The Last Days of Krypton - Kevin J. Anderson [161]
Zod pushed his way down the stairs and raced along the sterile, white-walled halls to the control chamber. There, No-Ton and four technicians stood in pasty-faced helplessness before the banks of guidance systems. Zod stormed in and hammered at the controls, trying to realign the target vectors. The systems did not respond.
He grabbed No-Ton by the front of his laboratory tunic. “We’ve got to stop this! Destroy the weapons. They must have a self-destruct mechanism.”
No-Ton lashed out at Zod, no longer intimidated by the man. “After the incident at the Rao-beam installation, you specifically ordered us to deactivate any systems that could be used to sabotage the nova javelins. You instructed us to disconnect the self-destruct capability because you were afraid someone might stop you from launching them.”
Zod cursed. “Then change their course! Get rid of them somehow. They will blow up all of Krypton.”
“General, there is nothing we can do!” Frantic technicians yanked out crystal after crystal from control decks, but it did no good.
Filmscreens transmitted high-resolution images from the telescopes and monitoring dishes in Jor-El’s distant early-warning array. The nova javelins continued to burn, thrusting higher.
“They should reach the zenith soon and begin their plunge to Argo City,” the scientist said, his voice oddly brittle. “After that, the whole planet will break apart. The chain reaction could take minutes, it could take a month. This is uncharted scientific territory for me.” Zod didn’t like the flare of defiance in No-Ton’s eyes. The scientist sniffed. “If there’s anything you wish to say to your followers, now may be your last chance to do it.”
Zod desperately needed to find someone else to punish for this debacle. “Why did this fault occur? I ordered only one weapon to be launched. What caused them all to take off? Who is responsible?”
“What does it matter? Maybe the weapons were all linked somehow. Maybe this is a final trick that Jax-Ur played upon later generations, his revenge against anyone who uncovered his stockpile. There’s no stopping it now.”
“Get Jor-El in here!” Zod shouted.
One of the female technicians gasped. She bent over the display screen. “General! Look at this.” The telescope array tracked the progress of the nova javelins, and on the image, the sky had turned darker, more purple, full of stars. “The parabolic trajectory is wrong. The javelins have changed course!”
Zod shoved his way closer. “How so? Where are they headed now? What part of Krypton will they strike?”
“It doesn’t matter,” No-Ton insisted. “With that much firepower, any impact will blow the whole planet apart.”
The technician shook her head vigorously. “No, they’ve achieved escape velocity. They’re…they’re heading out into space.”
Zod couldn’t believe what he had heard. “To space? Are we safe, then?” He spun toward No-Ton. “Is it an accident, or was it planned?”
“I set the coordinates for Argo City myself, General. As you ordered. The missiles have completely deviated from their program.”
Clustered like a flock of migratory birds, all fifteen nova javelins soared out of the last wisps of Krypton’s atmosphere and clawed their way free of the planet’s gravity well.
“Are they just going to disperse?” He felt a sudden, giddy hope. “Will they detonate where they can cause no harm?”
No-Ton sat back, pale with disbelief. “Who can know, General? This is beyond me. When the rockets run out of fuel, they might eventually circle around and fall into Rao. We could have a reprieve after all.”
The words reminded Zod of the instabilities Jor-El had long predicted in the sun. If fifteen nova javelins plunged into the red giant, might such incredible explosions finally trigger the sun to go supernova? He wanted to scream in frustration.
The observing telescopes increased their magnification, and the view shifted. Now Zod finally saw the intended target of the doomsday weapons. No-Ton and the other technicians gasped. Zod clenched