29

"How long have I been doing this?" asked Jimmy as he began to return to his normal state.

"Way too long as far I'm concerned," his sister quickly chimed in. "I don't like it when you get all scary-eyed like that. Mom, can we quit doing this now? Jimmy looks like he's done anyway."

Phyllis, who had been taking notes all the while Jimmy had been in his "trance" surveyed the boy, trying to balance the need for life saving information with the health and well being of her son. "We have been at this a long time. Maybe a break is in order. Jimmy, is there more to this or are we through?"

"There's more, I'm pretty sure. But that... mode or whatever it is that I was in... sure takes a lot out of me. I think I do need to relax a little while. Hey! I'm hungry, too. Is there anything to eat?"

Phyllis involuntarily looked at the clock above the doorway. The time was 11:35 A.M. It was almost lunch time anyway. "Let's go over to the Carrs' house and see if we can get in touch with Chester. I think he might could use the information you've given us so far. Then I think we may just go out for lunch. It is Saturday, after all. Even if your father isn't back yet, we'll still have a family outing together." But George, she thought, I wish you'd finish whatever it is you're doing and get back here!

"Did you say Kryptonite?" George, taken completely unawares at the revelation, was aghast.

"I take it you know of it?" said a very droll and composed Guer-On.

"I know it's almost killed my great-great-great-great grandfather a few times... and it would be lethal to you and your people as well."

"Which is why I couldn't simply go and gather enough of it by myself, George. I needed help and it had to be someone who would feel a bond with his ancestry... Someone who was acquainted with the history of my people... Someone who could hear a cry of help from his beleaguered own... Someone who..."

"...Someone who could get within five feet of those glowing green rocks without dying?"

"That also occurred to me, yes."

"Well, at least it should make hunting for the stuff a little easier. Not too many elements look like the 'Big K.' I can see how Superman never figured out that this was the element that powered Brainiac's shrinking ray. How could it, since it could not have existed before Krypton exploded?"

"It is quite logical, actually, when you give it thought. Ilium-349 is the original element used in the device to shrink and transport anything. I can only surmise that the original scientist who investigated its properties discovered how unstable anything returned to normal size became later. Obviously, more experimentation revealed how a purple residue left behind was actually the soil or other organic material abutting the actual subject of the shrinking event. This material, once irradiated, would continue to shrink and effect other material or soil and spread like a tree taking root until a network was created throughout whatever it touched."

"That explains the earthquakes on Earth, I guess. This 'purple residue' simply continued to shrink the soil until it was too weak to support the surface activity?"

"As your people say, 'that is it in a nutshell.' And this is what happened to Krypton. It was accelerated by the exposure to our red sun. While the ilium residue is extremely volatile on its own and will explode once it reaches a certain point, the ilium network reached the core of our planet which was composed of uranium. The rest is known to you. It was the shrinking ray itself that inevitably caused the destruction of Krypton.

"Later on, Brainiac encountered some of the fragments and ascertained that what we now call kryptonite is modified ilium-349. A much more powerful energy source than the original, he implemented it as the power to his ship and the new shrinking/enlarging ray. This is why Superman could never penetrate Brainiac's force-field. It was powered by the one substance he could not stand up to... fragments of his exploded home world."

George blinked hard at the revelation. "And now, Earth could suffer the same fate as Krypton?"

"Not could, George... Will! Unless we can arrest the process. And once we have enough kryptonite in our possession we may be able to do just that."

"May!"

"There are no guarantees in life, George. You know that. All we can do is arm ourselves with the proper tools and take our chances."

" Okay, then. I guess we're about to begin arming ourselves right now. Here's the asteroid belt." Indeed, the runabout began to approach the stream of giant flying rocks. George threaded the craft into it as if it were a tailor's needle entering a tapestry.

"Okay, Guer-on. You said 'may.' How is kryptonite supposed to keep Earth from exploding? And then how do we save New Krypton?"

"The device we must use is in my spacecraft. Once we have harvested enough kryptonite, we must return there with the ore. It will need to be processed by the device our scientists have built. Once that has occurred, the same device can modulate special waves that, in theory, should nullify any remaining effects of the original shrinking ray."

"What do you mean, 'in theory,' Guer-on? Haven't your people tested this device?"

"I... I must confide, George, that we are working primarily on theory. When we discovered that Rokyn... New Krypton... was in danger, we rushed to create an answer. Time was short. Shortcuts were taken. But every scrap of evidence and logic points to this as the answer. And since kryptonite is basically non-existent in our solar system, tests were impossible. I was sent here to enlist your help to gather the necessary materials - kryptonite... and lead."

"Lead?"

"As I said kryptonite is next to impossible to find on our adopted planet. Lead, I'm afraid, is almost as rare."

"And the only known substance that can contain the lethal rays of kryptonite is lead."

"Precisely. Fortunately, we seem to have found an abundance of lead containers in the cargo hold."

George raised his eyebrows at this suggestion. "I don't know about that one. That bomb we dropped on Jennifer's thugs was pretty powerful. I'm not sure I'd want to mess with them."

"Again, George, chances must be taken if a world is to be saved... If two worlds are to be saved."

"True enough, I suppose. But how is it that New Krypton came to be in danger? And how is it you are microscopic in size? I thought Superman restored Kandor and everyone in it to normal proportions."

"It was one of the happiest days in our history, and yet the well-intentioned actions of your ancestor have led us to this crisis we face now."

If George was surprised by Guer-on's statements earlier, he was absolutely flabbergasted by this. He couldn't even utter a protest. All his life he had been taught that his great-great-great-great-grandfather had been the salvation of Kandor, not the cause of its pending destruction. Guer-on saw the angst of his new friend and tried to console him.

"I did not mean that the actions of Superman were wrong. Based on the information that he had back then, he did everything exactly as it should have been done, and every Kandorian since then to the present feels a debt of gratitude to him for it. But allow me to explain.

"It was about two hundred years ago when Superman used the enlarging device on Kandor. He had found what he was sure was the missing ingredient to finally restore us all, and our city, to normal size: energy collected from an exploding supernova star. He even had it tested on himself after tricking Brainiac into shrinking him to tiny size. Brainiac was accidentally shrunk into infinitesimal size himself during their battle, but that is a story for another time. For now, it is only important that the test seemed to confirm Kal-El's theory.

"Soon he was transporting the bottled city to Rokyn, a planet the scientist Van-Zee had chosen along with his fellow Kryptonians. It was a giant planet, a primitive world orbiting a red sun, much like Krypton once did. When the perfect spot was found, the enlarging ray transported our city from within its glass prison and was restored to its full-sized glory. The celebration was so... euphoric! I'm not sure that I can find the proper adjective to describe it in your language, but I think I've heard some of your broadcast programs use a fitting phrase: The people of Kandor went absolutely nuts!" At that, both George and Guer-On broke out in uncontrolled laughter - George for the surprise of the Earth slang expression from his Kryptonian friend, and Guer-On at his new ally's reaction to it.

But as sudden as the mirth began, it quickly subsided as the microscopic alien continued, "Unfortunately, the celebration was short-lived, for the buildings of the great city suddenly began to crumble into dust. Moments after it had been restored, Kandor was nothing more than sand upon the primitive plains of Rokyn. The enlarging ray, even with the supernova energy, would only work on living matter, not inanimate objects. Kal-El, who moments earlier was as joyous as he had ever been, was now at the nadir of an emotional low, contemplating what he felt was failure."

"I had never heard this story told in this manner. But knowing all that I know about Grandpa Clark... Well, I can believe it. He loved his roots and wanted more than anything to see the people of his ancestry to return to a thriving civilization."

"You sound as though you met him."

"I did... once when I was no more than four years old. He had lost his superpowers by that time - he was a hundred-eighty-three years of age at the time, and I remember being a little afraid of this great paragon of truth and justice lying there all sick and wrinkly. He seemed to understand my fear as he managed a wink toward my direction and then forced himself to smile at me until I could no longer keep from doing the same. I know it was difficult for him to do that through the pain he was enduring then, but somehow just for the sake of a small child, he did it."

Guer-On, visibly moved by the story, whispered lowly, "A hero to the end."

"Oh, that's not all. After having won me over, he beckoned me to come close to him. I looked to my father for his guidance and he simply smiled at me and nodded toward our forebear. I approached him slowly until we were no more than inches from each other's face. He whispered something to me that I will never forget. It was just a simple phrase, but it was the way he said it, as if it were his mantra for his entire life..."

"What did he say?"

"He just said, 'Do what's right.' Then he patted my shoulder and smiled at me once more. After that, he went into a coughing spasm and I was made to leave the room. I never saw him alive again after that. He died that night. And I... I..." George took a moment and a deep composing breath before continuing, "I just cried my eyes out all the next day. Wasn't much better during the funeral."

"It must have been very hard for you."

"Yes. The press coverage was most extensive in Earth history for the passing of a single man. My family only wanted to be left alone to mourn, but Dad said we owed it to the world to at least acknowledge the love Clark had for his adopted planet. I just wanted to bring him back and get to know this man, but of course, I couldn't." George slowly shook his head at the memory, then decided to change the subject back to Guer-On's story. "What about the people of Kandor? Did they feel he failed as well?"

"There was one scientist who had worked all his life on a cure for the bottled city's woes that harbored great jealousy over Superman bringing his work to an anticlimactic end and wasted no time in condemning Kal-El for the miscalculation. But again, Van-Zee, who was more than just a scientist now, but an authentic leader, managed to convince him and your ancestor that it was a blessing in disguise. That it was time for us all to do our own rebuilding and not to rely on anyone else. I don't know if we could have survived without him. 'We will be New Kryptonians,' he is quoted as saying, 'On a New Krypton!' There is a memorial on our planet to him with that inscription."

"But you said these events led to where we are now. What did you mean by that?"

"After Kal-El left, our people went about the business of recreating Rokyn in the image of Old Krypton when we could, and adapting to the requirements of our new world when we could not. It was a project that spanned generations, but soon our New Krypton was a thriving and vital civilization once again... until about twenty of your Earth years ago.

"Remember that nothing had been subjected to the shrinking ray on our new planet, and as such, we all thought that there was nothing to fear. But the buildings of Kandor had turned into dust and that dust was infected with a long dormant form of the radiation from that original shrinking ray of Brainiac. It blew across the lands of New Krypton, spinning its evil web over the globe. And then... it was no longer dormant.

"A 'purple soil' that, no doubt, your scientists have by now encountered on Earth, began to appear. We were baffled, frankly, by the phenomenon. We believed it to be some sort of trait of our adopted world until the quakes began. It took some time before we connected the two occurrences, but once we did, we managed to trace everything down to the story I just told you. A plan was conceived for the gathering of kryptonite, and that is what brought me here."

"That doesn't explain two things. First, how is it that you contacted me?"

"That was an inspiration I came up with during my flight. As I neared your solar system, I picked up broadcasts of your... what do you call them? Ah, yes... commercials! And when I understood, thanks to our people's mutual history, that you were Kal-El's descendent, I knew I could count on you for help. That was also how I knew Earth was in the same trouble as New Krypton."

"And now once again, the question, Guer-On, that you have not yet answered. If Kandor's people were all restored to correct proportions, why is it that you are microscopic in stature?"

"I was one of the first scientists who wrestled with the problem of the purple soil. One of the things it does is to shrink whatever comes into contact with it. When I first encountered it, I must have run my bare fingers through it more times than I can count, never noticing at first, its reducing effects. You see, ilium-349 does not have to be projected as a ray to shrink matter. The ray is simply a method to intensify and accelerate the effect, and finally to transport the subject to another locale... such as a bottle."

"So it's a little more personal for you?"

"If you want to be so crass about it, I suppose you could say that. I am still shrinking, George, thanks to my blundering investigation of the ilium dust. But I would give my life... or in this case, my size, to save New Krypton."

George noticed a large asteroid they were approaching with a mass of glowing green material lodged in a crater. "I think you may get a chance to that and more, Guer-On. I think we may have just hit the mother lode."