With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

10th July 2013
08:46 GMT +2

Beryl stares out across Shiruta for a moment, then cocks her head to the side and stares into space.

"Huh."

I wait for a moment, but she just closes her eyes.

"Please, wise and noble crone, share your wisdom with this unworthy one."

"Oi, less of the crone. But do you hear it?"

I make a point of listening, but it sounds quite a lot like it did last time I was here. The thing about Kahndaq is… They have their own oil extraction and refining facilities. Their own farms. They're a bit short on metal mining but other than that they're pretty self-sufficient. Sure, their exports took a hit, but they can stockpile or put the oil rigs in mothballs until things pick up again. After the Sheeda incursion they were increasing the size of their manufacturing sector to take advantage of the reduced fuel cost and the fact that Adrianna was perfectly capable of taking the carbon out of the air with her plants…

"Probably not?"

"This is the first place I've been that didn't get blasted with Anti-Life for a month. It sounds different."

"How so?"

"Difficult to explain. People walk different. Talk different. Talk the same as they used to, I mean."

"And other people don't?"

She focuses on me, raising her left eyebrow. "You haven't noticed?"

I make a flicking motion with my right hand. "How many remotely normal people do you think I talk to in the average week?"

"Right, you moved out of Gotham, didn't you? Okay, for example, people don't raise their voices as much. Here…"

I listen to the sounds of the city. Angry shouting, happy shouting, raucous shouting… And then I compare it to Hub City.

"I see what you mean. Is that everywhere?"

"Most places. Depends how close they were to a broadcaster." She shrugs. "And then there's the cars of course. Britain's opening the coal mines again."

"Wouldn't nuclear be better?"

"Where would we get the fuel?"

"Australia? I'm sure someone from the League could fly a few tonnes over as a one-off thing. I could. It's not like it goes bad particularly fast."

"I'll pass that on. Could you build the plant, too?"

"Well, if this law goes through, not only will I be able to build it, I'll be able to mandate its use." Oh. "So I guess that private car use isn't really a thing in Britain any more?"

"We're importing electricity from France."

"The shame of it. Those lovely nuclear reactors on the north coast, right?"

"The North Sea is still producing. The gas pipes are still there. Anyone with electric cars can still drive." She shakes her head. "We've actually started putting old milk floats back into service to keep supermarkets stocked. I've only seen them once before because The Milkman drives one."

I frown. "Yes, that's… What they're for."

"No, not the milkman. The Milkman."

"Oh! Oh right, yes. That's so much clearer."

"The superhero." She regards me quizzically. "That's funny. Do they still have milkmen in your Britain? 'round here he's who most people think of when they hear 'milkman'."

"Ah, we had one when I was little. I don't remember exactly when it stopped. And the.. dates don't quite match up, so it's not quite the same."

"And yours is-."

The door to the rooftop opens, Amon stepping through and holding it open for Dawn. She… She's switched to slightly more modern clothing, I suspect at Adrianna's suggestion, but a quick look at her body language doesn't suggest that she's feeling any more settled.

"Hello, Amon." Beryl smiles warmly at him and Dawn. He give her a quick nod before focusing his attention on Dawn again-. I extend my translation aura to her because intelligent as she is, as far as I know she's not an expert on pre-European American languages. "Dawn, right? I'm Squire."

Dawn regards her cautiously. "Are you one of Osiris' friends?"

"Ah…" Beryl looks at Amon for a moment. "Yeah, I'd say we're friends. We're on the same team. I'm here because Orange Lantern thinks I might be able to help you."

"'Help'…" She shakes her head. "I have visited the descendants of my people. I have visited people who live as we lived. I have no bond with either of them. My world is vanished in the dust of the past. You cannot rebuild a fire from ash."

Beryl thinks for a moment, and then nods. "Okay, let's not bother, then. The other thing we're here for is that Orange Lantern is worried about a law our governments are passing and wants us to take a look at it."

"I don't know anything about your.. councils."

"You're not really starting with a disadvantage there. Honestly, having someone who doesn't know how they work will probably help."

Dawn doesn't look even slightly convinced.

But I smile. "Amon, did Adom ever tell you about the time when Captain Marvel tried explaining the American government to him?"

Amon nods. "When he told me of the American system, he said that he was recounting what Captain Marvel told him, with his own observations."

"Ah. So he didn't mention that him doing that forced Marvel to rethink the whole thing?" Dawn watches as Amon shakes his head. "Marvel thought that the brilliance of the system was self-evident. But when he had to explain why some things work the way they do, he couldn't convince an open-minded and disinterested party. For the first time in his life he had to think about whether or not there were better ways to handle things. He actually wrote an essay on how the American system of government has changed over the centuries, and how some things people today consider essential are actually pretty recent changes."

Amon nods again. "So Dawn can help, because she does not know the system, and so does not assume that it makes any sense."

Dawn shakes her head. "Nothing I have seen of this world makes sense. And I cannot read your language."

"I can translate it for you. There will be a few words which don't-."

"My language doesn't have a written form. I can understand a handful of words."

"Okay, well, I can make a machine that can read the words to you when you point it at them. Is that any good?"

She thinks for a moment, not really looking at any of us. Then she shrugs. "It may as well be."

10th July 2013
09:33 GMT +2

"… This is a surrender."

Watching Dawn go through the binder containing the British version of the Bill has been interesting. She clearly isn't used to handling paper, but she's not stupid and worked out how to do so easily enough. It puzzled me at first that she hadn't already gotten used to that, but then I realised… They'd have been doing this on computer, wouldn't they? Keyboard and touch screens. I'm showing my age by transmuting paper copies to read in physical space and pens to make notes with.

Milk floats. Of all the things to trip up over.

Beryl cocks her head to the side. She's making notes on her personal computer, with only reference numbers on the document itself. "How?"

Dawn shrugs moodily. It's fairly obvious that she thinks Beryl bit her tongue to say 'how' rather than something more derogatory. She didn't, of course, and since she didn't Dawn probably isn't going to snap at her.

"They are giving all power to the… Justice League. Supreme power. They control only the things that the Justice League doesn't want to control. The only time a tribe does that is when they are defeated and wish to avoid being destroyed." She looks us each in the eyes for a moment, continuing only when we don't respond negatively. "This is a lot of words to do that. Perhaps they want to pretend that it is not what they are doing."

I make a point of looking at Beryl and raising my eyebrows.

"I'm inclined to agree. I just can't work out why."

Beryl shakes her head. "They can undo it with a vote in parliament. It's not a surrender when one side can just vote to undo it."

"You mean like Britain could leave the European Union with a simple vote in parliament? Because I think it would actually be a lot more complicated than that."

"Because we've been in the E.U. for decades. The Justice League's… It's only been five months. We're not as bound up in the League's reconstruction project."

"But Batman will have a plan, won't he?" I tap my binder. "He wouldn't have moved this forwards unless he had something in mind for it."

She nods slowly. "Okay, so… He has a global plan. Most places go along with it, and the League… They'd stop operating anywhere that wasn't."

"No, but their reconstruction work would. Carrot and stick. 'Here's what we can do when we fight crime for you, imagine what we could do with more power'. And it's not like governments in any democratic countries have a solid grip on power. If all the opposition has to do is say 'we support the Justice League's reconstruct efforts more' then they'll almost certainly win, regardless of other factors."

She thinks for a moment, then reluctantly nods. "And authoritarian countries… They either don't need it…" She pointedly looks around. "Or they'll make a deal so they don't get overthrown and handle any problems later."

"Yes. You'll note how-."

"China's the most cooperative it's ever been, yeah I spotted that."

China's super functionaries are certainly capable fighters, but none of them have the sort of utility that Lanterns do. Even Accomplished Perfect Physician can't replace a failing transportation infrastructure, and… Last time I saw him, he was… Thinking about straining the leash.

It's not like he likes the system that put him in a desert prison for life. And the Party's ability to yank his chain is severely curtailed at present, and he's got an interest in seeing that it stays that way. On the face of it the only body that could possibly threaten Party control is the army, but it turns out that with one thing and another there's enough local discontent that a local Party versus central Party division is actually fairly exploitable.

I… I've been keeping my nose out of that.

"But you don't think it's a surrender."

"No. Most countries have laws to grant governments emergency power in emergencies. Getting global trade up to.. what it was, is going to take at least two years. Getting it running alright is going to take a year, even with proper organisation. And global trade… It's the result of hundreds of years of traditions and treaties. If we want to do something radical to fix it, everyone's got to agree on who's going to do it and let them. They can change things afterwards if they don't like it."

"Except they won't, because-."

"Then what's the problem? If they don't want to… So what?"

Hm.

I pause for a moment, making a point of relaxing. Beryl's eyes go back to her computer.

"Has one of your plans been turned down?"

"Not a.. plan. I just had a few ideas that could help. And some got accepted."

"And your superpower is systemic analysis, meaning that you're literally the best person to do the job."

"I'm the best person. That doesn't make me better than everyone else put together. Osiris?"

"My brother will not sign this."

Beryl and I look at each other. "I don't think either of us thought he would."

Amon looks slightly nonplussed. "And Batman has not asked him to."

Beryl nods, shrugging. "Batman's not stupid. He's not going to ask someone who is never going to say 'yes'. Kahndaq's pretty self-sufficient, doesn't really need reconstruction aid and Adom's super-popular."

"How are you doing for raw materials?"

"My sister is surveying our new lands. Their former rulers were… Not efficient. They often just handed out contracts to foreign companies and let them do what they liked."

"How do you mean?"

"Destroying farms, despoiling rivers, exiling local people from their homes and murdering anyone who resisted. And they were not charged for what they took, only for the extraction rights to an area. The government was not being paid anything like what it should have been."

"Even if all the corrupt members of government had wanted to do is stuff their Swiss bank accounts, they could have gotten more money even without the upfront bribes if they had been more attentive and professional. Let that be a lesson to all."

Amon looks at me for a moment, and then nods. "Ah, yes. But the important part is that soon we will have autarky. Even our tourists prefer to travel to other countries in the Middle East. There would be no point in us taking part in Batman's scheme."

"Okay, but what do you think about it in itself?"

"I would trust my brother with this authority, but he is already Kahndaq's ruler. Mister Atom has improved a great deal since he first fought Captain Marvel, but he is still inhuman. I do not trust him with this power. And despite by brother's fondness for her, I would not trust Angelica Blaze with it either."

Beryl shakes her head. "No, I don't think you're right about her. I'd be more worried about Rocket Red getting leaned on by his government. But as long as that didn't happen and everything needed to get signed off by Batman…"

"How about a sunset clause? Given everything that's going on, I doubt that even Batman could set up a parallel world government in six months."

She frowns at me. "You know why I'm for it. How come you're so against it?"

I shrug. "Because it's fundamentally elitist, putting responsibility for the destiny of humanity in the hands of a tiny self-appointed unaccountable minority. Even if we could be completely relied upon to do the right thing with it, I don't think that's healthy for our species."

She looks at me askance. "Then do you think that maybe members of the tiny self-appointed unaccountable minority aren't the right people to talk to?"

10th July 2013
07:02 GMT -5

I knock on the window, and the man staring at the chessboard looks around.

"Mister Luthor? Do you have a minute?"