11
The elevator door opened, revealing a very different bullpen than the one they had left several days before. New computers, with wireless mice, keyboards, and flat screen monitors; a Plasma TV that took up an entire wall, tuned to LNN for breaking news; new workstations that gleamed of a shiny black veneer; and several new office/cubicles that had been created with the magic of modular paneling.
"Wow. Different." Lois stood at the top of the ramp with her mouth open.
"Yes. Let me show you where our desks are."
"*Our* desks? We're next to each other?"
"Of course. We're partners, remember?"
"Trial basis only. I'm the senior partner, remember?"
"Got it. By the way, when was your last news story published?"
"Propaganda - that's a low blow. Okay, I suppose we can be somewhat equal partners."
"And you call yourself a modern woman."
Mark Boyle came out of nowhere and interrupted Lois and Clark's repartee. "Lois Lane. I'm so pleased we're going to working together. And here I thought I might never see your beautiful face ever again. Our new owner thought that my overseas experience would be invaluable here at the Daily Planet," he said, quickly grabbing her hand and kissing it before she had time to object. "By the way, I do believe that you owe me a report from our friend Dr. Deter."
<"Argh! What did I say about being able to handle working with Mark?">
"Yes, Mr. Boyle *sir*, here it is," she replied, nearly stuffing the large manila folder in the hand that had just reached for hers. "I have another appointment on Wednesday morning, same time – 8:00 a.m.," Lois informed him with as much dripping sarcasm as she could muster.
<"Don't let him get to you, honey. Remember, we're going to get the upper hand here soon.">
"Now that you are both here, I'd like to call a staff meeting in the conference room in fifteen minutes," Boyle stated. "Will you please let everyone else know?"
Clark and Lois nodded in reply as Boyle went back to his office/cubicle area.
Clark pointed Lois' workstation out to her, and she sat down, taking her anger out on the desk as she re-arranged the location of the phone, the monitor, the keyboard and even the box of tissues that was sitting there innocently.
<"Honey…">
<"What, Clark, *what*? Am I acting crazy again?">
<"Not crazy - just mad as hell. And it's understandable, but I don't think it's a good way to start out on your first day back. The others are noticing that Mark got to you. They're going to wonder what happened between you two in the Congo if you're not careful.">
Lois looked at Clark, and her facial features softened at his gentle reprimand.
<"Sweets, you're right. As far as anyone knows, I met Mark overseas and toured his newsroom at Le Choc, and that is it. I've got to do a better job of disguising my animosity towards him. Thanks for calling me on it.">
<"You're welcome. Let's tell everyone about the staff meeting.">
~~~~~
Assignments had been given out. Lois was to write a weekly article to be published in the Daily Planet's Sunday Edition magazine called "This Week in the Planet" in regards to her experiences overseas, and her perceptions of how the United States had changed in ten years. Off limits of course was why she headed to Brazzaville in the first place, and why she had been captured as soon as she arrived. Just a straight "life in a refugee camp and how much it sucked" type of story. When Boyle had asked her to stay for a moment after the meeting was over, he suggested to her that by writing about her experiences in the jungle, it would act as therapy for her, speeding up the healing process. Her reply back to him was not printable!
Meanwhile, Clark was asked to attend a news conference at 3:00 p.m. that had been called jointly by STAR LABS and EPRAD. Strangely, they had called the Editor's desk and asked for him to appear as Superman, not as Clark Kent. In addition, they wanted him to come ½ hour earlier than the other reporters. Intrigued, Lois insisted on accompanying him.
Clark vaguely remembered CK telling him about an asteroid in his world that had threatened to wipe out the earth and how he had nearly died traveling into space to try to destroy it. Mindful that events in that universe usually paralleled his own, even if the exact details were a tad different, he felt a real sense of urgency getting to that meeting.
"Lois… if this is about what I think it's about, they're not going to want you there when they tell me what it is they want to tell me," Clark informed her
"I'm your *wife*! Do they really think that you're not going to tell me?"
<"I can find out this way, anyway!">
<"Honey, they don't know that, and we sure as hell don't want anyone knowing that we can read each other's thoughts. If Thorul finds out…">
"All right. I'm going to go downstairs and get some supplies for my desk, and then I'm going to start a template for this weekly article in the magazine. But I'm dying to get my hands on some hard-hitting news. I'll meet you at the news conference at 3:00 p.m., then. That's open to the public."
"I hate to say this… but you better check with Mark. He's already assigned one reporter – me – to the conference. He may feel it's a waste of time to have two investigative reporters at one possibly very dull EPRAD news conference."
"I can't wait until Perry comes back. I can't work this way for long."
"Me, neither, honey."
"By the way, did James leave word when his cousin's services would be?"
"Actually, he did. He left me a voice mail. The wake is tonight, the funeral is tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. Unfortunately, we've been forbidden to attend the funeral on company time because Timmy is the perceived cause of all of the recent problems at the Planet."
"What?? The company that bought the Planet is the one who hired him to snoop!"
"No hard evidence of that Lois… just rumors and innuendos. I already tried that angle with Boyle. If we want to go, we must use personal time… and unfortunately, you don't have any yet until your 30 day probation period is over," Clark said, as gently as he could.
"Probation period?"
"Did you *read* the employment contract, Lois? I sped-read through the whole thing. No insurance benefits or accrual time until your 31st day of employment."
<"Clark… maybe I should just quit, and we should go home and make another attempt at starting a family. It's my first day back and they're wearing me down already.">
Lois crept up to Clark and kissed him passionately. Just then the intercom at Clark's phone went off. "Kent here."
"Kent, it's Boyle. Look, if you two are going to carry on that way in the newsroom, we have to nip it in the bud right now. LNN and Edge Enterprises have always had a policy forbidding the employment of two spouses or relatives working in the same department. An exception was made in your cases. But we can't afford to have other employees feeling uncomfortable in your presence. Please keep that type of behavior at home. In other words, save it for the bedroom. Thank you and good day." The line went dead.
Clark slammed the phone down so hard he broke it in several tiny pieces. "Damn," he swore. "They are really watching our every move. This is ridiculous."
Lois, shocked, as she had never heard her husband curse before, read his mind and discovered what Mark had said. <"He's so jealous. I can't believe I can't kiss my husband at work. I'm going to march right in there and give him a piece of what's left of my so-called crazy mind!">
With that, Clark broke out with a huge smile, and grabbed her arm, preventing her from carrying out her threat. <"Honey… it's okay. Now we're *both* letting him get to us. Let's take a little coffee break and calm down. Payback is the best medicine here.">
After a walk to both the break room for fresh (?) coffee and the supply closet to obtain the proper desk "stuff", they had determined that they would both attend Timmy's wake that evening, but only Clark would attend the funeral on Tuesday morning, since Lois had never met him anyway. In the meantime, they discussed the possibility of somehow sending Thorul a copy of the "letter to the editor" article written about him from 1973, with a personal note from M. Kent. Perhaps, if anything could rattle his cage that might be it. How to do it without getting the Kents-Langs involved; that would be the trick.
With that, Clark surreptitiously gave Lois a quick kiss that held a promise for way more action later, and took off to attend his meeting at EPRAD (Extra-Planetary Research and Development).
In the meantime, Lois spotted Linda King in Boyle's "office", giggling and flirting with him. After a few minutes, she left his area, smiling broadly. She stopped at her desk for a quick moment, and then purposefully headed toward the elevator. <That better not mean what I think it might mean,> Lois thought to herself. <Knowing Linda, the two of them will be sleeping together before the day is out!> With that annoying thought bouncing around in her head, Lois continued to organize her desk, quite loudly at that.
~~~~~
A Stephen Daitch, Ph.D, was waiting for Clark as he arrived in the lobby of the building. He offered his handshake in greeting. "Mr. Kent – Superman; thanks for coming. I would like to show you something in our observatory. Please follow me," he said, heading for the elevator.
"Dr. Daitch, in my most basic of earth science classes, I learned that you can't see the stars during the daytime. How –"
Suddenly a wave of darkness engulfed the city. "Mr. Kent, you were saying -? If you would come over to the eyepiece, you'll see the explanation for our sudden blackout."
Clark saw an asteroid in the viewfinder. "How large is this?"
"About seventeen miles across," was the reply.
"And how fast is it traveling?"
"About thirty-thousand miles per hour."
"And its proximity to earth at this point in time?"
"About four days away, at its present speed."
"Waitaminute – it's going to miss us, right? Just provide us with a little unexpected darkness until its passes us peacefully, right?"
"I'm afraid not, Mr. Kent. This Nightfall Asteroid, as we've named it, has the potential to destroy life on earth as we know it. Throw us into another ice age; knock the earth off its orbit, change its axis… it's really quite a disaster in the making."
"How can I help?" <This sounds exactly like the story CK told me. Yikes!>
"We have STAR WARS technologies aimed at the asteroid. In the event it doesn't work – it may miss – we may need you to personally deliver the fatal blow."
"Fly into space? But I've never done that before. I may have powers, but I still need air to breathe."
"Your friend Dr. Klein, from STAR Labs, believes that he has designed a space suit for you to wear that will provide you with sufficient oxygen to make the trip up and back. That's assuming, of course, that you agree to be our ace in the hole." Just then there was a knock on the door.
"Speak of the devil, here's Bernie now," Dr. Daitch remarked.
"Hey Bernie," said Clark.
"Clark… Stephen. I brought a drawing of the space suit that Clark will wear… oh, my…you *have* agreed to help us, right Clark?"
"Of course! Did you really think I'd say no? This is my world and there are people that I love here," Clark replied earnestly, remembering that several years ago, he wouldn't have been able to say that.
"Well, that's great," exclaimed Daitch. "I think we're ready to have a news conference!"
As an omen, the blackout passed and shortly, sunlight began streaming in the window again.
~~~~~~
At precisely 3:00 p.m., Lois looked up at the Plasma TV monitor in the newsroom and spotted Dr. Daitch, Bernie Klein, and her husband, as Superman, standing on a podium together. Dr. Daitch gave a blurringly technical explanation of the Nightfall Asteroid and its perils to planet Earth. A videographer had detailed the trajectory of the asteroid in relationship to earth, and where the nuclear weapon would conceivably strike, shattering it into millions of much smaller, less harmful pieces that would probably burn up as soon as they reached the earth's atmosphere. There was a slight danger of nuclear fallout coming back to earth, but the alternative was way more damaging.
"Linda King, Daily Planet. Why is Superman up there with you? What is Clark's role going to be in this?"
"Mr. Kent – Superman – has agreed to be a back-up, should our STARS WARS initiative fail," Dr. Klein blurted out. "I'm preparing a suit that will provide him with the necessary oxygen and solar energy to sustain him in the void of space."
Lois nearly had a coronary when she realized who had asked the question.
<What's *she* doing there?? Clark told me not to come, and *she's* there!!>
Lois strode purposefully over to Boyle's cubicle. "Why is *she* there? He's *my* husband! If anyone should be covering that story, it's me – '*Mrs.* Superman!' "
"That's correct, you *are* 'Mrs. Superman' - and that's exactly why I didn't think that you would be able to write an arm's length, unbiased article about the possible risks your *husband* might be taking, going into space to save earth from a gigantic asteroid. Your report would of course be slanted. Your emotions would be evident. Please understand my thinking on this."
"*Mr.* Boyle, that's crap and you know it. And it's obvious to me that you knew exactly what this news conference was about, even before Clark did."
"Of course I did. STAR LABS and EPRAD are partly financed by grants from Edge Enterprises, you know. We have quite an open communication policy. And there you have it: another reason why this acquisition of the Daily Planet by Edge made so much business sense."
"ARGH!" spit Lois as she turned on her heel and stomped back to her workstation. Suddenly, she realized the implications of what it was that her husband had agreed to do. The news conference was finished; several minutes later, Clark entered the newsroom via his special window, having already changed back into his "civvies". The employees in the newsroom cheered him on as he gently landed, heading over to his desk and towards Lois. Superman was going to save the planet, one way or another, from a nuclear winter. He would be a hero, a savior.
Lois hugged and kissed her husband, Boyle and Edge Enterprises be damned!
"Sweets… you're so brave," she said in a husky whisper. "What if you never come back? You *know* I can't –won't - live without you. And did you know that *bitch* was going to be there?"
"Whoa, honey- one question at a time. Of course I'm going to come back; nothing in this world or outer space could keep me from you. Secondly, I didn't know that Linda was going to be there ahead of time… she *is* the one you were referring to when you said "bitch", right?" he said teasingly.
<"Sweets, Boyle is going to make my life here a living hell. All on specific instructions from Thorul, I'm sure! He sent Linda King to that conference specifically to tick me off. I'm sure he's heard all about our previous problems and catfights. And she's already kissing up to him and he's soaking it right up! We have to do something. I guess it's bad timing with this asteroid problem at hand, but, there's no time like the present. Operation 'Somewhere in Time' must begin!">
<"Huh? What's that?">
<"A code name I just made up, based on the title of the greatest romantic movie I've ever seen. I watched it when I was writing my 'puff piece' on the Hotel Del Coronado years ago. A man, who happens to be a playwright, falls in love with a picture of an actress who performed in a play at this beautiful Victorian Hotel in the early 1900's. In the movie it was the Grand Hotel in Michigan, but the author wrote it with the Hotel Del in mind. He finds a way to will himself back in time to her era, finally meets her, they fall in love, and then, all of sudden, when he pulls a penny from the future out of his pocket and looks at it, he's pulled back to the present. The actress saw him literally disappear right in front of her with no explanation. Try as he may, he is unable to get back to her, and they both die of broken hearts. Of course, they meet again in heaven. Sappy, but do you see where I'm going with this?"> [© Richard Matheson, "Bid Time Return"]
<"Hmm, I think so. You're going to try to make Thorul think that M. Kent is from another time period? Try to make him fall in love with her somehow? He doesn't look like the romantic type, Lois. He's got a cold, business veneer. I'm not sure this will work. Plus…we have the problem with her having the name 'Kent', remember?">
<"Yes, yes, Propaganda… those are mere details; I'll brainstorm something! I work better when I'm ticked off; I promise you that. But I'm the one that saw that fifteen year old face. He may be evil now, but somewhere underneath the snake oil is a decent human being. Somehow, I have to connect with that teenager that couldn't wait to go out and look for a part-time job to ease his mother's stress. A boy like that can't be all bad.">
<"People change, Lois… people change. But, I've said it before, and I'll say it again… you're a stubborn woman, Lois Lane! If anyone can do it, it would be you">
<"Bet your *** , Propaganda… bet your *** !">
~~~~~
Lois went to get them more coffee. Clark made an excuse to stay at his desk; he didn't want to show his concern to Lois, but after remembering CK's recollection of his experience trying to defeat the Nightfall Asteroid, he was really worried. CK had told him that he had blacked out after encountering it, and somehow, thankfully, was hurled back towards earth. He had landed in Metropolis, in Suicide Slum of all places, nearly naked, with amnesia! If it weren't for his folks, who were able to coach him to recall his super-powers at the eleventh hour, the remaining part of the asteroid, which was still three miles in diameter, would have hit the earth, causing untold damage.
It was then that he was reminded of Wells' parting gift. Would there be a full moon soon, so he could speak to CK personally about it? Ask him, in hindsight, what he would have done differently? And, how could be possibly do all of this without being under the scrutiny of his wife's watchful gaze? She already had enough on her plate and didn't need to worry about him.
~~~~~
TBC
