Lori and Clark – The New, New Adventures of Superman – MMC V 6 22/32
By Ken Janney
Warning: This story is rated PG-13.
Disclaimers: The characters in this story are property of DC, December 3rd productions and Warner Bros. No Copyright infringement is intended. I have just borrowed the characters for a short time.
Previously:
Early that afternoon Lois, Clark and CJ entered the twelfth Precinct and were immediately sent back to Bill Henderson’s office.
It took some time to get down to the business of the arrest because Bill was becoming acquainted with CJ.
Finally Lois asked, “Okay Bill, what do you have for us?”
Bill reached into his top drawer and pulled out a manila folder. He handed it to Lois who opened it and started flipping through the pictures it contained. Clark was looking over her shoulder and he let a whistle escape from between his teeth.
The first few pictures were of the man at his initial entry. In the light of day he looked even weirder than he had when he had accosted Lois. He had black hair which was rather long. He had bushy eyebrows and a full beard which was long and scraggly. His hands were also covered with hair.
The next pictures were of a clean shaven individual with close cropped blond hair. Lois blurted out, “What’s this?”
Tapping the picture with his forefinger Bill said, “That’s your capture. After we took the first series of pictures we discovered that all that hair was false. The guy had been an actor and was down on his luck. He used his skills at makeup to change his appearance when he went out to assault the women. He had been thrown over by a girlfriend who happened to be an aspiring actress working as a waitress until she would be discovered. He was attacking waitresses to get back at her and robbing them because he didn’t have a job. Problem is, he may try to cop an insanity plea.”
Lois looked over at Clark with a look of pure fury then looked back at Bill, “Don’t let him get away with that Bill. There’s no excuse for what he did to those women.”
“We may need you to testify when this goes to trial, if it ever does. His public defender has already been to see him. I know this guy. My guess would be that he’ll dissuade him from the insanity plea because if he tries that the state will go for capital murder, first degree. In previous cases that this guy has handled he has plea bargained to a lesser charge. The state could realistically go for murder one because the death occurred in the course of a felony. That would make him eligible for the death penalty. I don’t think his lawyer will want to chance that. He could plead down to second degree and go for life in prison. Okay, so much about him. I need to hear the story. Let me start the tape.”
When Lois finished Bill sat back in his chair and applauded. “Wow, that’s some story. I’ll get it typed up and you can stop by and sign it, oh, how about tomorrow?”
Lois said, “Sure, tomorrow will work.”
Clark started to reach for CJ’s car seat. Bill stopped him and said, “You know Lois, believe it or not, this is the first really important Citizen’s Arrest we’ve had in this city. I’ve heard rumors of a citation and certificate from the mayor’s office. Don’t let on that I told you. Act like it’s a surprise.” Bill held out his hand and said, “Put ‘er there, champ.”
Lois giggled and shook his hand.
And now:
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Chapter 21 – New Krypton
Lori and Clark, 2090
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Universal Locator designation
Alpha 023 x Gamma 004 x Tau -124
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Lori knew that sending CJ into the past was the right thing to do. It had to be, since it had been what they had done and she remembered it being done. She wondered why her memories of that time were so fuzzy, but attributed it to all of the memories that had been crammed into her brain as a child by the soul tracker. That didn’t lessen the impact of the loss of her baby. Herb had just stepped through the portal and already her arms ached to hold her baby. She tried to hide her disappointment from Clark, but, he knew her too well and took her in his arms to comfort her. He didn’t need the telepathy to know how she was feeling because he was feeling the same thing. She appreciated Herb’s thoughtfulness in providing the medication to assist in stopping her milk, but, she knew that if not for her invulnerability she would have been in agony stopping so abruptly.
Clark used his Reporter’s Assistant to place a video call to Frank. “Frank, we have been presented with a terrific opportunity.”
Frank replied, “Oh, and what would that be, pray tell?”
Clark continued, “We’ve been contacted by representatives of the New Krypton government and they request that we travel there to document the encounter with a new space faring race.”
Frank was skeptical and Clark could see it in his expression, “Just what does that have to do with us?”
“Look at it this way; this could be the exclusive of the century! We will be the only journalists there.”
“Just why are we being given this privilege?”
Warming to the topic now Clark continued, “Back when they first arrived the Daily Planet was very involved, even going so far as to be the headquarters for the resistance effort here in Metropolis. This is a tremendous advantage! We will not only be able to document this encounter, we can also do some stories of life on New Krypton. It could give our readers a new perspective on the New Kryptonians.
Even though it has been nearly a century since that time, people have long memories for things like the takeover of cities by a hostile force, especially when that hostile force is super powered. We’ve actually come a long way in forgiving them. We now have a trade relationship with New Krypton.
But the main story is this new race. Are they friendly or hostile? If hostile our readers will need to know what is happening so that if they suddenly show up on our doorstep we know what to expect. The only problem is that we could be gone for a while.”
Frank looked thoughtful as he asked, “How can we do this? You say that you’ll be gone for an extended period. How long?”
Stepping into the frame so that Frank could see her, Lori tried to minimize the problem and put the best face on it so that hopefully Frank would agree, she replied, “We don’t know just yet, but it shouldn’t be too long.”
Frank kept bringing it back to the practicalities of the situation so he asked, “What about your pay?”
Clark offered, “We can take this as a leave of absence. When we return you can adjust our salary based upon the stories we turn in.”
Frank, still concerned about losing both of his best reporters at the same time asked, “What am I going to do with the city desk while you’re away?”
Trying to offer an acceptable solution and yet protect their positions, Clark suggested, “You could hire a couple of temps or do a lateral move of a couple of other reporters, with the understanding that those seats are ours when we return.”
They could see Frank’s face as he thought this through before he replied, “I guess I could move Sullivan and Schultz over temporarily. I’m sure they won’t have your style, but maybe they could learn to work together.”
Utilizing the video link to its fullest Lori added hand and arm motions to emphasize her points as she said, “Frank, if this turns out the way we expect it to, it could be Pulitzer material. Just think of it … a world fighting for its survival and we’ll have a ringside seat. This could be bigger than WW I and WW II and all the other smaller wars we’ve seen put together.”
They could see from his expression that Lori had scored some points. Finally he replied, “All right, all right, we’ll make this work somehow. Get back as soon as you can.”
With a sincere look, Clark promised, “We won’t stay away a minute longer than is necessary, count on it.”
With a look of concern on his face, Frank said, “Do me one more favor. Stay safe and by that I mean stay alive. This newsroom wouldn’t be the same without you.”
Lori put her arm around Clark’s and moved in close to him so that they were both in the frame as she replied, “We’ll be back, Frank. Count on it,” before closing the link.
They each packed a few necessities and after saying goodbye to the kids and grandkids they took off for the ship.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The trip to New Krypton was taking longer than Clark had anticipated. The FTL technology that had been developed and implemented for the colony ship was not as advanced as the drive that Jor-El had developed for the small ship he had used to send Kal-El to Earth as they were about to find out.
On the tenth day Ching and Clark were together in a room near the command deck and the topic of the FTL drive came up. Clark said, “I wasn’t aware that the trip between New Krypton and Earth would take so long. What are the distances involved?”
Ching replied, “Why don’t I call in the chief astrogator and our chief engineer. They can probably explain it better than I can.” He placed the call and outlined the request.
When they arrived Clark posed his question, “Is there a way to increase our speed when in FTL drive?”
The engineer explained, “Lord Kal-El, the speed we move when in FTL drive is constant and is determined by the design of the engines. The technology we use warps the space around us at a constant rate allowing us to move between the folds rather than along them. The size of the fold is determined by the design of the engines.”
“What is the distance from the location of Krypton’s star to New Krypton?”
This question was fielded by the astrogator who had come prepared for just such a discussion. He placed a small device on the desk. When activated a small holographic projection of a volume of space appeared above it. As he spoke he hit some keys on a controller in his hand. When he made a final keystroke a pair of pinpoints of light glowed brighter. As they watched the pattern shifted. When they finally stopped he hit another key and a line connecting the two points appeared. After reading the display on his device, he said, "New Krypton orbits the star you call Arcturus. That distance from Krypton is, was, 225.8 light years, based on Earth years. In the display I started with a current starmap and moved back in time to Earth date January 1963, which was our launch date."
“What is the distance from the location of Krypton’s star to Earth?”
He hit a few keys and one of the points of light faded and another lit up. Then the lights shifted briefly. Again a line of light joined the two and after reading his display he said, "That distance would be 227.9 light years, again based on Earth years. I moved ahead to February, 1966 Earth date. Astronomically, the difference in the distances is only approximately 2.1 LY."
“What is the distance from Earth to New Krypton?”
Making more entries he caused the map to shift again. Once the display firmed the first pinpoint had faded and the other two flared brighter and were connected by the line. After consulting his read out he said, "These are New Krypton and Earth at the current time. That distance would be 36.7 light years, based upon Earth years."
“What will be the duration of this trip?”
“This trip will last 30.88 days.”
“Wow, that long? My Earth parents found a flight chronometer in my ship and they told me that it showed a flight duration of 30.25. Presumably this was days and not hours. How does that compare to your drive?”
He used the device in his hand to do a computation before saying in a awed tone, "That would be 7.533884 times faster than our drive.”
“What would be the duration for a trip between New Krypton and Earth with the Jor-El drive?”
After a quick calculation the astrogator looked up in amazement and announced, “Only 4.87 days, twenty-six days less.”
The engineer said, “If that is indeed the case then the FTL drive developed by Jor-El after we left represents a quantum leap in FTL drive technology. The state of the art at that time had power sources adequate to the task of a size to be installed in your ship. The drive unit would have had to be smaller than that which we developed. Our FTL drive occupies a space comparable to a small dwelling and is distributed in compartments throughout the outer areas of the ship so that the warp field is uniformly distributed. The size of your ship would only require a single field generator. Even so the field generator itself must be very small in order to accommodate your person and the life support systems that would be necessary within so small a craft.”
Ching said, “I’m sure our scientists and engineers would like to get a look at your ship and Jor-El’s drive.”
“Perhaps that can be arranged. We’ll talk more about that later.”
It was apparent that Jor-El, as Krypton’s leading scientist, had made a breakthrough with the new star drive. It was just a shame that he hadn’t had time to build a ship larger than the experimental craft he and Lara had sent off with Kal-El aboard. The fact that their FTL drive was not as efficient and the unknown destination of Kal-El’s ship accounted for the fact that Clark was in his twenties before Zara and Ching had found him. All things considered this trip actually took longer than necessary had they been using Jor-El’s drive.
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During the trip Zara, Ching, Lori and Kal spent almost all of their waking hours together. Zara and Ching were bringing Lori and Kal up to speed on the level of preparedness of New Krypton for dealing with the impending threat. Lori had taken the family name of El and was therefore given all of the respect that name afforded as the bond mate of Kal-El.
During one session Ching said, “We have their scout ship. After it fled it was damaged by a collision with a space rock, a large granite meteor. Since the hull integrity was broken the internal atmosphere was released in an explosive decompression. There were no survivors. By salvaging their ship and bringing it to New Krypton we have been able to do some analysis of their systems.”
“They have a FTL drive, however, it is not nearly as efficient as ours which is why we were able to make the trip to pick you up and return before they arrive in our space. We have also determined that at sub-light speeds their vessels are not nearly as maneuverable as ours. From our time on Earth I believe that I can give you a comparison. It would be like a speedboat compared to a tug boat. Their ships are designed for power rather than speed and maneuverability. Their thrust to mass ratio is significantly lower than ours. Their ships tend to be larger than ours overall. They seem to depend more on the FTL drive even in system than using maneuvering thrusters.”
“As for their weapons, they rely on energy weapons which really pack a punch. For defense they have energy shields which are effective against all but our most potent energy weapons.”
Clark asked, “What about projectile weapons? Have you tried them against that shield?”
“Yes, Kal, we have. They are also ineffective. Projectiles do not penetrate the barrier.”
Lori asked, “Do you have an idea as to just how many ships are on the way?”
“Our long range sensors are able to detect a large, a very large mass headed this way. At this distance, however, we cannot determine if it is a single, moonlet size vessel or a cluster of smaller craft.”
Clark asked, “Do you have any way to communicate with them?”
“We have a limited sub-set of their language upon which to base a rudimentary translation. We found some technical manuals and, of course, the markings on the controls on the consoles. Some of those we were able to determine the meaning of by observing the result of activating the control.”
His concern over the situation was evident as Clark asked, “Is there any way to check on the progress made in translation while you have been away? If we could communicate with them we may be able to avoid a conflict.”
Ching replied, “We have two teams of linguists working on the translation. One team is on board and I receive daily updates. The other team is on New Krypton. They are working on different sub-sets of the language. They will compare notes when we return. The hope is that we will be able to develop a sufficient understanding of their language by the time they are within communications range that we will be able to negotiate with them."
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When they arrived the first thing they did was to check with the linguists still on New Krypton and compare notes to see how far they had gotten on developing a working vocabulary of the alien language and combining their findings. They were disappointed at the limited extent of what had been accomplished. Clark said, “At this rate we might be able to say, ‘We surrender’ when they get here, but then it might also mean, ‘I take mine with sugar’. This is very frustrating.”
While Clark had gone with Ching to see the linguists, Lori had gone with Zara to the residence they would be sharing with them. Zara had given Lori a tour and showed her the rooms that she and Kal-El would be using. It was a suite of rooms consisting of a bed chamber, bath with shower, sitting room and kitchenette. The main meals would be shared by both couples in the main dining room and would be prepared by the wait staff.
After the tour Zara and Lori had moved into a common lounge area which had large windows giving a view of the landscape and part of the city. The city had lofty spires with delicate, or at least what from this distance appeared to be delicate, bridges at upper levels to be used for crossing from one building to another without the necessity of descending to ground level first. There was a total absence of smog so there was a crystal clear view. In the distance, several degrees above the horizon two moons could be seen. One moon was larger than the other and was about to pass between New Krypton and the farther moon.
Turning to Zara, Lori asked, “I can see two moons. How many does New Krypton have?”
Zara’s reply surprised her, “We have ten moons and moonlets altogether. Some of the moonlets are little more than large asteroids. There are, actually, only six true moons.”
Lori was amazed at how different things looked. She could see the sun riding high in the sky. Its apparent diameter nearly five times that of Sol as seen from the Earth yet it wasn’t any hotter than Metropolis in the summertime. Zara had told Lori that they were currently in what would correspond to late summer, approaching fall although the differences between the seasons were not as marked as those on Earth. It was more like the environment experienced in Central America with the highs and lows only being separated by the equivalent of forty degrees Fahrenheit, the highs being around ninety degrees and the lows being around the fifty degree mark.
Lori was surprised that what she was seeing looked just about the colors she expected even though the sun was a red giant. She had expected reds to dominate. Zara explained, “The human brain, Earth or Kryptonian, is a marvelous device. It takes in the input from the optic nerve and interprets that input based upon the expectations from years of experience. For instance look at your cape. You expect it to be red so you see red. When you look at your uniform you expect to see blue, so blue it is. Compared to Earth as you can see our sun is huge. It is approximately five times Sol’s diameter. That’s why it looks so big, it actually is. Because it is a red sun it isn’t as hot as Earth’s star so even though we are only slightly farther away in our orbit we are still in the habitable zone where we have liquid water which is necessary to the existence of life. Because of the size of New Krypton’s sun we do have some rather spectacular sunsets."
Lori saw what appeared to be a bird fly by and even though she got a pretty good look at it she thought it looked familiar but, failed to recognize the species. She asked, “What kind of bird was that?”
Zara replied, “That was a Grocker. It is a native species from Krypton similar to your mocking bird even to the extent that it mimics other bird calls. From almost all of the native Kryptonian species we brought with us we have hatched at least a few birds. Even though they are technically wild species since they were hatched and raised in captivity they are really tame. They depend on us to feed them since there are still insufficient Kryptonian foodstuffs available. We will be negotiating for some compatible female mammalian Earth animal specimens to act as host mothers for our animals. Once we have sufficient numbers of breeders of our own in sufficient quantity the Earth animals will be sterilized and become pets.”
Lori asked, “Why sterilization?”
Zara replied, “Our environment will be difficult enough on adult Earth animals. New born would not survive. We are a humane people and would prefer to have them as pets to euthanization.”
She gave Lori a few seconds to absorb all of this information before she continued, “You see, ours was a colony ship. It was our intent to colonize a new world.”
This was new information for Lori. She asked, “Before your arrival on Earth we had thought that Kal-El was the last survivor of Krypton. How is it that there even was a colony ship?”
Zara decided to give Lori the whole story, “Not all of Krypton ignored Jor-El’s warnings of a core instability. Some of us took him seriously. We had developed a star drive, not one as advanced as the one Jor-El invented, so we built our colony ship.”
Lori interrupted her, “How do you know that the drive Jor-El developed is more advanced?”
“Ching told me about a conversation he and Kal-El had early in out voyage here. They talked with our chief astrogator and made that determination. Our colony ship used cryogenic units, freezing us for the duration of the trip. This reduced the supplies that would be needed to sustain the colonists during the trip. Kal-El’s and my marriage was arranged even before either of us was born. I was actually born three years before Kal-El and due to my rank was selected as one of the colonists. It was deemed that Kal-El was, as a newly born infant, in fact too young to survive the rigors of the trip and so was left behind.
During the trip only a maintenance crew remained awake to watch over the sleepers and the ship’s functions. Those of us that slept did so for three years. In that time the maintenance crew examined and rejected a number of planets as unsuitable for colonization, finally finding New Krypton. They calculated that if we had been able to go directly there the trip would have taken about one hundred-ninety days.”
Zara continued her explanation, “During our earlier visit to Earth we examined Kal-El’s ship and we discovered that it did not have a cryo unit installed. This called for further examination. When we did we found that since Jor-El had also determined that baby Kal-El would not survive the rigors of the cryo process, he had used an alternate method for putting baby Kal-El to sleep. There was an herb found only high in a mountain range in a remote part of Krypton which when crushed produced a vapor like essence reminiscent of Earth’s pine forest odor. This vapor had a unique property. In sufficient concentrations it produced a state of suspended animation similar to hibernation which your Earth bears experience. This vapor had been stored in a small tank and mixed with the air in Kal-El’s ship. The effects of the gas mixture would have been counteracted immediately when his capsule was opened. The fresh, untainted air would have awakened him immediately without the prolonged process we had to go through. Since I was in cryo-sleep for three years Kal-El and I are now the same physiological age.”
“Kal told Ching that his Earth parents found a trip chronometer and from that timer they determined that his flight had lasted only a month whereas ours would have been closer to a year. That tells us that the drive Jor-El developed is almost ten times as efficient, read that as fast, as ours.”
Zara gave a few seconds so that Lori could digest that information .
Zara continued her narrative, “The team behind the construction of the colony ship knew that the trip could consume a lot of time and that when we arrived at our new planet we would need to Kryptoform it so when they built it they stocked it with the eggs of as many species of native Kryptonian avian, aquatic and reptilian species as we were able to carry. One thing we did not bring were insectoids. They could have become pest species if their predator species were not available, the exception being pollinators. Since we took eggs rather than juvenile or adults of the various species we were able to accommodate almost the entire genome of the planet. The scientists have estimated that it will take some time yet to complete the Kryptoforming of the planet. Modifying the eco-structure of an entire planet is a slow process. We carried considerable quantities of condensed and dehydrated foodstuffs to carry us however the trade with Earth has been critical to our survival”
Thoughtfully Lori commented, “Just about like the biblical story of Noah and the Ark.”
Zara agreed, “Ah, yes. I remember. While we were on Earth that was one of the books I read. I noted that there were numerous similarities between it and the Book of Rao.”
Lori asked, “The Book of Rao. Just how similar is it to the Bible? Is it a guidebook for living a good and spiritual life pleasing to God?”
Zara replied reverently, “Yes, the Book of Rao contains stories which tell us how to live good lives. It also contains a pre-history of our world and a full description of Rao’s time on Krypton.”
Lori was astounded, “Rao lived among the people of Krypton?”
Zara replied, “Yes, he did. The parallels between Rao and the Hebrew Christ are striking.”
Deciding that the discussion of religion could be put off for a later time, Zara returned to the subject of the colony ship. “We also brought with us female ova and male sperm from donors from across Krypton. We will use in vitro fertilization techniques. Once we have a thriving ecology we will be asking our women to act as host mothers so that we can increase the population more rapidly. We have complete records as to the source of the zygotes and the names would maintain the family lineage.”
Zara continued her explanation, “We didn’t limit what we brought to animals; we also brought seeds of plant species. We hope that eventually we will have a completely Kryptonian environment. We have planted many experimental plots of Kryptonian shrubs and trees, both fruit bearing and ornamental and the results are promising. We have also set up sod farms where we are attempting to grow Kryptonian grasses. We have examined the local species and although they are similar there are differences in the native proteins which make them slightly incompatible with our physiology. Don’t get me wrong, they are not poisonous, it’s just that some of the proteins that we require are missing.”
With pride, Zara indicated the shelves that lined one of the walls, indicating the books held there. “These are all classical and scientific tomes which have been reprinted from the archives stored in the ship’s data banks. All of the classical heritage of Krypton survives.”
They returned their attention to the scene outside, looking out of the windows. They stood there for some minutes, in silent contemplation. Before Zara turned to look at Lori, “Fortunately, Earth commodities are sufficiently compatible. Our trade with Earth had been life saving. Once our Kryptonian species are growing in sufficient quantities we will be able to reduce our imports. The problem causing us to rely on trade with Earth this long is the reduced growth rate we have experienced. Our Kryptonian foodstuffs grow, but not as quickly as they did on Krypton itself. It has taken many years to get to where we are able to start harvesting some foodstuffs and those are being tested to see if the native soil is acceptable.”
“It has taken over seventy years to get this far, but converting a planet, modifying the plants and the animals establishing the new species is a very slow process, especially with a planet as large as New Krypton and will take many more years yet.”
Lori asked, “Why did you choose this planet to colonize? Why not a planet more like Earth?”
Zara replied, “If you had a choice of, oh, perhaps your own neighbor planet, Mars or a more earthlike planet circling Alpha Eridani, which would you chose?”
Lori countered, “That probably isn’t a fair question. Comparing Mars to Earth isn’t like comparing Krypton to Earth.”
Zara pressed her point, “In essence it is. Mars is smaller than Earth so even a non-superpowered individual would have enhanced strength and agility. They might not be able to leap tall buildings at a single bound or be faster than a speeding bullet, but you get the idea.”
Zara continued, “We are used to the environment of Krypton. Our plants and animals were adapted to that same environment. That is why we found a planet that simulates the Kryptonian environment as closely as possible. I’m sure you would do the same, perhaps Epsilon Eridani 4.”
Lori laughed and said, “I think I’ll stay on good old Earth. Epsilon Eridani 4 might be a nice place to visit, but I’m not sure I’d want to live there.”
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