1 1-Intertwined

Somewhere in Antarctica, March 3rd 1993

A chilly breeze blew through a serene snow-covered valley as a woman who appeared in her early 20s watched the sunrise with a small smile on her face. A sudden boom could be heard from a few kilometres away before its source impacted the terrain only a few dozen meters from her, causing violent shakes and disrupted snow to screen the area, but leaving the woman otherwise unfazed. 

"You must have been here a while. I would've known if someone like you arrived here in the past year" A man wearing a red and white caped suit with grey streaks in his hair and a prominent moustache said as he walked through the fog to meet the woman face to face.

"Seven, if you go by the orbit cycle. Can't say I made as big of an impact as you 'Omni-Man'..." A beautiful woman in her early twenties with brown hair and eyes replied with a smile. 

"So, where are you from and what do you want?" Omni-Man asked.

"Straight to the point, but your actions speak louder than words, which are built upon an act you want them to accept. Can I trust you won't go 'criminal buster mode' if I show you something?" She asked as she pointed her thumb over her shoulder in the opposite direction, getting no response from the man who was still sizing her up.

"I'll take that was a yes..." She said before turning and leading him across the snowy valley, eventually reaching a narrow cave entrance still wide enough for the both of them to comfortably fit through one at a time.

Making their way through a tunnel, he noticed how it had been melted into an almost perfectly square corridor, a sign of advanced technology. The two eventually entered a large artificially carved gloomy cavern not unlike the tunnel, only far, far older. A smooth-hulled structure of some kind had been entombed in the ice for what appeared to be quite some time. 

"I dated the ice back twenty thousand years during a period where the entire planet had been covered in ice, even its saline oceans. A perfect camouflage to hide from a young, scared and sceptical civilization like them. This is where I sent you the message" She spoke while they approached a lowering ramp.

"Your peoples?" He asked.

"Yes, but far, far before my time" She replied with a smile as they made their way through the dark grey-coloured walls. 

They eventually entered a room that had walls covered in a strange flowing metallic liquid-like substance. Activating a control panel situated on a desk in the centre of the room, the substance began to flow and warp rapidly at random, like a puddle rippling from vibrations. She suddenly spoke in an alien tongue he'd never heard, putting him on edge. 

"Relax, I was just instructing a program to the ship computer" She claimed as it suddenly held true as it formed to present several people in a presentation. "one hundred thousand, the Kryptonians, sent thousands of ships like this into the void seeking inhabitable planets to expand our civilization..." She said with a proud shine in her eye that quickly faded to an expression of somberness. 

"What happened?" He asked slowly approaching from her side, intrigued to hear more of the civilization that he thought was only legend. 

"The space exploration was abandoned. Artificial birth was instated to ensure Krypton's people were born with the perfect to fit their mandated role in its society. For whatever reason, we began syphoning energy from the planet's core, causing it to steadily grow in instability over the centuries. We fall to superstition, stagnation, bureaucracy, and eventually to destruction. I don't know if any survived..." She said as she deactivated the projection with the low-pitched hum of the ship being the only thing keeping eerie silence at bay.

"I'm sorry. For all it's worth" He said, breaking the silence.

"I'm not. We built our tombs when the weak-minded decided we'd gone far enough. Never again! I believe that is the reason for which I was born, to go where they dared not to" She said looking up to him with a tear in her eye.

"They call me Omni-Man, my alias is Nolan, but my people call me Nowl-Ahn" He greeted.

"Alaara El of the House of El. I was once Ordinator to Krypton's Thinker Guild" She replied as she slowly a faint smile slowly crossed her face, for despite him not being one of her people, she was alone no longer. 

Two Weeks Later

"You called?" Nolan asked curiously as he walked into the control room she seemed never to leave. 

"That I did, for a reason that can benefit us both! Throughout the years I have made modifications and repairs to the parts of the ship that desperately needed it such as the communication array and life support, but the hyperdrive is beyond any means of repair while the ship is in the position that it's in. Throughout the years I've been here, I've studied a change to my physiology that I believe caused the death of the Kryptonian expansion. My planet orbited a red star, a hostile celestial body that made any evolution under its control far more resilient than the average lifeforms found in the Universe. When my people were on our planet, we were no different from the people of Earth in terms of power, but here, my cells have drunk the energy of the young star, granting me abilities primitives would believe could only belong to their gods, such as how they see yourself. One of these abilities that has been slow to manifest is the capability to generate my own magnetic field, eventually granting me the ability of flight, like yours. 

For seven years I have nurtured this ability, but it's not yet enough to allow me to carry out my plan, but then you came, and my equation was solved. I can rid the ship of the ice that encapsulates it, but you, you can carry it into orbit, where I will be granted full control over Earths the telecommunication network. I will pair this network with the ship's superior artificial intelligence, allowing me to inform you if any of the 5.5 billion has lifted so much as a finger. I believed you'd kill me for seeing through your act, but this will only ensure their compliance when your mission is due" She finished her speech, causing the room to fall silent as they both locked eyes for one whole minute before it was broken.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's get to work" He said with a smirk forming on his face.

Both making their way out of the ship and into the icy cavern, Alaara shut her eyes as she delved into a deep concentration. Nolen, unaware of what she was doing, suddenly picked up on a low-frequency hum that pulsated in and out rapidly before turning into an audible ringing that resembled glass chimes. Opening her eyes to reveal them shining a brilliant crimson red, Nolan had little time to question her intentions before he had his answer. Shot from her eyes were two powerful beams of what he recognized to be pure solar energy from all his time flying past stars, instantly vaporizing even the densest permafrost with pin-point precision, eventually freeing the vessel from its icy prison. 

"Y-Your turn..." She said with a laboured breath as she fell to the ground, spent from rarely using such an ability.

Quickly jumping into action, Nolan rocketed up and through the dense glacial roof, breaking through meters of ice with no effort. Descending rapidly in a different spot from his exit, he crashed through the ice back into the cave. Many times he did this until the entire cave roof caved, requiring Alaara to dodge the thick chunks of ice by jumping and rolling back into the ship. Quickly making her way to the flight deck, she along with the AI kicked the ship into action, activating its thruster system to purge the thrust ports of any leftover ice. Initiating liftoff, she was quickly airborne with full functionality already having been restored aside from the hyperdrive.

Once in orbit, she altered the guidance system to sync with Earth's gravitational field, allowing for a sustained low-powered stable orbit. Surprised by Nolan appearing just outside of the command deck within the vacuum, he pointed to both himself and inside the ship, causing her to quickly snap out of her success high to open the broadside airlock. 

"Sorry about that, I got caught up in the moment. How the hell did you breathe out there?" She asked while taking a seat behind the primary command console, still depleted from such an immense energy expense her body wasn't used to. 

"I can hold my breath for two weeks if I need to. Gotta say that the whole twinkle-eye show was impressive. Newly found power?" He asked.

"Indeed. The first time I used it was to accidentally vaporize a computer modulator. I got frustrated. And...thank you. I'm grateful that despite all your scepticism, you could find a way to trust me" She said with a smile, one that was returned in kind. 

"Sure. But you still owe me, intel aside" He said continuing his smile as he was about to take his leave.

"Alright then, how about some Whaine! I saw it was popular so I grabbed some in my only expedition into their society" She replied by grabbing a bottle from a nearby storage unit.

"It's pronounced Wine...sure" He replied.