Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic FDK: Luck and Consequence 1/5

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I found this very interesting. The question of who and what Superman/Clark Kent really is is something that very much interests me. Okay, I know of course that he is a figment of the imaginations of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster turned comic book hero turned large- and small screen hero, courtesy of Christopher Reeve and Dean Cain and others!

No, but I mean, if we try to take Superman even the least bit seriously, is there a way we can even begin to explain him? Here we are offered the explanation that Superman/Clark is perfectly human, so that his distant ancestors came from this Earth. But later on, one way or another, a group of humans left the Earth and migrated to Krypton.

When I was a kid, there was a man named Erich von Däniken, who insisted that many ancient monuments, like for example the Egyptian pyramids, had been built by aliens. I didn't listen too closely, because I thought the man seemed like a crackpot, but... well, there is certainly some sort of parallel between the idea of aliens coming to the Earth to build the pyramids and the idea of humans leaving the Earth perhaps at the time when the pyramids were built to move to another planet!



I like your explanation that these humans were forced to 'boost' their own bodies down to the genetic level in order to be able to survive on their new planet. It is fascinating to think that these 'altered' humans are now completely dependent on the 'field' generated by their own 'genetic boost'. And that is why green K kills Superman, because it destroys the 'field' that Superman's body is dependent on for its survival! And that is why Clark can't fertilize Lois, because his sperm can't survive outside his body long enough, and any embryo it might give rise to can't survive in Lois's body long enough to generate its own field. Fascinating!

A few favorite quotes:

Ha ha! That's great!

Ann

I am very interested in this story. I am looking forward to future updates. I like the depth of the intrduction and the relationship you are building with Lois and Clark as well as the one you seem to have in the works for the Kents and Dr. Klein,

Very interesting, Bob. I enjoy good technobabble, especially when it makes sense to a non-scientist. Besides, this is a series continuation, a story that draws on the existing canon. That makes it about the L&C we saw on the screen, and I always enjoy those.

Now, Bernie says kids aren't possible, but we know that Utopia comes about because of L&C's descendents, so there's got to be a way to make it work. Looking forward to seeing what else you have planned for us.

Great start! When is the next installment?

I picked up a book to read last night called 'The science of superheroes', so this fic is kind of interesting to read in contrast to the book I'm reading (which covers more than our beloved Superman, but does start out with him).

I'm a little dubious about the whole nano-technology concept.. it was used one time too many in the Trek universe... however, I'm willing to read along because I find that often fics on here come up with better ways of using technology/theory than tv/movies...
And it's nice to see everyones theories behind why Clark and Lois can't create life together.

interested to see more.

Hi Bob,

I'm also very intrigued by the direction you seem to be going in with this story, and I find the techno-babble fairly easy to follow ... I think.


I liked your writing style, and am surprised this is your first fic.

I love how you're writing Bernie, and since he's already discovered that Superman is human, with certain extras, I'm thinking there might be hope for Lois and Clark having children in the future.

I'm looking forward to the next part.

Yours Jenni

I enjoyed this too.

Can't wait for 2 .
Carol

Wow! Positive feedback. I feel like a kid in a candy store.

First, and most important, thank you all for your wonderful feedback. This has meant a lot to me and has me so excited that I can hardly think straight.

Second, in case anyone is wondering, while the pseudo-science will continue to play a significant role in this story, we will NOT spend all of the next 8 chapters in the lab with Bernie spouting techno-babble at Clark. Even I couldn’t stand that.

As for a release schedule, my plan is to release 2 chapters at a time in 5 releases for 10 chapters in all. My hope is for at least one release per week and I really expect to be faster than that. I hope to push each new section out every 4 days or so.

I have the entire story mostly finished so there won’t be any delay thinking about what will come next. However, I am still doing minor adjustments because I keep thinking of things to improve and/or change and I also keep playing with phrasing, dialog and scene details. There is an old saying in engineering that in every product development cycle there comes a time where you just have to shoot the engineer and ship the product. The theory is that an engineer will ALWAYS want to make it just a little bit better. Well, I am one of the engineers that they were thinking of when that saying was invented but I will get this out-the-door.

Now, for anyone that might be interested, here is the background that really didn’t fit into the story. Essentially, this is a condensed version of my thought processes on the science and biology of Superman.

Let’s see what we have to start out with:

1. Clark is from Krypton.
2. Clark looks human. (if you think about what that implies at a genetic level, this is really VERY important)
3. We have the statements from HG Wells that Lois and Clark will have descendents.

Take those facts and you really can’t escape the fact that Clark is genetically a human being. Anything else and you are into fantasy biology. I am a huge Star Trek fan but the whole idea of alien half-breeds is just really bad biology. (And I do mean REALLY bad!)

So, by my thinking you can’t escape some variant of a “common origins” solution. Actually, my first thought (which I had Bernie echo in the story), and what I actually wrote in the earliest drafts of this story, was to have a common third planet of origin where both humans and kryptonians originated on the same other planet. The 3rd planet approach was still in place when I sent my first version to Dandello for a beta read. Then two things happened:

1. Dandello pointed out that there was a large body of scientific evidence that links humans to other earth-based biology.
2. I happened to read an article about the long term impact of retroviruses on the human genome. This provides a correlation between human DNA and native retroviruses that can be traced back more than 200,000 years.

That served to remind me that I know through my own reading that there are nontrivial genetic markers that clearly link humans to other vertebrates that go back over 500 million years.

So, you can’t have Earth-based humans originate on another planet unless you ignore a LOT of science. So I felt that I had to abandon any non-terrestrial origin ideas for humans. If Clark is to be genetically compatible with humans, then kryptonians had to have originally come from Earth.

Now, as to the powers… When I think of Krypton, I tend to visualize the planet as it was presented in the opening of the 1978 Superman movie. I see it as a big inhospitable ball of crystalline rock. So, if this was a cold, high-gravity planet, and humans ended up having to live there, what might they do? My thinking is that if they had to wait for any natural evolution process, they would probably die out first. So, if you had access to some (VERY!) advanced technology, you might develop a way to “compensate”. Well, that’s where the KEs come in. Yes, the idea reeks of Star Trek nanobots but that’s not really how I see them. I see them as active micro-machines that are bound to the kryptonian genome. They are not in any way independent machines and therefore, at least in my mind, not nanobots. I really don’t like having to use this (yes, I admit it, overused) mechanism but it was the only way I could explain the powers and maintain any chance at all of genetic compatibility.

Then as for Kryptonite, once you have the KEs, then you are all set to address Kryptonite. The challenge is to explain how it can have such a serious impact on a kryptonian but no apparent effect on humans. By having Kryptonite interact only with the KEs and their associated biofield, you have an answer that fits the data.

Anyway, I could go on (and according to my family, on and on and…) on these issues but I would risk saying too much that may reveal where some parts of the story are going. So I’ll stop here for now.

I will say that I have a “Kryptonian Origins” prequel in mind that I hope to write at some point in the future.

Bob

This is great, Bob! There's only so much my dim, unscientifically-inclined brain can comprehend, but I do like what I can understand. It seems like a very original take, and I'm interested to see where you're going with it.

Question: If Clark loses his powers through red K (like in Ultra Woman), is he still incompatible with a human female? Or what about green K (like in GGGOH)?

Thanks Beth,

As I said above, the story is not all techno. I'm glad you were able to enjoy the start even through the babble.

As to your question, all I can say is... Well, I can't say. How about, keep reading.

If, for any reason, any of these questions remain after all 10 chapters are in place, I'd be happy to post an extensive explanation (ramble?) on the whole powers/biology thing.

Bob

Hi Bob!

Just got caught up. The KE is certainly an intriguing explanation.

Looking forward to part 3

Michael

Nice story and an equally nice theory... looking fwd to it..

Bob - I was traveling when you posted this and got started on reading it just before I lost internet access and somehow forgot about it.

I just remembered this evening and went back to find it. I'm so pleased to see that there are more parts up as well (although I won't get to them tonight) as this was great. As a pseudo-scientist myself, the "science" of Superman has always interested me but not being a real scientist, I appreciate that your writing style makes your thoughts very accessible.

The ideas are really interesting (and not being that much of a Trek fan, I haven't seen them used before) and make a lot of sense.

Looking forward to reading the rest of this...

anonpip

I'm glad you're enjoying it and I hope the next four parts don't disappoint.

There shouldn't be too much Trek stuff in here. I can't deny that there are Trek influences but hopefully they aren't overwhelming.

I had actually planned to post the final section (chapters 9 & 10) this past weekend but the final edit has gone into extra innings and I'm not quite ready to post it yet. It is very close and should be up within a day or so.

Bob

I'm just catching up with some old stuff and ran across this one. (Okay, I'll fess up. I read almost everything on the fanfic part of these boards and it drives me nutty to miss a story unless I've also missed it's prequel.) I like your science. In fact I don't think it's technobabble at all. Technobabble is when the writers throw in a bunch of science words without having an understanding of how they go together (see The Ides of Metropolis). This was a well-thought out theoretical hypothesis regarding a fictional scenario.

I haven't read past part one, but I have a theory that if Lois and Clark are together, so to speak, his biometric energy will envelope her. That's very different than the test-tube tests that Dr. Klein is running.


Elisabeth

Elisabeth

Thank you for your kind words on my Superman-science. My goal was to see if I could develop a consistant mechanism that didn't seem too far-fetched and would provide a reasonable explanation for the various things seen in the series including
1. Powers
2. Kryptonite
3. Power "transfers"
I hope you enjoy the rest of the story.

Bob