FIVE
"So much for being rich," Lois said, stepping through the doorway into their hotel room.

Downstairs, at the front desk, they had discovered that in the future, money… or dinarii… was worth less than it used to be. This room was running them D3,500 a night… and there was only one bed.

"Tell me that you didn't request the Valentine special," Lois grumbled, looking at the heart-shaped bed.

Clark shrugged. "It was all they had left. I guess the festival that's going on is really popular. If it's a big deal… I can sleep on the floor." Clark looked at the bear-shaped rug on the floor in front of the bed. The white faux-fur was long and would probably shed, but if he had to, he could deal with it.

Lois glanced at the rug. Clark had said he would take the floor if she had a problem with it, unwittingly making a challenge. "It's not a big deal to me. It's a big bed… think you can keep your hands to yourself?" she asked, returning the challenge.

"I don't think that will be a problem," Clark replied, rolling his eyes. A knock at the door drew their attention.

Glancing at Lois, Clark shrugged before opening the door. A young bell hop held out two white fluffy robes.

"The manager figured that you could use these. Compliments of the hotel."

Clark accepted the bundle and smiled. The bell hop remained patiently at the door. Taking in Clark's bewildered look at the bell hop's continued presence; Lois walked up and pulled the cash card from his front pocket.

Smiling, the young man pulled a tablet from his side pocket and slid the card into the slot. Lois took his stylus and selected a check box for the tip amount.

"Thank you. Enjoy your night," the young man said, handing the card back and returning the tablet to his pocket.

Lois grabbed the robe on the top. "First shower!" she called, running to the bathroom and closing the door.

Lois left the bathroom and sighed at the sight in front of her. Sure, she had taken an extra long shower, but felt that she deserved it. In addition, it had taken her a little while to figure out how to turn the damn water on when there were no knobs. Regardless of how long, and satisfying, her shower experience had been, it didn't give Clark the right to take over the bed.

Clark had stripped out of his wet clothes and put on the robe while waiting for his turn in the shower. Lois guessed that he must have fallen asleep while waiting because he was sprawled out across the bed, legs and arms thrown every which way.

On her way over to wake him up, Lois passed the room desk and decided to take some time to explore. A flat rubber mat was marked with letters and numbers like a keyboard, but she didn't see a computer monitor anywhere.

Sitting down, she tapped the pad a couple of times out of curiosity. When nothing happened, she bent to look under the desk. Seeing nothing of interest, she sat back up and reclined into the chair. Near the rubber mat, embedded in the desk was a silver circle. Lois placed a fingertip in the center of the circle and jumped when a holographic screen materialized with the name of the hotel animated in the center.

Lois got up and looked at the back of the screen, impressed when it seemed to have a 3D effect. Moving back to the chair, she tried tapping the keyboard again.

"Please enter your commands," a female voice requested.

Lois's eyes shot over to where Clark lay in the bed. He hadn't moved.

"Uh… could you speak a little quieter?" Lois whispered, leaning down to look for some type of sound control.

"Volume decreased 60."

"Um… do you have Google?"

"Google. A cyberspace search directory largely popular during the early 21st century."

Lois frowned. "What are you, a talking dictionary or something?"

A holographic dictionary appeared in the space the screen had occupied. Hesitantly, Lois reached forward and touched the cover. As she did, the book opened. Amazed, Lois flipped the pages. If she pressed on a word, the text would magnify so that only that entry was visible.

"Wow. How about a newspaper or a magazine?"

"There are approximately 13,650 full text journals in the database. Please state the name of the one you wish to access."

Lois shrugged as if the computer was able to see her actions. "Okay, do you have… The Daily Planet?"

"The Daily Planet is no longer a name of a current publication, although it is the predecessor of the New Troy Digest. Would you like to access that journal?"

"Yes… today's edition," Lois replied, not at all bothered by having a conversation with a machine.

She let out a slow breath as the newspaper came into view. Although she and Clark had already discovered that they were in the future, seeing the date proclaimed in this manner seemed to make it all real.

Sunday, March 09, 2109

Two hours later, Lois was still sitting at the desk, enthralled by her journey into this new era of cyber searching.

She had started by trying to find out what this "Festival" was celebrating. To her amazement, the people of New Troy were lauding the date that Superman had come to Earth. Her jaw had dropped when she read the unbelievable stories about a man who could fly… a man who was invulnerable and incredibly strong. She had done her best in finding a reason to judge the stories as urban legends. This man, with mysterious powers, who claimed to be from a different planet… well, that was like the Tooth Fairy, right?

As Lois dug up past articles in the cyber archives that the computer pulled up for her, she learned that this Superman character had originally hit the scene in Metropolis in 2009. Strangely, he had disappeared for 50 years, returning just in time to help put an end to the 3rd Dominion War in 2084.

It seemed that no one could explain Superman's absence for all those years, though many blamed it on the period of Genetic Cleansing that the country had gone through in the 2030's. The Stryker Administration had set out to eradicate the existence of the genetically altered and enhanced races. The civil unrest had left the country vulnerable to foreign attack, which had led to the first Dominion War. Ironically, Stryker's attacks on Superman and his friends, a league of protectors that included an Amazonian woman and a vigilante bat, had destroyed the country's biggest asset… and they had paid dearly for it.

Lois had been determined not to look into the life of her future self… after all, she didn't need the pressure. If she hadn't amounted to anything, it would have been too depressing to know… and if she had done well, then it would be too scary to have something to live up to. In the end, she had no choice but to dig deeper when she read her name listed as one of Superman's friends.

The news she had read after that made the hair rise on the back of her neck.

She had married Clark Kent.

Lois stared at the holographic images of her and Clark. The old Daily Planet article served as a news item and an obituary. Both she and her husband had died in the 1st Dominion War… a direct result of one of Stryker's attacks. The article had gone on to describe how important the couple's contributions had been over the years they had worked at the Daily Planet. They had acted as liaisons for Superman and his Justice League, being the spokespersons of choice, and having commanding impact on the world with the Planet as their platform.

Lois was unsure of what to make of the information. On one hand, she had been able to leave a mark on the world, like she'd always wanted… but, there were other elements of this future life that bothered her. Giving in to curiosity, she had searched for her name, looking beyond the items published in the general historical archives.

As the saying went: When you look for dirt, you'll find it.

And it was there. In black, white, and color… A topic that was discussed by many cyber groups, but one that was never verified. Reading through the different accounts, Lois felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. Somehow, the words pricked at memories at the edge of her consciousness. A dream about a man in a red cape… It was true.

She'd had an affair with this Superman.

"Damn," Lois muttered. At least she was consistent. She screwed things up in the future too.

She noticed movement from the corner of her eye and turned to see Clark sit up in the bed. Her comment must have woken him.

"Lois?"

"Uh, yeah…" she answered; quickly trying to close the different windows she had open.

Clark ran a hand through his mussed hair and blinked in her direction. "Is that a computer?"

"Kind of," Lois replied, silently cursing to herself when Clark stood up and walked toward the desk. "Screen off," she ordered in a low voice hoping the command would work. Computers seemed to be a bit temperamental in the future.

Clark frowned as the strange screen seemed to dissolve into thin air. Lois spun around to face him. "The shower's open. You were asleep when I finished… and I didn't want to wake you… but now you're up, so you should go…"

Clark glanced over her shoulder and nodded. "Find out anything interesting?"

Lois swallowed. "Yeah… I got some information about this Festival… but it can wait until you shower."

Clark looked doubtful. Something about Lois's behavior seemed off.

Lois saw his hesitation and sighed. "Knowing too much about the future has got to be a bad thing… it probably violates some kind of temporal law or something."

One of Clark's eyebrows lifted in silent query.

"Look, I really tried not to look, but… just, trust me. Don't."

"What…? Why?"

"It's not… what you're expecting," Lois said haltingly.

Clark watched her for a moment before nodding. "I'll go shower."

Lois sighed in relief as Clark entered the bathroom and closed the door. She closed her eyes and massaged her temples with both hands. Suddenly, the weight of the information she had learned and the activity of the night she had experienced came together and rested on her heavily. Taking a deep breath, she decided that she would be able to think clearer about her situation after a nap.

Clark exited the shower and reached for the white robe. Observing that Lois's wet clothes were hanging on the towel rack, he remembered that he had left his next to the bed. He was tempted to use his heat vision to dry their clothes, but decided against it. He doubted Lois would believe that he had used the hotel's hair dryer to complete the task.

Shrugging, he tightened the robe's belt and exited the bathroom. He could see light poking around the heavy curtain that covered the room's windows. It was the start of a new day.

Walking to the bed, he saw that Lois had fallen asleep. He figured that she had to be exhausted. Even with his natural ability to endure longer periods of time without rest, the adventurous past several hours had taken a toll on him as well. It was no wonder that Lois had finally succumbed.

Lois's brow was creased and she seemed to be sleeping fitfully. With a slight groan, she shifted her position, thrashing in her sleep against some unknown annoyance, and throwing the blanket to the side.

Clark's eyes widened as he realized that the motion had caused the belt on her robe to loosen. The opening of the garment now showed a dangerous amount of skin below her collarbone. With a gulp, he tentatively reached out to pull the robe back into place. As his fingertips lightly brushed her soft skin, Lois's brow calmed, and her restlessness settled. Clark recovered her with the blanket.

Straightening, he shook his head to clear it and gathered his clothes from the floor, taking them into the bathroom so he could hang them to dry. It was pretty clear to him that their first order of business would need to be getting new clothes.

Xavir stood uneasily in front of the Professor's desk. He had just finished explaining how Lois and Clark had ended up usurping his original time vortex. The expression on Professor Kairo's face made him look away.

"What were you thinking, Mr. Christian? The HyperChronos project is highly classified. We were not prepared to launch a trial of this magnitude yet. You may have just destroyed the Center and everything we've been working toward for the past sixty years."

Xavir sighed heavily. The Professor was not exaggerating about the importance of this problem.

"I felt that we were ready…" Xavir offered. "And we are! The window worked exactly the way we proposed, and the bio-mechanics haven't been compromised, even with the extra…"

"That's what you say now, but have you done a full schematic on yourself?"

Xavir shook his head defeated.

"History is never made in haste, Christian. Only mistakes are." The Professor leaned back in his chair. "You have no idea where they are?" he asked, referring to Lois and Clark.

When Xavir shook his head once again, the Professor's eyes took on a hard glint. "Then I suggest you find them before anyone else does. Good thing for you that their story would be too ridiculous to believe."

Kairo turned his attention to his desk and brought up his computer's holographic screen. Xavir knew he was being summarily dismissed.

"What should we do?" Xavir asked meekly.

"You should fix it," Kairo replied without looking up.

Xavir turned toward the door and hesitated. He wrung his hands nervously for a moment before turning back around.

"Sir, there's more."

He swallowed as the Professor's gaze lifted. Xavir took a breath as he looked into eyes that matched his own. "Someone came through with me the second time as well."

Clark sat on the desk chair silently watching Lois sleep; a position he'd been in for the last hour. A frown was deeply etched in his expression. For a countless time, he ran a hand through his already-mussed hair. The day was half gone, but he was hesitant to wake her up.

Earlier, he had decided to try to do something about their lack of clothes, and had called down to the front desk for assistance. He'd been informed by a helpful receptionist that his best option would be to place an order for a nearby store via the Internet. Once he had figured out how to turn the monitor on, a robotic voice had informed him that a number of files had been recovered due to improper shutdown.

After scanning through the information on the screen, he'd realized what Lois had been so upset about… and what she hadn't wanted him to discover.

They had ended up together… married. And she was ashamed of it… of him.

He didn't know why it had bothered him so much. She had been right when she had said that his future wasn't what he expected. After all, whenever he thought about the future, it was Lana who was by his side, but there was still something disconcerting about the fact that Lois didn't accept him. Feeling strangely hurt, he had decided against reading more, closed the windows, and went on to find the clothing.

He decided that he wouldn't bring it up to Lois… after all, she had asked him not to look into his future. He would wait until she was ready to talk about it.

A knock at the door shook him out of his thoughts, and as he rose from the chair to answer it, he saw Lois stir.

"Thanks."

Lois placed her forearm over her closed eyes, silently cursing the fact that she wasn't dreaming after all.

"Um, I got us some clothes," she heard Clark say as the door to the room closed.

Lois sighed and pushed herself to a seated position. When she met his gaze, everything she had learned the previous night came to the forefront of her mind, and she guiltily looked away. "That was… nice," she finished softly, having a hard time finding words.

Clark's jaw tensed briefly. He nodded. "Yeah, well, I figured that we should head out and see if we can figure a way to get back home… We can start by going back to the park..."

Lois smirked to herself, realizing that Clark was attempting to come up with a plan of his own for once. "Sounds good," she replied, swinging her legs over the side of the bed and tightening her robe. She stood up and accepted the garments that Clark handed her. She avoided his eyes. "I'll just… go and change."

TBC