The Last Days of Krypton - Kevin J. Anderson [138]
“What do you intend, my love?” Aethyr’s eyes flashed.
Zod ran his fingers over the gel-formed topographical sculpture, caressing them from the mountaintops down to the marshy drainage in the east. “Jor-El has given me the very weapon I need to cauterize this wound. Come, we will take a small party and head north to the mountains. The people of Borga City will never see it coming.”
Only a small force went to the nearly deserted Rao-beam facility. The group consisted of no more than a dozen men, mostly chosen from the ranks of the former Sapphire Guards.
After crossing a wasteland of soot, chunks of lava rock, and burned vegetation at the edge of the Kandor valley, Zod’s troops pushed up the steep and narrow mountain roads to the installation. No longer in operation, the tall metal-framed derrick creaked and hummed as breezes whined through it. The focusing lenses, prisms, and powerful Rao batteries had been taken off-line, but still sat ready.
Several weeks ago, the lava geyser had died away to a burble, which No-Ton had covered with a small force-field cap, precisely following the instructions Zor-El had left behind. A small scientific team had remained to monitor the now-sealed hole. Hearing the troops arrive, the technicians emerged from their battered and dented prefab shacks that huddled among the cold cliffs. No-Ton stared at the Commissioner’s group in surprise.
Zod announced boldly, “We require this installation for the defense of Krypton, to strike a blow against an enemy even worse than Brainiac—an internal enemy.” When the others didn’t seem to know how to respond, he continued. “I have tried unsuccessfully to be reasonable. Now there can be no other solution than to eliminate the festering sore of Borga City.”
Standing atop the ridge, Zod turned from the blasted valley of Kandor and looked down the other side of the divide, to the east. Beyond the foothills, numerous stream-carved drainages created swampy lowlands. The target was nestled close to the horizon, nearly at the limit of the Rao beam’s range.
Zod turned to size up the derrick framework. When Jor-El had built the Rao beam, he had designed it to aim the beam down into the crater of Kandor, nothing more; he had not installed automated systems for altering the direction of the carefully aligned beam. Now the whole structure would have to be swiveled around using brute force. “Nam-Ek, turn that heavy projector mechanism. Remember what I showed you on the map?”
The big man’s muscles bulged as he strained against the cross-hatched structure, swiveling the thick bars that held the focusing lenses. Zod shook his head at the clumsy and imprecise method. “A disappointing oversight,” he said aloud. “We neglected to plan for the possibility of other targets.”
No-Ton bustled about in distress. Though he was part of the Ring of Strength, the noble-born scientist paid more attention to engineering matters than strategy meetings. “Commissioner, could I please have more technical details? This is very delicate equipment.” He glanced sidelong at Nam-Ek, who continued to wrestle with the machinery. “It could take a day or more for proper realignment and recalibration, depending on the target.”
Zod drew a deep breath of the razor-edged cold air. “Can’t you do it faster?”
The scientist stiffened. “Do you want it fast, Commissioner, or accurate? I can do either one, but not both. Which would you prefer?”
Aethyr came up beside Zod and spoke in a hushed voice. “Another day won’t make any significant difference, my love, but a mistake would be quite embarrassing. Let No-Ton do what he says he needs to do.”
“Very well.” Zod unfurled his filmpaper map and held it against the gusting breezes. “These are the coordinates. This is your target.”
CHAPTER 65
After warning his brother about Loth-Ur’s Hammer, Jor-El ignored all other tasks Commissioner Zod had set for him. In fact, he ignored the Commissioner entirely, instead spending the rest of the day engrossed in