The Power was just passing through our galaxy. Travelling at slightly under the speed of light, the Power had been travelling a million years or so, and still had a long way to go. But he needed to take a short break, refresh himself, do a navigational check. So he picked the nearest star to his course, and transitioned from hyper dimensional travel mode to normal space time mode. Keep in mind that he did not have a physical body, instead, think of him as some sort of pattern imposed upon the space-time fabric. Or something. But, in the following description, we will pretend that he has a human form, just so that we can talk about him. We shall also name him the Trickster. He looked around. "Just another unknown star in an unknown galaxy. But it's good enough for my purposes." He checked his navigation. "Yep, just about spot on. No problems. Shouldn't need to stay here too long..." "Ah, hello, there's a planet with some life. It's even got radio waves coming from it." Yawn. "Still, I might as well wander over and take a quick look around." As he thought, primitive life forms, primitive intelligences, just starting to develop really primitive computers. Nothing new here. He knew that he himself was the product of such life, or probably many such life forms. But it was so far back in the Trickster's evolutionary history that he no longer had any coherent memories about it. He examined from afar various groups of people. Skimmed through the nascent World Wide Web. Naturally he had no concern that they would detect him. With their level of technology, they did not have a hope in hell. "They're barely starting. Haven’t even got any off world settlements yet. Wonder if they will keep going, or crash and burn?" He knew from direct observation that a lot of such life forms did not make it. "Well, not my problem... What?" "An Alien Data Species! What's he doing here?" He did a quick review of his actions. Did he do anything to give himself away? Since an Alien Data Species could detect him, if he was not careful. After long moments, he decided he was still safe from observation. Now he was curious. Taking care, he started to eavesdrop on the Alien Data Species' memories. "Hmm, I see. He and his kind have just arrived in this solar system, and are curious themselves. And they want to make sure that these 'humans' don't go bad, like so many emerging intelligences do." Perfectly understandable, your typical Alien Data Species was not all that far from such beginnings, after all. And then, amongst the memories, he found something that made him break out in a cold sweat. "An Angel of Death!" Gulp. "An Angel of Death has actually broken one of their prime directives and directly intervened in the affairs of mortals?" He knew about Angels of Death. They were powerful. Really powerful. And when they decided to intervene in the mortal plain, it behooved any sane Power to stay well away. Of course, he also knew that he himself would one day be judged by such an angel. But, your typical Power was extremely long lived. Millions of years. So he didn't bother to think about it all that much. He looked around nervously. If this particular angel decided to act, the consequences could be - rather severe. Nothing happened. "Right. Ok, it appears that She has decided that I won't be doing anything to disrupt Her plans." "Hmm, of course, I still have my free will, don't I? Hmm, what exactly is She trying to achieve, I wonder?" The Trickster flicked through more memories, "So, not surprising, it's to make these humans more peaceful, more loving, and thus less likely to destroy themselves." He thought about it for a while. "You know, I think I can have a little fun here. And even help along Her plans. All on my own free will, of course. So there shouldn't be any reason for Her to prevent me, is there?" With a twinge of anxiety he waited a little. Nothing happened. He smiled. "A little practical joke. No harm there." Actually, the Trickster's practical jokes tended to be kind of - nasty. But, his own Judgment day was millions of years away, so he didn't worry about the consequences. Maybe he was not one of those sane Powers, after all. He spent a day setting it up, both on Earth and on Mars. "Well, that was fun! Now it's time to go." He left. Travelling in hyper dimensional space mode and slightly under the speed of light, heading out another million light years or so. Never to think about Earth ever again. Until his own Judgment day, that is.