09/16/11

No notes, just tired... I'll be happy when this month is over.

Chapter 4

Absolutely no work got done that day. By the time Querl finished changing the infant was crying even when Querl held him.

The first thing Querl feared was that the infant needed a new diaper but, luckily, that did not seem to be the case. The second option was that he was hungry.

Though there was no milk at Querl's disposal, the young Kryptonian had something much better; Querl's intellect. With the use of his computers, research, a quick overview of the nutritional needs of most humanoid infants and a synthesizer Querl was able to make a powder formula that gave his unexpected guest everything that he would need for his nutrition, even some fiber and other vitamins so soft baby food wouldn't be necessary later on. The coluan genius even had the forethought to make it taste good, like actual milk, so the infant wouldn't reject it.

As the powder was being made by the synthesizer, Querl reprogrammed his suppler machine to recreate things that weren't tools for him. It was hard to work with the baby crying and worrying about the care takers hearing but he managed to put in the specs for various kinds of equipment for a variety of purposes and materialized a few bottles under the guise of a test so no one would get suspicious.

Once the powers was added to the proper amount of water at the proper temperature and shaken in the bottle, Querl was finally able to re-pick up the nearly screaming infant and sit down to feed him. As he watched the infant eat, occasionally pulling back the bottle to give him breaks to breathe, he had to wonder what the caretakers were doing that they weren't checking in on him or listening to the noises coming from his lab. It was to his advantage that they were absent but he knew that when something was too good to be true it usually was.

After the infant was fed, burped and Querl changed again from another round of spit up, Querl fed himself with the infant again strapped to his back. Luckily he had finished before he noticed a fowl odor.

"You have to be kidding me," Querl groaned, putting the infant back into the crib and ignored his whimpers as he set back to work.

Querl wasn't serious when he said the baby would be on his own if his diaper needed changing. He was, however, adamant about not changing it, at least not with his own two hands.

It was remedial enough to create a machine capable of the task, however it took longer to make the fact hands soft and warm enough where it wouldn't hurt the baby or bring it further discomfort during the process. As he waited for parts to come out of his supplier he programmed the synthesizer to produce clothe diapers under the guise of needing the clothes for rags.

In a way Querl was very lucky the recycler and disposal units didn't analyze anything he put in them or all of this work would have been for nothing when it came time to dispose of the infant's original diaper.

Though this thought brought up a question in Querl's mind; why was he continuing to call and think of the infant as just that, 'infant' or 'baby' when he knew the child's identity? Wouldn't using a name be simpler? Then again, this child had, or will have, so many.

"Kal-El," Querl experimentally called the infant once said infant was properly cleaned up and changed and back in his arms as they sat together.

The infant looked at him, seeming to recognize the sound but unsure what to do.

"Superman," Querl tried again.

This time the infant's nose wrinkled.

"Super baby," Querl frowned even before the infant blew a raspberry at him. He had one last option, "Clark?"

Instantly the baby seemed to squeal in delight.

It must have been infectious because Querl smiled as well.

"Well Clark, lets see about getting you to the Kents, shall we?"

Almost as soon as Querl stood, the care takers alerted him over the communication system that it was time to go to bed. He was a 12th level intelligence and he still didn't understand why he had a bed time.

Rejecting the make-shift crib as a over night option, Querl put Clark to sleep next to him on the bed, between him and the wall, thus shielding him from anyone who would come into the room and try to take him away.