"No, but-" I look at Dr Balewa. "-I imagine that the spell revealed them as well?"
"That is correct. If Orange Lantern cannot detect them, then they are still inside."
The question remains: What of their crews.
"Can you detect it?"
"So far from a living world? No. There is no power to draw upon, no arcane world to shape. Whoever is doing this, they will exhaust themselves before long."
Unless they have a connection to some universal Thaumic energy source...
"Orange Lantern, investigate the situation. I will send Blue Lantern and Captain Atom after you. Doctor Mist, return to Earth and continue your investigation. We need to know if anyone else has been subverted or if any of whatever group this was remain on Earth."
"Understood." Dr Mist and I flash back down to Earth, then I transition back to Koriand'r. "Lantern Komand'r and I will take a look."
The joy of Lanterns - being first responders to long-distance situations.
"Very well. Report what you see as you see it."
I don my armour and check that Koriand'r has done then same, then warp us both to the general vicinity of Pluto, far enough away that it's barely visible to the unaided eye, and turn up the power on my empathic vision. It just… Slides off. Whatever whoever is doing this is doing, it's either very clever or very powerful.
Or worse: both. Either way, this does not bode well.
I wince as Comic King finally batters his way through the shield covering the main docking bay and flies on board. That didn't cause the wards to fail so it's not a simple threshold effect.
"Manga Khan has entered the ClusterShip. Pursuing."
Keeping a running commentary for those on Earth, I take it.
I fly at speed, mindful not to outrace Koriand'r. The ClusterShip's guns aren't even trying to track me, and the shield emitters are visible wrecked around the docking sphere. It's main reactors are non-volatile -if only to cut down on costs- so I'm not worried about the ship itself being a trap. Being an explosive trap anyway, we'll still need to detain everyone we encounter in case they're been subverted.
"Ship not reacting to attack. Will attempt to ascertain status of crew."
So far it's not looking good. This is turning into a
Mary Celeste scenario. Or the
Demeter (from Bram Stoker's Dracula.) Let's hope the vampire on board is sleeping it off.
We fly towards the docking bay, and I see that Comic King battered his way through the docking hatch as well as the defence shield. The atmosphere shield engages according to emergency protocols and only a little air is vented, but I imagine that the sudden unobstructed view of space would have been pretty disturbing for human cosmonauts. I fly inside, the shield rippling as I pass through it and get a clear view of the Russian ships. They're still safely where they landed, though I can't see any of the crew. I can't see any damage either, at least not on the outside.
Well, one more bit of good news. At least they survived the trip. But again, what of the crews...
I try a scan, but… Something's futzing with-
"L-RON!"
-it. Shouldn't go anywhere alone, but I also don't want to leave Comic King is avarice-crazed rampage mode.
Might need to handle that first, yes. Much more and he'll go all Larfleeze on you.
"Lord-Lantern Manga Khan, desist. That is an order."
"I HOLD THESE TRUTHES TO BE SELF-EVIDENT;-"
While I know it's a spelling error, I just find it so likely that he's mispronouncing it in rage.
Ah. He's lost all reason.
"-THAT ALL BEINGS ARE CREATED-"
Is he just randomly shouting stuff, because it's highly unlikely he's read the American Constitution. Unless ClusterCorp's personnel manual starts the same way.
Sad when that happens. I extend my left hand in his direction and feel for the bundle of neurotic obsession that is the tangle of his current mentations.
End.
And a very good thing you have
that little bit of Orange Light Mastery unlocked. Getting caught in a fight with a nominal ally is kind of embarrassing.
"-with…" He stops and looks around. "AH! I have found the ClusterShip!"
"Yes, well done. Lantern Koriand'r, we're going to check-."
"ClusterShip! Acknowledge-"
First thing the attackers would have done is subvert the systems. That's just going to add to the trouble on its way.
I create a soundproof bubble around us.
"-the return of your lord and master! And tell L-Ron where I am!"
I think everyone on board knows where you are, big guy.
"Lantern Khan, if-"
"Lord and Manga."
"-someone took this ship then they've almost certainly subverted the computer systems, and on the off-chance that they aren't using the internal monitoring and somehow missed you battering a hole in their shields I'd rather not draw their attention."
Somehow, I don't think Manga Khan's in much of a mood for the voice of reason. Unless it's L-Ron's.
"My shields."
"I'm sorry?"
Really? You're doing this now?
"My shields. This ClusterShip is the property of ClusterCorp, and as the ranking ClusterCorp official that makes it mine. I'll expense the shields to myself."
…
...I can't help but think his logic has a hole somewhere. Or two...
"We're going to check the Russian ships, and then we'll check on your crew. Do you understand?"
"Of course."
Well, good to see he's being reasona-...
I fly towards the-
"The Russians aren't covered by my insurance."
...Son of a
fart.
-closest Russian ship. The design is completely standard and… It's a mixture of shuttle, submarine and 'actual' starship. Enough internal space that the crew could stay inside for months, but without the surfeit of internal space that a space station could afford. The main hatch is open, and they don't appear to have had a defence shield. I try scanning the interior, but I can't even scan the bit I can see.
So, none too roomy, but not uncomfortably tight quarters. And not much in the way of places to hide.
I know a magic that can achieve that. I wear it on my skin. And I'm sure that Sephtian documented it, so the knowledge is out there. Most individuals can't use it for long due to having pre-existing souls, but an active magic user could keep something like it going if it were bound to a device.
Crud. So, there's something around here that's acting like OL's Scry-ward tattoos, covering the whole ship? That's bad.
"Koriand'r, cover me. Khan, don't do anything stupid."
"How would I tell?"
If that was Manga Khan talking, he's in quite the snippy mood now, isn't he?
I step inside the ship. No blood, which is generally a good sign. Manual construct probes reveal… No phasing residue yet, though manually probing the entire ship will take a little while. Biological residue… A few skin cells and hairs from the crew that the air filters haven't caught yet.
Other than Star Conquerors, who could this be?
This is getting creepier and creepier.
The demon genomorphs are perfectly capable of making new variants of themselves, with new forms of magic and… Greater intelligence. But what could they want that's on Pluto? Or am I making the unwarranted assumption that this is where they actually wanted to go? No, no, if they could suborn Russian military personnel then they could certainly do the same to the ClusterShip's bridge crew. Dr Balewa took a look at the g-oni corpses we had in storage, but I'm not sure that seeing a corpses gives him enough information to work from.
Could it have been an
accident that they ended up here? Like putting a car in the wrong gear and going backwards when you wanted to go forwards?
No one here. Construct probes aren't showing anything not on the technical specifications.
Since this is Pluto, I'm pretty sure that rules out martians. We're far too far away from other people out here. Unless they just wanted the ClusterShip's population to ease their telepathic discomfort and they're actually here for something else? I'm not sure if news of Dr Balewa's abilities has reached Mars yet; it's quite possible that they didn't think we had anyone who could get through their spell baffles.
And again, what could anyone want out here? That Star Conqueror warship Vearmina mentioned yesterday?
The ship's bridge looks orderly. There should have been a couple of cosmonauts left in here while the diplomatic party went to greet the ClusterCorp representatives, but there's no one here. No sign of struggle… I attach a filament to the ship's computer to get a copy of the logs, then leave to check the rest of the ship.
Not that the logs would show much. Unless someone was keeping a vocal recording as things happened, it's likely to be flight data more than anything. And unlike survival horror games, people usually don't keep running commentaries during perilous events they're in the middle of.
