“Where do you think you are?” Lois asked, sitting down finally on the cheap couch across from the woman who looked like her sister.
“They didn't tell us,” Lucy said. “All I know is that they started splitting us up a few hours ago. I saw people being loaded into at least a dozen different trucks.”
Lois grimaced. The moment the government had decided that Superman was real, they'd split the passengers into at least a dozen different locations.
They are splitting the passengers up! I think that is disgusting.
Was it AnKS who pointed out that the government was planning to use the passengers as bargaining chips? That sure doesn't make it any less didgusting!
“What year was I born?” Lois asked.
“Why are you…?” At Lois's expression, Lucy said, “You were born in 1967, of course.”
Lois shook her head. “I was born in 1982.”
Snickering, Lucy said, “You're very well developed for an eleven year old.”
“It's not 1993,” Lois said.
How shocking would it be to find that you are somehow eleven years behind everybody in the strange world where you have ended up?
“How much do you know about parallel worlds?”
“You mean like in Star Trek, where Spock had the beard.”
![[Linked Image]](http://www.fradycomputing.com/legodude522/Pictures/spock%20parallel.jpg)
Perfect!!!
“So what you are trying to say is that I haven't just been transported in time, but that I've been moved to a different dimension.”
“Different universe,” Lois said absently. “Different dimension means something else.”
Heh! Yes, it does!
“So did the Nazis win in this universe, or what?” Lucy was staring at Lois with an odd fascination.
“What are you talking about?”
“You just said this was an evil dimension. I was just wondering when everybody turned evil.”
“I didn't say that,” Lois snapped. “This isn't the evil dimension.”
“The government arrested everybody and didn't give us a lawyer or a phone call or anything. That seems pretty evil to me.”
This is profound. From Lucy's perspective, the world she has ended up in
is evil. She and the other passengers have surely been treated badly.
It reminds me how the current American administration has sometimes talked about the need to explain itself better to the world. Well, unfortunately, actions speak louder than words, certainly when you consider yourself or your compatriots the victims of those actions.
![[Linked Image]](http://attendingtheworld.files.wordpress.com/2007/03/guantanamo-dog.jpg)
“I'm sure it would,” Lois said. “It's just that some bad things have happened since 1993 and things have changed.”
Lucy stared at her and said, “So are you like part of the government conspiracy?”
Shaking her head, Lois said, “No, of course not! Why would you ask me that?”
Lois is unconditionally loyal to her world. There is no way she is going to dismiss it all as evil. But when she is defending it, it looks to Lucy as if Lois is defending and backing up this world, whose evil nature seems so obvious to Lucy. So is Lois evil herself? You can't blame Lucy for wondering.
I thought you were somebody made to look like Lois,” Lucy said. She looked down at her hands. “To try to get me to talk. But you knew all these things that only Lois would know, and so I hoped…”
She'd hoped they were keeping Lois alive somewhere to provide the details they needed for those conversations.
“I guess she really isn't coming back,” Lucy said. Her expression crumpled and a moment later she flung herself forward to embrace Lois tightly.
Lois returned the hug, awkwardly at first, but then with more enthusiasm. This woman even smelled like her sister, and she was the closest thing Lois had left to family.
So moving. Poor Lucy, and poor Lois.
“At least you still have some hope that your Lois might be alive,” Lois said.
“You don't?” Lucy pulled back.
Lois shook her head.
“Mom, dad?”
Lois looked away, staring at the carpet.
“I'm so sorry,” Lucy said. She reached out and grabbed Lois's hand and squeezed it.
“It gets easier,” Lois said, knowing as she said it that it was only partially a lie.
I was about to say that this is heartbreaking, but that istn't the correct word for it. Both this Lois and alt-Clark have born their existential loneliness and struggled on, if only because life can be a duty. You don't just give up.
Elisabeth called alt-Clark and this Lois tragic heroes. That is a perfect way of putting it.
“So what are we to each other then?” Lucy asked finally, wiping tears from her eyes.
“Genetically we're sisters,” Lois said. “Maybe it's like discovering that your sister had a twin separated at birth or something.”
Lucy shook her head. “We're closer than that. Twins are completely different people but you seem a lot like the sister I remember.”
“You don't,” Lois said. At Lucy's shocked expression, Lois said, “The sister I remember was a brat, not a relatively mature woman.”
Grinning, Lucy said, “I'm still a brat. I'm just not used to being locked up.”
I love their conversation.
“I have a friend who is working on a way.” At Lucy's expression Lois quickly said, “It's not a sure thing, and it might not be workable at all, but there is a chance, as long as he can get the government to agree to let you all go.”
Lucy visibly deflated. “So we probably won't get to go then. Are you sure we aren't in the evil mirror universe?”
“I'm fairly certain,” Lois said. “Beards aren't really all that popular in my circle anyway.”
![[Linked Image]](http://itscool.com/images/OsamaBinLaden_blackwhite.jpg)
I guess not.
Despite the barricades the members of the press surged forward, and the flashes of light as the downed reentry module was photographed over against the backdrop of St. Basil's cathedral.
St. Basil's cathedral. Yes, that's what it's called.
![[Linked Image]](http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/a/aa/350px-St_Basils_Cathedral-500px.jpg)
“This is obviously a hoax being perpetrated by the Americans!” The Turkish ambassador's face was flushed. “As a cover for testing of a new weapon.”
The French ambassador didn't look any happier. “Our sovereign airspace was violated without prior notice. If we had known you had this superweapon, we would have…”
...
“Does it seem likely that we have anything that could move that quickly in space and then stop in mid-air?” he asked.
“We all know of American ingenuity,” the Israeli ambassador was usually more sympathetic to the American cause, but Joel could see that in this, none of the twenty men in the room believed a word he said.
:rolleyes:
Would everybody be this crazy if Superman turned up for real? Yes, probably.
“His presence is just proof of the larger problem,” Joel said. “You've seen the evidence. The Large Hadron Project must be shut down until these results can be investigated.”
“You think we do not know the difference between fiction and reality?” The French ambassador shook his head. “You helped finance this project and now you want it shut down.”
And as usual, politicians refuse to acknowledge the real problem!
“He looks like the comic book character Superman, but we have no idea who he really is, or what abilities he really has. For all we know he took this form just to make us let our guard down. There is no indication that he doesn't have all sorts of abilities we've never even thought of.”
:rolleyes:
When he heard the sounds of knocking on the window behind him, he turned slowly. He was on the second floor and there were no balconies near his window.
Floating in the window was the figure they had been discussing for the last hour.
What followed was mass confusion as everyone raced for the door.
Wow. Here is Superman, floating outside the nearest window, and he has done nothing but good, and all those high-ranking politicians flee like scared rabbits.
I don't know. This looks more and more like proof to me that these people are
not on the side of the angels.
And everyone has quoted this already, so why shouldn't I?
She felt a familiar tug on her shirt.
“Mommy, Superman is in our backyard.”
Susan blinked and said, “That's nice dear. Just stay away from the door.”
That's so sweet and funny!
“Ma'am,” he said. “I'd like to hire your services.”
“Dressed like that?” she asked.
Her husband stared at her and said, “I guess you haven't been watching the news.”
As though to answer her question, the man levitated six feet in the air.
Susan stared at him for a long moment before saying “Oh.” She suddenly felt an intense urge to sit down.
“How would you like to be famous?” the man asked.
Yep, Clark sure needs legal representation in this universe! And so do all the passengers from his universe, for that matter.
Another brilliant part, Shayne!
Ann
