Plutonian (part 9)
Mr Zoat
Dedicated ragequitter
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12th April
09:28 GMT
Koriand'r lowers her left hand, ring dimming as she shakes her head.
"I do not know where the ship went."
I nod, then look at Khan just in case he's got something helpful to say. Since I'm not a member of the Justice League I don't know quite how critical things are going in the Kremlin at the moment. I don't think that someone prone to fits of genuine rage -as opposed to the staged kind- would survive in the current atmosphere, so I think that we're going to get a reasonably measured response… At least in the short term. In the longer term… This was a major investment of financial and political capital. The heads that roll might do so from any height.
Khan hasn't noticed-.
"Lantern Khan?"
"Hm? Yes, one class three ClusterShip, seventeen executive level-. Yes, that's the one. The valuation is up to date?"
Jam.
"You see, it's rather clever: we make sure that anyone who could be due a payout is also on the ship. That way we minimise our exposure to piracy. Hah, 'bring your child to work year' was a masterstroke. And you have a backup of L-Ron's personality? I'm pretty sure I paid for it, but I want to make sure that it's ready to go."
…
"Did you just hang up on me? How dare you hang up on me! I want to speak to your manager!"
"Lantern Khan, if I could borrow you for a moment?"
"See if I use you people again. Yes, Illustres, how may I help at this tragic time?"
"Do you have any way of tracking the ship?"
"Yes, of course. L-Ron!"
…
He's… Looking around.
…
I'm actually feeling a little sad.
"I'm assuming that he was on the ship?"
"Yes, I-. Yes."
"Okay, does he have a locator beacon of some k-?"
"L-RON!"
Orange energy bursts out of him in a high-power scan wave, and I spot Lantern Savenlovich hurriedly throw up a shield as the orange light cascades through local space. Leonid's ship actually overcharges its shields in response to what the mostly reassembled tactical computer thinks is an attack.
I'm actually a little impressed with that. Not only was it powerful, I'm pretty sure that would have bypassed most forms of stealth and phasing. I was pretty sure that wasn't what had happened here, but it's nice to be certain.
Khan… His armour is just armour, so there's no body language to read. His gaseous form on the other hand is Brownianing with alarming ferocity and I.. don't know what that means. I don't know if he knows what that means. And then-.
A construct L-Ron appears besides him. His helmet swivels a hundred degrees right and he stares at it for a moment. Then it bursts.
"L-Ron doesn't get sick days or job-share. I'm going to find him so that I can dock his pay."
And he actually wants him back. There are ways to mislead my empathic sense, but using power rings requires the real thing.
"Alright then, both of you. How could the ships have vanished, given that we can't detect them?"
Koriand'r looks thoughtful. "Some form of faster than light travel that is not on our database, which leaves no traceable sign?"
"If it's not on a Maltusian database then we've got bigger problems than a missing ship. And unless there was something a lot more valuable on board than I think there was, they were wasting their time."
"Your reports mention that some people on Earth with great technical ability do not apply their skills wisely."
"Painfully true, but perfectly stealthy mass-teleportation is incredibly difficult, and the Justice League is perfectly capable of detecting the sort of massive power draw it would require. It could be that, but what's more-?"
"Magic." Khan's eyeholes are glowing orange. "A rare resource I wanted to exploit. Hard to detect with power rings."
"That's my first guess. There isn't much we can do about it until Doctor Mist arrives, but just in case they weren't as clever as they think they were…"
I take out a couple of rune stones and use construct tethers to move them around where the ClusterShip used to be.
"Now, it would be quite hard to actively cast this far from the Earth, but there have been some rather significant breakthroughs in bound spells recently, so with a little luck…"
No, nothing. Ah well. I pull the stones back.
"Lantern Khan, do you have a record of every trip your people made to and from the Earth?"
"Yes, but our security-. Mmrughmrppffah, would not be easy to breach. We've had incidents in the past, infiltrators and the like. L-Ron can-."
I float forward and pat him on his armoured shoulder. He really thinks about L-Ron in the same way as I think of my rings; not exactly separate from my own concept of me.
"Then the obvious potential source is the Russian ships. I'm sure that everyone involved underwent extensive vetting, but Russian magic is rubbish. It wouldn't be too hard for a sufficiently skilled person to sneak something in."
Would they have done this deliberately? Would they risk the security complement of the ship in an attempt to steal it? No. No. They might get away with salvaging ships that crashed in their territory, but they have to know that if they tried piracy then the Green Lantern Corps would not be on their side. They were already stealing a march on every other country on the planet; there wasn't any need for them to risk it.
The Light is a possibility, but… I'm not seeing the payoff. Khan was here to trade. If they wanted technology then buying it was the easiest way to get it. And we get enough alien visitors that any competent international conspiracy could get hold of parts… And the ClusterShip wasn't all that advanced by interstellar standards.
I've got a worrying feeling that this is going to be someone I've never heard of.
"Orange Lantern Illustres to Watchtower."
"Manhunter here. Go ahead."
"I'm not getting anything. If the Russians will have us, I'd like to take a look around their launch site in case something got onto their ships that wasn't supposed to be there."
"Doctor Mist, Hawkman and Batman are already on-site."
"And none of them are empaths."
"True. I will relay your request. Stand by."
09:28 GMT
Koriand'r lowers her left hand, ring dimming as she shakes her head.
"I do not know where the ship went."
I nod, then look at Khan just in case he's got something helpful to say. Since I'm not a member of the Justice League I don't know quite how critical things are going in the Kremlin at the moment. I don't think that someone prone to fits of genuine rage -as opposed to the staged kind- would survive in the current atmosphere, so I think that we're going to get a reasonably measured response… At least in the short term. In the longer term… This was a major investment of financial and political capital. The heads that roll might do so from any height.
Khan hasn't noticed-.
"Lantern Khan?"
"Hm? Yes, one class three ClusterShip, seventeen executive level-. Yes, that's the one. The valuation is up to date?"
Jam.
"You see, it's rather clever: we make sure that anyone who could be due a payout is also on the ship. That way we minimise our exposure to piracy. Hah, 'bring your child to work year' was a masterstroke. And you have a backup of L-Ron's personality? I'm pretty sure I paid for it, but I want to make sure that it's ready to go."
…
"Did you just hang up on me? How dare you hang up on me! I want to speak to your manager!"
"Lantern Khan, if I could borrow you for a moment?"
"See if I use you people again. Yes, Illustres, how may I help at this tragic time?"
"Do you have any way of tracking the ship?"
"Yes, of course. L-Ron!"
…
He's… Looking around.
…
I'm actually feeling a little sad.
"I'm assuming that he was on the ship?"
"Yes, I-. Yes."
"Okay, does he have a locator beacon of some k-?"
"L-RON!"
Orange energy bursts out of him in a high-power scan wave, and I spot Lantern Savenlovich hurriedly throw up a shield as the orange light cascades through local space. Leonid's ship actually overcharges its shields in response to what the mostly reassembled tactical computer thinks is an attack.
I'm actually a little impressed with that. Not only was it powerful, I'm pretty sure that would have bypassed most forms of stealth and phasing. I was pretty sure that wasn't what had happened here, but it's nice to be certain.
Khan… His armour is just armour, so there's no body language to read. His gaseous form on the other hand is Brownianing with alarming ferocity and I.. don't know what that means. I don't know if he knows what that means. And then-.
A construct L-Ron appears besides him. His helmet swivels a hundred degrees right and he stares at it for a moment. Then it bursts.
"L-Ron doesn't get sick days or job-share. I'm going to find him so that I can dock his pay."
And he actually wants him back. There are ways to mislead my empathic sense, but using power rings requires the real thing.
"Alright then, both of you. How could the ships have vanished, given that we can't detect them?"
Koriand'r looks thoughtful. "Some form of faster than light travel that is not on our database, which leaves no traceable sign?"
"If it's not on a Maltusian database then we've got bigger problems than a missing ship. And unless there was something a lot more valuable on board than I think there was, they were wasting their time."
"Your reports mention that some people on Earth with great technical ability do not apply their skills wisely."
"Painfully true, but perfectly stealthy mass-teleportation is incredibly difficult, and the Justice League is perfectly capable of detecting the sort of massive power draw it would require. It could be that, but what's more-?"
"Magic." Khan's eyeholes are glowing orange. "A rare resource I wanted to exploit. Hard to detect with power rings."
"That's my first guess. There isn't much we can do about it until Doctor Mist arrives, but just in case they weren't as clever as they think they were…"
I take out a couple of rune stones and use construct tethers to move them around where the ClusterShip used to be.
"Now, it would be quite hard to actively cast this far from the Earth, but there have been some rather significant breakthroughs in bound spells recently, so with a little luck…"
No, nothing. Ah well. I pull the stones back.
"Lantern Khan, do you have a record of every trip your people made to and from the Earth?"
"Yes, but our security-. Mmrughmrppffah, would not be easy to breach. We've had incidents in the past, infiltrators and the like. L-Ron can-."
I float forward and pat him on his armoured shoulder. He really thinks about L-Ron in the same way as I think of my rings; not exactly separate from my own concept of me.
"Then the obvious potential source is the Russian ships. I'm sure that everyone involved underwent extensive vetting, but Russian magic is rubbish. It wouldn't be too hard for a sufficiently skilled person to sneak something in."
Would they have done this deliberately? Would they risk the security complement of the ship in an attempt to steal it? No. No. They might get away with salvaging ships that crashed in their territory, but they have to know that if they tried piracy then the Green Lantern Corps would not be on their side. They were already stealing a march on every other country on the planet; there wasn't any need for them to risk it.
The Light is a possibility, but… I'm not seeing the payoff. Khan was here to trade. If they wanted technology then buying it was the easiest way to get it. And we get enough alien visitors that any competent international conspiracy could get hold of parts… And the ClusterShip wasn't all that advanced by interstellar standards.
I've got a worrying feeling that this is going to be someone I've never heard of.
"Orange Lantern Illustres to Watchtower."
"Manhunter here. Go ahead."
"I'm not getting anything. If the Russians will have us, I'd like to take a look around their launch site in case something got onto their ships that wasn't supposed to be there."
"Doctor Mist, Hawkman and Batman are already on-site."
"And none of them are empaths."
"True. I will relay your request. Stand by."
Last edited:
...Is he on the 'phone' to his Insurance agent?
