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I stared at my knees forlornly. It really wasn't fair.
My family were established Thinkers and so had many different people they could make contact with. Dru had been a highly decorated Officer for fifty years, and the Grand General for forty. Their respective roles were a given. Theirs was a mission of closed doors and hushed conversations.
Mine involved a bit more of a… spectacle.
All I had for leverage was my deeds during the Invasion. Leverage that I had never exercised. But we didn't have the time for me to ease myself into it. So here I was trying to play the part of some famous person, rubbing shoulders with the rich and powerful.
“Kara, you need to smile.”
I frowned very pointedly at Penny, her new golden-hued body glinted mesmerizingly in the shimmering light of the air speeders active force fields. The golden bracers pinched my arms in admonishment.
“Haha, very funny.” She said drily, “But seriously, you need to get into the habit of flashing those pearly whites. Once we land, you can't afford anything less than beaming grins.”
“Fine, fine.” I sighed, swatting at one of the bracers when it pinched me at my tone. I smiled charmingly at Penny, “Better?” I asked softly.
“Much.”
I rolled my eyes and huffed. ”This is so stupid.”
“Yes, well, maybe if you hadn't dropped off the face of the planet, you wouldn't need to overcompensate so hard.”
“I was busy!” I defended.
“So busy that you couldn't spare a few minutes for an interview? They offered plenty of times to do it over holovid.” I could practically see the reproachful look in her tone.
“Ugh.” I looked out the window, watching as rain droplets bounced violently off the speeder's force fields. At these speeds, it looked more like a solid wall of water than individual droplets. “Fine, alright. Maybe I just didn't want anything to do with it. Public speaking was never my thing.”
“I know. I’ve got your memories.” She said it like she hadn't just been getting on my case about it.
I took a nice slow breath. ‘Think happy thoughts Kara, don't kill your AI. You may need her later.’ I activated the massage feature and shucked off my stupid heels. Actual, Rao forsaken, heels.
The air speeder was a luxury model my family owned but seldom used. Built by one of my ancestors a few centuries back, it was a bit antiquated compared to more modern vehicles. But it was designed with luxury in mind, there really wasn't much else to be said, luxury was still luxury.
The soft spongy material of the floor came to life, rising up as a writhing mass to envelope my feet and calves. Not a pleasant sight truth be told, but it felt absolutely divine. Advanced sensors meant every single muscle strand with even a hint of tension was worked loose by precisely calculated application of sound waves and small applications of pressure. Similar growths enveloped my arms, Penny silently slid up my arms to settle around my neck. The growths started towards my body and head as well, but a quick verbal command halted its expansion.
I couldn't afford to get the dress wrinkled. And the complicated ringlets Penny had turned my normally straight hair into, spoke for themselves.
“Penny, what's the ETA?”
“Forty-seven minutes, Mistress.”
“Ugh.” I groaned in pitiful annoyance. “Why does this stupid party have to be at the north pole? Who even lives at the north pole?”
“Vice Chancellor-”
“That was rhetorical. I know damn well whose party we’re going to.” I growled.
“I know, Mistress.”
Again, I found myself repeating my mantra. No, Brain, I couldn't open the window at Mach twenty-four just so I could throw Penny out of it. What do you mean it would be worth it?! No, it wouldn’t!
“You're thinking something mean again aren't you?”
“Of course not, Penny. What would give you that idea?” I said warily.
“You have that resting bitch face, again.”
The completely unexpected reply made my eyes snap open. I stared at Penny in a strange mixture of awe and horror. “Penny, what the fuck?” I sputtered, nothing else felt adequate.
“Sorry, Mistress. I believe I spoke in error.” She sounded genuinely contrite. I would have accepted her apology gladly, if she hadn't finished with, “I meant to say, 'you have a severe case of resting bitch face, again'.” She said it in the most matter-of-fact way too.
“Penny.” I spoke calmly. “Please cease all verbal communications until the party is over, unless it's an emergency.”
“Yes, Mistress.”
I shook my head. Ever since reawakening, she had been…off. It was rare, but AI modeled after a living brain can react strangely after getting forcefully shut down without proper protocols being followed. Jor-El assured me Penny would be back to normal within a week or two as her code reacclimated to being online again.
The only reason I was even willing to bring her with me at all was because we had scanned her code thoroughly after her reawakening, the only piece of her that was affected was her speech centers. Basically, she had no filter at the moment between what she thought and what she wanted to say. And the worst part is that no matter how many times I tried to explain it to her, it was like Penny just couldn't comprehend that something was wrong.
It had been worrying the first three days. It was funny on the fourth day. But now that it was the fifth day, it was just plain frustrating. Though it was rather illuminating, I’d never realized Penny could be so sassy…or so vulgar.
“So, your name is Faora right?” I spoke to the only other occupant in the cabin.
“Yes, ma’am.” The woman said from her seat across from me.
I scrunched my nose. “I’m not a ma’am. My name is Kara. If you're going to be a regular fixture in my life, please use it.”
Officially, she was on well-deserved shore leave for the next few weeks and was spending it with a family friend. Unofficially, Zod thought it prudent that I had someone watching my back while I played my hand at politicking. I had never met the woman in my life, but if anyone asked, she was like a big sister to me.
“Yes, ma’am.” She hesitated at my glance. “Yes, Kara. It's a habit, sorry, ma’am.” Faora winced the moment the third ma’am slipped through.
I just sighed. Progress was progress I supposed. She had spent her whole life calling everyone sir and ma’am, a few minutes in my company wasn't going to change instincts that deep.
“Have you ever been to a party like this before?” I asked, there was nothing else to do.
“Yes, actually.”
I looked at her askance. She didn't look like the type to do formal events. I hadn't actually expected an affirmative. “Oh?”
“When the Grand General was elevated to his position, there was a formal party in celebration. He had asked me to attend.”
I perked up in my seat. “He asked you to go with him?” That was surprising, I had thought him married to his job.
“Yes, as his guard.” She spoke like she was giving a debrief.
I couldn't hide the disappointment on my face. “Oh.” Well, that was much less interesting. Fitting, but boring.
“He must trust you quite a lot then.” Especially since he told her about our real mission.
Faora nodded curtly and said simply, “I owe the Grand General my life.”
“I sense a story.” I stared at her imploringly. We had a little over thirty minutes, I needed something to distract me.
For a moment it looked like Faora wasn't going to indulge me, but like all others who met my adorable gaze, she caved. “Back when I was a fresh grunt, there was a terrorist faction called the Talons of Rao. We got actionable intel that their base of operations was in the wreckage of Wegthor. As they had taken high value hostages days earlier, it was a time-sensitive operation, we were the closest force to them and were sent in without our normal thoroughness.” She grimaced, “It was a trap, by the time we realized what was going on, our frigate was already dead in the water.”
“Somehow they had managed to hide anti-ship weapons from our initial sensor sweep. By the time we got close enough to detect it, they had already put holes in our ship. They targeted our main reactors first, then life support. Where they got the plans for our ship, I left to the spooks to figure out. But their shots were too precise for it to have been anything else.”
“They boarded us quickly, probably trying to take the ship for themselves. The halls were a slaughterhouse.” She shook her head at the memory. “Someone somewhere messed up royally, because Talon had heavy armor units walking through the breach. We were just a light frigate, we didn't have the equipment to deal with it. None of the intelligence pointed to them having that kind of hardware.”
“We held them off as best we could, but we were pushed all the way back to the bridge. We were moments away from scuttling the ship. Our frigate had enough ordinance to blow up cities. We couldn't allow it to fall into their hands.” Faora paused, before continuing softly, “I had actually prayed to Rao in those last moments.”
“Then, like a miracle from Rao himself, the indomitable heavy armor units at the front started… exploding.” She shook her head like she still couldn't believe it after all these years. “The lighter armored ones in the back started panicking, but that didn't save them. In two’s and three’s they went. Some tried to run. It didn't work. In those brief moments I became a believer.” She laughed wryly. “What else could I do? My enemies were being smited before my very eyes. What else could I do but believe in the divine?”
“As it turns out, my prayers weren’t answered by Rao. But by a light cruiser a few thousand kilometers away with a daring Captain with a long-range scanner and access to ship-scale particle beams. He practically cut our ship in half with his gambit, but Talon's forces were dead and we lived to see another day. Later, I learned that the Captain's name was Dru-Zod.”
“Never learned any of that until weeks later, of course.” At my questioning look, she explained. “We were put in healing pods for a few days, being so close to the particle beams bathed us in a lot of radiation.”
I ran the numbers really fast, and blanched at the figure. Yeah, a ship-sized particle beam was not something even a Kryptonian wanted to be around. We were resistant to the ravages of radiation for the most part. But resistant didn't mean invulnerable.
With her story finished, we fell back into silence. It had served its purpose of wasting time, a brief look out the window showed endless sheets of ice. We were finally at our destination.
It was only a matter of minutes before I could see a brilliantly glowing structure on the icy horizon. Our speed slowed instantly to being just a hair under the sound barrier. We were attending a party, not doing a military drop.
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Funny enough, I didn't have to do much.
I picked a table and people just sort of gravitated towards me. If only for the novelty I represented. The reclusive Sword of Rao who had never done anything in the socialite scene, suddenly appearing at a party. I was a curiosity to them.
“Lady El, it is a pleasure to-” A young woman with blue hair simpered, a beautiful smile, but one that never reached her eyes.
“Lady El, what a welcome surprise-” A brown-haired man gushed as he enthusiastically gripped my hand.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
“Blade of Rao, it is an honor to-” A red-haired woman in a glittery red gown bowed.
It all just blurred together. My cheeks were hurting from smiling, and my throat felt parched no matter how much water I drank.
It had only been the first hour. There were still more guests slated to arrive throughout the day.
I excused myself to the refresher. I needed a few moments to breathe. I hadn't spent so much time around strangers in ages, I had forgotten how completely exhausting it was.
With Faora's darkly armored frame covering the door, I allowed myself to relax. I sagged in front of the mirror, idly fixing any strands that had gotten jostled loose. I took a deep breath before splashing my face with some cool water a few times. I glared at my wet reflection. This was nothing compared to the grueling study sessions I had put myself through.
All I had to do was smile and wave. There was no other objective to this event other than putting myself out there. I would work on making deeper connections at other events in the coming weeks.
Smile and wave…
I could do that. Slowly my harsh expression melted into a delighted one.
With renewed purpose, I strode out of the refresher and back into the teeming mass of false smiles and honeyed words.
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“It wasn't that bad.” Faora tried.
I didn't bother dignifying the blatant lie with a response. I just kept my eyes shut and let the fully reclined seat do its magic.
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There was something that bothered me, and there was only one person who I thought could answer it properly.
“Uncle Jor, do you have a moment?” I poked my head out of the lift.
He blinked up at me from his place bent over a schematic. “Sure, I needed to go on a lunch break anyways. We can talk while I eat.”
I followed him to a closed-off section of the lab. It just had a table and some chairs. A plate of steaming food floated over from a recessed hatch in the wall, resting with a clink on the table.
“What did you need?” He said between bites.
“Why aren't we using the phantom zone? People can't die in there, so couldn't we just, I don't know, stuff people in there?”
Slowly, he put his food down. He chewed his food thoughtfully. “There are two main reasons. The first and foremost is the exact reason why you think it's a good idea. They cannot die. What happens to them if for whatever reason, we die or lose access to the phantom projector?”
I opened my mouth, but he just held a hand up.
“You're probably thinking, why don't we just give them a projector of their own? Am I right?” I nodded mutely. “The phantom zone doesn't have things like laws. Not like how we understand them anyways, perhaps there is a pattern to it, but I have never seen one. I have spent decades dedicated to its study and I am no closer to deciphering it now than I was back when I first opened the portal. All technology relies on manipulating understood principles until we get a desired outcome, without those principles we so often take for granted, nothing works. The only thing that we knows works in the phantom zone is our minds, and even then, that understanding is questionable at times.”
“It’s the perfect prison. Escape is impossible without help from our side of the dimensional barrier.”
“And you said there was a second reason?” The first reason was good enough, but what was the second one?
“Size. The dimensional tear is far too unstable for anything bigger than a few meters. Believe me, I have tried to make bigger ones. I never succeeded.” He sighed, no doubt at old memories. “And besides the size constraint, tearing holes in the fabric of reality weakens it to a degree. In small numbers, it’s not noticeable, and any damage it causes heals itself almost the moment the breach is shut. But if we made enough projectors to get a few billion people through in a timely manner… things will get…bad.”
“Define bad?”
“There are hundreds of overlapping dimensions in this universe. The weaker we make the barrier, the more blurred the lines get. The best case scenario is that we create a vacuum decay bubble from all the colliding dimensions, and we die instantly, while simultaneously dooming the entire universe to the same fates.” He pushed his plate away, no longer hungry it seemed. “The worst case… we don't die instantly. Not all of the dimensions are empty voids Kara. There are Things in some of them.” His mood was downright dour now as he stared at a point over my shoulder.
I didn't ask him to elaborate. I got the feeling I really didn't want to know what would make a man like Jor-El use such an unscientific label like ‘Things’.
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When I wasn't attending some sort of social function, I was busy working in the lab.
No rest for the wicked and all that.
They had already brought two other Thinkers on board. I had briefly exchanged pleasantries with them, a husband and wife pair, Mor Fay-Un and Fay-Un respectively. Apparently, they were rather respected in the medical equipment industry. They were swiftly put to work designing cryopods. Cryopods certainly weren't a new technology, but we needed the most foolproof design physically possible, we couldn't afford anything less than perfection. At the scale we were talking about, even a failure rate as miniscule as a quarter of a percent meant the deaths of millions.
I had never felt so useless.
I had thought that I had known what I was getting into when my family gave me access to their shared server cluster. I was wrong. So very wrong.
By the time I came up with a solution to a problem they were having, they had already solved it and were already puzzling out the next kink. It was maddening.
I was like a maid with a neat freak employer. In other words, useless.
And that was for the things I knew how to work on, as they improved their designs it was becoming distressingly more often that I had no clue where to even start. Growing up, I had always known that there would be a gap between us. But I had never imagined that the gulf would be so incredibly vast.
After weeks of accomplishing nothing of substance, I finally called it quits. Trying to work alongside them, while immensely illuminating, was ultimately a waste of my time. In the few weeks, they had brought even more Thinkers into the server cluster, and all of them were leagues ahead of me. Anything I could do, they could do better. At best, I was redundant, at worst I was a hindrance.
And regardless, I did need to come up with a project idea to show the council when my grace period ended. It needed to be something that caught their interest, and preferably also served my own interests in some capacity. If I didn't, they would assign me a project of their own choosing, and unlike my family, I didn't think I could balance working on both my official projects and my secret ones. Especially if the two were in completely different fields.
Currently, I was examining the intel from the Invasion, looking for some angle I could use as inspiration for a project. Due to the traumatic nature of the event, pretty much anything related to the Invasion would get a nearly automatic greenlight from the council. Unfortunately, I was a bit late to the game so to speak, every Thinker with an inkling of free time had snapped up all the obvious things.
After looking at it for a while, I ended up focusing on the reaction time of the Defense Fleet. Faster propulsion designs? No, I shook my head, there were already several thinkers working on it. And besides that, the currently used design allowed our ships to go 98.4% of C. Eeking out a few extra decimals was moot at those speeds. With the ban on FTL drives, it wasn't like we would be allowed to go any faster anyways.
Already there were some Thinkers lobbying for the restriction to be lifted, or more realistically to be amended to allow our ships to go a few times faster than light at the very least. It wasn't like going five or even ten times C was that big a deal. Even at ten times the speed of light, it would still take over a century of continuous flight to reach the closest star.
With the literally astronomical distances involved, simply going faster than light didn't necessarily make you capable of interstellar travel. A proper FTL system for interstellar travel would require ships to go hundreds or preferably thousands of times the speed of light. The current regulations were archaic and clearly made without much forethought. Which made sense since they were made in the aftermath of the Clone Wars. At the time, they had been far more concerned with enforcing the recall of the colony worlds, and just needed something that worked. It was extremely doubtful that it’s original creators had intended for the law to stay in effect, completely untouched for 20,000 years.
With the current speed limit, I didn't know what else I could work on. I wracked my brain for an idea.
“What about a teleporter or wormhole generator?” Penny asked.
I shook my head, “The council would never go for that. Too similar to an FTL drive.”
“No, I meant a linked system. With an entrance and exit receiver.”
My mouth opened, then closed as I gave it some thought, “That's…that could work.” I muttered under my breath. A closed system design would belay their fear of it being used to leave the solar system, meanwhile, I could work on a variant that didn't require the paired unit.
If I could manage such a feat… My heart rate picked up. The possibilities of such a device… Even if I couldn't figure out how to make the untethered version, we could still use the tethered teleporters to instantly bridge the gap between the Krypton System and whatever new Star System we ended up inhabiting. It would make retrieving the people left on Argo a much simpler task.
I whirled on Penny, crushing her to my chest. “Penny! You're amazing!”
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“And you propose we scatter these…Gates, across the System?” The Councilor peered down at me skeptically, she stuck out from her compatriots with her different colored eyes. A curious shade of yellow in one, and a bright violet in the other.
I kept my back straight and maintained eye contact the whole time, I needed to look like I knew what I was talking about. I did, but I needed to make sure they saw it. “Yes, with the Gates at key locations, it would allow our fleet to instantly cut the distance and react to threats in a much more timely manner.”
The old lady scoffed, her mismatched eyes narrowed. “Nonsense, this proposal would in blatant violation of article 2 of-”
“That is an interesting-”
“-that law is all but assured to get overturned, we-”
I had to blink at the explosion of dialogue, funnily enough it seemed even they were taken aback by it as well. They all paused for a moment to stare at each other warily.
One of them cleared their throat, a vaguely sheepish expression flickered across his aged face. “This council will deliberate on the nuances of the proposed issue.” With that, their image turned hazy and distorted and all sound cut off.
In other words, they didn't want to be seen arguing with each other. It seemed there was trouble in paradise. I made sure to commit to memory which ones had seemingly spoken in my plans favor.
“Shouldn't you be in there with them?” I glanced at a bored-looking Dru-Zod.
“That's not my place, their job is to argue the legality of it, mine is to convince them of the necessity.” He shrugged.
The best part was that this wasn't even nepotism on his end. My proposed Gates were such a game changer for the continued security of Kryptonian space that Zod was obligated to go to bat over it. No one could question why he was so interested in my project. There was nothing suspicious about Dru doing his job.
The distortion effect ended abruptly. “This Council has considered Thinker Kara-El’s intriguing proposal. However, while we commend her outside-the-box thinking, we must regretfully reject her proposal. It skirts far too close to violating the laws around interstellar travel.” The old woman with the mismatched eyes said. Though I noted that three of the Councilors looked visibly annoyed at the verdict. The remaining three held no expression, mastering whatever their true emotions were on the matter. But with only seven Councilors, quick math said that if it were down to a vote, those three had to have been the ones who voted against me.
Zod stepped forward, “I’m afraid I will have to insist that you make an exception in this case.”
“General Zod, while your input is appreciated, we cannot and will not-”
“You can and you will. This is too important for Krypton's future to be dismissed so easily.”
“The Law-”
“If a Law endangers Krypton, then perhaps it shouldn't be a Law!” The General snapped, he didn't shout, but it was a near thing, genuine anger slipping into his voice for all to hear. A hush descended over the room. I sent him a nervous glance. ‘He needed to keep it together!’ But I couldn't do anything without giving the game away, I just had to hope he reigned himself in before he ruined everything.
They stared at him wide-eyed, like they were seeing some strange animal for the first time. The guards around the room shifted ever so slightly.
“My sworn duty is to Krypton and her people, and I will not allow you and your endless debates to-” His voice cut off so suddenly that it made me twitch. A glance told me the story. His lips were still moving for a few more moments, before pausing, he looked confused for a moment, but only for a moment. I shuddered at the cold mask that took over his face when he realized just what had happened.
The Council had muzzled him.
“You-” A Councilor that had remained silent thus far boomed authoritatively. “-will allow us to do nothing. While you have served Krypton unfailingly and with unquestionable distinction, you are only a General. We are the Ruling Council of Krypton, and you will speak to us with the respect we are due. Is that clear General?”
The sound suppression field must have been lifted, because suddenly I could hear Zod again.
“Crystal, Councilman.” I wasn't sure what was more horrifying, the calmness in which he said it, or the fact that I stood a mere foot away and I still couldn't detect any hint of emotion from him.
“Now then, this Council has already voted on the matter of Thinker Kara-El’s proposal.-”
I grit my teeth. This council was ridiculous. It was honestly beginning to feel like they weren't even people. Like some sort of two-dimensional caricature of what a stupid politician was supposed to-
”-However, after seeing the General’s clear passion for it, I feel I would be remiss in my duties as both a member of this Council and as a fellow Kryptonian under his aegis if I did not at the very least cast for a revote.” He looked around at his fellow Councilors for any dissenting opinions. Though a few scowled, none spoke up.
‘What?’ I blinked in surprise. He was one of the ones who had voted against my plan earlier.
And like that, the distortion effect sprang back up.
I didn't dare speak. Zod still stared dispassionately at the shimmering barrier.
When the barrier dropped again, it was to a much different scene. The roles were reversed, the woman with the mismatched eyes and two of the three Councilors were frowning, while the original three were smiling. The one who had cast for the revote still had the same expressionless mask.
“A revote has been cast, and a revote has been made.” The woman with the mismatched eyes stood from her seat as she spoke. “Thinker Kara-El, your proposed Gate project has been approved by this Council. A grant shall be awarded for supplies and additional staff. The department of treasury will have the details.”
The trip back to Zod's personal shuttle was done in silence. I was still busy trying to process the sudden turn of events that when the tremendous boom reverberated through the cabin I actually screamed in fright.
Zod had been so silent the entire time that I had almost forgotten he was there. His arm was still elbow-deep into the holo emitter in front of his seat. A faint red light flickered around his arm before he pulled it back, the sharp jagged edges didn't cut his skin on the way out.
“We got what we wanted. So it was worth it, right?” I tried to cheer him up.
I got a single grunt for my troubles. I wasn’t so sure it worked.