So I was rereading this story and realised I'd managed to miss out a chapter from what's on the site. Which I really should apologise for, because lots of people have read it and missed what I feel is important context. So here you go.
The planet Yod-Colu was a desolate place. Even from orbit, Clark had been able to see that. All life was gone from that world. It seemed like the energy has just been sucked out, and the water drained from the oceans. There had clearly been some kind of attack, too. Burned out vehicles, bombed buildings. And, of course, it was hard not to notice the huge gap in the planet, where a city had apparently been scooped out.
Clark felt an intense desire to be away from this place. It was eerie, like a graveyard. He landed in the biggest city he could find and investigated a building to see what he could find. Much of the technology still worked, so he was able to view footage people had recorded. The local people had green skin, but otherwise were fairly humanoid. It looked like people-shaped insects with energy weapons had attacked. Was that part of Brainiac's force?
Clark only knew what Warworld's records had told him- that this planet had undergone a similar fate to what happened to Argo City and Kandor.
It took hours of searching before he found a recording that apparently contained information on the scooped-up city. He pressed play, and suddenly memories filled his head. Memories that weren't his own. He clutched at his temples, the pain from the experience overwhelming him. After a few minutes, he knew. He understood. And he was horrified.
Vril Dox told Brainiac, "Run the numbers again."
"I have run them many times. The outcome will not be different. I cannot provide a solution."
Vril shouted, "That's bullshit! You can't tell me there's nothing we can do!"
Brainiac calmly responded, "I cannot provide a solution."
Vril thumped the desk. Then he took a moment. Something about that wording... "You cannot provide a solution. But there may be one you cannot provide?"
Brainiac didn't respond. Vril smiled. He'd just run up against a programming barrier. A rare occurance. It meant that there was a solution that the AI was legally bound not to explain. But how could Vril overcome that? The constraints were built-in. He couldn't overcome them without rebuilding the system, and there was no time for that. For a moment, Vril cursed himself for sticking to his principles at a time when there was no cost for doing so. He needed a way to bypass those restrictions.
Vril took a moment to rethink it himself. Start from scratch. They had four days until whatever it was reached them. And it wouldn't stop with them. This thing posed a threat to the entire universe. Planet after planet would fall. There seemed to be nothing that could stop it. The despair Vril felt... he had to overcome it. There was always a solution. All the technology they had, it would have to be worth something. Vril's latest invention, the ability to dematerialize, store and rematerialize objects had to be useful.
But he knew that the thing had been fought before. By peoples with far more powerful weapons than anything they had. He had nothing.
Days passed. Vril got more and more frantic and desperate. There had to be something!
On the third day, he was pacing his lab and came across an old invention of his. He stopped. Could that be useful somehow?
He stared at it. A machine that a person could fit into, and integrate with an artificial intelligence. He looked back at Brainiac's console. Horror dawned on his face. How could he even consider it?
Simple: there was no other option.
Vril got into the machine and told Brainiac to start the process. "To be clear, sir. You want to merge your consciousness with my matrix?"
Vril didn't think about it. "Yes. Do it."
Brainiac didn't hesitate. The machine sprouted tentacles that hovered around Vril's head, scanning it. And then they extended tendrils that pierced Vril's skull. He felt nothing, the machine having administered anaesthetic. But he soon had nothing left to feel anyway.
The memory ended there. Clark stood back up and looked around. This was what they feared was coming. And his solution, to save not just their people but the entire universe, was to digitize entire cities?
It was... Clark searched for a word to describe it. Desperate. That was all he had. Vril had been truly desperate.
He took a moment to survey the city, the thing Vril had been so afraid of happening. Then he headed back to the ship he's commandeered.