The years pass by in the twinkling of an eye as the Universe makes its slow and steady progress. The metallicity of the great gas clouds is increasing BUT it is SO SLOW!

A billion years goes by and then another...
The great globular clusters form including Omega Centauri.

3 billion years after the Big Bang the Milky Way and Kraken Galaxies merge.

Another couple of BILLION YEARS and the Milky Way develops its spiral arms.

BUT HOLD YOUR HORSES! for the Celestial Physicist has examined the spectra of various star nurseries and realised that there is not enough carbon...

His visage becomes stern once more as not only is there not enough now but there may not be enough in the future. He needs a plentiful supply of the stuff in order to allow the development of INTELLIGENT LIFE!

Low mass stars are stalling on the red giant branch and not burning their helium...

The triple alpha process that he planned so carefully during his imprisonment in the COCOON OF FORLORN ENCYSTMENT isn't producing the results he was expecting. The value he had specified for the target excitation of 12C of 7.9MeV was a little too high and very little Be was being fused. Furthermore: The value of the 16O excitation he had supplied was also a little too high and too much of the C produced was being converted to O.

Something needs to be DONE!

The Slippery Mechanic sends out his TENDRILS OF AWARENESS to all corners of Creation and listens for any signs of the POLICE. Sensing nothing he puts on a convincing show of directing the formation of the spectacular Muzaba Nebula while secretly altering the excitation states of carbon and oxygen by just a little...

With the CUNNING of a 9 TAILED FOX He pretends to be overjoyed with the great nebula and recites a poem in its honour, but all the while he is monitoring the results of his fine tuning of the Triple Alpha Process and dreading the reappearance of The Arbiters.