Chapter 7
Far away Superman cruised over the Amazon rain forest. He had
never been in this part of the world before. He found the
villages on the professor's map, but there was no sign of the
mysterious white demon.
Suddenly something touched his back and sped away so fast even
Superman couldn't see it. "That couldn't have been a
bird!" Superman remarked. Birds sometimes did that, Hawks,
and other hunters seemed to be trying to drive him out of their
territory. Suddenly Superman felt the touch again and this time
caught a glimpse of a white flash moving away from him. He took
up pursuit and they sped around mountains, through forests.
Finally Superman came to rest on a mountaintop. "Whatever
this is, it's just as fast as I am!" Superman muttered.
A ways off a white face peeked around a rock, disappeared, and
then peeked again. Slowly a big white dog came from behind the
rock. It started wagging its tail and the rock began to
disintegrate as the tail hit it. Superman stared in disbelief. He
knelt down on one knee and tears trickled out of his eyes.
"Krypto?" he moaned. The dog shot forward and was in
his arms, lapping his face and hugging him. "It can't
be!" Superman gasped. "You were destroyed, with
everything else, on Krypton! How could YOU be here?"
The dog backed off, barked happily, and headed off. Superman
followed. It lead him to a mountain overlooking the Indian
villages. There, under a pile of rubble that had obviously fallen
on it long ago, was a Kryptonian space ship. The dog went inside,
laid down, and stared at Superman.
"That's why I don't remember seeing you for a while before
they put me in my ship! This must've been a test ship father
built! He put you in it, probably intending to have you arrive
before me, and look after me! But something must've gone wrong!
You probably entered a time warp and arrived on Earth a thousand
years before I did! But how did you survive this long?"
"Because my son," came Jor-El's voice from inside the
ship, "the suspension unit in this vessel was set to keep
its occupant in full suspension. When it is on the occupant does
not age. In order to fulfill my mission to have your dog be here
when you arrived, as much as possible I kept him in full
suspension, only awaking him when those he watched over were in
immediate danger. Though he has been here a thousand years, he
has only aged a few days. Where is your ship? I awaited its
signal but never received it. You only recently came in range of
my sensors." Superman stared. "my ship
malfunctioned," he finally managed. "It did not make a
soft landing. I barely survived even with the strength this world
gives me." A thought entered Superman's mind. "Do you
have a crystal library?" he asked, "like the one that
was carried in my ship?"
"No," the ship answered. Krypto's eyes suddenly
widened. He looked towards the village and shot by Superman.
Superman didn't move, but merely watched and listened to what
occurred with his superior vision and hearing. Two men dressed in
ragged clothes had a young native girl in a clearing.
"Well, here's a sweet little plaything," one of the men
was saying. "We'll have some fun with this!" Krypto
appeared out of the jungle and approached, growling softly. The
girl looked at him and smiled.
"What the...?" one of the men grumbled. He reached in
his belt and pulled out a pistol, firing two shots. As the
bullets bounced off Krypto and headed back towards the girl, he
snapped them out of the air, then spat them out, staring at the
men angrily. The one holding the girl let her go. "I think
it is time for us to leave!" he remarked, "I think we
had better find some other place to be!"
His companion still hesitated. Krypto came forward, snatched the
gun from his hand, chewed it up and spat it out. With that both
men turned and fled with great haste! The girl came over, patted
Krypto and kissed him on the forehead. "Thank you!" she
praised, and headed back toward the village. Krypto returned to
Superman and received praise from him, also.
"Do things like that happen often?" Superman asked.
"They used to be rare," the ship answered, "but
they are increasing more and more with each passing day."
"How does Krypto get enough to eat?" Superman asked,
"And how does he dispose of his waste?"
"The natives leave him pies of scrap," the ship
answered, "that I transport with a pick up module and
condense until he is hungry. There is a waste disposal unit
within me that he uses. I use the module to spread its contents
over the surrounding area so that they are not too concentrated
in one place."
"Good!" Superman praised. "You have followed your
programming very well! Is there anything you need?"
"No," the ship answered, "my power supply could
last for one hundred thousand years, and all my systems are fully
functional."
"Well," Superman continued, "I think Krypto is
needed here. I will come to visit when I can. There's also
somebody else I want him to meet."
"Give me his coordinates," the ship responded, "I
can see him in your thoughts. Krypto will be delighted. He can
visit while I monitor. Might I ask how do YOU dispose of your
excess waste without a ship?"
Superman smiled. "I have a place at the bottom of the
ocean," he answered. "I take in large quantities of
food only once a month and dispose of the waste there. Otherwise
than that I use normal facilities."
"I hope we can converse more," the ship continued.
"It has been lonely having no high mind to communicate with.
I have been picking up signals but did not know if I should reply
to any of them."
"It would be highly dangerous if you did," Superman
continued. "If you were to accidentally give these people
some advanced technology it could be disastrous!"
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