Chapter Text
She’s in a dark cave. Lights blink from an unfamiliar console. She leans on a railing, and in front of her, two men stand facing each other. The other turns, and she sees only one face shared between both people. Though they are identical, they are not the same. She remembers one as the man with questions. The other, she remembers cradling in her arms just as she had in his.
“I’m glad you’re okay,” she hears herself speak in an unfamiliar language that she can somehow understand. “I have to ask you something.” She walks forward, toward the man that she had saved and who had saved her. “When you found me in that hole that they put me in, and I wasn’t Kal-El, why did you help me?”
“Because… you needed help.”
Kara Zor-El rolled off her bed, tumbling to the cold floor in a heap of blankets. A hand instantly flew to the side of her head as she tried to manage the throbbing pain in her mind. Messy strands of black hair splayed out in front of her as she tried to roll out of her sheets.
The door to her chambers slid open and a maid hurriedly entered, shoes clacking against the pristine marble.
“Mistress Kara!” the maid cried out, rushing over to the form on the ground. “Are you alright?”
“Mm fine,” Kara mumbled in response. She tried to open her eyes, but the lights emanating from the fixtures inset throughout the room proved to be blinding to her, and the pressure in her head refused to alleviate. “Head… hurts…” She groaned. “Barry…”
The maid scurried away but returned just as soon as she had left. She gathered and cradled Kara in her arms.
Kara quickly felt a small orb being pushed between her lips.
“Swallow, and drink,” the maid said, raising a glass of water to her lips.
Kara let the orb fall as far back as she could, and then took a long draught to swallow it. Almost immediately, the pressure and tension released in her mind, but the memories of the dream that she had so vividly experienced went with it, dissipating into the void of her thoughts.
“Ugh,” Kara moaned, sitting upright with her back against the side of her bed. “I’ve never experienced that before. Thank you, Glora.”
The maid—Glora—had a concerned look on her face, but nonetheless weakly smiled. “Are you sure you won’t need attention? I can call for the Thinker Guild—”
Kara waved her off, gingerly rising to her feet with one hand holding onto her bedsheet to cover herself. “That won’t be necessary, Glora. I’m fine.” Her tone left little room for disagreement, and evidently Glora understood that.
“Of course, mistress. I’ll be outside if you need me.”
Kara waited for Glora to retreat out of the chamber and for the door to slide shut before she sighed and threw her bedsheet back onto the bed where it belonged. For a moment, she shut her eyes closed and tried to remember what it was that had her so wrapped up in its evocative embrace. But try as she might, nothing came to mind beyond a simple flash of red color.
She shook her head at the futile effort and strode toward the bath.
Today was a relatively warm day in Kandor, and Kara chose a flowing summer dress to go along with the weather. Her relatively short hair—a rather fashionable look in certain ranked circles of her age—was parted and styled by Glora to keep any strands from falling onto her face. In her own slightly vain opinion, she looked every part the daughter of the House of El that she was.
“Ah, there’s my beautiful daughter,” her father, Zor-El’s voice, rang out as she rounded down the stairs of their villa home, perched on the top of a hill on the outskirts of Kandor’s dense urban agglomeration. “I see that she has finally decided to wake up.”
“Zor!” her mother, Alura In-Ze, admonished, smacking his hand. She sat at the dining table with two other familiar figures. “Dear, come join us—your aunt and uncle are here to visit.”
“Uncle Jor, Aunt Lara,” Kara greeted with a perfectly practiced smile.
Jor-El, for his part, looked at his wife sheepishly before returning to his breakfast of assorted fruits. Lara smiled at Kara, whose eyes naturally wandered to the older woman’s round belly.
“Only another four months to go,” Lara explained, taking a sip from her glass of water.
“To be frank, I’m surprised that the Council has chosen to turn a blind eye to this for so long,” Zor commented in between bites. “What you’re doing flies in the face of culture itself.”
“Krypton’s first natural birth in millennia,” Jor agreed. “But it’s a necessary thing, and I think the Council will—or has—agreed. They could have forced us if they wanted to, but they have not.” He paused. “That means something.”
“Perhaps they wish to see change?” Alura offered.
“Impossible,” Zor scoffed. “They are as much bidden to their genetic engineering as we are to ours. We cannot fight against that. Not without, oh, years of somatic reconditioning or some other form of genetic alteration.”
“Which is exactly why Jor and I want our little baby Kal to be free,” Lara spoke up.
“Oh, is that the name you two have chosen? It’s a lovely name for a lovely boy!” Alura excitedly said.
“Yes,” Jor nodded. “Kal-El, the first natural son of Krypton in living memory.” Kara could almost see him puff out his chest with pride. “He will be the future of our people.”
Zor shrugged. “That’s a lot of pressure to put on a child who hasn’t even been born yet. And what if something goes wrong? A woman’s body is no genesis chamber.” He ignored the stares from Lara and Alura. Kara, for her part, kept her head focused on the ripe fruit on her plate.
“Lara and Kal are perfectly healthy,” Jor contended, seemingly sensing the tension around the dining table. “And we have had some of the finest Thinkers in Kandor see to it that their health remains so.”
A semi-awkward silence fell upon the group, and soon enough, all of the parties at the table had finished their plates, with Jor and Lara standing up.
“We must be going, but thank you for the hospitality,” Lara diplomatically offered. Alura smiled in return.
“What would we be if we did not offer the hospitality of the House of El to our own kin?” Zor replied. “You are always welcome in our home.” His head turned. “Kara.”
Kara smiled again. “Uncle Jor, Aunt Lara, I hope you both have safe travels. It was a pleasure to see you both this morning.”
“Thank you, Kara,” Lara reflected the smile almost identically, causing Kara to internally cringe at how fake it seemed plastered on the face of another. “And when Kal is born, I hope that you will see fit to come and visit often – I’m sure that he’ll be very happy to see his cousin.”
Kara nodded, wiping the practiced smile off of her face – at least until she could practice some more in front of a mirror.
“I will see you both out,” Alura offered, walking with Jor and Lara down the hall toward the front entrance of their residence. Kara stood with her father, watching the three disappear down the corridor.
“Jor never changes,” Zor muttered, almost to himself, though Kara knew that he was testing the waters with her and fishing for a comment of some kind. He had always taken it upon himself to prepare her for the high society of Krypton, and things like this—even about his own family—seemed to be a part of that preparation. “Even as a grown man of many cycles, he still insists on,” Zor gestured wildly upward with one hand, “being a rebel. Him! He is the chief scientist of the Council, and yet he continues to defy them so.”
“It seems unwise to do so,” Kara generically replied. “The Council is the law of Krypton.”
Zor eyed his daughter, and Kara resolved to stand tall and not wither under his gaze. “Exactly, daughter. It seems that not all of our wisdom is lost on you.” He walked across the table to pick up his datapad. “And you are soon to come of age, so you will be expected to carry the responsibilities of someone of your stature.” He looked up from his datapad. “That includes a husband with whom you are to be bound.”
“Father,” Kara began, slightly turning under her father’s stare, “I am… not ready for that. Yet.” She added the last word as her father began to frown.
“Indeed, you are still a child at heart.” He put the datapad back on the dining table. “Come, Kara, and dress yourself accordingly – you are coming with me to my meeting.”
“What?” Kara exclaimed. “But I had plans—”
“Your friends can wait,” Zor interjected, gathering his things without looking at her. “It is time for you to take responsibility as a citizen of Krypton. I will wait for you in the skimmer.”
Kara gritted her teeth, but she gave no reply as she watched her father walk down the corridor.
The skimmer flew over the vistas of Kandor’s outer rings. In the hazy air and orange-red tint of Krypton’s red star Rao, the mountains, hills, and valleys that made up Krypton’s last and largest city were beautiful as they flew across. Were it not for the mandate by her father, Kara would have loved to feel the morning air blow across her on the back of a war kite. Her uncle Jor had one—H’Raka—who she had ridden once years before. Of course, Zor had since forbidden it after learning that Jor had allowed her a single trip. A skimmer was as close as she had gotten since, but it didn’t bring her the same sheer exhilaration that H’Raka had, soaring and freewheeling through an endless sky.
Kara loved to fly.
“Now, you are to be on your best behavior, Kara,” Zor spoke up, deigning to look up from his datapad for the first time on the entire ride. Outside the glass canopy of the skimmer, Kara could see that they were already approaching the tall spire that house the Legislation Chamber and the Council of Krypton. “The Council is the highest law of our world, and to be in their presence is an honor not often granted. I brought you here today with me in the hopes that you will be graced with that honor more than I have been.”
She fidgeted in her seat. After being forced to join her father, she was obligated to switch from a loose dress into a formal gown. Bare shoulders and arms were replaced with a heavy tunic and corset, and the gown extended to nearly the ground. It was a tight and hot affair, nothing like anything she would have wanted to wear in the growing heat of Rao. And that was inside the cool, temperature-controlled interior of the skimmer. If she had to actually feel the growing heat of the outdoors in the gown, she would’ve rather ripped it off and enjoyed the shocked look on her father’s face.
Shaking herself out of her reverie, Kara stood up as the skimmer came to landing with a distinct thud on the platform. Outside, she could see guards on either side of the platform doors, and the skimmer’s stairs unfolded to grant her access down.
“Allow me,” Zor said, raising a hand. Kara refused the temptation to ignore it and took her father’s hand.
Zor guided Kara down the steps, which she needed given the extremely restrictive range of motion the gown granted her legs, and she barely avoided tripping on the slight heel of her shoe when she touched down on the platform itself. She took a moment to stabilize herself and retract her hand from her father, who stood there with a straighter back than she had seen him with in years.
“Remember, Kara, your manners,” Zor whispered, and he began to walk. Kara followed closely behind, always sure to remain three steps behind her father in her customary place.
It was a song and dance that she had learned since she was a young girl – how to be the proper daughter of a ranked house, and the House of El, no less. What to say and what to do were things so deeply engrained in her that she was sure that she would be dead before she forgot them. Her father need not have worried, because she was not going to fail here. Not on this.
The doors slid open, and Kara couldn’t wait to get inside the tower itself, out from the air of Krypton that was steadily growing warmer. The summer season of Kandor was relatively short, but that only made it all the more noticeable when it did come. In a month and a half, it would be gone, but that did little to help her now. So she relished the blast of cool air that accompanied the inside of the tower, even if it did smell a little stale by comparison.
“This way, Zor of House El,” an attendant gestured to them. Zor nodded his head, and Kara followed behind. “The Council is currently in session with an unexpected visitor. I am instructed to let you enter now.”
“Very well,” Zor replied, glancing at Kara for a brief moment. “We are ready.”
The attendant nodded her head and typed on the control panel. Within seconds, the massive doors that led out of the antechamber swung open, revealing the expansive Council chamber. As they walked in, Kara couldn’t help but look up and around in a discreet manner. Even growing up in a ranked house, she had never quite seen a chamber like this. The ceiling spiraled up so high that it must have been the top of the spire. Arches curved inward from pillars, with intricate carvings and decorations adorning the architectural designs courtesy of countless generations of Artisans putting their talents to work.
As they strode into the chamber, it became clear that there was someone else in front of them, facing the Council and not in an amicable mood by the motion of his body and arms.
“General Zod,” the lead Council member, an elderly woman, spoke out. Her voice echoed a little throughout the chamber, “that is enough. We have entertained you for long enough today, and we have more business to conduct outside of your presence. The Sword of Rao will remain as it is.”
The man—General Zod—huffed with a dramatic shift of his shoulders, and he spun around and walked past Zor, barely missing his shoulder. As he passed, he locked eyes with Kara for a moment or two before continuing on, his face composed in a determined look.
“Zor of House El,” the same Council member greeted.
Zor bowed deeply, and Kara followed. “Your High Eminence. Esteemed members of the Council,” Zor intoned.
Kara followed suit. “Your High Eminence. Esteemed members of the Council.”
The lead Council member, the High Eminence, smiled as Kara and her father raised themselves both back up from the bow. “I see at least this one has been raising his child correctly. Dru-Zod could learn much from Zor-El.”
“You honor me, High Eminence,” Zor said. “I do my duty as a citizen of Krypton. And my daughter, Kara Zor-El, will soon do the same when she comes of age.”
“Indeed, you do,” another Council member off to the High Eminence’s left side spoke up. “And young woman, are you to follow in your father’s footsteps?”
“Yes, your honor,” Kara replied in a similarly flat tone as her father. It was the controlled voice that every ranked child learned before they reached ten cycles old. “I will join the Thinker Guild when I reach majority.”
“Excellent,” a third Council member, this time to the left of the High Eminence, noted. “We will be interested in seeing your future, young Kara.”
The High Eminence smiled, though Kara had the feeling that it was the same kind of smile that she had been practicing and that Aunt Lara had flashed at her earlier that morning. “I believe that we are to hear that your work, Zor, in the observatory have been fruitful?”
“Yes,” her father began, before slightly turning to Kara. “The anomalies.”
“Perhaps young Kara should wait outside for this,” the High Eminence noted.
“Of course, High Eminence,” Zor nodded. Without needing another word or command, Kara spun around—perfectly so, in a proper pivot-step as had been taught by her tutor—and retreated out of the Council chamber, hearing the great doors slam shut once more behind her when the ceiling above had turned from the inside of a spire into the flat ceiling of the antechamber.
The attendant paid her little heed as she made her way to the other side of the antechamber, though she absentmindedly noted that a number of others had remained in the antechamber. Perhaps they were those that were to meet with the Council after her father, or they may have had work to do outside. She had no idea, and frankly, she did not care. As the daughter of the House of El, her one duty was to stand outside like an ornate sculpture, beautiful and still, and wait for her father to return.
She absolutely hated it. But she endured it nonetheless.
“Kara Zor-El,” a voice called out, and she turned her head slightly to see who it was. The man from the Council chamber, the one that they had called General Zod, walked toward her. Unlike her, he was dressed in a utilitarian fashion – merely a skinsuit, black and taut, with the symbol of his house in the center of his chest. She could guess that it was the House of Zod. They were famed for producing soldiers of the Warrior Guild.
“General Zod,” she greeted demurely, as befitting her station before someone of higher rank and stature.
“Your father, Zor-El, is an important man,” Zod continued. Kara wanted to frown but kept it hidden. Where was he going with this? “His work with the Thinker Guild is paramount to the security of Krypton.”
“I’m sure that it is,” Kara replied without thinking, before cursing herself internally for speaking rashly. Zod lifted an eyebrow, but otherwise didn’t note it.
“Oh, but it is. Perhaps the only other Thinker whose work matches his in importance is that of Jor-El, his brother and your uncle.” Zod sighed. “Great men of a great house. It would be shameful if the Council could not see that.”
Kara broke out of her trained pose, turning to Zod. It was almost unthinkable for a man to criticize the Council in such a way.
“You are shocked?” Zod noted. “Don’t be. Any criticism I may have of the Council is for the greater good of Krypton. The Council is… wise,” he seemed to trip over that word slightly, “but even they cannot see everything. And it is men like your father, Zor, and your uncle Jor, and yes, perhaps even me, that must show them what it is they do not see.”
“I… understand,” Kara finally responded, searching for the right word that would come off diplomatically without potentially igniting a feud with a ranked house.
“But do you, young Kara?” Zod asked. “Do you truly?”
“I am… not sure what you mean, General.”
Zod slung an arm around Kara’s shoulders to guide her out of the antechamber and onto the platform where they had landed earlier. Her father’s skimmer was still there, as were two guards that stood outside.
“This planet, our magnificent society,” Zod gestured, “is in danger. What was once vital and strong has become brittle and fragile.” He turned to her. “There is no more drive in our people, no more desire for more.”
“Krypton has never been more prosperous,” Kara automatically repeated, remembering her school teachings.
“Half-truths at best,” Zod retorted. “No, we have never had more peace than our time, but Krypton was once the center of a greater community.” He gestured up at the sky. “We used to have colonies and outposts that dotted the heavens, beyond the gaze of Rao. Can you imagine that?”
Kara looked up at the orange sky and creased her brow. Try as she might, she couldn’t even visualize what it looked like beyond the atmosphere of Krypton. She had never even seen a reference of it. But in her mind, she tried her hardest to imagine what it would be like to fly, to soar through the space above Krypton, to venture beyond the bounds of what she knew.
“You can’t,” Zod said flatly. “Hardly any can. We do not teach our people about the stars anymore. No Kryptonian outside of the Warrior Guild has even set foot on our moon in centuries, if not millennia.” He paced slightly away from Kara, back turned to her. “We used to be a race of explorers, seafarers in an ocean of stars. Now, we have contented ourselves to our one world. Kandor has not only become the center of Krypton; it has become all that Krypton is and now will ever be.”
“But…” Kara hesitantly spoke, “… isn’t it good that we are now peaceful and happy?”
Zod seemed to deflate slightly, a motion that made even Kara seem a little sad for him. “Our peace has a price, Kara. We were once a prosperous nation, spread across the planet and numbering into the tens of billions at the very least. When we ventured into the stars, your uncle Jor once told me that he believed we were trillions then. Do you know how many people live in Kandor today?”
Kara shook her head.
“Sixty million,” Zod stated. “A mere sixty million. The only city in the universe with our people. From trillions to millions. Our capacity has diminished, our dynamism diluted, and now our security is threatened. How can we defend ourselves with such numbers, such few men and women willing and able to stand against the threats above? Threats that we are not even allowed to know about or see.”
Kara glanced back toward the Council chamber. To where her father was speaking to the Council about threats that only they knew about.
“Your father, I imagine,” Zod spoke up, causing Kara to sharply turn back to him, “has access to equipment that even I do not. If there are more threats abound that we know nothing about, then only he would potentially know of them.” Zod grimaced. “I cannot defend Krypton against that which I know nothing about.”
“My father,” Kara admitted. “He is talking about something… I don’t know, maybe it’s a threat like what you describe. From far beyond the sky.”
“I once talked to Zor,” Zod said sincerely, “but he wouldn’t tell me anything. Your father is a great man, Kara, but sometimes he is stubborn – too stubborn, perhaps, and I would be the first to admit that I am little different on that front. I will ask him again, soon enough, for the aid that only he can offer me.”
“I am sorry to hear that,” Kara replied. “Perhaps I could speak with my father?”
Zod smiled weakly. “I would very much appreciate that, Kara. I’m grateful to have met you. An inquisitive soul at a young age is nothing to be ashamed of.”
Kara felt a little bit of pride bloom in her chest form the praise. “Thank you, General Zod.”
“Kara,” a voice cried out. She turned to see her father striding out onto the platform. “There you are. It’s time to go.” He paused when he saw Zod. “General, I hope my daughter hasn’t been bothering you.”
“Not at all, Zor,” Zod responded. “Not at all.” He turned to Kara. “May Rao watch over you, young Kara.”
Kara nodded politely and watched Zod walk away, back into the Council antechamber. She turned to her father, who had an inscrutable expression on his face. He quickly walked up the steps of the skimmer.
“Lady Kara,” a masked voice behind her said, and she looked to see one of the armored guards on the platform beside her. “Let me help you into your ship.”
“Thank you.” She took his hand.
“And before you leave, Lady Kara, General Zod wanted me to give you this.” The guard held a data chip in his free hand. “For if you wished to contact him.”
She thought about it for a moment before taking the chip. The guard wordlessly helped her into the skimmer, and soon she took a seat across from her father, who had resumed looking at his datapad. As the skimmer took off, she glanced outside at the orange sky of Krypton, at the horizon that gleamed orange-red, and at what lay beyond the atmosphere of the planet. Then she looked back at the data chip.
Kara closed her hand around it and smiled genuinely for the first time that day.
To Be Continued