Lori and Clark – The New, New Adventures of Superman – MMC V 6 27/32
By Ken Janney
Warning: This story is rated PG-13.
Disclaimers: The characters in this story are property of DC, December 3rd productions and Warner Bros. No Copyright infringement is intended. I have just borrowed the characters for a short time.
Previously:
The next picture was of CJ lying in his playpen with his bunny on his tummy and his teething ring in his mouth.
Turning the page Lois came to another shot from around that time. CJ was up on his hands and knees crawling, the teething ring dangling from his mouth. He started crawling around in his playpen and eventually started getting bored doing that. After going around a few times he would stop, sit and looking at Lois start to wail. At first Lois had no idea as to why he was doing this. Then she made it a point to watch the process. Seeing what was happening, Lois tried to put herself in his place and decided that it was time to baby proof the home. Clark went out and purchased the necessary materials and installed everything in less than an hour.
Once this was done, Lois was able to take CJ out of the playpen and placing him on his tummy he could get up and explore. Crawling was still somewhat new to him so he didn’t move too fast. In fact, he would crawl a few paces and then spin around and sit on his butt. After looking around, apparently deciding which way he wanted to go next and what he wanted to see, he would flip over on hands and knees and crawl to this new and interesting location to check out what was different about it from where he had just been.
The next picture brought another smile to Lois’ face. CJ had crawled over to the sofa and using it for support had managed to pull himself up on his feet and was standing there looking over his shoulder staring right into the camera with the largest smile on his face. He knew that he had accomplished something and was very pleased with himself. As soon as he let go though, he landed on his butt. Undeterred he had repeated the process and was standing once more. Eventually, there wasn’t a piece of furniture that he didn’t use to pull himself up. It was like he was testing all of the furniture to see which piece was easiest to use and which gave him the best view once he was on his feet.
The next picture brought another smile to her lips. CJ in his highchair with a bunch of lifesaver shaped cereal pieces on the tray in front of him. He was picking them up, one at a time, and putting them into his mouth. He had some more teeth coming in and the hard cereal felt good to him as he crunched down on it, but, very quickly it softened from his saliva and he was able to swallow it without any problems. The caption read simply, “CJ feeding himself.”
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Not believing that there would be any possible problem in doing so, there were occasions when Clark would spin into the Suit in front of CJ when he had to respond to an emergency. Apparently CJ began to associate this act with Clark leaving for a period of time. One day, as Clark was leaving, he turned to CJ and waved. To his surprise, CJ waved back. Lois said, “He’s waving goodbye to you.”
Clark walked over and picked him up. He gave CJ and hug and a kiss and said, “Bye Sport, I’ll be back before you know it.” He placed him back down on his tummy.
Lois watched and decided that she had to act. She got up and chased after her son who was following his father as fast as he could crawl in his footsteps.
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That was the last page. She knew that there would be more entries because they had a few months yet before Herb was due to show up.
She was determined that she would build some more memories before that happened, because she knew that once he came, there would be no more memories to build, only the one which would tear her heart out. The memory of losing her baby.
And now:
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Chapter 26 – The Accident
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Universal Locator designation
Alpha 023 x Gamma 004 x Tau -124 Alt-Prime
2091
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Once it had been confirmed that the Hangaresi fleet was indeed on its way back the way it had come, the order had been given for all of the ships to make best speed back to New Krypton.
Before lifting off Ching, Clark and Lori met in the Captain’s ready room.
“Tell me about the meeting. I’m very curious. What happened down there?”
Ching started a recording and Clark dictated the story, minus that part where he had taken the energy burst. He had been somewhat disoriented by it so Lori filled in that part.
When he was finished Ching asked, “What are your impressions?”
Lori spoke up first, “They passed all of this off as tests. They were testing *us* to see if we held life as sacred. Supposedly, since we disabled that ship without destroying it we passed the test. I’m still not too sure about this. We really didn’t test them at all. We just took their word for everything.”
Clark added, “That was the reason I suggested that we meet for the discussions on this world. In that way we don’t have to disclose the true location of New Krypton. Invisibility can add to the safety of New Krypton. I would recommend exercising caution in the negotiations. They are still an unknown quantity. I’m still not too sure about them. Their warrior apparently would have had no problem killing Lori or me at all. The first thing he did when he exited that ship was take a shot at me and then as soon as Lori took out that weapon he turned his other weapon on Lori who was obviously unprotected. There was no way for him to know that she was super powered. In that gown, and holding an apparently ancient weapon which could very well have been ceremonial, she didn’t appear to present much of a threat and yet she was attacked.”
Ching replied, “I don’t know just how well we’d fare against them. They apparently have a mastery over energy that we do not possess. We have laser based energy weapons as Earth does, however, they apparently have the means of multiplexing electro-magnetism or some other attractive force with the beam to form a tether because they did not use a cable or some such other physical item to attach to the disabled ship. Apparently it can also be used to draw items to it like an attractor, or tractor beam. We took some sensor readings and the power being transmitted through that beam was almost immeasurable. Once they had initiated the beam that disabled ship was pulled along the beam until it actually docked with the tow vessel.”
Chuckling, Lori added, “I wonder what was going through his mind when his energy blast had no effect on me. I could feel it as he ramped up the power output. Then when his weapon overloaded and I sent it out of the atmosphere before it exploded, he should have been grateful but instead he pulled a sword. He had to be surprised when I stopped and disarmed him so easily. That suit of his gave him the strength of many men. It’s because I have a double strength pendant that I had the strength I needed to overcome him so easily. I think my regular pendant would have been adequate, this one just made it that much easier.”
Ching replied, “I wonder if we’ll need to put on a demonstration of force the next time we meet. We took them by surprise with our inertialess ship. It may not work again. We also have not thoroughly tested the spherical design. We need to run more maneuverability tests so that we know just what we can do before they return.”
Clark replied, “I think we will have some time. Our FTL drive is superior to theirs.” He paused for a second in thought before continuing, “You know the FTL drive that my father, Jor-El, used in my ship was superior even to the one you currently use. When we return to Earth why don’t I give my ship to you so that the New Kryptonian scientists can duplicate the drive? You already have an advantage over them in that your FTL drive is faster. This will increase that advantage.”
“I wish we had thought of that, years ago. Our scientists have tried to improve our FTL drive but they have never made any significant breakthrough on the technology. They are good, but sometimes it takes the ability to think outside the box to make any advances. They have a hard time doing that. Plus, there hasn’t been any great incentive to improve on what we have. Having the technology that Jor-El developed would give us that leap that we need and now that we have had this encounter we have all the incentive we have needed. It would be greatly appreciated. Any advantage we can have will help. ”
“At this point I think we have a couple of tactical advantages. They know we can penetrate their shields, but they don’t know how. Our use of the inertialess condition, which can bring our ships into position without emitting a thrust signature, is another advantage. If we were to have an even faster FTL drive we could use it to intercept them at even greater distances than previously.”
Once they had finished recording the report and after the other ships had departed Ching gave the order to lift off of the planet’s surface.
Ching was anxious to do some further testing of the maneuverability of the spherical design when in an inertialess state so, once they cleared the atmosphere he ordered the shield controls to be activated. When he did, suddenly it was like the planet accelerated past them, narrowly missing their ship. Ching said, “Wow, that was a close one. I should have had astrogation double check their figures. I’m just glad that the physicist’s theory wasn’t tested.” He depressed a com button and said, “Minimal thrust, one percent. Astrogation, chart a course for return to New Krypton.”
The course was plotted and laid in and the journey began.
That started a series of trials wherein they tested the maneuverability of the ship, changing thruster direction and observing the effects. They had been alternating between several banks of thrusters, performing a zig-zag pattern of movement when suddenly what was currently the aft thruster ran wild.
Ching hit the button on the comm. panel and said, “Engineering! Status?”
“Engineering, we have a bank of thrusters that is locked. It is ramping up to full. We haven’t been able to control it or shut it down.”
“Does it pose a threat of explosion?”
“Not at this time.”
"Can we counter the thrust by applying thrust from the opposite vector?”
“Initiating.”
On the view screens they could observe the flare of the thrusters. As they built up to a level equal to the aft thrusters suddenly they cut out.
Ching hit the comm. Button, “Engineering, why did you shut down thrust?”
“The thrusters in that quadrant weren’t designed for that level of effort for any extended period of time. They were building to an overload. We had to shut them down before they exploded.”
“Understood. Keep working on those aft thrusters.” He hit the button to shut off the intercom. Turning to the crew in front of him he asked, “Navigation, status?”
The reply he got didn’t relieve his anxiety. “Velocity climbing. We are at point 5 of light speed and accelerating.” Not very many seconds later he said, “Point 6.”
“Engineering, we need to get a handle on that thruster. You need to shut it down.”
You could hear the fear entering the helmsman’s voice as he said, “Point 7.”
“Engineering, how about shutting down the fuel supply?”
“Working on it.”
The helmsman’s voice had an edge to it as he said in clipped tones, “Point 8.”
“Engineering, status?”
“No effect.”
The edge was still there and the tone of the helmsman’s voice was being affected. It was half an octave higher as he said, “Point 9.”
Ching, with an obvious effort to control his voice said, “Engineering, you need to get a handle on this problem!”
The helmsman had managed to gain some control, perhaps it was the quiet desperation of one facing a firing squad as he reported, “Point 95.”
Clark had been listening and suddenly had a solution. He stepped over to Ching’s comm. panel and hit a button and shouted, “Kill the shields!”
A few seconds later the star field stabilized and they heard back, “Shields off.”
Ching heaved a sigh of relief and said, “Thanks, I don’t know why I didn’t think of that.” He hit the button and said, “Engineering, Status?”
“Thruster still running wild. We are transferring the fuel that supplies it to another tank. Once the tank is empty it should shut down.”
After a while they could actually feel the thruster as it started to sputter and eventually shut down. Ching hit the comm. button and said, “Engineering, status?”
“Engineering aye. The thruster is shut down. It will hamper our maneuvering ability at sub-light but we can compensate by reversing and using the forward thrusters in their place.”
“Thank you for that report. We’ll want a complete evaluation once we are on the ground.”
“Acknowledged.”
Ching addressed the crew in front of him, “Navigation, how far off course has this sent us?”
“Calculating.”
A minute later Navigation replied, “Since we were not on a direct course for New Krypton when the thruster malfunctioned we have some distance to make up. Recommend that we use the FTL drive to return. Course already plotted and laid in.”
Ching nodded his head and then issued the command, “Execute.”
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Seventeen ship days later the ship arrived in New Krypton’s space and radioed in requesting landing clearance. Ching hit a com. button, “New Krypton control this is Ching on NK1701 requesting clearance to land.”
They could hear some confused chatter in the background as the link came alive. “This is New Krypton control, please repeat identification.”
“This is Ching aboard NK1701. Is there a problem? We have just returned from the meeting with Golosselei of the Hangaresi.”
Suddenly over the speakers was heard another voice, the voice of Zara, “Ching, where have you been? Did you follow them back to their space or something?”
“No, we came straight back, well, maybe not exactly, we did some tests of the ship and we had a malfunctioning thruster. Why do you ask?”
“You were supposed to be back four months ago.”
Startled, Ching blurted out, “Four months ago?”
“Yes, the rest of our ships returned fully four months ago.”
Chink looked at Clark and they said, simultaneously, “Time dilation!”
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When they landed Zara was there waiting for the hatch to open. Seeing Ching in the port Zara threw herself into his arms. When they broke from a kiss she said, “Thank Rao you’ve returned. I’ve been worried sick.” She firmed up and stepping back said, “Don’t you ever do that to me again.”
Ching pulled her into an embrace and said, “I promise. Never again. From now on we stay together. Where I go, you go too.”
“What happened? Why are you so late getting back?”
Clark asked, “Why don’t we go back to the residence where we can relax and talk?”
Zara wound her arm around Ching’s and started walking to the transport.
Ching stopped and turned around. Spotting the executive officer he said, “Give the crew a two day pass to be with their families. When they report back have engineering tear that thruster apart and find out what caused the malfunction. We can’t afford to have that happen to any other ships.”
“Aye, Captain. I’ll see to it.”
“Thank you. If I’m needed I’ll either be at the residence or meeting with the council. I need to report on the contact.” He chuckled as he finished up, “My report is four months overdue.”
“Aye, Captain. Don’t worry. We can handle it.”
Ching nodded and turned away, allowing Zara to pull him to the ground transport.
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Ching was speaking, “As you can see, my Lord Trey, there are still a lot of questions that will need to be answered. We do know from our sensor readings the direction they approached from and the vector they took when they departed correspond. It would be logical to assume that if we were to follow that vector eventually we would enter their space.”
Clark spoke up, “Lord Trey.”
Trey responded, deference obvious in his voice, “My Lord, Kal-El. Please, whatever you have to say, we are prepared to hear.”
“Council and Lord Trey, It is my considered opinion that until these questions have been answered to our satisfaction that the true location of New Krypton be kept a secret. That was why I suggested that the meetings be held on that world where we made first contact. It is fifteen days away using the current FTL drive and considerably longer for them.”
“At this point we only have their word that they are a peaceful race. I am still disturbed by the fact that the warrior attacked Lady Lori-El without provocation when she was perceived to be defenseless. There was no way for him to have known that she was invulnerable. Anyone else would have been killed by that energy discharge. When his energy weapon failed he then proceeded to attack her with a sword.”
“I would urge this council to consider them to be hostile until proven otherwise.”
“I would recommend the following. When Lady Lori and I return to Earth, I will be giving the captain the ship that Jor-El used to send me to Earth. Its FTL drive is more efficient than the one you currently use and will be far superior to that used by the Hangaresi. Once some ships have been fitted with the advanced FTL drive, send out scouts along the vector that they followed. Contact any sentient species found along that route. Find out from them if they have interacted with the Hangaresi and what the nature of the contact has been.”
“Send a small flight of several ships to actually locate their home world. A single ship would be too vulnerable. Two or three, but preferably four ships could defend one another. On Earth a basic tactical formation is four aircraft. There is a flight leader and his second in command then each has a wingman whose job it is to protect his leader. With the extra speed afforded by the advanced FTL drive they would be able to escape if need be.”
“If they do need to flee they should do so in a vector away from New Krypton until they are far enough away that the Hangaresi can no longer detect them and then still take a round-about course in returning home.”
“I would also recommend that the NK scientists work on developing a means of communicating over long distances, perhaps basing it on the field generated by the FTL drive itself. That also would give a tremendous tactical advantage. As it is we have to be in close proximity to communicate effectively.”
“When we return home we plan to propose to our family that they take turns spending time here on New Krypton. In this way each of their spouses could be your local superhero and assist with natural disasters and also be available in case of attack from invaders. I believe that our family will jump at the opportunity that this will present. They will have the opportunity to become acquainted with the customs and traditions of New Krypton and you would have an opportunity to get to know our family better. I would simply ask that they be provided with housing.”
Trey, speaking for the council said, “That will be easily arranged. We look forward to getting to know the El family.”
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