Yue

 21st January

14:55 GMT

Light from the Halls'-. Late.. Halls..? They're not called 'Hall' any more and they're not married, and I can hardly call them 'the Hawks' when I'm about to visit a planet of hawk people. Old Hawks? Whatever, their short range teleporter lights up and deposits Mr Hall into space. He turns his helmeted head around and raises his right hand to hail me.

I smile and wave back. "Seals holding?"

He shifts his arms and legs around to test his mobility. The Nth metal lets him fly under his own power far more easily than gas thrusters would, though it's still not completely instinctual. Completing his test, he taps his belt to activate his radio.

"Confirmed. No leaks, movement good." He floats back from the ship slightly. "Beginning a visual inspection of the ship exterior."

With the ship's shields set to low power, I can see through the canopy as Ms Parker makes eye contact with her son and raises her right hand in acknowledgement. Naturally I checked all of this before we left the ground, but it's sensible for them to get into good habits, and I'm not surprised that Ms Parker née Chay-ara taught him to do it that way.

"Orange Lantern to Hawkwoman. We have made Earth-orbit. Ship looks good." Orichalcum might not do everything Nth metal can, but it serves just as well for hull plating. I'll keep recording what it does so that I can report back to Hephaestus and Vulcan about it.

"Yes, we watched your ascent. We'll be with you in.. two minutes."

I turn and look back towards the horizon. Yes, I see them. The contrast between the two ships is interesting. The forward sweeping wing design is a point of commonality, but in the case of the modern Hawks' ship it's clearly a functional wing, designed to be able to keep the vessel flying through lift when the main booster is active. With the Halls' ship, the design looks more decorative. Its wings would allow it to undergo a controlled crash, but it's designed to be kept aloft purely by Nth metal flight systems rather than the mix of Nth metal and conventional space aged engineering.

I suppose that the Thanagarian government didn't want too much Nth metal ending up in alien hands just in case something happened to the Hawks.

The new ones.

"I see you. Lantern Dul, do you want to transport your ship, or shall I do it?"

"The aim is to get to Thanagar as fast as possible. You are far faster than me."

"Very well. I'll warp us there once you arrive." I turn back to Mr Hall. "Silver Scarab, is the hull in one piece?"

He looks my way. "Silver Scarab, huh? Guess it goes with the costume." He turns his attention back to the hull. "Looks good. No warping, no sign of heat build up or cracking. No sign of escaping gas. Dad?"

"Confirmed. Internal sensors show green across the board."

"Sorry, do you.. not want me to call you Silver Scarab?"

"I don’t know. I haven't been Silver Scarab for over a decade. And it's not like I'm hiding my identity from anyone, least of all Mom's side of the family."

"It's been seven thousand years. I doubt we'll meet any of my relatives. Not without a gene clinic doing a comparison."

"Do you remember your original family? Your first incarnation was a while ago."

"I… Think I do. I can't promise that I'm not confusing them with one of my other sets of parents, but they were the only ones with wings."

"Have you..? Either of you, told your current parents about this?"

Mr Cantrell lets out a huff-laugh. "Yeah, we did. Mine aren't sure whether I've gone crazy or not, and Joe and Megan Parker are pretty sure we have."

"Mom was happy that we're getting married, at least."

"We've spent more of our lives married than not. The only question is, do we have a church service or get Adom to marry us?"

"Shouldn't we ask Rama? We do reincarnate, after all. And anyway, if you're thinking of Kahndaq in the old days you know full well your people didn’t have a marriage ceremony. Dad will kill us if we have a civil ceremony."

"Mom? Dad? Can I come back on board?"

"Oh! Sorry." There's a flicker of light as the teleporter activates once more.

"So was that a 'no' to Silver Scarab?"

"Yeah, Hector's fine. And are you sure you're not still married?"

Through the canopy I see Mr Cantrell and Ms Parker look at each other. Mr Cantrell shrugs. "We did die, son. I'm pretty sure that's an 'honorable discharge'."

"Marriage law hasn't really kept up with the impermanence of death. Though I suspect that Lord Rama would either say that you should marry other people in order to move towards spiritual liberation, or that you've already demonstrably transcended the wheel and so are married permanently regardless of what face you wear in any particular life."

"Wait, if Kahndaq didn't have a wedding…" Mr Cantrell sits back in his chair. "No, you're right, it didn't… But we had a ceremony. I don’t remember every detail-."

Ms Parker smiles fondly at him. "That was because you left them up to me; your beautiful winged bride from the heavens."

"That was a Thanagarian ceremony?"

"Why do you think you wore your wing harness?"

"Oh! No, you're right, I remember now! And we had an argument because I didn't want to disturb their bodies…"

"Ah… Dad? What bodies?"

"The other thanagarians, the ones who died during the crash, or… Just after. Chay-ara thought the Kahndaqi reverence for the physical remains of the dead was… Bizarre."

"I've had dozens of lifetimes to get used to it now."

Hector takes his mask off, clearly not understanding what they're talking about. "Alright, but why did you need them for the wedding?"

Mr Cantrell shrugs, his wing harness moving as he does so. "Son, I'm human, and unlike your mother I always have been. Where did you think these wings came from?"

…

Huh. I suppose that makes sense.

"You cut-? They're from one of the other..?

"Where did you think I got wings that let me fly?"

"I thought it was the Nth metal in the harness! And.. birds. For the.. feathers!"

Ms Parker shakes her head. "We were active as Hawkman and Hawkgirl for seven years before we found where Adom put this ship after Hath-Set murdered us. Finding our bodies to reclaim our grave goods was far easier."

"Speaking of… Any luck finding this generation's Hath-Set? I realise that reincarnation takes some of the sting out of being murdered, but I'm sure you'd rather avoid it."

Mr Cantrell shakes his head. "Helene Astar and Rajak Darkraven are both dead, we checked that. Which is in line with what usually happens." Hector's jaw tightens at the mention of the people who murdered his parents. "Whoever's coming after us, it's someone new."

"Of course, if you stay on Thanagar long term… It won't be a problem."

"Huh." He and his fiancée look at each other. "I suppose it wouldn't. That might be worth considering."

"We'll see how things go. I'm going to get more of Chay-ara's memories back when we start visiting places, but I've been human longer than I've been thanagarian."

"Illustres."

I look around as the Modern Hawks' ship matches our velocity, raising my right hand in the direction of the command module. Alright then, Thanagar that way.

"Stand by for warp. Warping in three, two one."

Orange light shines and space bends.