He-El Awakens

Vast and devoid of life, cold and lonely, boundless and eternal—the darkness of deep space endured forever.

The starlight glittering across the sky was merely an insignificant embellishment in this immense universe.

Amid the dark, frigid universe and the star-studded void, a battered Kryptonian deep-space exploration vessel drifted through lonely space. Its slanted hull bore the painted insignia of the Kryptonian Science Institute. It was one hundred and sixty meters long, fifty meters high, and ninety meters wide, its surface pitted and damaged.

Inside the vessel.

Life Support Chamber.

In the dark, icy Life Support Chamber, the wall lights suddenly came on without a sound, illuminating the entire single-person chamber as brightly as day.

The only thing in the chamber was a cryogenic pod.

'Hiss...'

The cryogenic pod made a sound as its lid slowly opened automatically. In an instant, white mist and cold air surged from within, spreading throughout the entire Life Support Chamber.

Within the Life Support Chamber filled with freezing white mist, beams of projected light suddenly shot from gaps in the walls, forming the image of a middle-aged man with wise eyes and a calm expression.

"The ship passed through an asteroid belt and consumed too much crystal energy. Has it reached the point where a lifeform must be awakened to decide the vessel's final voyage...?"

The middle-aged man's wise gaze was full of complicated emotions.

No ship's intelligent system could replace the living beings aboard in deciding its final course.

Sometimes, a sudden spark of inspiration from a living being was more capable than an intelligent system of finding a path to survival in desperate circumstances.

At the final moment, whether they lived or died, Kryptonians had the right to decide their own fate. This was the final authority guaranteed to those aboard a ship by the Kryptonian Life Council.

Within the icy white mist.

He-El, lying in the cryogenic pod, abruptly opened his eyes. Even though the pod had finished warming him, his skin still felt cold. Threads of chill seeped into every pore, while his heart beat powerfully, driving blood throughout his body and warming the flesh beneath his skin.

His fingers twitched lightly. The confusion in his awakened eyes gradually focused, and he drew a deep breath of freezing air into his lungs. The stimulation of that cold air traveling down his throat and windpipe into his lungs made him feel his own existence. Strength gathered from the depths of his marrow and blood, and his muscles became powerful once more.

He-El braced his hands against his robust body and sat up.

"Success."

With handsome brows and a composed, gentle face, he smiled. His long black hair fell below his shoulders, and his focused pupils were as deep as black holes. Calm confidence filled his gaze as he looked toward the projected figure beyond the cold white mist.

"Father, is that you?"

He-El rose from the cryogenic pod, his tall shadow stepping out of the frozen white mist. He was broad and powerfully built, his skin stretched over sharply defined muscles, outlining a body brimming with masculine vitality.

Joy and confusion appeared in his eyes as he asked, "Father, you woke me now. Did we succeed?"

The already complicated look in Joe Al's eyes grew even more complicated when he saw He-El emerge from the mist. A trace of indescribable gloom crossed his face as he forced a smile. "He-El, perhaps you should go to the Main Control Room and take a look."

"Hm?"

Though He-El only showed mild confusion on the surface, he already knew that the worst outcome he had anticipated had likely come to pass.

Yet he felt no disappointment, because leaving Krypton had already marked the beginning of the best possible journey.

Ignoring Joe Al's projection, He-El stepped through the white mist with a lingering chill on his skin and headed straight for the Main Control Room. Along that short path, he continued talking with Joe Al, reminiscing about the time at the academy when Joe Al had been his mentor and they had conducted all kinds of research together.

He reminisced about Krypton's strange and wondrous landscapes, every bruise he had received after sparring with Zod, the knowing smiles he and Kara had shared after getting caught speeding in a supercar, and the food prepared by his adoptive mother, Lara.

His days on Krypton's surface had been a fulfillment he had never known in his previous life.

Joe Al's projection followed He-El's footsteps. Whenever he heard He-El reminisce about Krypton and their time together, he fell silent.

The Main Control Room was actually very simple. It contained only the main control console and steel seats some distance away. The open space around them was used to project a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view of the starry sky outside the ship.

With the intelligent system in place, the commander only needed to issue orders for everything to be carried out.

And aboard this deep-space exploration vessel, there was only He-El, along with his adoptive father Joe Al, who had implanted a portion of his consciousness into the ship when it launched.

When He-El entered the Main Control Room and saw the projected three-hundred-and-sixty-five-degree starfield, which bore no resemblance to what he remembered, his brows twitched.

He had been frozen for some time. At the beginning of his hibernation, he had ordered the ship to proceed toward a yellow-sun system while ensuring its safety.

He-El's gaze swept across the projected universe in the Main Control Room. Clearly, Dawn had neither found a yellow sun nor followed his planned coordinates. It had deviated so far that Earth could no longer be located.

"Dawn, report the ship's current condition."

He-El issued the order.

Rows of projected data, along with dynamic projections marking the vessel's damaged areas, appeared before He-El.

Dawn's intelligent system began its explanation at the appropriate moment.

"Crystal Core Engine energy remaining: 3%..."

"Energy shield failure..."

"Internal anti-radiation barrier activating..."

"The vessel's outermost layer has sustained 64% damage. Engineering machinery is dismantling the damaged outer layer to reinforce the inner layer."

"Estimated drifting duration: eighteen years..."

"Please designate a drifting destination..."

Drifting aimlessly...

A shadow crossed He-El's heart. So you did make your move against me, my good father!

"Open the navigation records."

As expected, the navigation records were completely blank.

Expressionless, He-El sat silently in the steel seat. His elbows rested on the icy armrests, his fingers interlaced before the bridge of his nose, and the eyes visible above them were deep and resolute.

He sat silently in the steel seat beneath the brilliant stars.

If possible, he truly had not wanted things to reach this point.

Projection beams shot through the Main Control Room, forming Joe Al's figure. Looking at He-El seated in the steel chair, guilt and reluctance filled his eyes.

"He-El..."

"Father, why did you do this? In merely two years, you drained the Crystal Core Engine to 3% energy, altered the originally planned route, and left the ship drifting aimlessly—until Dawn calculated that there was no hope and woke me."

There was no longer any joy in He-El's voice at seeing his father.

Since things had reached this point, he was willing to inflict every shred of pain he could upon Joe Al.

"Enough, He-El. There is no need to question me, nor any need to put on an act to make this portion of my consciousness feel indescribable guilt and unease. When I copied this part of my consciousness onto the ship, I truly struggled with the decision. I found it difficult to believe you could be such a person. But since this portion of my consciousness is here, it means that no emotional fluctuations in this consciousness can change the resolve I made back then."

Joe Al's guilty, reluctant expression stiffened.

Casting his own son into the vast, lifeless, lonely, icy depths of space did not make him feel any better.

"I don't understand. Weren't our goals the same? Wasn't saving Krypton our duty?"

He-El's voice was forceful and resolute.

Before boarding this vessel, before Joe Al had secretly proposed copying part of his consciousness onto the Dawn Explorer, they had always been a model father-and-son pair.

Joe Al, Krypton's most respected scientist, and his son He-El Al, who possessed outstanding qualities such as love for Krypton, gentleness, kindness, generosity, cheerfulness, steadiness, intelligence, integrity, justice, fairness, open-mindedness, optimism, handsomeness, strength, honesty, tolerance, sincerity, passion, perseverance, courage, decisiveness, and quick wits.

They had always been the most praised father-and-son pair at the Kryptonian Academy of Sciences.

Every scientist believed Krypton's bright future rested in the hands of this father and son.

And now... my father had actually... stabbed me in the back!

He had exiled me to drift through the depths of space.

A faint regret flashed through He-El's heart.