12th August 2013
17:33 GMT
Richard looks around at the ruins of Wombworld. "One planet, somewhat used."
"Yeah." I nod. Haven't bothered coming back here since we purged the place, though I know that Duke Oswin had a team cataloguing things. Between the damage Brimstone did, and what the fleet and Corps did during the final attack, any settlers would have to spend more time clearing up the mess rather than building from scratch. "But it's available, and I have massive reinforcements only a few minutes away."
I wave at the Orange Lanterns lurking around, who shamefacedly wave back before getting on with what Clarissi Dox
actually sent them here to do. With Adam Blake back on Earth full time he's probably the only person in Vega who can actually understand the psion's higher level technologies. Unfortunately for
him, he doesn't have time to spend indulging his personal curiosity. He
also doesn't have enough specialists that he could spare some to come in his place.
"Is this the only option for Vega?"
"There's the Citadel Homeworld. It was barely habitable
before the Orange Lantern Corps and I started bombarding it flat. Habitation would have to be subterranean, in sealed environments, and it's… Well, it's not ideal."
"And this
is?"
"The air's breathable, the soil microbes are similar enough to Earth's that our plants could be planted directly without much issue, human mad scientists could probably go through the psions's stuff and learn from it, humans can breathe the air, gravity's about the same as Earth's…"
"What about the
locals?"
"The psions originally came from Maltus. The few survivors got moved back there. Since they reproduce synthetically the actual number of survivors doesn't matter."
"Still. People might not like the fact that they're living somewhere from where the previous inhabitants were killed or exiled."
I nod. However much the psions deserved it, people can get a bit weird about that sort of thing. "The
other advantage-" I take a thaumometer off my armour and hold it up. "-is that this region is
just magical enough that the Atlanteans should be able to function."
Richard takes a look at the reading. "
Barely, if I'm reading that correctly."
"Substantially above average. And they'll need
something to work with when they experiment."
"Worth
considering, then. Is there truly nowhere else in Vega?"
"Nowhere
uninhabited. There's one world with mollusc people, but they actually
are native, and… They haven't actually spread all that far and we could dominate them on their own world pretty easily, but…"
"Yes."
"Or we could probably move them without it being too disruptive."
He gives me a dubious look.
"I
know, but… My first response to primitive cultures is to uplift them, and they're pre-metallurgy."
"What about worlds outside of Vega?"
"None that I know of that meet our requirements. It looks like thaumic activity increases the chance of complex life to evolve…" Hm. "Okay, there's Odym, but I don't really want to settle there."
"What's wrong with it?"
"Nothing. That's the problem. I'd say that it's a beautiful place untouched by intelligent design, except for the fact that every part of it basically throws its own natural beauty in your face so hard that I suspect that it's artificial. Farming and mining would wreck it."
"It usually does. You'll recall that I lived through the Industrial Revolution."
"More than normal. It's a beautiful place, but I don't think it would survive exposure to actual evolution." I narrow my eyes slightly. "The introduction of rats to Australasia was before your time, wasn't it?"
"By a few million years. But if you mean the introduction of black and brown rats from European vessels, it was ongoing early in my life. Could we farm the local creatures?"
"I mean…
Yes..."
"Alright." He raises his hands in mock surrender. "You're not keen. What are our other options?"
"Tartarath isn't all that far from Earth. The native intelligent species is close to extinction and doesn't live there anymore."
"Why's that?"
"Because a crazy warlord of theirs killed most of them and enslaved the rest and led them on a campaign of murder that lasted years. Most advanced species in our Sector felt their wrath at some point, and the few who remain are in hiding for fear of retaliation. A general abhorrence of their people is also why the planet's available for habitation; no one else wants to live there."
"Will they react badly to
us doing so?"
I wiggle my right hand from side to side. "Maybe? As long as we make it clear that we're not the original inhabitants, I doubt it."
"But I assume that it's part of the galaxy-wide magic dead zone."
"Yep. It would be easy enough to send a fleet to… But the other problem is that it's in the general direction of Thanagar and they might have an eye on it."
"
Ah." He taps the head of his cane against his chin. "And in any case, perhaps somewhere further away might be better? In order to ensure that a potential attacker can't immediately locate it after defeating our best defence?"
Hm…
"Ring,
contact Lantern Jordan."
"By your command."
Richard raises his eyebrows. "An idea?"
"Possibly. Failing that, I can ask the Controllers for their records on thaumically active worlds with no intelligent species on them."
Jordan's head appears.
"What do you-? Oh, it's you. Is this about the Reach?"
"Not directly. I was just wondering; that
planet you befriended back when you were starting out. Do you know where it is?"
"Roughly, yeah." His eyes narrow.
"Wwwhy?"
"I was thinking of asking it how it felt about colonisation."
"It's fine with it, but you missed the boat. The Green Lantern Corps has been using it as a resettlement centre for refugees. It likes having people around."
"Rats." I nod in acknowledgement. "Okay, thank you for letting me know."
"Why do you want a colony?"
"To make sure that human civilisation carries on if anything happens to Earth. Given how things went for Krypton…"
"Huh. Okay." He frowns thoughtfully.
"There aren't really… Any good worlds in this Sector, not if you don't wanna share. It's basically just Tartarath, and I sure wouldn't wanna live there."
"Nowhere else comes to mind?"
"I guess there's moons we could terraform. Is that what you're looking for?"
"No, I guess we'll have to look further afield. Thank you-."
"Ah, hey. This sounds like something I should know about. Mind keeping me in the loop?"
"No problem at all. We were going to do a public announcement anyway." I nod. "I'll let you know when I have something."
He nods, and ends the call.
I sigh. "Alright. Controllers it is."
