Bernie's words rent the fragile camaraderie, leaving in its place heavy awkward tension.
Of course, nobody could forget the clone nor the invasion, but Kal-El did not exude menace or even a sense of superiority. He was collaborative and amiable, and was working with them to save their world. His effort at trying to socially integrate had lowered many people's guards.
Martha waited a moment, and then called everyone to order.
“Let's start...” She began to set the agenda for the day. There was much to be done before Zero-Day, and Martha had been assigned team leader — not just for her knowledge — but also her strong leadership skills.
One of aerospace engineers began to speak for her group.
“We are going to run simulations — knowing Nightfall's position and trajectories, we need to start narrowing down on ideal departure time, so we can determine and prioritize Kai-El's best approach-routes.”
“Then there's the question of your physical limitations,” Bernie joined in, addressing Kai-El directly, his eyes slightly apologetic at how he's been acting. “There's a long list of questions and experimentation protocols that we have to resolve before Zero-Day.”
“Both his presence and Nightfall are currently state secrets? How will we run these tests,” Lois asked? She'd been present for all of the morning's events, but had remained silent through much of it — she didn't want to taint any interactions with her own past. As the leader of the resistance, she had to step down and let Martha take over — this was no longer about ridding the earth of invaders.
“We can run some of them in lab, but if we have to know what Kal-El can handle or even do, we have to test outside. The secret of his presence on earth will be disclosed, and then we'll have to go public with Nightfall.”
“Well, we can't risk the world for the sake of keeping people ignorant,” Bernie argued. “They will have to learn to deal."
"You had troubles and you were vetted before joining the team for biases towards xenophobia. I have personal experience with the situation, Bernie - anyone who endured what I did, and who is still alive, will panic. For his sake, and our own, we have to keep this a secret."
“None of it matters if we all die from Nightfall.”
“Kal-El, Can you speak with other Kryptonians and find out what they know regarding their own physical limitations on earth? You were in stasis for so long, and then you stayed hidden and out of the way. You didn't exercise your own abilities unless forced by circumstance.”
Kal-El regarded Lois with hidden admiration. She was putting aside her own fears and challenges to have this difficult conversation with him. This had to be triggering dark memories and thoughts.
He nodded.
“I will." It might take some time to get answers — if you are willing to give me list of questions, I will ask. The more people who can answer, the more likely we are to approximate facts.”
“That's great,” Bernie told him. “And we appreciate it, but you have to actually be measured to know for sure. We can't rely on faulty memories.”
“Agreed,” Martha retorted. “But there are some questions that we need answers to that are difficult to test in secret and the exact numbers aren't mission critical. Saving earth is our top concern… but we know that we have to be careful right now with how much we share. Mass panic will hinder us as much as anything.”
“This is frustrating,” one of the others said. “Welcome to Earth, thanks for trying to stop a deadly asteroid from killing us all– now hide, so we don't try to kill you.”
Kal-El turned in surprise to the speaker. Awkward at her attempt at being friendly, he began to answer.
"Considering... "
"With all due respect," Martha said, "Let's please stay on track. This line of talking can wait until lunch or dinner -or whatever you all want to do tonight... yourself included," she told Kal-El firmly.
He paused and then nodded, his gaze friendly and appreciative that she was treating him like he wasn't dangerous. The others around felt varying degrees of surprise and admiration that Martha was willing to be forceful with him, but as he didn't seem to mind, it further cemented the fact that he could be trusted.
Last edited by L; 02/15/18 05:06 PM.
