Release date: January 28, 2019
Subgenre: Superheroes
Subgenre: Superheroes
About Ever the Hero:
Superheroes are big business. Imagine not being able to afford them.
Kit Baldwin just wants to make rent. The only work she can find in the ruins of her devastated city is scavenging for alien technology. When she finds a powerful alien weapon, her discovery pays off more than she could have hoped: it draws the attention of the most powerful of the superhuman Empowered, Valene.
Valene hears everything, everywhere. She suffers for it, and as they begin a precipitous romance, Kit believes she can use the weapon she’s scavenged to mitigate Valene’s pain. If she can’t, Valene will retreat to the soundlessness of space. Without Valene’s compassion, the stricken city is left to the mercy of Valene’s ruthless father, who denies the assistance the city needs unless it can pay for it.
As Valene’s condition worsens, Kit becomes more desperate and unleashes the full power of the alien weapon. In an instant, she is transformed into a being of cosmic power. She can acquire the knowledge and energy of anything – or anyone – she touches.
Kit Baldwin just wants to make rent. The only work she can find in the ruins of her devastated city is scavenging for alien technology. When she finds a powerful alien weapon, her discovery pays off more than she could have hoped: it draws the attention of the most powerful of the superhuman Empowered, Valene.
Valene hears everything, everywhere. She suffers for it, and as they begin a precipitous romance, Kit believes she can use the weapon she’s scavenged to mitigate Valene’s pain. If she can’t, Valene will retreat to the soundlessness of space. Without Valene’s compassion, the stricken city is left to the mercy of Valene’s ruthless father, who denies the assistance the city needs unless it can pay for it.
As Valene’s condition worsens, Kit becomes more desperate and unleashes the full power of the alien weapon. In an instant, she is transformed into a being of cosmic power. She can acquire the knowledge and energy of anything – or anyone – she touches.
Excerpt:
CHECK ONE: ◻ Empowered ◻ Powerless
I bite my lip. “Is it a problem I don’t
have any powers?”
The woman from HR wrinkles her nose. Must
be a problem. I can’t tell. I’m no good at interviews. I’m no good at people,
which is unfortunate given how many of them there are. Focus. Check the box. An
interview at Great Power is a big deal, even if it’s open. I should be grateful
for the opportunity. I should be terrified, but I’m not. That part of me never
got switched on. Maybe it never got installed. Doesn’t matter. I can’t afford
to be afraid; I’ve got to find a job, and soon. If I don’t, Ma and I will be
out on the street.
“Generally, we employ Empowered,“ she says,
and a stray lock of her hair levitates back in line with the rest. Telekinetic.
Not telepathic, though; I probably wouldn’t have made it this far. “But some
powerless work here. You can have superpowers, but not a brain.”
“I have a brain,” I say. “Probably goes
without saying.”
“You’d be surprised.” She takes my
application. “What is it you scrap and salvage?”
Good thing she can’t read minds.
“Anything.”
A constant stream of people flows past me
through the atrium of the Blackwood Building, one of the greatest engineering
wonders in the world. The tower is a giant glass music box, all its floors,
stairwells and elevator shafts exposed within a transparent shell free of any
obvious architectural support. This woman frowning through my interview sees
right through me, I think, but there’s no wonder.
“You didn’t go to college?”
I sit up straight. Smooth out the wrinkles
in this blouse I thought was decent leaving the apartment, but now feels like
someone else’s skin. “My dad died. My mom… I take care of her. It’s just the
two of us. So a job here would be – ”
“I don’t live over there,” she says,
wiggling her fingers toward the west, “but I’d think at twenty-seven, you’d
have a lot more experience than you do. Retail. Something.”
I’ve loads of experience. Most of it
doesn’t go on a resume. “Jobs are hard to come by across the river.”
“Your accent. What is that?”
My lips twist together. “My mother is
Irish.”
“I was going to say. I didn’t think there
were, you know.” She wiggles her fingers again. “Black Irish.”
“Do you have a pen? You’ll need to sign an
NDA.”
She smiles. Sort of. “What brought her
over?”
“I suppose she thought she was going to get
a job here.”
The woman puts on one of those smiles
people wear, meant to convey sympathy. “What was your name again?”
“Kit.”
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About Darby Harn:
Darby Harn is the author of the forthcoming novel EVER THE HERO.
His fiction appears in Strange Horizons, Interzone and other
venues. He graduated from the University of Iowa and studied in the
Irish Writing Program at Trinity College, in Dublin.
