Once more, humanity managed to confound me. After three days of conference, which I had mostly attended as a silent presence, talking little and saying even less, there finally had been an interesting presentation with panel-discussion. The topic at issue had been the use of Mental Powers in Law Enforcement, with a particular focus on less-than-lethal subdual. Or, in simple terms, how useful would the ability to simply render someone incapacitated at range, without any actual physical side-effects? There were quite a few Power-sets that offered such capacities, with different conditions and mechanisms, but most of the time, it came down to locking down the opponent's mind or voluntary muscle control.

As someone who had been subjected to a form of that in the past, I could see the utility for law-enforcement and was curious what would be presented and discussed, so I attended, in the back of the audience, without drawing attention to myself.

The result?

Contrary to anything I considered common-sense, more than half the panelists, alongside the majority of the audience, seemed to consider the use of such Powers a worse option, compared to classical lethal force coming from the barrel of a gun.

To my amusement, they even brought up the taser-darts I had created a while back as superior alternatives, which they most definitely were not. Not only did my darts, and tasers in general, suffer from poor penetration, they also had the potential for nasty side-effects when combined with certain medical conditions, especially if charged with enough power to ascertain subdual. They were a good solution to the problem, but only when constrained by the rules of classical technology. Powers had a habit of breaking those rules, without a regard for what we considered possible.

Part of me wanted to stand up and take the stage, trying to convince these people of their foolishness, but for now, I simply shook my head and kept my silence. Maybe the simple truth was that they saw Powers as something alien, unexplainable and thus scary, while the simplicity of a gun was something easily understood, both in its utility and in the consequences.

Considering that, I made a mental note to propose increased focus on researching Powers and their mechanisms. Back in New Brunsburg, I had a few successes in regards to Voltic and her electric powers, which might be an avenue to follow up on. There might even be a possibility to draft Voltic into working with me again, even if there was that curious coincidence that I, in my secret identity named Catherine, had made contact with two of her friends. Working with a different Powered, possibly with the same power-set, might be advisable, even if I felt certain sympathies towards Voltic.

I would have to discuss that with Technica at some point but it would have to wait until after the convention.

My internal information-management system drew the focus of my attention away from my physical body, into the area of my mind that was more and more integrated with Galatea, making it difficult to see where one of us ended and the other began. In that fluid area of our consciousness, the data-stream from one of the cameras was transformed into visual information. Realising what had drawn my attention, I processed the data-stream a little, allowing me to focus on a particular part of the frame, while also allocating additional surveillance from above, giving me a second angle.

“They look consensual?” I asked Galatea, not quite sure of myself and even less certain whom I would want to ask about that particular activity. Certainly not about that particular activity in public.

Part of my duties was to provide security, which, in turn, would mean policing potential crimes in progress, stopping them if possible or providing evidence and technical capabilities if not. If the activity I had stumbled across was consensual, it would be classified as a misdemeanor, if not, it would be a felony. To ascertain which was the case, I decided to allocate additional drones, getting a better look, seeing a lot more than I ever wanted to see, in the process. It looked consensual, but at the end of the day, it was not something that should be done in broad daylight, or at least not anywhere that could be easily seen.

I was about to contact the security-personal, to have them notified that their behaviour was not appropriate, when Galatea overlayed additional imagery, comparing facial features to the male part of our amorous couple.

“They match.” she simply stated, before giving biographic information to the image she had shown. After reading, I let out a soft sigh, wondering what the right call would be. Neutrality, though what was the neutral action? Was failure to take action to stop what was locally a crime be considered a breach of our neutrality? Or was taking action and, in the process, opening up a rather embarrassing scandal be a breach of neutrality?

While we had yet to identify the female half of the couple, what I could say with certainty was that it was not his wife.

“You could ask Technica. Or Anath, for that matter, she could easily be linked into the data-stream.” Galatea suggested, trying to help me cope with a rather uncomfortable question.

“Could you help me make a judgement-call?” I asked, once I had a connection established with the two of them.

“Sure, what’s going on?” Anath asked, while Technica simply waited silently.

Luckily, Technica and I had long since ascertained that our different approaches were compatible, allowing her to easily receive the footage, spliced together from multiple angles letting them see the whole scene in all its… glory.

“Why are we looking at porn?!” Anath asked in a startled, affronted voice, while I could hear a surprised cough from Technica.

“My task would require me to intervene if a felony is committed, though I am not certain if that holds true for misdemeanors as well.” I admitted, still uncertain what the right course of action was. In addition, I added the biographical information regarding the politician, who by now was the horse to his partner’s cow-girl. At least that pretty much confirmed that there was no physical coercion involved, though I could not make a judgement regarding other types.

“Don’t act, we are staying neutral. And well clear of that kind of mess.” Technica ordered, her voice both annoyed and serious.

“Why can’t politicians keep it in their pants?” she muttered, mostly to herself, before cutting the connection.

“So, you like to watch?” Anath asked over the still-open connection, causing my cheeks to flush beneath my mask.

“Not really, no. If I wanted that, I would watch a documentary about the mating-habits of sea-lions, I have a feeling that would be more graceful.” I disagreed, pushing the feed to the furthest back of my mind, keeping as little attention on it as possible while still fulfilling my duties. Just because I did not want to see what was going on did not mean I did not need to observe.

Curiously, Anath kept watching a lot more closely than I did, commenting about their performance in a rather amused fashion. Luckily, I was soon spared the visuals when the two of them finished their performance, their timing roughly overlapping with the end of the discussion I had mostly tuned out. Shaking my head, I joined the flow of people, still talking with Anath while keeping an eye on the two lovebirds who had split up.

What made me raise an eyebrow was that the male half moved back into the conference-center, though he made a beeline to the washrooms, while the female half quickly made her way to the car-park where she got into a car that had been waiting with a driver present.

Thinking it too much of a coincidence, I set one of my drones to keep an eye on the car, with a second on stand-by to follow the female, if they split up. At the same time, I made sure that a recording of the earlier events was highly encrypted and saved to one of the drives I kept.

After meeting up with Anath, we decided to join up with Technica to find a good place for dinner. When we approached her, I gave a polite greeting to Brightstar who had been standing with her.

“Are you enjoying the conference?” Brightstar asked, with us joining into their conversation. As we were standing there, a male dressed in a dark suit, with obvious security-guards stepped up, giving a nod to Brightstar, too. My earlier headache suddenly returned with a vengeance, when I realised that it was the same male I had seen earlier, only cleaned up and a lot less naked.