He hadn't been chained up, but the room they had him in stayed locked as if he couldn't rip off the door the second he wanted to leave. He was here only because he'd been told to come.

General Lane entered for another round of questioning and sat at the small table across from him. "I'm going to ask you again, what's your name?"

He sighed. "Clark Kent."

"That is not your real name. I want answers this time. Why are you here?"

"I've told you, sir. I've been on Earth since I was a baby. I don't know why I'm here. Maybe my birth parents didn't want me or maybe they thought this was the best place for me. Your guess is as good as mine."

"Well, I'll tell you what my guess is. I think you're the first in a coming invasion. You're here to determine if the planet is inhabitable to your kind."

"If that's true, nobody told me about it. It'd be dumb though, wouldn't it? My loyalties are with the planet I grew up on. With my family."

"Unless they've been in contact with you all these years."

"No one's been in contact with me." These were the same questions as before. They were hoping he would slip up and change his facts because the general still didn't believe him. "I didn't even know I was an alien until I was six and my parents had to tell me I was adopted."

The general held up a sliver of green iridescent rock using a pair of tweezers to keep from touching it directly. "This was found buried in the field where you landed. Our top scientists can't determine what it is. Maybe you can enlighten us."

He couldn't even answer him. It was like he was being torn asunder. It was as if he was being turned from the inside out. He'd broken out into beads of sweat for the first time in his life. He couldn't even sit up straight, all these new sensations were overwhelming, and he would do anything to make it stop. Was this pain?

The general looked at him as if he were a bug under a microscope, an interesting specimen to be studied. General Lane stood up and walked back, and he felt the relief instantly. But as soon as he moved closer, it was just like before, and he ended up collapsing out of his chair, groaning as he writhed in pain.

Whether he finally had sympathy on his suffering or whether he simply wanted him alive so he could figure out the nonexistent plot on the human race, he put it back in the box he'd pulled it out of.

"I want to go home." He was ashamed to be begging to such a man, curled in a ball though the physical pain was gone. There were tears in his eyes as he was pushed past the point of emotional exhaustion.

"This is your home now. Get used to it."

"Can I at least see my parents? Talk to them?"

"Your parents as you call them broke the law. Alien life has to be reported immediately for the greater good. We could have been preparing for the event of attack for years now. Besides, I'm sorry to say I was informed that Jonathan Kent died en route to the hospital."

The tears came harder now and faster, the pain of grief greater than that which came from the mysterious fragment of mineral. And the general hadn't even broken it gently or thought to tell him without prompting. It was like he expected him not to have feelings as if he were an animal though he'd find it hard to believe that he'd treat a dog this cruelly. "Please, I need to see my mother."

"She has her own troubles to deal with now like how she's going to avoid legal trouble. She can't help you."

General Lane moved for the door, but he paused to speak to him again. "I'll be back when we figure out how to get your spaceship open. I have a feeling you'll have a lot to explain when we do. And don't even think about trying to escape. This is my little insurance that you don't," he said, holding up the box.