From last time:
Zara felt him sigh and braced herself for the impending words of wisdom she had no interest in hearing. She tried to prepare her heart, though she knew what he was about to say would wound her terribly. Could she have honestly expected anything else, though? Could she have suspected that her beloved, steadfast and dedicated to his duties, would forget his calling on account of his heart?
He kissed her forehead. She closed her eyes, waiting for the dreaded words. She opened them with a start as he bent to hook one arm behind her knees. He picked her up easily, holding her securely against his chest. Ching crossed the small room with Zara in his arms and laid her down on the bed. “I love you,” he whispered as he leaned down to kiss her.
“I love you,” she said simply, drawing him into her arms.
********
New Stuff:
“What time is it?” she murmured.
Her lover’s arms around her tightened just a little and she leaned back against his broad, warm chest. He dropped a kiss on top of her head. “It is still early,” he said. “We have time.”
She placed her hands on his, interlacing their fingers. It had been so long since she’d known his touch. Too many years had passed in which they had pretended that the distance wasn’t killing them slowly. They sat in silence. Fear crept into her heart. Would they retreat from this newfound intimacy? Would they pretend that their vulnerabilities, laid bare the previous night, were still safely ensconced, deep in their souls, never to be revealed? She could hide these things from everyone else, but not Ching. She could not tolerate having to maintain the pretense with him.
“I love you,” he said, as though in response to her unspoken fears.
“I love you,” she replied.
********
Clark looked up from the papers laid out on the table in front him as the door opened. “You didn’t get much sleep last night, did you?” he asked with a sympathetic smile as Zara entered the First Ministers’ quarters.
“What?” she asked, a horrified look on her face. He wondered instantly if he’d said something wrong. His Kryptonian was pretty good now, but there was always the chance of making some unknown faux pas.
“I just mean, you were already gone when I left to meet with Councilor Shai this morning,” he stammered.
“Right,” she agreed with a sigh of what he was sure was relief. There was definitely something he wasn’t getting here, but he figured he was better off not pressing the matter. “Well, there is so much we must do, we hardly have time to rest.” She approached the table and began leafing through the pages.
“We have about five minutes before the meeting with the Advisory Council. General Command wants an hour of our time this morning. And we’re scheduled to preside over a full meeting of the High Council. We need to address the people tonight.” he rattled off the laundry list of tasks still in front of them.
“Are the briefings from the emergency services ready?” she asked
“Here,” Clark replied, handing her a sheaf of papers.
She leafed through them absently. “The casualty counts?”
He sighed. “They’re updating them hourly.”
“And?”
“Thousands,” he replied grimly. “Maybe tens of thousands.” He heard her draw in a sharp breath. “We lost two thousand soldiers when the transports sent to Terian were sabotaged. The flight bay at General Command was also rigged with explosives. A lot of civilian casualties, too. They won’t have exact numbers for a while. The medical staffs are pretty overrun at the moment. Or so I’m told. After the sabotages, they don’t want us leaving the Residence without escort.”
Zara nodded, but did not look up from the papers in her hand. “We hardly have time to be tended to like children.”
“It isn’t like we don’t spend most of our day with Ching anyway,” Clark replied.
Zara coughed loudly. “Pardon?” she managed hoarsely.
And suddenly, it made sense. He would have sworn the night before that Zara had not returned. He himself had gone to bed very late and had not slept at all. He was certain he would have woken if she’d entered the chambers. In the morning, when he left, there was no sign that she had been there at all that night. Of course, it was perfectly reasonable, and he was almost struck that he hadn’t thought of it before. Last night, if there had been any way in the world he could have been with Lois, he would have been. Being Kryptonian, and thus very good at pretending they didn’t have feelings, didn’t mean that Zara and Ching should have been any different.
A surprising sense of jealousy stabbed at him. Zara could be with the one she loved and yet he was forced to endure, unable to even see his wife. They’d dragged him across the universe, talking about sacrifice and selflessness, which was all well and good, but apparently only for him. They got to behave like teenagers while he was left to wonder if he’d ever see his wife again.
That wasn’t fair, though, and he knew it. His circumstances were different from theirs. A lousy situation that no one could control was keeping him away from Lois. Zara and Ching had imposed upon themselves their limits and it was obvious that last night of all nights was the one when those limits would disappear. Last night wasn’t the kind of night you wanted to be alone. He knew that. Clark tried to keep any sign of recognition from crossing his face. “Ching is supposed to escort us everywhere,” he said.
“First Ministers, your escort is here,” a disembodied voice announced from the invisible speakers somewhere in the walls of the room.
“That would be him,” Clark said.
********
Councilor Shai pounded his gavel on the podium. “There will be order in the High Council!” His voice resonated in the large chamber. The councilors grew quiet. He turned to Zara and Clark, seated behind him. “First Ministers Zara and Kal El shall preside over this meeting of the High Council, at whose pleasure they serve.” He bowed solemnly.
“How was the attack on our home allowed?” a councilor demanded as he stood up.
“Our honorable brothers and sisters, we are working at this moment to determine the nature of the attacks,” Zara replied.
“Was it sabotage?” another councilor spoke up.
“We have not ruled out any possibilities,” Zara said.
“But it was Nor’s men?” came a third voice.
“We have every reason to believe it was,” Zara replied. A murmur rose up in the gallery. “Their attacks on outlying settlements had increased just prior to this attack. We had deployed our forces to the aid of those settlements when this attack was launched.”
“Why were our leaders not here to protect us from this attack?”
Clark spoke up for the first time. “Zara and I went Renmo, to try to help the refugees. Some of us were diverted to Terian when we learned that settlement was under attack. We returned here as quickly as we could.”
“But it was too late! Thousands have died here!”
“And thousands more outside this colony,” Clark admitted grimly.
“We are doing all that is possible, your military commanders are doing all that is possible,” Zara tried to assure the councilors. “Nor’s forces…”
“Nor denied all involvement with the attacks. He claims that he can defend us from the rebels!” Zara and Clark both turned toward the source of the criticism, Jen Mai, a middle-aged man suspected of being sympathetic to Nor’s cause.
“Nor is a liar and a brigand!” A young woman councilor stood up. “Those who would consider his position are traitors to our people!”
“Are you accusing me of treason?”
“Do you deny it?” The Council exploded into a verbal brawl as Councilors took sides and argued defiantly.
“Esteemed Councilors! There will be order in these chambers!” Zara declared loudly, but the shouting continued. Standing just to her side, Ching nodded slightly at the head Council Guard, who then signaled the Guards all around the chamber. The Guards moved toward the aisles, preparing to prevent the altercations from becoming physical.
Shai pounded his gavel once again. “We will have order!”
The presence of the Guards, as opposed to any action on their part, proved sufficient. The Councilors restrained one another to prevent the seemingly impending riot.
“Everything is being done to protect the colony and to determine the identity of the attackers and bring them to justice,” Zara declared forcefully. “Nor has personally declared that he is no longer bound by this Council or its rulings and has made himself an outlaw. We did not banish him, he chose banishment for himself. Nor is in open rebellion and it is our duty as First Ministers to protect this colony and its people from all who threaten it with force.”
“We should be negotiating with Nor. Together, we may be able to end the attacks,” Jen Mai declared.
“The blood of our people is on his hands! We cannot negotiate with him!”
Shouts erupted and chaos ruled the Council once again. An older member of the Council who had remained silent and poised until now finally stood up. Those immediately around him fell silent, and soon the din in the chambers died down. He stood calmly, his appearance unperturbed and impeccable; his silver hair perfectly coiffed.
“Councilor Alon, have you something to say?” Shai asked magnanimously, obviously pleased to bestow his favor upon a member of the Council who was capable of maintaining decorum.
“Thank you, Councilor Shai,” Alon replied. Clark knew Alon only through reputation. He was one of the most senior members of the Council and highly regarded by all for his levelheadedness. “I have had the distinct pleasure of knowing First Minister Zara for some time, and we are all, I am certain, confident in her ability to lead and to make wise judgments. First Minister Kal El appeared as something of a mystery to us, only a few months ago. I have now heard, however, from the people of Renmo and Terian what sort of man he is. By his actions, by his leadership and his personal courage, he has won their trust and respect and has so won mine as well. If it is the belief of the First Ministers together that Nor poses a threat to our people, I am inclined to agree.”
********
“Lois, this one’s even better than the last. The suits upstairs just told me that you’re going to be syndicated in forty more papers, starting next week. Everyone wants to get their hands on this.”
“Well, never underestimate the power of the feel good story of the week,” she replied.
“This is a lot more than just that, darlin.’ You made this story come alive. You’ve always been the best writer I’ve had, but I didn’t know you had this in you. It’s gripping, but not melodramatic.”
She’d been particularly struck by the story – one of a family of volunteer firefighters in a rural community. They’d had a tradition stretching back four generations of protecting their community. Now, father, son, and daughter were maintaining that tradition, though funds for the department had dried up, just as they had all across the country. Professional firefighters were the norm in big cities and in suburbs, but many small townships depended on their volunteers, even though they could not afford modern equipment.
A few months ago, the subjects of her story were nearly killed in a backdraft in a warehouse fire. All three suffered significant injuries and had been hospitalized. All three had required physical rehabilitation, but somehow, all three were back on the job as soon as possible. She had hoped the column would draw attention to these rather quiet heroes. “I guess I’ve just had a different perspective, lately,” Lois said. Her ears pricked up at the sound of footsteps outside. She glanced through the door. It was Martha, coming back from town. “Anyway, Perry, I’ve got to run.”
“All right, darlin,’ take care of yourself.”
“You too.” With that, she hung up the phone. Lois stood up from the sofa and made her way out to the driveway.
“Hi Lois!” Martha said with a smile. She carried a paint can in each hand as she walked from the truck to the house. Lois quickly relieved her of the heavy burdens. “Oh, thank you, dear,” Martha said gratefully.
Lois brought the rest of the paint and supplies into the farmhouse and took them up to the nursery. She returned downstairs to find Martha in the kitchen, making tea.
“Remember,” Martha began sternly. “You’re not supposed to go anywhere near that room when we’re painting it. I don’t care if you are invulnerable, paint can’t be good for the baby.”
“I promise,” Lois replied, holding her hands up in surrender.
“I’m just glad that you and Jonathan got the walls and insulation up so quickly. It’s getting cold and having a big gaping hole in your house in the middle of winter isn’t ideal.”
“It is getting pretty cold, isn’t it?” Lois mused. She filled a pair of teacups for Martha and placed the cups on a tray. She picked up the tray to carry it to the living room when the phone rang.
“I’ll get it,” Martha said.
Lois carried the tray into the living room, intentionally tuning out her hearing. She picked up one of the teacups and settled back down on the sofa. Martha appeared from the kitchen, an uneasy expression on her face, holding her hand over the receiver of the phone. Lois regarded her mother-in-law somewhat quizzically. “It’s your mother,” Martha said in the barest of whispers.
Lois’s face fell. The absolute last person in the world she wanted to talk to was her mother. They hadn’t spoken in months – not since Lois had told her parents about the pregnancy. Since then, she’d been dodging her mother’s phone calls. It was cowardly, especially for a woman with superpowers, but Lois didn’t much care. She had no interest in speaking with her parents – some traumas were better left alone and not relived and her attempts at connecting with her parents fell into that category as far as she was concerned.
Lois realized that she’d lapsed into silence for several minutes as she debated what to do. Her conscience warred with itself to little avail. She knew that her uncertainty and hesitation were probably written on her expression, so she was unsurprised when Martha informed Ellen Lane that Lois had stepped out and that she’d relay a message on to her.
An involuntary and unbidden wave of relief washed over Lois as her mother-in-law hung up the phone. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t have put you on the spot like that. It’s not your job to lie to my mother.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Martha replied matter-of-factly. “I know that dealing with your family has been difficult.”
“But I’m going to have to deal with them sooner or later.”
“You won’t get an argument from me there.”
“I just don’t think I’m ready yet,” Lois confessed.
********
The door to their private chambers closed behind them. Clark let out an agitated sigh and ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t even know what happened in there.”
“The Council is at odds with itself. There is no telling who will stay on our side and whose confidence has been lost.” Zara replied, her tone impassive. “There is much work to be done in rebuilding the colony. We should concern ourselves with that for now.”
Clark paced anxiously. “I know. But if we put all of our resources into rebuilding the colony, what about the outer settlements? Can we protect them? Do we have enough people?”
“We will have to activate more reserves. There is no denying that the impact on our people will be significant, but we have no choice.” She approached Clark and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Clark, you have done incredible things for our people. You must trust yourself if you are to convince them to trust you.”
“I know,” he said as he looked away. He appreciated the fact that she’d started calling him ‘Clark,’ in private. It was a simple gesture of friendship and understanding. As much as he had to be ‘Kal El’ in his public persona, it was nice to have at least one person remember that before he was the First Minister and Commander of the forces of New Krypton, he was simply ‘Clark.’ “This is just so much bigger than anything else I’ve ever had to do before…I mean, I had to bash an asteroid once, but I just had to fly into it really fast. This…” he trailed off.
Zara shook her head. “Sometimes it is easy to forget the amazing things you did even before you came here. I cannot imagine what a change it must be for you, though, to no longer have such incredible powers.”
“Superman was a lot easier than this,” Clark replied. “I definitely made mistakes, and I had a lot of tough choices I had to make, but somehow, I managed to avoid the really big mistakes. Here, everything is life or death, and not just of a few people, a whole world.”
“I imagine you saw terrible things at Terian,” Zara said.
Clark nodded. “War doesn’t get easy to deal with. Even if you’re the good guys. You and I haven’t talked much about it these last few days, have we?” he observed. And they hadn’t. Since the end of the battle, they’d been too busy looking forward at how to rebuild and protect the colony to dwell on what had happened. “I’m sure what you saw here was no better.”
“It was difficult,” Zara admitted. “Until now, the war had been distant, and there had been some hope of protecting the people here from it. For us to have been struck so close to our center of power, in the one place we were supposed to be safe, was a shock. I am not certain we will recover from it soon, and I know it will cause people to question our ability to keep them safe.”
A knock at the door interrupted them. “Enter,” Zara called. The door opened and her father walked into the room.
“Daughter,” he said, relief evident in his voice. “I came as soon as I could.” Zara rushed to her father’s side. Tek Ra placed a paternal hand upon his daughter’s shoulder and smiled. Clark had seen the two hug on one occasion, when he’d first arrived on New Krypton. Otherwise, they had maintained the dignified formality that Kryptonians typically exhibited.
“Kal El, I am glad to see that you are well,” Tek Ra said.
“Thank you, sir,” Clark replied.
“Let us adjourn to the reception room,” Zara said. The three exited the room and walked down the hall toward the large reception room.
Two teenaged boys leapt up from their seats in the room, aspiring to the gravitas that their father exuded. Zara’s brothers Tem Ra and Dek Ra -- identical twins -- snapped to attention. In their ill-fitting uniforms, the pair of skinny seventeen-year-olds hardly looked like military men.
“Greetings Kal El,” they both said. They bowed solemnly in unison in the presence of commanding officers.
“Greetings,” Clark replied.
“At ease, young ones,” Zara replied with a slight smile. Off her brothers’ identical scowls, she continued. “I hope you have been paying attention to your studies.”
“We received top marks on the pilot’s exam,” one of the brothers, Clark was fairly certain it was Dek Ra, said.
“And still we haven’t been cleared to attend training,” Tem Ra piped up.
“You are both still young,” Tek Ra counseled his sons.
“We are the same age Zara was when she went to pilot training,” Tem Ra replied.
Even highly logical, stoic Kryptonian teenaged boys were just teenaged boys, Clark thought to himself - always eager for an adventure and incredibly sensitive to perceived slights based on their age. He also knew that Tek Ra doted upon his boys. Tek Ra had been forced to guide his eldest, his only daughter, along a dangerous path. From a young age she’d carried too much responsibility upon her shoulders and there was nothing he could have done to lessen her burden. He jealously guarded his sons for that reason. Zara’s calling had been out of his hands and there were many things he could not protect her from, but whatever he could do to protect his other children from a similar situation, he did.
Zara turned to her younger brothers. “I do not believe it wise…”
“We knew it!” Dek Ra and Tem Ra said in startling unison.
“We knew that you were behind the delay in our training!” Dek Ra continued. “Why must you always hold us back?”
“That is no way to address one’s elders or one’s superior officers,” Tek Ra cautioned sternly.
“She is still our sister,” Tem Ra grumbled.
Tek Ra frowned. “And she is the commander of the forces of New Krypton.”
“You are both young and I do not want to place you in harm’s way,” Zara explained gently.
“You cannot protect us from this. If we do not go, others will go in our place,” Dek Ra replied.
“Besides, it is not as though the colony itself is safe. We have to fight.” The twins had a habit of finishing each others’ thoughts and sentences.
“Kal El knows that we are right,” Dek Ra continued, pushing forward.
Clark had no intention of letting the conversation move down that path. “You wouldn’t be trying to play one First Minister off the other, would you?” he asked sternly.
The two boys shared a shamefaced expression. “No sir,” Dek Ra replied.
“You will continue your training here,” Zara said, an air of finality in her tone.
The rapid click of boots on the metal flooring announced Ching’s arrival in the reception area. “Sir, Ma’am,” he said as he turned to Clark and Zara and bowed briefly.
“You can train with Ching,” Zara said.
“What?” the boys exclaimed.
“Pardon?” Ching looked positively bewildered.
Zara turned to her lieutenant. “Commander Ching, Dek Ra and Tem Ra are now under your direction.
“Excellent,” Ching replied crisply. “There is much to be done around here and I am certain we will find plenty of work for both of you.”
“Was there something you needed?” Clark asked.
“Zara,” Ching replied. “I um, I needed to speak with… if I might have a moment of your time, ma’am,” he stammered.
“Certainly,” Zara responded. “Boys, go see if Ensign Parth has any work for you to do,” she instructed her younger brothers.
“Aye, ma’am,” they replied sullenly and walked off.
“Father, Kal El, we shall return shortly,” Zara added before turning to leave with Ching.
When everyone else was gone, Tek Ra turned to Clark. “I have heard great things about the work you have done.”
“I was just glad to be able to help. Ching and Commander Talan are the ones who are really responsible for any good that has happened these last few days.”
“I have felt for some time that you are a good man. But beware that your grace is not mistaken for weakness. You have enemies on the Council. I do not know who, but be careful whom you trust.”
“The Council is divided…”
“I do not mean those in open opposition,” Tek Ra interrupted. “I mean those who hide their intentions. Your father developed a great many enemies because of his conviction to his beliefs and his refusal to lower himself to the petty politics of the treacherous personalities around him. Many of your father’s enemies and their successors have, no doubt, selected you as their next target.”
“Rae Et,” Clark said, repeating a name he’d known for months now. She had tried to kill him as a baby in order to position her own son, Nor, to take his place.
“She has declared her opposition to the Council, but remaining members of it are likely among her supporters. They will stop at nothing to undermine you.”
“Who are they?” Clark asked.
“I do not know,” Tek Ra replied. “Which is why you must be ever-vigilant. Your life, and my daughter’s, are both at stake, as is the fate of this world. You are safe nowhere.”
Ching and Zara returned to the room. “I know you are all quite busy,” Tek Ra said. “I will go and allow you to return to your work.” He turned to Zara with a slight smile. “Besides, you know how your mother worries.”
“Thank you for coming,” Zara replied. “It was good to see you.”
“I will return soon to check on your brothers,” Tek Ra assured her. “Kal El, my friend, you have my best wishes.”
“Thank you, sir,” Clark replied.
Tek Ra turned to Ching, with a father’s pride shining through his expression. “Ching, I have always trusted in you; take care of my children.” Clark realized that Tek Ra was not referring exclusively to his sons.
“Of course, sir,” Ching said with a modest bow.
