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

[Mr Zoat]

7th September 2013
23:31 GMT

"Are you injured?"

[No.]

"Has he found you?"

[No.]

"How are you paralysed?"

[Unknown.]

Uh…

"Where are you?"

[Underground portion of the ship.]

"When did the paralysation effect take hold?"

[The moment I came through the hull.]

I frown. "How total-?"

[Total physical paralysis. My exo-mantle has a neuro-link.]

"Have you seen Andar Pul?"

[No, and I can't hear him either.]

Hm. This reminds me-. "Can you see a gong?"

[No. Why?]

"There are several ways to induce paralysis, but while we're talking about Antares, the Gamma Gong is the one that comes to mind first."

[Do they interfere with power rings?]

"It didn't the one time I encountered one in the field. They added a force field which prevented me sending-."

[Come pick me up.]

"Confirm. Pick you up instead of attempting to detain Andar Pul myself?"

[Yes.]

"Understood. En route now."

Alright, now I can track exo-mantle phasing by using my ring, and that sort of short ranged scan isn't significantly higher output than anything else I've done while standing here so it shouldn't increase our risk of detection. Phase and scan… There. And fly.

I drop through the ground, following the trail. Detecting where phased objects have been is actually easier than detecting where they are, which is… Fun. Not that phasing is without risks around Nth metal. But as far as I know Hyathis doesn't use the stuff in her native-grown ships, due to having no way to get any more. Now, I've had a couple of ideas on how to interfere with a gamma gong, but given that they appear to be rare even amongst the Dhorians I haven't spent a great deal of time on it.

You don't have to hear it for it to work, so it doesn't work through sonic-induced paralysis. That also means that sonic baffles don't work. In all instances so far it's required someone to actually strike the thing, but if Jade can't see anyone -and presumably can't be seen- then I have to assume that isn't the case.

And it-. Can't have been intended to open Thanagar to invasion though planetwide paralysis, otherwise they'd have already used it like that. The Dhorians might well try and encourage Thanagar to invade Alstair, given that they've spent hundreds of years fighting one another, but they've had decades to try something like this… If it even is them.

So… Andar Pul works with them to implicate Alstair and prod the thanagarians to attack? Okay, that's… Actually his job. They haven't made any secret of the fact that they consider Queen Hyathis an existential threat, and the fact that some thanagarians willingly follow her a profound insult. So he takes the initiative, doctors a few reports and pushes things along. Starting to sound like the High Mor's position doesn't have universal support. Not sure if killing me was supposed to be an opportunistic assassination or… Something else?

So…

Ergh.

Assassinating me and making it look like it was Queen Hyathis might motivate Thanagar to attack more quickly, but we know that they're building up for an attack anyway. Unless they're preparing to attack somewhere else? I don't think so because they've got a rhythm to their expansions and it isn't quite time yet. And they don't like having lizarkons armed for long, so they're not just getting their training in early. Would the thanagarians recognise a gamma gong? Yes, because the Hawks will have fed back to them about its existence. But if they just thought it was a musical instrument they might flat out overlook it. Or they might not find it.

Or… Antares isn't all that far from Thanagar. Maybe he just thinks it makes sense to prioritise conquering the whole area rather than let any of the belligerent parties win.

I see a brief change in texture as I pass through the narrow gap between the pit and the outer hull of the ship sitting in it, and then I'm through the hull-.

And I can't move. Interesting that it works on phased objects. But… Yep, armour can't move either, but… My constructs are unimpeded. Shipmaster, I choose you!

The Karrakanian Shipmaster I assimilated appears next to me. Honestly… I think that I probably should take him to Highfather to turn him back into flesh. Killing an enemy in war is easily justifiable, but he's just a weak New God rather than something that I need to turn into orange light to contain it.

I tweak its desires to seek out the gong and… It doesn't appear to be affected by the paralysis. It flies upwards and sticks its hand through the ceiling of… I think this is a plant food storage reservoir. Depleted now, which could give some idea of how long this ship's been away from-

And I can move again.

-home.

The shipmaster is holding… Well, it's smaller than the last gamma gong I saw. I've got no idea how significant the size is-.

Jade phases back in next to me, and I follow suit.

"Damage detection would report-."

"Agreed."

I Look for Andar Pul… And something's off, but I see him, and make the Shipmaster desire to take him into custody unharmed. Not as reliable an agent as Jade, but at least it won't be stopped if the mini gamma gongs are one per room. The Shipmaster takes off at speed, while Jade and I advance to the entrance to the next room. Primary power and drive combined. Clearly an older design, and… Assuming that the design is standard…

I crumble a small hole in the wall and send a crumbler-tipped filament through the superstructure towards the centre of the-. Yes, there it is. Cut it out of the power system and physically remove it-.

And note that Jade has picked up the first one.

And walk into the room just as I get the feeling of realised desire from the Shipmaster. And I use that connection to brand.

It takes a moment, but there's… Surprisingly little resistance as it takes affect. And then give him the desire to deactivate the internal paralysation system, good.

"Okay, we got him. Let's go and find out what's going on."

 

[Mr Zoat]

7th September 2013
23:34 GMT

The first thing I notice about the bridge is that there isn't a convenient meat person control system added on to the existing plant-based system. The second is… The Shipmaster has… Dropped six objects which look like miniature gamma gongs on the floor next to Andar Pul. Pul himself looks… Rough. Unkempt. He hasn't shaved recently, his feathers are misaligned and his clothes are well lived in.

And there's a glowing orange sigil embedded in his chest.

Jade crouches down to examine the mini-gongs. "Do you know what these are?"

"Aside from the obvious, no. A personal weapon, perhaps? The ability to paralyse the entire world seems a bit… Excessive for most purposes, but perhaps they can manage finer control if properly configured?"

She stands, turning to Andar Pul. "Can he talk?"

"Can you?"

"Yes, certainly. It's marvellously liberating."

"Did you try to assassinate me?"

"Yes."

"And Bleez and Jade?"

"Your presence was really the only thing I factored in. The other two were largely irrelevant to my purpose."

"Which was?"

"Freeing myself and preventing Thanagar being manipulated by my domitor."

"Domitor? You were being controlled?"

"Yes. I am now, aren't I? I think I prefer being able to talk about this as opposed to being a puppet to another's will."

I glance down at the mini-gongs. "Those things?"

"Yes. I think everyone just thought they were jewellery."

"Right." I hold out my left hand and pull the brand off him, prompting him to breathe in deeply and his right hand to feel around for a concealed weapon that he's not carrying. "Start from the beginning."

"This is a conversation I should have with the High Mor first."

"Thanagar just shot me with its planetary defence system. And let me explain something to you that Lantern Dul might have skipped over. I am a member of the NEMO council. That means that I am one of the seven controlling votes on the actions of the largest military alliance in this galaxy. When we make a decision, more people than there have ever been thanagarians in existence go into action. And I know for a fact that at least three of my fellow council members prefer expedient decisions. Do you know what the expedient decision is in this case?"

"Install Hyathis as our ruler."

I half-smile under my helmet. "That's certainly a thought, isn't it? Your objective, therefore, is not to ensure that your actions are in line with the High Mor's policy preferences. It's to ensure that I remain at worst neutral. And while I've removed the brand and you can lie, do I need to point out how bad an idea-."

"No, I understand. I.. understand. Right, fine. Part of my area of responsibility is monitoring Hyathis, and Antares in general. And to do that I need local informants. That's not hard when there are three other stellar nations in the Antares system who hate her. I just have to make sure that my sources agree with one another and aren't collaborating to present a shared false picture."

He exhales sharply through his nose.

"Which is more of a problem now that Hyathis is on the verge of winning and they're actually collaborating on military matters. I was meeting with one of my agents…"

"You met with them yourself?"

"In a job like this, personal relationships are everything. They know what I want and that they can trust me to relate to them in a dependable way. But this time… It's hard to read alien body language, but they were more stressed than normal. I thought that their own government might be putting pressure on them, or they were worried about their navy being destroyed…" He shakes his head. "I was mobbed, and had-" He glances down. "-those things attached to me."

"And then you were on remote control?"

"I know what a gamma gong is. Instead of that, I was only allowed to take physical actions that advanced their cause."

"Their cause being?"

"War with Hyathis. They didn't say, but it's fairly clear that the Dhorians don't think they can hold her off, and that they don't think we're going to join in without prompting."

"And now you are."

"We've been reallocating resources to prepare for that war for a while. Even with the new supply of Nth metal, Hyathis is outproducing us. The only question was whether we wait until she's being forced to occupy the worlds of her rivals or assault her as soon as we were ready."

"You're going to occupy Alstair? Is that why so many auxiliaries have been recruited?"

"'Occupy Alstair'? When every grain of pollen would be against us? No, Alstair will burn. The occupation force is for the system's other planets."

"If you're in favour of it-."

"My preferred strategy is to wait. Occupying the other worlds will be easier once they've endured Alstairian occupation for a while. And I certainly will not do the will of people who took control of me."

"You melted an airbase."

"Unfortunate as that is, having an agent with my access privileges under enemy control risks far more."

"This ship?"

"The Antares stellar nations capture damaged ships from one another all the time. Getting it here wasn't all that hard. I just marked it as 'research materials' and then moved it using its own drive. I had access; I could classify the sensor scans." He looks around. "I doubt that we'll learn anything, but I'll suggest to my successor that they take it apart. It will be a good training exercise, if nothing else."

"So what happens now?"

"We may be a martial people, but a wartime level of preparedness isn't something we can sustain indefinitely. I'll need to review the situation in Antares-. Or rather, my successor will, and then advise the High Mor."

"Dhoria?"

"We'll have to kill the people who attacked me, but otherwise? I can't fault them for trying to survive. Not that it will be my decision."

I nod. As false flags go, not a bad setup. Persuading someone to do something they were inclined to do anyway-.

"And what about us?"

"If I'm asked, I will suggest that the High Mor give you some of our older aero-shuttles as compensation. I'm sure that they'd be useful to you given your world's current difficulties. Now, if you wouldn't mind calling in the Crows? I doubt that their interrogation will be as gentle as yours and I'd rather get it done as quickly as possible."