"Weirder, maybe. Depends on how weird your life is, don't it? S'aaaaall relative," Rich said with a little grin, something that softened the eeriness of his glowing blue eyes. "This is the Nova Force. It's a living energy source. Not sentient, just...alive, something that can live in people. It used to power a whole civilization called Xandar, a world in the Tranta system in the Andromeda galaxy. It was a very, very old, very advanced civilization. Lots of different species living together with the native Xandarians in peace." They'd had some enemies, but the Skrulls were a lot of peoples' enemies. "They were aiming for the same thing the UP seems to be aiming for."
The light flickered on Rich's face as if it was the warm light of a campfire, even in the light of the false sun.
"Probably back before humanity had that 'fire' thing on lock, the Xandarians created the Nova Force and created a supercomputer to control it: the Worldmind, a computer that held all of their culture and knowledge. Since the Nova Force was pretty much limitless and self-regenerating, they split it up into pieces and gave it to soldiers to protect Xandar. And over time that group changed from being Xandar's militia to being a police force, one that protected people all over the galaxy. Thousands of species from thousands of worlds all working together for the same cause."
A pause.
"A little like the Legion, I guess."
This was strange, telling this to someone new. Back home, he'd explained to enough people on Earth for them to know what the Nova Corps was, and everyone in space knew about them and knew they were gone.
Sometimes, though, it felt like he was the only one that understood the weight of that. It felt right to tell someone about Xandar, especially a bright-eyed, little teenager that seemed to be burning up with curiosity.
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The light flickered on Rich's face as if it was the warm light of a campfire, even in the light of the false sun.
"Probably back before humanity had that 'fire' thing on lock, the Xandarians created the Nova Force and created a supercomputer to control it: the Worldmind, a computer that held all of their culture and knowledge. Since the Nova Force was pretty much limitless and self-regenerating, they split it up into pieces and gave it to soldiers to protect Xandar. And over time that group changed from being Xandar's militia to being a police force, one that protected people all over the galaxy. Thousands of species from thousands of worlds all working together for the same cause."
A pause.
"A little like the Legion, I guess."
This was strange, telling this to someone new. Back home, he'd explained to enough people on Earth for them to know what the Nova Corps was, and everyone in space knew about them and knew they were gone.
Sometimes, though, it felt like he was the only one that understood the weight of that. It felt right to tell someone about Xandar, especially a bright-eyed, little teenager that seemed to be burning up with curiosity.