Chapter 18

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Unlike the last time I had wandered these streets, I was completely at ease.

Not having a broken shoulder did wonders for one’s confidence, as did the small sonic thumper holstered at my hip. And the B-Series Protection Unit bobbing in my wake certainly didn't hurt.

The droid was a featureless pyramid of matte white metal the size of my torso. Thinker or no, I wasn’t allowed to walk around a public space with military-grade hardware. As such, the droid could only use civilian-grade self-defense measures, its main weapon was just a scaled-up variant of the sonic thumper I was armed with. Luckily, sonic weapons were very effective against biologicals. And if that didn't work for whatever reason, the droid had a plethora of other armaments in its non-lethal arsenal.

In a worst-case scenario, it was programmed to grab me and fly me out of danger if it deemed the situation to be untenable.

My skin suit was a blank charcoal gray, my House Crest was missing from my ensemble. I didn't want the attention it could bring, not down here anyways. My little jaunt needed to remain off the books. The droid floating ominously behind me grabbed more than enough attention as it was.

Finding the right apartment complex was easy, a simple search in the directory led me right to it. I didn't know their House names, but I knew what Caste they were from and what they looked like. Plus them being a brother and sister pair helped narrow it down even further.

I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that Daro and Yaro shared the same apartment. It made my task a whole lot easier.

“They're both in there right now, right?” I asked Penny as I stood in front of their door. I’d been trying to arrange this meeting for the last few days, but every time I tried to do it, Daro was always working late into the night at the Temple while his sister came home on her own.

“According to the recon drones’ last report, both Yaro and Daro are presently inside.” Penny assured me, referring to the cloaked dones we’d set up days earlier.

I pressed my hand against the panel next to their door. It lit up a soft blue, letting me know the residents had been notified of my presence. After a few moments of awkward waiting, a startled gasp emanated from the glassy material.

They must have checked the camera feed.

I had to suppress a wince as I heard a muffled thump through the comm before it cut out. It sounded like someone had tripped, or perhaps fallen off the couch. Though as it was well into the middle of the night, it could have also been a bed.

The door opened to reveal a rather frazzled-looking Yaro. She was in a comfortable-looking pair of shorts and a loose crop top that ended a few inches below her ribcage. A far cry from the billowing red robes I had last seen her in. But then again, she was relaxing in her own home and most likely about to go to bed, expecting her to be dressed properly just in case a surprise guest showed up would have been patently unfair.

“Blade of Rao?!” She all but squeaked. Her red eyes were blown wide in shock and disbelief.

“Honored One!?” Her brother appeared over her shoulder, seemingly just as shocked.

“Hello, Daro, Yaro.” I beamed at the both of them. Unlike at the various events I had worn that same smile to over the weeks, my enthusiasm was entirely genuine this time. These two had helped me when I had needed it, and from what little interaction I had with them they seemed to be genuinely good people.

Their goodness was actually why I was here. I needed someone I could trust in the Church Caste. I had hoped to find those at the various functions I had been to, but none of them had come across as being nearly as genuine as these two. Sure, these two were far down the totem pole in terms of the Church's hierarchy, but I would rather have two good weak people at my back than a powerful viper at my throat.

My hope was that they could point out those with power that I could trust. At the very least they would have a better understanding of what went on behind the scenes in the Temple than an outsider like me would. Worst comes to worst, they could at least help me narrow it down by pointing out who definitely wasn't trustworthy.

For our plan to work, we couldn't afford anything reaching the Council before we were ready.

“May I come in?”

“Of course, Blade of Rao.” She all but leaped out of the doorway.

As I followed them into their home, I looked around. Surprisingly, their home didn't scream Rao fanatic like I had halfway expected. Sure there were symbols of worship scattered about the home, and a dedicated shrine near the entryway, but it wasn't overly done. Though, I only got to see the foyer and the living room, for all I knew, the rest of the house was absolutely covered in holy scripture.

“My apologies for coming to you at such a late hour. What I need to discuss necessitates a certain amount of discretion.” I held my hand out when Daro tried to speak. “Penny.” With her cue given, she initiated the Protection Unit’s ECM package and sound suppression generators. The air around the white pyramid visibly trembled. While it wouldn't cover everything, it certainly lessened the chance of anyone or anything spying on our conversation.

Daro looked at the Protection Unit as if just now seeing it, no doubt he had been hyper-focused on me until that point. “Is this about the terrorists?” Daro spoke in a hushed tone, sounding and looking very concerned. His eyes darted about the room as if trying to spot some hidden threat in the shadows.

My brows furrowed for a moment, ah right, I had spun them that tale hadn't I? With all that had been going on, it had slipped my mind. The memory was still technically as crisp in my mind as when it had first been made, but having a nearly perfect memory didn't mean much if I didn't bother to actively recall the details.

“Ah, no.” I said awkwardly, trying to think of the best way to tell them I had lied to them. ”Now don’t get mad, but back then I hadn’t been strictly honest with you. While it was a matter of planetary security, it wasn’t actually about terrorists.” I frowned, genuine wistfulness creeping into my voice “I would give anything for it to be something so simple.”

“What is it?” Yaro asked, leaning forwards from her seat.

One might think that telling someone for the third time would make it easier, but if anything it felt like it got harder with each rendition. Every additional person that was sworn into the secret only served to create more points of failure. It was nerve racking.

“You are aware that my uncle Jor-El is the head of the Science Council, right?” Seeing their nods, I continued, “Two months before Brainiac's invasion, Jor-El made a discovery. The planet's core is unstable and is well on course for detonation. He tried to go to the Ruling Council with his findings but they looked into it and said he was mistaken.”

I shook my head, “I don't know why or how the Council decided he was wrong, but he isn't. My entire family ran the numbers, and we all verified his findings. Since then we have shown it to twelve other Science Caste members and they all agreed with us that Krypton will explode sometime within the next four years.”

Daro and Yaro wore matching looks of pale faced horror.

“I understand how hard it is to believe, but I swear to you it's-.”

“We believe you Blade of Rao.” Yaro spoke hurriedly but firmly.

“-the tru-...” I broke off in surprise, before continuing uncertainly. “...really? I mean, I’m glad you do, but don't you want to see some proof first? I brought all the data with me?” The holo-emitters on the Protection Unit came online to accentuate my point -Penny’s handiwork no doubt-, showing off various diagrams and charts in the air above us.

”You are the Blade of Rao.” Yaro replied simply. “I would never dare to doubt you, not for something so serious.”

I looked at Daro, he pursed his lips slightly. “I do believe you, Honored One.” He visibly hesitated before continuing. “But… if you could walk us through the information that you brought, perhaps it would allow us to better serve you?”

As the saying went, everything said before the word ‘but’ was bullshit.

I fought the urge to smile. Surprisingly, I found myself actually preferring his more cautious and skeptical stance over his sister's blind faith. Sure it was useful to have someone I didn't need to convince on my side, but getting someone with a bit more critical thinking skill and shrewdness on my side held a merit all its own.

“I would be more than happy to.” Saying so, I jumped into explaining the situation. I had to dumb it down a little for Yaro, but Daro kept up surprisingly well. Or maybe not so surprising considering he was in the medical branch of the Church, his knowledge base was far more comprehensive than the average church caste member.

When I finally finished telling them everything from the cores fate and our theory on its cause, to our scheme with the Council and planned exodus, my throat was more than a little dry.

By the end of it, Daro didn't look convinced, he looked disturbed. He stared off into space, by the set of his brows and the way he was muttering to himself, he seemed to be wrestling with something. I waited patiently for him to come to grips with whatever he was thinking.

“Radiation.” He spoke out loud to the room at large, before slowly turning to me. “The core is radioactive?” I nodded quietly, unsure what he was thinking, but I recognized that he was deep into his train of thought and didn't want to risk derailing him.

His reddish skin turned a few shades paler, and he lunged to his feet before darting out of the room. He returned a moment later with his communicator clutched in his hands. Daro looked sick as he frantically tapped away at it with trembling hands.

Part of me was worried that he was trying to betray me, but I suppressed it. Penny was monitoring all the traffic going in and out of this building, she would have shut him down already if he was doing anything suspicious.

Eventually, he found what he was looking for, with an upwards swipe he streamed it into the home's entertainment system. A crisp 3D model of a solar receptor appeared above the table. A few more taps and another solar receptor appeared next to it. At first glance, the two seemed identical, but on second glance there was a slight difference, the prominent ridges and ripples on its surface that were responsible for trapping and filtering the nanometer-sized wavelengths of radiation were different. It was a subtle thing, if they weren't right next to each other, I probably would have never spotted it.

The second model still had the same ridges and ripples as the first, but the peaks and valleys were less prominent. Like someone had taken a bit of sandpaper to it and made a half-hearted attempt at smoothing it out.

“For years we’ve occasionally been getting strange cases like these. Thirty years ago, it was only once, maybe twice a year. But in this last decade, we’ve seen the largest jump in cases, particularly in this last year. We couldn't figure out what was going on or what was causing this, but as the damage was easy enough to reverse, we didn't think much of it. The only commonality our investigation could find was that those afflicted generally lived in the subterranean or ground levels of Kandor. And relevantly, Kandor does have active geothermal plants under it. If some of the molten radioactive core managed to find its way into the upper magma flows… the amount of earth between the magma tunnels and the surface would negate almost all the radiation leakage. But constant exposure to trace amounts of it over the course of years if not decades could cause this sort of damage, especially in those with inherently sensitive receptors.”

He bit his lip while staring at the models. “It would explain so much, we’ve been looking at every variable we could think of. Bacterial, viral, air pollution, we even checked the genesis pods the afflicted came from to see if there was any correlation. We checked for radiation too, it was the one of the first things we checked, but it all came back clean. Hmmm. Maybe it was too low for the devices to detect? No, no, given how old the radiation issue would have had to be, it's more likely that the manufacturers had unknowingly used a tainted dataset to calibrate what was defined as normal background radiation.” He was in his own little world, he had stopped talking to me and had reverted to just muttering to himself with glazed eyes. ”We even got permission to use one of the Sentinels for a few hours. Your theory on the Sentinels being corrupted would explain why even it couldn't figure out what’s causing the damage…”

“Damn it!” He suddenly shouted, throwing his wrist comp at the wall, making me and Yaro jump.

I knew it was distressing, but I didn’t understand why he was so upset. He said himself that the damage was easily fixed. I looked at Yaro for explanation, only to pull up short. She was crying. A glance back at Daro’s turned away body showed a prominent tremble in his shoulders. I heard a wet sniffle.

Yaro wordlessly got up and wrapped her brother in a tight embrace from behind. Slowly she pulled and guided him back to the couch, where they just cuddled up and held each other.

I just watched on in complete confusion, just letting it play out.

“I’m sorry Honored One, I, we…” He clenched his eyes shut for a moment, squeezing out a pair of fresh tears. “The affliction took our mother.”

“How? I thought you said it was easily reversed?”

“For the other castes, it is a simple matter to correct. But those of the Church Caste have solar receptors that are engineered to be very effective at absorbing radiation. It strengthens our connection with Rao and is a boon in every other case, but in this… it only served to magnify the damage. By the time she got to a healing pod, it was deemed to be irreparable.“ Yaro squeezed her brother tighter. “She liked to spend her time in the lowest levels, said it was where she felt she could do the most good, ‘bringing the light to the darkness’ she called it.” He laughed bitterly. “Now I know it’s why she got sick.”

Daro pulled away from his sister, wiping his tears away furiously. When he looked back at me it was with determined eyes and a set jaw. “But enough of us, you came to us for a reason, Blade of Rao.” It was the first time Daro had ever called me that. “Name what you need and we shall do everything we can to assist you.” His sister pulled herself together a moment later, giving me a similarly fierce look.

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Penny floated in front of me, her new gold color bled into an obnoxious blue, then a toxic green, and she just kept cycling through different colors faster and faster until I had to look away or risk getting sick.

“I take it you like the new upgrade?” I laughed quietly at her colorful display.

“Like it? I love it.” She flattened out into a wafer thin white disk a few feet across, a relief painting of our ancestral home during sunset quickly bloomed on her surface. She even simulated the raised texture of the brush strokes. And most importantly, it was in full color.

Uncle Jor had apparently thrown together an upgrade package for Penny. Some sort of apology gift for scrambling her processors all those weeks ago. A thirty percent increase in computational power, and a new type of liquid geo which had highly variable nanoscale structures all across its surface. By changing the size and shape of the structures, Penny could change which wavelength of light was absorbed and which was reflected. In essence, she could change colors. The particles that made up the new liquid geo design were also about half the size, so Penny could form much finer details than before.

While the added complexity was rather processor intensive, the aforementioned increase to her overall processing capacity adequately nullified any potential drawbacks. Even with the added load, her processing power still came out higher than before. A net positive all around.

Just when I had started to get used to Penny’s new golden body, Jor had sprung this out of nowhere. He must have been working on it during his off time. How he managed this while still juggling all his other responsibilities, I had no clue.

“Alright, enough playing, we have a job to do.” We had just been about to leave the lab when a droid arrived delivering Penny's new upgrade. Knowing how much of a perfectionist Jor was, I knew he wouldn't have given anything to Penny that would have any glaring hiccups. So I allowed Penny to integrate with it then and there.

“Yes, Mistress!” Penny chirped, attaching herself to my wrists. Never once stopping her nauseatingly rapid color shifts. I didn't have the heart nor the stomach to tell her to stop, I just averted my gaze.

Unfortunately, I couldn't take my normal shuttle. Mine was perfectly serviceable for ferrying me between Argo and Krypton, but for this trip I had to take my Dad’s. His had much stronger sublight thrusters and much more robust inertial dampeners and deflector shields.

Considering my destination was a reconnaissance outpost at the edge of the system, I really needed the extra speed. If I had tried to take my shuttle, I would have been flying for over a week. With my Dad’s shuttle, I could make the trip within fifteen hours.

Thankfully, the shuttle was much larger than mine and had a lot more in terms of accommodations. A cramped but fully furnished living quarters and a surprisingly well equipped laboratory. Everything one could want while on a long trip.

With the limited processing power of the main computer, I couldn't get any meaningful work done. But the lab had just enough that I could at least take a crack at a few fun ideas that had been burning away in the back of my mind. My hands were almost shaking in excitement, I couldn't remember the last time I had been able to work on something I wanted to work on. It was always what I needed to work on. As a result, I had quite the backlog to burn through.

By the time the ship alerted me we were an hour away from our destination, I was the most relaxed I had been in a while. An utterly contented smile graced my face as I entered the front cabin, regulations dictated a pilot had to be at the controls when approaching any inhabited installation.

The points of light that were stars seemed to stretch ever so slightly out the window, and the familiar colors seemed off. An effect of hurtling through space at a little over sixty percent of C. I blinked and tilted my head, I just realized I had never traveled anywhere near this fast before. With the overpowered inertial dampeners, the inside of the ship was constrained to relatively normal physics, but the bending light and doppler shift I could see through the viewport made it impossible to forget. Outside of an atmosphere my personal shuttle could only safely reach three percent of C, so this was quite the jump up for me.

Occasionally the viewport would have to darken itself to compensate as the deflector shields struck microscopic and macroscopic particulates. At these speeds, each strike released a lot of energy. Even something as small as a grain of sand held enough kinetic energy to rip basketball sized holes in the shuttle's reinforced hull, saying nothing of the amount of radiation that would flood into the ship from a near relativistic impact.

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Every time the viewport dimmed represented a possible death. It should have terrified me, but honestly? I just thought it was rather beautiful. The explosions happened so fast and were left behind so quickly that they almost appeared like sped up fireworks. Each strike lit up the cabin in a riot of different colors.

Also, it helped that I knew there were three more equally strong shields layered behind the first one, and each of those shields had their own separate power generators. When failure meant death, redundancy was paramount.

Despite still being an hour away, the display had a crisp image of our destination. Software worked to offset the slight shape and color distortion, giving an accurate recreation of what the ship's sensors were seeing.

One of the four Eyes of Rao.

A several kilometer-long tube of gray metal. It was one of the most advanced observation platforms in the System. Capable of reading a book from two million light years away. And it could do all of that, in real-time.

It was able to achieve such a miraculous feat through the creation of a pinhole sized wormhole at its intended destination, just large enough to allow photons to pass through it and reach the waiting sensor array. Things like light delay, or even line of sight were made irrelevant. If not for the caveat that it couldn't create wormholes in the gravity well of a planet, the observation platform would have been damn near omniscient.

It could even be used to see into the past, to an extent at least. Creating a wormhole to intercept light at a specific distance in space would allow the sensors to capture ‘old’ light. With light having a generally constant speed, it was a surprisingly simple equation to calculate where to open a wormhole to view a specific time frame.

Despite knowing they were going to be there, the three light cruisers that suddenly materialized next to the Eye made me flinch a tiny bit. Their cloaking fields came offline as they challenged my approach. A quick authentication code later and the blaring of the multiple weapon locks cut off.

The Eyes of Rao were a very important piece of Krypton's infrastructure, they allowed us to safely keep abreast of events happening outside our System. Each of the four Eyes were held on complete opposite sides of the System. The only reason they were so far out into space and not parked comfortably in Krypton's orbit was due to the negative impact gravity had on wormhole stability.

More than one invasion had been thwarted by the early warning the Eyes could provide. Sure, we couldn't open a wormhole directly on a planet, but nothing stopped us from keeping note of their ship movements or the traffic around their shipyards. Or in a few rare instances, opening a wormhole directly inside the bridge of an enemy ship to see what jump coordinates they’d entered.

My reason for being here was to speak with the engineers in charge of maintaining the Eyes. With how important the Eyes were, I had to do it in person. Perhaps before Brainiac's invasion I could have done it over holovid, but security protocols had been tightened dramatically since then. Broadcasting sensitive information all the way across the System was a big no-no.

To start my project, I needed to pick the brains of the current experts in wormhole technology.

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“This way, Blade of Rao.” A Temple Guard called as he led me through glittering crystal halls.

We were deep inside the biggest Temple on Krypton. Supposedly, Rao had come down themself and had lit the flame that burned in this temple's heart, a flame that the followers had kept burning for over three hundred thousand years. The legend goes that the day the flame dies, Rao’s children will go with it.

Or so the stories went. I didn't really believe any of it, but then again, I also didn't believe yellow sunlight would be poisonous to me either. I was… cautiously pessimistic about the veracity of that tale. I was more than willing to believe the Temple tended to a flame at its center, but everything after that was… questionable.

Getting this meeting was surprisingly difficult, even with Daro and Yaro helping to expedite it as much as they could. Given the reactions I had seen so far from the faithful, I had thought all I would have to do was flash my crest a few times and be ushered in. But instead I had been put on a waiting list. Three weeks of sitting on my hands, and here I was, finally allowed to see the High Priest of the entire Order.

The guard was dressed in deep scarlet armor, with golden synthetic muscle fibers peeking between the plates. A spear in one hand, and a buckler on the other arm. The weapon choice looked archaic, but considering he was wearing power armor, I was willing to bet the weapons were more than they seemed.

I thanked the Temple Guard as I walked past him and into the office.

“Greetings, High Priest. Thank you very much for meeting with me.” The moment I crossed the threshold, I bowed formally, with my right hand pressed flat against the crest on my chest.

“My, how polite!” A man's voice exclaimed delightedly from across the room. “Please, there is no need for someone of your station to bow and scrape.”

Now with permission given, I straightened myself, I could look upon him without fearing some unintended insult. Being ‘proper’ was such a pain. But I didn't know if he felt the same about protocol, so needs must and all that.

The High Priest was a man of large stature, at least six and a half feet tall. Like the rest of his kind he had the same metallic red hair, ruby hued eyes, and red tinted skin. Though I noted that he had a few strands of gray scattered about his shoulder length hair. But unlike the Council, he still held some youth, looking no older than forty.

I sat in the chair he gestured to. Smiling agreeably when he poured me a cup of a vibrant green liquid. I took a hesitant sip at first, not recognizing the drink, it held a bitter scent that was rather off putting. My eyes widened at the lemony mint flavor that exploded onto my tongue, it was refreshing in the most delightful way. I sipped at it eagerly for a moment.

“Good isn't it?” The High Priest smiled at me. “We make it entirely ourselves, we have our own hydroponics center.”

After draining half the cup, I stopped long enough to ask. “What is it made from?” I had never tasted anything like it before.

“It comes from the Lorenor fruit. A most peculiar plant, it only produced a single fruit once every few years. I had this brought up from storage this evening. Unfortunately, there was a fire a couple millennia ago, and we lost the entire grove.”

I paused mid sip, a sense of embarrassed horror infusing me as I realized I had just guzzled an apparently ultra rare drink like it was water. The half cup I had drunk already must have cost a fortune!

He laughed at my panicked look. “Oh don't worry. We lost the original species, true. But we were able to reconstruct it just fine.” He frowned a moment. “Unless of course we only think we’re making a faithful reproduction?... it has been a few thousand years since someone has tasted the original after all…” He hummed thoughtfully, before shaking his head in bemusement.

“So, it's not a really rare drink?”

“No, Lady El. While it is rare, it's only so rare because we choose not to make it in higher quantities.”

With my heart put at ease, I sipped at once more. “It is really good. You guys could probably make quite the fortune selling it.”

“Perhaps, but then it wouldn’t taste quite the same.” He shrugged, “I find that all the best experiences in life are those that you indulge in sparingly. And besides, what use would we have for money? We are a Temple, not a corporation.”

“Yes. I see what you mean.” I nodded agreeably, but internally I wondered how truthful he was being. Generally speaking, one doesn't make it to the head of any organization without being good at manipulation. Was he truly so devout that money held no value to him? Or was he merely acting to fit the role better?

Ugh. I hated all things politics. I wished I could just wash my hands of it and just go back to my nice simple lab. Science was easy, people were hard. Even with the weeks of practice, having to second guess what everyone said was draining in a way that I didn’t think I could ever get used to. And I hoped it was something that I would never have to get used to.

“Lady El, while I would love nothing more than to enjoy your company, I believe you had a specific intent in calling for this meeting?”

“I did. But before I continue I must ask, how secure is this room?” The smile I had worn since my arrival dropping entirely.

He stared at me for a moment, his own smile dimming until it was a prominent frown. “Ah, it's going to be one of those days, is it?” He laughed softly, almost miserably. “Normally, I would tell individuals that come in here seeking clandestine conversations to leave my Temple and never return. This is a holy place, and I would not see it besmirched with falsities and corruption.”

“High Priest I assure you, it's not like that!” I tried to pull him out of his speech before he got too far into it, he had the completely wrong idea about my intent.

He pursed his lips as he stared at me, sighing before giving a small grudging nod. “But, because you were chosen by the Sword I will give you the benefit of the doubt and allow you one chance to prove to me why I should not bar you from this Temple.”

I wanted to blurt it out and explain, but I couldn’t risk that. “How secure is this room? What I wish to speak to you about requires utmost security, please, answer as truthfully as you can. I know that's not what you want to hear, but I can’t elaborate further without your answer.” Even saying as much as I did may have been too much if someone were already listening in.

His frown lightened into simple pursed lips. “This room is the second most secure room in the entire building.”

“...is it possible we could move to the most secure room?” I knew I was pushing my luck and cringed as I asked it, but it needed to be asked.

“No.”

I bit my lip pensively, we didn't have the time to try a new strategy. It was time to go big or go home. “Krypton is going to be destroyed in the next five years and if you don't help me we will all die. We tried telling the Council, but they wouldn’t listen.”

His eyes widened and his mouth opened ever so slightly before clicking shut. He stared at me with intense eyes, I did my best not to shift in my seat, maintaining posture and eye contact was key here. Nothing I said was a lie, but I couldn't afford for him to misinterpret my body language or something.

His shoulders slumped and he rubbed the bridge of his nose tiredly. “It would seem that you will be visiting our most secure room after all.” With those vaguely ominous words, he got up and gestured for me to follow him back into the hall.

I made to follow him, but my mind was racing a mile a minute. What did that reaction mean? Was the most secure room a prison cell? Was this a trick of some kind? Was he in cahoots with the Council? It took all my willpower to maintain my calm facade. Penny squeezed my arms in silent support.

Every ounce of my being told me to sprint as fast as I could out of the temple and hide. Instead, I bit my tongue and kept walking behind him placidly. I probably would have prayed as well for good measure, but with the High Priest being the main cause of my distress, I didn't think it would offer nearly as much comfort.

The noticeable uptick in temple guards lining the walls as he led me through passage after passage didn't help my stressed heart at all. Eventually, we got to a hallway that was filled entirely with row after row of guards. Four to a row, and all of them stood shoulder to shoulder, completely blocking any attempt at entering the hall. With there being five rows that meant twenty men and women in their gleaming power armor, and all of them standing at pristine attention, eyes vigilant and facing our direction.

The High Priest held up his hand and flared his crest waiting patiently as the lead guard stepped out of formation to scan it with a beam from his gauntlet. A moment later the guard slammed the butt of his spear into the ground, and like magic, the entire formation smoothly stepped to either side, creating a narrow passage of armor and weapons for us to walk through.

The guard who had stepped forward blocked my path with his spear. "No weapons past this point."

I opened my mouth to tell him I wasn't armed, then I remembered I'd given Penny a taser function after the debacle with my family. With a gesture, Penny reluctantly detached herself from my arms. It was uncomfortable to be separated like this, but both of us knew how important this meet was, we couldn't afford to make a scene here.

Silently I followed the High Priest as he stepped into the gap. I nearly jumped when the guards I passed stepped back into their original position, sealing the path behind me.

Well, at least now I didn't have to stress about whether I should run or not. That ship had officially sailed. Nothing left to do but press onward, wherever it took me.

Once we got through the guards, I finally had enough room to peek around the High Priest. Ahead of us was what appeared to be a vault door, a very familiar vault door. My eyes widened, it was the spitting image of the door deep beneath our ancestral home.

Even the opening combination was the same. My disbelief grew even further as the door swung open to reveal an equally familiar room. Same vaulted ceiling, same black obsidian plinth. It was all the same but with one glaring exception. Instead of a sword embedded in a mass of red crystals, this room's plinth held a roaring scarlet bonfire.

I was so shocked that I didn't even flinch at the sudden burning sensation of solar radiation.

The High Priests laughed at my no doubt shocked expression. “Curious isn't it? That our most sacred vault has a twin under your home?”

My eyes jerked away from the room and locked onto him in shock. “How do you know about that?!” I had been under the impression that nobody outside the family had ever seen the Sword Vault before.

“The crystal the blade was forged from came from those flames.” He gestured to the bonfire.

“I-” I didn't really know how to respond to that. The sword was related to the Temple? Did that mean the flame was actually divine like the stories said?...Did that mean the Sword was actually divine?

Part of me wanted to doubt his words, but what other reason could there be for them to have an exact replica of the Sword Vault. Had the El’s copied the Temple, or had the Temple copied the El’s? I tried to puzzle it out, but after a bit of circling I decided to put a pin in it. None of that mattered, I came to get the High Priest on our side, not to figure out the origin of our family heirloom.

“You're no doubt wondering why I brought you down here. And the answer is that.” He pointed at the bright red flames at the center of the room. “No one can lie in its presence.” He turned back to me, crimson eyes almost glowing in the red light. “All falsehoods are burned away in Rao’s light.” He said the last bit with a hushed fervent tone, as he quoted scripture.

“Okay… so, umm, you want me to just say it again?” I shifted uncomfortably, the glint in his eyes made me want to back away.

He shook his head and led me up the plinths steps and closer to the flame. The heat was almost unbearable this close to the naked flame, but it was nothing compared to the intense burning of my solar receptors. “I want you to say it, in there.” Again he gestured at the fire.

“In there.” I mouthed silently, before I realized what he was implying. “Wait, you want me to go inside the fire?! Are you crazy?!” The last part came out before I could stop it. Suddenly despite my body feeling like it was already burning, I felt ice water in my veins. I was quite possibly alone in a room with a crazy man who held a lot of influence and power, not to mention a small army of loyal guards within shouting range outside. A crazy man who seemed keen on having me thrown into a bonfire.

Perhaps calling him crazy wasn't the best move I could have made. Slowly I edged backwards, warily watching for any sudden moves on his end.

He smiled bemusedly. “Perhaps that was a bit thoughtless of me. My apologies, Lady El, I believe a demonstration is in order.” With that, he turned away from me and stepped into the flames.

Despite myself my hand lunged forwards belatedly to pull him back, but by then his form had already disappeared beneath the shifting veil of lapping red tongues.

I winced, waiting for the pained screams of agony to begin. But nothing of the sort happened, instead, the High Priest reappeared, stepping back out of the flame with not so much as a singe mark to show for it.

“How did you…” I stared at him in equal parts shock and relief. Seeing someone burn alive was not on my wish list, thank you very much.

“The flames will not hurt a faithful child of Rao.”

I stared at the roaring fire, I could still feel its heat on my skin, already my lips were beginning to get chapped from the wall of heat pouring off of it. I swallowed my painfully dry throat before asking, “And what if the child isn't faithful?” I turned to face him, trying to will him to understand that neither the child nor the lack of faith was a hypothetical in that question.

He slowly kneeled in front of me, reaching a hand out and patted my head softly, almost caressing. “Rao does not care if you are faithful to him, child. Being faithful to oneself is what Rao expects of us. Spreading his light does not require you to be on good terms with Rao. Be true to yourself, burn bright and fierce, Little Light. Whether the light you cast is great or terrible is up to you, but so long as you shine Rao will always welcome you.” He cracked an easy smile, easing the sudden solemnity with a joke. “Though that being said, I wouldn't mind seeing your face more often at mass.”

I let out a surprised laugh at the unexpected attempt at humor. Though that bit of joy was quick to dry up as I turned back to the fire.

“Be trueful to myself, huh?” I muttered to myself thoughtfully. Everything I was doing was because I wanted to save Krypton, I held no ulterior motives and that was the truth. “Alright, I can do that.”

Without further delay, I made to step into the flames.

And my receptors sang.

The sharp intake of air as the fire engulfed me was purely unplanned. I couldn't help it, the sudden disappearance of the familiar burning feeling was jarring and the soft buzzing warmth that replaced it was equally shocking. It had been so long since I had last felt it, almost a full year since my receptors had been crippled. After spending so long in some form of pain, the sudden reversal was almost overwhelming.

I breathed freely for the first time in what felt like a lifetime. I closed my eyes and basked in the blissful sensation. The pain had been a constant presence over the last a year, and until that moment, I’d never realized just how miserable it had made me.

Was I cured? Did the flames heal me? Did Rao heal me? ‘If you did, I’ll pray to you every night!’ I prayed silently.

It was only after a bit more luxuriating in the flames that I realized I couldn't hear the High Priest over the roar of the fire. Somewhat awkwardly, I stepped in the direction I thought I had come from, it was hard to tell direction when everything was fire.

I stumbled as I exited the fire. The sudden return of pain was just as surprising as its sudden absence. I guess I wasn't cured, I glanced back at the fire with the smallest bit of resentment now.

“See that wasn't so bad.” The High Priest patted my shoulder as he cheered. “Now, unfortunately, you're gonna have to do it again. You sort of walked into it before I could explain what I needed you to do.”

Oh. I had sort of expected the requirements to just be that I walked in, it had never crossed my mind that there would be other steps involved. Oops.

“I need you to repeat what you said back in my office, then immediately walk into the flames.” He warned seriously. “But remember, you must speak only the truth, and nothing but the truth.”

That was fine, I hadn't been lying at all earlier. “Krypton is going to explode in the next five years, and I believe that with your help we can save our race…” I paused a moment to think about the next wording choice, I didn't want to accidentally tell any sort of lie by poor word choice. “...and my family tried to go to the council with the news but were brushed off and threatened with the phantom zone if they tried to tell others about their discovery.”

The moment the last syllable crossed my lips I stepped into the fire once more. Again, just like the last time, the fire seemed to temporarily fix my receptors. I took more than a few moments to just enjoy the sensation before stepping back out into the harsh unforgiving world without flames.

When I stepped back out, it was to a grim faced High Priest. “I hope you don't think less of me, but I had dearly hoped that you were telling lies.”

“Tell me Lady El, what can I do to be of assistance?”

----------------------------------------

My eyes were firmly shut. Listing off random equations in my head. Anything to keep my mind off of the humming crackling sound reverberating throughout the ship.

The fact that I knew the actual physics behind the sound didn't help. Being able to mathematically breakdown exactly how much pressure was required to make a forcefield flex was not a comfort. But flexing was fine, it meant the forcefield was doing its job. Unfortunately, logic didn't help me ignore the haunting sound.

Funny enough, even if the forcefield failed entirely, the ship's hull was sturdy enough to retain its integrity. So realistically speaking, I shouldn't have even been bothered by the sound.

The thing that should have terrified me was the fact that if the artificial gravity failed for any reason, I would be crushed to death near instantly. But the gravity generator wasn't the one that was making the scary noises. Fear was a strange thing at times.

Descending into a gas giant was not my idea of a good time. But apparently, it was where my new lab was going to be. It was located a thousand kilometers under the surface of the Rao Systems only gas giant; Sorvan.

According to Jor, it was actually the same lab he had been assigned when he was working on the Phantom Zone projector.

Officially, it was because the intense gravity of Sorvan would rip apart anything in the event that something went wrong with containment. Spatial anomalies and gravity did not get along, there was a reason most naturally occurring wormholes existed in deep space. Sarvons’ natural hundred and twenty G’s made it the most ideal location in the Rao System.

Unofficially, it was because the average citizen tended to get nervous at the thought of Thinkers doing the equivalent of poking space-time with a stick to see what happens. So the compromise was made that such projects must happen in these labs, far from Krypton.

A beeping sound forced me to reluctantly open my eyes. The ship was nearly there.

Looking out the windows was useless, a solid wall of whitish-blue methane was all that could be seen. I had to rely entirely on the instruments to navigate. Luckily, the lab's overpowered beacon was easy to pick up, and its heavy metal construction stood out starkly against the gaseous backdrop.

A massive sphere, two-thousand meters in diameter, hung motionless in Sarvons’ crushing atmosphere. Walls so thick and dense that even as close as I was, my ship's scanners couldn't penetrate it. It was overly engineered to the point of ridiculousness, but considering its location and the kinds of exotic experiments it had seen over the many centuries, there was no such thing as ‘overly engineered’.

Massive doors yawned open, my comparatively tiny ship slipped inside easily. I only relaxed once the thick doors sealed themselves shut. The lab's shielding, thick walls, and gravity generator were orders of magnitude greater than the ones in my ship. With the doors closed, this was arguably the safest place I had ever been in.

Waiting in the hangar to greet me were the other nine Thinkers assigned to the project. Despite it being my idea, I wasn't the project lead. My pride would have been hurt, if I had any. I had held the title of Thinker for less than a year, if I was honestly being considered to lead such a vital project, I would have been insulted. As it was, I considered myself lucky I was allowed to even participate.

I was the last of our crew to physically arrive, they had all been on-site for weeks. My participation thus far had been done remotely, sufficient for the grunt work I had been saddled with. But now that they were moving away from the theoretical, my physical presence was required.

“Greetings. I hope we can work well together.” I bowed in formal greeting to the assembled scientists.