"Once things were a bit more organised, yes." I'm not usually a fan of wraps. Or salads. But this is actually quite nice. "But as it stands, even someone of Manga Khan's intellect can easily play Earth's governments off against each other. To say nothing of the potential damage to Earth's socioeconomic systems. I held off on introducing alien technology because I wanted to force Earth to actually use its advantages, and only.. engage once it started doing that. As it stands, there's no… Unity." I point at her with my right index finger. "Mars is far better placed to take advantage of this than Earth is."
Interesting insight. Did it occur to
tell the League this? Or did they not listen when he
did?
"Are they.. coming to Mars?"
I shrug. "Can't think of any reason why they wouldn't. Martian biotechnology probably doesn't have quiet as big a market as some of the things Earth produces, but in the hands of a species without monophobia it might be viable as an alternate tech base for spacefaring telepaths."
Or species with shapeshifting abilities. Assuming they haven't discovered shifting clothes or the like.
"Like who?"
"Bolovaxians, like Lantern Kilowog." I create a small construct image of him standing on the table. "If they could adapt Martian animals to join their group mind they'd probably prefer it to mechanical technology."
Note that that's not a
Hive mind. Each Bolovaxian is a distinct individual. It's much like Mars. Like a telepathic internet linked into your head.
Kon nods. "Any maybe meeting new species might make more martians want to leave Mars?"
"It… Might…"
Just a little side benefit, of course.
"Ted phoned me earlier to tell me that he's been getting a lot more-."
Canis stabs his taco with his fork, causing guacamole to spray in two directions across the table.
"This is insufferable."
I know Tacos are tricky to eat if you're not used to them, Canis... But
insufferable? Really?
Kon takes the insult to his culinary abilities in his stride. "If you don't like-."
"No, Orange Lantern and Aqualad."
...No, I'm not seeing any ship teasing there.
I.. look at the mountainmate whose eyes I've been avoiding. He does the same.
And then we both look away.
Oh, goddammit, guys! Do you
know how that looks?
"That." He points at a pointing the air halfway between us. "Did you see that!?"
Ghia'ta nods. "I most certainly did. This is not good for team unity."
At least she's able to frame things outside of
Eros now... The Team is more
Storge and
Philia...
M'gann leans back a little. "Humans sometimes like to be a little less direct about things."
"Yeah, but I'm only human out of habit. Okay, Kaldur?" He meets my eyes. "Given that Venturia has played next to no part Atlantean political life for the last sixty years, what exactly is going to change now that they're going to formalise it?"
Oh, thank goodness, he's finally just out and
asking things!
"Most likely, nothing. But that does not change the fact that you once again concealed information from my king."
I frown. "What do you mean? Cyprian had been sending messages to the government in Poseidonis since Queen Clea's death. It was hardly a secret."
Hell, OL carried one of those messages himself on his initial recruiting drive.
"And you had no dealings with them before that."
"I first met Cyprian on the twenty fourth of December last year when I expressed a desire to hire Venturian magicians for a project. That was when I learned that Queen Clea was dead. And that's how I know that King Orin was informed; I took him a personal message from King Cyprian and delivered it into his hand. The impression I got was that it wasn't the first contact they'd had on the subject, but it's the first I can personally confirm happened."
See? Nothing untoward at all.
"Why did you wish to hire Venturian magicians?"
"Because I was overworking Sephtian already. His expanded team couldn't handle any more projects, but because the Venturians were so cut off from the Atlantean mainstream their specialists were still available."
Admittedly, they might have need a little reading to get up to date on new methods...
"You wished to hire them for the Orange Lantern Corps."
"No. I wanted to find out-." I look around. "Did you all read my report on my first meeting with Lantern Mother of Mercy?"
Three nods.
Better than their mentors, at least. How often do the Leaguers read reports now?
Besides OL's.
"In my fantasy we'd found a way to spread the Earth's magic system out from the planet. I wanted to find out whether that was actually possible or not, so I hired some Venturians to research the links between Earth's magic systems and the Dream. Fairly blue skies stuff, and things were so tense with Poseidonis that Cyprian didn't want to release his researchers from military service. Hiring them directly for the Orange Lantern Corps was something I negotiated for four days ago due to the urgent necessity."
So, more or less two recruitment drives, several months apart. Everything looks above-board.
"That was not what you told King Orin."
"No, convenience was why I wanted to expanded the agreement beyond that one incident, and getting Venturia's magicians returned to their civilian occupations was why I offered a defence contract I don't think will ever be activated."
Since they'd likely be happier as researchers than soldiers...
"What else did you offer them?"
"The designs for the arcane forge, which I have a perfect legal right to."
True. Also hard to replicate without experienced mages, Lanterns and/or surface-worlder tech.
"Queen Mera had offered to include Venturian scholars in the Conservatory's research program."
"And they'd turned it down because it would have meant surrendering more sovereignty to Poseidonis. With modern communication magic there's no reason for all research to be carried out at a single location, other than to emphasise the centralisation of authority. Now they can work from their own city and still share their results with the-. With Atlantis. Look, do you actually know about how King Orin's grandmother ballsed up relations with Venturia?"
So a lot of this comes down to misunderstandings and blunders. 'Low' politics indeed.
"She raised Princess Ptra in the royal court after a her mother clashed with Auranian's senate. It is not uncommon in the Atlantean tradition for noble children to be raised apart from their parents in times of civil strife."
Keeping in mind Queen Clea was technically an international supervillian as well... Assuming this took place back around WWII
"I'm going to respectfully suggest that you do more research -preferably including Venturian sources- before making any decisions which require you to assume that is true. One, Venturia was completely secure, two, Clea didn't request it and wasn't allowed to refuse it, three, Ptra might have been a ward of the throne but she spent more of her time in Aurania than in Poseidonis which proves that the 'place of safety' justification is irrelevant if not flat out nonsense. Venturia ceded not because of anything I did but because three successive Poseidonian monarchs dropped the ball. The most I did was preventing a military conflict."
Yup... Bullheadedness on all sides. Because Atlanteans (and I include Venturians as well) aren't used to accepting they can be wrong?
"Why?"
Both our heads jerk in the direction of Canis. His eyes move from Kaldur to me. Then he nods.
"You don't understand-. Why did you prevent the war?"
Yeah, definitely looks like Canis is saying they don't understand his question... But then, Canis is from a world where disputes are settled with violence and war as a matter of course. Lives matter not, because they're only Lowlies, after all...
"Because it might have resulted in the deaths of people useful to me. And it wouldn't have solved the underlying issues. Queen Clea will never get to raise her daughter. She'll never know who murdered her husband. Nothing that we could do at this point could fix that and I don't particularly want to duel another Justice League member."
And that's the sad tragedy of the situation... A mother separated from child and husband by politics... I mean, she ended up channelling her grief at the latter's death into supervilliany, but hey...Mistakes were made all round.
"Very well." Canis nods. "Aqualad, why did you want the war to happen?"
"I do not. I do not agree that war was inevitable without Orange Lantern's intervention."
"Well, no, King Cyprian might have surrendered. I'm not sure how long Ptra would survived ruling a city that didn't want her and considered her a Poseidonian puppet, but that was a possibility. But okay, how was King Orin planning on handling it?"
And that's an equally good point. I'm sure the Venturians would not be happy about the change of leadership, Ptra would get nobbled by some bravo and Poseidonis would have to roll back in in six months...
"His plan was to continue to refuse to recognise Cyprian's claim to the throne of Venturia while offering political and financial incentives for Venturia to become more involved with the rest of Atlantis. He realised that Ptra would not be able to rule without her cousin's willing assistance and wanted his agreement regarding any settlement. Military force was not something he had seriously considered. Your actions prevented him resolving the dispute in the interests of all Atlantis."
Admirable, but misguided. Did he mention anything like this to Cyprian? And explain his reasoning so Cyprian didn't go 'wait, that? That's a terrible idea!'...
"Then he should have communicated that more clearly to King Cyprian. Not that it would have mattered, because opposing the expansion of the authority of the High King is the core of Venturia's policy towards the rest of Atlantis and King Cyprian would have interpreted everything you just said Orin was planning as a power grab. Which is something he would have explained if he'd been asked about it and which anyone who knows anything about Venturia should have told Orin."
Evidently not. Bullheadedness and dickwaving all round. This was
always going to be a tangle...
"You did not explain that to King Orin."
"It's not my job to tell him how to do his job." I sniff. "And that's one thing this whole situation has cemented in my mind: I am not responsible for other people making bad decisions."
And yet you keep ending up cleaning up the messes made by people who do make those decisions... Not always willingly, either, when those messes end up stepping into you.
My, my, that can be taken in so many ways... But I assume they're talking about the matter of the day: Manga Khan.
