41
"Tickets, please!"
In the twenty-third century, there was practically no need for paper. Most things that were, in previous ages reserved for paper, were now in the domain of computer screens. This included contracts, receipts, books, wills, and tickets of almost all kinds. But rail tickets were still printed on paper. It was pretty much a romantic holdover from an earlier, simpler age.
The custom continued on even after most locomotives were replaced by hypertrains, which were basically propelled on the same principle as spaceships. This allowed a one-thousand mile trip to take as little as fifteen minutes from the time it left one station and arrived at another. More time was often taken on the procuring of the train ticket and check in than the actual trip itself.
So when Phyllis told Chester that she would be in Metropolis in an hour, she was very accurate in her estimation. It had taken ten minutes to pack, fifteen minutes to ride to the depot, ten minutes to buy the tickets for herself and her children, ten to settle in and now that they were handing in their tickets to the conductor, they were expecting a ten minute ride to Metropolis where a five minute taxi ride should get them to Chester's lab.
Most of the routes taken by hypertrain were underground like subways, but on a continental scale, allowing them to deliver their passengers with less chance of accident or delay due to extraneous traffic. The "rails" were actually power supply and data interfaces in the floor of the tunnels that the on-board computer of each train would access and analyze data. This data told the train where to go, when to slow down, when to speed up, and in an unlikely emergency, when to stop.
The Kents handed their tickets to the conductor and found their way to their seats. The car they were in was made up in the image of a passenger car of the 1890's. The seats were plush with red velvet material while beautiful mahogany walls festooned with pictures and brass fittings enveloped the area. Though the train was actually underground, the windows appeared to be open to a scene of an old depot from somewhere in the wild west (perhaps Fort Worth?) of the nineteenth century. Closer inspection revealed each portal to be a small holovision screen with a preprogrammed animated diorama intended to complete the illusion of a simpler time.
As the train began to pull away from the passenger loading area, the diorama began to move, too, as if it were actually leaving the old-timey berg. All the "people outside" waved and cheered and yelled words of encouragement and tearful goodbyes at the real life passengers inside. Noel found herself waving at the make-believe well-wishers until she remembered that they were only holo-images.
The holovision trick served another purpose as each car was outfitted with its own artificial gravity and inertial dampening devices. A closed car with no such "windows" would seem like it was not moving at all as each car was basically its own world. This was necessary to make the speed of the hypertrain work safely. Without the dampeners and gravity devices, the people would be very messy splatters on the rear walls each time the train engaged hyper-speed.
Some cars were actually adorned to resemble a cozy room, so that some passengers could come in, sit down in what appeared to be a den or library, read some books or magazines, or watch holovision, then get up and walk out to a completely different city, all without feeling the least bit of movement.
The car the Kents were utilizing, however, had the holographic windows and conveyed the illusion of movement to its riders.
Jimmy wished that Linda Kaye could have come with them and enjoyed the experience with him. He still had the uniform on, but he had it covered with regular civilian attire: blue jeans and an unbuttoned corduroy jacket. He wore a straw cowboy hat on his head and left the bright red boots on as they seemed to complete the urban cowboy image he was going for. He allowed the "S" shield of his uniform shirt to show with no fear of blowing his cover. These days every other kid his age wore a logo of some kind on their shirts. His just served to blend him in with the rest of the crowd. Shoulda worn this outfit at the stock show rodeo last January, he thought.
While Phyllis was anything but merry, she no longer exuded the feeling of unsure anxiety. If anything, her children had noticed, she now sported a kind of quiet determined confidence that they had never seen before. Noel kept her mind off the situation by concentrating on the holographic diorama and the computer generated scenery as it went by. But Jimmy couldn't stop thinking about the events that went on in the attic just a short time ago and how his mother had reacted. She seemed like his mother, and yet this person was still different in a way he was unable to pinpoint. He felt, though, that whatever was going on, she had the good of the world uppermost on her mind, like she had a plan of some kind. But what that plan was, he had no idea.
"Mom, what's going to happen when we get to Metropolis? I thought I was going to help out the people in Australia."
"Jimmy, the quake is over and the search and rescue teams are already handling what needs to be handled there. While you could be of some help there, your new powers will be of more use taking care of the big picture, which would be stopping the chain of events from following the path of Krypton. Besides, you would need to fly to get to Sydney, and you don't know how to do that yet. It was the last power that Grandpa Clark learned to master, you know."
"No, I didn't know. How did you?"
"Well... uhm... He... er... Oh, we might as well get it out in the open. He told me."
"He... told you?" Now he wasn't sure if the attic episode hadn't unbalanced his mother. "When did he - uh - tell you?"
"Not long after we met, about a hundred and ninety years ago," she replied, in a matter of fact sort of way.
"Hey!" cried Noel, "What happened to the scenery? The window disappeared!"
Sure enough, the holographic displays had stopped functioning leaving only a gray panel inside the glass pane. At the same time the lights inside the car flickered off and back on, causing the other passengers to fret.
"I don't think this is good," whispered Jim.
"It doesn't look like it, does it?" his mother quietly agreed.
The door in the front of the car opened and the conductor entered with a worried expression on his face. "Don't be alarmed, folks! Don't be alarmed! We've got it all under control!" he cried, even though he looked as if it were anything but under control.
"Conductor," asked Phyllis, "What's going on? You can tell me the truth. I won't panic, and I won't tell the other fares anything you don't want them to know."
"Well, I don't..."
"I think the train is slowing down," said Jim.
"How could you know that?" shot back the conductor. "The artificial gravity should make that undetectable!"
"Nevertheless, I can feel it... and in a few seconds... There! That's it...!" All the people in the car lurched forward and back. "Now everyone else should be feeling it too. The artificial gravity just quit."
Phyllis took the man's hand and looked into his eyes and said, "Look, I know we've got a situation here, but we can help! Trust me on this! We can! But we need to know what's happening before we can be of any service. So please, Mister..." She checked the conductor's name tag. "...Smythe. Mister Smythe, please tell me and my son what has happened."
He looked back into her eyes for a couple of seconds before saying anything, and then decided he needed to trust someone. The eyes are the window to the soul it's been said, and Mr. Smythe's gaze into Phyllis' told him that she was the right person to trust.
"There's been another quake, or an after-shock, or something!" he whispered to her. "The tunnel's been damaged, the power to the train is cut off. We're operating on emergency power to the lights and environmental controls only, but it won't be long before that dies out and then it's only a matter of time before the air..." He couldn't finish his sentence, but he had made the point.
"Aren't there escape and maintenance tunnels that lead to the surface?" asked Phyllis.
"There were... before the tremors started. The tunnel is caved in behind the train and before it. It's my job to keep everyone calm, but I don't see how we can get out of this..."
Phyllis gave the aging gentleman a reassuring smile, and asked him how she and Jim could exit the train. Despite his training against doing so ("I know I'm gonna get fired for this!" he said), he led them to the emergency exit for the car.
Once outside the train, Jimmy took off his civvies revealing the uniform of the Man of Steel. "Okay, Mom." he said, shrugging his shoulders. "I know this is where I'm supposed to 'go into action,' but I haven't the foggiest idea what I should do. Any ideas?"
"Yes. The first thing you need to understand is that your body is the most powerful tool you have at your disposal. Anything else will wear out long before the job can get done, so..." She cupped each of her hands and demonstrated a sort of swimming motion. "...your hands must be shovels and earth movers. Use them to cut through the rock in the side of the tunnel creating a new tunnel to pull the train up to the safety of the surface. You'll also need to dispose of the rock and soil you've cut through by hauling it into the backmost portion of the main tunnel. Obviously, you'll need to do this at super-speed. I would help you if I could, but I'm afraid you'll be on your own until I can be restored."
This observation puzzled her son. Restored? I thought her memory was restored! But he had more pressing matters at hand, and began the work his mother had outlined for him. At first, he was hesitant to chop into the rock-hard cement buttress, afraid that he would hurt his hands, but once he found there was no pain at all and that it was no match for his powerful fists, he charged ahead.
The clay and rock he encountered were no match for his yellow sun charged muscles coupled with his invulnerability. With every blow, he picked up speed and, more importantly, gained more confidence in himself. He followed his mother's instructions to the letter, cutting through the surrounding clay and stone that imprisoned his fellow passengers and disposing of the waste material in the existing tunnel. Using his newly acquired x-ray vision to guide himself, he was able to construct the escape route in a low angle to the surface.
He also noted that each handful of dirt he dug contained a considerable amount of purple residue. He recognized it as the same element he had seen through Jor-El's eyes in his visions. But he had no time to dwell on this right now. It wouldn't be too long before the batteries in the train cars expended their power, stopping the environmental systems and suffocating all the people aboard. He concentrated on the task at hand and continued to dig the new tunnel. In just a few minutes, a new tunnel just wide enough for the train's body was created and Phyllis re-entered the car.
"Listen, everybody!" she announced. "The train is about to be moved to the surface. Now, the artificial gravity is no longer working, so you will feel every bump and shake until we stop, so please, get hold of the seat in front of you and grip it tight enough for your own stability." She instructed Smythe to carry the same message to other cars and then, from the open emergency door, gestured to Jimmy, who took hold of the lead car and began pulling the train into the makeshift escape tunnel.
No one was more surprised than Jimmy at the ease with which he was able to tow the train behind him. He hardly felt any resistance as he carefully angled the train into the opening he had made and began the trek upwards to the surface. Inside, the ride was as bumpy as Phyllis had warned it would be. Every passenger grasped whatever he or she could to steady themselves as they swayed this way or that.
Noel found herself sitting near a little boy of about four years of age who had become frightened by the ordeal. His mother was doing all she could to comfort him, but nothing seemed to work. Noel made her way over to him. "Isn't this fun?" she said to the child. "It's just like a roller coaster, isn't it? I love to go on rides at the park, don't you?" She winked her eye at the mom who got the message, and with a "Wheeeeee!" the two got the boy to see the situation as an amusement park ride instead of a life or death struggle to survive.
Soon, Jimmy reached the outside and carefully pulled the caravan to halt. Once the train was safely stopped on the surface, all the emergency doors opened and the passengers evacuated the cars. Smythe came right over to Phyllis and smiled. "I don't know how you did it, but thanks. We've radioed ahead and emergency vehicles should be arriving any minute to take the passengers on into town."
"Are we that close to Metropolis?" asked Noel.
"Yes, young lady. We were only thirty seconds out when the train began to stop. We might have died underground just short of our destination, but thanks to your mother and your brother, we... oh my!" Smythe had just noticed Jim for the first time since the train had surfaced and noticed the familiar uniform he wore... and the crowd of passengers gathering around him.
Jim smiled and shook the hands of his new admirers and then excused himself. Walking to his mother, he said, "Mom, that purple stuff that Jor-El was talking about was everywhere! We've got to get to Metropolis right away and find out what Dr. Carr has come up with!"
An elderly woman came up to Jim and patted his arm. "You wouldn't remember me, but I saw you once when I was a little girl about seventy years ago."
Jimmy was a little flustered by this. "Uh, no Ma'am, I don't think you..."
"You were announcing your retirement as I recall, and you said you couldn't do the things you used to be able to do, but you certainly did just fine with this, didn't you? I don't know how you did it, but I'm so glad you're back, Superman. The world needs you again." and with that the lady planted a kiss on Jim's cheek and gave him a loving hug.
She turned and walked away leaving Jim slightly confused and embarrassed. He started to tell the woman that he wasn't the same man she thought he was, but his mother tugged at his arm and shook her head ever so slightly as if saying "Never mind. Let her believe."
He got the message and looking at the scene around him he assessed, "I guess I did do all right thanks to your guidance, Mom." She said nothing but smiled in agreement at her son.
Noel finished playing with the four-year old and overheard her brother. As usual, she brought everyone back to Earth. "Yeah, yeah, you did just peachy but I still haven't seen you fly!"