Chapter 18 - Recovery

"God, that feels better," A-ko exclaimed as she climbed out of the huge sunken tub of hot water in Zoey's private quarters.

"And just which god would that be?" Zoey asked as she threw her friend an oversized towel.

"You can call me, for want of a better word a Christian, Zoey."

Surprised at her friend's confession, Zoey asked, "Does the Queen know about your sacrilege? How does your mother feel about that?"

"I was raised in both faiths, Zoey. I honor my mother's belief in the Olympian gods; since childhood I have burnt the incense and knelt by her side when she sacrificed to them. I know all the prayers and can perform all the rituals. But with her blessing, on Sundays I went to church with my father and it was because of him and his faith that I made my choice when I turned eighteen."

"Your Pop must have been very persuasive."

"No, Zoey - he never tried to persuade me by either word or deed."

"Then how?"

"My father could tell you the names of all the ancient gods of Krypton and the beliefs of Road, the great god of Krypton himself. But Martha and Jonathan Kent raised him in their church, yet taught him to respect other religions as well. They did this because both those wonderful people thought there was more than one way to find God. They passed this belief on to their son, as well as all the other things they taught him. Whatever my father is - whatever Superman means to the world - it's because of the teaching and guidance of my grandparents."

"But what finally persuaded you?"

A-ko thought for a moment or two, lost deep in her memories. "Seeing my father, who my own mother said has the power of the very gods she worshiped all her life, kneel humbly in church. Knowing the man I call Daddy, who many consider a god, believes in a power greater than himself and is comforted by that knowledge and belief!"

"And your mother?" asked Zoey.

"True, she was disappointed, but she also understood and accepted my choice."

"And the Queen?"

"My nana will just have to get used to the idea, even if it means giving her one more reason to hate my father!"

"I cannot understand anyone hating your father, A-ko! But then again, I cannot believe that there would ever be a day when I would hear Queen Hippolyta referred to by my best friend as her nana!"

After they shared a good laugh, A-ko announced in frustration, "This fine lunar dust is like talcum powder - it gets into every pore, including your ears and nose."

"It could have been worse!"

"How?"

"If the old legends were right, you might be digging green cheese out of your ears right about now!" Zoey explained."Now – would you like to wear pants or a tunic?"

"I would prefer pants, but Nana would like me to run around this island dressed as an Amazon."

"You would have made a pretty good ambassador yourself, cousin," Zoey replied, tossing A-ko an Amazon short tunic and a pair of high-laced sandals. "I am really pumped to be the Amazon ambassador to the Lepton Kingdom."

As A-ko dressed, Zoey quickly stripped and plunged into the sunken tub filled with now fresh nearly-boiling water. Zoey let out an audible sigh of contentment as she lay down in the oversized tub. "Cygnan Prime has some fine bathing facilities, including public baths, sonic showers, and tubs filled with hot sea water one moment and the next crystal clear fresh water from ancient underground wells. But nothing beats being home and soaking in your own marble tub!"

"You're right," A-ko agreed with her friend. "When we lived in Japan the family followed the Japanese custom of the bath house. My mother loved it; it reminded her of home and the communal baths here on Paradise Island."

"And your father?

"Pop is rather shy and to tell the truth he never really got used to it."

Zoey laughed then asked, "And now?"

"We do have this old-fashioned oversized tub and shower on the farm in Kansas but it's not the same. Even if I have caught my parents in the same tub at the same time. But only when the twins were asleep and I was not supposed to be home."

The two friends talked as two young women in the prime of their lives often do, speaking about their hopes, their fears, plans for the future – not to mention the men in their lives. All of this was done as A-ko dressed and Zoey soaked. When they both finished Zoey climbed out of the tub, dried off and wrapped a towel around her waist.

A knock on the door interrupted the two friends. "Mother!' Zoey exclaimed, her face beaming. Artemis returned her child's smile and noted the slight up turning of A-ko's lip as her daughter's guest fought to hide the snarl that threatened to break out at the sight of Artemis's arrival.

"Here I am to spend time with the daughter who has been too long missing from my life, and along with that joy, I am also honored to be in the presence of a hero of Themiscyra as well!"

"What does that supposed to mean?" asked A-ko, incredulous.

"I would like to hear that for myself as well, '' added Zoey.

"It's all over Paradise island about how your friend there held back all the terrors of Tartarus from escaping and destroying Themiscyra, and more likely the world as well!"

"But it was my grandmother and mother who held back those monsters behind the portal," protested A-ko.

Artemis nodded her head and replied, "But it was you who repaired the great lock with fire from your eyes and, even when you screamed and suffered all the pains of hell itself, you continued to weld the broken pieces until the lock was whole once more. Only then did you collapse into your mother's arms, or so goes the story!"

"That's dumb," protested A-ko. "Wait until I speak to my grandmother! She will put a stop to these stories!"

"Who do you think started telling the tale? It seems our wise and beloved Queen is rather proud of her oldest grandchild, no matter who her father is." Artemis explained. "And I must be among the first to acknowledge you as an Amazon hero, and ask you if we can forget our past differences!"

A-ko bit her lip to hold back her temper. When she calmed down enough she said, "I will never forgive you for stabbing my mother, but I guess I won't slice your throat open any time soon. Now, as to these stories, there were enough brave deeds done by others this day that are worthy of epic poems!"

I agree," Artemis replied. "Wonderful tales of heroism and bravery! The alien girl Akana and her epic dash against a giant war machine to save her brother! Your own mother's destruction of the alien war machines and aircraft! The Revenger Sempra Vigilantia decapitating the evil Chitai with a single breath! These and many more epic poems will be written and told and will grow with each telling for the next ten thousand years! Our scribes and poets are composing them even as we speak," Artemis pointed out.

"And what of my father and the part he played in defending Themiscyra?"

"Who?" asked Artemis.

A-ko shook with rage before regaining control enough to give Zoey a final hug, saying, "I think I should be going, Zoey, before I ruin this tender reunion!" With that, faster than any human eye could follow or see, she was gone.

As Artemis turned back to her daughter she told her, "You know an Amazon could hold her head high in the next world, knowing a warrior like your friend was the one who sent her there!"

"Why are you antagonizing her, and didn't you promise me you would try to end the feud between the two of you?"

"I've tried, my daughter, but for some unknown reason she seems to resent me."

"You stabbed her mother in the back! Or have you forgotten that little accident!"

"I was under a lot of pressure back then, and her mother and father seemed to have gotten over it!"

"I wish A-ko could, not so much for you but for her sake!"

"Only the Fates can know of such things, daughter; we are but pawns in the hands of the Gods!"

"No wonder A-ko chose to follow the religion of her father."

"Whatever. Now come and give your tired old mother a hug!" Zoey smiled and rushed into her mother's arms. "Gods, I missed you so much," exclaimed Artemis as she took her daughter into her arms.

Both tall women smiled with true affection. Finally when they broke apart Artemis noticed a gold chain and locket around her child's neck. "What's this, my daughter?"

"A gift from A-ko's father."

Artemis held the locket in her hand and touched the latch, which caused the locket to spring open. Inside were a picture of Billy Batson on one side and the legendary Captain Marvel on the other. Artemis studied the two pictures for a moment until she said, "Two sides of the same coin. Both one and the same and neither one much of a lover. But he did give me you and I have no right to ask for more!"

"Perhaps if you gave him some small measure of love in return, he would have been able to give you a great deal more in return!"

"Whatever that is, it's all in the past now. But what I cannot understand is your interest in him."

"He was my father, Mother, and if that isn't enough A-ko's father told me he was a great hero and died saving thousands of lives. And that alone should make a daughter proud, even an Amazon daughter."

xxxxxxxx

"You get back into that bed right this instant," shouted Doctor Stellamaris to Ambassador Aysheia Lisia Napolipolita-Daitokuji who, as usual, was happy to violate medical orders.

"I think she is enjoying all this," protested Deesha, whose leg was bandaged up. She lay in the bed next to her former Captain.

"You're right; I am," answered the good doctor as she dried her hands after washing them.

"I think you're right, Dee. I have never seen her more pleased than when she gets to boss us around," protested Napolipolita-Daitokuji. "You think the worst doctor in the whole of the Leptonian Empire would show some small measure of gratitude for letting her experiment on us."

"The two of you wouldn't know proper medical care if you tripped over it," Stellamaris replied solemnly, even as she smiled inside at the high spirits her two friends were showing. The good doctor had after many years of medical practice that a positive outlook has helped more patients get well than more than all the pills and shots the medical world ever devised.

Removing an object from her medical bag, Stellamaris announced, "It will take a month or so for those deep wounds to heal internally, so I want you to take it easy."

Both Aysha and Dee broke into raucous low-pitched laughter at this.

Stellamaris sighed, used to this sort of behavior out of the two of them and for many years now. "Now, Ambassador, a little touchup with the dermal regenerator on your scars, especially the one on your breast, and that Terran lifemate of yours will never know what happened."

After a few minutes of treatment for her side, leg, and breast wounds, Stellamaris announced, "The good news is once they are healed you will have no scarring to scare your husband. The bad news is that you will not have a chance to brag about the scars you earned in battle with pride. A pride, by the way, that I think is not only rather stupid but downright childish!"

"You just don't understand a warrior's pride in what the Terrans call their red badges of courage," Napolipolita snapped. In her heart of hearts, however, she was greatly relieved that Hikaru Daitokuji would never see the extent of her injuries. She reminded herself to swear her daughters and son to secrecy. It would be bad enough, she reasoned, for Daitokuji to learn that his little son had been injured – after pleading with her not to take him along in the first place – let alone knowing that his wife had suffered multiple combat wounds as well.

"So it's pride, is it now!" scolded the good doctor. "Strange that you had no pride while you were losing all those battles with countless numbers of bottles of G'nazian Gin! I took no pride in putting you back together after you lost all those bar fights in all those space ports. It was only when you finally gave up did I both begin respecting you and once again took pride in my work in keeping you alive long enough for you to learn to respect yourself!"

Napolipolita-Daitokuji shook her weary head. "Here you go again, telling me that I chose to drink myself senseless, and chose to get beaten up and manhandled time and time again. The Terrans have it right, Dakitah – the curse of drink is an illness. If one treats it as an illness, there is a chance for you to stop, with help. It was only after I came here that I finally learned how to keep the bottle down."

"All praise to the Great Mother!" Dee added. "Truer words were never spoken. I was astounded that my dear Captain could finally be free of the habit that plagued her since her Academy days. And as for you, Dakitah, it is never too late to learn, even when the teachers are only simple residents of Earth."

"We will see if you change your tune about Cygnan medicine when it's me bringing your daughter into this world, my one-time Shakanar."

"My daughter may never come out if she knows you are outside waiting for her to arrive!" Dee joked in return. In truth, she could not think of a doctor other than Almah Stellamaris to help in the delivery, if the Mother ever deemed it fit to bless her with a baby!

"It may have been the Kryptonian's technology that removed your nanobots, Deesha. But mind me now, my long-time patient. It will be me and me alone who will see you through any pregnancy!"

"Okay, you don't have to chew my head off," protested Deesha with a smile. She then added, "And I thought the task masters at Mur Sejanus were bad!"

"You can believe that, my old friend. Now as your doctor I'm ordering you to be quiet, lie down, and rest!"

Napolipolita was enjoying this patter so much that she almost missed the arrival of a familiar form who stood at the room's entrance.

"I'm relieved to discover everyone in such high spirits," Biko announced as she stood in the doorway.

"Biko!" Napolipolita held out her hand for her daughter to come to her. With a smile Biko did just that, rushing to her stepmother's sick bed.

"I heard you were wounded, Ma."

"I was. I accidentally ran into a Shakanar dagger a couple of times, but it was lucky for me that it was a dull blade and my attacker dropped it anyway when Dee convinced her never to do it again by chopping off her head. I think she was one of those goofs trying to avenge her stupid Admiral."

"I still have a hard time picturing you as a soldier in battle, Ma," Biko said. "All those years of seeing you dressed to the nines at galas and parties, or dressed in your Earth Defense uniform, sitting behind a desk – !"

The former captain grimaced. "As strange as it sounds, I would rather be swinging a double-ax than writing reports nobody will read. Now, I don't want you telling your father about this! I mean it! I may be here for a while longer but tell everyone outside that I am just getting some rest. Besides, the only danger I was ever in was when Stellamaris here started to treat me," Napolipolita lied with a wink, not wanting to worry her stepchild.

"I promise," Biko replied, eyeing her multiple healing bandages and trying to figure out the extent of her battle injuries. Gazing into her pallid face, Biko shuddered at the extent of blood her stepmother must have lost.

"Thank you," the former Captain replied, sliding back on her pillow and folding the blankets over herself with a sigh. She closed her eyes with weary relief.

Biko then turned to the other resident of the hospital room. "How are you doing, Dee?"

Deesha opened her mouth to speak but one glare from Stellamaris made her change her mind. "You have to excuse Deesha, Biko, but she is under strict orders to be quiet, lie in bed, and rest!"

"Are your brother and sisters all right?" Dee asked.

"A few lost Shakanar came wandering by, but we sent them on their way!"

Napolipolita-Daitokuji's eyes flew open as serious misgivings instead of hopes of relaxed healing filled her mind. "That's strange; the Shakanar I know march over people, never simply wander by!" Aysha then stared at Biko. "And you said everyone is all right?"

"Sure, Ma."

"Everyone?"

"Kir was – " Biko never got to finish her sentence as Napolipolita sat up on the edge of the bed and began to stand up.

Biko tried to stop her mother from standing by putting her hands on her shoulders and telling her, "Ma, he's all right; he broke his arm and – "

"A broken arm?" asked Stellamaris, breaking into the conversation, worried about the small boy she helped bring into the world.

"Both A-ko and her father reassured us it was a simple clean break with no nerve and mu –"

At that, the former Captain burst into tears and pushed away Biko's restraining arms in order to go to his side. "And how many years of medical school did those two attend?" scolded Stellamaris as she started collecting the medical equipment needed to treat a broken arm.

Deesha began to crawl out of her own sick bed when she saw her ex-Captain rise. Napolipolita-Daitokuji ordered, "Back in bed Dee, and that's an order. I need my most trusted friend to stay in bed and get well so I can call on her as soon as possible!"

"Yes, my Captain," Dee replied as she settled back down on her sick bed.

Napolipolita stood up on her one good leg and began looking around the room for something to lean on. She wasn't standing alone for long as Biko suddenly was not only at her side, but had her mother's arm around her shoulder. "What do you think you're doing?" asked Aysha.

"And where else would a daughter be, but at her mother's side?" she answered.

Napolipolita smiled warmly at her Terran daughter and told her, "There is an old saying in the Empire: "Blessed be the warrior who has a daughter's strong shoulder to lean on!"

As they began to hobble toward the door, Biko asked,"Remember all those times you tried telling me about the prophecy and my brother's place in it?"

"Of course I do!"

"I knew how worried you were about it, and how much you feared for Kir's safety. But I never believed in such things. I believe in what I can see, I believe in the magic of circuits and micromotors, computers and programming, not in some metaphysical ancient prophecy from halfway across the galaxy," Biko tried to explain.

"Are you trying to tell me that you believe in it now, my daughter?"

"I'm not sure what I believe in. It was the way my brother broke his arm that is bothering me."

"What way is that?"

"He broke his arm saving C-ko's life, Ma!"

Napolipolita stopped suddenly in mid-stride and, turning to face her daughter, asked, "My baby boy saved the life of a Leptonian royal princess, and at the age of four?"

Biko then told her stepmother how Kir dove on the leg of the giant Shakanar preventing her from stomping the small blonde princess to death. She told the anxious woman how Kir got his arm snapped for his courage and how he was saved from having his neck broken when Lois interfered.

"The poor little girl then panicked and screamed in fear, causing her brother Jon to come to her aid, only to be caught himself in the Shakanar's armored grip. I guess the thought of killing a boy child excited the overgrown psycho."

"Tell me what happened!" her stepmother cried, beside herself with fear.

"When Lois saw her little brother about to die, she went postal on her overgrown Shakanar ass. Not only did the tyke crush the Shakanar's hand, but she knocked her out cold as well."

"Incredible," Napolipolita whispered to herself. "Just like her sister and grandmother."

"That's not all, Ma."

"There's more?"

Biko nodded her head yes before saying, "After the battle, when I wanted to fetch Stellamaris to treat his arm, our little pickle-head told me that all the ladies who had been hurt worse than him should get help for their boo-boos first. And he told me this while he was crying from the pain of his broken arm!"

Napolipolita was even more worried now about her son, not so much about his broken arm but more for what the future might hold for him. A four-year-old male who saves the life of a princess of the blood in combat with a Shakanar warrior! A child, a mere male child, who worries more for the welfare of warriors then his own; this was something no Cygnan would believe in, let alone accept!

On the Homeworld, the few males who were permitted to live there were passive; it was obvious that Hikiri was not of their ilk. Two more pieces of the puzzle to her son's possible future fell into place. One led to glory and the other to tragedy, or perhaps and most frightening of all, perhaps to both.

All of these questions spun around the head of Napolipolita-Daitokuji like a hive of angry bees and continued to do so until she found herself in the room with her children. Stellamaris had trailed her, bearing her medical equipment.

"Ma!" shouted Shiiko, who was the first to spot her. Soon Aysha found herself surrounded by her girls with as many in her arms as she had room. Their eager hugs pained her but she would rather die than cry out and worry them. "Are all of you all right?" she asked, noting Akana's torn and bloody clothing.

"We're fine, Ma! It's Hikiri who has been hurt," Akana replied as she brought a chair for her mother to sit on.

Instead of running to his mother, the little boy walked unsteadily. "Mama," he said, on the verge of tears. "The big bad lady gave me a boo-boo." He collapsed into her arms in pain and exhaustion. After enough hugs and kisses to comfort him at least for the moment, she turned him around and nodded at Stellamaris to begin her examination.

After she put away her handheld x-ray screen she nodded her head. "There is no muscle or nerve damage. It is a simple clean break, thank the All-Highest Being!"

She took hold of Kir's forearm and looked over at Superman, who had just entered the room. " You there in the funny suit – hold his upper arm steady. I'm going to set his arm."

Doing as ordered, Superman held the small boy's upper arm gently but firmly in his huge hands. With a sudden pull by Stellamaris on Kir's forearm, a loud but sickening pop was heard by everyone in the room. Kir howled, but only for a moment. His arm suddenly felt better. With a quick glance Superman told Stellamaris, "Good job, Doctor - it's set perfectly!" The little boy, now freed from pain, smiled with pride.

"I'll be the judge of that!" Stellamaris announced as she checked over her work with the handheld x-ray device.

The smile on her face told everyone in the room all would be well long before any formal announcement. She had just finished putting on his portable arm brace when he turned to his mother. She smiled and asked, "How is my brave little warrior doing?"

"I'm hungry, Mama!"

Aysha laughed, relieved and happy to be with her children and elated that her son was now on the mend. "Is there anything special I should do, Dakitah?"

Stellamaris handed her two bottles of pills and told her, "The blue ones are for pain; give him one in the morning and one at night. The white ones – three times a day with meals; they will leach calcium into the fracture. Make sure he drinks lots of milk, cheese and – " with a rub of Kir's green hair she added, "lots and lots of ice cream!"

Shiiko and Mitsuko announced, "No ice cream on this island!"

The Man of Steel reassured Kir, "I'll make sure you get all the ice cream your tummy can hold!" He then asked, "What's your favorite?"

"Strawberry, "he beamed.

"Then strawberry it shall be," he told him.

The two sisters had disappointment written all over their faces until A-ko's father told them both, "And perhaps a gallon of chocolate will find its way here as well if you don't give your mother a hard time."

Standing up from the chair, Napolipolita swaddled Hikiri in a nearby blanket and tried her best to hobble back into the sick room from which she came. Biko gasped and immediately went to her side, but it was Superman who picked up mother and child and smoothly glided all three of them back to Napolipolita-Daitokuji's bed.

"Now, before I leave you, Aysha, is there anything else you need? Why don't you and Hikiri take a nice nap and heal up?"

Smiling, the ex-Captain thanked him and shook her head no. After he and the rest of her family left, allowing the two to rest, Aysha sighed deeply. "I wish, Man of Steel, that you could explain all of this to my Hikaru. He will not be happy with me, especially since he told me to leave Kir at home."

As she made the two of them comfortable and as the little boy closed his eyes, she waited for sleep to come but it took its time.

Her outlook was darkened as she worried more about her husband's reaction to two of his loved ones being wounded in a battle no one on Earth knew about. Dee had monitored broadcasts around the planet and heard nothing about a Shakanar attack on Earth. Aysha would have to ask Diana; perhaps the same magic that obscured Paradise Island from detection also shielded anything connected with it. Otherwise, the world would have certainly noticed a massive Shakanar mothership senselessly bombarding an uninhabited spot in the Caribbean Sea.

Napolipolita-Daitokuji's weariness and the injuries she had suffered soon overcame her ability to worry, and she joined her son in a restful sleep.

xxxxxxxx

In the meantime, Superman made a quick trip to Graviton City, Japan to speak to Hikaru Daitokuji himself.

Now, this is not to imply that the Man of Steel could read minds. Unlike Akana and her Princess, he was not prescient. He only read the worry on his friend Napolipolita's face and discerned the cause himself by using his common sense.

He arrived at the Mansion and, after the routine security clearances, was admitted and brought to the industrialist's home office. The place was quiet - Biko, Kir, Aki, Shiiko and Mitsuko were on Themiscyra Island, of course, and the other young ones were at school. He enjoyed the tick-tock rhythm of the grandfather clock in the billionaire's office.

It wasn't long before Daitokuji entered, rather flustered by the visit. The last time Superman had paid him a visit he had shared his anger over how Hikaru had raised his daughter and the harm he had done by ignoring her, deliberately or not, for all those years. The exchange had not gone well and – in spite of his bluster and bravado – Daitokuji was in fear of the Kryptonian.

"Is everything all right on Amazon Island?" Hikaru said, motioning for the Man of Steel to sit and doing so himself.

"First of all," Clark Kent said, "your family is safe. Second of all, has there been any news of a Cygnan attack on this planet?"

Daitokuji looked at him as if he had asked if they sold T-Rexes at the local pet shops. "No. Any sort of news like that would certainly have upset the markets, and that is where I concentrate most of my reading."

"Which makes sense."

"Even though I am primarily retired. Biko, as you know, is running the day-to-day operations of our zaibatsu," Hikaru continued. "I keep my eye on things unofficially, as it were. Why? Why do you ask? What happened?" The man rose, alarm in his expression.

The Man of Steel gestured for him to sit. "Don't worry. Let me explain everything to you."

Daitokuji sat. And gulped.

"Our friend Dee was a member of the Shakanar, as you well know. She is making plans to marry and was worried that since none of the Shakanar ever have children, the same might be true for her as well. Well, it was true."

Hikaru made a face of sympathy. "She always loved taking care of our babies here at the Mansion," he sighed.

"We specifically took her along with us for Lois's Ascension Ceremony because the Amazons had a medical device that might help her."

"Had?"

"Well, it's gone now. As it turned out, the answer did not lie in the device, but in my daughter's microscopic vision. She saw tiny injected and self-reproducing Shakanar nanobots not only repairing any cellular damage inside Dee, but also making sure that no conception would ever occur."

Hikaru shook his head. "The Cygnans go out of their minds on the subject of abortion. It must have been a carefully thought-out decision to keep those monsters from reproducing. Anyway, what does that have to do with my family?"

Clark Kent looked at him. "Now I see why your blood pressure is sky-high. Right now it is 174 over 90. Calm down. Please."

Daitokuji gasped, and then settled himself down. "All right. Keep talking." Intimidating as he certainly was, he had no desire to look like a wimp in front of Superman.

"We used Kryptonian nanobots to destroy the Shakanar ones that infested Dee's system, restoring her fertility and giving her the chance of having a more feminine appearance without all those hormones and steroids mucking up her innards. Unfortunately for us, the last nanobot sent out a signal before it winked out of useful life and the Shakanar High Command found out about it."

Daitokuji was five steps ahead of the Man of Steel. "So they attacked Paradise Island to learn the secret to Dee's fertility. I don't understand why the Earth Defense Force failed to notice this attack!"

Superman sighed himself. "I can't tell you for sure – as my relationship with the Amazon Queen is what you might call 'iffy' – but I suspect the same magic that keeps Themiscyra Island from human detection did the same for the massive Shakanar ship that flooded the Amazon homeland with around thirty-thousand psychopaths."

"Good God," Daitokuji whispered. "There must have been one hell of a fight. Were they defeated?"

"Yes, after a lengthy attack that left thousands dead on both sides and massive destruction to Paradise Island. And you might be surprised to learn that it wasn't Diana or me who put an end to it, but Grand Admiral Sempra Vigilantia instead."

Hikaru's jaw dropped. "That woman has supernatural powers. Aysha has always been in awe of her."

"Now, about your family. They are all right but you won't like this, so if you want to have your butler mix you a martini, now is a good time to do it."

Daitokuji left the room, coming back a few minutes later with a pitcher of martinis and two glasses.

"Drink?" he asked Clark.

"I don't imbibe, thanks. Alcohol has no effect on me."

Daitokuji shrugged, poured himself a glass, and drank it down. "Well, then, I'll drink yours. Ready," he said, seating himself again.

"The Shakanar were after Dee, of course – and where you find Dee, Aysha follows, and vice versa. Apparently, the Shakanar Admiral in charge of the whole attack thought that Aysha had killed her daughter, so they were looking for her as well. It was a near thing but although both were wounded in battle, neither was captured and delivered up to the late great Admiral."

"She is dead?"

"The Grand Admiral cut her head off with a single breath. I must hand it to her; I would have never come up with that one if I was a warrior."

Daitokuji shook his head. "Unbelievable. How is Aysha?"

"Recovering. You should know she fought in the Amazon lines with the double-bladed ax her people had brought to Earth thousands of years ago. She heroically defended her Amazon friends from those monsters in spite of her injuries. But that is not what I wanted to tell you."

At this, Hikaru downed another martini; Clark Kent's, he reasoned. He had been after his wife for decades to retire from the military. The thought of her wounded tore his heart.

"Your little Kir had his arm broken by a Shakanar trooper who was trying to murder Princess C-ko. She is fine, and Kir is now a Cygnan hero at age four for saving her life. His little arm has been fixed by Dr. Stellamaris and is healing nicely."

In spite of his efforts to stop them, large tears began running down his face. Hikaru was silent for a while before speaking. "Thank God she went along. How is everyone else?"

"Safe and not wounded. Your girls can tell you their own stories. The older ones hid and defended the younger ones in an underground tunnel. Aki in fact is now a part of Amazon legend for defending Kir against a Shakanar walker attack, as the two of them were outdoors when the attack began."

The businessman stood. "I need to see them. I need to hold my little boy and comfort him. I need to kiss my wife and talk to Stellamaris about her healing. I need to hug all my girls as well. Right now."

Superman smiled. "It would be a long trip, dangling from my arms!"

"Let me treat you," Daitokuji replied, using his wrist com. "Zhae – fire up the ENDY!"

The industrialist stood up, reaching for his suit coat. "That's our light-speed vehicle, not that you would ever need one. After the Cygnan fleet returned to the Homeworld, Dee and her Captain were left behind. Aysha was nearly dead from drinking. The princess intervened and had Biko tell me about her skills as a designer and engineer, so I threw her into a detox facility for a couple of months. She came to work for me and designed the "Napolipolita-Daitokuji Silver-Edition Lotus Blossom Special." Folks call it the ND, or ENDY, after the two of us. And the rest, as they say, is history."

Both men left the room and Clark followed Daitokuji to their family hangar. "As you know, we now have our orbital factory near Jupiter Station and are cranking out all sorts of FTL vehicles for your adventurers, your politicians, and of course your billionaires. Ah. There she is. Our pilot, Ola Zhae. Whom Aysha calls a va'akensplootz, or bubblehead."

"Yoo hoo Mister Daitokoooojeeee!" Ola cried, waving frantically as if the billionaire didn't know where his own hangar was. Her indigo hair, worn in curls, bounced along in time with her hopping steps.

"Must be from Beneshandra," said Clark.

Daitokuji broke out laughing. "You got that right. She married a local police captain some years ago and stayed here. She makes me grind my teeth to powder but Aysha says she's an excellent pilot. And here we are."

The Man of Steel hit his forehead. "Do you happen to have some ice cream – strawberry and chocolate – in the house? I promised to bring some along."

"What sort of an operation do you think we have here?" Daitokuji joshed, contacting his kitchens for the requested items. "This family goes through ice cream like locusts through a wheat field. If you ask me, Lemulan vasa crystals are better."

While waiting for the ice cream, Superman communicated with his own wife after they entered the craft. Just as the bubble-wrapped carton of ice cream was handed to Ola Zhae, Clark asked Diana to obtain Queen Hippolyta's permission for Daitokuji to visit his wife and children.

"And if she doesn't," the Man of Steel thought to himself, "I'll just hold him a couple inches above the floor. Even a queen would appreciate a trick like that."