Howdy y'all, thank you so much for the reads and reviews! Please leave comments, questions, and prompts in the reviews - that's right, kids, I'm now taking prompts. I love Clois fluff (sorry, no smut, I've got some underage readers) and plan to start another story of drabbles for my readers, so if you have anything you want to see, please let me know! See y'all in two weeks!


Chapter 24: The Discovery


Lois soon discovered that the only buildings in the entire research camp were either freezing tents or icy shipping containers. It was practically a miniature city run with military precision, every structure and area organized into precise blocks each with their own purpose and designation. She got the sense that NORTHCOM's presence had turned the place from a research camp into a boot camp, but the only reason the military would be in such a warmth-forsaken place was… if they suspected something about the Anomaly.

Lois wisely kept her questions and assumptions to herself as the Colonel continued to grumpily herd her around the facilities. He made it very clear that the lady reporter was not welcome, but diligently did his job and spent the next few hours introducing her to various experts and personnel. Some of them seemed friendly enough, but they all understood the rules of classified research and under Hardy's stern eye Lois was unable to get much info out of them.

Finally, dinner time came around and a camp supper was thrust into Lois' hands. She was allowed a few minutes to eat her too-hot hash and under-warmed coffee in a sparsely populated hall which she assumed had been set aside for the head researchers, but most had deigned to take their dinner at their desks. The moment she was finished, Lois was bustled off again by her escort to what she hoped was a warm bed.

The thought was forgotten almost immediately when she stepped outside beneath the night sky. High above the ice shelf with its ice-meltdown generator, a shimmering curtain of blue and green and deep purple lay spread out among the stars. The rippling light show and gorgeous hues captured all of her attention, and for a brief moment, the cold was almost worth it as Lois watched the lights live up to the lilting name of Aurora Borealis. Even marred by the skyline of industrial machines, the sight was breathtaking.

"Miss Lane!" Hardy shouted above the wind, and she was forced to tear her gaze away, returning to follow her escort through the snow until they arrived at yet another steel unit.

"Here it is!" he declared with mock chivalry, opening the door with a flourish. Lois stepped inside the shipping-container apartment, which was apparently being used as a storage unit with boxes and crates stacked everywhere. A small space had been cleared near the door, containing her bags, a camp bed, a heater, and a lot of blankets. Her heart sank and she turned back to Hardy to protest, but he ignored her disappointed look.

"The rules are simple. Don't go outside after dark, and don't go anywhere without an escort. Temperatures can drop to minus forty at night out here," the Colonel grinned, "We wouldn't find your body till after spring."

Lois grimaced at his joke, looking around her container and noting the distinct lack of a bathroom, replied, "What if I need to tinkle?"

"There's a bucket in the corner," Hardy answered with a final smirk, stepping back out into the cold and slamming the steel door shut behind him. Alone, she turned back to her disappointing quarters and sighed, a smile growing on her lips. No babysitters meant there was no one to stop her from doing some more investigating.

Grabbing her camera bag from one of the duffles, Lois carefully retrieved her prized Nikon D3S Digital SLR and its equally expensive kit. It only took her a matter of minutes to lay out and assemble the flash and focus lens, then a few more to pull on a few more layers. Now sporting an extra pair of socks, an additional sweater, and a thick scarf on top of her parka and snow pants, Lois sat down on her camp bed to wait. Her patience was already thin, but she wisely took the precaution of waiting an extra twenty minutes for whatever watchmen might still be around to retreat to warmer places. Finally decided she had wasted enough time, Lois slipped out into the freezing night.

It wasn't quite forty below, but with the chill wind blowing around her, it sure felt close. Lois shivered as she zipped her parka up as much as it would go, secretly grateful for her long underwear as she made her way to the edge of the camp situated nearest the ice shelf. Finding a good angle for a page-image of the shelf and its Anomaly was easy enough, there wasn't a spot in the entire area not overshadowed by the glacier.

Lois adjusted and aimed her camera to capture the action going on above her. The meltdown generator and drill were perched on top of the ice, lit by a series of floodlights as they continued to work at a steady rate through the night. Even going at this pace, Lois remembered the eggheads had estimated that it would take at least another two days before they reached their target beneath the shelf.

Lois pressed the shutter a few times, snapping some shots that would hopefully turn out better than the ones from her last trip, and shaded the screen to examine them.

The first image was pretty good, considering it was late at night and her fingers were numb, and the rest seemed all just as well until she reached the last one. A light spot where there should have been only dark rock caught her eye and she zoomed in on the image. Thank god for focus lenses that allowed her to make out the barely distinguishable outline of one, no, two people walking on the stony ridge along the ice shelf. It was too fuzzy to determine their gender, but she could tell neither were wearing winter gear and were seemingly oblivious to the cold, unlike her.

"Where the hell are you going?" she muttered, glancing up at the ridge where her camera had spotted them, but to her disappointment could see no sign of the mysterious pair. Maybe they were workers going up to check on the rig? If so, why hadn't they used the lift constructed specifically for that purpose, and how on Earth could they walk around at night without so much as a parka? Lois didn't need to stop to wonder if the simple lead was worth following up, her reporter's instincts were tingling like crazy. She was on to a story and she was going to catch it.

Shoving her Nikon back in its bag, she headed towards the base of the rocky slope, passing her "cabin" that conveniently near the edge of the camp. Lois managed to easily slip away unnoticed by the few guards still out and start an ascent over the snow-covered boulders against the cold shelf.

The wind was not as fierce in the shelter of the glacier, but it was strong enough that she knew she would have to be quick on their trail if she wanted to keep up before it blew away any tracks. It was nearly impossible to move fast on the slippery rocks, and Lois was forced to hike carefully along the ridge for nearly twenty minutes before she reached the spot where the pair had last been seen. To her growing confusion and delight, she found a near-invisible path of snowy footprints leading towards a treacherous brink of terrain with the Arctic Ocean crashing below. Lois pulled her woolen hat farther over her ears, swallowed her fear, and pressed on.

The tracks went out onto daunting precipices where snowy stone turned to slippery ice, and she was forced to inch along with her back pressed against the glacier, balancing precariously in the dim light. Hardy had been right about the freezing temperatures and to make it worse, the beacon light atop the ice shelf didn't shine here. The tracks were faint and she often thought she had lost them altogether or maybe had never seen them at all, and Lois was seriously considering turning back and returning to her container. Despite all this, she urged herself to go a little farther to see what was around the corner and soon her perseverance was rewarded.

Before her lay a tunnel in the ice, perfectly round and just tall enough for a shortish someone to enter without having to stoop. Rivulets of water flowed down the smooth sides to join a small stream that trickled out around her boots, and she grimaced at the cold water. The tunnel looked like another excavation site, but there was no way for machinery to be hauled out here or traces of drill marks on the slick walls.

Through the darkness in the depths of the long hole, she thought she could see a ruby glow, though considering how cold it was it could easily be her eyes freezing over. Lois blinked a few times, and to her surprise, the red light stayed. She grabbed her flashlight from her coat pocket and turned it on before hesitantly stepping inside. Despite her fears about being trapped in the ice as a long-dead reporter popsicle, Lois reminded herself that she had come too far to stop now.

"C'mon, Lo, you got this." she muttered to herself, "Let's see what they're up to."

V*V*V*V*V*V*V

The seemingly impermeable wall of ice melted under her gaze, eyes bright like two red suns as she carved the tunnel deeper into the glacier. Ocularly concentrating solar heat to fixed point always gave her a pounding headache, but she gritted her teeth and did not let it show as she carried on. Despite her efforts to hide it, Clark somehow noticed the set of her jaw and tapped her shoulder from behind.

"Headache?" he asked softly, keeping his voice low in the echoing tunnel. Darcie nodded reluctantly and closed her eyes to cut off the beam, rubbing her temples to relieve the pain. Clark patted her shoulder affectionately as he took the lead and continued the work and while she followed close behind.

The freshly carved and dripping passage was almost entirely dark except for the ruby glow of what Clark had playfully dubbed 'heat-vision', and the freezing temperatures did not help much either. Darcie constantly found herself reaching for her knife, hesitantly allowing her hearing to move past the normal range only to be suddenly overwhelmed and pull back into her shell. The heat-vision was not the only cause of her headache, hypertension and nerves played a significant role as well, but she vehemently refused to reach out to the farmboy in front of her for any comfort he might give.

The ice before them suddenly cracked with a sound like a gunshot, and instinct pulled her to step protectively in front of him while Clark put a stabilizing hand on the ceiling of the tunnel. Both tensed at the sound, waiting for guards to come running at the noise. For a long moment, nothing happened, then the ice cracked again before collapsing completely, the shaft opening up into an enormous cavern hollowed out of the frozen snow. Clark blinked the fiery heat vision away and stared up at Ellsemere's 'Anomaly'.

It appeared to be a ship of some sort, the kind that sailed through the skies and not the sea. The craft looked nothing like any rocket he had ever seen on Earth, but more extraterrestrial in design. It's majestically rounded form possessed the same naturalistic design as the small single-passenger craft his parents had found him in, and it was encased in frozen water like some long-forgotten alien crab, albeit on a much more colossal scale. The resemblance to the vessel that had brought him to Earth was unmistakable, confirmed by the strong connection he felt to the anomaly. Mild euphoria rose in his chest at the sight of it, the same feeling he had gotten when he had met Darcie. Clark couldn't decide if he was terrified or thrilled, or a strange mixture of both.

His companion was a little less frozen in awe of their discovery, already picking her way across the cave to examine its sloping hull. He jogged after her, catching up just as she reached out to touch the smooth side of the forgotten giant. Her warm hand melted through the thin layer of frost coating the outside and uncovered a streak of darker organic metal.

Darcie glanced up at him beside her, a tinge of fearful excitement glowing in her gaze as they both bent down to wipe away the ship's wintry shroud. Within moments the sweeping strokes of a hauntingly familiar glyph within a five-sided shield were revealed, and she stepped back in amazement as her hand went to the spike beneath her shirt.

"It's the same," he muttered, his voice echoing in the cavernous hall, already aware of what she was thinking because he was thinking it too. The sigil on the craft matched the one adorning their mysterious spikes, once again confirming the strange connection they felt to the place.

Darcie sprang into action, wiping the hull free of its frost coat, quickly joined by her companion as more sweeping glyphs and signs appeared beneath their hands. Following the intricate lines over the exposed vessel with fervent interest, they soon discovered a round crack on the lower side. They only paused for a moment before excavating more, crouching down to trace the circular gap of what appeared to be a closed door.

"I think I can force it open," Clark spoke up and she nodded, stepping back to let him put his shoulder against the plate and push upwards. The ice that had permeated the chink snapped and gave way, the whole ship seeming to creak ominously as Clark grunted from exertion and the door was forced aside. The pair peered inside the dim and silent starship, each hesitant to enter the unknown extraterrestrial craft until Darcie decided to lead the way and climbed inwards, Clark following close behind her.

The dim interior sent a chill down his spine, the unearthly yet somehow familiar organic design of ribbed and rounded halls accented with flowing lines drawing them deeper inside. It was like entering the husk of some mammoth molluskan creature fossilized in the ice, but at the same time could be understood as nothing but strange otherworldly tech, lightyears beyond anything humans had created. It was alien, just like them.

"I can't see through the walls," Darcie spoke up, her voice echoing through the corridor and he smiled to himself, glad that she was attempting to use the skills he'd taught her and been so reluctant to try after the heat vision incident. But sure enough, the starship was impenetrable to his gaze throughout the entire spectrum. He shook his head as his vision shifted back to visible light, "Maybe it's blocking our powers?"

"No, I can still hear your heartbeat." she pointed out, "And I think there's another-"

Both of them jumped back in surprise with Darcie automatically assuming a fighting position as a waist-high pillar seemed to fold out of the wall. It crackled with age and cold, emanating a low hum and glowing with an inner blue light shining through a small hole in its angled top. Curious, Clark stepped towards it and bent down to observe the orifice and immediately noted that something about its shape seemed oddly familiar.

"Do you recognize this?" he asked, running his thumb over the opening, "I feel like I've seen it before…"

Darcie appeared beside him, tantalizingly close as she leaned over to survey it. Her thin cotton tee stretching over her powerful frame at the movement, and for the second time that day he had to remind himself that she probably wouldn't want to make out.

She tilted her head slightly in the way he had learned meant she was either in deep thought or listening for something, considering a moment before shrugging. "It looks like a keyhole of some sort. Try your spike…"

She trailed off mid-sentence, listening again, but Clark didn't seem to notice and nodded in agreement. He was in the act of pulling the shoestring necklace out from beneath his shirt when a low whirring combined with the absence of Darcie beside him caught his attention. Clark glanced over his shoulder to see what appeared to be a hovering droid descend from the ceiling and move sedately closer to the pair. The thing looked like a cobra's head swaying gently midair, seeming made of the same petrified metal as the surrounding ship, yet decorated with more flowing glyphs on its front. It observed the intruders inquisitively as it approached Darcie, letting out a low droning sound as it spread its hood in what could only be a threatening position.

"Clark," Darcie said in a low voice, trying to back away from it. He noted that her spike was gripped between the fingers of her right hand, ready to be used to shank the droid if it came to a fight. Neither moved, waiting to see what would do as a long whip-like tail extended from its base and the droning rose in pitch.

"Clark," Darcie repeated his name for what little strength it gave her, never taking her eyes off the robot as she instructed him, "Put your spike in the port. Now."

He yanked sharply on the knot holding the pendant, snapping the shoestring as he grasped the spike in his hand and the droid immediately went on offense. Clark was aware of Darcie jumping between him and the hissing whip, but he did not have time to protest as she took the brunt of the blow and he lunged for the keyhole.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her drawing the sentry's attention away from him, grabbing its sparking tail to yank the main body towards her. She managed to place a powerful kick square on its sensors, followed by a series of lightning-fast punches a moment before he inserted his key. It fit perfectly, the port thrumming in response as the rest of the starship lit up.

The damaged sentry struggled for a moment longer, still intent on dissuading the intruders before it froze, the security system recognizing the key and allowing access to the newcomers. Darcie growled deep in her throat as it retracted its hood and tail out of her grasp. She was still eying it warily as it hovered lazily nearby but deemed it to no longer be a threat and turned to glance back at Clark.

"It worked." she panted softly, wiping a stray lock from her forehead, and he nodded, "That must mean we're…"

"…connected to this ship." she finished, looking up at the grand ribbed arches above them when Clark spotted the fresh blood on her lower back where the sentry had struck her.

"You're bleeding." he pointed out and she turned to glance at the wound, noticing the laceration for the first time. Darcie simply nodded and wiped at it with the corner of her shirt. "It's nothing. I heal fast."

He was about to protest, but the withering glare she was shooting the robotic sentry made him rethink arguing.

A flicker of movement on the outskirts of his field of vision caught his attention. Darcie noticed it too as they both swiveled around to confront the robot again, but only caught a glimpse of a bearded figure retreating into a nearby corridor.

"Hello?" Clark called out, his voice echoing in the cold hall, but no one replied.

As usual, Darcie was already in the lead, chasing after the mysterious figure only to discover the long hallway was completely empty. Her companion close behind, a soft noise beckoned them deeper into the cold ship and teasing them with glimpses of the mysterious man. The figure led them on until they reached an open room with vaulted ceilings and one wall made entirely of some sort of alien glass frosted over by the glacier. Various cracked consoles and a single captain's seat confirmed that this was the bridge of the vast craft.

Clark reached out to dust off one of the instrument panels when his wrist was intercepted by Darcie's surprisingly strong grip as she tilted her head inquisitively. "Do you hear that?"

He paused to listen, but could not pick up much besides the creaking of the old ship and Darcie beside him.

"Your hearing is a lot more sensitive than mine." he pointed out after a moment, calmly releasing himself from her grip as she turned to glance back in the direction they'd come.

"There's a heartbeat," she said after a few long seconds, and tilted her head again to try to pinpoint it.

"Where?"

"I'm not sure. The ship echoes and distorts the sound, but it seems to be coming from near where we broke in."

Both locked gazes as they simultaneously remembered the active security sentry and the likelihood that it would attack any unexpected visitors. The hunt for the mysterious figure abandoned, the two explorers rushed back to rescue the ignorant soul.