Motivations (part 28)
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Mr Zoat
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12th August 2013
22:45 GMT
It's not that the dominators couldn't learn to block me when I travel like this, it's that they haven't done so yet.
I give Team Distraction a few moments to get their attention. Dominator vessels tend to have highly hierarchical command structures. Everything will go through the shipmaster unless there's a high caste dominator on board, and even then the shipmaster will probably only refer to them if they need a policy decision. What that means is that if the shipmaster is making decisions about his ships being attacked there should be an appreciable delay in them making decisions about me.
But with the high caste in overall command not here, there's a limit to the amount of intelligence I can gather like this. The dominators on board just don't have strong desires relating to the mission beyond wanting to survive it. I haven't interacted with low caste dominators before, and it's… Interesting the way that their desires appear to be limited by their station. And not in the way that humans would be, where they might want all sorts of things but have stronger connections to things that are regarded as desirable in their subculture. Dominators seem to desire improvements in themselves, better tools for their jobs… And that's about it.
It's an interesting contrast to the Reach, where even a 'poor' Reachian will in effect have a middle class existence. The Dominion does have lower class dominators, rather than use alien slaves or metics for undesirable tasks. And yet there doesn't appear to be any resentment or burning need for personal advancement. As opposed to the psions who did want to advance themselves while still being mostly willing to work within the structures of their own society.
Alright, that's
enough. I appear in… A medical laboratory, a mid caste dominator performing basic tests on the recumbent Lyla. She seems at ease around them, smiling to herself as they move their instruments. In a remarkably human moment that makes me smile I notice that all the dominators in the room are looking at her rather than paying attention to their surroundings. My armour's stealth system activates almost immediately, but there was a good half-second there where they could have spotted me.
And because a dominator ship is almost certainly able to detect phasing but doesn't have a system for monitoring footfall, I'm just standing here. They'd pick me up immediately if they looked, but… There's nothing to cause them to look and the shipmaster is busy. And while Lyla could certainly detect me with telepathy, this armour has a mind shield.
"…in line with predictions. Some cells exist at the lower energy state, but that will most likely correct itself with further solar exposure."
Lyla smiles. "I shall become more powerful?"
"In line with previous estimates, yes. I am uncertain what the process will do to the mundane aspects of your physiology. If you desire your strength to reach the greatest height possible, it may be best to avoid solar exposure and concentrate on expanding your muscles."
"I cannot exercise like this? Kal-El had memories of machines designed to test even his strength."
"You have fulfilled your obligations to us, as we have to you. You are free to ignore my advice. If you want exercise equipment built for you to test your current strength, you will need to agree to new terms."
"You aren't interested at all?"
"That is not the information we came here to gather. Anything else is up to the high caste."
She opens her eyes slightly, regarding the dominator curiously. "Will they give my power to you?"
"That is unlikely. It would not aid me in my duties."
I deposit a gold kryptonite crystal behind me, my armour's stealth system obscuring it from the rest of the room. But the radiation should start-.
"Curious. The activity in your cells is weakening. Can you feel-?"
She sits upright, scowling. "Yes! What is happening?!" Something occurs to her, and she gets and the bed and grabs the physician by his overalls, lifting him off his feet. "If you have betrayed me I am still strong enough to-."
"No." He stretches his arms and cranes his neck to keep in contact with his computer. "If we were betraying you, you would not be coherent enough to complain. The photoreceptive kryptonian organelles which your body generated are still there, but their… Connection to the exotic energy source is being disrupted. This is fascinating. I will be certain to note that you have provided additional data beyond our expectations."
He does want to live, but there's no real fear at the idea of his immediate death. Just a sense that it's extremely undesirable to fail to complete his task.
"Fix it."
"I do not have the required knowledge of dimensional physics." His eyes dip, noticing the fact that her not particularly muscular arm is shaking with the effort of keeping him aloft. "If you put me down, I will resume my examination. Our agreement was to take the kryptonians' power and give it to you. If you do not have it, then we have failed to live up to our end of the bargain. Learning what has happened will further our understanding and is in accordance with our interests."
She calms down slightly, setting him down on his feet and sitting back down on the bed. "Do it, then."
Sound screen around the edge of the room, shield around the edge of the room, drop stealth, target automatic turrets there and there with energy pulses, they're nothing special and appear to be purely for ship security, generate a zeta tube construct and dial…
"What?" The mid caste dominator boggles as he takes me in, while his low caste assistants back off. One takes a look at the shield blocking the door but immediately abandons the idea of trying to break through. "Who-? Orange Lantern."
"Yep. And you're-" The zeta tube swirls to life. "-busted."
Construct tethers grab everyone in the room -Lyta's not entirely out of power so her construct is a bit more solid- and toss them through. A one way trip back to Xudar. If this was a Reach ship then I'd leave a bomb behind, but as this is a Justice League operation I'll just have to leave it.
And by 'it' I mean a box with 'LARGE BOMB' written on it. I-.
I pick up the gold kryptonite and send it back into subspace, because that's not something I want to leave with the Dominion, step
out and walk towards the thwarted desire for personal empowerment that marks out Lyla and
appear onboard the Xudarian flagship surrounded by armed marines guarding the prisoners.
"Thank you, gentlemen." The pink glowing zeta tube construct shuts down behind me. "Thank you, Star Sapphire Ghia'ta."
She gives me a shallow bow as I raise my left hand to my face, using my other ring to generate a teleport jammer.
"Green Lantern Jordan? Spy and other prisoners captured."
"Right." No face, because he's busy. "I'll call everyone off. You get Ursa?"
"She wasn't being held in the same place. I could try, but they'd almost certainly be more prepared this time. And zeta radiation-based travel is something they know how to disrupt."
"Then forget it."
"I take it we're letting them leave?"
"We're not starting a war with the whole Dominion right here, so, yeah."
"I'll tell Lantern Mother of Mercy to abandon pursuit. Lantern Tomar-Re will have other prisoners for us to interrogate, but I imagine that the Guardians will have them shipped back to the Dominion afterwards. Anyone need medical attention on our side?"
"Yeah. Superman and Osiris. I'll bring them to you. Green Lantern out."
22:45 GMT
It's not that the dominators couldn't learn to block me when I travel like this, it's that they haven't done so yet.
I give Team Distraction a few moments to get their attention. Dominator vessels tend to have highly hierarchical command structures. Everything will go through the shipmaster unless there's a high caste dominator on board, and even then the shipmaster will probably only refer to them if they need a policy decision. What that means is that if the shipmaster is making decisions about his ships being attacked there should be an appreciable delay in them making decisions about me.
But with the high caste in overall command not here, there's a limit to the amount of intelligence I can gather like this. The dominators on board just don't have strong desires relating to the mission beyond wanting to survive it. I haven't interacted with low caste dominators before, and it's… Interesting the way that their desires appear to be limited by their station. And not in the way that humans would be, where they might want all sorts of things but have stronger connections to things that are regarded as desirable in their subculture. Dominators seem to desire improvements in themselves, better tools for their jobs… And that's about it.
It's an interesting contrast to the Reach, where even a 'poor' Reachian will in effect have a middle class existence. The Dominion does have lower class dominators, rather than use alien slaves or metics for undesirable tasks. And yet there doesn't appear to be any resentment or burning need for personal advancement. As opposed to the psions who did want to advance themselves while still being mostly willing to work within the structures of their own society.
Alright, that's
enough. I appear in… A medical laboratory, a mid caste dominator performing basic tests on the recumbent Lyla. She seems at ease around them, smiling to herself as they move their instruments. In a remarkably human moment that makes me smile I notice that all the dominators in the room are looking at her rather than paying attention to their surroundings. My armour's stealth system activates almost immediately, but there was a good half-second there where they could have spotted me.
And because a dominator ship is almost certainly able to detect phasing but doesn't have a system for monitoring footfall, I'm just standing here. They'd pick me up immediately if they looked, but… There's nothing to cause them to look and the shipmaster is busy. And while Lyla could certainly detect me with telepathy, this armour has a mind shield.
"…in line with predictions. Some cells exist at the lower energy state, but that will most likely correct itself with further solar exposure."
Lyla smiles. "I shall become more powerful?"
"In line with previous estimates, yes. I am uncertain what the process will do to the mundane aspects of your physiology. If you desire your strength to reach the greatest height possible, it may be best to avoid solar exposure and concentrate on expanding your muscles."
"I cannot exercise like this? Kal-El had memories of machines designed to test even his strength."
"You have fulfilled your obligations to us, as we have to you. You are free to ignore my advice. If you want exercise equipment built for you to test your current strength, you will need to agree to new terms."
"You aren't interested at all?"
"That is not the information we came here to gather. Anything else is up to the high caste."
She opens her eyes slightly, regarding the dominator curiously. "Will they give my power to you?"
"That is unlikely. It would not aid me in my duties."
I deposit a gold kryptonite crystal behind me, my armour's stealth system obscuring it from the rest of the room. But the radiation should start-.
"Curious. The activity in your cells is weakening. Can you feel-?"
She sits upright, scowling. "Yes! What is happening?!" Something occurs to her, and she gets and the bed and grabs the physician by his overalls, lifting him off his feet. "If you have betrayed me I am still strong enough to-."
"No." He stretches his arms and cranes his neck to keep in contact with his computer. "If we were betraying you, you would not be coherent enough to complain. The photoreceptive kryptonian organelles which your body generated are still there, but their… Connection to the exotic energy source is being disrupted. This is fascinating. I will be certain to note that you have provided additional data beyond our expectations."
He does want to live, but there's no real fear at the idea of his immediate death. Just a sense that it's extremely undesirable to fail to complete his task.
"Fix it."
"I do not have the required knowledge of dimensional physics." His eyes dip, noticing the fact that her not particularly muscular arm is shaking with the effort of keeping him aloft. "If you put me down, I will resume my examination. Our agreement was to take the kryptonians' power and give it to you. If you do not have it, then we have failed to live up to our end of the bargain. Learning what has happened will further our understanding and is in accordance with our interests."
She calms down slightly, setting him down on his feet and sitting back down on the bed. "Do it, then."
Sound screen around the edge of the room, shield around the edge of the room, drop stealth, target automatic turrets there and there with energy pulses, they're nothing special and appear to be purely for ship security, generate a zeta tube construct and dial…
"What?" The mid caste dominator boggles as he takes me in, while his low caste assistants back off. One takes a look at the shield blocking the door but immediately abandons the idea of trying to break through. "Who-? Orange Lantern."
"Yep. And you're-" The zeta tube swirls to life. "-busted."
Construct tethers grab everyone in the room -Lyta's not entirely out of power so her construct is a bit more solid- and toss them through. A one way trip back to Xudar. If this was a Reach ship then I'd leave a bomb behind, but as this is a Justice League operation I'll just have to leave it.
And by 'it' I mean a box with 'LARGE BOMB' written on it. I-.
I pick up the gold kryptonite and send it back into subspace, because that's not something I want to leave with the Dominion, step
out and walk towards the thwarted desire for personal empowerment that marks out Lyla and
appear onboard the Xudarian flagship surrounded by armed marines guarding the prisoners.
"Thank you, gentlemen." The pink glowing zeta tube construct shuts down behind me. "Thank you, Star Sapphire Ghia'ta."
She gives me a shallow bow as I raise my left hand to my face, using my other ring to generate a teleport jammer.
"Green Lantern Jordan? Spy and other prisoners captured."
"Right." No face, because he's busy. "I'll call everyone off. You get Ursa?"
"She wasn't being held in the same place. I could try, but they'd almost certainly be more prepared this time. And zeta radiation-based travel is something they know how to disrupt."
"Then forget it."
"I take it we're letting them leave?"
"We're not starting a war with the whole Dominion right here, so, yeah."
"I'll tell Lantern Mother of Mercy to abandon pursuit. Lantern Tomar-Re will have other prisoners for us to interrogate, but I imagine that the Guardians will have them shipped back to the Dominion afterwards. Anyone need medical attention on our side?"
"Yeah. Superman and Osiris. I'll bring them to you. Green Lantern out."
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