"You know that briefing I gave you on Reach mental alteration technologies?"
"...yes..?"
You can just feel his dread of 'oh no, what now..?'
"And I know that you've encountered telepaths before, I read your detection protocols."
He squints at me for a few moments. "Are you implying that Dru-Zod… Was being controlled by another?"
Ah, he's sharp.
"There's a very small amount of circumstantial evidence… But the thing is, under Timaronian law, all parties need access to the interrogation and have the option to bring in their own experts. So while I had to relay my suspicions to Arnus -their defence lawyer- I also have to relay them to you, and point out that… This is going to delay things."
The question is does Amalak
have access to reliable telepaths for such an investigation?
He relaxes slightly. "And that's all?"
"Uh. That's all-. Um. No."
Yeah, Don't forget Ursa...
He sags. "Out with it."
"Ursa Dou-Ka's pregnant. We couldn't find any reference in Timaronian law on how that gets handled, so I thought-."
Surprising. Either it wasn't a common occurrence, or the records of those laws has been lost.
"How?"
"Turns out that while birthing matrices existed, most kryptonians reproduced the traditional way."
Bet the Science Council families tended to prefer the fancy method instead of the old-fashioned.
He sighs, shaking his head. "It's unprofessional for a serving military officer. Didn't they have fertility regulators?"
"That's… A more personal question that I felt comfortably asking. The issue is that she didn't use it."
Which smacks of all kinds of negligence on her part. I can understand if it was the stressful situation, but...
"And you want to defer her sentence until she's given birth."
"Ideally I'd like her potential sentence commuted to life imprisonment, but yes, at least a deferment. I… Do realise that this sounds like I'm.. trying to back out, I'm... Not."
And really, helping to establish a colony sounds like a sensible 'hard labour' situation.
He takes a moment to think things over. "I need to find a telepath, or rely on one provided by the defence?"
"I can… I know several telepaths, and you can pick one that suits you."
Most of them are impartial enough to be tolerable by the letter of the law, I hope.
"These would be telepaths known to the defence."
"Not personally. Uh. I could probably find telepaths not known to the defence, but I wouldn't really be able to vouch for them personally either-." Oh. Would..? Mother of Mercy or Great Mother be able to..? "Ah, a couple of possibilities just occurred to me, but I'm not sure how… Viable they are."
Oh, this will be good.
"What happens if I don't?"
"Under Timaronian law, you'd be giving up the right to challenge the evidence. You could argue about the interpretation of the evidence, but that's it. I think… If you had a fully functional legal system this would be done by police and the prosecution or defence representation would be properly optional, but we don't.. have that."
Really, nothing about this whole trial is going to be 'conventional' by Timaronian law, honestly.
"So who was it?"
"The telepaths?"
"If it wasn't Dru-Zod murdering my species for a distraction, who was it?"
Ah, see, that's the
tricky part, isn't it?
"I have no idea. I have no leads, no clues, and almost every witness has been dead for forty years. Honestly, if we confirm that their minds were interfered with and are left with no idea who did it-"
I hold out my left hand, palm up, and precipitate out an orange ring.
"-I'll give this to your most dedicated investigator, because I… Don't know."
Well, the most dedicated investigator capable of using it without losing control, anyway.
"Or you could turn out to be completely wrong."
"Yep. That would be a lot easier. It's not like Dru-Zod is any use to me."
"Unlike me."
Having him around does make more trouble for OL than he'd like. Not least the question of what to do with him, since they can't trust him on the colony, but throwing him back in the Zone would be unpalatable to Superman.
"Precisely. But… I was six months into this job -hadn't even introduced myself to the controllers yet- when a group of criminals called The Light managed to mind control a group of my world's greatest heroes. That was not a fun fight, but I didn't hold it against them… Other than their somewhat lax security that allowed it to happen… Because they weren't the ones in control. If it was someone else… Even if they just nudged him into doing something he was going to do anyway-."
Which would be the easiest way to do it. less effort needed and less trace of direct interference.
"Yes, it-." He nods. "Emotionally, it's not-. But yes, it would be their fault." … "Telepaths. Who do you recommend?"
"Genomorphs. They're a synthetic species from my homeworld… Somewhat based on mutated kryptonian genetic samples. They're all telepathic, but they're also… Their subspecies are adapted for particular tasks. G-gnomes are excellent telepaths, g-lusca are organic supercomputers who can parse what they scan and analyse it for inconsistencies… Changes in texture that would indicate external influence. And a g-goblin can explain what they find to you in a humanoid-friendly manner."
Probably the best option, though you'd need to bring a team to maintain their mental stability this far from their network.
"Are they expensive?"
"To hire? No, not really. It's more complicated, because they don't exactly have the normal desires that naturally evolving species do. You'd have to talk to their leader. They're probably want biological samples over money or materials."
I'm sure that isn't too big an issue for Amalak.
"Alright. What else?"
"Martians. They're from one planet further from my specie's sun than I am. All telepathic, though skill and power levels vary. Two are affiliated to the Justice League, but there are plenty of others. Their entire species owes me, but they don't really have any strong attachment to either party in this trial."
The tricky part being finding someone willing to come this far out and perform the examination.
"Anything else I should know about them?"
"They're all shapeshifters and they go a bit crazy if they're left on their own for very long. Oh, and there's a low-level race war happening in their civilisation but I doubt that will matter to an outsider."
"Shapeshifters are having a race war?"
Even when it's not Earth, Earth Bullshit™ can sound crazy.
"They're telepaths, so they always know. They used to all be one race, then the Guardians invaded to stop them being super murder monsters, and iterated their fixes, and they… Stuck."
"Super-? Perhaps not. Who else?"
Ah, yes, trying to explain the backstory of the Martian people to someone entirely new to them...
"Lantern Mother of Mercy created these things called Black Mercies, which-."
"She created those… Things?"
Ah, he's heard of them, I see. Yes, they got misused, don't blame
her for that...
"They were intended for use as emergency hospice care. Like euphoric painkillers, they got misused a lot."
"To put it mildly. Who else?"
Ah, dismissed quickly. And to be fair, it's hard to really share the information gleaned from their interactions.
"The techno-organic space-dweller Great Mother could probably analyse someone's mind, but I'm not sure she could do it without taking them apart. There are a small number of human telepaths, some more reliable than others."
"The genomorphs seem to be the superior choice." He sighs. "Let me speak to the others. You'll have our decision with the hour."
Honestly, when the engineered species sounds like the
least troublesome option, you know you're dealing with Earth Bullshit™...
