Cappare (part 19)
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Mr Zoat
Dedicated ragequitter
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27th July 2013
04:29 GMT
"How many?"
"Thirty… Three in space."
Lantern Stewart clenches his right fist. "Green Lantern to Justice League. Assistance required in near-Earth space."
Humanoid robots from Daxam? Would they have had Eradicators-?
"Assume they're Eradicators until proven otherwise."
"Eradicators?"
"Performance specifications are on your database. Pull back, don't engage." Ah. "Are there any guarding the ship?"
"No."
"Board them, extract their database and any other records you find. Assimilate the crew if required. Find out what they're planning."
"Yes, Illustres."
Right, let's take a look at Cara Yat's desires in more… Detail. How prescient of me. The ship builders around Daxam-. Might be Eradicators or they might be Daxamites who can use the theta wave state, but Cara can definitely use it. Can the other two..? Priest yes, Ken Lee… No.
I hoik him up with a construct. "How'd you like to stop feeling like shit?"
"Uuuuughnot talking."
"If I don't know what you want, I can't decide what to do about it. As things stand I'm forced to conclude that Daxam is declaring war on Earth. And while that does restrict what I can legally do to you, it also authorises me to, for example, destroy Daxam's entire planetary defence system."
"Hhu-. Can't-. You can't."
"They're unmanned weapon systems. They're the definition of a morally acceptable target. I gain nothing from allowing Daxam to remain isolationist."
Lantern Stewart glances my way as he strides towards the zeta tube terminuses. "You got this?"
"Yes. I'll relay information to you as I get it."
"Arsenal to Oh El."
I meet Ken Lee's eyes for a moment. I can give him another ten seconds, then I'll start prodding his brain.
"Go ahead."
"Har-Zod says it matches parts of the 'Doomsday', the Kryptonian navy's old flagship. When the fleet got decommissioned it was supposed to be mothballed, but Admiral Dru-Zod programmed it to fly off into space instead."
"And parts of it ended up here?"
"Maybe it all ended up here. Maybe that's what they're here for."
Ken Lee isn't. Ken Lee wants to go home and forget this ever happened. We profoundly disturb him. He thinks this whole endeavour is a bad idea.
Okay, so… The Doomsday comes here and… Self destructs? Hits something? Gets hit by something? And if they could… Poke anywhere in the system using a boom tube, the only reason they'd have to talk to us is.. that part of it ended up on Earth. Or Mars, but they'd have spotted that.
"Advocate Ken Lee, this is extremely foolish. If you'd asked us for the ship to augment your self-defence forces then we'd probably have just given it to you. And now you're risking me counterattacking. Please, talk to me before I'm forced to use extreme measures."
"C-." He takes a pained breath. "Cure me first."
"Alright." I extend filaments into the meeting room's lighting systems, altering the wavelength. The shutters are down to seal the breach from earlier, so there's no other wavelengths coming in. Now, touch filaments to his body and… Send the lead carbonate from his lungs into subspace. "Better?"
He breathes in deeply, then out, then in deeply again. Then he nod. "Yes. Thank you." He glances down at Cara Yat as she wheezes in agony. "Could you-?"
"She gets fixed when she talks or once this is resolved. So talk."
He shakes his head. "This was never about Sodam Yat. I-. He should be returned, be amongst his people and his family. But Cara Yat-. She argued that the fact that you and that other alien were able to land on Daxam indicated that our defences were inadequate. That we needed more."
"But you're primitivists. You can't build better."
"There was.. debate. In the end, it was agreed that activating an A.I. and asking it to oversee the process would be less damaging than relearning the skills of our ancestors."
"An Eradicator A.I.? I didn't realise they were that old."
"Not an Eradicator. The Eradicator program. It was originally intended to rid us of.. foreign cultural influences. Our ancestors purified themselves and then shut it down. But it was never supposed to be deleted. It's.. endemic in all of our ancestral systems. We thought it was on our side."
"What did it do?"
"It took control. Had the old manufacturing systems create new robots for it to command. And it-. We're different from kryptonians, we all know that, but we thought it was-." He shakes his head. "The Eradicator barely acknowledges us as people. I think it was going to kill us, until-. Until Diro Yat told it that Kal-El survived."
"And the Doomsday?"
"The bridge component is on Earth… Somewhere. The Eradicator's program requires it to recover kryptonian technology."
"And what about the boom tubes?"
"I don't know." I narrow my eyes. "I don't! I'm a lawyer! I only know this much because I-. I might have needed to carry on the mission myself."
"What does the Eradicator want with Kal-El? Genetic samples?"
"No. No. It wants to correct him." He shakes his head. "Raised by aliens. It's not his fault, of course, and we-. Daxamites wouldn't have anything to do with someone from the family of Kem-El. But to the Eradicator program he's the most important person in the universe."
"Right, thank you. Arisia, you're on guard duty. Keep an eye on them." She nods stiltedly. "They shouldn't die, but you've got a purple healing ray if they start worsening."
"Yes." She nods again. "Yes."
"Call someone. I need to make sure that Kal-El's alright."
She nods as I
raise my fingers to my forehead, homing in on his genuine desire to be a good person. I
appear in Texas, just behind him.
26th July 2013
23:33 GMT -5
"Superman, we have a problem."
He turns around, his expression… Cold.
Alien.
Oh dear.
"No. We don't."
04:29 GMT
"How many?"
"Thirty… Three in space."
Lantern Stewart clenches his right fist. "Green Lantern to Justice League. Assistance required in near-Earth space."
Humanoid robots from Daxam? Would they have had Eradicators-?
"Assume they're Eradicators until proven otherwise."
"Eradicators?"
"Performance specifications are on your database. Pull back, don't engage." Ah. "Are there any guarding the ship?"
"No."
"Board them, extract their database and any other records you find. Assimilate the crew if required. Find out what they're planning."
"Yes, Illustres."
Right, let's take a look at Cara Yat's desires in more… Detail. How prescient of me. The ship builders around Daxam-. Might be Eradicators or they might be Daxamites who can use the theta wave state, but Cara can definitely use it. Can the other two..? Priest yes, Ken Lee… No.
I hoik him up with a construct. "How'd you like to stop feeling like shit?"
"Uuuuughnot talking."
"If I don't know what you want, I can't decide what to do about it. As things stand I'm forced to conclude that Daxam is declaring war on Earth. And while that does restrict what I can legally do to you, it also authorises me to, for example, destroy Daxam's entire planetary defence system."
"Hhu-. Can't-. You can't."
"They're unmanned weapon systems. They're the definition of a morally acceptable target. I gain nothing from allowing Daxam to remain isolationist."
Lantern Stewart glances my way as he strides towards the zeta tube terminuses. "You got this?"
"Yes. I'll relay information to you as I get it."
"Arsenal to Oh El."
I meet Ken Lee's eyes for a moment. I can give him another ten seconds, then I'll start prodding his brain.
"Go ahead."
"Har-Zod says it matches parts of the 'Doomsday', the Kryptonian navy's old flagship. When the fleet got decommissioned it was supposed to be mothballed, but Admiral Dru-Zod programmed it to fly off into space instead."
"And parts of it ended up here?"
"Maybe it all ended up here. Maybe that's what they're here for."
Ken Lee isn't. Ken Lee wants to go home and forget this ever happened. We profoundly disturb him. He thinks this whole endeavour is a bad idea.
Okay, so… The Doomsday comes here and… Self destructs? Hits something? Gets hit by something? And if they could… Poke anywhere in the system using a boom tube, the only reason they'd have to talk to us is.. that part of it ended up on Earth. Or Mars, but they'd have spotted that.
"Advocate Ken Lee, this is extremely foolish. If you'd asked us for the ship to augment your self-defence forces then we'd probably have just given it to you. And now you're risking me counterattacking. Please, talk to me before I'm forced to use extreme measures."
"C-." He takes a pained breath. "Cure me first."
"Alright." I extend filaments into the meeting room's lighting systems, altering the wavelength. The shutters are down to seal the breach from earlier, so there's no other wavelengths coming in. Now, touch filaments to his body and… Send the lead carbonate from his lungs into subspace. "Better?"
He breathes in deeply, then out, then in deeply again. Then he nod. "Yes. Thank you." He glances down at Cara Yat as she wheezes in agony. "Could you-?"
"She gets fixed when she talks or once this is resolved. So talk."
He shakes his head. "This was never about Sodam Yat. I-. He should be returned, be amongst his people and his family. But Cara Yat-. She argued that the fact that you and that other alien were able to land on Daxam indicated that our defences were inadequate. That we needed more."
"But you're primitivists. You can't build better."
"There was.. debate. In the end, it was agreed that activating an A.I. and asking it to oversee the process would be less damaging than relearning the skills of our ancestors."
"An Eradicator A.I.? I didn't realise they were that old."
"Not an Eradicator. The Eradicator program. It was originally intended to rid us of.. foreign cultural influences. Our ancestors purified themselves and then shut it down. But it was never supposed to be deleted. It's.. endemic in all of our ancestral systems. We thought it was on our side."
"What did it do?"
"It took control. Had the old manufacturing systems create new robots for it to command. And it-. We're different from kryptonians, we all know that, but we thought it was-." He shakes his head. "The Eradicator barely acknowledges us as people. I think it was going to kill us, until-. Until Diro Yat told it that Kal-El survived."
"And the Doomsday?"
"The bridge component is on Earth… Somewhere. The Eradicator's program requires it to recover kryptonian technology."
"And what about the boom tubes?"
"I don't know." I narrow my eyes. "I don't! I'm a lawyer! I only know this much because I-. I might have needed to carry on the mission myself."
"What does the Eradicator want with Kal-El? Genetic samples?"
"No. No. It wants to correct him." He shakes his head. "Raised by aliens. It's not his fault, of course, and we-. Daxamites wouldn't have anything to do with someone from the family of Kem-El. But to the Eradicator program he's the most important person in the universe."
"Right, thank you. Arisia, you're on guard duty. Keep an eye on them." She nods stiltedly. "They shouldn't die, but you've got a purple healing ray if they start worsening."
"Yes." She nods again. "Yes."
"Call someone. I need to make sure that Kal-El's alright."
She nods as I
raise my fingers to my forehead, homing in on his genuine desire to be a good person. I
appear in Texas, just behind him.
26th July 2013
23:33 GMT -5
"Superman, we have a problem."
He turns around, his expression… Cold.
Alien.
Oh dear.
"No. We don't."
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