TOTALLY NOT DRUG TRAFFICKING

 6th February

13:22 GMT

"Lanterns." Sub Sector Unifier Creduk Vin turns to face us as we enter his office and brings his fists together at his chest. A novel gesture but the basic idea repeats itself in many humanoid civilisations: my hands are in a place which would make it difficult for me to use a weapon and I'm doing it first to acknowledge that my position is inferior. "What can I do for you?"

The city of Johhonnta has a paramilitary police force. It strikes me as odd. Even in Metropolis -a city which has to occasionally cope with Superman-tier criminals- the Special Crimes Unit are far more heavily armed than a normal SWAT unit but regular police are equipped in the same way as regular police in other cities. And that still-. Well, used to strike me as odd when contrasted with the British police's lack of guns. But here it's like something out of Judge Dredd. Smart rail rifles, plasma blasters and solid all-enveloping armour, including a helmet which covers most of the wearer's face.

Vin is wearing a purple dress uniform with red trim, but even that has armoured inserts. It doesn't.. make sense to me. There are good reasons why civil law enforcement officers don't dress like that outside war zones. Are they facing constant civil insurrection? Did they just finish a major war and need to put their soldiers somewhere until they demob? No, nothing about a major war on the records Canar sent me…

I make the fist gesture back, while Guy just folds his arms across his chest. Which a local man will probably interpret in the same way.

"One moment."

Orange light strobes out from me, deactivating the devices monitoring the interior of the office and setting up holographic screens at the windows. Windows which are armoured, I notice. Since our presence here is official I'm not trying to deceive anyone looking in with a false image, so the holograms simply show closed blinds. Next, I take a rune stone out and wave it around. As expected there's no glow, but it doesn't hurt to be sure. Lastly I take out three anti-eavesdropping pendants, pass one to Guy, put one on myself and offer Vin the last.

He takes it cautiously. "What is it?"

"A tool to prevent anyone overhearing this conversation. If you wouldn't mind putting it on?"

"I've been ordered to cooperate with you, but I'm loyal to the Alignment. Bear that in mind."

He slips the thong over his head and lets it fall to lay against his chest.

"I'd like to talk to you about the Alignment's practice of using child soldiers."

He frowns, his eyes moving to Guy. "The Green Lantern Corps ruled that the practice wasn't objectionable."

"No, th' Green Lantern Corps ruled it wasn't slavery. Ain't th' same thing." Guy lets his environmental shield glow a little brighter. Not combat-brightness, but with the lights in the office dimmed by the blinds it's quite noticeable. "If it'd been slavery, the local Green Lanterns woulda put a stop to it already. I'm here 'cause doin' somethin' about it needs someone a bit higher up t' make a decision."

"You're an.. officer."

"Honor Guard Lantern Guy Gardner."

"And I'm the Illustres of the Orange Lantern Corps."

I bring my formal robes out of subspace and drape them over my light armour.

"Well-. I.. see why some people might find it objectionable, but why are you talking to me? I have no authority over the practice."

"Pickin' names out of a hat." Guy shrugs. "Wanna find out what a regular Joe thinks of it."

"It… Beats the way we used to handle unowned orphans."

"Oh yeah? What was that then?"

"Medical euthanasia."

Guy's environmental shield grows a little brighter still.

"Yes, I suppose that it does beat that."

"They learn fast, and they are given bodies far stronger than our best powered armour. Ten years of service and they are free citizens. It's not… Nice, perhaps, but it works. They do useful work no one else can and they aren't mist-."

I raise my right hand. "I'm.. going to stop you right there. Your society and mine have very different ideas of what child mistreatment looks like. But… Okay. How the heck do you turn a brain that young into a functioning soldier?"

"I'm.. not an expert on the technology-."

"I'm really more interested in what the average Alignment citizen believes about it."

"It's.. something to do with how they educate them. The programming they give them grants them knowledge and… Loyalty. It makes them honourable. Then… I assume that they do something to induce synaptic pruning… It's perfectly functional. They don't behave like normal children. That would be dangerous."

"Do that t' any regular kids?"

"I think.. it.. used to be used like that. It… Fell out of fashion."

"Okay, so: inexperienced but functionally adult. Plenty of species have fast maturation cycles. How are they treated once they complete their term of service?"

"The same as any other soldier leaving the military. Their training makes them unusually honest and trustworthy. Everyone knows that."

"I suppose if you can do anything to someone's brain, there isn't much point leaving them room to disobey."

"No, it isn't like that. Trying to turn them into bio-robots doesn't work. The machines implant a strong code of honour which includes lionising loyalty to their superiors but they can disobey."

"Loyalty?"

"That's what our government gets out of it. Soldiers who can't-. Well, maybe not can't, but would be very difficult to bribe or suborn."

"If that's true, what happened to Xalitan Xor?"

The response is immediate. The tensing of his muscles, the saccades of his eyes and the changing of his breathing pattern. He clamps down as hard as he can -a giveaway in its own right- but he was stressed.

"That… I wasn't the investigating officer. I was simply called in to apprehend him. His case-"

"Is one which particularly concerns me. You told me that they're programmed to respect authority and be honourable, and he went and murdered his employer's wife."

"That… Was extremely uncharacteristic. If.. I hadn't read the judgement myself…"

I barely need to look inside him at this point. Fear, vague and formless, of sticking his head above the parapet. No face. So an order would go out and he'd wake up dead. I wonder if he's carried out that sort of order before himself? But that doesn't prove a particular conspiracy around Xor, just that the government is a bit on the oppressive side.

"It surprised you to learn that one of the War Hounds would do that?"

"… Yes. It did. If you request the case files, I'm sure that will explain things."

"You didn't read them yourself?"

"I had no need to."

"Are you aware of any similar cases?"

"There are.. instances of violence. When their sense of honour conflicts with the law. That's not a problem while they're in the military, but when they're employed by civilians it can happen."

"And you assume that's what happened to Xor?"

"I haven't really thought about it. It… Would be logical."

I smile. "Then I suppose that we'd better get those files as well."