by Dan Swanson
Continued from The Brave and the Bold: Vic Valor and Strobe: The Jungles of Juneo
Almost 200,000 years ago, a young Lord of Order named Marnu conceived of an ambitious plan to advance the cause of Order over Chaos in our galaxy. Marnu took a series of mortal hosts, and in these various incarnations, he was the driving force behind the creation of a star-spanning organization known as the Galactic Patrol.
The Patrol was so successful in its quest for Order that the Lords of Chaos took notice, and several of them joined forces to banish Marnu from the universe and smash the Patrol. Only one Patroller, Iredok Jur Diah, managed to survive.
Through a sequence of improbable events over a thousand centuries, Iredok Jur Diah’s Patrol weapons, the Globe and Glove, came into the possession of an Earthman, Jim Chisholm, in 1987. Jim used these powerful weapons to begin a super-heroic career as Strobe, calling himself by that name because he reasoned that, with his new powers, it was “lights out for the bad guys.” After gaining the ancient G.P. weapons, Strobe acquired an arch-enemy called Wotan. The longtime arch-enemy of Doctor Fate, Wotan was also a newly appointed Lord of Chaos who considered it his responsibility to complete the destruction of every remainder of the Patrol still existent, including Jim and the last Globe and Glove.
After eons, Marnu finally returned to our universe to inhabit a super-powered android body originally created by Ted Knight. In this artificial body he used the name Vic Valor and, although this form had powers of its own, Marnu was no longer able to utilize the vast powers he formerly wielded as a Lord of Order. As the creator of the Galactic Patrol, he also became a target for Wotan.
United by this common foe, Strobe and Vic Valor decided to team up to find Wotan and defeat their enemy. Unfortunately, they did not know the location of his current sanctum, only that it was planet several light-years from Earth, and were currently trying to track it down. To accomplish this task, they embarked on their star-spanning voyage in a rebuilt Galactic Patrol exploration cruiser they renamed the Tiak Avenger.
On their shakedown trip, the Avenger was drawn through a space warp and crash-landed on the planet Juneo, which orbits a green star light-years from Earth. There they encountered the last survivor of Lemuria on Earth, a teenager whose scientist parents had launched him into space when the continent of Lemuria sank 100,000 years ago.
Once in outer space, the boy’s rocket fell through a space warp, then crashed on Juneo, leaving him in suspended animation until the spacecraft was discovered about fifteen years ago. During that time, the green radiation from Juneo’s star supercharged his sleeping form with energy. Thus, once he was awakened, he was found to have super-powers similar to those of Superman on Earth. In his adopted secret identity of Zarl Vorne, he was now the Juneon super-hero Power Boy.
The green star also energized plant life, and the people of Juneo had been waging war against the planet’s supercharged jungle vegetation since the sun turned green 100,000 years ago. The jungle had overrun the entire planet except for a single city, Ralzen’s Forge, and every citizen spent nearly his or her entire life dedicated to the war.
Strobe had learned of a form of kryptonite known as white kryptonite, which emits radiation that instantly kills any plant life. Reasoning that white K might help the Juneons retake their planet, Strobe and Valor decided to travel to the Rao system, home of the now-destroyed planet of Krypton, to see if they could find any of the substance. A female captain in the Juneon Space Force, Jessiat Gazil, joined them on the trip in order to gain firsthand knowledge of space travel.
***
“So when do we finally head for this lost world of Krypton?” Jessiat Gazil asked her new crewmates on the Galactic Patrol cruiser, Tiak Avenger.
The ship had recently suffered a rough landing on Jessiat’s home planet of Juneo, and Jess had helped rebuild it. it. Eager to take part in space travel herself, she had been selected by the nascent Juneon Space Force to captain the first Juneon spaceship. Thus, she was making the best of this opportunity for some on-the-job training. “We’ve tested the refits pretty thoroughly,” she noted, never before imagining that space travel could possibly be as boring as repeatedly testing every function and feature of the Avenger.
“I’m satisfied,” agreed Vic Valor.
At well over seven feet tall, Valor’s large, giant-like frame was actually an android body that housed the consciousness of Marnu, one of the ancient immortal Lords of Order. The body had started out as a suit of high-tech super-powered combat armor created by Ted Knight in 1949; Marnu had modified it extensively for his own use. (*) More than 100,000 years ago, in an earlier incarnation, this Lord of Order had been the driving force behind the creation of the Galactic Patrol, and he had actually personally designed the Tiak Avenger series of cruisers.
[(*) Editor’s note: See Showcase: Times Past, 1949: Vic Valor, Invincible.]
“Sure, let’s get going,” said Jim Chisholm. “The sooner we find some white kryptonite, the sooner we can help the Juneons, and then we can get back to looking for Wotan. I’m tired of his constant stream of little ‘gifts’!”
The tall, athletic black man was about the size of an NFL tight end, but next to Valor he looked small. Also known as Strobe, Jim wore a black glove on his right hand. The Glove was an ancient artifact of the Galactic Patrol, a tool and a weapon that allowed him to release and control the white energy of the Glow. (*) The Glove also enabled him to communicate mentally with the artificial intelligence that controlled the Tiak Avenger.
[(*) Editor’s note: See Secret Origins: Strobe: Master of the Glow.]
“Avenger! Set course for the Rao star system,” Valor commanded.
“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” the AI responded. “There is no current record of a star named Rao in the navigational database. Diagnostics indicate that an unauthorized data erasure program began running in the database two minutes ago. Erasure program cancelled. Further diagnostic indicates that 27.32 percent of the navigational database has been erased. I am unable to determine the origin of the erasure program.” The Tiak Avenger’s ancient operating system, now running on a computer modeled on a Gray supercomputer built using highly advanced Juneon technology, had a significant amount of initiative.
“Damn that Wotan!” Jim swore passionately, accurately guessing who was behind the sabotage. “What do we do now?”
“Back in the World War II era, Ted Knight tried to locate Krypton,” Valor responded. “He knew approximately how far from Earth it was, and what general direction, and I have that information, too. We’ll find it.” Since Marnu’s consciousness had possessed Ted Knight for a short period in 1949, he had access to everything the heroic Starman had known at the time.
Activating a projector, it displayed a holographic three-dimensional map of space within three-hundred light-years of Earth. Valor reached into the hologram and traced out a region of space with his finger. “Ted believed that Krypton’s star was somewhere in this region. Red giants are comparatively rare; we may not find Krypton on our first attempt, but once we are close enough for direct observation, it shouldn’t take us long to find it.” He gave the computer an order. “Avenger, find a red giant star near the center of the indicated region and prepare to jump us there.” Within seconds, one of the stars in the display began to glow more brightly.
Before he could order the ship to initiate the hyperjump, Jess spoke up. “Say, I found some schematics and instructions for building some of the Galactic Patrol equipment in the computer library. Would you guys mind if I used the machine shop and built some of that stuff? If we’re ever in a situation when you guys need to use your super-powers, I’d feel more useful if I had access to some of the Patrol weapons and defenses. After all, who knows what other tricks that Wotan fellow is going to try?” The Avenger had a very well-equipped machine shop. “Lucky for me, most of the machine tools are automated!”
Valor suggested, “Leave some time for training in interstellar navigation and starship piloting. I think it will be useful for both you and Jim.”
Jim groaned, but he was actually looking forward to it, and it was one of the main reasons Jess was on board. She turned to Jim.
“Um… Do you think you can teach me to fight?” Jess asked hesitantly. “I’m one of the most experienced ‘warriors’ on my planet, but I’ve spent my whole life fighting plants — deadly plants, but plants nonetheless. We don’t have any real concept of martial arts on Juneo.”
“My kind of place!” Jim nodded approvingly. “I can teach you aikido, but it’s not really about fighting. It’s about learning to properly use your ki, meaning the universal life force. But it is useful if you do happen to get into a fight.”
Working together, the three crewmates set up a daily schedule, and then Valor commanded the Tiak Avenger to head into deep space. For the first time in a thousand centuries — except for some static tests — her mighty hyperdrive engine thundered to life, the Avenger vanished from normal space, and they were headed toward their first destination.