Chapter 1 DOOMED-A RACE AGAINST TIME
He had checked the results ten times that day to reconfirm his results, each with samples from different areas on the planet.
There was no way around it. It still all boiled down to one word: doomed.
Millennia ago, it was a different story. Aside from the standard tectonic activity and sporadic eruptions from the various volcanoes, little thought had to be given to the core of the planet. Even composed, as it was, of uranium, it was still quite stable.
Until the Clone Wars...
And Black Zero.
The terrorist group, seeking to halt their society's dependance on cloning, had discharged a nuclear device into the planetary core. They had envisioned a prompt chain reaction and explosion.
A proper penance to Rao, they thought, for a race of remorseless murderers...
They were quite stunned when they didn't get it then.
Unfortunately, Krypton's current generation was getting it NOW.
It takes a while to destabilize a core of a planet...especially when that core is the size of most planets itself...
Now a runaway chain reaction was steadily building in both pressure & strength. The great uranium core had now become a massive fission reactor...with very little to be done, short-term, to stop the ever quickening reaction.
Jor-El sighed and pressed the switch on the computer console. A beep sounded. At least Zor-El will know what I know... perhaps my brother may gain additional insights on how to rectify this, he thought. Perhaps he has seen something or...sensed...something I have not.
Jor thought on his 3 cycle younger brother for a moment and shook his head in mild amusement. There were times when he wondered if his brother was truly born of the same father as he. Zor-El was quite capable in his chosen field...Krypton's deteriorating biosphere, and was quite well respected by the others in his field...
But he was so...emotional...
Jor thought of Seyg-El, their father, again with some amusement. Of the father's embarrassment of dealing with a 'wild child' that resisted proper training, but who still was one of the brightest on Krypton. In Jor's 32 cycles, he had been a challenge to his father, but not quite like Zor.
Zor had been collaborating with Jor for 5 cycles, slowly correlating and sifting through data.
Together, they had found a reason for the generation's worth of quakes, tremors, and the so-called 'Green Death' radiation poisoning that was affecting progressively more of the populace. Now Jor wished they had not. The unnaturally high pressures at the core were beginning to saturate the natural ore deposits in the subsurface strata, and were beginning to fuse them into a new set of radioactive metals. The truth was inescapable to him: 12, perhaps 13 more cycles before the runaway reaction and pressure in the core became just too much for the rocky mantle of Krypton to contain.
The brightest jewel in Rao's crown was now tragically flawed...
Jor-El stood and walked to his window, staring out at the golden spires of Kryptonopolis, gleaming orange under the light of its' red sun. He sighed again, this time in frustration.
We cannot leave, either. Kem-L assured as much of us when he programmed that infernal cleansing device of his.
They had called it 'Eradicator', a machine to eradicate all alien influences from Krypton and to keep his people pure. With one detonation, as the legend went, it had altered the genetics of the populace, permanently tying them to the doomed world.
In 13 cycles, he mused, it will be considered an eradicator again, barring a miracle from above...as it will be responsible for the death of all on Krypton. If our council had not banished Zem to the Phantom Zone, perhaps we could have…persuaded...the mad genius to reprogram that machine. Then, the only question would be "Where do we go?"
Kelex, his mechanical servant, floated up to his master.
"Jor-El, you have an incoming message from Zor-El on the main system."
"Thank you, Kelex..." said Jor-El, as he turned and strode back to his monitor.
He toggled the viewer on. Zor-El appeared, unusually somber. He did not look...right...without that typical light smile of his.
"Good day on your house, brother."
"Good day on yours, as well. Zor, you received my data, I assume?"
"I did, indeed. Unfortunately, my findings still match yours..."
"How long would you say before critical mass is achieved, Zor?"
"I would estimate approximately 13 cycles."
"Have you come up with any other possible options other than the one we discussed earlier?"
Zor shook his head sadly.
"None that can be implemented in the time Krypton has left. The only individual that could have…WOULD have helped us, the geophysicist Jen-Em, succumbed to the green death two nights ago."
Jor silently swore under his breath. "Sheol...What do you think the council's response would be to my request?"
Zor shook his head. "Do you even need ask that question, Jor? Of COURSE not. They will NEVER ask the Oans for assistance. They, and their 'Green Lanterns', after all, are not of Krypton."
"We will have to do SOMETHING...ask someone for assistance, or else all we are will be no more in far less than a generation!" Jor-El spat. "At this juncture, we CANNOT afford to let our pride take its' path with us!"
He took a deep breath and composed himself.
Zor's smirk appeared.
"Perhaps Rao will perform a miracle just for the sons of El."
"Perhaps," replied Jor-El, stifling a sigh of frustration. "But I think Rao ceased listening to us long ago..."
The High Council had kept them waiting for well over two hours.
It was as if they were trying to test the patience of the sons of El.
If so, they certainly are doing a masterful job of it, thought Zor-El, irritated.
Sheol, we should have thrown propriety to the four corners and gone to them directly.
The communications link suddenly came to life, confirming that Jor was on-line and his data for the council was waiting. Now all Zor could do was wait.
Twenty-five minutes later, his holo-screens came to life around the room, and the heads of the main ruling body of Krypton, the Council, shimmered into view. Zor pressed a toggle, connecting up, allowing his image to be seen in their chambers. Another beep, and Jor's serene visage appeared alongside his in the Council's chambers.
Councilwoman Zela was the first to speak.
"Good day on your house, Jor-El...and to you as well, Zor-El."
Both brothers responded almost in unison.
"Good day on your house, Councilwoman."
"What is this information that you feel is so important that we had to convene a special session of the Council?" Zela questioned.
Jor-El began, "I am uploading what we have to you now..."
A pause.
"We have received, Jor." Zela replied. She paused. "What is this? Geologic studies?"
Zor spoke. "Yes, councilwoman. As you may well know, my field is the study of our biosphere. Jor and I have been working on finding the solution to the quakes and tremors, which have been slowly increasing in magnitude all over Krypton for the past century."
Jor-El spoke up, "It turns out it was not merely the tectonic plates shifting, as initially thought, but something a great deal worse."
Zor pressed a toggle and brought up the hologram of Krypton. It rotated, and then split down the middle and opened, revealing the internal planetary structure.
The animation focused in on the liquid core and zoomed in.
Zor-El spoke, "What is causing these quakes is Krypton's core. It has been destabilized by Black Zero's hi-yield fission weapon from back in the Great War. They did not succeed then, but have induced a fission reaction that is rapidly running out of control, with no safeguards to check the reaction. To further exacerbate the problem, this fission is also responsible for the green radiation, which has been gradually poisoning us. The pressures that have been building have been fusing common ores into a new, radioactive metal. We have calculated that within twelve, at most fifteen cycles, this exponentially increasing reaction will produce stresses far too great for the mantle and crust to contain."
The holographic world reformed as a single unit again, and then detonated, producing massive shockwaves that pulverized the nearby moons.
Jor-El continued.
"This planet, and all on her, will be destroyed, unless we act NOW.
The only solution, as of this time, that we have found that is capable of stopping this reaction would be giant rods inserted evenly into the core from all around the surface. They would serve as the 'control rods', as in the Golden Age's fission power reactors."
The holographic cutaway world reappeared. Tunnels were created from the surface.
Thick rods were inserted into the roiling core.
It stabilized and quieted.
Jor-El continued. "...Unfortunately, it would still take us too long to create the rods and the machines needed to properly insert them into the core from the surface."
Zor-El shot a side glance at his brother's image, and then continued. "The soonest we calculate that we could create and insert enough of these rods to quell the reaction would be approximately 25 cycles..."
Councilman Yon-Ez, frowning, spoke up. "We…see. What do you recommend we do?"
Jor-El shifted slightly, nervously. "That is where the problem lies…As much as it seemingly goes against all we have become, we will need help to rectify this situation. The only way we figure to get this done in time is...to ask the Guardians for the assistance of their so-called Green Lanterns. If we were to get enough of them we could have the rods in place possibly within five cycles."
"Outsiders? No. Unacceptable."
Jor-El spoke up again, this time somewhat agitated. "Would you prefer death? To feed the Kraayn ALL who live on this planet? Councilman Von-Ez, there is NO OTHER OPTION available to us that is workable with the time allotted! We CANNOT do this ourselves with as little time as we have! If the reaction were slower or if we discovered it sooner, we would not need the help! As it now stands, however, I would think it obvious that if we do not move on this plan NOW, the core, uncontrolled, will reach critical mass in 13 cycles or less..."
He took a breath, calmed himself, and continued.
"Rao was once quoted as saying that only the arrogant or the insane do not need others' help. We are neither. PLEASE…All that we have learned...all that we were...all that we ARE, will be lost if our society allows its' fear of the 'other' to paralyze us in this way! We NEED to do this…and we NEED to do it NOW!"
Councilwoman Yara thundered, "SILENCE! Council members, you may vote now on the El brothers' request...
I vote NO. We must maintain our sovereignty..."
Councilman Yon-Ez spoke. "NO."
Yara: "NO."
Zela: "NO."
Sar-Aw: "NO."
Tava: "NO."
Bar-En: "NO."
Kon-Zee: "NO."
There was silence, and then Jor-El quietly spoke, fighting back a white-hot rage.
"You...with all of your cowardice...have just doomed ALL of us!"
Tava reacted with tightly chained anger as she warned Jor, "You would do well to remember who you are speaking to, Jor-El, son of Seyg-El. We did not choose to meet with you only to be insulted..."
Zor-El spoke delicately. "Tava, Councilmembers, please reconsider, Jor is correct,
if a bit...tactless. We CANNOT do this alone. We NEED to get this done NOW, and time is not in our favor. This is NOT a threat to our sovereignty. We cannot be sovereign if we are all dead. This, however, IS a threat to our very existence! The Oan's help is..."
Councilwoman Yara spoke. "The Oans are not your concern. We HAVE voted. You WILL abide by this ruling.
Good day on both your houses.
This session is adjourned."
The Council's monitor went off line.
Zor looked at his brother's image, at the smoldering rage still boiling
behind his carefully neutral face, and spoke.
"We had best start thinking of other options, as of now."
Jor-El touched his keyboard, disconnecting from his brother.
He leaned forward, cradling his head in his hands.
"They did not approve contacting the Oans, I take it, Jor?" said a soft female voice.
Lara, his mate.
"Kraayn take them all! No, Lara, they responded as we predicted, as we feared.
They are just like trained metal-eaters...so predictable, so cowardly...unable to think past the moment." He sighed, leaned back in his chair, and steepled his fingers.
"We are overly frightened of anyone who is not us. That sentiment has just sealed the doom of this world and all on her."
Lara thought for a few seconds.
"What of the Phantom Zone? Perhaps we could save pieces of our society, memory crystals, Battle Suits and such in there. Someone might find them in the future and know about our greatness after we are gone."
Jor-El pondered that for a moment, and then nodded.
"That would not be difficult, but obviously, my true concern is for our people..."
Lara looked at him for a moment, and then said,
"I was coming to tell you... Alura, Zor's mate, contacted me while you were in conference. It seems they have gotten to the top of the list, and the Council has given them permission to conceive a child."
Lara looked slightly pleased, Jor noted. "What gender is it? Male?"
Lara shook her head. "No, female."
Jor's face was as unmoving as a stone.
"She will be a blessing on the House of El...However long this house lasts."
He pondered for a second, and then his eyes lit up as inspiration struck.
"My thanks, Lara. Please excuse me. I have still a great deal to do..."
Lara nodded.
Jor-El watched as her lithe, regal form glided out of his lab. He toggled on the communicator to Zor's lab. Seconds later, Zor's image appeared. "Congratulations, brother, on your conception. I think I have an idea on how we may proceed..."
Zor had removed the matrix from the bank that day, and moved it to the banks labs. He told the bank head that he wanted to run tests on the blastocyst's genetics. The bank head was reluctant but conceded. Under the conception laws, he HAD the right to do so. He WAS the father.
Jor-El showed up, shortly after.
Nobody saw either of them till later that evening, when Jor left.
The matrix was returned, with no further comment, to the bank that night.
Working together, the brothers started to develop their desperate plan. It was decided that Jor, with his knowledge of genetics & biology, would try to locate, and then come up with a solution to the link binding the populace to Krypton. Zor would attempt to create a delivery system for a terraforming device. The plan was simple in theory, but complicated in execution. Considering the limited time they had, if this didn't work, there would be precious little time to enact their alternate plan.
Jor-El had promised to his brother that he would also work on the stardrive prototypes. He had not realized, however, that getting such a simple idea to work would be so difficult. The bits of information from the space age of Krypton, turned out to be less than totally accurate and greatly embellished over the centuries. Much had to be reconstructed. The cold fusion rockets, however, worked fine. Then again, they were being used in transports of all kinds to that day. It was frustrating, as in test after test, and each time, something else refused to work. To his credit, Jor kept at it, working like an obsessed madman.
Seven years had gone by since the conception of Zor-El's child, named Kara Zor-El, who was born healthy & well the usual year after conception. She was growing into an admirably logical child who seemed to pick up her lessons almost effortlessly. She also had an innate enthusiasm and curiosity about all things, which couldn't be quenched, but, thankfully, could be contained, Jor mused.
She also picked up her father's rather dry sense of humor. She was endlessly fascinated by the work that Jor was doing, and soon got into the habit of coming with her father to see how things were progressing on Jor's end. Thankfully for the harried scientist, she was also capable of very helpful intuitive leaps, which were helping Jor-El rapidly correct and refine the prototypes into properly functioning units. The first properly functioning unit was a star drive rocket section itself, meant to be attached to 'A certain payload, if all goes well', as Jor put it. Neither Kara nor Zor could coax any more information from Jor-El on that point.
Within three cycles, however, with his brother's input and repeated studying of various library tapes, Jor was rather surprised to find out that this supposed link was no longer valid.
Two more cycles of intense work had followed, as the brothers finished up testing on what Jor, in an ironic moment, had dubbed 'the Eradicator Matrix'.
Finally, he thought, my niece and all on Krypton will be safe...
It turned out not to be that easy. Two days later, Zor woke to the sounds of planetary alert alarms in his domicile. Rousing himself from his recovery bed, he rushed to his computer...
Bedlam.
Amid conflicting reports from the various Houses and the Council, apparently, an unknown assailant attacked Krypton with a robotic army, which ransacked the Great Library of Krypton, as well as attacked a number of the houses.
50 Kryptonians were missing. The House of Zod, in an attempt to locate the missing, dispatched rescue squads. Zef Im-Zod, the head of the House of Zod, had a vested interest, as his daughter was lost in the attack as well.
By the time defense forces were properly mobilized, it was far too late.
The invader was gone, with no traces left as to its' identity.
Zor noticed an alert light on his console.
There was an invader at Jor-El's lab. Security lockdowns were enacted.
Within minutes, his flyer was winging toward Jor's domicile at top speed.
Jor's domicile was in chaos when he arrived. Pushing his way (via pass-codes) into the lab, he stepped carefully around shorting computers and found his brother on the ground, blood trickling from his nose & mouth.
"Are you all right, Jor? What happened?" he asked as he helped Jor to his feet, looking around at the black scorch marks decorating the walls, and the four security drones, lying on the floor, reduced to so much scrap.
"NNNnnhhh... attacked...green and purple machine...threatened me...took my journals."
Jor got unsteadily to his feet, wincing at the bruises forming under his biosuit. Weaving slightly, Jor waved off Zor and looked around.
"No..." he whispered.
"Jor, what...?"
Zor didn't have a chance to finish when Jor picked up a floating chair and heaved it at the wall with a roar, sending up one of the undamaged computers up in a shroud of sparks.
Just as quickly, the anger left him, an expression of hopelessness settled over him, and he sagged to his knees.
"Hopeless...all for naught..." Jor looked around his lab dejectedly.
"Jor, what do you...?"
Jor pointed to an empty, ransacked corner.
"The Eradicator Matrix was there," he intoned morosely.
Zor took three deep breaths, controlling himself very carefully.
He reached out with his hand and squeezed Jor's shoulder. "Strengthen yourself, brother...It is time for plan two."
One cycle later, Jor had finished and tested the smaller stardrive unit. With the refinements and knowledge under his belt, he had now started on a larger variant. This rocket was as tall as three Kryptonians standing on top of each other, and had stronger liftoff engines. Zor-El stopped bringing Kara with him, and both men labored for the better part of each day. A medical stasis chamber, along with a nutrient feed system was delivered to Zor's house two weeks later. When she asked, Alura was simply told it was part of the brothers' collaboration. The transfer of heavy equipment to behind Zor's domicile soon became too much for his wife, however. Alura demanded to know what all the secrecy was about. Zor spoke with Jor-El, and they decided to bring her into the loop... The couple arrived at Jor's house two days later with their daughter in tow, and all disappeared into Jor's lab. Three hours later, mother & daughter walked out of the lab, fear written across their faces, not saying a word. Kara's eyes were red for days after that.
One cycle later: Jor was watching and listening to something intently on his monitor when the door to his study hissed open. Instinctively, he switched the screen to number & calculations. Lara glided in accompanied by a med-bot. "Jor-El, we have reached the top of the list. The council has given permission to us to have a child."
Jor nodded but kept silent. Since the attack, the Council had given permission to many families to conceive to make up for the fifty souls that had disappeared that day.
Sheol, he thought. This goes from bad to worse. The Council apparently wanted to keep up appearances. He KNEW they had not mentioned to the public what he and Zor had discovered…
But to bring CHILDREN into this world…and give them so little time to live seemed to him the height of irresponsibility.
Jor lay back on his rejuvenation bed and relaxed. He paused, and then rolled up the fabric on the right arm of his biosuit. The med-bot hurriedly began the cell extraction procedure. It finished with Jor-El, who got up off the bed and then watched as it repeated the procedure with the Lady Lara.
Three minutes later, it looked at Lara and announced:
"Congratulations, my Lady…It will be a boy."
Minutes later, it was on its' way to the banks.
Lara was about to speak again when an alert went off on the console.
"Over here! Brace yourself!" Jor ordered. He pressed a toggle.
The small stardrive in the corner had a strong casing of Kryptium steel iris closed around it.
Lara quickly glided over to him. Seconds later, a massive shockwave nearly destroyed the lab. The shaking lasted for a seeming eternity, and then silence again reigned. Lara pushed back her gold headpiece and whispered, almost in shock,
"They have never been this strong, Jor. We do not have much time, do we?"
Her eyes searched his.
He looked her dead in the face.
"No, my wife. The end is approaching ever quicker..."
Zor worked furiously. He had completed the gantry over the past year at the one nearby site that all his data said would be the most stable up until the final hour. His robots wasted no time in reassembling Jor-El's larger design. The nutrient tanks and the fuel tanks were being set up that very day. Judging from the frequency and severity of the quakes now, he knew that the brothers El had unfortunately been correct. The end was near. He had taken Kara out of schooling and brought her and Alura to the site. A small domicile was erected to house the family.
One week later, the day Kara had been secretly dreading finally came...
Zor-El entered his 12-cycle-old daughter's room.
"Come, Kara, we must see you off."
"Father?!"
"The ship is fueled, the chamber is ready...we MUST get you out of here, NOW! The eruptions are beginning to affect even this area."
Zor hustled his daughter down the ramp from his home toward the gantry. Alura was waiting at the site, which was literally humming with ten servant robots, all readying the ship and checking the flight systems. He paused, looking at the robots scrambling to finish the pre-flight checks, when he felt his daughter's shoulders shake. He looked down at her.
Struggling with her tears, young Kara watched the end of her family and her world approaching her at high speed.
Alura approached her only daughter, hesitated...
Not now, she thought, angrily. I will not go to the next world without telling my daughter what she means to us…to me!
...And reached out her hands to cradle her daughter's cheeks.
Alura felt moisture forming in her eyes, accompanying the aching of her heart.
Zor reached out his hands to his daughter's shoulders and turned her to face him. Looking into her teary eyes, he knelt in front of her, and then reached into his vestment and pulled out a gold memory crystal. Placing it gently in her hands, he said, "When you...miss our presence...just activate this."
He touched a side of the crystal, and a hologram of the three of them formed.
He touched it again, and the hologram turned off.
His vision blurred a bit with the tears he could not control.
He swallowed hard & blinked the tears away.
"We...will always be with you, in spirit." He hesitated, searching for the proper words.
"We have always been surprised, astounded and gratified by your gifts since you came to us."
Kara looked into her father's eyes and was, somehow, not surprised to see the tears forming.
She struggled to speak as her eyes did the same.
"Father...I...I...am thankful to be your daughter. I...have learned much from you. I do not want to leave."
Her mother spoke. "I truly wish we had that choice...It would be far easier on all of us."
Embarrassed, she wiped away the tears in her eyes and continued.
"But...what is, is. Rao blessed us with you, and now it is time to trust that he will put you where he needs you.
We want you to live. We want you to be able to live the life you have been given."
The final alarm sounded. All business, Zor-El stood, and wordlessly hustled his only daughter up the ramp and into the capsule, with Allura close behind. The robots moved in, connecting purge and nutrient lines to the chamber, and then attaching the mask to Kara's face. Kara looked as Zor-El smiled gently at her and gave her right hand a gentle squeeze. He watched as her eyes started to droop closed as the suspension gas began to press her body into a coma-like slumber. He paused for a moment, an idea forming. Sheol...the end is coming...what difference would it make?
He stepped back a moment later, as the canopy closed & pressurized.
The last Zor saw of his child was her still valiantly fighting the gas, struggling to keep her eyes open and fixed on them as her capsule pressurized. After a seeming eternity, the gas won its' final victory and the young girl's teary eyes finally closed.
Zor and Alura evacuated the launch area. The engines pressurized and went green.
He hesitated, and looked at his wife of many years. She stared at him, now standing in his bare black biosuit.
She thought for a moment, and then with tears welling again, she gave a faint, sad smile and nodded.
Ignition!
The giant gold and black rocket ignited with a thunderous roar, and then lifted off into the turbulent green skies. They watched as the rocket went into its' pre-programmed launch curve, just as the ground began to hum with the pre-shocks of a devastating quake.
Zor-El stood immobile, eyes fixed on the streak.
She was in Rao's hands now. Guide her well, Lord Rao...
Please...
They reached out and held tight to each other as the ground split open around them and a geyser of emerald radiation reached out to embrace them...
Far above, a hyperdrive activated, and a small craft carrying the Last Daughter of Krypton disappeared into hyperspace, its onboard computers directing it unerringly to a lush green world circling a bright yellow star 50 light years away.