18th June
09:43 GMT -6
"Peacock!" Ms Thal throws open the double doors leading to their St Roch residence. "We have returned from battle!"
I follow on behind her, the remains of the robot floating in an orange aura. The location of the Hawks' residence in St Roch is known to the general public -pretty much unavoidable when you fly in and out of it- so Ms Thal didn't bother with any sort of subterfuge on our journey back. I think she rather likes the attention we got.
Mister Hol looks up from his workstation, the holographic display in front of him playing a recording of our fight. Looks like it's from Ms Thal's point of view. He's wearing his basic uniform, but without the armoured plates or helmet. "Yes, I saw." He peers slightly to the side, getting a better look at it. "Thank you for bringing it back more intact than normal."
Ms Thal stops just in front of him and waves her new sword back and forth. "Where do we have room for this?"
"Oh, just put it on the bench there. I'll get to it in a little while." He gestures to the side with his right hand, indicating a work station as he gets up for a closer look at what's left of the robot. "I'm more interested in the robot's flight system. Powered flight of that sort on a planet like Earth could-."
"Hey!" Ms Thal shoves him lightly with her left hand to get his attention. "This is a
battle trophy. I'm not letting you
dissect it, I'm putting it on
display."
"You still need to put it on the bench. I'll need to check that it isn't booby trapped before you hang it on our wall."
She stares him directly in the eyes. "There better not be a
single scratch on this."
He nods, turning fully to face her with his wings slightly extended. "I'll try to stick to non-invasive methods, Magpie."
"See that you do." She leans into him, reaching up to put her hands behind his head and pull it down to a more kissable-.
I turn around, looking for a sensible place to put the robot. Ah, that's a… Holographic imaging tank. Okay. I run one last radiation scan over the head part. No electrical activity, no concentrations of heat, no alpha, beta or gamma radiation and… I take my rune stone out one of my armour's pockets and hold it close to the surface. A slight reaction, but it doesn't look like there are any aggressive enchantments running on it. That done, I deposit it at the far end of the tank and then repeat the process on the lower part before going back to trying to make sense of the smaller parts. I didn't get a
great recording of where they came from and a lot of them were damaged by the impact and the heat. I
think these.. sort of.. purple plasticy bits came from
here-.
"Oh, don't bother putting them in there." I look around as Mister Hol lifts his face away from his wife. "The holotank's only worth using for large pieces. I can look at the shrapnel later if I need to."
"Right you are, sir. Ah.
" I look at the next table over.
"Is
there alright?
"
"Certainly. Just grab a container first."
Container, contain-ah. I pick up a small plastic tub and deposit the shrapnel into it before putting it on the table.
"Anything else, sir?
" I look around to see Ms Thal leaving through a door in the far side of the room.
Mister Hol has already moved up to the control systems on the holotank. "No, you're dismissed. Showers are through those doors and on the right."
I… Don't know anything about Thanagarian attitudes to nudity, but-.
"Shayera will be using the one in our room."
"Oh. Right, yes. But I wasn't planning to have a shower, sir.
"
"No?" He glances up. "Even in a short fight, you can work up quite a sweat. Particularly in fully enclosed power armour. I suppose it's not a problem for
me as long as you
keep the armour on, but you may find that other people don't look on it too kindly."
"A benefit of environmental shields, sir.
" I return my armour to subspace.
"I'm fresh as a daisy underneath.
"
"Convenient." He presses a few buttons and the scanners on the holotank go to work. Nothing I
can't replicate with the ring, but the drawback to having as much data as I do is that there's
too much stuff. Mister Hol has his workshop to look for things that are
likely to be there. Plus, it doesn't take ring charge. "Something like that would certainly make life aboard Thanagarian navy ships a good deal more comfortable."
"I'm sorry to say, sir, that the shield is part of the whole thing. Force field based personal cleaning units have a…
Patchy history.
"
"I know. The last time Thanagar tried to implement one it took a layer of skin off the user one time in three. Green Lantern was talking to me about America's space program, and I found it a little depressing that we still use essentially the same system."
"There are forms of techno-organic armour that deal with the problem rather well, sir… But you might not like who you have to deal with to get it.
"
"Do you intend to keep calling me 'sir'?"
"Sir?
"
"I don't hold any particular rank in the Justice League and I'm not a member of the Thanagarian police force any longer. You aren't required to address me as 'sir'."
"Very well, sir. What would you like me to call you?
"
He looks up again, a smirk on his lips. "I thought the local form of address was 'Hawkman'."
I exhale, bowing my head.
"Yes sir, but to be frank I've always-.
"
He frowns. "To be what?"
"Frank. Er, open and honest? Oh! You're getting a-
" I wave my right hand back and forth between us.
"-translation. It usually manages a best match for non-literal turns of phrase.
"
"Hah. Have you any idea how duplicitous it sounds to need to specify that you're being honest
this time? Why would anyone believe you?"
"I suppose… Sometimes people talk about a subject obliquely? Or hold things back?
"
"I only speak two Thanagarian languages, but I don't think that either of them has a phrase like that."
"Is that a… Thanagar thing, or do the
Lizarkon languages have the same feature?
"
"I don't know." He presses a button and a cutaway image of the robot appears. "You'd have to ask one of them. Hm."
"Something interesting, sir?
"
"The basic structure is quite a lot like the robotic duplicate of Shayera that was built last year by-."
"Johnny Law, sir. I contacted the prison where he's being held, and they confirmed that he's still there.
"
"Good work. Similar basic structural layout… But the controlled plasma reaction is nothing like anything I've seen on Earth before. The gravitic slingshot
could have come from Earth, but only from a handful of places." He presses other buttons, magnifying particular systems. "To get the effect you observed when the robot moved or attacked, the plasma would have to be expelled at extremely high pressure. But that's not consistent with the comparative lack of damage to the surrounding environment."
"Some sort of exotic containment system, sir?
"
"Probably." He nods to himself. "You're.. going.. to keep calling me that, aren't you?"
"I was planning to. But if you'd prefer 'Peacock'-?
"
"'Sir' is fine. Now,-" He leans forwards. "-let's take a closer look at this."
