Post by Exusiai on Jan 29, 2022 1:48:28 GMT -5
Timely Adventure Publications Present
Prologue Part One: "The End Is the Beginning Is the End"
By: Keith Leighton
The Planet Krypton Seventy Six Years ago
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The council of elders, there were twelve of them, had convened. All of them wore head-to-toe body gloves of ebony. These outfits were interlaced with micro-circuitry that maintained their bodies, monitored their vitals, and removed waste. Basically, they were advanced biocontainment suits. Over these, they each wore a silver reflective cloak that flowed down their font and backside. Each cloak bore the distinctive emblem crest of their house.
"Be warned Jor-El." Jul-Us, the council head spoke to the newest member of the council. "The council has already evaluated this outlandish theory of yours."
Jor-El didn't speak for a moment. Instead, he manipulated a crystal in the dais before him and various mathematical equations appeared as a holographic display between him and the rest of the council. "You cannot ignore these facts. To do so would be suicide." He paused for a moment and then with a bit more of a sullen tone in his voice he added. "Worse, it would be genocide."
The council looked at him in silence as the equations remained floating in the air. "My friends, you know me to be neither rash nor impulsive." His hand indicated the figures floating in the air. "I'm not given to wild, unsupported statements." His attention returned to the council. "I tell you we must evacuate Krypton immediately."
Jul-Us seemed to sigh internally. "You are one of Krypton's greatest scientists, Jor-El..."
The head of the council was cut off by another member, Pol-Ev. "But so is Vond-Ah."
At the mention of her name, Vond-Ah rose to address Pol-Ev. "Thank you." She then turned her attention towards Jor-El. "It isn't that I question your data. The facts are undeniable." With that she approached the dais Jor-El had been using and manipulated one of the control crystals just as Jor-El had done. Jor-El's equations were replaced with a new series altogether. Vond-Ah smiled at Jor-El thinly. "It is your conclusion that is unsupportable."
Jor-El's voice rose slightly. Not out of anger, but concern. "This planet will explode within thirty days." He paused regaining his composure. He knew his outburst could be considered out of line. Once he had control of himself he continued. "Sooner perhaps."
Vond-Ah shook her head and addressed the council as well as Jor-El. "I tell you Krypton is simply shifting its orbit."
The tension between the two science councilors was broken by Pol-Ev. "Jor-El, be reasonable."
Jor-El sighed, resigning himself that this debate was a losing battle. His blue-eyed gaze turned towards Pol-Ev. "I have never been otherwise. This madness is yours."
"This discussion is terminated!" snapped Jul-Us firmly. "The decision of this council is final." He paused and turned his gaze and attention towards Jor-El. "Any attempt by you to create a climate of fear or panic among the populace will be deemed by us an act of," there was a pause as he looked over the council to assure they were in agreement, all save Jor-El were. "Insurrection."
Jor-El's mouth was drawn and he looked over the remaining eleven council members, meeting each of their eyes. "You would accuse me of insurrection?" He asked shaking his head in disbelief. "Has it now become a crime to cherish life?"
"You," Jul-Us stood from his council seat reluctantly he announced the sentence that would befall if the council's words were not heeded. "Would be banished to endless imprisonment in the Phantom Zone, the eternal void which you yourself discovered."
The council chamber filled with a deadly silence as Jul-Us met Jor-El's gaze, the eyes of the two men locked for a brief moment. Before Jul-Us asked. "Will you abide by this council's decision?"
Jor-El held Jul-Us' gaze for a long moment, weighing his words. Weighing the options before him, he finally spoke. "I shall remain silent. Neither my wife nor I shall attempt to leave Krypton."
Jor-El's personal hovercraft glided into the hanger of his home. Much like the city he had just come from, his home was constructed of pure white crystalline matter that enclosed and protected the inhabitants from the blazing red sun. As the craft came to a rest and the hanger's crystalline doors cycled closed, one of the El serving robots approached.
It was insect-like in appearance. A thorax that had two limbs protruding from it, and an abdomen made from an anti-gravity generator. The head was large and flat, with a vocal unit just under large multifaceted eyes. As Jor-El exited the craft the robot spoke. [Welcome home master, I trust your journey was successful?]
Jor-El's silver council cloak had been replaced by one of a soft emerald. He sighed softly and looked towards the robot. "It was not Kelex." he paused and shook his head. "They refuse to listen to reason. I have learned that I am alone in this. I only wish I had not." He met the robot's gaze as it floated eye to eye with him. "Is everything ready?"
[Following your earlier instructions, I have prepared the third level laboratory, master.] Came the servant's reply.
"Good." Jor-El started to head out of the hanger. "I shall go straight there. If," there was a pause "when Lara calls, please have her brought to me."
Time passed. In Jor-El's lab, there rested another object constructed from the sunstone technology Krypton had mastered in the past century. This device was not home. This was a technological marvel that would be the salvation of Krypton's legacy at least. The device was chest high with different thicknesses of crystals extending from it at various intervals. At the top was a concave bowl that appeared to be awaiting the delivery of something.
Jor-El walked about the device, his ebony enclosed fingertips caressing the crystals of its construction. He then moved towards a console nearby. Several crystals were there waiting for him. Each one was a data storage crystal. He removed them, carefully placing each one into the depression of the device where they seemed to merge seamlessly. He continued at this for a time until his concentration was broken.
"Jor-El." The female voice called out.
Jor-El turned to face his wife. Like him, she was garbed in the ebony body glove. She had a crest about her head resembling a small golden tiara. Her cloak was a soft magenta, with a crest that matched Jor-El's. Behind her came two more servant droids cradling an opaque egg-shaped object about a single meter in length.
"When they told me I couldn't believe it." She said as she approached. "How could they dispute the data you presented them?" There was sadness in her voice. She knew what was coming. "Have you finished?"
Jor-El placed another crystal. "Nearly," he said. "It is the only answer, Lara. If he remains here with us," he paused as the droids placed the object on a pedestal near the device Jor-El was constructing. His hand caressed the skin of the object.
It was a birthing matrix. Kryptonian science had developed this technology. It was in all effects an artificial womb. The genetic material of the parents was combined within the matrix, separate from either parent until the time of birth was reached. Jor-El saw slight movement within the matrix as his hand touched it. "My son." He turned towards Lara. "Our son will die as surely as we will."
Lara's hands caressed the matrix as well. "The council still insists that Krypton is shifting its orbit and that the tremors we have felt will reside within days." she paused. "They should have listened to you Husband."
Jor-El returned to his work. "Within days Krypton will be no more." In the past, he had only told Lara what was coming, but now he felt was the time to advise her of the how. "A chain-reaction within Krypton's core has caused vast pressure to build within the mantle." He placed a few more crystals. "Those pressures are fusing the native elements into a new radioactive metal." He paused in his work to look to his wife. "As if that were not enough, that same pressure, as it builds within our world will soon be too much for the crust to contain." He moved now towards the birthing matrix. "Within a day, perhaps within the hour, Krypton will explode."
Jor-El activated a panel on the side of the matrix. This panel allowed the operator to adjust the gestation time of the matrix. Childbirth on Krypton happened exactly when the parents wished it to. As he did, Lara examined the ship he had been building.
"We have been absolute masters of this world for thousands of years," Lara observed. "It doesn't rain unless we allow it to. And now this same world will destroy us."
Jor-El finished his calibrations on the matrix. "Perhaps it is fitting Lara." He moved back to the console he'd been drawing crystals from. "As you say, we control the planet. We have filled every nook and cranny, conquered and harnessed every force of nature." He paused activating the command sequence for the final preparations. "In the end, we have achieved a sterile, cold, heartless society. We have stripped ourselves of all passion and life."
Lara suddenly looked concerned. "You said radioactive," she glanced to the matrix. "Our child?"
Jor-El came and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "No Lara." he indicated the matrix. "Sealed within the matrix orb, he has been shielded from the radiation. While the orb would not survive the explosion of our planet, sealed within this ship it will survive the journey through hyperspace."
Lara looked back at the matrix, the look of a mother resigned to do anything to save her child on her face. "But why Earth Jor-El. It is so wild, so uncontrolled. They are primitives, thousands of years behind us."
Jor-el adjusted some controls, and a holographic depiction of the Earth's solar system appeared in the air before them. "It is a distant world Lara, a world not unlike Krypton of millennium past. He will need that advantage to survive." More readings appeared as the hologram zoomed in on Earth itself. "Their atmosphere will sustain him."
As they spoke several of the servant robots began to work, moving the matrix, attaching it to Jor-El's star drive.
"Earth orbits a yellow star," Jor-El stated, showing some readings he had calculated. "Exposed to the radiation of that star, his Kryptonian cells will become living solar batteries, allowing him to grow ever more powerful."
Lara looked at the readings attempting to make sense of them. Her husband was a scientist, she was an artist, but she had learned much since they had been joined. "He will defy their gravity."
Jor-El returned to his work on the ship that would carry his son, checking that all the information crystals were there. "He will look like one of them. In time he will become the supreme being on that planet, almost a god."
Lara looked a touch concerned, perhaps hopeful. "He won't be one of them." She looked at the ship that would carry her son. "He will rule them? He will shape them in the proper Kryptonian ways?"
"No." and then a pause, “Perhaps." Jor-el Replied. "His dense molecular structure will make him strong."
Lara countered, a mother's concern showing in her tone. "He will be odd, different."
Jor-El continued to expand on the traits Earth would grant him. "He will be fast, virtually indestructible."
Lara approached the matrix that was still being fitted to the ship she reached for it without touching it. "Isolated." she spoke softly, "alone."
"He will never be alone." Jor-El held up one final clear crystal staring at it for a long moment. "He will never be alone." He placed the crystal in one of the recesses along with the other crystals in the ship. "The adaptation of the matrix is almost complete, the hyper-light drive has been attached."
Almost as if on cue the ground beneath them shook, rumbling with a strength neither of them had felt before. Jor-El placed around the matrix placing the final crystals, including an emerald one. Pausing to touch the matrix once more, he spoke softly, almost a whisper. "You will travel far, my little Kal-El. But we will never leave you... even in the face of our death." Finished, he moved over and activated a control. From the ceiling, a mirror of the bottom half of the ship began to descend enclosing the matrix. Jor-El looked upon his finished work. "The richness of our lives shall be yours. All that I have, all that I've learned, everything I feel... all this, and more, I... I bequeath you, my son. You will carry me inside you, all the days of your life. You will make my strength your own, and see my life through your eyes, as your life will be seen through mine. The son becomes the father, and the father the son. This is all I" Jor-El paused, for centuries Kryptonians had held that emotions were distractions from productive lives, but now in the face of his death and launching his unborn child into space he had to hold back tears. "all I can send you, Kal-El."
Jor-El stepped back, taking his wife in his arms, still speaking to his child. "And not near so rich a gift as that your mother sends along." he paused looking to Lara, a single tear was now rolling down her cheek. "Her love."
The tremors continued to shake the laboratory. Outside like a landslide from the side of the building, tons of crystal crash down. Jor-El turned and his hands deftly flew over the sunstone control crystals until the last activation crystal is touched, sending the ship with a deafening roar through the thin crystalline roof of the lab. As the planet below continues to toss in its death throes, the ship speeds off into the Kryptonian night as the house of El began to collapse.
Lara and Jor-El stood in the center of this chaos, watching the night sky and the retreating ship. A dying mother and father whisper a silent goodbye to their unborn child.
For a moment all was quiet in the vastness of space. Krypton rotated about its star. And then, without any preamble or further warning in the vast and complete silence of space, Krypton exploded, leaving nothing but a field of debris in its wake.
Central City, Missouri Twenty Six Years Ago
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"Oh my god!!" declared Evelyn Richards, "What happened?!" This was of course directed at her son Reed who had just walked into the living room of their home. Evelyn was the picture of a dedicated housewife. Wearing comfortable clothing underneath an apron she had been cooking dinner for her family when her son had come through the door.
Reed, at the age of seven, was skinny, but not gaunt. Blue intelligent eyes, eyes too intelligent for his age really looked up at his mother through glasses that rested upon a nose with a bloody tissue stuffed in the right nostril. His dark hair matted as if it had been wet recently. To his mother's question, he answered with a slight shrug and the astounding declaration of "nothing."
His mother, never one to be deterred again asked. "What happened?"
To which Reed again replied. "Nothing."
Evelyn switched tactics. "What's wrong with your hair?" This time hopeful that the different question would garner a different reply.
But once again Reed deflected her with a heartfelt "Nothing."
Evelyn huffed, hands coming to her hips as her eyes met her son's "Don't give me that."
Before she could start the interrogation again, Reed's father Nathaniel walked into the room. Nathaniel was the textbook picture of a college professor. Graying at the temples, glasses, tweed pants, suspenders and a shirt and tie, the matching jacket hung on the coat rack by the door. He took a look at his son and calmly asked. "What happened this time?"
Reed's head hung a bit as if in shame. "Nothing Sir."
Nathaniel took his glasses off and pulled a soft cloth from his pocket to clean them. "Something happened."
Reed cut him off. "It wasn't my fault."
Later in his room, Reed sat at his desk. He was working on something. Not homework, which had been done shortly after he'd gotten home. No this was something different. Calculations that would cause a physics professor's mind to ponder scrawled across the page of his spiral notebook. Above the desk hung a model of the solar system, and several smaller models of spacecraft varying in design.
Evelyn entered carrying a tray. Grilled cheese and tomato soup with a glass of milk. "Sweetie,” She said as she entered." you need to eat dinner."
Reed was transfixed by his calculations, his mind fixated on his own mathematical world. His hand scribbling away in a language only he and his father seemed to understand.
Evelyn cleared her throat. "Reed, I need you to eat this."
Reed turned to face her, the Kleenex still in his nose from earlier, his only reply a mumbled. "Hmm?"
Evelyn sat the tray on his desk, and then promptly sat down on the bed beside it. "Reed, you have to eat," she paused. "And you have to talk to me when I talk to you."
Reed took one of the halves of the sandwich and dipped it in the soup muttering a simple. "Okay." before taking a bite.
Evelyn sighed but took small comfort in the fact he was eating. After a moment she hesitantly asked. "Do you want to talk about the bullies?"
Reed waited until he had washed down his third bite with a swallow of the milk before answering. "Do you?"
Again, Nathaniel's voice broke into the conversation. He stood in the doorway of Reed's room, next to the sign that said "Do not disturb genius @ work" holding something in his hand that resembled, well it resembled a hodge-podge of various parts from various household appliances. "Reed." he held the device out. "Did you do this." there was a bit of a proud smile in his father's tone. "Why am I asking of course you did this." he set the device on the desk. "Son, what did I tell you about pulling apart phones."
Reed seemed to perk up a bit at his father's interest in his work. "That was never a phone."
His father crouched down next to him, looking from the device to his son. "Not a phone?" He looked the device over attempting to discern its function. "Now I can't," a pause "I can't," another pause as he set the device down again. "Okay, what was it."
Reed smiled." The blender, I required the motor in order to...”
But he was cut off as Nathaniel's office phone rang. His father smiled at him and ruffled his hair. "See if you can put it back together son." he glanced at Evelyn. "You know how your mother loves to juice." And with that Nathaniel kissed his son on the head and went to answer the ringing phone.
Much later still, Reed lay on the incline of his roof looking into the starlit sky. Life frustrated him. Even at this young age, he was smarter by far than any other student at his school. His intelligence even surpassed that of some of his instructors. This was no inflated pride on his part. Nathaniel and Evelyn had him repeatedly tested, and each test was more conclusive than the previous. Reed Richards was a genius, his mind constantly awake with a myriad of thoughts, and theories.
As he lay there staring at the sky, his mind wandered. He saw patterns in the stars that had nothing to do with constellations. No, when reed looked at the sky he only saw his future.
That’s when he saw the shooting star. At least that was what he thought it was at first. He reached to his left where the telescope was propped up behind a small wedge of wood his father had allowed him to nail to the roof for this purpose and placing it to his eye searched the night sky for the object. Just as he caught it in his view the shooting star did something no other shooting star had done in the history of shooting stars. It changed course. Reed's mind raced, and he tracked the object as it moved from east to west low over the darkened sky. His mind started before his body moved. He had mastered this movement, it was almost fluid now, of getting from the roof, to his bedroom window, and to his desk. Paper and pencil in hand more calculations this time, frantic in their progress from mind to paper. After a moment he reached over his desk and tore down the map of the United States that hung there.
Evelyn came into her son's bedroom shortly after six in the morning. Nathaniel had already left for work, and it was her ritual to look in on Reed afterward. She found him asleep at his desk, and with a mother's care she lifted him up, his body shifting slightly, and placed him in his bed. She tucked him in with a soft kiss to his forehead and a smile of a mother who was nothing but proud of her child.
As she left the room she failed to notice what was on his desk. The map lay there, several triangulates plotted across its surface. Each one crossed, double and triple crossed a spot somewhere in central Kansas. Reed had marked the spot with an "X" inside a circle.
Smallville, Kansas Twenty Six Years Ago
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Jonathan and Martha Kent, he in his forties, and she in her late thirties were a private couple. They minded their own business. They were the picture of good decent folk whose morals were as basic as the soil they tilled. They were preparing to close up the house against what was reported to be a big winter storm brewing. They had spent the day securing the animals and boarding up windows that needed to be. They were just securing the last window when something streaked across the sky and crashed into the back forty with a thunderous cacophony. They stood there on their porch looking from each other towards the back forty, torn between caution and curiosity.
Curiosity won out. They drove out to the field where the streak seemed to have hit. As they got out of the truck and approached the massive crater, they saw what looked to be an eerie crystalline metallic geode nesting in the charred wheat.
Jonathan was stunned as he bundled his coat closer to him.
Martha was the first to speak. "Jonathan, what is it?"
Before he could reply, Martha started to approach the object cautiously. Jonathan recovered and followed close behind her. "It's some kind of rocket maybe." He had managed to get in front of her, between it and her. "Martha stay clear."
Martha pointed to a section of the object that appeared to be opaque. "But look, there is something alive inside, you can see it moving."
Jonathan looked deeper, his eyes widening, amazement filling them. "Well, back in the day they sent up dogs and monkeys into orbit." he leaned a bit closer a tentative hand reaching to touch the surface. "That's funny, it's cool to the touch. I read somewhere they get awful hot when..." This must be..."
He was cut off. The matrix inside reacted to the touch of a living being, as Jor-El had programmed it to do. With an unearthly series of sounds, a section of the geode before them opened up revealing a newborn baby. Still covered in amniotic fluid, and attached to the mechanical umbilical cord of the matrix.
Martha stood stock still as the revelation dawned on her.
Jonathan shook his head in shock, amazement, awe. "What in the sam hill?" He touched the side of the opening.
Martha finally found her voice. "It's a baby." Martha hurried away from the crashed ship back to the truck.
Jonathan's attention returned to the vessel when with another series of electronic sounds, the umbilical cords and life-sustaining systems of the matrix detached themselves from the infant, who was looking at, and reaching for the man before him.
Martha returned with some blankets she'd retrieved from the truck. "Those monsters!" She reached into the ship and retrieved the infant with no concern for herself at all. "They put a poor little baby in a rocket ship!" She bundled the child against the cold and turned to look at her husband. "Then they shot him off to the moon or some such! What kind of people are they?"
Jonathan could see the wheels in Martha's mind turning. "Now you be careful Martha!" He gestured to the child. "We don't know that baby came from Earth! Why he could be some sort of Martian"
Martha brought the bundled child closer to her breast, arms protecting him from the cold, from her husband. "Jonathan Kent, you've been reading too many science fiction novels." She looked down at the child, the peach fuzz of dark hair the blue eyes. "He's as human as you or me." And with that, she started off, with the child for the truck. "And I'm going to make sure that the monsters that shot him up in that tin can, well they're never going to get their hands on him again.
Jonathan pleaded with his wife. "Martha!!" but it was too late.
Martha Kent was a stubborn woman, and she had decided the moment she laid eyes on the child that she was going to keep him. By the end of the drive home, Jonathan agreed.
Mother Nature stepped in and sealed the deal. No sooner than the Kent's had returned him than the worst blizzard of the century slammed down on Kansas. Their farm was miles from the main town, and they didn't get back into Smallville for months.
When they did finally make it into town, Martha just up and announced the baby as the newest member of the Kent family. Everyone in Smallville knew the Kent's had been trying to have a baby. After two miscarriages and one stillbirth, Kent's friends and neighbors were more than happy to meet Clark Kent.
Prologue Part One: "The End Is the Beginning Is the End"
By: Keith Leighton
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The Planet Krypton Seventy Six Years ago
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The council of elders, there were twelve of them, had convened. All of them wore head-to-toe body gloves of ebony. These outfits were interlaced with micro-circuitry that maintained their bodies, monitored their vitals, and removed waste. Basically, they were advanced biocontainment suits. Over these, they each wore a silver reflective cloak that flowed down their font and backside. Each cloak bore the distinctive emblem crest of their house.
"Be warned Jor-El." Jul-Us, the council head spoke to the newest member of the council. "The council has already evaluated this outlandish theory of yours."
Jor-El didn't speak for a moment. Instead, he manipulated a crystal in the dais before him and various mathematical equations appeared as a holographic display between him and the rest of the council. "You cannot ignore these facts. To do so would be suicide." He paused for a moment and then with a bit more of a sullen tone in his voice he added. "Worse, it would be genocide."
The council looked at him in silence as the equations remained floating in the air. "My friends, you know me to be neither rash nor impulsive." His hand indicated the figures floating in the air. "I'm not given to wild, unsupported statements." His attention returned to the council. "I tell you we must evacuate Krypton immediately."
Jul-Us seemed to sigh internally. "You are one of Krypton's greatest scientists, Jor-El..."
The head of the council was cut off by another member, Pol-Ev. "But so is Vond-Ah."
At the mention of her name, Vond-Ah rose to address Pol-Ev. "Thank you." She then turned her attention towards Jor-El. "It isn't that I question your data. The facts are undeniable." With that she approached the dais Jor-El had been using and manipulated one of the control crystals just as Jor-El had done. Jor-El's equations were replaced with a new series altogether. Vond-Ah smiled at Jor-El thinly. "It is your conclusion that is unsupportable."
Jor-El's voice rose slightly. Not out of anger, but concern. "This planet will explode within thirty days." He paused regaining his composure. He knew his outburst could be considered out of line. Once he had control of himself he continued. "Sooner perhaps."
Vond-Ah shook her head and addressed the council as well as Jor-El. "I tell you Krypton is simply shifting its orbit."
The tension between the two science councilors was broken by Pol-Ev. "Jor-El, be reasonable."
Jor-El sighed, resigning himself that this debate was a losing battle. His blue-eyed gaze turned towards Pol-Ev. "I have never been otherwise. This madness is yours."
"This discussion is terminated!" snapped Jul-Us firmly. "The decision of this council is final." He paused and turned his gaze and attention towards Jor-El. "Any attempt by you to create a climate of fear or panic among the populace will be deemed by us an act of," there was a pause as he looked over the council to assure they were in agreement, all save Jor-El were. "Insurrection."
Jor-El's mouth was drawn and he looked over the remaining eleven council members, meeting each of their eyes. "You would accuse me of insurrection?" He asked shaking his head in disbelief. "Has it now become a crime to cherish life?"
"You," Jul-Us stood from his council seat reluctantly he announced the sentence that would befall if the council's words were not heeded. "Would be banished to endless imprisonment in the Phantom Zone, the eternal void which you yourself discovered."
The council chamber filled with a deadly silence as Jul-Us met Jor-El's gaze, the eyes of the two men locked for a brief moment. Before Jul-Us asked. "Will you abide by this council's decision?"
Jor-El held Jul-Us' gaze for a long moment, weighing his words. Weighing the options before him, he finally spoke. "I shall remain silent. Neither my wife nor I shall attempt to leave Krypton."
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Jor-El's personal hovercraft glided into the hanger of his home. Much like the city he had just come from, his home was constructed of pure white crystalline matter that enclosed and protected the inhabitants from the blazing red sun. As the craft came to a rest and the hanger's crystalline doors cycled closed, one of the El serving robots approached.
It was insect-like in appearance. A thorax that had two limbs protruding from it, and an abdomen made from an anti-gravity generator. The head was large and flat, with a vocal unit just under large multifaceted eyes. As Jor-El exited the craft the robot spoke. [Welcome home master, I trust your journey was successful?]
Jor-El's silver council cloak had been replaced by one of a soft emerald. He sighed softly and looked towards the robot. "It was not Kelex." he paused and shook his head. "They refuse to listen to reason. I have learned that I am alone in this. I only wish I had not." He met the robot's gaze as it floated eye to eye with him. "Is everything ready?"
[Following your earlier instructions, I have prepared the third level laboratory, master.] Came the servant's reply.
"Good." Jor-El started to head out of the hanger. "I shall go straight there. If," there was a pause "when Lara calls, please have her brought to me."
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Time passed. In Jor-El's lab, there rested another object constructed from the sunstone technology Krypton had mastered in the past century. This device was not home. This was a technological marvel that would be the salvation of Krypton's legacy at least. The device was chest high with different thicknesses of crystals extending from it at various intervals. At the top was a concave bowl that appeared to be awaiting the delivery of something.
Jor-El walked about the device, his ebony enclosed fingertips caressing the crystals of its construction. He then moved towards a console nearby. Several crystals were there waiting for him. Each one was a data storage crystal. He removed them, carefully placing each one into the depression of the device where they seemed to merge seamlessly. He continued at this for a time until his concentration was broken.
"Jor-El." The female voice called out.
Jor-El turned to face his wife. Like him, she was garbed in the ebony body glove. She had a crest about her head resembling a small golden tiara. Her cloak was a soft magenta, with a crest that matched Jor-El's. Behind her came two more servant droids cradling an opaque egg-shaped object about a single meter in length.
"When they told me I couldn't believe it." She said as she approached. "How could they dispute the data you presented them?" There was sadness in her voice. She knew what was coming. "Have you finished?"
Jor-El placed another crystal. "Nearly," he said. "It is the only answer, Lara. If he remains here with us," he paused as the droids placed the object on a pedestal near the device Jor-El was constructing. His hand caressed the skin of the object.
It was a birthing matrix. Kryptonian science had developed this technology. It was in all effects an artificial womb. The genetic material of the parents was combined within the matrix, separate from either parent until the time of birth was reached. Jor-El saw slight movement within the matrix as his hand touched it. "My son." He turned towards Lara. "Our son will die as surely as we will."
Lara's hands caressed the matrix as well. "The council still insists that Krypton is shifting its orbit and that the tremors we have felt will reside within days." she paused. "They should have listened to you Husband."
Jor-El returned to his work. "Within days Krypton will be no more." In the past, he had only told Lara what was coming, but now he felt was the time to advise her of the how. "A chain-reaction within Krypton's core has caused vast pressure to build within the mantle." He placed a few more crystals. "Those pressures are fusing the native elements into a new radioactive metal." He paused in his work to look to his wife. "As if that were not enough, that same pressure, as it builds within our world will soon be too much for the crust to contain." He moved now towards the birthing matrix. "Within a day, perhaps within the hour, Krypton will explode."
Jor-El activated a panel on the side of the matrix. This panel allowed the operator to adjust the gestation time of the matrix. Childbirth on Krypton happened exactly when the parents wished it to. As he did, Lara examined the ship he had been building.
"We have been absolute masters of this world for thousands of years," Lara observed. "It doesn't rain unless we allow it to. And now this same world will destroy us."
Jor-El finished his calibrations on the matrix. "Perhaps it is fitting Lara." He moved back to the console he'd been drawing crystals from. "As you say, we control the planet. We have filled every nook and cranny, conquered and harnessed every force of nature." He paused activating the command sequence for the final preparations. "In the end, we have achieved a sterile, cold, heartless society. We have stripped ourselves of all passion and life."
Lara suddenly looked concerned. "You said radioactive," she glanced to the matrix. "Our child?"
Jor-El came and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "No Lara." he indicated the matrix. "Sealed within the matrix orb, he has been shielded from the radiation. While the orb would not survive the explosion of our planet, sealed within this ship it will survive the journey through hyperspace."
Lara looked back at the matrix, the look of a mother resigned to do anything to save her child on her face. "But why Earth Jor-El. It is so wild, so uncontrolled. They are primitives, thousands of years behind us."
Jor-el adjusted some controls, and a holographic depiction of the Earth's solar system appeared in the air before them. "It is a distant world Lara, a world not unlike Krypton of millennium past. He will need that advantage to survive." More readings appeared as the hologram zoomed in on Earth itself. "Their atmosphere will sustain him."
As they spoke several of the servant robots began to work, moving the matrix, attaching it to Jor-El's star drive.
"Earth orbits a yellow star," Jor-El stated, showing some readings he had calculated. "Exposed to the radiation of that star, his Kryptonian cells will become living solar batteries, allowing him to grow ever more powerful."
Lara looked at the readings attempting to make sense of them. Her husband was a scientist, she was an artist, but she had learned much since they had been joined. "He will defy their gravity."
Jor-El returned to his work on the ship that would carry his son, checking that all the information crystals were there. "He will look like one of them. In time he will become the supreme being on that planet, almost a god."
Lara looked a touch concerned, perhaps hopeful. "He won't be one of them." She looked at the ship that would carry her son. "He will rule them? He will shape them in the proper Kryptonian ways?"
"No." and then a pause, “Perhaps." Jor-el Replied. "His dense molecular structure will make him strong."
Lara countered, a mother's concern showing in her tone. "He will be odd, different."
Jor-El continued to expand on the traits Earth would grant him. "He will be fast, virtually indestructible."
Lara approached the matrix that was still being fitted to the ship she reached for it without touching it. "Isolated." she spoke softly, "alone."
"He will never be alone." Jor-El held up one final clear crystal staring at it for a long moment. "He will never be alone." He placed the crystal in one of the recesses along with the other crystals in the ship. "The adaptation of the matrix is almost complete, the hyper-light drive has been attached."
Almost as if on cue the ground beneath them shook, rumbling with a strength neither of them had felt before. Jor-El placed around the matrix placing the final crystals, including an emerald one. Pausing to touch the matrix once more, he spoke softly, almost a whisper. "You will travel far, my little Kal-El. But we will never leave you... even in the face of our death." Finished, he moved over and activated a control. From the ceiling, a mirror of the bottom half of the ship began to descend enclosing the matrix. Jor-El looked upon his finished work. "The richness of our lives shall be yours. All that I have, all that I've learned, everything I feel... all this, and more, I... I bequeath you, my son. You will carry me inside you, all the days of your life. You will make my strength your own, and see my life through your eyes, as your life will be seen through mine. The son becomes the father, and the father the son. This is all I" Jor-El paused, for centuries Kryptonians had held that emotions were distractions from productive lives, but now in the face of his death and launching his unborn child into space he had to hold back tears. "all I can send you, Kal-El."
Jor-El stepped back, taking his wife in his arms, still speaking to his child. "And not near so rich a gift as that your mother sends along." he paused looking to Lara, a single tear was now rolling down her cheek. "Her love."
The tremors continued to shake the laboratory. Outside like a landslide from the side of the building, tons of crystal crash down. Jor-El turned and his hands deftly flew over the sunstone control crystals until the last activation crystal is touched, sending the ship with a deafening roar through the thin crystalline roof of the lab. As the planet below continues to toss in its death throes, the ship speeds off into the Kryptonian night as the house of El began to collapse.
Lara and Jor-El stood in the center of this chaos, watching the night sky and the retreating ship. A dying mother and father whisper a silent goodbye to their unborn child.
For a moment all was quiet in the vastness of space. Krypton rotated about its star. And then, without any preamble or further warning in the vast and complete silence of space, Krypton exploded, leaving nothing but a field of debris in its wake.
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Central City, Missouri Twenty Six Years Ago
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"Oh my god!!" declared Evelyn Richards, "What happened?!" This was of course directed at her son Reed who had just walked into the living room of their home. Evelyn was the picture of a dedicated housewife. Wearing comfortable clothing underneath an apron she had been cooking dinner for her family when her son had come through the door.
Reed, at the age of seven, was skinny, but not gaunt. Blue intelligent eyes, eyes too intelligent for his age really looked up at his mother through glasses that rested upon a nose with a bloody tissue stuffed in the right nostril. His dark hair matted as if it had been wet recently. To his mother's question, he answered with a slight shrug and the astounding declaration of "nothing."
His mother, never one to be deterred again asked. "What happened?"
To which Reed again replied. "Nothing."
Evelyn switched tactics. "What's wrong with your hair?" This time hopeful that the different question would garner a different reply.
But once again Reed deflected her with a heartfelt "Nothing."
Evelyn huffed, hands coming to her hips as her eyes met her son's "Don't give me that."
Before she could start the interrogation again, Reed's father Nathaniel walked into the room. Nathaniel was the textbook picture of a college professor. Graying at the temples, glasses, tweed pants, suspenders and a shirt and tie, the matching jacket hung on the coat rack by the door. He took a look at his son and calmly asked. "What happened this time?"
Reed's head hung a bit as if in shame. "Nothing Sir."
Nathaniel took his glasses off and pulled a soft cloth from his pocket to clean them. "Something happened."
Reed cut him off. "It wasn't my fault."
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Later in his room, Reed sat at his desk. He was working on something. Not homework, which had been done shortly after he'd gotten home. No this was something different. Calculations that would cause a physics professor's mind to ponder scrawled across the page of his spiral notebook. Above the desk hung a model of the solar system, and several smaller models of spacecraft varying in design.
Evelyn entered carrying a tray. Grilled cheese and tomato soup with a glass of milk. "Sweetie,” She said as she entered." you need to eat dinner."
Reed was transfixed by his calculations, his mind fixated on his own mathematical world. His hand scribbling away in a language only he and his father seemed to understand.
Evelyn cleared her throat. "Reed, I need you to eat this."
Reed turned to face her, the Kleenex still in his nose from earlier, his only reply a mumbled. "Hmm?"
Evelyn sat the tray on his desk, and then promptly sat down on the bed beside it. "Reed, you have to eat," she paused. "And you have to talk to me when I talk to you."
Reed took one of the halves of the sandwich and dipped it in the soup muttering a simple. "Okay." before taking a bite.
Evelyn sighed but took small comfort in the fact he was eating. After a moment she hesitantly asked. "Do you want to talk about the bullies?"
Reed waited until he had washed down his third bite with a swallow of the milk before answering. "Do you?"
Again, Nathaniel's voice broke into the conversation. He stood in the doorway of Reed's room, next to the sign that said "Do not disturb genius @ work" holding something in his hand that resembled, well it resembled a hodge-podge of various parts from various household appliances. "Reed." he held the device out. "Did you do this." there was a bit of a proud smile in his father's tone. "Why am I asking of course you did this." he set the device on the desk. "Son, what did I tell you about pulling apart phones."
Reed seemed to perk up a bit at his father's interest in his work. "That was never a phone."
His father crouched down next to him, looking from the device to his son. "Not a phone?" He looked the device over attempting to discern its function. "Now I can't," a pause "I can't," another pause as he set the device down again. "Okay, what was it."
Reed smiled." The blender, I required the motor in order to...”
But he was cut off as Nathaniel's office phone rang. His father smiled at him and ruffled his hair. "See if you can put it back together son." he glanced at Evelyn. "You know how your mother loves to juice." And with that Nathaniel kissed his son on the head and went to answer the ringing phone.
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Much later still, Reed lay on the incline of his roof looking into the starlit sky. Life frustrated him. Even at this young age, he was smarter by far than any other student at his school. His intelligence even surpassed that of some of his instructors. This was no inflated pride on his part. Nathaniel and Evelyn had him repeatedly tested, and each test was more conclusive than the previous. Reed Richards was a genius, his mind constantly awake with a myriad of thoughts, and theories.
As he lay there staring at the sky, his mind wandered. He saw patterns in the stars that had nothing to do with constellations. No, when reed looked at the sky he only saw his future.
That’s when he saw the shooting star. At least that was what he thought it was at first. He reached to his left where the telescope was propped up behind a small wedge of wood his father had allowed him to nail to the roof for this purpose and placing it to his eye searched the night sky for the object. Just as he caught it in his view the shooting star did something no other shooting star had done in the history of shooting stars. It changed course. Reed's mind raced, and he tracked the object as it moved from east to west low over the darkened sky. His mind started before his body moved. He had mastered this movement, it was almost fluid now, of getting from the roof, to his bedroom window, and to his desk. Paper and pencil in hand more calculations this time, frantic in their progress from mind to paper. After a moment he reached over his desk and tore down the map of the United States that hung there.
Evelyn came into her son's bedroom shortly after six in the morning. Nathaniel had already left for work, and it was her ritual to look in on Reed afterward. She found him asleep at his desk, and with a mother's care she lifted him up, his body shifting slightly, and placed him in his bed. She tucked him in with a soft kiss to his forehead and a smile of a mother who was nothing but proud of her child.
As she left the room she failed to notice what was on his desk. The map lay there, several triangulates plotted across its surface. Each one crossed, double and triple crossed a spot somewhere in central Kansas. Reed had marked the spot with an "X" inside a circle.
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Smallville, Kansas Twenty Six Years Ago
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Jonathan and Martha Kent, he in his forties, and she in her late thirties were a private couple. They minded their own business. They were the picture of good decent folk whose morals were as basic as the soil they tilled. They were preparing to close up the house against what was reported to be a big winter storm brewing. They had spent the day securing the animals and boarding up windows that needed to be. They were just securing the last window when something streaked across the sky and crashed into the back forty with a thunderous cacophony. They stood there on their porch looking from each other towards the back forty, torn between caution and curiosity.
Curiosity won out. They drove out to the field where the streak seemed to have hit. As they got out of the truck and approached the massive crater, they saw what looked to be an eerie crystalline metallic geode nesting in the charred wheat.
Jonathan was stunned as he bundled his coat closer to him.
Martha was the first to speak. "Jonathan, what is it?"
Before he could reply, Martha started to approach the object cautiously. Jonathan recovered and followed close behind her. "It's some kind of rocket maybe." He had managed to get in front of her, between it and her. "Martha stay clear."
Martha pointed to a section of the object that appeared to be opaque. "But look, there is something alive inside, you can see it moving."
Jonathan looked deeper, his eyes widening, amazement filling them. "Well, back in the day they sent up dogs and monkeys into orbit." he leaned a bit closer a tentative hand reaching to touch the surface. "That's funny, it's cool to the touch. I read somewhere they get awful hot when..." This must be..."
He was cut off. The matrix inside reacted to the touch of a living being, as Jor-El had programmed it to do. With an unearthly series of sounds, a section of the geode before them opened up revealing a newborn baby. Still covered in amniotic fluid, and attached to the mechanical umbilical cord of the matrix.
Martha stood stock still as the revelation dawned on her.
Jonathan shook his head in shock, amazement, awe. "What in the sam hill?" He touched the side of the opening.
Martha finally found her voice. "It's a baby." Martha hurried away from the crashed ship back to the truck.
Jonathan's attention returned to the vessel when with another series of electronic sounds, the umbilical cords and life-sustaining systems of the matrix detached themselves from the infant, who was looking at, and reaching for the man before him.
Martha returned with some blankets she'd retrieved from the truck. "Those monsters!" She reached into the ship and retrieved the infant with no concern for herself at all. "They put a poor little baby in a rocket ship!" She bundled the child against the cold and turned to look at her husband. "Then they shot him off to the moon or some such! What kind of people are they?"
Jonathan could see the wheels in Martha's mind turning. "Now you be careful Martha!" He gestured to the child. "We don't know that baby came from Earth! Why he could be some sort of Martian"
Martha brought the bundled child closer to her breast, arms protecting him from the cold, from her husband. "Jonathan Kent, you've been reading too many science fiction novels." She looked down at the child, the peach fuzz of dark hair the blue eyes. "He's as human as you or me." And with that, she started off, with the child for the truck. "And I'm going to make sure that the monsters that shot him up in that tin can, well they're never going to get their hands on him again.
Jonathan pleaded with his wife. "Martha!!" but it was too late.
Martha Kent was a stubborn woman, and she had decided the moment she laid eyes on the child that she was going to keep him. By the end of the drive home, Jonathan agreed.
----------
Mother Nature stepped in and sealed the deal. No sooner than the Kent's had returned him than the worst blizzard of the century slammed down on Kansas. Their farm was miles from the main town, and they didn't get back into Smallville for months.
When they did finally make it into town, Martha just up and announced the baby as the newest member of the Kent family. Everyone in Smallville knew the Kent's had been trying to have a baby. After two miscarriages and one stillbirth, Kent's friends and neighbors were more than happy to meet Clark Kent.