Chapter 14: Out of the Blue

“What does this one look like?”

Kara studied the ink blot. “Um… a butterfly?”

Dr. Penny nodded and swapped cards. “And this one?”

“Hmmm… a volcano? There’s lava shooting out of the top.” Kara illustrated by flinging her arms in the air.

“And this?”

Kara squinted and tilted her head from side to side. “Maybe… no… well… a seahorse?”

“OK,” said Dr. Penny; she collected the cards and put them away, then wrote briefly on her notepad. “We’re almost done for today, but I have some homework for you for next week.”

“Homework?” asked Kara, incredulous.

“Not that kind of homework.” Dr. Penny smiled. “I want you to draw some pictures for me. Do you draw?”

“I’m not that good at it…”

“Well, it doesn’t have to be good, honey. Sometimes feelings can show in our art that are hard to put into words, and that will help me to understand you. So I want you to draw me three pictures: one of you when you’re happy, one of you when you’re sad, and one of you and your family — I mean your family back home. Does that sound like something you can do by next week?”

“Sure!” said Kara, knowing she could do it in about ten seconds.

“Good!” said Dr. Penny. “I’m looking forward to seeing them.” She got up and walked over to her desk. “I’ll call Emily now and let her know you’re done, OK?” Kara nodded.

• • •


A few minutes later Emily was escorting Kara through the hospital corridors. “How did it go?”

“It was OK. Some of it was fun.”

“Was it a problem…?” asked Emily quietly.

Kara shook her head. “She’s totally sure I’m making it all up. I just told her the truth about everything she asked about, except my glasses. She never even mentioned, umm, any of the stuff we talked about last night.”

“Good.” Emily put an arm around Kara. “I’ll be off in a half hour. Do you want to wait, or just head home?”

Kara smiled. “I can wait.” They arrived in the E.R. together.

Kara went over to the waiting area, which was about half full. She was just picking up a magazine when her hearing caught a radio broadcast: “Turning to overseas news, there has been a cave-in in a coal mine in Huozhou, China, about 300 miles southwest of Beijing. Eighty-three miners are believed trapped; it’s unknown how many survived the accident. Rescuers are on site and attempting to reach the miners, but time is running out as the trapped men exhaust their air supply. We’ll have more details as they come in. Meanwhile, in sports…” Kara tuned the rest out.

The magazine fell back on the table, unread; Kara searched frantically for Emily. Her foster mother was busy listening to an older man, who was loudly describing his symptoms. She scurried over.

Emily recognized the desperation in Kara’s eyes immediately. She turned to her patient. “Excuse me, sir, my daughter needs me for just a moment. Is that OK?”

The man frowned. “Can’t she wait till we’re done talking? I waited two hours to see a doctor!” Kara was bouncing up and down on her toes.

Emily tried to placate him. “It’ll really be just a moment, sir.” He harrumphed and folded his arms.

Emily sighed and led Kara a few steps away. “What is it?” she whispered.

Kara whispered back urgently, “A mine cave-in in China somewhere. There’s eighty-three miners trapped… their air is running out…” Her eyes were wide, pleading, and frightened.

Emily paled slightly and Kara heard her heart speed up. “Are you sure you want to do this, sweetheart?”

Kara hesitated, then nodded slowly. “If I don’t…”

Emily frowned in thought. “Do you know where it is?” Kara shook her head. “Go on the computer at home and Google it.” Emily closed her eyes tightly and took a deep breath. “Go save them.”

More loudly she said, “I think I’m going to be a while longer, honey. Do you want to just walk home?”

Kara responded in kind, “I guess. Thanks, Emily.” She started walking out the door.

“Be careful,” called Emily after her.

“I will,” Kara called back.

• • •


Airman First Class Tyler Lennox frowned at his radar screen. The signal couldn’t be right. It was probably just noise, but… “Sir?”

“What is it, Airman?” His superior officer came to look over his shoulder.

He pointed. “This signal — it keeps coming and going, extremely faint… way too small to be an aircraft. It’s moving kind of like a missile launch, but the signal is too weak for that; if it’s real, it’s tiny. And it’s moving in a very strange way. Missiles don’t make sharp turns.”

As they watched, the blip became larger, accelerated rapidly to Mach 17, then faded entirely.

“Some kind of antenna noise or ground reflection, Airman. Nothing that small could possibly travel at that speed or altitude. Log it as noise.”

“Yes, sir.”

• • •


Racing northwards, Kara leveled off sixty miles above Reading, Pennsylvania. She knew she had to follow a great circle, and travel high to avoid air resistance.

Oddly enough, she’d learned that from her fifth grade science textbook, which had illustrated Earth Science by describing how Superman traveled around the world. Anything involving Superman tended to grab kids’ attention, including hers.

The air was very thin, but so far she didn’t seem to need to breathe. This seemed like a good altitude, though the air was still glowing slightly as she plowed through it. She could have gone faster higher up, but worried about running into satellites or something.

The view was incredible. The sky above was velvet black and full of stars. The sun was to her left, and she basked in its unfiltered radiance. The Earth far below her was drifting rapidly to the rear, its curvature unmistakable.

Everything looked just like the IMAX film she’d seen about Space Station Prometheus, except she was there, not watching a movie.

She hurtled through the sky on the edge of space; gravity had no hold on her. She’d never felt so free.

She did a few lazy barrel rolls, laughing, her arms held out and spinning around like a propeller. The thin air didn’t stop her from shrieking, “This… is… so… awesome!!”

• • •


Ten minutes later she was over Mongolia, approaching China from the north. Earth was really big! She’d had no idea.

Fortunately, she now seemed to have a photographic memory; she recognized the mountains and rivers she’d seen online and followed their guidance. She passed over sections of the Great Wall, gawking like any tourist.

She recognized the area around Huozhou and slowed rapidly. She began a steep descent into the lower atmosphere, a tiny figure diving headfirst through the vast sky.

The news report hadn’t said where the mine was, but the large crowd of rescue vehicles marked the spot. She halted abruptly at a couple of thousand feet and hovered, low enough to see what was going on without being seen. The sun had just risen, casting long shadows.

The mine entrance was easy enough to find thanks to the collection of news crews there. She looked through the rock and followed a shaft to a lower level, where there was a large coal face.

The passage leading to it had collapsed. Men were operating some kind of digging machine to clear the rubble of the cave-in, but Kara could see they had a long, long way to go. Beyond the collapsed section, she could see a group of men huddled together in the darkness, their lantern batteries long since exhausted.

She squinted; there were some spots that were harder to see. She wondered if there was something in the rock that interfered with her vision.

She glanced at the caved-in section, then jerked her gaze away with a whimper, her eyes squeezed shut and her exuberant mood gone in an instant.

There had been a handful of men in the collapsed area. They were… they were… oh…

Tears leaked from the corners of her closed eyes, and her stomach threatened rebellion. She now understood exactly what Emily had meant about seeing things she shouldn’t. She felt an overwhelming urge to flee. She rapidly drifted higher, unconsciously putting distance between herself and the awfulness.

She couldn’t do this. Why was she even thinking about it? She wasn’t a superhero, she was a kid!

She wanted to go home. Emily would understand, would give her hugs and hot cocoa and make her feel better. She badly wanted a hug right now.

But the other miners… they were still alive, still trapped, facing suffocation. If she left, they would probably die.

She curled up in a ball, her arms wrapped around her drawn-up knees, floating high in the morning sky. A minute passed.

She sniffled and wiped her tears away with the back of her hand. She wasn’t a real superhero but she could help, and these miners really, really needed help. She couldn’t turn her back on them. She slowly uncurled, and took a deep breath. She had to do this.

She had to do this.

But do what? On the way here she’d planned on just drilling through the rock, opening a tunnel straight to the miners. Now she was unsure. Would it lead to another collapse, kill the people she was trying to save? She had no idea, and she was petrified of doing the wrong thing.

She tuned her hearing to the activity below her and abruptly recognized another problem: she couldn’t understand a word anyone was saying. Well, duh! China?

She frowned; she had to admit, she didn’t know how to do this safely. She needed to talk to someone who knew what they were doing. Emily had said to avoid being seen, but surely she’d understand?

She searched the crowd of workers, and spotted a small group of men with a set of plans spread out on a table. They looked like plans for the mine, and the men were pointing at them as they talked. She looked over to the side; the group was well away from the media. A small smile stole onto her face.

She flashed down, unseen; a moment later she was standing a few feet away from the men, her hands clasped in front of her. They were speaking rapidly amongst themselves and didn’t notice her at all.

Her heart was pounding. She tried to school herself, remembering how Superman behaved, and the coaching she’d gotten from Emily. Keep it formal and polite. Be confident.

She waved her hand. “Hello? Excuse me?”

They still didn’t notice, so she tried a little louder. “Hello?”

They stopped talking and swung around to look at her, startled.

After a moment, they all started shouting at her angrily. She flinched, but held up her hands. “I’m sorry, I don’t speak Chinese. Does anyone speak English?”

They fell silent. One of the men — the leader, maybe? — replied in broken English. “Girl! Why here? This dangerous place!”

“I came to help.”

One of the men threw his hands up in frustration and said something she was glad she couldn’t understand. The others were muttering.

The English speaker shook his head emphatically. “How get here? Leave now!” He reached to grab her arm.

Kara blurred to the side to escape his grasp. The man fell back and gasped. All of them were staring at her now, mouths open.

She looked around nervously, but no one else was paying attention, and the news cameras were still at the mine entrance. “I’d like to help.”

There was still no response. She looked around again; being a mining area, there was no shortage of rubble of assorted sizes. She spotted a rock close by nearly as big as she was. She walked over, easily picked it up, and carried it back. She put it down as the men continued to stare.

She floated up, raised her fist, and smashed it into the stone. It felt fragile to her, like eggshell, and her fist made a nice hole with a small shower of chips. A fracture developed and part of the rock slid off, landing on the ground with a small crunch. She floated back down. “Please let me help?” She dusted her hands off.

The men just stared, for what felt like hours but was only a minute. Then, one of them pointed at the shield on her chest and said something. The others started conversing again.

Slowly, the English speaker approached her. “You… girl… Superman?”

Kara nodded. “Supergirl. I want to help. But I need someone to tell me how.” She shrugged and smiled. “I don’t know anything about mining.”

The men all looked at each other.

The English speaker nodded thoughtfully. “Supergirl.”

• • •


Kara wondered if this was how Dad’s rescues went. She’d expected a lot more heroics, like she saw in Kevin’s movie, or like they showed on the news back home. They probably don’t put the boring stuff on TV. Things had started off on the wrong foot when she’d snuck past the news cameras at super-speed.

That didn’t feel very heroic.

She’d explained that her mother wanted her to avoid being photographed. It had taken them a minute to process that, but they’d understood in the end: she was a child, after all. Some of the men had children her age.

She’d met them inside, and they’d taken her down in an elevator. A man had insisted she wear a hard hat; she’d tried to decline, but he’d been intransigent. The English speaker had finally intervened.

She’d been led to the site of the cave-in, where she’d expected to be asked to start hurling rocks aside, or spinning like a human drill, or something. That hadn’t happened.

Instead, the English speaker pointed at his eyes, then at the top of the debris pile, where it met the ceiling. “You… see?” Meanwhile, the rescue workers were all staring at her, wondering why a little girl in a strange costume was there without protective gear.

Kara frowned, and glanced at the pile. “I don’t understand.”

The man shook his head. “Inside.” He pointed at the top again. “You see… inside?”

“Oh,” said Kara. “Yes, I can see inside. Where?”

He led her forward to the debris slope and pointed up, at the top. “Up… there. Inside. Tell me.”

“Tell you what I see?” He nodded.

She peered inside the section of rock above the cave-in, and saw a cavity; she started describing it, and he started asking further questions. Was there any water? Did the rock look solid, or like loose stones? Were there any cracks in the rocks? Where around the top was the shortest distance to the other side, where the trapped men were? Could she smell any odd smells? She answered his questions, and mentioned the bodies she’d noticed earlier. She didn’t look at them again.

After ten minutes of this kind of questioning, with time taken for consultation with the other engineers, he thought for a while. Then he started barking orders at the men with the equipment, and they resumed clearing the debris. It was slow going, and everyone looked grim. Kara didn’t know how long the trapped miners had left, but this was going to take forever.

“I can dig faster than that,” suggested Kara, shouting to be heard over the noise of the machinery.

He said something else to the men and they stopped. He turned back to Kara. “You must watch. If rocks move.”

“I can do that too. The rocks can’t hurt me if they fall, but they can hurt those men.”

He pondered that for a while, looking doubtful. While he was thinking, she picked up a sizable stone, tossed it in the air, and let it land on her head. It shattered. She folded her arms and looked up at the man with a disarming smile.

Everyone stared.

The man sighed. “OK.” He pointed. “There.”

Kara nodded. Rather than scramble up the loose debris, she lifted into the air and floated up. There was a loud gasp from the workers behind her.

She was face to face with the pile where it met the ceiling. She tried to figure out a good way to dig, but the only thing she could think of was her cat digging in his litter box. She made a face, then sighed and started swiping at the pile with her hands.

She heard a shout from behind and stopped. She turned around and one of the workers was glaring at her; she’d just missed hitting him. She blushed and yelled back, “Sorry!”

She resumed digging with less force, so the ejected material was sliding down the slope instead of shooting out into the passageway, and gradually sped up. The men watched silently as the clatter of ejected debris increased in pitch, becoming a roaring whine. Kara’s hands were a blur and she started to move forward.

She kept an eye on the ceiling above her; it seemed to be staying in place. She looked behind her at the tunnel she’d dug, but she wasn’t sure it was big enough for an adult to pass through easily. She might have to make it bigger.

Several minutes of this brought her to the cavity she’d seen earlier; it was quite large. She stood up and inspected it, checking that the details she’d relayed earlier to the mine engineers were correct. She floated to the other side and started to dig again.

After about ten minutes more she broke through to the trapped men. The light filtering though her tunnel was very faint and she doubted they could see her, but they’d heard the sounds of her digging and smelled the fresher air; they were speaking excitedly to each other. She noted, worried, that some of the men were unconscious or injured.

She turned around and headed back. When she got to the cavity she made a frustrated noise: the ejecta from her digging had blocked her first tunnel. She had to spend a minute clearing it.

Moments later she floated out of the tunnel to face the rescue crews. “I’m through to the other side.” Her interpreter smiled broadly, and turned to repeat her words in Chinese. A cheer went up.

After that things moved along. They handed her a light on the end of a long cable; she took it through, and was rewarded by the gawking faces of dozens of men as they saw their savior was an eleven-year-old girl covered in rock dust.

She had to make the tunnel bigger, but now that the men had fresh air and light they had time. She brought some water through for them, too.

Once the tunnel was approved by the engineers, they started evacuating the trapped men, the injured ones being dragged on stretchers. She helped as much as she could, all the while keeping an eye on the ceiling for signs of movement or fractures. It seemed to be holding.

When the last of the men was out she emerged behind them to another cheer. She couldn’t help it: her eyes grew wet. The man she’d been working with came up to her and reached out to shake her hand. “Thank you, Supergirl.”

They shook hands, and all the rescue workers applauded and cheered. Kara blushed, not that you could tell with the dirt on her face.

The man gestured. “Mother waiting worried, yes? Go home.”

She nodded, and he led her to the elevator, where they had to wait their turn behind the last of the rescued miners. Finally, they rode up together in silence. She tried hard to suppress the enormous grin that was threatening to break out on her face.

When they reached the top they followed the miners to the entrance and stopped outside. The chief engineer shook her hand again, and again said earnestly, “Thank you, Supergirl. Thank you.”

That’s when all the flashes started going off. Kara’s head whipped around to face dozens of cameras. She’d been so caught up in the drama of the rescue that she’d forgotten about the media assembled at the entrance. So had her companion, apparently: dismayed, he moved to step in front of her, but the damage had been done.

Kara bolted like a frightened doe. To human eyes she simply vanished, a column of dust tracing a straight line upward, a sonic boom her farewell. She never heard the crowd gasp.

• • •