Previously
“Clark, whether or not this memory of yours comes back, I just want you to know, I think you're terrific.”
“Likewise.” Clark stopped her hand and entwined his fingers with hers. The motion was rapidly driving him to want to carry her to his bedroom and spend the rest of their potentially very brief lives making love. But he apparently had the rest of the world to save first.
“I mean, I love you.”
“Thank you, Lois. That part's starting to come back to me. But I need to remember who I am before I can honestly say the same.”
“That’s all right.” Lois raised their hands and kissed his knuckles. “Let’s both get some rest and try again in the daylight.”
“Can we both share the bed and just snuggle, no funny business.” Clark turned his puppy dog eyes on her. “I think it would help me remember.”
“Well, that expression of yours tells me that your memory is starting to come back. Yes, I would like that. At least we will see another sunrise together.”
Chapter 15. Tonight will be a memory too
And a new day will begin
Clark Kent awakened slowly from the most intense, most erotic dream of his life, like swimming to the surface of a very deep ocean. From what he could remember of the rapidly fading dream, there was a glowing fireplace with a bed in front of it. He was going from a doorway past a dining room table. On the table were blue and red uniforms and capes. He did wonder at these strange elements, but just accepted them as normal. Then he saw her. All dark hair and creamy white skin and she was naked and came willingly into his arms. He hugged and kissed her like a man drowning in desire. His hands moved and clutched at her to hold her to himself, and then he began to stroke along her sides.
Suddenly he realized he did have sensation in his hands and he was stroking something soft and wonderful in reality. His eyes shot open and he saw the back of Lois’ head, her back pressed into his. Other sensations along his body were already awake and screaming for attention.
Suddenly he remembered who he really was. But maybe, just maybe, there was time to enjoy life before he had to go save the world. It sounded pretentious, ‘saving the world’, to this humble Kansas boy, but it was what he did and who he was.
But with the bad timing of fate, the phone rang with a shrill little tone and buzzed as it vibrated on the nightstand. He remembered it was his phone. The only person calling him would be Pete. Briefly thinking of not answering and staying with Lois, he jerked fully awake and glanced at the clock beyond the phone, realizing it was 4:27 a.m. on the day the Nightfall remnant was to impact Metropolis. That meant it was 6 hours, 56 minutes, and 37 seconds to impact.
Clark grabbed the phone, levitating automatically and going very quickly and quietly into the living room. It had to be urgent. He spoke softly so as to not wake Lois. “Hello, Pete.” Looking down at himself, he realized he was dressed only in his sleep shorts.
In honor of the early hour, Pete also spoke softly. “How are you doing, bro?”
“Actually, Pete, I am happy to report that I am feeling super, thanks to your’s and Lois’ help.”
A sigh of relief whispered from the phone. “That’s good to hear. Because I don’t have good news on my end.”
“I thought you sounded tired.”
“Still up since yesterday. The problem is that there’s a second remnant from the asteroid almost exactly in trail of the first. Which was why we didn’t detected it earlier.”
“You’re telling me there is two dangerous asteroids?”
“Yes. Two big pieces, plus a bunch of little ones we think will simply burn up. There will be a heck of a fireworks show in the sky.”
*+*+*+*+*+*+
Lois felt the coldness of Clark’s absence as she woke up. It was both physical and emotional coldness. She heard Clark in the next room. Blearily looking over at the clock, she wondered who would be here at 4:30 a.m. Picking up her clothes from the floor, she hastily dressed, more for warmth than modesty, and went into the living room.
Clark was sitting on the couch, phone pressed to his ear. Noticing her, he smiled and blew her a kiss. She smiled back and decided it was a good hour for more fresh coffee and went to fix it in the kitchen.
The telephone conversation was clearly on Pete’s end, because Clark said little except for a series of “O.K. Got it.” Suddenly there was an incredulous “You’re sure?” and a real gasp. It did not sound like good news. But there wasn’t much of that going around these days. That’s why last night was so important and magical. Lois rummaged in the refrigerator and found some multi-day old croissants. She could microwave them hot, soft and fresh, or let Clark do his thing.
She decided to wait, noticing Clark rise and go to his computer, start it and log on. Clark rotated the phone mouthpiece up and away from his mouth and said softly to her, “Pete is sending me an FTP file.”
Suddenly, a picture bloomed in all its import of ugliness on the screen. Against a black background, two white ellipsoidal objects loomed. As the series of images progressed, the right object moved away from the left object to some distance, then slowed, stopped and began going toward the left object. The numbers on the time stamp above the images sequenced rapidly. Finally, the distance between the two objects seemed to stabilize and remain constant.
During the show, Lois had moved behind Clark to look over his shoulder at the pictures. As she saw the right object turn and move toward the left object, she laid a hand on his shoulder and squeezed comfortingly. Shocked, she whispered, knowing he would hear, “There’s two asteroids?” She felt Clark nod his head, then felt him square his shoulders and sit straighter.
*+*+*+*+*+*+
It felt so good to Clark to have Lois behind him, literally, supporting him, knowing what he was facing. He said into the phone, “Pete, Lois is here. I’m putting the phone on speaker.” Taking the phone from his ear, he punched a button and laid the phone on the desk.
“Pete, can you repeat what you told me? Er, maybe more briefly and possibly without the expletives. I know it does suck, but we need to find a way to deal with it. ‘It is what it is’, as our Dad used to say.”
Pete said from the tinny speaker of the phone, “Hi, Lois. I see Clark is back in form, thanks to you.”
Wiping the smile from her face though no one could see her, Lois replied, “I was more than happy to help.” Was that a snicker from Pete’s end?
“As I was telling Clark, I’ve been up all night talking with my buddies on Spacenet and working with Professor Daitch. As best we can figure from multiple observations at multiple sites on Earth, when the nuclear device,” Pete spit out the words, “exploded after Clark diverted Nightfall, the original asteroid splintered into unequal parts, plus a bunch of tiny debris. The small part was thrust back along the original orbit, more or less, and lost speed. Eventually, it stopped, and then was pulled back by Earth’s gravity well, more or less following the bigger portion. The big section is still headed for Metropolis in around six and a half hours. We didn’t really know the little part was there and dangerous until recently because it was hidden behind the bigger piece. Now, after multiple observations, we can see it and track it. It is going to hit Albuquerque, New Mexico, unless something is done.”
Lois sucked in a breath and tightened her hand on his shoulder. Clark was just stoic, staring at the pictures on the screen. He had put them on slide show, so they just cycled through continuously as Pete explained the dilemma.
Clark suddenly asked, “What’s the estimated time of impact on Albuquerque?”
Pete replied, “Four minutes after Nightfall A.”
“Nightfall A?”
“The big part, about 1 mile across still heading for Metropolis. The other one is Nightfall B. It’s only about half a mile across. That would still turn Albuquerque into a huge smoking crater. Even this little guy is 17 times the size of the meteor we think made Meteor Crater. So it’s going to be a really big hole and the debris cloud will be huge. If only we had a way to slow it down. This thing is tougher to deal with because it will be in the Earth’s atmosphere.”
A germ of an idea crept into Clark’s mind. Then suddenly a new picture came up on the screen. “I just sent you a copy of the projected track.”
“I got it.” Clark stared at the track across the United States. “It looks like it’s about 10 degrees south of due west. Or in compass rose terms, a heading of 260.”
“Good eyes, Clark. It's on a heading of 260.06 degrees to be exact,” Pete replied.
“Can you get the area around Meteor Crater evacuated? I don’t think there are many people living there. That’s about 300 miles west of Albuquerque.”
Pete was astonished. “You’re thinking of putting it down in Meteor Crater?”
Lois could feel Clark shrug, but of course Pete couldn’t see the gesture. “Seems like it would beat letting it impact in Albuquerque. In that time I can’t deflect it back out into space after dealing with the bigger one. I can get there, but it will be deeper into the Earth’s atmosphere.”
Lois reflected that this had to be one of the most astonishing conversations in the history of the universe. It certainly was in the history of her universe.
“Sure, I can get it evacuated but I’d better start now. The boys at Lowell will help. The emergency forces in Flagstaff have had a lot of practice lately with both fires and then floods. Just don’t hit Happy Jack where they are building the new telescope.”
“Well, I’ll try, but I can’t guarantee it.”
“That was a joke, bro. Do what you can do. It’s more than any of us have. At least whoever won’t be able to throw an ICBM at you again. By the way, we figure that that ICBM must have homed in on a device on you somewhere. Otherwise it had no way of hitting you accurately.”
“The GPS receiver,” Clark suddenly realized. “They gave it to me just before I left.”
“Why a GPS receiver? It doesn’t work once you get above the orbits of the satellites.”
“Exactly. I should have ditched it on the way up, but I didn’t think of it.”
“Well, bro, even you can’t think of everything. I’m off to get the forces working. So, Special Agent Kent, we could use some help from the federal government. I’ll brief Daitch on what’s happening. Him, I trust. Others I’m not so sure of.”
“I’m with you there, Pete. And Pete?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks and good luck. Arizona may be lightly populated around Meteor Crater, but there are still people living there.”
“So I heard. Tending to the Petrified Wood forests there.”
Clark chuckled and signed off and grasped Lois’ hand on his shoulder, swiveled around in his chair and faced her. He kissed the back of her hand. “So here we are again.”
Sighing, Lois took refuge in trivialities, “Well, I think the coffee is done. Want some?”
Clark smiled his seductive smile, “Well, I guess it will have to do in the time frame we have.”
Lois leaned down and kissed him. “You are incorrigible.”
“Yeah, and proud of it.” Clark rose and followed her to the kitchen table, grabbing his phone in the process.
They sat down together and Clark had a couple of swallows of the coffee and then took Lois’ hand, palm to palm, and started gently stroking the back of her hand with his thumb in a soothing gesture. “Lois, I told you once I couldn’t tell you about the FBI side of my life.”
Lois responded, perhaps too eagerly. “Yes?”
“Well, this is a special situation and everything is tied together, so I am going to tell you something. Remember that hawk-eyed man I told you was interrogating me at headquarters? I realized when I got my memory back sometime in the middle of last night,” his wide grin split his face at the memory, “it was your father who interrogated me.”
“I wondered. I saw him enter the building while I was waiting for you.”
“You did?”
“Yep.” Waving her free hand around, expressing the world situation, she explained. “I figured he was there for a reason. Mom and I don’t know what he really does, but we’re a Navy family and we have a bit of experience with him keeping secrets and us not asking detailed questions. What do you need?”
Clark slid the phone over to her. “I need to call him at home, now. And I don’t know that number. He will be able to authorize the evacuation we need.”
Apparently unsurprised by that statement, Lois simply took the phone and punched in the number for her father's bedside phone. “Who is calling, Superman or Clark,” she asked as she handed the phone back to him.
“Clark.”
“Tell him I’m here and I say hi.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
“It’s all but announcing our engagement.”
Lois smiled. “We didn’t talk about an engagement last night.”
Clark smiled a mischievous grin, “As I recall, we didn’t talk at all last night. But I do want to wait until tomorrow and all is well in the world.”
“I don’t have a problem with that. Do you, Mr. Kent?”
“Not at all, Miss Lane, not at all.”
*+*+*+*+*+*+
The EPRAD countdown on the apartment TV was down to 2:42:17 and counting inexorably down. All the arrangements for evacuation in New Mexico and Arizona had been made as best they could. Independent rural dwellers were often loathed to leave their places, willing to take their chances on a real-life dinosaur experience.
Hand in hand, Lois and Clark stepped out onto his private balcony. Lois reached up and caressed his beloved face. “I’m glad you figured out how to shave again,” she murmured as she ran her hand down from his face and across the family crest on his chest. “And I’m glad Rita made another fireproof cape.”
Superman smiled what he hoped was a confident smile at Lois, “Once more into the fray.” He kissed her – again.
“Good luck. Go save the world – again. It’s what you do. And you do it well.”
As Lois watched, Clark walked purposefully to the edge of the roof. This time when he got to the ledge, he did not look down. Instead, he looked up. Way up. He swirled his majestic rather stiff cape back, and turned and looked at Lois for one last time. Then he shot straight up to deal with Nightfall A. As soon as he was out of sight, which was seconds in time, Lois returned to his apartment to watch the news coverage.
*+*+*+*+*+*+
tbc
