14924/Kandor: Detecting the Undetectable

Kandor: Detecting the Undetectable
Date of Scene:	15 May 2023
Location:	Somewhere in the Sahara Desert
Synopsis:	Superwoman with the help of Mr. Fantastic, devise a way to track where Zod's Kryptonian warship is hiding.
Cast of Characters:	Alura In-Ze, Reed Richards

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Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura has been trying to keep off the radar when it comes to science and technology of the Kryptonian variety. She agrees with Kal's assessment that it would irrevocably damage Earth's potential future to introduce their advanced knowledge in to the world.

But certain individuals on Earth are leaps and bounds ahead of their rest of their society and Alura has come head long in to a problem she cannot solve on her own. So an invitation was extended to one Dr. Reed Richards whom in Kal's database of note worthy humans was ranked highest in the numerous fields of science.

The invitation was to a set of remote coordinates in the Sahara. The sun beats down upon the lone Kryptonian standing there, waiting. Growing from the sand is a clear crystal up to head height on Alura and when up close it becomes apparent that this device is projecting holograms about Alura.

Superwoman is not quite as alone as it first seemed. The holograms of read-outs, technical, of what is most definitely a spaceship. One of Kryptonian design but of an era long past for her people.

Reed Richards has posed:
There were a million things that could be occupying Reed's time. Sometimes there ARE a million things occupying his thoughts... but he only has the two hands and the one substantially overpowered brain to keep up with it all. It is rare, very indeed, that he gets a call for assistance from a Kryptonian, however. Rare enough, very, that he puts his own work on hold and sets off for teh Sahara.

The Fantasticar settles on the sands and the smooth surface rises on hinges designed from unstable molecules to present a perfectly areodynamic surface. Stepping out in his blue uniform with the iconic black 4 on white background, the bearded scientist makes his way over towards the lone, pressumably until closer inspection, woman amidst a company of holograms.

He moves with the grace of a man much younger than most database age him, smiling with few to no wrinkles on his face. "Good afternoon." He greets her with a raised hand and an intrigued glance at the crystaline formation rising from the sands. In his other hand is a large chrome case, likely some of his own tools and gadgetry.

"Well now.. that's interesting."

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura glances over in to the distance as the Fantasticar approaches. With his landing and approach on foot she dismisses the combined minds surviving in the Kryptonian database. The holograms of scientists long passed. They can only aid as much as what was recorded of them which unfortunately is not enough.

Alura offers her hand in the traditional Earth greeting. "Dr. Richards. I'm Alura In-Ze. It's a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for your time." She motions fingers across the bracer on her left forearm and a crystaline spaceship decloaks in the sand not far from them.

Like a fallen star, with spikes and sharp edges, it looks to be haphazardly embedded in the sand - but not stuck. There's an opening revealing a white spacious interior. Clean lines, few colours. "This is an old Kryptonian scout ship that I've come in to possession of."

"I'm sure you're familiar with a man named Dru-Zod. He was a general in the Kryptonian fighters guild and attempted a hostile take over of the Kryptonian government in the final days of Krypton. He has since become a menace not only on Earth but on other planets too."

She motions to the crystal spire and a hologram of the bottled city of Kandor appears. "This is the result of Brainiac's technology - a device to shrinking matter for stasis and preservation. The city of Kandor was once the capital of Krypton before he abducted it. This city is now in the possession of Dru-Zod."

She folds her arms a moment and it's clear there's more about Dru-Zod she's not saying based on the way her face contorts briefly. "My intention is to recover Kandor from Dru, confront Brainiac and use his technology to restore Kandor to its full size on a new planet, New Krypton. But first I need to find Zod and Kryptonian cloaking technology is not only long forgotten in its design, but also extremely advanced."

Her eyes look back to Reed, presenting the challenge forthright, "I need help breaking Kryptonian ship cloaking technology so that I can find Dru-Zod. So far..." She sighs motioning to the myriad of readings and formulas all in Kryptonian that float amongst the sands as holograms, "I've come up wanting."

Reed Richards has posed:
Reed exchanges handshakes, the smile on his face is easy beneath the slightly graying beard. Brown eyes regard the ship suddenly decloaking, but that level of technology is not unfamiliar to him, the Fantasticar has a built in cloaking device, so he's not surprised to see A ship... though the design? He raises a brow, for a moment appearing lost, staring at the clean lines of the crystaline ship jutting out of the sand. When she finishes, he remains quiet.

Having set down his case, his hands rest upon his hips. Waist turned to face the vessel, lips pressed together gently, thoughtfully. "I remember Zod, yes." He finally breaks his imposed silence, "I was amongst the individuals who thwarted his attempt to conqour earth... twice, actually." A blink and a turn.

"Ah yes. I believe that shrinking... and I loath to call it that, honestly... technology was used to great effect some years ago on Earth, as well. An entire country, I believe."

Kneeling easily, with a little bounce in his knees, Reed pops open his case and pulls out a device that is not terribly unlike a tricorder and stands to take readings of the ship. "I don't believe that there were Kryptonian ships involved in either invasion, however. I certainly would have taken one for further study had there been." His eyes look down at the readings and then up at the ship as he walks around it, inspecting the odd design.

"How unique is this material?" A glance at Alura, "In the Universe, I mean? Is it specific to a certain region of space?"

Alura In-Ze has posed:
"On one of the last visits to Earth, Dru scoured the oceans for Brainiac technology. It's clear he's trying to restore Kandor too but he lacks the skills necessary to do it. I'm not quite sure who his allies are but I'm sure I won't trust them."

Alura walks along with Reed as he starts to scan the ship with his tricorder. "It's called Sunstone. It's very rare. A unique kind of programmable matter. The entire spaceship is morphic. Sunstone is able to reconfigure itself internally, as well as adjust what it emits and absorbs."

Much like. Kryptonian, the ship itself seems to be engorged with energy stored making it light up on his tricorder like a miniature sun yet the radiation isn't burning him. It seems to stop a centimetre from its exterior like some kind of force field.

As he scans she swipes her wrist and the ship shimmers and cloaks away leaving nothing but the indentations in the sand and nothing on his tricorder. "Krypton abandoned space exploration several hundred years ago in a massive societal shift to focus on ourselves, on science."

"Almost all our spaceships were decommissioned. What ones that are left are hidden away and mostly unserviceable. This one was restored by my sister. Zod has one too, a warship. I don't know where he got it from but he's disconnected it from the Zeta-ray communications network Krypton used to use a very long time ago. Otherwise, finding him would have been very easy."

"In the historical lore of Krypton, Sunstone was gifted to us by the gods. But in very real and practical terms, large deposits of it were all over Krypton. I don't have access to any surveyance databases from Krypton's time of space travel to know if there were other planets with it. I have a theory it was developed in an earlier period of Krypton's long forgotten past. As such, it might be very unique."

With a motion of her hand the ship decloaks once more. "My search for Dru has been focused on places near by that might aid him in the restoration of Kandor. But that's a very large search grid still."

Reed Richards has posed:
Reed stares at the readings when the ship recloaks, "Fascinating." He murmurs off handedly, closing the device with a curl of his fingers to slip it in a small pounch on his hip. "I suspected as much, does our Sun have a direct effect on the strength of the radiation due to it's Kryptonian origins?" Motioning up to the blazing sun that should be causing him a great deal of discomfort, but he looks no moreso than standing in a warm room. The uniform providing insulation on the molecular level as he walks the empty void where the ship is while hidden.

"As you no doubt are aware, every sector of space has a very specific radiation given off by their sun and celestial anomolies native to their galaxy." It being the cause of the Kryptonian Superiority here on Earth, "Having studied multiple minerals from across the cosmos, I can say with relative certainty that if your sunstone is from Krypton, it gives off a very specific energy signature Kryptonian signature. An Earth rock is an Earth rock, it doesn't matter what planet it is moved to... And it would still be so, even when cloaked." His hands return to his hips, looking from Alura to the uncloaked ship.

"The more unique the substance a ship is made of, the more easy it will be to triangulate that specific mineral.. How much power does that cloaking device put off? Is it, like you, empowered by our sun? I ask this to determine whether it would be resource dependant whether he could stay cloaked for any length of time."

"And I suggest that because if it is not cost effecient, we simply have to determine the precise radiactive isotope of your sunstone and find a suitably powerful scanner to look for it. The further away we are, the better... at least in this case. If he feels safe, he likely isn't hiding." Tapping one extended finger against the hull of the ship.

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura is studying his reactions with interesting. A new perspective on the problem is what she needed and as he starts to discuss the nature of sunstone she is reminded of her advanced classes on manipulating the crystals. The interface Kryptonians have with sunstone is very sophisticated but once upon a time it was not so. It was brute forced, it was inelegant, it was children fumbling with a technology they could barely understand.

"The scout ship has a compressed sun core inside powering it. Ambient radiation can be absorbed but it's not typically enabled - not all radiation is conducive to the proper operation of sunstone after all."

Her fingers tap against her arms, her arms folded, as she thinks. The wind kicks up briefly sending sand glittering through her holograms and making her cape whip in the breeze. "I think you're on to something though-"

She motions over her wrist and up comes what can only be described as an alien computer terminal made of holograms. She starts to motion through the air and glances over to Reed. While it's all Kryptonian and there's plenty of people who understand enough Kryptonian - this is all in scientific terms unique to Krypton. Words that Kal-El never exposed allies to in the past.

"Like the computer systems on Earth, protocols upon protocols build up layers of abstraction. But at its root core, Sunstone is controlled with synchronised bursts of radiation in harmony with its existing internal structure. To make interfacing with Sunstone easier, at some point in Krypton's past we made sure all 'production' level Sunstone had a stable interface."

She smiles feeling a little tricky all of a sudden, "But we don't need the Sunstone to answer back, only absorb the energy and reject it. A signal that looks like a valid low level command to the sunstone ship might just..."

She stops motioning and recloaks her ship. With a swish she sends out a pulse. There's an audible thump as the sunstone crystal embedded in the desert interacts with the world and the air shimmers with the energy burst.

The cloaked ship, however, remains resolute in its invisibility. She frowns at it and hms. "Well, perhaps it was a bit much to think Kryptonian engineers of the past hadn't thought about how to handle hacking attempts."

Her eyes widen a moment and she frowns more deeply. "Except that there is a flaw. I know why it didn't immediately come to mind." She turns back to a large holographic square and motions to it with a twiddle of her fingers. The Titan's Jet is visible in space as well as Zod's crystal warship - a large crystaline snowflake of doom. A still frame image.

"When the heroic team called the Titan's encountered Zod when he came looking for Brainiac technology, they shot his ship with a substance called Kryptonite. It forced the ship to eject broken sunstone which the team called 'Black Kryptonite'."

Reed Richards has posed:
Reed turns away from the ship and moves over to Alura's holographic computer terminals to watch her go through the series of commands. He knows very little of the language, but it is apples to oranges what is spilling across those screens now. With a raised brow, he turns brown eyes to watch the reaction from the ship. "Hold on... Do that again." He points at the command lines, "Send the error package, I want to see if it gives off a specific response even in failure. We don't need to manipulate the sunstone, just attempt to, and perhaps it still gives off a traceable variable." A grin places beneath his beard.

"Sometimes a failure isn't."

One might argue that his greatest failure was also his greatest success, afterall.

Though as she continues, he still listens. "I've heard of Kryptonite." Even if he'd never actually gotten his hands on any. While he likely wouldn't use it for ill intent, he can absolutely understand them not wanting it to get into anyone's hands.

"This Black Kryptoniate, however... is that the only incident of it ever having been observed?" The gears spinning, he looks up at the ship.

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura returns to the error packet and hmms thoughtfully. "You're right. Now that I think about it - Kryptonite only came in to existence when Krypton was destroyed. I always wondered what it was but studying it myself is a little too hazardous."

"If damaged sunstone from Zod's ship looks similar enough to Kryptonite that the Titans called it Black Kryptonite - perhaps that means all Kryptonite was created by malfunctioning Sunstone as Krypton was destroyed. The planet was effectively a gigantic sunstone computer of sorts. We used sunstone for everything. But the massive energies involved in destroying the Rao system ... well who knows what that would have done to it."

She brings up some radiation studies of Kryptonite from Starlabs that Kal kept archived after it was deleted off their systems. "If we clamp this down to just the basics, perhaps we can adjust that error packet and force the response you're looking for."

She narrows down certain bands and rejects a lot of the others that seem to be random noise. "Let's see if we can't make my scout ship eject some black kryptonite - are you ready with your measuring device?" She smiles to the man and then presses the go button.

There's a slight moment of pained expression on her face as the pulse goes out and the ship shimmers briefly in the desert sands. A puff of black crystals scatter about the sands darkening it like a scorch mark.

Alura recovers quickly enough and then looks on in wonder, "... well, it's not as if Kryptonians of the past could ever have predicted this kind of attack. It might even be possible to weaponise this. With a bit more tweaking I might be able to make it safe for Kryptonians to be around."

Reed Richards has posed:
"It's the fault of all enlightened societies to think they are above fault." Reed points out with a knowing grin, counting himself amongst those to whom that is true. He nods to Alura and directs his scanning device towards the ship, the other hand raised and then lowering to indicate he's got it set to read.

The pulse hits and black crystals scatter across the sand. "There... It'll require a device large enough to send a pulse over great distance and a scanner with enough range to read it, but I believe we've found something measurable." Angling his device for her to see the screen.

With a curious glance turned to the small black stones laid across the sand. Stones he moves to collect, setting them in small canisters which he returns to the case he'd been carrying. "Anything I learn about this substance I'll send directly to you. If it's harmful to Kryptonians, I can create a protective Environment in my lab where you could, in fact, work on the rock without concern."

"Both for us to find something we might use to track Dru-Zod AND to make these-" Rattline his case, which is lined with lead when he was informed he'd be meeting a Kryptonian, after closing it. "-less of a threat to your people."

Alura In-Ze has posed:
"Transmitter and detector. Almost ready to put in to action. As for scaling this up - I'm not sure how much you know about zeta radiation, but it can be used as a carrier to bridge long distances." Alura touches her finger tips together as if to demonstrate what she means.

"I believe some careless civilisations use it to create matter transporters. I'll repurpose what we've discovered here to pulse a larger range. It should be qui--" Alura pauses as the holograms around them starts to flicker and die.

She turns to look back at the crystal in the sand as a dark vein runs up through its core and the crystal suddenly cracks in two. A chunk of it falls off turning black. There seems to be no ill effect for Alura and she lets out a small gasp of revelation.

"I've seen this before." At the Sanctuary of Solitude, "Kryptonite doesn't just harm Kryptonians but it corrupts Sunstone. And now I understand why. It's effectively gibberish commands that the sunstone responds to."

She looks back to Reed, "Okay so may be a little bit more tweaking before I put this plan in to action. But we're on the right track. Thank you Dr. Richards. A little outside the Kryptonian box thinking was what I needed."

Reed Richards has posed:
While the black crystals may by of no specific use, they are still something which Reed can expand his understanding of the Rao sector. Studying a dead star is still studying. He glances up suddenly when the black vein appears in the side of the crystaline spike, though.. and furrows his brow as it begins to crack and fall apart before their eyes.

"Huh... I've seen other minerals that work in similar fashion, but this is truly marvelous." Suddenly very glad he'd collected samples as the transmitter snaps and breaks off under the emition of error codes.

The case is snapped shut and retrieved, standing with his smile once more upon his face. "Certainly. I feel as though I only nudged you in the direction you would have went anyways, but it was an interesting distraction from the monotony of my own research." Again he extends his hand. "Don't hesitate to reach out if I can be of any further assistance. If only to bounce ideas."

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura shakes his hand. She has the control to be gentle about it thanks to all the training she received from both the Amazons and from Kal. Adjusting to Earth is an ongoing process but the meeting of minds with someone who can grasp the kinds of science Kryptonians used day to day is refreshing for her.

"It's a genuine please Dr. Richards. I can see why Superman holds you in such high regard. I may need your help again reverse engineering Brainiac's technology. It's ancient ancient Kryptonian technology. I'm only aware of the connection due to some time travel shenanigans."

The last of the holograms die as the crystal spike completely shuts down. "It's somewhat tragic that the byproduct of the destruction of my civilisation continues to destroy what little remains."

She chuckles. "Never a dull moment on Earth."