Same disclaimer applies
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Richard rolled over in bed and hit the snooze button on the alarm clock. But it didn't stop. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. He sat up in bed next to Lois and before he could focus on the Beeping sound, he thought for a moment about how wonderful she was. Then he realized that the sound was his cell phone. It was the ring he had programmed for his uncle's office phone. It was a blaring and jarring sound, much like an alarm clock. It stopped ringing.
Richard reflected that the call must have rolled over to voice mail. He looked at the clock: just after five a.m. He could go back to sleep for an hour. Sleep reached up and grabbed him before his head the pillow. Then that ring jarred him awake again. He looked at the clock. Barely a minute had elapsed. Richard picked up the phone and opened it. "Just a minute, Chief," grabbing a robe off the floor next the bed and hoping it was his, Richard took the phone and made his way across the hall and into the home office he shared with Lois. Richard thought he heard his uncle shouting "Don't call me Chief," but he couldn't be; he didn't have the phone to his ear yet.
The International Section Editor considered sitting down for a long moment, "Do you know what time it is, Uncle Perry?" But decided he'd be more likely to stay awake standing up. He rubbed his face bleary eyed. After their moon lit walk, he Lois had stayed up for a while enjoying each other with renewed passion. He gladly accepted the consequences for that. He was in love.
"Don't you give me that Uncle line, boy." The Editor-in-Chief barked through the phone. "Not at five a.m. Where - -"
"So, you do know what time it is." Richard thought out loud sleepily, stifling a yawn.
"- - were you last night." Perry stood in his office looking through the glass at Richard's empty desk.
Richard began to pace, "With Lo - - none of your business."
"This is your Editor-in-Chief speaking and unless you want to find yourself in Ran Dather's shoes, you'll shut up, wake up and listen to me."
"Dather? The disgraced news anchor who quite the broad cast network last year over forged documents used in a Presidential campaign news story?"
"Yes. Listen to me or I'll fire you and you can be looking for work just like him."
"Okay, boss." Richard shut up. He plugged his digital recorder into his phone. He wasn't completely awake yet, and he wanted a record of this conversation for later use.
Perry had the scent of a really good story here, actually more than one. He spoke enthusiastically, but with a note of caution. "I talked with Matt Drudge last night. He heard that Randal Dather is putting together a scandal story for MSMBC. He and the cable network are trying to put each other back on the map. Dather is working on a story about Superman and why he really left."
"I'm working on that for Planet Sunday." Richard yawned. "It will go out in 103 papers across the country."
"I need you to get it ready for me this morning. I want it in the afternoon edition." The note of caution escalated to a tone of concern in the Editor in Chief's voice.
"We haven't had an afternoon edition for nearly twelve years now." The International Editor replied with disbelief.
"I know. I'm putting one out just for this story. Newsstands in Metropolis, New York and Gotham only," Perry spoke flatly, very serious and somewhat concerned.
"Why?" Richard perked up. The expense involved in an extra press run plus the carriers, even if it was only in the Tri-State/ Tri-City area, indicated the priority placed on this column.
"Drudge thinks Dather is trying to portray Superman as a murderer. Anything that taints Superman taints the Daily Planet. We've got to frame the debate before they do. I want your piece to do that."
"A murderer? Superman? That's insane. Forget murder, who has he ever even killed?" Richard's face took on new animation and his tone greater enthusiasm now that he knew Superman personally. He almost blurted something about what Jason would think, but didn't. He was waiting on Clark's lead to Lois. He certainly wasn't going to let anything slip to his uncle.
"No it isn't completely insane and Zod. Forget the piece you're working on, just for a moment, and look at the bare facts." Perry sounded thoughtful.
"Okay, I'm listening." Richard's tone expressed attentiveness.
Perry put the phone on speaker and gestured with his hands. He looked like a kid playing with action figures or a fighter pilot telling "There We Were" stories. "After a huge battle over the skies and in the streets of Metropolis, Superman hightails it up North to his Fortress, with Zod, et al in tow along with Luthor and your girlfriend."
"Fiancée." Richard corrected, enthusiastically, remembering last night.
"Whatever. Superman brings Luthor back to jail, and flies Lois back to her apartment. Zod and his henchmen are never heard from again, presumed dead: Revenge killing and that equals murder."
"No." Richard shook his head emphatically. It was war under US law and a legal execution under Kryptonian Law."
"I read your notes. Now, I need you to get in here and finish that Column."
"Get in there? I'll finish it on my laptop and wifi it over to the Planet's Editorial Page Desk."
"You will? With what laptop?"
"With the one on my desk right here two feet away from me." Richard looked over and saw that his computer bag had files and notes but no computer.
"Do you mean the one I grabbed off of your desk when I couldn't find you?" The Editor in Chief let a note of humor creep into his voice.
The morning after her moonlit walk with Richard, Lois saw a draft of Richard's column about the Man of Steel's trip to Krypton. Or more accurately, it dealt with the reasons why he had made his return voyage across the stars. She read about General Zod and his acolytes and their criminal past on Krypton. Zod and his acolytes had received a Capital Sentence for crimes against Krypton, a sentence which carried with it the death penalty. But Krypton's ruling Council of Elders, including Superman's father Jor-El, had commuted their sentences from death to lifetime exile in the nothingness of the Phantom Zone. Krypton's laws provided that if any criminals ever escaped the Phantom Zone, their sentences automatically reverted to death.
Richard's column cross-referenced the Planet's old files and covered Zod's destruction of the Artimus moon mission and their demolition of the town of East Houston, Idaho.
Everyone knew that Superman had sworn never to use his powers to kill. Killing Zod, Superman had violated this oath. But he had carried out a legal sentence delivered on Krypton. As the son of a Council member and truly the Last Son of Krypton, Superman had been uniquely positioned to carry out that sentence.
Richard further argued that, with the deployment of the U.S. Army and the Idaho National Guard into combat operations against Zod in East Houston, a state of war existed between Zod and the USA. Richard's argument continued that since the President of the United States himself had called upon Superman to intervene against Zod, Superman's actions against Zod and the Acolytes constituted a continuation of that state of war. Since Superman killed them during sanctioned combat operations, the killings were legal and just…
As she continued reading Lois's mind wandered. Neither Richard's column nor any of the earlier Daily Planet reporting mentioned the names of the Acolytes. Lois wondered why the names Ursa and Narn leapt into her mind. She recalled that Ursa had dark hair and a round face. The image of Ursa's costume covered with badges of defeated Law officers and military men floated up to the top of her mind after the names. How could she know any of this? Had it been on TV? That must be it. She had seen the news coverage, years ago. But she didn't remember anything else around that time, and her lack of clear recollection troubled her. She seemed to recall being out of the country, in Canada? At Niagara Falls?
While Lois puzzled over her recollections and her lack thereof, the Editor in Chief called her fiancé into his office.
"Richard, get in here!" No favoritism for Perry White. He rode his International Editor just as hard as the leaders of the City Bureau, the National Desk, and the Sports Editor. He might cut the Entertainment Editor some slack but that was only because her office was out in Los Angeles and Perry didn't like to yell at people over the phone.
Richard touched Lois's hand. "Gotta go, honey." She smiled back at him, looking slightly dazed. "Are you okay?" he mouthed at her, walking backward toward his uncle's office.
None of them paid attention to the TV monitors in the background. The news network's anchor came on to trumpets and fanfare, "We interrupt this broadcast to bring you this special bulletin. Radio Astronomers with the Space Agency report that they have just received and begun decryption of the last radiowave transmissions from the fabled planet Krypton. Reputed to be the long dead home world of Superman, Krypton's last radio transmissions could give us an insight into Superman's birth culture or maybe even the Man of Steel himself. Scientists report that it appears to be a combination of text in Kryptonian glyphs and video images. The first video image which so far appears to be fuzzy and warped, bears a striking resemblance to Superman, except that the gentleman in the images appears to be much older. Could this be the long lost Jor-El, father of Superman? Who can say? The image appears to be saying, Beware Zod. Beware Zod? The cosmic tyrant turned cosmic blip? The would-be world conqueror who tore up a town and then vanished following Superman up into the Canadian wilderness north of the Arctic Circle? Why should we beware Zod? And for that matter why am I reading this on a major network? This announcement should have been handed to Jon Stewart on the Daily Show. Cut to Commercial."