This is a rewrite of chapter 7 of this story, to rectify the problem that in the original chapter Clara acted as if she didn't know Doctor Klein. Actually, she must know Doctor Klein very, very well, because she spent her earliest childhood in Doctor Klein's apartment at Star Labs. Indeed, she must regard him as her Uncle.
From part 6:
"This incoming Kryptonian ship is a missile bound for the Earth, which may scatter deadly Earthite over large areas as it hits us? We've got to destroy the ship before it's getting much closer, Doctor Klein!"
That was Batman. I can't believe what he just said here.
Batman. Did I ever like him? Did I ever think he was cool?
Batman. He wants to destroy my father's ship. He wants to kill my father.
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New stuff....
"Blowing up Clark Kent's spaceship won't save the Earth from the Earthite of the ship," Uncle Bernard tells Batman. "Instead, the explosion will merely break it up into a hailstorm of small particles that will still be coming our way. In fact, if such a hailstorm of Earthite fragments was to hit the Earth's upper atmosphere, an Earthite dust storm might spread in the atmosphere and poison very significant parts of our planet."
"You mean we're all gonna die?" Boy, this must be the worst piece of news that Rick has ever heard.
And me? How bad is it for me? Well, it's pretty bad, I can tell you. You know I've never seen my Dad. Never. Now he's on his way back home, so you'd think I'd be able to meet him for the first time in my life. Only Dad may very well be dying of Kryptonite poisoning, so he could be a corpse when he arrives. And worse - when his ship hits the Earth, he's gonna radiate us all with Earthite and take me and Mom and Grandpa and Grandma and Rick and Batman and the whole kit and caboodle of this planet with him into into kingdom come! So how do you think I feel?
"No, the Earthite content in the ship isn't sufficient to kill off more than, at a stretch, a few million people," says Uncle Bernard. Oh, thank goodness for small mercies, I suppose!
Hmmm. I really love Uncle Bernard. But sometimes he's so... well, he's just soooo.
"Chances are that less than ten thousand people would perish," Uncle Bernard continues. "Since there are more than six billion human beings on the Earth, that means that most of humankind is certainly going to survive even in the event of a worst-case scenario. Still, such a situation would be very unsatisfactory."
Unsatisfactory. That about covers it.
"So what do you suggest we do about it?"
"Well, Miss Lane" - sometimes Uncle Bernard's so formal with Mom, you can't believe it - "the only thing that is guaranteed to keep the Earthite away from the world is if we can make Clark Kent's ship change course, so that it's not moving toward the Earth any more. However, there is always a chance that the Earth's gravity might re-capture the ship and make it come our way again. The safest and most foolproof way of getting rid of it would be to make the ship fall straight into the Sun."
"Won't the Sun itself become poisoned by Earthite that way? So that it starts shining on us with Earthite light?"
"No, don't worry, young man. The Sun is very big and massive - it is large enough to contain a million Earths, and it weighs about 300,000 times as much as our own planet. Swallowing something as small and lightweight as Clark Kent's ship won't make any difference to it at all, but the ship on the other hand will promptly disintegrate."
"So we have to make the ship change course and fall into the Sun," Batman says. "How do you suggest we do that, doctor Klein?"
"Wait a minute! My Dad is on that ship! How do we get him out of there before we dump his ship in the Sun?"
"I have given the matter some thought," says Uncle Bernard. "And I believe our best chance of bringing your father to the Earth and getting rid of the ship is to send you, Clara, out in space to deal with the ship and rescue your father."
"What? Sending Clara out in space? She is only twelve years old, Bernard - I forbid it!"
"She would be wearing a very effective protective suit. And she would have some miniature jet engines attached to her suit to help her move around in space. Also, we would send her out there in her own spaceship which would be made to rendez-vouz with her father's ship. Clara's ship could actually dock with the Kryptonian craft, and Clara could get inside it - she could force her way inside if need be - and find her father inside. Then she would put her father in a protective suit which she has brought along, and bring her father over into her own ship. After that, she would hurl the Kryptonian ship into the Sun."
"What? Excuse me? My little Clara would hurl that ship into the Sun???"
"I'm working on it," Uncle Bernard mutters. It's a little complicated."
"And didn't you say that ship is full of Earthite? And didn't you say it's full of Kryptonite, too? And haven't you understood that my daughter is half human, half Kryptonian? So haven't you understood that all that horrible stuff in her father's space ship is going to be doubly deadly to her?"
"But Miss Lane - - Lois - - "
"No 'buts' about it! My Clara isn't going out in space!"
"You're wrong, Mom," I tell her. "Because I'm so going!"
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Mom is staring at me. Like she couldn't believe what I told her.
"Clara," she says. And the way she is grabbing and holding me with her eyes and her voice - well, it's like I'm frozen to the spot. I want to run away and hide, or I want to take it all back and ask forgiveness.
But I can't.
"Mom," I say. "I'm only twelve. And you're my mother. And you're the best mother in the world. And I love you to bits and I can't live without you. But that's my father up there in space and he's dying right now and I'm the only one who can do anything to help him! I must help him!!!"
"You can't", Mom says. "I forbid you."
"You can't stop me! If you don't let me have a suit and a ship I'll just go anyway! I'll fly out in space just like that! I swear I will! Don't make me!"
"You can't," Mom says again. "I know you can't fly."
I stare at Mom and open my mouth to answer her. But no words come out. So instead I turn around and run away from her as fast as I can. Darn it, I'm somewhere inside Star Labs, and the place is so big I can never find my way around here. So okay, I'll run as fast as I can, and sooner or later I'm gonna come to a door leading out of here. Yep, I run past everything at full speed until I come to a big door, really impressive looking, and I'm going to stop and try the door handle. But I'm running too fast, so I slam right into the door and go right through it. Hmmmm. I know Mom is a famous reporter, but there's no way she's making enough money to pay for all the property I keep destroying.
Well, the next moment I'm outside. I can see some Metropolis skyline, so I'm just outside Star Labs, all right.
It's dark. It must be evening, I suppose. Well, it must still be December, though I'm not too sure about the date. Too much has happened since I ran away from home.
Even though I'm in Metropolis, and there are so many city lights brightening the sky, I can still see stars, because the night is clear. That bright really sparkling star must be Sirius. And those three stars in a row are Orion's Belt, or the Three Kings, as some people call them.
And somewhere out there is Epsilon Eridanis, whose real name is Krypton.
And somewhere else in the sky is a small, small dot, which is coming our way. Dad's ship. Dad is locked inside it, and if I don't get him out of there, he's going to die. And if I can't stop his ship before it slams into the atmosphere, thousands of people are going to die.
I have to get up there! I have to! But can I survive if I do? Ah, who cares about that if I can't get up there in the first place? I have to learn to fly!!!!
There is this really tall construct of some kind just a little way off. It used to impress me when I lived here when I was little. It's a tower of some kind. Okay, so that's where I'm going for my next bit of flying training.
I run over there and start climbing. I grab hold of the metal plating of the tower and dig my fingers into it, leaving holes. I'm moving upward pretty quickly and easily, but I'm still clinging to the tower like a monkey of some kind. Hey, if I could fly, I'd be able to make my way up without holding on to the wall at all.
Okay. So... I need to float... stay in the same place even if I let go of this wall....
Float... let go... careful... float... let go....
My fingers come loose. My pinkies, then the next two fingers. I'm holding on with my index fingers and thumbs.
I'm letting go with my left hand altogether. I'm just holding on with my right index finger and thumb.
I'm staying in place. I'm not falling. I wonder, can I move?
I'm floating out a little from the wall, swinging my left side away from it. My right arm slowly unbends until it's stretched right out from the wall as far as it can go. I'm an arm's length from the wall, holding on only with my index finger and thumb. Wow, there is air all around me. I'm not touching anything solid at all, except with my finger and thumb.
Wooops, a gust of wind made me flutter a little. How far up am I? Fifty feet? Sixty? Seventy? Things are looking a bit small down there....
Look Ma, no hands....
"CLARA!!!"
"Aaaaahhhhh!!!!"
Mom!!!! I didn't see her before! She scared me to death!!! I'm falling! Straight down on her!!!! I'm going to kill her!!!!
I plunge downward. Faster and faster. Mom's white face is rushing toward me. I'm going to flatten her face against the ground... I'm going to...
...I'm going to...
...fly?
I... I am flying... I'm hanging in the air, a couple of feet above the ground. How am I doing it?
Not sure. Will I suddenly fall down again?
Mom doesn't seem to care. She's staring at me. Wow. I've never seen her face so white, or her eyes so big and black, for that matter.
"Clara... Clara, baby... you scared me to death...."
I open my mouth to answer. Funny thing is, no sound is coming out.
"Clara? Come down, honey. Please."
I lower myself slowly toward the ground. Not sure how I'm doing it, but it seems to work.
As soon as I touch down, Mom puts her arms around me and pulls me into her embrace. And as soon as I'm in her arms, I collapse. If she didn't hold me, I'd fall.
"Clara... baby..." Mom is crying in my hair. I'm hanging like a sack of potatoes in her arms.
"Got to... save Dad...."
Who said that? Was that me?
Wow. I didn't know I was going to say that. Guess I'm not too sure I said it, because it came out all thick. Am I crying?
"Honey, you're shaking. We've got to go inside. Come with me, please."
I stop trembling enough to manage to walk. I lean on Mom and sometimes I swear she's dragging me. But I'm getting better, and as we get inside again I can walk on my own. When we get back to the room where we were before I ran out, Mom wants me to lie down, but I don't need it any more. I'm okay.
"I've got to save Dad," I say again. And this time I knew I was going to say it.
There are all these other faces around me. Rick. Batman. Uncle Bernard. Grandma and Grandpa. Were they here all along? Were they out there when I fell from the tower? Did they see me fall?
Did they see me fly?
No matter. I fell. But I didn't hit the ground. I flew.
"I'm going out there on my own," I say to Mom. "If you don't let me have a space suit and a space ship I'll go there anyway."
"You're going to die if you try," Mom says quietly.
"Maybe," I tell her. "But maybe I'll survive if you'll let me have the suit and the ship."
Mom is just looking at me. Then something seems to, I don't know, leak out of her. She's looking smaller. Defeated somehow.
Then she straightens up and looks at Uncle Bernard.
"How soon can you have the suit and the ship ready?"
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tbc
