Justice League Alliance

Once upon a time, Earth woke up to find nine warships in its sky.

Not one. Nine. They traveled in a tight formation, dark metal hulls catching the morning sun, broadcasting a single message on every frequency that human instruments could detect: Earth would surrender all extraterrestrial individuals residing on its surface, or experience what the Gordanian fleet called a demonstration.

In the Justice League's Watchtower — the space station orbiting high above the Earth — Martian Manhunter received the message and made two calls at once. The first was to Superman and Wonder Woman, who were already dealing with a tectonic emergency off the coast of Japan. The second was to Titans Tower.

Green Lantern Hal Jordan arrived at the Watchtower with his ring glowing a steady emerald, ready to negotiate. He had talked down worse than nine warships in his long career patrolling the galaxy. But nine warships was still nine warships, and talking alone only worked when the person on the other end of the conversation was willing to listen.

The plan that Martian Manhunter outlined was careful. Green Lantern would initiate contact with the fleet and begin formal negotiations. While he spoke, someone would board the Gordanian flagship. Not to fight — to talk. In Gordanian, to their admiral, directly.

Gordanians had a complex set of protocols around direct conversation. They respected face-to-face honesty in a way they did not respect long-distance communication. It was part of their warrior culture: an enemy who came to you in person, alone, without hiding, was making a gesture that their code required them to at least hear out.

Robin looked at Starfire. She had already understood the plan.

"Their admiral will have been briefed on the warship commanders who failed to retrieve me in Jump City," she said. "He will want to know why they failed." She paused. "I can tell him."

She flew from the Watchtower to the flagship in under four minutes — speeds that made Green Lantern watch her go with visible respect. She breached the entry bay with a single, controlled starbolt and navigated the corridors from memory, because she had spent years on ships built by the same empire and she knew every gray passageway, every cold smell of recycled air and engine fuel. She moved quickly and without hesitation.

The Gordanian admiral was named Rek-Var. He was old and scarred and he wore his career on his face in the particular way of soldiers who have fought too many wars for causes they served without choosing. He stood on the command deck surrounded by his officers and looked at the Tamaranean princess standing at the entrance as if she had simply walked in through an unlocked door.

Which, in a sense, she had.

She spoke to him in Gordanian. She said: "You are following orders from commanders who promised you an easy target. I want to tell you something true about Earth before you do something that cannot be undone."

He said nothing. He was listening.

She told him about the people of Earth — how they had surprised every enemy who had ever underestimated them, how their heroes came in every shape and size, how they had defeated threats far larger than nine warships. She was not threatening him. She was informing him. There was a difference, and he could hear it.

Then she said: "I am asking you, once and directly, to stand down. I am asking once because I respect the long career you have had, even though I disagree with every single order you have ever followed in service of an empire that traded me like cargo."

The command deck was very quiet.

Rek-Var looked at her for a long moment. The lines of his face were still. Then he said, in a low voice: "You should have been captured when they had you."

She said, simply: "I know."

Another silence. The officers waited. The Titans, positioned outside the fleet, waited. Green Lantern paused his diplomatic transmission and waited.

Rek-Var raised his hand and gave the signal. Hold.

Nine warships stopped broadcasting their threat. Green Lantern completed the formal negotiation — terms, departure timeline, an agreement that the fleet would not return. The ships turned, one by one, and made their way out of Earth's solar system in orderly retreat.

In the Watchtower briefing room afterward, Martian Manhunter said, carefully and clearly: "Starfire's conversation with Admiral Rek-Var was the decisive moment of this engagement. Without it, we were looking at days of negotiation at best."

Robin sat across the table and nodded. He already knew. He had watched the sensors track her walking out of that flagship, alone, in the same unhurried way she walked out of every difficult place she had ever been. Upright. Calm. Still warm.

That was Koriand'r. Always and entirely.

Close your eyes. The fleet is gone. The sky is clear. Nine warships retreated because one princess walked in, told the truth, and asked once.

That is enough for tonight.

Sleep well.