"We won, I take it?"
"Yes. The plan was essentially sound. We're heading back towards allied territory now, and Lanterns are striking at Reach assets across the outer sphere. I'd be there myself, but this happened."
So all's well amongst the fleet operations. Barring any further Reach assaults on their predicted course of travel, anyway.
"I see."
"Brand, what happened? One moment Dox was in fine fettle, then radio silence."
Yes, please do tell us what the
fucking hell happened?
"I'm… He was observing the fleet's manoeuvres relative to the Reach, and then the gordanians appeared and he collapsed."
"Was he injured?"
He's not dead, clearly. But is his
mind intact? Is he still
sane?
"Ah, not… In any obvious fashion. There was no assassin, no overload on the bridge."
"So he just-. Decided not to talk?"
Which was very rude, you know. If you insist on being in command, it's on you to be available to give orders.
"No, he… Slumped. Became unresponsive to the bridge officers, to me and to the medics who attended to him. After your assumption of command was confirmed he was removed from the bridge. They brought him here because he didn't appear to be in any danger of death and they wanted to keep the infirmary free in case the needed to receive casualties. He… Appeared to regain his awareness after perhaps ten minutes, at which point we were all ejected."
How
forcefully, I wonder? Politely shuffled out by orange hands, or picked up and thrown bodily into the corridor?
Alright. Something happened. He wasn't just ignoring us. It's hardly reasonable for me to complain if he had a stroke… Somehow, while wearing an orange power ring.
"I haven't kept up to date on the command structure of L.E.G.I.O.N. What's supposed to happen if the Supreme Commander is incapacitated?"
An oversight, OL. I know Dox wanted you to be hands-off with the NEMO organisation, but not reading up is a bit slack.
"Captains are supposed to follow their last orders to the best of their ability, pending the appointment of a successor. Vril assumes that his successor will need to be appointed by the N.E.M.O. Council, and as such there is no Vice-Commander or anything like that."
"Was I supposed to leave it up to them?"
Dox was overconfident, wasn't he? Did he not consider the possibility of his being incapacitated during a battle
at all?

And he calls himself a twelfth-level intellect.
"Vril has been working on the assumption that you would assume command of the Lanterns if he were incapacitated. But since the only point where those two command structures come together is with him… There's no provision for unified command on joint operations."
"So, what, did Dox think he was immortal?"
Even a Lantern can be killed, after all. Never mind having his mind blown by something.
"I think it's more that he didn't see the need."
"I gave Dox the space he asked for so that he could establish himself. I've stayed away so I didn't distract from his authority. But if L.E.G.I.O.N. doesn't have a command hierarchy, that sounds like an issue I'm going to need him to change."
One more for the to-do list... Quite high on the priority, methinks.
"I don't think that he will respond better to an ultimatum now, though I can see why you feel disappointed." He gestures to the door. "Shall we?"
"Illustres to Clarissi Dox. I'm outside. We need to discuss what just happened."
Not said: 'I'm not leaving until we speak.' I think even Dox can pick up on that subtext...
His head doesn't appear over my ring, but the door opens anyway. The inside is Spartan, a replica of his office onboard Ranx save for a bed in the corner. Dox doesn't look at me, staring into space from the chair he's slumped in, his uniform dishevelled. Was that from the medics?
I step inside, Brand following immediately behind. The door shuts a second later.
Hoo-boy. This had better be good. Clearly, he's still processing what happened.
"Sir. What-?"
"Are you here to remove me?"
...shiiiiit... Get that man a drink! And maybe confiscate his ring. And anything he could use to injure himself?
"No. Depending on what I hear here I may make a recommendation to the rest of the N.E.M.O. Council. However, at the moment the most I would suggest it that your position be changed to a purely strategic and logistical one. Before I make any such representation, I would like to know what happened from you."
"The ship. The Absolute Dominion. You're sure that it's Apokoliptian?"
Pretty sure, yup. After all, he spoke to the
owner. Which, if Dox has been keeping up on the data-feed, he should know.
"As sure as I can be without visiting either Apokolips or New Genesis and asking their shipwrights. I was feeling Grayven's soul when it fired."
He holds up his ring, the-. Oh. It's got a rather nasty-looking crack across the sigil.
Well, now we know why he went silent. Partly, at least. Looks like Grayven's Godspeech hit him hard, as the Leader of the enemy.
"I was using my ring to maintain perfect awareness of the entire conflict zone. I knew the location of every mote of dust in the system." Breath hisses between his teeth. "I-. Was-. Drunk on data. And then the Apokoliptian ship opened a boom tube."
"You were overloaded?"
...Has Dox been through any real training with the ring? Any
combat practice? He should have
known running full-on like that was a bad idea...
"I shouldn't have been. I can handle far more data than that."
I hold out my left hand and float his ring over to us as we attempt to read its presence in the Honden. Oh, we know this.
Interesting. Best Snek taking a personal hand in the repair? Let me guess, she likes the shape of his
desire to know everything.
Dox's ring shimmers slightly as it repairs itself, then I hold it out to him. He doesn't turn his head, but his eyes turn my way and he looks… Uncertain.
"Spent a lot of time around the magicians, have you?"
Eh? What's that got to do with...
"Yes. I need to understand how their work can aid me in the war."
"And you spent some time on Lantern Coutara's homeworld?"
No, seriously, where...
"Magic." He frowns absently. "You think I've been ench-. No, that I've acquired a minor ability, and my ring picked up and relayed a data stream I haven't learned to parse. That-. Would explain-."
"I'm not sure exactly why, but there was a sudden burst of data transmission when Grayven started firing his main gun."

You think he's sensitive to Godspeech?
Allergic, even? I suppose that makes sense. If he'd been fully open to all incoming data, the sheer sledgehammer force of Grayven's Domain slamming into him... No wonder he passed out.
He turns his seat to face us, his gaze remaining distant… But in a more focused way as he straightens his uniform.
"I can create boom tubes. It should be simple enough to learn how to filt-."
Not the Boom Tube, you
idiot. What else do New Gods have that you know of, hmm?
Still working on his faulty assumptions.
"It was still a darn silly thing to do to put yourself in that position."
Now he focuses, eyes narrowing as he stares at me. "We have only a handful of Lanterns with any sort of arcane ability. There was absolutely no reason for me to assume that-."
That's not the issue, Dox. Listen!
"There was no reason for you to be scanning the system in that sort of detail. If you think that sort of field data analysis is necessary, then we get some more Lanterns who share your data fixation and have them do it. You're the Supreme Commander; you can't be on every major fleet engagement."
"This one needed to succeed. I couldn't trust anyone else with something this important."
"Had to be me. Someone else would have gotten it wrong." Good grief. Get this man laid! He needs something to think about other than Data.
"And your flag captain and I ended up running it anyway. I think that proves that you can."
"I'll review the.. data."
After you get your head back on straight, man. First thing...
"No, you're going to stick something with lights on it to your forehead and go back to the bridge and reassure everyone that you're a competent commander, a belief that today took exactly the sort of knock you sent me to Earth to avoid."
"What are you talking about? My mind is fine, as long as I don't-."
Like Doccer said, make them blinking lights. Nothing says 'this is doing something important' than blinking lights.
"Because if people believe that you were singled out for an exotic attack which you need a device to shield against, that undermines you a lot less than them finding out that you metaphorically shot your own legs off because you're a data junkie."
"That… Is not an entirely unreasonable claim." He slides his ring back onto his left ring finger and extends a filament to his forehead and creates what looks like a Star Trek cortical stimulator. "Adequate?"
Yes, can you just
imagine the hit his rep would take if that were to get out? No-one would take him seriously again.
"I think so. But once this is over, you and I and Director Jeddigar need to have a talk about our organisational structures."
Yes, a much-needed talk, it seems. After all, one man alone, no matter how smart, cannot operate an entire war by himself.