After Nightfall: The Return of Superman
Chapter 5: Too Many
Lois’s feelings as she hung up the phone were all mixed up. First, and most importantly, she was relieved that Clark was okay. She’d tried to maintain a positive attitude but she’d been all too aware that she’d nearly lost him last time he tried to take on Nightfall.
She was relieved to hear that he was back safe, but now he was heading back out again. Lois tried to comfort herself with the knowledge that he’d had a successful mission, and that there should be every reason to believe that this would go well. Furthermore, since he’d already dealt with all of the largest fragments, this trip should be easier than the first.
A glance across the bullpen reminded her of the problem at hand. Perry wanted to run the story. Lois decided to deal with this one now and get it over with. She stood and headed for Perry’s door. She started to knock but he waved her in before she could.
“Tell me you have something I can use,” Perry said anxiously.
Lois sat in the chair heavily. “I heard from Clark. Superman came back to Earth to replace his air tanks and he’s headed back out. From what Clark told me, Dr. Klein and Superman had decided that there was enough danger from the remaining smaller fragments that he was going on a second mission.”
“So Superman is going to divert all the fragments?” Perry asked.
“Clark didn’t say. I got the impression that there had always been a possibility of two trips. I know that the goal of the first trip was to try to divert all the city-destroyers. I think this trip is to take care of as much of the rest as possible. I’m sure Clark will have all the details when it’s all over.”
Perry considered her news for a minute. “Do you know if there’s going to be another trip after this one? Is it possible that Superman will keep doing these trips over and over until the Swarm passes?”
“No,” Lois answered. “I do know that Dr. Klein only had enough supplies for two missions. I also know that Superman talked with… his advisors, and they convinced him that now that he’s returned, it’s in the best interest for the people of the Earth if he survives instead of risking killing himself trying to divert every stone that’s heading this way.”
Perry’s eyes went wide. “Superman’s advisors? Since when did Superman have advisors? And how do you know about them? Can we get an interview? Now that would be a story! I can see…”
“Perry!” she barked, cutting him off. “I shouldn’t have said anything. We can mention that Superman has advisors, but we can’t know anything about them.”
“So how do you know what happened? Unless…” Perry just let that hang.
The stillness sat between them for several long seconds. “Okay, I might have been in the room during the conversation,” she admitted. “But that’s for your ears only. There’s more to Superman than anyone knows.”
“Were you… in the room with his advisors... before Nightfall? I remember that you had a meeting with him.”
That caught her off guard. “No,” she answered quickly. “That meeting was something else entirely. Superman doesn’t remember anything from before Nightfall so neither he nor I know if he had advisors before. As for this time, he was looking for input from people he trusts. I can’t tell you who else was there but he included Clark and me because of the stories we wrote after Nightfall.”
“Do you think he would be open to talking about the fact that he has advisors at all? It would be a great follow-up story and would help people to feel better connected to him.”
“I don’t know, Perry. He’s actually a very private person. But I’ll ask.”
“Good,” Perry replied. “We’ll talk about that some more later. If he agrees to let us publish anything, it will make good follow-up.” He paused for a few seconds. “So where are we now?”
“Superman’s is on his way back to the cloud. I don’t know any details beyond that. I’m sure Clark will be able to fill us in on the details when Superman gets finished.”
“How long will that be?”
“The support pack is designed for five hours and that’s how long the first trip lasted. I’d have to guess that it will be that long again.”
“And there isn’t going to be any information until that time?”
“Not that I know of. Like I told you earlier, my understanding is that the only people involved are Superman and Dr. Klein. I figure if Dr. Klein is busy guiding Superman, there won’t be anyone available to do a press release.”
“Then the best we can do is be ready.”
“And hope for the best,” Lois added.
~~~***~~~
“Target seven ninety-six is done. I’m moving on to target seven ninety-seven.” Clark oriented himself and started for the coordinates that Bernie had given him. He was thankful that now the time delay for messages between him and Dr. Klein was down to less than thirty seconds. The time reduction made the effort much easier, but it also reminded him that the cloud was approaching the Earth very quickly.
He’d just reached seven ninety-seven when he heard Bernie’s voice. “Target seven hundred ninety-eight is negative eighty-two degrees horizontal and plus twenty-four degrees vertical.”
“Target seven ninety-seven is done. Moving on to seven ninety-eight,” Clark reported.
He’d barely started for seven ninety-eight when he heard Bernie’s voice again. “Superman, are you doing all right? Over the last few minutes, your vital signs have started to change. These readings are suggestive of signs of extreme fatigue.”
Now that Bernie pointed it out, he had been feeling a little more strained the last few minutes. As he approached the fragment it became apparent that this was one of the larger ones he’d seen on this second trip. When he pushed on it he felt a wave of fatigue pass through him. It moved, but this had been harder to move than the largest ones from the first trip. “Target seven ninety-eight is done. Dr. Klein, I have not received coordinates for seven ninety-nine. I'm waiting for direction. As for how I feel, I am starting to feel more tired.”
Just as he was finishing this message the radio came alive. “Target seven hundred ninety-nine is positive fifteen degrees horizontal and plus forty-three degrees vertical. And I am becoming very concerned about your vital signs. Please report on how you feel.”
“I’m starting for seven ninety-nine,” Clark said. He didn’t bother repeating how he felt. Even though they were shorter now, these long time delays were still confusing.
He was still on his way to seven ninety-nine when he heard Bernie’s reply. “I’m becoming concerned at your vital signs. Go ahead and take care of seven hundred ninety-nine and report. However, just wait there after you finish. I want to see what your vitals do, and we may have to change our plan.”
A moment later, Clark reached the target. This was another large fragment. Clark gave it a shove. As with the last one, the strain was much larger than he’d been experiencing earlier. “Seven ninety-nine is done. I’m definitely feeling more strain now. I’ll wait here for further instructions.”
“Superman, I believe we need to change the mission parameters,” Bernie’s voice betrayed concern. “During the last two deflections your vital signs jumped alarmingly. I also noticed that on the way to seven hundred ninety-nine, you were flying much more slowly than you have been. I think we need to think about terminating the mission.”
“We still have nearly two hundred more to go. We need to complete the mission.”
“Based on what I’m seeing from your bio-monitors, I fear that there is a non-trivial probability that if you try for all those, you won’t make it back. Alyson has been reviewing the remaining fragments and has identified those that pose the highest threat. Based on these criteria, I would like to limit your remaining efforts to only eleven fragments. Please let me know when you are ready.”
Clark almost snapped back that this was too important, but he remembered Lois’s admonishment. In the long run he could help more people by surviving today. “Very well, we’ll limit this to eleven more targets. I’m ready to go as soon as you can provide the coordinates.”
~~~***~~~
As Clark approached target eleven he could hardly believe how much he was sweating. He was soaked and could feel his heart pounding. He reached the fragment, which looked to be roughly twenty-five meters across, and pushed it. It seemed to take all his strength before the large boulder changed direction. “Target eleven is done. I’m waiting for your confirmation and ready to head back.”
“I have confirmed that eleven was deflected. Please start back now. But be careful not to push yourself too hard.” There was a brief pause and Clark almost replied when Bernie started again. “You look awful.”
“I’m starting back,” Clark replied. “And how do you know I look awful?”
“Your vitals are all running much lower than I’ve seen them. And you're barely making eight hundred kilometers per second. At that rate it will take you an hour to get back. That’s within your safety margin but just barely.”
Clark would have sworn that he’d been flying as fast as he had been on his first trip out this morning. “Understood. I am going to try to fly a little faster. Could you please update me on my speed and my stress levels.” Then Clark tried to accelerate. This should have been easy, but he could feel the act of accelerating taking a toll. The good news was that once he increased his speed, it took almost no effort to maintain it in the vacuum of space.
“I see you over eight hundred and fifty kilometers per second now,” Bernie reported. “Please be careful. That acceleration is placing a great deal of strain on you.”
Clark kept pushing. He needed to get home. He needed to see Lois. With that thought, he made one more push to accelerate. As his effort hit a peak, he felt another wave of dizziness wash over him.
“Superman! Please report! Superman! Superman”
Clark shook himself. Why was Bernie yelling at him? “Superman reporting. What’s the problem?”
Bernie’s yelling continued for about twenty more seconds due to the time delay. “Superman, thank goodness. You must have blacked out. You were accelerating and all the sudden your vital signs spiked and then dipped to a dangerously low level. I haven’t heard from you for over ten minutes. You are on course for Earth and are coasting at just over fourteen hundred kilometers per second. That will get you back in approximately twenty minutes. Please save your strength for decelerating when you reach Earth.”
He’d been out for ten minutes? “Confirmed, Dr. Klein. I’ll coast and try to regain my strength. I feel better now, but I can tell that I’m not right.”
“I’m glad you’re back with me. I’m not sure that even you could survive a re-entry and collision at fourteen hundred kilometers per second. I suggest when you get back to Earth, if you have any trouble slowing down, you might come in at a shallow angle and let the atmosphere help with your deceleration. That should require less effort as long as you are careful about temperature.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. However, I suspect that after my little nap and twenty more minutes of coasting, I shouldn’t have a problem slowing down.”
“Your vitals are steady now, but they aren’t getting much better. Please keep the atmospheric braking option in mind.”
“I will. When do you plan to tell anyone what we did?”
“I have a short announcement that I typed up last night. Actually I have two announcements. One is intended for EPRAD and the government types and the second that is more of a press release. My original plan was to send them to Dr. Aames at EPRAD and the STAR Labs PR department at about this time. However, since the notes assume you survived the mission, I want to make sure that you really make it back. I’ll issue the release the moment you get back.”
“Okay, Dr. Klein. I’ll do my best to make sure that your release is correct and I survive the mission.”
~~~***~~~
Twenty minutes later Clark was lying on the floor in Dr. Klein’s lab. He’d been able to come straight in and hadn’t blacked out. Not quite. But he’d never felt so tired. “Superman, do you need me to call an ambulance?” Dr. Summers asked.
“No,” Clark insisted. “Just give me another minute and I’ll be fine. I’ll go… home and rest for a day or two.”
“Home?” Bernie asked.
“Please, let’s just leave it at that for now.”
“I understand, Superman. It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to realize that you’ve had to be somewhere these past months.”
“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t say anything about it.”
“Of course. All we know is that you came to do the missions and left when you were done. I think it would be good for the public to know how much effort it took for you to do this. Would you mind if we reported that element of your mission?”
Clark thought for a minute. Now that he was going to be in the public eye, it wouldn’t hurt for the people to know that he was willing to push himself to the breaking point to help. “Sure,” Clark said after a moment. “People deserve to know the details. It would also serve to explain why I didn’t do a third mission to try to divert even more fragments. Just don’t say anything about where I went after the mission, other than to recover.”
“That’s what we’ll do,” Bernie said.
“Then I think I’m strong enough to go now. I’m sure that the government and press will have all kinds of requests. I plan to give a press conference in a few days after I’ve recovered. Good luck handling all this. I didn’t intend to leave you to do it on your own.”
“That’s all right, Superman. You already did the heavy lifting today. We can take it from here.”
“Good. I’ll be in touch.”
Before Bernie could reply, Clark used a burst of super speed to exit the building. He was home only a second or two later. He wasted no time getting to the real reason for his quick departure from STAR Labs. The phone rang only once before he heard, “Lois Lane.”
“Hi, honey. I’m home.”
“Clark,” she replied. He loved the fact that he could tell from her tone how much she’d worried. “Aren’t you home a little early?”
“Yeah,” he answered, letting his fatigue come through in his voice. “The… interview was mostly over and I started getting tired. I needed to cut it short and head for home. It was all I could do to stay awake during the drive.”
“I’m coming home right now,” Lois said abruptly.
“You can’t. You’re the only one with the story.”
“Perry figured the whole thing out right after all this started. He pulled me into his office and, well, he’s been in on it since early this morning.”
Perry knew everything? She couldn’t mean… “Lois, just what did Perry figure out?”
“That Superman was alive and responsible for diverting the asteroids,” she said calmly.
“Oh,” Clark sighed. “So where did you tell him that I was today.”
“I told him the truth. That you were in an isolated site with a radio monitoring Superman and Dr. Klein.”
“I don’t think I’m going to be able to write that up this evening,” Clark said. “Today took a lot out of me.”
“I can tell. Perry has everything he needs to report the essential elements of the story. I spent all day with him, and we have several articles that just need a few details. Is Dr. Klein going to release the information?”
“Yes. He should be starting that process at this very moment.”
“Okay, I need to tell Perry to pull the pin and I’ll be on my way home. In the meantime you get some rest.”
“I will. I’ll see you in a few minutes. And Lois, I love you.”
“I love you too. Now get some rest, you had a full day.”
~~~***~~~
As she hung up the phone, Lois fought to calm her nerves. Part of her wanted to rush home right now to be with Clark. She’d always feared that this mission would take a lot out of him, but she still hadn’t been ready for the reality of the situation. After all, he was Superman. Now that he had his powers back, he seemed to be indestructible. But of course, as Nightfall had proven the first time, that was far from the truth.
She stood and headed for Perry’s office. She had to keep her mind composed to explain to Perry why she needed to rush home to Clark. When she reached Perry’s door, he was busy with Samuelson. She knocked once and waited. Both men looked up and Perry held his hand up indicating that she needed to wait.
Less than a minute later Samuelson left. “Come in,” Perry offered. “Have you heard from Clark?”
Lois closed the door behind her. “Yes. Unfortunately he’s been hurt.”
“Hurt? How?” Perry asked.
“He fell at the monitoring station,” she lied. “He hit his head when he fell, and was groggy when Superman came for him.”
“Is Clark at the hospital?” Perry asked, concern clearly evident in his voice.
Lois had to think fast. “No. Superman X-rayed Clark's head and told him that he would be fine. Superman flew Clark home and he's resting in bed now.”
“Okay,” Perry said. “So Superman’s back?”
“Yes. The second mission is over. I wasn’t able to get all the details from Clark, but I get the impression that Superman ran into some difficulty at the end. Other than that, everything went as planned.”
“So we need to get ready.”
“Yes. Clark told me that Dr. Klein is moving ahead to release the news of Superman’s return and the successful Nightfall Swarm mission. We should get someone over there right now.”
“You aren’t going?”
“No. Clark needs me at home. Besides, we should let someone ask the questions who doesn’t already know the answers. We can always augment the report based on Clark’s inside information. Our plan had been for him to come in and we’d write it up here, but with Clark hurt I’ll need to go to him.”
“Is he all right?”
“Sure. Superman checked his head and he’ll be fine after he recovers. But it sounds like he may be stuck at home for a day or two. I’ll get all of his information about the mission details and email you the story. I’m sure we can have it ready to go along with whatever we are able to develop based on Dr. Klein’s announcement.”
“Okay, then you should get going. I’ll be watching for your email with Clark’s mission details.”
Lois went directly to her desk. She made sure that she had backup copies of everything she’d written and that she’d sent all of the semi-completed articles to Perry.
The next few minutes passed in a whirlwind as she hurried to get out of the office and navigate her jeep home without causing – or at least being part of – a traffic accident. She wanted to get home so badly that it felt like swimming through molasses, but as she put the key in the door, it had seemed like no time at all.
Lois almost called out as soon as she was inside, but realized just in time that Clark might be sleeping. Sure enough, when she reached the bedroom, there was Clark sound asleep. She stood at the side of the bed next to him. He looked perfectly healthy. Now she had an answer to the question of what a person looks like after spending the day saving the world.
After a moment, she sat down on the side of the bed. Apparently he wasn’t that tired because the motion of the bed caused Clark to stir. “Hi,” he said sleepily.
“Hi, yourself,” she replied. “You look like you’ve had a hard day.”
“Yeah, a long day of business travel can really take it out of you.”
“Are you sure you’re okay? Does anything hurt?”
“Not really. I think I’m fine,” Clark answered. “I just… I wore myself out.”
He was hiding something. She could tell. “Clark, tell me exactly what happened.”
He hesitated for a second. “I was…”
“Before you say anything,” she cut him off. “Assume that I’m going to make Bernie tell me everything that happened to Superman during the mission.”
He hesitated for a moment before starting again. “Like I told you earlier, the first mission was easy. Everything went as planned. For the second mission the rocks were all going to be smaller and I’d gotten pretty fast at moving from one to the next, so we tried for a lot more.”
“How many?” she asked.
“Nearly a thousand. There were a lot more of those smaller rocks. Anyway, I was about 80 percent done when I starting getting tired.”
“What did it feel like?” she asked.
“At first it was just that my powers seemed to be running out. Once it was clear that I might have trouble finishing the mission, we decided to cut it short and only divert those that posed the greatest threat. By the time I’d done the last diversion based on that shortened list, I was both weak and tired. Then when I started back, I had trouble flying fast enough. I made a push to get my speed up and… well, I pushed a little too hard and blacked out.”
“Oh, Clark,” she said as she leaned in to hug him. “How long were you out?”
“About ten minutes,” he said softly. “But once I woke up I felt much better.”
Lois was about to comment when she heard the front door open. “Lois, Clark?” It was Jonathan’s voice.
“We’re in here,” Lois called. “Come on in.”
She looked questioningly at Clark. But before he could reply, Martha came hurrying into the room. “Son, are you okay?”
“Martha, Jonathan, I’m so sorry,” Lois apologized sincerely. “When Clark called, all I could think of was to rush home. I should have called you. Clark shouldn’t have had to do that.”
To Lois’s relief, Martha turned and smiled at her. “That’s okay, Lois. And the fact is that Clark didn’t call either.”
“Then how did you know to come?”
“Perry called Alice and said that Clark was at home hurt and that you had lit out of the office like a cat with its tail on fire. Perry thought you looked too frazzled to think to call, so he passed us the news. Alice gave us a ride over.”
“But I still should have thought to call,” Lois said. She felt so bad. Why hadn’t she thought to call Clark’s parents?
Martha came over and put her arm around Lois. “It’s fine. Really. How could I feel bad that as soon as you heard that Clark was hurt, your only thought was to get to his side?”
“You’re sure?” Lois asked. “I feel really bad.”
“I’m sure,” Martha said, giving Lois a squeeze. Then Martha turned to Clark. “Son, how are you?”
“Tired,” he answered. “I haven’t felt like this since right after Nightfall.”
“You aren’t having that burning inside, are you?” Lois asked, suddenly much more worried.
“No,” Clark answered. “None of that burning. But I haven’t felt this tired since those first few days.”
“What burning are you talking about?” Jonathan asked.
“I was pretty beat up when I got back from Nightfall,” Clark explained. “The main symptoms, aside from the amnesia, were the fatigue and a sort of burning all over inside. At the time, we thought it was some kind of reaction to the trauma from the building fire and maybe from inhaling smoke. Later on, when we learned I’d been exposed to poison gas, we thought it was some kind of weird reaction to that. Then, once Lois and I figured out who I was, it seemed likely that it was a reaction to the Kryptonite in the gas.”
“But there isn’t any burning this time?” Lois asked once more, just to be sure.
“No. In fact I’m not even sore. I just have no energy at all,” Clark explained. Then he turned to his parents. “Did I ever use up my energy before? I don’t remember anything about using my powers growing up.”
“Once you got your abilities, they never seemed to run out. At least, not that you ever mentioned,” Martha said.
“You didn’t even get tired,” Jonathan added. “You once stayed up for a few days to see what would happen. You finally went to sleep on the third night, but even then you woke up in a few hours and you said you felt fine.”
“What about after doing something big with my super powers?”
“Nothing you ever did growing up seemed to come anywhere near straining your powers,” Jonathan said.
“What was the biggest thing I ever did?” Clark asked.
Martha and Jonathan looked at each other for a second as if trying to remember what he’d done. Then Lois realized that she may know this one. “What about when Clark lifted the space transport into orbit? That seemed pretty big to me.”
“Of course,” Martha said. “That has to be it. You never did anything close to that at home. At least, not that I know about.”
“Agreed,” Jonathan added. “That would have to be it.”
“Then I know the answer,” Lois said. “Clark, when you got back from carrying to transport into orbit you didn’t seem tired at all. You seemed perfectly normal when you flew me back to the Planet and after that – as Clark – you put in a full day’s work with no problem.”
Clark looked thoughtful for a moment. “Well, this was a lot more work than that. When you think about it, I did two missions back-to-back. Even the first mission was more work than lifting the space transport and I felt fine after that.”
“So you think you managed to find the limits that were always there?” Martha asked.
“That’s my guess,” Clark replied.
Lois sat down on the bed again and took her husband’s hand. “Please, Clark, if you get into a situation like that again, remember that even you have limits.”
He smiled weakly up at her. “Now that I know where they are, I promise I’ll be careful.”
They were all quiet for a minute and Lois noticed that Clark started to fall asleep again. Then she remembered that Perry was waiting. “Honey, can you stay awake long enough for me to get some mission details? Perry is holding a section of page one for your inside mission information.”
“Of course,” Clark answered, suddenly alert. “As long as I don’t have to do it while running around the block.”
“No,” she replied. “Not this time. But next time I think we’ll do it during Tae Kwon Do practice,” she said with a smile. “Now, let me get my pad and we’ll get this done so you can get some sleep.”
TBC
