"Hello, children!"
Lu-Zod flies unsteadily over to me and grabs hold of my right hand.
Ah, the Renegade's weakness: Cute kids.
"Come see! Come see!"
"I'm sorry, but I need to talk to Karsta Wor-Ul right now."
"Aaawh."
I'm impressed he can resist that cuteness. But business before relaxation.
I delicately recover my right hand while patting her on the head with me left.
"I'll come right back when I'm done, okay?"
Delicately is right. Even if they're not 100% powered, there could be a mess if they get into a tug-of-war...
"Lu-?!"
One of the tamaranean childminders assigned to the facility spots her charge and swoops down to recover her.
Ah, sensible. After all, Tamaraneans are fliers, and tough enough to handle the peak-human strength...
"Lu-Zod, you are not to fly off like that!"
The child's face falls. "I'm sorry. I just got so excited!"
Whoops, someone's in
trouble...
Dang, trying to give us diabetes, Mr Zoat?
I shoo the child back into the care of her guardian, then step back out of the orphanarium and into the corridor.
This place has really brightened up since we slaughtered all the Citadelians who used to live here. I'd assumed that Karsta was the utilitarian sort, but they've actually remodelled the entire interior into something a good deal more child-friendly. Out went about half the cloning tanks, in come arboreta and multi-tier classrooms. Karsta isn't going for mass production here. She-.
I bet keeping the walls clean is a bitch when kids can draw on the ceiling... Good to see she's not focused on building
soldiers, though.
"Grayven."
I turn and smile at her, though it's more a 'polite' smile than the genuine ones that the children got.
What with their professional relationship. Wonder if she's forgiven him for basically outing her back on Earth?
"Karsta. How are you feeling?"
"Like I'm actually working for a living." And she does actually look tired. Though I suppose that could be due to the fact that by design this facility doesn't invigorate kryptonians anything like as much as the Earth's sun does. "It's rewarding, but I'm feeling my age."
What, she
doesn't have a high-intensity sunbed in her quarters? After all, she's one of the facility's primary defences... Alongside a Tamaranean fleet and Orange Lanterns...
"Hey, you can sunbath under a purple healing ray with your fingers crossed if you want." She doesn't look impressed. "No luck finding other kryptonians, then?"
"If it were easy, Amalak would have found them first."
True. Probably a good thing he's dead in this timeline. Imagine if he learned of
this. Probably come gunning for them.. once he finished foaming at the mouth...
And I doubt that Kara In-Ze is going to want to give up her career as a superheroine secret agent to become a childminder. Huh. I never did try finding the local version of Kara What-Ever, did I? I just sort of assumed that she's either turn up or they already checked and there wasn't one. I mean, sticking her in the phantom zone would have been far safer than a space pod if it was a last minute job.
Oh,
now you think of it.
Hopefully she's still alive out there...
Hah! Or maybe we're got one with Power Girl proportions and they couldn't get the lid to shut!
…
Yeah, probably shouldn't make jokes about a woman whose entire species got wiped out. Damn ponies.
It's called 'not being an
arse', Grayven. Good to see you're finally learning to recognise it...
"There wasn't anything on the Doomsday about other kryptonians getting away, was there?"
"Yes, Grayven, I just didn't want to check up on it until you asked." She frowns. "Why are you here, anyway? Your monthly check-in isn't for another week."
Oof, you could fill a bowl with the sarcasm dripping off that reply... Probably tastes quite
spicy.
"We've got a problem. You remember the other version of me I-."
"He's finally coming here."
Yes, Kryptonians
are generally well above the human norm for intelligence, after all. And as a senior military officer, she'd be especially
wise.
I wince slightly. "To be honest, he was probably coming here from the moment he saw me. But packing up an entire civilisation and shipping it to the other side of the galaxy isn't something that can be done quickly. But I've received intelligence and he's probably going to be here sooner rather than later."
She shrugs. "The last thing I want is to put Krypton's future in another alien's hands. I can command the Doomsday myself, but none of the kids are going to be ready."
And the
last thing they need is to be forced into a war at their age. Unless you
want the first new generation to be PTSD-suffering army brats...
About what I thought.
"I don't suppose you can set the Doomsday to work for someone else, can you? With the right wavelength enhancing you, you could easily destroy their smaller ships even without a ship."
That would be blue sunlight, aye? Just watch out for the drawbacks, like burning out your energy organelles... Or turning into an over-muscled hulk (Which happened to Kal-el once, shortly before his
electric period.)
"Anyone can command the Doomsday if I give them access. But there's a difference between controlling a ship and controlling it well. I don't have a second in command who's trained and experienced in using it."
And goodness knows I couldn't fly it worth a damn.
That's not the admiral's job, after all. Unfortunately, you don't have time to train an officer corps, much less sailors.
"I-. Okay, so he's not kryptonian, but I know a guy who might be able to get the hang of it."
"Has he commanded a kryptonian warship before?"
Well, give him five minutes, and you'd
think he had.
"No. But he is very quick at learning things. His name's Harold Near, he's been working with Lex."
"Those human warships aren't terrible, but they don't work anything like the Doomsday."
The Spider, as
Darko noted. First seen
here...
"Yeah, try.. this guy out before you write him off."
She looks sceptical, but then shrugs. "Fine, I it can't hurt. I guess Earth has enough weirdoes that it shouldn't really surprise me if one was a natural at space combat."
If not, he'll certainly relish the challenge... And anything less than total mastery would be unacceptable to him.
"Okay. Ah, there's something I need to check on really quickly, but other than Mister Near is there anything you need here?"
"No, we're fine." … "More children's books and T.V. shows? I wanted to ration them but the tamaraneans wouldn't go for it."
Good move. Do you
want bored kids? Because that's how you
get bored kids. And you do not want bored kids, especially if they're as
intelligent as Kryptonians are.
I nod. "Can do. Back shortly."
Mother Box.
Ping.
"
In search of a Supergirl, we go..."
I step through the silent hole into interstellar space. Right. Rao is that way and Sol is that way…
Ring, scan for kryptonite. Fill My Vacancy!
Heh. About damn time, Grayven.
Scanning. Kryptonite radiation found.
My vision flickers as my ring relays the information to my visor. Okay, that's one lump that shouldn't be there. Tube me.
Well, you're
late, but you got there eventually.
Ping.
And through again… Giant asteroid made of kryptonite. Okay, if she's even in there I don't want to panic her. Or just have her wander naked through a city wrecking the place like she did in the comic.
Assuming she's alive... What's the bet the extra time in the kryptonite has left her
permanently weakened?
"Grayven to Karsta."
"That was quick."
"Slight change of plans..."
"You've got a medical facility there, right?"
"It's one big medical facility. Why?"
So plenty of isolation chambers, I hope.
"I've got a giant lump of kryptonite that might have a kryptonian inside it. Can you handle it?"
"The walls are thick enough to block it, and the genomorphs can wear protective overalls. So, yes."
Gonna want
very comprehensive decontamination procedures there, given its lethality.
"Good. Sending it to you now."
BOOM!
"Then I'll go and grab Mister Near."
Ah, Boom Tubes. rendering travel time irrelevant.
