1st April
13:58 GMT
"We're in space!"
I glance at Lynne as we accelerate towards the ship. "You've been in space before, haven't you?"
Actually, having had the chance to give it a scan I think it's actually some sort of escape pod. There appears to be a climate control system but it isn't a full suspended animation set up. We didn't pick up an explosion in this system but if the species who created it used a space warping form of faster than light travel they would have formed the warp at the 'send' end. I can't build sensors for
everything. It would just take too long.
"On the Wrath of Thanagar. But they never let me just go outside!"
"It gets boring fairly quick."
"I can see
forever! How could this get boring?!"
Okay, schedule some time off planet with her. The object is a tube. No generators, but there are a power cell and kinetic dampeners, it's definitely slowed down since we first picked it up… 'Soft crash landing' design, then.
"How fast are we going?"
"Hm? Oh, about three hundred times the speed of sound." Planet Earth is a slowly growing dot up ahead and the Watchtower is on the opposite side of the planet. I could try grappling the pod, but I'm a bit worried about the fact that parts of it are resisting my scan. Even Father Box-
Ploong.
-is having difficulty making sense of it, and there aren't many things that can defy his observation.
"Is that
safe?"
"It would be a bit risky in an atmosphere, but we're in space. My environmental shield combined with our divinely resilient armour means that impact with the handful of particulates that there are this far from Earth isn't a problem." That said… I ease off a little. "Doctor Robbins, it looks like the object is heading for the South Pole. Please confirm?"
"Right in the middle of Antarctica, according to your computer. Near Dome Argus."
"Anyone there?"
"It'll be quite close to the
Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. Whether they're in danger or not depends on how hard it hits."
"Shouldn't hit all that hard at all. I'm more worried about the shock waves as it goes through the air."
"Oh no. Who will save us. From this terrible peril."
Lynne giggles treacherously.
"Yeah, yeah. Lynne, watch carefully what I do. You won't get many opportunities to see things like this."
Leaving her a little way behind me I get closer to the pod. Disruption's still there.
Quick check shows that it isn't construct proof.
Could try just dumping the whole thing into subspace, but I'm worried about how the bit which I can't scan will react… I take another look at the force field that's protecting it.
Is that a button?
There's a sort of.. plasma eddy in one spot. The design looks deliberate. Alright then.
Construct finger and
press.
"Hello!" The message is coming over about seventeen different forms of advanced communication system simultaneously. A slightly extreme precaution, but a sound one if the sender had no idea who the pod might meet at the other end. "You've reached the messaging service-" Eh? "-of Brum-El." A Kryptonian? I don't remember-. "No, I'm not a Kryptonian.
Why do people always ask that? They're not the only species who frantically jettison things from their dying home planet, you know!"
Huh?
"Preserved in this pod are the things most precious to me." Okay, alien baby. Bab
ies. The Genomorphs can handle-. "My clothes." What? "My sock collection, all fifty two pairs. My fabulous hats, all in their original boxes." What? "My oven gloves, my
beautiful, beautiful oven gloves." I hear a whimper. "Oh, and that weird bug facemask my brother bought me for my birthday that time and my green
union suit. To be honest, I really just wanted to get those off the planet. I mean, can you imagine if I died wearing those?
Yikes, right?"
…
I think
we can pretty much rule out the wisdom of the universe.
"Anyway, meteorites coming, I gotta go. The pod should land safely on the first inhabited planet it comes to. So if that's you, congratulations! I guess… Put them in a museum or something? Oh, oh, and there might
possibly have been a small infestation of radioactive space robo-insects. Maybe! But it's probably nothing to worry about. All you need to do is crackle. Crackle! Crackle?
Yeah, that sounded believable. Okay, future fashion worshippers, this is Brum-El, signing off! I'm off to leave life the way I came in: naked and screaming! Leave your message after the beep."
I wait for a moment.
There is no beep.
"What a flipping waste of time. Sinestro,
get me Lex Luthor."
"Dialling now."
I hear the phone being picked up, but no one says anything. "Lex, Grayven here."
"One moment." Miss Graves' voice. Oh, come on. I don't rate being put straight through? Sinestro, I show up on caller ID, right?
A terrible oversight on my part, Corpsman.
"Grayven. To what do I owe this pleasure?"
"Lex, hi. Alien supply pod on collision course with the South Pole. Apparently it contains someone's wardrobe, but you could probably get something useful from the technologies of the pod itself. Interested?"
"Their wardrobe?"
"You can keep the socks, no charge."
Lynne laughs again.
"… Thank you. Once you've performed a preliminary investigation, please transport it to LexCorp's secure warehouse in New York."
"No problem. Tell them to expect me in about an hour."
Sinestro, hang up.
Earth's bigger now, almost the size of my thumb nail. "No sense following it in." I bring Lynne and myself to a relative stop, the pod zooming away from us. "Father Box, boom tube to the Antarctic."
Ploong.
A glowing portal opens in space, a white wasteland on the far side. I send Lynne through first and then float through myself, closing it behind me and looking upwards. Can't see it yet with my unaided eyes, but I have Sinestro
plot the location and distance on my eyes and Lynne's visor.
"That was weird. Are we really on the South Pole?"
"No, the Pole's a little way-" I point to the south. "-that way. Magnetic south is about a kilometre south east of us."
"Can we go see it?"
"Um." How long have we got? "Yes, alright. First thing though." I activate the aerodiscs in her boots before triggering my own and rising off the hard packed ice. "I want you to try getting there using your aerodiscs."
"I have those?"
"Everyone worth mentioning on Apokolips has those. You just have to lean a little and angle your feet-." She gets about three inches off the ground before losing her balance, flailing her arms around for a few desperate seconds before falling onto her back. "Nearly. It's like riding a Segway." I float over and offer her my right hand. "It's only not intuitive if you
expect it to be unintuitive. Now." I give her a
friendly smile. "Try again."