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

13th February 2013
17:35 GMT -5

From Marran to another to another, we finally have a lead.

The Forever People share a discomported look as we walk through the berrith settlement. Probably a medium sized town, though I'm not sure how to judge their order of service. The berrith are actually a post-industrial society, but… They haven't ever developed some technologies that humans have now, while being more advanced in other areas. Personal computers aren't something they really had even during their initial advance into space. They do have computers, but they're work tools rather than a consumer item, and they prefer using terminals which connect to servers rather than personal computers.

Their heavy industry means that the air quality is quite a bit worse than most places back home-. Maybe some Chinese cities are like this? Smog clouds are an ongoing issue, and the sky sort of greys the background out after a certain distance. The roads are concrete, and the vehicles are like humvees with proportionally larger wheels.

Serifan is pulling a face. "How do they breathe this?"

Vykin looks around, relatively untroubled. "Did you not study the early industrial society of Earth?"

"That weren't the part I was reading about. Plenty of fresh air in the Wild West."

"Usually, a planet that had space ships would have moved away from burning hydrocarbons for fuel. I guess the berrith just…"

Actually, why haven't they moved on to fission fuel?

Original berrith homeworld had only small quantities of fissile material, along with plentiful quantities of easily accessible hydrocarbons. While berrith science was aware of the principles involved, it was impractical for them to implement on a wide scale.

"Didn't have enough heavy metals on their homeworld for fission."

"So?"

Moonrider shakes his head. "New Genesis is the perfect world. Most other worlds lack things that we consider normal."

"Yes, floating cities over a largely untouched forest aren't things most worlds have. Even Oa doesn't have that."

Serifan looks outright confused. "Why not? Them Guardians could make Oa like that. Couldn't they?"

"I can't speak for the Guardians, but if you're asking me to guess, I'd say that they consider themselves above any animal part of their nature that would like there to be plants or animals around. Since as far as I know Oa never had any wildlife, it's as desolate outside of the buildings that they and the Green Lanterns have built as it was when they moved there. Maltus is more like New Genesis, though our cities are on the ground and a good deal bigger."

We're getting a few stares from the locals, but… They're temporary stares. They look, they sniff, then they go back to doing whatever they were doing before. I remember my college textbooks calling that 'the diffusion of responsibility', but considering how berrith social hierarchies work it might be more accurate to call it the focusing of responsibility.

"Though if you were serious about that stewardship thing, feel free to get started."

Dreamer… Her arms are wrapped around her chest, her hands rubbing her sides. She's looking around, but I can't tell what she's looking… For? At? Bear's spotted it to.

"Have you found the one we're looking for?"

"What do you-?" She focuses on him. "No. This world… There is usually a connection between a people and their home. The berrith feel nothing."

Bear nods. "Their original home was lost during their war. The species who won wanted more space between them and the berrith."

"Between the orbital bombardment and the heavy hydrocarbon use, their original homeworld is a far less pleasant place to live than this, and will be for some time. To say nothing of the likely response of the rest of the Sector if the berrith tried resettling it."

"That… That might be it. I don't think I've ever been on a world like that before."

"It's not common. Usually, an invader would wipe the locals out rather than displace them. Ah." I stop outside a foundry, heat and the sound of heavy machinery emanating from inside. "I do believe that we're here. Vykin, would you care to take the lead?"

He steps forward, heading towards the yard where the raw ore is laying in piles awaiting smelting. The workers notice him, but since he doesn't appear to be carrying a tonne of ore on his person they allow him to pass.

"I-." He glances back at me. "I wish to speak with Mister Huyen."

The workers do a quick hierarchy-check, then one of them abandons his task and runs off into the foundry.

Progress. I give Vykin an approving nod.

Interesting how the other berrith aren't paying us much attention. Their eyes linger if they were looking in our direction anyway, but other than that they stick to their tasks. If this happened in a human place of work then I imagine that a whole crowd would gather around.

There's a slight… Something, and I notice that all of the New Gods are now looking at a window on the first floor of the structure. I follow their gaze and see a male berrith with a number of minor burns on his face disrupting his fur pattern. Not the one we're looking for, but… Check with the records… Yes, that's the boss of this place. Checking us out, perhaps? Berrith civilisation doesn’t have an overall alpha at the moment, so his status as local alpha has more significance.

Maybe that's why they never really developed commercial radio? It created a direct link between ruler and ruled when governments started broadcasting on Earth. I could tell you who the Prime Minister was for most of my life while never having any idea who the head of the East Sussex County Council was. Would they have found that too disruptive, or would it just never have occurred to them?

The berrith who went inside comes back out, accompanied by a younger berrith. The younger one - Huyen- cautiously approaches Vykin.

"What do you want, alien?"

Vykin hesitates for a moment, hopefully trying to decide how to put my instructions into effect.

"I am here about your brother."

"My brother is dead. He was eaten. The alphas said that he was unfit for anything else."

"You know the h'lvenite he spoke to?"

"He did not speak to me. But I saw him, sometimes. He glowed with purple light."

Vykin taps his Mother Box, and a hologram of false h'lvenite one appears.

"Is this the-?"

"No. No, not like that. I will not forget the one who took my brother away. Do not bother with more fakes. I could draw his face."

"Take us to where this happened."

Huyen looks up at the first floor window. The elder berrith considers for a moment, then makes an affirmative gesture. The Indigo Lantern's brother returns his attention to us.

"I can take you to our home. But I have no way to contact the h'lvenite. I was not what he wanted."

"That is my concern."

Huyen looks at him for several moments, before fluffing and then flattening his fur.

"Then follow me."

 

13th February 2013
17:49 GMT -5

"Hm."

B'dg makes a point of floating past my face as we approach the late Indigo Lantern's former home. I guess he wants to talk about something.

"Can I help you?"

"… It's not what I expected."

The berrith, I assume. "It takes a lot of work to be all-evil all the time. Apokolips manages it, but most Reach worlds are quite nice places to live if you're a reachian."

"What about the Spider Guild?"

"The slave pens take up quite a lot of space, and since they like the moans and screams they don't use any sort of sound-deadening technology on them, but outside of that… Pretty much." I shrug. "The Vega branch of the Guild is a little different due to the Queen and the fact that most of them are so young, so my viewpoint is a little slanted."

"Huh."

"What were you expecting?"

"More beatings. I've seen recordings of berrith prisoners, and they had to be kept restrained or they'd fight each other the whole time."

"That was the males, right?" He nods. "They'd only do that until they established a hierarchy. If you kept them in small groups and let them settle things, they'd calm down afterwards."

"We didn't keep people who fought each other without provocation in the same cell!"

"That was a mistake. You should have done. It's unwise to assume that alien species think the same as your own, even if they look like a bigger version of your species."

"… Huh. And the females?"

"Less direct violence, but they might take a little longer to settle things. Or you could just imprison them in the groups you capture them in, because they already have an established hierarchy."

"And that's it?"

"If you give them a really big prison then they might just avoid each other. I'm a little surprised that you don't know this. It shouldn't really-."

He waves a paw. "I didn't read up on the berrith because it was a done deal. There probably are people who know about it. Now, anyway. Do you know why they eat people, too?"

"No, I've been wondering about that as well. My guess would be that their ancestors leaned into the scavenging side of carnivorism. So they evolved guts that could handle partially rotted meat, which meant they also got the ability to eat other berrith without the sort of health problems you or I would get if we tried that. And because they were used to scavenging available meat, the same sort of social prohibition our species-."

"Whow, whow, hey. You might be an omnivore, but I'm strictly a herbivore!"

"My species has about eating each other never developed." I frown at him. "Obligate herbivore or do you just not need it?"

"Some h'lvenites eat… Beetles, but they're weirdoes."

I nod as Huyen shows Vykin in. Berrith appear to like communal dwelling, so it's more like a dormitory with an attached kitchen than a house or flat. There are two other berrith in there, slightly older than our escort but not closely genetically related to him. The one closest to the door gives Vykin a mild glare, but our escort grunts something and he calms down.

"Anything interesting happening in the Green Lantern Corps?"

"I wouldn't know. I've never left this Sector. Ch'p is the only other Green Lantern I've ever met."

"He did your… Basic training, then?"

"That's right. Never even seen Oa. I thought they might send an Honour Guard Lantern to cover for Ch'p, but I guess the Guardians didn't think they needed to."

"You know your ring can contact other Lanterns, right?"

"Yeah, obviously."

"You can just contact people to have a chat, you know? Or if you want to improve your skills, get a bit of remote tuition? Lantern Priest of Sector One Six Three Four is the most skilled green light user I know, and his Sector is almost completely safe."

"Thanks. Once Ch'p gets back from his paternity leave, I'll do that." He looks me over. "This isn't how I thought this conversation would go."

"The Green Lantern Corps fulfils a vital interstellar policing function. I have a great deal of respect for anyone who puts on one of those-" I nod at his ring-bearing paw. "-and serves their Sector, and if I mention certain issues in your Standard Operating Procedures and training scheme it's because I want you to be able to do better, not because I think that you're worthless."

"Ah… Thanks? I think?"

"And I certainly don't blame the occasionally sub-optimal decisions-."

"Okay, you can stop now."

"Of course, if you're feeling really brave, then you could see if you can get released for detached duty in Sector Two Eight One Four. Wait until we've dealt with the Anti-Life, then give us a couple of months to rebuild planet Earth's economy, then we can spare the time to give you some lessons."

"A couple of…"

"Lanterns!" Vykin gestures to us as the Forever People go inside. "We are ready to begin."

I nod as I walk towards him, B'dg flying alongside me.

"I'm assuming that Dreamer needs me?"

"It would make things… Easier. None of us have seen this 'indigo light' before."

"How exactly does her ability work?"

Vykin… Actually looks mildly affronted. "Our abilities are a gift from the Source, which we receive as we approach adulthood."

"Right, right, but presumably she's interacting with parts of the 'default' universe in order to get information. I was wondering what part. Unless the Source grants her each vision individually."

"Beneath the corporeal world, beneath even the realm of the spirit, there lies a realm-."

"The Dream, yes, I've been there. Impressive that she-."

"You've been there?" He blinks. "You mean to say that you have dreamt while maintaining your awareness."

"No, I've physically entered the Dream. Went to dream-Baghdad, spoke to the dream-versions of certain notable historical figures, and ended up running through a dream storm. Interesting, though not a lot of fun. I can see how that would work, though it's impressive that she's able to get that level of resolution out of it."

"I… See."

We enter the building, Bear's size forcing him to wait in the common room while the rest of us head into the barracks. Huyen gestures to what I assume to be his brother's former bed, and I approach as Dreamer starts to focus.

Show me nothing. I am unworthy.