Vell sat with her legs crossed and eyes shut in the middle of the training chamber.

"Find the image of a complex device in your mind. Tell me what it is." Said the soothing voice of Tomar-Re.

The Bekkorian instantly thought of a Vurt-59 microwave emitter; a deadly energy weapon she used all the time as a mercenary. "An energy rifle."

"Excellent. Now, the power ring is a deadly and versatile weapon. Its trigger is your mind." Tomar said. "You must drive your thoughts into tangibility with force. Without this motivator, your ring is useless. Now visualise your construct and force it into existence. Force it out of your mind and into reality."

Her mind raced through the wealth of memories inside it and recalled everything it could as the ring laced on her finger filtered the thoughts into energy. Vell forced open her eyes to see the particles as they slowly confined themselves to the shape of the weapon. It periodically flickered, but was stable overall.

"Good. How a weapon looks is inconsequential, however. What matters is how it works. Fire it."

Vell focused on Tomar who was sitting opposite her. He was a strange beaked creature from Xudar; a species that was vaguely avian and fishlike all at once. She willed a bolt of energy to erupt from the barrel of her construct, and it did just that. The formless ball of ion sliced through the air, then washed over Tomar-Re's energy shield like a water balloon.

He chuckled. "As you can see, what you've done is no different to firing a raw, unfocused stream of ion at me. The construct is redundant. What a good Lantern does, is recreate every internal part of the device. Your construct must actually work, or there is no point. You must know everything about what you seek to create. What is it made of? What is the atomic structure of this material? What are the main components? How do they work? How are each of these things connected?"

Vell furrowed her brow as she tried to take note of all of this. What she did to best Despotellis was indeed fairly complex, but it was still just visualising the molecules of a single chemical. This though, meant that she had to memorise each and every part of the rifle including every screw, bolt, charging capacitor, trigger mechanism, and the ammo supply. "There's no way I could do all of that at once." The Initiate said.

Tomar nodded "And that would be fine. What matters, is that you try. Perhaps start with something simpler."

A lighter was the next thing that came to her. "Okay...I'll try something a bit simpler, like a flamethrower."

Tomar nodded to her. "Good. Walk me through your thoughts."

"A lighter needs a fuel supply...and a mechanism to ignite it." As she narrated those parts materialised out of thin air. The components eased themselves together, with a layer of adhesive sealing all the gaps. With a snap, a green flame spat out of the nozzle for a split second, then sputtered into a stream of fuel. Vell's short lived construct then fizzled out into emerald embers, resulting in a rather frustrated mumble from the Bekkorian Lantern.

Tomar-Re beamed excitedly at the rookie "Excellent." He said calmly.

"But I messed it up..." Vell muttered in confusion.

"Yes, but have you learned something today?"

"Yeah, plenty."

"Then you have done well. Dismissed." Tomar-Re excitedly complimented with a gleeful smile.

The puzzled but somehow satisfied Green Lantern Initiate strode out of the training dome as another newbie walked in. In between her assignments with Hal and her Green Lantern corpsman studies, or 'Ring-Slingin' 101' as Kilowog put it, Vell barely had enough time to breathe. The preliminary training period is usually twenty Oan cycles, so approximately two Earth weeks. That's assuming that the initiate keeps up with their classes and passes their assessments. The Guardians weren't stupid enough to let just anyone wield a ring without making sure they'd be adequate at the job.

All Green Lantern officers begin service with the rank of Recruit. The Recruit is taken to Oa by a pre-programmed flight path in their ring's computer, where they are inducted by the Guardians and broken into by their Contingent's instructor, who provides a basic level of tuition. When they are deemed worthy enough to be kept enlisted as an officer and promoted to the next rank of Initiate, their in-depth advanced training begins. All initiates must complete their corpsman studies before being able to progress higher.

One of the many things Vell learnt in her classes was that she was in one of the many Green Lantern companies that were in operation on Oa. These groups were known as Contingents, and each had a dedicated base of operations comprised of a mess hall, crew quarters, training domes, recreation areas, and archival servers. Rather than throwing all the thousands of Lanterns together and creating a single overpopulated body of officers, the Guardians chose to streamline the command structure through this division, also ensuring that Lanterns will develop deeper bonds with their comrades since they'd be seeing the same people regularly. Hal and Vell's crew was Contingent 93.

Fifteen minutes later, Vell arrived at the mess hall for Contingent 93, which was not as big as she had expected it to be. It was an octagonal building from the exterior, and within it were about twenty sets of tables, and ten food synthesizer units. There were a handful of Lanterns seated and eating their meals. Vell quickly strode over to a food synthesizer, smacking her lips in hunger.

For more specialised meals, Lanterns could rely upon Greet, the mess sergeant, to cook something up the old-fashioned way. For those who were happy with synthesized meals though, they could enjoy them without any interpersonal interaction whatsoever.

The synthesizer promptly greeted "Recognised; Lantern nine two one. Dictate meal information in this order: Sector number, system of origin, name of meal."

Vell contemplated for several seconds, then responded "Nine twenty-one, Bekkor, A'e owmsrndenpr."

There was a single beep before the dispensary tray opened and flooded the mess hall with the trademark petroleum stench of a homecooked sludge of A'eowmsrndenpr. There were several gags emanating from behind Vell, all of which fell on deaf ears. She hadn't been back to Bekkor in some time...and this smelt just the way she remembered.

She snatched the brown, sloppy substance up by the plate it sat on, and sent her attention to the seating area. She immediately recognised Arisia from the promotion ceremony a few days earlier. The blonde alien excitedly waved at Vell as she noticed her. Sitting next to her was a large robotic humanoid thing, about three times the size of the slim Arisia. Arisia was the splitting image of a human woman, just with a yellow hue to her skin and pointed elf-like ears. Her hair was cut into a short bob that bounced whenever she turned her head. Vell thought the young Lantern was rather attractive.

Vell approached the table and said "Arisia, right? Nice to see you again."

"That's me. Have you met Stel?" She replied, gesturing to her mechanical friend.

Vell glanced at Stel, who did nothing but stare unblinkingly into the wall in front of him. She immediately thought of Dax, who shared Stel's mechanical nature and his lack of soul. It was needless to say that Vell wasn't a big fan of robots. They creeped her out.

"Uh...no, I don't think so." Vell muttered.

"Greetings, Lantern Initiate nine two one."

The Bekkorian cocked her head and mused "Why are you here? You don't need to eat...right?"

"Correct." Stel answered.

"He just comes here to keep me company, the sweetheart." Arisia chirped. "Come on and siddown."

Vell complied without question, sitting down at the same table opposite Arisia and Stel. "You're an initiate too, right Arisia?" said Vell.

"Yeah, sure am. How're you doing with training?"

"I'm not used to all this discipline and seriousness...it's a little stressful."

Arisia chuckled in agreement. "I get you there. I thought I left studying behind when the ring chose me."

"Well if Hal passed I'm sure we can."

With a laugh, Arisia answered "I'd say we have pretty good chances."

Before anything else could be said, Vell's ring suddenly beeped loudly. "Woah...what is that?" She murmured.

"Uh, I dunno." Arisia said, sounding just as confused as Vell was.

Stel promptly explained "That is a Type One emergency communique alert. Your partner urgently seeks to reach you."

Arisia widened her eyes. "Type One...? That's...real serious, right?"

"Correct." Said Stel.

Vell pushed to her feet and added "I'll see you guys later."

The Bekkorian hurried outside and answered the call. "Hal? Is that you?"

"Yeah...look, I kinda need your help with something. It's a potential galactic situation."

"By the twin moons of Yothor...should I alert the Guardians?"

"No, just lock in on my co-ordinates, I'll explain it to you when you get here." Hal then disengaged the call, and sent his positional data through to his partner.

Hal's grim tone was definitely the nail in the coffin for any of Vell's uncertainty. In the short amount of time she'd known him, she learnt that he wasn't one to let a good joke pass by. The Lantern Initiate achieved escape velocity in seconds, and plotted her course to Hal, who was located in his home sector of 2814.

The space station was millions and millions of lightyears away from his homeworld of Earth. The station was maintained by a small community of allied races, dubbed the Coalition of Peoples. Congorr Station was a central waypoint for space travellers making trips within the area; it was a popular destination for repairs, rest, food and living. Recently, one of the Coalition's research vessels, the Intrepid, docked with Congorr. It brought with it a slight...problem.

After Vell pinged the command deck with her identification info, they opened an airlock for her entrance. She hovered in out of the vacuum and interfaced with the airlock using her ring's personal computer, closing the exterior hatch and cycling the pressure. After the cycle was complete, the inner door slid open with a hiss. Vell stepped onto the crowded facility, and was caught off-guard by the amount of people there. Most of the various species onboard were vaguely humanoid, but varied greatly in colour. The crowd was a constantly shifting rainbow of shades.

Shops, restaurants, and other airlocks stretched as far as the eye could see. In the distance though, Vell could make out a handful of security officers cordoning off a section of the deck. Vell's ring instantly identified her mentor Hal amongst the guards.

"Another one?"

"How bad is it then?"

"Mommy I'm scared...!"

"Come on, let's go home."

The murmurs were almost deafening to Vell's sensitive Bekkorian ears, so she made haste by hovering over the bewildered crowd. "Hal...what's going on?"

Jordan was conversing with what looked to be the chief of security, until he heard Vell's voice from behind him. The human turned, an incredibly stern expression on his face. "This science vessel just returned from picking up a dangerous lifeform. It should've reported it to the authorities, but instead, they stopped by here for some grub."

"Spit it out. What did they find?"

"According to the logs that I retrieved from the distress beacon...it's Starro."

That name, thankfully, was familiar to Vell. She'd been reading entries in the archives a few cycles ago, and one of them was a report of Hal's first mission as a member of some planetary defence organisation on Earth. Although they referred to their own race as 'Star Conquerors', the name of the individual being that Hal and his team faced was Starro, and it somehow came to be here. The organisms were blessed with a great wealth of telepathic abilities. A matured Star Conqueror reproduced asexually by giving birth to smaller, larval parasites. These larvae could attach to the faces of other organisms, directly controlling the host via a cerebral connection. If Starro gained access to a massive number of hosts, as provided by this station, they would absorb all memories and skills of the hosts.

Vell swallowed. "What happened?"

"Starro must've escaped containment somehow and infected the crew with its parasitic spores."

"Someone must've triggered the lockdown, right? That's why they're all still on the ship."

"Yeah. We're lucky they did. That means we have potential survivors onboard though."

"Why didn't you want to tell the Guardians? This is technically insubordination...right?" She asked.

Hal crossed his arms. "By the time the Guardians reach a definitive conclusion on what should be done, Starro would've found a way to get around the lockdown. We don't have time for them right now. We need to take care of this before it gets worse."

Vell was once again conflicted. She had to choose between trusting Hal and disobeying protocol, or going to the Guardians with this information. Hal's tense disposition was convincing enough though. "We're really limited in the way we can do this, right? We don't want to kill any of the hosts or survivors by blasting a hole in the ship."

"Exactly...we have to do it the old-fashioned way. Get sealed in the airlock, slice through the bulkhead, destroy all the parasites we come across, don't get latched onto in the process, and find Starro." Hal turned to the Security Chief and said "Seal the hatch behind us; no one else gets in or out."

The officer nodded. "Yes, sir. Keep me posted."

Seconds passed and the two Lanterns stood waiting inside the airlock chamber as Hal slit through the sealed hatch with an ion-constructed cutting tool. Vell didn't like their current situation. They couldn't just fight their way out of the problem. There were innocent lives on the line here. She began to understand why humans weren't so black and white.

She looked at Hal, who stared at the bulkhead as his tool melted a line straight upwards through it. "Hal, are you okay?"

Vell could see that he was about to palm off her question by saying he was fine, but he stopped himself. Instead, he answered "I'm just not sure if we can beat this thing on our own. Sure, it being trapped within a ship makes it easier, but it took the whole Justice League to take him down before."

"Surely there isn't anyone on that team stronger than two fully-charged Green Lanterns." Vell said with confidence.

Hal laughed quietly.

"That's impossible." She droned.

"I guess you still have some studying to do."

It was silent as Hal's slicing was complete, and welcomed the two ring-slingers to force the door apart with their passively enhanced strength and slink onto the Intrepid. Hal took point, holding his ring arm out with his left hand braced upon it like was some deadly weapon. He swept it around the darkened room which was lit dimly by auxiliary power.

Vell promptly took her mentor's lead and painted the darkness with her ring's light. "Primary power is out. That means no onboard life support..."

Thankfully for the two GLs, their rings passively provided life support systems for their wielders. They gave them a breathable atmosphere and shielded them from all kinds of radiation automatically.

"Maybe it's just this part of the ship." Hal said. "I'm not gonna write off any survivors until we see the bodies."

Vell admired Hal's optimism in these situations, but part of her thought it was naïve to expect the best of situations. She always expected the worst, so she was never disappointed.

"Clear." Vell barked, scoping out her half of the room.

Hal answered after taking care of his portion "Clear." He strode over to Vell in the centre of the entrance chamber and said "First order of business is to connect to the ship's systems. We'll be able to pinpoint the locations of any survivors."

"But Hal, the spores could be driving the corpses with their neural connection. They don't need a breathable atmosphere...so maybe everyone is already dead."

"Don't think like that."

"By the twin moons... All I'm asking you is to think about the very possible chance." Vell said with slight irritation.

Hal ignored her and initiated a link-up between his personal computer and the Intrepid's ship-wide network. Several holographic screens appeared before him as he swept at them in silence.

"If you have a problem, I'd like to hear about it." Vell growled, leaning onto a wall with her arms crossed.

"I'm scanning for lifeforms." Hal deflected.

As much as it annoyed her, Hal was still human. He will always be human. And that meant he'd never be fully honest with her. It was simply in his nature. She was beginning to think she expected too much of him in thinking that he could meet her halfway. It was infuriating for Vell to have all these thoughts and not speak them; she supposed it felt the same way for Hal to try to always be upfront. Maybe their cultures were simply incompatible. She felt like she needed to accommodate his natural behaviour since he was kind enough to do that for her, and let this spat go...as difficult as that would be.

"I've got two potential pings...can't quite tell if they're legit." Hal reported as a three-dimensional map of the Intrepid fizzled into life before him. Two specks of blinking light appeared inside the diagram, both on opposite ends of the vessel.

"We should each check out one of those signals at the same time, cover more ground." Vell suggested.

Hal rubbed his chin. "I'm not thrilled about splitting up...but that might be the best thing to do right now." His multitude of interface holograms snapped off and he crossed his arms. "I just need you to be careful. I'm hating you less and less the more time we spend together." He joked.

"Good." Vell chuckled, taking his quip as a serious statement, which wouldn't necessarily be incorrect. "I'll take the one in the engine bay."

"Right, then the lookout deck's mine." Hal said as the two strode their separate ways, each making their way to opposite ends of the vessel.

As Vell followed her ring's newly downloaded map of the Intrepid's internal superstructure, her thoughts turned to her and Hal's clashing social norms. There were many other things done on Bekkor that may or may not be strange to Hal, she thought, and she didn't really have a way of knowing which. "Hal?" Vell called eagerly through the comm.

"Uh, yeah?"

Vell took a hard right down her current path, keeping a keen eye out for any signs of damage. There wasn't a single scratch on the pristine walls and floors of the ship. She felt out of her depth now that she had parted with Hal. He was the only one with firsthand experience with Starro; he would know its modus operandi... Right now, Vell was in the dark for what kind of clues to look for.