38
George stopped what he was doing. Something had changed. For the better, for the worse, he couldn't say. But he knew that at that precise moment in time, things had changed.
I must be crazy, he thought. What could have happened, and how could I know that anything had? He stared down at the huge green boulder he had been attempting to excavate using the energy pistol he had acquired from Jennifer. The work was going too slow, and he was worried that he might have to use the explosives, but he was hoping to avoid that. Too much could not only shatter the kryptonite into atoms, making it unusable, but it could also damage the spaceship, stranding him out here until Guer-On would be able to send help, which would, of course, happen much too late to do his home any good.
The problem was not the weight of the boulder. On an asteroid, even one of this size, gravity is so low that he might even seem like his famous ancestor when lifting heavy items. It was the mass of the boulder imbedded into the asteroid itself, buried well into its shell. There was no way to tell exactly how deep it went, but he knew the longer it took to harvest this find, the lesser his chances to save his homeworld became.
There was another problem.
Although he was not as affected by the emerald meteor as his full-blooded Kryptonian friend, he still possessed a small amount of DNA from his great-great-great-grandfather. While he didn't feel any real danger was imminent from the kryptonite, he had developed a pretty good headache and moments of dizziness. It was getting harder to simply remain standing. It could be the green K, or, as George just now realized, it could just be the fact that he had not eaten or slept in the last twenty hours or so.
Either way, he dared not stop until the meteor was freed from the asteroid. If the problem was the kryptonite, it would soon be encased in the lead and that problem was solved. If it was just human biologic needs, he would grab a bite in the galley of the runabout, and that problem would also be solved.
The thought of food made him think of Jennifer's restaurant, and then of Madame Luthor, herself. He and Guer-On had to leave her locked in the makeshift brig alone while they were busy with their respective tasks: George with the kryptonite, and Gary removing the explosives from the lead casings. Every few minutes, George would look up and see the flash of the discarded contents being harmlessly ignited by his friend. He couldn't hear them, of course, with no air to carry the sound waves, but the colors that lit up the ebony skies of space were like the July fourth celebrations back at Heritage Park in Fort Worth. Phyllis and the kids loved to go out there every year to picnic and watch the incendiary show.
Phyllis...
Something was still troubling him and for some reason, he felt like it was about her. He had no way to communicate with her as long as he was in this asteroid belt, so he decided that would be the first thing he would do once they were underway again. Until then, he had to hope that his intuition was just another hunger pang.
The gray area around the kryptonite began to narrow. Had he passed the midpoint of the boulder? There was probably more than enough of the stuff sticking out of the ground to do whatever Gary needed it to do. Maybe I can cut the boulder itself, he thought. Kryptonite itself, unlike the creatures and relics that escaped the doomed planet, was not indestructible. It could be broken, crushed, polished into jewelry quality stones, melted, whatever. The only thing was that one had to be careful of was the incredible energy it possessed. While the radiation wasn't immediately lethal to humans, it could, when harnessed, be a viable source of power. It had, in fact been used to power spacecraft for a time in the late twenty first century until all the available green K on Earth had been used up.
But here was a large boulder of the stuff, and while he was never one for cutting corners, time was running out, so George decided it was worth the risk to attempt to cut through the green rock where it was sticking out.
He checked his energy pistol to make sure he had the power left to do the job, said a silent prayer, and thought of his family. "I love you, Princess," he said aloud to someone who was too far away to hear.
He triggered the pistol and aimed it like a cutting torch at the boulder about an inch above the ground where he had dug earlier. Slowly he moved the energy beam concentrically about the boulder. Good, he thought. No adverse reaction... so far! He had circled the rock twice with the beam when the gun finally ran out of power.
"Damn!" It was uncharacteristic for him to swear, and anyone that knew George Kent would have been shocked to hear him use even a mild expletive. "I was so close! So close!" He was so frustrated that he forgot about safety factors and kicked the rock with the flat of his foot.
Again the gravity of the asteroid was so low that the reaction of the kick threw George about twenty feet from where he had been. Reality returned and he knew he should not have been so reckless. It would have been so easy to rip a breach in the environmental suit. He checked the onboard diagnostics and was relieved to find he'd been lucky this time. No breach.
He made his way back to the rock and found the part above the cut he had been making was loosened. When he kicked the stone, the stone had cracked inside where the energy pistol had not reached. Carefully, he pulled the top of the green rock up off its body and placed it in the casing Guer-On had given him earlier. He couldn't have cut it to fit any finer than if he had used a tape measure and scissors. The casing fit over the rock like it had been made for that purpose and that purpose alone. George closed the casing and turned for one last look at the dig site and to his surprise, found a perfectly formed green crystal laying atop where he had cracked the rock open. He had never seen one before, but he had been told the stories of the crystal his ancestor had brought with him from Krypton years ago. This looked just like he had imagined that one would.
He wrestled it away from what was left of the boulder's grip on it and took a moment to examine it. I don't know what it means, he mused, but I'll find out later. Right now I have two worlds to save. He put it into a pocket of his E-suit and then, taking the casing filled with kryptonite, he started back for the runabout.
But before he could take a step, he felt the ground beneath him rumble. An earthquake? Up here? But it was no quake. Instead, the engines of the runabout were powering up. Like the silent fireworks show he had been audience to earlier, no sound could reach his ears from the craft as it began to ascend from its rocky perch. Instinctively, George rushed toward the runabout, waving "I'm here!" at whoever was controlling it. It was, of course, futile. The ship began to rise, leaving its previous pilot stranded on a gigantic gray rock.
The radio in his helmet crackled to life. "Sorry, Georgie! I have no more time to play with you. I need this ship to finish what I started."
"Jennifer? But how did you get out of the cargo bay? We had it locked tight!"
"Let's just say I keep a few tricks up my sleeve... Well, I guess it wasn't up my sleeve, technically..."
"You have to listen to me! The Earth is in danger! I have the means to save it now! I have to get back there before it's too late!"
"Oh, George, George, George. You really need to do something about these delusions of grandeur. The Earth is not going to blow up! Just a few selected areas in cities and towns to kinda... encourage travel to my neck of the woods. Think of it as a new style of travel marketing. Besides, even if you're right, I still don't see the down side for me. We just get the word out and the people will rush to buy as much Martian real estate as they can get. And guess who they'll have to buy it from?"
"You... can't... do this!"
"Oh, now! Come on! Buck up! Be Momma's little soldier! Besides, I'm not totally heartless. Remember, I had to fly a ship up there so we could have our little visit, and it's still on that rock you're on. The life support is still functioning, but you just might have a teensy weensy problem getting it to fly. You see, I wrecked the injector coils before I hijacked this ship. But if you're lucky, my little ship could keep you alive for... oh, I don't know... a day or so, maybe."
"Jennifer...! Everyone on the planet will die! Don't you care?"
"Hmmmm... No! Not really! By the way, speaking of dying, that explosive that you tossed at my guys? The ones that were chasing you?"
"We didn't think there was enough to destroy their ship. We only wanted to disable them."
"Oh, that's all you did. I was the one that blew them up with an energy torpedo. But I wanted to thank you for making them such an easy target."
"You killed your own men? Why?"
"The usual reason: greed. I would have had to pay them a share of my profits when the land scheme paid off. And the icing on the cake is that I had a partner who was on that ship - the guy that I thought you were! Now I won't have to split with anyone. Isn't that just fabulous! I will kind of miss Frankie, though. I just loved his French accent!"
"You can't really be that evil, Jennifer. It'll lead you to a bad end."
"Ooooh, I think I heard that one in about three or four old movies. Besides, I believe you're the one who's about to face a 'bad end.' I have to keep breathing. After all, Georgie, as long as there's a Kent, there has to be a Luthor. I really have to go now. Bye-bye! And give your imaginary friend 'Gary,' all my best!"
George watched as the ship gathered speed as it pulled away from the asteroid on which he was now imprisoned. Then he watched in horror as the craft, now no more than a dot of light in the ebony sky erupted into a fiery ball of flame. Had the ship exploded?
She was in the area where Gary was setting off the explosives from the cargo bay. She may have hit one of them or it may have just been Gary exploding one nearby. George used his telescopic vision, but his earlier exposure to the kryptonite boulder had taken a toll and he was unable to focus much further than ordinary eyes could.
"Jennifer! Come in! Jennifer! Are you all right? Come in!" It was no good. There was no answer and he knew there wouldn't be one. If what he saw was what he saw, then there would be practically no way of surviving such a blast. If it was something else and didn't even involve the ship, she would be too far out to be in his e-suit's radio range. For a moment he stood still, waiting for an answer that would never come. Finally, he had to get back to his immediate problem of survival and went looking for the ship in which Jennifer had arrived.
He hoped Guer-On would be able to find him. If he was onboard the runabout, his invulnerability would have allowed him to survive. By now, in any case, Gary should know something is wrong and come looking for me. I hope!
George continued to trod across the rocky plain of the asteroid. I'd better find this ship fast. My supply of air in this suit is getting low. I hope she wasn't lying about the life support systems.
As if in answer, the silvery gray glint of a metallic shell appeared as George maneuvered over yet another craggy hill. He welcomed the sight of it as he briskly picked up the pace. Upon reaching the ship, he managed the air lock and entered the pressurization chamber, then went inside to safety.
Jennifer had been truthful about the condition of the ship. It was not about to lift off the asteroid, but there was air to breathe and the interior temperature was acceptable. Once he shed his E-suit, the first thing he did was examine the small craft for any sort of provisions.
A small area on the bridge served as a makeshift galley where standard ration bags were found. He opened one and wished he could be back home enjoying real Texas barbecue. Chester sure makes a great brisket, he thought. Jerky would have to suffice for now, instead.
The air lock activated. George watched it seemingly open and close by itself, as if an invisible man were manipulating the hatch. He knew it was his friend from New Krypton.
"I don't mind telling you," he said. "I was getting worried! I trust you figured out what happened?"
Guer-On found his favorite resting place in George's ear. "Yes, well... I saw the ship take off and hit one of the explosives that I was about to ignite. I thought for awhile that you were inside. It appeared like a globe of some sort just large enough to encase one human may have ejected just before the explosion, but I wasn't able to track it. I searched this floating mountain for signs of it, and found this ship and you in it. I presume this is the vessel that delivered Ms. Luthor to our midst?"
"Yes, and that was she piloting the runabout into your fireworks show."
"My...what?"
"Never mind. The important thing is this ship will not fly unless you happen to have a spare injection coil in your pocket. I don't suppose you have one, do you?"
"Nnnnnno... But will a spare spaceship do?"