15th January
08:59 GMT -7
Daniel Hall and I watch as his parents and his reincarnated grandfather work on their spaceship in their driveway, neighbours and people driving by doing their best not to look too obvious in their rubbernecking.
"How..? Do you feel about all of this?
"
He shrugs. "I dunno. Mom and Dad pretty much gave up being superheroes when I was born, but this stuff was always around the house. Guess I thought it was like their 'hippy phase' or whatever."
A section of the
ship's exterior armour comes free, Lyta catching it effortlessly as it falls and setting it on the ground. Interestingly, the powers the
Erinyes granted her
mother and which she inherited aren't actually dependent on her either pursuing the guilty or being generally vengeful. Ironically, the fact that she can lose control if she
does behave like that positively incentivises her not to.
Hector clambers out of the rear hatch, looks briefly at me and then to his wife. He's wearing a slightly updated version of his old plate armour Silver Scarab costume. With his mother restored to life and… A mid-life crisis in full swing, he swapped out the solid plates of the original for smaller plates held in place by a tough silver-coloured fabric. At least he's not wearing the weird insect mask at the moment.
"Lyta, could you pass-?"
She hands him the orichalcum sheet they're using to replace the Nth metal alloy which the ship was
originally designed to use. As far as we can tell it won't make much difference, at least not to its regular flight. The faster than light drive was wrecked millennia ago, to the point that we're not sure if it was destroyed on impact or by whatever put the ship onto its collision course with North Africa in the first place. The Nth Metal we're extracting from the removed hull pieces is being used to rebuild the systems Hector scavenged for the Nth metal to build his Silver Scarab armour.
"Thanks. Dad?"
Mr Cantrell brings a thanagarian molecular bonder to bear, a muttered prayer-incantation to Ptah just audible over the hum of the device.
"
That's weird, though."
"Meeting your paternal grandparents?
"
"Grandma and Grandpa being younger than Mom and Dad. I mean, I
get it, they're reincarnated… But it's
weird."
"Yeah, it's a funny old world. Not interested in joining in?
"
He shrugs. "I don't know anything about Thanagarian engineering. I'm a
history major." He pauses. "It's been interesting, talking to Grandpa about Ancient Kahndaq. You don't usually get primary sources for stuff like that."
"And..? Your grandmother?
"
"Grandma was an
alien. She's fine talking about her other lives, but she still says she didn't get-."
"I was an outsider on Kahndaqi society." Ms Parker walks out of the house, a tray of drinks in her hands. "I can tell you what I
saw, but I didn't really understand it like Khufu did." Unlike her previous incarnation's son but like her daughter-in-law, she's dressed in normal clothing. "Are you here to drop off more metal?"
"No. Actually, I was wondering if you were interested in taking a trip to Thanagar.
"
"
Oh." She puts her tray down on the garden table. "Any special reason?"
"Thanagar doesn't know anything about magic. You do, and they're looking for someone with that knowledge whom they can trust. And I need to head over that way anyway, and I thought that you might appreciate a chance to visit… I suppose it's not 'home' anymore, but… The old homeworld.
"
She frowns. "No one on Thanagar uses
magic."
"Except the Seven Devils.
"
She lets out a sudden exhalation which sounds like the beginning of a dismissive laugh. Then she spots my expression. "You're serious."
"Yes.
"
"I've talked to Shayera and Katar a few times. We're not sure if I'm from a parallel universe, the future or the past."
I frown.
"If it's time travel, shouldn't you be able to tell from historical events? The Equality Plague alone was a big deal.
"
"What do you know about King Henry the Third?"
"Nothing.
" I raise my left hand.
"I can find out really
quick..?
"
She shakes her head. "If I come from
before the Equality Plague, I wouldn't have heard of it. If I come from
after the Plague, I'll only have heard about it if it was still considered important in my era. I could tell you all
kinds of things about Henry the Third, but I know next to nothing about the history of South America."
"What about their technology?
"
"They haven't been too keen on letting me see that."
"Do you..? Are you up to date on modern Thanagarian politics?
"
"I know that the planet is governed by a military council. It wasn't in
my day, but I'm afraid that Chay-ara wasn't really interested in political history. I don't know when one form of government became another."
Huh. I
had been assuming 'future', but now I'm leaning towards 'past'.
"I'm sorry, it's just that the Plague, and the resulting confrontation with Hyathis is such a
big part of Thanagarian modern history. I'm struggling to think of how it could have happened without you knowing about it.
"
"How many Crusades were there?"
I nod.
"Fair enough. I suppose it
could happen.
"
"Or maybe not at all. I remember one of the scientists who was on the ship with me saying that the drive might open a portal to a parallel universe. At the time I thought it was one of those 'one in a million, theoretically possible but practically impossible' things." She shrugs. "But that
could be what happened."
Which would be pretty interesting for
me…
"So… Are you interested?
"
"Of
course I am!" She turns back to the ship. "Simon! Paul wants us to visit Thanagar!"
Mr Cantrell turns off the bonder, and a moment later appears in the cockpit. "The FTL system is still busted, and I doubt the Other Hawks will lend us
theirs."
"I can build faster than light drives myself, you know. It probably won't perform quite as well as the original, but it'll
function. Particularly since you're stripping most of the Nth metal out of the outer hull.
"
"And…" Daniel looks at me, then at his grandmother. "You know he's a
Lantern, right grandpa? Towing spaceships is something they
do."
"Oh." Mr Cantrell looks at Ms Parker. "Khufu did always want to see Chay-ara's homeworld."
"And what do
you want?"
"I want what
you want. Thanagar was
your planet. Even if this isn't the
right Thanagar."
She nods. "Can we get the ship ready by next weekend?"
"Ah… If Paul doesn't mind helping out..?"
"Happy to.
"
Hector drops down from the side of the ship. "We're coming too, right? I've wanted to visit Thanagar since I was a boy."
"
Oh no." Lyta holds up her right hand. "I've read about modern Thanagar. I'll be staying here."
"Oh. Okay. Daniel?"
"I don't speak Thanagarian, Dad. And I can't fly."
"Okay then." He looks at Mr Cantrell. "Just me then, I guess."
His reincarnated father looks around the cockpit. "Be a bit of a squeeze, but if we're just using this as a taxi service… Sure."
