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Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 104
Hack from Nowheresville
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Hack from Nowheresville
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 104 |
Finally, Lois and Clark in the same vicinity! I can hardly wait to see her reaction to the stowaway!
What an intriguing series, Shayne! We could definitely use a Superman in our plane of existence. Of course, we're afraid of what we don't understand, so we'd try our best to lock him up. Good thing we've also got a Lois Lane!
I look forward to more!
"Women frustrate men because they're too complicated. Men frustrate women because they're not complicated enough."
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Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 3,764
Pulitzer
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Pulitzer
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 3,764 |
Wow! Shayne! Get back here!!! More!!! Lucy Lane is on the plane. And Lois' parents really were Superman fans!! That's sad about Walter Reed  . Interesting that Clark ended up in Lois' trunk  . Carol
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Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 391
Beat Reporter
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Beat Reporter
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 391 |
“The fingerprints do match, but we’ve already contacted our Lieutenant Evans in Georgetown, and he’ll be meeting with us this evening. Yes…like the others.” "The others"? It sounds like Lieutenant Evans and Lucy Lane are not the only doppelgangers who were on that flight. It also sounds like Lois is in for another kind of shock besides meeting Clark. How many other people will be in similar situations -- people in our world, and on the plane, meeting people they never thought they'd see again? This story keeps getting more and more interesting. You have me on the edge of my seat! 
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Kerth
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Kerth
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 2,445 |
Yikes - that's going to be weird. And it gives L & C yet another problem once they figure out what's going on.
Marcus L. Rowland
Forgotten Futures, The Scientific Romance Role Playing Game
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Kerth
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Kerth
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 2,018 |
Delightful part. IIRC Lois has seen Clark's photo on his Driver's license. As for Walter Reed, time to read Kipling .
Framework4
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Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 1,999
Merriwether
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Merriwether
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 1,999 |
Another interesting instalment. This Lois Lane is truly worthy of the name.
As with the other gentle readers, I'm looking forward to Lois and Clark's eventual meeting.
I think that the governments reaction to Clark would be more like that of Trask. They would see his powers as a major threat and would do whatever they could to destroy him.
On the other hand. Having the whole comic book history behind him. The public might be predisposed to see Clark in a more favorable light if he came out properly dressed as Superman.
Looking forward to seeing where this goes.
Tank (who is sure there are enough people in the U.S. with appropriate names to be able to stand in for the needed characters in the Superman mythos)
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Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 3,145 Likes: 3
Pulitzer
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Pulitzer
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 3,145 Likes: 3 |
I was wondering how you were going to get Lois and Clark together, Shayne, but this is hilarious. Clark decides to hide in Lois's trunk because it's empty, and she's driving like a maniac to stop Lucy's exhumation. If this were an actual retelling of a true tale, we'd say it was the kind of thing you couldn't make up.
I just thought of something. If this world's Lucy Lane has been dead for five years (maybe due to a terrorist act), and apparently the Lois from Clark's world is dead (because he's not Superman), Lois and Lucy are in for a very interesting encounter. Can't wait to read that one.
Will Clark help Lois with her investigation? Will she recognize him when she opens her trunk (for whatever legitimate reason, because otherwise Clark will disappear again)? And which world will be the beneficiary of a combined Clark/Lois team?
You know, we still don't know if the plan shifting between worlds was an artificial act or some crazy kind of natural phenomenon. Was this the end product of some villain's evil plan or just a coincidence? Or did H. G. Wells somehow engineer it? It's not his usual style, but in a Shayne story, almost anything is possible, and if it comes to pass, it always makes sense.
Keep it coming! This is really tense and enjoyable.
Life isn't a support system for writing. It's the other way around.
- Stephen King, from On Writing
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Posts: 5,797
Nobel Peace Prize Winner
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Nobel Peace Prize Winner
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 5,797 |
Terry said it first, but I have been thinking about it all day: I just thought of something. If this world's Lucy Lane has been dead for five years (maybe due to a terrorist act), and apparently the Lois from Clark's world is dead (because he's not Superman), Lois and Lucy are in for a very interesting encounter. Can't wait to read that one. Indeed!!! Lucy is dead in Lois's universe, and Lois is dead in Lucy's universe, and now the bereaved sisters are about to meet each other again! (At least I fervently hope they will!) This is an even more amazing thought: “They aren't conscious yet,” one man was saying into the satellite phone. “We can't even be sure that this Evans guy really is military. His paperwork was just as phony as every other passenger on the plane.”
The man stopped outside Lois's door and she tensed.
“The fingerprints do match, but we've already contacted our Lieutenant Evans in Georgetown, and he'll be meeting with us this evening. Yes…like the others.” Lieutenant Evans may get the chance to meet himself!!!! He and his counterpart from the other universe are identical! Not only are they physically the same because they have the same fingerprints, but they have lived the same lives, so that they have the same ID, the same hometown and the same careers!  Is everyone on that plane a "twin" of someone in the other universe, apart from those whose twin is already dead? Anyway, this idea that you may have a perfect twin out there somewhere has actually got some degree of scientific support. Suppose everything that exists is built of a relatively small number of building blocks, and there are only so many ways that these building blocks can be put together in different ways. Eventually the universe will have built all the different things that can possibly be built, and thereafter the universe will be forced to repeat itself! According to this theory, if the universe is sufficiently big and contains a sufficient number of these building blocks, it will eventually be forced to repeat - us!!! Not only people more or less like us, but us!!! I read about this in Scientific American some years ago, so I do think that the idea is scientifically sound. Anyway, let's return to your story, Shayne. They are going to exhume Lucy!!!! No, please, don't. Don't put the surviving Lucy in a position where she may have to confront her own rotting five-year-old corpse!!! I agree with Tank that it's a joy to see your Lois. She is so calm, so cool, so brave, so wow. Lois walked with her head held high toward the nurses' station. She pushed the doors leading into the cardiac unit open, and she didn't slow down as she noticed the armed guards standing outside two rooms down the hall.
In these situations it was important to look as though you knew where you were going.  Lois walked past the soldiers, trying to look at them with the appropriate amount of curiosity that any passer by would have. Not looking at them at all would have triggered them to being more alert. Something was going on. Lois realized that her best chance was to get back to Private Chalmer's room; she had permission to be there. Of course, if she'd somehow triggered an alert she'd just have to make up an excuse.
Her mind raced. Her best bet was that she'd gotten lost and had needed to use the bathroom. She'd stick with the story without elaborating much, and there wasn't a whole lot they'd be able to do about it. “If anyone asks, I'm congratulating you on your nomination for a Decoration for Distinguished Civilian Service.”
“What?”
“Pulling Private Chalmers out of the line of fire, people noticed that. There's been talk about it for a while now for everything you've done for the men.”
The Army liked that Lois had tended to side with the soldiers. It was hard not to when you lived with them for months at a time. Let me end by quoting Terry again: I was wondering how you were going to get Lois and Clark together, Shayne, but this is hilarious. Clark decides to hide in Lois's trunk because it's empty, and she's driving like a maniac to stop Lucy's exhumation. If this were an actual retelling of a true tale, we'd say it was the kind of thing you couldn't make up. Indeed! I was reminded of a scene from an old Goldie Hawn movie, where she and the guy she's with have car-napped a taxi and drive it at breakneck speed while trying to get away from some criminals, and the Japanese tourists who are in the taxi have never had so much fun in their lives! Come back soon with more of this excellent fic, Shayne! Ann
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Merriwether
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Merriwether
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,864 |
It hadn't occurred to me that almost everyone on the plane would have a duplicate. I imagine that while everyone is genetically the same they would all be slightly different. For example, alt-Clark was still a reporter; however, he was raised as an orphan and was about to marry a different woman. Some life choices were the same and others were different. Certainly, each of alt-Clark's life choices would affect someone else.
An interesting tale you're weaving. I love how you keep us guessing around every turn.
Elisabeth
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Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 76
Freelance Reporter
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Freelance Reporter
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 76 |
Actually, from the viewpoint of the Homeland Security people, their plan is brilliant!They have verified that, not only are a great number of the passengers and crew of the plane doppelgangers of real people, but they are physically identical to them right down to the fingerprints! That suggests only two (albeit equally unlikely) possibilities: (a) They are clones, created as part of an elaborate hoax, using cloning technology beyond anything currently known in the USA, and somehow having access to their hosts' DNA (but how to explain the cloned plane?), or -- (b) The planeload of people really appeared out of nowhere, from an alternate reality which is a close-but-imperfect approximation of our own. Admittedly, premise (a) is extremely unlikely, but hey -- if the shoe fits... But premise (b), while really out there, is actually the simpler of the two -- Occam's razor? How to prove it? The remains of Lucy Lane are the key. She's been dead for five years. If her remains prove to have been previously undisturbed, but DNA samples from the remains and from alt-Lucy match, there's no way that the evil conspirators could have had prior access to the DNA, leaving only premise (b) as the answer. Voila! Ann, your comments about our Lois's cool levelheadedness are generally right on the mark -- and then Lois has to go and spoil it all: The thought that the car might be driven by a maniac had never occurred to him.
The sound of a woman cursing from the front seat was punctuated by sudden changes in direction as she spun her wheels quickly on the concrete of the parking lot.
All Clark could do was hold himself still in the trunk with one hand on the broken latch.
If he’d been vulnerable to car wrecks, he’d have been terrified. As it was, the woman in the front seat sounded a little intimidating. Yep, that's Lois! -- Snave
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Joined: Sep 2006
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Beat Reporter
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Beat Reporter
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 391 |
This part was scary: Facial recognition programs put out a dozen hits, the last one here. Shades of 1984... None of the descriptions of Clark mention him wearing glasses, so I assume he doesn't. Maybe now would be a good time for him to start.
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Hack from Nowheresville
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Hack from Nowheresville
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 144 |
To Framework4: Thank you for that quote, I love Kipling! And now the new chapter. To be idolized as a hero yet be free to live some sort of a normal life. The Superman comic hadn’t given him much information. Most of it had been filled with outlandish fights against outlandish villains, and there had been very little about the hero’s personal life. The abilities and the insignia were hauntingly familiar, and if Clark squinted he could almost imagine himself being depicted in the outfit. I hope you didn´t change that because of my big mouth in my review for the last chapter!  By the way, I love your story!
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Pulitzer
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Pulitzer
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 2,823 |
Oh man, what a great story! I just came across it the other day and I'm eagerly waiting for each new installment. God knows our "real world" could use a Superman. But, as your fic is making clear, we'll drive him away with our fear and paranoia.
Of course my big questions:
1) How will Clark & Lois meet? (off to a good start already)
2) Will she update him on the fact that in our world, he's a fictional character?
3) I'm assuming that Clark will get all the people on the plane back to their proper universe (or maybe not?) - how?
4) If Clark Kent can travel from his universe to ours, what about kryptonite? The presence of Superman implies that kryptonite must follow. Every action/person/whatever contains within itself the seeds of its own destruction.
All I can say is, please, please post more soon!
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Nobel Peace Prize Winner
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Nobel Peace Prize Winner
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 5,797 |
I must echo something Cornelia said - everyone in our world has a counterpart in Clark's world and vice versa, But Clark is the only one whose counterpart is a comic book character? That is curiously interesting. Maybe Krypton never existed in our world. Or maybe it just wasn't possible to send a small baby across the light-years of space, keep him alive during the awesome journey, find the Earth - what a speck in space!!! - at the other end on the journey, and get the spaceship to make a controlled, soft landing there? I'd say that such a feat is just utterly unlikely. But how amazing that two American teenagers in the 1930s, Siegel and Shuster, would just "know" about this story so that they could present Superman/Clark Kent to the world as a comic book character!!! (Insert "the mind boggles" gremlin.) Maybe the universe you have created isn't "our" world, but rather a fantastically skillful take on what a "realistic" LnC universe would be like. (Ummmm... did that make sense, or did I confuse myself utterly now? I suspect the latter....  ) Ann
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Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 391
Beat Reporter
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Beat Reporter
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 391 |
The novel I mentioned in an earlier post, The Number of the Beast by Robert Heinlein, is based on the idea that all fictional worlds are real parallel universes, and are each others' Authors (with a capital A!). So our universe, too, would be someone else's fictional world according to that idea.  My guess is that Jake and Hilda, whom we met earlier, are a tip of the hat to the novel (two of the main characters have those names), which seems very apropos to this story. Debbie
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