“I do not think the Elders are aware of this. Certain files have been corrupted—all of them pertaining to the Kor-Gans.”
“And you think that’s grounds for a mistrial?”
“It should be grounds for at least a postponement so we can ascertain who is behind the tampering.”
“Have you spoken with the archivist about this?”
“Yes, sir. He verified my findings.”
“He’s probably the one who tampered with your files.”
“No, sir. The dates on some of these records are before Commander Slong’s assignment to the archives.”
“He could still—”
“I do not think such tampering is within his capabilities, sir. Commander Slong and technology are largely incompatible.”
“I see. Then who do you suspect?”
“I’m not sure. I thought perhaps we could call in an expert—”
“Impossible. We cannot have some technician examining the archive.”
“But, sir, this is a serious breach of security.”
“The only breach of security was committed by you. Now, Lieutenant, I suggest you prepare for the trial tomorrow.”
“Yes, sir.”
Kila got to her feet. She forced herself to salute her superior officer. They had worked together long enough that she could read the subtle twitching of his whiskers when she told him the news. The twitches did not indicate surprise; they indicated fear. The rest of the conversation, particularly Sulfam’s evasiveness, only confirmed her worst fear: he had tampered with the files in the Master Archive.
***
Since she had recovered from the fight in the cafeteria, the Peacekeepers had put Starla into solitary confinement. They called it “protective custody,” but there wasn’t much difference in Starla’s mind. They wanted her out of sight to avoid riling up the rest of the prison.
They didn’t give her any books to read or any form of computer to use. They had finally agreed to find some paper and a pen for her. The paper was thicker and slipperier than on Earth and the ink actually had chunks of something in it. It was adequate enough for her purposes.
She had about fifteen drafts of a letter to Billy. She hoped Kila might be so kind as to deliver it to him. The only trouble was she wasn’t exactly sure how to phrase her thoughts. She had a degree in journalism, but writing from the heart was much more difficult.
“Dear Billy,” she began again. She wondered if she should consider something flowerier, like “My Love,” or “My One and Only.” For now she let the line stand.
“Before anything else, I want you to know how much I love you. These last three years have been the greatest time in my life. I had always felt like an outsider, like an alien, but your love made me feel like I belonged on Earth.”
She stopped herself. Was she focusing too much on her feelings? This was the last time she would ever speak to Billy; she ought to focus on him. With this in mind, she tried again.
“Before anything else, I want you to know how much I love you. These last three years have been the greatest time in my life. You’ve been everything a girl could ever hope for in a boyfriend and then a fiancé and then a husband.”
She stopped again. They had only been married about twelve hours, so praising him as a husband seemed a bit disingenuous. Why was she so bad at this? Maybe she should ask Kila if the Peacekeepers had some greeting cards. Maybe they had some alien poetry that would really knock Billy out.
She giggled at this thought. Then she shook her head. All this solitude was starting to get to her. At least in the Crystal Lair she had the robots and the hologram of her father. She wished for that hologram now so the aliens might see he wasn’t some monster laying waste to numerous worlds. They could see what a caring man he was, the kind who would sacrifice himself to save his son.
The door to her cell opened. A shaft of bright light blinded her. She was still blinking to clear her eyes when she heard Kila say, “I have unfortunate news.”
“You’re going to kill me. I know that.”
“More gallows humor?”
“Just stating a fact.”
“I see. I have been working on your behalf. It is because of this that I discovered the malfeasance.”
Starla sat up on her bed. “What are you talking about?”
“Someone has tampered with the records on the Kor-Gans. I believe it is my superior, Commander Sulfam.”
“Why would he do that?”
“I cannot say. He would not have done it without reason.”
“That’s nice to know. So are they going to let me go?”
“I asked for a mistrial, but since Sulfam is prosecuting the case—”
“Can’t these Elders of yours let me go?”
“There is no guarantee the Elders are not involved in this.”
“So what do we do?”
“I will plead on your behalf tomorrow. If the Elders refuse to listen, then we will know they directed Sulfam to change the records.”
“Great,” Starla said. That wasn’t much hope, but it was better than nothing.
That hope died when she heard Sulfam say, “Lieutenant Kila, you are under arrest for tampering with the Master Archive.”
“What? That is madness. I told you of the tampering—”
“You hoped to cast blame on someone else. We know it was you.”
“How?”
Sulfam ignored the question. “The Elders have directed me to place you under arrest. You are hereby stripped of your rank and privileges. You will be taken into custody until your trial date.”
“You cannot do this!”
“If you refuse to cooperate, we will use force.”
Starla lunged at the blue alien. “You leave her alone! You’re the one behind this!”
He easily batted her aside with one claw. Starla hit the metal wall, the room spinning around her. As her head continued to swim, she watched a bubble form around Kila. She hoped this meant the lieutenant was fighting back, but when it whisked her away with Sulfam behind her, she realized Kila had surrendered. As the door to her cell shut, Starla wondered if she would ever see the alien again.
***
It took about six hours to get the presses running again. While the technicians did that, Kate typed out a report on the liberation of Atomic City. The headline would read simply, “FREEDOM!” Then there would be her story describing how two of the Super Squad Auxiliary had infiltrated General Carnage’s entourage in order to take her captive.
Kate ordinarily upheld the highest standards of truth in her reporting. For this occasion, she decided to leave out a few details. She thought it might tarnish the greatness of the raid if she mentioned Outcast and Hitter had disguised themselves as hookers and used their bodies to get into the general’s room to blackmail her.
Instead, Kate would make it sound like a covert mission, similar to SEAL Team Six killing bin Laden. She described the two brave girls repelling up the building so they could sneak into the penthouse. Then they took on a half-dozen Stimmed up guards before they cornered General Carnage, who surrendered only after an hour-long gun battle.
“This is all bullshit,” Hitter said. She wadded up the printout Kate had given to her. “It’s like some James Bond rip-off.”
“Sometimes fiction is better than truth,” Outcast said. She patted Kate on the shoulder. “Thank you. I know it’s unethical for a journalist to alter the facts, but this should really help.”
“The truth is pretty impressive too,” Kate said. “Two little girls armed with only a garrote bluffing their way into the dragon’s den.”
“I suppose everyone’s a ‘little girl’ compared to you,” Hitter growled.
“Sorry,” Kate said. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
“I know what you bloody well meant. It’s a bunch of propaganda is what it is.” The girl turned to Outcast. “Is this what you heroes do? Lie to make yourselves seem important?”
“Desperate times,” Outcast said
.
“It’s bullshit!” Hitter stomped off. Kate heard something metal clank in the distance.
“She’s pretty riled up.”
“She’ll get over it. How long until the first editions are ready?”
“Should be another hour to get them run and another hour to have them packaged. You going to distribute them to the camps?”
“I have some better places in mind.”
Kate left it at that. Larry would handle all the details of the distribution. For now Kate’s work was done. “Do you have time for an interview? It might help for people to know more about the girl trying to save the world.”
Outcast actually blushed at this. “There’s not much to say. I’m trying to do the right thing—what the rest of the Super Squad would do if they were here.”
“Where is the Super Squad? If you don’t mind my asking.”
“We think the Velocity Gals are dead,” Outcast said. “Queen Neptune is still in Pacifica, seeing to things there.”
“What about Apex Girl and your friend Midnight Spectre?”
“I’m not sure what happened to them. We haven’t got any word from either of them since before the disaster.”
“Everyone knows you and Midnight Spectre are really close. Did she really kill Captain Howe of the Redoubt City PD?”
“No! She would never do that.”
“You’re sure?”
“I know her. She would never kill anyone.”
“Then why did she run?”
“She was probably trying to find some evidence.”
“Where do you think she is now?”
“I don’t know. If she was on the surface when the weapon went off, she’s probably a little girl somewhere.”
“You think she might not have been on the surface?”
“You never know with Midnight Spectre. All I do know is she would never kill a police officer, especially not one who was a friend to her. You can print that if you want.”
“I might. So how exactly did you decide to form this Super Squad Auxiliary?”
“Someone needed to take a stand. If no heroes were around then maybe villains would work.”
“But why these three? I mean, Hitter seems like a tough chick, but she’s not even in the top fifty supervillains out there.”
“I think you can see why she was chosen. She has a lot of important skills.”
“And such a way with people.”
“That too.”
“I guess my next question is: how did you find these girls? From what I’ve heard, everyone hot-footed it out of Gitmo pretty quick.”
Outcast sagged onto a chair. When she looked down at her feet, she suddenly appeared very young and vulnerable, far too much so to be the leader of a superhero team. “I hope you can keep this between us, but I’ll understand if you can’t. I’ve asked too much of you already.” The girl sighed and then said, “Hitter, Neanderthal, and Ion Man attacked our headquarters. It was Ion Man who killed the Velocity Gals. Hitter would have killed me, but I managed to get to an escape pod. That’s why I wasn’t affected.”
“You ran away?”
“I didn’t have much choice. There were four of them and one of me.”
“Four?”
“Killer Whale was there too. Her sister took her back to Pacifica.”
“So did these three set the weapon off?”
“No! They were only a distraction. Someone else triggered it.”
“Who?” Outcast said nothing, but from the tears springing up in her eyes, Kate had a good guess. “It was Midnight Spectre, wasn’t it? She would have had access to the weapon, wouldn’t she?”
“Yes. She broke them out of Gitmo to stage the attack on our base and then while we were all busy, she triggered the weapon.”
“And you don’t know where she is now?”
“She has a submarine. There’s no way for us to track her, not without Queen Neptune’s help.”
“She’s still out there, then?”
“Yes. And no, I don’t know what her endgame is. There might not be one. She might have gone completely mad. I don’t know.”
“So all this, are you doing it out of misplaced guilt? Trying to atone for her sins?”
“No. I’m doing it because there’s no choice. I couldn’t sit by and let the world destroy itself.”
Kate studied the girl’s face for a moment. “I believe you.” She put a hand on Outcast’s shoulder. “It’s amazing what you’ve managed to accomplish so far.”
“Thanks.”
“I’m sorry about Midnight Spectre.”
“So am I.”
Kate watched the girl trudge away as if she carried the world on her shoulders. At the moment that wasn’t far from the truth.
***
Melanie landed the jetcopter on the roof of the Star’s offices. She and Paul had just returned from a run to Redoubt City. Borrowing from an old CIA tactic, they had dumped copies of the Atomic City Star from the jetcopter, dispersing them all over Redoubt City. There was no guarantee anyone would actually read the papers, but those who did would know someone was out there fighting for them.
Tonya had already made a run to Washington DC for the same purpose. If they got the chance, they would hit other cities along the eastern seaboard and then perhaps go inland. It wasn’t nearly as efficient as a TV broadcast, but at this point it might be more effective.
The moment she opened the door to the newsroom, Tonya grabbed her arm. “You’d better check this out, boss. We really touched a nerve.”
On the television screen was a voluptuous blond woman with a crown perched on her head. This must be Rad Geiger, the so-called Queen of the World. Geiger held up a copy of the Star Tonya had dropped on Washington. “This unprovoked attack on our sovereignty will not be allowed to stand.”
The camera panned to a half-dozen blocks of ice. A young Asian woman stood next to these, leering. Melanie squinted to make out bodies within the ice. She had a good idea who was inside before Geiger said, “My associate, the lovely Miss Icicle, has put the president, vice-president, speaker of the House, secretary of state, chairwoman of the joint chiefs, and defense secretary on ice.”
The camera pulled back to reveal the blocks of ice were stationed over a vat of molten steel. “Every hour I will push one of these ice cubes into the hot soup below, unless the Super Squad Auxiliary surrenders and accepts my dominion over the world. To prove I’m serious—”
Melanie watched in horror as Geiger shoved one of the blocks of ice off the pedestal. It tumbled into the molten liquid below. The ice rapidly melted, until a woman in an ill-fitting general’s uniform was unthawed. She screamed for a few long seconds, until she finally disappeared.
“Jesus Christ,” Paul whispered. “That bitch is crazy.”
The camera returned to Geiger, who grinned. “You have sixty minutes, Miss Outcast. I will receive you on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.”
“Long live Queen Geiger!” Icicle shouted. Then the screen went blue.
“Was that live?”
“No,” Tonya said. “It aired ten minutes ago.”
“Then we have fifty minutes to get to DC.”
***
In the air, they tried to come up with a plan. Tonya said, “I was able to trace the signal. It didn’t originate from DC. As you can guess, not a lot of steel mills in the capital. They’re holding the president and the others at the old Scheffler Steel Mill in Baltimore, near Chesapeake Bay.”
“So we go in and rescue them before the next deadline, yeah?” Diane said.
“Not so fast, sweetheart. You know Geiger. Bitch loves her some radioactive bugs. That mill is going to be crawling with radioactive creepy crawlies and unlike the comics they aren’t going to give you superhuman powers.”
“Me not care,” Garlak rumbled.
“I didn’t think you would, big stuff. Garlak’s hide is probably too damned thick for any radioactive bugs to penetrate.”
“You want to send
her in there alone?” Melanie asked. She imagined Garlak would end up wrecking the whole place, inadvertently killing the rest of the hostages in the process.
“I’ll go with her,” Tonya said. “My suit is shielded from radiation. We’ll hit the place while the rest of you go to the Lincoln Memorial.”
“Geiger’s smart enough to count to five,” Diane said. “She’ll know you aren’t there.”
“Au contraire, mi amor,” Tonya said. “She’ll see all five of us thanks to these neat holograms I’m whipping up. So long as you don’t need them to do more than stand there, they should fool her long enough.”
Melanie rubbed her temple as she considered this. It seemed like a risky, half-baked plan, but so had all their other plans to this point. She couldn’t see any alternative except to let the hostages die. “Any objections?” she asked. No one said anything. “Then let’s do it.”
Chapter 17
Robin pointed to the roller coaster as cars of people screamed by. “Mommy, I wanna go on that!”
“No, sweetie. You’re too little for the roller coaster.”
“I am not!” Robin stamped her foot for emphasis. “I’m a big girl.” She had just celebrated her seventh birthday a week ago. Already her baby teeth had started to fall out, beginning with her front ones. She pointed to the gap in her teeth. “See!”
Mommy tousled Robin’s hair. “I know, sweetie, but you aren’t big enough for grown up rides yet.”
“Why not?”
“Well, you have to be as tall as Mommy or Daddy in order to ride them.”
“Why?”
“Because the nice people who run the amusement park don’t want any little girls to fall out of the cars and get hurt.”
“I’m not going to fall out of the car. I’ll be really, really careful. Please?”
“I’m sorry, sweetie. It’s for your own good.”
“No fair!” Robin wailed, tears bubbling up in her eyes.
“How about we go ride the carousel again? You like the carousel don’t you?”
“But it’s for babies.”
“How about a corn dog? Or some elephant ears?”
“No! I wanna ride the roller coaster!”
“Robin Jane Holloway, if you don’t stop this, I’ll take you right home.”
Girl Power Omnibus (Gender Swap Superhero Fiction) Page 60
