We're All Mad Here (part 3)
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Mr Zoat
Dedicated ragequitter
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- Dec 1, 2016
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17th July 2013
16:37 GMT -5
There's nothing quite as permanent as a temporary solution.
I hope that's not true, but the Hub City revitalisation can only go so fast and we're not that far away from harvest season. America needs both new farm machinery and maintenance work done on what it already has. So I've sunk a new Dolmen Gate into a road that's due for replacement, I've set up a farm machine garage in a intact warehouse and I've found some people qualified to work there.
Maybe I should do a grand opening or something, but it seems like such a measly achievement that I decided against it.
Still: honest work has returned to Hub City.
Or… Rather, will tomorrow. A few of tomorrow's workers are looking around to familiarise themselves with the place, and I've still got to actually move the Dolmen Gate at the other end to somewhere with farm machinery in need of repair, and get the word out that the Gate is going to be there. Justice League News and the G.P.A. website and narrowcasts can do that, and I've sent the notifications off to get them to do that...
Well, it's my own money I'm-.
"Oh."
I descend to ground level as Mayor Connelly-Fermin stops just inside the door, staring around at the spotless garage.
"Madam Mayor." She blinks, jerking her head in my direction. "What can I do for you?"
"I…" She gestures to the room. "Didn't realise that you'd gotten this far."
"I haven't. This is.. just something to tide everyone over. Get the word out. I'm… Not exactly being consistent on this, and I apologise-."
"No! No, that's…" She pauses for thought. "I don't really.. understand your.. problem here, but I'm extremely grateful for everything that you're doing."
"It-. Forward guidance. I said I was going to do things in a particular way, then I changed my mind without telling-. Without letting you know because I wanted something done now. And… Part of what I'm trying to do here is develop a system for fixing up other cities once Mister Schreiber is finished here, and… Skipping ahead interferes with that."
"I'm…" She shakes her head. "Not worried about that. Ah…" She looks around. "I assume all this is temporary, then?"
"Yes. But 'temporary' could easily be a year or two, even with Mister Schreiber's best efforts."
"I don't suppose there's anything the G.P.A. could do, is there?"
"Ah… Well, they've put a detailed description of the work going on and the skills in demand on their website, and anyone who's registered with them and has those skills will get a notification, but a lot of the people with the required skills are working on bringing America's oil production back into action-."
"Ah-?" She frowns. "Why? I thought you made a big thing about moving away from oil for power generation."
"I did, but it's not practical for me to put a bleed torsion generator in every car, whereas the infrastructure is there for oil. Exotic power plants are being built for mains supply, but for… Heavy goods vehicles and cars, it's easier to spend a year or two using oil rather than try to electrify them all. Several of the… Dolmen Gates owned by Cadburys' Shipping are already linking oil wells, refineries and distribution hubs, which… Everyone is in favour of because places that produce oil are about as dependant on selling it as other places are on using it, and it's easier than shipping it or piping it."
"I… See. Will that.. be a problem for us here?"
"It shouldn't be. Hub City hasn't ever been a site of oil extraction, and with your Dolmen Gate access getting fuel here will be relatively easy." I should-. "Oh, ah, while you're here, any news on The Question? The G.P.A. are trying to do a wellness check."
She shrugs. "I left the message like you asked, but he hasn't made any kind of reply."
"Did he seem..? Okay to you?"
"Well, he's always been a bit… Odd."
"Yes, but there's 'odd' in the sense of being a bit of an oddball, and then there's odd in the sense of saying 'the bits of plastic on the ends of shoelaces are called aglets and their true purpose is sinister'. I know he's a shaman, and that.. might mean that he's been getting exposed to the parapsychic residue of the planet being Anti-Lifed for a month. He might have gotten reinfected, or being driven potty by the damage to civilisation, or… I don't know, undiagnosed brain cancer or something. If you could at all prevail upon him to meet with me, I'd really appreciate it."
She nods slowly. "I don't know why he's being so evasive. Didn't the two of you already work together once?"
"Yes, and I don't think I've done anything since then that would put me on his bad side, but if I'm the problem then I can just get someone else to check him out."
She frowns. "He knows what you're doing for Hub. I can't imagine that he'd take it against you."
"I will admit to having done dubious things, and I can understand why one of them might put someone off. I don't take it personally, but I am concerned. If-."
Priority message.
"Ah…." I raise my ring to my ear. "Sorry, I need to take this. Please feel free to have a look around."
She nods, and wanders over to talk to some or her constituents.
"Orange Lantern."
"Lex Luthor."
"Good… Afternoon. What can I do for you?"
"I believe that I have discovered something relating to an emergent problem. Can you make time to visit Metropolis today?"
"Yes, I've… Pretty much finished here for today. Is now alright?"
"If that's not too much trouble."
I could just appear next to him, but he might have just gotten out of the shower or something. Instead, I transition to Metropolis and fly at speed to LexCorp Tower.
"Where shall we meet?"
"My office, I think. Doctor Cochin is already up here."
I head to the balcony, and Miss Graves is already opening the door. I land, nod politely, and walk through-.
"Ah, Orange Lantern." Mister Luthor presses the 'end call' button on his desk phone. "Good. You remember Doctor Cochin?"
The doctor nods to me, and I nod back. "Of course."
"And-."
"Vienna Barstow, yes. It's been a couple of years." And she's looking considerably more human than she was when I last saw her. I'd be interested to see how they got all of the O.M.A.C. components out of her, and concerned about what LexCorp might be doing with them. "How are you doing?"
She nods, smiling. "Much better, thanks to Mister Luthor and Doctor Cochin. They managed to put the nanotech into standby mode, so I look.. normal, and I don't have to look out through a heads up display any more."
"I'm glad to hear it. But… Why are you here?"
The three of them look around for a moment, then Mister Luthor takes on a serious expression.
"Because the nanotechnology in her body looks exceedingly similar to the samples you took from Mister Blank."
16:37 GMT -5
There's nothing quite as permanent as a temporary solution.
I hope that's not true, but the Hub City revitalisation can only go so fast and we're not that far away from harvest season. America needs both new farm machinery and maintenance work done on what it already has. So I've sunk a new Dolmen Gate into a road that's due for replacement, I've set up a farm machine garage in a intact warehouse and I've found some people qualified to work there.
Maybe I should do a grand opening or something, but it seems like such a measly achievement that I decided against it.
Still: honest work has returned to Hub City.
Or… Rather, will tomorrow. A few of tomorrow's workers are looking around to familiarise themselves with the place, and I've still got to actually move the Dolmen Gate at the other end to somewhere with farm machinery in need of repair, and get the word out that the Gate is going to be there. Justice League News and the G.P.A. website and narrowcasts can do that, and I've sent the notifications off to get them to do that...
Well, it's my own money I'm-.
"Oh."
I descend to ground level as Mayor Connelly-Fermin stops just inside the door, staring around at the spotless garage.
"Madam Mayor." She blinks, jerking her head in my direction. "What can I do for you?"
"I…" She gestures to the room. "Didn't realise that you'd gotten this far."
"I haven't. This is.. just something to tide everyone over. Get the word out. I'm… Not exactly being consistent on this, and I apologise-."
"No! No, that's…" She pauses for thought. "I don't really.. understand your.. problem here, but I'm extremely grateful for everything that you're doing."
"It-. Forward guidance. I said I was going to do things in a particular way, then I changed my mind without telling-. Without letting you know because I wanted something done now. And… Part of what I'm trying to do here is develop a system for fixing up other cities once Mister Schreiber is finished here, and… Skipping ahead interferes with that."
"I'm…" She shakes her head. "Not worried about that. Ah…" She looks around. "I assume all this is temporary, then?"
"Yes. But 'temporary' could easily be a year or two, even with Mister Schreiber's best efforts."
"I don't suppose there's anything the G.P.A. could do, is there?"
"Ah… Well, they've put a detailed description of the work going on and the skills in demand on their website, and anyone who's registered with them and has those skills will get a notification, but a lot of the people with the required skills are working on bringing America's oil production back into action-."
"Ah-?" She frowns. "Why? I thought you made a big thing about moving away from oil for power generation."
"I did, but it's not practical for me to put a bleed torsion generator in every car, whereas the infrastructure is there for oil. Exotic power plants are being built for mains supply, but for… Heavy goods vehicles and cars, it's easier to spend a year or two using oil rather than try to electrify them all. Several of the… Dolmen Gates owned by Cadburys' Shipping are already linking oil wells, refineries and distribution hubs, which… Everyone is in favour of because places that produce oil are about as dependant on selling it as other places are on using it, and it's easier than shipping it or piping it."
"I… See. Will that.. be a problem for us here?"
"It shouldn't be. Hub City hasn't ever been a site of oil extraction, and with your Dolmen Gate access getting fuel here will be relatively easy." I should-. "Oh, ah, while you're here, any news on The Question? The G.P.A. are trying to do a wellness check."
She shrugs. "I left the message like you asked, but he hasn't made any kind of reply."
"Did he seem..? Okay to you?"
"Well, he's always been a bit… Odd."
"Yes, but there's 'odd' in the sense of being a bit of an oddball, and then there's odd in the sense of saying 'the bits of plastic on the ends of shoelaces are called aglets and their true purpose is sinister'. I know he's a shaman, and that.. might mean that he's been getting exposed to the parapsychic residue of the planet being Anti-Lifed for a month. He might have gotten reinfected, or being driven potty by the damage to civilisation, or… I don't know, undiagnosed brain cancer or something. If you could at all prevail upon him to meet with me, I'd really appreciate it."
She nods slowly. "I don't know why he's being so evasive. Didn't the two of you already work together once?"
"Yes, and I don't think I've done anything since then that would put me on his bad side, but if I'm the problem then I can just get someone else to check him out."
She frowns. "He knows what you're doing for Hub. I can't imagine that he'd take it against you."
"I will admit to having done dubious things, and I can understand why one of them might put someone off. I don't take it personally, but I am concerned. If-."
Priority message.
"Ah…." I raise my ring to my ear. "Sorry, I need to take this. Please feel free to have a look around."
She nods, and wanders over to talk to some or her constituents.
"Orange Lantern."
"Lex Luthor."
"Good… Afternoon. What can I do for you?"
"I believe that I have discovered something relating to an emergent problem. Can you make time to visit Metropolis today?"
"Yes, I've… Pretty much finished here for today. Is now alright?"
"If that's not too much trouble."
I could just appear next to him, but he might have just gotten out of the shower or something. Instead, I transition to Metropolis and fly at speed to LexCorp Tower.
"Where shall we meet?"
"My office, I think. Doctor Cochin is already up here."
I head to the balcony, and Miss Graves is already opening the door. I land, nod politely, and walk through-.
"Ah, Orange Lantern." Mister Luthor presses the 'end call' button on his desk phone. "Good. You remember Doctor Cochin?"
The doctor nods to me, and I nod back. "Of course."
"And-."
"Vienna Barstow, yes. It's been a couple of years." And she's looking considerably more human than she was when I last saw her. I'd be interested to see how they got all of the O.M.A.C. components out of her, and concerned about what LexCorp might be doing with them. "How are you doing?"
She nods, smiling. "Much better, thanks to Mister Luthor and Doctor Cochin. They managed to put the nanotech into standby mode, so I look.. normal, and I don't have to look out through a heads up display any more."
"I'm glad to hear it. But… Why are you here?"
The three of them look around for a moment, then Mister Luthor takes on a serious expression.
"Because the nanotechnology in her body looks exceedingly similar to the samples you took from Mister Blank."
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