Superman: The Ark of Krypton
Chapter 29
By
Jason Richard
Rudy Jones was going insane lying there. He kept struggling and struggling to find a way out of his restraints, but to no avail. For several minutes he tried, then gave up a bit before trying again. He had no visitors in that lab at the moment. Everyone had rushed out, something about a ship, and left him alone.
Little did he know that fate was on his side, however, as he wasn't in a lab that was kept air tight to keep pathogens out. Apparently luthor wanted to know if Rudy's body interacted with those types of organisms in any way. This meant that most creatures could get in.
Including an ant that had wandered in.
By an extraordinary coincidence the ant wandered across the floor and up the table Rudy was strapped to. Rudy then rolled over it, right as he was struggling to break free. The surge in power was small, but he felt it. An ant could lift several times its own weight, and once Rudy had that ability, he had strength several times his own weight and broke free.
Finding himself on the floor, no idea how he had gotten there, he immediately got up. He was dressed only in a hospital gown, but he could find clothes later. He decided he'd figure out what this talk of a ship was all about. Given the commotion, he had a feeling Lex Luthor would be there himself.
He'd had incredible strength, taken from Superman, now he'd see what an incredible mind was like. It wasn't long before he had sapped the strength of a couple of Lexcorp employees, including a helicopter pilot, and begun making his way to the ship himself.
…
Over forests, over cities, and over the ocean Superman flew, following his pod to its destination. Soon he found himself in africa, flying over the sahara desert. He kept flying for a while until the pod stopped right where the desert stretched for miles in every direction. Superman didn't' know which region of Africa he had been led to, but he knew he was pretty far from human settlements.
The pod hovered right above a giant sand dune, as big as a small hill. Superman waited, but the pod did nothing. He waited a moment longer, and then figured the pod wasn't going anywhere.
And this particular sand dune looked suspiciously large.
He took a very deep breath, his inhale making a small wind over the plains, and then let it all out, practically making a gale force wind that blew the sand dune away, revealing a giant metal object buried beneath it.
Or, at least, part of a giant metal object. Superman used his X-Ray vision to scan the object and realized that most of it was deep beneath the sands, and the part he was seeing was little more than a piece sticking out of the side, round and elliptical. The rest of the ship, shaped long and rounded with round protrusions sticking out of the sides, was enormous, larger than anything mankind had ever built.
It would have been more majestic, but Superman realized right away that the ship was sideways under the sands. No matter. He flew towards the ship and entered a hatch that his pod flew towards, going inside.
Through corridors that were disorientingly sideways with the roof and the floor on either side of him, Superman flew slowly after his pod. The inside of the ship was sleek and smooth, with decorative pillars embedded in the walls. They vaguely reminded him of greek or roman pillars, but were slightly elliptical, and had hieroglyphs from a language not of earth decorating them. Superman stared around him in awe and wonder at the sight.
Eventually the pod led him into a larger, longer room. It took a moment for Superman to realize that the walls were made of a clear substance, tougher than glass, and behind this substance were...some kind of animals.
Superman had to pause to take it all once. One room was like a forest, one like a desert, one an ice room, and many more. As the ship was on it's side the rooms were above and below him, but the ecosystem inside seemed to have adjusted, giving anything inside the upper rooms walkways of dirt to traverse on instead of the glass.
And inside these rooms were various forms of animals. Some of them looked familiar, like apes, felines, and canines, though their shape and colors varied from Earth animals. Some of the animals were more reminiscent of dinosaurs than anything else, and Superman could have sworn he saw something resembling a dragon in one of the desert rooms, which had a strange red light illuminating it, though Superman had no idea what that was about. Some of the animals looked like nothing ever seen on earth, as if they were made of metal, or even crystal. In truth Superman could have just spent all day looking at the various forms of wildlife there.
But the pod led him past that room, and finally they made it to what appeared to be a control room, on its side like the rest of the ship. The floor was covered in various control panels with sleek looking seats. Instead of buttons the panels had crystals sticking out, though Superman didn't know how one would work them. In front of him was a screen, which reminded Superman of sci fi shows with giant starships.
Finally his pod landed on the wall below and powered down. The next moment the screen powered up, though the image didn't' come through clearly. It was more like multicolored static than anything else. Of more importance was the robotic voice Superman heard.
"So you've finally come," it said. "Welcome aboard the Ark of Krypton, Kal-El."
Superman looked around, but couldn't see any apparent source for the voice.
"Who are you?" Asked Superman. "And...Kal-El...why do you call me that?"
"What am I would be a more appropriate question," said the voice. "I am the artificial intelligence for this vessel. I call you Kal-El because that is the name given to you on Krypton. I do detect a 90% probability that you were given a different name on Earth. If you inform me, I can call you by that designation if you prefer."
"Um...Kal-El is fine," said Superman, thinking that a robot saying his real name when the military and the media were on the way would probably backfire on him. "But what do I call you?" He added.
"My original designation in kryptonian, but a loose translation would read J.L.A.I. 13," said the voice. "As I was created by your biological father, Jor-El, and am the thirteenth AI he designed."
His biological father. Superman had to roll those thoughts in his head for a moment.
"My biological father," said Superman. "Created you? And he sent me and this ship to Earth? Why?"
"You were sent to Earth to save you from the destruction of our home planet, Krypton." The voice said with no hint of emotion. "The Ark of Krypton had a different destination, but during the destruction of Krypton received damage to its navigation systems. The only choice I had for this ship was to follow the only other kryptonian signal I could find. The pod that transported you, Kal-El."
It was jarring how the AI delivered this news, and it took a second for Superman to really comprehend what the AI was saying. For Clark, this news was Earth shattering. Was this thing really implying that he was the only survivor of a destroyed race? That this was why he was sent to Earth?"
But…
"Why…" asked Superman. "Why was I the only one sent here? Why was I the only one who escaped the planet? And how was it destroyed?"
"I suspect you will have many questions the more I explain," said the AI. "I suggest you view some video feeds I have in my database. They will explain everything. I am aware that other beings are heading straight for this location, but we should still have plenty of time."
The Military, the media, and whatever science labs are looking for this ship, Superman thought. He then took a deep breath, and then said, "Alright, fine. Show me."
The screen in front of him changed to footage of a world that was alien to Superman. The image was on its side at first, but it realigned with Superman after a moment, showing him a couple dark red and black robes hovering over a baby in a soft, elevated bed. Superman didn't need to have it explained to him who these people were.
These were, of course, his biological parents.
