"Today, we will be discussing the colonization. For many years," Warton-Nor intoned, the history lesson made dry and uninteresting by his monotonous voice, "Earth was governed by the humans. Humans are a barbaric race who divided themselves into many different countries that were often at war with one another." There was snickering from the students, and many eyes turned in Lex's direction, but he kept his eyes on Warton-Nor and did his best not to acknowledge the focus on him. "When the first Kryptonian survey ships examined the planet, Earth was determined to be too volatile to settle on due to the primitive indiginous species. Had the largest plate disruption to date not occured on Krypton at that time, we would have continued to seek for another location. As it was, projections for the final collapse of our planet were growing ever shorter. Every effort to slow the overheating of the core had already been taken."
Lex took a moment to wonder how his life would have been different had it not been for that Krypton-quake. He'd been four years old at the time of the invasion. He had no clear memory of what life had been like before the Kryptonians came. He wondered if he'd be some kind of barbarian, grunting at other humans and weilding a pointed stick. But no. The human parts of Metropolis were older than he was, large buildings that reached toward the sky. Paved roads covered the country side and the other humans drove strange wheeled vehicles along them. Primitive, yes, but not to the point of spears.
"The armed forces came next, led by General Zod," Warton-Nor continued. "His task was uneviable - subdue the natives as quickly as possible. The ships bearing the civilian refugees from the homeworld were already on their way. The humans outnumbered the Kryptonian army by a hundred thousand to one." Statistics like that lied, Lex knew. Discounting the infirm and young children, as well as those who really were too uncivilized to offer any kind of defense, the Kryptonians were only outnumbered by about 1000 to one. In every other way, though, it was the humans that were at the disadvantage, particularly when considering that the Kryptonians were infinitely harder to kill. Dad had said the humans never stood a chance.
Lex said nothing though. There was no point in bringing that up. All of his classmates were equally aware that their victory had never been in doubt. "Targets were chosen strategically," Warton-Nor lectured, as if this had been hundreds of years ago, not something that had happened even within the students' lifetimes. Every person in the room except Lex had been born on a planet than no longer existed, though none would remember anything from before the evacuation. According to the last unit's lessons, that period had lasted almost ten years, starting when they realized that Krypton could not be saved and ending when the last ship had abandoned the doomed system. Their whole world had been literally in transition when they were born.
Warton-Nor continued, "The humans with the technology to fight back were deprived of their large weapon installations, crippling their defenses. General Zod hacked into the communication broadcasts for the human technology known as the 'television' and asked for volunteers of the human population to become leaders in the new world order. All they needed to do was supply information that would lead to the downfall of the human governments. Not many came forward, and of those who did, few were of any help. Some, however, proved invaluable."
Lex sat straighter in his chair, willing those around him to stop staring. He hoped desperately that Warton-Nor would not say his father's name. Not that it would made a difference. It wasn't like anybody in the room didn't know. Lex wouldn't be attending a Kryptonian school otherwise. "These humans became known by the term the American humans gave them - Traitors, which means, 'those who betray their own kind.'" Lex did not look anywhere but straight ahead. He was fluent enough in English to have already known what the word meant. He would have preferred that his Kryptonian classmates remain ignorant of that particular definition. His father swore that defeat was inevitable, that there was nothing wrong with securing himself and his family a place of power in the new regime in exchange for bringing that defeat only marginally faster. Lex still didn't like the label.
"With the help of the Traitors, human leaders and buildings of governmental significance were destoyed, quickly sending the humans into disorganized chaos. Martial rule was instituted under General Zod and when the colonization ships arrived, Earth was ready for them. Cities were built, many as part of existing human cities in an attempt at integration. This, however, only sparked new violence from the natives and walls were built to keep them out of the Kryptonian sectors. The only humans now permitted within Kryptonian areas are those who wear the Traitor bracelet." Lex looked down at his right wrist and the gold and silver band seamlessly encircling it.
His father called it an ID bracelet, but this was not the first time he'd heard it called a Traitor bracelet, either. None of the Kryptonians wore them. He'd always assumed it was just an easy way to distinguish humans from Kryptonians without asking people to start flying everywhere. He supposed it worked just as well to distinguish the humans allied with the Kryptonians from those who lived outside the walls. The fact that he couldn't take it off was now marginally less ominous and discriminatory. It still told anybody that looked at him that he was of an inferior species, though.
By human standards, Lex would probably be considered a genius. He knew this from the small handful of other Traitors attending the school, most of which had been pulled out of the standard classes and were given remediary lessons like the ones Lex had taken up until he learned Kryptonian well enough to be integrated. Lex remained in the Kryptonian level class he'd been put in before anybody realized most humans couldn't learn that quickly, but it was a struggle. Only his absolute determination to not give in to his inferior genetics and his need to spite those who said he couldn't do it kept him from giving up and accepting the human level classes. Not that Dad would have let him.
Dad wanted him to prove he was as good or better than any Kryptonian. Intellectually, Lex figured he had a remote chance. Physically, there was no contest. He had to get injections and radiation treatments just to attend gym class otherwise he'd get crushed if someone just bumped into him while they were superspeeding. Apparently, he'd had a bad reaction because his hair fell out from it. Either that, or it was a common side effect and the other human kids at the school were all wearing wigs. Lex didn't really know them well enough to ask. They were all too stupid to keep up with the Kryptonian classes, so he wasn't going to associate with them. Maybe they just didn't have gym with the Kryptonians like Lex did, so they didn't get the treatment in the first place.
Warton-Nor began his exposition about how the first governing bodies on Earth were begun. It had to be different from Krypton because of the larger geographical distribution of land mass, not to mention the billions of humans already in residence on the planet. Lex raised his hand, his left one because that one didn't have a bracelet, not that it mattered. Still, he didn't like to draw attention to it. It took a few more sentences before Warton-Nor bothered to see if anyone had any questions, but that would have been true whether Lex was human or not. "Alexander-Luthor?" No matter how hard they tried to pronounce his name as if it were Kryptonian, it always sounded foreign. There were far too many syllables. That was one of the reasons he was trying to go by Lex, not that the teachers were acknowledging his efforts.
"Are we going to learn about human history prior to the colonization?" he asked, not sure if he wanted to or not. He would be interested in knowing it, the stories Dad told were fascinating, but he wasn't sure he wanted to sit among Kryptonians while they discussed it. Somehow talking about sneaking into a city via a big wooden horse would sound pretty dumb when compared to the conquest of an entire planet. Even Alexander the Great probably wouldn't be very impressive to them.
Warton-Nor blinked at him, as if he'd suggested doing an in-depth study of the mating cycle of butterflies or something equally superflucious. "That is an advanced elective available for older students. You may speak with your counselor about signing up for it in a few years. Now, as I was saying, the Ruling Council is divided into three Subcouncils, one here in North America, one in Africa, and one in Asia. The North American council oversees both Americas and meets in Mexico City. The African Subcouncil meets in Cairo and oversees Africa and Europe. The Asian Subcouncil meets in Bangkok and oversees Asia and Australia. As the only permanent settlement on the seventh continent, Antartica, is entirely Kryptonian, this needs no subcouncil and is directly governed by the Ruling Council. All members of the Subcouncils were given an area in which they were responsible for keeping the peace. How they chose to do this was left to them. Here in Metropolis, we are fortunate to be the seat of the El District, which covers most of the Mississipi flood plain, the flat region between the Rocky Mountains in the west and the Appalachian Mountains in the East. This area was known by the humans as 'the Breadbasket of America' because of its fertility and capacity for growing food staples. It was part of one of the larger and more advanced human nations called 'The United States' or the United States." He said it first in English, then translated it into Kryptonian.
With a nod to Lex, Warton-Nor made a rare aside, "As Alexander-Luthor has brought to our attention, you may learn more about 'The United States' in the Human History elective in your thirteenth year."
"For your homework tonight, you'll be reading about some of the methods the different Councilors have taken. You should each write a short essay on which tactics work best and why you think so."
Like the other students in the class, Lex put away his notes and other belongings, and filed out of the classroom on his way to the next one. Unlike the others, he grunted with effort as he lifted the heavy bag filled with textbooks over his shoulder, and trudged heavily through the halls, encumbered by the weight. As usual, he was the last to arrive at his next class, and he dumped his bag with a loud thump on the floor beside his chair. At least this one was math, so there would be no staring at him as the class discussion hit too close to home. It was going to take all of his concentration to follow the theories that his father said most humans didn't encounter until they were well into college, if they learned them at all. Lex was sixteen.
