Respite

16th August
06:27 GMT

My eyelids open, pale blue filling my field of view. There's a heavy weight on my right side leaning against me and I think I've drooled slightly on the pillow. Where-? Ah, yes… Of course. I try moving my left arm around a bit, but it feels like Jade's already left. I'm a little surprised that I didn't wake up when she did. Waking up at six was something I've done for a while… Though I suppose that after enough time passes any habit can fall aside.

I reach up with my left arm, pulling the sheet and duvet away from my free side a little and gently trying to slide myself in that direction. My right arm is stuck under… I twist my head to the right in order to look at Kon's sleeping face. Alright, don't want to wake him up. He's had enough trouble adjusting to GMT without-.

"Uugh."

Mission failed. His left arm reflexively tightens around my right, pulling it to his chest as he half-consciously tries to squirm into a more comfortable position. His eyes half open… Quarter open really, a moment later.

"Kon, I'm going to need that arm back."

He's actually pulled it far enough under him that I can feel M'gann on the far side. Flipping biofeedback circadian rhythm controls. I try pulling again. If he doesn't let go I'm going to have to either wake him up fully or put a glowing orange zero friction coating over my arm, and I don't really want to do either.

"Kon, you've got my arm there."

"Ugh?" He blinks blearily at me. I may have a built-in full wakeup in the form of my ring-derived control of my physiology, but the rest of my family have to make do with more mundane processes. "Uh?" His eyes clear a little and his grip weakens. "Oh, yeah, sorry. What time is it?"

I pull my right arm out from underneath him, rolling slightly to face him as I do so. "Half six."

"Upf." He turns his head away to face his pillow. "You, ah… You need me for anything?"

"No, I'm-." Oh, he's probably still too tired to remember. "Mother's visiting today. You shouldn't-."

His eyes come fully open, his arms coming up to allow him to raise his torso from the bed. "You-" He glances at M'gann's sleeping form. "Sure you don't want one of us to come with you?"

I reach over to him and pat him on the back with my right hand, gently pushing him back down. "I think it will take her a while to adapt to how Earth Sixteen is. Probably best not to crowd her right at the start."

"Okay." His eyelids dip again, and I lean forwards and kiss him on the lips before pulling away completely and getting off the bed.

Mother's visit today is going to be… Interesting. I walk towards the bedroom entrance, passing through the privacy screen and into the hallway. Somewhat essential when the earliest riser in the house doesn't have augmented vision, the screen blocks both sound and light which is why I'm not surprised that synthetic sunlight is streaming through the hall skylight.

Ring, clothes.

Compliance.

A set of clothing that is half suit and half Star Trek civilian wear appears around me. I frown for a moment but… Yeah, I guess that's appropriate. I walk-. I pause after a step and pull at the material until it settles in a slightly more comfortable way. Maybe make it a little looser? Okay. I walk through the dining room and into the kitchen. Now, what do I-?

There's a note on the work surface, and I pick it up as I head towards the fridge. I flick it open as I reach for the fridge door handle.

'Back 0630. Jade. XXX. P.S. Coffee and eggs.'

Ah, not this morning. But coffee and eggs I can do. I pull the fridge door open and lift out the egg holder at the same time as using the ring to pick up the kettle and float it over to the left kitchen sink. While the ring flips the kettle lid open and turns the tap on I put the eggs down on the work surface and take the orange juice carton and butter out of the fridge before closing the door. Next, I open the cupboard and take out the cafetière and the jar of beans. I use my ring to turn off the tap and float the now adequately filled kettle back over to its base station and turn it on. Frying pan and Pyrex bowl are down here, and I add them to the growing pile of utensils.

Heh. Power rings never stop being awesome.

Power ring generated blades neatly slice open the shells of four eggs and I add them to the bowl. Another set cut an ounce of butter from the block and drop it into the frying pan, which I place on the hob manually before turning it on. Using the ring for everything would just take all of the fun out of it. I add a sprinkle of salt and a few grinder-rotations of black pepper to the bowl and then use a construct whisk to thoroughly blend it.

How much bread is there left? Ah, good. Jade generally prefers her scrambled eggs on their own but I prefer the difference in texture that comes from eating them with toast. I lift the lid off the bread bin and use the ring to cut two medium thickness slices from the loaf. I then float them over to the grill before putting the lid back down. The butter has melted, so I pour the whisked eggs into the frying pan and pull a wooden spoon out of a drawer to keep beating them. The kettle makes a quiet clicking noise as the water reaches boiling point and I use that as my cue to create a grinder construct and tip coffee beans into it. Blades whir and butter crackles as the smell of breakfast fills the kitchen.

I hear our house's front door open as the eggs start to solidify and I'm tipping ground beans into the cafetière as Jade walks in wearing her exercise clothing. Oh, I love seeing her abdominal muscles covered in sweat, her slightly laboured breathing causing them to tense and relax slightly.

"Is my coffee ready yet?"

"Do you want me to brew it properly, or do you want to drink it like a savage?"

She wipes her forehead with her towel as she walks across the kitchen. "Which one's quicker?"

"Savage it is."

I pour the just off-boil water into the cafetière and use a construct spoon to give it a stir. "I'd suggest giving it a-" She drapes her towel across the back of a kitchen chair and approaches me with a smile. I turn the half toasted bread and have the ring take control of the egg mixing, turning away just in time for Jade to reach me.

"How was your run?"

"Quiet. I think I'm the only early-riser on this whole space station."

"People like to keep their own time zones. I only mandated GMT for the clocks because that's the space standard."

"I'm not complaining." She approaches to within touching distance, studying my face. "Looking forward to seeing your Mother today?"

"Um. Yes… No, that sounds wrong." I use the ring to put the lid on the cafetière and take a mug off the rack for her. "It's just, it's been so many years that I'd adapted to the idea of never seeing my fam-. You know, my parents, again. So the fact that I'm going to today just feels slightly strange rather than being exciting."

Another filament slices another ounce of butter from the pat and deposits it in the Pyrex bowl while I reach behind me and turn off the hob.

"I suppose that makes sense." She looks around the cooking area. "Mm. Coffee and eggs. Where's the third thing?"

Hm.

I smile as I bend down, her arms going around the back of my neck as we press against each other.

Life is good.

16th August 2016
06:33 GMT

16th August
11:34 GMT -5

Doctor Williams shakes his head at me. "I'm sorry Mister Grayven, but there really isn't much we can do for him."

I nod sadly, noting the uncomfortable look he's giving my injuries. Back on Earth my mana siphon went back to working at full power and my skin is just about water tight again. I had the ring clean off most of the dried blood. I still look like shit, mind, I just won't have people reaching for the zombie-repellent any longer.

"How bad? I mean, is it just the telepathy or is there wider brain damage?"

Inside STAR Labs' Metropolis site's medical laboratory the leading physician nods, and the purple ray drone fires at Mister Blake's head again. Blake's implants were a similar technology to what the Psions used on the Tamaranian version of Multiple Man, but far cruder in application. Maybe because they didn't know as much about Human brains as they did about Tamaranian ones, maybe because the First just intended to use him as a power source for the telekinetic enhancement systems in his armour rather than as a soldier in his own right.

"I…" He glances back at the observation window before returning his attention to me. "Mister Blake left Earth in nineteen sixty seven. I studied his old medical records -those that survived- years ago, but they just don't have the information we need. Based on… Our initial MRI scans, he should retain some telekinetic ability. But the rest of the damage is great enough that I don't know if he'll even remember that he has telekinesis."

"What can I do to improve his chances?"

Doctor Williams shrugs. "I don't really think there's anything else you can do. There just isn't enough information on traumatic brain injuries in telepaths. Between your healing ray and STAR Labs… Unless you know some kind of mad scientist bioengineer-."

"Zhet sounds like my cue." Cranius -dressed as Professor Otto von Schadel- steps out of the hush tube and walks past us to stare through the observation window. "Heff you been able to contact his next of kin? Mine own work, it is generally best if I heff signed consent, you understand?"

"I.. don't believe that we've been introduced, Doctor..?"

Cranius -or rather Otto- turns around, a grin on his face that no mere baseline Human other than Mister Napier could come close to matching. "Yes, I em one of zhose! Mister Grayven has been most helpful to me in making contacts amongst my fellow medical professionals! And with the American military, which pleases Janus more zhan it pleases me, but it is still gratifying." Otto steps over to Doctor Williams, beaming all the while. Of course, he doesn't breathe through his mouth… "I am Doctor von Schadel."

"Do you have a great deal of experience in working with telepaths?"

"Young man, I am a telepath. I heff studied myself and my telepathic brezhren extensively, and my knowledge of exotic Human -and Humanish- physiology is unequalled!"

"Then I'm sure that Mister Blake would be glad to have you here, Doctor." Doctor Williams doesn't sound entirely certain, but he's prepared to give us the benefit of the doubt. "If you'll.. come this way, I'll introduce you to Doctor Fransson. She's leading the team…"

Cranius glances back at me once as Doctor Williams leads him into the preparation room. General Lane has expressed cautious interest in Uncorporation's latest product: the oolitic kidney. If the trials prove successful, Cranius gets his wider acceptance, Janus Senior gets a defence contract and the American Military never has to worry about Gulf War Syndrome or Kane Madness ever again. Heck, once the soldiers get Unmanned up they can even use Argonate with zero risk of hideous mutations.

Probably.

Alright, my work here is done. Mister Blake is getting the best care available. Time to get back. I raise my left hand -my right is in a medical gauntlet of Miss Shimmer's design- and look at the surviving power ring. I really didn't want to go to Qward just yet. But what else am I going to do? Where else am I going to get the same snide, needling observations about my failures that Sinestro gives me? Hunt down Sinestro 16? I don't think so.

Ring, hush tube to Emana.

By your command.

…

It's just not the same.

I rise lightly off the ground and float through the tube into near-Emana space, the universe around me glowing orange from the light cast by a hundred and seventy three Lanterns.

16th August
16:37 GMT

Twenty eight deaths in exchange for the death of every Citadelian the First sent against us and virtually their entire fleet. There are lightly defended outposts still to crush, but they can wait a day or two. A pretty good rate of exchange, really.

Koriand'r and Komand'r transition to my side a moment later, both looking at me expectantly. I make eye contact with each, then turn my attention to the planet below us. I raise my eyebrows. "They said anything?"

Komand'r's jaw tenses. "Nothing of consequence."

Emana is well defended as planets go, but ultimately it is an inhabited world and not a fortress space station. The Branx have fleets, but they're mostly owned by privateer guilds. They have weapon stations and anti-bombardment shield generators, enough that even the Citadel wouldn't have been too keen on picking a fight with them. But nothing that would stop Lanterns and nothing that would slow down Lanterns with hush tube access.

Of course, the other way they avoided a fight with the Citadel was by backing them, building their ships and equipment and trading with them. Which is rather why I'm here.

"Shipping activity?"

She looks around, generating targeting reticles all around us to mark their location. "They're avoiding us. I imagine that having an entire Lantern Corps appear in close proximity has encouraged them to be somewhat cautious."

"Think they know about the Citadel yet?"

"Oh yes. They've been talking about little else."

"How fares Adam Blake?"

I look at Koriand'r in concern as her environmental shield flickers out, but she doesn't seem troubled by her sudden vacuum exposure and it returns a moment later.

"He's alive, his brain isn't dead and he's being attended by the most skilled physicians I could find." She nods, apparently satisfied. "You can visit once he wakes up if you like. But for now…" I float past them and hold out my left hand. "Grayven of Apokolips to the government of Emana. I strongly advise answering promptly."

A moment or two passes, then a Branx face appears. I recognise the woman. I think her title is.. 'high coordinator' or something like that. She's more of a Speaker than a President, but their government is structured in such a way that there isn't really anyone above her. "Grayven. What do you want from us?"

"Oh, don't just jump right to the end like that. There needs to be build up!" I smile. "You know that we've destroyed the Citadel and killed the First, yes?"

"I did not know about the First, but yes. We know that the Citadel is gone."

"And you'll note.. that the people with me are exclusively Tamaranian. And don't have anything good to say about the Citadel's allies. We're heading to Karna next, then probably on to the Wombworld. But you made the Citadel's ships. Now, I don't blame you for siding with the strong to protect your own people. In your position I might well have done the same thing. But there's a new ascendant power in Vega and they don't like you very much."

"We are willing to negotiate compensation."

I shake my head. "No. No negotiating. You accept, or your species dies today. Am I clear?"

She considers, her eyes briefly moving to look at someone out of shot before returning to me. "You are clear."

"I negotiated them down to this. You may have peace, and security. If you accept our terms not a single Branx need die. And once you have paid there will be no further retribution of any kind. However, they are otherwise extremely harsh. Firstly, the Branx will undergo one hundred and seven years of planetary isolation. Your people will make best speed for Emana, land, and they will not leave until that span of time has elapsed. Secondly, every piece of orbital infrastructure, every ship and every off-world holding is hereby confiscated."

She shivers. "That will bring about economic ruination. Our government has no power to order such a thing."

"I don't see how that's my problem. If anyone resists, we'll kill them and take it by force. I find either possibility equally appealing. Now, I'm going to give you an hour. At the end of that period I better be seeing some practical action on your part. Grayven out."

16th August
16:49 GMT

I smile politely as the door opens. "Regent Alonzo, a pleasure-."

The white haired and white skinned man in loose-fitting red clothing stares at me sitting in his office chair for about half a second. "Guaaaards!"

"There really isn't-."

He steps back into the hallway, allowing a squad of five royal guards to advance into the room, plasma guns at the ready. Four wear red armour with green knot-pattern decoration and the apparent squad leader wears dull pink with purple knot work. She remains standing in the centre while the other four spread out and crouch, weapons trained on me.

"Get out of the Regent's chair, kneel down and put your hands behind your head."

I make a shrugging gesture with both hands. "What's in it for me?"

"We don't shoot you quite as much."

"With those?" I roll my eyes, then attach filaments to each gun and drop them into subspace. "And I should point out-."

Each soldier stands, reaching for their belt and pulling out… Extendible staves. "Yes, because if I can do that to your guns then I can't possibly do the exact same thing to your sticks."

The leader crouches slightly. "Get the Regent to safety!"

"If I could get through Euphorix's energy shield, I can probably manage to walk to the end of the corridor. Or deposit a bomb here and leave without being detected." That seems to get through to the squad leader. At least a little. A well trained soldier isn't going to let a silly thing like good sense affect their response to a recognised crisis. "But fine." I laboriously rise to my feet, the tension the soldiers are feeling increasing as they get a look at my full size. "Let's get the Regent to safety." Hush tube, if you please.

By your command.

I step forward, appearing just in front of the two guards assigned to evacuate Regent Alonzo. The Regent's eyes widen in horror as he frantically arrests his forward movement while the guards bring up their guns.

"Regent Alonzo, do you have a-"

The guards open fire, moderately powerful plasma bolts being effortlessly absorbed by a combination of my armour and environmental shield.

"-moment to talk? I ask because-." The guard on the left gets the bright idea of shooting me in the face, the bolt burning a superficial streak across my left cheek. I dart forward and grip her gun's barrel with my right hand and crush it. "Could you not?"

The guard tugs at her gun, getting back the grip and hydrogen flask and not much else as the scrap remains in my fist. Hm, good safeties. In a lot of places a gun damaged like that would promptly leak or go critical. The Branx version does that, though it also hits quite a bit harder. Of course, the Euphorix version is a better size for Tamaranians…

Regent Alonzo glances back toward his office as the staff-carrying guards emerge, then looks at me and takes a guess on his chances of escaping. Concluding that it's a pointless endeavour, he pulls himself up. "What do you want?"

"I wish to hire about ten.. thousand technical specialists of various types, mostly working in starship construction and maintenance. Also, several hundred senior non-commissioned officers or whatever you call them for use in a training program, and a smaller number of officers for a similar purpose. Is that something you can organise?"

"W-? You.. broke into my office for something you could have organised through the defence ministry?"

"No, I did that because I wanted to demonstrate that your shield could be bypassed. Also-."

He frowns furiously. "How!?"

"Something, something, hyper-inflated gravitons, six dimensional space… Look, I just use the thing, alright?"

"And where did you get it? Are there.. more?"

"Lots more, but as long as you don't go out of your way to antagonise New Genesis or Apokolips I don't think that you have to worry about an invasion." I shrug my shoulders. "Of course, anything that can be discovered by one civilisation…"

He exhales with frustration as the rest of his detail approach at a jog. "Superordinate Skokiaan, this is a breach situation, highest security. Make sure your squad is aware, then erase all records from internal monitoring. I will be meeting with…" He glances at me and raises his left eyebrow.

"Grayven."

"With Mister Grayven in my office. Authorised list only."

"Yes, Regent." She turns to her squad- "Squad, with me." -and then marches away, her soldiers following behind her in good order.

"I'd appreciate if it you didn't go wandering about." Regent Alonzo leads the way back towards his office and I happily follow him. "Our people believe that the shield is a flawless defence. The knowledge that someone could casually walk in here…"

And since virtually all of your authority stems from the fact that you designed it, that would undermine you a little more than everyone else. Still, I see no benefit in mass panic. At the moment. "That shouldn't be a problem in the short term."

"Mm." He enters his office and walks around to the far side of his desk, looking at the seat I reformatted for my own posterior. After spending a moment weighing up how daft he'd look sitting in it he opts to remain standing. "I assume from your request that you're building an army."

"A stellar navy. I really think that for an advanced civilisation it makes most sense to have the fleet as the core component."

"And who is the lucky civilisation?"

"Tamaran."

He frowns, blinking at the thought. "Have you bought the place from the Gordanian clan that owned it?"

"More 'killed them all', really."

"And come to terms with the Citadel Empire?"

"No, killed them too."

He starts. "You what?"

"Killed them, defeated the First Citadelian in single combat, dropped the still-crewed ships onto a planet and blew up Citadel Complex." I shrug. "I'm building a Lantern Corps, but I think that having a conventional fleet as well would be sensible. And I believe that you cashiered yours."

"We didn't cashier them. There simply wasn't any way to support a fleet in space with the shield in full operation. Some of the personnel became part of our planet-based defence force and the rest were honourably discharged. Though… If you're planning offensive operations… I don't imagine that employing them -even in the numbers you want- will present much difficulty."

"Glad to hear it. Though… With the Citadel gone, most of the reason for maintaining the shield in full time operation has gone as well."

"And how would I explain how I discovered that the Citadel had been destroyed?"

"You could try honesty."

"Once the thousands of people you want to employ report back, I will. But I see absolutely no need to rush matters."

"And I'm sure that the fact that once the Queen returns you'll lose your office doesn't factor in to your considerations."

"Hah!" He smiles smugly. "No, not really. Queen Kalista has barely spent a moment on Euphorix since completing her primary education. She'd be completely dependent on me… If she bothers coming back at all. Now, why don't we talk about what you can offer us in exchange for our technical assistance..?"

16th August
06:50 GMT

While I technically have the day off, I think that I should probably at least do a basic check on the station's facilities. It's mildly gratifying to my ego that even after so much direct exposure I still draw a crowd when I go out in public, but it does get a bit distracting when I'm trying to work. Fortunately, with the hour still being early -at least for most of the residents- my only encounter as I walk through the gardens is a quick mutual wave with one of Jade's fellow joggers. The gardens are something I'm particularly pleased with; people don't function well in purely artificial environments and plants grow perfectly well on space stations. And heck, we wanted to build a synthetic arcane structure anyway, might as well make best use out of it.

As a result, rather than cabins coming off a corridor Star Trek style, everyone living here has a habitation unit in the middle of well-tended grasslands. Patches of succulents with purple flowers provide colour, though not in a direct line between places people are likely to want to walk. A small effort on Euanthe's part keeps the grass growing strong in those places, but I'd rather not trouble her…

I hesitate, crouching down in front of a flowerbed. Actually, I… I don't remember what these are called. The flowers come in clusters of six, the petals arranged in a five-layered spiral pattern with long purple stamens extending out from the centre. There's what I assume to be the seedpod just behind each flower, and each cluster then connects to a thick, fleshy vine. They're quite pretty, but I'm really not-.

No, no, they're just one of Abra's synthetic plants. Silly thing to worry about.

I stand and turn away, heading towards the nearest portal gateway. Magic-based teleportation is so much mechanically simpler than anything technological, particularly given that we already had full control of the station's arcane framework. The transportation effect can just piggyback on the existing connections, unlike the networks on Earth which still have to bind individual gates together.

"Root Bed."

Though I wasn't foolish enough to not include some security, the arcane networks of the station monitor… Well, not monitor-monitor, but they're in constant touch with the souls of all residents. Again, using that as the basis of the security system just seemed like an obvious and logical step. As such, despite this being the most important place on the station there isn't any sort of fortification at the far end. Just a platform around the edge of the room in which the Root of Yggdrasil grows. Part magic and part biotechnology, it binds our little space station to the magics of Earth and allows an isolated space station floating in the void to function as a proper living world rather than a lump of unliving metal. Well, technically, if this place was inhabited for few thousand generations we would get a similar effect but I've never been keen on waiting like that.

It also means that anyone who dies here gets to go to their preferred afterlife. The prospect of permanent purgatory had been making people more than a little uncomfortable about this.

The Root itself is a tall green tower spotted with purple blisters, and it sprouts from the soil below and spreads its vines out across the ceiling. Each vine plugs into a runic tile which serves as the physical aspect of the ongoing connection. I give the whole setup a quick scan, but there doesn't seem to have been any unintentional change-.

"Paul." Abra shimmers into visibility to my right, following my gaze as I consider the Root. "I thought you were taking today off?"

"Just wanted to give the place the once over before I left."

He smiles, patting me on the left shoulder with his right hand. "Paul, I designed this system. It's working fine. And the moment anything goes wrong about thirty people who could actually do something about it will charge through the portals. If you're so eager to put off seeing your Mother, why don't you go and look over Ted's shoulder instead?"

I… Suppose that he's right. I nod, bowing my head slightly afterwards. "That was my next stop. I'll… Leave you to it." I frown. "Wait, how did you know I was here?"

His face freezes for a fraction of a second, then he smiles the relaxed smile I've become familiar with. "Only one man on this station doesn't trigger arrival wards when he uses the gates. I think all the department heads have a spell set to alert them when you appear."

"'Look busy, the boss is coming?'"

"I wouldn't put it quite like that. We've all got as much invested in this place as you have. But you brought us all together, and none of us want to disappoint you." He glances away for a moment and clears his throat. "Or send you on a cross-galaxy rampage, assimilating everything in your path."

"That would never happen, Abra."

"Excuse me if I choose not to take any risks. But! Since you're so concerned…" He walks towards the edge of the platform, glances back to make sure that I'm watching, then draws his wand from thin air. He holds it out like the baton of an orchestra conductor, then with a sweeping motion conjures up an illusion of the station's arcane networks. "The sun still shines, the plants still grow, the links between every part of the station and their anchor points in the Earth-sphere remain strong." The arcane energy flows related to each shimmer as he announces them. "Spare energy bleed through is well under maximum tolerances and network stability is… On track."

"On track?"

"I had hoped that it would go a little faster, but it seems that Sephtian was right. It scales in a linear fashion and not quadratically. At least we are not behind."

"No reported problems?"

"Euanthe tells me that it still doesn't feel quite right…" He shrugs. "Part of the Green's nature is the habit of unrestrained growth. At this point we need to keep it too controlled for it to feel natural to her. The sooner that wildlife areas can be completed the happier it will make her."

I nod. "I'll mention it to Ted. You need anything else yourself?"

"An oracle, if you can find one willing to work here. I'd like to update my arcane analytics programs before the next stage, and someone with an ability for parsing the future from ambiguous inputs would be an interesting case study."

"I'll ask, but I can't promise anything. You know how most Amazons feel about space."

"At least they're prepared to leave their island now."

I smile as I walk back towards the portal. "Yes, we are. Fabrication."

I step out of the portal on the far side and look out across the workshop floor. My ring keeps the noise down, but unlike the Root Bed the Fabrication section keeps going twenty four hours a day. At the moment we're using every bit of orichalcum we produce here ourselves, but once the station is complete we'll be in a perfect position to export it or use it for ship building. A lot of the machinery here was blessed by Hephaestus when it was first assembled, but sadly I wasn't able to persuade him to move here full time. His followers on Earth and his duties to them simply take up too much time for it to be practical for him.

"…through here is where daddy works." I look around as Ted follows me through the portal in his dressing gown, young Damon held firmly in both arms. "And where daddy's going to be late this morning because daddy needs some sleep if he's going to get any work done."

"Morning Ted."

"Hey Paul." He walks past me and tilts his son so that the boy can look out across the foundry. "See all the fancy machines? I always find them all working like that kinda hypnotic and I'm kinda hoping you do too because your mother isn't letting me back in the house until you're asleep."

Damon extends a small hand in the direction of a machine extruding an orichalcum girder. "Gah?"

"Is everyone having an early morning today?"

Ted sighs, then turns towards me. "I wasn't planning to, but Damon had other ideas."

"Lose the coin flip with Io?"

"Not after she caught me using a weighted coin that one time. I get mornings, she gets evenings."

I give Damon a smile. He responds by hugging his father closer and putting his right hand in his mouth. "They're supposed to settle down after a couple of months."

"Looking forward to it. Ever think about having one yourself?"

"Given my personal circumstances-"

He nods. "Right."

"-it could be a bit complicated."

Ted looks around the room and then back to me. "You wouldn't be putting off-?"

"No, clearly that's not an option." I turn away from the workshop and head back towards the portal. "See you tomorrow."

16th August
01:14 GMT -6

I step out of the portal and into the Sivanas' Venusian facility. Even after all of the good work they did during the Sheeda Invasion I haven't been able to get the 'bad' Sivanas a pardon. I have, however, managed to negotiate a truce. One which now I think about it puts me in mind of Doctor McNinja's 'if he calls safe then he gets a pardon' arrangement. As long as they don't interact with any officialdom and don't take the piss on their periodic visits to Earth they don't get bothered.

And with all of the Sheeda technology they've got to reverse engineer I doubt they find it unduly restrictive.

"Hey Orange."

Thaddeus Junior doesn't bother looking up from his work station. He also doesn't bother waving, both his hands deep in one of the Sheeda's undead cyborg horses. Instead, one of the robots behind him starts displaying a picture of his face on its view screen and waves on his behalf. The horse-thing turns its head towards me and whinnies in a pitiful electronic voice, then there's a snap from where Thaddeus is working and its vocal system ceases functioning.

"That's better. I wanted to work on the eye blasters, but the stupid thing just wouldn't shut up."

"You all ready to go?"

"Since you're a superhero I decided to make the portal as simple as possible." The robot turns aside and points to an exit. "There's two buttons. The first one's labelled 'on', and that turns it on. The second one's labelled 'off'. See if you can work out what that one's for by yourself."

"Irene Quimby still not called you back?"

"Don't even start with me, Orange."

"As.. someone who's been reasonably successful in my romantic relationships-."

"If the next part isn't 'I'll let you create a virtual copy of my brain to use as a social interactions app', don't bother."

"I think Georgia studied social science-?"

"Soft. Subject." The horse makes a pawing motion, then its right fore hoof falls off. "I have my pride."

"Have you considered-?"

"I can just turn the portal off permanently, you know? And I'm pretty sure I can make Earth Prime even harder to get to than it already is."

"Okay, okay. Is Georgia about?"

"Still on Colu and Dad's with the portal. Go on, get going. I don't want to have to spend all day on this horse because you distracted me."

"Alright. Oh, ah, Thaddeus?"

He actually looks up, clearly frustrated. "What?"

"Thank you for doing this. I don't think that anyone else could have done this, and if someone could then they clearly weren't bothering. I wasn't expecting anything like this and I'm really happy that you did it."

"Oh. Ah." He ducks back into his horse carcass. "No problem. I guess."

I nod to his back, then walk out of the room. Assuming that he hasn't moved it or something-.

"You're not my type!" I blink. W-? "Not that there's anything wrong with that! Just being clear!"

"Okay! Didn't think I was!"

"Okay then!"

I hear a damp thud, the ring showing me Thaddeus bang his forehead against his pickled horse flesh-covered work bench. I briefly consider making a comment about straight guys not being worth more points, but he has done me a massive favour and I don't think he'd appreciate the humour. Maybe I should.. try talking to Irene? Thaddeus Junior doesn't have a lot of friends… And I know her already through the mad scientist sponsorship program, so it wouldn't be coming completely out of nowhere.

I walk out of the room and turn left, heading towards heavy machine workshop four. Though the Sivana work areas in their Venus habitat can be reconfigured to however they want it, their patriarch doesn't hold with reordering the whole building without good reason. Large projects requiring large amounts of heavy equipment and huge power supplies go in rooms specifically designed for providing those things. And for containing the results if things don't go according to plan.

I walk up to the heavily fortified door and wave at the sensor. "Orange Lantern here. Any chance I could come in?"

A small television screen unfolds itself on an armature, Thaddeus Senior's face appearing a moment later. He does me the courtesy of actually appearing to look at me. "You finally got here. Come on in, we'll get the portal fired up."

Pistons and bolts which I'm almost certain are there purely for theatrical purposes hiss and turn, though I note a couple of force fields disengaging as well. "I'm glad that you think Mother is worth so much effort to protect."

"I've stopped taking things like this for granted where you are concerned."

The four-part door clanks back into its housing, allowing me entry to the heavy machine workshop. Most of the heavier machinery was cleared out once work on the portal was mostly completed, though there's still more than enough to perform maintenance or make emergency corrections. The portal generator itself looks like a stargate designed by Nikola Tesla, glowing rods and whirring thingummies humming with a purpose. Getting access to Earth Prime is so hard that Hinon only managed it by accident, so I'm not surprised that doing it intentionally took Sivana A-game. Creating a physical portal turned out to be even harder, but… Here we are.

And yes, there's the two-button control with both buttons labelled.

Thaddeus Senior looks up from a computer console bank to my left. "Well? Turn it on, then."

"Do those buttons actually do anything?"

"Certainly." He notices what I'm looking at. "Oh, this? This is just so that I can monitor the process."

"And fix it if anything goes wrong."

"Oh, there's no chance at that. If anything goes wrong it will happen far too quickly for anyone to intervene. But, any information I can gather before the horrendous reality-breaking overload will allow the next portal to be far more reliable."

"Um. That wouldn't destroy-?"

"Oh no, Earth Prime wouldn't be affected at all." He frowns. "Probably. Part of the reason why this is so hard is its unusual characteristics, and assuming that our model for this is correct, the blowback will be almost entirely here rather than there."

"Ah…"

"We're prepared for it. Sivana family honor is at stake."

"Alright then. Thank you for filling me with such confidence in your son's work."

"You're welcome."

The sad thing is that they really are the best at this. I stride forwards and press the 'on' button.

And the portal fizzes into life.

16th August
01:19 GMT -6

Mother steps through the portal. And I don't move, I don't… Say anything. I'm just-

"Hm." Thaddeus nods happily to himself. "That worked well."

-stunned, really. Mother looks… More or less as I remember her. My most intense memories were formed when I was younger than I was when I left so when I've thought about her during my time here that's the face I imagined. In reality she's in her sixties and it's a testament to favourable genetics that there's still more black hair on her head than white. She also has it cut shorter than she did when I was smaller. She also looks.. smaller..? Could be age, or it could be the fact that I've put on a lot of muscle during my time here.

She's staring at me, her mouth slightly open in surprise. We sent pictures through before, but I suppose that seeing me in the flesh has rather more impact.

Thaddeus frowns. "I'm not an expert on interpersonal relations, but shouldn't one of you be doing something?"

I rise off the ground to float up to her, an action which gets a surprised blink. Oh… Right, comic book universe technology versus early twenty first century Earth Prime technology. "Yeah, I can… Fly."

"Yes. I know you can."

I hover myself over to her and just stare at her for a moment. It's.. so strange, two parts of my world I'd assumed would never come together doing so. Then I land and hug her, mindful that I'm quite a bit stronger than I was last time I did this. I crouch slightly, lay my chin on her right shoulder as she wraps her arms around me in return. For a fraction of a second my happiness is disrupted by a worry about what happens when someone with no soul gets exposed to an orange power ring… But that's just understandable paranoia. That problem got fixed years ago.

Of course it did.

I pull away slightly, turning aside so that Mother can see Thaddeus. "Mother, this is Doctor Thaddeus Sivana. He was running the portal."

"I'm still running the portal. At least a part of the connection to Earth Prime was brute-forced. I'm not going to shut this down while you're still here, ma'am."

"There's also a good chance that he's an undiagnosed asperger, so please excuse any difficulty he has in his interpersonal skills."

"Is he… Ah..."

"He's a Captain Marvel villain, though he's found more productive avenues for his genius since then."

"You know I don't remember those things like you do."

"I don't think either he or Captain Marvel would have been in anything you would have seen. Unless you saw one of the older animations when you were younger."

Thaddeus frowns. "Now, just a moment. How old do you think I am?"

"Fawcett Comics started publishing Captain Marvel in… Some time in the forties? And you looked more or less as you do now, comic book exaggeration notwithstanding."

"And they named themselves after the city they were writing about? Strange choice."

"So… What have you been up to?"

I lead the way down the steps from the portal generator. "Lots of things, really. Ah, I met a lot of superheroes."

"Have you met Spiderman?"

I can't help but smile. "No, Mother, he's a Marvel character. Like Iron Man and Thor?" She nods in an uncertain manner, probably vaguely remembering me making similar comments before but not fully remembering their contents. "DC's the one who publish Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman."

She nods again. "Do you.. know Superman?"

"We're not.. super-close, but yes, I know him." After he actually admitted he was wrong about how he'd been handling Nabu, I decided to let the whole thing go. Since then, I've had plenty of time to build a better relationship with the man. "I'm quite a lot closer to Superboy-"

"So to speak."

"-than I am to him."

"Do you think I'd recognise any of them?"

…

Yes, what comic characters might my sixty year old Mother recognise.

Um…

"Richard Grayson?"

She raises her eyebrows slightly. "You know Robin?"

"He hasn't been Robin since he started going to college two years ago. Unlike in the comics, people actually get older here."

"Right." She looks around the room. "Where are we?"

Thaddeus walks out from behind his computer array. And I've just noticed the force field projector build into the ground surrounding it. "My home, laboratory and workshop. Your son helped build it, actually."

"Rebuild it. The original version got destroyed during the Sheeda invasion, and I.. rather felt that I owed him."

"Where in the world is it?"

"Venus." / "Venus."

"And who are the Sheeda?"

Thaddeus grins, and ignores my subtle head shake. "You mean, 'who were the Sheeda'."

"That's the other thing about a real comic book universe. Details that get.. skipped over. All the background characters who get killed but whom we don't really care about because they haven't had any screen time? They're actual people." She nods. "I know you said that you'd disown me if I ever joined the army-."

"I also told you that I don't remember saying that."

"At the higher end of the scale, being a superhero isn't just about knocking out lunatics in silly costumes and foiling their robbery attempts. I've killed… People. Vile criminals, aliens who weren't doing anything wrong according to their own morals, some people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time and got mind controlled…"

"How?"

I hold out my left hand. "This is called a power ring. It can.. do a lot of things. Make.. just about anything. I'm not just a.. superhero, I'm a… Top tier one. I could beat Superman in a fight. Not that we've ever actually fought.. seriously."

Mother nods. "I see. I'm.. sure you did your best…"

"I'd.. like to show you around a bit."

"And I want you to tell me what you've been doing for the last six years."

"That's going to take a while. Um, Doctor, would you mind if I used your kitchen?"

16th August
17:51 GMT

I float out of the hush tube into near-Emana space, the outline agreement on a datapad under my arm. Regent Alonzo isn't exactly an autocrat, and he needed time to find out precisely what -or rather who- he could offer me. Similarly, since I'm not planning on kicking King Myand'r out of office I'm technically only negotiating on his behalf and unless I want to give the impression that I'm planning to kick him out I will need him to okay this. Regent Alonzo was mostly interested in technical data and intelligence, but the fact that he asked me to include something about expanding our alliance later suggests to me that he at least understands that their shield will be going down in the not too distant future.

There's a flash of orange as Koriand'r transitions into close proximity. Since I didn't want my Lanterns spending the hour losing their focus, I ordered them to monitor specific areas of Emana to see what they were doing, with the sisters monitoring the capital city. I nod as she approaches. "What news?"

"They started to abandon their orbital shipyards a few minutes ago. Ships have been despatched to their mining colonies in this system to bring their citizens back to the planet. It appears that they will comply." I nod. "Would you actually have done it?"

"What, exterminated them?" She nods, clearly uncomfortable. "No. I would have carried out a limited strike against various facilities on their planet, inviting them to reconsider after each attack. And I would have taken as much of the orbital infrastructure by storm as possible, killing whatever workers were present. But I would have stopped well short of wiping the species out." She nods again, somewhat mollified. "Princess, I appreciate that the Branx were less directly involved in what happened to Tamaran than the Citadelians and the Gordanians and less involved in what happened to you than the Psions, but they are a part of the same alliance. The ships that destroyed the Tamaranian navy were designed and built here. A substantial chunk of the naval force that has maintained Citadel control-."

Her face hardens. "You do not need to remind me of those facts."

I nod sombrely. "I apologise. Perhaps if you told me precisely what your concerns were?"

"Citadel Complex was a military installation. All of the people there were warriors." Ignoring the allied tradespeople who ran most of the businesses in the entertainment district, certainly. "I would not hesitate to kill Branx warriors and I would certainly kill adults working in military industries, but I would not agree to simply bombard a planet until it was utterly destroyed."

I nod again. "Did I tell you that I had access to a Psion crèche when I was on the Wombworld?"

She shakes her head, her hair floating gloriously in the vacuum. "You mentioned that you were studying their civilisation, but you did not mention exactly where you went."

"There are peaceful Branx traders, just as there are peaceful Gordanian clans. The Citadelians are… Were, universally brutes, intentionally created as such. I wasn't sure about the Psions. I was on the verge of deciding that it didn't matter, but Mother Box-." She frowns slightly. "My AI. She pointed out that I could be killing good people, or at least people who were no worse than average. So I set out to check."

"What did you discover?"

"It might be possible to rehabilitate them. Maybe. But we can certainly kill all of the adults without being morally troubled by it; their educational indoctrination is very good." I sigh. "But they have children who can probably be taught to not be evil. And I'm… Going to make an attempt, if doing so is reasonably practical."

Koriand'r smiles at me. It's faint and I get the impression that she's somewhat surprised to be directing it at me, but it's there. And I… I feel a little… Good, to be receiving it. Heh. What a remarkable woman: to still feel sympathy for such a people after what she went through.

Attention: message incoming from planetary government.

"Excuse me." I raise my right hand. "Answer."

The same woman's face appears. "Grayven. We are preparing to acquiesce to the majority of your demands."

I nod. "And that's nearly good enough."

"We would like permission to keep the core of our satellite communications network-."

"I'm sure you would. No. You can use ground-based relays of some kind or high altitude in-atmosphere platform."

"I-." She appears to chew the cud for a moment, a gesture the ring helpfully tells me means that she's struggling to find the words with which to express herself. "What.. about.. defence? If we are limited to ground-based assets we will be extremely vulnerable."

That's.. a reasonable point. I want people to know that when I say 'surrender to my terms and there will be no further punishment' that that is what will happen. If a group of marauders fly through here in a few weeks time… "Very well. I will give you the designs for Euphorix's planetary shield, and guarantee your defence in the period it takes you to construct it."

"You do not have a fleet either. That is the reason why you are steal-. Confiscating our property."

"True, but I have a Lantern Corps. The people who make it up don't like you very much but they hate pirates and raiders even more."

"We also.. need to negotiate time. Some of our guilds are.. somewhat reluctant to-."

"Point us at the most reluctant ones. We'll soon get them moving." I glance at Koriand'r. "I'll give your people one year before we kill in response to a breach of your isolation in order for you to persuade people who haven't returned yet. However, deliberate dawdling may result in impoliteness."

"Then, on behalf of Emana, I.. acquiesce to your demands."

"Glad to hear it. Now get back to work." I dismiss the image then call Komand'r, her face appearing over the ring a moment later. "You hear that?"

"Yes. It was delicious to hear her so humbled."

"Take thirty Lanterns and start moving evacuated orbital structures to Tamaran." Hang on, they've only been using rings for a few days. "Probably best if you use boom tubes to get it to Tamaran and use rings for manoeuvring only. And make sure that there is a constant guard: the planet is our prisoner so it falls to us to look after it. And that goes for our people too. I don't want any of ours taking a sneaky shot once my back is turned."

She shrugs. "As you wish."

One hundred and forty two remaining. Give Komand'r a minute to make her picks…

"How is Ph'yzzon faring?"

Ah yes, the Psions tried to get creative with that one. "It turns out that the Psions didn't rediscover how their forebears created X'Hal. But they were trying to. With you and your sister they were simply trying to copy her more obvious abilities. With him they were trying to copy her higher order abilities instead."

"Were they successful?"

"They managed to do something, but… No, it appears not. If they'd kept trying… Perhaps, eventually." And I doubt that Mother Box will be anything like as enthusiastic about the idea of looking into it as Father Box would have been. "Sphere believes that he'll recover his senses eventually, but at the moment we're keeping him unconscious. Until we're sure that he's coherent." She nods, and I raise the ring again. "Grayven to everyone Komand'r hasn't given alternate orders to. We're heading to Rashashoon to rendezvous with the Karnan/Crown Imperium fleet, then we'll be pressing on to Karna to destroy the Gordanian war fleet. Once that is achieved, we will assist ground operations as requested."

I was surprised to learn that the Karnans had ships, but it turns out that a few were ordered to run when the Gordanian putsch happened and the Crown Imperium has been playing host to them since. Virtually all of the surviving vessels will be joining us, and the Crown Fleet were happy to join in if they got to see the largest source of pirates in the region finally cleaned out.

"Plot courses and warp on three."

16th August
01:47 GMT -6

"How are..?" I sigh. "I suppose that Bubbles and Magic are dead."

Mother puts down her coffee mug. "They were quite elderly Cats."

I nod sadly. It doesn't surprise me, but given how long we'd had them… Since.. Teekl I haven't even thought about getting a pet. And Wolf-.

What was I..?

"So, do you feel up to looking around? I-. Do you remember that I had a comic called Transmetropolitan? I don't remember if I ever showed it to you."

Mother shakes her head. "What was it about?"

"It was set in an American megalopolis, and it was about government corruption and people's responses to it. Technology changes but people stay the same." I shake my head. "The reason I mention it is that one of the things they did is, take people who'd been cryogenically preserved, reanimate them and then send them out into the world. And.. most of them, when they saw how weird it was, sort of… Couldn't cope and went into a mild fugue. Permanently, in most cases."

"What's it like, then?"

"Most places still aren't that different. Maybe what Earth Prime will be like in thirty to forty years. And then there are things that are totally out there. Most big cities have portals-. Remember Stargate?" Mother nods. "Not exactly like that, but if you step through one you turn up at another. I've basically killed off long haul air travel, global warming is a memory-."

"That's amazing!"

I shrug. "With the technology here, it's more amazing that no one did it before me. At the moment I'm focusing on restarting Human space travel, which… For some reason was still using rockets like NASA Prime."

Mother looks thoughtful for a moment. "Thaddeus called our Earth Earth Prime. What does that mean?"

"For the sake of convenience, different parallel universes get assigned labels so that we know what we're talking about. Ours is Prime, this is Sixteen, and… I've encountered one or two others."

I don't know if telling Mother about the other versions of me is a good idea. Clearly none of them have made contact with Mother yet. I've wondered, sometimes, if whatever it was that dragged us from Earth Prime copied us and sent us everywhere, so we're not just different versions of the same person but different people who used to be the same person. Earth Prime is unique in its characteristics, Blue-me's Bleed portal had the exact same characteristics as mine… It makes sense…

"Was there anything visible when I left? Like, a.. weird glowing hole in space or something?"

Mother shakes her head. "I don't know. By the time Cells4Life phoned me it'd been a couple of days. When I went to your house it didn't look like anything was out of order, and the police didn't find anything."

"It probably wouldn't have been possible to detect anything with Earth Prime technology." Though they must be going… Crazy… Now…

Um.

Um? What was I..?

Ah.

"So how's everyone in..? Um, on.. Earth Prime?"

"Fine. Peter and Karen's cottage is mostly finished now-."

"Have they sorted out the drive yet?"

"No, it's still brick and mud. But the… You know the room where we put our coats?" I nod. "That's got a settee and a fireplace now. Your Dad's still swimming regularly."

"Anything radically new?"

"None of the rest of us have been pulled into a parallel universe and become superheroes, no."

"And how's everyone taking the news?"

"Shocked. When the radio first started playing messages I thought it was.. some sort of… A trick. There wasn't any sign you'd actually died, you hadn't left any sort of note or done anything…"

"Anything that suggested that I was planning to go off somewhere and kill myself." I shrug. "Good news: I didn't." I frown. "So… No one apart from you and Dad know?"

"What were we supposed to tell them? Now there's an actual thing there to point to we can.. tell people. We should probably let the police know first." Mother… Mother? Mother exhales, her hands playing with her mug. "You've probably got more experience with that sort of thing that I have. What do you think we should do about it?"

I huff. "No idea. Technically, it would be the job of the Foreign Office to establish relations… If they wanted to. But we can't make the portal bigger than it is now. Trade's pretty much impossible, as most of the really useful technology we've got wouldn't work on Earth Prime. And we'd probably get sued by DC."

"I don't think it works like that."

"Probably not."

Mother finishes off the last of her coffee as I think about how I want to do this. No, let's see what she wants to ask.

"So… Are you the only Orange Lantern?"

Ah. "The only one on Earth, yes." Am I? Yes, of course I am. But why? There's no logical reason for me not to have recruited additional local help. We're not short of avaricious Humans, I'd be around-. Oh! No, of course! How could I forget Lex taking a ring from me? "No, sorry, I-."

How could I forget Lex taking a ring from me?

Damn, that's… That's not even subtle. But what else..?

I look Mother in the eyes. Heh. Once you know to look…

"I'm sorry, I didn't mention it before. But you're looking very well, Mother."

"Thank you?"

"I'd say that you haven't aged since I last saw you. At all. And I've never referred to you as Mother before today, except sarcastically. A dozen times in this conversation alone I've experienced moments of confusion resulting from what felt a lot like telepathically induced doublethink, because they trained us to spot that as well. And I'm sure there are things I'm missing, or was made to forget or not notice."

"Who are you?"

16th August
01:51 GMT -6

"I don't know what you're-."

"What's my name?"

Mother -or whatever I'm talking to- shakes her head. "You know what your name is."

"Of course I do." And while that idea feels completely natural, I can't help but notice that a few moments ago I felt rather differently about it. "It's not remote mind control, is it? If it was and you were controlling me this completely, I wouldn't be able to notice that you were doing it. You've connected yourself directly to my central nervous system."

I knew-. I knew-. It's gone. I knew who this was, but that memory is being suppressed as well. Vexing. "I remember Abra saying my name, but that was just you poking my own memory remotely. You can't say it yourself, can you?"

"Of course I can, P-."

The world vanishes, my eyes… My scum-encrusted eyes opening to a field of rotting corpses bound together by thick, woody brown-green vines. Some of the remains are rotted through, little more than desiccated skin and hair holding bone together. Others are fresh, oozing blood from the wounds that took the lives of their former occupants. A few metres in front of me to my left a reptilian hexapod wrapped in vines and flowers blinks, shudders and exhales, the colours of its soul fading before my eyes-.

And then the room reappears, Mother glowering at me.

I know that world. I know what happened. I just can't think it.

"Okay, so what happens now? Do you just wait for me to starve to death? Because that's going to take a very long time."

Alright, what's the last thing I remember clearly? My unedited memories should still be perfect, and if I'm consciously experiencing the editing process for them I doubt whatever this is has actually created false memories for years. I clearly remember from waking up with Kon-.

And the day before that, when-. No, that's generic. You might as well use an algorithm. But I remember-. Just walking around. And Kon and I being in the kitchen, talking about-. Literally lifted from a conversation we had years ago in the Mountain. What was I doing last year?

…

Well shit.

Okay, I… I remember killing Nabu very clearly. Meeting Hinon? Yep. Killing the Citadelians… Killing..? I mind controlled a group of Citadelians into fighting for me, and… I talked to Medphyll about it later. Picking up Dox, yes, I remember that fight-.

And when I asked that Martian security guard what my name was.

The field of corpses reappears, a vine extending into the remains of the reptilian as I watch. How do I feel? Basically..? There's a weight on my chest, a tightness… Why would anything making a nervous system interface go through the chest? It would be far easier to go in through the spine or skull. I look down-.

Flowers. The vines are reaching out from the central cluster, reaching around-. They must be what's plugging into me. I can't feel them, but-

The Sivana family kitchen -which now I take a closer look I see is identical to the one I saw during my first visit- reappears.

-then I wouldn't be able to. Some sort of predatory plant? Wasn't there an episode of X-Files where Mulder got eaten by a giant fungus? But this isn't a chemically induced hallucination, and I am talking to the directing mind here.

I remember going with Medphyll to free Dox, I remember in tedious detail the meetings which followed while we fleshed out how the Corps was going to recruit. Dox wanted some proof that my vetting was superior to the analytic system he designed, and I flew off to recruit…

Sodam Yat? No, I don't.. remember going to Daxam. I wasn't even sure I wanted to go there until I could speak to Kon about it. And maybe Kal-El. Qward? No. Nothing. I-.

I remember shaking hands with a short but heavily built man-.

The textures are wrong! That's an interpretation of my memory of the Weaponer from the comics! I don't know what the man really looks like!

Alright. So it's preventing me from remembering the recruit. And I don't have clear memories of anything since then until waking up this morning, so presumably that's when this actually is. I can't remember who I was coming to see or where I saw that planet before. Any other clues? I'm calling the thing that looks like my Mum 'Mother', it must have been something that I thought might make a good Lantern… Or just ambushed along the way. No, that doesn't sound likely. There aren't many things that could both beat me in combat without killing me and then do something like this. That suggests… I dropped my defences willingly. Okay, past-me has some explaining to do.

I smile.

"And you should have remembered to erase my memory of my notebook, Mother of Mercy."

"I have never thought of myself by that name. A reference to a figure from your species' primary religion and to the common name for my children."

"Oh, good, you're not erasing it anymore. Thank you." Mum's facial expression has gone slightly blank, Mother of Mercy not using my memories to animate it any longer. "What was this in aid of?"

"Making your death painless, should I judge that your offer was unrealistic."

"I still don't… Did you erase it, or are you suppressing it? Because if I followed through on my idea of offering you a power ring, I'm pretty sure that it was realistic. I've got hundreds of the bloody things. And I can't imagine what you thought that I might be able to do to you after you put one on that I couldn't just do anyway."

"I wanted to see from your own thoughts what it is that you are trying to build."

"And the thing with Jade, Kon and M'gann that's never going to happen?"

"It matches your desires. I had hoped that you would be so happy with the situation that you would not question it."

"That isn't what I want. It would never work. I know that, why don't you?"

"I altered the way in which you weighed the factors affecting your decision. If they accepted the relationship, you would be most happy."

"Oh, then why not throw in… Holly, Karon, Selina, Dannette and Harleen while you're at it?"

"I have a great deal of experience with differing social models. Adding additional people to the scenario -even if you found them attractive- would most likely have resulted in you being less happy. Your brain favours small tight-knit groups for long term companionship, even if your lust might encourage a different mating pattern."

"If I remember correctly..?" She nods. "You don't mate at all. In other circumstances I'd be fascinated to ask what you make of the whole business, but at the moment I'm more interested in what happens next. Did you learn what you wanted to?"

"You bore no resentment for the past crimes of your allies, and you were honestly delighted in them dedicating themselves and their abilities to ends you consider productive. You want to build and aid your fellows. I have learned that you were honest with me."

"Then I'll be honest again. You'd probably be better with an indigo ring. But I don't have those. You saw the comic I read in which you were offered both yellow and green rings. I'd like to get my offer in first, but I'd understand if you wanted to consider other offers."

"I am minded to accept. However, I have two concerns."

"Okay. What are they?"

"Firstly, Mongul has placed sixteen antimatter planetary demolition charges under this world's crust. In the event that I act against him they will detonate. When I was smaller such a cataclysm was survivable, but he has forced me to grow much since we first met."

"We could deal with that. What else?"

"I detected your presence when you first arrived, and reported it. A flotilla is approaching already."

"Oh. Oh dear."

16th August
I'll get back to you

"Do you know how many ships they're sending?"

"Only approximately. The parts of myself I use to manipulate gravity can sense the distortions created by matter, but the resolution is poor by the standards you are accustomed to."

"Okay, let me go and I'll take a look."

"That is where I am still uncertain."

I bow my head slightly, nodding. "Because they won't kill you if you've done what they told you to, but they might if you're actively helping me."

"If it is Mongul, then he would kill me without a doubt."

I look up. "And then what?"

"Your remains will either decorate his throne room or I will be given them to fertilise my soils."

"But what happens to you?"

"I will continue."

"And Mongul will continue using your offspring as devices of torture and terror. Across quite a large swath of the galaxy that's all they're known for."

"I have seen your memories of the Beast. Do not expect me to believe that an Orange Lantern would be better regarded."

"Not yet. The difference is, we're in a position to do something about it. You're stuck. Do you know how long Mongul's species lives? Do you want to gamble on his heir treating you differently?"

"I have no need to gamble. I can wait."

"With bombs at your core ready to go off the moment he decides that he doesn't want you around any longer. But that's not my question. I know that you can survive like this. My question is: is this what you want?"

"No."

"What do you want?"

"When I was small and simple, it was the earliest stirrings of curiosity which led me to the surface." The kitchen falls away as she changes the illusion to show her former self deep underwater. Far from her current world-covering size, her former self was a ball of vines no more than five metres across. I watch her release her grip from the seabed and rise towards the shore of a small rocky island. I see her pull herself out of the water and plug her vines into the dying pilot of a small spacecraft. "When I interfaced with that alien's mind, I gained full access to his memories. You already know that I used that connection to induce a pleasant delusion as he died. What you do not know is that contact with his mind caused massive change within my own. I had no language before that. I hardly thought at all of anything save ocean currents and feeding. But contact with another mind taught me so much."

"About the universe? I assume that-."

"No." Time rapidly passes in the image, the alien decaying and Mother of Mercy growing. "About pain."

"That's.. what you took away from it?"

"I lacked sensory nerves in the way that you possess them. When I became damaged I was aware of it, but only in a far less immediate way. When I touched that first individual's mind it was pain that was the strongest sensation."

"I see."

"I now understand that it strongly slanted my still-forming mind, but-."

"Your first sentient thoughts were filled with pain. Someone else's, but I can see how that would colour your perception."

"So I created the parts of me you know as Black Mercies."

"How?"

"I believe that my ability to interface with other species was originally for hunting. I would be able to lure mobile species closer by connecting to their central nervous systems. Making them feel good is so much simpler than controlling their motor neurons."

"I meant, how did you know how to do that? To modify your body like that? Or is it just something your entire species can do?"

"I do not know. I have never encountered another being like me, or heard of anyone who has. Modifying my body felt natural. Perhaps it is how I am meant to reproduce."

"And you used your gravity manipulation abilities to send them out while calling spaceborne corpses back to you. What did you want?"

"To prevent pain."

"Have you stopped wanting to do that?"

"No."

"Tell me about the bombs."

"When I was smaller, they would have destroyed the planet but in a way I could have survived. Eventually I would have come to a new planet and awoken. Now, my roots extend down towards the mantle to draw upon geothermic energy and my growth buds reach outside of this world's atmosphere. I am too large. The detonation of any one bomb would kill me."

"Do you know where they are?"

"Yes. However, they are designed to react explosively to any attempt I might make to tamper with them."

"Can you touch their outer casing?"

"Yes. Mongul insisted that I do so in order to confirm that his threat was real."

It's not completely reliable, but… "Do they seem in any way strange to your gravity sense?"

"I don't know. I have had no other contact with antimatter."

"But you can sense the mass, yes?"

"Yes."

"Alright. Then I probably have a way to remove them. Or rather, I can give one to you."

"How?"

"I came here with a newly minted orange power ring. One of a power ring's abilities is to put objects into a subspace pocket. Now, I assume that the bombs are designed in such a way that tampering with one successfully triggers the rest-."

"You are an experienced Lantern. Why do you not remove them?"

"Because if you let me go and I have to do something like that, it'll be obvious. Our best chance for dealing with that fleet is for them to have no idea that you're hostile until it's too late for them to escape." I lean forwards slightly. "So I ask again: what do you want?"

"I want to be free."

"Then free me."

I feel a damp crunching from my chest as the field of rot reappears and the Black Mercy falls from my chest. That's a rather unpleasant-looking wound.

Wholeness Rightly Assumed.

Compliance.

I come to my feet and hold out my right hand, sliding the new ring free from my ring finger. Then I turn around to look at the towering mass of pale green vines and purple blisters which makes up the locus of Mother of Mercy's world-spanning consciousness.

"Mother of Mercy of Ater Clementia, you want to prevent suffering and I want you for the Orange Lantern Corps." She extends a tendril down towards me. "Take my ring."

16th August
22:42 GMT

Turns out, I did take precautions before letting Mother of Mercy stick a Black Mercy on my chest. And while I'm not exactly patting past-me on the back for that idea, it has worked. Mother of Mercy's locus is now sporting a glowing vine-knot in the pattern of an orange sigil and is working to envelop the antimatter planetary scuttling charges even as I use my ex-Darkstar stealth reconnaissance drones to observe the incoming fleet. On the plus side, no Warworld. If that monstrosity had turned up I think I'd probably try and work out how to run rather than trying to fight it.

On the downside, that's very definitely an Engine City parked on the super-Earth one place further from the local star than Ater Clementia. Engine Cities are the basis of Mongul's industrial base, and how a man who can barely withstand his desire to kill everyone around him at the best of times has a functioning empire. Giant, automated resource-extraction systems, the Engine Cities get planted on worlds he expands to after their population has stopped resisting -usually due to being dead- and turn them into more ships, robots and new Engine Cities. The fleet appears to have decided to stop off there prior to coming here, which suggests that they're not exactly in a hurry. Which in turn most likely means that they have accepted what Mother of Mercy… Sorry, Lantern Mother of Mercy, has told them about who she captured.

I don't remember a lot about Mongul, or his children Mongul Junior and Mongal. They're big, strong, tough and reasonably-but-not-super fast. Mongul was in Justice League Animated for a couple of episodes, where he was shown to be a high end brawler of reasonable intelligence. I also read 'For the Man Who Has Everything' after watching the Justice League Animated episode based on it. Based on that I'd call him arrogant and aggressive, and nothing on John's old ring database contradicts that assessment.

Assuming it's accurate, what does that tell me? If he thought I was a threat he'd come himself. If he felt that a member of a Lantern Corps -established or up and coming- was intruding on his territory then he'd come himself to avenge the insult and make the rest of the organisation think twice. And he wouldn't stop off somewhere first. In fact, he'd probably send someone else to do that after he'd dealt with me while he went back to whatever he'd been doing beforehand. So, minimal chance it's him.

While he has had subordinates before, they generally don't last long and those ships match the style of his main fleet. So, Mongul Junior -who briefly dethroned Sinestro in the comics- or Mongal. The only thing I remember her doing was taking part in the fight against Imperiax. Mongul Junior would probably be glad to take a ring from me, work with me to kill his father and then kill me as soon afterwards as he could. Mongal… Pass. No idea. She could be a chip off the old block or genuinely want to leave. I've got no way to know unless I get a good deal closer than I am right now.

"I am ready."

I nod. "There's only so much I can do defensively, but I'll put a barrier up underground. That won't stop the destruction of the planet, but it should keep some of the energy off us until I can get your core away. Have you made preparations for surviving that?"

"As much of my consciousness as can be moved is in the stem you see before you. I will still lose a good deal of my capacities, and will most likely enter a torpor while I attempt to heal myself."

"If it comes to it I'll put you in good soil. And have a Controller or two look you over to see if there's anything they can do to speed up the process."

"Thank you."

I kneel, shoving my left gauntlet into the vine carpet and then extending a thick thread of orange light downwards. As Lantern Mother of Mercy said, she doesn't have much feeling in most of her body so cutting through a vine or two won't actually hurt her. I'd still rather avoid it, though. Okay, avoid the main vines going downwards… We're about as far from the bombs here as we can get without leaving the surface, and there's a lot of solid rock in the way as well. But antimatter bombs ensure perfect energy release and the bombs here are big. Planets aren't solid bodies, but the shockwaves will still be large enough to shatter the surface entirely if two go off. One wouldn't do quite that much damage, but I still wouldn't want to try living here afterwards.

Of course, most of the matter would still be here and it would probably coalesce into a new planet in a few thousand years or so. But again, not really helpful.

I'm confident of my ability to extract Lantern Mother of Mercy's core even in a high-gamma radiation environment. And I'm.. a little curious as to what being blasted off a planet on a rock plug would feel like. But that at least is simple. If I assume that that doesn't happen, we'll still be left with the fleet. Lantern Mother of Mercy's gravity manipulation is long ranged but weak; no ripping ships apart or anything convenient like that. The ships have their shields at cruising power rather than combat power. I don't know exactly how much antimatter there is in the bombs, but if the shields are up I don't expect to be able to kill the ships with the bombs. The blast waves don't meaningfully travel through space and gamma radiation isn't that hard to deflect.

That Engine City, on the other hand, looks marvellously vulnerable. And I'd bet on crumbler rounds against their shields and my FTL against theirs. Reinforcements are unlikely. Mongul's people tend to go in mob-handed or not at all and if the commander of this flotilla fails Mongul then I doubt that there'll be retaliation in the short term.

Against me, anyway.

"I am about to take hold of the bombs."

"Okay." I spread out my construct shield-plate. "Give me a count-."

"It is done."

"Oh." I blink, then shrug inside my armour and stand up, dismissing my construct. "Ready for the next step?"

"Yes."

"Bombs at the ready. On my mark." Construct armour forms around my body as orange light spreads out across every part of Lantern Mother of Mercy's body. "Three, two, one, go."

If I don't get to try living through an antimatter-powered planet-busting then I'll have to make do with another first. The first time I've ridden on a faster than light planet.

"Hahahahahahahaha!"

I spread my arms wide and cackle dementedly as orange construct versions of the spires Lantern Mother of Mercy uses to manipulate gravity shoot upwards and the sky twists and jumps in response. It's not far to go but there's a lot of mass here and Lantern Mother of Mercy is somewhat new at this.

"They're asking what's happening."

I guess that's my cue then.

Space bends around me as I leap from the surface of Ater Clementia, the sheer grey walls of the fleet's largest ship appearing a moment later. I generate a construct railgun, paint a construct target on the side of the vessel and open fire with crumbler rounds as beneath me the surface of Ater Clementia's neighbour erupts in a ball of antimatter-enriched death. The Engine City vanishes, the continent it sat on evaporates and the planet's surface jerks in a way that's visible from space from the force of the blast. Ship's shield -I start taking laser fire from the ship's point defences but it's nothing my construct armour can't take- fails over a small area, okay, fine, new construct railguns and fire over a wider area.

There's more flickering as the shield restarts and then fails over a larger area. The gap between the shield and the hull-. Ring, transmit that to Lantern Mother of Mercy.

Compliance.

Should be enough room to dump a bomb in there through a gap… And my goodness doesn't having a planet suddenly appear out of nowhere cause a fleet to panic. One of the capital ships starts its FTL systems up immediately -which I jam- while the rest are trying to scatter with sublight drives.

"I am planting the bomb."

Not hanging around for that one. I warp back to Ater Clementia's surface, then have the ring show me the enemy fleet's capital ship. Around me plumes of fire from whatever weapons were pointed in our direction rain down on Lantern Mother of Mercy's construct shields, occasionally punching through to blast against the surface. Not much threat to her mind here but if they destroy too much she won't be able to use FTL for a while.

The capital ship wheels, armour plates sliding open as its anti-planet missiles prepare to fire and I start to feel just a little-.

Then the antimatter charges detonate. And it's beautiful.

16th August
22:45 GMT

The ship… I don't know what class it is. Given the missiles… Planetary assault dreadnaught, maybe? The blast shoves it sideways, the hull caving around the detonation as it eats through the armour and into the squishy interior. The point defence drones that were shooting at me evaporate around the hole in the ship's shields but… Hah! The shield sections that are still intact are reflecting the gamma burst inwards against the hull! That whole side of the ship is superheating! Lights flicker out as the internal power systems fail and ooh, someone was carrying antimatter!

The ship jerks again as its entire centre comes apart in a huge blast which splits the ship in two as well as eating through most of the interior as the armoured hull channels the blast inwards. Life signs, few and fading.

I turn back towards Lantern Mother of Mercy's locus. "Set course for Maltus, would you?"

"I will need to redirect effort from my defences to do that."

"Alright, I'll see if I can persuade them to back off. How many bombs left?"

"Eleven."

And they only have four capital ships left. Good show. I hold my left hand out in front of me, palm upwards. "Orange Lantern Two Eight One Four to whoever's in charge of Mongul's fleet. Cease fire and get lost, or we do to the rest of you what we did to your flagship."

I raise an FTL interdiction construct, focusing its effect on Ater Clementia's far side. Don't really want them repositioning around the planet or coming closer, but I do want them to be able to leave. The surviving ships stop shooting and manoeuvre into something approaching a formation.

"I am Mongal and I command this fleet. That was not our flagship."

"Really?"

"I would not be talking to you if it was."

"No, I mean, Mongul seriously named his daughter 'Mongal'? Is he that arrogant or is he just not very good at names?"

"You destroyed our Engine City, our bulk carrier and now you childishly mock my name! Die!"

The capitals ships roll slightly, bring their guns to bear on the planet-.

"Distort gravity to turn their shots aside, then prepare to deploy the bombs."

"That will be difficult."

"You don't have to do it for long."

An image appears in my mind showing me what she means. The distortions she makes are gradual and not sharp. Where they are now she can turn their shots aside. As they come closer -which they're doing- the amount which the shots will be deflected drops. She could use her ring to change that, but smaller missiles and drone attack craft are already heading this way.

Ring, I'm assuming that they've blocked most forms of FTL?

Affirmative.

What aren't they blocking?

Luminal state drives are not blocked.

Alright, not my favourite form but I can work with that. The ship's main guns are fixed position, secondary weapons are mounted on ball turrets. They still have a fighter screen…

Ring, set subluminal emergence point to just past the last capital ship.

Compliance.

Engage.

There's a flash as my ring briefly convinces the universe that I'm made of faster than light particles, then the stars reappear. I spin about, phasing as I take a chance on the fleet not having noticed-. No, they noticed. I come back into phase and generate construct armour and railguns. Let's try… Solid slugs, I think. Target the interceptors until I'm close enough to mark the capital ships.

Compliance.

Tungsten slugs blast forth and… The drones are using gravity impellers, jerking left and right in defiance of momentum and effortlessly avoiding my shots. Fine, drop the railguns and switch to cold guns.

Compliance.

And adopt an evasive flight pattern.

Compliance.

Space wheels about me as my ring copies the style of my opponents without precisely copying their patterns, white beams from my cold guns being replied to by golden bolts of… Some sort of exotic radiation beam, apparently. A couple of strikes on my construct faceplate result in mild cracking, the majority of their shots going wide. Though that will change as they start to reach me. My own shots miss, miss-. Ah, that one carried on to hit one of the capital ships and.. caused a momentary collapse of its outer shield layer. A plasma field thick enough to absorb a cold beam? By most standards that's excellent shielding. That ship's a brawler.

A hit, and the drone tumbles in space. It doesn't stop but continues in a ballistic arc based on its momentum. Ring, try and line up more so that misses hit the capital ships.

That utility was already included in calculations.

Oh. Well done.

I watch as on the far side of the enemy fleet their main guns fire again, giant glowing beams lancing towards Ater Clementia and slowly bending away from their target. They skim the atmosphere before flying out into deep space.

Let's not let too many of those happen.

The drones start reducing their acceleration in order to avoid flying past me, making shooting them a little easier. The ones in a direct line start to die en masse but I'm aware that the swarm is starting to loop back and surround me. Since I'm not slowing and the angle isn't good for them at the moment I'm not taking extra hits myself, but that will change when they form up behind me.

Okay, close enough. I don't slow, but I switch my cold gun constructs for railguns and open fire. I'm not familiar with this particular shield configuration, but the ships have far too much mass for them to be able to dodge effectively. I think it was G'Kar who said that the logical places to aim when shooting at a ship were the drive and the weapons as both have to be exposed with minimal armour. And he wasn't wrong; while the primary generator, bridge and crew quarters will be deep inside the hull most ships use forms of sublight drive which require something to be expelled. Shielding also tends to be weaker due to the space requirements for the emitters. Not all, gravity drives don't need anything like that, but Mongul appears to use that for drones only. Odd choice, but, whatever.

Crumbler rounds slam into the shield around the exhausts of the closest capital ship, the barrier shimmering and failing, second layer going the same way and-. The top layer regenerated! Gosh, that was fast. Okay, I don't think I can match that to Lantern Mother of Mercy's bomb deployment, not without slowing down and getting shot dead by drones and point defences.

Brute force it is then.

"Lantern Mother of Mercy, prepare to deploy the first bomb wave."

"I am ready."

I fire again, sending thick strands of orange in the wake of the crumble rounds. The outer layer of shielding breaks again, but this time I generate an armoured construct cylinder in the place it used to be. The shield tries to flow back in from the sides even as the next crumbler round takes down the second layer and I extend the construct inwards. Tethers vanish as whoever's controlling the drones works out what I'm doing and I have to work to establish new ones faster than they can be destroyed. Come on… Yes! Three layers only, the next shot hit the hull directly.

"Now!"

Faster than I could think an orange beam envelopes the ship, Lantern Mother of Mercy dropping two bombs inside the now open shield envelope. I drop my construct and make a luminal jump away as the ship erupts from the rear.

16th August
22:48 GMT

While nothing like as cataclysmic as what happened to the cargo carrier, the effect is still substantial. The thrusters assembly is gone, the rear quarter of the ship almost entirely hollowed out with the hull and most heavily armoured internal structures sticking out into space. The shields are down all over the ship, so either the internal damage not immediately visible is so great as to take down the whole system or the commander saw the carrier fried by gamma containment and has decided that containing the radiation is a bigger risk to the ship than a follow up bomb.

If that was the case then they were badly wrong, as I'm already moving onto the next ship when the first is lit up with orange light once again as Lantern Mother of Mercy deploys another bomb. This one appears next to the primary weapon and detonates immediately. With the ship designed to point that weapon directly at its enemy the surrounding armour is massively thick and sophisticated. That, combined with the surrounding vacuum limiting shockwave transmission means that the front end isn't damaged anything like as badly as the rear. That is to say, it still exists. The main gun is slagged, the armour is glowing red as heavily distorted plates continue to boil away from the hull. And it looks like the secondary turrets are no longer tracking, so either power is down or we hit the bridge.

I alter my direction of travel, aiming at the next ship.

Ring, message to the fleet.

Compliance.

"Mongulists. Cease fire and withdraw or I do that to the rest of you."

"We will scour Ater Clementia of life before allowing you a victory!"

"While I would much rather recover Mother of Mercy, killing you represents an acceptable 'next best thing'. You know I can kill you. The most sensible thing you could do would be to fall back and try again when you're better prepared. I will not repeat this offer. Fire again, and we don't stop until your ships are wrecked and everyone on board is dead."

If it comes to that, Lantern Mother of Mercy will have taken substantial damage. I'd rather not make that trade…

Of course, if I'm really lucky Mongal will shout 'I'll kill you myself' and come after me in a personal fighter. If that happens I'll have a reasonable chance at turning the ship crews to my cause on the grounds that going back to Mongul minus an Engine City, a Mother of Mercy and a daughter wouldn't do much for their life insurance premiums.

"Three, two-."

"I accept your terms, but mark my words, Lantern! Your head will decorate my father's halls-!"

"And not yours. Yes, I rather understood that was how it worked. You know, if you'd rather work for someone else-?"

Channel closed.

Yes, I suppose that was a bit hopeful. The ships begin to wheel around, secondary turrets not even pointing at Ater Clementia. I don't stop or drop my railgun turrets, but as the drones fly past me without firing and head for their parent ships I start to wind down mentally. I alter my course to fall back slightly, keeping my guns trained on them but allowing my shot to gradually worsen. I wonder if there's a way to create faster than light crumblers? No, stupid question, obviously there is, but I wonder if there's a way to do it without building a full sized FTL torpedo. Those things aren't common for a good reason: they're far too easy to distract or disrupt. Some sort of… Space warping field projection, maybe..?

"Thank you for liberating me."

"There's a Human expression, Lantern Mercy. Don't count your chickens before they're hatched."

"Because some eggs may get eaten or otherwise be destroyed before that. Where can you see potential for a problem to arise?"

"Anger is a tricky beast. They might call in reinforcements, even knowing that we'd kill them in retaliation, rather than let us win. In order to let them leave I'm having to give them an escape vector where I'm not jamming faster than light travel. A way out is a way in."

"I have an additional problem."

"Oh, what's that?"

"Between the energy I am committing to the subspace pocket containing the remaining bombs and the shields I am maintaining to protect myself, my ring is very low on power."

"How low?"

"Eight percent."

"Okay, as long as they don't fire-."

"Seven percent."

What's using-? Gravity distortions. Maintaining a construct requires avarice, making it in the first place requires ring power. As long as those barriers don't get shot they don't take any more power, but the gravity distortions she's using to shield herself do. Can't recharge without dropping her construct…

Ring, is superluminal travel still available?

Confirmed.

Plot course to Lantern Mother of Mercy's locus and execute.

Compliance.

A flash and I'm back on the ground. I take a moment to reorientate myself and then march toward her, my left gauntlet disappearing into subspace as I do so.

"The plan is, you take my ring, switch to using that, then pass me your ring for me to recharge. Simple enough?"

"There will be a slight shift in the gravity distortion. They may be able to detect it."

"Six percent power remaining."

"They're quite a lot more likely to detect your construct barriers vanishing." I pull my ring off and hold it out to her. "Do it."

A tendril sprouts from my left, reaching out from the main mass. "No ritual handover this time?"

"Not for fieldwork."

Her tendril plucks my ring from my hand, my environmental shield going out as she does so. Okay, that always worries me a little, but… Air pressure's a little high on my left hand, but nothing dangerous. Local air isn't breathable by a standard pattern humanoid, but my armour's atmosphere recycling system can handle it easily for the few seconds it'll take for her to pass me hers. She pulls my ring to her central mass, a slight ripple passing through her environmental shield as she syncs them up.

"Did they notice?"

"I do not believe so." Another tendril swings around, her dimly glowing ring falling from the end into my waiting hands.

"Right."

I slide her ring onto my left ring finger, then summon her lantern from subspace. The new model lanterns look like miniature versions of the Orange Central Power Battery rather than the 'classic' design mine has. I wouldn't change it for anything, but I can't deny that the new version looks more… Appropriate, for a space-aged military police force.

"This is my cause, this is my fight-."

"Is that necessary?"

"No." I tap the ring against the body of the personal lantern.

"Charge at one hundred percent."

"But it's traditional. What we're doing, devoting our lives to improving the universe, it's a big deal. And it's easy to get distracted from the mission. Particularly with orange rings."

"How so?"

"Getting to do whatever you want is addictive. The oath is there to ensure that we constantly remind ourselves of our higher ideals, but… I don't intend to lock personal lanterns to a mantra, and there are Green Lanterns who don't use one."

"What should it consist of?"

"Something that reminds you of why you're doing this. What it is you hope to achieve with your ring. And it's traditionally four lines of eight syllables in whatever language you choose for it."

"Then I believe that I have something in mind for my own."

17th August
03:04 GMT

I lean back slightly as I look at the effect of Mother of Mercy's spatial warp through her atmosphere. It's kind of.. soothing in a way that my own warps aren't. No sign of pursuit from the Mongalites, though we have had the occasional curious transmission from ships and worlds that we've travelled past.

But, joyride's over.

"Orange Lantern Two Eight One Four to Controller Hinon. Please respond."

"Paul!" Hinon's smiling face appears over my ring. "We were beginning to worry that something might have happened to you."

"Really?"

"I was. Dox was being depressingly sanguine about the whole thing. What news?"

"Recruitment successful. Mother of Mercy has accepted an orange ring and performed well in combat."

"'Mother of Mercy'? Is she theologically inclined? I did think about the possibility of using the theologically inclined as Lanterns when Krona and I brainstormed the subject…"

"Not as… Far as I know." I glance back, keeping Hinon from getting a look at Lantern Mother of Mercy's locus. "Are you?"

"My children have posed as a being of religious veneration for untold millions of dying sophonts. I have no inclination to such reverence myself."

I nod, then turn back to Hinon. "She says 'no'."

"So who is she?" Hinon cocks her head to the side a little. "You didn't give a ring to your Spider-friend, did yo-?"

"No."

"Hmm. Given the significance of your first recruitment mission I doubt that you would have done anything so dull as recruit another Humanoid. An AI, perhaps? I'm sure that Dox would appreciate someone on his wavelength." Her eyes widen slightly. "You haven't reconditioned a Manhunter, have you?"

I frown. "No. That's something that no one should ever do. And I'm a bit iffy on the Fists, to be honest."

"Did you know that the Guardians still use them?"

"What, Fists? Yes, Jordan's report on Sinestro's arrest-."

She huffs. "No, not Fists. Manhunters."

What? "What?"

"Manhunters. You know, the big red and blue robot things-.

"I know what the Manhunters are. Why the.. heck are the Guardians still using them?"

"Waste not want not. After the remaining ones were deactivated, they kept them in one piece as objects of study, then.. later as aids to memory. Eventually they reprogrammed them for guard duty."

Huh. Logically, if their programming was completely stripped out… I really don't think that the Guardians would have made the same mistake twice. Still…

"Yes, I see that you don't approve. Would you like to guess where they're deployed?"

"The Sciencells? I can't think of any other locations they might want to guard that don't get visi-." I blink. "No."

"Where else would they put them? You yourself have already seen how the Guardians like to conceal multiple sins behind the same exclusion zone. Anywhere else and someone was bound to stumble across them sooner or later."

"Abin Sur went there. He couldn't have missed them."

"Green Lanterns tend to have a rather narrow focus. Though I don't know for certain, I imagine that utilising the simple expedient of hiding in interstellar space with their power cores turned down to minimum would have been sufficient."

"Huh. I might-."

"Ooh, that's a rather large warp displacement. Did you decide to bring a ship of some kind with you?"

"We are nearly at the boundary of Maltusian space."

I glance back with a nod. "Very well. Return us to normal space at your convenience. Hinon, I hope that the Controllers on catching duty have had their Weetabix."

"Now I'm curiou-" The space outside Ater Clementia's atmosphere steadily returns to normal. "-oh my goodness. You recruited a planet."

"Technically, a macroorganism who covers the entire surface rather than the planet itself. I thought, the Green Lantern Corps has Mogo, and he has a certain.. presence. So we need one."

Hinon considers that for a moment. "Yes, very orange of you. I'll.. just go and let Dox know."

"I don't think he can have missed a new planet. Where would you like her to enter orbit?"

"I do hope that you're referring to her orbiting Sto-Maltus. I have no interest in turning Maltus into a binary planetary system."

"And she'd block your light."

"Mm, yes. Can she manage ninety degrees to the system orbital plane?"

"Yes, she can."

"Good show. Try not to hit anything important on your way in."

"How is Clarissi Dox's recruitment effort going?"

"Oh, he's had several volunteers from amongst his fellow prisoners. I'm not sure how compatible they would be with orange power rings, but they'll be useful additions to either the Darkstars or whatever he decides to call his fleet."

"I'll talk to them once Mother of Mercy has parked. Anything from the Darkstars?"

"Several possibles, although I have a sneaking suspicion that your preferred recruitment criteria may be a little different to the ones we've been using."

It wouldn't surprise me.

"Do you have anyone else you want to shanghai into our service, or do you intend to make yourself available for teaching now?"

"I have a few people in mind, but I think that doing some assessment work would be a worthwhile use of my time now." Before you people do anything too crazy.

"I suppose that it's hard to top a planet."

"That too."

"I'll expect you when I see you, then. Hinon out."

17th August
09:23 GMT

The Admiral in the strange looking uniform of blue with gold decoration of the Crown Imperium raises a fluted glass in a toast. "To a truly satisfying campaign."

I nod to his as I raise my own in return. "To new allies."

The stuff in the glass isn't wine. It actually tastes vaguely minty, but it serves the same high-class social lubricant function as wine does on Earth. From the fact that there are several other glasses on the sideboard I'm going to assume that I wasn't the only person invited and from the lack of serving staff it seems likely that what he wants to discuss isn't for the ears of the lowlies. Oh, he wouldn't put it in exactly those terms, -not that 'lower orders' is much better- but the Crown Imperium is quite open about its aristocratic form of government.

"My other guests will be arriving shortly, but I thought that there were one or two things we should discuss between ourselves first."

Somewhere below us the Gordanian clans are on the receiving end of a hundred and fifty very angry Orange Lanterns, as well as hundreds of thousands of Imperial Marines and a lesser but still quite determined complement from the Karnans. Fleet operations were decisively concluded in our favour hours ago, but I think my fellow commanders and I wanted to remain 'on station' just in case anything demanded our immediate attention.

I nod politely. "Certainly." I'm not surprised. The Crown Imperium is the only stellar nation of any real size in this region of space. Certainly, it's the only one that never 'came to terms' with the various outlaw groups. And now that it's pretty much inevitable that we'll win here, it's only natural that they're looking to the future in which one of their near-neighbours is an Apokoliptian with a Lantern Corps under his command. I'm willing to do quite a lot to keep them on-side, as long as they don't get stupid about it.

"I understand that you've planted your standard on Tamaran. A curious choice, if you don't mind me saying so?"

"Tamaran was the only Vegan stellar state that fought the Citadel until they could fight no more. I see in them the potential for great things."

"The Karnans did something similar."

I smile. "The Karnans' reaction to the Gordanian uprising was probably more rational, but it was far less heroic. And it contained no real prospect of ultimate victory."

"And yet, here we are. The Karnans have a fleet-"

A mildly upgraded but far smaller fleet than the one the Gordanians destroyed during their uprising.

"-and Tamaran doesn't have an industrial base that can't be written off as a rounding error."

I frown. "Admiral, that's simply not true."

"Oh? Since when? Our intelligence reports are reasonably up to date."

"Since yesterday. We relieved the Branx of their shipyards and asteroid mining facilities. It will take a while to bring them up to full speed, but Tamaran currently has the largest shipyards in the region. Not-" I tilt my glass his way. "-quite so large as those of Karaltine, of course. But there's always room to expand."

Euphorian experts plus G-Gnomes aren't an immediate fix, but they'll get the job done far faster than the figure Admiral Oswin is now using in his mental calculations. Simply occupying Vega wasn't really a possibility for them; too much space, too many threats, not enough ships. But I imagine they'd be quite happy to have a puppet Karnan state as the dominant force in the region's politics. Heh. I'd assumed that Euphorix would be more of a problem. I'd prepared for that. Proxy influence fights weren't something that it had occurred to me might be a problem.

"Ah." Admiral Oswin nods. "That's one residual problem dealt with, then. Have you given any thought to the Psions?"

"I'm trying to work out a feasible technique for neutralising them that doesn't result in us killing them all. But… I don't see any need to hurry. It would be more in character for them to wait for things to stabilise than for them to take precipitous action."

He nods again. "Our analysts agree. I assume that you have no objections to coordinating on the problem?"

I shake my head. "Not at all. Though I should be clear: the Wombworld isn't Karna. There's no prospect at all of a successful occupation, and no obvious value in making the attempt."

"I'm in no hurry to throw the lives of my marines away attempting to take it by storm. Fleet action, do you think?"

"Combined action. My Lanterns should be able to take out their anti-ship defences if you don't mind bombarding the place."

"I would be delighted to." He drains the remainder of his glass and pours himself a second before raising the decanter interrogatively at me.

I extend my near-empty glass. "Thank you."

"How much thought have you given to the aftermath of the campaign?"

"That's where I've put most of my thought. I intend to create a resurgence of Tamaranian power, and have the resulting stellar nation secure, pacify and civilise this region. I will not allow Vega to continue to be a safe harbour for pirates and slavers."

"And the area outside Vega?"

"We don't want that to be a haven for pirates either. But… Tamaran is reindustrialising, and I have only so many Lanterns. If you wish to keep the peace there yourselves, be my guest. Tamaran can only benefit from having civilised nations as neighbours and allies."

"And Karna? We have a certain.. relationship with its people."

"I don't intend to force them into anything, certainly not violent conquest. My intent is for them to gradually slip into Tamaran's sphere of influence, but if they don't…" I shrug. "Then they don't. It will be far more useful to maintain a friendly relationship with them than it would be to have a world of vengeful serfs. I doubt that the Tamaranians would tolerate me trying to do to someone else what was done to them even if I wanted to. Which I don't."

"I'm pleased to hear it. I will of course convey your words to the Empress, but I'm not hearing anything that is against the Imperium's fundamental interests."

I wonder if this was how Stalin felt during the Fourth Moscow Conference?

"As we say on Apokolips, 'it's nice not to have to shoot your ally in the back immediately after finishing off your mutual enemy'."

He looks a little concerned at that, but I make a point of sniggering and he seems to understand that it was a joke. "Speaking.. of.. 'Apokolips', I was wondering-?"

The door on the far side of the room opens and a blonde Karaltinian man in a blue side-buttoning coat with a solidly yellow coloured five pointed star on the chest enters the room. There are a pair of yellow goggles holding back his fringe and his.. trousers are blue jodhpurs. The long shepherd's crook he carries in his right hand makes the identification easy enough, but I'm still a little curious…

He nods to me. "Lantern Gravyen."

"Prince Gavyn. Forgive me, but I thought that you were dead? Something about being pushed out of an airlock?"

He nods, a wry smile on his lips. "Not quite. I narrowly dodged the execution attempt and then I hid under the 'Starman' identity for years. But you can only save an Empire so many times before they feel obligated to pardon you."

I nod. "I know that feeling." Admiral Oswin passes his prince a glass and the three of us raise them slightly in a non-toast before taking a sip. "Who else are we expecting?"

"The Supreme Commander Gaharrugh of the Karna delegation, your princesses of course, and Queen Kalista and Sir Pren of the Omega Men."

I affect a blank expression. "The who?"

17th August
09:57 GMT

"…understand why you ask, but it doesn't really work like that on Apokolips."

Supreme Commander Gaharrugh's fur is mottled brown and dull orange, and he's wearing what appears to be a slightly modified -Karnanised, perhaps- version of the Imperial Navy's light body armour. Though for some reason his feet are bare, his claws tucked safely away to avoid poking holes in the carpet. He was a little surprised by my physical size -I imagine that he'd gotten used to generally being the largest person in the room- and started sizing me up almost immediately.

Queen Kalista smiles in a politely inquisitive manner. "Then how does it work?"

She's wearing a highly impractical purple, mauve and white dress that appears to be trying to conceal exactly how she's changed physically in the long years of conflict. She's certainly lost body fat, the life of a paramilitary space outlaw not precisely being conducive to regular quality meals. My ring scan shows me that there are minor scars across her body, from injuries that would have been simple to fix by most local standards. The Omega Men have to ration their medical apparatus. She's also put on more muscle, in a ropey marathon runner sort of way. I also feel the tug of very weak arcane probes coming from her as she tries to work out what the heck I am.

"You get what you grab. You keep what you can hold on to… Or at least, that you can convince others that you could hold onto if they chose to question the matter. I am the natural son of Darkseid, and as far as I know the youngest he's acknowledged. Since Father is ageless and immensely powerful, there is no point to having a formal line of succession. Politically, we have whatever power we are gifted by him; that is to say, essentially none."

The orange-haired man sitting at her right raises his eyebrows slightly. "You don't seem to be doing too badly?"

Sir Pren is wearing a slightly battered but well maintained suit of black and silver light armour, a suit he probably brought with him when he left Euphorix. He sent a brief mental probe my way when he first arrived. Quashing it presented no difficulty; he's far weaker than Chester or Lynne.

"We're not on Apokolips. Heck, I left so that I would get opportunities like this that I couldn't at home."

Admiral Oswin seems slightly pensive. "So you don't actually hold any sort of title at all?"

I shake my head. "None of us do. My eldest brother, Kalibak, Father's son by his first wife, has no title. Father's second son Orion, by his second wife Tigra, similarly has no title. My foster-brother Scott, no title. Father's chief aide DeSaad, no title." I shrug. "I think the only person who still has one is Uncle Drax, whose title 'prince' was granted by my grandmother mostly to irritate Father. But, please." I smile. "Apokolips is a very long way from Vega, and our social customs will have very little impact on events here."

I most sincerely hope.

Admiral Oswin face shrugs. "I.. merely wish to be sure that you have the authority to negotiate. I'm.. not entirely accustomed to.. negotiating with…"

"HahHAHA!" I grin at his discomfort. "You think I'm a Lowlie? Oh, that's marvellous."

Prince Gavyn leans forward slightly, his right hand slightly raised as a signal that the Admiral should back off. "We're simply curious about your affidavits. Have you been given the authority to negotiate for Tamaran?"

I shrug. "The princesses will negotiate for Tamaran. And anyway, what authority does Queen Kalista have?"

"Ah?" Prince Gavyn glances at her while she just frowns. "She's the queen?"

"Yes, but she doesn't rule the planet. Never has. Not that Euphorix played any role in this fight. And I think she and Sir Pren have perhaps ten fighters between them?" I shrug. "I don't really understand why they're included."

Sir Pren's jaw hardens. "We're included because we've been fighting against the Citadel for over a decade. We've fought and bled for a Vega free of their kind."

"Good going. My people have been fighting them for nearly two days." I hold out my left hand and generate a construct of the remains of Citadel Complex. "I think I know which of us has achieved something worth talking about."

"You'll notice that the Citadel's pirate allies were largely destroyed before you arrived?"

"Yes, but that was-." My goodness. "That.. mess on Rashashoon was you? Have you any idea.. how many civilians were caught in the crossfire? And not just in Raggashoon, out in pirate-controlled territory? They were carrying out orbital bombardments on civilian-inhabited areas to kill off other groups." I… "What the hell were you thinking?"

"I was thinking 'this is the only way to get rid of the people who have turned Vega into the mess it is today'. Any col-."

"I have a Lantern Corps. It would have taken us two days, maximum, to destroy any group that wasn't prepared to straighten out-."

Admiral Oswin makes a face as if he's just tasted something horribly bitter. "You'd give those animals a pardon?"

"Some, certainly. Any without specific obscenities to their names. At this point-."

"Princess." Queen Kalista turns to Koriand'r. "Are you truly prepared to let this man speak for you?"

Koriand'r scowls. "I am no more impressed by mass civilian deaths than Grayven is. And I will remind you that it was your recruitment of our brother that resulted in the Citadel revenging themselves upon us. I have a most personal understanding of the accidental side effects of your campaign."

I lean back smugly. "And I'm not convinced that Duke Alonzo would be alright with you claiming to speak for Euphorix. He does rather control the government."

"This is irrelevant." That's the first thing Supreme Commander Gaharrugh's said this whole meeting. I was beginning to think that he was either mute or so concerned that the Imperium would withdraw their support that he didn't dare speak up. "Once our enemies are dead you can argue over who speaks for whom." He jabs one of the control buttons on the table's hologram projector, calling up an image of Karna. Force concentrations, areas controlled and areas contested and remaining strongholds. "We haven't won control of Karna yet."

Of course, with Taghurrhu's following amongst younger Karnans his position isn't all that secure either. And depending on how big an impression Michael makes…

I point at the representation of the prison camps. "Why are we doing that? There are millions of Gordanians down there and we've chased off or destroyed all of their starships."

Gaharrugh nods. "What do you suggest?"

"Just disarm them and leave them to their own devices. Your people and mine can defend any Karnan settlements that need it. We can start processing them for resettlement or exile based on clan membership once the fighting is over."

Gaharrugh raises his upper left lip slightly, a mild baring of the teeth to indicate hostility to the idea. "'Exile'? You want to exile the murderers and slavers? My people have been brutalised by these monsters-."

Komand'r rolls her eyes. "Yours are hardly the only people to have suffered under the Gordanians. And while we will be punishing those in controlling positions in the Tearing Bite clan, we have no interest in slaying every member."

Koriand'r nods. "This is not merely about our side winning over the Citadel and its allies. We must make our victory about instituting a civilised state of relations between Vega's peoples. And in some cases that will mean staying our hand, no matter how enraged we are. I refuse to stoop to the Citadel's level."

Gaharrugh looks around, but it doesn't look like any of the others are prepared to vocalise any support they might be feeling. He glowers slightly, then nods. "Anyone not on our hit list can go for now. Next point. I'm getting reports of one of my people employing some sort of grey alien mercenaries-."

"Oh, those are mine. Michael's familiar with hush tube combat, I felt that paving our way with them while I attacked the Citadel made sense."

"'Michael'?"

I generate a construct image of him. "Michael Tawny. I thought a leader who physically resembled a Karnan would fit it better. He's the reason why their fleet was in such disarray when we arrived."

"Fine. I'll trust you to control him." I nod. "Next item. If we're not killing them all, what are we doing about reparations?"