Title: One Thousand Light Years From Home
Author: Nova Adams
Rating: PG-13 for disturbing imagery
Series: 1/2
Genres: None, really
Pairing: But it's not about romance.
Spoilers: Not that I know of.
Disclaimer: Smallville and Superman and everything else belongs to DC and WB. The name "Moravenn" is borrowed from an excellent science fiction story I read years ago. I don't remember the title, the author, or the plot. Just the name of the planet, which struck me as terribly lovely.
Author's note: I wrote this, or the outline of it, in history class. This is not the first story I have written in a class that could be used as an actual assignment. Nor is it the last.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE WAR BETWEEN KRYPTON AND MORAVENN
The planet Krypton used to be one thousand light-years from Earth.
The planet Moravenn is still one thousand light-years from Earth.
The two planets are less than eight light-minutes apart. This is what made war between them so easy.
The first intraplanetary war was declared ten thousand years ago, when Moravenn was still divided into five sections and Krypton was still a Level I civilization. They were at the approximate level that Earth will be in maybe fifty years.
Nobody remembers what the reason for the conflict was.
All that anyone knows anymore is that Moravenn and Krypton have been mortal enemies for seventy centuries.
Kryptonians and Moravenians are very easy to tell apart. After a million years of genetic blending, everybody from one planet looks the same.
All (most) Kryptonians have thick bluish-black hair, dark eyes, and tan skin.
All (most) Moravenians have wispy white hair, violet eyes, and skin so pale it's almost translucent.
Three thousand years ago, the war came to an end.
Nobody made peace. No agreement was reached. The Moravenian government (they had finally united) simply sent two of their top agents to Krypton.
The two agents, Salaria and Tychon, planted a small device in the center of the planet. It wasn't a bomb. It was a material converter.
The material converter (a device which looks very much like a Rubik's Cube) transformed every bit of the planet, from the core out to six feet below the surface, was transformed into a crystalline substance which was later called Kryptonite, after the deceased planet it originated on.
Kryptonians must be exposed to the radiation of a yellow sun in order to gain their powers. Kryptonite has no such limitations.
The entire planet began to die. No one, except for a scientist named Jor-El, could figure out the reason for the planetary disease. He tried to convert the Kryptonite back into ordinary matter, but only ended up destabilizing it instead.
The planet of Krypton was doomed to die in less than six months.
The average lifespan for a Kryptonian is, on Krypton, three hundred years. Their gestation time is two years. Krypton has a red sun.
The average lifespan for a Moravenian is, on Moravenn, one hundred thousand years. Their gestation time is one thousand years. Moravenn has a white sun.
Under a yellow sun, the lifespans are completely reversed. Nobody knows why.
Jor-El created a prototype of a rocket in which the entire Kryptonian race could fly to safety and colonize another planet. He expected to have the rocket ready in three months with the proper funding.
He was laughed at. He didn't get the funding. His wife left him. She explained that she didn't want to be married to a madman.
With only a few days to go before the entire planet exploded, he loaded his newborn son, Kal-El, onto the prototype rocket, and shot him into space, praying that he would land somewhere safe.
Due to time dilation, the child, Kal-El, aged only three years, since the rocket traveled at one-third the speed of light. During that time, images of life on Krypton were played directly into his brain, not only to stimulate his growth but also to ensure that he would not forget his home planet.
He forgot them eventually. But the subconscious never forgets, as you all know.
The planet of Moravenn rejoiced when Krypton was blown up. The festivities were cut short, however, when a Kryptonian counterspy revealed that there was a lone survivor.
The survivor was immediately condemned to death. Salaria and Tychon were sent to track him down and kill him.
Around this time, a Moravenian woman named Delasia was sentenced to three thousand years in the Phantom Zone for treason against Moravenn, sympathizing with the enemy, and the teaching of a renegade philosophy. She didn't seem important at the time, just annoying.
She was also pregnant.
The light from the explosion of the planet reached Earth one thousand years later, around the year 10 B.C. It appeared as a huge star shining in the eastern sky. This was duly noted by three astronomer kings, who took it as an omen and set out to find what it meant. They arrived in Israel a few years later, frustrated and weary.
They scoured the country for something miraculous. Eventually, they settled for a young Jewish girl who had just given birth in a stable. She insisted that she was a virgin, and she was telling the truth. That was what made it so miraculous.
Since you can't really give birth to a healthy child in the Phantom Zone, Delasia was granted special permission to transfer her unborn child to a living body. She chose to transfer it into the body of a human woman. She didn't want her child growing up on the planet that had exiled her.
As the child was growing up, Delasia taught him from the Phantom Zone, appearing as a spirit. The child eventually decided to spread Delasia's teachings around. He was consequently nailed to a tree.
Delasia rescued him and brought him to the Phantom Zone for about three days. Then she let him go back for a few years until he was in danger of being killed again. At that point, he went back on his own. Unfortunately, the transformation was too much for his corporeal body, and he died permanently.
Which is maybe just as well. One wonders what he would think of what we have made out of his mother's ideas.
One thousand years later, the Moravenian revolution began brewing. The old and tyrannical government was pushed out of the way to make way for a new, more spiritual government.
This process took another thousand years. Which brings us to, approximately, today.
Sixteen years ago, the revolution was completed. Moravenn is now an entirely peaceful planet.
Sixteen years ago, the survivor of the explosion of Krypton was pardoned.
Two thousand years from now, this information will be received on Earth. It will be puzzled over.
Tychon and Salaria will not be able to receive it. They will be dead.
Sixteen years ago, Delasia was finally released from the Phantom Zone. She chose to reside on Earth, where her son was born. She has since been traveling all over the planet, trying to find that one last survivor and warn him about the two Moravenians who are trying to kill him.
She is currently, at this very moment, much closer than she thinks.
Twelve years ago, the rocket containing Kal-El landed on Earth. With it came a swarm of Kryptonite meteors.
Kal-El and his rocket were found by a young couple who raised him as an Earthling. He is now, at this very moment, sitting in an overstuffed chair at the Beanery, sipping a warm chai tea and listening to Chloe and Pete banter with each other. A few feet away from him, Whitney and Lana are quietly arguing about their relationship.
At this point, he has no clue as to where he came from, the history of his people, or even his real name. Neither does he have any clue as to his destiny.
The machine with the information about Krypton on it is buried somewhere in a cornfield. Somewhere, there are worms and ears of corn who are very well informed about the War of the Jewel Caverns, which happened over twenty thousand years ago, by the way.
Twelve years ago, Salaria and Tychon finally made it to Earth.
Four months ago, they finally located their target.
They are currently on the outskirts of Smallville, biding their time.
In the morning, they will find Kal-El, and they will carry out the orders they were given three thousand years ago. The orders that were countermanded sixteen years ago.
Twelve years ago, Lex Luthor lost all of his hair. Right now, he is in Metropolis, listening to trashy electronica and wishing he were with his friend Clark, who he can't seem to get out of his mind.
I only mention this fact because, ten years from now, Lex Luthor will be doing exactly what Salaria and Tychon are trying to do right now. But of course, they will be dead in ten years. Actually, they will be dead in two weeks. But the manner of their death does not concern us now.
(I also mention this fact so that this story qualifies as slash and I can post it on my usual mailing groups, every single one of which is devoted to slash fanfiction. But I digress.)
And in less than five minutes, all of this will begin to draw to a conclusion...