5th February
09:21 GMT
I narrow my eyes as I look at Hinon. "So… What exactly do you want?"
"As I have already explained to Clarissi Dox-."
"
Politely."
"The petitioner will know their place."
She takes a breath, which I'm almost entirely convinced is for show.
"What the Controllers want is access to the Orange Central Power Battery and the right to recruit Lanterns. Which I believe is fairly reasonable, given that we created it and you depend upon me to maintain it."
"There's a good chance that the reason why Vega was such a mess in the first place was your mishandling of the Orange Central Power Battery. How much harm did Larfleeze cause because your security was inadequate?"
"I am fully aware of our civilisation's failings. I have lingered here as I have because I consider us obliged to clear up after the Guardians' failings. May I presume that you will be more content with providing the security yourself?"
I smile and walk past her, taking in the holographic display of Tamaran's orbital shipyards and defences. The Citadel shipping that we seized from Ermana forms the core of the Tamaranian Self-Defence Fleet, though both Clarissi Dox and Weaponer Lysis were leery about using them at all. By the standards they're used to -the standards of major galactic powers- they're a bit rubbish. The primary weapons of the Citadel battleships are optimised to work against large numbers of medium-sized ships at medium to short range, which is…
Okay for Vega. That's what most groups use. But now those are
ex-groups. The pirates evaporated under the fury of Princess Komand'r's assault, the local Spider Guild chapter hunted down and slain to a man by Princess Koriand'r and the remaining Gordanian clans are bending over backwards to satisfy us.
Beyond the less than ideal loadout of the capital vessels, there's the fact that they're… Designed for Citadelians. Technologically simple and rugged, with parts that can be stripped out and replaced easily. Dox and Lysis both want to take full advantage of the g-gnomes' telepathic knowledge-sharing abilities to go in the opposite direction. Make the most advanced ships that we can and keep them in operation with telepathically-educated crew. They were even making noises about not bothering to finish the ships we took from Ermana in order to better focus on the next generation.
I talked them down from
that, since getting the Tamaranians
some experience is our most immediate concern.
I just wanted to get the things flying as soon as possible, but they insisted on upgrading their sub-light drives before considering them 'finished'. Now the battleships should at least be able to close with most opponents, though they still won't live long if we pick a fight with the Dominion or…
Or Apokolips.
But that's fine. For now. It would be ridiculous to pit a world that's barely recovered from occupation and enslavement against the most powerful civilisation in the galaxy. The Crown Imperium is the only local power of any size, and our relations with them are quite friendly. Once we drag that toerag
Ryand'r back here, we'll be packing him off to their naval officer school. Oswin tried floating the idea of a dynastic marriage, but… Then he saw the look on my face and dropped it. I'm sure that Ryand'r is perfectly capable of hooking up with someone without external involvement. Anyway, we don't need to ensure that our ships are optimised for destroying
theirs. The next threat we'll be facing will probably be the Spider Guild, and they're more inclined to raid than make direct attacks.
We ended up agreeing to make the next generation of ships a compromise. Something more advanced than what the Citadelians used, but less than Colu or Qward would build. Something the Tamaranians can maintain themselves. And getting them educated is one of our largest bottlenecks right now. They need technically skilled people in
every field, and we don't have the g-gnomes to speed that up enough. We can barely crew the ships we have, and that's drawing on Euphorian expatriates who might well up and leave once Kalista decides that she wants to go home. I ended up making a gift of a number of the docks we took from Ermana to the Karnans, not as a demonstration of largess but literally because we can't use them.
But.
"With the Lanterns under my command, I consider these defences adequate for now. But my interests are local, and I'm sure that you want Lanterns for something a little more significant than a dick-waving contest with the Guardians."
"As you know full well, the Green Lanterns don't protect everywhere."
I nod. "I am painfully aware of that. Where in particular do you have in mind?"
"The Controllers are currently engaged in hostilities with the Reach. I take it you've heard of them."
"Yes." I turn away from the hologram and back towards her. "And I know that they need to be fought. But Tamaran isn't strong enough to participate in any significant way against the level of force they can bring to bear. I won't even allow volunteer brigades."
"Then it's a good job that I'm not asking for that, isn't it?"
I suppose. "If I said 'yes', how exactly would it work?"
"A small number of Controllers would come here to connect themselves to the Orange Central Power Battery. And then they would return to Maltus."
"That's it?"
"It would be useful if our Lanterns could receive training from yours, but given your understandable reluctance to become embroiled in our conflict with the Reach I doubt that you would agree. We have no need to forge either personal lanterns or rings here."
"Would it be easier?"
"Yes, a little."
"Alright. They can work here, and I'll get Dox to assign some instructors."
"And what do you expect in return?"
"Half of the rings and personal lanterns they produce. I appreciate what
you've done, but I'm a little tired of Orange Lanterns with voices in their heads limping back to the Central Power Battery to recharge."
"That-. It will be a hard sell to my fellow Controllers, but I can live with it. Anything else?"
"You mentioned 'clearing up the Guardians' failings'. I have one more for you." I
alter the hologram so that it displays a psion. "These-."
"You want us to recreate a species you rendered extinct? We have the genetic records from when we owned their ancestors as household pets-"
What?
"-but I'm somewhat surprised that you consider their resurrection desirable."
"Can we go back to the 'household pets' thing?"
"We created them and deposited them in Vega. Is that not what you were referring to?"
"No, I was just referring to leaving them unsupervised by not patrolling Vega. They came from
Maltus originally?"
She nods.
"One of our earliest experiments with biological augmentation. We had largely abandoned Maltus during their rise to full sophoncy. It wasn't until their fleet neared Oa in search of the 'Great Teachers' of their legends that we realised the extent of our bungling. I would rather they had learned wisdom rather than being destroyed-."
"They're not
all dead."
"Oh?"
"I kept a handful of their cloning specialists and child-educators alive. I.. was going to ask you to become their overseers, but having heard how you messed that up the first time I'm going to tell you to take them on as a client species. Oversee what they're doing properly this time, and keep working with them until they're capable of playing nicely with others."
"Hm. Yes, we have other client species, and the psions at least are intellectually capable. That will certainly be easier to sell than losing half of our work."
I wave my right hand. "Half of your work until all my Lanterns are equipped and I have a.. small number of spares. I am not interested in expanding the region I control at present, but I
do want to make sure that it is protected."
"That's a little better. May we also study your Lanterns so as to aid our Lanterns in coping with the orange light?"
I nod. "Sure, as long as you share what you learn. I've long suspected that Tamaranian culture makes for Lanterns who are able to channel the orange light without going into crazy mode, and I am happy to help you avoid any incidents of that kind. Let's go talk to Dox, and… Nail down the specifics."
