21st January 2013
10:59 GMT
"
A Lantern!
Thank the Source!
Can you stop this?"
Volkregian society isn't advanced enough to support the level of ostentatiousness that 'throne room' usually implies to a European, but the quality of the stone and woodwork is clearly a cut above what I've seen elsewhere. The Dal's clothing is-. Ah. It's a space farer's jumpsuit with added jewellery, the fabric being something they couldn't produce on planet and as such shows off his wealth and power while also being stain resistant and hard wearing.
Not seeing any red. Not in him, or the rest of his advisors.
"Yes, but there is a matter I have to resolve first, because there's no point in stopping it if someone just starts it up-.
"
"
Yes, I admit-! I wanted to form an alliance with Crelan, so I arranged for the bomb to be brought to-. I just thought there'd be a few earth tremors!"
Interesting that he didn't try and deflect blame. He
would have been advised, but where technical matters are concerned, how much advice could someone from Volkreg actually give?
"Do you have any more such bombs?
"
He-. Shakes his head. Not the local gesture, but not an uncommon one around humanoid species. He's had more off-world contact, and either picked it up or learned to use it around aliens.
"The people you bought it from. As far as you know, are they in contact with anyone else?
"
"They've-. They mentioned people a few times-. I assumed it was a negotiating tactic; no one on Volkreg can afford to have things shipped here in bulk. We're too far away from their workshops."
Accurate enough. Azmah is theoretically advanced enough, but they've got… Other problems. For the Sector's other advanced worlds, sure, they can get here, but Volkreg doesn't have an industrialised society. They don't manufacture anything that it's worth selling somewhere else, and they don't have the equipment to extract raw materials in the sort of quantity they'd need in order to use them for mass trade. Even farm produce is no good, because any merchant would just buy a breeding stock and move it to a world that had chemical fertiliser. So: sporadic visits to trade once they've build up sufficient… Gold, probably. And even then, only small traders.
"Alright, here's what I want in return. Y-.
"
"Name it!"
"You will foreswear the use of wars of aggression, both for yourself and your heirs. You will personally accept responsibility at a gathering of your peers which I will arrange. You will provide me with all information that I will need to apprehend the people who sold you the bomb.
"
"Yes! Yes!
I want this to stop! You have to believe me, I never-."
"I do. Ilana, Razer, get the information we need. Excuse me.
"
I fly on automatic, out of the residence, out of the city and up into near-Volkreg space. From here I can see the full… No, nearly the full extent of the ash cloud. It actually extends over the horizon in the windward direction, even from up here. The plume is still fairly extensive in the other direction as the heat from the volcano pushes the air away in all directions.
I form a large cold gun construct and take aim at the centre of the caldera. There wasn't a great deal of magma, but cooling the ground should solidify the magma reservoirs and bung it up a little. And without the hot subterranean air, the ash should stop being ejected with the current level of vehemence. This much cooling can have some fairly severe affects on the atmosphere by itself, but under the circumstances I suspect that the locals will take a unseasonal hurricane or two over an electrified ash storm.
And
fire.
The pale blue beam cuts through the ash plume, air contracting as the ash is frozen. It looks like someone poked a hole in the billowing mass, though this won't do much to the rest of the ash. I'm going to have to clean that up once I've dealt with the source.
You know, there are probably Lanterns who get to spend their entire career doing things like this.
The cold beam hits the ground and the ash ejection stops almost at once. Scans show the temperature of the crust reduce down to normal levels, lava tubes closing… Yes, good, good. Now… A plug. Scan… Yes, that asteroid looks about the right size and composition. I
step out and
reappear next to it, grab it with a construct tether and warp back to the planet.
Convenient, not having an interdiction field.
Then fly down through the atmosphere. The wind has picked up as the cold air starts pulling the hot air inwards and upwards, and that's adding to the lightning show. Not a danger to me due to my environmental shield providing me with perfect insulation, but I'm.. getting slightly uncomfortable Oceanus flashbacks. Now, this rock isn't much above absolute zero, so that should handle any residual heat. And it's a solid enough mass that it should contain any pressure build-up-.
And check the rock for dangerous micro-organisms, because I've seen
The Andromeda Strain. And macro-organisms, because I've seen The Empire Strikes Back. No, nothing dangerous.
And
down, with enough force to compress the rock and close off some of the fissures, without setting the whole thing off again.
If there was any moisture in the air, this whole area would be covered in frost and rain would be falling from the sky. As it is, the lightning intensifies, striking the newly-earthed iron-rich asteroid with great fury.
Right, that can take care of itself. I have great clouds to deal with. I don't know of any construct designed for…
Huh. John's ring had two records of Green Lanterns dealing with incidents like this. One used a vacuum cleaner construct and was at it for days, and the other sprayed the cloud with sea water, causing it to rain out of the air. That took a day, but caused widespread environmental damage from the salty rainfall and ash sludge and chemicals.
Oh, and Dox has a file on here about using a quantum teleporter to track the average movement of dust in a continent wide cloud and turn them into a solid block. The description seems to show that it's a good fit for this situation.
But I think that I should probably stick to the one I can comprehend.
It's most important to deal with the densest ash cloud closest to the source, and lesser amounts of ash are a problem but not a existential one. To that end I fly up through the rapidly shrinking hole my cold ray made, up until I'm above almost all of the ash cloud. Then I spread my construct downwards. I don't make constructs this size very often due to the overt threat they imply, but at this point it seems to be for the best. I keep going until I've got a tube pointing towards the billowing ash cloud, then add the filters-.
Wait, the ash is electrically charged. That should make this easier.
Add a magnetic field as well as a vacuum, storage tanks for the ash and escape vents for the air. Then -careful to take into account local terrain features and structures- I move it forwards.
The ash cloud goes from impenetrable blackness to dense fog levels as it passes through, and I know that will start to spread out and dissipate without the continual source of heat from the ground. Still damaging, if not quite Year Without Summer bad, but I can go back through with the water method to get the rest out once I'm done.
"Illustres to Jade. I'm dealing with the supervolcano now. Please reassure people that they'll be able to plant.
"
"I will. Orion has a lead on the Butcher's Blood."
"Oh, I was starting to think that there was nothing here. Good work. I'll go to you once I've finished here.
"
...Fascinating.
