How I Spent My Christmas Vacation: 6/7
by Nan Smith
Previously:
They crossed the wide desert of the North American southwest, angling north. Clark flew faster now, holding Lois more closely as they rose to cross the Rocky Mountains. She yawned, looking down at the snow-covered peaks. "Would you mind very much if I try to get some sleep?" She glanced at her watch. "No wonder I'm tired. I've been up for nearly twenty hours. Maybe we should stop and find a place to sleep. We could probably make a fire to keep warm."
"Are you warm enough now?"
"Yes."
"Then try to get some sleep. I'm going to keep going."
"Aren't you tired?"
"No. I don't need as much sleep as ordinary people."
"Naturally. How ..." The sentence was interrupted by a wide yawn. "How am I supposed to keep up with you?"
He grinned. "Somehow, I don't think you'll have nearly as much trouble as you think you will."
**********
And now, Part 6:
"Lois," Clark said, "wake up."
Lois stirred in his arms, and then her eyelids flew open. "Who ... Oh, it's you."
"Who else did you think it would be?" he asked.
"I was dreaming. I was back in Metropolis, having dinner at the Fudge Castle, and somebody brought in this huge turkey all made out of chocolate. That was when you woke me up."
"I guess you like chocolate, huh?" Clark said, deadpan.
"I'd kill for a double fudge crunch bar right now," she said, wistfully. "They weren't available in Brazzaville and my supply ran out last week."
He chuckled. "If we manage to get back, I promise to take you to visit my favorite chocolate source in Switzerland. Will that help?"
"It will if we make it back. Looking forward to the rest of my life without chocolate is downright torture. Where are we?"
"Well ..." Clark hadn't put her down. The air temperature was several degrees below freezing and she was dressed for a tropical climate. "We're standing on the location that will eventually be Metropolis's City Hall."
Lois looked around. "All I see are trees ... and snow."
"Yeah, I know. I flew over the whole coast. There's nothing here except some Native American encampments. There aren't any colonies here yet. Not even at Plymouth Rock."
"You mean this is before ..."
"You know how we were saying how we might have beat Columbus? I think we have."
"Oh great."
"Yeah."
"Now what?"
"Well, I think we need to find some place warmer, and wait for Herb to appear," Clark said. "No matter how pleasant carrying you is, I think you'd get tired of it after while."
"Definitely." She glanced up at him. "Not that I don't like it when you carry me, but I can't do this for the next few months. Eventually I'm going to have to walk around on my own. It doesn't feel like it to me right now, but it has to be below freezing."
"Well, how about a small, tropical island?" he suggested. "One with fruit trees and stuff. We don't know how long we may have to wait."
Lois gave their surroundings another long look. "Much as I like snow, enough is enough. Let's get out of here."
"You got it." Clark took off in a flurry of snowflakes.
They headed south. What they needed to find, Clark thought, was a small island located in a tropical clime, too small to interest any of the local inhabitants.
Lois was silent as the forests of pre-colonial America rolled by beneath. To the east, the sky had begun to brighten with the faintest hint of dawn.
"Clark," she said finally, "what are we going to do if Herb never comes?"
"If he doesn't," Clark said, "I guess we'll have to figure out how to live here. At least we have the advantage of my powers to help us. I'm not giving up yet, though."
"Neither am I. I just wish we had more say in what happens. I hate having to rely on other people."
"The only thing we can do right now is rely on each other," Clark said. "I promise you I'll do my best."
"I know you will," she said. "I don't doubt that at all."
**********
The sun crept slowly over the horizon as they flew south. The snowy landscape below changed gradually to wet greenery, and the clear sky became cloudy.
"Great," Lois said. "Rain."
"No problem." Clark gained altitude until they were flying above the clouds. "How's that?"
"Wow," Lois said. "You're better than an umbrella."
He grinned. "Any time."
She cocked her head at him. "You know, I don't make friends very easily, but I feel like I've known you all my life. I wonder why that is."
"Mutual bad situation?" he suggested. "That will usually either make people enemies or good friends."
"No, it's more than that," she said, a little uncertainly. "I'm more comfortable with you than I am with my own sister -- and you don't look anything like my sister," she added.
He laughed. "I'm glad of that! Maybe it's because we both know we may have to work together in the future -- assuming we manage to get back to 1997. I'm a reporter at the Planet, remember."
"If you knew how I got along with most of my co-workers at the Planet, you wouldn't say that," she said, grimacing a little. "There was a reason they called me Mad Dog Lane. None of them would work with me -- not that I wanted them to, anyway."
He laughed. "That's their problem. Since I started trying to find you, last year, I've read most of your work. Personally, I'm in awe of you as a journalist. Still, I know what you mean. I feel like I've known you for years, and it isn't just because I've read your articles."
"You knew the other Lois," she said. "Could that be part of it?"
He shook his head. "I knew Lois for barely two days in our world and for about three when I went to hers. I know almost as much about you as I do about her, but I'm much more comfortable with you. Don't misunderstand me; she was a wonderful person. It's just that -- I don't know what it is, really. Maybe it's because the only persons from our time here are us, but --"
She patted his arm. "Maybe it's because you and I belong in this universe and she didn't."
"Could be," he said, trying to keep his own voice light, but underneath he was sure that there was something else involved. Somewhere deep inside, some part of him *knew* that this was the woman meant for him alone, the one woman who held the key to his future happiness, whether or not they ever made it back to 1997. But that wasn't anything he would ever say to her. He had the time now to spend in slowly developing a relationship with her based on mutual trust and friendship. He couldn't tell her that, in the hours since he had first seen her in a dirty warehouse in Brazzaville, he had discovered that the feelings he had harbored for the other Lois were a pale shadow of what he felt for the Lois Lane of his own world. That Lois had been right after all, as might have been expected, when she had suggested that such a thing might be so. In the two days that the otherworld Lois Lane had spent disrupting his future life, he had begun to fall in love with her. It had taken him perhaps two minutes with the Lois Lane of his own universe. Now all he could do was to hope and pray that she would do as her counterpart had for her own Clark, and come to care for him as well.
"You're awfully quiet," she said.
"Just thinking how we're going to manage," he said. "I suppose if Herb doesn't show up, we could go over to England or Europe. There's certainly a civilization there. I'm just wondering how safe it will be. They've got all kinds of diseases that you're not immune to running around -- smallpox, bubonic plague, and so forth, and no vaccines or antibiotics. I can't catch any of that stuff, but you can."
"Let's not rush into anything," Lois said. "If we can find a comfortable place to wait for a few days, that would be ideal. Then, if he doesn't appear after a little while, we can decide what to do."
"You're probably right," he said. "What I'm looking for is an uninhabited island somewhere in the Caribbean that we can set up a camp on -- preferably with its own supply of fruit and so forth. I can bring in water if necessary, and I'm pretty good at catching fish. We could live in a place like that indefinitely."
"Sounds good," she said. "You know, I'm getting sort of hungry, actually."
"I thought maybe you were." The clouds were no barrier to his x-ray vision, and as he spoke he was scanning the area below. "Hang on, I think I see what we need." He headed downward.
It had started to rain, a typically heavy tropical rainstorm with big globs of water that splatted against them as they descended, but the water was almost warm, and the air definitely was. Lois shielded her face from the raindrops with one hand as they descended toward a white, sandy beach and waving tropical foliage.
The island was fairly small, with a rocky central core surrounded by rainforest, descending to sandy beaches bordering the sea, and far enough from the mainland that they probably didn't need to worry about stray passersby. Clark brought them to a landing and set her down with a flourish next to a piece of the rock that must form the island's base, thrusting upward like a white tooth from the soil.
"Just a second," he said. "Let's see what I can do to turn this into a cave."
He went into action that probably looked like a blur to her, but when he finished, he had hollowed out a good portion of the rock to make a serviceable shelter, and the area to the right had acquired a large pile of sand that hadn't been there before. "How's that?"
Her eyes had gone wide. "I thought I'd seen it all when you flew!" she said.
"Come on, let's get inside and I'll dry you off," he said.
She hesitated. "Is it safe?"
"Yes," he told her, reaching out a hand. "I was very careful not to crack anything that I didn't intend to."
"Wow." She took his hand. "That was incredible."
He led her into the cave. "Stand still and I'll have you dry in a minute." He proceeded dry her clothing. "Home sweet home. Let me get you something to eat. I'll be right back."
She opened her mouth, but he whizzed away to return a moment later with an armful of fruit that he set on the floor of their cave. "Here you go."
Lois stared at him for several seconds and began to smile. "Wow," she said again. "What *is* all this stuff?"
"Well --" He separated out the different items he had brought. "These red things that look like little bananas really are bananas -- just not the kind we see in the States. These are mangoes and guavas, and these are rose apples. This is a coconut -- I'll have to husk it for you -- but I'm not really sure what these are called." He held up a small, round, green globe. "The natives of Panama call them ginnups, but I don't think that's their real name. You bite through the skin -- it's fairly thick, and there's a big pit inside, but the edible part is really good - sweet and tart, and definitely worth eating. You have to eat them fresh, though, because they don't keep well."
"This is all growing wild out there?" she asked.
He nodded. "Practically on our doorstep. We're in the tropics, remember."
"How could I forget? I guess this is as good a breakfast as I've had in some time." She seated herself on the floor of the cave. "I'm hungry; let's eat."
"There's more where that came from," Clark said. He seated himself beside her. "I guess we can hold out here until Herb shows up or until we're sure he's not going to."
"Yeah," she said, beginning to peel one of the bananas. "You're sure this is really a banana? I've never seen red ones before. I don't want to poison myself."
He nodded. "I'm sure."
"Okay, I'll trust you." She began to eat. Clark munched slowly on one of the mangoes, watching her go through his offerings. He fervently hoped that now that they were stationary, Herb would make an appearance. Living the rest of his life in a tropical paradise might sound romantic, but it would almost certainly get old fast. Where the devil was Wells?
**********
"It's pretty easy to pick up a burn in this tropical sun," Lois remarked. She was sitting in the sand under a canopy of palm leaves that Clark had constructed -- after several false starts -- and examining her slightly reddened shoulders ruefully. "I wish I had some sunscreen."
He nodded. "I don't blame you. They talk about the past being the 'good old days', but when you think about it, how many people would actually want to live in the 'good old days'? No phones, no cars, no television, no computers, no kitchen ranges, no refrigerators --"
"No sunscreen," Lois added. "No stuff to put on your sunburns, no electric lights, no silverware, not even any Band-aids when you get a cut -- this 'good old days' stuff is a lot of nonsense. Give me a cell phone and a fast food restaurant any day of the week! And to think I wanted to vacation in Tahiti!"
"Well," Clark said, "the modern Tahiti has all that stuff."
"Yeah," Lois said, wistfully. "That's the kind of vacation I'd like to take. One with saunas and swimming pools, and massages ..."
Clark grinned. Lois was certainly a city girl, but he didn't care. Besides, he had to admit that she was right. Roughing it on a camping trip was one thing. Being thrown back before the discovery of America was something else. "I've collected plenty of mussels and clams in that tide pool," he said helpfully. "I'm sorry there's no beer, but we can at least have a barbecue tonight."
"That's all right," she said. "I can live without beer. That tropical fruit juice you squeezed was great. It'll do for dinner."
"I got the recipe from a guy I met in the Bahamas," Clark said, "after I became Superman." He glanced at the sun that was now sinking toward the west and dropped the last piece of driftwood on the pile he had been collecting for the campfire. "The worst of the ultra violet will be down to decent levels in an hour or so. Then if you want to go swimming, I think it's safe to go ahead."
"I don't know. My clothes are going to wear out fast enough as it is. Besides, I'm not really anxious to go swimming with the sharks again today."
"I'll check for them," he said. "As for clothes, I can probably fly over to Europe for some if we're here more than a few days."
"Clark, do you *know* the kind of things women in Europe wore before Columbus discovered America? There's no way I'm going to wear that stuff!"
"Well, I can probably find some trousers and shirts," Clark said, dropping beside her on the warm sand. "Maybe we can improvise."
"We're going to have to. And we're going to soak it in salt water and scrub it good before I put any of it on. It's probably loaded with fleas!"
"Just about everybody had fleas back then," Clark said. "If somebody didn't, it usually meant that they were sick, because all their fleas had died."
"Well, I'm going to be the exception," Lois said firmly. "As far as I'm concerned, fleas are *not* a fashion accessory that I'm willing to wear! The heck with the 'good old days'!"
"I can't say that the idea is very appealing, even if they can't bite me," Clark agreed. He stretched out in the sand next to the spot where Lois sat and put his hands behind his head. After all the activity of the holidays, all the Superman rescues, and the stress of the current situation that Tempus had put them in, even Superman was feeling tired, and lying in the warm sand with the indirect rays of the sun warming him was very relaxing. Besides, he'd just spent nearly two days wide-awake, and even he needed some rest.
He awoke to a cool breeze and a brilliant tropical sunset. Lois was lying beside him in the sand, sound asleep, and he found himself gazing at her and marveling at her beauty. Even with all of her makeup long since washed away, he knew beyond a doubt that he had never seen a more beautiful woman in his life.
Her eyes flickered open as he watched her and he hastily averted his gaze. She yawned. "What time is it?"
He glanced automatically at his watch, which said it was two AM and shrugged. "Probably about seven or eight or so," he said. He nodded to the west. "The sun is just setting. Are you ready for the barbecue?"
"Let's do it tomorrow," she said. "I think I just want fruit tonight."
"Your wish is my com ..." He broke off and lifted his head at the sound of a sudden, very familiar reverberating hum.
"What is it?" Lois asked.
"The time machine! I hear it!"
"You mean Wells is here?"
Clark got to his feet, giving Lois a hand up. "It sure sounds like it!"
"Well, lead the way!"
He nodded. "Sure. It's inland. Come on."
She hesitated. "You're sure it's Mr. Wells? It can't be Tempus, can it?"
He paused, considering. "I don't think so. Herb said that he'd been picked up by the police from his time."
Lois shook her head. "That doesn't make a difference with time travelers, Clark. You know, you'd really benefit from reading some science fiction, if you're going to be dealing with time travel. His people could keep him in jail twenty years, and when he got out he could come back to this point and it wouldn't matter how long he'd been locked up. You said yourself that Mr. Wells' machine could take him anywhere in time and space."
"Yeah." He ran her argument over in his mind. "I guess you could be right, and if he has some way to track us, he might just come to where we are to try to finish the job. It's probably Herb, but we'll be careful anyway."
They hurried across the sand toward the canopy of tropical plants. The sound of the time machine had come from a spot near the cave that Clark had dug for Lois some hours before. As they approached, they slowed their steps and Clark probed with his enhanced vision, trying to tell who had piloted the time machine now sitting in the sandy soil by their cave.
The machine was clearly there, he saw, but of its passenger he could see no sign, and the circumstance worried him. If it were Wells, wouldn't he let them know at once that he was here to rescue them?
Clark stopped, listening intently.
"What is it?" Lois whispered.
"Shh." Quickly, he put his arm around her and pulled her down as quietly as possible into the undergrowth. In spite of the warm night air, she shivered a little.
He put his lips next to her ear. "Something's wrong. Herb wouldn't hide from us."
She nodded, and he saw her look cautiously right and left. His own scalp prickled as he tried to look in all directions at once with his enhanced vision.
No one was visible, but the jungle sounds were missing -- a sure sign that the animal life that inhabited their unnamed island had sensed the presence of intruders. He strained his ears, trying to hear anything hidden that didn't wish to be seen.
He picked up the heartbeat almost at once.
It was a single human being, he was sure of that. He had tuned out Lois's heartbeat and his own, the whisper of the night breeze and the sound of the surf, and the throb of the intruder's heart was loud and distinct in the unnatural quiet of the tropical night.
If his hearing were to be trusted, The person was about twenty feet away, right at the entrance to their cave. He closed his eyes and listened more intently. There was no question about the location of the man, but if someone was there, then he was invisible.
But there was no such thing as an invisible man, and he had never heard of the technology to mimic such a state. What was going on here?
He opened his eyes and looked again. Nothing, and yet the sound of the heartbeat was loud and clear.
Lois rose on her hands and knees to peer through the brush at the time machine.
"What is it?" she breathed against his ear.
"Heartbeat," he whispered. "There's someone, but I can't see him."
"Tempus," Lois whispered back.
There was a soft click from the location of the heartbeat, and a green glow became abruptly visible. Clark couldn't restrain a gasp as the strength began to leach from his muscles and the pain of Kryptonite radiation burned its way through his body.
There was a rustle of motion, and suddenly Lois was nowhere to be seen. He struggled to stay on hands and knees, to crawl away from the lethal stuff, but footsteps were crunching toward him through the underbrush, and the green glow grew stronger.
"Ah." The mocking voice that he had learned to hate spoke from thin air. "There you are. I thought maybe you and Herb had managed to sabotage my efforts to rid the world of Lois Lane when I discovered that your world's future was the same dull soap opera that it was when I left. As bad as my own. Do you have any idea how boring it is to do the same thing day after day, day in and day out, in the sickeningly cheerful setting of a Utopian prison?"
Clark bit his lip. There was a shoe-shaped depression in the soil next to his face. He could feel the faint warmth of the man's body, but the time traveler was still completely invisible. A chunk of Kryptonite hung apparently suspended in mid-air. Lois had been right, he thought vaguely as he slipped toward unconsciousness, he should have read science fiction if he was going to be dealing with time travelers ...
"No, I suppose you don't know," the mocking voice continued. "Well, no matter. I can still remedy my oversight and change things around a bit. You see," it continued with cheerful irony, "I'm afraid I'm gonna have to kill you, and Miss Lane, too. There's too much chance that do-gooder Herb will manage to find you and bring you back to your time, and I'm fed up with the prosperous, peaceful future. There's no excitement. No war, no crime, only peaceful commerce between Earth and the other inhabited planets. It's up to me to stop that. I'm trying to do humanity a favor," Tempus's voice said, almost plaintively. "They'll thank me for it some day ..."
Where the branch came from Clark wasn't sure, as the person who wielded it was outside his limited range of vision, but one moment Tempus was standing beside him, invisible to the eye, and the next a thick branch, swung like a baseball bat, struck the invisible man amidships. He didn't even cry out, but crashed to the ground. The shape of a human being became translucently visible, clad in some kind of shapeless, all-encompassing body suit. Clark didn't have much time to observe it because Lois Lane stepped between him and the fallen criminal, and struck the man again with her branch -- one of the pieces of driftwood that he had collected for the campfire, he saw now. Then she was kneeling, and abruptly the pain of the radiation lessened. The relief from the effects of the Kryptonite was so sudden that it left him slightly disoriented. Lois knelt beside him, and he could see she was clutching some kind of metal box in her hand. "Clark? Can you hear me?"
"Yeah," he mumbled.
"Can you stand if I help you? I want to get out of here."
With her help, he made it first to his knees and then to his feet. Together, they stumbled past the figure of Tempus huddled in a ball on the ground, and Lois guided his wavering steps toward the time machine.
"Can you run this thing?" she asked, urgently.
He nodded shakily and she half-pushed him into one of the seats.
With trembling hands, he typed in the time and location. Lois grabbed the lever that protruded from the floorboard. With care, she pulled it slowly back, and reality dissolved around them.
**********
tbc
