Yue

 14th September

21:03 GMT

"Have any other survivors come back here?"

"If there are any other survivors, they haven't come to this facility. Unfortunately, my deep space sensors have long since been destroyed, and my local space sensors are not functioning at anything like full effectiveness. It is quite possible that there are other survivors in other parts of the universe."

"Paul, is the air in here okay to breathe?"

Ring? "Not quite Earth-normal, but yes."

Kon pulls off his helmet and holds it under his left arm. "Did anyone else get out? When Krypton was destroyed, did anyone apart from Kal-El get away?"

"How far back would you like me to go? The primitivists left to establish a colony on Daxam centuries ago. A small number of naval officers and enlisted personnel either refused to obey the isolation edict or fled later. Likewise, a number of colonists were officially recorded as remaining on their adopted worlds. If you are referring to the period immediately prior to Krypton's destruction, I detected two hyperspatial windows opening shortly before my sensors were damaged."

"Two-! Do you know where they were going?"

Har-Zod's head shrinks and moves to the podium's left. A map of the system appears in the space he vacated, and two out of scale lines indicate the crafts' trajectories.

"The hyperspatial window generated by the first would have taken it to a planet in a system outside the bounds of the Kryptonian Empire." The image zooms out, showing the path-.

"That's Earth. That must be Superman's-. Ah, Kal-El's pod."

"The identity of the occupant is not listed on my database. The second craft appeared to have been heading for a similar vector. Unfortunately, it did not get far enough away to escape Krypton's destruction." The image zooms back in and I see the change in its trajectory as the wave of debris passes it. "The craft appears to have initiated an emergency hyperspatial jump. However, attempting that with so much matter in the surrounding environment is extremely risky. It is unlikely they would have survived."

Kon is leaning forward. "Can you tell where they went?"

"Not without precise readings from the location in which the hyperspatial window was formed. If you want to pursue the craft, I would remind you that this was over thirty years ago. Assuming that the occupant or occupants survived, they are unlikely to be anywhere near that location."

Kon glances back at me. "We gotta check it out."

So. Kara Zor-El. Hopefully, anyway. The universe hasn't kicked me in the crotch with any of these yet. "We do indeed. Can you use scans from my ring to get the data you need?"

"What ring would that be?" I raise my hands and send my armour back into subspace, my ring's sigils clearly visible. "Ah, a Lantern. Yes, you should be able to. Here." The image of the system is replaced with… What I'm going to assume are technical schematics.

Ring, does that make any sense to you?

Yes. With this data it will be possible to relay-.

"Wouldn't it be easier for you to tell me how to calculate where it went?"

"Perhaps. However, that data is highly secure."

"Does that matter now? What if they made more than one jump? It's hardly practical for us to fly back."

"It is unlikely they survived, but in the event that they did the odds against them being in a position to make a second jump are astronomical."

"Why don't we just take you with us?"

"Kon, while I'm technically capable of warping Xenon along with us, I don't-."

"Not the whole moon, just the bit Har-Zod's recorded on!"

"I would only be able to communicate with you after being installed in a Kryptonian data interface. There is little advantage in moving me. If whoever was in that craft has survived the intervening years, I doubt that a day or so to come back with new data would create a significant problem."

"I think he's right, Kon." I put my construct armour back on and generate the Kryptonian communicator construct. "We can always move Xenon after we check on whoever this is."

"Okay." He nods grudgingly. "We'll be back for you."

"I don't mind either way, but I believe that the original Har-Zod would have appreciated the sentiment. Rao watch over you."

The face and map vanish as we head for the exit. Rather than take our time, Kon's flying as fast as he safely can in this sort of environment, donning his helmet as he does so. His hand flashes over the crystalline pedestal and he's already at the ceiling as it opens, rising out of the hole as soon as it's wide enough.

Finding a corpse would be… Awkward.

I fly after him, heading back out into near-Xenon space. Which is now a good deal clearer than it was before Kon blew it up. Okay, hyperspace window opened there…

I come up alongside, Kon generating a construct up ahead of us pointing to our destination. "Kon, ready?"

"Ready."

We both accelerate in that direction. "Two, one, warp."

Slightly green-tinted space bends around us for an instant, then the universe snaps back into being. Obviously there's nothing much to see… Other than a continent-sized lump of Kryptonradiation? No, no, it's far enough away that it's merely 'elevated'. Ring, scan hyperspatial distortions and other such residues, then relay to Har-Zod.

Compliance.

"Whow." Kon stares at the giant lump of shimmering green rock. Most of the kryptonite is on the side facing us, what used to be the outer edge of the outer core of the planet. For an object of that size at this distance, perspective is playing all sorts of tricks on me. My mind can't quite comprehend the idea of a rock that shape being 600 miles across.

"There might be ruins on the far side. But we can come back later."

"Yeah." He turns around. "Got anything?"

Data transmitted. Reply received. Most probable coordinates available.

I blink as the ring feeds them into my mind. "Best bet isn't too far from Alpha Centauri." I generate a construct marker and we both begin flying at best acceleration in that direction. "Warp in two, one, warp."

Rao is 'close' to Sol as these things go, but even with my recent experience there's still an appreciable time spent in the warp tube before the universe snaps back into being.

"Scanning... Yes, there's an emergence window. Not picking up other-."

"There!"

Kon's off. What-? Oh, the glowing green rock. I warp again, and a fraction of a second later we're right by it. Okay, we're not in Public Enemies territory here. This thing isn't going in anything like the right direction to hit Earth ever. Its relative velocity must be near zero. And if I remember my Justice League contingencies right, its mass is within manageable limits. Still pretty damn big though.

Orange lights run over the exterior as I scanthere.

"One small synthetic object, somewhat intact."

"Okay. How do we get it out?"

"Very carefully."