Again, I can't say strongly enough how much this story continues to benefit from the Herculean beta efforts of HappyGirl and IolantheAlias.
***~~~***
When the Sky Falls:
Chapter 2: Decisions
***~~~***
When he was finished at the research center, Clark found that there was just enough time to meet with one source. If the world wasn’t going to be destroyed by Nightfall, then he still had responsibilities as a reporter. He was lucky enough to run into Sam the Mouse who had some interesting information that would help in an investigation he was working on with Lois. After a brief meeting, Clark started back to his apartment, but never got there. As he was heading home, he realized that didn’t want to be alone in that apartment. He wanted to see Lois. He wanted to see his parents. He wanted...he didn't know *what* he wanted. Besides, what he wanted didn't really matter. What did matter was that he’d given his word to keep silent. He needed to think through what he could and should say.
Since he couldn't figure out what else to do, he went on patrol over Metropolis. It should have been routine, but he kept finding himself hovering above Lois's building. He felt himself torn between the need to share this with her, and his promise to keep it secret. He kept ending up above Lois’s building and having to fight the temptation to approach her window. The fourth time he found himself in that spot, he concluded that Lois’s roof was probably the safest place in Metropolis and decided to head home.
When he reached his apartment, there was a message on his answering machine. Given all that had happened today, Clark wasn’t surprised that he felt a sense of dread as his finger approached the ‘Play’ button. The click of the button was followed immediately by Lois’s voice. “Clark! Where have you been? Does it have anything to do with what Superman was doing today? Call me. Now!” The message was four hours old. Maybe it would be easier if he just flew out to Nightfall tonight. After all, could a speeding asteroid really be that much worse than a Lois Lane who never had her message returned?
He picked up the phone and dialed Lois. She picked up almost immediately. “Hello?”
“Hi, Lois. It’s Clark.”
“Okay, Kent, spill it. What’s going on with Superman?”
“What do you mean? I’ve been out working on leads for the Schmidt Industries bribery story. I haven’t talked with Superman since I gave him that message this afternoon.”
“So you’re telling me that you don’t know why he was in Philadelphia moving ships around the shipyard?”
“Lois, what are you talking about?” Clark hoped he sounded appropriately surprised.
“A dock worker took several pictures of Superman carrying ships from the mothball fleet. There were reports that he would lift a ship out of the water, fly around with it for a few seconds, and then put it back where it had been. It sounds as if he was involved in some kind of test. I thought you sent Superman to a meeting at the Anderson Center here in Metropolis?”
Clark was fighting the growing panic rising within him. “I did. This is the first I’ve heard of him moving ships around.” He’d been so focused on the events of the day that he hadn’t thought about the implications of being seen at the shipyard.
Lois paused for a second. Clark could tell that the devastatingly sharp Lois Lane mind was at work. “Clark, if you knew something but Superman had sworn you to secrecy, would you tell me?”
Clark’s growing unease was only exacerbated by this question. Was it that obvious that he wasn’t telling her the truth? Superman hadn’t actually sworn him to secrecy but someone else had. Unfortunately, the delay while Clark pondered Superman and secrets provided his partner with all the information she needed. The next thing he heard was Lois’s surprisingly calm voice saying, “So you do know something.”
“Lois, I… I’m really sorry, but I’ve been sworn to secrecy.”
“What! I can’t believe you won’t tell your own partner!”
“If I could tell anyone, it would be you. There is supposed to be an announcement tomorrow. Please don’t ask me again until then.”
The discomfort in Clark’s voice was evident to Lois. “All right,” she said. “I guess if I were in your shoes, I’d feel obligated to keep quiet. But Clark, this is big, isn’t it?”
There wasn’t much point in trying to deny that now. “Yes.” His voice was as solemn as he could make it.
Clark sensed, more than heard, when Lois took a deep breath and moved on. There was only a short pause before she asked, “So, what did you learn about the Schmidt Industries case?”
Clark was relieved that she had switched to a subject he could discuss honestly. “Well, actually I didn’t spend that much time on it. I learned…” Clark spent the rest of the conversation bringing Lois up to speed on the parts of the investigation that he had completed.
That night, Clark didn’t sleep at all. It seemed that even the extra expenditure of energy that went into moving around those ships wasn’t enough to overcome the anxiety brought on by the situation. Nightfall threatened the world, and saving it, and everyone he cared about, was going to be up to him.
***~~~***
Wednesday morning Clark wasn’t sure if he should go into work. The idea of seeing Lois, knowing she was still probably going to be mad that he wouldn’t share the secret, left him somewhat reluctant to be there. However, he had spent more than a few sleepless hours thinking about his life and where he wanted to take it. The one common thread that ran through all of the possibilities was Lois. After last night, the idea of spending the morning with an angry Lois was infinitely more appealing than not seeing her at all.
Since he was not able to sleep, it was easy to arrive early for work. He spent the morning making up for the time that he had spent as Superman yesterday. He was so focused on his work that he managed to miss Lois’s arrival. By the time he realized that she was in the office, she was getting settled at her desk. He wanted to see if she’d really forgiven him for keeping the Superman secret so he headed right over to her. When he reached her desk, she was busy on her workstation. He tried to make his greeting as cheery as possible. “Good morning, Lois.”
She didn’t bother to look up when she replied. “Good morning, Clark.” Her tone made it impossible to judge her mood.
“Lois, I’m sorry that I had to be evasive about the Superman thing.”
He was relieved at the lack of anger in her features when she looked up at him. “I understand why you can’t tell me anything. If Superman had sworn me to secrecy, I wouldn’t tell you either.”
Good, she really seemed to have forgiven him. “Thanks for understanding. I wanted to make sure we were okay on that. I have an errand that I have to do involving…that thing I can’t talk about. I’ll be gone for an hour or so.”
Lois was surprised at his telling her what he was really doing. “Clark, you could have said that you were just going to be out following a lead. Why are you telling me this?”
“I’ve been thinking a lot lately and…well, whatever else happens I want you to be able to trust me.”
“You’re the most trustworthy person I know. Of course I trust you. I just got mad that you wouldn’t tell me…that secret, whatever it is. I know you wouldn’t lie to me.” Then the rest of what he said hit her. “Hold it. What do you mean, ‘whatever else happens’?”
His first reaction was that he’d said too much. He also wished she had stopped before saying that she knew he wouldn’t lie to her. He wanted to find a way to end the lies, and had sworn to himself that they were about to end. “Lois I…”
Just then, Clark noticed the clock and he realized he was late. He should have been at the research lab five minutes ago. In a more urgent tone, he began again. “I need to go right now.” With that, he rushed out.
For an instant, Lois was irritated at his departure, but this secret, whatever it was, clearly had Clark off-balance. Besides, with him, sudden unexpected exits were just part of the package. She pushed her partner from her mind and went back to studying how the information from Sam the Mouse fit into the Schmidt investigation.
Less than a minute later, Superman arrived at the research center. A guard led him inside where the same team as the day before was waiting for him. As soon as he sat down, Dr. Aames spoke up. “Superman, we’ve compiled the test results and they look very promising. If you can do what we hope, then we believe that we have a way to deal with Nightfall.”
Clark could hear the optimism in the older scientist’s voice. “You sound much more confident today.”
“Yes. Even with Dr. Klein’s data, we didn’t have accurate enough measurements of your abilities to be sure that our plan would work. You see, we need to apply a force to divert Nightfall. In simple terms, the more energy we can apply, the more likely that we will succeed. Yesterday you asked about using an atomic bomb. The value of a large bomb is that it’s a way to apply a lot of energy in a controlled manner. However, we don’t want to risk atomic fallout if we don’t need to. If we can hit the asteroid hard enough, we can divert it without resorting to a nuclear weapon.”
“Yesterday’s tests show that I can do that?”
Dr. Klein jumped in with a reply. “Yes, Superman. We now know you can carry a ship with a ten thousand metric ton mass. If you drive it into the asteroid at one thousand miles per second, the energy released against Nightfall would be more than sixty times more powerful than the biggest atomic bomb ever exploded.” Dr. Klein motioned at the other men. “We’ve discussed this and believe that if you hit Nightfall in just the right place, you will save the Earth.”
No wonder they were optimistic today. “So when the ship hits, it will destroy Nightfall?” Clark asked.
Dr. Aames answered this one. “No. The asteroid is much too massive for that. If you hit it at that speed, the collision will either divert Nightfall or break it up. We’ve been probing Nightfall with radar since we discovered it. Fortunately, it is a relatively solid mass so deflection is an option.”
Clark wished these people came with translators. “Could you explain what you mean?”
“Think about what we are trying to accomplish with an impact, and it should be easier to understand,” Dr. Aames answered. “If Nightfall were a solid ball of iron, we would want you to hit it on the side to make it change direction. It would move as a single unit like a giant pool ball. On the other hand, if it were a collection of smaller pieces loosely packed together, then hitting it would do no good. It would be like hitting a snowball with a baseball bat. The asteroid would break into pieces, but many of those pieces would keep going in the same direction—straight at the Earth. Luckily, we don’t have to worry about that. As I said earlier, we now know that Nightfall is a reasonably solid body. It’s not made up entirely of iron, but it does appear solid enough to go ahead with the impact plan. When the ship hits, Nightfall may stay together or it may fragment. Either way, as long as you hit it correctly, the plan will work. Even if it splits into pieces, they’ll be going in a new direction and miss the Earth.”
“Both you and Dr. Klein have said something about hitting it correctly. What does that mean?”
“As long as you hit it at the right angle, either the entire asteroid or—and we think this is more likely—whatever pieces it breaks into, will be deflected enough to miss the Earth. The one thing we don’t want you to do is hit it straight on in the center. That would either do nothing at all or it might break it into pieces without changing its direction. A lot of little rocks hitting the Earth isn’t much better than one big rock. That’s why we’re going to provide you with a guidance system. For that matter, we are already building the mission apparatus.”
“Apparatus? I thought I would use one of those ships that I lifted yesterday and just throw it into Nightfall.”
Dr. Aames looked at Captain Fairbanks who took over the explanation. “You will be using a ship. In fact, it will be one of the ships you carried yesterday. There simply isn’t time to build anything that massive from scratch. There will also be a two-part mission pack. One part will be a guidance system and tracking radars attached to the ship. The readouts and controls will be next to an area that will be fitted with grips so you can hold on to the ship while guiding it to Nightfall. We are also building a survival pack that will be a more complex version of the one you used to fly to the moon and back. It will provide you with oxygen and a communication system. We want to do everything that we can to ensure the success of this mission.”
Clark looked thoughtful for a minute. “How far away will I be intercepting Nightfall?”
Dr. Aames answered. “As we said yesterday, Nightfall is such a dark object that we didn’t discover it until it was very close. It’s only about 1.2 million miles away from where it will cross Earth’s orbit. We hope you can get to it while it is still more than a million miles out. At that distance if we can get a one-degree change in direction, Nightfall will miss the Earth.”
“How soon do you want me to leave?”
“As soon as the ship and survival pack are ready.”
For an instant Clark almost snapped back at them. He wanted to know how much time he had. He was feeling more stress than he was used to and he needed to be careful. With an effort, he kept his voice calm. “When will that be?”
Despite his attempt to hide his reaction, the other men seemed to notice his irritation. They looked at each other for a second before the general answered. “The ship is being prepared at the same shipyard that you were in yesterday. Our projections are for a departure time of around 8:00 this evening.”
That would leave time to see Lois and his parents. But what could he tell them? “When will there be an announcement?”
“There’s so little time that we don’t see a reason to start a panic. We’ll be making the announcement just when you leave.”
“You do know that rumors of my doing something secret have reached the press?”
“Yes. We knew that the ship movements would be noticed. Officially we are saying ‘no comment,’ but some rumors have been planted about the possibility of you being asked to help with ship deployments. We also planted a different rumor that your activities were a test of the structural integrity of the ships themselves. There should be plenty of confused information to keep everyone busy until you depart tonight.”
Clark considered all that they had told him. Despite the optimism of the mission team, he couldn’t shake a sense of anxiety about this mission. He hoped that it was simply because this was the biggest thing he’d ever done. Based on what he’d been shown, this should go like clockwork. He didn’t understand where the nervousness was coming from.
Something about his expression, or maybe it was the delay while he was thinking, must have betrayed his uneasiness, because he was startled out of his musing by General Zeitlin trying to get his attention. “Superman?” The general seemed to make an effort to show that they were all on the same side. “I assure you that we have taken every precaution to assure your safety. The survival pack will have more than five times the air you need for the trip. Furthermore, we were going to cover this in your final pre-flight briefing but it might ease your mind to know that we don’t want you to be holding the ship when it hits. The targeting system will signal you that you are on-target and close enough to Nightfall to release the ship. As soon as that sensor tells you it’s time, we want you to let go of the ship and start back.”
“Why don’t you want me to be holding the ship when it hits Nightfall?”
The general nodded to Dr. Aames to answer this. “We are basing our calculations of the optimal closing speed, approach angle and impact position on the mechanics of the impact between the ship and the asteroid. Your presence with your powers would add a level of unpredictability that would invalidate the calculation. So, not only is it safer for you, we believe it will substantially improve the probability of the success of the mission if you release the ship just before impact. The guidance system will include a proximity sensor that will signal you that it’s time to let go and start back.”
Clark’s mind was spinning but he didn’t know what else to do other than continue. He turned back to General Zeitlin. “What time do you want me at the shipyard?”
“Please be there at seven o’clock tonight. We’ll make the announcement and then spend about an hour in preparation.”
“All right. I’ll be at the shipyard promptly at seven.”
With that, Clark left. He hovered high over Metropolis to think through what to do. He had eight hours to get ready. After only a moment, he knew where he had to go. He needed to see Lois.
***~~~***
When Clark arrived at the Planet he was relieved to see Lois at her desk. He went immediately to her.
“Lois, can we talk in the conference room for a minute?”
“Clark, I’m busy.”
“Please. This is important.”
Lois could see from the expression on his face that he was especially serious about this. “Okay, Clark. But this better be good.”
They walked over to an unused conference room and went in. Clark waited for her to get completely into the room, and then closed the door behind her.
“There is something very big going on. It is extremely serious and involves Superman.”
“I know all this. Can you tell me more?”
“Not yet. I… I need to be out of the office the rest of the day. There is some personal business that I have to take care of and…”
Lois cut him off. “Don’t tell me that this was the big secret that caused you to drag me in here.”
“No, it’s not. Lois, you need to be at your apartment at 6:30 tonight. Superman needs to talk to you. Can you be there?”
“I guess so. As long as a big story doesn’t come up.”
Sometimes he wanted to strangle her. “That’s not good enough. Please believe me when I tell you this is more important than any story.”
Lois could hear that tone of desperation in his voice. She could also see that her partner was very upset. By normal Kent standards, he seemed to be bordering on hysteria. “Clark, what’s going on?”
“I… I can’t say right now. Just promise you’ll be at home tonight.”
His insistence seemed so personal. “Are you planning to come by too?”
“No. I… No, I’m not.”
“You’re scaring me.”
“I don’t mean to. It’s just that this is very important.”
Something in his tone and body language was sending very confusing messages. “Is it important to Superman or to you?”
The pause dragged on for several seconds. Finally, very softly, Clark answered, “Both.”
The quiet seriousness of his reply said as much as his anxious nervousness earlier. She may not have known exactly what this was about, but it was certainly important to Clark. She stepped over to him and reached for his hand. “Okay. I’ll make sure that I’m at home.”
She couldn’t miss the intensity of the look he gave their clasped hands. It screamed of words not said. After a few seconds, he seemed to realize what he was doing, came out of the trance, and lifted his gaze to her face. “Thank you Lois. This is… Thank you.” The look on Clark’s face was a mix of emotions that Lois had never seen before. She was still trying to figure out a reply to Clark’s cryptic thanks when he started speaking again. “Lois, if anything happens…”
Clark stopped. His fears about Nightfall, no matter how irrational, were making him careless. He’d almost said too much for this meeting. He’d worked out a tentative plan last night but being here with her made it difficult to stay with an idea no matter how good it sounded.
The appearance of Nightfall had shaken him to the core. A year ago, he had believed that he knew his way in this world, and he was destined to walk that path alone. That belief had changed. He still wasn’t sure if it changed the moment that Lois had interrupted his interview, but it had certainly happened by the time she told him not to fall for her. He had fallen for her, and then she fell for Superman.
It was frustrating that she was so ready to accept him as Superman but not for who he really was. But then, this whole Nightfall mess had him wondering about that part too. When he first put on the suit, he had thought it was nothing more than a false-front to hide behind. This past day, in dealing with the military and the scientists, he’d come to realize that Superman was much more real that he’d wanted to admit. As he’d lain awake last night, it occurred to him that maybe he’d been taking the wrong approach. Lois had come to accept the hack from Nowheresville to be a good reporter and a reliable partner, but only after she’d been exposed to the real person behind the supposed hack. Could it be possible that she could accept that there was a person behind the hero?
Lois was no shallow groupie. Once she had the idea that there might be more to Superman than the bright colors and spandex, she’d probably put all the pieces together herself in short order. If he was ever to have a future with Lois, that day was going to come anyway. Better to have it come about because he initiated the process. Despite his fears, this idea felt so right. Introduce Lois to the concept that there was no future with Superman but there might be with the person behind the flashy colors and the powers. That was the plan. He would take the first step tonight.
Clark realized that he’d fallen into a muse and had been staring at her for several seconds. He knew what he wanted to do but that was for tonight…and tomorrow. “Lois, I need to be out for the rest of the day. I’ll see you…tomorrow.” With those words, Clark darted out of the office.
Lois was in a state of near shock. Her partner had an annoying habit of rushing off unexpectedly, but this was different. Usually his exits were because he claimed to have just remembered an appointment or something. Now it was obvious that he had planned to leave and he just needed to deliver that message first. And what a message! The part about the Superman meeting was strange enough. What did he mean by that “if anything happens” line?
Her thoughts were interrupted by Perry bellowing from his office. “Lois, in my office now!”
As soon as she entered Perry’s office, it was clear that the irritation that she had detected in his voice was not her imagination.
“Where’s Clark?”
“He’s been working on some story related to those strange Superman sightings. He seems to know something, but Superman has sworn him to secrecy and he won’t say what it’s about. He just left to follow up another lead. I don’t think he expects to be back in the office until tomorrow.”
“That’s just great!” Lois was not used to hearing such sarcasm in Perry’s voice when talking about her partner. “There’s a big secret Superman story, he has the inside track, and he isn’t sharing the story.”
“Chief, I pressed him on this and…well, he seems really shaken up. I could tell that he wanted to tell me but, like I said, Superman swore him to secrecy. He did tell me that Superman wants to meet me this evening. I have a feeling that I’m going to learn what this is all about then. I think between what Superman tells me tonight and what Clark knows, that by tomorrow morning we’ll have all we need for a great front page.”
“I hope you’re right. The reason I called you in is a story coming out of the West Coast. There’s an astronomer who’s claiming that there is an asteroid on a collision course with Earth. Normally I wouldn’t think much of something like this, but this woman is a well-respected scientist. With all the mysterious things that Superman has been doing the last day or so, I thought it would be good for you to check this out.”
“Okay, Chief. I’ll work on this immediately. I’ll also see if any of my government sources have any idea what is going on.”
“Something about this is setting off all my alarms. This is your top priority. Just don’t miss that appointment with Superman.”
“Believe me, that is one meeting that I have no intention of missing.”
TBC
Bob
