8008/Meeting of the Karas

Meeting of the Karas
Date of Scene:	27 September 2021
Location:	Starrware Inc.
Synopsis:	Supergirl Kara visits Power Girl Kara to discuss plans and schemes for a New Krypton.
Cast of Characters:	Kara Danvers, Karen Starr

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Kara Danvers has posed:
Late in the morening, before Noon, Kara Danvers, intrepid reporter (intern) at the Daily Planet arrives at the Starrware Inc. building in Metropolis. As far as everyone else knows, she's there to do an interview with Owner/CEO Karen Starr. But in reality...Supergirl needs to chat with Power Girl for a bit. So, the unassuming brunette with glasses approaches the building's front reception. There's a slight withdrawal nd hunching of her shoulders as she speeks with the security; like she doesn't want to be a bother to them. "Ummm...Kara Danvers; Daily Planet?" She shows her press credentials. "I'm... I have a meeting with Ms. Starr?" After confirming the appontment, Kara rides the elevator up to the Executive level, announces herself to Karen's secretary just as meekly as she did with the foyer security, then sits down to wait to be ushered in for the appointment. Despite her meek appearance, Kara with near to bursting to talk to her...'cousin'? 'Sister'? What did one call an alternate reality version of themselves?

Karen Starr has posed:
    There is an odd algorithm present in the Starrware scheduling software. It's relatively new, and the software's status as something of a pet project for Karen means there aren't any eyes on it that can question this particular algorithm. All it does, specifically, is use a bit of form and face recognition software to identify not Kara Zor-El or Kal-El, but rather Kara Danvers, or Clark Kent, and then it idly pops an appointment into her calendar for her receptionists, just a few minutes from their arrival, so that there's never any issue with Kara or Clark coming in for an "interview."

    This is the situation today, as the cameras pick up a familiar silhouette, completely unrecognizable as Supergirl of course, but still one Of Interest to the algorithm, and it goes to work. At first, the secretary seems boggled, but without any real trouble, Kara is ushered into an elevator to be deposit on the top floor: Where there is only one office, and one more secretary- Karen's personal aide.

    She too allows Kara to pass, into the office of one Karen Starr, owner and CEO of Starrware Industries. The woman within is sitting at her desk, the oddly zaftig shape of the overwhelmingly wealthy nerd-president of a tech company signing paper after paper, after paper... At normal speed, just in case someone happens to wander into her office. Thick, coke bottle glasses obscure the blue of her eyes, and her hair is bottle-blonde, with dark roots- said wig reaches down to her hips.

    Of course, her usual offensive pinstripe suit is worn today as it is most days, its grotesque salmon-pink an affront to fashion, and a war crime against cloth. "Hey Kara." she states, stacking another paper on top of the daunting pile, "What brings you by today?"

Kara Danvers has posed:
Kara smiles once the doors are closed and the pair are isolated. "Hey, Karen..." She goes and gives her sister a hug before sttling in. "I...ummmm..." The normally perky and confident youg woman seems to be at a loss for words. She's really hesitating, now, not just playing an act. "I need to talk to you about something," she says after a bout of fidgeting. "Something I want to run by you before I talk about this with Kal." She looks back at the more statuesque blonde woman, gathering up the strenth to speak about things she hadn't been able to bring up with a certain Friendly Neighborhood photojournalist the other day. "But. I need you to promise me that you hear me out. Let me finish all the way before yu chime in. Okay?"

Karen Starr has posed:
    As Kara starts to approach a more... Serious topic, despite that Karen doesn't know what the topic is, she taps a portion of her desk, that lets loose a tiny chime. At that point, the doors into the office are sealed: The gaps between door and wall close, forming a singular face. The office itself is sound-proof, and so Karen has little problem having a conversation in the confines.

    Hugging her is a little difficult, it requires heading around the side of the desk and giving her a squeeze, compressing the faux-flesh of her torso that hides the physique of Power Girl so that nobody comes calling at Starrware to ask if Karen Starr and PG are one and the same. She returns it, though, giving her technical-sister a calm squeeze.

    After the hug, she quietly reaches up, and pulls her glasses off of her face, setting them down on her desk. "Oh boy." she begins, leaning back in her chair. "You /do/ know that he's the patient one, right? I can't /guarantee/ that I won't have /anything/ to say before you're done, but I'll try."

Kara Danvers has posed:
The hug does make Kara smile and relax. "Okay," she ets out with a sigh. "There are survivors. Not just Zod and his crew. Not just what we found in the ruins of Argo City. Survivors in the Phantom Zone. Thousands. Tens of thousands. Maybe even hundreds of thousands. They just did the only thing they could think of to survive the apocalypse." She goes quiet again. "Maybe even my mother..." She looks back at Karen, her blue eyes showing a serious amount of determination in them. "We can't leave them there," she says in a calm tone that brokes no rebuttal or counter argument.

"But we can't set free not just the survivors, but the absolute monsters from Krypton's past. Killers. War criminals...worse. I am not willing to give up on the survivors. But I refuse to risk the safety of Earth...the safety of the galaxy. By setting free those kinds of horror who suddenly have our power levels. That's a non-starter."

She takes a deep breath before continuing. "I work with GIRL. The all -female R&D group that Nadia Pym founded? They've agreed to start woking on a Phantom Zone projector, using the research and records the thre of us have managed to salvaage. We buld and test the projector here; make sure that it works and that people can leave the Phantom Zone. Then comes the second stage."

A pause for breath and to let the information sink in. "GIRL is also working on a spaceship. With the technology of the star drives of the pods that brought Kal and I to Earth, interstellar travel would be possible. I doesn't even have to be a Kryptonian star drive, even; Earth has some intersteller capacity. But we build the ship. Load up the projector. Fly to a system we've pre-selected for a very specific set of properties. Earth-class habitability. Tectonic stability. No sentient or proto sentient life. And a star in the early Red stage of evolution. Past the Yellow stage." The scientist in Karen can see where this is going...

We open the portal there. checking with whatever records we have from the Fortress and Argo City to prevent legitimate prisoners from leaving with the refugee survivors. Even if some slip though, there's no yellow sun to power them. And given Krypton's isolationism...I bout any of the survivors will be interested in trying to get off planet, anyways. We can even move Argo City to the planet, provide it as infrastructure for a New Krypton."

"Okay," Kara says, finished with her pitch and with a nervous smile. "You can now tell me I'm crazy. That it's not going to work. The dozens or hundreds of ways this can fail or backfire, dooming the galaxy."

Karen Starr has posed:
    Karen slumps slowly, pressing her palm to her forehead calmly and rubbing at the bridge of her nose. Oh boy, this is definitely heavy. It always gets heavy like this when they talk about their heritage: Even Karen, as a somewhat-outsider, whose Krypton and Earth are already dead and whose phantom zone survivors don't exist anymore, feels the weight of this topic.

    "Right." she begins, still working the bridge of her nose for a moment. "It's just... There are so many /basic/ ways that this goes poorly. We don't know much /about/ these people. I agree that we can't leave them in the Phantom Zone, but we need a deep, deep process to vet the people we let out. There can't be a mass exodus. We also have an issue with the Red Sun thing- We can't let them out under a yellow sun, because they'll leave: But if we do so under a red sun, we may just be exchanging one prison for another. As far as we are aware, the Kryptonians that are there don't know what happens to them under a yellow sun... But if they find out, there's definitely going to be outrage."

    Massaging her face for a moment, Karen pauses and looks up at the roof of the building. "Then there's Zod. If he ever finds out, he'll show up, and sure as shit he'll have a damn yellow-sun generator on him, and he'll find a way to keep his powers. He'll want to take over- He'll /try/ to take over, and if we're not there with our powers when he does, he'll /succeed./ He might not even have any trouble doing it. Doubtless he'll have /some/ sympathizers, and promising those people, still grieving, still feeling the loss, some level of /godhood/ if they can just get out from under the oppression of a red sun... It'll be /easy/ and /we'll/ be the villains."

    Letting out a sigh, she leans back onto the desk. "And then there's Oa."

Kara Danvers has posed:
Kara listens to the points, nodding along. These are all her fears. Things she's trying to plan to prevent. "They're not your Kryptonians, Kaen. Even Kal doesn't know them. But this is the Kryptonian culture that I grew up with. That I know. That I still believe in. But you're right. Zod is going to be the biggest problem. And Oa is a close second. But maybe we can use this New Krypton as leverage to bring a peace settlement. New Krypton remains isolated, interdicted by the Lanterns. No-one in or out of the system. In exchange for agreing to this, Zod and his followers get amnisty. Being isolated to just that system...that's the price of resurrecting a dead world and giving it another few billion years of life." She clenches her fists and closes her eyes, feeling so helpless and frustrated. "I know there's more angles to this. More contingencies and situations to account for. That's why I'm bringing ths to you and Kal. Because together, the three of us and all our friends...we can make this work. We have to find a way..." Kara looks down at her lap, feeling helpless that this goal seems to be perpetually out of reach for her, like some ancient Greek afterlife punishment. "We have to," she says with quiet determination.

Karen Starr has posed:
    There is a barb there, that Kara doesn't intend. For a moment, Karen processes yet again everything she's lost. She lampshades it a lot- even now, it's impossible to really see it in her features, but it's there.

    "That's a very, very good /idea./ I'd love for everyone to get along. I might hate the Guardians with a passion for what they did, but at the end of the day, I can't /really/ persecute the Lanterns for anything other than their belonging to that system, their adherence to it, and their ignorance or even acceptance of what the Guardians do. I have no doubts that while it might be a hard sell, they'd be interested. The problem, though..."

    Letting out another sigh, she gazes off into the desk for a time. "The problem is still Zod. Zod has had peace before. He's had amnesty. He's had a taste of not ruling the universe, and he was dissatisfied with it then, and he'll be dissatisfied with it now. I don't think there's /anything/ we can do, aside from putting him back in the Phantom Zone where he belongs, that will stop him from doing his best to rule Krypton and leverage that into all out war with anyone who deigns to deny his superiority."

Kara Danvers has posed:
Kara knows that Karen is firght about Zod. the man will not. Give. Up. He might lie about it to get access to a few thousand new Kryptonians. But an ultimate surrender? Krypton has a better chance spontaneously re-forming. She's so close, Kara can't stand it. The answer is almost there, bring back Krypton...
5r"Combat," Kara says quietly. "Personal combat. If he's defeated in single combat..." Kara sits back up. "If one of us beats him...he loses a big chunk of respect from his followers if he loses for refuses to even accept." Okay...not a usual Kara solution, but she's becoming more animated. "We make vows to honor whatever agreement we make regardless of the result...." Then, Kara sighs. "No. Too reckless. Too risky. I mean...I'm willing, but we can't risk you or Kal like that." Defeated again, Kara looks back down at the floor, shaking her head.

Karen Starr has posed:
    There's another sigh from Karen. She reaches down, plucking up her glasses and setting them back on her face. She seems resolute, but it takes time for her to properly gather her thoughts.

    "I don't have much faith that that'll work. Nor how we'll even go about setting something like that up." she begins, before shutting her eyes, and shaking her head. "But... Take it to Kal. See how he feels about it. If he's in, I'll help. Maybe he'll have some ideas about how to handle Zod. We probably should all talk about this together regardless."

Kara Danvers has posed:
"Thanks," Kara says, looking a bit more cheerful. "I want to make everything ready to go, but you, Kal, and I are the ones making the decision. They're our people. Our responsibility. But we'll find a way to do this. Maybe not today. Not tomorrow. Maybe not even in a year. But we'll get there. The House of El is Hope, after all."

Kara stands back up and goes to give Karen another hug. "Thank you sister..."