The Last Days Of Krypton Part 17

"Many of us quietly disagreed with the entrenched Kryptonian Council, and now, too late, all can see that their fossilized att.i.tudes left us vulnerable. Now that the footdraggers are gone, I cannot in good conscience allow that to happen again. Ever." Zod saw that his candidates were waiting anxiously to hear what he proposed. "The older members of your families were vested in the former status quo. They felt ent.i.tled to a privileged life. Some of them have already begun talk of reestablishing a Council identical to the old worthless one. They want to lead us back into our naive and helpless ways."

Aethyr added, "We can't allow your fathers and older brothers to cripple us again."

"Of course not," said Koll-Em. "It's time for the older ones to step aside and let the more visionary people-like all of us-have our turn."

Da-Es said, "It's not fair that no one ever asks us our opinion."

Mon-Ra added, casually flexing his bicep, "We've always been prevented from helping when that's what we most wanted to do."

"But they're our families," said Vor-On.

Zod hid his brewing smile behind a grave expression. "I'm not calling your older brothers evil or stupid, but they simply do not realize the damage they've caused. Not even now! It is time for me to form a new advisory board and take useless variables out of the equation."

"Commissioner, you're talking about overthrowing the established n.o.ble families." Vor-On sounded very upset. "I wanted to be be one of them, not one of them, not destroy destroy them." The young man looked at the others crowded on the ledge. The sulfur fumes were making his eyes sting. "You can't expect us to take part in this...this mutiny." them." The young man looked at the others crowded on the ledge. The sulfur fumes were making his eyes sting. "You can't expect us to take part in this...this mutiny."

Zod let out a tired sigh. "Very well, Vor-On. I thought I could count on your support, but do what you think is best for Krypton." He held out his hand in a genial gesture. Relieved, the eager young n.o.ble accepted the hand, shaking it as Zod continued, "And I'll do what I I think is best." think is best."

With an abrupt, violent jerk, he yanked Vor-On over the edge and released him. The young n.o.ble was dropping out into the open pit before he even knew he had lost his footing. His yelp of disbelief turned into a fading scream of terror. The walls were sheer, and the crater was very, very deep. The shout cut off when Vor-On struck something, but his body continued to slide and bounce for a long time afterward.

Ignoring the dwindling noise, Zod turned back to the group on the ledge, expecting to see a scramble of panic or horror. Instead, he saw only grim determination. Excellent. "So, are you willing to be my sixteen advisers? My inner circle? The position is yours if you choose to join me-if you help me make Krypton strong again and swear your loyalty to me."

"I swear it," Aethyr said proudly. "Only Commissioner Zod can save us from our own shortsightedness."

Koll-Em said, "Even if we fail, I would rather fail trying to be something than succeed in attempting nothing."

"I've listened to my brother's constant talk, and I know what he intends," said Da-Es, rubbing his sc.r.a.ped knee. "It would be suicide for us to do as the older n.o.bles plan to. You have my support, Commissioner."

Very quickly, all of the others threw in their lot with Zod.

He admired his new inner circle. "In order to symbolize our unity and our vision, I name you my Ring of Strength. Together we will be unbreakable. We will encircle all that was best about Krypton. Follow my lead, obey my orders, and we will bring about a golden age greater than any Krypton has ever seen."

When they climbed back out of the crater, the whole group seemed changed, energized, reborn. As they emerged to stand firmly beside Zod and Aethyr with Nam-Ek in front of them, the Commissioner sent criers throughout the camp to gather an audience as swiftly as possible.

People came streaming from the ca.n.a.ls and tents and work sites to hear the announcement. No one seemed to notice that Vor-On was gone. With all of Kandor lost, who could keep track of every missing person?

Zod felt a chill as he confessed quietly to Aethyr, "I am about to make history. I can feel it."

She gave him a sidelong glance. "You've already made history. What you're about to do now is create a legend. legend. I will help you make yourself into a veritable demiG.o.d." I will help you make yourself into a veritable demiG.o.d."

Standing on a pile of boulders at the crater lip, Zod lifted his hands and shouted, "This is not a time for indecisiveness. This is not a time for debates and factions. This is a time for us to be strong under a single leader with a single vision." He shouted at the top of his lungs. "This is a time for Zod-the new ruler of Krypton!"

CHAPTER 42.

When the distant early-warning outpost was completed on the empty plains, all twenty-three receiving dishes turned their detector arrays toward the open sky. They listened for the faintest whispers from the empty heavens. Optical telescopes studied the stars at night, while longer-wavelength sensors combed the neighborhood of s.p.a.ce during the day. was completed on the empty plains, all twenty-three receiving dishes turned their detector arrays toward the open sky. They listened for the faintest whispers from the empty heavens. Optical telescopes studied the stars at night, while longer-wavelength sensors combed the neighborhood of s.p.a.ce during the day.

In the design of the facility, Jor-El had provided for the streams of data to be shunted directly to his expanded research building back at the estate. Shortly after the Kandor disaster, his servants and groundskeepers had all departed for the refugee camp to pitch in. Now, except for himself and Lara, the estate was empty, deserted. He didn't mind at all. The two of them enjoyed their solitude, a time to recover from so many tragedies.

Very soon now, he was sure he would receive the compelling seismic data his brother had promised. In the meantime, Jor-El devoted a few hours each night to studying the breathtaking new images of s.p.a.ce: pools of ionized gas coalescing into fresh stars, false-color plumes of cosmic jets squirting into the vacuum, globular cl.u.s.ters, the whirlpools of distant galaxies.

The most sensitive radio dish in the array picked up a constant stream of static punctuated by pops, brief whistles, and indecipherable clicks. Jor-El left the speakers on at all times in his laboratory, white noise in the background. Though Donodon had told him that s.p.a.ce was peppered with inhabited star systems and unusual civilizations, Krypton's neighborhood seemed empty and quiet.

Wanting to stay close, Lara joined him in the research building, and he was glad to have her here. At times he could see she still ached from the loss of her parents and young brother. Jor-El had felt a similar heaviness in his heart since the death of his father. Though the old man's lingering degeneration had been a long time coming, the sadness at losing him was no less.

Lara commandeered one of the broad lab tables for herself. After tying back her hair to keep it out of her way, she spread out sketchplates, notes, and piles of doc.u.ments, working on her own historical doc.u.mentation. "I like being out here with you."

"It's mutually beneficial," he said. "You can be very inspirational."

She continued diligently writing down lines of text, etching a rough draft before permanently inscribing the words in memory crystals. She mused aloud, "I've always kept a journal, but this feels more important now. Somebody has to chronicle these events for posterity. Can you think of a better historian than me?" Her mouth quirked in a teasing smile, warning him that he'd better not contradict her.

"I can't think of a better anything anything than you." Jor-El leaned over, curious to peek at how she might be portraying him in her journal. than you." Jor-El leaned over, curious to peek at how she might be portraying him in her journal.

She self-consciously covered the text, then gave him a mysterious look as if she'd been waiting for exactly the right moment. "I have other news for you, Jor-El. Special news-"

The background listening-post speakers crackled with a burst of static, a whisper that seemed unnatural. Jor-El discerned sounds that were indisputably words. Startled, he strained his ears. "What's that?"

The static roared again, faded, then cleared to be replaced by a deep, somber-sounding voice. "-anyone can hear me. I send this message because I have no other hope. Someone out there must listen." Another crackle and squeak of static drowned out the next words. "-repeat for as long as I can."

Jor-El raced to the control deck and sent a command to pull together other signals from the observation array. By combining the outputs of the twenty-three dishes, he hoped to strengthen this faint transmission, perhaps even find an optical counterpart. He and Lara both stared as a blurred image formed on one of the holographic condensers, then sharpened to show a hairless emerald-skinned man with a heavy brow ridge.

"My name is J'onn J'onzz from the planet Mars. My race is dying. My civilization is falling to dust. Please save us."

Having glimpsed a tantalizing fragment of the message, Jor-El spent hours recording the repeated signal, barely blinking, never turning his attention away. He used every known technique to filter out distortions and anomalous spikes caused by cosmic background interference. The transmission must have been traveling across s.p.a.ce for years, if not centuries, and a few hours would certainly make no difference to the fate of the forlorn Martian. But Jor-El was a man of action, and Lara loved him for it.

She a.s.sisted him in hooking up equipment, recording data, adjusting connections. Finally, after the signal had been processed and amplified, the two of them stood together, listening.

On the crackling screen, the heavy-browed Martian said, "By the time you receive this, my civilization will be dead. History has swept across us like an unquenchable fire. We thought our race would last forever. We thought nothing could harm Mars, because we had a perfect society, an advanced people with highly developed technology. We were wrong."

The green-skinned man bowed his head. "I am the only one left alive, and how long can I survive? My wife, my family, all lost." The skin on the alien's face rippled and sagged. His form shifted as if he himself were composed of wavering flame; then he seemed to restore himself. Lara didn't think it was a signal distortion; the Martian had actually altered his own shape.

His message was old, from a far-off star system, yet his grief seemed fresh. The Martian man overlaid old images of his beloved world as he spoke, showing red cliffs and rock pinnacles, domed cities and dusty arches now in ruins, green-skinned people like ghosts walking through now-empty complexes, then fading into blurred smoke. Lara saw idealistic images of another green Martian, a female with supple skin and a pointed head crest, standing beside two children. They looked happy. She was sure these must be the alien man's family.

Then came monstrous white-skinned counterparts to the peaceful green people. The pale ones had severe features, angular heads, deep-set dark eyes, and sharp teeth.

The grieving survivor said, "All died...white Martians, green Martians. Except for me. I survived. I am alone. I beg you to help me-or if that is impossible, then please at least remember. remember."

Remember. Just as Jor-El's father had said with his last breath. Just as Jor-El's father had said with his last breath.

The heart-wrenching message replayed, and Lara also felt the longing, the loss. She was reminded of Kandor and her own parents. "That magnificent civilization. Did you see their cities, Jor-El? Those people, how intelligent they were! And yet it's gone. How could that happen?"

Jor-El shook his head, unable to comprehend how the Mars in the transmission could have been swept into the dusts of time. "There's nothing I can do to help them, is there? It's too far away and too long ago."

Lara saw what he needed, and she knew she could give it to him. She had learned the news only that morning, and she'd been waiting for the right moment to deliver her announcement. There could be no better time than now.

"I know things seem bleak, but there is always hope." She smiled and hugged him. "I'm pregnant, Jor-El. I'm going to have our child."

CHAPTER 43.

The next day, Jor-El went to his father's enigmatic translucent tower and cracked open the temporary resin barrier he had used to seal the broken doorway and lock the components of Donodon's dismantled ship inside. In recent months he had been tugged in many different directions-by the threat of the inquisition, the loss of Kandor, the death of his father, the giant telescope array...and Lara's pregnancy! He was going to be a father. Even now, Jor-El still hadn't had time to fully absorb the wonderful news Lara had given him. They were going to bring new life to Krypton in the wake of so much recent tragedy and suffering. One baby could do little to counteract all that grief, yet Jor-El felt a new hope. to his father's enigmatic translucent tower and cracked open the temporary resin barrier he had used to seal the broken doorway and lock the components of Donodon's dismantled ship inside. In recent months he had been tugged in many different directions-by the threat of the inquisition, the loss of Kandor, the death of his father, the giant telescope array...and Lara's pregnancy! He was going to be a father. Even now, Jor-El still hadn't had time to fully absorb the wonderful news Lara had given him. They were going to bring new life to Krypton in the wake of so much recent tragedy and suffering. One baby could do little to counteract all that grief, yet Jor-El felt a new hope.

Now, after hearing the message from Mars, he was eager to begin his long-delayed work of studying Donodon's vessel. The blue-skinned alien had been a curious investigator; he would have wanted Jor-El to learn as much as possible from him. Each one of the components the Commissioner had delivered was like a piece of a much larger puzzle.

And maybe in his explorations Donodon had learned something about the lost civilization on the dusty red planet....

The thought of the curious, insightful alien explorer brought back memories of his own father as a vibrant and incisive man. Both of his sons had looked up to Yar-El, awed by all the things he had accomplished. For years, Jor-El had left the odd corks.c.r.e.w.i.n.g tower intact, preferring to savor the mystery rather than digest the answers.

When Commissioner Zod had urged him to hide the alien's s.p.a.cecraft from the Council, Jor-El had not taken the time to fully investigate the interior of the tower. Now he stepped inside and looked around, drinking in the details, smelling the cool and faintly metallic air.

Why had his father built this odd structure? The laboratory was a perfectly ser viceable s.p.a.ce, well stocked with a.n.a.lytical tools and references. Yar-El had designed and constructed this remarkable place, and then just sealed it off. Had the older man been waiting for something? His cryptic comment from years ago, that Jor-El would know when to enter the tower-what had he meant by that?

At the time he'd designed the structure, the older genius had already been caught in the claws of the Forgetting Disease. His behavior had gradually grown more irrational as his thoughts, memories, and grasp on reality slipped away. Jor-El had loved his father, but he had not understood what was happening to the man. The best doctors on Krypton had said there was nothing they could do. And that helplessness and confusion-that problem he could never solve-terrified Jor-El.

His father was far too intelligent not to grasp how the terrible illness would progress, how he would slowly degenerate until he lost his mind entirely. Jor-El couldn't imagine how the man had endured such knowledge.

On the far milky wall of the tower he saw the bold, even defiant serpentine family symbol inside its diamond-shaped outline. Yar-El had placed this mark prominently here. Even as the disease worsened, the older man had not forgotten who he was or what his family meant to him.

Fascinated, even compelled, Jor-El stepped close to the smooth interior wall, face-to-face with the large symbol. "What is it you want from me, Father? If only you had spoken to me back when it was possible." With a finger he traced the S-shaped curve.

And at his touch, the lines began to glow. A circular section of the tower wall surrounding the mark shimmered with a lambent light.

Yar-El appeared. His image stood tall and majestic in his scientist's robes. His silver hair had been brushed back, and he had placed a fine chain on his forehead. His voice was stentorian, his words fraught with meaning. Jor-El couldn't remember the last time he had heard his father speak with such power and conviction.

"Jor-El, my son, I have left this message for you. I created this tower for a purpose I can no longer see. I trust you to understand what I do not, for too much is slipping away from me now. This may be the last time my mind can hold all of these thoughts. I feel so much draining out of me like water through a sieve...."

Jor-El realized what his father had done. The family symbol had been set down as a pattern covered with a veneer of message crystal! His own warm touch had activated it.

Yar-El continued, "I once felt sorry for those who could not understand my calculations or my theories. Can you imagine how much more terrible it is to know that you once had that clarity and understanding, but that it is now gone? No matter how hard I clutch at them, the memories flit away.

"With my a.n.a.lytical mind I achieved many wondrous things, yet I paid for those triumphs. The fire that burns brightest also burns out most swiftly. Our race is changing. I am an anomaly-as are my sons. Both sons.

"Beware. It is not enough to flaunt your genius. A truly integrated Kryptonian uses both heart and mind. By joining the two, you will achieve your ultimate potential. You can be a true superman."

The image flickered, and Yar-El shuddered. His intangible gaze turned until he was looking directly at his son. "I am sorry I could not be there for you. I know you, Jor-El. I know your brother. Hold tight to yourselves. I wish we could walk together into the future. Instead, the future is up to you."

"Father!" He reached out to the image. Old Yar-El bowed his head, closed his eyes, and vanished as the recording ended, leaving Jor-El inside the tower, feeling more alone than ever.

He worked for days, tinkering with the separate pieces of Donodon's ship, trying to understand how they fit together. The Commission for Technology Acceptance had not been terribly meticulous in keeping detailed records as they dismantled the vessel, and now Jor-El had to use his best efforts to put them back in the right place.

Despite numerous attempts, no matter how much care he used in taking apart component after component, the riddle of the alien's stardrive was beyond him. Even though Zod was waiting for him to make some great breakthrough, Jor-El could barely grasp the basics, and he was a long way from designing a copy so that Kryptonian industry could build a powerful s.p.a.ce navy. That was Zod's ultimate goal.

Setting aside his work on the starship engines, he found a separate enclosed system, the amazing library database of the planets his alien friend had visited. Here, inside the navigation system, Jor-El could find the log entries of all the fascinating journeys Donodon had made.

The ancient message from dying Mars played over and over in his mind. Jor-El had hoped he would become inured to it, but he kept being reminded of how far that strange civilization had fallen. If the Council hadn't shunned such explorations, might someone from Krypton have been able to visit the red planet in time, so long ago? Had Donodon's people been able to do something?

Using the distant early-warning array, Jor-El had already pinpointed the origin of the Martian signal: a solar system with an average yellow sun so small and far away that it was barely visible in Krypton's night sky. With that information in hand, he plunged into Donodon's navigation logs, combing through the records of the alien's travels, star system after star system.... Yes!

In his explorations, Donodon had visited that yellow sun around which Mars...o...b..ted. According to his log, the alien explorer had also picked up the desperate message and gone to investigate, but even he had been too late. Donodon had stood alone in the thin, cold air of Mars, recording what he saw in the s.p.a.ceship's database.

Staring at the display screen from the separate navigation system, propping the bulky component on the least-cluttered laboratory table, Jor-El played images of weathered rust-colored terrain and fallen cities that emphasized what the forlorn last Martian had already said. Though the continent-wide ca.n.a.ls were dry and parched, they showed the mammoth scope of the lost race's achievements. Now iron-oxide dust coated everything, slowly erasing the marks of an advanced civilization.

He thought about showing this remarkable discovery to Commissioner Zod, but felt a strange hesitation. To what purpose? Zod would not care, and the Martian race had already been extinct for countless years. The Commissioner would no doubt dismiss the heartbreaking message by saying that the dead race was no threat to Krypton and was therefore irrelevant. Jor-El decided to keep this to himself.

When he advanced Donodon's log to the next entry, however, Jor-El was so impressed, so inexplicably happy, that he ran back to the manor house and woke Lara from a deep sleep. He excitedly brought her out to the tower chamber so that she could see for herself. She rubbed her eyes and followed him across the dewy purple lawn, then leaned against him as the two of them watched the screen that had been taken from the dismantled ship.

Jor-El played the record of the next place the wizened, intrepid alien had visited. "Watch this, Lara. It's a beautiful planet, sparkling and blue, so peaceful and full of life."

Though Mars was dead, the next planet closer to the yellow sun was covered with oceans and swathed in gauzy clouds. The continents showed a variety of terrain ranging from frozen ice caps to mountains, forests, gra.s.slands-and cities...wonderful, vibrant cities. Donodon had not contacted these people directly, but preferred to view them from a discreet distance. Their civilization was young and thriving, on the verge of technological expansion.

The people had only recently discovered radio communications and happily broadcast their existence out into the universe without a care as to who might hear them. They played exotic-sounding music. They built tall buildings that sc.r.a.ped the sky. These people were full of energy, unhampered by stifling restrictions such as those that had been imposed by the Kryptonian Council.

When Donodon's surrept.i.tious surveillance zoomed in close enough to show the inhabitants themselves, Lara drew a surprised breath. "They look just like Kryptonians!"

"Yes, the racial similarity is eerie." Jor-El leaned closer. He felt an unusual kinship with the people on the third planet from the yellow sun. They seemed imaginative, ambitious, innovative, not afraid to risk failure. Jor-El longed to contact these people, share information and solutions with them-much as Donodon had intended to do when he'd come to Krypton.

Jor-El and Lara found the place beautiful and compelling, reminiscent of Krypton, yet very different. These people called their planet Earth. Earth.

CHAPTER 44.

The next day Nam-Ek arrived at the estate, brusquely handing a message crystal to a curious Jor-El inside the tower laboratory. The shimmering image of Commissioner Zod rose like smoke from Jor-El's palm. "I need your help now more than ever, Jor-El." His thin voice was insistent. "I envision a project so grand that it will take our best work to accomplish it. Come and help us create the future-the next capital of Krypton. Nam-Ek will bring you and your wife to me, to the ancient ruins of Xan City." at the estate, brusquely handing a message crystal to a curious Jor-El inside the tower laboratory. The shimmering image of Commissioner Zod rose like smoke from Jor-El's palm. "I need your help now more than ever, Jor-El." His thin voice was insistent. "I envision a project so grand that it will take our best work to accomplish it. Come and help us create the future-the next capital of Krypton. Nam-Ek will bring you and your wife to me, to the ancient ruins of Xan City."

The bearded mute gestured insistently toward the special flying raft he had brought. The vehicle had fast engines and soft seats, open to the warm air, but with an enclosed canopy to protect them from hot sun or bad weather.

Jor-El and Lara looked at each other. She crossed her arms over her chest. "I don't like this. It didn't sound like a request."