Starla floats in midair to study the hologram. It looks as real as the one of her father. “You can see me?”
“Of course I can. You must go at once.”
“Why?”
“It is a planetary emergency. All children are to be evacuated to safety.”
“Planetary emergency,” Starla whispers to herself. “It’s Omega, isn’t it? That’s why you were evacuating.”
“Omega?”
Apparently this hologram knows as much about it as her father’s on Earth. “A world devouring moon.”
“I know of no such thing. Now, you must hurry before I call the headmaster.”
“Wait. What’s your name?”
“I am Mistress Lau-Bul.”
Starla puts a hand to her mouth. This woman really is her mother. “I knew it,” she whispers. “Are you Kal-Bul’s wife?”
“Indeed, but this is not an appropriate—”
Starla lunges forward to wrap her mother in a hug, but she goes right through. This hologram doesn’t have the cohesiveness of her father’s. “What was the meaning of that? I am contacting the headmaster—”
“I’m sorry. It’s just that I know your son, Gor-Bul.”
“That is unlikely. My son is only an infant.”
“Yes, I suppose he is.” Starla barely holds back tears. Though it’s irrational, she wants this hologram to recognize her, to realize she is Lau-Bul’s son—now daughter—finally come home. But this won’t be the case. To the hologram, Gor-Bul is a baby lying in a cradle, sucking his thumb. “I’ll get going now.”
She doesn’t go. Instead, she drops down to the base of the hologram emitter. At the bottom of the emitter she finds a memory storage crystal. As she pops it out, the hologram blinks off. Starla’s about to take the crystal when she looks around her. What will the Rhtues think when they come back to find their god has disappeared?
She lets out a sigh and then shoves the crystal back in. As the hologram reboots, Starla notices a second crystal in another port. Another lesson? She toggles to the second crystal. Again her mother appears, back to the younger woman from the history lesson. This time she begins a lecture on Kor-Gan grammar. Starla smiles as she pops out the original crystal again. She doubts the Rhtues will notice any difference.
Kila’s waiting for her at the APC as promised. She looks none the worse for wear. “You appear pleased,” she says.
“I am pleased.” Starla leans forward to hug the Peacekeeper. “Thank you so much for bringing me here.”
“You are welcome.”
“Let’s get some dinner. Then we can see what else there is to find.”
“That sounds good.”
Starla holds up the orange crystal and grins. When they get back, she should be able to get the Crystal Lair’s computer to play the hologram. With some help from her friends, she might even be able to create a more robust program, similar to that of her father. Then in some small way the Bul family can be reunited.
Queen Neptune #1:
Rite of Passage
For Pacificans a key rite of passage was the first trip to the surface. Queen Neptune had made her first trip when she was a baby. Back then she had been her father’s second son, the one who would inherit the throne. After about thirty years and an alien weapon, she has become the queen of the underwater city of Pacifica.
The queen, her surface name Elise Gold, took her daughter’s hand. She gestured to a spot of light above them. “There it is,” she said.
“That’s the surface?”
“It’s through the water.”
“And that’s where all the cities are? And cars and airplanes and everything?”
“That’s right, baby. It’s all up there.”
“I wanna go!” Little Ariel tried to wriggle from Elise’s grasp, but she held on tight.
“Not yet, baby.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s very dangerous. When you leave the water, it’s going to hurt—a lot. You aren’t going to be able to breathe at first and that’s going to be really scary, but Aunt Whale and I will be right here. We’re not going to let anything happen to you.”
“I love you, Mama.”
“I love you, baby.” Elise pressed her daughter tighter to her chest. Her free hand she held out for her sister to take. Like her, Kenda had been born a man, a man who turned on Pacifica and adopted the name Killer Whale. Thanks to the alien weapon and Ariel’s love, Kenda had become the sister Elise had always wanted.
With Ariel in her arms, Elise let Kenda paddle her up towards the surface. The water above them became brighter; it must be another sunny day in the south Pacific. She pushed Ariel’s head closer to her chest. “Keep your eyes closed. It’s going to be very bright.”
“Yes, Mama.”
“Here we go.”
Kenda let go so Elise could use momentum and her own hand to break the surface of the water. She felt Ariel’s body stiffen and then tremble. “Mama?” she wheezed.
“It’s all right, baby. Your lungs just need to adjust. You’ll be fine.”
It was the hardest moment of Elise’s life as a mother to watch her daughter’s face turn red and then magenta. All she could do was rub Ariel’s back to remind her she wasn’t alone. Kenda floated next to them, her face looking as pained as Elise’s no doubt was. Sometimes it was hard to believe Kenda really loved the girl, until moments like this.
Ariel gasped and wheezed for at least a minute. She started to thrash in Elise’s arms as her face turned purple. “It’s not working,” Kenda said. “She’s too young—”
“She can do it. She’s my daughter.”
“Your hubris is going to kill her!”
Kenda started towards her, until Ariel coughed. This tiny cough was proceeded by another and another, growing deeper in pitch. Elise patted her daughter’s back like when she’d been a baby. The coughing fit stopped in less than a minute and Ariel’s face began trending back to red.
“You did it, baby. You did it.”
The little girl only whimpered at this. Elise turned to the east, where she saw the spit of land. It couldn’t be more than a mile away. She turned back to Kenda. “Can you give us a lift?”
“Of course.” As she glided past, Kenda patted Ariel’s head. Then they set out towards land.
***
At one time the atoll had been referred to as the “Love Shack” because Elise—then Ellis Pate—and Alan Bass had taken their conquests there for a little alone time. Even after Alan got married, Ellis continued to use the place for that purpose. That was until he became Elise and fell in love with a coral-shaper named Erek. She had brought him here before he was murdered by an impostor of Ellis. He had almost as difficult a time as Ariel to adjust to the surface.
For the moment the little girl lay on the king-size bed, swaddled in covers, only her face visible. Probably because of the stress she sucked her thumb the way she had as a baby. She had woke up just long enough to complain of being cold, something perfectly understandable since she had spent the first four years of her life in the depths of the Pacific. In time she would acclimate to the cooler temperatures and the wind.
“She is of the royal blood,” Kenda said.
“Of course she is. I told you: she’s my daughter.”
“She’s still spoiled and soft.”
“She’s still a baby. We have time.”
“Then why did you bring her here?”
“The sooner she learns to acclimate to the surface, the better.”
“I thought you didn’t care about the surface world.”
“I don’t,” Elise snapped. The surface world had created the impostor who had killed Erek and Elise’s mother, the previous queen. “You know as well as I do we can’t ignore threats that come from here. She’ll need to be prepared to face them.”
“Would another year or two have made a difference?”
“We’ve waited too long already. What if something like Omega shows up again?”
“There are plenty of places underwater for her to hide.”
“There’s no sense arguing. She’s here and she’s adjusting. In a couple of days she’ll be ready to go to San Francisco. Then she can get her first glimpse of humans.”
“You should tread carefully. She might become enamored with the surface world. It might be hard to make her go back to Pacifica.”
“No. Pacifica is her home. It’ll always be her home.” At least Elise hoped that would be the case.
***
For her first dinner on the surface, Ariel slurped down some tomato soup. It wasn’t only because she still didn’t feel good after the transition; soup was about all there was in the cabinets. They would have to do some grocery shopping while in San Francisco.
At the moment Ariel was back in bed, curled up against Elise. Kenda was in the guest room, still pouting over Elise bringing Ariel here. Sometimes Kenda was even more protective of the girl than Elise.
Ariel had warmed up enough that the blankets were only pulled up to her chin. This allowed Elise to stroke the girl’s wavy red hair. Ariel slurped a little as she continued to work on her thumb in her sleep; Elise hoped this return to infancy would be only a temporary occurrence.
Elise heard a soft thump from outside the door. She didn’t think much of it; after so long underwater it took some time to acclimate to the different sounds of the surface world. She dozed with her daughter until she heard the door handle rattle.
She barely had time to sit up before the door burst open. A man’s shape was outlined in the doorway. From the black pants, tank top, and paint smeared on his face, she knew he wasn’t a Jehovah’s Witness here to give her some pamphlets.
Years as a superhero had trained Elise for this. She rolled onto the floor with Ariel in one hand. With her other hand she took out what looked like a green seashell. In a flash of light the seashell became a golden trident, the royal scepter of Pacifica.
“Mama?” Ariel said.
“It’s going to be all right, baby. Mama has some business to take care of. Stay here.” She helped Ariel to slide under the bed, where she should be safe for the time being.
She rolled up to her feet to brandish the trident. The man had taken a couple of steps into the room. He held a hunting knife in one hand. “Who sent you?” Elise said.
“I can’t reveal the names of my employers,” the man said. “All you need to know is they’ve paid me to take the child. Give her to me and I won’t have to kill you—or your sister.”
The man held up his other hand, in which was a detonator. “I’ve got her bed wired with enough C4 to blow her back into the ocean. Put the trident down or she’s dead.”
“She wouldn’t want me to give you Ariel. So go ahead and push the button.”
“Mama? What’s going on?”
“It’s all right, baby. This nasty man is going to be leaving soon.”
“As you wish.” He pressed down on the detonator. Elise dropped to one knee as the floor shook and the wall to her right exploded. Her ears rang, but she could still hear Ariel scream.
The man took advantage of the chaos to charge forward. Elise brought the trident around, but she was too late. The man sank his knife in her right bicep. The trident fell from her hand to land on the floor. He followed this up by punching Elise in the face.
Her head swum as he shoved her aside to reach under the bed. Elise heard Ariel scream again, but her body was still reeling too much to help. By the time she got unsteadily to her knees, Elise saw the man had Ariel in one arm. She thrashed against him, but it was no good; he maintained his hold on her.
“Mama!” Ariel wailed.
Elise scrambled to grab the trident with her left hand. “Don’t,” the man said. He held his knife up to Ariel’s throat. “Or else she gets it.”
“What do you want with her? She’s a child.”
“I only want to turn her in for my paycheck,” the man said. “What my employers do is their business.”
Elise could think of a number of scenarios. One of her enemies in Pacifica might have hired this man to take the royal heir for their benefit. Someone on the surface might have decided having Ariel would keep Pacifica in line. No matter who it was, she would make sure they paid in blood.
“You take her and all of Pacifica will come after you.”
“Only if I leave you alive.”
“No! You can’t hurt Mama!” Ariel shouted.
“Shut up—” Before the man could finish, the trident streaked across the bedroom to stab him through the right leg. His grip loosened enough that Ariel could wriggle free. This gave Elise the opening she needed. She tore the trident loose and then drove it through the man’s neck. He fell limp to the floor.
Ariel raced over to bury her face against Elise’s body. With her good arm, Elise hefted her daughter. “It’s all right. Mama will be fine.”
Ariel sobbed into Elise’s dress for a few minutes. She finally pulled her face back to ask, “Is Aunt Whale with Daddy now?”
“I—”
“No, child. I’m right here,” Kenda said. She leaned against the doorway, alive—barely. Her dress was in tatters to reveal skin pockmarked with cuts from flying debris.
Despite this, she barely winced when Ariel freed herself from Elise’s grasp to hug her aunt’s leg. “It’s all right, child. Your mother and I will both be fine. And that nasty man won’t hurt you anymore.”
Ariel nodded at this but didn’t say anything. Elise helped Kenda lead Ariel into the living room, where she wouldn’t have to be faced with the man’s corpse. While Ariel curled up on the couch with her aunt, Elise returned to the bedroom.
As befitted an assassin, the man didn’t have any identification. Though it would pain her almost as much as the knife wound, she would have to call Midnight Spectre to run the man’s fingerprints and DNA through the system. Maybe then she could find out who he was and who had employed him.
More than that was the question of how he had known they’d be here. Elise’s trip hadn’t been public knowledge. Only a small circle of Pacificans at the palace had known: the captain of her guard, Ariel’s nanny Ursula, and her secretary. Had one of them let it slip to someone else? Or had one of them been behind it?
Whoever had done this would pay for their betrayal. She would make certain of that as soon as she got to Pacifica. For now she needed to call the Super Squad’s headquarters, which was about a hundred miles from here on a converted oil platform.
She plucked the trident from the dead man’s neck. The trident shrunk back into its seashell form for her to tuck into her dress. When she returned to the living room, she studied her daughter, who had taken command of the trident for an instant. It was another rite of passage for the future queen of Pacifica.
Ion Girl #1:
Sibling Rivalry
Suburban Detroit – Thirty Years Ago:
At the moment the parts scattered on the dining room table didn’t look like much. But Tommy Kinney could already see them come together in his mind to make a robot way more awesome than R2-D2. It’d be almost as cool as the one from Short Circuit, except Tommy couldn’t make a laser gun, not without access to military-grade equipment.
He started with the chest, where the core processors would be kept. Conventional wisdom might suggest putting them in the head like a brain, but they would be far more exposed there. The heart, lungs, and other organs were in middle of a person’s chest because they could be better protected by the rib cage. The last thing Tommy wanted was to go to all this trouble to have the processors break if the robot fell on its head.
“Tommy, what are you doing?” Mom asked.
“Building a robot.”
“Is that part of the TV?”
“I needed some vacuum tubes.”
“Your father is going to kill you when he gets home. You put those back this instant. Put all those parts back where you found them.”
“But Mom—”
“No buts, Thomas. You clean up this me
ss right away.” Tommy always knew Mom was serious when she used his real name. With a sigh he began to sweep the pieces off the table. From outside came the whine of Dad’s circular saw, but Dad was still at the plant. “Tommy, where’s your brother?”
“I don’t know—”
There came a scream from outside. Tommy let his mother go first; he had a good idea what they would find. Mom’s scream indicated it was as bad as he had feared. “Tommy, call 911! Get an ambulance!”
Tommy was on the phone with the operator, trying to convince her this wasn’t a prank, when Mom brought Brendan inside. His left hand was wrapped in a T-shirt but it was soaked through with blood.
Mom took the phone from Tommy to bark at the operator. Despite the blood loss, Brendan was still conscious. Tommy asked, “What the hell did you do?”
“I was making something. I needed Daddy’s saw.”
“Idiot. Daddy won’t let me use his tools and I’m nine.”
Mom had finished yelling at the operator and was now free to smack Tommy upside the head. “This is your fault, Thomas. I told you to watch your brother.”
“My fault? I didn’t make the dummy try to use the saw.”
“You’re the oldest. You have to watch out for your little brother.”
“But Mom—”
“Go up to your room and stay there. Mrs. McKenzie will be over to look after you until your dad gets home.”
Tommy gulped. He knew what would happen when Dad got home and found out that Brendan had nearly cut off his hand and Tommy had cannibalized most of the appliances for robot parts. If he were smart he’d run away to avoid getting spanked until his butt was raw.
As he trudged towards the stairs he looked back at Brendan. His little brother was still crying, but he met Tommy’s eyes and winked.
***
Present Day:
If you had said even eighteen months ago at this point I’d be a seventeen-year-old girl with blue hair I’d have asked for some of what you’d been smoking. Yet here I am, a very cute blue-haired girl who happens to own a research company funded through a Stanford Initiative genius grant. Oh, and who is also Ion Girl, a member of the Super Squad Auxiliary.
Girl Power Omnibus (Gender Swap Superhero Fiction) Page 80