Pursuant (part 17)
- Location
- Hampden Park
21st October
21:47 GMT -6
I lean back against the wall, idly tapping my left foot against the pavement. The local police have pretty much finished their initial processing of the warehouse workers, but we already know from M'gann that they didn't know anything about their employer's real business. Other police are going through the building, bagging and tagging anything remotely interesting as well as securing the site. It would be a bit of a nuisance if someone stole some of the equipment, but… Hardly a major problem. None of it is more than a generation or two ahead of what Earth has now, and if someone was willing to splurge and had the right connections then they could probably get equipment like it from other places.
All in all, I'm a little underwhelmed.
We stopped a time travel-. No, we didn't. We undermined his resource base somewhat, but these places could have been in operation since the fifties. That's sixty years of turning out materials. If Per Degaton can't take over a post-apocalyptic Earth with that then there's probably no hope for him. And contrariwise, I'm struggling to see what a few extra years of production would really have done for him. The only thing I can really think of is that they might have been ramping up…
Okay, think it through. I'm a bitter would-be dictator with a time machine and a xenophobia psychosis. Travelling back in time for the resources worked for the Sheeda, so it's perfectly viable for me. But there's no point in taking raw materials. The Reach or the Thanagarians might have used local resources for local construction but there's no point just stealing raw materials when it's far easier to break up asteroids. Which means that while there might be local resource shortages in the future, there shouldn't be a resource shortage per se. Technology? I suppose… They might be backward, depending on how much effort the Thanagarians put into developing the place and exactly what the Reach didn't bother taking with them-.
No, hang on. Would the Reach have destroyed it out of spite or contempt? Not.. sure. Usually in their fights with the Darkstars they haven't bothered, but that's probably because they're confident that they'll be able to take it all back eventually. In a way it's an intimidation tactic; yes, we'll let you primitives squat here for a year or two, being properly impressed by our superiority… Point being, I don't really have a model for how they behave if they're having to retreat properly. And if Larfleeze was eating them…
Hm. No, I don't think they would. Or rather, if they were going to destroy their holdings then the destruction would be so total that there wouldn't be a native population left. If there was anyone left and the Thanagarians bothered occupying then it follows that there was something to occupy. So Per Degaton grows up in a world that was wrecked by one group of aliens -and unlike with the Nazis blaming the 'November Criminals' and the Jews it isn't a minority thing, it's historical fact- and now controlled by another. Truggs came back to prevent the defeat in the first place, but he's… A bit more of a realist. And -in his way- a utilitarian. Degaton… He'd want to fight. He'd want to show his people that they could win.
So he'd build weapons in the past, back when Earth still had the technology and infrastructure. But how would he get hold of them? Build a time.. gate of some kind here and send them through? Just.. bury them and wait? Bit of a risk, but if he knew how to hide it from Reach technology and knew where the Reach weren't going to bother looking it could work-.
"What's so great about that bit of wall, then?"
I blink as Beryl raises her eyebrows interrogatively at me. "Sorry, miles away. Something happen?"
"Final casualty reports. Nothing too serious, though the Hawkwoman would have been looking for a no-arm combat style if Accomplished Perfect Physician wasn't there. What are you thinking about?"
"Economic uses of time travel?"
She nods. "That Hunter bloke might share. Not sure how I feel about popping out of existence if you went back to stop Klarion, mind."
"No, no-. Well… I wasn't.. planning… Actively planning that. I mean, aren't we making people Mister Hunter's met pop out of existence by doing this now?"
"Not people I've met. And anyway, this was done with time travel anyway. Maybe we're making another group of people pop back?" She glances up for a moment. "If we assume that the possible permutations of history which can be created by time travel are near-infinite-"
I frown. "You can't have near-"
"-then really it's a bit selfish to think that any one group is more 'real' than any other."
"-infinite."
"Unless you're one of them. But particularity is a problem with a lot of logical ideas."
"I-. No, that wasn't what I was thinking about. What I meant was: how was Per Degaton planning to use any of this stuff?"
"Hide it and wait?" She thinks for a moment. "Those four guys with the teleporters might have been doing shuttle-runs."
"I don't suppose they were caught?"
She shakes her head. "People matching their description did a lot of counter attacks, but they stopped when Kaldur shut off their guns. Which means that it was probably the same group each time."
"And we don't… Heh, we don't remember anyone popping out of existence?"
She nods. "Makes it a bit hard to know, doesn't it?"
Alas, poor Triumph. "But… Why are there a few dozen factories? And why were they all in countries that had people who would actually look for them? If they'd gone to… I don't know, Ogaden-."
"Transportation infrastructure."
"For time travellers? Or how about China? I'm pretty sure the Standing Committee would keep things covered up for a cut of the output."
"Fascist dictators aren't sharers. Of course…"
"What?"
"The only time traveller who we know has got a way back.. is Mister Hunter."
I smile. "That's some Batman level thinking. But his sphere isn't big enough for more than a few boxes and we're not going to put all of the best stuff in one place. Compared to a time machine…"
"Do we actually know any of this for certain?"
Hmmm. "I don't think that Abra would lie to me about Per Degaton existing. Small bursts of chroniton radiation combined with their movement pattern suggests that those people had at least limited time travel capacity… But we don't have a hard evidential tie between them and Per Degaton, just Mister Hunter's assurance."
"Alright. So, a fascist dictator wants to send people back in time to build things for his take over. Who does he send?"
"Logically… He'd go himself and set things up, then return to the future and leave a loyal lieutenant running it?"
"What if he couldn't. What if it was one way? Or… Difficult, or hard to hide or something?"
"Someone.. loyal and unimaginative. They'd be going back into what was a.. far nicer world than they were used to. He wouldn't want them getting distracted or deciding they were better off without him. And… He wouldn't be able to send them much help. They'd probably have to recruit it locally. And the locals wouldn't share their ideology."
"See, based on what we actually know about 'Eliminations, Inc.', that fits much closer to how they acted. They killed for money and never said anything about any sort of ideology. So maybe… They were building up funds for this? And they disappeared because they already had the money to build their first factories… They didn't need to kill people any more. And the hired killers were only in it for the money, so they could just be paid off…"
"Might be worth seeing if we can find them. We should be able to get authorisation for telepathic-."
"Because I know what's going on!"
Beryl and I look over to the police cordon where a middle aged and quite aggravated man is arguing with a police officer. We look at each other for a moment and then jog in his direction.
"Is there a problem, sir?"
His attention switches away from the police officer as soon as he hears it. "Yeah. I want my time machine back."
21:47 GMT -6
I lean back against the wall, idly tapping my left foot against the pavement. The local police have pretty much finished their initial processing of the warehouse workers, but we already know from M'gann that they didn't know anything about their employer's real business. Other police are going through the building, bagging and tagging anything remotely interesting as well as securing the site. It would be a bit of a nuisance if someone stole some of the equipment, but… Hardly a major problem. None of it is more than a generation or two ahead of what Earth has now, and if someone was willing to splurge and had the right connections then they could probably get equipment like it from other places.
All in all, I'm a little underwhelmed.
We stopped a time travel-. No, we didn't. We undermined his resource base somewhat, but these places could have been in operation since the fifties. That's sixty years of turning out materials. If Per Degaton can't take over a post-apocalyptic Earth with that then there's probably no hope for him. And contrariwise, I'm struggling to see what a few extra years of production would really have done for him. The only thing I can really think of is that they might have been ramping up…
Okay, think it through. I'm a bitter would-be dictator with a time machine and a xenophobia psychosis. Travelling back in time for the resources worked for the Sheeda, so it's perfectly viable for me. But there's no point in taking raw materials. The Reach or the Thanagarians might have used local resources for local construction but there's no point just stealing raw materials when it's far easier to break up asteroids. Which means that while there might be local resource shortages in the future, there shouldn't be a resource shortage per se. Technology? I suppose… They might be backward, depending on how much effort the Thanagarians put into developing the place and exactly what the Reach didn't bother taking with them-.
No, hang on. Would the Reach have destroyed it out of spite or contempt? Not.. sure. Usually in their fights with the Darkstars they haven't bothered, but that's probably because they're confident that they'll be able to take it all back eventually. In a way it's an intimidation tactic; yes, we'll let you primitives squat here for a year or two, being properly impressed by our superiority… Point being, I don't really have a model for how they behave if they're having to retreat properly. And if Larfleeze was eating them…
Hm. No, I don't think they would. Or rather, if they were going to destroy their holdings then the destruction would be so total that there wouldn't be a native population left. If there was anyone left and the Thanagarians bothered occupying then it follows that there was something to occupy. So Per Degaton grows up in a world that was wrecked by one group of aliens -and unlike with the Nazis blaming the 'November Criminals' and the Jews it isn't a minority thing, it's historical fact- and now controlled by another. Truggs came back to prevent the defeat in the first place, but he's… A bit more of a realist. And -in his way- a utilitarian. Degaton… He'd want to fight. He'd want to show his people that they could win.
So he'd build weapons in the past, back when Earth still had the technology and infrastructure. But how would he get hold of them? Build a time.. gate of some kind here and send them through? Just.. bury them and wait? Bit of a risk, but if he knew how to hide it from Reach technology and knew where the Reach weren't going to bother looking it could work-.
"What's so great about that bit of wall, then?"
I blink as Beryl raises her eyebrows interrogatively at me. "Sorry, miles away. Something happen?"
"Final casualty reports. Nothing too serious, though the Hawkwoman would have been looking for a no-arm combat style if Accomplished Perfect Physician wasn't there. What are you thinking about?"
"Economic uses of time travel?"
She nods. "That Hunter bloke might share. Not sure how I feel about popping out of existence if you went back to stop Klarion, mind."
"No, no-. Well… I wasn't.. planning… Actively planning that. I mean, aren't we making people Mister Hunter's met pop out of existence by doing this now?"
"Not people I've met. And anyway, this was done with time travel anyway. Maybe we're making another group of people pop back?" She glances up for a moment. "If we assume that the possible permutations of history which can be created by time travel are near-infinite-"
I frown. "You can't have near-"
"-then really it's a bit selfish to think that any one group is more 'real' than any other."
"-infinite."
"Unless you're one of them. But particularity is a problem with a lot of logical ideas."
"I-. No, that wasn't what I was thinking about. What I meant was: how was Per Degaton planning to use any of this stuff?"
"Hide it and wait?" She thinks for a moment. "Those four guys with the teleporters might have been doing shuttle-runs."
"I don't suppose they were caught?"
She shakes her head. "People matching their description did a lot of counter attacks, but they stopped when Kaldur shut off their guns. Which means that it was probably the same group each time."
"And we don't… Heh, we don't remember anyone popping out of existence?"
She nods. "Makes it a bit hard to know, doesn't it?"
Alas, poor Triumph. "But… Why are there a few dozen factories? And why were they all in countries that had people who would actually look for them? If they'd gone to… I don't know, Ogaden-."
"Transportation infrastructure."
"For time travellers? Or how about China? I'm pretty sure the Standing Committee would keep things covered up for a cut of the output."
"Fascist dictators aren't sharers. Of course…"
"What?"
"The only time traveller who we know has got a way back.. is Mister Hunter."
I smile. "That's some Batman level thinking. But his sphere isn't big enough for more than a few boxes and we're not going to put all of the best stuff in one place. Compared to a time machine…"
"Do we actually know any of this for certain?"
Hmmm. "I don't think that Abra would lie to me about Per Degaton existing. Small bursts of chroniton radiation combined with their movement pattern suggests that those people had at least limited time travel capacity… But we don't have a hard evidential tie between them and Per Degaton, just Mister Hunter's assurance."
"Alright. So, a fascist dictator wants to send people back in time to build things for his take over. Who does he send?"
"Logically… He'd go himself and set things up, then return to the future and leave a loyal lieutenant running it?"
"What if he couldn't. What if it was one way? Or… Difficult, or hard to hide or something?"
"Someone.. loyal and unimaginative. They'd be going back into what was a.. far nicer world than they were used to. He wouldn't want them getting distracted or deciding they were better off without him. And… He wouldn't be able to send them much help. They'd probably have to recruit it locally. And the locals wouldn't share their ideology."
"See, based on what we actually know about 'Eliminations, Inc.', that fits much closer to how they acted. They killed for money and never said anything about any sort of ideology. So maybe… They were building up funds for this? And they disappeared because they already had the money to build their first factories… They didn't need to kill people any more. And the hired killers were only in it for the money, so they could just be paid off…"
"Might be worth seeing if we can find them. We should be able to get authorisation for telepathic-."
"Because I know what's going on!"
Beryl and I look over to the police cordon where a middle aged and quite aggravated man is arguing with a police officer. We look at each other for a moment and then jog in his direction.
"Is there a problem, sir?"
His attention switches away from the police officer as soon as he hears it. "Yeah. I want my time machine back."
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