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

8th February
20:35 GMT

The Councillor from Gizzard Spiker floats in a ring-generated flight aura, a muzzle over his snout. The guards who headed towards us the moment he lunged at me slow to a stop, while the councillors, representatives and emissaries freeze.

"Sir, please don't do that again. If you wish to register your displeasure, you may simply inform me of it."

The Councillor from Long Striders cranes his neck slightly to see around his floating colleague. "In that case, let me register it. Disarming down to the level the Supreme Commander requires would leave us helpless against a great many of our neighbours. Our normal ships aren't well-armed enough to fight off dedicated attackers."

"And how long do you think those raiders will exist for?"

"What do you mean?"

"The Beast -the one being whose presence kept the Green Lantern Corps from intervening in Vega- is now receiving psychiatric treatment on Maltus. Jarko gets his revenue from taxation rather than raiding, Amalak provides security services for pay, the Spider Guild are shipbuilders and the Citadel is gone. The sort of mass piracy Vega enabled was always a bubble economy and it just got popped. Karnans who've lived most of their lives in the Crown Imperium won't regard that as the cost of doing business; their fleet will be sent after anyone who tries that sort of thing just as soon as they've secured their home here. In addition, Tamaran is building a fleet. A few of the older delegates here might remember the way they used to use their fleet before their ill-fated attack on Citadel Complex."

"Fewer raiders."

"Fewer, if any. The price of them doing business will go up too much."

"What about the branx, or the psions?"

"I fully expect the branx to pivot, as you were doing before the karnans arrived. Those with close ties to the Citadel will lose out, while those with external contacts will gain. The psions have worked through proxies since they recovered from creating X'Hal. They're going to find themselves in an extremely hostile environment. They might leave, they might fortify. If they try raiding themselves then they're going to receive more attention than they can deal with."

"Are you guaranteeing that yourself?"

Am I?

"I suppose that I am." I turn to the Councillor from the Gizzard Spikers. "Have you calmed down now?"

He glowers, but doesn't strain against the muzzle. I float him back to his seat and then remove the flight aura. He makes a variety of small stretching motions, maintaining eye contact all the while.

Then he sits.

"Clan Gizzard Spiker will never disarm. There is no longer any purpose in you being here."

The Councillor from Blood Flecks bares his teeth slightly. "Clan Gizzard Spiker would be well advised to make fewer definitive statements."

The Gizzard Spiker councillor turns his way and snarls. "Clan Blood Flecks would be well advised to find its gizzard once more!"

"If I may interject, gentlemen. The disarmament requirements would only apply to ships within Vega. If Clan Gizzard Spiker does not like the restrictions, they may wish to negotiate for passage out of Vega. Clan Unending Conquest have done rather well for themselves with only a token presence here."

"Or we could just leave."

"I imagine that you would die if you did. I doubt that your fellow gordanians would like you leaving them in the lurch like that. And even if you actually made it away, the Crown Imperium has 'Wanted: Dead' bounties on your entire clan for piracy. If you went anywhere near their space they would send their navy after you… In fact, there's a good chance they'd send naval vessels after you anyway."

"Then by the First, what I am supposed to be negotiating for?!"

"Safe passage. They might be prevailed upon to let you through their territory as long as you were definitely going somewhere else and staying there. I can provide you with a list of worlds you could colonise… Or you could carry on as you do here until someone important takes notice of you and kills you. Up to you."

He takes a moment to glare at the other gordanians, but he knows full well that they'd happily hand his entire clan over if it guaranteed their survival. Heck, most of them were actively fighting Gizzard Spiker not too long ago.

"Leaving… My clan will consider this. But what of the Green Lanterns? The karnans can't speak for them."

"Ring, contact Green Lantern Green Man."

"Compliance."

"This might take a moment, depending on what he's doing."

Blood Flecks looks at my rings with undisguised avarice. "What would we have to trade for your help? Or for one of those rings?"

"You want a ring?" He tilts his head, eager but wary. "Here." I put a copy of my… Training guide, an editor-needed draft of my personal philosophy on orange light use, mixed in with practical lessons and reports from my own missions, onto the desk in front of him. "If you're interested, read that and reflect upon it. Master it, and you should be able to call a ring to you."

He grabs it.

"As for getting my help, you have nothing I want. The Gizzard Spikers have my enmity for working with the Citadel, and though I have revenged myself upon the Tearing Bite for doing the same-" I look over to the Representative of Tearing Bite. Mildly surprised that they've got enough force left for a place there. "-it is extremely unlikely that I could bring myself to help them. As for the rest of you, while I recognise that slavery does not automatically mean that the owned party is particularly mistreated, your karnan slaves appear to be used purely for manual labour and not kept as technically-owned helpmeets. I am not impressed. If it came to it I'd probably help the karnans, but I'd rather-."

Green Man's image appears over my ring.

"Illustres."

"Lantern Green Man."

"Given your company, I suspect that I will not enjoy this conversation."

"Have you had any trouble from the mercenaries or the Spiders?"

"Many minor complaints and many enraged messages from the government of the Crown Imperium."

"But no acts of genocide or piracy."

"None that have come to my attention. What do you want for the gordanian slavers?"

"The karnans are on the verge of retaking Karna. I'm trying to negotiate a surrender. For obvious reasons the karnans want them to hand over or scuttle their war fleets. Some gordanian clans aren't prepared to do that and so will have to leave Vega."

"How many?"

I look around the room. "Anyone other than Gizzard Spiker seriously considering it?"

Blood Flecks and Silent Stalking knock on their tables.

"Three somewhat depleted clans."

"And what do you want me to do?"

"Let them go, and only pursue them for crimes they commit after they leave."

"Let the most heavily armed gordanian clan, the clan most closely allied to the Citadel, leave the area and go anywhere they wish."

"Yes. With my personal guarantee that -should they act out- I will respond as soon as I'm notified and exterminate them."

"What?"

"Exterminate?"

"Yes. I'm only doing this to lower the death total on Karna on both sides. I'm not actually interested in helping them, just in getting a settlement."

"I will.. consider the matter. Green Lantern Green Man out."

"Right. I'll check back with the karnans."