Post by redsycorax on Nov 2, 2021 23:21:49 GMT
On Earth-118, things started going wrong when Queen Victoria was assassinated by sniper Edward Oxford in 1840. As a consequence, her authoritarian uncle Ernest Augustus succeeded her from his role as King of Hanover, and the consequence was dictatorial and avaricious rule. With Ernest at the helm, British foreign policy took a dark and machiavellean turn and the consequences were felt almost immediately. Shortly before Ernest died in 1852, he took advantage of Napoleon III's coup and invaded and subdued France. Shortly after, his successor George V presided over a covert arms deal with both sides of the US Civil War and presided over the invasion and conquest of both the weakened and exhausted Union and Confederacy in 1867. It then went to war in 1871 against Prussia, aborting the formation of what would have been Germany on this world. In 1918, it engulfed Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire, as well as Tsarist Russia. In 1941, it took on Japan over its attempted invasion of Hawaii. After dropping atomic bombs on Tokyo and Yokohama, the Empire vanquished its last significant military protagonist. Only the ABC Alliance in South America, consisting of Argentina, Brazil and Chile, stood between the Empire and its objective of global domination. In 1962, even that potential resistance was overrun and the Terran Empire was born.
Although originally hereditary, succession to the Imperial purple occurred on the basis of coups and assassinations after the death of the last Hohenzollern Emperor, Ernest Augustus II, in 1919. Paradoxically, this led to the ascent of the most ruthless, pragmatic figures and the survival of what was now the Terran Empire. In 1968, Imperial Crown Prince Alexander Luthor assassinated his father, Emperor Lionel, with poisoned wine. Lionel had presided over numerous practical social reforms, decriminalising homosexuality, abortion, prostitution and euthanasia as well as use of mild intoxicants like cannabis. Under Emperor Alexander, however, the Terran Empire expanded into the solar system, creating lunar bases as well as crewed exploration of Mars, the Galilean Jovian and Saturnian satellites. Emperor Alexander was also responsible for the recruitment of metahumans.
++
KRYPTON:
Kal-El swallowed as the latest data came through from the battlefront. It wasn't good. Khund forces had successfully overrun the Kryptonian Space Force battalion on Haron's largest satellite, Dheron, and were rapidly making their way across Rao's planetary system to the inner worlds, which meant Krypton was now within their range. He closed his eyes, not relishing what would happen next. Would the Khunds blanch at planetary genocide and launch planetbuster antimatter IPBMs at Krypton's major cities, shattering its crust and causing its disintegration? Had his late father Jor-El thwarted the chain reaction detonation of its radioactive core, only to have this happen in its stead? His wife Lyla came up to him:
"Kal?"
"It isn't looking good, Lyla my love. They've overrun the outer solar system and nothing stands between their invading armada and Krypton."
"In other words, they're going to use planetbusters on us, aren't they?"
"Lyla, you and Zal can escape in father's experimental hyperdrive starship. I know it's untested, but you can use that to escape."
"I'm not going without you, Kal. But our son, Zal, he's only a sleeping infant and hasn't had a chance to live. Let him live."
"What did I ever do to deserve you as my partner, Lyla Lerrol?"
"I love you, Kal-El of the House of El and I always will. For as long as we have left together."
Zal-El's starship thundered away from the planet of his birth and ten minutes later, the Khund missiles reached Krypton. In a hideous blinding burst of white light, the planet Krypton and its billion inhabitants were erased from existence- the Khunds had never been ones to tolerate opposition and despite the loss of potentially valuable technological windfalls, they always put their rule above anything else. By then, the starship had engaged hyperdrive and fled outward toward its destination- a yellow main sequence star and its sole life-sustaining planet, Earth.
THEMISCYRA:
Queen Diana of Themiscyra looked above, forelornly, at the incoming fighter jets from Brazil as they fought a winning battle against her nation's outnumbered forces. In a matter of minutes, they would be here and so would the nuclear missile that had long been aimed at the Terran Imperial ally by its Brazilian protagonists. Swallowing her bitterness and grief at the loss of so many formidable Amazons, the Queen turned to her blond-haired daughter, Penthesilea:
"Penny, my darling, it's up to you now. More than ever, this planet needs a 'wonder woman' to direct it toward peace and prosperity."
"Mother? No, I won't leave you!"
"Please, Penny. The Brazilians want to make an example of us because of our support for the Empire. They'll incinerate Themiscyra any moment now. But if you flee now, our people and heritage will live on in you."
"All right. All right, I'll do it. Persephone receive you, Mother, my Queen."
"Hola, my daughter. And farewell." In her Amazon invisible plane, Penthesilea of Themiscyra took over and was hurtling over the Carribean toward the security and sanctuary of the Imperial city of Atlantica when behind her, the classical Grecian beauty of the matriarchal civilisation, with its millennia of peace and wise governance, erupted into a blinding white glare as the solitary resistance to the Terran Empire bloodied its hands with the slaughter of innocents and caused the decision of its sole survivor to support the Imperial cause.
CENTRALIA CITY:
It had been almost eight years since Iris Allen had been caught in the freak intersection of chemicals and lightning that had transformed her into Flashwoman, the companion to her husband Barry Allen's Flash. Iris had visited her then-fiancee to convey the apologies of her nephew Wally West that he couldn't make the appointment with his soon to be uncle at CCPD headquarters due to a chance bus breakdown in Blue Valley. And over those years, she and her husband had fought his rogues gallery of villains, until the dark day that Eobard Thawne, the villainous Professor Zoom, had slipped a relaxant into her husband's drink and taken advantage of his disorientation and bewilderment to reach into his brain, causing neurological trauma and instant death. Iris journeyed to the future and put an end to the psychotic menace once and for all, but then, she reflected, would this have happened if there had been some greater network of metahumans for her to fall back upon for assistance? When Emperor Alexander sent his sympathies and requested her presence, she honestly believed that the Terran Empire was a force for good and the rule of law. She was not a foolish and naive woman, but a grieving one, who had lost her heart's desire and her heart ached.
GOTHAM:
The city had been subject to extremes of wealth since it was first settled. And thus, it was probably tempting fate when GCPD Captain James Gordon, his wife Barbara and his children Barbara and Thomas ventured into Crime Alley after watching a late night film. It had been a present for the children on Halloween, but it was to be their last night together as a family. For, as fated in alternate universes. a petty criminal named Joseph Chill stepped out of the shadows and got into a firefight with James Gordon, whom he killed on the spot. When his wife Barbara screamed for help, he shot her dead in an instant. Barbara Gordon rushed at him, his red hair flying in the night breeze, like a bat out of hell. But Chill impassively mowed her down in his turn, leaving a wide-eyed, traumatised boy gazing at the carnage before him. Thomas Gordon was taken in by his family's friends, the Waynes, and brought up with their son Bruce. It was no surprise when he became a policeman, but soon after, a piscine-themed heroic figure emerged for vengeance against the criminal fraternity. And thus, playing on the grief and longing of a broken-hearted child turned embittered and vengeful vigilante adult, Emperor Alexander invited Manta Ray to his Imperial domain in Burgoyne.
And thus was born ISM- the Imperial Society of Metahumans.
Brought together in the midst of bereavement, Emperor Alexander melded the men and women of ISM into a capable fighting force. There were some tricky situations- one of them involved kryptonite, the remains of Powerman's destroyed homeworld. Given that Jor-El's original design was a prototype starship, its hyperdrive had ripped a wormhole in the space/time continuum as it traversed interstellar space toward Earth. The wormhole consumed a sizeable proportion of kryptonite left after the Khunds obliterated Krypton and so the deadly radioactive transuranic element seemed to disproportionately dog the Steel Man. Penthesilea wanted revenge against Brazil for their role in the destruction of Themiscyra. Once the last bastion of resistance had been vanquished, the Amazon seemed listless, given the achievement of her goal. She grew closer to Powerman, given their shared tragedies. Thomas Gordon was a definite asset, given his access to the Wayne legacy and his finely honed athletic skills. The Manta Ray uniform raised a few eyebrows, but it could have been anything that inspired that, the Emperor reminded himself. And then there was the widowed Iris West Allen. Of all of ISM, she was closest to him and never refused any request for metahuman action. Particularly, she would find his current project intriguing:
"Ah. I'm glad you're all assembled here. You see, I have some new scientific research to announce. It is cellular anti-apoptosis, or, as the less salubrious media outlets will no doubt label it "resurrection technology. And I'm so sorry, Iris my dear. I am afraid the anti-apoptosis technique only works on recently dead cadavers. Poor Barry would not be eligible for this, which is a great pity considering his valour and loyalty to the Empire."
"But Your Highness, this is excellent news anyway! Think of the use that this will have for modern medicine or for battlefield injuries! Once more, we have a humanitarian advance to thank your illustrious family for." Flashwoman ardently replied.
"I'm sure we all share Iris' respect and admiration for the latest technological advance that you've given us, Your Imperial Highness. However, I suspect some quarters of society won't welcome this scientific development as warmly." Powerman responded.
Penthesilea nodded: "You mean the religious communities, don't you, Zal?"
"Oh, not all of them. Some of them may welcome the advent of this technology as a beneficial gift consistent with their sacred values. However, some won't. I had a message from Cardinal O'Hagen in New York which states that the Catholic Church believes that at the time of natural death, the human soul leaves the body. In the case of the use of life support technology, it is still there, as well as in more conventional cases of resuscitation. However, it seems that the Vatican is intent on forbidding this technology to faithful Catholics."
"And other faiths?"
"Buddhists and Hindus are concerned at the implications for reincarnation should the soul be unable to leave the body and embark on the Wheel of Nirvana and find a new body afterward."
"Do you anticipate trouble, sir?" Penthesilea followed on.
"I wish I was an optimist, like Iris here. Unfortunately, I am afraid that there will be a rebellious element."
Iris stepped forward: "If you need me to testify to the pain of loss and the precious gift of hope that this technology offers, Your Highness, I volunteer my services as media liaison."
"As ever, Iris, your willingness to serve the common good is an inspiration to us all. Thank you."
After they had left, Emperor Alexander sat back on his throne, against the crimson backdrop of Earth with a sword stationed behind it, the emblem of the Terran Empire. Unlike other iterations of his alternate selves, he was genuinely altruistic in some ways, probably because with his father's assassination, he had already acquired the ultimate power that his alternate selves would have craved. By and large, he supported his father's pragmatic liberal reforms, but the prospective religious opposition to resurrection technology bothered him. Should he have prohibited religious worship altogether? That would have required substantial personnel allocation and there was always the danger of subversion within the armed forces, as there always was. Unfortunately, one of the legacies the Terran Empire had inherited from the ancient Roman counterpart that it tried to emulate was the power of a Praetorian Guard. However, with the Imperial Society in place, he counted on a reign considerably longer than many of his predecessors. Hmmm. Should he ask Iris to become his consort?
SOLITUDE:
Several hundred kilometres away from Earth, Zal-El was musing in his own fastness, situated on Ganymede, the largest Jovian satellite as well as the most massive satellite in the solar system itself, larger than even the planet Mercury. Had Emperor Alexander chanced upon this, he might have asked why his most loyal subject based himself so far away from Earth, amidst intensive Jovian microwave radiation that would have killed Terrans within hours. As the teleporter hummed, he looked up:
"Hello, Zal. Look, it's about the Emperor..."
He nodded: "I know, Penny. I'm not sure he should be able to go this far, even if he is absolute ruler of this planetary system."
"Why didn't you object to his proposal when we met with him."
"You know how paranoid he is and with good reason. Since the Hohenzollerns ceased to be the hereditary dynasty, few Emperors or Empresses have succeeded to the throne naturally. And then I found this..." Penthesilea frowned, then realised what she was seeing: "Those are starchart co-ordinates. But that's.."
Zal-El nodded: "LHS-2520, or Rao. To be more specific, the location of Krypton itself. And it's on a tachyon carrier beam..."
"Aimed straight at the Khund Empire's throneworld. Oh, Zal."
"That's not all, Penny. Look what else I found. Someone located Themiscyra and transmitted its exact location to the Brazilian armed forces."
"Merciful Minerva, Zal. What are you saying? That we have an enemy within the Imperial power structure?"
"It's worse than even that, Penny. Our enemy... is Emperor Alexander himself..."
"But what would he have to gain...?"
"Our existence as a safeguard against a coup d'etat."
"The problem is, Iris won't believe any of this. To her, he's the great man, the saviour of our world."
"What about Tom?"
Zal-El sighed: "It's difficult to assess what he thinks or feels under that mask of his. One thing I do know- his uniform generates faked lifesigns. Why would it do that unless...?"
"Unless Tom wants the job for himself?"
"Against us?"
"The problem is, he's been able to assess our weaknesses too, Penny. Chaining your bracelets together, or using kryptonite, magic or Q-Energy against me. And he might have shared it with the Emperor as an insurance policy."
Unfortunately, however, Manta Ray was quite aware of what his colleagues had deduced. And as Iago to his Emperor's Othello, the poison was mutually applied. Covertly, under Powerman's nose, considerable amounts of kryptonite were accumulated for potential use. While the appearance of public unity was preserved, cracks began to appear in the formerly solid relationship between Emperor Alexander and the Imperial Society of Metahumans. And meanwhile, outside, Thomas Gordon's other strategies began to gather momentum as the world turned onward. Protests for and against resurrection technology began to amass across the world and very soon, factional violence began to break out and it became obvious that Emperor Alexander had miscalculated the intensity of feelings on both sides of the issue.
And then things became irreversible. At a given signal, the polarisation erupted into civil war. As the praetorian guard moved in Emperor Alexander, Powerman was called to frustrate their plans, but instead, he tried to negotiate with them. To Emperor Alexander's concern and carefully manipulated fear and paranoia, he then made a fateful further gesture and ordered kryptonite projectiles fired at what he now considered a rebellious adversary. Which left a broken-hearted Penthesilea alone against Manta Ray and Flashwoman.
"Iris! Emperor Alexander! You're being manipulated! It's Tom! He's a psychopath."
Iris was in no mood for negotiation: "Penny, I don't want to kill you..."
"Listen to me, both of you. Tom Gordon has manipulated this whole situation. He wants the imperial purple for himself. Think about it. Next to his Imperial Highness, he's been around here for the longest period. He deliberately set it up to make it seem as if the Emperor had transmitted data about the locations of Krypton and Themiscyra to our mortal enemies."
Emperor Alexander ran a hand through his thinning red hair: "Thomas, you couldn't... you didn't... so Zal-El died for nothing but to facilitate your plans...and I've fallen for it...?"
"Too slow, your Imperial Highness." And from his cloak, Manta Ray drew a pistol and fired it at the startled, bewildered monarch. Flashwoman interposed herself between the bullet and the Emperor, but the momentum was just a fraction too fast and it hit her in the heart. She veered toward a wall and slammed into it. Penthesilea stalked toward Manta Ray, with bullets directed against amazonium bracelets and the face of a wrathful warrior woman grim and intent on her quarry. But when she reached him, he broke her hold and began to actively fight back: "An exoskeleton."
"Your Imperial Highness, take up the gun. Please." He wavered between the two of them, unable to find a secure shot.
"You are the only thing that stands between me and the Purple, Amazon. I will not let that happen."
"And I won't let you do that."
"You cannot stop me. Things have gone too far for that."
"What do you mean?"
"With Powerman dead, the praetorian guard have nothing left to restrain them."
"Nothing except..." Emperor Alexander's hand wavered over the red button, designed for such a contingency. In a burst of strength, Manta Ray broke Penthesilea's neck and threw her aside. Emperor Alexander closed his eyes and brought his hand down on the red button. And in a matter of seconds, the Imperial Palace and the embattled, besieged city of Metropolis was nothing more than a blinding fireball and rock and metal debris were hurled high into the atmosphere. And in response, across the Terran Empire, kindred nuclear detonations occurred as the Terran Empire entered a bloody interregnum. They say that history is written by the victors, but that night, there were no victors.
And for decades, that was how matters stood. There were a few technological oases, but they had been irreversibly poisoned by the hardship, death and disease that they had to endure. The abortive metahuman phase of recent history was labelled "the Eugenics War" and faced ongoing demonisation. Human genetic engineering and metahuman abilities were consigned to the outer darkness. Ultimately, a brilliant but twisted engineer and physicist, Zefram Cochrane, detected telecommunications from the vicinity of 40 Eridani A, sixteen light years from Earth. He labelled the species that he discovered "Vulcans", given their proximity to their primary. Systematically and dispassionately, he began his plan to reassert the Terran Empire and expand its domination from one world to potentially many. And thereafter, it spread its iron grip anew out to the stars.
THE END
Although originally hereditary, succession to the Imperial purple occurred on the basis of coups and assassinations after the death of the last Hohenzollern Emperor, Ernest Augustus II, in 1919. Paradoxically, this led to the ascent of the most ruthless, pragmatic figures and the survival of what was now the Terran Empire. In 1968, Imperial Crown Prince Alexander Luthor assassinated his father, Emperor Lionel, with poisoned wine. Lionel had presided over numerous practical social reforms, decriminalising homosexuality, abortion, prostitution and euthanasia as well as use of mild intoxicants like cannabis. Under Emperor Alexander, however, the Terran Empire expanded into the solar system, creating lunar bases as well as crewed exploration of Mars, the Galilean Jovian and Saturnian satellites. Emperor Alexander was also responsible for the recruitment of metahumans.
++
KRYPTON:
Kal-El swallowed as the latest data came through from the battlefront. It wasn't good. Khund forces had successfully overrun the Kryptonian Space Force battalion on Haron's largest satellite, Dheron, and were rapidly making their way across Rao's planetary system to the inner worlds, which meant Krypton was now within their range. He closed his eyes, not relishing what would happen next. Would the Khunds blanch at planetary genocide and launch planetbuster antimatter IPBMs at Krypton's major cities, shattering its crust and causing its disintegration? Had his late father Jor-El thwarted the chain reaction detonation of its radioactive core, only to have this happen in its stead? His wife Lyla came up to him:
"Kal?"
"It isn't looking good, Lyla my love. They've overrun the outer solar system and nothing stands between their invading armada and Krypton."
"In other words, they're going to use planetbusters on us, aren't they?"
"Lyla, you and Zal can escape in father's experimental hyperdrive starship. I know it's untested, but you can use that to escape."
"I'm not going without you, Kal. But our son, Zal, he's only a sleeping infant and hasn't had a chance to live. Let him live."
"What did I ever do to deserve you as my partner, Lyla Lerrol?"
"I love you, Kal-El of the House of El and I always will. For as long as we have left together."
Zal-El's starship thundered away from the planet of his birth and ten minutes later, the Khund missiles reached Krypton. In a hideous blinding burst of white light, the planet Krypton and its billion inhabitants were erased from existence- the Khunds had never been ones to tolerate opposition and despite the loss of potentially valuable technological windfalls, they always put their rule above anything else. By then, the starship had engaged hyperdrive and fled outward toward its destination- a yellow main sequence star and its sole life-sustaining planet, Earth.
THEMISCYRA:
Queen Diana of Themiscyra looked above, forelornly, at the incoming fighter jets from Brazil as they fought a winning battle against her nation's outnumbered forces. In a matter of minutes, they would be here and so would the nuclear missile that had long been aimed at the Terran Imperial ally by its Brazilian protagonists. Swallowing her bitterness and grief at the loss of so many formidable Amazons, the Queen turned to her blond-haired daughter, Penthesilea:
"Penny, my darling, it's up to you now. More than ever, this planet needs a 'wonder woman' to direct it toward peace and prosperity."
"Mother? No, I won't leave you!"
"Please, Penny. The Brazilians want to make an example of us because of our support for the Empire. They'll incinerate Themiscyra any moment now. But if you flee now, our people and heritage will live on in you."
"All right. All right, I'll do it. Persephone receive you, Mother, my Queen."
"Hola, my daughter. And farewell." In her Amazon invisible plane, Penthesilea of Themiscyra took over and was hurtling over the Carribean toward the security and sanctuary of the Imperial city of Atlantica when behind her, the classical Grecian beauty of the matriarchal civilisation, with its millennia of peace and wise governance, erupted into a blinding white glare as the solitary resistance to the Terran Empire bloodied its hands with the slaughter of innocents and caused the decision of its sole survivor to support the Imperial cause.
CENTRALIA CITY:
It had been almost eight years since Iris Allen had been caught in the freak intersection of chemicals and lightning that had transformed her into Flashwoman, the companion to her husband Barry Allen's Flash. Iris had visited her then-fiancee to convey the apologies of her nephew Wally West that he couldn't make the appointment with his soon to be uncle at CCPD headquarters due to a chance bus breakdown in Blue Valley. And over those years, she and her husband had fought his rogues gallery of villains, until the dark day that Eobard Thawne, the villainous Professor Zoom, had slipped a relaxant into her husband's drink and taken advantage of his disorientation and bewilderment to reach into his brain, causing neurological trauma and instant death. Iris journeyed to the future and put an end to the psychotic menace once and for all, but then, she reflected, would this have happened if there had been some greater network of metahumans for her to fall back upon for assistance? When Emperor Alexander sent his sympathies and requested her presence, she honestly believed that the Terran Empire was a force for good and the rule of law. She was not a foolish and naive woman, but a grieving one, who had lost her heart's desire and her heart ached.
GOTHAM:
The city had been subject to extremes of wealth since it was first settled. And thus, it was probably tempting fate when GCPD Captain James Gordon, his wife Barbara and his children Barbara and Thomas ventured into Crime Alley after watching a late night film. It had been a present for the children on Halloween, but it was to be their last night together as a family. For, as fated in alternate universes. a petty criminal named Joseph Chill stepped out of the shadows and got into a firefight with James Gordon, whom he killed on the spot. When his wife Barbara screamed for help, he shot her dead in an instant. Barbara Gordon rushed at him, his red hair flying in the night breeze, like a bat out of hell. But Chill impassively mowed her down in his turn, leaving a wide-eyed, traumatised boy gazing at the carnage before him. Thomas Gordon was taken in by his family's friends, the Waynes, and brought up with their son Bruce. It was no surprise when he became a policeman, but soon after, a piscine-themed heroic figure emerged for vengeance against the criminal fraternity. And thus, playing on the grief and longing of a broken-hearted child turned embittered and vengeful vigilante adult, Emperor Alexander invited Manta Ray to his Imperial domain in Burgoyne.
And thus was born ISM- the Imperial Society of Metahumans.
Brought together in the midst of bereavement, Emperor Alexander melded the men and women of ISM into a capable fighting force. There were some tricky situations- one of them involved kryptonite, the remains of Powerman's destroyed homeworld. Given that Jor-El's original design was a prototype starship, its hyperdrive had ripped a wormhole in the space/time continuum as it traversed interstellar space toward Earth. The wormhole consumed a sizeable proportion of kryptonite left after the Khunds obliterated Krypton and so the deadly radioactive transuranic element seemed to disproportionately dog the Steel Man. Penthesilea wanted revenge against Brazil for their role in the destruction of Themiscyra. Once the last bastion of resistance had been vanquished, the Amazon seemed listless, given the achievement of her goal. She grew closer to Powerman, given their shared tragedies. Thomas Gordon was a definite asset, given his access to the Wayne legacy and his finely honed athletic skills. The Manta Ray uniform raised a few eyebrows, but it could have been anything that inspired that, the Emperor reminded himself. And then there was the widowed Iris West Allen. Of all of ISM, she was closest to him and never refused any request for metahuman action. Particularly, she would find his current project intriguing:
"Ah. I'm glad you're all assembled here. You see, I have some new scientific research to announce. It is cellular anti-apoptosis, or, as the less salubrious media outlets will no doubt label it "resurrection technology. And I'm so sorry, Iris my dear. I am afraid the anti-apoptosis technique only works on recently dead cadavers. Poor Barry would not be eligible for this, which is a great pity considering his valour and loyalty to the Empire."
"But Your Highness, this is excellent news anyway! Think of the use that this will have for modern medicine or for battlefield injuries! Once more, we have a humanitarian advance to thank your illustrious family for." Flashwoman ardently replied.
"I'm sure we all share Iris' respect and admiration for the latest technological advance that you've given us, Your Imperial Highness. However, I suspect some quarters of society won't welcome this scientific development as warmly." Powerman responded.
Penthesilea nodded: "You mean the religious communities, don't you, Zal?"
"Oh, not all of them. Some of them may welcome the advent of this technology as a beneficial gift consistent with their sacred values. However, some won't. I had a message from Cardinal O'Hagen in New York which states that the Catholic Church believes that at the time of natural death, the human soul leaves the body. In the case of the use of life support technology, it is still there, as well as in more conventional cases of resuscitation. However, it seems that the Vatican is intent on forbidding this technology to faithful Catholics."
"And other faiths?"
"Buddhists and Hindus are concerned at the implications for reincarnation should the soul be unable to leave the body and embark on the Wheel of Nirvana and find a new body afterward."
"Do you anticipate trouble, sir?" Penthesilea followed on.
"I wish I was an optimist, like Iris here. Unfortunately, I am afraid that there will be a rebellious element."
Iris stepped forward: "If you need me to testify to the pain of loss and the precious gift of hope that this technology offers, Your Highness, I volunteer my services as media liaison."
"As ever, Iris, your willingness to serve the common good is an inspiration to us all. Thank you."
After they had left, Emperor Alexander sat back on his throne, against the crimson backdrop of Earth with a sword stationed behind it, the emblem of the Terran Empire. Unlike other iterations of his alternate selves, he was genuinely altruistic in some ways, probably because with his father's assassination, he had already acquired the ultimate power that his alternate selves would have craved. By and large, he supported his father's pragmatic liberal reforms, but the prospective religious opposition to resurrection technology bothered him. Should he have prohibited religious worship altogether? That would have required substantial personnel allocation and there was always the danger of subversion within the armed forces, as there always was. Unfortunately, one of the legacies the Terran Empire had inherited from the ancient Roman counterpart that it tried to emulate was the power of a Praetorian Guard. However, with the Imperial Society in place, he counted on a reign considerably longer than many of his predecessors. Hmmm. Should he ask Iris to become his consort?
SOLITUDE:
Several hundred kilometres away from Earth, Zal-El was musing in his own fastness, situated on Ganymede, the largest Jovian satellite as well as the most massive satellite in the solar system itself, larger than even the planet Mercury. Had Emperor Alexander chanced upon this, he might have asked why his most loyal subject based himself so far away from Earth, amidst intensive Jovian microwave radiation that would have killed Terrans within hours. As the teleporter hummed, he looked up:
"Hello, Zal. Look, it's about the Emperor..."
He nodded: "I know, Penny. I'm not sure he should be able to go this far, even if he is absolute ruler of this planetary system."
"Why didn't you object to his proposal when we met with him."
"You know how paranoid he is and with good reason. Since the Hohenzollerns ceased to be the hereditary dynasty, few Emperors or Empresses have succeeded to the throne naturally. And then I found this..." Penthesilea frowned, then realised what she was seeing: "Those are starchart co-ordinates. But that's.."
Zal-El nodded: "LHS-2520, or Rao. To be more specific, the location of Krypton itself. And it's on a tachyon carrier beam..."
"Aimed straight at the Khund Empire's throneworld. Oh, Zal."
"That's not all, Penny. Look what else I found. Someone located Themiscyra and transmitted its exact location to the Brazilian armed forces."
"Merciful Minerva, Zal. What are you saying? That we have an enemy within the Imperial power structure?"
"It's worse than even that, Penny. Our enemy... is Emperor Alexander himself..."
"But what would he have to gain...?"
"Our existence as a safeguard against a coup d'etat."
"The problem is, Iris won't believe any of this. To her, he's the great man, the saviour of our world."
"What about Tom?"
Zal-El sighed: "It's difficult to assess what he thinks or feels under that mask of his. One thing I do know- his uniform generates faked lifesigns. Why would it do that unless...?"
"Unless Tom wants the job for himself?"
"Against us?"
"The problem is, he's been able to assess our weaknesses too, Penny. Chaining your bracelets together, or using kryptonite, magic or Q-Energy against me. And he might have shared it with the Emperor as an insurance policy."
Unfortunately, however, Manta Ray was quite aware of what his colleagues had deduced. And as Iago to his Emperor's Othello, the poison was mutually applied. Covertly, under Powerman's nose, considerable amounts of kryptonite were accumulated for potential use. While the appearance of public unity was preserved, cracks began to appear in the formerly solid relationship between Emperor Alexander and the Imperial Society of Metahumans. And meanwhile, outside, Thomas Gordon's other strategies began to gather momentum as the world turned onward. Protests for and against resurrection technology began to amass across the world and very soon, factional violence began to break out and it became obvious that Emperor Alexander had miscalculated the intensity of feelings on both sides of the issue.
And then things became irreversible. At a given signal, the polarisation erupted into civil war. As the praetorian guard moved in Emperor Alexander, Powerman was called to frustrate their plans, but instead, he tried to negotiate with them. To Emperor Alexander's concern and carefully manipulated fear and paranoia, he then made a fateful further gesture and ordered kryptonite projectiles fired at what he now considered a rebellious adversary. Which left a broken-hearted Penthesilea alone against Manta Ray and Flashwoman.
"Iris! Emperor Alexander! You're being manipulated! It's Tom! He's a psychopath."
Iris was in no mood for negotiation: "Penny, I don't want to kill you..."
"Listen to me, both of you. Tom Gordon has manipulated this whole situation. He wants the imperial purple for himself. Think about it. Next to his Imperial Highness, he's been around here for the longest period. He deliberately set it up to make it seem as if the Emperor had transmitted data about the locations of Krypton and Themiscyra to our mortal enemies."
Emperor Alexander ran a hand through his thinning red hair: "Thomas, you couldn't... you didn't... so Zal-El died for nothing but to facilitate your plans...and I've fallen for it...?"
"Too slow, your Imperial Highness." And from his cloak, Manta Ray drew a pistol and fired it at the startled, bewildered monarch. Flashwoman interposed herself between the bullet and the Emperor, but the momentum was just a fraction too fast and it hit her in the heart. She veered toward a wall and slammed into it. Penthesilea stalked toward Manta Ray, with bullets directed against amazonium bracelets and the face of a wrathful warrior woman grim and intent on her quarry. But when she reached him, he broke her hold and began to actively fight back: "An exoskeleton."
"Your Imperial Highness, take up the gun. Please." He wavered between the two of them, unable to find a secure shot.
"You are the only thing that stands between me and the Purple, Amazon. I will not let that happen."
"And I won't let you do that."
"You cannot stop me. Things have gone too far for that."
"What do you mean?"
"With Powerman dead, the praetorian guard have nothing left to restrain them."
"Nothing except..." Emperor Alexander's hand wavered over the red button, designed for such a contingency. In a burst of strength, Manta Ray broke Penthesilea's neck and threw her aside. Emperor Alexander closed his eyes and brought his hand down on the red button. And in a matter of seconds, the Imperial Palace and the embattled, besieged city of Metropolis was nothing more than a blinding fireball and rock and metal debris were hurled high into the atmosphere. And in response, across the Terran Empire, kindred nuclear detonations occurred as the Terran Empire entered a bloody interregnum. They say that history is written by the victors, but that night, there were no victors.
And for decades, that was how matters stood. There were a few technological oases, but they had been irreversibly poisoned by the hardship, death and disease that they had to endure. The abortive metahuman phase of recent history was labelled "the Eugenics War" and faced ongoing demonisation. Human genetic engineering and metahuman abilities were consigned to the outer darkness. Ultimately, a brilliant but twisted engineer and physicist, Zefram Cochrane, detected telecommunications from the vicinity of 40 Eridani A, sixteen light years from Earth. He labelled the species that he discovered "Vulcans", given their proximity to their primary. Systematically and dispassionately, he began his plan to reassert the Terran Empire and expand its domination from one world to potentially many. And thereafter, it spread its iron grip anew out to the stars.
THE END