Read Online Only Superhuman by Christopher L. Bennett - Free Book Online

didn’t,” Emry said, her huge eyes solemn. “There was a war.”
    Richard nodded. “By trying to control things, Thorne’s people just turned both sides against them. They made Earth more afraid of domination by the mods overhead, and they made the mods more afraid of losing control of their own homes. So both sides got angrier and started fighting. The Belt got dragged into it too because of their own issues with Earth. Everyone knew it could get horribly out of hand—how easy it would be to drop an asteroid on Earth and devastate the planet. And everyone knew Earth had orbital weapons that could retaliate if that ever happened. But they were caught in a spiral of mistrust and…”
    “Richard.” Lyra’s voice was as gentle as the brush of her cool hand across his, but it got through to him. As precocious as Emry was, there was no sense scaring her with the details of how close humanity had come to cataclysmic war.
    “Well, let’s just say people almost lost control of their power in a very bad way. But there were good people on both sides, including Vanguardians and some of the first Troubleshooters, who stopped them from making a terrible mistake. And once people saw what had almost happened, they knew they had to find a better answer. That was the Great Compromise: Earth got to be in charge of everything inside Luna’s orbit, in exchange for the Belt getting its independence. And all the habitats in Earth orbit that didn’t want to live under Earth’s government would move to the Belt.”
    He sighed. “And that included Vanguard. Even though they’d helped make the peace and saved countless lives, people on both sides still didn’t trust them. They got convinced that the best thing for everyone was if they went away to the Belt.”
    “But they were still superheroes, right?” Emry asked. “Did they team up with the Troubleshooters?” Emry frowned, puzzled, as Richard closed off. He knew he’d failed to hide his anger from her. “Daddy?”
    “Let’s just say … Thorne and the others decided to stay in their room and sulk. They figured people had been ungrateful at Earth, so they wouldn’t be any different in the Belt. So they moved their habitat way out to the Outers, even farther than Greenwood. And when all the new independent nations and immigrant habs in the Belt started fighting … well, they decided not to help.”
    “ What?! Don’t they know anything about being superheroes? It’s not about what you get out of it! You do it because people need you!”
    Richard beamed at his daughter and took her in his arms. “Ohh, punkin, I’m so proud of you. And I agree with you. I … I couldn’t fight in the war or the troubles that followed. I didn’t want to hurt anybody. But I had to go and help where I could, to do rescue work and stuff.” He sighed. “The others didn’t want me to go. Thorne wanted us to live on our own, build a separate society where nobody would bother us or hurt us. He could be incredibly persuasive.”
    “Did Grandma Rachel want you to go?”
    He hesitated. What could he tell his daughter? That his mother had cared more about her research than her son? That she’d hardly even seemed to notice when he left? “She … was very dedicated to Thorne’s dream. But she didn’t try to stop me from doing what I thought was right.” It was the closest he’d ever come to lying to his child.
    Emry got that storytelling gleam in her eye. “Once they were heroes,” she intoned. “Now they’ve given up and are hiding from the world. But one man carries on their legacy. It’s Super-Daddy!” They laughed and fell together in a mock-wrestling match. “And I’m your sidekick, the Emerald Blaze!”
    “Ohh! The Emerald Blaze! Look, there she goes, streaking across the sky!” And he lifted his girl up and flew her around the room.
    August 2098
    It was a bright, warm day, a milder emulation of the summer back on Earth, and Emry had been making the most of it, engaged