Previously on AFR...
Lois smiled. "I didn't know it at the time, which is why I dubbed him Superman, but apparently it's the emblem of the royal house of El. It just looks like an 'S'."
"Royal?"
Suddenly the knob turned and Jenny came through the door. She bounded over to where Clark was now standing and gave him a hug and a fierce kiss. Lois had to wonder if that was normal for the couple or if it had been for her benefit.
"So," she said, a big smile on her face. "What did I miss?"
And now...
A Future Reborn (Lois' Story III) part 7
by Tank
Lex looked up as Nigel St. John came into his office again. "Yes?"
Nigel gave his employer a slight bow. "Some news, sir. Our source at the Daily Planet tells us that Ms. Lane recently retrieved a box of her things that had been stored there since her disappearance."
Lex, intrigued, raised a brow. "Really. Was our man able to ascertain the contents of that mysterious box?"
"He didn't get a good look, since she was only away from her desk long enough for him to take a quick look." Nigel shrugged. "It was mostly just old articles of clothing she'd left behind."
A sly smile crept onto Lex's face. "I don't think you would have bothered me with such inconsequential information. So, what is it you are holding out on me, Nigel?"
"Sorry, sir," the stately gentleman apologized. "Sometimes I can't help myself." He took another step closer to Luthor's desk. "It appears that there was also an older model of laptop computer."
Lex's smile grew wider. "The perfect place to keep notes, or perhaps a log on one's activities. Maybe even instructions as to where to find certain items one might wish to hide?"
"It is an interesting possibility, sir."
"Where is this computer now?"
"Ms. Lane left the Planet with it, so I can only assume it's at her apartment."
Luthor pondered that bit of information. It made sense that Lois would take the laptop home, but why she had waited so long to retrieve it he couldn't fathom. Perhaps he had spooked her into acting sooner than she had originally intended? He could imagine a scenario where she would want to take the time to completely reestablish herself as merely a Daily Planet reporter and get her life back into an apparent routine before she set up the making of such a momentous 'discovery', especially so soon after returning 'from the dead'. Patience was not a virtue that he'd ever thought Lois would embrace, but under the circumstances, he could see where even she would want to wait until she could be sure that time would be right for whatever her plan might be.
He knew Lois had a roommate, or more accurately, Lois was Cat Grant's roommate. Luthor had never met the woman but had long ago dismissed her as someone with marginal investigating talents who was more dependent on her body for her stories than her brains. While she might have made a pleasant diversion for a night or two, she'd never sniffed around any of his enterprises so he'd never felt the need to pay her any attention. Now, he wondered if Lois had shared anything with her former and current roommate.
"Nigel." Lex reached for a cigar. "I think we should acquire that laptop."
"Very good, sir."
"Oh, and have her roommate, Cat Grant, followed. I want to know if the woman knows anything."
"Will that be all, sir?"
Lex took a few moments to light his cigar and take a puff. He watched the smoke ring dissipate. "Increase the surveillance on Ms. Lane. I no longer am satisfied with knowing her comings and goings. I want to know what she is doing when she is at home, at work, or at that young partner of hers' place. I not only want to know what she's doing, but what she's saying and to whom."
Nigel inclined his head. "As you wish, sir."
Lex watched Nigel through another smoke ring as the aide-de-camp left via a private exit. Soon, Lois, he thought. Very soon I will know what your game is. Once Lex Luthor became a player, the outcome would definitely tip in his favor.
********************
"Lane, Kent, in my office." Perry's voice knifed through the general murmur of the newsroom. Lois gave Clark a quizzical look at which he merely shrugged. Taking only a moment to shut down the file she was looking at, Lois rose from her chair and joined Clark on his way up the ramp toward their editor's office.
"What's up, Chief?" Lois asked, as she sat in one of the chairs in front of Perry's desk.
"Well, it appears that our government is ready to talk." He slid a piece of paper across the desk. "This came over the wire a few minutes ago. The President will broadcast a worldwide press conference this afternoon. Apparently they've got their plan of action in place and are willing to share it with the rest of the world."
Lois quickly scanned the news brief. It gave no details, just the time of the press conference. "So, how do you want us to cover this, Perry?"
"EPRAD is planning to show the national press conference on a giant screen, then be available to answer questions from the press corps." Perry leaned back in his chair. "I want you to go there, hear what the President has to say, and then ask the hard questions of those people at EPRAD. Now's the time to air all your questions and concerns, Lois."
Lois snorted. "You expect them to tell me the truth?"
Perry fixed her with a stern stare. "I expect you to do your job."
Lois opened her mouth, then closed it. With her lips drawn into a tight line, she nodded once. She rose, without another word and exited her boss's office. Clark followed her out.
"What was that about?" Clark asked, as he caught up with Lois at her desk.
She gave him a sideways glance. "That was Perry reminding me that if I want the truth, I have to go out and find it." She swatted him on the arm. "Come on, we're going to pay Professor Hamilton another visit."
***************
Cat strolled down the cracked sidewalks of Siegel Ave. She was not in a very nice part of town. Beggars and derelicts decorated most of the doorways and stoops of the boarded up storefronts and tenements. Occasionally she would pass by a business that was still open, but she knew that whatever they advertised on the window was not the primary commodity they dealt in.
She walked down the mean street with a calm impunity. She had purposely dressed the part of a low class hooker just for that reason. She garnered her shares of whistles and catcalls, but knew that nobody was willing to mess with someone else's merchandise. Nobody she passed had the price of a hot meal, let alone a the means to satisfy their sexual urges. So she was pretty safe from that standpoint also.
Lois had been gone till quite late last night, which had suited Cat just fine. She'd taken the opportunity to sneak more than a peek at the file in Lois' laptop. She wasn't sure if Lois meant to give away the password to the relevant file or just accidentally let it slip while making the point she had wished to make. Either way, Cat was able to access the LexNotes file and had indulged herself in some fascinating reading.
She felt no guilt over what she had done. After all, she was doing this to help Lois out. With her and Clark so busy on the asteroid story, and with Lex obviously focusing his concern over what Lois might be doing, she figured she could slip in under Luthor's radar and do a little investigating on her own. It would be really great if she could find something juicy to pin on the phony philanthropist, then she and Lois could break the story and finally put Luthor where he belonged - behind bars.
Cat had no idea how far Lois had gotten in reading the file before she had to leave, but she had seen quite a few interesting entries. Ones that made her sad when she realized what her former roommate had put herself through, alone, to try and incriminate Luthor. Why she hadn't confided in Cat at the time she couldn't imagine. Maybe she was just protecting her only friend from possible danger. Cat didn't know, but as the present Lois had mentioned, she was finding out things about the former Lois that didn't jibe with the public persona she had projected.
The sidewalk had given way to just broken blacktop, and the shops and housing were left behind as she came upon a warehouse district. The area was terribly run down and most of the buildings were abandoned. She was close. Two more blocks and she would be at a particular warehouse mentioned prominently in the laptop's file. What she might find there now, ten years later, she didn't know, but it was worth checking out.
Another couple of minutes later she was at 27th and Siegel. Set back several yards from the street, and surrounded by a rusty chain link fence, was the Acme Imports warehouse. From the condition of the building it seemed obvious that the place had been left for dead some years ago. The gate on the fence was still padlocked, but the neighborhood kids had ripped several large gaps into the rusted fencing over the years. She had no problem getting inside the fence.
Moving quickly, she made for the nearest window of the building. It had a couple of boards nailed across the glassless opening, but they had the look of age also. Cat was able to pry one of the boards loose and slip inside.
Dust covered everything. The grimy windows that ringed the top of the building let in just enough light to navigate by. Cat felt like she was walking in twilight. A dirty twilight. She coughed as the fine dust rose from the floor with every step.
There were boxes and crates sparsely littered across the wide expanse of the warehouse. She peered inside several, but they were all empty. She could hear the rustling of the movement of fast little feet amongst the shadows. She tried to ignore them.
Apparently whatever this warehouse had been used for, it no longer was, and whatever had been in here was long gone. She was just about to leave when her attention was caught by the office in the far corner. She quickly moved over to get a better look.
It had the look of any typical warehouse office. Modular walls had been installed in order to section off a corner of the large warehouse. She could see old-looking metal furniture through the window. For all intents and purposes, it fit the picture of an abandoned building as did the rest of the place. But there was something nagging at the edge of her brain. Something that said, there was a flaw in the picture. She reached out and tried the handle of the office door. It was locked. Suddenly it hit her. There was no dust!
The door handle, and much of the door, was free from dust. She couldn't be sure looking in from the outside, especially in the dim light, but there didn't appear to be any dust on any of the furniture either. It didn't make sense.
Taking a closer look at the floor in front of the door, she was barely able to make out what appeared to be disturbances in the floor dust and dirt. It could have been footprints at one time. Since it was still partially visible, that meant that the dust hadn't had time to completely recover those tracks. Cat had no way of knowing how long it would take for the dust to resettle and obscure any prints, but given the state of the building she didn't imagine it would take too long. That meant that someone had been there... recently.
She followed the partial trail only to lose it in the darker shadows along the wall. She quickly went back to the office door. Pulling her lock picks from her pocket, she bent to the task of opening the door. She pulled back, immediately confounded. There was no key slot for her to work her larcenous magic on. She became more confused as the realization sunk in. The door was locked from the inside!
Frowning in defeat. Cat retraced her steps to the window that had allowed her access in the first place. Looking around, to make sure she was unobserved, she slipped back out of the run down building and made her way back to the street.
She wondered what Lois would say when she told her.
***************
Professor Hamilton opened the door to his lab, and myopically peered over his glasses at his guests. "Oh, Ms. Lane, Mr. Kent, won't you come in?"
"Thank you, Professor." Clark gave the man a smile as Lois pushed past, and moved to the center of the mad scientist's lair.
Hamilton seemed a touch nervous as he offered Lois the one chair that existed in the lab. Lois refused it. Instead she walked over to the small, single window that graced the far wall. She turned.
"Professor - I assume you've heard that the President will be holding a press conference regarding the Nightfall asteroid this afternoon." Hamilton just nodded. "Okay, I've reason to believe that their solution is going to be to fire their biggest rocket with a huge nuclear payload at the asteroid. I imagine their hope is that it will blast the space rock to pebbles." Lois frowned, then spread her hands in entreaty. "Does it have a chance of working?"
Hamilton pulled his glasses from his face and began to absently wipe the lens with his tie. He frowned. "How do you know this, Ms. Lane?"
"Ah, " Clark interrupted. "I overheard Professor Daitch talking with some military types at the first press conference. They were discussing such a possibility then."
Hamilton went over to his desk and scribbled some numbers on a scrap of paper. "Well, in theory, it could work. The megatonnage needed is well within the scope of the United States government, but it has several drawbacks."
Lois started nodding more animatedly. "I knew it! What drawbacks? What could go wrong?"
Hamilton began to pace around the room. "Well, first of all; even an asteroid the size of Nightfall is a relatively small target to hit, especially at a distance. It may seem like the asteroid is coming in at a predetermined course, but that's not entirely true. Any gravitational force that Nightfall encounters, the other planets, the moon, even other space flotsam, will act on it as it approaches. The general course has been plotted, and we know that it will impact somewhere along the eastern seaboard of the planet."
"Really?" Clark's eyes got wide.
"Yes, but the path won't be a straight one. As I said, other bodies can act on it. And, also, the fact that this is not a spherical body means the it will perturb more as it tumbles toward the Earth." Hamilton began to make hand gestures trying to illustrate his point. "In effect, the asteroid sort of dances as it comes along its path. On a astronomical level, these are very small perturbations, but to a rocket that's trying to hit such a small target, they can present quite a problem."
Lois brow furrowed as her frown grew. "Which means what? That it's possible, even with all this high-powered computer guidance, to miss the asteroid completely?" She already knew the answer to that question.
"I'm afraid so. Of course, the obvious solution is to allow the asteroid to get as close as possible before launching, giving you the best possibility to hit it."
"But..." If it wasn't for the seriousness of the situation, Lois would be enjoying dragging what she knew to be true out of Hamilton.
"Well, two problems really," Hamilton responded. "First, if you miss you don't have time for another shot. And, the other problem, which I think would be of great concern, is the fallout possibility. The power of the nuclear device that would be needed would create a tremendous amount of radioactive fallout which would rain down across the globe. The consequences could be almost as disastrous as the impact itself."
Lois glanced over at Clark, her lips drawn tight. She turned her attention back to Hamilton. "So, you're saying that you don't think that the government's plan is a good idea?"
Professor Hamilton didn't answer immediately. He stared at Lois for several moments. She could almost see the little hamster running in the flywheel in his brain.
"I'm going to have to listen to the news conference to get the full details of what they have planned, but even given all the inherent problems, and the high probability of failure, I have to say that it's a good plan of action." Hamilton was nodding, more to himself than to acknowledge Lois' question.
"What!"
Hamilton shrugged. "What other choices do we have, Ms. Lane?"
******************
Clark could virtually feel the impatience in his partner as they sat in the hastily set up, temporary, audience seating that EPRAD had arranged for the local media. Once they had left Professor Hamilton's place the two of them had gone back to the Daily Planet. Lois had immersed herself in any information she could find regarding the Asgard rocket and its capabilities.
He glanced up at the large screen television that had been set up on the large patio like area in front of EPRD's main entrance. The schedule handed out called for all the reporters to sit and watch the President's address together, then Professor Daitch would give a brief presentation of the plan and answer questions from the assembled fourth estate.
Clark did his best to relax and wait for things to play out, but Lois' agitation seemed to be rubbing off on him. Knowing about her, and how things had played out in her world had given him a sense of foreboding. He knew that just because the rocket had failed on her world didn't mean that it would fail on this one. Of course, even if it did succeed there was the problem with the fallout.
If he took the time to think about it he would be amazed at how easily he'd come to accept Lois' fantastic story about herself. The idea of parallel dimensions, and other world counterparts, was the stuff of science fiction. But then, so was a being who could fly. Maybe, under the circumstances, it wasn't so hard to accept what Lois had told him. What was the hardest for him to accept was that he would be able to fly thousands of miles out into the cold depths of space and deal with a huge asteroid hurtling at unbelievable speeds to prevent a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions.
Clark felt, rather than saw, Lois begin to stir beside him as the big screen suddenly flickered to life. The image of the President burst onto the screen. The eyes showed dark circles which betrayed a lack of sleep. There were telltale lines of worry on his face, but Clark had to give the man credit. His outward countenance was one of gravity, yet showed no fear or panic. His smile was warm and paternal. With no preamble, or dissembling, he began.
Clark sat quietly, only occasionally taking notice of Lois' squirming, as the President spoke. He confirmed that the Nightfall asteroid 'appeared' to be on a collision course with our planet, but made all the reassuring noises about how the scientific and military communities had the problem under control. He mentioned that he'd been in contact with the League of Nations and many of the leaders of the major industrial countries of the world. All had agreed that their present course of action was the best course of action to take. He gave only the broadest outline of what the plan to handle Nightfall would be. He didn't go into any specific details. Instead, he said he'd leave those to the various facilities around the globe which would be having the media press conferences. He closed with some homilies about having no fear and his complete trust in the abilities of the plan to safely deliver them all from the threat that hung over them.
Clark wondered how many people seated there actually believed what the President had said, or if they believed because they had no choice. He knew that Lois was chomping at the bit to ask her questions, but it would be more telling to hear what the other media people might ask. That would give him a much better read on how they really thought.
Professor Daitch stepped up to the podium that had been set up next to the large screen. "Ladies and gentlemen of the media. We are glad you are all here today, so we can put your minds at ease, and then you can put the minds of the general public at ease. We are confident that our plan for dealing with the coming Nightfall asteroid will be successful."
Clark watched and listened intently as Daitch outlined their plan to pack one of the military's Asgard rockets with a nuclear payload and launch it at the coming asteroid. Their calculations, based on the size of the space rock and the typical compositions of asteroids, assured them that the blast would be powerful enough to shatter Nightfall into tiny pieces. Pieces small enough so that any which still might stay on course toward Earth would burn up as they entered the atmosphere.
Suddenly there was a flurry of shouted questions. Mostly questions about technical aspects of the mission. Because of the nature of the press conference, most media outlets had sent their science reporters. So many of them were enamored with the sheer technological magistry of the mission and seemed less worried as to what chances it had for success, or the consequences if it failed. Clark watched Daitch closely as Lois finally got her turn.
"Professor, this is a pretty incredible nuclear payload. What about the fallout?"
The Professor seemed to perk up at that question, which told Clark he'd been prepared for it. "Yes, it's true that a nuclear explosion of that magnitude would produce a significant fallout, which is why we are sending the rocket up as soon as feasible. We calculate that the earliest optimal window for launch will be at 3:37 p.m. local time. We intend to intercept the asteroid while it's still quite far from our planet and, in so doing, avoid any possible fallout problem."
He tried to move on to another question, but Lois wouldn't be denied. "But isn't it true, Professor, that even an asteroid as big as Nightfall, at that distance, would be a very small target to try and hit. Sort of like picking a fly off a fence post at several hundred yards - with a pistol?"
Clark could see Daitch blush a bit. He hadn't expected his answer to be questioned. "We have the finest computers in the world calculating our flight path, and that of Nightfall, to the most exacting precision possible. I have every confidence that we will achieve our desired results."
Lois wasn't finished yet. "But how can you be so confident? Isn't it true that even at the Asgard's maximum fuel capacity only about half the flight will be powered and thus controllable? After that, you will run out of fuel and have to rely on the hope that the directional momentum you have established will take you to your target? The slightest miscalculation, or sudden change of conditions, could throw your rocket way off course with no way to correct the mistake? It's possible that you could miss the asteroid entirely?"
Daitch looked flustered. "You speak of a worst case scenario. I see no reason to dwell on the negative aspects..."
"Could you miss?"
Daitch took a deep breath, to calm himself. "Yes, it could miss. But we do have a back up rocket prepared. We would hold off firing that rocket until the asteroid was well within the rocket's control perimeter. This would virtually guarantee a direct hit."
Another reporter piped up. "But what about that radiation fallout you mentioned. Wouldn't that become a factor then?"
"Well, yes, which is why we have to all hope and believe that we'll be able to destroy the asteroid the first time around."
Clark glanced over at Lois. Her lips were pursed in a tight line. He wondered how different the press conference had been that she'd had to go through on her own world. They'd had a Superman to take care of the problem for them, but even he had failed the first time and they had resorted to firing their own Asgard rocket, which had missed.
Clark's attention was drawn back to the front where Professor Daitch was trying to get back control of the crowd whose members were stepping all over each other throwing out questions about doom scenarios. The din was nearly unintelligible. Daitch had to shout to make himself heard. "Ladies and gentlemen, please! Control yourselves." The din began to subside. "I admit that in any operation there is always some risk. That is unavoidable. But believe me, we've done all the calculations, and worked this mission out to the best of our abilities. It will work."
Clark saw a grim smile crease Lois' face as a voice from the back shouted out. "How do you know?"
Daitch's look was equally grim. "Because it has to."
