Chapter Text
Dear Clark,
You asked me to tell you about Krypton. Well, here goes nothing! I know uncle Jor-El sent his mind capsule with you as a guide but you can only program so much into a limited space, and there's more to a world than history and science.
You were a miracle baby. Did I ever tell you that? The first naturally born baby in over three centuries. Our scientists believed we'd lost the ability long ago but, there you were. Father always did say Jor-El was the smart one. Of course, Jor-El was a biologist and Father was a botanist but still. He always used to tell me I was meant for great things. I used to think he peaked at my gene-code and was trying to give me hints. On Krypton you're not born, not in the traditional sense anyway. You're grown using the genetic material from your parents and engineered to your greatest potential. We were very concerned with that; potential. To be our best selves. So, when you're born you have your whole life already laid out for you. Your career, social class, even who you'll marry. Although that's a bit less strict science and more woo-woo in my opinion. Mother used to say Rao had tied red strings of destiny to the inside of our ribs to lead us to our perfect match. I liked that idea better than being genetically engineered to love a specific person at first sight.
I know how that sounds to someone who didn't grow up there. But Krypton was utopia compared to other planets. Sure we had our faults, which of course led to our destruction. Humans have strange ideas about free will. Like it's the be all end all of happiness. We had free will to a point; you operated within your own will in the circle in which you were placed. We made our own choices, free to make mistakes, but the structure of our society limited those mistakes a great deal. We had no poverty, no issue with world hunger. Everyone fulfilled a purposeful function that gave them personal satisfaction while also benefiting society as a whole. That probably invokes some strange sci-fi robot dystopian image for you, nerd that you are. But it was what it was.
I still dream about it. The violet oceans of Turan, the Yalaran blossoms that grew outside my bedroom window, the smell of the wind in the hot season. I dream of day trips to the Haloran valley, swimming in the lake and Cara-Uam. The sound of Ora's laughter. I miss the sky. It was bigger than on Earth, wider and deeper. You could see the stars better. I miss our constellations; Saroium and Ulapturus, Calamara and Hamam Ura. We lived on the edge of Argo City, next to the Terraform compound were Father worked, trying to find a way for Kryptonians to inhabit other planets. If only he had succeeded.
Tuam moro, it means 'here are my thoughts'. As you know Krypton was centuries ahead of Earth in terms of technology. Holograms, voice messaging across interplanetary lines, the sort of stuff that only exists in science fiction here. That was reality for us. However, letter writing, tuam moro, was considered to be a gesture of great respect. If you wanted to make a good impression, or express deep emotion or show someone how much you trusted them; you wrote a letter. By hand. We had to practice in school. I used to hate it, I could never understand what the point was when you could just call someone and speak face to face.
I remember once, in academy, my best friend Ban-Ko would write little notes and pass them to me. Silly things, nonsense to distract me when I was frustrated, make me laugh. Mada-Ra caught us once during a test and I thought for sure we'd end up on punishment duty in the fields. We were supposed to be writing to our Academy head to express our gratitude or something. But she just stood there, holding Ban-Ko's stupid note and smiling before she handed it back to me. She said; 'My husband used to write me notes just like these when we were young,' and then winked at me! I was so red in the face Ban called me Galoran for the rest of the day. (I don't know how well versed you are in Kryptonian astrology, but Galoran was the name of a red giant four kriniks from our solar system, we'd just learned about it and Ban thought we was funny.)
I was going to marry him. Or the Kryptonian version anyway, it's not entirely the same as it was on earth but it's generally similar. It's more of a formality than anything else. He was my Halanath Morum, which means 'my heart in you'. It's essentially just a genetic matching of our respective DNA but still, he was my best friend. He died before Krypton, after a terrorist attack at the Academy caused the ceiling to collapse. That was the year you were born, a year before Krypton died. I never thought I'd be able to live without him. Losing a match, even a young one like that, unconfirmed... most don't survive it. Father said it was because your body couldn't compensate for the loss of it's partner so eventually it just died. I didn't have much time to grieve of course, after that happened they discovered the terrorists had disrupted a planetary fissure and jump started magnum pari-am which is basically the apocalypse.
It was a long year, let's just say. The highlight of which being you by the way. Our very own miracle baby. It's sad Ora never got to meet you, she would have loved you. She was our cousin, Astra's daughter. She was tri-born; engineered from a three-way bond. Triangle marriages weren't uncommon per-se, but they were seen as special, and the children born from them even more so. She was something else; artisan track, completely beautiful. She was five years older than me and I adored her. She looked like Astra for the most part; long blonde hair and the same fine bone structure. But when she smiled she was the spitting image of In-Ra. She had their eyes too, soft and brown with little crinkles at the corner when she laughed. In-Ra was my favorite relative, born with a genetic defect; a mistake in the DNA coding which resulted in a non-gender. At least that's what Father said. But In-Ra was beautiful, and funny and so full of love. You couldn't help but adore them, and who else could have put up with two people as stiff necked and stubborn as Astra and Non? Ora was just like them. She was slotted to travel to the neighboring system to study the masters in the Tan quadrant after she finished at the training school. She died in an earthquake in Haloran Jungle two years before you were born. In-Ra was never the same.
Well this is a gloomy letter, sorry about that! I'm sure you would much rather talk about the good things on Krypton than the sad stuff. I know! Your mother, Lara, she used to collect these beautiful little figurines, they were of fidiha, which are sort of like horses only they have two tails and they're gem colored. She had so many of them, all in this little room at their house. Tiny exquisit carved ones made out of jade rock or matekite, even one made out of wood from Trinia; a forest planet not far from ours. She had this one in particular; it was all black and a little shiny with bright blue gems for eyes. It was so life like. I used to run my fingers over the tail whenever I was at their house. She said it was given to her by her mother, who had been from the east. Apparently she was descendent from the Tilian Line, or the old Royalty. The Monarchy was dissolved centuries ago of course, but the bloodline never quite ran out. So I guess that makes you a prince huh? Lucky.
How is Metropolis these days anyway? I haven't been there since last Christmas when the General showed up and got in a fight with Lois. Lovely man the General. Really, what a riot. If I never see him again it'll be too soon. I met Jimmy today. Thank you for, you know, outing me to him. Appreciate it. How is it okay again for you to tell your best friend about the whole alien thing but I'm not allowed to tell mine? Winn is way more trustworthy than Jimmy is! Just because James is unfairly good looking does not make him better at keeping secrets.
Diana say's I should just tell him and damn the consequences and really, who am I to argue with Wonder Woman? Winn deserves to know, he's been my best friend for over five years. It feels weird not telling him, he's practically family at this point. Besides, if Bruce gets mad then I'll just blame Diana and let them duke it out. You know he's totally scared of her right? Wise man. I mean, I can bench press a bus and I'm scared of Diana. I know you like to pretend you're not but we can all see through that. Everyone is scared of Diana, she's terrifying.
Alex is here now. I have a date tonight, some online thing. Eliza said I should try and ‘get out there’ or whatever. I tried to explain that I don’t date but she wasn’t really listening. She gets sort of weird when I talk about Krypton or, y’know, the fact that I’m an alien. I think she likes to pretend I’m ‘normal’.
I know she's just worried about me but honestly, it's a little suffocating. It's one thing to have the League walk on eggshells around me like I'm a bomb or something but this? I'm not a naive little girl anymore, if I ever was. In spite of what you all seem to think I am entirely capable of taking care of myself. And what's so great about being normal anyway? I can fly! Being able to fly kicks the pants off 'normal' any day. I just wish she'd leave me alone about the whole dating thing. I've been resigned to being a cat lady for years now, or a dog lady. Bunny lady? I could totally be a bunny lady.
Alex is glaring at me now so I must leave. Wish me luck! And seriously Clark, if you ever want to talk about Krypton just ask me. It’s not like I have anyone else to talk to about it.
Balarath Iri-Rao
By Rao's Light
Kara Zor-El