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

6 569 938.M41

"I… I was not expecting you to be here."

Bo'ohk looks decidedly unsteady on his feet as he exits the domed temple where the T'au Aun'ar'tol meets, his honour blade strapped to his back. I can see cuts, bruises and… At least they let him bandage the worse ones. I turn so that I'm alongside him and offer him my arm to lean on.

"Ah-. Thank you, but I should not. I have allowed my physical conditioning to weaken. My seniors were unimpressed by my skill with the blade."

He scents something and then looks straight at Tsua'm, noting her distress at seeing a visibly ailing Aun. Next to her Kais is looking a little sympathetic, but he's been worked to exhaustion during both training and field assignments too often to worry about Bo'ohk being a bit banged up.

"Be at peace, Envoy. This was a necessary test of my beliefs and resolve. And since no other Ethereals are assigned to our group, it is helpful for my seniors to review my actions at times like this."

"Huh." I frown. "We don't really have a hand-to-hand specialist for you to train with."

Gremlin grins toothily. "I could have a go, boss. Build yah a real noice tinboy ta scrap with. Learn yah real good, it would."

"Thank you, Grem'len, but I have too many uses for my arms."

Kais draws himself up slightly. "We would welcome your participation during our training, Prince Bo'ohk."

"I thank you for your kind offer, Shas'Ui, but I think that I will focus on physical conditioning first. While I suspect that your team would be a little more gentle than the blade masters of the T'au Aun'ar'tol, at my current skill level it would only be a difference of slight degrees."

I hold out the ring slightly.

"Do you want me to fix you up?"

"No. These wounds are mine to bear. Ah. Perhaps that bench?"

Tucked away on the grounds of the temple are a number of small gardens set aside for contemplation. Or… Perhaps so that young Ethereals can be assigned to care for them as punishment duty. Tall bushes give the illusion of privacy, richly scented plants calm the visiting tau-

Gremlin wrinkles his nose.

"Bit wiffy, innit?"

-but don't necessarily have that effect on aliens, and wind chimes add to the air of peace. I hover as Bo'ohk leads us through the entrance and then over to the stone-wrought bench, where he gingerly sits down.

Kais takes up position just inside the entrance, out of sight from external observers. Tsua'm drops into a cross-legged position on the ground in front of Bo'ohk, and I can't help but wince slightly when I try following where she's folding her legs. With the robes she normally wears it's easy to forget that her ankle is a sort of second backwards knee. I sit down next to her, mirroring her posture, while Gremlin wonders over to sniff a flower, watching Bo'ohk out of the corner of one eye.

Bo'ohk opens his mouth to speak.

"Ow."

The way he immediately makes eye contact with me indicates that he meant it as a joke, which is good because otherwise I'd feel bad about chuckling. Tsua'm also relaxes a little, though seeing Bo'ohk battered is clearly not something she's comfortable with.

"I have spoken with the T'au Aun'ar'tol, and while they are clearly of the opinion that I would benefit from more oversight, they accept the utility of our research group and the substantial benefit of our actions."

I nod. "So..?"

"So we do not need to fear being turned into soylent caerulus. Tsua'm, the T'au Por'ar'tol wish to speak to you at length concerning your viewpoint on humans. It will not be adversarial; they believe that your interactions at close quarters for a prolonged period of time with P'ol may have given you an insight that others lack."

"I.. have.. not learned anything worthy of changing the Empire's entire policy."

"No, but you have learned a great deal that will help future generations of the Water Caste improve their interpersonal dealing with humans. There is a much lower threshold for changing training methods than there is rewriting our entire diplomatic relationship with the Imperium of Man."

Tsua'm's legs twitch as they instinctively try to adopt a mildly submissive posture, but her face is… Relieved?

I look away from her.

"Could make for very interesting lessons if they start teaching classes about-."

Ah!

Turns out that that shifted ankle makes tau mean kickers, even if their aim isn't that good. I smile at her as I rub the impact site on my left thigh.

"Kais, Shas'O Eur'tus will speak with you regarding the treatment of those suffering from war madness."

"I stand ready to assist."

"It is likely that the discussion will also involve her asking for advice on integrating those of the Fire Caste who struggle to master conventional doctrines into units in the field."

"She wants to know how to best use other Fire Warriors who think like me?"

"I suspect that the result will be several of those considered to be problematic joining our mission."

"The wisdom of the Shas'O is beyond reproach."

I wiggle my right forefinger at him. "Come on, Kais, this isn't the Imperium. No one's wisdom is beyond reproach, for we are all imperfect beings in the service of the Greater Good."

"Very well. It is beyond my reproach, being much greater than mine."

"P'ol, it…" Bo'ohk appears to ponder how to put something. "While what you just said is correct and orthodox… It is generally considered impolite to call Aun'Va an imperfect being to his face."

"Aun'Va wants to talk to me in person?"

"I am to present you to the T'au Aun'chiagor in three days."

That's… The senior most leaders of the five castes on T'au. Aun'Va will just be chairing the meeting, while the other four ask me…

"What do they..? Want to know?"

"To ascertain whether you are being utilised as effectively as you could be. With your strategic manoeuvrability being so much greater than that of our fastest ships, there are roles other than slow expansion and investigation which you could serve in. I believe that they also want to… Get a feel for your character. You are, after all, quite unusual."

"Isn't that unusual..?" I look around, but I suppose it's not like anyone here has been up before the T'au Aun'chiagor before. Bo'ohk and I were interviewed by the Lar'shi Aun'chiagor a grand total of once, when they needed to hear our team concept because that cut across normal caste organisational lines. Tsua'm pats my leg with her right hand while Kais just looks blank. "I thought that was the body which coordinated between castes, and they'd just… Assign interviewing me to someone and then discuss the result."

"It is not my place to speak for Aun'Va… But if I had to guess, it is because they wish to look you in the eyes. To confirm some of the strange things that our reports have relayed for themselves. And because much of what you might say impacts so many areas of life in the Tau Empire."

"Have any humans been questioned like this before?"

"No."

"Tsua'm, would you mind showing me to a tau tailor?"

She nods. "I will ensure that you are fully prepared."

"And…" Bo'ohk half-turns. "Grem'len. Por'O Choan'ah wishes to speak with you at your earliest convenience concerning ork behaviour. It seems that we were unduly concerned about your reception."

"That's a relief, boss. But what about Faultless Boy?"

"They gave no indication. I suspect that they wish to assess the rest of us before even beginning to address that matter."

 

20th January 2013
12:48 GMT

Jade holds up a book. It looks like it was bound by an amateur, and the paper quality appears to be variable.

"My translator doesn't recognise the language."

I nod and take it from her, carefully opening the first page so as to not damage it. A date at the top of the page, and…

"A journal." I turn the pages, skimming the text. "Short entries about farm work done, a couple of things about local events… And then a gap, and…"

And a description of Kalmin's work, not that he ever introduced himself. Hm. Now that I think about it, Sinestro would have had to be here, wouldn't he? Or… Did he create the ring blank first, and then alter it based on Sinestro's mentality?

"The end of the world."

"There wasn't any sign of the robots coming here, was there?"

"Your ring has better sensors than my exo-mantle."

"Yes, but you're actually trained to track things. You're reconnaissance, I'm brute force."

"I didn't see anything. You said that the robots are programmed to wander a certain distance from each other?"

"Effectively."

"The mountains would make that difficult, and the lack of people would mean there wasn't anything to draw them closer. You saw the barricade and armory; they were prepared for an attack. Does it say what they thought was happening?"

"Whoever wrote this was convinced that it was aliens. It's not entirely clear, but I think they were ancestor worshippers."

"So no fire and brimstone preachers calling on sinners to repent?"

"No." I point to the page I'm on now. "'The Eldest has openly said what we had accepted in our lungs: that we will die with none left to watch over in our turn. No one cried out to deny it. Every action is undertaken with solemnity, and no one even postures violently. If we are all the ancestors will have to see, should we not ensure that they can have pride in us?'"

"I don't suppose you can resurrect them, can you?"

"Thaumically dead world. Their ancestors almost certainly aren't actually watching over them." I sigh as I read the description of people starting to sleep in their village's crypt. "I can mark this world for the Controllers to eventually resettle. There are plenty of genetic records, and quite a lot of cultural relics. Compared to some places, it'll be.. easy."

I frown.

"It's odd. Kalmin had ships in orbit. He'd definitely have known they were here, but all I can see from the writing is that they were becoming resigned and.. apathetic, rather than afraid."

"What else could they do?"

"Nothing, but-. Ah."

"There weren't any bodies outside. Let me guess: they went to the crypts and shot themselves."

I close the journal, then lay in on a nearby table. "The author did, though they note that there were several others still alive at the time."

"I suppose resignation is a way some people respond to fear."

I nod. "Rallying to old certainties, because if they limit their thoughts then they don't have to think about how doomed the situation is."

She turns her helmet to look at me for a moment, then shakes her head and walks out of the building.

I follow her. "What?"

"You recruited Kalmin. You knew he'd.. done this, but you recruited him because you were worried about the Controllers."

"Not that it would have altered my decision, but I didn't know exactly what it had involved. And the Controllers used to destroy planets by using Sun Eaters to send their suns nova. With Kalmin, the choice was between killing him out of hand and keeping him where we could see him. Don't think that I think he's a good person just because I can stomach working with him."

She stops, looking at the entrance to the crypt. It's decorated with images of… I think those are farm tools, but I don't have cultural context for the rest. I'd guess that it's scenes from their history.

"You sounded dismissive of them."

"I'd respect them more if they'd kept fighting, even if it wasn't possible to beat Kalmin. Even just bunkering down to try and outlast him. But I don't-. I don't know how I'd-. How I would have acted before getting my ring if this had happened on my Earth." I snort. "The same, probably. Is there a reason why this is affecting you so much?"

"They let me into their archives. The Citizenry keep records of every world they recruit from. Every world that they decide to eat. And anyone can go in and have a look; actually, they like it when the new recruits do that, so they know what they're a part of now. Seeing empty homes in person brings home just how many people they killed, and even they memorialised their victims better than Kalmin did."

I walk over to the crypt entrance and kneel, bowing my head.

"Honoured dead. I do not know your people, your world or your culture. I well understand if you hate me for my alliance with your murderer, and I will not gainsay it. I can only pray that your end was as peaceful as it could be under the circumstances, and that your ancestors greet you in whatever fashion you hope for."

"You said that they wouldn't."

I nod as I stand.

"The thaumosphere is too thin to sustain individual consciousnesses. But it's not impossible that there's a weak gestalt embodying all their ancestors. Even worlds with weak thaumospheres can sometimes generate a weak god."

She nods once. "I don't think the Scouring Path has a set funeral tradition." She turns to face the crypt entrance and puts her hands together in prayer.

She doesn't say anything out loud, so I give her a moment to finish.

"Just in case any of them didn't die, we should check the crypt."

I nod. "I didn't pick up anything, but Kalmin is perfectly capable of blocking ring scans if he wanted to."

I switch to my heavy armour and make sure that the force fields are active, because I wouldn't want to walk into Kalmin's booby traps with anything less than my best.

The doors aren't locked or latched, opening easily to a construct-push. No trip wires or mines on the inside. I push on inside. Looks like a museum, with relics… I check the description plates. Yes, relics from the village's history. A plough blade, a… Newspaper? A shoe and a brick. No remains from living creatures. We more or less skipped over this sort of building in the other settlements we visited, but this isn't a unique thing. This is part of their culture. Probably not worldwide, as their transportation networks weren't advanced enough to enable that level of cultural uniformity. But certainly over a good chunk of this contin-

"Yaaaaaaaaghuh!"

-ent.

"I'm not detecting anyone, but that wasn't a recording."

"You have point."

Let's… See. The entrances to the crypt proper appear to be marked in terms of date ranges. I can't tell where the voice came from using sonic scans alone. Solid rock conveys sound too well. Most recent remains are interred through there, and we wanted to check there anyway.

I fly through the entrance and into the crypt.