The cool, measured tones of one of Oracle's programmed computer voices broke in on their
discussion. "I am intercepting a transmission from the space shuttle Lincoln. It appears to have
relevance to your current search. Shall I patch it through?"
"Yes," Batman said curtly, and at once the grainy voice of Martin Spears could be heard over the
Watchtower speakers.
"Houston?" the shuttle commander was asking, a note of disbelief in his voice. "Are you getting this?
We can see what appears to be a column of bright blue light streaming up from some place in the
Arctic Circle. Our orbit's not in synch with it, so we can't pinpoint the map coordinates."
Both Batman and J'onn were already on their feet, hurrying over to the plasticized glass viewing
balcony. Steel panels slid automatically aside at their approach, triggered by the floor-set motion
sensors. Naked sunlight streamed into the enclosed balcony as the duo slipped filter shades across
their eyes.
"This is incredible! It must be twenty miles high now," the commander's voice went on. "Can you
back us up on this, Houston? It's not some kind of space hallucination, is it?"
There was a long silence, as if the ground team in Houston were as stunned as the astronauts at this
unprecedented phenomenon. Orbiting craft often reported unusual light displays, both in the upper
atmosphere and on the planet's surface. Spectacular auroras had been filmed by previous shuttle
crews. But in over thirty years of manned space flight, nothing like this had ever been seen before.
Batman squinted beneath his shades, narrowing his eyes against the sunlight, trying to make out
anything abnormal near the earth's North Pole. The moon was nearly a quarter-million miles away
from the earth, while the space shuttle orbited not much higher than 350 miles. He was going to need
the telescope.
"There!" J'onn J'onzz breathed, his keen Martian vision zeroing in on the pulse of light. "By the souls
of my ancestors... look at that!"
The light column must have been ten miles in diameter, a massive pillar shooting ever higher. As it
reached the upper limits of Earth's atmosphere, almost a hundred miles from the planet's surface, its
top spread out in a blue-sparking canopy that grew at amazing speed to cover half the planet.
Then, suddenly, it was gone.
"Did you see that, Houston?" Even dampened by the operations room speakers, there was no
mistaking the urgency in the astronaut's voice. "I repeat, Houston—do you copy? The whole column
just vanished, like somebody switched off a light!"
"We copy, Lincoln," a voice from NASA crackled. "Over."
Batman removed his eyeshade, more troubled than impressed by what he'd seen. He hit the button that
controlled the shutters, and as they slid silently back into place, he and J'onn returned to their
workstations.
"You don't think..." J'onn began. He hesitated, as if unwilling to put the thought into words, before
finishing slowly. "You don't think the Stone King has started early?"
Batman ran his eyes over the columns of data that constantly flowed across his screen. "According to
this, the light was a visual phenomenon only. None of the other instruments picked it up."
He closed his eyes, deep in thought. When he spoke again, it was with a slight shake of his head. "No,
I don't think he's started early. I think he's testing whatever powers he has, awakening the ancient
energy centers. He's making sure that he'll be ready... when the time comes."