Pruning (part 3)
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Mr Zoat
Dedicated ragequitter
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12th September 2013
22:32 GMT
A flood.
Not caused by building on a flood plain, or global warming, or having a country that's below sea level Netherlands. No, it looks like they… Mined into an aquifer, resulting in thousands of gallons of water gushing out of the mines and deluging down the slope onto the town.
Lantern Stewart glances up at me as we dive down. "Can you stop the water?"
"Yes, easily."
"I got the town. Get to it."
I transition forwards-. Ugh, the rock's somewhat porous and a large chunk of this mountain face is starting to give way. Just sticking a bung construct in the mine entrance isn't going to be enough. Instead, I create a giant water tank construct and attach it with a hose to the opening-.
Yeah, that a lot of pressure.
And then… Extend an orange aura through the rock, reinforcing it as I go… That'll… Do…
Behind me, John's hoiking people out of the water and dropping them off on dry land. Unfortunately, the town is located in a depression in the valley floor. It might keep the wind off a little, but it means that the water isn't going to flow away.
And then-. Ah, I see. Geothermal energy in the rock, melting built up ice from beneath, which isn't visible from the top because that's all still frozen. Nasty. But with a cold gun construct I can at least freeze the water in the tunnels… Gradually, so that the expanding water doesn't rupture the tunnels. Not much I can do about the… Still somewhat active volcano, but they're almost certainly going to have to relocate the town anyway now. They can just shift it up the valley a little, dig a drainage channel and then let the water flow away.
Need to check what's downstream first, but given how the water cycle works there's almost certainly a river not too far from here.
Or-.
My ring shimmers, and John's face appears.
"How's it look?"
"The mountain's a weakly active volcano. They dug through it and inadvertently created a channel to a glacier aquifer that had been on the boil."
"I wondered why they weren't freezing. Can you make it safe?"
"Give me about thirty seconds."
"I'll check the town, then to a survey to see if it's safe to make a drainage channel to get rid of the sitting water."
"Right. I'll do what I can to seal the mountain."
Because aquifers are temporary if you poke a hole in it. And removing the giant heat sink from the active volcano could do all sorts of things to the local environment, and given, A, that I don't intend to hang around and, B, the technology level of the locals doesn't look high enough to do serious monitoring, it's probably best that I leave it as close to as it was as possible.
And I can't risk just collapsing the tunnel in case it causes a landslide. And while I'm perfectly capable of transmuting ice to rock… It's not exactly going to be fast going.
"What brought you here?"
"I wanted a word with you, actually."
"So you.. didn't know this was happening?"
"No." Not… Picking up any sort of beacon. "Did you?"
He shakes his head. "Just doing a patrol of the Sector and picked it up." I see him go for height and scan the surrounding area. "What did you wanna talk to me about that you couldn't do over our rings?"
"Thanagar. And…" I look at the partially submerged town. "Other places."
"I got Lantern Guarn's report. Did you really need to kill the admiral?"
"No. I could just have left. I might have been able to drag the fleet… Maybe, but I know that the Thanagarians have at least some construct-disrupting technology and those things have a lot of attack craft. I could have punched through some other part of the hull, but he was the commanding admiral. It was his decision. Why should I take it out on other navy personnel? The only other thing to do would have been to try to get hold of the High Mor myself, and the problem there is that I don't have a fast way to do that. I could have gone back to Thanagar and forced my way into government buildings to his bunker, but that wouldn't have stopped the fighting."
"And did you really need to say 'they've got other admirals' to Hawkman?"
"Lantern Stewart, I feel that I've been acting under a mistaken impression of what the Green Lantern Corps actually does."
"Oh yeah?"
"So, I get the Reach. The Green Lantern Corps couldn't sustain the war without crippling itself, and the treaty at least slowed their expansion. Similar problem with the Dominion and the Spider Guild, and Apokolips flat out won last time your Corps tried to invade them. But what about Thanagar? Or the Antares war, for that matter?"
"You planning on picking a fight with Thanagar?"
"They're militarily expansionist, slave owning, and one of their leading intelligence operatives told me that the plan for Alstair was to destroy it from orbit. And yet, the local Green Lanterns appear to be happy just leaving them to it. Now, I'm not planning anything, but I was wondering how they were under the threshold for Green Lantern intervention."
"If they had destroyed Alstair, things might have changed. Fact is, interplanetary civilisations fight sometimes. You see how they treat their slaves?"
"No mass executions, they don't get worked to death and they get at least basic medical attention?"
"I don't like it, but it's a whole lot less bad than it could be."
"Same with downside?"
"Downside of what?"
"No, that's what they call their slums. They're quite big. As far as I can tell, the only path for advancement for most thanagarians there is military service."
"Who do you think paid for my college degree?"
"No, I mean, that's literally the only legitimate career available and I think they've set it up like that deliberately. So given that their government oppresses other species, their own species, and was planning genocide…"
"I'm not exactly sure. Being incompetent isn't enough. War usually just results in a mediation attempt, so long as they're mostly focusing on military targets. But with everything that got reported about Antares I'd be surprised if Lantern Guarn wasn't getting orders to start paying them a lot more attention."
"Is there anyone we're keeping an eye on in this Sector?"
There's a flash of green as Lantern Stewart uses a construct drill to create a drainage channel.
"No, we're clear. Everyone's peaceful or primitive. We're the problematic world, and we're just a problem for ourselves."
I dismiss my construct, and nod as the new rock takes the strain. I'll dump the water back at the summit, and then I'll be done.
"Would you mind keeping me appraised? I feel rather involved, now, and I'd like to make sure that things don't get worse."
"Sure. I can do that."
22:32 GMT
A flood.
Not caused by building on a flood plain, or global warming, or having a country that's below sea level Netherlands. No, it looks like they… Mined into an aquifer, resulting in thousands of gallons of water gushing out of the mines and deluging down the slope onto the town.
Lantern Stewart glances up at me as we dive down. "Can you stop the water?"
"Yes, easily."
"I got the town. Get to it."
I transition forwards-. Ugh, the rock's somewhat porous and a large chunk of this mountain face is starting to give way. Just sticking a bung construct in the mine entrance isn't going to be enough. Instead, I create a giant water tank construct and attach it with a hose to the opening-.
Yeah, that a lot of pressure.
And then… Extend an orange aura through the rock, reinforcing it as I go… That'll… Do…
Behind me, John's hoiking people out of the water and dropping them off on dry land. Unfortunately, the town is located in a depression in the valley floor. It might keep the wind off a little, but it means that the water isn't going to flow away.
And then-. Ah, I see. Geothermal energy in the rock, melting built up ice from beneath, which isn't visible from the top because that's all still frozen. Nasty. But with a cold gun construct I can at least freeze the water in the tunnels… Gradually, so that the expanding water doesn't rupture the tunnels. Not much I can do about the… Still somewhat active volcano, but they're almost certainly going to have to relocate the town anyway now. They can just shift it up the valley a little, dig a drainage channel and then let the water flow away.
Need to check what's downstream first, but given how the water cycle works there's almost certainly a river not too far from here.
Or-.
My ring shimmers, and John's face appears.
"How's it look?"
"The mountain's a weakly active volcano. They dug through it and inadvertently created a channel to a glacier aquifer that had been on the boil."
"I wondered why they weren't freezing. Can you make it safe?"
"Give me about thirty seconds."
"I'll check the town, then to a survey to see if it's safe to make a drainage channel to get rid of the sitting water."
"Right. I'll do what I can to seal the mountain."
Because aquifers are temporary if you poke a hole in it. And removing the giant heat sink from the active volcano could do all sorts of things to the local environment, and given, A, that I don't intend to hang around and, B, the technology level of the locals doesn't look high enough to do serious monitoring, it's probably best that I leave it as close to as it was as possible.
And I can't risk just collapsing the tunnel in case it causes a landslide. And while I'm perfectly capable of transmuting ice to rock… It's not exactly going to be fast going.
"What brought you here?"
"I wanted a word with you, actually."
"So you.. didn't know this was happening?"
"No." Not… Picking up any sort of beacon. "Did you?"
He shakes his head. "Just doing a patrol of the Sector and picked it up." I see him go for height and scan the surrounding area. "What did you wanna talk to me about that you couldn't do over our rings?"
"Thanagar. And…" I look at the partially submerged town. "Other places."
"I got Lantern Guarn's report. Did you really need to kill the admiral?"
"No. I could just have left. I might have been able to drag the fleet… Maybe, but I know that the Thanagarians have at least some construct-disrupting technology and those things have a lot of attack craft. I could have punched through some other part of the hull, but he was the commanding admiral. It was his decision. Why should I take it out on other navy personnel? The only other thing to do would have been to try to get hold of the High Mor myself, and the problem there is that I don't have a fast way to do that. I could have gone back to Thanagar and forced my way into government buildings to his bunker, but that wouldn't have stopped the fighting."
"And did you really need to say 'they've got other admirals' to Hawkman?"
"Lantern Stewart, I feel that I've been acting under a mistaken impression of what the Green Lantern Corps actually does."
"Oh yeah?"
"So, I get the Reach. The Green Lantern Corps couldn't sustain the war without crippling itself, and the treaty at least slowed their expansion. Similar problem with the Dominion and the Spider Guild, and Apokolips flat out won last time your Corps tried to invade them. But what about Thanagar? Or the Antares war, for that matter?"
"You planning on picking a fight with Thanagar?"
"They're militarily expansionist, slave owning, and one of their leading intelligence operatives told me that the plan for Alstair was to destroy it from orbit. And yet, the local Green Lanterns appear to be happy just leaving them to it. Now, I'm not planning anything, but I was wondering how they were under the threshold for Green Lantern intervention."
"If they had destroyed Alstair, things might have changed. Fact is, interplanetary civilisations fight sometimes. You see how they treat their slaves?"
"No mass executions, they don't get worked to death and they get at least basic medical attention?"
"I don't like it, but it's a whole lot less bad than it could be."
"Same with downside?"
"Downside of what?"
"No, that's what they call their slums. They're quite big. As far as I can tell, the only path for advancement for most thanagarians there is military service."
"Who do you think paid for my college degree?"
"No, I mean, that's literally the only legitimate career available and I think they've set it up like that deliberately. So given that their government oppresses other species, their own species, and was planning genocide…"
"I'm not exactly sure. Being incompetent isn't enough. War usually just results in a mediation attempt, so long as they're mostly focusing on military targets. But with everything that got reported about Antares I'd be surprised if Lantern Guarn wasn't getting orders to start paying them a lot more attention."
"Is there anyone we're keeping an eye on in this Sector?"
There's a flash of green as Lantern Stewart uses a construct drill to create a drainage channel.
"No, we're clear. Everyone's peaceful or primitive. We're the problematic world, and we're just a problem for ourselves."
I dismiss my construct, and nod as the new rock takes the strain. I'll dump the water back at the summit, and then I'll be done.
"Would you mind keeping me appraised? I feel rather involved, now, and I'd like to make sure that things don't get worse."
"Sure. I can do that."
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