Attempts

"The House of El is well known the scientific community. Kal-El's ancestor, Jel-El, had made many groundbreaking discoveries in morphology and physiology," Came a smooth feminine voice over Aisha's shoulder as the young Muslim swiped through the hologram in front of her.

"Kryptonian biology, right? Not human."

"No, of course not. Although human biology was studied the moment we had found Earth's existence, along with much other life systems found uniquely on this planet."

Aisha stopped her investigations and turned to look at the hologram of a tall, blonde woman, who looked remarkably like her, standing a few feet away. "How similar are we to humans then? If we have exactly the same organs, limbs, and features then we can't possibly that unrelated to each other."

"Of course, there had been speculations that the human race has branched out from our own people, but for millennias scientists have had too much evidence debunking that idea. Our cells are far too different from each other for us and them to be from the same species. Yet, with the recent knowledge that it is possible for humans and kryptonians to procreate, there is a large chance that it is possible."

"I don't know, it just seems too coincidental. Everything about us are exactly the same, except that we process energy directly from light sources like the sun and humans don't—well, not at the level we do."

"Many of our scientists would agree with you in that regard. The chance of us looking exactly the same as each other is infinitesimal, but if you look at other species like the Martians, Amazons, Thanagarians, Astrons, or Belishin, you will find that they look hold the same humanoid features, and can communicate and think just as we do. We aren't as unique as you would believe."

Aisha had to smile and concede to her point. There were many races that existed beyond humans and Kryptonians, and there was actually quite a number who could pass for human if it weren't for perhaps the color of their skin—not to be taken as a racist comment, take the Martians for example—or an extra limb attached to them.

"Ha! I didn't think that I would be arguing biology or evolution with my daughter when I downloaded my memories." The woman thought aloud, ruefully.

"You didn't know that you would have to leave me behind on Earth on the first place, so expect a lot of conversations about this kind of stuff."

The blonde woman, also known as Jan-Or, Aisha's biological mother, gave a tight smile in response.

Almost immediately when Aisha found the existence of Kryptonian technology, and with that her parents' replicated personalities, she asked why they had been gone since her birth. A lengthy and detailed explantation came right after that which had answered all of her questions.

First, they had introduced their race and why they were different from humans, their advanced civilization that they had lived in, and then finally delved into the matters that led to her being left behind on a planet so far away from theirs. Her biological father, Lew-Or, had been a type of solo-journalist who had created his own individual news outlet for Kyptonians and made his views clear on the mass genocide made upon other planets that held sentients with higher thought processes like themselves. Even though his opinions and broadcasts were highly unpopular with Kryptonians, who were known supremacists, the Kryptonian government did not appreciate the small—albeit millions out of tens of billions of people—who rallied behind him and began to protest against the murder of these innocent, defenseless beings. What ended up being the breaking point was when Lew-Or had found that the invasion of planets had not only been because of the harvesting of the core's energy, but because many Kryptonian families and businesses had succeeded in making an abundance amount of profit out of it. Leaking names of major and minor corrupt government officials and people of status and wealth encouraged Kryptonians spread ideas of anti-racism, life preservation, and bringing those people to justice—which the people of power did not appreciate the slightest.

Unwillingly appointed as leader of this budding movement, Aisha's father had to leave with his pregnant wife from their home solar system and live on the run after receiving many death threats from the government, supremest groups, and from the profiteers from the occupation of different planets. Of course, once the information about the threats, the people involved, and her parents fleeing was released somehow to the public, there was a huge uproar and tens of millions of people left their homes to protest against the injustice done to them and force the government to change.

Still, the individuals caught of their illegal activity were determined to see them dead and had paid mercenaries to chase them across the galaxy to finish them off. Since it was common knowledge that Kryptonians gained powers through the sun, they had run off to the furthest galaxy they could that contained a sun potent enough to give them abilities to protect themselves.

Meanwhile, in their attempt to get away, Aisha was delivered... but their happiness did not last long. The mercenaries had caught up with them nearly a year after her birth and forced her parents to send Aisha in a cyro-craft, a spaceship that contained chambers for cyrostasis, ahead of them with most of the power from their vehicle in a last ditch attempt to get her there safely. They hoped to join her there if they ever survived the paid killers, but they hadn't. As their spaceship battled the mercenaries in space, they were killed after an unsuccessful attempt to eject from their ship and make to safety without them knowing.

There on Earth, she was found by an old Spanish man who live with his young adult daughter in the never ending hills of Covarrubias, Spain. The young woman, Lisa she was called, ended up adopting her and then married to Aisha's father Ahmed after moving to Madrid to study in the Complutense University of Madrid and meeting him there.

Santiago, Aisha's adoptive grandfather, stored the cyro-craft in his wine cellar and left it there untouched after a few attempts to see what was inside. The first and only time he had been able to was when it opened involuntarily to reveal a baby girl inside, and once he had removed her, it shut closed and never opened again.

Aisha remembers how her mother relayed the entire thing, expressing her shock when she had came back from her job to find her father in the house holding and feeding a baby. From that day forward, she became the mother of the abandoned child and made a life that included her.

Only two years after marrying, Lisa and Ahmed adopted two more boys, Ibrahim and Musa, orphans from Egypt. Together, they moved to America and lived there happily. Ahmed and Lisa built their business from almost nothing with their sons eventually stepping up to the plate once they were in their late teens—which took off a lot of their financial burdens.

Aisha in turn grew up having already known that she was adopted and aware of how she was found. Truthfully, what helped was the fact that she had her brothers to lean on whenever she felt conflicted. Since they were all in the same boat, there wasn't really any feelings of jealously or displacement within their family. Of course, that didn't mean that Aisha didn't go through moments where she felt like a foreigner amongst humans in general. She did, and there were times where her strength and intense senses caused her grief and made her feel tired of hiding her true self.

Inquiries about her powers arose around her early teens to which her parents responded by eventually allowing her to visit her grandfather in Spain for a summer. There, she met the man who had found her early morning, just before the sun rose, and decided to bring her into the family. Santiago showed her the spacecraft that brought her to Earth, which then lead to her finding about the other spacecraft that followed after her.

The female Kryptonian remembered the day when the cyro-craft opened. It almost seemed like a thing out of movies witnessing it turn on and then a voice coming out of almost no where. Koren, the AI introduced itself as, and after answering many of her questions it showed her the coordinates of another spacecraft—its own mothership.

Although it still was floating about in outer space, Koren placated her by stating that it was possible for her to get there. Too her immense surprise, the super computer did not suggest using the cyro-craft to get there though.

"You sure that this is possible? It really doesn't seem like it." A fourteen year old Aisha questioned again to the ever patient AI.

"Yes, Arz Yew-Or. The only thing that will be able be afflicted by damage will be your clothing."

The teenager whipped her head around to stare at the computer in surprise and then distaste at the thought. "Nope, no. I will not be floating around space nude. Or meeting my parents butt-naked."

"Unfortunately, you will need to achieve a high velocity to arrive at the mothership in a short period of time. Since you don't have sources to a Kryptonian suit that will withstand the journey, your clothing will have to face the consequences of such speed if you want to get there within a favorable timeframe." They countered cooly. "There is also the option of taking the blanket from your infant-hood with you. It is made of Kryptonian fabric and will not deteriorate during your time in outer-space."

Aisha thought of the soft, white blanket that her grandfather showed her when he had explained how she was found. She then flickered out and into being with said blanket in her hand. "This one you mean?"

"Yes."

It looked to be only four by three feet. Only long enough to cover what really mattered—if she weren't Muslim that is. "There's nothing else? Maybe something even a little longer?"

"No."

Okay then.

Aisha tried the blanket over her clothing and stifled a sigh when it only covered her chest and just above the knee. When she tried tying it to see how it would hold, she ended up being surprised at how durable it felt to her. With most fabrics, she had to deal with them extremely delicately in order to not rip or stretch them, or leave a permanent wrinkle.

"Won't it open during flight?" She asked as she tugged experimentally on the knots she made to tie the blanket around her as a makeshift dress.

"It is possible, but you can hold onto it to keep in place."

That wasn't really the answer she wanted to hear but she let it go.

After untying the blanket and folding it, she collected all the courage she had in her 5'7 body and left the former wine cellar. Now the only thing left to do was convince her grandfather to let her travel into space. No pressure.

The girl walked up the stairs and went straight to the kitchen when she heard a heart beating slightly faster than normal and the rustle of a cloth against a smooth surface. When she looked in, she found a thin woman using a rag to clean the counters roughly.

Holding onto the doorway, Aisha broke the silence. "Buenos días, Señora Gabriella."

"Buenos días, mijita. Lunch is going to be ready in about an hour. Please tell your grandpapa; he's in the garden now." She informed in her thick Spanish accent after pausing on one particular stain that was beginning to get on her nerves.

"Okay, gracías. I was going to him anyway." The teen threw over her shoulder as she hurried to catch her grandfather before he moved on.

Outside, she followed the noises of a rapid heartbeat, heavy breathing, and a shovel pounding into the ground—scraping rocks and ripping roots apart.

"There you are, papa." Aisha said as she stopped a few feet away. She watched him for a few seconds and then nudged his arm. "Here, let me help you."

"Gracías, amor." He told her breathlessly as he stepped to the side and wiped his face with the handkerchief he kept in his pocket.

The girl slid the shovel into the earth easily and scooped the dirt to the side. Santiago watched with an impressed expression as the hole grew larger and deeper in less than a minute—work that would have taken him about 20 minutes to achieve, struggle and all.

His granddaughter had helped him a lot during her time spent with him. Many things around the house and farm had been repaired because once he realized how her abilities could be utilized, and since there was not much she could do after boring herself to death with her laptop, she spent most of her time distracting herself with the farm life.

What should have taken months for Santiago to fix and clean around the farm got repaired in less than a week when the teen decided to put her electronics away and venture outside.

'Perhaps I should ask her parents to allow her here every summer,' the man thought amusedly to himself with hands on his hips.

Aisha stepped back and stabbed the shovel into the ground, pulling it back up a little when she realized she applied too much pressure and buried it way over its shoulder.

"That good enough?"

Her grandfather looked at the hole closely. "Mm, yes. Looks good."

Aisha leaned on the shovel, placing her chin on top of the handle. "Hey, Grandpa..." She began tentatively. "I was talking to Koren just now..."

"Yes?"

"Um, uhhh—" Aisha quickly lost the nerve to explain, especially when she realized how stupid she sounded when she tried structure her words in her brain.

"Go on, tell me," Santiago said with an encouraging smile.

"Okay," she sighed, "I know how crazy this sounds and you'd never let me do this but I have to try."

His brows raised and his smile became wider. Even before he had heard of what she wanted to say, he was already amused by her warning and wondered what the docile girl could possibly have wanted for her to become so hesitant and nervous.

"I was talking to Koren just now and they told me that there's a mothership out there in space. If I want to meet my parents and learn more about my people then—"

Santiago's heart jumped to his throat. "Wait, what? Your parents? They are alive?"

"No, no. They would only be recorded memories made into algorithms, which means that every response is calculated so that it would be like something they would say or do in real-life."

"But that means that they're not alive, right?"

"Um...to an extent. Koren told me that they don't have feelings like us, although they can think, react, and evolve as we do."

"Okay...so you want to meet them."

"...Yes."

Her grandfather gave her an uncertain look. "In outer-space."

Aisha scrubbed her hands over her face. "Ugggghhhhh. I know how insane it sounds to you but you have to look at the facts here." She waved her hands over her body. "I'm practically invincible and don't need to breathe. I'm also really, really fast and would get there a lot faster than any transportation vehicle you can think of."

He scoffed and gave a hollow laugh. "I can't even believe that you'd think that I'd give you permission to go to space! What kind of grandfather would ever allow their grandchild to leave this planet willingly? No, I'm sorry. This is not possible."

Before her grandfather could turn to leave, Aisha zipped to his side and hold onto his arm. "Listen, there's literally nothing out there that could hurt me, Grandpa! I'd be as safe in space as I would be here!"

"Aisha, I am one of the very few people who actually know that aliens exist. And if someone as powerful as you can exist, there is a very good possibility that there are some incredibly strong creatures that live in the universe right now. If there are more of your kind roaming around our galaxy and happens to come across you, who knows what could happen. They might even take you away since you still are just a child!"

As he ranted angrily, Aisha began to come to tears. With a wavering voice she said, "But I just want to meet my parents. That's all I want."

Santiago deflated when he saw her wipe her tears and brought her carefully into his arms. "Preciosa, I can't let you go. I love you too much for you to leave. Living hundreds of kilometers away from you is hard enough so imagine what I would feel if you where thousands—millionsaway."

The teenager nodded as she cried silently in his embrace and after a while she croaked a muffled, "Okay."

He sighed heavily as he petted her soft hair. "I love you, Aisha. Very deeply."

"I love you too, Grandpa."