Summary: Timing is everything.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. I make nothing. All characters, plot points, and recognizable dialogue belong to DC comics, Warner Bros., December 3rd Productions and anyone else with a stake in the Superman franchise. This story is in response to the challenge set forth on the Lois and Clark Fan Fiction Message Boards, asking us to imagine if the New Krypton people arrived at any other point in the series’ canon episodes.
“You’re sure this is the place?” Zara asked, sounding relieved, nervous, and a little melancholy all at the same time.
Ching gave her a stiff nod and gestured to the image of a blue-green planet, which loomed large outside the windows of the Mothership’s bridge. White swirls of clouds appeared nearly motionless at that distance and he had to admit to himself that the planet before them was attractive in its own, alien way. He clasped his hands behind his back in an “at ease” stance.
“Earth,” he said, by way of a reply.
“Earth,” Zara repeated, taking a few tentative steps toward the glass. She stopped and looked back at him, a twinge of regret in her eyes.
End of the line, he thought with a mental sigh. Once we land, it’s all over. He shook his head to clear his thoughts. It was a dream. It was always just a dream. I’ve always known our love was never meant to be.
“We know from Jor-El’s last communications that he was sending his infant son to this planet,” Ching forced himself to say, swallowing back his own regret at finding this accursed hunk of space rock.
“And the advanced scouts have confirmed this?” Zara asked, her composure regained for the sake of the Elders and crew members that puttered about their business on the bridge.
“Affirmative,” he responded, once more with a single, formal nod. “He is living under an assumed alias. He’s known as…” He paused and reached over to a computer console where he punched up the file the scouts had transmitted on their way back to rendezvous with the Mothership. The computer flickered to life, projecting a 3D hologram of the man in question, along with the relevant identifying information. Ching enhanced the image, making it shaper and clearer so that he could see the words written there. “Clark Kent,” he read.
Zara strode toward the hologram. She reached out and enlarged it so that only the man’s head and shoulders were visible.
“He looks like him,” she murmured, almost reverently.
Neither of them had been old enough to know Jor-El in person, but everyone aboard the Mothership had seen the holograms of Krypton’s foremost scientist and former Elder. After all, it was thanks to him that as many of them had survived their home world’s demise; without his forewarning that the planet’s core had become unstable, the Mothership never would have been prepared in time to save anyone. Ching’s only remorse was that the majority of the planet’s denizens hadn’t taken Jor-El’s predictions seriously. Too few had chosen to flee Krypton before the planet had ripped itself apart.
“He does,” Ching agreed.
It was true. The unassuming image of Clark Kent looked almost exactly like the images they’d seen of a young Jor-El. For that, at least, he was slightly grateful. If he had to lose Zara to anyone, it might as well be someone attractive in their own way, instead of the unpleasant countenance Lord Nor sported. At least then Zara might find some small measure of happiness in her arranged marriage.
Ching fiddled with the computer again, checking the information on their target. Better to get this over with as quickly as possible, for his own heart’s sake. “The inhabitants of Earth also refer to him as…” He paused again, choking back a snort of laughter. “Superman.” His mouth twisted into a wry half-smile of its own volition.
A humble one, he thought with disgust.
Zara’s stoic face broke and she too nearly laughed. “Excuse me?”
Perhaps her thoughts mirrored his own.
“Our scouts report that Kal-El operates under a second alias…this Superman…as a way to use the powers the Earth’s yellow sun bestows upon him. He apparently uses this guise to help the Earthlings.” He cleared his throat and gestured to the others floating around them on the bridge. “The same powers we have gained since entering this solar system.”
Zara nodded. “How long until we are close enough to beam down to the surface?”
Trust Zara to stay on target, even when it hurts her.
“Approximately two hours and we will have visuals of the surface. Another hour or two after that, and then we can go down and retrieve your…” He swallowed hard. “Husband.” The word was ashes on his tongue, but he’d always known this day would come eventually.
Better him than Nor, he reminded himself. Anyone would be better than Nor.
***
Two hours later, Zara stood next to Ching, so closely that her shoulder brushed his. The feeling was a knife to his already wounded heart. Too soon, he would lose her for good. Not that he ever had a chance. Their shared love was forbidden, their societal ranks too far apart. He was free to marry whomever he wished; she had been bound to Kal-El since birth.
All around them, the Elders crowded to watch the monitors that now covered one half of the Mothership’s windows. Remote probes scanned the planet’s surface, giving them glimpses of blue skies, green trees, clear streams, and strange wildlife. Someone rattled off a set of coordinates and one of the operators adjusted course. Ching knew the Mothership was cloaked, as well as the probes, and that any Earthlings looking up would see nothing up an empty sky, but he wished the operator would move faster. He felt exposed and vulnerable, especially if Lord Nor and his ilk caught up with them.
A cityscape came into view and the main probe zipped down the streets, showing the Kryptonians cracked pavement, dirty buildings, and people bustling from one place to another. A large transport vehicle belched a foul black cloud of smoke out of its rear end and Ching instinctively wrinkled his nose. Some of the inhabitants puffed on thin white tubes that also emanated thin, curling wisps of smoke. Some coughed as they did so.
These Earthlings are killing their planet, he mused disdainfully. Do they not realize it?
“Metropolis,” Ching said simply, as though it explained everything. “Our scouts confirmed this city as where Kal-El has settled.”
“This filthy place?” Trey, the Chief Elder scoffed, arching one skeptical eyebrow.
Ching shrugged. “Apparently. I don’t understand the appeal myself.”
“Lady Zara?” the main probe operator piped up before any further discussion on the city’s griminess could take place. “We’ve got a visual match.”
Zara nodded. “Bring it up.”
The screen flickered and the image changed. A man, obviously injured, staggered around a corner. His arms were bound behind his back and he was breathing hard, clearly winded. They watched as, exhausted, the man flopped onto a wooden bench, groaning in pain. He looked bruised and battered. Zara frowned, her expression turning stony.
“This is him?” she demanded coldly.
“Affirmative,” the man replied. “One hundred percent match.”
She turned to Ching just as the image of Kal-El called out on the screen.
“I could use a little help!” they heard him cry.
“Shouldn’t he…?” Zara began to question.
Before she could finish her thought, the microphone on the probe picked up the sound of a whoosh! and a woman in a skintight jumpsuit with a cape appeared in the frame from seemingly nowhere. Kal-El’s face lit up.
“It worked!”
The mysterious woman’s face paled. “Oh, God! Clark, what happened! Who did this to you?”
Zara’s face turned stormy. “This cannot possibly be him!” she thundered, pointing accusingly at the image of Clark. “He is clearly not Kryptonian! The woman, however…do we know who she is?”
Ching shook his head uncertainly. “I’m afraid our scouts said nothing about a Kryptonian woman on this planet. Perhaps this is an act of some kind, on the part of Kal-El? Some ruse that we don’t yet understand?”
“My Lords?” The voice belonged to a second probe operator, who was busily scanning other parts of the city. “I’m picking up on some local chatter about an UltraWoman. Nothing about a Superman at the moment.”
Ching rolled his eyes and threw his head back in exasperation. “Perfect,” he muttered.
The main probe followed along silently as, on screen, the bound man was freed from the ropes that had held him prisoner, and he and the woman entered into a small building of some kind. A garage maybe, though it looked quite different from the images he’d seen of ones that had existed on Krypton before it’s violent demise. They watched as the woman became agitated and smashed a work bench. A piece of metal – a bolt, Ching thought – flew into the air and struck Kal-El, making him bleed.
“An act, you say?” Trey demanded, enraged. “Ever since we came near to this yellow sun, our people do not bleed. Lieutenant, if I find that you have wasted our precious time… ” He let the threat hang unfinished in the air.
Ching gaped, at a loss. “I…uh…”
The captain came to his rescue. “My Lord, it’s possible that we – or the scouts – may have passed though a wormhole. We know there are places where it is possible to slip into a parallel plane of existence. It’s easy enough to have happen, even for the most skilled pilots.” He shot a quick glare toward the pilot and copilot of the Mothership.
Ching nodded thoughtfully, grateful for the reprieve. “That’s true enough. It might explain why we’ve never succeeded in finding Kal-El’s cousin, Kara, either, despite knowing her parents’ intentions to send her to safety as well.”
Trey pinched the bridge of his nose, as though warding off a headache. Ching could sympathize. There was a steady stress-related pressure building in his skull as well.
“Are there wormholes nearby?” Trey finally asked no one in particular, sounding somehow defeated.
“Affirmative, My Lord,” the pilot confirmed after a quick succession of taps at his navigational console.
“Try them,” Trey commanded. “We must find the right Kal-El before Nor can claim Lady Zara’s hand. For all our sakes,” he added in a dark undertone, meant only to be heard by those closest to him.
“And the woman?” Ching asked diplomatically, ignoring the cries of his own brain that screamed for him not to press his luck with the Elder. “Should we bring her aboard?”
Zara shook her head decisively and answered for the Elders present. “No. Time is of the essence. Normally, I would never leave a fellow Kryptonian behind, but timing is everything right now. We don’t have the luxury of spending time convincing her to leave her way of life to join her true people. Nor and his followers are too close on our heels. Once we find my husband, and Nor is no longer a threat to our way of life, we can always circle back to this dimension to get her, whoever she is.”
She waved dismissively at the screen, where the woman was seeking comfort in the man’s arms. “Turn it off. I’ve seen enough.”
The screen immediately went blank and dissolved away, leaving an uninterrupted view of the nearby Earth once more out of the full expanse of the front windows. Zara sighed. When she spoke, it was soft, meant only for Ching’s ears.
“If we come back at all. Whoever this UltraWoman is…she looks…happy.”
Ching could only nod mutely. They would leave this version of Earth, with it’s fake Kal-El and continue searching for the true heir to the Kryptonian throne. He would let the look-alike Earthling have his happiness with UltraWoman, even if he, Ching, would never share that fate.
The End.
