"He could have died." Nimda-El chastened her husband. Jor-El Senior frowned, centuries old he had decided to marry late in life. An Elder Statesman in middle-age the Distinguished Science Councillor's face wore the years well. His dark hair had turned silver grey at his temples, he was broad shouldered and barrel chested, stocky but still lean and flat a waist as was the Kryptonian norm in later life. The product of millennia of measured and managed evolution. Cloaked with the red cape of his noble house, and shadows of the Kryptonian night, he reached out to his lover.
His wife was his equal in height, though of slighter build, her hair was flaxen and only a little younger than her husband and no less esteemed in her own right as a Prime Historian; from Nimda, the younger Jor-El junior had been introduced to Krypton's fabulous past.
"My father should not have brought this matter to you." Nimda said, her voice pitched between sorrow and anger.
"Our son arrived." Jor-El replied.
"Just." Nimda growled. "Corn-Ell's craft barely survived Krypton's high gravity; only the Phantomic engine saved it from disaster by warping space. It was reckless Jor."
"Our boy is resourceful; and this new world will be good to him."
"History says so." Nimda answered with a measured reply, her eyes told him more than her words.
"His return journey will be simpler," Jor-El stated with confidence, "and landing on Krypton is far easier than leaving."
"But he knows nothing..."
"His ignorance of his real mission is his best defence. When Jor Junior sets foot on Krypton again he can honestly say "I did not choose to leave" and the Eradicator Protocols will measure the biometrics and find him innocent." Jor-El Senior told his wife again, hoping to reassure her, saying. "Forgive me my love, truth is – well, I am as worried as you." He confessed, caressing her hair even as she turned away from him. "But we needed a capable envoy, someone who could be trusted with what he would discover on this world. It had to be Jor Junior; no one else is as capable and as dependable."
"Say it." Kindra whispered. "Say not even Zor."
Jor-El Senior frowned. His wife threw her hands wide in exasperation.
"The Knights of Juru should have thrown off the veil of secrecy" Nimda said, "and taken this matter to the Science Council.
"If the evidence is so clear that the Dark god was rising" Nimda added as she looked out across the Kryptonian capital. "Then the Council should have face up to its responsibilities. Ignoring the Eradicator's judicial objections"
Jor-El senior shook his head. "If I had been a younger man, then maybe I would have done it. Risked everything and confronted my peers; but with age comes wisdom. I calculated the behavioural algorithms based on my own memories. I know each Councillor too well after all these years.
"Had I taken An's evidence to the Science Council,..." Jor Senior sighed. "We'd have debated the issue for weeks, Rao's sake more like months; and while we argued over an appropriate defensive response, this distant world would be burning; and at the end of our discussions, my esteemed colleagues would still rule - almost to the last one of them; and my calculations are damning - against any humanitarian intervention. They would side with the Constitution, with the Eradicator, with the First Absolute of Colonisation. Kryptonian Isolation."
"They have oversight!" Nimda exclaimed in frustration. "The Council Presides over the brainiacs, not visa versa – don't they understand the ambitions of Apokolips?"
"Darling, I need not remind you, Prime Historian, when the last the Science Council used the power of Oversight and overruled the absolute impartial and unswayable judge, the Eradicator of Bias?" Jor-El asked his rhetorical question.
His wife sighed. "Forgive me Jor, I am tonight first a mother, a student of history second." She shook her head with evident regret. "This brainiac has but one overriding principal." Nimda continued "The defence of the Kryptonian First Absolute." She quoted a lesson learned by the youngest child. "We do not interfere, we observe."
Jor-El Senior nodded. "To wilfully leave Krypton; unlicensed manned Space Flight is one thing, but to do so to interfere in the course of another sentient life-form, to travel to,..."
"To Earth, to the kindred, to our poor relatives" Nimda interrupted. "Our fellow humanoids that resemble us in every visible way, but for the fact that under their delicate paper skin, they are millions of years the more primitive" Nimda paused, turning her wide eyes to her husband, angry she ran to him, burying her face in his chest, against the S shaped glyph he wore, the symbol of his noble house. "Barbarians, barely able to harness the atom, barely able to restrain themselves from falling into nuclear oblivion" Tears fell from her eyes as she looked into his. "Yet you, my father – both of you would risk our son, your reputations, the standing of the Houses Dor and of El – for this lone backwater world?"
Jor-El Senior felt the weight of countless worlds on his broad shoulders. "You know better than all of us, that the universe is more complex than that."
Nimda ignored this and asked "Has any native even answered your call, or is our son still alone on that world?"
He too avoided answering this time, instead stating what they both knew; what his wife had proven. "Nimda you know it's not about the face of a single humanoid race, even one as simple as these poor savages, but ultimately the universe itself. Prime Historian, my wife, it was your analysis of the Knights of Juru's records that showed this to be true.
"It was because you judged these ancient documents to be genuine, that I was convinced that Earth's fate matters even to us, to Krypton in all our glorious isolation."
"But,.. our child,.. he's all alone out there." Nimda said, her face betrayed her inner conflict. She closed her eyes. "My son, your name." She whispered adding. "If only Zor could have joined him."
Jor-El senior closed his eyes in sadness. "And I would have gone in his place." He declared. "I would rather it be me, a thousand time over I wish it was." He felt his jaw tremble and his eyes glisten with tears. "I will try again. Perhaps this time..."
His voice faltered as Nimda cradled Jor-El's face in her hands. "But the whole world of Krypton would miss you, Esteemed Science Councillor." She cried and yet agreed. "But our boy, our inquisitive brilliant boy, they will forgive him this adventure, even admire him for it."
"So at last speaks the Prime Historian." Jor-El Senior observed.
"I am human, my logical and emotional sides will not always agree." Nimda managed a smile as she spoke. "Especially when it comes to my son. Words will sometimes accompany tears."
A light blinked, and then a gentle bell sounded, growing louder with each ring. Nimda straightened her robe, and cloak. Emotion brushed away as if with her hands. "That will be Lieutenant Dr Lara Rok-Var." She informed her husband, gesturing to the holographic telephone. "She said she would call this evening, for news." Nimda added drying her eyes.
Jor-El Senior frowned, an expression of bemusement. "What does a scion of the Military House of Var wish with us?"
"Oh Jor, have you been so distracted by my Father and his friends, by this rising of the Dark god, that you failed to notice with whom Jor Junior has been holding hands?"
Jor-El exited his small vehicle several miles west of the city called Gotham. The escape pod had limited functionality, being an imperial age unit it however came with a cloaking device that was able to render it all but invisible. The young scientist chose a small clearing, a space in the cover of the foliage of the dominant local flora. The towering plants were tall and thin, local dialect called them trees. He noted in his daily event-log that these would serve as extra natural camouflage.
Jor ran a systems check. The interstellar communication beacon was non-functional. The pod's auto-repair system was signalling an error. Jor-El frowned. "Note to log: Determination: Corn-Ell disabled the long distance comms to ensure he was not traced to this location." He shook his head in frustration. "So I won't be calling home any time soon, that's for sure, unless there's an astro-telescope on this world."
He laughed at his own joke as he waved open the locking mechanism, and the front section of the pod opened, allowing the fresh atmosphere of this planet to enter. The cool air was pleasant almost sweet to taste.
Exiting from the vertical hovering cylinder Jor-El stepped a few inches down to the ground, and at once found himself unbalanced. He tumbled forward, or more accurately he somersaulted through the air, smashing through the fragile stems of the tall indigenous plants, before bouncing into the soft ground.
"Gravity here is much lower than that of Krypton." He stated for the record, laughing at his own comical downfall.
The data from his own senses was been streamed back to the escape pod's computer via a neural link. He wore the control device, which in the tradition of Krypton was contained in a thin band, that sat around forehead. Grasping the dirt he took hold of a hand sized fragment. There was a snap. "Rock structure is very friable." Jor stated as he crushed the granite cobble to dust between his fingers.
With slow deliberate and above all gentle movements Jor-El found his feet. Returning to his escape pod involved several clumsy moves which began as unintentional leaps, and ended with a step. Relieved he was getting the hang of moving in this low gravity environment. He satisfied himself the ship was adequately concealed. He continued to record his observations.
"Planet is benign, very low levels of background radiation, clear atmosphere, save for trace pollutants, from archaic fossil fuel usage." Jor-El reflected the inhabitant's would need no extraordinary enhancements to peer through the largely oxygen and nitrogen atmosphere. His brow creased.
"Planet appears to be optimal for primal human habitation." How strange he thought. Millions of years ago this environment would have been ideal for my less evolved ancestors.
His scientific interest was piqued, but there was the pressing matter of getting home. Look across to the city the Natives called Gotham, he remarked. "Atmospheric conditions mean I can focus easily at distant objects." Jor located a track through the woods. Carefully he made his way through the brittle tall plants to it. The route was paved in a soft black material. For the first time Jor-El felt able to run, although it wasn't pretty, the young kryptonian was aware he was moving quickly, very quickly.
Jor-El Senior could hear his wife conversing with the young woman Lara Rok-Var, he found himself wondering how close his son and this Lieutenant Doctor of the Kryptonian Medical Corps, a division of the Kryptonian Armed Forces, had become without his knowledge. Although he regretted having being so distracted by the business of keeping secrets, Jor-El did not doubt the righteousness of his chosen cause, only the excitement he felt as he engaged the astro-telescope. Tonight he would break the rules once more. As he threw the switch he felt fear; afraid that he would fail once more to make contact with the Knights of Juru's allies on Earth.
Jor-El was all too aware how much time had passed since An-Dor had first called their near neighbour in cosmological terms.
Remotely and some tens of thousands of miles away an ancient device turned it's many senses heavenwards. Located in an inaccessible and otherwise unoccupied corner of Krypton's vast surface, the machine was able to create a local but contained and controlled worm hole using a phantomic engine similar to those which had powered the ancient star ships of the once powerful Kryptonian Empire's equally impressive navy. Instead of moving men and material across vast interstellar distances, this engine allowed the astro-telescope to access distant worlds.
His fingers danced across the three dimensional interface, at the same time via his headband, his mind signalled to the computer to run several programs. A change was made, and the remote observatory's once redundant systems engaged. The signal was masked by Jor-El Senior's sub-program, which ran interference, ensuring his actions would go unnoticed, and not for the first time. The astro-telescope's transmission system broadcast through the wormhole.
Krypton dialled out.
Jor-El senior waited. His face full of worry, for as many times as he had tried to call An-Dor's ally, no one had yet answered the clandestine interstellar communication. The plan had been to make contact with Earth before Jor-El Junior's apparent accidental journey. Events had forced his hand, and knowing what was to come there had been no choice but to act.
Jor-El senior still hoped that Earth might yet surprise him by answering, by proving to be of some use to his shipwrecked son, even as his wife comforted his boy's girlfriend.
For the longest time his console display revealed nothing but a light less space, surround by the rock of an alien world, a cavern carved not by industry, but by nature. Then the holographic retina attuned device showed the flickering of a hand held light, not the flame that An-Dor's records described, but something almost as crude.
Jor-El senior sighed with relief. At last, a response from the primitives.
From the shadows a figure appeared at the predetermined coordinates. A place chosen because a natural anomaly hid the wormhole from prying eyes.
"Terrence Thirteen?" Jor-El asked, his voice rendered into the natives language via a translation matrix.
"Mr Thirteen? No, it isn't." The face across the light years of space frowned as if puzzled, adding. "I'm sorry,... you won't be speaking to him again – I have to tell you that Terrence Thirteen has been dead for quite sometime." The native's response was translated by the Matrix back into Kryptonian. Jor-El did not correct the speaker. It had been An-Dor who had first communicated with Earth, finding an Earth-man of reason and science, with whom he could converse. Who could investigate the incredible secret Earth kept, an agent acting on the Knights of Juru's behalf.
Jor-El Senior was aware how short lived these primal humans of Earth were, however An-Dor had assured him a man called Terrence Thirteen, that is a descendant having the same family name would be the respondent to the astro-telescope message. Clearly that was not the case.
Jor-El Senior could now only hope this Earth-man was also reasonable. Thinking at least he has at last answered the astro-telescope's call. The Earth man continued speaking. "Mr Thirteen however bequeathed his secret to my forebears, if only because we were... well let's say, fortunate enough to live above this cave system."
"I have called before. No one answered." Jor-El stated.
"Forgive me sir, but I didn't really believe that you, that is, your world, as reported in Mr Thirteen's journals existed. If I appeared to ignore the sound of your voice sounding out from all the way down here, then please understand it was not deliberate.
"I came soon as I was able to determine it was safe to do so."
The Earth-man carried himself with self-assured nobility. As Jor-El watched the other man through the lens of ocular display, he saw him as if this dank cave was not millions of miles distant, but rather an arms breadth away, as if they were in the same place. In truth the figure before him although dressed in peculiar loose fitting drab clothing could have been his own brother.
"I am Jor-El of Krypton, and I have important news to tell you regarding a terrible danger to your world."
If the native was alarmed by his words, under the shadows, in his open features, he did not show fear.
"Then I better listen to what you have to say." He replied. "By the way I am called Wayne, Thomas Wayne, Doctor of Medicine, Gotham City, United States of America,.. Earth."