Seven Wonders (49 page)

  Sam nodded. She wondered if Joe would get a funeral. She wondered if she would have time to mourn. She wondered if she would be able to, with his body apparently walking around in good health.

  She wondered if whatever spark of Joe was left inside would ever come to the surface.

  The Dragon Star seemed to hesitate for a second, then he looked down. Another recognizable motion, but this time not one from Joe. The female version of the superhero had had a habit of avoiding eye contact.

  "I am sorry for your loss. But the survival of many depended upon my claiming this body. Do not fear. I shall do your friend a great honor."

  Sam nodded again. She understood, or perhaps she understood enough to cope with the situation for now, until the emergency was over and the Earth was safe. The Dragon Star was no body snatcher. He/she/it was just trying to help the Earth, his/her/its adopted home.

  The Dragon Star said nothing more, but when he raised his head again there was something in his eyes, something that seemed to indicate an understanding had been reached.

  The two left the infirmary.

Monolith and Lawmaker watched Sam and the Dragon Star walk away, then Monolith turned back to the bed and resumed his impassive, unmoving position. Lawmaker looked him up and down, pounded his fist into his open palm again, and stood tensely at the bedside, ready for anything, anything at all.

  A minute later Tony's breathing hastened, he turned his head, and opened his eyes. The sclera was entirely black, with no iris or pupil discernible.

  Tony screamed.

CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT

At this distance, the Earth was a hemisphere almost too big to take in, blue and green and white and shining with the blindingly bright light reflected from the sun. Bluebell had forgotten how, well, amazing the view was. Ever since the moonbase had been mothballed the exhilaration of working in space had been pushed to the back of her mind. Now, floating in the infinite ether, it all came flooding back. The first trip to intercept the meteor storm had been too fast, her mind too focused on the task at hand to appreciate the beauty of nature. Now the danger was even more acute, but Bluebell lingered in the calm before the storm, maintaining her position in the assembled force, facing away from deep space to view her home.

  Space was not unoccupied between her and the Earth. Although the brightness of the planet obscured most of the superheroes waiting at a lower altitude, some of the more flamboyant could be seen as colored specks remaining perfectly still as the planet rotated under them. A blue star that was Polaar, a mix of red and orange dots flaring in the upper atmosphere as the Merchants of Freedom held a grid formation. Slightly closer, two flickering, interlocking squares of pink energy that were the weapons net stretched out by the members of Shibuya ichimaru-kyū. Just a few of many.

  Aurora buzzed in her ear, addressing the entire assemblage. She turned, pushing herself around with her arms like a swimmer even though the motion was largely meaningless, her movement controlled by her psychic power converted to electrical energy. All around her, she saw the rest of the armada clearly against the black of space. Superheroes ranged from just a few yards away to a few miles. A multicolored scatter of figures, forms and dots. The raiding teams stood by on either side of Bluebell, half a dozen magical platforms and lifesupporting energy bubbles of various shapes and sizes carrying the heroes incapable of spaceflight.

  A historic gathering.

  Ahead, at a distance of something like one hundred thousand miles, the moon was a nothing, a void of black that blocked the star field beyond. Aurora was ahead of her; he floated backward and pointed for the benefit of those heroes close enough to follow the direction.

  At the moon's empty horizon, a star appeared. At first nothing more than another white dot in space, perhaps another superhero moving into position. Then the edge of the moon flared, like the diamond ring effect during a solar eclipse. The Thuban moved from the far side of the moon into range of the Earth, and of the superhero army.

  Bluebell couldn't make out much detail of the Thuban ship – if it could be called that at all. It appeared to be a series of cuboidal sections, moving, undulating like a mass of growing and shrinking bubbles which changed behind the curtain of light to become hundreds of polyhedral angles. It reminded her of the power core, now placed in a stasis field in the Apollo Fortress. But whatever the shape and design was, it was growing large as it approached. Very large. Her comm buzzed again as Aurora called the superhero army to bear. Everyone seemed to speak at once, individual heroes confirming their readiness while superteams called their members in. Bluebell made out just a few in the immediate rush of sound.

  "Seven Wonders, unite!"

  "Chicago Nightguard, TEN-HUT!"

  "Power ready and waiting!"

  "Let the Circle of Magi be one!"

  "Logarth of the Dereni affirms his readiness."

  "United International standing by."

  "Lady Liberty and the Presidents standing by."

  "Connectormatic standing by."

  Bluebell tuned the rest out, focusing instead on building power through her suit. She could see her increasing blue glow reflected against the backs of the nearest heroes, before it was completely overwhelmed by Aurora's corona exploding outward in a red haze. She looked sideways at her husband. He was smiling as he raised a fist toward the enemy. His voice buzzed again as the last of the heroes signaled in.

  "Let's tell the Thuban it's rude to visit without calling first."

  Aurora yelled and shot forward, and the space around Bluebell exploded with an endless rainbow of silent firepower.

The view from the moonbase was as spectacular as it was terrifying. Sam watched as sheets of color swept between the superhero armada and the gigantic, amorphous glow that was the Thuban. It was impossible to judge any progress. The superheroes kept shooting. The Thuban kept moving.

  She wanted to say something, to comment on the battle, but caught her tongue just before the words blurted out. Jeannie was standing next to her in the corridor outside the infirmary, far too close really, but Sam was prepared to suffer the company so long as she could pretend she wasn't there. Fact was, there were only five people on the base now anyway, Monolith and Lawmaker keeping watch over Tony, and her and Jeannie. All of the heroes had gone, Force 10 included, and all of the technical staff supplied by the United Nations Superheroic Council had been evacuated back to the Earth, as if that was somehow safer. The moon might take collateral damage, she supposed. Maybe it did make sense. Maybe she shouldn't be here at all. But she was just a regular person, after all, who…

  "We should go to the conference room," Jeannie said, breaking the silence and Sam's train of thought. Sam's brow furrowed in annoyance, and she shook her head slightly like she was brushing off a distracting insect.

  "The view is better from here."

  Jeannie clicked her tongue in impatience. Sam heard it and shook her head again.

  "The view is pretty but you can't see what's happening,
detective.
Up there we can listen to the comms and follow the battle."

  Sam jerked her head over her left shoulder, met Jeannie's eye, then walked off. Jeannie had been right, but she'd be damned to admit it.

  She came to a halt immediately, her shoes squeaking on the polished floor. Beside her, Jeannie swore.

  "Tony!"

  He stood in the doorway of the infirmary, wrapped in a blanket. He balanced uncertainly, one arm against the wall to support himself. He smiled weakly at them, risked moving his hand to push the hair from his eyes. He bunched the blanket up at his neck, trailing it like a superhero cape as he stepped forward.

  Jeannie rushed to help him. "Should you be up? I…" She didn't finish the sentence. Tony looked into her eyes with his own. The uniform blackness of them was horrifying. Tony saw her expression and smiled.

  "Yeah, I need to do something about that. Either somebody's got some magic juju they can wave at me, or I'll need to splash out on those Ray-Bans I've always wanted." He kept smiling until Jeannie's face broke into a matching grin. She hugged him.

  Lawmaker and Monolith appeared in the doorway. Lawmaker rolled his fists like a champion boxer ready for the next round.

  "Ma'am, keep away from the prisoner. He vanished from the bed and appeared in the doorway here. He must have residual power remaining." He paused, seeing that Tony and Jeannie were locked in an embrace that showed no sign of finishing. "Ah, I'd advise caution, ma'am."

  Sam waved the annoying hero away. "Leave it, Lawmaker. Blackbird?"

  Jeannie turned her head over Tony's shoulder and nodded at her. Sam in turn nodded to Lawmaker. "That will be all, thanks."

  Lawmaker straightened up and walked back towards the door. He didn't look happy and flexed his fingers, clenching and unclenching his fists. "I'll maintain watch in the corridor, ma'am." He paused, as if waiting for someone to tell him to stay instead, but when no such invitation came he turned and jogged down the corridor. The footfalls stopped as he put himself on guard at the far end. Monolith stayed close.

  "Allow me to escort you to the conference room," he said, then turned and walked away without waiting for a reply.

• • • •

Jeannie led Tony around the table and pushed him gently into Aurora's chair. She turned it to face the observation windows, and together they watched the fireworks in space for a moment. He exhaled sharply.

  "What's going on?"

  Sam pointed out the cluster of multicolored dots. "Superheroes." She then pointed at the yellowish glowing oblong that moved incrementally from left to right. "Bad guys."

  Tony frowned. Jeannie saw his expression and knelt on the floor next to him. "What's the matter?"

  Tony waved his hands at the window. "The superheroes are attacking the Thuban?"

  "Yep," said Sam. "Spaceworthy superheroes are defending the Earth and trying to breach the hull of the ship. Once an entry has been made, the terrestrial heroes will join the others aboard and try to take out the crew from the inside."

  Even before she had finished, Tony was shaking his head with increasing urgency. With blank black eyes it was difficult to tell where he was focusing, whether it was on Sam, or the window behind her, or just the empty middle distance.

  Jeannie looked at Sam, who just shrugged. She shuffled closer to Tony and put her arms around his shoulders. "What's wrong? Is there something the superheroes should know?"

  Tony nodded, rubbing his forehead. "It's not a ship, it has no crew. They're all going to die."

  "Who? The boarders?"

  "No, no, no, no, no." Tony's voice became increasingly fraught, words tripping over themselves as he struggled to speak. "All of them, they're all going to die. It's not a ship, it's part of the Thuban themselves. It can't be stopped. They'll all die and the Earth will be absorbed. It can't be stopped."

They were losing, and Aurora knew it. In fact the superhero armada was bound to fail, Aurora had seen it from the first few minutes, but he hadn't been sure and could never have given up. He was in charge, responsible for the whole assault. There was a lot of data to assimilate from two hundred solo superheroes and superteams, the constant cross-communication, endless chat in two dozen different languages. But he knew it, could feel it when he first sped towards the glowing Thuban form. Something wasn't right.

  For a while anyway, the superheroes put up a spectacular display. No, not spectacular.
Textbook.
Perfect formations, perfect maneuvers. A thousand forms of energy, technological, scientific and magical, unleashed the rage of the Earth at the aggressors. Aurora sped straight and true, opening with a sucker punch against the hull powerful enough to crack the continental shield of Australia. He unleashed a second, a third strike, then peeled off as the surface became an inferno. He flew up, then curved away, the Thuban now above his head. He flew and saw the enemy enveloped in a nova of energy. Superhero after superhero raced in after him, unleashing bolt upon bolt of energy while those with more one-to-one abilities closed in to melee the vast structure. Aurora steered between his soldiers, registering Linear streaking past, trailed by Supercharger running on a bridge of light projected by Silver Ghost, floating nearby.

  At the edge of the armada the raiding parties waited on their platforms. Aurora smiled, seeing how they itched to join the battle. Several saluted as he passed over the top, and he gestured towards those projecting the support structures − Helix, Lucifer Now, Doctor Mandragora, A Terrible Aspect, the Dragon Star and Mr Baltus Carnay acknowledged his fly-by as they protected their charges, waiting for the moment the Thuban ship was vulnerable enough for them to deliver the attackers.

  But as Aurora swept back around and over, his corona dragging a terrible wall of red fire behind him, he realized he'd been right in his first estimation.

  Something was wrong.

  The superheroes flew with astonishing speed and skill, unloading their payloads against the target, which glowed and fizzed and vanished now and again in flashes of light that seemed to illuminate all of space. But still the object powered on towards the Earth, its shape and form and speed unchanged. And, as Aurora noticed, without returning fire, apparently ignoring the army before it. He paused, hanging in space for just a moment to assess the battlefield. The attack had passed through at least four separate waves, and even now the superheroes had slowed, observing and assessing the results of their effort before plowing onwards with the defense. Aurora's ear crackled with seventyfive heroes asking him the same question all at once.

  "I'm not sure," he muttered to himself just before he touched the comm link on his belt. "Press the attack. Bluebell, Dragon Star, let's take a closer look."