Introductions
In which Kara meets her sister's boss for the first time.
Getting off the floating plane was easy. Alex had been one row away from the overwing exit and she made sure the raft was properly deployed before she got in it. She moved as far away from the wing as she could to make room for other passengers and sat down. While she waited for the oncoming ferry, she had plenty of time to think.
An hour later, after more time to think, she was back on shore at the ferry terminal. She called a cab and went home.
Once she had shut the door of her apartment, she called the watch desk at the DEO. Vasquez, the agent on duty was surprised to hear from her.
"Hey Danvers, what's up, you're not supposed to use your cell phone on planes."
"I'm not on the plane. It lost two engines and crashed in the bay. I'm back in my apartment. I'll book the next flight to Geneva. It's a good thing I gave myself the extra day."
"Was that your plane? Then get back here quickly. That plane had some unusual help."
"What do you mean?"
"There are reports and pictures of a woman who flew up to the plane while it was losing altitude, held up its' wing, then flew under it and raised it up. And the pilots are saying that something caused the plane to stop losing height and changed its course. A good thing, too, or the plane would have crashed into the Otto Binder bridge. Then after the plane landed in the bay, the woman climbed up onto the wing, stood up and flew away. Maybe Superman's California cousin has finally decided to step up to the plate."
"Superman's California cousin?" Alex asked faintly.
"Oh right, you're new here. You wouldn't know," said Vasquez.
"Three years is not new."
"This goes back eleven years. I think it's just me and the Director who were here then."
"So what's Superman's California cousin all about anyway?"
And Vasquez told her.
"Shit!" thought Alex. Aloud she said, "Look, that plane landing was a big bump. I've got to stop by the hospital and get checked out before I drive anywhere, but I'll be out there as quick as I can. Maybe two hours or so."
Alex did not book the next flight to Geneva. Nor did she go to the hospital. Instead, she went to her sister's apartment. Her discussion with Kara was short, and from Alex's viewpoint, highly unsatisfactory.
When she got to the base, Hank, her boss was waiting. "Good to see you. I'm glad you're still with us."
"It was a bit of a scare."
"Did you see her?"
"You mean the mystery flying woman that Vasquez mentioned? Yes, I did. I had a window seat on that side of the plane."
Hank put up a hand to stop her, "Let's take this to my office."
When they got to Hank's office, he shut the door and gestured Alex to take a chair.
"What did she look like?"
"I didn't see much of her, she only tried to hold up the wing for a few seconds before she went somewhere else because the angle of descent leveled out. And when she tried to hold up the wing, her arms mostly blocked her face. But she had long brown or darker colored hair and she was wearing a black colored long sleeved top and black jeans. But Vasquez said this might be Superman's California cousin; I didn't know he had one."
"Shit!" Hank Henshaw thought to himself.
"How much did Vasquez tell you?" he asked.
"Just that three weeks before Fort Rozz touched down, Superman was spotted leaving the landing site of another, much smaller spacecraft. But he was almost out of sight before we got there and the spacecraft, now our star exhibit, didn't have anybody in it when we arrived. Also, that there was something about that craft that made it easier to track Superman when he flew away and that they tracked him to Midvale, which they wouldn't have been able to do normally. Finally, when Superman arrived at the Fort Rozz touchdown site after being delayed by a tornado in Arkansas, and he was asked about the earlier incident he said nothing more than a 'You don't have to worry about it.' The obvious question for speculation is: 'what did he take to Midvale?' and the obvious answer is that the pod was Kryptonian and there was somebody inside who Superman tried to hide for some reason, hence the name Superman's California cousin for the possibility. Am I right? Because if I am, I'm trying to think of any newcomers to Midvale at that time, who stood out in any way and I can't think of anybody."
"Double shit!" Henshaw thought. "Yes you're right as far as you go, but there's a little bit more to the story. The department assigned a couple of agents to go to Midvale and put the town under a microscope. I was one of them. We looked for newcomers and focused our attention on everyone who had newly arrived in town no matter how young or how old they were. We traced all the new arrivals back to their previous locations and checked out their lives and everybody checked out. Except for one young girl. So we staked out her house."
Alex went totally still and she looked at him intently. Her boss looked her full in the face. She noted the compassion in his eyes, and waited.
"And one night we caught a break. I was on the stakeout when I saw two young girls flying overhead, back toward the house. They landed on the roof and went in. I managed to get a picture of the flying girls with my infra-red camera, which I still have. I don't think I have to tell you anymore do I?"
"I would like to see that picture," said Alex.
Hank reached into his pocket and handed it to her. Both faces were recognizable.
Alex looked, and her shoulders slumped. "So that's what you meant back when you met me in jail when you said you knew about my sister."
"Yes, that's right. But the real question is this: what's your sister going to do now? Is this a one-time thing or is she going to come out of the closet as Superman 2? If the former, we don't need to do anything, if the latter, we need to talk with her, the sooner the better. Have you talked to her since you got back on the ground?"
"I have, and we need to talk to her." Alex said "But before you follow our usual hostile Kryptonian arrest protocol of taking our target out with a Kryptonite dart and bringing her here as a prisoner, I have an alternative suggestion. I wouldn't suggest this with any other alien, but I've known Kara for more than ten years. Alien she may be, but hostile she is not. She's also smart, a clear thinker and responsible. And if she's not hostile now, what do we gain if we make her hostile by treating her as if she is? Handled right she could be a tremendous asset for us. Imagine the resource Superman would be if he gave his full cooperation to the DEO."
Hank thought for a moment. "OK, Agent Danvers, what's your plan?"
"We play good cop, bad cop with a side helping of me playing the protective sister."
"And the details?"
Alex told him.
"You didn't think this up on the spur of the moment," Hank said.
"I've been thinking of nothing else since I saw her holding up that wing."
00000000000000000000000
It was on getting towards quitting time at CatCo Worldwide Media and Kara Danvers was beginning to relax. Not that she ever could fully relax at work. Her boss, the notorious Cat Grant, the company's CEO, was quite capable of giving her three or more complicated and difficult tasks late in the day and telling her to complete them before leaving. But today, her boss had been totally focused on the story of the flying mystery woman who had saved flight 237 and left it bobbing in the bay. After sending her reporters out to find the missing superhero, Cat had basically left Kara alone for the rest of the day, except for periodically sending her to the City desk editors for any updates. But the mystery woman had disappeared, at least so far.
Kara hoped that state of affairs would long continue. Although she was determined to continue to use her powers to help National City's people, she did not want her name in the paper as her city's counterpart to Superman. In more than one of the meetings with her cousin, Clark had made plain the dangers of being outed as a superhero and she did not want to put targets on her back, her Mom's back, her sister's back and the backs of any of her friends. As she considered how she could best help people without outing Kara Danvers, her phone rang. It was Alex.
"Hey, Alex, what's up?"
"Getting ready to quit for the day?" her sister asked.
"Just about. Hang on a second, Miss Grant's coming."
But her employer only walked past and said, "I'm off for the day, Keira. See you tomorrow."
"Good night, Miss Grant," Kara said. Then she returned to her phone call. "OK Alex, I'm free. Do you want to get together?"
"Sure, how about my place? I'm sorry for how I talked last night and we haven't done takeout in a while, so how about I get us some Chinese?"
"With pot-stickers?"
"With pot-stickers."
"Deal. See you in twenty minutes."
000000000000000000000000
Kara knocked on her sister's door. As Alex opened it, she said. "This isn't just a Danvers sisters night, I brought a friend along. He likes Chinese, too." She turned to the man behind her, "Kara, this is Hank Henshaw. He's also my boss. Hank, my sister Kara."
Hank Henshaw was a solid looking black man who conveyed the impression of an unstoppable force.
"Pleased to meet you, Dr. Henshaw."
"Actually, that's Mr. Henshaw. Glad to meet you."
"I thought all you lab types were PhD's?"
"Not all of us. I'm more of an administrator than a true lab type."
Alex interjected "I've been smelling that lovely takeout for a while. Now that you're here, Kara, we can eat."
They moved to the table, sat down and enjoyed the food. Alex had told Hank about Kara's job and for the first part of the meal he quizzed her about what it was like to work for a media CEO. After that, he asked about her other interests and she talked about her painting, where he listened politely, and her interests in history and civics, where they got into a few spirited discussions. She asked him about his work and hobbies but he was more a listener than a talker; he liked classical music but other than that his answers were sparse, but not evasive.
As the conversation went on, Kara realized that her sister and her boss had another agenda but she didn't know what it was. When they had finished cleaning up and sat down in the living room for an after dinner drink, she decided to ask about it.
"You know, Alex, it was a great dinner and it's nice to meet you Hank, but I felt like you were interviewing me for something. I hope that it's not a new job because I love the one I have."
Surprisingly, Alex replied. "Yes, Hank was interviewing you, and no, it's not for a new job. Rather he wants to find out how far he can trust you. I've told him that it wasn't necessary, that if I trust you, he should trust you, but he insisted."
"But why should Hank need to trust me?"
"I'll cut to the chase. First off, while I work in a lab, I've misled you and Mom on where I work. I don't work for National City University. Second, I don't always work in a lab. Third, I'm about to tell you some stuff that could put me in federal prison on a felony charge, specifically revealing classified information."
Hank spoke: "Alex, this was supposed to be a get-to-know-your-sister meeting. I haven't authorized you to tell Kara what we know."
Alex replied: "So throw me in jail afterward, but Kara has to know this stuff."
Hank thought for a moment, then spoke again: "So you force my hand: all right, but, Kara, before she goes on, I need you to understand something. The information your sister is about to give you could, in the wrong hands, jeopardize not only the safety and security of this country but the lives of everyone on this planet and I am not joking. It's information that is known to only the highest levels of the federal government and those charged with managing the situation. I'm one of those people and while I do have the authority to release to you the information that Alex wants to tell you, I need your commitment that you will tell this information to no other person ever before she goes any further. Can you promise me that, and will you mean it?"
Kara looked at her sister, stunned. Alex nodded soberly. "Yes Mr. Henshaw, I won't repeat a word of what you say. You can trust me that far. If you are a government official, that is. Do you have ID?"
Hank reached into his pocket, pulled out a billfold and handed it over. Kara opened it and saw a credential that identified Hank as the Director, Department of Extra-Normal Operations.
"I've never heard of this Department of Extra-Normal Operations."
"Not too many people have. Do you know what a black project is?"
"No."
"It's a project that is not publicly known and it is funded by covert means."
"So I can't check your story."
"Not right now, no. But if you agree provisionally to keep this to yourself, you will be presented with information over the next few days that will settle your doubts."
"OK, provisionally, I'll commit to keeping this conversation off the record. And I'll expect proof to follow, by the end of the week? And, if it does follow, then you have my word that I'll keep what you tell me to myself."
"Certainly by the end of this week. Thank you for your promise: all right Alex, you can go ahead."
Alex looked at her sister. "Kara, have you ever heard of NORAD?"
"No."
It's the North American Aerospace and Defense Command, a joint project of the US and Canadian Air Forces. Originally it was set up during the old cold war to spot incoming Russian missiles. It still does that, but since things are quieter now, NORAD has also moved into spotting incoming threats from space. Eleven years ago, actually just a few weeks after you came to us, they spotted a huge asteroid that was heading for earth. That much isn't secret, but the secrets start now. As the asteroid came closer, NORAD prepared to blow it up it with nuclear missiles since a direct hit by something that large would wipe out all life on earth. But they never launched the missiles because they discovered that the asteroid wasn't an asteroid. It was a large, million ton, spacecraft that was capable of making planet fall and it successfully made its landing on earth."
"So we have alien invaders or alien immigrants?"
"Not exactly. Now, because we knew it was coming, we sent a team to the touchdown site as soon as we could. We wanted to get Superman there too, but he was delayed helping people deal with a big tornado in Arkansas. And that delay was unfortunate because the aliens showed no interest in communicating. Instead, they killed all the members of the contact team and vanished. But when Superman and the backup team got there, they discovered that what we thought was a spaceship was really a space station that doubled as a prison. Some of the prisoners were still in their cells but about two hundred had escaped. We were able to salvage the prison records and we know who we are looking for."
"How did you find out that this space station was a prison?"
"Two reasons. First, design features; when you find cells, you know it's a prison. Second, Superman recognized the language. It was Kryptonese. He was also able to help our cyberneticists enter and use the prison's computer systems. It seems he has some kind of Kryptonian teaching device that taught him this stuff. The space station that came to earth was Krypton's maximum security prison. Apparently, it was called Fort Rozz."
Kara's face was ashen: "Why are you telling me this?" she whispered.
Alex replied, "Let me tell you a little bit more, and I think it will answer your question."
As Kara nodded, Alex continued, "Suppose you were the President and you got the news that an alien prison had landed, in Nevada, by the way, and that 200 or so inmates had escaped. And that some of them were Kryptonians and other aliens with extra-normal abilities. What would you do?"
"I'd put the FBI on the case backed up by Superman," Kara replied. "But judging from Hank's credential, I suspect the President created a new agency."
"That's close," said Alex, "but the DEO had already been created years before the initial sighting of the asteroid."
"Why did they do that?"
"Because Superman arrived. His arrival showed us that we weren't alone. Which meant we needed to prepare for managing interstellar visitors with less than amiable intentions. And then, three weeks before Fort Rozz landed, another much smaller spacecraft also arrived This one was met by Superman, but he flew off just before our contact team arrived. The spacecraft was clearly designed to transport people, but when we got there it was empty. The team's best guess was that Superman had taken the spacecraft's passenger or passengers somewhere else. And this is where Hank comes into the story. Go ahead boss, you were there."
Hank looked at Kara. "For many years, we could tell ourselves that Superman was a one-time only event. The only alien in the universe, from a world that had exploded, and he was a good guy, all about truth, justice, and the American way. This second spacecraft proved that there were other aliens out there and we knew nothing about them or their motivations: which is why we wanted to find out about this visitor. When Fort Rozz landed, we naturally asked Superman about the earlier incident. But he didn't say anything more than we had nothing to worry about."
"If you can't trust Superman, who can you trust?" asked Kara, trying to keep her voice light.
"True enough, we know that now. At that time, we didn't know him as well as we do today," said Hank. "Now there was one thing about this smaller spacecraft that Superman didn't realize. He got some dust or something else from it on his uniform that made it much easier for our radar to track him. Normally we can't track Superman when he goes below 500 feet and he knows this, so when he flew away from the landing site, he flew low. But this time, we could track him. And we did: he flew to Midvale, California.
Kara looked at Alex, stunned. Her eyes snapped back to Hank as he continued.
"So the DEO sent a team to Midvale. I was on the team. We looked for newcomers and focused our attention on everyone who had newly arrived in town no matter how young or how old they were. We traced all the new arrivals back to their previous locations and checked out their lives. We found nothing wrong, except for one young girl, recently adopted, whose backstory didn't check out. So we staked out her house. And one night we caught a break. I was on the stakeout when I saw two young girls flying overhead, back toward the house. They landed on the roof and went in. I managed to get a picture of the flying girls with my infra-red camera, which I still have. In fact, Alex has it in her purse."
"So what are you going to do now?"
"We don't have the legal authority to do anything, Kara. Oh, we've kept an eye on you and your family ever since that night, but that was just a watching brief to make sure your abilities didn't get you into any trouble. When your parents adopted you, they made you an American citizen. You've broken no laws, you've built a normal American life for yourself, you've done well in school, you've found a good job. But you also have Superman's powers and we know you used them the other night in a highly commendable fashion to save flight 237. Speaking for a moment just as Alex's boss, I'm personally very grateful; losing her would have made a huge hole in our org. chart."
"Now I'm sure both Alex and your mother have told you to forget about using your powers ever again. And that's your decision and I don't have any right to tell you what to do. But, as the Director of the DEO, I don't have the luxury of joining your Mom and Alex in their perfectly understandable wish to keep you safe. I know you could be an invaluable help to me and the DEO, not to mention the people of this part of the country if you plan on continuing to use your powers. And if that's what you want to do, or even if it's something you're only considering doing, I'd like you to come out to our headquarters tomorrow after work and see what we're up to, then you can decide if you want to help us. And I'll make you this offer. Even if you don't want to work with us, but do want to continue to use your Kryptonian abilities to help people, then, as my personal thanks for keeping this conversation under your hat, I'll make some resources available to you to help you shoot up the Superhero learning curve a bit faster than your cousin did. Remember, he had five years' practice as Superman before he had to face Kryptonian enemies. You almost certainly won't have that luxury. We have reason to think that most of the Fort Rozz escapees are concentrated within a 500-mile radius of National City, and if you keep active they'll know you are Kryptonian. And they've had ten years of practice using their powers, while you've only just started. Of course, if you are attacked by any of these folks, I'd hope that you'd keep me informed."
"Do you mind if I confirm your story with Superman?"
"No problem, go ahead."
"Thanks. Then, I'll give you this much, I'll come see your office. But it can't be tomorrow night, I've already got an evening meeting and I can't get out of it. How about the day after tomorrow?"
"That will be fine."
"Where's your office?"
"It's about a half-hour's drive outside the city. Alex can bring you out."
Then I'll see you around six or so unless my boss keeps me late. If that happens, I'll call Alex."
Hank spoke up. "Thank you, Kara, I'll see you then. Good night, Alex." With that, Hank moved to the door and left.
After the door shut, Kara looked at her sister.
"I've got a whole bunch of questions and I'll probably come up with more over the next two days. But there's one question I need to ask now before I go."
"Oh?"
"Yes. Hank was telling the truth about how he found me, right?"
"Right, I told him nothing. Here's the picture he took that night." She handed it to her sister who barely glanced at it before handing it back.
"Thank you. Not that it matters. This isn't on you: this is on me." Suddenly Kara seemed more vivid, more defined with a look in her eyes that Alex had never seen before. It was a momentary impression and Alex shook it off.
"What do you mean, it's on you? It's on me: I let you take us flying that night, even though I knew we shouldn't!"
"That's not it. I'll tell you next time. But for now, I've got a bunch of stuff to think over. Good night, Alex. I'll call you when I'm leaving work, the day after tomorrow. Let's meet up at my place."
"OK Kara, good night."
"Love you." A quick hug and Kara was gone.