Previously...
Kal exited the car, and shot straight up in the air, faster than Brian could follow. Thankfully, he had remembered to put the car back into park before he had left.
Brian got out of the car and circled around to the driver’s side. There was always such a difference in Kal when he was needed as Superman. He looked so much more confident and in control of the situation.
But that wasn’t what stuck with Brian the most. What Brian remembered most of all was Kal’s expression on the rare occasions that he mentioned something on Krypton.
It was always the exact opposite of the way he looked when he became Superman.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Martha glanced around the table at the people gathered there as tears collected in her eyes. It really hadn’t been that long ago when she and Jonathan were condemned to spend holidays alone together in the house. Of course, they were always invited over to spend time with extended family, but as those families grew, Martha found it more and more painful to be reminded of what she was incapable of having.
But ever since Lois had visited that one Christmas, special occasions at the Kent house had been much merrier. And now they had Kal to spend Thanksgiving with, too. And if she had anything to say about it, he’d be here at Christmas as well. Even though he was just one more person, the house seemed so much fuller with him around.
“I’m thankful for the good crop we’ve had this year,” Jonathan was saying. “I was a little concerned with the weather we had in August, but things pulled around in time, and now we’ve got a great harvest. Of course a lot of that is because of you, son,” Jonathan turned to Kal. “You put in more work than a whole crew of farm hands ever could have.”
Jonathan nodded over to Lois to pass the sharing forward.
“I’m thankful for Perry giving me the time off,” Lois said.
“Honey, that’s what you always say,” Martha smiled.
“Well, it’s true,” she shrugged. “Perry works the newsroom hard, and getting time off for holidays is difficult. Of course, it was easier this year with Kal coming because I didn’t need to schedule time for a flight. So I guess I’m thankful for Kal giving me a ride, too.”
“Well, I’m thankful for how well my art show went last week,” Martha told her family. “It’s sometimes hard to build enough of a client base to run a show out here, but the community was also very supportive. I’m also thankful for you, Kal. I know the situation of your arrival was tragic, but you’ve gifted us with your presence over the last two months, and I’m so grateful for it.”
All eyes turned to Kal as his turn to share came up.
Martha watched him with sympathy. He had lost so much that it must be hard for him to think of something to be thankful for. But it would be good for him to focus on the positive things in his life rather than all of the negative things.
“I’m thankful for all of you,” Kal told the group. “You have helped me so much ever since I arrived here on Earth. I cannot possibly repay you.”
“You don’t need to, Kal,” Martha told him, laying a hand on his. “You don’t owe us anything.”
“And given the way you’ve helped each of us out, you’re not exactly a burden,” Jonathan chimed in.
“Thank you,” Kal nodded. “So after we have said what we’re thankful for, what happens next?”
“Now we eat,” Martha told him. “This is the biggest tradition of Thanksgiving.”
The food was passed around the table, and Martha pretended not to notice when Kal didn’t take anything.
“I have been meaning to talk to you, Martha,” Kal told her. “I may have found someone to help out with the Superman Foundation.”
“Wonderful. I knew it would be popular, but I had no idea it would be this demanding,” Martha shared. “I don’t mind helping out, but I’ll be glad to pass over the responsibility. Who is it you found?”
“Her name is Constance Hunter,” Kal answered. “A recent graduation of Met U. But she’s discovered soon enough that she is not cut out for the corporate world.”
“Well, she sounds lovely. I’m sure she’ll do the Foundation a lot of good,” Martha decided.
“You never told me about her,” Lois commented.
“I just recently met her,” Kal shrugged. “And we haven’t talked much lately. You’ve been busy with your drug investigation.”
“Oh, are you still working on that, Lois?” Martha asked anxiously.
“You are being careful, aren’t you?” Jonathan asked.
“Yes,” Lois replied, smiling as she rolled her eyes. “Honestly, I’m fine. I finished it before we came out here, and nothing went wrong.”
Kal cleared his throat and shot a pointed glance over at Lois.
“Okay, fine,” she grumbled. “Kal might have had to pull me out of the river a little bit. But everything was okay in the end.”
“Kal, we sure are thankful that you’re here,” Jonathan told him. “It’s a miracle Lois lasted this long without you.”
“Hey!” Lois objected.
“I’m sure she would have been fine without me, Jonathan,” Kal replied graciously.
“Actually, you did help me out a lot with that one,” Lois admitted grudgingly.
“Well, I’m glad that Kal is able to help you keep safe,” Martha told her surrogate daughter.
“If I win a Kerth for the article I’ll be sure that you get an honorable mention in my acceptance speech, Kal,” Lois offered jokingly.
”Thanks, Lois,” Kal smiled. “With all of the effort I’ve put into keeping you safe, I would certainly appreciate the recognition.”
“Hey!” Lois exclaimed.
Martha smiled to herself. There was nothing like having family here for the holidays.
* * *
Kal didn’t need the creak of the screen door to sense Lois’ arrival. Her steps were the loudest sound in the house where Martha and Jonathan were already sleeping. He could hear her heartbeat get progressively louder as she exited the house and walked to the edge of the porch.
“It’s a clear night,” she commented, following his gaze to the sky.
“You can see the stars much better here than in Metropolis,” Kal agreed.
They stood there a moment in silence, taking in the millions of little lights.
“I used to know all of the constellations,” Kal told her. “I loved star gazing and I spent hours looking up into the sky connecting the dots.”
“Not any more?” Lois asked.
“They’re all switched around from here,” he told her, waving his hand impatiently at the sky. “It is a different perspective than I’m used to.”
“Here.” Lois stepped close to him and grabbed hold of his hand.
He was surprised by her sudden move, but allowed himself to be manipulated.
She traced a shape in the sky with his finger. It looked like a box with an arm attached to the upper left corner.
“That’s the Big Dipper,” she told him.
“The Big Dipper?” he echoed questioningly.
“It’s like a ladle,” she replied. “I’m not really sure why it’s called that.”
“All right,” Kal smiled. “Can you show me another one?”
“Uh…” She scanned the night sky, searching for more things to show him. “Oh, over there.” She pointed his finger towards three stars lined up in a straight line. “That’s Orion’s Belt. And if you look at the stars around him…” She drew his finger to connect the stars. “Then you can see his body.”
“Who was Orion?”
“Um… A hunter?” she guessed. “There’s probably a story behind it, but I don’t really remember. Some guide I am, huh?” She dropped his hand.
“You’ve shared more than I know. Thank you, Lois.”
“My sister Lucy took this class on Astrology once,” Lois shared. “It was all about telling the future with the stars. For three weeks she gave fortunes to anyone who would stand still long enough. She would be the one who could tell you more.”
“Do you believe that?” Kal asked. “That your fate is spelled out in the stars?”
“Not really,” Lois shrugged. “I like to think I have control over my destiny.”
“I used to think the same thing,” Kal agreed. “But now… My life is so different, thanks to forces so much beyond my control. I can’t help feeling like a pawn of the universe.”
He dropped his head so he wouldn’t have to look up to the sky anymore. Somehow, it just seemed too big right now to be a part of.
An arm gently curled around him, and Lois rested her head on his shoulder.
For a second, he leaned into it, glad for the support from someone.
Then, something shifted between them, and his nerve endings lit up, feeling more sensitive than ever. Every single point of contact between them seemed to be supercharged with energy. Kal could smell her hair, and feel her heart beating in her chest.
He stepped back hastily.
“I think I’m going to go check around Metropolis,” he told her abruptly. “Even though it is a holiday, that doesn’t mean crime stops, does it?”
“I… guess not,” Lois replied, confused.
“I’ll be back later tonight,” Kal told her as he floated upwards. “Probably once you are already asleep.”
“Uh, okay,” Lois stammered.
“Goodnight, Lois.”
“Kal-”
He didn’t hear the rest of her sentence. He was too far away.
* * *
Kal flew into the telescope lab and landed silently. He had been completely surprised when Lois told him that the Professor Daitch had needed to talk to him regarding the discovery of Nightfall. He and Lois both agreed that there must something that he wasn’t telling the general public.
“You wanted to see me, Professor Daitch?” Kal called out.
The scientist jumped in the air, and pulled himself away from the telescope.
“Superman!” he exclaimed.
“Mind if I take a look?” Kal asked, gesturing towards the telescope.
Daitch stepped aside to allow Kal access, but then stopped suddenly.
“I thought you had enhanced visual abilities,” he told Kal in a critical tone.
Kal blinked, taken aback by that reminder. He squinted up in the sky to check if he could see Nightfall by himself.
He couldn’t.
“I do,” Kal told the professor. “But even I have my limits.” It was comforting for Kal to realize that. He didn’t like to think that he had become a god of some kind.
The professor seemed to accept this explanation, and Kal pressed his eye to the lens of the telescope.
He saw a dark chunk of rock flying through space that brought a cold shiver through his body. It was one thing to stargaze, but this brought him far to close to the terrifying emptiness.
“Nightfall is close to seventeen miles across,” the voice of the professor informed him. “It’s traveling close to thirty-thousand miles per hour.”
Kal tore himself away from the telescope to focus on what the professor was saying. Clearly, this information was important for him to know.
“You told Miss Lane and the other reporters as much at the news conference,” he told the professor, crossing his arms in from of his chest. “Why am I here?” He was maybe being a little harsh on the man, but the sight of that asteroid had made him edgy.
Instead of answering Kal, Daitch typed a command on the keyboard. A countdown appeared on a large screen. The numbers read 99:52:23, but they soon changed and Kal realized that they must stand for hours, minutes, and seconds.
“If my calculations are correct, in a little over four days, it’s going to hit the Earth,” Daitch told Kal somberly. “The sky, literally, is falling.”
Kal swallowed the bolt of nausea he got at this statement. “What… What kind of damage would that cause?” he asked around his dry mouth.
“Superman,” Daitch spoke fearfully, “this could knock the Earth off its axis. Even throw us out of our current solar orbit. It's far larger than the meteor that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. The crater alone will throw enough dust into the air to start a new ice age.”
In other words, catastrophic damage. Kal’s head swam with the implications this would have. But before he could become too concerned, his sensitive hearing kicked in and he heard voices just outside the room.
In a flash, he was by the door swinging it open.
“I am not completely used to the customs here on Earth,” he told the two men he found there, “but I do know that humans and Kyptonians both look down on those who eavesdrop.”
“Superman, my apologies,” one of the men spoke. “We felt you should hear the news from Professor Daitch before we were introduced. I’m General Robert Zeitlin. This is Secretary John Cosgrove.”
Kal nodded sternly towards both men. Maybe he should have been more solicitous, but there was something about the whole situation that had him on edge. The possibility of the asteroid hitting Earth hadn’t even come up in the press conference, and now Kal was supposed to be part of some sort of clandestine military operation? He didn’t like the idea of keeping secrets from everyone else.
“You can’t keep this a secret,” Kal told the men, crossing his arms in front of him to emphasize his point. He had already known one civilization that had suffered as a result of government secret keeping.
“The President will tell the public, but he wants to avoid a panic, too,” Cosgrove told Kal. “He simply wants to get you on board before making an announcement.”
“Get me on board…” Kal echoed.
The general spoke some tactical stuff, but Kal was barely paying attention. He had a pretty good idea of where this was going, anyway.
“You’re asking me to fly a million miles into space to stop a rock the size of Metropolis that’s traveling faster than any space craft you’ve been able to design,” Kal spoke, talking over the scheming men.
“Can you?” Cosgrove asked.
And with the look that Cosgrove had, Kal realized how much they needed him.
“I don’t know,” he told them honestly.
“You’re our only hope,” Zeiltin told Kal.
Of course, Kal knew from the beginning that he would help in any way that he could.
“I guess I will find out where my limits really are,” Kal decided, turning to look at each of the gentlemen in turn. They nodded grimly back at him in response.
