Chapter No.44. Freefall.

The next day, Janet received the call, but she handed the phone to her husband. "It's NASA . . . again."

Robert received the phone. "Yes?"

"We'd like to discuss a new project with you," a woman's voice said.

"Okay, we'll be there." He gave the phone back to his wife to hang up. "They want to discuss a new mission."

Both his wife and son didn't verbally react to his statement. They prepared to teleport.

The Steris family appeared in the JPL mission room in their uniforms.

Jason gestured to an older woman with grey hair. "This is Janice Webber. She's in charge of the US operation of the ISS."

Janice looked over the three superheroes before she began "As you may know, the ISS has been abandoned because of several damaging object collisions. The International coalition has decided that it's time for a new space station, and it's scheduled to be constructed in one of the Moon-Earth Lagrangian points. The ISS's orbit is slowly degrading and it's only a matter of time until it burns up in Earth's atmosphere, a process that could be dangerous from falling debris."

"What do you want us to do, move it back into a proper orbit?"

Janice smiled. "Actually, we had something more interesting in mind."

Robert gave her a curious expression.

"What we would like to do is bring it back to Earth and mount it on display in Arizona."

"Wow!" James exclaimed. "That's cool!"

Janice smiled at him before continuing. "The ISS has a mass of nearly a million pounds and is traveling at 17,000 miles per hour. Do you think that you could slow it down to a thousand miles per hour and then bring it down to the ground without serious damage?"

Robert exchanged glances with his wife and son before replying. "I think we could, but there are no guarantees. However, we will need a complete list of all of the satellites and space junk in orbit below the ISS. We will need to know their trajectories and masses."

She smoothed her hair back with her hand. "There are probably more than ten thousand objects in that category. I can display them, but it would take days for you to consider all of them."

"We can memorize them in the time it takes to display them," Robert boasted. He looked at his wife and son. "Right?"

"No problem, Dad," James said with a grin.

Both Jason and Janice looked at them as if they were just kidding, but they realized that they weren't. Janice typed requests into the main computer system to display the data that Robert wanted. The superheroes watched the data scroll past at a rate that a normal person would never be able to absorb.

"Okay," Robert said. "We're ready, but we'll need Sparky to help guide us to back through the atmosphere."

"Sparky?" Janice said, with confusion showing in her eyes.

"Yeah, it's our dog."

Sparky suddenly appeared wearing his super dog costume. He announced his recognition with a bark.

Janice turned to Jason with a smirk, He replied with a shrug.

"Show us where you want the ISS in Arizona," Robert said.

Janice turned to Jason again, and he rubbed his jaw. "NASA owns Meteor Creator." He turned to Robert. "The US finally purchased it from the family that owned it. I think that would make a great location for an ISS exhibit. There's plenty of land around the crater and it's already a tourist attraction. However, we don't have the proper infrastructure to hold something that large."

Robert thought about it for a moment before replying. "Point out a probable location. We can create a dugout that would hold the ISS in place. You could decide later how you want to make it permanent."

"Yes, that might work." She pointed to a location about a kilometer from the edge of the crater.

After studying the location, Robert turned to his family. "Let's do this."

With that, the superheroes teleported to a location above JPL and then flew up to a position at the height of the ISS. They approached the large space station and flew around it to determine how they were going to slow it down.

"This thing looks like a Construction set," James said. "It's too fragile."

"How are they going to display this?" Janet said. "Those solar panels are pointing the wrong way."

"We'll have to move them around so that they're horizontal in relation to the main modules," Robert said. He waved his hand and the solar panels moved into a more horizontal aspect. "We'll have to grab it by the main modules and hope it doesn't break up. The biggest problem is making sure we time this right so that we don't collided with anything."

"I'll concentrate on that," Janet said. "You two can guide it."

"We'll let Sparky show us the way," Robert said.

Sparky replied by waving his tail.

It took perfect timing to slow the ISS and then guide it to the ground. The process took several hours of careful timing and precise positioning, but they managed to do it without any damage or collisions.

Jason and Janice were already there to watch it. In fact, a large audience and local reporters had arrived there to see the impossible happen.

The sky was a solid blue and when a small dot appeared, people witnessing the miracle became excited. They pointed up at it as it slowly grew in size.

The superheroes slowly but surely guided the ISS into its final resting place. People stared in complete rapture at the amazing sight and then cheered when the miracle was complete.

Janice turned to Jason with a serious expression. "You must realize how powerful these people are to accomplish something impossible like this."

He nodded. "Yes, I understand. Hopefully our government will appreciate what they are and just accept them."

That wish was clearly a plus for NASA, but it could be considered a threat.

People rushed to get photos and videos of the superheroes standing with the two NASA representatives.

"We are really grateful for what you have done," Jason told them. "We must admit that we didn't really believe it was possible, but here it is. Amazing."

"We're happy to have done this," Robert replied.

The spectators cheered. The superheroes bowed to show their appreciation before taking off and flying away at astounding speed.

The videos and photos of the great achievement spread on the internet like wildfire. It was just the thing that helped create a fan following for the amazing super humans. It was the beginning of a new era of support, but there was always the undercurrent of mistrust.

As expected, the President called for the superheroes to come to the White House, which they did, but it had nothing to do with the ISS rescue.

The President stared at the superheroes before beginning. "We've recorded a large energy release in the Caucuses three weeks ago. Do you know anything about that?

"Yes," Robert said. "We were called to battle a large demon army under the control of Luthor X. They were preparing to conquer Earth and reign over mankind. We fought and defeated them. Our main assignment is to stop any such take overs and prevent any possible extinction of mankind.

The President thought about it for a moment before asking the question. "What do you ask in exchange for this work?"

Robert shook his head. "We don't ask for anything, except for one. We wish to have our true identities remain hidden. We're just a normal family with no desire to become wealthy or be in charge. We don't expect anything for what we do and do it because it's what we are required by God to do. Is keeping our identity hidden too much to ask?"

"No," the President replied with a slight smile. "I will see to it that the CIA, FBI, the Military and NASA hides your true identity."

"We are always willing to do anything you wish as long as it doesn't kill others or harm anyone. We are not restricted from doing those things, but we don't wish to do them. We are here to help, not hinder."

The President nodded, and the superheroes vanished.

They returned home to relax after a long day's work.

"Do you think that they'll honor our request?" Janet asked.

"I hope so. I can understand their mistrust, but we have not shown any reason for them to fear us."

"If I were not what I am, I would fear us," James said.

Robert smiled. "Yes, I agree, but there's nothing we can do about it now."

"I just hope none of my friends realizes who I am," Janet said. "I would be on the outs for sure."

"I hope we don't have to go into hiding," James said. "I don't want to live like that."

"None of us do. Maybe we'll be okay now that we've established an understanding with our government."

"I hope so," Janet said, frowning.

They all did, but it was yet to be seen if that would be the case. However, there was a catch, one that changed everything.