TOC: The Pitfalls and Pleasantries of Kryptonian Multiplication

The Pitfalls and Pleasantries of Kryptonian Multiplication

by DSDragon

Table of Contents

Prologue: Long Journey's End

Chapter One: Voices in My Head

Chapter Two: Excitement and Confusion

Chapter Three: Planning, Plotting, and a Personal Favor
Chapter Four: Rivals and Arrivals
Chapter Five: Explanation and Exasperation
Chapter Six: Marriages and Mayhem
Chapter Seven - Coming Soon!

Chapter Six: The Pitfalls and Pleasantries of Kryptonian Multiplication

Thanks to Terry Leatherwood, without whose conflict throwing this fic would suck. I’m just too nice to want to put the characters through anything bad, so I try to block it out and my writing suffers because of it. Terry asks just the right questions in just the right places to lead me to great conflicts, not only making the story more realistic, but hopefully more entertaining as well. After all, who wants to read a full-length story full of fluff? Not that I don’t like fluff—I just hate that it’s practically the only thing I’m able to write without help.

Kmar deserves lots of kudos too. She constantly checks my facts for me, and helps me with research I don’t even know I need to do. Not to mention, she can spell “reconnaissance,” which is one of the few words that still gets me every time.

You two rock!

*Some lines in this chapter have been quoted directly from the episode “Big Girls Don’t Fly.” In this chapter, I also make a small reference to a certain novel which shall remain nameless until the end of the chapter.*

To recap:

In chapter five, Jor-El, Lara and Clark arrived at his apartment, only to find Zara and Ching at a stand-off with Martha and Lois (with Jonathan sitting in the background). There were some exchanges of information, and an argument ensued after Lara let the bomb drop about the birth-marriage between Zara and Clark. Martha broke up the argument and everybody decided to go to sleep and talk/think about it in the morning.

And now, on with the show . . .

Remember:

*Telepathic Communication*
"Speech,"
"*Speech and Telepathic Communication at the Same Time,*"
and EMPHASIS.

Chapter Six
*Marriages and Mayhem*

The telephone rang in a fifth-story apartment on Carter Avenue.

It rang again, eliciting a moan from the comforter on the bed. Slowly, the comforter moved and a hand snaked out from beneath it, groping toward the night stand.

After the fourth ring, the hand reached its goal, bringing the receiver back under the comforter.

“Hullo?” asked Lois, voice low and gravel-filled from sleep.

“Lois?” Clark’s voice came over the line. “Are you still asleep?”

She perked up as she heard her fiance on the line. “Well, I was until the phone rang. Why?”

“Uh, Lois,” Clark said. “You do know that it’s almost ten, right? You missed the staff meeting, and Perry’s been looking for you since it ended.”

The covers suddenly folded over as Lois turned and sat up. “What? Ten o’clock? You mean I over-slept? That’s impossible! I never over-sleep.”

“Sorry, Honey, but you did today,” Clark soothed. “I don’t blame you though--you did seem pretty exhausted last night when I dropped you off.”

“Why didn’t you call me sooner then?” Lois asked as she hurried around the room, grabbing clean clothes, rushing through her morning routine and thinking to herself that it was a good thing she’d managed to take a shower before the whole debacle at Clark’s the night before.

“Perry wouldn’t let me out of the meeting,” came the answer. “He said at least one of us had to be here to fill him in on our stories, and since we know about each other’s individual stories too. . . .” He let the sentence hang, and Lois grumbled her displeasure at the idea--after all, how could she ever get the scoop on the rest of Metropolis if she didn’t get up early enough to get there first? “Anyway, while I’ve still got you on the phone, I should probably tell you that everyone is planning on continuing the conversation from last night after work this evening. I was going to tell you when you got in, but--”

“Right,” Lois answered, distracted as she hurriedly hung up the phone, applied her make-up, grabbed her shoes and purse, and left the apartment.

-----

Fifteen minutes later, Clark heard Lois grumbling all the way up the elevator shaft.

“Could’ve been here in five minutes if I hadn’t over-slept . . . stupid mid-morning city traffic . . .” came the sotto voce litany. Clark had to smile; Lois was just adorable when she was irritated. Plus, her rants were almost as fun to listen to as her babble-tangents.

As the elevator came within a couple of floors of the newsroom, Clark got up from his chair to pour Lois a cup of coffee. He reached the ramp just as the doors came open with a “ding,” and met her with a kiss at the elevator. “Morning, Lois,” he said with a smile as he handed her the mug.

“Almost isn’t anymore,” she grumbled, but returned the kiss. He watched as she carefully took a sip of the hot coffee, closing her eyes and sniffing it as she swallowed. “Mmm, thanks, Clark,” she said, opening her eyes and moving a bit more sedately down the ramp toward the bull pen and her desk. “What are we working on today?”

Clark reminded her about the status of a few of their open investigations, then started into the details of the new assignments they’d been given, but was interrupted when Lois suddenly sat straight up in her chair and turned around, fixing him with a piercing stare.

“Wait a second,” she said. “Before I left my apartment, did you say something about talking to . . . you know, THEM . . . again tonight?”

“Yeah,” Clark answered, uncertain whether the vitriol his fiancee put into the word “them” was for his birth-parents, Zara and Ching, or all four of the born-and-raised-but-currently-Earth-bound Kryptonians. “Everybody decided this morning before work that it was probably a good idea, since we still have to figure out what to do about some things anyway.”

“So, they called you, but you couldn’t call me before ten o’clock?” There was a dangerous note in her voice. Clark was secretly glad that Zara wasn’t working today, since her presence probably would have had Lois spitting nails within the hour, especially after Jor-El and Lara’s revelation of the night before. It was one thing for the “new girl in research” to have a crush on Clark, but he suspected it became quite another thing entirely to Lois when it was revealed that the very same “new girl” actually had had a claim--albeit a claim from a completely alien legal system--on him since they were infants.

“No, no, that’s not it,” he hurried to explain, quietly so as not to be overheard by their colleagues ranged around the bullpen. “Mom and Dad were already at my apartment, right? So when Jor-El and Lara and the others contacted me in my head, it woke me up. I was so surprised, I must have shouted because I woke up Mom and Dad, so I told them what the other four were saying, and we came up with the plan for this evening. I had already planned to tell you about it when you got here, but I didn’t know you had over-slept. I called you as soon as I could get to a phone after I realized you weren’t here yet.”

Clark inwardly chuckled at the adorable picture Lois made as she sulked, contradicting some of the statements she’d made earlier that week. “You know, it’s just not fair! I want to be telepathic too.”

-----

“What kind of barbarian civilization marries people when they’re babies anyway?” Lois asked no one in particular as she swung a fork over her Kung Pao chicken that evening. She and Clark had finished their work at the Planet, and were having dinner--courtesy of Superman’s World-Wide Delivery Service--with Martha and Jonathan while they awaited the arrival of the Kryptonians. “I mean, you’d think with all that technology, they would have at least had the sense to wait until the kids could make their own decisions, wouldn’t you?”

“Indeed I would,” Jor-El answered from the stairway. She had not noticed Clark getting up to open the door, and turned quickly in her seat to see the Kryptonians as they walked into the apartment.

She opened her mouth to ask why he and Lara had married Clark and Zara then, but closed it when Jor-El continued.

“I had long pleaded with the leaders of our planet, not only to save as many of our people as possible from the destruction of Krypton, but also to find a balance between tradition and other, possibly better ways. Ways that would acknowledge the rights of the common people as well as those of the nobility.”

“But then why--”

“There simply was not time for persuasion,” Lara interjected. “Had we not performed the ceremony at the appropriate stage in Kal-El’s infancy, we would have called attention to our family in ways that would have, at worst, hampered our son’s ability to leave before the planet’s end, killing him as well as the rest of the population.

“As it was, we were lucky to have as much time as we did. The best we could do was to keep Zara and Kal-El from ever meeting, as we had hoped that he would find happiness with a woman from Earth.

“In a way, the birth marriage was also an alternative, should he not have found anyone suitable here. We wished then, as we do now, only for our son’s happiness.”

Lois thought about the new information she’d been given as the eight of them found places to sit around the living room, and made it a point to sit between Clark and wherever Zara sat. She noticed Martha staring at Lara with an unreadable expression on her face, although Lara did not notice as she defended her and Jor-El’s actions to Lois.

Jonathan spoke. “That’s what we want for him too.” Martha nodded her agreement.

Lois sighed. “Well, I guess I can see that. So, how do you undo it?”

“Undo?” Jor-El asked.

“Yes, how do you make it so that Clark and Zara aren’t married anymore?”

All four of the recently-space-bound Kryptonians looked at each other, and Lois wondered if they were having a high-speed telepath conference. They were at least doing the “speaking without words” thing that even some humans did from time to time.

She guessed that they really had not been speaking telepathically when Zara finally answered. Judging by Jor-El’s flinty expression, Zara’s upcoming words were either opinion or only personal knowledge. “There is no way in our laws for a birth marriage to be ‘undone.’ Both parties have a duty to each other and to the Kryptonian people. If marriages were suddenly allowed to be broken, what other laws might then be taken as merely ‘guidelines?’ No, there would be rebellions, criminals everywhere, chaos.”

Lois silently contemplated the possibility of calling Dr. Klein for some kryptonite as she raised an eyebrow at the other woman. Did she really believe what she was saying? It was like she was reciting a lesson, or she was some kind of brainwashed propaganda machine for Minitrue. “And your people always follow the law? What, there aren’t even annulments in your culture? How are two people who were married at birth supposed to live together if they were not even allowed the choice to agree or to disagree? What if they’re not even compatible, much less in love?”

“Compatibility is irrelevant,” Ching answered as Lara and Jor-El continued to be silent in the background, jaws tight. “The continuation of the species, especially of noble blood lines, is of the utmost importance, particularly now that the population of Kryptonian peoples in the universe is exponentially smaller than it was only decades ago.”

Something in the man’s tone which Lois could not put a name to made her think that he was trying to convince himself as much as he was trying to convince her; maybe he had not been brainwashed as Zara had. She did not react to the insight, but filed it away for future reference nonetheless before she growled.

She stood, pushing Clark’s calming hand off of her thigh, where he’d rested it at the beginning of Zara’s explanation. “Do you even hear yourselves?” she asked as she swung her hands and arms wildly in frustration at Zara and Ching. “Do your people not have brains to think? Do they not have hearts to feel? Are you all robots, doing only what you’re told, never questioning whether or not those commands are right and good? Did no one think for themselves on Krypton?”

She watched Ching’s fists clench at his sides, but when he started to speak again, Jor-El held up a hand. “Stop,” he commanded.

Surprisingly, Ching obeyed. Lois wondered about that, and then remembered last night, when Jor-El had called Zara “Lady.” Was Ching a subordinate? Then did that mean that Jor-El and Lara were at least close in rank to Zara? They’d have to be, she deduced, since she doubted any Kryptonian noble had ever married below their station. Surely, that would be at least strongly discouraged, not to mention against their all-important laws, she scoffed to herself. Which would mean that Clark was--no, he couldn’t be, could he?--some sort of prince, or lord?

Her thoughts were curtailed as Clark’s birth father continued. “These young ones have not studied the ancient laws as I have. Before you were born,” Lois saw him nod to Clark, “and the threat to our home was fully realized, I pored over the oldest texts, searching for ways to precipitate change in our society.

“Many millennia ago, before the birth marriage became an almost mandatory tradition, there were quite a few instances of people who were excused from marriages they did not want when their majority came upon them. But such excuses had long passed into disuse and unofficially banned before our time. However, even the oldest of these Laws of Excuse still had not been formally and legally repealed on the day of Krypton’s demise.

“Therefore, if Kal-El were to approach the current governing Council of Elders with a request in accordance to those laws, then the Council would not be able to deny him the request, and upon condition of her agreement, his marriage to Lady Zara would then be severed.”

Lois smiled smugly at the woman in question--who looked slightly gob-smacked--and folded her arms across her chest as she leaned back on the couch cushions. Clark gently squeezed her shoulders in a brief side hug.

“I have indeed researched the old laws concerning our people’s marriage customs,” Ching answered the older man. Lois looked at him, the wheels turning in her head. Why was he searching such old laws? She remembered his tone from earlier then. Did he have a birth marriage he didn’t want either?

Or did he want someone else’s birth wife? She looked from him to Zara, whose eyes told Lois that she was just as surprised as Lois felt. Intrigued by the possibilities in Ching’s words and posture, Lois listened closely as the man continued.

Even Ching’s stoic exterior was cracking, lending credence to her theory that the man was decidedly not happy with the statement he was about to make.

“The old laws specifically prohibit the severing of a birth marriage between nobles, if the severing of such a union will threaten the peace which the Kryptonian people have enjoyed for hundreds of millennia. Should Lord Kal-El be excused from his marriage to Lady Zara, New Krypton will be plunged into civil war.”

-----

“I don’t understand,” said Martha, breaking the silence from the chair she sat in next to the couch Clark shared with Lois and Jonathan. “How could a divorce start a CIVIL war? I mean, I could understand if it were two countries with a treaty predicated on a marriage between members of both ruling families, but wasn’t Krypton basically one planet-wide country? That’s what it sounded like you said, Ching, ‘the peace which THE KRYPTONIAN PEOPLE have enjoyed.’ Am I right?”

Clark looked from one Kryptonian to the other as they each nodded in response: Lara, Jor-El, Zara, Ching. Martha continued, “Then how can a divorce--or a refusal to marry--between two people of the same country cause a war within that country? Why should the identity of one noblewoman’s husband make a difference?”

“Lady Zara is not merely a noblewoman,” Ching protested. “She is the First Lady, blood heir to the Kryptonian monarchy, and Lord Kal-El is the ruler consort, First Lord of New Krypton.” Clark stared at Ching, eyes wide, and jaw slack. Him, a king? The idea was daunting, to say the least.

“Therefore,” Jor-El explained, “if the marriage between Lady Zara and Kal-El were to be severed, then Lady Zara must marry his successor. But I also do not understand how this will cause civil war among our people.”

“Because if Kal-El doesn't return,” Zara answered, “Lord Nor is next in line for my hand.  He is a monster, a soulless brigand who would enslave all who oppose him, and the Council of Elders is blind to his treachery.  Marriage to me would ensure his reign; he will seize power, which will divide all the ruling houses in the hold that they have over the people. Riots will be followed by mass murders, followed by civil war.  Our people would live in fear, and there would be little to nothing that I could do to stop his tyranny.”

“Can’t you rule alone?  Or has New Krypton not embraced Women’s Lib?”  His fiancee’s pointed question brought a slight smile to Clark’s face, even through his surprise.

Lara sent him a query, mind-to-mind.  *Women’s Lib?*

His birth mother’s voice in his head as her eyes met his broke Clark’s thoughts from their stupor, and he answered, *A political and social movement which strives for equality between the sexes in business, government, economics, and other aspects of life.  Specifically, the movement emphasizes better rights for women.  ‘Women’s Lib’ is actually short for ‘Women’s Liberation,’ and the movement is also often called the Feminist Movement.*

Lara nodded, returning his look and sending a telepathic burst of interested and slightly-dampened confusion while he refocused on the verbal conversation.

“No,” Zara answered Lois’s question, and Clark heard the impatience in her voice.  “The first duty of all Kryptonian nobility is to produce legitimate, noble heirs.  Were I to refuse a husband and sever the birth marriage after the thirty-first anniversary of my birth, I would be jailed and tried for treason, a crime for which the penalty is death by banishment.  My body would be disintegrated, the Council would scatter my molecules across the universe, and Nor would win the throne by default.  My people would be left utterly without hope.”

A pall hung over the group as the information percolated through their minds.  Finally, a slightly subdued Lois spoke, clutching Clark’s hand as though she were afraid he would be ripped from her in the next few seconds.  “So . . . what?  We’re just supposed to sit here while you take Clark away to a planet he’s never seen, away from everybody he’s ever known?  We need him here too, you know.”

Clark held her close as Ching replied, “It is his duty.  There is no other way.”

“We will find a way,” Lara vowed.  “If not now, before you must leave, then as soon as possible so that he may return to Earth--the home we meant for him to love when we sent him here--before much time has passed without him.”  Clark looked to Jor-El, and saw his birth father’s solemn nod.

“Before we do that,” Jonathan said, “we need to do something about Jor-El and Lara’s stories, and their ship still needs to be taken to a better hiding place.”  Clark had nearly forgotten that his father was in the room; the man was quieter than usual tonight.

“Our stories?”  Lara asked.

“Oh yeah,” Martha answered.  “You’ll need human identities and background information, and disguises so that you won’t be too conspicuous.”

“Lt. Ching can take care of the necessary identifying paperwork,” Zara said.

Ching nodded from his corner.  “It will be easier than was creating Terran identities for Lady Zara and myself, since I shall only work backward from Lord Kal-El’s.  It is a matter of public record that he was adopted as an infant, so I need only create the paperwork for the birth parents of the child who was adopted and then named Clark Kent.  I will use the names on the birth record which was created when he was found.”

Martha, Jonathan, Lara and Jor-El nodded.  “If you need any of the paperwork we have for Clark,” Martha offered, “just let one of us know.  If I don’t have it in Smallville, then Clark probably has it here.”

“That will not be necessary.  I had already found the computerized records during my original search of the planet for his current whereabouts.”

“Since that’s taken care of,” Clark said, “I could go move the ship right now.”

“You will need help,” Zara said.

“I thought you people had done your homework?” Lois interrupted.  “Clark’s lifted a shuttle into space before, and he stopped an asteroid from demolishing the Earth.  Shouldn’t he be able to handle a space ship the size of a yacht?”

“Normally, yes,” Ching answered.  “But the ship in which Lord Jor-El and Lady Lara came to Earth was made from Kryptonian materials; therefore, it has a molecular structure much more dense than anything made with even the heaviest of Terran metals.  Moving a ship of the size necessary to transport two Kryptonians and the required supplies would take all five of us, possibly more if the ship is considerably larger than my estimates.”

Jor-El quoted a measurement that was unfamiliar to Clark, and Ching nodded.  “The five of us should be able to lift and transport it then, but not without difficulty.”

“Have you been able to fly yet?” Clark asked his birth parents.

“No,” Lara answered.  “Not yet, although the possibility of flying under my own power is a thrilling thought.”

Zara shook her head.  “Their powers will not come fully to them for another week at least.  It may take longer; our scientists are not yet certain if age is a factor in how long it takes for a Kryptonian to come to full strength under the influence of a yellow sun.  Learning to control the abilities with enough accuracy to avoid obstacles at the highest altitudes and speeds will take longer.”

“Then I guess I’ll just have to keep an eye on the ship for another few weeks,” Clark concluded.

-----

The Colonel watched as General Taineckew perused the written report he had brought to him just minutes before.  The colonel had been especially hesitant to tell him that his troops were reluctant to attempt entry due to the obviously alien--and, judging from the dress and probable origin of the two beings to exit so far, probably impregnable--design.

“Yes, tipping our hand to the alien so early could be disastrous,” the general mused.  “Were there signs of anyone else aboard?”

“No, Sir,” the Colonel answered, “but if there were, surely they have noticed our presence and informed Superman.”

“Recommendations, Colonel?”

“It may be prudent to remove all troops from the valley, Sir.  The approaching storm front will serve to cover any evidence of their presence, should any inside have failed to notice already.”

“Do it, Colonel.  Dismissed.”  The Colonel did an about-face and left the office, polished boots clicking smartly on the linoleum in time to his regimented gait.

Taineckew paged his Lieutenant, “Reed, patch me through to Cash.”

“Yes, Sir,” Reed answered over the intercom.  A few moments later, the voice came through again, “Colonel Cash on line one, Sir.”

The General grunted.  “Make certain I am not disturbed until further notice.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Taineckew picked up the receiver, and pushed the button for line one.  “Colonel Cash, this is General Taineckew.  We have a matter of national security on our hands.”

“The Metropolis contingent is in place and awaiting your orders, Sir,” the other man answered.

“Keep an eye on Superman.”

“Superman, Sir?”

“Yes, Cash,” barked the general, “Superman.  A little less than a week ago, Superman was witnessed guiding a ship of unknown origin to a valley along the border of Idaho and Montana.  Two unknowns disembarked, and Superman escorted them out of the valley, presumably back to Metropolis, leaving the craft.  Attempts to open the craft and ascertain its contents have failed.  The size of the ship leads us to believe that there are more Kryptonians aboard, at least enough to subjugate the human race.  Your orders are to track Superman, note any changes in his behavior, and report back to me in one week.  You are also to identify the unknowns and their purpose here.”

“Yes, Sir!”

-----

Bottom-Dweller’s Note: I do not own the rights to the term Minitrue, nor to the novel it came from (George Orwell’s 1984), and I used the term without permission.  No copyright infringement was intended, however.  It just fit the situation in this story, and I’d profusely thank all involved if they would not sue me.

Next Chapter: Lara and Jor-El get disguises and learn about Superman, and the plot actually moves past Clinton Street (I hope).

Chapter Five: The Pitfalls and Pleasantries of Kryptonian Multiplication

Chapter Five

*Explanation and Exasperation*

“Uh oh,” Clark said as he and his parents came in for a landing on his balcony.

“Is there a problem?” Jor-El asked.

“Yeah, those other two are back, and Lois looks pretty steamed.”

“Steamed?” his mother asked. Clark thought she might be a linguist, with all of the definitions she’d been asking him for, both before and during their flight. If she were, it would surely explain why he liked writing so much, since Martha and Jonathan Kent were more “doers” than writers.

“You’ll see,” he answered, leading the pair through his bedroom window as the male Kryptonian just inside the doorway to his apartment asked when he would return.

“Right now,” Clark answered him. He saw Lois turn to watch Jor-El and Lara, and opened his mouth to ask what the other Kryptonian pair wanted, but Jor-El spoke first.

“Lady Zara of the colony of New Krypton, I presume?”

Silence answered the question, and then Lois asked Clark, “Who?” as Zara mentally breathed, *Lord Jor-El, Lady Lara.*

Clark interjected telepathically to Zara, *You know them?* Then, he said with a shrug to Lois, “Don’t look at me, I’m just as stumped as you are.”

This statement seemed to surprise the elder Kryptonian, for he said, “Surely, my son, you were diligent in your studies?”

At this question and the double distraction of Zara’s, *Only from images in historical records taken from Krypton,* Clark blinked. “Well, yes,” he answered Jor-El, “but no teacher I know had even so much as heard of Krypton before three years ago, much less a whole colony of Kryptonians.”

“Did you not receive the lessons I sent with you in the capsule’s memory banks?”

“You mean the five messages in the globe?”

“No,” Lara interjected, stepping farther into the room. “Although we had hoped you would not need it, the ship itself held the knowledge you would need to function competently among other Kryptonians, should you encounter them.”

Jonathan spoke up then. “I think I understand what happened here.”

“Oh!” Clark exclaimed, realizing he’d been remiss as a host. Taking a moment to spin into casual clothing--a feat which, he was pleased to note, seemed to impress Jor-El and Lara--he introduced Lois and his parents to . . . his other parents. “Martha and Jonathan Kent, Lois Lane, this is Jor-El and Lara.”

While the three humans made their greetings verbally, Jor-El and Lara nodded politely.

*To be “steamed,” then, is to be annoyed?* Lara asked him silently once the formal introductions had been made.

Clark mentally chuckled. *Annoyed, irked, angry--take your pick,* he answered.

“Please, Jonathan Kent,” Jor-El said, unknowingly interrupting Clark’s conversation with his mother. “Do continue.”

“Just ‘Jonathan’ will be fine; family names are reserved for more formal occasions here,” Jonathan advised before clearing his throat. He waited for Jor-El’s nod, then continued, “When Clark’s ship first landed, a few strange people--rogue elements, I guess you could call them--kept coming by our house in Kansas asking about meteorites and such. Martha thought it would be a good idea to get rid of the ship, so that suspicions would die down. I buried it nearby three days after we found Clark, but somebody found it anyway.”

Lois took up the tale, and Clark--who was still processing the fact that there really was more knowledge of Krypton that he’d missed--was grateful for the opportunity to keep silent.

“Clark didn’t even see the ship until three years ago, when Bureau 39 and Jason Trask were trying to find him,” she explained. “Bureau 39 is--was--a branch of the military which was supposedly shut down nearly fifteen years ago. They believed that Clark was the scout for an alien invasion, and basically wanted to kill him.

“And Trask nearly succeeded once, too,” Martha interjected from the sofa area. “That was the first time any of us had ever seen Kryptonite. Clark was at about human strength for the better part of a day and a half.”

“You call him Clark?” Lara asked Martha.

“Well,” the other woman answered, hands fidgeting in her lap. “We didn’t really know what else to call him, so we named him for my family. Before Jonathan and I were married, I was Martha Clark.”

“It is an honorable name which brings one to reflect on one’s ancestors,” Jor-El intoned.

David, forgotten at the top of the entry staircase with Zara until Clark heard him speak, quietly mused, “This changes our plans considerably.”

“It changes nothing, Ching,” the woman--Lady Zara, Clark mentally corrected himself--answered just as softly. “Especially not our need for Kal-El’s assistance or our lack of time before New Krypton is plunged into civil war.”

-----

“New Krypton, huh?” Lois asked from the couch where she sat between Martha and Clark. “Not very imaginative, is it?”

“It was to be a temporary name,” Jor-El explained as he paced in front of the television set, Lara standing silent by the bedroom archway. ”The expedition on which Lady Zara’s family embarked was to be the first of many Kryptonian colonial expeditions, and each new colony was to call itself New Krypton for the space of five years, after which the colony’s elders were to choose a more appropriate name.”

“Unfortunately,” Zara continued the explanation, “mere weeks after the expedition was launched, Krypton was destroyed. My father and the other expedition leaders spent ten years searching for a habitable planet, desperate and despairing because when the last transmission from Krypton was not followed by any more, they realized that they were the last of a once-proud race with no homes to return to. Either the colony would survive, or the Kryptonian race would become extinct. The elders, my father among them, unanimously agreed to keep the name New Krypton, in honor of their dead home. It is perhaps a mercy that the colonists were sent at the same time as those searching for a suitable world, otherwise there would have been no possibility of life past the third generation due to the risks inherent in too much inter-breeding.”

“But why did the colonial expeditions start so late?” Martha called from the kitchen, where she’d gone to make some tea for their guests. As she walked back into the living room with a tray full of cups and saucers, she continued, “If Earth were dying, and I had warning, I think I’d want to get as many people as possible off of the planet, and the sooner, the better.”

Zara, regal even in shame, hung her head. “Jor-El himself--” she nodded at the older man, “--repeatedly warned the council of the imminent demise of Krypton.”

“But?” Lois prodded.

“The council,” the lady answered, “were mostly too proud to believe him, and those who might have listened--my father, Sen-Ra, included--were afraid that the knowledge would cause hysteria among the masses. Instead, the council decreed that colonial expeditions would be sent in five-year intervals to increase trade between Krypton and the other peoples of the twenty-eight known galaxies.” The last Zara said through her teeth, eyes hard and distant.

“But if you know about twenty-eight galaxies,” Martha questioned, “why didn’t you have trade already? And why not go to one of those already-inhabited planets?”

Jor-El answered, “Krypton once did do much trading with other planets, but thirty years ago, no Kryptonian had left the planet in over three millennia. We became a race of reclusive, complacent scholars. By then, we knew of no other civilized races which would take in Kryptonian refugees, and many on the council felt it best to strike out on our own until we could re-build those diplomatic ties which had unraveled throughout the millennia.”

Ching, who had taken a position standing at attention behind Zara’s seat on the stairs, elaborated. ”Now, only ten thousand out of what was once a population of ten billion still live, barely surviving on the only habitable planet to be found after the death of our home world. Were it not for the final visuals received from Krypton’s satellites before their annihilation, we would not have known that Kal-El yet lived.”

Lois looked at Jor-El and Lara just as they looked at each other, familiar blank looks on their faces. ”You look surprised,” she remarked.

“Yes,” Lara answered. “We knew the time limit we had before Krypton’s end, but Kal-El had just come to the age when the birth-marriage ceremony was to be performed. The council--”

“Birth WHAT?!?” Lois shouted, jumping to her feet.

“--would have been suspicious if the ceremony was not done, so we found it fortuitous that Sen-Ra, who had recently had a daughter, would be leading the first colonial expedition within weeks.” Lara had continued throughout the younger woman’s outburst.

Somewhere in the back of her consciousness, Lois registered Clark’s arms coming around her as he asked, “The WHAT ceremony?”

Each of the eight people gathered in the small apartment began to speak at once, and there was a sudden cacophony. Lois wondered if it was as loud telepathically as it was verbally.

A shrill whistle cut through the din of argument.

“Enough!” Martha shouted into the sudden silence. She waved in the general direction of the clock on Clark’s VCR, and Lois--kind of concerned at the tangents her thoughts had been taking that night--was amazed that it showed the same time as the watch on her wrist, since her own VCR was constantly flashing “12:00.”

Martha continued, her voice softer, “It’s late, Jor-El and Lara have had a long journey, and I’m sure Lois and Clark have to work in the morning. We’ll all be able to better appreciate what’s being said after we’ve had some sleep anyway.”

“Of course,” Jor-El acknowledged the wisdom of her statement. “Let us then retire.”

“I guess I should get going too,” Lois muttered around a yawn. Giving Clark a kiss which even she had to admit was meant as a possessive gesture, she said, “I’ll see you at the Planet. It was nice to meet you, Jor-El, Lara.”

“Wait, Lois,” Clark said. “I’ll just get everyone settled here, and then I’ll fly you home.”

“Okay, but make it quick; if I sit down I’ll fall asleep, but if I stay standing I may not stay that way for long--I’ll fall over, asleep where I stand.”

She returned the soft smile he gave her, then watched as her fiance organized things. “Mom, Dad, you’ve gotten set up in the guest room, right?” He turned to Jor-El and Lara, pointed with his thumb back through the archway toward the balcony and said, “You can take my bed, through there. I’ll take the couch--or the air above it, anyway.”

“That may not be wise, Kal-El,” Zara said, and Lois’s fists clenched at her sides. She didn’t want to break her nails trying to claw the woman’s eyes out of their sockets.

“Oh, would you leave him alone?” The words jumped out of her mouth unexpectedly. “He hasn’t seen them since he was a baby, and all you can do is talk about wisdom? And what’s so ‘unwise’ about giving up his own bed for his parents’ comfort, anyway?”

“Nothing,” Zara answered. “However, it would not be wise for the parents of Superman to be seen staying with Clark Kent.”

“Superman?” Lara asked, and Lois guessed that Clark hadn’t filled his birth parents in on the whole “defender of truth, justice and the American way” thing yet.

“Another topic which can wait until tomorrow to be discussed,” Martha interjected. ”And Zara’s right. Jimmy was told that Superman’s parents were coming, and he already sees Jonathan and me as Clark’s parents. But where else could they go? They couldn’t go to Lois’s place.”

“There is sufficient room at the place we have inhabited during our stay on Earth,” Zara offered. ”Of course, it would only be temporary, but it would keep Superman’s parents from association with Clark Kent, and allow people to believe that Kryptonians as a whole, and not just the one individual they know, are solitary--or at least extremely insular--beings, thereby perpetuating the illusion you have cultivated that Superman goes to some remote and untraceable place when he is not helping the people of Earth.”

“I hate it when they’re right,” Lois mumbled.

“Who?” Clark whispered. “Zara and Ching?”

“No,” she answered, forgetting in her fatigued state that she really had no reason to be jealous of Zara, just as she had none in Mayson Drake, Toni Taylor, Antoinette Baines and Lana Lang. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t hate it when they were right.

-----

The colonel had taken the corporal’s report, and made his own report in person to General Taineckew.

“And inside the ship?” the general asked once the colonel had finished speaking.

“The reconnaissance team was unable to attain entry with the standard equipment, and has been ordered to return upon acquiring alternate means of entry.”

“Very well,” Taineckew nodded, the gears turning in his head. “Keep me informed as to their progress, Colonel. Dismissed.”

The colonel clacked his heels together smartly, snapped off a salute, pivoted in place, and left the general’s office as Taineckew reached for the intercom on the far corner of his desk.

“Reed, get me Cash,” he commanded his aide. “I want a contingent on standby in Metropolis on the double!”

Chapter Six

Chapter Four: The Pitfalls and Pleasantries of Kryptonian Multiplication

Chapter Four
*Rivals and Arrivals*

The next evening after work, Clark flew over the Rocky Mountains along the northwestern border between Idaho and Montana at Jimmy’s suggestion. He and Lois looked for an uninhabited, isolated valley in which Jor-El and Lara could temporarily land their ship.

Every once in a while, they would stop with a whoosh of the red cape--usually at Clark’s suggestion--and Clark would point out the benefits of one site or another to his birth parents. Each time, they would reject the site based on size limitations or proximity to any human installations. Most of these sites, Lois had already rejected for the same reasons, but Clark had insisted on stopping for every one, just in case the elder Kryptonians did not have the same objections.

Finally, after three hours, all three Kryptonians--and Lois--had agreed on a suitable landing place. The valley was large, and the mountains around it were dense with forestation, and situated on a large mesa which would be difficult--if not impossible--to reach from any direction but above. Enough rocky outcroppings slanted over the valley itself that concealing the ship from above would not be a problem either.

“*I’ll come up there and lead your ship down to the valley later tonight,*” Clark told Jor-El and Lara while speaking aloud for Lois’s benefit. “*Then from there, I’ll take the two of you to Metropolis to meet Lois and the Kents, since you might not be able to fly yet. We’ll want to move the ship later, since this valley is still too close to civilization for comfort, even with the mesa walls so difficult to climb. Jimmy also suggested the Himalayas as a more permanent hiding spot. We can move it after you’ve gotten your own powers though.*”

*Very well,* Jor-El answered. *Until later, my son*

“And I suppose I’m supposed to wait in Metropolis then?” Lois raised an eyebrow at her fiance.

“Well,” Clark prevaricated. “I was kind of hoping to meet them in person by myself first, you know? And before I leave to go get them, I’ll bring Mom and Dad to Metropolis, and you and they can meet Jor-El and Lara when I bring them.”

Lois continued to stare, bringing her arms to cross over her chest.

“Please, Lois?” Clark looked into her eyes. “I- It’s just that-”

“Yes?” Lois drawled, and he cringed at the annoyed and impatient tone in her voice.

“Well, you see,” Clark stammered some more. “They’re my biological parents, and I’ve never met them before, not once in the thirty years since I was sent here, too young to remember them. It’s kind of selfish--” Lois blinked, possibly in preparation of telling Clark he wasn’t selfish, whether he thought it of himself or not. Before she could open her mouth, he continued, “--but I was hoping to keep that one moment, the moment I first see them again, to myself.”

There was a pause. Neither reporter moved, nor even looked at the other. Then Clark mumbled, “It’s stupid.”

He watched his scuffed and dusty red boots, and then heard Lois step toward him, felt her right hand on the spandex at his shoulder as her left brought his head up so their eyes met.

“No, it’s not,” she affirmed, shaking her head slightly while maintaining eye contact. “Every once in a while, I forget that the Kents adopted you; you’re just so natural together, which I guess might be a clue to someone like me, whose family was never that great.

“I have no idea what a situation like this feels like for you, and don’t even have a way to imagine it, except for that story I did five years ago about adopted kids searching for their birth parents, and even then you’ve probably already guessed I treated it like ‘just another puff piece.’”

She caressed his cheek, bringing her other hand to his face as well. Clark heard her heart slow down from its previously agitated rhythm. Then Lois closed her eyes, and sighed as she finished, “What I’m trying to say is, as much as I really want to be here to support you when you meet Jor-El and Lara for the first time--not to mention to get the story,” she said with a quick wink before sobering again, “--you NEED this. I may not understand WHY you need it, but you do. I get that.”

She kissed him tenderly, and then, his apprehension gone, he drew his arms around her in a long, warm hug. When they finally pulled apart from each other, the stars had come out and the spring mountain air had become chilly. Silently, Clark wrapped Lois in his cape, and then swept her off her feet. Even at the languid and leisurely rate they flew that evening, the pair made it back to their respective homes in Metropolis in less than twenty minutes.

-----

“Sir,” the corporal called, not looking away from his radar screen. “We’ve got a you-foe on the map with an erratic and unusual flight pattern. No response to hails.”

“Erratic and unusual?” the colonel responded.

“Yes, Sir. Whatever it is, it flies over the mountains, then stops and disappears for a minute, like maybe it’s looking for something. And then it shows up again, headed from the last place to another one.”

“General direction?”

“North by northwest, Sir.”

“Could it be Superman?”

“Doubtful,” the corporal replied. He continued at his superior’s stern look and raised eyebrow, “The Kryptonian generally travels much faster, Sir.”

The colonel had been watching the screen during this exchange, and noticed that the corporal’s UFO, now at the upper extent of their radar range, had changed direction on this latest appearance, and did not seem to be stopping this time.

“Looks like it’s leaving now. Track it as it crosses the radar, until it’s out of range, then I want a course extrapolation.”

“Yes sir,” the corporal acknowledged. A moment later, he had the information. “The UFO was headed in a direction south by southeast when it went beyond our range, Sir.”

“What’s in that direction, Corporal?”

“Cincinnati, Trenton, and Metropolis, Sir.”

The corporal steeled himself not to flinch when the colonel’s irritation at being interrupted for such a minor sighting blew up in his face, but was surprised when he felt a hand clasp his shoulder. “Even Superman has to slow down and smell the roses sometime, Corporal. As you were.”

“Yes sir!” the corporal put a little bit more enthusiasm into his response than he intended, due to his relief at escaping the colonel’s notorious temper.

The corporal got back to work, but as he did, he heard the colonel on the line with his superiors, following the usual procedure for UFOs, even if they did turn out to be Superman. Usually, UFOs that could be Superman were just entered into the day’s log and sent to HQ at the end of the week, but this was a unique occurrence; the corporal guessed that the colonel probably thought he should call it in for further orders.

“General?” the colonel said. He didn’t bother to speak quietly; his men were “trained” not to hear conversations they weren’t privy to.

The corporal pretended not to hear when the colonel informed the general, “We’ve got a possible code 93Y in sector 6. Awaiting your orders.” He was unfamiliar with that particular code, so the corporal focused a little more closely to what the colonel was saying.

There was a pause, and then the corporal could hear the general’s voice coming over the other end of the line, although the words were no more than muffled squawkings. After an exchange of questions from the other end and answers from the colonel, the colonel uttered one final “Yes, Sir,” then hung up the telephone.

“Corporal,” the colonel barked.

“Yes, Sir!” he answered, turning and standing at attention.

“Set up a recon post around the perimeter of those last coordinates--but be discreet. Super Silent protocol at all times. Report the minute anything else happens.”

With one final “Sir!” the corporal vacated his post for the relief officer, and headed to the barracks to gather his reconnaissance team, wondering all the while if it were really possible to hide from the Man of Steel.

-----

It was nearly time for the corporal to wake up his relief for third watch when he saw it--a glowing red streak coming straight toward the last coordinates of the evening’s UFO. Shaking his head and stamping his feet to clear the fog from his mind, he put a pair of binoculars to his eyes.

What he saw nearly made him shout his surprise, before he remembered the Super Silent protocol his team was under. The red streak, magnified in the binoculars’ double lens, was a ship coming in to land! And flying ahead of that ship was Superman himself, sometimes flitting backwards and doing crazy aerial maneuvers around the ship as it came in to land. The only phrase the corporal could think of to describe such maneuvers was, “enthusiastic cavorting.”

The ship was HUGE--not Naval Destroyer huge, but large enough to fit about fifty people comfortably, and with room to spare.

Unable to pull himself away from the sight, he watched as the ship finally landed in the valley, not noticing when his relief came up beside him to watch as well.

Superman landed on the starboard side of the ship as a hatch opened and two beings stepped out wearing black outfits. The corporal, a little confused, saw Superman stand, not moving, in front of the couple who looked like they would be in their mid-to-late forties if they were human.

The man, white haired, wore a black unitard with Superman’s S on the chest in a lighter electric blue than the hero’s costume. The cuffs of the sleeves and the toes of the boots the man wore were the same color.

A red-head, the woman wore a similar unitard without the crest, but wore a long, open black coat over it, the hems at the opening in the front and at the cuffs trimmed in yellow. Both of the older people had similar stunned expressions on their faces as they looked at Superman.

He could see the couple’s mouths move, but he was not close enough to read their lips, and due to the “Super Silent” protocol, the corporal had been constrained from installing listening devices in the valley, so he could not hear what was said, especially not over the sounds of the creek rushing nearby and the night animals prowling.

All of a sudden, the three figures in the valley below converged on each other in a three-way embrace. The older male looked like he was holding back tears--was this a reunion?--and the woman’s lips moved silently.

The trio broke their embrace, and after another moment of silent conversation Superman followed them into the ship, only to return with the other two less than a minute later. The elder couple each carried a satchel on their shoulders, and Superman put an arm around each waist before the trio flew away, the hatch closing and disappearing seamlessly into the ship behind them.

According to the corporal’s compass, they were headed south by south east.

-----

Clark landed just to the right of the thirty-year-old Kryptonian space ship, as it set down in the valley he had chosen earlier that evening. He stood facing the vessel as a door opened in its side and two people stepped out. They looked almost exactly like the couple he had seen in the globe’s messages two years previously. They appeared only slightly older than the two Kryptonians he had encountered on his balcony two nights before, although they wore the same type of clothing.

Not expecting his birth parents to look younger than his adopted parents, despite his knowledge of their three-decade-long journey spent mostly in cryogenics chambers, Clark stood stock still, watching them as they watched him, unsure what to do next. From the looks on Jor-El and Lara’s faces, they did not know what to do either. To break the emotional tension of the moment, Clark spoke.

“Um,” he said. “Now what do we do?”

“What do the people of Earth do when they are reunited?” Lara asked.

“Well,” he answered. “They usually smile and greet each other enthusiastically. Then, depending on how comfortable they are with each other, they might kiss, or hug each other.” Clark smiled.

“Hug?” Lara asked.

“An . . . affectionate embrace,” Clark defined.

The tension snapped. All three of them, as they processed the last few words Clark had spoken, moved as one toward an invisible point in the center of their impromptu triangle. Just before they connected, Clark saw Jor-El screw up his face, just like he had seen his dad do when something affected him deeply, as though he were holding back the emotions, trying to keep the un-manly tears at bay.

For the first time in his own memory, Clark put his arms around parents he thought he would never meet, and they saw him, a man grown, no longer the baby they sent to the stars so long ago.

“My son, oh, my son,” Lara whispered huskily in his ear as she combed her fingertips through the fringes of hair at the nape of his neck in a gesture probably known, and used, by women across the universe to reassure themselves of the solidity of the men and children in their arms.

After a minute or two, Clark pulled back, his eyes and nose slightly red as he blinked away unshed tears. “First things first,” he rasped around the lump in his throat. “We should see if you can fly yet. Concentrate, and think about going up.”

The couple closed their eyes and concentrated, but nothing happened.

“No matter,” Jor-El said. “You did mention that it was an effect of the Earth’s yellow sun. Perhaps, despite our orbit above the Earth for the past two days both in and out of the sun, we have not yet been exposed to enough of its light at this time. And since it is night on this side of the world, it looks as though we will not be able to fly for at least the next few hours until sunrise. I believe you said that you would be able to carry us?”

“Yes, sure, no problem,” Clark answered with a smile on his face, barely able to keep his own boots on the ground. “And it’s a good thing I managed to convince Lois not to come, or I’d have had to make two trips. Why don’t we gather your things and then we’ll go?”

He followed his birth parents back through the door of the ship and stood by the navigation globe, looking in awe at the tiny corridor between the bridge cockpit and the one room which had quartered the elder couple for thirty years. As Jor-El and Lara passed that room, headed for the storage in the back of the ship, he tried to use a bit of x-ray vision to see into the sleeping quarters, but the metal was too dense, due to its Kryptonian origin.

He walked into the room for a look instead. There was a bed as well as two tubes with all sorts of dials on each long side and a glass-like panel on top, which Clark guessed were probably the cryogenics chambers. Another door on the same wall as the storage opened onto what Clark could only guess was the Kryptonian space farer’s equivalent of a bathroom.

Seconds later, Jor-El and Lara appeared in the doorway to the sleeping quarters, and the trio stepped silently back onto the bridge, Jor-El and Lara each with small satchels slung over one shoulder. All three Kryptonians made their way out the door again, Clark putting an arm around each of his parents’ waists before taking off for Metropolis.

-----

Lois paced from Clark’s balcony, through the bedroom, past the sofas to the staircase in front of the entry, and was about to turn around to go back when Martha suddenly appeared in front of her.

“Lois, honey,” she said. “You’re making me nervous.” Gently, Martha guided the other woman to the sofa.

Lois sat, weaving and unweaving her fingers together as she leaned over her lap. “I’m sorry, Martha, but shouldn’t he be back by now? What if something happened? What if--” she looked up, horrified at the thought. “When Clark’s ship landed here, it brought Kryptonite with it. What if Jor-El and Lara’s ship brought MORE Kryptonite?”

“I’m sure they’re all fine, Lois,” Jonathan spoke up from the easy chair across the room. “They’ll probably be here any--”

Just then there was a distinctive “whoosh” outside the apartment. Lois bolted off of the couch and was halfway to the balcony when there was a knock at the door.

“--minute,” Jonathan finished.

Martha wondered aloud, “Did he forget his keys or something?” as she opened the French doors in the entryway. “Can I help you?” she asked the pair on the other side of the door just as Lois walked back into the room and saw that it was not Clark at the door, but the two people she and her fiance had encountered two nights previously.

“What do you want?” she demanded, arms crossed.

“Lois!” Martha scolded.

“Martha, this is the pair I told you about earlier,” Lois hissed. “The ones who had the Kryptonite force field!”

At that news, Martha changed tack. She also folded her arms over her chest and demanded in her best Mama Bear tone, “All right, who are you, and what do you want?”

“Please,” said “Sara.” Lois tacked on an “if that IS her real name” in her head. “We very much need to speak with Kal-El, but have been unable to establish communications in the past two days.”

“Well,” Lois spoke up. “As you can see, he’s not here. I guess you’ll just have to try again later.”

“Do you know when he will return?” “David” asked.

“Right now,” Clark called from the arch way to his bedroom.

Lois watched the elder Kryptonians standing to either side of Clark as they took in the scene by the door. Lara’s eyes were narrowed at “David,” her face set in a thunderous scowl, while Jor-El looked calm--as though he thought he might just be about to enlighten everyone about something.

Sara gasped, but the only outward reaction in David Miller was a slight widening of his eyes.

Jor-El broke the silence, and every head in the room except his, Lois’s, “Sara’s” and “David’s” whipped around to look in his direction when he asked, “Lady Zara of the colony of New Krypton, I presume?”

Chapter Five