The Last Days of Krypton - Kevin J. Anderson [85]
Zod decided that this called for a celebratory meal after all. “Yes. I believe I can.”
CHAPTER 35
Jor-El and Lara’s brief bit of solitude and joy in the arctic palace was far too short. On the third day they departed, dreading what lay in store for them back in Kandor. No matter what the Council decreed after his trial, Jor-El would always have these bright memories to hold on to.
As they approached the capital, though, they found that the whole world had changed.
Instead of the bright spires of Krypton’s most magnificent city, they saw a complete holocaust. Lara let out a strangled cry as their covered flyer glided over the deep, fresh crater; Jor-El was too stunned to make a sound. The once-thriving capital was truly gone—the museums, the soaring crystal towers his father had built, the habitation complexes, the temple of Rao, the very heart of Krypton’s civilization.
Lara pressed her fingers against the transparent plates of their aircraft as if she could reach down and touch the devastation. “Why?” was all she could whisper.
Jor-El forced himself to set aside his horror and concentrate on the observable facts. “Were we attacked? It’s too clean, too perfectly delineated to be an explosion…almost as if someone scooped up or disintegrated the whole city. I don’t understand it.”
“My parents were there,” Lara cried out suddenly, her voice hitching in a sob. “And poor Ki—he was only twelve! Jor-El, they’re gone! After our wedding, they went back to Kandor.” Her words stumbled to a halt as she thought of all the things that had been ripped away. She moaned.
“Gone!” She broke down inside the cockpit, trembled with both anger and confusion. Then she reached over and clung to her husband, as if afraid something terrible might snatch him from her, too. She seemed caught in a cyclone of vivid, extreme emotions. He wrapped his arms around her, caring for Lara as the craft’s automated systems kept them level.
As he held her, Lara’s whole body shuddered, a reaction that was less despair than grief and anger, coupled with a frantic need to do something. Knowing that nothing he could say would be sufficient, Jor-El simply kept his arms tightly around her, drawing her close, refusing to let go. The enormity of the situation roared like an intangible whirlwind around them. Finally he said with determination, “We have to find answers. We have to get to the bottom of this.” He gripped the controls so tightly that his knuckles turned white as he brought the flying craft down to the ground.
They landed in the hastily assembled camp near the crater. The haggard and exhausted people they met there mumbled answers to Jor-El’s repeated inquiries; many of them shook their heads in confusion. Most people honestly didn’t know what had happened, while others said incomprehensibly that the magnificent capital city had been “stolen.” Tears streamed down Lara’s face as she watched the turmoil, completely at a loss.
Upon learning of Jor-El’s return, Commissioner Zod found them. He greeted the shaken scientist with a quick, hard embrace. “Jor-El, my friend! By the red heart of Rao, I am glad to see you safe. Krypton needs you.” Zod had exchanged his formal robes for more utilitarian clothes: durable trousers and a loose black vest. He seemed exhausted, but also frenetic. “This is the greatest disaster ever to befall our world. The losses are incalculable.” Seeing Lara’s grief-stricken expression, he offered her a sympathetic look. “Ah, yes. Your parents left the wedding before Nam-Ek and I did, didn’t they? They must have been in Kandor when it happened.” He shook his head almost dismissively. “Another tragedy to add to so many. Everyone has lost somebody. The only thing to do is get through our collective grief. We are Kryptonians, and we will survive if we all pull together.” Zod gestured toward the enormous crater. “How can we even begin to measure