Only Superhuman (7 page)

“She’s still around.” He sensed she’d need an explanation for her absence from their life. “But, well … after a while, things stabilized with help from the cislunar nations, and Earth started shipping the worst troublemakers out to the Belt. If they couldn’t get along with others, then they could go off to their own little worlds and live however they wanted, so long as they left other people alone.”

Emry mulled it over. “That sounds fair.”

“Well, the Striders didn’t think so. But that’s another story. Anyway, once things were more or less peaceful again, the Vanguardians started trying to get into politics and business, trying to help rebuild society. But now that people weren’t so scared anymore, they … didn’t think they needed the Vanguard as much.”

Emry saw through the euphemism. “They only liked them when they needed them. Then they hated them ’cause they were different. Just like Greenwooders.”

“No, honey,” said Lyra, “it’s more than that. The Vanguard lived up in space. If they wanted to, they could attack Earth just by dropping rocks on it. A lot of people on Earth had reason to be afraid of being dominated by people who lived in orbit. And when those people were getting stronger and smarter and tougher than they were, they couldn’t help but be afraid.”

“And to be honest,” Richard said, “Thorne and some of the others didn’t try that hard to be good neighbors, like we do. They started talking like they should be the ones in charge, because they were better qualified.”

“Well, weren’t they?”

“Maybe, but it wasn’t for them to decide. It was up to the people.”

“Remember, honey,” Lyra added, “a big part of responsibility is knowing when
not
to use your power.” Emry nodded, having learned that lesson very well.

“And it wasn’t all the Vanguardians’ fault,” Lyra went on. “There were other mod habitats that were pushier or had more dangerous ideas about how to treat Earth people. And there were Earth nations who overreacted to the danger from space, who tried too hard to control things in orbit and in the Belt colonies through money or threats.”

“That’s why Thorne and the others wanted to be in charge. They thought if they could run things both on Earth and in orbit, they could keep the fighting from getting out of hand.”

“But they didn’t,” Emry said, her huge eyes solemn. “There was a war.”

Richard nodded. “By trying to control things, Thorne’s people just turned both sides against them. They made Earth more afraid of domination by the mods overhead, and they made the mods more afraid of losing control of their own homes. So both sides got angrier and started fighting. The Belt got dragged into it too because of their own issues with Earth. Everyone knew it could get horribly out of hand—how easy it would be to drop an asteroid on Earth and devastate the planet. And everyone knew Earth had orbital weapons that could retaliate if that ever happened. But they were caught in a spiral of mistrust and…”

“Richard.” Lyra’s voice was as gentle as the brush of her cool hand across his, but it got through to him. As precocious as Emry was, there was no sense scaring her with the details of how close humanity had come to cataclysmic war.

“Well, let’s just say people almost lost control of their power in a very bad way. But there were good people on both sides, including Vanguardians and some of the first Troubleshooters, who stopped them from making a terrible mistake. And once people saw what had almost happened, they knew they had to find a better answer. That was the Great Compromise: Earth got to be in charge of everything inside Luna’s orbit, in exchange for the Belt getting its independence. And all the habitats in Earth orbit that didn’t want to live under Earth’s government would move to the Belt.”

He sighed. “And that included Vanguard. Even though they’d helped make the peace and saved countless lives, people on both sides still didn’t trust them. They got convinced that the best thing for everyone was if they went away to the Belt.”

“But they were still superheroes, right?” Emry asked. “Did they team up with the Troubleshooters?” Emry frowned, puzzled, as Richard closed off. He knew he’d failed to hide his anger from her. “Daddy?”

“Let’s just say … Thorne and the others decided to stay in their room and sulk. They figured people had been ungrateful at Earth, so they wouldn’t be any different in the Belt. So they moved their habitat way out to the Outers, even farther than Greenwood. And when all the new independent nations and immigrant habs in the Belt started fighting … well, they decided not to help.”

“
What?!
Don’t they know anything about being superheroes? It’s not about what you get out of it! You do it because people need you!”

Richard beamed at his daughter and took her in his arms. “Ohh, punkin, I’m so proud of you. And I agree with you. I … I couldn’t fight in the war or the troubles that followed. I didn’t want to hurt anybody. But I had to go and help where I could, to do rescue work and stuff.” He sighed. “The others didn’t want me to go. Thorne wanted us to live on our own, build a separate society where nobody would bother us or hurt us. He could be incredibly persuasive.”

“Did Grandma Rachel want you to go?”

He hesitated. What could he tell his daughter? That his mother had cared more about her research than her son? That she’d hardly even seemed to notice when he left? “She … was very dedicated to Thorne’s dream. But she didn’t try to stop me from doing what I thought was right.” It was the closest he’d ever come to lying to his child.

Emry got that storytelling gleam in her eye.
“Once they were heroes,”
she intoned.
“Now they’ve given up and are hiding from the world. But one man carries on their legacy. It’s Super-Daddy!”
They laughed and fell together in a mock-wrestling match. “And I’m your sidekick, the Emerald Blaze!”

“Ohh! The Emerald Blaze! Look, there she goes, streaking across the sky!” And he lifted his girl up and flew her around the room.

August 2098

It was a bright, warm day, a milder emulation of the summer back on Earth, and Emry had been making the most of it, engaged in her favorite sport: chasing boys. Due to her “unfair advantages,” the Greenwooders rarely let her play any other sport, except under frustrating restrictions. Generally the only person she got to engage with in athletic contests was her father, who still guided her in the martial arts and still played superheroes with her.

But these days she was getting more interested in the games she could play with teenage boys—particularly since she had a decided advantage here as well. Even though the boys that interested her were older than her thirteen years, their parents had kept them in the dark about sex. Emry’s parents had considered it more responsible to give her a solid grounding in sexuality
before
it became an issue in her life. And since this game wasn’t being played under adult supervision, she felt free to exercise her advantage.

Her physical precociousness gave her another edge, for her breasts had reached full size already; indeed, for a while she’d wondered if they would ever stop growing. Emry wondered where these heavy round orbs had come from, since her mother had such dainty, tapered breasts. From the neck up, she was unmistakably her mother’s daughter, except for her heavier chin and Shannon coloring. But her body couldn’t have been more different. Emry had gone through a phase in which she’d felt bulky and awkward, but now that she’d grown into her strong, mesomorphic frame and voluptuous curves, she’d come to delight in her differences from Lyra. She loved to show off with scanty tops, often lifting or shedding them for the boys who gawked at her. Their reactions when she flashed them were hilarious, especially when they pretended to be properly prudish and uninterested while trying desperately to get a good peek through their fingers. It was even more fun when they ran and she could literally chase them. Of course she could overtake them easily, and they were usually glad to be caught, even when they were terrified. Unfortunately, she hadn’t yet snagged anyone willing to go past second base. Despite their fascination, they were intimidated by her strength and her greater understanding of things that were still mysteries to them.

Lyra gently admonished her to go easy on the poor dears. But she trusted Emry to wield her sexuality responsibly and to consult with her parents before taking each new step. Overall, Lyra enjoyed hearing of her daughter’s exploits and experiments, dishing with her like a sister over the ribald details, vicariously amused by her tweaking of Greenwood’s taboos—and pleased that she was finally getting along better, after a fashion, with the other children. Yet she advised the teenager to be cautious with older males, since there were those who felt threatened by women’s sexual power and sought to twist it against them. But Emry had learned her lessons well, and the one college boy who’d tried something she hadn’t invited had gone home sorer and wiser, though with no broken bones.

Her quarry today was younger, a cute, shy black-haired boy her own age whom she’d decided to bring out of his shell. The poor thing had jumped halfway to the axis when she’d pinched his adorable buns, and he’d turned out to be a runner—though he let himself get cornered so easily that it had to be intentional. She was just about to undo her top and give him the thrill of his life when his eyes suddenly lifted from her chest, looking past her in terror.
Oh, hell,
Emry thought, figuring a parent or teacher was behind her, gearing up for a Stern Lecture on Morality.

But then the explosions began.

Emry whirled to behold the kind of scene she thought only happened on the news, and only on other habitats. Over in the town, symbot-suited people were shooting at each other, using big, heavy weapons to try to punch through each other’s armor. They didn’t seem to be going after the Greenwooders—but they didn’t seem to care who got in their way, or whose homes or businesses got wrecked. The curve of the habitat gave Emry an overhead view, her enhanced vision letting her see the townspeople running desperately for cover—and some of them not moving at all.

She had trouble accepting the sight at first. How could anyone act so irresponsibly? The fires, the destruction, they could endanger the whole habitat. Every hab-dweller was conditioned from infancy to make safety a priority. But she remembered the lessons of her father’s rescue work: people sometimes sought release by trashing others’ habs the way they never would their own. And many people who came from Earth or the Sheaf or other large habs had never needed to learn such discipline at all.

Emry suddenly remembered that her mother had been going into town today. Alarmed, she checked her bracelet selfone for Lyra’s locator signal, and saw it flashing along with her father’s on the edge of town. Good, Emry thought, she was with him. That meant she was safe. Now Emry just had to reach them and she’d be safe too.

But she took a moment to talk the boy past his panic and get him headed off for home, in the other direction. And as she raced toward her family, she kept an eye out for other scared kids who might need her help. It was what the Emerald Blaze would do. She was confident that, once her father made sure his ladies were safe, he’d go out and make those bad guys stop fighting. And then he’d save all the hurt people lying in the streets. The Blaze would stay to protect her mother while he did it. So she had to get there soon. Her hero needed his sidekick.

As she rocketed forward, she saw the fighting moving toward her parents. But she saw something else too. One of the armor-suited fighters wasn’t using lethal weapons, and was trying to keep the bad guys away from the townspeople. Emry recognized the symbot from the news—it was one of the Troubleshooters! Here!
Wow.
With her dad
and
a Troubleshooter on the case, the bad guys would be in jail in no time.

Once she got into town, the buildings blocked her view of the Troubleshooter and the battle. But those were secondary concerns; she knew where she needed to go. But as she got close, she needed to leap over piles of burning debris, and saw a lot of wrecked buildings and vehicles. The battle had passed right through here. She thanked the Goddess that her mom was with her dad, who would …

Then she saw him. It took her a moment to recognize him. He was down on his knees, shaking. He looked so small, so weak. That couldn’t be Daddy, could it? What was that he was leaning over? It looked like … No, it couldn’t be.…

…

No.

…

No. No, that couldn’t be her. It had none of her vibrancy, her energy, her warmth. It was just …

…

Emerald couldn’t understand what she was looking at. It looked like Mommy … but it couldn’t be … couldn’t be a person … It looked like Mommy’s face … but only half of it was there.… There was a hole and she could see a fire behind.…

Where was Mommy?

Why wasn’t Daddy looking for Mommy? How could he just kneel there, bawling like a little baby over this … that … mound of … that
thing
.…

Why wasn’t he stopping the bad guys? Why didn’t he stop them from breaking things, and … and
that
.…

Something knocked her forward, a sound she almost heard over the rushing in her head, and she fell and rolled and
that
wasn’t in front of her anymore and there was a metal monster pointing something at her, yelling something … and Daddy just bawled … and Emry closed her eyes.…

And then she woke up and strong arms picked her up—Daddy? But no, they were hard and cold and they whirred. She looked and it was the Troubleshooter. His helmet was retracting, folding back behind like origami, and there was a kind face behind it, craggy with a bushy moustache. “You’re safe now, little one,” he said. “Uncle Arkady has caught the bad guys. It will be all right now.” He looked past her, to something behind her, and grew sad. “No … not quite all right. I’m so sorry.”

Emry tried to stop herself from turning, but couldn’t. There was Daddy, rocking back and forth without a sound. And there was
that
.…

Mr. Arkady took a tentative step toward him. “Sir … I’m sorry for your loss, but you need to come away with me. The building may not be stable. And your daughter needs you now.”