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Old 12-06-2013, 08:18 PM   #110
tshiggins
 
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Denver, Colorado
Default Re: Five Earths, All in a Row

Okay, here's something that Prince Charon and I have been working on, for much of the past week. He gave me top billing but, really, this was all his idea; I would never have thought of it.

He approached me because of my journalism background, and I hope that hasn't gotten too rusty. This was a lot harder than expected, because we wanted to it to have a lot of verisimilitude.

All Things Considered: Kal'El of Krypton
(by tshiggins and Prince Charon)

“Welcome to All Things Considered. I’m host Robert Siegel, joined this evening by my colleague Huw Edwards, anchor of Britain’s most popular news program, BBC News at Ten. Audie Cornish and Melissa Block will appear later in this broadcast. Welcome, Huw.

“Thank you, Robert. It is an honor and a privilege to be here, this evening. Our audience should know that we have chosen to simultaneously broadcast this programme on NPR and the BBC, this evening. We have a very special interview for you, tonight. Robert and I, earlier today, interviewed by interplanetary radio none other than Kal'El, of Krypton, from a broadcast station on Earth-2, where a version of WWII rages.”

“Thanks, Huw. Kal'El contacted Huw and me three weeks ago, and offered to allow us to ask enough questions to fill an hour-long broadcast. The distance between his world and ours means a 26-second time-lag existed between the time we ask the question and the time he hears it, and then there's another 26 seconds for us to hear his reply. This meant we could not broadcast the interview over the air, live. However, we present the interview as recorded, in its entirety, having only edited it to reduce the 52 seconds of delay.”

<Recording begins.>

SIEGEL: “Thank you for your time today, Kal'El. Mr. Edwards is sitting beside me, here in the NPR studio in New York. Given the time-lag, I will jump right in to the questions.

“Firstly, let me say that in our world, Kal'El of Krypton – ‘Superman’ as he’s otherwise known – has been a part of U.S. culture since June of 1938. Our understanding is that he was actually created, whole cloth, by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Schuster in 1933, while those two young men were in high school in Cleveland, Ohio.

“Yet, eight months ago, your world and three others appeared in our sky, and one of them included you, in a version of the world that bears remarkable similarity to our Earth in 1940 – only with the addition of beings such as yourself. Of all the changes Siegel and Schuster’s character has undergone through the decades, and all the different ways he has appeared in all sorts of different formats, do any of them even come close to an accurate representation?

KAL'EL: "Not really. The version from the comics both our Earths have in common from 1938 and '39 is the closest match for what I was like when I met Jerry and Joe in Cleveland in '33, but they had to take a few liberties, because it was a comic book. I didn't really wear a costume that much until '37, for one thing, and was never a reporter, though I was and am friends with a few - none quite like their Lois Lane, though."

EDWARDS: “That’s quite fascinating. While your abilities may not quite match everything that’s been written, here, they are nevertheless quite extraordinary. So, when can we expect a visit?”

KAL'EL: "Probably not until after the war, and even then, not until we have some faster means of getting from planet to planet. I'm needed a lot these days, even without the occasional spy, saboteur, or fifth columnist making trouble."

SIEGEL: “As you noted, you have quite a lot on your plate, before you can start traveling to different planets. However, the fact that you contacted Mr. Edwards and me seems to indicate that our world does hold considerable interest for you. Given your unique background and upbringing, what parts of our world interest you the most? What aspects do you find the most troubling?”

KAL'EL: "The greater tolerance of your world gives me hope for this one: I hope that one day, there will be no lynchings that need stopping, no children being beaten for being the wrong color in the wrong neighborhood. On the negative side, the way many of your nations seem intent on disarming your populations, despite knowing that the police simply can't be everywhere, the way they seem to want to make everyone more dependent on the government, rather than less, is very troubling. Your social programs are both good and bad: on both our worlds, FDR proved that they're needed, but most people need a hand up, far more than they need a hand out."

EDWARDS: “Currently, the United States and other space-faring nations on this world have substantially increased research and construction of new spacecraft – with some surprising results. Does our world’s rapid development of interplanetary capability pose any concern, over there?”

KAL'EL: "Yes, certainly. Despite our initial impression, it turns out that your world is much more wealthy than ours, partly because your population is so much larger, and your technological capabilities are... awesome, in ways both wonderful and terrifying. You've also suffered a serious attack from one of the nations on our world. On top of that, your own conservatives are pretty dismayed by some of your cultural developments. Imagine how that must look to more traditional people, here? Now that we understand how advanced you really are, there is some concern that you will use your technological superiority to impose your cultural values, in the name of keeping yourselves safe. Given the recent attack you suffered, it's easy to say that you have justification for any such actions. But, does that make it the right thing to do?"

SIEGEL: “What sort of agreements would you like to see, in place, before travel between our worlds becomes commonplace? What do you think are the primary areas of concern?

KAL'EL: "Well, for my part, I'd like to see us figure out a way to keep criminals and tyrants from fleeing to our world to try to escape from yours. I'm pretty sure you'd like to prevent some of our villains from coming to your world, as well. We've certainly got some difficult people, here, even aside from the war. I'd also like to see controls on the spread of weapons technology, and I think a lot of people here would prefer the ability to control the spread of movies and literature that maybe we're not ready for. That does run into some First Amendment problems, though, but we're much more willing to accept the notion of "community standards" than you seem to be. The notion that individuals are so willing to disrespect the sensibilities of their neighbors is one of the aspects of your culture that we find particularly troubling."

EDWARDS: “I think your comments will provoke a great deal of conversation, on our world. Some considerable discussion about your presence in our sky is ongoing. The fact is, your world’s version of Adolf Hitler has drawn us into your war, there. Six months ago, the Führer launched an unprovoked attack on our world, which killed nearly 15 million people in three cities. The United States, here, has since retaliated with an apparently successful nuclear strike. This is only the third time such weapons have been used, by anyone on our planet. Could you have stopped the NAZI attack? Could anyone on your world have saved those lives?”

KAL'EL: "If I had known about the launch far enough in advance, and if I had been able to get into Germany soon enough, without being spotted, and if none of their own extraordinary operatives, or not enough of them, were on the scene, then I probably could have stopped the launches. That's a lot of 'ifs', though. I couldn't have stopped them after they were in orbit, which is when I did find out about it. Neither could Captain Marvel, by then, and while Green Lantern and Doctor Fate are powerful, they aren't as fast as either of us."

SIEGEL: “Adolf Hitler is considered one our history’s most profoundly evil figures, responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of people he considered ‘undesirables’ – not just in conquered territories, but even from amongst the German people. Indications are that your Hitler is currently engaged in the same sort of activities, on your Earth. Do you intend to take up arms against him? If so, when? If not, why not?

KAL'EL: "You could say that I already have: while there isn't enough concrete proof, there's a mountain of circumstantial evidence that a lot of the criminals I've faced in the last two or three years have been fifth columnists working for either Mr. Hitler, or Mr. Stalin - mostly Stalin. The numbers have gotten bigger since the Lend-Lease Act became law."

(End part 1. Darn character limit...)
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"Some days, I just don't know what to think." -Daryl Dixon.
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