28

"So this is from where you saw everything?" Jor-El asked Kerra as they eyed the lookout tower looming above them. "How do we get up there?"

"I'm afraid it's a bit more low tech than what most Kryptonians are used to. We use this thing called..." She pulled on a rope hanging from the top of the tower and a door opened in the floor of the observation deck at its top. "...A ladder!" dropped down from the opening. Stifling a chuckle, Jor began the climb to the top followed by his new friend.

"The pair were met by a young man in a uniform Jor-El recognized as similar to the one Kerra had been wearing the night she had been interviewed. "Kerra! What a surprise! We all thought you would be away from work for a long stretch," he said with genuine concern in his voice.

"It is going to be awhile Ko-Lim. I'm taking some leave time to help a... a friend! This is Jor-El. He's investigating what happened the night that... the night Kandor disappeared. He wants to view our recorded data and holovids."

"Right," said Ko-Lim. "Captain Zim filled me in. He said I was to cooperate with Jor-El in every way. Welcome, sir." He snapped off a very sharp salute to his guest.

Jor smiled at his host and said, "Thank you, Ko. Perhaps we should just get right to it. Kerra and I should be all right alone. You can procede with your regular duties. We'll call you if we need you." The ranger looked a little disappointed, but nodded and went about his business.

"What would you like to start with, Jor-El? Computer readouts? Meteorological data? Holovid?"

"Let's check the computer first. If I'm right, though, it will not reveal that much. There was probably a very powerful E. M. surge when the spaceship appeared." Ko-Lim had been trying not to eavesdrop, but his head spun around at the mention of the word, "spaceship."

With their voices lowered, Kerra answered, "It would have had to have been a powerful surge. Our equipment is heavily shielded. The Scarlet Jungle is an area that has some strange E. M. activity of its own." She accessed the computer's files leading up to the night and time of the event. "As you can see, there are quite a few spikes in this graph as the sensors swept the area... Hmmm... But this one is very different from all the others. It shows up just before I saw that purple ray surround the city."

"Can your computer show this in the form of a map of the area with the location of the E. M. spike enhanced?"

"We can try... Yes... Jor-El! Look! That activity is located directly in the center of where the city was!"

"We have more proof of my theory, Kerra. Now, I hope we get the final proof with your holovideo of the sweep. Where is your holovid?"

"Over here! Let me just program our search time and date and... Here it is. Good luck, Jor-El. I hope you find what you are looking for... and what I thought I saw!" Kerra played the visual record. It began with the camera angle slowly rotating from left to right on the holoscreen. Slowly, the city of Kandor came into view. Then the entire screen became a purple glow. When the colors returned to normal, Kandor was gone, replaced by the now familiar barren circle. Kerra, obviously disappointed, choked out the words, "Not much there, I'm afraid. I'm so sorry, Jor."

"Don't be sorry, Kerra. I think there may be more there than you think. Run it back to just before the purple ray hit the city." Kerra complied. "Now, go frame by frame... That's it. There! hold it!" Jor squinted closely at the screen. "Do you see this small dot on the screen?"

"Where?"

"Right here!" Kerra drew in a long breath and nodded as she saw what her friend was talking about. "Now, is your vid capable of magnifying this section of the screen and enhancing the image?"

"We'll try!" By this time, Ko-Lim had dropped the pretense of doing his forestry work and was watching right along with the two video detectives. Kerra worked a few controls and the dot became larger. "Now let's enhance..."

All three of the observers were stunned at the sight before them. The dot they had magnified had become a saucer shaped craft floating in air, closely resembling the picture Lara had pulled from Kerra's hospital room the day before. Kerra began to sniffle as tears rolled down her face. "I - I thought I was crazy, but there it is! It really was a flying ship. It really was there!" She began to weep uncontrollably, and Ko-Lim embracing her, comforted his friend.

"Yes, Kerra," said Jor-El in a softly triumphant voice, "It was really there!"

The rest of the day was spent logging all the sensor data from the night of the abduction and makling copies of the holovid recording, both with and without the magnification and enhancements. Jor made sure that all three of them signed an affidavit swearing to the authenticity of the recordings. When it was time to leave, he told Kerra that he was going to go by the crater site again to gather new samples, and the pair hurried down the ladder and into Jor's floater.

By now, the council had relaxed their no-fly zone orders, and Jor-El was able to land his craft directly into the site. But as he descended, he noticed something was different. "The purple element! Kerra, I don't see it any more! Do you?"

"No, I don't. Do you think maybe the wind blew it away?"

Not likely, he thought. Not from a crater this size. "Let's get our shovels and take some samples. This may be an important development."

Once on the ground, it was apparent that while the purple soil had disappeared from view, it had left the ground with small ruts in the pattern where it had once been tinted. The two friends began to dig their samples when Kerra called to the scientist, "Look, Jor-El! The purple element has not gone away, it's just a little deeper in the soil."

"Actually, Kerra," he said as he studied her discovery, "I think it may be something more than just that. Let's get this back to my lab."

Once inside the floater and airborne, Jor-El turned to Kerra almost apologetically and said, "I've been meaning to ask you about something. I remember you said your mother was pregnant..."

"She always insisted on giving birth to her children herself, Jor-El. She didn't believe in using the incubators for something that precious. She felt it to be too impersonal and that a very important mother - and - child link is lost that way."

"Lara and I feel that way, too. That's why our child is to be carried to term naturally." He noticed Kerra grinning at him as he continued, "Yes, Lara is pregnant. I know that the forest service is placing you on leave to recover from any trauma you be experiencing by losing your family. Since you may be without a place to stay for awhile and you may be familiar with the problems of a woman during pregnancy, we thought..."

"Jor-El, I would love to help you both. Lara is a wonderful, lovely person and I owe you both so much already. I can't think of a better way to say 'thank you' than to do this. When my mother gave birth to my brother, I did learn a lot about pre-natal care."

"It shouldn't be much of a problem for you - especially at first. We are both sort of working in unknown territory. Anything you may have learned from your mother's pregnancy would be information we would appreciate knowing. And later when Lara is nearer to delivery, we would count on you to help out with chores and tasks that she might find too difficult due to her condition."

"How could I say no? It would be an honor to work for you. Thank you for the opportunity. It almost feels like I would be helping my mother again."

It wasn't long before Jor-El's vehicle reached town. He dropped Kerra off at the convalescent facility to allow her to make preparations for her move, then he proceeded on to his laboratory. Once landed and inside, he placed all the evidence he and Kerra had collected in a safety vault, then placed his new soil samples in displays next to the others from his previous trip. Though he wanted to be more interested in his new collection, there was something about the old one that kept drawing his attention there. And then it dawned on him what it was. The soil and stones around the purple residue had gotten smaller, and at a tremendous rate. He looked at the new samples again that they had dug up because the new element was spreading underground and grimly realized that the two actions coupled together could be potentially disastrous. He quickly did what he could to calm himself and was reminded that despite his qualifications, this was essentially his first major project for the council. More study would be prudent before drawing any quick conclusions. I could be overreacting, he thought. This may be nothing serious... But - Rao help me! - For some reason, I just don't like it!