“If this machine is making Earth like Krypton,” she asked, “won’t you be weaker around it?”
“Maybe,” he admitted. “But I’m not going to let that stop me from trying. I already lost one world. I won’t let Zod take another one from me.”
He looked west, to the horizon. He took a deep breath, as though steeling himself for the challenge ahead.
“You might want to back up a little,” he advised.
Swanwick and the others gave him some space, not quite sure what the issue was. They stepped back a few yards.
“Maybe a little more,” Superman said.
They retreated further, giving him a wide berth on the open tarmac.
He bent his knees, like an athlete preparing for a high jump, and touched his bare hand to the ground, as though drawing strength from the very Earth. The ground rumbled around him. Loose pebbles lifted from the pavement, caught up in some sort of localized gravitational effect.
The rumbling increased in volume as seismic waves radiated from his body.
He cast one last look at Lane…
Then, without a word, he rocketed into the air, punching through clouds until his was only a shrinking blue-and-red blur in the sky. A sonic boom thundered high above the airfield as he disappeared into the heavens. A long white contrail marked his passage.
Down below, Swanwick and others gaped speechlessly.
Godspeed, the general thought.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Zod watched from the bridge as the expanding gravity field pounded Metropolis. Now nearly two city blocks in the diameter, the sky-high column sheared away the unlucky buildings along its growing perimeter. Crude structures of steel, glass, and concrete lost cohesion and collapsed to the ground, before being ground to powder by the pulsing super-gravity.
Panicked humans evacuated the endangered districts en masse, unaware that there would soon be no safety for them anywhere on the Earth. Their days as the planet’s dominant species were rapidly coming to a close. A better, stronger race had laid claim to their domain.
His race.
But there were still a few loose ends to be addressed.
“Faora,” he called out. “I’m handing you the command.”
“Yes, sir,” she acknowledged. “But where are you going?”
He turned away from his birds-eye view of the city’s destruction to contemplate a holographic display. A pulsing icon marked a location near the planet’s northern pole. He smiled in anticipation.
“To secure the Genesis Chamber,” he said, “and pay my respects to an old friend.”
Superman raced over the western half of North America, flying faster than he ever had before. Fierce winds and turbulence buffeted him, threatening to throw him off course, but he held to his heading.
He hated leaving Metropolis under assault by the Black Zero, but the World Engine was the greater threat. He had to bring down that machine before it rendered the entire planet uninhabitable for anyone except the Kryptonians.
Earth doesn’t belong to them, he thought fiercely. It belongs to humanity. Zod doesn’t have the right to steal their future from them.
Leaving America behind, he streaked above the North Atlantic, passing over the waves like a low-flying jet. Hundred foot-high walls of water, of the sort that would have capsized the Debbie Sue, were churned up in his wake. He heard whales crying out in the depths. They seemed to sense what the World Engine was doing to the planet.
The whales were in danger of extinction, too, along with every other Earthly lifeform. He wasn’t just fighting for humanity, Superman knew. He was fighting for the Earth.
Along with Lois and the others…
The Boeing C-17 Globemaster was a massive transport plane, nearly 175 feet long. Its generous cargo compartment was big enough to carry tanks, trucks, trailers, and even a secondhand Kryptonian space capsule.
Lois watched as Colonel Hardy oversaw the crew using a K-loader to install the capsule into the aircraft via the aft ramp. She started toward the C-17, not wanting to be left behind.
“Where do you think you’re going?” General Swanwick asked.
“You need me on that plane,” she insisted.
“Absolutely not,” Swanwick said. “This is a military operation.”
“And that’s an alien spaceship.” She glanced over at Dr. Hamilton, who was still sticking close to the general. “Do you or Mr. Wizard have any idea how to actually activate the Phantom Drive he was talking about?”
The men exchanged uncertain looks. Hamilton shook his head.
“Well, lucky for you, I do.” She held up the Kryptonian command key. “Superman showed me how.”
She chose not to mention that Superman’s dead father had originally briefed her for this mission. That was probably more weirdness than the military could handle right now.
Better I keep to that to myself, she thought. Along with Clark’s secret identity.
Swanwick sighed in resignation. He gestured toward Carrie Farris.
“Get her a flight suit, Captain.”
“Tower, this is Guardian. Approaching the hold short, ready for takeoff.”
Laden with its unearthly cargo, the C-17 taxied down the runway. Hardy manned the cockpit beside the copilot, anxiously awaiting clearance.
“Guardian,” the tower responded. “After takeoff, turn right, heading 090 then as filed. You are cleared for takeoff.”
Four powerful turbofan engines lifted the heavy cargo plane off the runway. It took off into the sky, escorted by a flight of four F-35 fighter jets. The fifth-generation fighters were sleeker and more high-tech than the Warthogs the Kryptonians had brought down over Smallville. Capable of breaking the sound barrier, the supersonic Lightnings could fly faster and climb higher than anything Zod’s forces had faced before.
Hardy wondered if that would make a difference.
Back in the cargo hold, the Kryptonian starcraft had been jury-rigged onto a railed delivery system built to convey more earthly bundles out of the back of the plane. The C-17’s designated loadmaster, a beefy grunt named Gomez, inspected the cargo to make certain it was secure, while Lois mentally took notes for the front-page story she hoped to write someday.
Like Gomez, she wore a helmet and flight suit. A radio headset—built into the helmet—kept her in contact with Hardy and the pilot. A pair of armed soldiers was there to provide security, although Lois wasn’t quite sure how they expected to fend off any attacking Kryptonians. The men probably didn’t know either, but they checked their weapons regardless.
She was grateful for their courage, at least.
Meanwhile, Dr. Hamilton had set up a makeshift workstation, from which he was busily monitoring the gravitational anomalies in Metropolis and the South Indian Ocean. He adjusted the settings as he established a link with General Swanwick, who had remained back at the command center.
“And we’re online,” he pronounced. “Are you seeing this, NORTHCOM?”
“Roger, Hamilton,” Swanwick replied over the radio. “We are.”
“General,” the scientist said, “the gravity fields are expanding faster than I anticipated. At this rate, I’d say Metropolis has less than an hour left.”