Lori and Clark – The New, New Adventures of Superman – MMC V 6 23/32
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:
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 tombs 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.”
And now:
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Chapter 22 – The Defense of New Krypton
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Universal Locator designation
Alpha 023 x Gamma 004 x Tau -124
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Stepping away from the window and with a gesture, Zara invited Lori to take a seat. She asked, “How much of Lois’ memories do you have?”
Lori replied, “All of them.”
Zara had a worried look on her face as she asked, “Do you remember everything about me and Kal-El?”
Lori tried to put her fears at rest, “I remember that you were forced into a marriage that neither of you wanted because it had been arranged when you were infants. I remember that I got a message that said, ‘In the absence of a member of the house of Ra, you are acceptable’ which was basically, Jor-El’s permission for me to marry Clar, Kal-El. Then you showed up and all bets were off. Ching almost killed himself and Clar, I mean Kal-El in his attempt to prove that he wasn’t worthy. I remember Ching smuggling me on board as one of Cla, humph, Kal-El’s concubines. I remember Kal-El fighting Nor and almost dying along with him when the Earth military used Kryptonite gas on them. I remember Kal-El abdicating in favor of you and Ching. I also remember you being happy that Kal-El released you from your vows. That all happened a long time ago and now you are happy with Ching and I am happy with Clar, uh, Kal-El. It’s going to take some time for me to get used to that. How have you and Ching been?”
“As you probably know, at the time of our last meeting, as a military officer, Ching, used his military rank rather than his family name. Now he has retired from the military and has taken his family name which is Ka. When we were wed I became Zara Ching-Ka or simply Zara-Ka. Genealogy is very important to our people. My name means Za of the family Ra married to Ching of the family Ka. We have three sons and a daughter. The boys are named, Ram-Ka, Tel-Ka and Su-Ka while the girl’s name is Loka. We wanted to honor Kal-El with one of our children and you with another one.”
“Where are your children?”
“They each have families of their own, but, we plan to have a feast once this situation is resolved and you will meet them at that time, if not before. How many children do you have?”
“Kal-El and I only have one, but, as Lois we had eight. I’ll give you the Kryptonian names. They are Kam-El, Myel, Dan-El, Noel, Hazel, Zar-El, Angel and Ben-El. They are all married and we have over sixty grandchildren. My sister just married one of our grandsons. We haven’t decided on the Kryptonian name for CJ yet. CJ is the nickname for Clark Junior.”
Zara said, “Wow, such a large family. Do they all have your powers?”
“All of the children do, yes. Through the use of the pendant, all of the spouses have the powers as well, which reminds me, I have something for you to try.” Lori pulled out her ‘old’ pendant, the one with the single strength Star Sapphire Kryptonite and handed it to Zara.
Zara held it in her hand and Lori asked, “Do you feel anything?”
“What should I feel?”
“Oh, I don’t know, a sudden feeling of well being, strength, better hearing, x-ray vision. The same way you felt on Earth under the yellow sun and lower gravitation.”
Zara thought and searched herself for several seconds before saying, “No, I don’t feel any different.”
With something of a frown, Lori said, “That’s such a shame. We were hoping that you would get your powers back with that. It looks like it will only work with Earth humans that have been changed by exposure to the Kryptonian aura.” Lori took the pendant back and secured it.
Just then Ching and Clark walked in. Each of the men walked over and greeted their respective wives with a kiss.
Zara was shocked, “Ching, in front of our guests?”
Ching replied, “That was a small celebration.”
Zara looked at him and said, “Celebrating what exactly?”
Clark spoke up, “We just broke the language barrier. We should be able to communicate with them. We plan to record a message and send a drone vessel to meet them. We just need to decide on the content of the message”
Lori spoke up, “I think that we need to determine if we have a chance against them before we try to communicate with them.” She turned to Ching and asked, “What kinds of weapons do you possess?”
Ching started going down a list, “We have some energy weapons. We also have some rather primitive projectile weapons, very similar to what exists on Earth.”
Clark asked, “What about missiles, explosives, or Atomic weapons?”
“We gave up on reaction drive missiles a long time ago. They are mostly ineffective against FTL drive ships, the same with Atomic weapons. They are dependent on a delivery system which would be defeated by a FTL drive.”
Lori suggested, “What about placing a nuclear weapon inside a FTL driven ship?”
Ching replied, “The problem of control enters the picture. It would in essence be an unguided missile since any control system would rely on electromagnetic radiation in the form of radio waves of some frequency to deliver the commands, the second the ship went into FTL drive it would outrun the control signals. Besides, their shield technology would render such a weapon useless.”
Lori said, “So much for ‘smart’ weapons.”
Clark asked, “Have you tested their defensive shields?”
Zara answered this one, “Yes, we have had our best scientists studying their defensive shields. They have determined that their shield is proof against any energy weapon currently in our inventory.”
Clark asked, “Is it proof against their own weapons?”
The wait staff called them to a meal and they moved into the dining area and continued the discussion over their meal.
Ching answered Clark’s earlier question, “Yes, it is. We have been working on some of our ships, installing copies of their shield device. The hope is that if we can field a number of ships that they cannot destroy they may call it a draw and pull back.”
Clark asked, “How far have you gotten on the ships?”
“We have one prototype just about ready to test. We determined that they concentrated their shields at the front of their craft as if expecting only a frontal attack. What we decided to do was build a spherical craft and place shield generating units at equidistant points around the craft. The decision to go with spherical craft was actually made in order to maximize our maneuverability advantage. By placing thrusters in all quadrants, at sub-light speeds, we can apply thrust in any direction. With our artificial gravity technology the differing thrust vectors will not affect the occupants. This enhanced maneuverability can be used either in defense or offence.”
Lori asked, “What weapons are you planning to mount?”
“We are mounting our most potent energy weapons as well as some projectile weapons. If we can disable their shield the projectile weapons could be effective.”
Clark asked, “What kind of projectiles have you tested against their shields?”
“We tried a number of different alloys as well as spent radioactives, such as depleted uranium, since they are the densest, heaviest materials available. All attempts have been futile. The projectiles simply bounce off.”
Lori asked, “Didn’t you say that the scout ship had been almost destroyed? What did it?”
Ching said, “They had crashed into a granite meteor. Why?”
“Aren’t most meteors made of nickel/iron?”
Ching said, “Yes. May I ask why that is of importance?”
Clark could see where Lori was going with this line of questioning and spoke up, “What if their shields are only proof against refined metals? That granite meteor was unusual and apparently it pierced their shields.”
It was like a light bulb suddenly went on in Ching’s head. He said, “Say, you’re right! What if raw materials like granite can pierce their shields?”
Lori spoke up again, “It would be like the biblical story of David and Goliath. We could throw stones at them!”
Zara spoke up for the first time, “How would any stone we could throw pierce their shields and do any damage? It would be far too small.”
Clark asked, “Have either of you ever heard of a rail gun?”
Both of the Kryptonians shook their heads while Lori nodded in understanding. Clark proceeded, “A rail gun is a device that uses magnetic fields to accelerate an object to high velocity far in excess of the velocities produced by explosive charges and in space there wouldn’t be an atmosphere to slow it once it left the device.”
Ching thought he had found a weakness and spoke up, “But, if it is dependent on magnetic fields to cause the acceleration, the projectile would have to be made of iron or steel which would be deflected, wouldn’t it?”
“On Earth, there is a French word, sabot, which came into common usage in the twentieth century. It is the root of the word sabotage which came into common usage during World War 2 when the Dutch would use their wooden shoes, sabot, to gum up the works and delay or prevent the production of war materials by the Germans. Later it came into use to describe a shoe which surrounded a projectile. The military took a spent radioactive projectile of considerably smaller diameter than the gun that would be firing it and created a sabot to go around it which built it out to the size of the cannon. As soon as it left the barrel the sabot fell away and all that was left was the dense core projectile moving with all of the speed and power of the larger round. It would punch through the thickest armor. What I propose is that we create granite projectiles and a sabot of iron or steel. Once the projectile leaves the end of the rail gun the sabot will fall away and the granite projectile will do the work.”
Excited, Ching said, “I’ll put a team on building one right away. Can you give me a rough drawing and a description as to how it works? That would help our engineers get started.”
Clark replied, “Why don’t we finish this meal, then you and I can get together with the engineers and I can go over it with them. Then they can take their own notes.”
Ching raised his glass of Kryptonian wine and said, “An excellent suggestion. To the rail gun and our defense.”
They all lifted their glasses in toast and drank.
After the meal Ching and Clark left to meet with the engineers. As they were leaving Ching said, “We’ll be back later. Zara, why don’t you girls go out and you can show Lori some of the sights?”
Zara looked at Lori and smiled mysteriously as she said, “We may, but then again we may just stay here and have some girl talk. Maybe we’ll compare our husbands.”
Both men were startled by this comment and somewhat apprehensive.
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