In a Better Place, from part 9...
***
“This isn’t a game,” Madge said severely. “Don’t lose sight of that. The stakes are precious. And Tempus is not a.... a... what do you call those entertainers, dear? The ones who wailed and wiggled around so much in the previous century?”
“Rock stars,” Petal said. “And I know, Madge. Believe me, if anyone knows, I do.”
“Let’s do this, then.” Madge pushed off in the direction of the cave they knew Tempus to be housed in.
And now... ***
“The globe?” he and Lois asked as one. He shot her a quick questioning glance. Up to this point, she had seen more of the museum than he had. Something he would really like to rectify before the night was over. But the look she was giving him was just as blank as his.
“The communicator Jor-el and Lara installed in the ship,” Silas said. “It held their messages, images of their last moments, as well as the things they wanted Kal-el to know.”
Their young relative was looking at them suspiciously, and Clark couldn’t blame him. This was no doubt common knowledge.
“The globe held their messages?” Lois placed her elbows on Silas’s desk and smiled. The suspicion immediately left the young man’s face. It was replaced by... awe. “Like an... answering machine?”
“What’s an answering machine?” he asked her, leaning in, as well. “Is that new? Something they have where you’re from?”
“Yes,” Clark said carefully, trying hard not to convey his deep impatience with the topic change. “When you can’t get in touch with someone, you leave them a message. It gets recorded and they play it later.”
“Why wouldn’t you be able to get in touch with someone?” Silas asked, looking genuinely intrigued now. “Zip-com’s are universally issued and solar powered. So... why...?”
Lois shifted back in her chair and tilted her head to peer at Silas from under her lashes. “Can we get back to the globe?” The look she gave him had him gulping audibly.
“Lois,” Clark whispered warningly. “Play fair.”
He didn’t know if she even heard him, but Silas clearly did, as his eyes darted somewhat guiltily to him before being pulled inexorably back to Lois.
“Well, no one really knows how it works. But during his life span, at certain critical points, Clark Kent was able to receive messages from his parents which were stored inside.”
“He was?” Clark sat up straighter. “Where did the globe come from?”
“We think it was his ship’s navigational system.”
“Kryptonian technology,” Lois clarified.
“And since the device was only attuned to Superman and what his circumstances were, no one really knows for sure what those messages looked like or what they contained.”
“No one?” Clark echoed.
Silas shook his head. “He and Lois didn’t make a record of them for the family. That had to be on purpose, because they were pretty good about leaving their story to those who came after them. Some things, though, they kept to themselves. And I guess they didn’t feel like this was anyone else’s business.”
“So, the globe has done nothing since...?”
“Since the original Superman was alive,” Silas said.
“And you have it here? In the museum? On display?” Clark asked, an insane hope rising inside.
“No. It was really special to Superman. If I left it out, left it unattended, there’d be a tent built over it. A brass band. Circus performers dressed as El impersonators. Little globe ornaments for Festival trees. You get the idea. And even if we don’t understand it, it’s still a family heirloom, so...”
“You’re keeping it safe.”
“Being its caretaker falls to whoever is working here. That’s me. And it means my being here isn’t a complete waste of... Well, it’s just good that it’s here.”
“I’m sure...Clark Kent... would appreciate that,” Clark said quietly.
Silas nodded. “I’d really like to think so.”
Clark and Lois exchanged another long look. She was shaking her head slightly, trying to warn him off, he knew. And he understood why, of course.
“About Tempus,” she began, confirming his suspicions she wanted him to drop it. “You said you had some information-”
“Can I see the globe?” Clark cut-in.
Silas sat back in his chair, blinking rapidly. “Uh. No. Sorry about that. As a matter of fact, I’m not sure why I told you all I did about it. It isn’t for public viewing. And it’s... well-hidden.”
“That’s fine,” Lois said, irritation dancing on the edge of her voice. “What sort of information do you have on-”
“It’s in the safe. In the wall. Behind that picture,” Clark said, pointing just over Silas’s head. It had taken him all of two seconds to locate it. Now that he knew it was here, it stood to reason Silas would keep it close by.
Lois turned on him, her face like thunder. “You know, this has been our problem the last three days. We start down one path and we get distracted by...” She waved her hands over the room. “... our histories. And another day goes by and still we don’t know anything that will help us. We have a source!” She motioned towards Silas urgently. “Shut up and let me question him.”
Silas had that same caged look as before. And Clark knew they weren’t helping their cause with him. If he had the answers they needed, they couldn’t afford to be so clumsy.
Still...
“Believe me, I appreciate that,” he told Lois apologetically. “And Silas, I appreciate, very much, what you’re trying to do by protecting it.” He drew in a deep breath and met the befuddled stares of both of them. For an instant, they were so similar, he nearly laughed. “But you should know; I can have it out in under a second. And... to be honest, that’s exactly what I’ll do after you’ve gone, Silas. Or we can do it now, and you can supervise.”
“You’re admitting you’d... break the law?” Silas gasped, shoving to his feet and moving to stand in front of the picture. “You can’t! People don’t break laws in Utopia. It... isn’t nice!”
“What has gotten into you?” Lois demanded at the same time. “Who are you, Clark? You can’t be this mild-mannered, Kansas farmboy one minute, then go all ‘Show me the globe or else!’”
“I know you can’t understand this, Lois.” He turned to her, imploring. “But my parents touched it. It’s from my home. Who knows if I get to see it later? If we never make it back, then I never do. I need to. I have to.”
“What did you just call each other?” Silas interjected in a low voice. He was pacing as much as he could in the small space available to him. “You just called him Clark. And then you...” He pointed in Clark’s direction without really looking. “...called Lorraine Lois.” He stopped and sagged against the corner of his desk. When his eyes turned to them at last, they were full of the last thing Clark expected.
Pity.
“I was really afraid of this. I had my suspicions. And we’ve had this happen a time a two,” Silas said regretfully. “Some look-alikes get a little too... into their roles and just sort of forget... That’s one reason we don’t hire just anyone with a resemblance. We try to screen for... emotional...uh... fortitude.”
“Now he thinks we’re crazy. Nice work, Kent.”
“At this point, I am a little crazy,” Clark said in a raw voice. “And we need Silas. We need him to know everything. This isn’t going to work any other way. If the globe responds to me...”
“If you wanted to prove your identity to Silas, you could just... bend things. Or... float!”
“You float?” Silas’s voice cracked with tension. “In your sleep? Are you a family member? Why didn’t you say so? Family members identify themselves; that’s how it’s done.”
“I’m identifying myself now. I’m definitely a member of the family.” Clark stood. “Both of us are. And if you just let me see the globe, I think I can clear everything up.”
Lois was on her feet as well. “I’m not sure this is smart. What if by touching it now, it gets messed up? It’s cued to certain times in your life, and this cannot be one of them.”
“What if it is, Lois? What if the answer to how we get back is inside it? What if Jor-el knew this would happen?”
“What if this is like the Departure Room?” she argued back. “One of those things that in your words is ‘better not to know’? We already know far too much. And what if by touching it here and now, you... break it? And it stops responding to you alone and starts playing back to any guy in a geeky pair of glasses? Or worse?”
“Then you do admit I’m right about the Depature Room.”
“Did you listen to anything else I said? I’m not saying you’re right, I’m saying--”
“I’m not letting you see it.”
Silas’s nervous voice broke in. He was holding his ground, his stance straight and his frown stern. He almost pulled it off, but for the rapid blinking. “I have no idea who you are. And I’m assuming you figured out the safe because this is the only two-dimensional picture on the wall, so it isn’t a huge stretch of the imagination. That is, if you know what a safe is, what it’s used for. I kind of thought the very concept was so outdated no one would ever think to look. I mean... locks?” He laughed a tad too loudly. “Hidden locks? Who could live that way...?”
“The babble gene. Wonder whose side that comes from?” Clark breathed, casting a look at Lois.
She met it with a harsh glare and tossed it right back to him, voicing nearly silently, “And he’s caving under the pressure. Wonder whose side that comes from.”
“Who says I’m caving!” Silas demanded angrily. “I’m not caving! I’m trying to defend a family heirloom from you two loonies!”
“You heard that?” Lois said swiftly.
Silas looked uncomfortable, and Clark couldn’t blame him. He knew the two of them were studying him like a specimen under a microscope. “You weren’t as quiet as you thought you were.”
“You hear things fairly easily.” Clark said matter-of-factly. “That’s how you keep finding us.”
“Maybe, but I’m not a throwback,” Silas said distinctly, and completely incomprehensibly. “And I am not showing you the globe. I...I... thought you wanted to see the Tempus stuff.” There was an air of desperation in that last.
”We do,” said Lois, returning to her seat. “Very much, Silas. Let’s see the Tempus stuff.”
“You can hold the globe,” Clark said, and beside him Lois sighed loudly and dropped her head in her hands. “You don’t have to let go of it. I’ll just touch it... once. And you can put it back, and you have my word I won’t disturb it ever again.”
Clark counted their heartbeats in the silence.
Finally Silas spoke. “I should warn you that if you decide to take it, you can’t outrun me.”
Clark forgot the globe momentarily, smiling at the younger man who was doing his best to stare him down. “Really? You’re fast?”
Silas cleared his throat noisily. “Not...unusually fast, but I have no doubt I could catch you, and... hurt you... to get it back. If I have to. So, don’t make me have to.”
Silas’s attempt at menace touched him to the core. He was so grateful to him for being here, for putting up a fight on his behalf. A fight which, nonetheless, Clark knew he couldn’t let him win.
Lois, on the other hand, burst out laughing. “I think I see why you needed me so much. Or will need me, or whatever,” she told Clark. “There are some things even beyond super men.”
He couldn’t help but agree. “Maybe if I have bad guys to intimidate, I should bring you along?”
“This isn’t funny,” said Silas stiffly. “I shouldn’t even be showing you this. In fact, I don’t know how you talked me into it. I should have my head examined.”
“Please, Silas,” was all Clark said.
With a weary sigh and some muttering Clark did his best not to decipher, Silas turned and removed the picture from the wall. Belatedly, Clark recognized it. “Hey! Is that... that’s one of... Martha Kent’s, isn’t it?”
“A reproduction,” Silas answered in short clipped tones, pulling a heavy case from the wall and setting it on his desk.
Clark felt the itch in his palms even before Silas had it unwrapped. With his hands tightly gripping it, Silas turned to Clark. “One touch,” he reminded him. “And this goes back and you guys leave. I don’t want to see you again. I will call the League.”
“If you still feel that way after, it’s a deal,” Lois said on his behalf, since he couldn’t find the words.
It was so dull and nondescript. Clark fought back a ridiculous disappointment. He hadn’t known what to expect, but it wasn’t this.
He reached a tentative hand towards it, suddenly doubtful it would work. As separated as he was from his true time and place, would the globe know him still? Could it? And if it didn’t, if nothing happened, then he had risked and squandered Silas’s good will. And anything he might know about Tempus. He wouldn’t want to help them, and he and Lois would be back at square one.
Lois moved beside him, a show of support he had come to recognize. “Go ahead.”
At first contact, his eyes widened. “It’s warm!”
And it was. Despite its cool exterior, beneath his fingers, Clark could feel heat building. And some mechanism inside started to... hum. A barely audible signal. Audible to him, and clearly audible to Silas, who, in his shock, nearly dropped it.
“It’s awake!” Silas said.
***
They found Tempus layered in the furs of an animal Madge didn’t recognize and huddled beside a small fire at the entrance of his cave.
He stood to greet them, flashing them both a bright smile. “Been expecting you, darlin’. Everything all set to rights? Coming to lecture me on my propensity for mayhem? Or is this just a social call?”
“Everything is set to right, once again, Tempus,” Madge said solemnly. “And this is getting old.”
“None of us are getting any younger, are we?” Tempus said agreeably. “Can I pull up a rock for you? Or will we be leaving soon?” On seeing Petal, his smile widened. “I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure.”
To her credit, Petal didn’t bat an eye. “No, you haven’t.”
“This is my assistant. She’s in her graduate program and observing. Since we’ve solved your latest riddle, I wanted her to come along and listen in on the wrap-up.”
“How did you solve it?” Tempus asked, stretching his long legs towards the fire. “I thought it would take longer.”
Madge lowered herself onto a nearby fallen tree and tucked her robes tightly around her.
“I’ll admit this was a bit more difficult than the last few,” she said primly.
“Thank you.” The twinkle in Tempus’s eyes told her he was genuinely pleased. And flattered, which was always the key to unlocking him.
At their prearranged signal, Petal spoke up. “I’ve studied you. In cadet class. Your scenarios were the toughest assignments we had.”
Tempus was looking downright cheery now. “Is that so? And how were your grades, darlin’?”
Petal blushed prettily, and Madge had a moments worry it wasn’t all an act. “Top of my class,” she admitted with a show of modesty.
“Want an autograph?” Tempus drawled. “Something to show the kids back home?”
Petal moved to sit beside him. “I’d like to know exactly how you worked it out. Exactly how you planned and executed this last one. And, you know....” She glanced hesitantly over at Madge, just as they’d rehearsed. “...we still haven’t figured out what you did with Wells.”
Tempus threw back his head and laughed loudly enough to scare whatever wildlife had been scurrying in the bushes beyond his small clearing. “So, ol’ Herb hasn’t shown up yet?”
Despite herself, Madge found herself smiling a little. When Petal looked her way, she smoothed her features immediately. “No,” she said with a heavy sigh. “Care to give us a clue?” If they could get him to tell one thing, just the one, then maybe that would get the ball rolling.
“Sure.” Tempus tossed another stick onto the fire. “Let’s see. Poor Herb is somewhere in the 1980s stuffed into a high school locker. It’s summer break, so no one will hear him banging. However, just to show you I have a heart, there are enough pizza crusts and discarded juice boxes to tide him over for a while longer.”
“Isn’t that a bit too stereotypical bully of you?” Madge asked, swallowing back laughter of her own. Now that they knew Wells was safe, she had no real qualms with him being locked down one more day... maybe two. Three at the very most.
“Not my most creative work,” Tempus conceded. “But I was saving that for Lois and Clark. How are they, by the way? Shaken but not stirred?”
“They are back where they belong. And they’ve come away from their ordeal fine as always,” Madge answered briskly, aware that the conversational ice was getting thin and she needed to move forward carefully.
“Shame,” Tempus said agreeably. “Where do we go from here?”
“Actually, we’ve decided this is the best place for you,” Madge said sweetly. “I know the winter will be hard, but you’re quit inventive, so I’m not too worried you’ll survive it nicely.”
“You’re leaving me here?” For the first time real concern showed on his face, and his relaxed posture tightened. “Do you have any idea how the temperature drops when the sun goes down?”
Madge studied the darkening sky thoughtfully. “I imagine it is rather bone chilling.”
“Maybe if he explains his theory behind this last escapade?” Petal said a bit tremulously, biting her lip and looking appropriately unsure of herself. “Then we could move him someplace... warmer? Kind of a trade? And I could present it to my class!”
“Petal,” Madge said warningly, her heart lifting at the wonderful job her assistant was doing on her first field assignment. She was a natural. Maybe it wouldn’t be too many years before she was the one with Madge’s office and title.
“Sorry.” Petal ducked her head and scooted closer to the fire to warm her hands. “Overstepping,” she said to Tempus in a whisper Madge couldn’t hear but they had scripted earlier.
Tempus winked at her. “I find those terms acceptable, Mags.”
Underneath her robes, Madge’s fists clenched in victory. She kept her outside façade as implacable as ever, but inside, hope churned and bubbled, and if she had been able, she would have floated.
“Very well. How about the tropics? An island with vegetation. You could fish for your supper. Get a tan.”
“What century?” Tempus shot back.
“Anything pre-20th. Don’t want to risk you signaling a helicopter or the Coast Guard.”
Tempus nodded. “And provisions?”
“Same as last time. Fresh water tablets, books, blankets, cookware, toothpaste, shoes....”
“How about her?” Tempus inclined his head towards Petal, a devilish smile lighting his features.
“I’m afraid you’ll have to be content with your own company.”
“Ah well.” Tempus sighed theatrically. “It never hurts to ask.”
The sound of thundering feet, twigs snapping, and greenery parting reached their ears at that moment.
“Into the cave,” Tempus barked, shooting to his feet and picking up a sharp stick. “Some of the natural predators are... ambitious.”
Madge hopped down from her perch and Tempus grabbed her by the arm, pulling her in his wake. Petal was right behind.
“They never look inside,” Tempus was saying, ironically, trying to soothe her fear. “They aren’t smart enough.”
They were steps away from the entrance when the sight Madge least wanted to see emerged into the clearing, into full view, in full voice as well. “I believe I saw a Woolly Mammoth! Back by the portal! You *have* to come see! It’s breathtaking!”
“Andrus!” Madge cut him off in as close to a shout as she’d ever come. “Go back to the portal at once!”
Andrus, twigs in his hair, came to a halt beside them. “You found him,” he said stupidly, looking at Tempus. “Didn’t think you’d be able to. Has he told you yet...?”
“Andy,” Petal moved towards him and seized him by sleeve of his robe. “Show me what you saw. Let’s go. Now. I can record it for my class.”
Madge turned wary eyes to Tempus, weighing the speculation in them, registering the dawning comprehension.
“You lied to me.” His voice rang with disbelief. “You, Margaret Hathaway, Director of Peacekeeping, told a lie.”
“I was not lying about the tropics,” she interjected earnestly. “We can be away from here in minutes.”
But the most crucial minute, the one she most needed and would never get back, had already passed.
Tempus grinned. “You don’t know where they are. And you almost had me. That’s how good you are, Mags. Because I never thought you could be dishonest.” He shook his head and looked at her in gleeful admiration.
Her heart grew cold, and in the instant, she understood murder. She would kill Andrus. Kill him. Strangle him with the belt of her robe. Hang him from one of these trees and let the ambitious natural predators treat him as a piñata...
Petal put a steadying hand on her shoulder and Madge blinked, and remembered who she was and all she represented.
“I’m teaching you a thing or two,” Tempus said. “This is getting much more interesting. Just think about what we could accomplish together, Mags, you and me. Superman and Lois Lane wouldn’t have anything on us.”
“Enjoy your winter,” Madge snapped, pivoting to follow Petal and Andrus. She didn’t look back or slow her pace. He wouldn’t follow. Wouldn’t reconsider. Wouldn’t chase after her and put her out of her misery. She knew that.
In fact, the memory of this victory would no doubt keep him warm for many nights to come.
“Did I... do something wrong?” Andrus asked in a breathless voice. Petal had not let him go, and despite his height and weight advantage, she was practically dragging him through the woods.
“Shut up, Andrus,” Madge spat.
The shocked silence which followed should have shamed her, but it didn’t. What did it matter when they were all on the verge of total collapse?
***
tbc...
Special thanks goes to James, aka mr d8a, for so generously providing the locker in which to store Herb!Thank you!!
Also, we have now buzzed through 123 pages in 10 parts, so I don't want to hear any of that 'It's too short' business, people! 
