That is definitely not where she fell asleep. She takes a breath to steady herself and it only then occurs to her to wonder how exactly she's able to breathe. There isn't supposed to be air on the moon. The staff and the ring are also new... She mutters a quick prayer. "God please help me understand this trial I find myself in."

Not only is she comfortably breathing, she is also at a comfortable temperature, and her entire body is surrounded by a faint indigo aura.

She looks down at herself. "Why am I glowing? Did I die?"

She can—not quite hear, but something like it—a voice in her head.

"Glowing is caused by environmental shield. No data on possible past death of user."

She flinches. "Who said that?"

"This is your ring's computer."

She looks at the ring.... it seems pretty small to have a full computer in it, let alone a telepathic one. "Do you know how I got here?"

"No data."

That's disappointing. "Alright, can you tell me more about what kind of ring you are?"

"This is a power ring, attuned to the Indigo Light of Compassion."

"What's a power ring and what does it mean for you to be attuned to compassion?"

"This ring functions to store and enable its user to channel Indigo Light. It is not possible to use any other form of Light."

"What can I do with Indigo light?"

"Exhaustive listing of capabilities not recommended."

"So it's flexible. Do you know what this staff is? It seems like it might be related to the ring."

"Staff is linked to ring and serves as source of Light."

"How do I use the staff and the ring?"

"Intent, and sufficient Compassion to execute the intended course of action, is generally sufficient."

"I should have asked this earlier, are you a person?"

"Unable to comply; 'person' insufficiently specified."

"That's an important question isn't it. I think by person I mean a being with emotions, desires, and the ability to make decisions."

"This ring is not a person."

"Alright, if that changes let me know." She pauses. "Can you help me get to that planet over there?"

"Affirmative."

She really wants to go back to her dorm room. "How do we do that then?"

"Flight plan to planet available. Do you wish to proceed?"

"Do it." She's going home.

She starts to move away from the moon, at a pace that's pretty fast by the standards of her jungle-dwelling ape ancestors, but slow enough that it's clearly going to take a while to get to Earth.

"How long will it take to get there?"

"Estimated time of arrival 4 hours, 34 minutes, given current level of Compassion."

She tries focusing on how her friends will worry if she doesn't show up for class. She doesn't want them to worry.

Her speed increases noticeably (if she looks backwards at the moon, at least; the Earth is still too faraway to tell).

Hmm, is it just relevant compassion... she tries focusing on how she wishes she could do more for the homeless people she sees sometimes. She often stops to talk with them. She wishes nobody was in that situation.

Well, she certainly can't do anything about that from here! She continues to speed up.

So the ring channels her compassion for others. Truly she has been blessed. She whispers a quick prayer of thanks for this opportunity to help others. She thinks more deeply about the homeless woman she talked to a few days ago, about how she's trying to feed her children and how she can't find work about all the details she shared and how grateful the woman was not just for the money Sapphire gave her but for being acknowledged as a person instead of passed by like a bit of trash by the side of the road.

By now she is moving dramatically faster than when she started, and is able to see the Earth coming closer. She's moving not in a straight line, but a slightly elliptical curve, and it looks like she'll reach the western hemisphere in five to ten minutes.

Wonderful. Does she slow down if she stops focusing as much?

Focus, per se, does not seem to have much of an effect, but the amount of compassion she's feeling does, and she may find it easier to feel compassion if she focuses on it deliberately. If she's paying close enough attention, she can feel what seems like some... force, moving through her and into the light surrounding her, which strengthens or weakens with the intensity of that feeling.

So it is the emotion. She tries just focusing on the feeling but it's indeed hard to sustain without thinking about a specific person. Maybe that's something she can practice. In the meantime she'll go through people she knows and use them as the focus for the emotion.

Several minutes later, she reaches the planet. She starts slowing down and enters the atmosphere.

"I want to go back to my dorm. Do you know where that is?"

"Affirmative. Flight plan modified."

She starts to move north as she enters the atmosphere, continuing to slow down. An indigo-colored transparent ovoid bubble forms around her, shortly before the air outside of it starts to glow orange and yellow.

Oh right, flying really fast makes things heat up. It's good that the ring knows to protect her.

Eventually she slows down enough that the air ceases to be on fire, and the bubble fades away. She is now above Long Island, approaching Connecticut. She hasn't previously seen the region from this altitude, but even so, it seems different than what she expected. New York City is noticeably smaller, and a city on the western coast of Connecticut—she thinks it's Norwalk or Bridgeport?—is much larger than she remembers.

That's strange. Maybe she's misremembering? How would a city get bigger or smaller?

"Will detected.", says her ring, shortly before—

A man in a green uniform, with a green, lantern-shaped sigil on his chest, wearing a glowing green ring on his right hand, glowing green, approaches her from below and begins to fly alongside her.

"Welcome to Earth. Identify yourself."

She wants to stop and talk to this person she's never seen anyone flying before. And he has a ring. "Hello my name is Sapphire Eyestone... Did you wake up on the moon with a ring on your finger too?"

"No, I got my ring when the last guy died. I'm not aware of anyone who's gotten a ring that way. That what happened to you?

"It is, I went to sleep last night in my dorm room at Wesleyan, or I think it was last night and I woke up on the moon. I don't think I've ever heard of you before though. Are the rings secret?"

"Nope. I've had this ring for seven years, although I was in a coma until a few months ago, and there are two other green lanterns on Earth. I can't imagine how you wouldn't have heard of us. You have any idea where that ring came from? Or, uh, what kind it is?"

"Are... are other Earth's a thing.... I noticed that New York City looks smaller than I remember from when I was on a plane last. And there's a big city here in Connecticut I don't remember being that big."

He sighs.

"There are alternate realities, yes. We've gotten visitors a few times, it's usually a pain in the ass. Sounds like you come from one of them, that or you lost your memories or something even weirder happened. Can you send me your ring's recordings?"

"Ring can you do that?" She wants to send the recordings it sounds like it might help figure out what's happening.

"Compliance."

"Thanks."

Guy's ring projects a green hologram that looks like Sapphire's flight path. He scrutinizes it for a few moments, looks at a few more holograms; graphs and charts, and says,

"Did you send me everything? Because the earliest data here is four hours old."

"Ring? Is there anything you didn't send? Do you have records from before then?"

"All routine environmental recording data was transmitted. Other contents of database not transmitted. No data prior to 4 hours, 17 minutes ago available."

"What's in your database?"

It lists various types of information it has been able to put together in the last several hours—mapping, language data, technical information about how she channels Indigo Light, etc. It's clear that the ring has learned a lot about the things it has been able to observe so far, but doesn't have data about anything else.

"It says that's all it has. It seems like the database is all things it learned in the last four hours. It figured out more than I would have."

"Alright, sounds like you're not from here then. Welcome to this Earth. What are your intentions?"

"I'm not sure, a part of me wants to go home but I feel like I might be here for a purpose. My ring is powered by compassion and it feels like that's a message like I'm meant to be here to help people."

"Could be. It's a pretty weird situation. I've make some calls, take some scans, might be able to figure out more about what happened to you."

By this point, Guy has exited threat-assessment mode and has noticed he is speaking to an attractive woman.

"Say, I forgot to introduce myself. My name's Guy, Guy Gardner. If you like, later, maybe I could show you around, introduce you to this new world."

He offers his most charming smile, which Sapphire may or may not actually find charming.

"Thank you, I'd appreciate whatever help you can offer." If she notices his attraction she doesn't mention it.

"I'll see you tonight, then. Unless you have any questions for me, I'll head for the moon before the trail gets cold."

"Do you have any suggestions for where I should go I was planning to go to my dorm but it doesn't seem like that's possible anymore."

"You have a power ring, you can go pretty much wherever you want. What, exactly, are you looking for?"

"Eventually I'll need somewhere to stay but I can just explore for a while. Mostly I want to find people I can help. Do you have some way to find me or should we meet somewhere at a particular time."

"People to help... I don't know what that looks like to you, but your ring should be able to access the internet, that'll probably help you with more specific information. You can use your ring to give me a call whenever you want, it's pretty good for communication."

"That works, thank you."

"See you later, Sapphire."

He gives a little salute and flies off.

Can she think commands to the ring? She tries thinking towards the ring. Ring search for any recent disasters.

"Unable to comply; 'recent disasters' inadequately specified."

Okay that works. Define disaster as an event that resulted in the death or displacement of one hundred or more people and is not associated with an ongoing war. Define recent as the last week.

"Insufficient Compassion for comprehensive scan. Approximate results can be attained by searching local network."

Would levels similar to what I had when we were flying be enough?

"Negative. Necessary compassion unlikely to be within user's projected range."

Could we scan a smaller area? What can you scan with the projected range? Also go ahead and approximate with local networks.

"Scan according to given parameters projected to be feasible within area of 5000 square kilometers or less. Comprehensive description of feasible scanning parameters not recommended."

"Compliance. Hurricane Alex struck Tamaulipas, Mexico four days ago. Based on most estimates of deaths and displacements on the network, it meets your criteria. No other events found."

She wants to go there and help. Let's go.

She begins to move, first upward, then southeast towards Mexico. If she tries to exercise control over her flight, she'll be able to do so, otherwise it feels like she's moving on rails. It is now apparent, much moreso than on her journey to the Earth, that she is accelerating rapidly, but feels only a fraction of the forces her body is undergoing. She can reach her destination in under a minute. A few remnants of the hurricane are still visible over Tamaulipas, although it is nearly dissipated.

She'll experiment a little with different poses. She tries to control where she's going more precisely when she arrives and looks around for anything that looks like an obvious place she could help.

Different poses have no noticeable impact on her flight other than, perhaps, style points. The first thing she'll notice is the flooding—the Rio Grande and its tributaries are a lot wider than it looks like they usually are, and several low-lying towns are flooded. When she gets closer to the ground, she may notice things like: washed out bridges, roads, and railways, power outages, and temporary shelters for people who evacuated their homes. If she decides to move in a particular direction, speed, or fashion, she will be able to do so.

Could we do anything about the flooding?

"Affirmative."

What would you recommend we do to make the flood subside?

"Scanning. Most surface water in this region will be drained within a few days. Removal of surface water can be expedited by drilling holes to increase infiltration rate or evaporating water. Higher-quality recommendation may be possible with more extensive scanning. Recommendations do not account for out-of-scope considerations."

Run whatever scans you think will help. She focuses on her compassion for the people below.

"Scans have already been completed according to default parameters for weighting cost of attaining additional data against expected utility of additional data. Additional scans are not recommended."

If Sapphire is paying attention to that faint sensation in her metaphysical insides, she may feel a greater connection to the Indigo Light inside her ring and staff. She could use it, if she wanted to, but right now it's not doing anything. It feels like its waiting.

Scan for somewhere people are coordinating disaster response. She wants to confirm that's what people want before doing something potentially drastic.

"Unable to comply; inadequately specified."

Can you scan for somewhere food and water are being distributed?

"Scanning. 45698 results found in region affected by Hurricane Alex."

Take me to the closest one that's adjacent to temporary housing.

"Compliance."

She begins moving and in a few moments touches down in a street outside a small grocery store across from a field with a few tents. It is mid-morning. People nearby stare at her, looking confused or scared. (This may be related to her brightly glowing staff and ring.)

There is a man standing outside the convenience store, smoking a cigarette. He takes a few steps towards her and says something in spanish.

Ring can you translate for me? She does her best to smile gently.

"No data available on this language. Recommend accessing network for language corpus."

The man sighs, leans inside the store's doorway, and shouts something inside.

Do that please.

"Compliance."

A moment later,

"Translation available."

Tell me what people have said so far. She pauses since we landed and within 5 meters.

The ring plays a recording that sounds like the man's voice, "Who are you?" and a moment later, "Miguel, can you come out here?"

A teenage boy comes out from the store, looks towards the older man, and says, "What's up?"

He gestures towards Sapphire, "I have no idea what is going on here but I don't think she speaks Spanish and your english is better than mine."

"Guess so." Then, in halting english, "Hello? Who are you?"

Ring bidirectional translation please. She assumes that works and then speaks. "Hi there, sorry my translation wasn't working at first. I'm looking for someone in charge of the relief efforts do you know where I could find one?"

Both of them are taken aback.

"Oh, alright then," the older man replies, "the army sent some troops to do relief, if that's what you're looking for. I think they have a base in Apodaca."

Whatever this woman's deal is, he probably can't go wrong by making her the army's problem, he thinks.

(Somehow, she is speaking in fluent spanish. She composes her sentences in english, hears herself speak in english, and despite that, her mouth is forming spanish sounds. She will probably not notice this unless she tries to.)

"Thank you, do you have any thoughts on what people in this area need?"

"Well, the power is out, and a lot of people don't have running water either, so it would be nice to get that fixed. Can you please tell us who you are? And what you're doing here?"

"Oh sorry, I'm Sapphire Eyestone. I'm a bit like a green lantern. Different color but I can do the same sort of thing. I came to help with the hurricane relief efforts." Ring can we fix the power and water infrastructure locally?

"So you're a superhero then? You with the Justice League?"

"Scanning. Power outages present in large parts of this region. Not feasible to restore power locally without repairing large parts of regional electrical system or constructing new electrical infrastructure. Repairs to water system are possible, but existing infrastructure does not entirely match records available on network. Restoration of water system is possible, replication of water system as it was before Hurricane Alex is not without additional data."

"I haven't joined yet. I was talking to one of the local green lanterns earlier and I'll be talking to him tonight so we'll see what happens. I'll see what I can do about power and water."

What's broken in the regional power infrastructure? Are power plants destroyed, power lines, are fuel deliveries delayed?

"Power lines are severed and several power generation facilities are not operable, or not operable at full capacity."

Is all of that within our ability to fix?

"Affirmative. Estimated time to completion: 4 days, 7 hours. Recharge will be necessary."

How do I recharge?

The two men from the convenience store head inside, content to let the strange woman with the glowing staff stare off into space on her own.

"Insert ring into staff Indigo Light port"—the top of her staff widens and forms a horn-like circular opening—"and recite activation sequence."

That... that's fair, she'll have to get better about not confusing people by having long conversations they can't hear.

What activation sequence?

"Activation sequence can be any affirmation of conviction and commitment to Compassion."

I'll have to think of one. Take me to the military base referred to earlier. Limit speed to 60 miles per hour. Put me down outside the main entrance and don't overfly the base.

"Compliance."

She begins to move northwest, at a fairly leisurely speed of 60 miles per hour. If she doesn't do anything in the meantime, it will take her a little over two hours to get there.

How long will the flight take?

"Estimated time to arrival: 2 hours, 13 minutes."

That's longer than I'd like ... can cut it down to twenty minutes while still restricting to 60 miles per hour for the last 2 miles around the base? And how fast would we be going then?

"Affirmative. With given parameters, flight speed would not exceed 440 miles per hour. Faster than light transit also available."

What do you mean by faster-than-light travel... did we use that to get here from the moon?

"Negative. Transit from the moon was sub-light-speed. Faster than light transit is transit at a speed faster than the speed of light."

Well she deserved that. What types of faster than light travel are available? Do they have any downsides?

The ring lists about a dozen different techniques, which are clearly only approximately translated into english.

"Transition or Indigo Light portal recommended for most applications. Transition not suitable for long distances. Indigo Light portal transit takes between 0.5 and 3 seconds, which is slower than alternatives over short distances, and requires more Compassion than many alternatives."

"I'm being silly aren't I. This world has people like me already. There's probably procedures." Call Guy Gardner

A moment later, he (metaphorically) picks up. Her ring projects an indigo-colored hologram of his head and shoulders.

"Hey, Sapphire. Didn't expect to hear from you so soon. Miss me already?"

She laughs, "Not exactly, I did want your advice though. I'm trying to help out with the Hurricane that hit Mexico but I'm not sure how to get in touch with the authorities. Do you have any advice to offer? Are there standard channels for superheros helping with this kind of thing?"

"The Justice League does disaster relief stuff, I think some of them were actually in Mexico when it hit a couple of days ago. They probably have procedures that are appropriate for that kind of thing, but I don't know the details. I know people in the governments of some of the eastern states, but no one in Mexico."

"Someone I met mentioned the Justice League. Do you think getting in touch with them would be a good way forward?"

"If disaster relief is what you want to do, sure, you should at least talk to them. There should be someone on duty—technically this is supposed to be secret, but I think that's stupid and there's no way they could keep it secret from you anyways, but the Justice League's headquarters is a space station called the watchtower. And it's secret. Anyways, there should be someone on duty up there and if you target the watchtower's communications array, your ring will be able to call them. I already told them you're here, so they shouldn't be completely surprised. Then again, it's Red Tornado."

Ring can you contact the watchtower?

"Affirmative."

There is only one object matching Guy's description.

"Thanks, I'll reach out to them. I assume we'll still meet later?"

"Of course. I look forward to it. And while I'm talking to you, I ought to let you know: I found the spot where you woke up, took some scans, and sure enough, traces of bleed fracture everywhere."

"...I realize you probably have no idea what that means. It means you almost certainly got here from an alternate universe."

"That's good to know. Does that mean it would be possible to figure out where I came from?"

"I have no idea. I'm going to report this to the Guardians, they'll know a lot more about it and might decide to investigate, but I wouldn't count on it if I were you."

"I'll do my best, this truly is an amazing opportunity. I expect I can learn to be happy here. I just wish I had at least had a chance to say goodbye."

"Yeah, that's... that sucks."

This situation is reminding him a bit of what it was like for his Ma when he got hit by a bus and put into a coma. At least she got to see him again.

"It does. I... I have to believe I'm here for a reason. That God put me on this path."

Is this a good time for Guy to bring up his thoughts about religion? ...Probably not.

"One way or another, I think it's going to be interesting to see what you'll do."

"Thank you. You've been very helpful. I'm glad I met you."

Guy has a good feeling about this.

"Thanks. I’ll see you tonight."

He (metaphorically) hangs up, and his image cuts out.

She takes a few deep breaths then Ring contact the watchtower.

A moment later, the call goes through and her ring projects what looks like a robotic head and shoulders, wearing a flamboyant high-collared cape.

"I assume you are the new lantern Guy Gardner reported?"

She startles for a moment when the call connects but pushes through. "I'm not sure why were called lanterns but yes I use a ring like he does."

"Why have you contacted the watchtower?"

Is he a robot? "Guy said you could to put me in touch with the people coordinating the response to the recent hurricane that hit Mexico. I have several ideas for how to help but I don't want to step on any toes."

Red Tornado reviews the League's files.

"I can put you in contact with the Mexican government's liaison to the Justice League, although the League's involvement in that crisis has ended and I cannot guarantee he will be prepared for your arrival. If you want more detailed advice about this situation, I can put you in contact with Batman. I myself am not very familiar with the League's disaster response protocols."

She stares a bit more than she probably should and is a bit slow to respond. "I would appreciate that, I expect he can give me the other contact yes?" A part of her wants to ask about his appearance and his voice but he must get questions like that all the time. He's probably tired of them.

"Yes. I will contact Batman. Standby." His face winks out.

("Batman, do you have a moment?"

The League had a long night, stopping Wotan from blotting out the sun, then dealing with that mess at Cadmus. Unlike some of the others, Batman needs to sleep, and has just woken up.

"Yes. What is it."

"An hour and a half ago, Guy Gardner reported that he had encountered a young woman named Sapphire Eyestone entering Earth's atmosphere wielding an unknown type of power ring based on compassion. He has since determined she originated from an alternate reality and woke up with her power ring on the surface of the moon early this morning."

"What."

"Was any part of that unclear?"

"Why am I only finding out about this now?"

"I did not judge the matter urgent and was planning on reporting it when I was relieved."

This is... not surprising, given Red Tornado.

"What changed?"

"She contacted the watchtower and requested advice on contacting relevant authorities to assist in the response to Hurricane Alex. Since my knowledge of the League's protocols is incomplete, I contacted you."
Batman isn't yet sure what to think about this situation, but he needs information.

"Send me Gardner's report and put me through to talk to her.")

After about a minute, the connection to the watchtower resumes, and Sapphire's ring shows a man wearing a black cowl with small horn-shaped protrusions atop his head and a stylized bat emblem on his chest.

"Hello. I suspect the information I have about you has been passed through a game of telephone more than I'd like. Explain from the start, please."

That's an interesting costume. Superheroes indeed. "My name is Sapphire Eyestone. I woke up this morning on the moon with no memory of how I got from my dorm room on what I later found out was another Earth to your moon. I flew to Earth and tried to go to my university I was intercepted by Guy Gardner who told me I was probably from another reality and then I set off to see where I could help. I asked my ring to find a recent disaster I could help with and it directed me to the Hurricane. I met some people who mentioned the Justice League and I realized there's probably procedures for people with unusual abilities helping out with these things and I reached out to Guy who confirmed I'm from another Earth and then told me to reach out to the Watchtower."

That is actually a more succinct and useful report than he often gets from some of his colleagues.

"Thank you. And what kind of ring do you have, exactly?"

"I'm not exactly sure, it told me it was a power ring attuned to the indigo light of compassion. It works better when I focus on understanding people and how events probably effect them."

That's interesting. Without skipping a beat, he types out a short message to Jordan and Stewart.

"The League routinely assists with natural disasters—including Hurricane Alex—primarily to evacuate people or transport supplies. That work has already been completed, and our involvement with the relief efforts ended three days ago. I can give you names and phone numbers for our main points of contact on the hurricane, who are probably still in a decent position to give you relevant information, but it would help to know what exactly you're planning on doing. The system we use is designed for acute relief and rapid response to crises, not for... whatever you intend."

"I think I can help repair the power and water infrastructure. My ring also said we could make the flooding subside but it implied that might have dangerous side effects and it said that the flooding would go away on its own in a few days."

"I don't expect causing the waters to recede a few days early will do much good. Towns that were flooded will have extensive damage either way. Restoring water and power would certainly be helpful."

He pauses, types something, looks off to the side.

"I can introduce you to people in the Federal Electricity Commission who will be able to coordinate with you to restore power. Water utilities in Mexico are generally run by municipalities, of which there are probably several dozen without water, but I can find someone who will be able to figure out what repairs are needed and where."

Ring how long would it take to fix the water systems? Also are you including time for me to sleep in your estimates?

"Estimated time to completion: 2 days, 17 hours, based on projected Compassion range. Negative, sleep is optional."

"Thanks, those numbers would be helpful. I'm more interested in prioritization than anything. It would take about a weeks worth of work to fix everything and that's without sleeping or taking breaks... my ring tells me I don't have to sleep anymore but I don't know how safe that is."

"Prioritization for repairs to the water and power systems, or prioritization more generally?"

"I'm open to being told that those repairs aren't the highest priority. They were suggested by people I met."

"There might be more impactful things you could do, but I don't know of anyone who's in a position to know what those are, especially since no one really understands your capabilities or limitations. Restoring water and power are probably the best place to start. The people at CFE—the power utility—should have a good idea of what's most urgent, I recommend you start there."

He sends her ring a series of names, descriptions, and phone numbers.

"Gabriel Rivas is in charge of repairs to the electrical grid right now, you'll want to talk to him. I also sent you phone numbers for the offices of the governors of Nuevo Leon and Tamualipas and for the League liaison in the federal government, if you need them."

"Thank you, I'll start with Gabriel Rivas."

"Feel free to contact myself or the League if you want advice with this kind of thing in the future. And good luck."

He ends the call. And starts writing messages to a long list of people.

Ring stop flying. She takes a few breaths. Call Gabriel Rivas and be prepared to translate.

The phone rings for a while before its answered. Since her ring is connecting to the 2010 Earth phone network, she now has to deal with its delightfully poor audio quality.

"Hello, who is this, we're quite busy over here."

"Hello, this is Sapphire Eyestone, Batman suggested I talk to you about helping prioritize repairs to the electrical infrastructure I could repair it all if I worked nonstop for a bit over four days but I expect that there's some pieces that are more important or harder for ordinary people to repair."

"What the hell are you—"

He pauses, sounds like he put the phone down and is talking to someone else:

"Who's going to call me? The what? Hang on."

"Sorry, are you the glowing purple American?"

"That sounds like an accurate description."

"Okay, great, great, uhh what kind of repairs can you do?"

"I think I can repair anything. My ring seems to think I could fix everything myself."

"Ring, like Green Lantern?"

"I think so, that's what the Green Lantern I talked to said anyway. I'm pretty new at this."

"Okay, we can figure it out I guess. I think the most urgent repairs are to reconnect and inspect the high-voltage lines that got damaged in the storm... we've already got the affected areas shut off properly... can you come to our operations center in Monterey? I'll show you the maps and you can pick up some cable."

He gives her an address.

"I can do that." Ring take me there with Transition, put me outside the entrance.

"Compliance."

And then, with a brief rush of light, she is standing in front of a building labeled "Federal Electricity Commission Northeast Operations Center". (It's actually labeled in spanish, and of course when Sapphire looks at the signage she sees spanish arrangements of letters, but reads english words. She will probably not notice this unless she is trying to.)

In the street nearby some people shriek.

Oh no she didn't mean to scare people. Ring make the glow from you and the staff dimmer. She schools her reaction and tries to smile reassuringly. "I'm here. I think teleporting might have scared some people."

"You teleported? Of course. Whatever, come inside, they'll get over it."

He gives her directions to a room on the second floor.

"Unable to comply; intensity of glow is directly related to intensity of user's Compassion output."

She'll just have to make the best of it then. She follows the instructions.

And after a few minutes of walking (or floating, whichever is her choice) she'll reach a room with shelves of scrolls on its sides and a large table in the center. When she enters, a middle-aged man who looks like he hasn't slept well hangs up a phone and greets her.

"Ah yes, glowing purple, very distinctive. I'm Gabriel Rivas. I have maps and technical specifications here. I'll show you what to do and you'll let me know if there's anything your ring can't do, yes?"

"Sounds good. Would it be helpful if I showed you my ring's assessment of things?"

"If there's a way to do that, yes?"

"Ring display a map of the region's electrical system. Respond out loud if there's an issue."

The ring projects a holographic map of the electrical grid.

"Okay, that's a lot better than the maps we have," says Rivas. "And it looks like it's identified which parts of the system are functioning and which need repairs. Okay, here's what you should do first:"

And he starts pointing out the most critical connections to repair.

She listens carefully though she's also sure her Ring will remember for her.

Then he'll explain the specifications the lines should meet—"normally, if we have to patch a line, we'll do a weld, but you can do whatever works with your ring as long as the end result is the same"—where to get new cable—"obviously the cables that got knocked down in the storm will still be there, but they're probably pretty damaged; if you can repair them enough to meet specification, that's fine, otherwise you can get new cable from the spools in our warehouse behind the building"—and everything else she (or her ring) need to know to complete the repairs.

"Give me a call every once in a while to let me know what you've finished so we can turn the power back on. I think for some cities we just need to restore a few connections and we'll have everything working again, others might need a bit more work but the sooner we can get these repairs done the better."

"Definitely. People use power for so many things it's important." Ring will taking extra cable make repairs faster or more energy efficient? Also do we have a good way of carrying large amounts of cable?

"Affirmative, although the difference is not significant. Cable can be stored in subspace pocket."

"Having the cable will make things a little more efficient but I can do without it if you're low on cable."

"Up to you. I don't think we're in danger of running out and in any we'd only be using that gauge of cable for repairing the high-voltage lines, which is what you're doing."

"I'll take what I can use then. It was good meeting you. I'll keep you updated."

Then Sapphire can take some cable for her subspace pocket—apparently a technical term for the phenomenon also known as hammerspace—transition away, and get to work repairing power lines. Her ring's computer does most of the actual work: planning her itinerary, setting up transitions, forming Indigo Light constructs that cut, position, and fuse cable, scanning for faults, periodically calling Rivas to inform him of progress, etcetera. All she has to do is maintain Compassion and the Light will continue to flow through her. It's fairly mindless work, but not necessarily boring; she's getting to see a lot of beautiful Mexican countryside, and even if only by observation, learn a lot more than most people know about how the electrical grid works. At about five o'clock, her ring interrupts her.

"Warning; 10% charge remaining."

In the background of other tasks she's been thinking about her activation sequence. Set down nearby and we'll try recharging.

She touches down.

She puts her ring in the slot in her staff takes a deep breath. Focuses on her compassion and speaks.

"My compassion is for all I see
and understanding is profound.
For whatever evils there may be,
greater goodness can be found."

Her ring and staff glow brightly, and the Light she is connected to feels noticeably reinvigorated.

"100% charge remaining."

It feels good, it feels right. She basks in the sensation for a short while. Smiling at the world around her. And then she returns to work.

By this point, she's nearly finished repairing the high-voltage lines, and after another half-hour or so, Guy shows up, flying in from the east.

"Hey, Sapphire. I heard you were single-handedly fixing the Mexican electrical grid. What do you say I help you finish up and then we go get dinner?"

"Sure, it's not clear to me if eating is now optional like sleeping supposedly is but it sounds nice regardless and I'd definitely appreciate the help." 

He starts helping her with the repairs.

"Your environmental shield can take care of pretty much everything—I'll spare you the details—but eating is still enjoyable and I got a reservation at a great place in New York I think you'll like. Sleeping isn't... entirely optional, but you certainly can do with a lot less of it. Your ring should be able to remove waste products from your brain and take care of most of the other things that happen while you sleep, but people get a little weird after they've been conscious for more than a week. I think you just gotta have a reset every once in a while."

"That's good to know, maybe my ring just meant I could finish a particular plan it said would take a bit over four days without sleeping. It's very literal. And a nice dinner sounds good."

He chuckles. "Yeah, I don't know if your computer is anything like ours, but it certainly can be frustrating to deal with. You get used to it, though."

"I'm slowly getting used to it yeah. It's pretty amazing how flexible it is and how much it's able to do. It could translate Spanish for me in a few seconds."

"Green Lantern rings can translate between I think any languages in the universe. Although you don't have a database, so you'll have to collect that information yourself. It shouldn't be too difficult for most human languages."

"Are you allowed to share parts of your database with me?"

"I am definitely allowed to send you the data I've collected on Earth—I'll send you most of it, but some things are secret—but I'd need permission from Oa for anything more. The Guardians don't want their knowledge spread around too much, could be destabilizing. I did hear back from them, by the way."

"I'd appreciate everything you can send me. What did you hear from the Guardians?"

"Data received."

If Sapphire inspects the data packet, she will see that it contains maps, language data, notes on local supervillains, and various other information that may become relevant in the future.

"They said that if your home universe is accessible at all, the data I collected will be enough to locate it. I don't know if they'd actually be willing to do so, but I'd guess not for free. They also mentioned that they were aware of other Indigo Light users in the universe, but they're pretty reclusive and not much is known about them. And probably a lot of what is known is classified."

"Thanks, could you tell me more about the Guardians? I think you said they live on or are somehow associated with Oa but if they have access to rings like we do I'm not sure what they would want in exchange for their help."

"The Guardians are a group of nine immortal beings who forged the green power rings and founded the Green Lantern Corps. They're very knowledgeable and powerful, but also kinda weird. Maybe being billions of years old does that to you. Oa is the headquarters of the corps, and yeah, where they live. They don't actually use rings, they can just use the Light by themselves. Although I think it's Green Light, I don't know if they can use Indigo, so they might want you to do something with that. Or ask for some other kind of favor. I don't really know what it would be, but they definitely don't need money."

"That's convenient I doubt aliens take a couple crumpled twenties from an alternate universe."

"You know, I don't think you'd be arrested for counterfeiting if you tried to spend those, but I can't say for certain. Actually, do your bills look like ours at all?"

"I don't know, I haven't seen any local currency yet."

Guy pulls a twenty out of subspace, which looks like a very impressive magic trick if you aren't used to power rings. He passes it to her. It looks a lot like the twenties she's familiar with, but with a lot more anti-counterfeiting measures.

She more mundanely pulls her wallet out of her pocket and fishes out a bill.

"Well, that's pretty similar. Guess your world's history is close enough. Don't have as many problems with counterfeiting?"

"Considering you have supervillains and we don't that sounds correct."

"Why not?"

"I'm not honestly sure, we don't have superheroes either. We don't know if aliens are out there. We don't have.... I think Red Tornado is a robot? We don't have anyone like him."

"No superpowers at all? That's got to be weird. Might be for the best, though."

"Do you have Batman, at least?"

"No, I talked to him earlier I had never heard that name before. I don't actually know that much about him beyond the name and the slightly menacing slightly silly costume."

"Uh, I don't even know where to begin. He doesn't actually have any superpowers, he's just a guy who does... martial arts, basically, but that feels like it's selling him short. And he fights crime. Over the last ten years, he has been mostly responsible for turning Gotham from the most dangerous city in America to a reasonably safe place. And despite the fact that I have a power ring, turns out he is slightly terrifying. I can't explain how he does it."

"Gotham? I don't think I've heard of a city with that name. Is that the big city in Connecticut?"

"Yeah, Gotham City, it's in southwest Connecticut."

"Considering I went to college in Connecticut on my world I think I would have heard about it if it existed. Maybe it was just small and irrelevant though."

"Four years ago I'd have said you were better off without it, but it's not so bad these days."

By this time, Sapphire and Guy have finished the last of the high-voltage line repairs.

"I'll send you the coordinates for the rooftop of the building the restaurant is in—that's generally a better place to transition in than the street—and I can meet you there after I make a stop at home to change clothes. That sound good to you?"

"Works for me."

"See you in a sec."

He transitions away. For a moment it leaves a jagged green trail of light in the air behind him.

Ring can we store the staff in subspace?

"Affirmative."

(You've still got it, Guy. You've got this.)

Alright let's do that. Then show me examples of what women at the restaurant we'll be going to are wearing.

Her staff flows into the ring with a burst of indigo light.

"Compliance. Scanning."

The ring displays a collection of small holograms of women. They are wearing a variety of different types and styles of clothing, some of which are more expensive or fancy than others.

It seems like her blouse and slacks won't be out of place. Transition to the coordinates.

Sapphire is now standing on the rooftop of a medium-sized building in Manhattan. Guy is waiting for her, wearing a white collared shirt and slacks.

"The restaurant is on the first floor. Personally, I like to take the fire escape."

He heads for the fire escape and starts heading down.

"Alright," she follows.

After a few minutes they reach the first floor, enter the restaurant, and are seated. The menu offers a variety of dishes, most of which are not quite like anything she's seen before, but use familiar ingredients and flavors. The chefs aren't going to earn a Michelin star by doing things conventionally.

"Do you have recommendations? I don't think I've had any of these before."

"Oh, I just ask my ring to pick something at random without reading the menu, it's more fun that way. Everything is tasty, but if you want me to pick one, the... quail something dish is pretty good, I don't know what it's called."

"If it's all good I can just pick something." She looks over the menu and selects something vegetarian.

Guy orders "The eighth item on the menu, whatever that is."

"I want to ask you what your Earth is like, but you've been here for... less than a day, and I suspect you don't know enough about what it's like here yet to identify most of the differences."

"That's probably true but I can answer specific questions. I just can't answer question comparing the two. If you want that you'll need to wait."

"Does your Earth have... the cold war? the protestant reformation? valentine's day? magic? I guess you wouldn't know about the source wall if you did have it... geese?"

"The source wall? I think we have everything else except magic but I don't even know what the source wall would mean."

"I've never been, but apparently, at the edge of the universe there is a wall made out of the petrified bodies of dead gods. And people say that on the other side is the Source, which created the universe. A lot of people have some kind of Source-based religious beliefs, although it's not as much of a big deal here on Earth. We're not completely cut off from the rest of the universe, but contact is limited, and it wasn't public knowledge until a couple of decades ago."

"I don't know if my old universe had an edge. People talked about the edge of the observable universe but it didn't sound like they were talking about a physical thing. I'm not sure how you would build a wall out of dead gods either."

"There are probably plenty of people who know more about it than I do, but it's mostly a mystery. But the kind of mystery that's too big to ignore, so people come up with a lot of thing to try to explain it."

"Anyways, uh, I'm curious what you were doing before you took a transdimensional trip in your sleep. I think you said something about going to school in Connecticut?"

Alright she'll let that drop. "I was studying to be a psychologist. I've always been really interested in understanding people and I also wanted, still want, to make people's lives better. It seemed like a good fit."

"Were you planning on an academic or clinical career? I suppose it's moot now."

"Oh definitely clinical. Sorry to change the topic but you asked earlier if we had Magic on my world... what do you mean by that? We had things people called divine miracles but people seemed to debate if they were real miracles or not. There were also people who said they could predict the future or talk to ghosts or curse people but I don't know if any of that was real. Is that the kind of thing you mean?"

"So, not only do I know very little about this personally, but a lot of magicians like to stay somewhat mysterious and secretive, so there are a lot of poorly-substantiated rumors about it. But magic is a real thing, it can have very visible, hard-to-fake effects on the world, and I don't know if there are any real limits to what it can do. There might be people who really can predict the future or talk to ghosts, but there are also plenty of frauds. Oh, and the really weird thing is that it doesn't function in most of the universe. Earth is one of only a few planets that has magic at all."

"Interesting, the thing about it not working most places is very weird. But I expect there's a reason. What other kinds of people with unusual abilities are there?"

"There are aliens, people who use alien technology, people who developed their own technological marvel which they can't or won't reproduce widely, people who were involved in a freak accident that somehow gave them powers, a lot of people who I have no idea how they got their powers, and probably more stuff I'm forgetting."

"That's a lot of different ways for people to gain extraordinary abilities. Do you run into people with powers often? I'm not sure what you do with your ring."

"I'm a Green Lantern, which is sort of like being a space cop. But cooler. There are three of us in this sector, responsible for keeping it safe, upholding certain interstellar treaties, apprehending criminals, that kind of thing. That does sometimes involve fighting supervillains."

"Is there some interstellar code of laws you follow for determining who counts as a criminal or do you just go by local law?"

"Um, honestly, it's pretty complicated and I don't know all the details. There's not really a uniform interstellar code of laws, but the corps does have rules of engagement, which sometimes involve following local law. Most of the time it's pretty clear cut, like if a supervillain is attacking people or the Guardians have issued a warrant for someone's arrest, and when it's not I usually just ask my ring what the relevant rules are."

"That makes sense, I already find myself asking my ring a lot of questions. It's like Google assistant but slightly pickier and more reliable."

"I don't think we have Google assistant... what year is it in your home dimension?"

"It was 2019, what year is it here?"

"2010. Today is July 5th. I'd ask you what the future holds but I imagine a lot of it won't happen the same way here."

"Yeah history sounds weirdly similar but I wouldn't want to rely on it."

Their food arrives. Both of them get the same thing: an eggplant rotallini with goat cheese, quinoa, and one of those obscure unidentifiable vegetables which is really popular in some foreign country, but never seen in the states.

"Well, I would have offered to trade if you wanted to try some of mine, but."

She laughs, "Oh well. It looks good."

"What are your plans for tomorrow? Just going to keep doing electrical work?"

"I think I'll help them with anything it's hard for ordinary people to do quickly and leave the rest to the people whose job it is. After that, I need to figure out a better system. I don't really want to try to mathematically prove I'm doing the most good or anything but I do want to help in situations that other people can't and I don't really want to get into fights. I also want to figure out a place to live which probably means figuring paperwork unless I decide to build a house on the moon and teleport back and forth."

"Ah, yeah, you don't have any documentation. You're prooobably not legally supposed to be in the country right now. Although you're extremely unlikely to get in trouble for that. I think the League might be able to help you with getting papers and legal residence and so on. And I think some countries are very friendly to superhero immigration. Might want to stay away from China, though."

"Oh? Any particular reason?"

"I'm pretty sure they conscript people with superpowers. You might be able to visit, but I wouldn't move there if I were you."

"Good to know. Anyplace else I should avoid or pay special attention to?"

"...Not that I'm aware of, but I'm definitely not up to date. But I'm pretty sure no one but the Chinese have a chance of stopping you from leaving if you want to."

"Fair enough..." she has some more of her food. "Is most of what superheroes do fighting?"

"For most of them, probably yes. Although maybe part of that is because people who don't make a habit of fighting superpowered threats aren't called 'superheroes'."

"I guess I asked my question badly... I think what I meant to ask is whether most people with powers use them for fighting or if people use their powers for other things."

"I don't really know. There is definitely a lot of fighting, but not everyone does. If anyone has collected statistics, I don't know them, and I think it's hard to tell because a lot of people with powers, particularly less flashy ones, keep a low profile. So my impression is that people with superpowers fight each other a lot, but I don't know if that's true of the population in general."

"Do you think I'll need to fight? I don't plan on seeking out a fight but will one find me?"

"It's possible. You don't seem like the kind of person who would make enemies, and few sane people would pick a fight with someone who has a power ring. But there are always the crazies."

"I guess I'll just have to hope for the best and trust that God will give me the tools to handle any situation I find myself in. And learn more about my ring of course. I assume it can help me prepare too."

"For some things, sure. And uh, if you want my advice, don't take your ring off when you don't have to."

"That seems like good advice. Do you know if there's a way to hide the glow? I imagine there are times I'd prefer not to advertise."

"Wear gloves? I don't think there's any way to turn it off entirely."

"Oh would that work? I would have thought my ring would mention that but maybe I asked the question wrong. I need to get better at that. I'm sure there's other bad assumptions I've made based on asking a different question than I thought I was."

He laughs.

"That's a classic example of how ring computers work. Ask if the ring can stop glowing, it will tell you no, that's not possible. But it won't tell you that you can wear a glove over it because that's not what you asked."

"Exactly, do you have any tips on noticing things like that?"

"Hmm. Be as specific as you can, ask the best way to achieve the outcome you want rather than asking about a specific way to do it, and try to avoid making it figure things out about people or social stuff—it does pretty well with physics and chemistry and stuff like that, but seems to have trouble figuring out what people are doing. If your ring works like ours do, then it should have pretty sensible defaults for trading off between charge use, effectiveness, your safety, and so on."

"Thank you I'll try to keep that in mind."

"Do you know if your Earth has anything we don't? Other than Google assistant. I'm kinda thinking of it as like here, but without a lot of the interesting stuff, but I don't know if that's fair."

"I'm not really sure, it's also hard to know what was around back in 2010 because I had a pretty sheltered upbringing and I was also pretty young. Is the US regularly sending drones into countries it's not at war with here? That's probably the wildest thing I can think of off the top of my head."

"No, that doesn't happen here. I don't think the US has been involved in any wars since the nineties."

"Does that mean you didn't have an attack in 2001 where some planes crashed into buildings in New York and DC?"

"Uh, nope. I don't think anyone would even attempt that with Superman around."

"You're pretty lucky then. A lot of bad stuff happened downstream of that. Are people talking about climate change? As I understand it, people started talking about that in the seventies but it's really been coming into focus in the last twenty years or so."

"I think I've heard about that, but I don't think most people are very worried about it. Maybe because there are companies developing weather-manipulation machines, maybe because people are more worried about supervillain attacks and alien invasions and stuff like that. And that's probably something you could fix with a power ring."

"Really, you think it would be realistic to remove millions of tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere?"

"It would take a while, but you could probably do it. There might also be more effective methods, like reducing the amount of sunlight that hits Earth, or using your ring to build machines of some kind to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The other Green Lanterns and I were able to get rid of malaria, it just took six years or so."

"That's an idea. I think the best way would be to make better electricity sources like good solar panels or maybe fusion. I'm not sure if power rings help with figuring things like that out though."

"The corps database has schematics for stuff like fusion reactors, we're just not allowed to share them. You could probably ask your ring to design one, but I wouldn't trust the result."

"Could you say more about what problems you would expect?"

"Well, for one, fusion reactors can be dangerous, and I don't think a ring computer would do as good of a job as an intelligent designer in making them safe. Also, I think engineering is the kind of thing where... there are a lot of constraints and tradeoffs and you have to make choices based on what you want the product to be good at. And I think a ring might make some weird choices that would leave the design with limitations or shortcomings."

"That makes sense, I think for the moment I'll stick to helping in smaller ways instead of trying to change the whole world but it's good to have ideas in mind. Also it's amazing that you wiped out malaria. I don't know how public that was but it's amazing that you did something like that."

"Why, thank you. I don't know if we'll do something like that again anytime soon, it took a long time."

"Yeah, six years is a long time though I assume you were also doing other things."

"Yeah, we did it in between all of the other work we had to do, and time off. And I personally was in a coma for the last two years of that effort."

"If you don't mind me asking how did that happen?"

"I got hit by a bus in 2006. Because I wasn't wearing my ring at the time, I got pretty badly injured. Normally, Ha—ahem, the Green Lantern known as 'Green Lantern', who has a secret identity for some reason—normally he'd be able to heal me, but apparently it was a magic bus or something. Anyways, I finally woke up this March."

"Why would the bus being magic matter? Also wow, that's a long coma I'm glad you've recovered."

"Magic can interfere with power rings. Otherwise it would be relatively straightforward to heal the damage. I guess that's another thing I should warn you to watch out for: don't tangle with magicians if you can avoid it."

"I'll definitely keep that in mind. I assume the notes about supervillains you sent includes which of them are magic users?"

"Yes. But keep in mind those notes are in no way comprehensive and most of them are four years out of date."

"That's still better than nothing, maybe I can get something more up to date from the Justice League they were very helpful when I called them."

"They might give you some information. But they don't share their files with non-members, as I found out."

"I guess there is a slight difference between asking for basically public knowledge and notes on supervillains." She laughs. "Is there a reason you haven't joined?"

"Well, I only got out of a coma three months ago. Aaand I did kinda break into their headquarters under circumstances which I should not describe in a public place. I think they're still mad about that. Oh, and Green Lantern the Green Lantern doesn't like me very much, so he might convince them not to let me join. But I think I'd like to sign up eventually if they let me."

"I see, is the justice league a new thing? Did it start while you were in your coma?"

"No, they were founded a few months before I got my ring, in 2003. But after I got my ring, I was away on Oa for about a year and a half doing basic training. When I got back, I wasn't in a big rush to sign up. Partially because, as mentioned, green tiny mask doesn't like me very much."

"Ah that makes sense. Do you have any hobbies or the like that you spend time on when you're not out helping people?"

"I used to play football, and visiting places with my ring is always fun. But I haven't really had regular hobbies lately, I've been busy trying to... put my life back together, catch up with everything that's happened in the past four years."

"That makes sense, are there any big events that happened that you were surprised by?"

"Not really... there was stuff like the Vlatavan crisis or Poison Ivy's first attack, but that kind of stuff just happens every once in a while."

"Could you say more about that? I'm not sure what kind of thing you mean."

"Supervillain attacks, natural disasters, political crises, it's just stuff that happens from time to time. It's slightly disruptive but the world keeps going more or less the same as always."

"I guess that makes sense."

By this time, they have both finished their food.

"Have you ever seen an aurora?"

"I haven't. I never travelled in my old world."

"Would you like to see one?"

"Sure, that sounds nice."

"Alright, I picked out a nice spot, I'll send you the coordinates."

Guy pays the bill, leaves, and transitions away once they get outside.

Ring transition to follow.

A burst of light, and then—

Sapphire and Guy are standing atop a rocky hill, overlooking a field of ice. In the dark sky above them, green light dances in waves and arcs.

"Wow," she breaths and just stares.

Guy joins her in silence for a few moments. Now that they're away from eavesdroppers, he kind of wants to brag about how he broke into the watchtower, but he'll wait until she asks about it.

After a minute or so, he asks, "Do you have any shapes you like?"

"Favorite shapes? I'm not sure what you mean?"

"Oh, you know, two-dimensional shapes or symbols that you like."

"Not really, maybe the heart shape but that's more about what it appears with. Do you?"

"Ah, I was asking because I was going to make the aurora show a shape."

"Ooh, can you make it look like fireworks?"

"Maybe?"

He transitions upward and is gone for a few moments. A part of the sky goes dark, then lights up in a shape that approximates fireworks. It looks a little blurry. After a minute, he transitions back down, and the aurora returns to its normal sinuous patterns.

"I don't think that worked very well. It would probably be easier to just buy fireworks."

"Oh well, thanks for trying. Speaking of money... is there a way you'd recommend for getting some? I suppose in the long term I could probably take donations, but I don't think that'll work for a while."

"If you just want something in the short term, you could try the Justice League. I think they have programs, or can connect you to programs, which are uh, meant to prevent people who have freshly acquired superpowers from robbing banks and so on. Which I think you're pretty unlikely to do, but they don't know that. In the long term, there are probably a lot of people who'd pay you to do work with your power ring—you might even be able to convince the Mexican power companies to pay you—or you could mine asteroids for precious metals. Maybe parts of the ocean floor too, I'm not sure what the law on that is. There are probably a lot of ways to make money with a power ring, if you're allowed to do that kind of thing."

"That makes sense... speaking of the Justice League... why did you break into the Watchtower?"

"I thought it would be funny. It's a decommissioned Green Lantern sector house, the League got it from the corps while I was in the coma. And when I woke up, turns out they had never changed the passwords. I tried to sneak up on Batman, which didn't work."

"They didn't change the passwords... really? That seems unwise."

"The relevant locks were designed to be opened with a power ring, it wouldn't have presented a security vulnerability to anyone else."

"Are there other colors of rings around?"

"There's the Red Lantern Corps, although it's pretty small. And there are a few people that use Violet Light with crystals, but I don't think they have rings. And apparently more people with Indigo rings, somewhere."

"So nobody I'm likely to encounter unless I go looking."

"I don't think any of them have ever been to Earth."

"Good to know. You said you travel a bunch as a hobby, what's your favorite place you've been to?"

"The City of Oa is probably still the most impressive. It's... very old, and built on a grandiose scale, and like nothing on Earth."

"Do you have pictures you can show me?"

"Sure, I should have some."

After a minute, her ring receives several high-fidelity snapshots of places on Oa. It is clearly a small city, but built on a massive scale; each building is the size of a cathedral.

"Wow. Do you know why it's built like that?"

"The Guardians could build whatever they wanted, and I guess they wanted to build big. Maybe it was so that facilities for a relatively small amount of people would look more impressive."