Krypton. Home to humanity.
Jor-El engages the Phantomic Viewer, and gazes at a distant world.
The three dimensional projection turned before him as images were collated by the computers.
"Could this blue green gem be truly the Planet of Origin?" Jor-El asked. His words recorded and transcribed into his journal. "The genetic diversity of this world is incredible."
His heart skipped a beat. Calculations ran through his mind. Then came sadness. The computer confirmed his results. This world was too young. So very young.
"So the search continues." He said. "And yet human life evolved independently on this world."
The glyphs appeared glimmering beside these distant images.
"Rude Cavemen with brute stone tools. Yet they could be Kryptonians." Jor-El noted.
He reviewed images from this third planet orbiting a distant yellow dwarf star, from the worlds past to present. Standing Stones to Pyramids. Then Empires, and Industry. The most recent advances shocked the Scientist.
"Common place heavier than air flying machines." Jor-El dictated. "Indicative of a much lower gravity world. Which further suggests a limited supply of our super-heavy elements.
"Low gravity is something this planet has in common with other inhabited worlds. Krypton remains the only advanced culture I have discovered inhabiting a heavy gravity environment. " He paused. "And yet so many of these alien species on this third planet resemble Kryptonian fauna."
Frowning he brought up pictures of Kryptons prehistory from the data base.
"Crawling Man. That's how we began, splashing in the shallows, a weak semi-aquatic animal, who could barely crawl on land." The voice explained. "Water supported this lanky frame so unlike anything else, and allowed us to use our hands to form tools." Jor-El waved the recording onwards. "Until selective breeding and later genetic engineering." The voice continued. "Fauna was short and stocky in stature, and limited in size..." Jor-El cut muted the commentary. It was nothing new to him.
Jor-El watched the silent images on his viewer. He returned to the main display showing the distant planet.
"The principle of convergent evolution perhaps explains the similarities between Krypton and this alien world. Indeed I can think of many examples convergent evolution on Krypton. Unrelated life forms evolve similar solutions to the same problems of survival, for example the long sabre teeth of the Ice Hounds and Ice cats, unrelated predators, which evolved almost identical solutions to pierce the tough hides of the Tundra Rats of the crystal Ice lands beyond the Jewel Mountains."
Jor-El paused and stroked the dog by his side, a white muscular terrier. "Ah Tonno, good girl." He said. "Looking at you who'd think you're our largest land predator?"
Stroking his pet Jor-El reviewed the images. These humans had dogs. Many were larger than Tonno, and she was big for her kind, there were other beasts bigger still, and so many flying things.
"While flight is possible, gravitational constraints on Krypton make it cost prohibitive, both for machine and the evolutionary process."Jor-El noted.
He returned to the people of the third planet.
"They are human, not just humanoid." Jor-El said. "They have a limited palate of skin colours, I can only see my own races pink to dark brown, but otherwise they are undistinguishable from Kryptonian, in appearance at least." He paused, adding. "However physiologically they must be far weaker."
Jor-El gasped. He did the maths. Seconds later the Computer confirmed his findings. "They would be barely able to crawl on Krypton." He said as his left hand dialled back the muted viewer, back to the animated extrapolation of the original Crawling Man."
"The time-line is wrong." He muttered. "Its impossible."
"Jor-El." His wife called his name. "The car is here."
"Lara." He sighed. "Tell them I am coming."
Jor-El patted Tonno, he rose from the chair slowly. Put his white Science Council Robe away. Beneath he wore the colours of the House of El. The Glyph of Hope in red and gold on his chest. Blue leotard, and red shorts with a yellow belt. Red boots.
Lara entered bringing his formal green frock coat and red cloak. "They are waiting Husband."
Jor-El curled his fingers into a fist. He knew the agents of Jax-Ur would not wait patiently.
"Don't be angry husband she said." Jor-El kissed her and touched her pregnant belly. She secured his cloak.
"We are not so different from these Revolutionaries." He said. "You, I, our son. Prick us and we bleed the same red blood as them."
"Don't torture yourself." Lara told him. "They will never see us this way."
His own stark white skin spoke of his heritage. Son of the House of El. A scion of the Science Council. He had spent his life within the climate controlled cities of glass.
After the attack by the Brianiac Construct had confirmed extraterrestrial life existed Krypton had changed. The glorious Utopia of Krypton, liberty, equality and democracy had experienced war and loss of their capital Kandor. Then had come the Red Revolution to fill the vacuum, growing strong in the atmosphere of fear and uncertainty.
The Reds had come in from the fields. Hard men, with dark eyes. Armed soldiers and pioneers. Their fathers had pushed into untamed regions of Krypton, living in the harsh atmosphere, either freezing or baking under the stark rays of Rao. Pushing the boundaries of civilisation from Krypton's relatively kind green temperate zone into the icy north, south into the Scarlet Jungle. Further still to the rolling seas of sands and the Gold mountains.
It was to these men and women the people had turned to defend them against the alien threat.
Jor-El's countenance darkened.
Lara knew he was thinking of the future, of what might happen to their child.
He rested his head on her shoulder. "Despite our common heritage our son is to these Revolutionaries but a sub-man, a pale skinned intellectual – a weak thinker who let the strong be led by weak."
"What would you have our son do?" Lara whispered. "Roll back the Red Revolution?"
Jor-El shook his head. The Great Red Reich of Krypton ruled, and any who opposed the Fuhr-Ur Jax-Ur disappeared.
-'O'-
"General Zod." Jor-El said bowing his head to the Red Revolutions Military Chief.
The chamber was a lobby inside the parliament building of Kyrptonopolis. Tall by Kryptonian standards. It looked over the sprawling city.
Zod looked back at him with disdain. The General's face was tanned red by the sun and winds of Krypton, and he wore the beard of his house. Dark black eyes taking in the brightly dressed young scientist.
Jor-El stared back. He knew that his clothes were an act of defiance against the new order. His red cloak hung from his shoulders, and his formal green long coat was double breasted with two sets of buttons, front and centre was the crest of the house of El, just as it was on his blue suit beneath, and in turn this was repeated on the cloak.
"You do yourself no favours clinging to the past." The General said.
Jor-El saw nothing to be admired in the black uniform Zod wore. Around his arm he wore the red band of the Revolution. Red stars emblazoned his shoulder epaulettes.
"I am obliged to wear the crest of my House by law."
"To identify you as a reactionary." Zod folded his arms. "Yes you must wear the crest, as I wear mine." He tapped the red arm band. All Krypton knew the bloody badge of the party, of power and status. "However this manner of dress is antiquated and unnecessary."
"It is the garb of my house." Jor-El said. "Perhaps I should have worn the White of the Science Council?"
Zod's dark eyes sparked red. "Be careful young man, don't think your brilliance makes you indispensable – it does not." The General lent in closer and whispered. "I can tell you that in matter of weeks the Old House Wear will be outlawed - declared counter-revolutionary."
Then Zod placed his hand on Jor-El shoulder. "The Fuhr-Ur will see you now."
Jor-El swallowed and walked into the vast office of the Red Revolutions leader.
The only other surviving member of democratically elected Science Council waited – Jax-Ur.
His desk was wide and imposing. On one wall a picture of the moment of the revolutions triumph. The destruction of the Wegthor. A minor moon of Krypton, Wegthor had been broken in two. In the early evening the broken shape of the shattered satellite could be seen rising in the sky through the window behind the Fuhr-Ur.
Jor-El felt the burden of guilt.
The Omega Bomb was Jax-Ur's development of Krypton's nuclear deterrent. It had only been used once before Wegnoth. That sacrifice had been a day of victory over the Brainiac Construct.
Jax-Ur stood up and smiled. "I am glad you were not in the Science Council building on the Glorious Day of Liberation Jor-El. Unlike those old reactionaries you are young enough to learn the new ways – even if you still cling to the old."
Then shouting. "And you must learn! No more. Abandon these house colours." Jax-Ur spat. Slamming his hand on the desk. Then steady voiced he said. "You will wear the jump suit of the workers."
Jor-El was not in the mood to compromise. "My wife and I were at the medical centre." He said. "That is why you chose that moment to attack."
"Yes, yes, you learned that day you were to be a father." Jax-Ur said. "I trust Lara is well, and the baby – a son isn't it?" His manner calm again. His rages and moods were unpredictable. Then Jax-ur smiled. Jor-El knew he still lived because of his work.
Jor-El remembered the explosion that had decapitated the democracy of Krypton, that had killed the Science Council. The day Jax-Ur called Glorious.
"Do I have your permission to continue my research?"
Jax-Ur replied. "You really think Kryptonians will be able to leave the surface of our planet?"
"I do."
Jax-Ur roared. "Stupid boy. We have barely begun to explore the full extent of our vast world! Why spend resources on space travel when there is the Revolution to build at home?"
"To explore, to learn..."
"Our Phantomic Engine..." Jax-Ur interrupted, while Jor-El winced at the injustice of the claim. "It allows us now to send materials anywhere on the Planet. I too wish to see it made safe for people.
"Yet all you think of is journeying to the stars. Pfft!" The Fuhr-Ur laughed, his contempt for Jor-El self evident. "I think only of Krypton."
Jor-El bowed his head, instantaneous trans-dimensional transport had helped the Red Revolution to take control. Technology that should have freed this vast world from the constraints of physics, of gravity, had enslaved it. Jax-Ur clearly saw that manned Phantomic engines would secure his power base. Jor-El saw it too, Zod and his jack booted troops appearing at will anywhere on the surface of Krypton.
Jor-El found the idea terrifying.
Jax-Ur pointed to the world map to the landscape beyond the temperate zone. "We are not like these small worlds you have seen with your Phantomic Viewer. Krypton is many times larger – perhaps in the future we will grow too numerous for our glorious world, but until then, the Red Revolution will colonise our own worlds unexplored regions – and my phantomic engine will make that possible."
Jor-El frowned. "If you still oppose my goal of space travel – why bring me here today?"
"You will complete animal tests."
"That's not necessary I..."
"You will send an animal into deep space." Jax-Ur snapped. "It will be good publicity."
"I..."
"You will do as I say." Jax-Ur raged. "I will prove the principle to my public."
Jor-El felt their was some truth in his old colleagues words, but he saw in the black eyed man deception. Jax-Ur beckoned to him to come closer.
"Then I can continue with my research?" He asked the Fuhr-Ur as he stepped to the desk.
"If you will do this for me." Jax-ur passed Jor-El a data crystal.
"What is this?"
"The Red Revolution has its own resources." Jax-Ur said. "These are preliminary workings by my good friend Non."
Jor-El frowned.
Jax-Ur smiled. "Non believes the Phantomic dimensional engine you developed can be adapted to create a stable pocket universe."
"A Phantom Zone." Jor-El sighed. Jax-Ur nodded and turned to face the window, to look upon the ruined fractured Wegnoth, his hands clasped behind his back. The audience was over.
Zod entered the room. Indicating Jor-El must now leave the Fuhr-Ur's presence.
The General closed the door behind the retreating Scientist. Leaving Zod alone with his master.
"My Fuhr-Ur, do you think Jor-El will complete the work?" Zod asked.
Jax-Ur laughed. "What choice does he have. Did you see his face?" The Dictator of Krypton chuckled. "He had a name for the concept at hand. I think he already has. Fear not General, you shall soon have your final solution to the problem of Krypton's many undesirables, including reactionaries like Jor-El."
-'O'-
Lara put her hands around her husband. She had never seen him cry, but today he wept. He had raged like a madman the day Wegnoth was broken, the day the Red Revolution murdered the Science Council.
Yet today he shed tears.
"They know." He said bitter. "Is it enough that Jax-Ur should take my invention and use it to send a nuclear weapon to destroy one our three moons. To demonstrate his power to bomb anyone – anywhere, to nothingness.
"Now he wants me to use Phantomic technology to build a Gulag."
"How does he know about the Zone?" Lara asked.
"He has another man, called Non, working – using my research." Jor-El pointed to his computer. The data crystal had been loaded. "Non's close enough to the answer. Too close."
"Can't you stall them?"
"Perhaps." Jor-El said. "At least until our son is born." He said. "Until our plans come to fruition."
Lara nodded. "Rao I hope it is long enough."
-'S'-
Zod's Storm Troopers fired the particle weapons into the crowd. The black shirted, jack booted, skull emblem wearing enforcers of the Red Reich did not blink as the slaughtered the brave counter-revolutionaries.
"Kill the blue-eyes!" Zod bellowed. He could not believe it, months after Jax-Ur had announced his power by destroying Wegnoth, and murdering the Science Council. Arming him and his troops with warehoused particle weapons their had been no dissent. Yet Zod was staring at the old flag of Krypton raised once more. It's many colours proclaiming the sensitivity and tolerance of the old democracy flew above the people. Worse the rebels held forth the banner of Hope, the crest of the House of El. These soft hearted, comfort loving inhabitants of the temperate zone had risen up against the Red Revolution, and they too had been given arms.
"Behind you General!" Came the shout.
Zod turned between his troops and the steps of the Seat of Government a sphere appeared.
"Phantom Ship!"
Rebel soldiers emerged their guns blazing.
"Damn you Jor-El." Zod cursed. Here was the answer. The scientist had perfected the Phantomic engine in secret. Now men could travel in safety and instantly to make war against him and his revolution.
-'O'-
Jor-El looked over Kryptonopolis. Smoke rose over the streets where the fighting had been hardest. Here from the office of Dictator, the young scientist felt the joy of hope. The Red Revolution was defeated. Stripped of it's power to destroy. His Phantomic engine had been used to kill. Now he swore it be would used to bring hope.
Jor-El looked at the pad in his hand. Zod, the butcher of Horu-Kano Faora Hu-Ul, and Non, had been the first to be sentenced by the restored judicial system to the newly instituted Phantom Zone. He knew many others would follow.
It seemed fitting that the prison these monsters imagined using the Zone as a Gluag to rid themselves of sub-men and other undesirables, would now be there home for the rest of their natural lives in insubstantial isolation.
So it was there was a semblance of peace. Save one thing, the Dictator Jax-Ur was still at large, presumed to be still alive, in hiding, plotting.
Days past and wheels of angry justice turned. Then word finally came to Jor-El in the office of the disposed Fuhr-Ur.
"Lord El." Came the cry.
"What is it Mar-Ko." Jor-El asked the Liberation Soldier.
"We have located Jax-Ur."
"Where?"
"In the ruins of the Science Council Building of all places. He is cornered in a hidden vault in the cellars. We have taken down his guards, but he refuses to give up."
"Damn him." Jor-El said. "Like a coward and bully he hides while the world fights."
"He says he will surrender, if he can speak with you."
"With me?" Jor-El said angry. "No."
Mar-Ko looked away from his friend. "He said you'd deny him. So he told me to tell you something."
Jor-El looked on impatient.
"He said to remind you of your plan b."
For a moment Jor-El thought about this message, then he guessed what Jax-Ur must mean.
"No." Jor-El said, running past his friend. The leader of the counter revolution, last and youngest member of the Science Council jumped panicked into the car outside. Squat with wide wheels the motor roared and Jor-El rolled forward, driving like a mad man to the Science Council building.
In the heart of the city it was like a blackened open wound, once beautiful cathedral to knowledge, lay devastated. Like Wegnoth above them, a message from the Red Revolution.
Crawling inside Jor-El was escorted by soldiers of Liberty to the vault in which the defeated Dictator Jax-Ur hid.
"You told me the second lunar probe was destroyed." Jor-El roared through the communicator.
"I lied." Jax-Ur laughed.
"What now do you want for me?" Jor-El asked.
The door to the vault swung open. "I don't want anything. I just wanted to see you." Jax-Ur laughed. Thrusting out his hand, in it a black box. Behind him was the back-up Phantomic engine attached to a larger device.
"Don't shoot." Jor-El told the Libertarians. "He is holding a dead-man's switch."
"Correct Jor-El. I am. I wanted enough time to tell you what I was going to do. To watch you squirm."
"No." Jor-El said. His voice hoarse and pleading.
"Brainiac taught me the truth. When he came to our world and took our Capital of Kandor. Only the threat of an Omega bomb hidden in each of our cities was enough to prevent his return. Even Brainiac understood.
"Strength is ability to destroy - to deny another Capital to the Brainiac Construct meant we must destroy the very thing we sort to preserve and he sought to steal.
"I learned that lesson well.
"While you concentrated on perfecting the Phantomic viewer as an early warning system, I spent my time building bigger and better bombs.
"I can send this." He tapped the great silver box beside him. "A true planet killer to the heart of our world, with a flick of this switch the back-up engine from our Wegnoth project will send one of my Omega bombs into Krypton's core."
"Why?"
"Why not. There is no Rao, there's no heaven, no hell for us – except perhaps your Phantom Zone, and I'm not going there. If I can't rule over all, if I must die, then all will die with me."
"You're mad."
"You never understood power Jor-El. Power isn't about control, but the ability to destroy, and I can." With those words Jax-Ur hit the switch and sent his bomb into the heart of the planet, as the bright flash swallowed him and the machine he called out.
"I just wanted to see your face Jor-El, your face."
-'O'-
Jor-El ran. He went home. The buildings of Kryptonopolis shook. The chain reaction set off by Jax-Ur's Omega bomb was building. Soon Krypton would tear itself apart. Masonry fell. People screamed.
His home. His laboratory. His experiment.
Lara greeted him. In her arms their son. Kal-El.
Jor-El looked to the prototype space craft and he knew what he must do.
As Krypton exploded in a cataclysmic death throw, a single flash of light snapped out of space time, falling through the folds of space falling towards the planet Jor-El had found so fascinating. Kal-El's space craft took him to far reaches of the galaxy, to an unremarkable star and blue green planet called Earth."