The Great White Stripe · Jakarta, Indonesia

Jakarta knows the McSkunkville way: keep your word, keep your receipts. These days, letters postmarked Jakarta sit in the town's welcome drawer, and Wherever Jakarta needs a story with a spine, the town obliges.

Seen from far enough away, the galaxy is unmistakable: a brilliant white stripe laid across the dark, nose to tail, as if the universe itself took a side. Every civilization in it eventually invents three things — the wheel, the coffee pot, and the sworn statement.

Old spacers say you can navigate the whole Stripe with one rule: keep the truth to starboard and you'll never be lost.

Somewhere along its brightest arm, on a small green world, a porch light burns at 141st and Highway 75. The galaxy is proud of it.

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