Negotiations (part 4)
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Mr Zoat
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3rd August 2013
20:12 GMT -5
"Orange Lantern." Lex presses a button on his desk and the window slides open. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
I float into his office. "Poor work-life balance? I thought you'd be in your apartment, or… Out somewhere, at this time of the evening."
"Metropolis nightlife has taken something of a hit lately. And Superman's exploits in Texas have caused me a good deal of extra work."
"Yeah-." Oh dear. "Has someone thought to explain to you what that was about?"
"I was told that I'm not getting my ship back."
"Darn it. Ah-."
He stands up from behind his desk, heading towards his minibar. "Can I offer you something to drink?"
"Do you have any mango juice?"
He freezes for a moment. "Ah-?" He checks. "Yes, actually. With vodka?"
"No, just the juice, please. I don't drink alcohol."
Through the gap between his right arm and his back I see him contemplate the… Mixer-sized bottles of mango juice. Oh, whoops. He twists the lid off the first couple and pours them into a tumbler, then uses tongs to add a few ice cubes… Then adds a few more, and a third bottle, and appears to give up. Then he pours himself a finger of whiskey in another tumbler, adds two ice cubes and then turns back to me, gesturing towards the seating area with his whiskey hand.
"Please, take a seat."
"Thank you."
I head over to the expensive-looking chair that would probably convey a wealth of information to someone from the right social set, but to me just indicates that just because it's expensive doesn't mean that it isn't slightly uncomfortable to sit in.
Lex puts my mango juice (which I'm going to need to drink within the next minute or it's going to get too dilute to really taste) down in front of me and then sits back, taking a sip of his whiskey.
"So. Superman's uncharacteristically direct behaviour. I take it that the ship was kryptonian, then?"
"Yes. It's called the Doomsday and used to be their flagship, prior to them becoming isolationist. The bit you found was only part of it: for some reason Admiral Dru-Zod decided to break it into parts before hiding them."
"Oh?" He smiles faintly. "Are you off on a quest to reunite the missing pieces?"
"No, that's already done and the ship's been brought to near-ready status."
"'Near' ready?"
"The one member of the kryptonian stellar navy I knew the location of left Earth over a year ago, which means that the local kryptonians are having to learn how to operate the greatest warship their people ever built from scratch. It's like a farmer from rural Kentucky being put in charge of an aircraft carrier, only more so."
"Surely Supergirl or the other one have some familiarity with kryptonian systems?"
"And that Kentucky farmer may have a boat for catching crayfish; it won't help with the aircraft carrier."
"So the ship has gone from being studied by the Earth's greatest experts in alien technology to a metaphorical Kentuckian agronomist."
"It's a warship; we don't really need it right now."
"We might. I know that an alien vessel entered our system unannounced a few days ago."
"And they were escorted out without much difficulty. I'm not saying that it wouldn't be nice to be able to control it, I'm just saying that it's not high-urgency. A small attack can be beaten off by Earth's Lanterns. A large attack isn't going to be disrupted by one more ship."
"Perhaps. But please let Superman know that my people are available to help."
"I will."
"Now, about his behavior…"
"That was-."
"Mind control? There's a.. pool running in Security."
"Kind of?"
Lex looks thoughtful. "I think that was.. Jenkins…"
"A member of Superman's family a lot of generations back was an arsehole called Kem-El. He… Basically, isolationism wasn't a new ideology when the Science Council mandated it, but Kem-El was some sort of ultra-puritan. I'm sure that I missed a lot of the cultural context, but he dosed some people who wanted to establish a primitivist commune off Krypton with a retrovirus that messed up their photoreceptors, and also used them to conceal a last resort A.I. system called the Eradicator Program. It was designed to load itself into the brain of any kryptonian exposed to it and cause them to share Kem-El's attitudes."
Lex raises his eyebrows. "Which in practice means..?"
"Recreating Kem-El's vision of Kryptonian society. I'm not entirely sure what that was, but it started with killing Kon-El and Match."
"I hadn't realised that Krypton had such strong anti-miscegenation laws."
"As far as I know, they didn't. Kem-El appears to have been… Uniquely unpleasant."
"What did he plan to do with me?"
I take a sip of mango juice, using a small construct to hold the ice out of the way. "Nothing."
"Oh?"
"He didn't mention you while he was under the influence. If you've got any kryptonian technology I suspect that he'd have sent Eradicator androids to recover it, but his intent was to recreate Krypton elsewhere. As I understand your… Problem with Superman, him permanently removing himself from Earth would have resulted in you ceasing to care about him."
He nods slowly. "I see."
Because that would actually have been a pretty good deal for him. I doubt that he's strongly attached to Conner or Mitchell, and while losing the ship would be expensive, getting rid of Superman is priceless.
"How was the unnatural mental influence undone?"
"Arsenal smashed the base unit. Overwriting someone's mind is a very difficult technical feat; the existing thoughts constantly try to reassert themselves. Once it lost the ability to reinsert itself, he went back to normal fairly quickly."
"Was that the only instance of the Eradicator Program?"
"As far as I know. But if the mechanism to bypass a kryptonian's judgement exists, it can exist in other places. He's going to be a bit more careful with his exploring from now on."
"That sounds like it may be wise." He takes a sip of whiskey. "Why is it that you're telling me this?"
"Because I don't want you to think that this was Superman showing his true colours or that the League had an army of kryptonian robots and I suspected that no one else had bothered having this conversation with you."
He smiles wryly. "An astute surmise on your part."
"And.. I.. thought that being sociable wouldn't hurt. How is your work in Chong-Mai going?"
20:12 GMT -5
"Orange Lantern." Lex presses a button on his desk and the window slides open. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
I float into his office. "Poor work-life balance? I thought you'd be in your apartment, or… Out somewhere, at this time of the evening."
"Metropolis nightlife has taken something of a hit lately. And Superman's exploits in Texas have caused me a good deal of extra work."
"Yeah-." Oh dear. "Has someone thought to explain to you what that was about?"
"I was told that I'm not getting my ship back."
"Darn it. Ah-."
He stands up from behind his desk, heading towards his minibar. "Can I offer you something to drink?"
"Do you have any mango juice?"
He freezes for a moment. "Ah-?" He checks. "Yes, actually. With vodka?"
"No, just the juice, please. I don't drink alcohol."
Through the gap between his right arm and his back I see him contemplate the… Mixer-sized bottles of mango juice. Oh, whoops. He twists the lid off the first couple and pours them into a tumbler, then uses tongs to add a few ice cubes… Then adds a few more, and a third bottle, and appears to give up. Then he pours himself a finger of whiskey in another tumbler, adds two ice cubes and then turns back to me, gesturing towards the seating area with his whiskey hand.
"Please, take a seat."
"Thank you."
I head over to the expensive-looking chair that would probably convey a wealth of information to someone from the right social set, but to me just indicates that just because it's expensive doesn't mean that it isn't slightly uncomfortable to sit in.
Lex puts my mango juice (which I'm going to need to drink within the next minute or it's going to get too dilute to really taste) down in front of me and then sits back, taking a sip of his whiskey.
"So. Superman's uncharacteristically direct behaviour. I take it that the ship was kryptonian, then?"
"Yes. It's called the Doomsday and used to be their flagship, prior to them becoming isolationist. The bit you found was only part of it: for some reason Admiral Dru-Zod decided to break it into parts before hiding them."
"Oh?" He smiles faintly. "Are you off on a quest to reunite the missing pieces?"
"No, that's already done and the ship's been brought to near-ready status."
"'Near' ready?"
"The one member of the kryptonian stellar navy I knew the location of left Earth over a year ago, which means that the local kryptonians are having to learn how to operate the greatest warship their people ever built from scratch. It's like a farmer from rural Kentucky being put in charge of an aircraft carrier, only more so."
"Surely Supergirl or the other one have some familiarity with kryptonian systems?"
"And that Kentucky farmer may have a boat for catching crayfish; it won't help with the aircraft carrier."
"So the ship has gone from being studied by the Earth's greatest experts in alien technology to a metaphorical Kentuckian agronomist."
"It's a warship; we don't really need it right now."
"We might. I know that an alien vessel entered our system unannounced a few days ago."
"And they were escorted out without much difficulty. I'm not saying that it wouldn't be nice to be able to control it, I'm just saying that it's not high-urgency. A small attack can be beaten off by Earth's Lanterns. A large attack isn't going to be disrupted by one more ship."
"Perhaps. But please let Superman know that my people are available to help."
"I will."
"Now, about his behavior…"
"That was-."
"Mind control? There's a.. pool running in Security."
"Kind of?"
Lex looks thoughtful. "I think that was.. Jenkins…"
"A member of Superman's family a lot of generations back was an arsehole called Kem-El. He… Basically, isolationism wasn't a new ideology when the Science Council mandated it, but Kem-El was some sort of ultra-puritan. I'm sure that I missed a lot of the cultural context, but he dosed some people who wanted to establish a primitivist commune off Krypton with a retrovirus that messed up their photoreceptors, and also used them to conceal a last resort A.I. system called the Eradicator Program. It was designed to load itself into the brain of any kryptonian exposed to it and cause them to share Kem-El's attitudes."
Lex raises his eyebrows. "Which in practice means..?"
"Recreating Kem-El's vision of Kryptonian society. I'm not entirely sure what that was, but it started with killing Kon-El and Match."
"I hadn't realised that Krypton had such strong anti-miscegenation laws."
"As far as I know, they didn't. Kem-El appears to have been… Uniquely unpleasant."
"What did he plan to do with me?"
I take a sip of mango juice, using a small construct to hold the ice out of the way. "Nothing."
"Oh?"
"He didn't mention you while he was under the influence. If you've got any kryptonian technology I suspect that he'd have sent Eradicator androids to recover it, but his intent was to recreate Krypton elsewhere. As I understand your… Problem with Superman, him permanently removing himself from Earth would have resulted in you ceasing to care about him."
He nods slowly. "I see."
Because that would actually have been a pretty good deal for him. I doubt that he's strongly attached to Conner or Mitchell, and while losing the ship would be expensive, getting rid of Superman is priceless.
"How was the unnatural mental influence undone?"
"Arsenal smashed the base unit. Overwriting someone's mind is a very difficult technical feat; the existing thoughts constantly try to reassert themselves. Once it lost the ability to reinsert itself, he went back to normal fairly quickly."
"Was that the only instance of the Eradicator Program?"
"As far as I know. But if the mechanism to bypass a kryptonian's judgement exists, it can exist in other places. He's going to be a bit more careful with his exploring from now on."
"That sounds like it may be wise." He takes a sip of whiskey. "Why is it that you're telling me this?"
"Because I don't want you to think that this was Superman showing his true colours or that the League had an army of kryptonian robots and I suspected that no one else had bothered having this conversation with you."
He smiles wryly. "An astute surmise on your part."
"And.. I.. thought that being sociable wouldn't hurt. How is your work in Chong-Mai going?"
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