Part 6 (1/2)

Early the next morning he emerged, fully dressed but bleary-eyed. He walked across the quiet, dew-spangled lawns from the manor house to the large research building. He had a two-hour window to launch his probe toward the red giant sun, but he wanted to finish the project before too many people might see the rocket plume even from far-off Kandor.

Lara interrupted him, calling his name as she ran out of the artists' guest quarters. ”Jor-El, I'm glad you're back. I want to show you something. Follow me.” She took him to the first obelisk stone she had painted, to show off what she had done. With the launch of his solar probe forgotten for now, he dutifully admired the placid image of a man whose head was shaved except for a thin, curly crown of silver hair above his ears. Around the face, the background was a confusing discordance of slashes, hues, and shapes. ”Look at this obelisk and tell me what you see.”

He frowned. ”I see a man's face surrounded by pretty colored lines.” She waited. Jor-El looked at her, then back at the painting, concentrating. ”Is there something else?”

With a sigh and a wry smile, she said, ”This panel is called Truth, Truth, and that is Kal-Ik, a man executed during the ancient city-state wars. I copied the facial features directly from a bust in the Kandor cultural museum. Do you know the story?” and that is Kal-Ik, a man executed during the ancient city-state wars. I copied the facial features directly from a bust in the Kandor cultural museum. Do you know the story?”

”I think I heard it once, but I didn't pay much attention....”

Lara stood very close to him, both of them facing the portrait. ”All the advisers of the chieftain Nok insisted that his war was going well, that the battles would easily be won, that all of his soldiers would fight bravely for their chieftain. The so-called advisers s.h.i.+elded him from what was really happening. They continued to say what the chieftain wanted to hear, just so they could save their lives. But Kal-Ik knew this was not the truth. He demanded an audience with Nok and told him the grim reality. The chieftain grew angry, and when the advisers demanded that Kal-Ik retract his statements, he insisted that truth was more important than his life. So they killed him for it. Shortly afterward Nok was defeated.”

Jor-El said, ”I probably would have done the same in Kal-Ik's position. An unpleasant reality is preferable to a kind delusion.”

”That explains the history. Now to explain the artwork.” Lara took him closer to the obelisk and carefully guided him through what she meant by the opposing lines, the symbolism in the conflicting angles, the abstract shapes around the figure of Kal-Ik. Jor-El blinked with a dawning realization as he made the connections. He seemed almost abashed. ”I didn't know that it all made any sort of...sense before.”

”Art makes sense, Jor-El, but you have to look at it through a different set of mental filters. It isn't all quantifiable, cut and dried.” She took him to each of the other eight obelisks she had completed in the previous day, similarly explaining the concepts she meant to convey. By the time they finished, he was delighted with these new revelations. She had done swift and brilliant work.

He wasn't looking forward to the day when Ora and Lor-Van left with their daughter and their crew back to the city. Maybe he could find some way to invite Lara to stay. He hoped so.

Without even thinking, he took her hand. ”Now it's your turn to come with me. I need your help.”

Behind the research building, he had built a paved launch zone with angled rails and scorched blast deflectors. Each one of his eight probe rockets was no more than two meters long, thin cylinders filled with concentrated explosive fuel directed through a thrust nozzle. The top of each launch tube held a transmitting probe, a scientific package that collected particles from the hurricane of the red giant's solar wind.

Lara stared around, seeing the evidence of the hot fires from previously launched rockets. ”My brother showed me this place, but we did not know what you used it for. n.o.body seems to know.”

Jor-El was puzzled. ”n.o.body asked.”

He asked Lara to a.s.sist him in carrying one of the remaining in-system rockets. Each data package was simple and redundant, but it provided him with the direct measurements he needed. His probes studied the outer layers of the swollen red giant. Each month, he shot a probe into s.p.a.ce and then recorded the flux levels, magnetic field lines, and the composition of the solar wind.

If anyone in the Council was aware of the streaks of light that arced into the starry blackness, they simply discounted the phenomenon. A few of them might have realized that Jor-El was up to something, but since they were not interested in the answers, they didn't ask questions.

Lara did not shy from lifting her end of the heavy cylinder and helping Jor-El to load it onto the polished launch rail. ”This has the power to fly beyond our atmosphere? It can go all the way to Rao?”

”So far, only one of my rockets has failed. The chemical fuel has enough thrust to reach the target, but frankly it's not difficult to hit a celestial object as large as our sun. You just have to get close.”

”And then what?”

”Then I can continue my uninterrupted monitoring of the solar cycle. Rao is in its final stages of life. A supernova could happen at any time.”

Lara didn't even seem particularly alarmed. ”But you have developed a plan to save us.”

He had to catch himself from laughing. ”You have a great deal of faith in me.”

”Yes, I do.”

”I have a few ideas.”

Jor-El had indeed made plans, letting his imagination run free. He had drawn up designs for a huge fleet of arks.h.i.+ps, gigantic vessels that could be built only with a concerted worldwide effort. The s.h.i.+ps would be vast enough to take most, if not all, of Krypton's population. Jor-El didn't believe in thinking small. He had spent months dabbling with the designs, fine-tuning all of the details.

Sadly, because the Council had forbidden s.p.a.ce exploration for so many years, Jor-El had no idea where such arks.h.i.+ps could really go. Even with the best Kryptonian science, no one had yet proposed a workable faster-than-light stardrive that could take them to a new world. Nevertheless, he continued his sketches and his blueprints...just in case.

Once his new probe rocket was installed, Jor-El used his highest-resolution calipers to check the launch angle. The chemical fuel would take the projectile up above Krypton's atmosphere, directly into a tight intersecting orbit with the outer layers of the red giant. He knew the sensor package would transmit the vital data back, and he already feared what he would learn.

For the moment, though, he enjoyed the open expression of delight on Lara's face as she watched the ignition of flames, the thin cylinder streaking up off the launch rail and leaping into the sky, followed by a bright orange and black trail of smoke. How much more thrilling it would be, he thought, if Krypton had allowed him to build a real s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p, a vessel that could carry a real person up into s.p.a.ce and out into the unknown to see all the amazing things the universe had to offer....

For now, he had to content himself with these small scientific launches.

Hearing the roar of the burning rocket, many other artists, including Lara's parents, rushed out of the guest quarters. They stared up into the sky, seeing the dissipating trail of smoke. Lara's mop-headed young brother raced over to her, begging to know what had happened. She frustrated him by refusing to answer, simply smiling in awe.

”Thank you, Jor-El. Now I have to get back to work.” She clearly didn't want to go. ”I need to finish the rest of the obelisks.”

CHAPTER 15.

Without sending a message ahead through the communication plates, Zor-El arrived from Argo City with his urgent news. Jor-El rushed forward to meet the dark-haired man as his high-speed floater settled down in front of the main house. When the two embraced, Zor-El winced in pain. through the communication plates, Zor-El arrived from Argo City with his urgent news. Jor-El rushed forward to meet the dark-haired man as his high-speed floater settled down in front of the main house. When the two embraced, Zor-El winced in pain.

”You're hurt!” Jor-El saw that his brother's left arm was wrapped in a thick bandage, and his reddened complexion showed blisters and peeling skin from recent burns. ”What happened to you?”

”It's a long and frightening story. I need your help.”

”And you'll have it-that goes without saying.” Jor-El quickly took the other man by his uninjured arm. ”Come inside. Tell me everything.”

In the shade next to a wall of rippling water that flowed down polished bloodstone, Zor-El sat back with a heavy sigh. He noticed the artists and scaffolding, the dramatic murals on the external walls, even the portraits painted on many of the mysterious obelisks, but he did not comment on them.

Zor-El's dark eyes were still red from exposure to the acrid smoke. ”I've doc.u.mented severe seismic activity, deep quakes that are sure to rock all of Krypton very, very soon.” He explained what he had discovered in the southern continent, to his brother's growing alarm, and then he dejectedly admitted how he had lost the data. ”I don't know what it means, but I wanted to share this with you. I've never seen anything like it. That's why I came to you.”

”The pressure in the core is building.” Jor-El's expression was grave. ”We could go see our father. Perhaps he can help.”

The dark-haired man was surprised at the suggestion. ”But he won't even know we're there.”

”Nevertheless, we could use his wisdom now. We have to hope for some kind of reaction.”

Originally a summer cottage, the isolated dacha had been built in the forested foothills two hours' journey from the estate. As his condition grew worse, old Yar-El and his wife, Charys, had chosen to live here in the shelter of tall trees, far from public view. The intimate home was constructed partly of fast-growing crystals, partly of stone, and framed and adorned with polished blackwood. Intricate wind chimes hung from rugged wooden rafters. As the two brothers arrived, the resinous forest air was utterly still, and only a rare tinkle of tones wafted around the small home.

Their gray-haired mother was outside tending her garden, a precisely arranged network of colorful herbs, vegetables, and blooming flowers. Though her face looked pale, and her shoulders were stooped, Charys straightened from her work to greet them with a genuine smile. ”My boys!”

Jor-El stepped forward to hug her with his brother right behind him. ”It's been too long, Mother.”

”It's been too long for both of you,” Charys scolded. She set down her gardening tools and led them up the walk to the porch. ”Sometimes it gets lonely out here with only your father for company. I still prefer it to living in Kandor, though. I grew tired of the pitying stares from everyone I met, of so-called friends expressing sympathy. The worst were those who looked at me as if it were my fault-as if something I did cost Krypton the great mind of Yar-El.”

Zor-El was quick to show a flash of anger. ”Who did that to you?”

”Now, don't you worry. Come inside. Maybe your father will know who you are today, but I can't guarantee it.”