***~~~***
Chapter 15: Investigation
***~~~***
Lois thought that the city seemed much more alive Monday morning. There were still traffic restrictions so the city buses continued to be the primary mode of transportation. Bicycles and motorcycles were an option if you had them. There was a lot of motorcycle traffic but the rain seemed to be keeping the bicycle count down. Despite the fact that most of the trip was by bus, getting to work was as dreary an experience as it had been on Sunday.
When she arrived at the office with Clark in tow, Jimmy hurried right over as if he had been waiting for them. “Hi guys. I swung by Star Labs on the way in just now. The building looked to be in good shape. There was a receptionist on duty this morning and she believed that Dr. Klein would be in today.”
“Great, Jimmy. Thanks.” Clark said.
Lois wanted to get started so they stayed in the office only long enough to check in with Perry and let him know that they were planning on heading over to Star Labs for the Nightfall mission investigation. Star Labs was off the bus routes, which meant a long walk through the rain. Lois was thankful that she had kept a pair of comfortable waterproof boots in her locker at work. She had worn them to Clark’s apartment the previous night and for the time being they looked to be her primary footwear. Hiking all over Metropolis in high heels would have been out of the question.
During the trip to Star Labs they talked about how to go about this investigation. There would be very little they could do until the city restored power and communication. Lois hoped that Doctor Klein would be able to provide them with details of the mission plan that would kick-start their investigation. There had been very little information released before Superman's Nightfall mission, and since then people had been busy with more pressing matters.
When they finally reached Star Labs, Lois was in the lead as they approached the receptionist. If they were lucky this would be the same person that Jimmy had spoken to earlier in the day. The receptionist greeted her with a professional, “Welcome to Star Labs. May I help you?”
“I’m Lois Lane and this is Clark Kent. We’re reporters for The Daily Planet. We’d like to speak with Dr. Bernard Klein. One of our colleagues stopped by earlier this morning and was led to believe that he would be in today.”
The receptionist nodded as Lois finished speaking. “Yes. Your friend spoke to me this morning. Just a minute please.” She reached for the phone and dialed.
“'Your phones are working?” Lois asked, surprised.
The receptionist raised a hand in a “please wait” signal. “Dr. Klein, this is Peggy at the front desk. I have two reporters here from The Daily Planet that would like to speak to you. Lois Lane and Clark Kent. Yes sir, Lois Lane.” She put down the phone. “He’ll be right out. As for the phones, we have power and phone service within the building from our own generator. You can sit in the waiting area if you’d like.” She pointed at an area with some padded chairs.
They had only just reached the seating area when a middle-aged man came through the inner door and approached them. “Ms. Lane? Mr. Kent?”
Clark stepped toward him and offered his hand. “Yes, I’m Clark Kent and this is Lois Lane.”
“I’m Bernard Klein but please call me Bernie,” he said as he shook Clark’s hand. He turned to Lois. “I have to admit that I wasn’t sure about talking with reporters until I recognized your name. You’ve written so many stories about Superman.” Now the scientist’s face turned somber. “I’m so sorry for the loss of your friend. Were you as close as it seemed?”
Lois was surprised at such a personal question from someone that she had just met. For a few seconds she was at a loss for words.
Bernie seemed to realize what he had asked, and didn’t wait for a reply. “Oh, my. That didn’t sound right did it? I’m sorry. Sometimes I fumble with words. What I meant to say was that in reading your articles it seemed that Superman was a friend of yours. I just wanted to say that while his death was a tragedy for all of us, I suppose that you who knew him best will feel in even more keenly.”
That sounded a little better, but something still bothered her. “Dr. Kl… Bernie, Clark and I are both friends of Superman. Do you have a particular reason to believe he’s dead?”
Now Bernie looked even more flustered than before. “Ms. Lane, he…didn’t come back from Nightfall. While I don’t know that he’s dead I guessed that he must be.”
“You must understand that many of us are reluctant to give up hope that he might have survived,” Clark said.
Dr. Klein turned to Clark. “Of course. I understand completely. While I had never met him before we discovered Nightfall, I have been a great admirer of his. I believe that if Superman were alive he would have tried to do something to minimize the damage from the Nightfall fragments. The fact that he didn’t intervene, combined with the circumstances and location of his disappearance, led me to the conclusion that he didn’t survive.” He turned to Lois. “I’m very sorry. I meant no offense.”
Lois had regained her composure. His explanation sounded very reasonable. As much as she hated to admit it, this line of reasoning mirrored her own. She’d tried to keep her mind off Superman with limited success. If he were alive, he would have tried to do something. Anyway, she didn’t want to dwell on the whole “is Superman dead” question so she moved to change the subject. “We were told that you worked with the team that put together the Nightfall mission.”
Bernie nodded. “Yes, I was one of the lead scientists on that team.”
Lois continued. “We’re investigating the mission. We would like to know as many details as possible about the plan. We would also like to have any information you can provide concerning the equipment used on the mission. Can you help us with any of that?”
“Certainly! The information isn't classified. It's a matter of public record. Come back to my office and I can tell you about the equipment and provide you with copies of some of the technical specs that were used in its development.”
They followed Dr. Klein through a series of doors and hallways until they reached an area that could have been either a lab or an office. Whatever it was, it had chairs and a desk. Dr. Klein moved toward a chair on the other side of the desk while motioning them to take the two nearer seats. As he sat down, he pointed at the jumble of papers on his desk. “I’ve been looking over the details of the mission ever since the… since Nightfall shattered. I haven’t been able to figure out what went wrong. Our main concern beforehand was having the guidance system work correctly so that Superman would reach Nightfall. However, given the fact that Nightfall was shattered, that system must have been fine, at least right up until the end.”
Lois had the feeling that he was going to ramble if she didn’t keep him focused. “Dr. Klein…”
“Please, Ms. Lane, call me Bernie.”
“Fine, Bernie, we would like to focus first on the various pieces of equipment that went on the mission. Once we understand what went along with Superman, we should have a better idea of where to push the investigation. And you can call us Lois and Clark.”
Bernie blushed at this. “Okay, Lois. Well, there were four major elements. They were the impactor, the guidance system, the communication system and the life support system. The impactor was, of course, the ship. It was little more than a decommissioned destroyer. I don’t have the information on the exact ship used, but it had a mass of just over 10,000 tons.”
“Why was a ship used?” Clark asked.
“We needed something that had enough mass to do the job, and there wasn’t time to build anything that big. We chose that ship as it was the most structurally sound of those in the mothball fleet. At least, it was for those that were between 7,000 and 12,000 tons. During the tests that we did with Superman, those ships above 12,000 tons seemed to stress his powers.”
Clark came right back with another question. “Why not use a big rock?”
Bernie laughed at this. “That’s a funny question. That exact issue came up late in the planning process. I imagine that if mining engineers had planned the mission, we would have used a rock. But the military was in charge of the planning and it was the first thing they thought of. The main advantage of the ship was that there were a number available with known masses. A ship was one of many possible solutions. By the time anyone suggested using a rock, the plan to use a ship was well underway. There wasn’t any reason not to continue with that plan.”
Lois watched the scientist carefully as Clark continued to ask questions. Bernie seemed to be friendly and from what he said when they first came in, he was a supporter of Superman. If he could be trusted, he might prove to be an incredibly valuable asset for the investigation. With that in mind, she listened and tried to get a feel for the man.
“Was the ship modified in any way?” Clark asked.
“Only minimally. We added two reinforced grip handles at a structurally strong point on the hull. That was to allow Superman to hold and control the ship in flight. The only other modification was to attach the guidance system.”
“The guidance system was on the ship?” Clark asked.
“Yes”, Bernie answered. “There were three independent radar systems feeding into a control panel mounted next to the grip handles. The radar units were redundant so that as long as any one was functional, it would be adequate to complete the mission.”
“Were there any problems with the guidance system before the impact with Nightfall?”
“Umm, yes and no,” Bernie answered defensively. “At about one minute before impact, ground telemetry indicated that one of the radar units failed. They were mounted on the forward facing side of the ship and we believe that a debris impact destroyed that unit. Ground control was receiving telemetry indicating that the other two units were functioning right up until the end.” He paused for a second. “There was one other thing…”
Lois could sense that this ‘other thing’ was important. “What?” she asked.
Bernie cleared his throat. “There is evidence that at the same time we lost the one radar unit, something triggered the terminal guidance to indicate that the ship had reached the release point.”
“What would that do?” Clark asked.
“Superman might have been getting a signal that it was time to release the ship and start back.”
“The press was never informed of this!” Lois barked.
“We didn't know about it at the time of the initial press briefing. We only found out later when we analyzed the telemetry data. From what we could determine, it appears that Superman was getting mixed signals. The countdown-to-release timer appeared to be working properly, but he would have been getting both audio and visual indicators that it was time to release the ship.”
“Do you think he released the ship at that time?” Lois asked.
“We don’t know. We told him that he would be releasing the ship only a few seconds before impact. If he did release it early, and saw that Nightfall was still some distance away, why didn’t he go back? Without him here to explain what he saw and did, we have nothing to go on.”
Lois was both agitated and excited by what they were learning. “Did you say that he would have an audio indication?” she asked.
“Yes.” Bernie took a deep breath and paused as if to collect his thoughts. “Let’s back up a minute. There were four systems but they were in two assemblies. The impactor assembly consisted of the ship and the guidance system. My team, working with the military scientists, designed and built that assembly. The other main system was the survival assembly. It was a modified space suit with a long-range communication system. That was built by a commercial contractor with expertise in space systems.”
“What can you tell us about the survival assembly?” Clark asked.
“Not as much as I’d like. The air supply system was supposed to be based on the same type of system used in space suits.”
“Supposed to be?” Lois asked.
“I only saw it briefly just before Superman left. It appeared to be far more customized than I had anticipated. There were several air tanks and it appeared to be highly modified from a standard support pack.”
Now Lois had completely taken over the questioning. “Could you please elaborate on that?”
Now that they were discussing purely technical details, the scientist seemed to relax. He shifted into a sort of lecture mode. “The impactor and the radars were only slightly modified versions of existing military systems. I told you about the ship. It was little more than an old discarded Navy ship with handles welded on the side. The radars were spares pulled from old EPRAD stock that were designed for docking maneuvering. The survival system seemed to be much more customized than that. I never had the chance to inspect it thoroughly myself, but I remember wondering why there were so many air tanks. Anyway, the communication system allowed Superman to talk with Earth during the mission. That was the part that had the strange failure where Superman stopped talking but the broadcast signal was still active.”
“Are you sure? What could cause that?”
Now Bernie looked uncomfortable. “That’s what some people are using to say that Superman shattered Nightfall deliberately. If the communication system had failed completely, there would have been no signal. It was like he just stopped talking.”
“Was there any sound at all? Wouldn’t his breathing have come through?” she pleaded.
Dr. Klein nodded. “That was my thought too. I asked that very question of one of the engineers from the contractor that built that part. He pointed out that Superman could hold his breath for a long time. Far longer than the time between when he went silent and the point where the signal was completely lost. Besides, another technician pointed out that the microphones weren’t designed to be sensitive enough to detect breathing. I’ve checked the recorded telemetry and the only sounds are when Superman deliberately speaks”
Lois was trying to digest that information when Clark asked the question that she almost kicked herself for not asking first. “What company built the survival assembly?”
“LexCorp.”
***~~~***
They spent several more hours at Star Labs. Bernie was able to provide them with documents that outlined some of the mission details but the information was incomplete. It had been put together so fast that there was no single comprehensive document that covered the entire plan. The biggest hole in the information that he provided was related to the LexCorp-supplied equipment. There were only general specifications that covered things like the radio frequency and broadcast power for the communication system. There was also a requirement for a minimum of four hours of air for the trip. But there were no details available about what engineering went into ensuring that the survival system met these requirements. Bernie had so little information about the LexCorp-supplied equipment that both Lois and Clark found it worrisome.
When they finally made their goodbyes to the scientist, it was almost dinnertime. As Lois led the way out of the building, she noticed Clark looking up at the darkening sky. “I think it will be pretty late by the time we get back to the Planet,” he said. “Will Perry be expecting us to come back to the office to work up our notes?”
Lois was way ahead of him on this. “Before we left the office this morning I realized we were going to be on foot for much of the trip. I told Perry that if we were successful in seeing Dr. Klein, we would probably not be back in the office until tomorrow. He understands the challenges of getting around so he won’t be expecting us to come in.”
“So we head for the apartment?” Clark asked.
“Yes,” she answered. “We’ve learned a lot today and after all this walking I’ll be glad to get home, take off my shoes and put my feet up.” She looked over at her partner and discovered an odd smile on his face. There was something slightly amused in that look. “What is it? Did I say something funny?”
His expression got a little more serious. “No. I’m just glad that you feel comfortable enough about where you are staying that you called it…home. It’s silly but, well, it gave me a warm feeling to hear you say that.”
They barely made it to the bus stop before it got completely dark. The lighting in this part of Metropolis wasn’t as extensive as it had been closer to the center of the city.
Later, as their bus approached the section of town near Clark’s apartment, they started noticing buildings with lights on. Lois turned to her partner in the seat beside her. “Clark, did you hear anything about restoring power this quickly?”
“No, but I haven’t heard any news since this morning. We’ve been out of touch since we left the office.”
After they exited the bus, it became apparent that many, but not all, of the buildings had power. Finally, they turned a corner and Clark’s building came into view. “There are lights on in your building!” Lois practically squealed. “Do you realize what that means?”
She could hear a note of confusion in Clark’s reply. “I won’t have to use the camp stove for dinner?”
“Hot water!” Lois supplied gleefully.
***~~~***
As soon as she verified the presence of hot water, she headed for the bathroom. She took a long hot shower for the first time in days. It was so nice to feel clean again.
When she emerged from the bedroom, she found Clark working on dinner prep in the kitchen. She was wearing some of the more casual around-the-house clothes from the collection that Clark had provided. She felt very comfortable and suspected that her smile was big enough that Clark might think she was the Cheshire cat. “You have no idea how much I've missed hot showers,” she explained as she walked over to the counter where Clark was working on dinner.
“I’m glad you enjoyed it,” Clark replied while continuing to chop carrots for dinner. “While you were in there, I heard a report on the radio that the streets will be open to traffic again starting at 5:00 a.m. tomorrow. Power and phone service are being restored on a section by section basis all over the city. There’s a good chance that we’ll be able to use phones tomorrow from work. Ouch!” Clark lifted his hand. It was bleeding from a small cut.
Lois noticed that he was sporting a bandage on another finger. “Is that your second cut finger?”
“Yeah. The first one happened just a minute ago while you were in the shower. When I started preparing the vegetables, the motion of using the knife felt so natural. It’s like my hands knew what to do.”
“They should. You cook all the time.”
“Do I always have Band-Aids on my fingers? That’s twice I’ve cut myself in less than five minutes.”
“No, Clark. The only time I’ve ever seen you cut yourself was in Smallville when you got a paper cut. I remember that you acted surprised. You said you had never had a paper cut before.”
Clark was looking at his hand with a confused expression. “I must have forgotten whatever the trick was for using a knife to chop vegetables safely. If I’m not more careful, I’m afraid I may do worse than these small nicks.” He gave her an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to ask you to let me concentrate so I can finish preparing dinner without any more self-inflicted wounds.”
A short time later Clark was loading the vegetables into a cast iron skillet. After another minute they were sizzling and filling the room with a wonderful aroma. “Almost done,” Clark said reaching for the handle. As he touched it, he jerked his hand back with another “Ouch!”
She didn’t remember him being particularly accident-prone. “Clark! What happened this time?”
Clark looked over at her with a slightly confused look on his face. “It’s hot.”
“Of course it’s hot. Even I know not to grab a hot cast iron skillet without a pot holder.”
“Yeah. I know that,” Clark said in a tone that sounded like maybe he didn’t. He opened a drawer and took out a potholder to move the skillet from the heat. He completed the preparations for dinner without further injuries.
The meal was wonderful and they spent the evening going over what that had learned from Bernie Klein and making sure their notes were as clear as possible. The evening ended with Clark escorting Lois to the bedroom door just as he had the previous night. However, this time when Lois said good night, Clark leaned down and kissed her cheek. After she closed the door, Lois realized that by old-Clark standards, that was a very bold move. Without the memories of why he was keeping his distance, Clark was more forward about their relationship than she expected. He was still 100% Clark. When he kissed her, it had felt very natural. He had moved slowly and given her plenty of opportunity to pull away or send another signal. What she found in that moment was that she didn’t want to go anywhere.
The whole living-with-Clark experience was like living in a dream. Lois kept thinking to herself that she didn’t get along with people. At least, she never did until Clark. As she laid there in the dark, she could just barely smell him on the bed and the pillow. It was a nice smell. It made her feel like Clark’s arms were around her. She realized that it might be wonderful if he were really here and his arms *were* around her.
This sent a warm shiver through her body. But what about Superman? That final kiss before Nightfall had been so… What had he planned to tell her when he got back? If Bernie was right and he was dead, what did that mean? How would Superman feel about her staying with Clark? Her mind was still reeling in confusion when sleep overtook her.
TBC
Bob
