if that's at all possible."

He glances back and the other guard nods. "You may enter now."

I nod as I land. "Thank you." I walk towards the door, empathic vision showing me… Two people inside, Karras and -going by the amount of violet I'm seeing- his soldier-girlfriend. Good show. If she's here then he hasn't done the faux-noble thing of separating from her 'for the good of the people'. That should make him easier to persuade.

The second guard opens the door for me and closes it after I've strolled through. Karras is standing near a desk, a curtain drawn across to separate the working part of the room from the sleeping area. He's wearing opaque purple… Harem pants and nothing else. Okay, Tamaran, I shouldn't have expected anything else.

"Orange Lantern. What can I do for you?"

I flick my left hand up and generate a sound nullification field around the inside of the room. Where's what'shername? "I wanted to speak to you about the wedding."

He smiles politely. "You are invited, of course. Do you think that you will have time to attend?"

I look around the room. "I'm afraid that's…" I frown. "Why is your girlfriend hiding in the cupboard?"

He hesitates, his mouth falling slightly open before he can cover it up. "I.. don't know what you're-."

I stride over to it and yank open the door, the woman trying to duck behind some sort of robe. A mission somewhat impeded by Tamaranean ideas of modesty. "Oh, come out. I may as well have this discussion with both of you."

"Ah…" She looks past me to Karras, looking for some clue as to what she should do. I just turn away and walk back across the room.

"How did you know that she was there?"

"Karras, I have many abilities. The ability to detect the emotions of those about me isn't one of the most noticeable ones but it is fairly useful. I knew that the two of you were in love before you spoke a single word to me."

I turn back and.. she's wearing harem pants and nothing else as well. She's in pretty good shape, though I think that exposure to Diana has left me a little jaded about the female musculature. "I don't believe that anyone has told me your name."

"Corporal Taryia. Sir."

They don't look at each other or try and move together. Assuming that Tamaranean facial expressions are sufficiently similar to Human ones I'd say both are feeling guilty.

"And how long have the pair of you been intimately involved?" She doesn't immediately respond, so I turn my eyes towards Karras.

"I.. really don't see what concern that is of yours."

"Because I don't know enough about the way Tamaraneans process emotions. Because I intend to find an acceptable way to break the betrothal of yourself and Princess Koriand'r and prevent the marriage. Can I assume that you're both interested?"

His eyes widen slightly and the corporal glances his way. "That's.. possible?"

"It will be. Are you on board?"

"Yes. Yes, we-" He steps towards the corporal and she towards him. They clasp hands. "-are."

"Good. First thing; is your pre-existing relationship a breach of the betrothal agreement?"

"No. Actually, things like this are quite common when the marriage is political."

The corporal nods. "It's accepted that blood-alliances are sometimes necessary, but being permanently separated from the one you love? No one would accept that."

I take a deeper look at the pair of them, but there's barely enough orange to be worth mentioning. Maybe if violet rings were a thing… I'll bear them both in mind for my eventual meeting with the Zamarons.

"And -I just want to check- you aren't planning on suddenly abandoning the rebuilding initiative if the wedding doesn't go ahead?"

"Not by choice, but I'm not Prince-Regent. It is my parents' decision."

"Alright. How much extra authority would Koriand'r need to convince them to stay on board?"

"I.. suppose if you-?"

"No. While it isn't impossible that the two of us might have gotten together at some point, it would be after a long courtship and because we genuinely loved each other. It wouldn't be happening soon, and I wouldn't… Hold the reconstruction of her homeworld hostage to ensure her compliance. What else?"

"Something of.. substantial service to Tamaran."

"I was thinking about taking them with me when I smash the Citadel Complex and steal their shipyards. Do you think that would work? Revenge, recovering the remains of their uncles and grandmother if they're still there, massively speed up the rate of Tamaranean shipbuilding?" They blink at me. "Assessment for ring compatibility and basic training could take a while, I'd like an answer reasonably quickly?"

"Yes… That would…"

"And you'll support them?"

"Ye-. 'Them'? Komand'r as well?"

"I wouldn't want someone to do something stupid like insist on a consolation prize." I examine their faces. "Someone hadn't done that already, had they?"

He looks away awkwardly. "There.. were discussions…"

"They serve no further purpose. Will they have your support?"

He nods. "Yes, of course."

"Good. See you in a few days."

 

[Mr Zoat]

23rd July
15:12 GMT

"What are you talking about?"

Komand'r flashes me a mildly irritated glance, then returns her attention to her weapon. An elderly Tamaranean plasma pulse gun, restored to operating condition. The Thanagarians have similar weapons but the Tamaranean version fires larger pulses, designed as it was to burn through the thick armour of Citadelian infantry. She inserts a new hydrogen flask, twists and then presses the activation switch. There's an audible hum and the central section of the weapon glows faint blue.

"It was a simple question, Princess."

She puts the stock of the gun to her right shoulder, sights the target at the far end of the shooting range and squeezes the trigger. A beam of brilliant blue plasma blasts from the weapon and annihilates the target.

"It's a pointless one. 'What do I want?'"

"When last we spoke you seemed discontent."

She removes the gun from her shoulder and carefully checks the various gauges that have been attached to it in several places. "Did you know that my sister is to be married?"

"Your father mentioned it."

"She is to be given oversight of our entire reindustrialisation process. Her and.. her new husband."

"I wasn't aware that her education -or yours- included a great deal on industrial strategy."

She raises the gun again and fires at a new target. This time one of the gauges beeps and her mouth twists into a grimace of frustration. "It didn't." She removes the gun from her shoulder and flicks another switch, the glow fading. "But she isn't expected to build things herself. She's expected to make sure that everyone is following the scheme."

"And what do you want to do?"

"I want this gun-" She plants it on the workbench with more force than is strictly necessary. "-to behave itself. We're trying to bring weapons wielded by the old Tamaranean marine corps back into working order."

"Difficult?"

"With the neglect they've suffered, I find it a minor miracle that any of them still function. A tiny deformation of the plasma chamber and they leak waste heat into their own mantle."

"Do you find the work satisfying?"

"It needs to be done. And… I doubt that I could serve as a symbol of Tamaranean optimism and unity."

"Do you want to?"

"What possible good would that serve?" She looks at my face and sees that I don't consider that an adequate response. "No. I wouldn't know where to begin."

"Alright. What, then? What do you want?"

"Functioning weapons." She removes part of the outer casing, and even my unaided eyes can see the subtle warping of the inner parts of the weapon.

"What for? Tamaran is safe-."

"Isolation and dependency are not safety." She pushes the gun across the bench. "All this is good for now is parts."

"What do you want?"

"For the rest to work."

Am I going about this wrong? "What for? What motivates you? Why are you here when the rest of the city is going to bed?"

She takes off her work gloves and puts them on the bench. "Because I can. Because we need more weapons. Do you intend to-?"

"Why? What do you want to do with them?"

"Defend our-." I give an amused exhalation, bowing my head slightly and shaking it. "What?"

"I'm not judging you. I'm not assessing you. I don't want to know what you think the right answers are. I want to know what you genuinely think. What do you want?"

"What do I want?" Her eyes shimmer with pale green light, her shoulders tense and her fists ball. "I want an army. And a fleet, big enough to darken the skies of our enemies' worlds when we go to them. I want to rain unstoppable destruction down upon everyone who dared think us too weak to do anything other than accept this as our station! I want Citadel Complex lifeless and drifting in space. I want Karna and Emana and the Psion Motherworld burning, the survivors fleeing in terror before my wrath. I want to stand triumphant over the ruins of everything my enemies ever built. Are you satisfied?"

I nod. "And then?"

"What do you mean, 'and then'?"

"After you'd done all that..?"

She frowns. "I'm not…" She stops, giving it a little more thought. "Keep it that way."

"And for yourself?"

"Being remembered as Tamaran's greatest ever war leader would fit my ambitions rather nicely."

"You appeared to be irritated by your sister's impending wedding. You don't have any desires in that direction yourself?"

"I'm irate that I have been written off once again! Shoved aside from the path to the throne with no way to earn my way there while her way is smoothed at every opportunity! I am already a better strategic planner than she is but I would have been better served studying makeup artistry."

"And if you had the opportunity to get everything you want, if you had that opportunity… Would you use it to act against her?"

She looks mildly amused. "I wouldn't need to. My achievements would outshine hers to such a degree that it would be.. a wasted effort."

Sounds genuine. Obviously I'd rather her desires were a little more lofty, but they do broadly line up with what I'm planning.

"And no plans to marry yourself?"

She turns away, towards the exit from the proving ground. "There isn't really any need for us to strengthen political ties with any other group."

"Then you'd be free to marry for love?"

She looks back, a small smile on her face. "What a.. curious idea. No, I would wait until there was an advantage." She looks me over. "Though I suppose that you yourself represent a rather interesting prospect. Comely enough for a dalliance, powerful and well liked by Tamaran's citizens. Tell me, are you here to press your own suit?"

"Ah, no. If I were going to marry someone, it wouldn't be for reasons of political convenience."

Her smile grows slightly. "A romantic. How delightful. If political positioning so disinterests you, perhaps.. you would like to spend the night with me for purely recreational reasons?"

"Thank you, but no. I still need to speak with Koriand'r-."

"Oh." Her expression curdles. "Yes, Koriand'r has probably only just gone to sleep. If you wake her I imagine that she would be quite pleased to see you again."

I nod. "Perhaps. But if she has already retired I can wait until tomorrow. Goodnight, princess."

 

[Mr Zoat]

23rd July
22:57 GMT

I turned down my environmental shield to the absolute minimum as evening turned to night and then into dawn, my eyes shut and my mind at peace. I can feel the soft wind against my skin, I can hear all of the quiet sounds of the nocturnal animals and the occasional snatch of speech which drifts my way. And I reach out, not with my hand or my ring but with my own soul, feeling and tasting the desires of the-.

"Hello?"

I leave my eyes shut, turning my head in the direction of the speaker.

"Koma told me that you wished to speak to me? Are.. you awake?"

"Yes." Blue and indigo, mostly. Reminds me of Diana. Not as much green, but she's far younger and hasn't been anything like as battle-hardened.

Orange is a little thin on the ground.

I open my eyes. I'm sitting cross-legged at the edge of the palace's highest landing platform. Princess Koriand'r is floating in the air just in front of me. She's wearing a purple halter top/hot pants combination that.. is still considerably more modest.. and practical, than what she wore in the comics. Her hair isn't quite the pile of perm that it is in the comics. Rather, it looks like it's naturally slightly curly and is either being buffeted by the wind or… Maybe something about the innate ability she's using to fly?

"I am glad!" And she's smiling and as far as I can tell it's totally genuine. "I was.. not able to thank you properly for rescuing our people, as well as my sister and I."

"You are welcome."

"Am I speaking your language correctly?"

I raise my eyebrows slightly. "I'm sorry." I point to my ring with my right forefinger. "Power ring translator. I didn't realise."

"Oh." She actually looks quite disheartened…

"Ring, translation off."

"Compliance."

And there's the smile. "Thank you. What was it you wanted to talk to me about?"

"A couple of things. Would you like to sit down?"

She shakes her head, then turns slightly in the air to take in the city as the dawn sun begins to illuminate its streets. "I prefer to fly. When we were.. captive, we were denied the opportunity-."

I raise my right hand. "I understand. Whenever I'm.. parted from my ring, I tend to spend the next few days using it for everything."

She turns back to me and nods, still smiling. "What was it you wanted to talk about?"

"Two things, really. Firstly, your.. English teacher."

She nods. "Prince Karras. We are to be married."

"And how do you feel about that?"

Her face grows a little more solemn. "He is a good man, and perhaps one day will become a good king."

"That wasn't really what I meant." I sit with my hands upon my lap, waiting for her to continue.

She gives her head a small shake, clearly not understanding. "What do you mean?"

"I.. am an Orange Lantern." I look aside for a moment. "And as far as I know the only one. But -like any other colour- orange rings respond best to particular modes of thought. Green rings respond best to those capable of total mental focus. Yellow rings to those who inspire fear and understand their own. Orange rings like mine -and like the one which the Beast wore- respond to avarice. The more I want, the more powerful I become."

She frowns. "But you asked for nothing in return for freeing us."

"I… No. I have not moved beyond valuing physical rewards, but they are only a part of what I desire. When I freed you, I self-actualised. I acted against others in accordance with my desires and beliefs about how the universe should be. Avarice isn't just about… Eating a thousand cheeseburgers."

She nods, smiling again. "I understand. I don't know what a cheeseburger is, but I imagine that eating a thousand of them would make you ill."

I nod. "So with that in mind… What do you want?"

"What do I want?"

I nod. "What do you want?"

Her left arm folds across her chest and her right hand goes to her chin in the classic thinker pose. "I suppose… I would like to see Tamaran prosperous again. I.. would like-."

"No no no. Not what you think -upon reflection- might be nice. Not what you think you should want. Not even what you're actually working towards." I let my eyes flare orange. "What do you want?"

She gives me a small nod, her eyes half closing as she gives it a little more thought. Probably not the most honest approach; I want an honest answer more than a fundamental one.

"I.. want Tamaran to be safe." Her jaw tightens slightly. "What all of us the Citadel took went through is not something that anyone should have to endure."

"And what will you do, to ensure this safety?"

"I.. will help my world rearm. I will teach others what I was taught by the Warlords of Okaara. And I will ensure that we have the industry to support our rearmament."

"Reasonable." I nod. "But what would you want to do, most of all? If practical issues were no impediments. If you could.. do anything."

She sets her face hard. "Then I would do it myself. I would seek out those who so brutally abused us and ensure that no one else would suffer from their deprivations. I would shield my world from any enemy and my people would know that they were safe under my protection."

I nod. "I note that you haven't mentioned Prince Karras."

She blinks, her focus lost. "You didn't ask about Karras. He.. is… Our marriage will align-."

"You described your wants in terms of service to your people. You don't want him. If you could realise your desires in some other fashion, would you prefer that?"

"I…" She looks uncertain, her eyes not focusing on me. "Karras has done nothing wrong, nothing that would justify breaking our betrothal."

"Do you want him for his own sake?"

She makes a sad little sigh. "No. And I know that he does not-. That he would prefer another. But this is what my people-."

I stand, flowing into an upright position with such speed that she jerks back in the air away from me. "No. It isn't. It may be what is expected but it is not required. You don't want each other and you don't get anything that could not be more sensibly obtained in other ways. Am I right?"

She shakes her head. "If there were another way-."

"Luckily for you, I'm here." I float forwards off the roof, construct safe just behind me. "Komand'r should still be at breakfast, yes? I think I should say this to both of you."

 

[Mr Zoat]

23rd July
23:07 GMT

Koriand'r laughs as she darts ahead of me towards the dining room, trying to… What, turn this into a race? Everything she's been through and she still-. Heh. Incredible. If there were any justice in the universe I'd be offering her a blue ring.

Since there isn't, I smile back at her as she glances at me. And I accelerate, my speed momentarily surpassing hers before she returns her attention to her destination and pulls away. I'm about to do something that risks driving her and her sister insane. I sigh inwardly. No, if I'm here, I'm confident that I will be able to spot the warning signs and intervene. We can more than afford to take a few days to get this right.

Koriand'r darts through the arches leading to the dining area. I decided that it would be more dignified -perhaps not by Tamaranean standards but certainly by mine- to enter on foot instead. I'm overdressed for a Tamaranean breakfast, but no one said anything last time. Is it advantageous to look more like one of the group? Perhaps, slightly, but it would be dishonest. I'm not joining their team, I'm asking them to join mine.

"-explained to you why he was so eager to know that?"

I take a moment to adjust my robes, and then stroll inside.

"He said that he wished to explain it himself." Koriand'r turns and cranes her neck slightly, clearly wondering if I was coming or not. She smiles and straightens as I enter. Komand'r is sat at the table, some sort of flatbread and a selection of small fruit on her plate. She is dressed in the same all-encompassing clothing that she was when I spoke to her yesterday, presumably intending to spend her time in much the same way. She watches me, patiently waiting for me to explain myself.

"Good morning, Princess Komand'r."

"That seems unduly optimistic."

"Oh, I think that you'll agree with me in a moment." Koriand'r steps into the air, floating over the table and taking what I assume to be her seat. "It is my intent to offer both of you the opportunity to advance yourselves. Koriand'r, all being well, you will gain the authority required to make marriage to Prince Karras unnecessary. Komand'r, you would gain sufficient renown to demand a seat at whatever table you wanted… Or the opportunity to forge your own path entirely."

She arches her right eyebrow. "Not that you're an unattractive prospect-."

"No." I hold up my right hand. "No. Why does everyone assume..? No. I was talking about destroying the Citadel Complex."

Komand'r starts to smile while Koriand'r looks puzzled. "How? The Citadel Complex is protected by the most powerful defences in the Vega Systems, the power of the Citadel fleet and legions of Citadelian soldiers. When Tamaran's navy was at its strongest we tried to make such an attack. Few survived. I do not know if a Lantern could make such an attack, but I do not see how we could aid you."

Komandr's smile grows. "No, one Lantern couldn't, could they?"

"I would need to research their defences more fully before I could give you an honest answer. But, as you have no doubt surmised…" I bring the construct safe around in front of me and allow the upper surface and sides to melt away, revealing the void-chest. "After I defeated Larfleeze and the First Citadelian-."

"You what?"

Komand'r looks.. almost angry. Certainly shocked. Koriand'r looks more surprised. Ah. I suppose that I should probably have mentioned that. "My sponsor created a device that interfered with the Beast's mind. I went inside the Forbidden Forest of Weeds and used it on him. He's in an asylum cell on Maltus now. The First tried to intercept me on my way out."

Koriand'r blinks as she comes to terms with the idea. "I did not believe that the First was real."

Komand'r rolls her eyes. "Obviously there had to be an original." She looks at me, eyes narrowing slightly. "Though I am surprised that he was still alive after all this time."

"The Citadelians claim that he was X'Hal's son. Would a god age?"

Komand'r rolls her eyes again. "'Would a Psion science project age?' would be a better question."

"He said that he did, and that he rejuvenated himself with-" I place my hands upon the void-chest and lift the lid. "-an orange power ring."

I give them a moment to take in what is inside, then place my hands over the rings themselves. Let's see, someone… No, no… Sane people don't challenge Larfleeze, so getting a mind who ah. Yes, these will do. Okaaran warriors who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. I take a ring in each hand and then close the lid.

"These rings empower their wearers to enact their desires. But, they also magnify those desires. Two of the people I lent my own ring to began displaying extremely altered behaviours almost immediately. When I started using it, my own behaviour changed gradually and.. some.. fairly odd things happened before I reached my current level of equanimity. If you take them, I will begin training you in their use with a view to attacking the Citadel Complex. If you don't…" I shrug. "I will seek others. The decision is yours. So."

Oh, this whole thing is turning me into a drama queen.

I hold out my hands palms upwards with the rings resting on them.

"Koriand'r of Tamaran, you want to protect your people. Komand'r of Tamaran, you want a righteous vengeance. And I want you both for the Orange Lantern Corps. Take my rings."

Komand'r barely waits for me to finish speaking before rising to her feet-.

"No. Stop." She stops, looking confused. "Not like that. Hold out the hand that will bear the ring… And want it to you."

"What?"

"From Earth, I called rings that were in Larfleeze's stash in the Forbidden Forest of Weeds on Okaara. I'm six metres away from you. Call the ring."

Komand'r looks at me askance for a second, trying to work out if this is some sort of prank. Realising that she has nothing to lose she holds out her right hand. "Come, ring."

For a moment nothing happens, then the ring in my right hand wobbles slightly.

"You told me what you wanted to do. Hold in your mind the image of accomplishing it via this ring. Imagine the orange light which once empowered the Beast flowing through you."

Her right hand tenses. "Mine."

The ring gently floats up from my right hand, spinning slowly on its axis.

"Mine!"

The ring shoots forward onto her outstretched ring finger. "Princess Komand'r of Tamaran. I am yours."

"Guh!"

Orange light runs throughout her body and she cringes slightly. I suppose that suddenly seeing the life of the person the ring once was must come as something of a shock. A moment later she straightens up and I watch very carefully to see what her next course of action is. The orange light within her is strong… But it looks stable.

She holds up her right hand, staring at the ring. "You did not tell me that it used to be someone."

"We'll get you a normal ring when we can. And we'll try to turn that one back into a person. But, these are what I have for now. If you'd rather put it aside-."

"No." Her eyes flash orange for a moment and… She rises into the air. "Ah?"

The orange light cuts out and she falls to the floor.

"Intense emotions other than avarice will cause your ring to shut down. That's how I killed the First." I turn to the nervous-looking Koriand'r. "Well, highness? Will you be joining us?"

She stares at the ring on my left palm for a moment, then raises her left hand.