The Last Days of Krypton - Kevin J. Anderson [100]
Zod let out a tired sigh. “Very well, Vor-On. I thought I could count on your support, but do what you think is best for Krypton.” He held out his hand in a genial gesture. Relieved, the eager young noble accepted the hand, shaking it as Zod continued, “And I’ll do what I think is best.”
With an abrupt, violent jerk, he yanked Vor-On over the edge and released him. The young noble was dropping out into the open pit before he even knew he had lost his footing. His yelp of disbelief turned into a fading scream of terror. The walls were sheer, and the crater was very, very deep. The shout cut off when Vor-On struck something, but his body continued to slide and bounce for a long time afterward.
Ignoring the dwindling noise, Zod turned back to the group on the ledge, expecting to see a scramble of panic or horror. Instead, he saw only grim determination. Excellent. “So, are you willing to be my sixteen advisers? My inner circle? The position is yours if you choose to join me—if you help me make Krypton strong again and swear your loyalty to me.”
“I swear it,” Aethyr said proudly. “Only Commissioner Zod can save us from our own shortsightedness.”
Koll-Em said, “Even if we fail, I would rather fail trying to be something than succeed in attempting nothing.”
“I’ve listened to my brother’s constant talk, and I know what he intends,” said Da-Es, rubbing his scraped knee. “It would be suicide for us to do as the older nobles plan to. You have my support, Commissioner.”
Very quickly, all of the others threw in their lot with Zod.
He admired his new inner circle. “In order to symbolize our unity and our vision, I name you my Ring of Strength. Together we will be unbreakable. We will encircle all that was best about Krypton. Follow my lead, obey my orders, and we will bring about a golden age greater than any Krypton has ever seen.”
When they climbed back out of the crater, the whole group seemed changed, energized, reborn. As they emerged to stand firmly beside Zod and Aethyr with Nam-Ek in front of them, the Commissioner sent criers throughout the camp to gather an audience as swiftly as possible.
People came streaming from the canals and tents and work sites to hear the announcement. No one seemed to notice that Vor-On was gone. With all of Kandor lost, who could keep track of every missing person?
Zod felt a chill as he confessed quietly to Aethyr, “I am about to make history. I can feel it.”
She gave him a sidelong glance. “You’ve already made history. What you’re about to do now is create a legend. I will help you make yourself into a veritable demigod.”
Standing on a pile of boulders at the crater lip, Zod lifted his hands and shouted, “This is not a time for indecisiveness. This is not a time for debates and factions. This is a time for us to be strong under a single leader with a single vision.” He shouted at the top of his lungs. “This is a time for Zod—the new ruler of Krypton!”
CHAPTER 42
When the distant early-warning outpost was completed on the empty plains, all twenty-three receiving dishes turned their detector arrays toward the open sky. They listened for the faintest whispers from the empty heavens. Optical telescopes studied the stars at night, while longer-wavelength sensors combed the neighborhood of space during the day.
In the design of the facility, Jor-El had provided for the streams of data to be shunted directly to his expanded research building back at the estate. Shortly after the Kandor disaster, his servants and groundskeepers had all departed for the refugee camp to pitch in. Now, except for himself and Lara, the estate was empty, deserted. He didn’t mind at all. The two of them enjoyed their solitude, a time to recover from so many tragedies.
Very soon now, he was sure he would receive the compelling seismic data his brother had promised. In the meantime, Jor-El devoted a few hours each night to studying the breathtaking new images of space: pools of ionized gas coalescing into fresh stars, false-color plumes of cosmic jets squirting into the vacuum, globular clusters, the whirlpools