The Last Days of Krypton - Kevin J. Anderson [183]
The whole engine of the planet’s core shut down.
On the nearby plains, the telescopes and observation arrays shuddered and groaned. Girders and support stalks snapped, and the broad dishes slowly collapsed to the ground, breaking apart and crumbling under their own weight. In control rooms, all the images crackled into static and went off-line.
Fissures split the grasslands, spreading like fanged mouths. The floor of the crater of Kandor swelled into a huge dome much larger than Zor-El’s force-field cap, and then split like a festering blister. The reawakened lava geyser shot a pillar of liquid orange fire to the sky.
A flat communication plate mounted on the curved wall inside Jor-El’s tower laboratory crackled to life, sending an urgent transmission. Though he and Lara stood outside on the open lawn, Jor-El could hear the shouts and pleas of people begging him to help. But it was too late. As the ground heaved with another sharp shock, the tower twisted. A long, jagged crack shot up the side of the curved wall, and the communication plate tumbled over to shatter on the floor.
“It’s time,” he said to Lara, who clung protectively to their baby. “We can’t wait any longer.” Tears ran down her face, and Jor-El realized that he was weeping, too.
Lara wrapped their son tenderly in the blankets of their great house, the finest blue and red fabric emblazoned with the prominent symbol of Jor-El’s family. “Kal-El, you have to go, or you’ll die with us.” She trembled, then straightened. This was their only hope.
Now that the baby was to be the only passenger, they had outfitted the interior of the ship like a cradle, a protective nest that would be monitored by the alien’s life-support systems. Kryptonian crystals surrounded the cradle, memory crystals with the cultural and historical recordings Lara had copied, the seeds of Yar-El’s architectural crystals, and the crystals that held Lara’s journals. As the last item, she placed the special shard with the messages from both of them in with the baby. “This is so you’ll know we loved you, Kal-El.”
Lara gave her infant son a final kiss, brushing her lips against the delicate skin of his forehead. Her voice hitched as she said, “I wish you well on your new planet, Kal-El. I hope you find your way among the people of Earth. I hope you manage to be happy.”
The planet continued to tear itself apart. “It has to be now,” Jor-El said. Thunder in the sky competed with the cracking explosions and eruptions. The ground shook, and another split opened the wall of a nearby building, causing it to collapse. “We have to save him.”
Lara desperately reached forward to touch the baby one final time. Suddenly thinking of his father’s last utterance, Jor-El leaned in and whispered, “Remember.” Then he took his wife’s hand and drew her back from the ship so that he could close the hatch. Kal-El’s blue eyes stared at his parents as the humming mechanism sealed the craft. The life-support systems switched on, ready to provide warmth, food, light, air.
With a whistling sound, four huge chunks of lava rock that had been ejected in a nearby volcanic blast slammed like bombs into the ground around them. One smashed entirely through the ceiling and skylights of the research building.
“He’ll be safe, Lara.” They stood bravely together watching the starship’s automated systems lift the craft gently off the ground. “He will be the last son of Krypton.”
The levitating ship turned on its central axis until it locked onto its optimal trajectory. The crystals on its hull shone in the red sunlight. The craft paused for just an instant, and then it rose up and away from the ugly-looking storms that approached from the east and north. Lara caught her breath and reached upward in a final gesture of farewell.
With a sudden flash of acceleration, the craft shot away, and