Chapter52
"This Dax-Ur had a son?"
"Yeah. His name is Max."
"Why didn't you tell us?" Dr. Kline was beside himself with excitement. "Oh, we need his DNA too. We could—"
"Now wait," cautioned Dr. Hamilton. "We don't even know for sure if his wife knew of his origins. It could be that—"
"I don't think she did, or rather, does," Superman spoke up from his familiar position behind the special weight machine that the doctors had calibrated for his type of strength. At least, it had been calibrated for his strength as of two days ago. Today, the hydraulic weights were moving a little too easily for him. It wasn't even a true "test" of his strength and he knew it before they did. "And I'd rather it stay that way."
Dr Kline wasn't even hearing him. "The DNA sequences – they wouldn't be altered. They wouldn't be the same as for Superman. After all, he would be only half Kryptonian, but he would inherit a set of genes from his father, even if his powers were dampened by the effects of the—"
"Not necessarily. The Kryptonian genes could have mutated in some way due to the exposure of the blue Kryptonite and/or his father's long stay on Earth."
"Hmm," mused Dr. Kline, "well yes, and we don't really know via scientific means that every Kryptonian would indeed gain powers on Earth. It could be just a select few, maybe a subset of the planet's population. Although it does appear that they all would, taking in to account that every Kryptonian Superman has met has had them."
"True. We would need a sample of another Kryptonian, even if the only one we can access now is this half-Kryptonian, to even hypothesize that. Without his DNA, we just can't go making assump—"
"Guys!" When he could stand it no longer, Superman finally disengaged from the now broken machine to walk over to where the two were arguing. "He's a child, not an experiment."
"Oh, of course, of course, Dr. Kline said with a touch of contrition. "We know that."
"But," interjected Dr. Hamilton, "do you not think, Superman, that his widow and son deserve to know about his heritage? What if you had never discovered the truth about Krypton? Wouldn't you have hated it if someone who knew the truth about you hadn't told you of your origins at all? Wouldn't the mystery of your unknown past haunt you?"
"Maybe," Superman admitted, paused, and then agreed, "okay, probably. But in some ways, I might have been better off. Especially if I didn't have my powers, and we don't know if the boy has any."
"But you could find out easily. You could watch him."
"I didn't know spying was also a part of these tests."
"Fine. We'll leave it up to you to make the choice for the boy. And his mother. I'm sure you have their best interests at heart, and since we probably don't have a Kryptonian gene in our bodies, we should—"
"Wait a minute. What did you say?" Superman stepped in front of Dr. Hamilton. "You said 'probably.' What does that mean?"
"Did I? Oh, poor choice of words. I meant definitely. I should have said definitely."
Their eyes locked and Superman zeroed in on the doctor's heart rate with his hearing.
He was lying.
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Author's notes: Thanks as always for the nice comments!
Niakbor & Jock Wizard – Points taken, but what I'm trying to do here is explore the question at a point in Supe's life when his powers are becoming what I always thought they were at his prime. In SV, he's clearly not the planet pushing Superman of the 1960's. So maybe there's a period when he has to adjust to his powers growing faster than his ability to control them? Maybe I'll make it clearer once I get this big blow-up with Lois out of the way. I think I've led y'all to expect something I wasn't really ready to deliver just yet! Oh, dear….back to the keyboard. Here's hoping I don't disappoint.
