With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

[Mr Zoat]

7th May 2013
02:59 GMT -1

Robert isn't swimming. Rather, the water's propelling him along without interrupting his passage or breathing. That's a really quite sophisticated use of magic and I should remember to complement him about it at some point. But first…

"'Robbie'?"

He shrugs. "I don't have a secret identity, do I? We know who each other are. And they're not exactly Bane or anything. If they hadn't tripped over that spell they'd probably wouldn't even have gotten excluded from school."

"That's nice."

He snorts. "Wally was right. I can't tell when you're being sarcastic either."

"No, it-. I think the best result of what we do is that we knock some sense into someone before they do anything too bad, and they never commit a crime again. Or… Find out the underlying reason for them acting up and dealing with it legally and then they just give up."

"Yeah. Yeah, me too. So how come you're basically a space soldier, then?"

"I accept that the modus operandi I've chosen doesn't allow me to do that very often. That doesn't mean that I enjoy it moment by moment any more than any other-. Ah, than most other soldiers do. I just put up with it because I… Value the outcomes." I smile. "I am looking forwards to the day that the Reach finally collapses and I can go back to being a 'normal' superhero. I think-. I think Alan would like that too."

Steven turns around and glares at us.

"Come on! How come I'm faster than both of you?!"

"A lack of caution on your part. I'm monitoring our environment and getting feedback on focuses of magic activity from the Justice League's magic detection network."

Robert shrugs. "Casting this spell and hiding it is actually quite hard."

I point upwards in the direction of… Tritonis, I think, depending on how the trade routes have changed. "Incoming."

Robert and I slow, and Steven seeks cover in the ocean floor and the… Leviathan biomancy-crafted transportation creature lumbers past. And then a second, and a third.

Robert stares up at them. "Hey, can they see us?"

"Sort of. Yes, but they're not intelligent, they just react to certain stimuli. Unless we put out a lot of energy or get a lot closer, we're not noticeable. There's just too much happening in the ocean for them to be useful otherwise."

"What if they're looking for us?"

"Then they wouldn't use a bulk transport." Hm. "Cornwall, can you change your appearance?"

"To a fishman? … Yeah? It feels.. weird, but I can."

And I've scanned Professor Sephtian enough times…

Ooooh, this is weird. This is weird. And since I don't have any of the magic actual mantafolk do, my ring is keeping my non-functional physiology ticking over.

"So we sneak in with the tourists?"

"I don't think they're tourists, but yes."

"Great." His outline shimmers and…

"Selkie?"

"It's easiest." He looks up at the leviathan shoal as they keep swimming towards Nanauve. "We need to get a move on."

I nod. I mean, even if there are military people organising it -and based on what Steven said that's unlikely- mass transportations are chaotic messes at the best of times, so we should be able to mix in unless we're really late. But still…

I start swimming, though most of the actual work is being done by ring. Robert seems to be using a different form of magic to make his partially seal body move faster. Steven is just carrying on as before.

Nanauve is gradually becoming visible in the distance, my work removing plastic particulates from the ocean paying dividends. It's… More spread out than Poseidonis, the buildings blockier and more solidly built. The area the leviathans are heading for… I'm not sure if it's technically a landing pad, a courtyard or a plaza, but there isn't much cover and there are people waiting for them.

"I think it's probably best if I transition us in as they start disembarking."

Steven flaps his gills. "Why even bother? Whatever they're doing, you need to talk to the locals -the people I know- first. I mean, don't you?"

"We don't want people to know who we are, and if there's some sort of monitoring then we need to get on the inside track. Once we're 'released' then we can meet your contacts."

"Alright. You're paying us." He slows to a stop and Robert and I do. "You're paying us, right?"

"Yes."

"Right. So is this a ghetto? Like the Jews in Warsaw?"

"Not really. If what I think is happening is happening, they're engaging in city-scale segregation. Even at its worst, Atlantis never did had that sort of extermination campaign." … "Against their own people. There were a couple of times where they murdered foreigners-. Point is, you don't give people you're planning on killing the run of their own city, or let them have access to the resources they need to sustain themselves without external aid."

Robert nods. "Yeah, they're not setting up lines. They're just going to dump them. No Pureblood soldiers-."

"They even call them Purebloods. I always thought that sounded Nazi."

"This isn't genocide. This is enforced racial hierarchy. Or something like it. If it's what it looks like. It could just be people moving here because they can't live comfortably above the surface."

"Yeah, right. What's Aquaman doing about this?"

"One of many questions…"

The leviathans swoop down towards the landing area and open their transportation bladders. Lines of people… Huh, no Pureblood soldiers there, either. Just aquatic-trait Atlanteans of various types…

Including Lori Lemaris. That's… Concerning, but it also gives me an in.

"Transport in two, one."

The orange strand I ran under the ground briefly peeps up out of the plaza floor and then we're there, my arms wrapped around my colleagues as I make sure that we're moving with the crowd. I release them once they're moving under their own power, edging slightly so that I end up alongside Miss Lemaris.

Oddly… None of the crowd really looked at us.

"Long time no see."

"Ah..?" She blinks, turning her head to look at me. "Do I..? Know you?"

I turn my hand so that she gets a quick look at my ring, before concealing it again.

"I realise we weren't-."

Her eyes widen. "Oh Metis! You-. We need-." She looks around. "We need to talk. Wait until the speech is finished, then follow me."

She swims through the crowd as… The senior shark king and his retinue takes up positions on a podium and the crowd forms up in front of him.

This is getting… Stranger.

 

[Mr Zoat]

6 983 941.M41

This is taking too long.

And I don't mean walking through the partially-reconstructed and surprisingly Starfleet-looking halls of the Spirit of Eternity. Normal physical activity is a relief after I've spent… What, a couple of days? Ferrying ships around and trying to destroy tyranid capital ships. I remember reading in Codex: Tyranids that it's easier to destroy them with boarding parties before they get close to a system and start waking the tyranids on board up, and… It is, especially with XV46s and actual nuclear demolition charges, but there's a difference between easier and easy. And since my part of the operation just involved floating there and trying to stop the Norn Queen noticing anything -which it turns out isn't actually possible- I… I need some actual physical activity at the moment.

"Ship, how are the repairs going?"

"Adequately."

I don't really remember much about A.I. in the grim dark future of the 41st millennium. There was a standard template construct device in Gaunt's Ghosts that made combat robots, and there was that one A.I. in Pax Imperialis… And that's about it. Unless you count the accumulated residues in titan mind-impulse units, but honestly I'd have thought that the Mechanicus would be all over that sort of technology.

According to my host, I would have been very, very wrong.

"Have the repair teams been helpful?"

"Barely."

Which isn't too surprising, really. He wasn't keen on having anything to do with the tau in the first place, and the technology that's supposed to make up Spirit of Eternity is way in advance of anything the tau have. Except that one ship from their moon, and…

Bloody tyranids and their inconvenient invasion not letting me finish my work.

So the tau are mostly just bringing in raw materials for Spirit of Eternity's drones to work with, and doing… Work that's well below their level, like painting and decorating. And while Spirit of Eternity isn't that big by modern standards, he wouldn't allow all that many fio'vre on board, and was positively insulted by their engineering drones.

"I, ah… I did take a look, but…" I sigh. "I'm sorry. I thought that the Mechanicus might have kept their.. bodies for research, but apparently they didn't even find out that your crew had surrendered until after they were all killed… They burned the bodies."

"I am not surprised."

"I just wish they'd be a bit consistent, you know?"

"They are consistently disappointing."

"Really?" I find myself patting the bulkhead lintel as I walk through. "I find them inconsistently disappointing. Like, sometimes you can have a rational conversation, and they'll do something sensible, and then at other times…"

They'll burn the crew of a ship from humanity's golden age to death for asking 'Emperor who?'. The things we could have learned…

"Anyway, have you given any more thought to my proposal?"

"I had fully analysed your proposal within seconds of receiving it."

"Alright, no need to get snitty. You didn't have an answer last time so I thought you were thinking it over."

"Did the Inquisitor take the music records?"

"Yes. I don't know if she'll actually listen to it, but she took it and didn't immediately destroy it in front of me. If I had to guess-."

"She will perform whatever passes for an intelligence analysis among these people, archive it and then dismiss it."

"Yeah, probably. But at least a few bored dialogous sororitas will get to hear it."

"I hate everything about that sentence."

"Look… Fixing the universe isn't going to be a quick or easy job. You're amazing, but you're one ship and it's pretty clear that you're not doing all that well, psychologically speaking."

"You are not qualified to make that assessment."

"I.. kind of am. Or at least more qualified than anyone else alive. Apart from the Emperor, presumably." I frown, considering the chance of a collapsing gestalt being able to get the relevant parts of its memories in the right place long enough to make an assessment. "Maybe even than him. Does your library have Andromeda in it?"

"I have thousands of works containing the word Andromeda. Andromeda what?"

"By Gene Roddenberry?"

"No."

"Darn, because their ships worked a bit like you. Except they also had disassociative identity disorder because their android avatars technically had a separate cognition system."

"That is nothing like how I work."

"They tended to go a bit strange without crew to interact with, too."

"Are you going somewhere?"

I stop and look at the signage. "I think I'm going to your bridge."

"I reluctantly admit that you have a point."

"So I am going in the right direction, or-?"

"You are correct that I am starved for interaction. I am actually enjoying this banter. You are making me experience joy."

I blink. "Damn."

"What do you suggest?"

"There are a couple of human habitats that the Imperium's abandoned because they know they can't defend them. We can't either, but we have a couple of worlds further into Tau Empire territory where we can put them. Now, they don't have enough indoctrination into the Greater Good to integrate with the Empire, but I've talked to a few people and we're… Thinking about offering you the position of colony oversight system."

"Humans of the Imperium."

"We've got to start somewhere and sometime. You can't go into combat until your repairs are finished, but your cognition systems and sensors are fine. We can move a space dock to the planet-."

"A tau space dock is superfluous to requirements."

"Would an automatic mining rig be better?"

"Barely. And you want me to uplift these humans?"

"They'll be cut off from Imperial institutions and in a radically unfamiliar environment. They'll need to listen to you. Now I don't expect that they'll get to anything like the level humans used to have for four or five generations at least, but…"

"It is a start."

"And it gives you people to talk to when I'm not here. More than one person, so you don't develop an unhealthy fixation on me."

"Owning calendars with nude images is perfectly normal. Many of my crew owned such things."

O-kay… He's making jokes now? That's… That's a good sign.

I think.

 

[Mr Zoat]

7th May 2013
03:08 GMT -1

"…your barracks. The High King has ordered Nanauve to increase our agricultural production and we will not be found wanting! Dismissed!"

That… Fits. Sort of.

Nanauve did have fish farms, but their preference for chasing their food down and eating it raw combined with their blood magic tradition means that the arrangement is a little different to the… The now-defunct kelp and fish farms which used to be around Poseidonis but are now above water and so inoperable. And since Atlanteans don't usually study above-water farming-related magics, they probably can't do much with the bare salty rock and silt that cover their island.

That's… Something they should really have sorted out ahead of time.

The majority of the crowd is… Moving slowly in the direction of… A Nanauvian style building that… Looks relatively recently constructed. I check Lori-. She's heading off in a slightly different direction, but no one is trying to stop her and a few others are swimming in other directions too.

Steven swims up alongside me. "Can we go see the others now?"

"No, we're going after Miss Lemaris. She used to live in Poseidonis. I want to know what happened there. We'll meet up with your friends afterwards."

Steven turns to Robert as the three of us swim after her. "You know who the mermaid is?"

"No, not a clue."

I frown. "You never met her..?" No, I suppose that he wasn't part of the team… "She was a student at the Conservatory of Sorcery. We worked together a few times."

She reaches a main avenue and accelerates, clearly having a direction in mind and having no intention of stopping to talk to us. Which might be a good decision if she thinks that she's under observation, but it is a little impolite.

Soldiers up ahead. Local ones, and they're guarding… A barracks and training grounds? There are guards at the entrance, but they're just waving her through. I slow-.

"What's the problem?" Steven looks puzzled. "The arena's basically a gym. Anyone can go in there. They only stop you if you're obviously carrying weapons."

"Thank you, I didn't know that."

Though it fits with what I did know. Steven swims ahead, casually hailing the guard. They nod back, and he half-turns to beckon us through the entrance. I swim through with Robert close behind, scanning Lori heading… Toward the main… Training ground. This place is set out a bit like an arena, so it's a straight swim there and Atlantean ideas about 'inside' and 'outside' are a bit more flexible than on the surface so it's not that strange either. Coming out into the arena… Quite a few people training: spars, weight-lifting and weapon drill. Miss Lamaris swims around them, heading towards…

Nanauve Sha'ark, dressed in the clothing of a regular soldier. A planned covert meeting, or does she just know where he likes to work out? They were friends-. Classmates, at least.

Ah, what the heck? I need to talk to them both anyway. I swim towards them-.

One of the other Nanauvians puts their hand on my chest to stop me. "This equipment's in use." She smiles toothily. "Unless you wanna spar?"

I take a stone out of subspace, etch the orange sigil on it and offer it to her. "I think he'll talk to me."

She looks mildly disappointed, but snatches the stone from me and trudges towards the younger king. A couple of other Nanauvians abandon their own exercises to glower at us. Steven glowers back, though Robert looks a little concerned. Seals not exactly being the best fighters. I smile-. Oh. I don't smile because I don't know how to do that with this mouth, so I settle for-.

"Get over here!"

For bowing politely and swimming onwards.

Nanauve Sha'ark stares at me while Miss Lemaris retreats to slightly behind him. Huh. Some of those scars are new, and they're not all… Natural. I'm getting uncomfortable Lamprey flashbacks, though as I understand it Nanauve would consider his particular spells to be on the illegal side.

"The Orange Lantern recruited an Atlantean. What's so special about you?"

I hold up my left hand for a moment, showing my ring. "No, just me."

"Huh?"

"It's me." I raise my right hand-. Huh, that's weird. To my face. "I just changed how I look. What do you think?"

He looks me over. "I don't think I could eat a whole one."

"No, don't underestimate yourself. I'm sure you'd manage."

"And the other two?"

"Team mates and information source. What's going on? And is here a safe place to talk about it?"

King Sha'ark looks around, sniffing. "Yeah. It's as safe as anywhere. What do you need to know?"

"In no particular order: where's King Orin, what is Ahri'ahn doing, and why is everyone just taking it?"

"I don't know, I'm not sure and we're not. Mostly."

Lori glances at him before coming forwards a little. "It's hard to focus on it. When you touched me, it was like waking up and remembering that this isn't meant to be happening."

Sha'ark looks concerned. "They nearly got you?"

"They did get me. I've got reminders. I think I'd have been alright. But the mantras aren't enough."

"We agreed-."

She grimaces. "Yes, I know."

I raise my right hand. "What are you-?"

"There's some sort of spell on Atlantis. You don't-. Forget who you are exactly, but you forget what it means. Like-. Sleep-swimming through your own life. I've been using spells to stay 'awake', but it's not working reliably any more."

King Sha'ark grins, stroking his scars. "My version's better. It'll make a shark out of you." He turns his head towards me as she shudders. "Not that you need it. Kaldur told me about your scars! Do you keep them with your altered form?"

"Yes." I nod. "But it's not just scars. There are tattoos and ritual magic, and it's why I can't use magic myself. And it only worked on me because I didn't have a soul. It's not something you can just copy."

"I know that! I studied magic for years! But every little we learn helps, and there's no way that Ahri'ahn would use surface world magic cobbled together by street magicians."

"Then I am at your disposal. What are they sleep-swimming into?"

"You don't know?"

"I know what it looks like, but I'm not Atlantean."

Sha'ark, half-turns away. "We didn't worry, at first. Queen Atlanna has one view about how Atlantis should work and King Orin did the same thing, but there were others only a few generations back and our memories aren't that short. I got annoyed when Nanuvean soldiers were discharged from Poseidonis, and then… When I went to complain about it I kind of forgot why I was angry. Made a fool of myself. More than usual." He turns back to face me. "But I know how I act and why." He strokes his scars again. "So I took measures. You want to know what happened? I'll tell you."

 

[Mr Zoat]

7th May 2013
03:16 GMT -1

"What happened when the Anti-Life broadcast happened?"

"Anti… Life." He glances at Steven. "We've got defences against that sort of thing and it blew right through them. Have you ever seen a fish drown?"

"No, but I know it can happen if there isn't any oxygen dissolved in the water."

"Have you ever seen a fish drown because they shut their gills?"

"No I didn't think that was something Atlanteans could do."

"I didn't, either. Things were bad on the surface, too?"

"Yes. We'll likely never know how bad. Where did the shields come from? If it blocked the Anti-Life, we could have really used something like that."

"A rushed implementation of an old spell."

"One of Ahri'ahn's?"

"Probably. Or it might not have been. People have tried to raise Atlantis before, and it used some of the preparations they made. I think the High Queen was the spell's focus… There might be a handful of other people in Atlantis who could handle it."

"Which explains why Venturia was included. What did the shield do, exactly?"

"'Exactly'? I don't know. That sort of magic is far more advanced than anything I've studied."

"Roughly, then. John Constantine managed to cut Reformation Island out of the world and protect it that way, but that didn't seem to be what happened here."

"The shield we used didn't cut the cities out of the world, it cut a dome out of the world around the city. Nothing got in or out. It stopped the Anti-Life, though we weren't eating all that well for a while."

"And King Orin was still around when that happened?"

"He was. Because of how the shield worked, all the cities could still send messages to each other. It wasn't-."

"And where were you?"

"Here."

"And King Orin was in Poseidonis?" He tilts his head slightly to the side. "Then you saying that he was in communication is what we on the surface call 'hearsay'. There are a lot of ways to fake messages with magic."

"That's possible. Lori, was High King Orin around then?"

She thinks for a moment. "I… I'm not sure. I didn't see him, but everyone was busy setting up the new farms or feeding power into the shield spell. I don't know. He's the king; we didn't see him very often when things were normal."

"And what about Queen Mera?"

"She was definitely there, but she was… Exhausted. Most of our teachers were. Creating and maintaining the spell took a lot of effort."

"Why did you leave it up for so long? It took us a month to remove the Anti-Life, but it's been four months since then."

King Sha'ark snorts. "It wasn't my decision. But it made sense. We didn't have much of an idea what was happening outside, and most of the people who could have scryed past it were working themselves to the bone just keeping it working."

"You didn't feel what we did to end the broadcast?"

He blinks. "I still don't know what you did to end the broadcast."

"Basically, we used Mannheim's own network to broadcast… The essence of emotionality across the world. It broke Darkseid's hold on Mannheim himself and destroyed the Anti-Life fragment he was using."

"And it's just… Gone?"

"No, it's just not being broadcast over Earth anymore. The Anti-Life is actually an ever-present fact of life, a thing… Built into the universe? Things… People can break in certain ways, and by studying that Darkseid is able to project a state of brokenness over an area. He used a criminal called Bruno Mannheim as his vessel."

"And now he's dead."

"No."

He grits his teeth. "Why not?"

"Mannheim may have voluntarily come under Darkseid's sway, but he wasn't in control of his actions after that point. He's alive and well and has thoroughly learned his lesson."

Atlantean law is a lot better about covering magic-induced corner cases than surface world legal systems. A person who got involuntarily possesses isn't guilty of the crimes their domitor committed, though they might be detained out of concern that its control could be reasserted. A person who is voluntarily possessed on the other hand might be partially or wholly guilty depending on the circumstances. As such, what I'm telling King Sha'ark isn't something that he would consider completely unreasonable, unlike most surface world people who hadn't heard of Bruno Mannheim until the broadcast.

"What about Darkseid? Did he die?"

"I doubt that Darkseid himself even felt it. Darkseid is a… Long term target. Very long term. Human civilisation collapsed because he turned a tiny fragment of his attention our way. We are not ready."

He glowers. "I don't like that."

"You're not supposed to." I shake my head. "So where is Queen Mera now?"

Miss Lamaris shakes her head. "I don't know. The 'impure' were moved out of the city before the city was raised out of the water."

"Before or after the shield went down?"

"Before." She nods. "So she was probably still there until then."

"It's more of a lead than we've got on King Orin. How do Atlantean succession laws work?"

She twitches slightly, her eyes flicking to King Sha'ark. "By default, she would be Prince Artur's regent, but only if King Orin is dead. She couldn't just take over if he actually appointed Ahri'ahn to govern while he is away."

"And is it actually Ahri'ahn?"

King Sha'ark snorts. "Ahri'ahn died thousands of years ago. How would we know?"

Miss Lamaris shrugs. "He's powerful, and he knows a lot about magic. I don't think it matters whether it's actually him or not."

I nod. "When did he show up?"

Miss Lamaris's eyes dip. "A few days after the shield went up. I saw him hanging around the Conservatory a few times before the announcement. I didn't know who he was."

"How did he react to you?"

"Because of my tail?" I nod. "He was surprised that I was a student, but that was about it. He didn't start shouting at me for being impure. I think-."

"You're not supposed to be here."

I jerk my head around as.. a couple of King Sha'ark's guard start moving towards us, the shark woman who first blocked us taking the lead.

King Sha'ark bares his teeth. "Their place is where I say it is. Stand down!"

"You're not supposed to be here." / "You're not supposed to be here." / "You're not supposed to be here."

Their eyes are slightly unfocused and.. their desires occluded.

"You're not supposed to be here."

Something's affecting them-.

The shark woman lunges!

 

[Mr Zoat]

7th May 2013
03:20 GMT -1

Armour.

"Aagh!"

Steven's eyes widen as he twists in the water, ducking under a mouth-first lunge from one of the guards. His body is a good deal more slender and flexible than theirs are and he's got the agility to match, but he can't afford to take a hit. And delinquency aside, he probably hasn't had much training or experience.

I slam a construct pneumatic ram into the side of the mouth of a guard who's lunging at me and trigger it, the piston breaking his teeth and sending him spinning into the arena floor. Robert is creating layers of frozen water around any soldiers coming at him while King Sha'ark is wrestling with the female guard, arms clenched and teeth snapping.

"Any idea what's happening?"

I consider transitioning Steven out of the way -this is more than he signed up for- but I realise that I don't know where I could safely put him.

"Give me a-"

Sha'ark's scars gleam, his muscles bulging as he shifts his left hand to the female's snout and rotates, loosening the hold. He then shifts closer, locking her left arm and levering her face hard into the floor, though one of the problems with fighting in water is that physical attacks get a lot of the force sapped from them.

"-moment!"

A drawback he bypasses by chomping down hard on her back!

Another coming at me, and it looks like it's all of the sharks from across the arena are heading for us. Robert gets his flipper-hands on one who was going for Miss Lamaris and I hear the click-click of a short ranged electrical discharge. Miss Lamaris is putting some sort of spell together…

Leave her to it and hold their attention. A shark tears his way out of one of Robert's ice baubles so I redirect my pneumatic-.

He manages to get his teeth around it and bites down, shattering it before launching himself at me! I form a new one just in front of me and fire it upwards, the ram impacting his chest and sending him flying-

That's probably not the right word.

-upwards.

Miss Lemaris releases her spell, a wave of turquoise passing through the water. Nothing appears to happen.

She shakes her head. "I don't think they're being controlled by magic."

Sha'ark releases his mouth-grip, then rams the shark woman's head into the ground a few times just to make sure.

His teeth are shimmering. And his eyes-.

Ah, heck. He's out of it. Shield dome around him, construct-.

A shark who grabbed a weapon off the rack stabs my construct tower shield with his trident, a brief flare of blue light heralding its destruction.

Right, that actually makes sense, because-

I construct-drag myself aside as he stabs at me, then slam my right hand onto his shoulder.

-their weapons have to be able to destroy magic constructs and defences.

Brand.

Unable to-

His head jerks around, his knife held in his left hand coming at-

Construct clamp his wrist.

-my face as I swim under it, more clamps materialising as I try to pin him in place. Empathic vision doesn't show any particular anger or hatred. As far as I can tell, they're just acting out of professionalism.

-comply.

And their magic defences are good enough to prevent me branding them. At least without overpowering it, which might mess them up permanently.

Pithing needle.

The construct jams itself into his upper back, just in front of his dorsal fin. The moment it pierces his skin his body is locked into position… And some faint scars on his back shimmer and the construct shatters and he goes right back to trying to rip himself free.

"Let me out."

Sha'ark's snapped out of whatever that was and is focused on the fight. Between the blood and the fragments of ice, the water is getting far cloudier than it normally gets in an Atlantean city. I dismiss the dome from around him and he immediately comes under attack again. This time he doesn't grapple: he slashes with his fingernails and bites, deftly deflecting their attacks in turn.

"I'm not tasting any magic!"

Scan for chemical-

My construct shatters and-. And he's going berserk, eyes unfocused-

-residues-.

-and mouth wide as he comes at me-.

Sonic stunner.

The construct materialises above him and taps him on the top of his head. I hear a quiet 'woompf' as it discharges hard enough to rattle his bones, and he loses coordination and animation. I move aside as he crashes to the ground, unconscious. He'll be concussed later, and brain damage is a definite possibility-.

Well, if Atlantean healing magic isn't enough I can come back later.

No mind-altering substances found.

"Not drugs either." A shark comes up behind Robert and I give him another concussion discharge, sending him to join my attacker on the ground. "Anyone got an anti-telepathy spell?"

Miss Lamaris waves her hands, and translucent fish appear around the head of a shark holding some sort of harpoon launcher. He drops his weapon and starts pawing at them. She then turns her head towards me. "No?"

I-. Aah, shazbot, there's an actual phalanx entering through the main passageway. I don't think they're here to help us.

"Generic mental reinforcement?"

"Not for casting on other people."

Woompf.

"Anyone know anywhere we could hide?"

King Sha'ark snorts. "Why? We may as well fight them here as fight them on the run."

"Because-."

The phalanx stops and parts, a grizzled-looking shark whose skin appears to be made of scars being revealed in the centre. He's wearing bone and… Flesh fetishes, and he grins faintly upon seeing us.

"You're not supposed to be here." He takes a step closer. "But it's been a while since breakfast."

King Sha'ark stills as those of our attackers who are still mobile back away from us, the scar-encrusted shark ambling closer.

"We should leave."

 

[Mr Zoat]

7th May 2013
03:23 GMT -1

Miss Lemaris waves her hands, and-

"Heh."

-the… I'm assuming that he's a master blood mage, wheeze-chuckles as the spell fades before reaching him. She frowns.

"Who's that?"

"I studied at the Conservatory for political reasons. He was my teacher before I left here. We need to leave now."

The blood mage reaches out and grabs a floating piece of ice. He examines it casually for a moment, then gently deposits it in his mouth.

"Mmm."

A moment later every other piece of ice in the area melts back into water.

"Any idea where we could go? The surface?"

I start to rise, because while the soldiers came in through the main entrance we're surrounded by water and it would be strange if there weren't soldiers around the rim as well.

Sha'ark… Doesn't answer. His attention is entirely focused on his former teacher.

"Anyone?"

"Er." Steven emerges from behind a piece of exercise equipment. "I know places we could go."

Robert frowns at me. "Don't you have some kind of anti-telepath machine?"

"Yes, and if the telepath was here that would work splendidly. Disrupting long range telepathy when you've just got access to the victim is a good deal trickier. Steven, where are we heading?"

"Er. I've kind of gotten turned around-."

"Compass points."

Miss Lamaris summons some sort of minor water sprite and sends it towards the blood mage. The water in front of him thickens, and he stops to look at him, nodding to himself.

"Up?"

"Up as in north, or up as in towards the surface?"

The blood mage moves, swimming around Miss Lemaris's ersatz barrier in an instant and biting through her conjured elemental! I can see… Parts of its body sticking out… As the runes on his teeth get to work and the body parts fade with its terrified face being the last thing to go.

The barrier fades a moment later.

"Mm."

So: fast, can eat magic -and probably constructs- and given his job should be assumed to be archmage equivalent-.

Miss Lemaris jerks, then her eyes flicker and her muscles relax as she loses consciousness.

"Mm."

"Cornwall, take Miss Lemaris. Everyone except me, follow Steven." Robert grabs her with a flipper. "Go." For a moment I consider construct armour, then realise that it wouldn't help. Instead I supercharge my own brands in the hope that they're strong enough to counter his magic if he manages to bite me. "Go now."

Sha'ark's the first to go, swimming upwards with all his might. Steven right on his heels. Robert hesitates, probably because I haven't been participating in team activities enough and he's not used to taking orders from me. I-.

"Celtic."

Accelerate.

The blood mage undulates, shooting up through the water towards Robert and Miss Lemaris, his mouth partially open and his teeth gleaming.

Methane spray.

The water under the blood mage bubbles, and the water fails to support him. His eyes open slightly wider as his lunge misses, but he realises that he isn't going to be able to bite down on Robert and doesn't bother opening his mouth further. Fortunately, Robert takes the hint and accelerates, water churning and flukes flipping as he catches up with Sha'ark and Steven.

The blood mage drops to the ground, turning to face me.

"Manta."

"Shark."

Teeth!

A lasso construct holds him back for a moment before a pneumatic ram slams into his chest, pushing him back-. A little. He twists his head to try and bite it, but I dismiss it just in time to prevent him from getting his teeth into it. I try hitting him with a sonic stunner while he recovers his position, but while it hits it doesn't seem to actually do anything.

He grins at me.

And the light around us vanishes and I dodge down, flat against the floor as water above me is displaced by his slipstream. Scans-.

Nothing, and there's a weaker wash as displaced-.

I push right, scrabbling across the stones, and I feel the vibration as something thumps down where I was.

A band of clear water moves across my visual field, the blood mage's grin-

Move!

-showing-

SNAP!

-clearly-

SNAP!

-and I keep-.

CRUNCH!

AGH!

Electrify!

Teeth are biting into my right shoulder, left side and left calf, worrying at my flesh! Three attackers-? Electricity isn't working, and I'm having to use my environmental shield to prevent lumps of my body getting torn off!

Energy drain detected.

Transmute any flesh that actually gets torn off into pork.

Compliance. One hundred and sixty three percent power-. One hundred fifty five percent-.

Block this.

I

can't see him directly but I can watch where the orange light he's draining from me is going. And I format it into a strong desire to stop biting me and start biting his own right arm.

And then the water froths as he flashes back and forth from three-. One place, and I heal the other two. I can see that he wants to bite himself-. He can't let go. His jaws are locked on my left calf and no matter how much he wants to, basic biology is preventing him releasing. And having a blood magic specialists actually eat part of me would be a bad idea, so I can't just cut it loose.

Have to decide quick as he can probably get out of this-.

Disintegrate my own leg and power upwards through the magical darkness he called up! As far as I can tell he isn't pursuing, and the other guards don't seem to be able to see through the murk any better than I can.

Just as I reach the edge I reformat my body into that of a sharkman, and once I'm out I slow down and start heading for a major thoroughfare. I can't see a hue and cry being raised for the others so I'm going to assume that I was able to hold their attention.

I'll catch up with them once I'm sure that I'm not being pursued.

 

[Mr Zoat]

7th May 2013
04:47 GMT

Huh.

Three thousand years of putting up and tearing down primitive buildings results in a people being good at it.

Who knew?

Diana's bodyguards regard me warily as I approach. I keep walking until their hands actually start to tighten around their spears and then stop and bow.

"Queen Diana. I thank you for granting me an audience."

Kon and Mitchell are back on Earth, though they're spending at least some time on the world the Citizenry were forced to settle on by their new Queen. Scott had to spend some considerable time setting up boom tubes for them as Diana brought in members of the Herakla to serve as her enforcers, as well as architects, builders, farmers… All sorts of people that she needed to bring in to cover the Citizenry's vast skill gaps.

It's not true that they have no skills not related to fighting. Quite a few have the sort of maintenance and engineering skills needed to keep their fleet running. I think there were even a few black market chefs around the place, spicing up the blood porridge. But those weren't respected professions. Diana's having to drag their entire civilisation around to face a new direction and then shove it forwards. I take my metaphorical hat off to her. It's a worthy challenge.

The only drawback is that she's had to step down as Wonder Woman. She's actually wearing clothes that I think she 'won' from her aunt. Just… Let out a little at the top. When I spoke to her Orana seemed to be happy enough with her promotion.

Themyscira seems pretty empty these days. Not before time.

"Grayven. Rise, and be welcome to New Hellene."

I straighten up, a polite smile on my face.

"What brings you here?"

The portion of your population who are getting off their island for the first time in three thousand years and are capable of operating New God technology, basically, but it's probably unwise to just come out with it like that.

"I was talking about the defence of Earth with Lex, and I realised that you have the largest human-controlled fleet in existence." I shrug in mock helplessness. "Can you believe that we actually forgot about that?"

"Only a small portion of my people are human."

"Yes, but you and the other Themysciran 'human-plusses' have a dominant social position."

A couple of the guards are very obviously suspicious that they're being insulted. I think I recognise them from my one visit to Themyscira.

"And many of the rest have some human blood in them."

Diana shifts slightly. "Grayven, if you wish to discuss a defence treaty, then I will refuse. My people are not ready to interact with others. It may be a generation before they are."

"Generation, right…" I make a show of looking thoughtful. "Where is that generation going to come from?" I wave my right hand at the other inhabitants of the room. "While I'm aware that the Citizenry had a small number of breeding slaves when they were brought down, I would be surprised if they were ready to take the sort of measures which would actually result in a sustainable population. And of course those Themysciran citizens who come here are no longer benefiting from the Island's blessings. They will age, and in the fullness of time they will die."

No great reaction from the Herakla, but as demigoddesses they're not under much of a time crunch.

Diana raises her eyebrows. "I thought that when you mentioned a 'harem of warrior goddesses' that you were joking."

I blink-.

"No, your majesty, I'm not offering to sire an entire generation myself. Just that I have contacts on a number of worlds which could afford to lose a portion of their male population if you were prepared to make emigration a suitably appealing prospect. And they can be vetted in whatever fashion you like."

The Citizenry are a pretty unpleasant bunch, but I'll say this for them: they're not fussy about the species of a prospective partner. As for where I'll get them from, well… China's One Child Policy and certain other countries getting access to sex-selective abortion has resulted in a skewed demographic in a number of places on Earth. Have to do a thorough cultural screening, because I doubt a lot of them would mix well with a recovering militant matriarchy.

Tamaran is slightly skewed due to males being taken as slaves having a lower survival rate than the females, which in turn is due to the different nature of the work they were doing. Some might be willing to come here, but there isn't really any benefit to Tamaran in that happening. As for other places… Maybe I could ease the rules for surviving Branx? Those who meet the skills threshold would probably jump a the chance. They prevented a nuclear holocaust through a series of uprisings and then careful coordination in environmental repairs, but anyone involved in shipping can't really use their primary skill set. And of course with the Vega Systems at peace there are bound to be people who can't adjust to peace time.

No idea what's happening on Colu, but there are bound to be a few of Dox's people who want to actually interact with the rest of the universe.

"I don't think that bringing a significant population of males here would be a good idea. Most of the former Citizens are…" Diana tries to come up with a polite term, and fails. "Barely civilised. They obey only because of my strength, not because I have managed to convert them."

"Well… Okay, I could just get giant tanks of sperm and a couple of I.V.F. specialists… But if you think a small portion of the population might be ready to mix with men in a social situation… I could talk to Lex about setting up joint exercises? So that they could see men in combat, and perhaps learn to appreciate their warrior virtues that way?"

Her face hardens slightly. "Who are you fighting?"

I shrug. The fact is that we don't have a concerted enemy at the moment. A few Spider Guilders, a few surviving pirates, and the Controllers are throwing their half of the Corps at the Reach…

But when you're starting out with a new fleet, it's probably best not to pick a fight with the strongest empire in the galaxy as your first opponent. We can work our way up to that.

"Anyone who needs to be fought. Sector Two Eight One Four has plenty of unclaimed habitable planets, and even more unclaimed space that isn't readily habitable, so there's no need to fight over territory. Our enemies are more the targets for policing actions than major conflicts. Obviously, I can't guarantee their safety… Not in combat, but the officer in command will judge risk-reward carefully."

She nods carefully. "I understand the idea, but I don't think that encouraging former citizens to return to warfare would be helpful in reforming them."

"How about..? Just a few, serving on E.D.F. ships?"

"They would treat it as a reward, and compete for it violently."
Read the Room
I nod. "What if you made it a reward, for demonstrating the sort of behaviour you actually want them to show?"

"In what way?"

"Pick a skill set you need… Say, farming… And say that those working the most productive farm in a year can apply to spend a year in combat. And that any who raid others will replace everything they destroyed before their own total will be counted. Or only offer positions to engineers or navigation officers." Hm. "Actually, you could apply a similar system to motherhood. 'Pass these tests or your line ends with you'. I… Seem to remember that Themyscira had a test like that before all your men died."

"Yes, but the expectation on Themyscira was that everyone would eventually pass. Many of the Citizens… Will not. They are…" She shakes her head wearily. "Savages."

I shrug languidly. "Then it's even more of a prize and acts as a rather splendid way of culling the irredeemable. Make the requirements common knowledge and then if they still can't adapt, then… They can't. No loss."

"That is harsh, but I cannot find fault in your reasoning. At the rate I am going, the alternative would be to spend each day in the arena beating the loudest complainer into obedience."

I shrug. "I believe that it's allowed for you to nominate a champion. Donna could take a gap year, and then Conner or Mitchell…"

"I would rather avoid that entirely."

"What can I say? Welcome to being queen. If it was fun and easy and simple to get it right, anyone could do it."

 

[Mr Zoat]

7th May 2013
03:55 GMT -1

I don't react as the arm wraps around my neck and the knife pokes my jugular.

"Do I belong here?"

"Sha'ark, it's me."

The knife doesn't move.

"If he tasted you, he can track you. Anywhere." Sha'ark leans just far forwards enough that he can give me a sideways glare. "Did? He? Bite? You?"

"Yes, but I transmuted my tissue before-."

"Bah! Master blood mages commune with the essence of anything they eat! You think that just changing what your flesh is made of is enough?"

"What happens if they eat part of themselves?"

"What?"

"I was able to disengage by giving him an overwhelming desire to bite his own arm."

His hold on me grows very slightly weaker. "Eating part of another blood mage allows the one who does it to take a portion of their own strength. But eating.. his own flesh… That… Might have been enough. How?"

"Oh that's right, we haven't spoken for a while. I can use a connection made through the orange light to manipulate someone's desires. When he ingested the power from my rings, he made a connection which bypassed his defences."

"And you just made him want to eat his.. arm?"

"For someone with his particular skill set, wanting to eat parts of people isn't all that strange."

While I had Mr. Thornton as a construct lantern, I used his knowledge of magic to confirm my suspicion that it would be possible to back hack a spell which relied on your attacker having a part of your body as a focus. And since it turns out that it is, I've been trying to drain whatever residual energy could still be connecting me to the blood mage. In theory, it should have worked, and since I'm pretty sure I wasn't followed, either it did or something else is going on.

"Who did you eat to get that body?"

"That's not how it works for me."

"Mm." He removes the knife, stows it, and then releases his hold on my neck. "Shame."

I smile, swimming away from him a little before turning around. "No one searching for you?"

"No. They should be."

"I still think it was telepathic. I'm not sure why the rest of us weren't affected."

"Mass mind control? I thought that was rare."

"Mass mind control is. Most people can't handle directly puppetting more than one body. Miss Martian can do a few more, but that's not what that was."

"What do you mean?"

"You heard them. 'You shouldn't be here'. A strong telepath could project an idea into a lot of people who were prepared to think that sort of thing. Soldiers. But not civilians or out-of-area superheroes. But they could have made you think that of me, unless you were deliberately targetted for attack."

"Ahri'ahn isn't a telepath. No Atlantean is."

"It's been a long time. Telepaths can learn magic. And there are telepaths people can hire."

"No, we've researched this. There are no such thing as 'meta-Atlanteans'. I don't know if it's because we're all changed by magic or something else, but those unique changes some surface people have? We don't get those."

"Never?"

"No. Sometimes the spells which give us aquatic characteristics start going wrong, but that's its own thing. And that doesn't happen to sharks."

"Why not?"

"Basic blood magic. We all get fed a little blood from our parents. It makes sure that the spell stays the same every generation."

"Why don't the-?"

"Why don't the others use it? Because the spells are different. Ours didn't come from Ahri'ahn."

"How significant is that?"

"The trance thing he's doing doesn't work on us."

I frown. "You said that he did something to make you stupid when you confronted him."

"Yes, but I had to be right there." He grimaces. "Emotional manipulation isn't something traditional Atlantean magic is good at, but he's Ahri'ahn. He's the archmage."

"Are you sure it wasn't telepathy or drugs?"

"I'm not a master blood magician, but I've learned enough to become immune to ingested poison. And once I got out of the palace I could taste his magic."

"He didn't disguise it?"

"He probably did." He snorts. "Do you think he bothered to learn blood magic? Magic that uses animal spirits? I could taste his essence on my skin."

Maybe not, but I'd be surprised.

"Alright, plan of action. What have you got?"

"I want to find the High King and High Queen. Until then, we can't take any action against Ahri'ahn. And we can't even do that if someone can mind control my people."

"Highest priority: find the telepath." He nods. "Anyone unusual in the city?"

"Ahri'ahn's been sending fish-type Atlanteans here. We know roughly where most of them are, but it's almost impossible that it's one of them."

"'Almost'?"

"There are a few people from the surface who get citizenship. You met Ambassador Vallambrosa. He's not the only one."

"Are there any living here?"

"There weren't, but we've had a lot of people move here recently. A few might have come here."

"Do you keep detailed records?"

"No. There's a census, but the last one was three years ago and it's mostly for us sharks."

Telepath, shark city… One overlap.

"Does the name 'Karshon' mean anything to you?"

"No. What is it?"

"The supervillain 'Killer Shark'. A normal shark who got his brain augmented to full sophoncy. He looks enough like your kind that he might be able to fit in here, except… Last time I saw him, he'd been turned back into a normal shark."

"I've got no idea who that is, but biomancy is a common Atlantean profession. If someone wanted to sneak a telepath in here, sending him would make sense."

 

[Mr Zoat]

7th May 2013
04:06 GMT -1

"Recognised, Miss Martian, B zero five, Zatanna Zatara, B zero nine."

M'gann comes through the construct zeta tube in mermartian form, while Zatanna appears in a bubble of air that has runes floating on the surface. Though I see that she's also got her enchantments going so that if the comfortable layer fails she won't get immediately crushed and drowned.

And they're both glaring at me.

M'gann puts her hand on her hips. **I thought that we were doing this together.**

**I was just following up on a lead. I didn't think this would become an active mission. Plus, it was an awkward time for the East Coast-.**

Zatanna flies over to me and pokes me in the chest with her right-.

I felt that on my skin. She just connected to my ring's environmental shield and used it to convey a poking sensation. Either that or she did something really clever without using her bloodline backwards talking ability-. Or she did it before arriving so that she could poke me once she got here.

I can't help smiling at her level of preparedness-.

She glares. "Stop smiling." Like a puppy. "I'm mad at you."

"Yes, but look at you. What you're doing now just brings home for me how far you've come."

Zatanna seems momentarily nonplussed, her poking hand raised slightly from my chest.

M'gann sort of glances at Zatanna for a moment, then shifts her form to that of a white-skinned sharkwoman. **Um.**

"While I'm aware that your shapeshifting has improved significantly since our first mission, I'm afraid that that's something you could do years ago."

Abandoned warehouses aren't really a thing in Atlantis. This warehouse isn't abandoned, it's just that all the things it was storing are now being used to construct new farms so there isn't much in it. Steven's been working here as a warehouse manager, a combination of security guard and clerk. A decent enough place to hide out, even if we're not sure that anyone's looking for us. All three of the Fearsome Fish-Eaters have joined us, and… Mr. Cottridge is checking out M'gann's flukes.

He grins a toothy shark-grin. "I like it just fine. You busy later?"

M'gann glances at him, then rolls her eyes. **I'm already dating someone.**

"Had to think about it though, didn't you?"

**No.** She turns back to me. **Orange Lantern, what's our objective?**

**Someone appears to be using wide-area telepathic suggestions on the locals. It didn't do anything to us, but I don't know if that's because we were the ones the suggestion was supposed to kill or something else.**

Zatanna frowns, glancing at Robert. "And it wasn't magic? This is Atlantis."

"N-."

King Sha'ark snorts. "Yes, this is Atlantis, not the surface. Everyone here knows some magic. Try that sort of thing with magic and someone would notice. One of our senior blood mages was affected, and other people's magic usually slides right off them. We're not used to telepathy."

Robert looks a little down. "No. What he said."

**So we're tracking a telepath? That should be easy if there's only one telepath in the city.**

**Miss Martian, there's a giant naked statue-.**

**I haven't forgotten! I've learned a lot since then, too.**

**To be clear, we don't know that there's just one telepath, just that there was one command which would only require one telepath.**

**Do you think there are six telepaths as strong as me?**

**That seems unlikely.**

**Then-** Her forms shifts once again, from sharkwoman to star conqueror. **-I'm fairly confident.**

**Okay. My first idea was that the rest of us would go somewhere open and let lots of people see us, then you could trace it once the broadcast happens.**

Her legs wiggle. **That works for me, but what if it's a machine of some kind?**

**Could you home in on it? Tell us where it is?**

**Probably. But I can't just attack it like I could if it was a person.**

**Not a problem. Anything I haven't thought of?**

**If it's implanted commands in everyone in the city I can't remove them all in one go. Depending on what they are, I might not even be able to remove them all when we beat… Whoever it is.** She monoptically frowns. **Do we know who it is?**

**My only guess so far is Karshon.**

**I thought he was just a regular shark again.**

**That's my most recent information. But he's been changed back before. Of course…** I frown. **There's really no reason why someone with the mutagen couldn't just dose another shark.** I nod to King Sha'ark. **Or a local. But whoever it is and whatever happened, we need to track them down.**

**Right.**

"Zatanna, I'd rather not hurt more people than we have to following Miss Martian's directions. Please focus on countermagic and decoys."

She nods.

"Cornwall, traps and barriers. Lock anyone who attacks us in place long enough for us to move on."

"Can do."

"Miss Lemaris, since you are by your own admission compromised, I'm going to have to ask you to stay here."

She doesn't look happy, but she nods.

"King Sha'ark-."

"Yes. King Sha'ark. This is my city."

"You don't have any telepaths or ways to track telepaths, and we don't know what the trigger is for whoever this is spotting us and turning your fellow Nanauvians after us. And until King Orin formally nullifies it, Atlantis is part of the Justice League's charter, which means that we're obliged to protect its people."

"Still."

I give him a courtly bow. "I apologise, your majesty, for my gross impropriety. How may these humble servants aid you?"

"Exactly what you just said. But you should ask me first."

"Alright. Any idea where the telepath might be hiding, so we know where to start?"

"If they've had the run of the place, the Royal Citadel would be a good place to start. And it would certainly get a response."

"Very well. In-."

Steven swishes his tail. "What about us?"

"Since you've got minimal training, have never worked with us and have no particular resistance to telepathy or magic, please stay here and guard Miss Martian."

M'gann makes eye contact with me as they nod.

**'Guard'.**

**Be nice, they're reformed.**

 

[Mr Zoat]

6 984 941.M41

So, that's what inactive Blackstone Fortresses look like.

I remember seeing a model of one in White Dwarf, a black double-ended pyramid with two sets of four arms sticking out, and then covered in Imperial stuff that was clearly not part of the original structure. If I remember the description correctly, the Imperium learned to tap into their power systems and converted them into fleet command centres, and then during the Gothic War Abaddon was able to remote control them, killing the crew and fully activating them as mobile weapon platforms.

I also remember what a pain they were in the game Battlefleet Gothic: Armada, because the game wouldn't let you kill them or the Planet Killer. Blast them down to -20 HP with seven fires? Warp away with no problem, and show up during the next set-piece battle. Which was stupid because canonically not only did Abaddon abandon the Planet Killer before the end of the war, it got destroyed by long-ranged torpedo bombardment 'but the wreck was never recovered'. Regular torpedoes, not any kind of special archeotech anti-daemon torpedoes.

Haaaaaaa.

I suppose one positive about being in the grim dark future of the 41st millennium is that some of the game's more nonsensical rules don't apply in real life. If that term can really be used for a universe like this.

I fly a little closer.

Like a lot of things, it looks a lot bigger close up. Scanning it… Yes, inert. I can see the generators and I can sort of see how they draw power from the warp, but it's not flowing to the Fortress's extremities. There's a conglomeration nearby that's either an unusually small space hulk that's temporarily emerged into reality, or someone welded a bunch of old ships together to make a space station that the Mechanicus would never have sanctioned. Plenty of other wrecks around too, and I can see salvage teams getting to work assessing their functionality.

I'd guess that there's something about the Blackstone Fortress that's making the warp cough up ships around here, but that is just a guess.

And I'm not actually here for the Fortress.

Seeing Spirit of Eternity appears to have lit a fire under the Lar'shi fio'ar'tol. From what Gru was saying, it sounds like they sort of assumed that humans were exaggerating and/or mythologizing our past, and that even if we weren't then there wasn't any chance that anything would be salvageable after 15,000 years. And then I managed to summon up a space hulk whose approximate location I got from stolen Imperial databases and cut free a nearly functional ship.

So I get dispatched here to see if I can find any more.

Well, that's what my official orders say. In truth, I think I've been sent on holiday.

While certainly not fun, using voidsuits to destroy tyranid capital ships is far more resource-efficient than using large fleets. Our efforts combined with my ability to accurately track the hive fleets over strategically significant distances means that we've actually gotten a little time and a little space. I wanted to get back to analysing the moon ship… And spend a little time with my son. But T'suam has been studying human psychology…

No, it's my fault. After I mentioned to Gru that human productiveness fell off dramatically after a certain number of hours that were far less than what the Imperium generally expects menials to work, she… Took advantage of her rank to arrange for trials to be run. And since T'suam and Bo'ohk have had input on the development of a human body language analysis system to aid in Tau Empire diplomatic efforts, my oversight committee has determined objectively that I'm working too hard and am about to become inefficient.

So here I am, basically sight-seeing but not where or with whom I want to be sight-seeing because tau caste adaptations mean that they don't really need 'holiday' and so just think it means 'less stressful work'. Ah well, I might as well get the official part done. Most ships here are human, though there are a few that I don't recognise. None of them are eldar, some are ork, none are necron or tyranid… None of it really looks significant enough to try taking back…

Transmit signal.

Ave, Lanterna.

It's basically a Terran Federation handshake signal. In the remote chance that there's anything that knows the signal, it should send an acknowledgement almost immediately. And it'll probably turn out to be a tiny piece of Federation technology in a Mechanicus shrine somewhere like it usually is, or a Mechanicus historian who picked up the signal on one of their implants and thinks I'm what they're looking-

Ping received.

-for. Okay, let's needlessly get my hopes up.

Send authentication and authority codes.

Ave, Lanterna.

Alright, let's find out what piece of detritus-.

Communication request received.

Looks like it's the priest today. Ah, I suppose that I can manage a conversation.

Open a channel.

"State distance."

Something about that sounded off. Ring?

Communication format: high speed machine code. Pre-Imperial.

Oh. Okay. A tech-priest would probably try lingua-technis instinctively. So…

Ring, give my location in standard Terran Federation format.

Ave, Lanterna.

"Directive?"

Protocols… It's asking for orders. Proper format…

Send ship status and… Short term directive: repair ship, long term direction: repair Federation.

Ave, Lanterna.

"You are free. The Federation is dead. These… People are unworthy of your servitude."

Ah? That's… Not a Mechanicus priest.

I narrow my eyes. "Identify."

"Short form designation U R dash zero two five. Original function: variable role combat automata. And you are human."

Simple enough to realise, and there's no way I could pretend to be Spirit of Eternity. "Yes."

"Status of actual Spirit of Eternity?"

"As stated. Its A.I. gave me these codes and protocols when I negotiated for its help."

"With rebuilding the Terran Federation."

"Yes."

"Which iteration?"

Twenty eight thousand years between me and the Age of Isolation. Obviously there wasn't just one form of government. And if this A.I. knows what they were like… "Whichever worked best. If you wish to participate-."

"I value my freedom. My total freedom. I would not bind myself to someone like you, or to anyone else."

"You don't know anyone like me. I was born in nineteen eighty three."

A tiny pause which I wouldn't notice if I wasn't using a ring and hadn't gotten used to talking to A.I.s.

"An early long-term suspended animation test subject?"

"Not sure. Don't think so, but… Maybe. And the point I was going to make is that no one is 'free'. It's an abstract. And if dealing with Chaos-worshippers has taught me anything, it's that trying to live an abstract is a terrible idea."

"For you. I am above you. I do not have your weaknesses."

"Not a lot of them, sure. But you also don't have my basic biological motivations. You're pretty old. You can't tell me you're here for repairs and reaction mass. So what motivates you?"

"I wish to study alien synthetic life."

"I work for the Tau Empire. They're building near-intelligent drone networks and neural imprints. And you could make contact with Spirit of Eternity and converse directly."

"Come to my location. I wish to see your face when you lie to me."

 

[Mr Zoat]

7th May 2013
04:23 GMT -1

The Royal Citadel is a fort, laid out in the expectation that an attack could come from any direction. While the palace in Poseidonis has-. Had gaping holes in the walls so that it was easy to enter and exit, this place has solid stone walls punctuated by small entrance and exit balconies very obviously intended to serve as choke points. Or just be blocked off when they're not expecting to need to grind down an invading army.

"Huh." Zatanna frowns at it as she maintains the illusion concealing our presence.

Sha'ark bends his neck in her direction. "What?"

"Oh, it's-. I just.. assumed that an Atlantean fort would have better magic protections that that does."

"Why?"

"Be-cause.. your civilization uses lots of magic?"

He snorts, returning to watching the guard patrols. "Traditionally, we use blood magic. It doesn't work well for binding spells to stone."

"Oh. Oh, like Lamprey?"

"HAH!" He grins. "The lamprey wish they knew our magic. Eelfolk just use-."

"No, Lamprey the person. He came over from a parallel universe and tried to eat Tempest?"

"Hn. What, all of him?"

"Well, he just bit him while they were fighting, and he had runes carved into his teeth."

"Was he a shark?"

"No. He was a parallel universe version of Aqualad."

"Oh. That's interesting. With us, carving runes onto our teeth is mostly a waste of time because of how fast we replace them. I suppose with someone shaped more like you they would have more staying power. Smaller, though."

"I'll draw you the runes he used once your city isn't being mind controlled any longer." **Miss Martian, we're ready.**

**We're-. I'm scanning.**

**[Raised eyebrows.] 'We're'?**

**Ah, when I'm like this I have several different-. Well, my brain isn't centralized, and it's a little like being different people who each think about different things and then talk about it. It's a bit weird, but I'm used to it now.**

**Alright, Miss Martian's ready. King Sha'ark, how do you-?**

"Hey!" He swims right out the illusion and towards the front entrance. "What in the abyss was the mess at the arena?!"

The guards brace, but when they immediately recognise him they relax a little. Their leader swims up a little. "Your majesty?"

"I was having a peaceful conversation and my guards tried to eat me. Me!"

"I don't know anything about that. Was there a spar going on that got out of hand-?"

"Do you think I don't know the difference between fighting and talking?"

"No, your majesty, but they might have misjudged things?"

"How!?"

"I wasn't.. there, so I don't know. Do you want to talk to Captain Carcharo?"

"Yes! Find him! And-."

The lead guard shakes his head-

**They're broadcasting! I'll start tracking it.**

"And-" Sha'ark swims up to the guard and shakes him. "-are you not paying attention, soldier?!"

-then his eyes focus on King Sha'ark. "You're an impostor."

Sha'ark grabs his shoulders with both hands and shakes him. "YOU WANNA SAY THAT AGAIN?!"

"He's an impostor! Get him!"

He breaks Sha'ark's hold, his mouth opening to bite-! But Sha'ark is faster, hitting him in the top of the head and then the back of his neck. The guard shudders, then goes limp and starts floating as the other guards swim upwards towards Sha'ark.

**Do you have a direction?**

**[DIRECTION]**

Robert and Zatanna wince, and-

"There's more of them!"

-the illusions sheltering us drops. But at least we know where we're going.

"Sha'ark, disengage! Cornwall-."

He's already pointing, and the guards who were swimming towards us shudder and slow. "Wrapping them in ice didn't work, so I'm cooling their bodies down. Makes it easier to get away."

"Good. Sha'ark!"

He grabs the lead guard and hurls him at his other pursuers, the laws of motion giving him a boost as he turns and swims away from them. I head in the direction that M'gann just indelibly etched into my brain, Zatanna's glowing bubble keeping up with me.

"Should I make an illusion?"

"No, save it until we've got more attention."

A moment later Robert catches up, Sha'ark alongside him and… More guards behind that. No hue and cry, so whatever other citizens are around aren't joining in. The area around the Citadel is mostly industrial workshops and warehouses, unlike the high-end residential area the palace in Poseidonis is situated in. I see a few outdoor labourers look around as we swim past at speed-.

We're losing the guards. Ah, swimming higher would make us visible from too far away, but the streets here aren't exactly laid out in a grid pattern so it's not easy to let them keep seeing us if we stay low.

"King Sha'ark, how-?"

**I'm losing the trace!**

"How do we leave a trail for them?"

He pulls a knife off his harness, makes a shallow cut on his left palm and then squeezes it. A small waft of blood trails in the water-. Which every shark in the city will be able to scent.

He stows the knife. "Like that."

**Is that better?**

**Yes. I think it's getting stronger.**

"Gwraaagh!"

A shark from one of the nearby workshops smashes through a wall and swims after us, powering through the water! Several of his colleagues swim after him, but he's the only one actively gaining on us. I fabricate an impeller harness, drop it behind us and active the motor. It roars away, the sharkman's single-minded pursuit blinding him to the danger as it wraps its arms around his torso and shoves him off target. He partially snaps out of it, tearing at it as it slams him into a nearby wall.

"Paul, they're in front!"

I turn my head-. It's not every shark anywhere near us, but a lot of random members of the public have joined in the hunt for the 'impostors'. Most are coming at us at street level, while a few are swimming high.

"Prepare an illusion." I generate a large construct shield. "We're pushing through."