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He Ain't Heavy

Chapter 28: Rescue Me

Summary:

General Sam Lane may have retired from the DoD, but he is still available when they need his help. Sam thinks he might need some extra help on what should be a routine job, so he invites his superpowered grandson Jonathan to come with him. Jonathan, in spite of not wanting to assume the heroic persona of his father, has to step into the role when things go very wrong and he is in a unique position to help.

Chapter Text

Jonathan Kent received a text from his grandfather inviting him to take a flight with him from Metropolis to Washington DC on a new military jet. Jon had always been close with his grandfather, but now that he was retired, he had more time available for his twin grandsons.

When Jonathan texted back “when?” the answer from General Lane was “now”. That meant the General expected him to fly from the farm in Smallville to Metropolis. For Jonathan, that was not a long flight and he wondered why his grandfather was asking him to accompany him on the flight to DC.

Minutes after receiving the text Jonathan was at his grandfather’s Metropolis home. The General was waiting in driveway to drive to the military airfield just outside of Metropolis. On the way, his grandfather explained to him that this new jet was small, only a few passengers and one pilot, but flew at supersonic speeds. It was especially good for shorter hops like the one they were about to take as opposed to transatlantic flights.

It was designed to minimize sonic boom by being smaller and had an advanced aerodynamic design to reduce the boom. Jonathan himself made little sonic boom when he flew since he was very small compared to a plane and tried not to go supersonic until he was at a high altitude. A long carpet of broken windows, according to his father, was not allowed except in the most dire circumstances. When his mother was about to be shot, even at his small profile, he had left some broken windows in this path since he was flying lower than usual.

When they reached the airport Jon saw that the plane they were flying was small and narrow. One pilot in the narrow cockpit and 5 rows of 2 seats. It felt like being inside a cigar tube. Jon assumed his grandfather just wanted company but the young air force pilot, seeing a teenage passenger, spent time explaining the physics of supersonic flights and the associated effects. It was hard for Jon to become too enthusiastic since they would be flying close to Mach 2. Jonathan normally cruised at Mach 6 and could push much faster if he wanted to.

General Lane understood that his grandson was not impressed with flight at Mach 2 and they sat and talked during the flight. It was a strange feeling for Jonathan to be a passenger in a plane after flying himself without a plane. Jon occasionally glanced outside the plane to check their progress. Once they were over the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, he knew they were close to Washington DC.

Jon leaned back and closed his eyes to appreciate the now unfamiliar sensation of flight inside an aircraft. Just as his eyes closed there was an explosion. His eyes flew open. He saw immediately that the cockpit was severely damaged, and the plane was heading into a tailspin. Everything in the plane was being pushed outward toward the fuselage from the centrifugal forces of the spinning plane as it rapidly descended. Oxygen masks dropped from above the seats but his grandfather was being helplessly pinned in his seat by force of the spinning plane which was preventing him from reaching the mask.

Jon, not affected by the centrifugal force, jumped out of his seat, snapping his seat belt, and put the mask on his grandfather. He listened for the heartbeat of the pilot but there was none. The pilot was beyond his help. The centrifugal force was getting more powerful and the temperature in the plane was dropping. He motioned to his grandfather to take a deep breath from the oxygen mask because they had to get out of the plane. Jon hesitated. He easily had enough strength to pull his grandfather out of the seat but was afraid he would injure his grandfather if he tried it. Jon grabbed the entire seat and yanked if off the floor of the plane. Then holding his grandfather, he kicked open the door of the plane and let himself get thrown clear.

Jon hung in midair for a moment watching the plane dropping rapidly toward the water off the Atlantic coast and then checked his grandfather. He was gasping for air in the high altitude. Jon dropped downward quickly until he was just above the cloud cover. His grandfather was breathing more easily but shivering. He used his heat vison to warm him gently. Jonathan watched the doomed plane hit the water off the Atlantic coast and begin to sink. He looked back down at his grandfather. His eyes were closed.

He was about to head to medical help when his grandfather regained consciousness. For a moment he couldn’t recall what had happened and why he was hanging in midair with his grandson. Then it came back to him as his mind cleared. Where is the plane? He asked. Jonathan shook his head. “The pilot?” Jon shook his head again. “Did you see where the plane went down?”

“Yes, sir. I can see it from here. It’s in the water still dropping toward the seabed.”

Jon’s grandfather was having trouble speaking but he wouldn’t let Jon stop him. He told him they were going to land at an unmarked airfield with no control tower. Using the easy to spot Washington Monument as a marker, Sam instructed his grandson how to find the hidden field. Jon flew carefully above the clouds until he could drop down right onto the field.

Jon looked at the pale face of Sam Lane and began to worry. “Grandpa, I think you need medical help.”

You’re right, but we have to be cautious. The field was completely deserted except for an empty car waiting for them. Sam had Jon drive them to a nearby military facility where they were stopped momentarily at the gate and then admitted.

Someone who clearly knew Sam well, and who was dressed in the same uniform that his grandfather used to wear, came running out to meet them. The servicemen at the gate had called ahead for an ambulance which was waiting for them. Jon insisted on going with his grandfather. Something was happening, he wasn’t sure what it was, but his grandfather seemed to be at the center of it. The explosion on the plane could have been sabotage. He wasn’t going to let himself be separated from his grandfather just when he might need his help. One of the MPs denied permission for him to go in the ambulance and tried to pull him out with absolutely no success. Finally, his grandfather’s friend ordered the soldier to stand down. He closed the ambulance doors himself and banged on the side of it. The ambulance to them on a quick and short ride to the medical facility of the base.

Jonathan waited just outside the medical ward while they checked his grandfather. Jon hoped he had gotten his grandfather to a low altitude quickly enough and that the centrifugal force had not somehow injured him. When the doctor finally emerged, he asked him “Are you Jonathan Kent?”

Jonathan said yes.

“Your grandfather said I should talk to you directly. He is going to be fine. He has a little frost bite, but his blood oxygen level is now close to normal. He will be out in a minute. Please try to convince him to stay in the wheelchair and use the oxygen for at least for a while.”

Shortly afterwards, much to his relief, Jon saw his grandfather wheeled out to him. He had oxygen flowing into his nose through two prongs. As soon as the nurse walked away, he tried to take it off.

“I don’t need it” his grandfather growled.

Jonathan grabbed his grandfather’s hand gently but firmly so he couldn’t grab at the cannula. You got me into this and all I want from you is to wear the damn oxygen. Jon looked directly at him as his grandfather tried to loosen his grandson’s grip. As gentle as it was, it wasn’t allowing any movement.

Finally, Sam Lane looked at his grandson and smiled. “I know better than to argue with a Lane with that look on his face. You can let go now.”

Someone in uniform came to wheel Sam to the office of the friend who had met them at the gate when they first arrived. Jon followed and no one objected.

Jon sat in the office with his grandfather and his friend. His grandfather’s friend did not wear a name tag or any identification except his rank.

Once the door was closed Genera Lane addressed his grandson. “Jonathan, I was carrying an important package in that plane. It is intelligence we have gathered covertly and are sending to the Ukraine. Not only have we lost the intelligence but if someone else gets to the information before we do then we will have compromised and endangered some of our most reliable sources.”

Jonathan waited for more of the story. The mystery General continued. The plane went down in an area that is too deep for us to recover it without using diving platforms, robot undersea remote equipment and in general making a show that would mark where the plane is. The Russians are ahead of us in few areas, but one of them is deep sea operations. That’s how they to blow holes in undersea pipelines.”

“Jonathan remained silent preferring to let the General continue.”

“The package is still on that plane. Your grandfather thinks I need to talk to you about this.”

Jon looked at his grandfather who nodded to him. Jon sighed. It would reveal more of himself than he intended to especially at this time in his life.

“Sir, I can recover the package without any special equipment.”

“We need it done immediately.”

“Tonight is fine” Jon responded.

“Your grandfather will tell you exactly what the package looks like and where it is located in the plane.”

“What about recovering the body of the pilot?” Jonathan asked. “He was fatally injured but still aboard the plane as it sank.”

“We can’t recover him either and for the same reason. The target was your grandfather and that package. We need that package back.”

“What will happen if they figure out that neither my grandfather nor I are down there?”

“They will become suspicious, probably abort their activities and go underground for a while, but they will continue to gather intelligence.”

“What would happen if they got down there and no bodies were in the wreck?”

The general laughed. “They might not know what to make of that. If they hadn’t observed any diving operation it might make them think we have capabilities that we do not actually have. It would certainly confuse and worry them.”

“Sir, I could recover the body of the pilot without any equipment.”

There was a long pause in the conversation.

“That is unexpected, but I must warn you, you would be recovering a corpse that has been in the water long enough to become extremely distorted. Body parts may have been severed in the crash. Parts may have been eaten by undersea life. Even if you are physically capable, this is going to be an extreme experience. I’m not sure a 16-year-old is ready for that, and retrieving the package is more important.”

“But there would be a strategic value to it, if only to freak out the people who sabotaged the flight.”

“Son, we are already asking a lot of you.”

“I can recover the body of the pilot” Jon stated again a bit more forcefully.

“Do you know where the wreck is?”

“Yes, sir,” Jonathan responded.

“Fine. We will provide an inflatable body bag with locators attached. You recover the body, put it in the bag and let it inflate. We will take care of the rest.”

Jonathan had one condition. “No one can be watching when I do it.”

“The locators do not activate until you let the bag inflate. The recovery team will be on shore waiting.”
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Jon had never travelled undersea. Basically, it was flying through water. When he dove down to the wreck the intense pressure didn’t bother him, and he didn’t need any air tanks for breathing. The recovery operation was as described, a nightmare. He clamped down on his emotions, something he was already good at, and completed the task mechanically.

When he was done with the recovery of the pilot’s body, he let the body bag they provided inflate and then swam to the back of the plane. Near the tail was a safe. Jonathan tried the combination he was given. As expected, there was already too much silt in the lock for it to work properly. He hit the door to the safe with the side of his fist and it crumpled inward enough that he could rip the door off of the safe. He grabbed the package that was in it and, instead of shooting out into the sky, he swam for the shore and walked out of the ocean like any ordinary person would. He was picked up by a DoD car. He sat silently in the back seat of the car still soaking wet as he was driven back to the base.

When he got back to the base he was escorted immediately to his grandfather and his friend who were waiting for him. Jon handed his grandfather the recovered package.

“The body bag was recovered, son. You did a good job” he said quietly with his arm around his grandson.

Jonathan was standing in still damp swim clothes that had been provided for him. He wasn’t cold but he wanted to get back into dry clothes. “I need to change” was all he said.

The guard will escort you to the locker room where you can shower and change back into your own clothes. If you are hungry, we can go into DC to have dinner. Otherwise, we have a plane standing by ready to fly both of you back to Metropolis.”

“General, I would love to some other time, but I really would like to head home right away.” Jon answered.

“You must be exhausted. We can get you on that plane as soon as you are dressed.”

Jonathan’s grandfather knew better. Jonathan did not get exhausted, but he couldn’t say that. He turned to his grandson. “Jonathan, my blood oxygen is normal, and I feel fine. You don’t need to rush me home to bed.”

His grandfather was partially right. He did want him to get home to rest, but there was more to it. Jon had always felt safe with his grandfather as a little boy and in the past two years his house had been a refuge for him from the disaster his life in Smallville had been for a while. After Jonathan had pulled his unconscious grandfather from the falling plane, he had floated for just a moment in midair to check his grandfather for injuries. When he looked down at his grandfather’s face it had a bluish tinge to it, and he was gasping for air. It had scared Jonathan. Now he just wanted to be back in that safe refuge of his grandfather’s home with grandfather safely resting. Normally Jonathan would love to go out for dinner with his grandfather’s friends, but not tonight. From the plane crash to the recovery of the pilot, and from the mid-air rescue to the deep-sea swim, it had not been an easy day for him. If he had learned anything in the time he spent in Smallville, it was that he had to be easier on himself. Jonathan had suppressed too much of his own emotions and needs and right now, Jonathan wanted to go back to Metropolis to the house that was his refuge.

“Sir, I really would love to come back on a better day for that dinner. I will enjoy it more. Right now, I would like to get back to Metropolis.”

Sam’s friend turned to Jonathan. “I understand completely. Is there anything we can do for you? If you have any intention of going to one of the military academies after high school, I can clear the way for you.”

:I appreciate the offer sir, but I think I am a Met U boy. Family tradition.”

“Is there something else we can do for you to return the favor you have done for us today?”

“There is something. There is a young man my age being held in the DoD facility near the old X-K mines in Smallville.”

“You know about the X-K mines?”

“I live in Smallville, sir.”

“This young man deserves to be locked up, but he is locked up under extreme conditions. He has nothing to do to pass the time and is in a solitary cell 24/7. I want something interesting for him to do. Books, television, crossword puzzles, video games, anything a smart 16-year-old boy would be interested in, and I want continuing access to him in his cell for me and for my brother.”

“I believe I am aware of who you are talking about. He is a very antagonistic young man. The head of the facility had taken an extreme dislike to him.”

Yes. That would be him. But he is 16 years old, and this is cruel and unusual punishment. He doesn’t even have a bed or a chair.

The General considered the request for a moment. “I will override the policy regarding this young man and the conditions under which he is being held will be improved as you have requested.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Jon-El, he thought, was going to be in for one hell of a surprise.