Chapter 6 –A Brief History

"You? What are you doing here?" Superman quipped with a shocked expression on his face.

"I was just about to ask you the same thing. I mean, I know why you're here on the station, but why did they throw you in jail? You don't seem to be the violent type with your save all humanity and all. How'd that work out with the Cybermen by the way?" asked the Doctor with an air of smugness. For the first time since he got to this station Superman was actually glad he didn't have his powers or abilities. In an act of misplaced aggression he hauled off and punched the Doctor knocking him to the floor.

"All life is precious Doctor. All life deserves a chance." He said standing over the man. The Doctor pushed himself back up and returned to his cot.

"I'm sorry. I used to think like you. I used to believe that there was a chance for them. That deep inside them there was some shred of humanity left. Something they could cling to, to make them more than just cybernetic murderers, but there was nothing. I am the last of my people. I have seen so much death and despair in the universe that it has literally crushed the hope out of me in some cases. The Cybermen and I have crossed paths many times and each time it ended the same way; with the deaths of many innocent humans. Each time it gets harder and harder to stop them." The Doctor sighed heavily. But just as quickly he seemed to be full of energy again bounding out of his cot and practically dancing about the small chamber.

"OK, so here's the plan. You use your above human strength to open the doors, we hustle on back to the Tardis and she takes us home. I help you find your missing person, you help me stop the Cybermen from abducting any more people in Cardiff, and then I take you both back to wherever you came from. How does that sound?" The Doctor said hopping off his cot with and thrusting a hand of friendship toward the man of steel.

"Unfortunately Doctor, that isn't going to work. I'm not sure why, but I don't have my powers here. You see, I'm from a planet called Krypton. Because of my alien physiology, I gain my abilities from the Earth's yellow sun. Perhaps I have been removed from the sun's rays for far too long, I'm not sure." The Doctor cracked a smile and nodded as he listened to Clark.

"Krypton was a very beautiful place. They were a very intelligent people, perhaps even too intelligent. It's a shame what happened to them. I'm sorry. How did you escape? Are you a time traveler like myself? I didn't realize Kryptonians developed time travel."

"You've… been to Krypton?" Superman asked in shock. The Doctor nodded.

"Once or twice. They have a Kryptonian dish that's out of this world." Superman looked a little sullen at the news, oh how he longed for a taste of some Kryptonian 'home cooking'. Regardless he saw fit to answer the Doctors question.

"My father was Jor-El, a very important man. While the planet was tearing itself apart he created a ship to house his only son and sent him to earth. I was the last hope of a dying race. Through me they tried to preserve their lineage. I was able to escape because of my parents sacrifice. I was later found in the farmlands of Kansas by the Kent's and raised under their nurturing care."

"Ah, it all makes perfect sense now. The fact that you are from Krypton explains so very much. Why we are here for starters. You see, the Tardis is a sentient being. It's not just any regular run of the mill time jumping space ship. Oh no, it is a living entity. When you attacked the Tardis trying to get me out, it reacted the best way it knew how. It scanned your DNA for possible weaknesses in which to use against you. And it found one. Being Kryptonian, yellow suns give you strength and red suns have just the opposite effect. The Tardis took us both to a place where you wouldn't be a danger to it anymore; the heart of a red sun." The Doctor explained as he paced back and forth in the cell.

"Hmmm ok. But how does that explain me getting here a whole week before you?" Superman replied curiously.

"Well that's the easy part. Time and space work a little differently in the corridor. As you clung to the Tardis for dear life not knowing what was going on, it is my guess that you got increasingly weaker the closer we got to the sun, until finally you were dislodged from the exterior of it all together. When the Tardis finally came to a stop it had been a week since you had left the corridor. I don't think the Tardis took into consideration how long it would take for you to fall off or else you might not have landed on this space station."

"Well as crazy as it sound's it actually makes sense. But I guess that leaves us in a sticky predicament. How are we going to get out of here?" Clark asked.

"As much as it pains me to say, we just have to wait. As a time lord, waiting is not something I'm accustomed to doing." The Doctor flopped back down in his cot. However, without his sonic screwdriver he seemed to be at a loss. His hands were tired.

"So since we have some time on our hands, why don't you tell me a little more about yourself Doctor? There is lot of information about you out in the world, but I've had a hard time deciphering the truth. Some of it says you're an extra-terrestrial terrorist; other reports make you out to be a time hopping savior. From what I've seen it seems to be a mix of the two. An ancient alien race with technology beyond any I've seen and an incredibly horrible streak of bad luck. Not to mention an out dated fashion sense." Both Clark and the Doctor smirked at his comment.

"Bowties are cool. You'll see. They're gonna be big. But you're not too far off with your observation. Not too far off at all."

"Well I have a photographer friend, Jimmy Olson, who is particularly fond of bowties himself."

"I would love to meet this Olson chap. Tell him how cool he is."

"Yes, I think you and Jimmy would get along quite well."

"To answer your question, I am a Time Lord. I am the last of the Time Lords actually. Much like yourself, I have found myself alone in my travels. I have the occasional companion or two but the life of a Time Lord is destined to be a lonely one. However, I make due by travelling the vastness of time and space with the Tardis. I guess you could say the Tardis is my oldest and truest companion. Oh we have had many a splendid journey together her and I."

"About the Tardis," Clark interrupted, "Why does it look like a police box?" The Doctor chuckled.

"You don't know how many times I actually get asked that. It actually has a chameleon circuit that allows it to blend into its surroundings. Pretty useful when you're hopping here and there and don't want to be discovered. During a fateful trip to London in 1963, it just sort of… stuck. I kind of liked it so I never even thought of fixing it." Clark nodded as he took a seat on the other cot across from the Doctor.

"I have come across countless civilizations, but none have I ever found as interesting as the humans of Earth. And I'm afraid it is because I have taken such a fascination with this species that I have inadvertently subjected them to much danger. Superman…"

"Please, call me Clark."

"Clark?"

"That's the name the Kent's have given me. My Kryptonian name is Kal-El. My earth name is Clark Kent. However most of the earth's populace knows me as Superman. "

"I see. Well met Clark. It's truly an honor and a pleasure to meet you."

"I'm sorry about all the confusion Doctor, but I still need to find Lois."

"Ah, this Lois, she seems very important to you."

"She is Doctor. She is one of the few people back on Earth that knows my true identity. In fact we are married. The last I saw her she was getting on board your Tardis." The Doctor looked at him crossing his arms over his chest.

"Ok then. Tell me everything. Start at the beginning and don't leave out even the smallest of details." He leaned in listening intently as Clark began to tell him everything that happened on the day that Lois went missing.

xXxXx

The helicopter landed upon the rooftop to the welcome of several armed guards and the plant director. Lex stepped out of the copter and made his way to where the small group was standing. The plant director greeted him and ushered them all inside.

"Welcome Mr. Luthor. I didn't expect you quite so soon." He said shutting the door behind them.

"I came right away. I have an urgent matter I am dealing with. I have acquired some schematics that need your utmost attention." Lex fished out the jump drive from his inner suit pocket and handed it to the plant director. The director took the drive and looked at him curiously.

"Are you referring to your new robot design Mr. Luthor? I have already started manufacturing them as per the specifications you sent in your email. We've been running for almost two hours now. The first one should be rolling off the line in another couple of hours."

Lex felt a sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach. He never sent an email, nor did he leave any traces of the robot in his computer at Luthorcorp. As far as he knew the only copy of the design was with him in his jacket pocket. No, there was definitely some form of espionage going on here. But who could it be? He eliminated the only two people that could have known about it. He pushed his way past the plant director and made his way to his private office there at the plant.

After locking the door behind him, he went to his desk and began pulling up his personal email accounts. And there it was, as plain as day. An email sent by him with an attachment that contained the new schematics. He leaned back in his chair lacing his fingers together, his icy glare cast upon the screen. He read over the email again and again trying to make sense of it all. The email would have been sent just after he had left Luthorcorp on his way to Star City.

The two lab jockeys were dead, he was sure of it. If there was any life left in them, his clean up team would have seen to it. He arched a brow. Could it be someone on his clean up team? If that were the case they would have needed to hack into his personal email files and while he never did trust them implicitly, he trusted them enough. Besides, any attempt to gain access to any of his own personal systems would have alerted him.

No, there was something entirely different going on here. And he needed to find out what. If his personal email was insecure, if his private laboratory was insecure, than there was no telling how much of Luthorcorps private information was at risk. He needed to find the source of this incursion and eliminate it. Eliminate it with total and utter prejudice. He wasn't sure which the greater insult was; the fact that someone was able to break into his own personal files, or the fact that they would pretend to be him and leave such a blatant and obvious paper trail. He shook his head.

There was one other thing that he didn't quite grasp. He leaned forward and clicked open the attached file. His eyes roved over the schematics of the robot design. Why would someone else have commissioned the robots to be built? He knew why he wanted them, but why would someone else require them. Then he noticed the ever so subtle difference in design. It was barely noticeable; even he could have missed it. Could have, but didn't. There were a several slight changes in the casings of the exterior. Again, he didn't quite fathom their purpose as it didn't change the overall mechanics. It seemed purely a cosmetic change at best.

Lex hated questions that lead to more questions. He didn't like them at all. It was far from obvious that he wasn't going to be getting any answers by staying here. He had hoped his trip would have been more productive, but in honesty his purpose for coming here was still underway and ahead of schedule in fact. So the trip at least wasn't a complete loss. Once more he made his way to his helicopter, his thoughts heavy with the morning's events.

xXxXx

"So you're just going to let him sit in the holding cell? I'm telling you Eli, he's not what you think he is. I've had a chance to talk to him. I honestly believe he's telling the truth." Thevia said, crossing her arms in a huff. She glared at Captain Eli, and although he wasn't looking at her directly he could feel the heat of her accusing eyes.

"I'm telling you Thevia, I'm just doing it to protect the crew. It's bad enough around here without some stranger mucking about. We've searched the entire station and still haven't found any signs of how he got here. It's as if he spawned out of thin air. If that doesn't set off alarm bells for you than maybe you need to give yourself a checkup." Captain Eli grunted.

"But you didn't even give him a chance to explain! I'm sure if you just listen…"

"No Thevia, right now you need to listen! It's been over three weeks since we've lost contact with home control. We are running low on supplies and there is a constant flow of technical errors that need fixing. Let me remind you that we barely have enough rations to sustain the crew we do have let alone anyone extra. So right now you need to stop thinking of that stranger as some innocent lost lamb and see him for the potential danger to this station and its crew that he actually is!"

"Captain!" came the voice of the man in the blue cap as he entered the control room. "We have found another saboteur in the cargo wing." Captain Eli tossed a glance back at Thevia before turning his full attention to the man.

"Go on Simmons." The captain urged.

"We found him in the act of sabotage. During the last solar event he had opened one of the protective shutters at one of that wings view ports. It has sustained some damage, but we were able to reinforce it in time."

"Well how do you know he's a saboteur?" Thevia asked. Both Simmons and Eli looked at her incredulously.

"Are you daft girl? Along with the laundry list of design defects in this death trap they pass off as a space station, the viewing ports are not strong enough by themselves to withstand a solar event. Need I remind you what would happen if one should break all together? I mean seriously… who puts viewing ports on a station in the center of the fricken sun?" Captain Eli huffed.

"Well there's that and we found these on his person." Simmons placed the Doctors sonic screwdriver and slip of psychic paper onto the counter. Eli picked up the sonic screwdriver and looked at it curiously. He hadn't ever seen anything like it, though he wasn't well versed in the tools of espionage. He shook his head gently tossing it back on the table.

"Well, that's enough proof for me. What did you do with him?"

"While the urge to shoot on site was overwhelming I didn't want to risk any more damage to the viewport. I tossed him the holding cell."

"So Thevia, do you still think your man is innocent?"

"Until proven guilty, sir." She replied softly, though even she had to admit that the evidence was compelling.

"But that's not all sir, we have also uncovered some kind of… storage crate or box in the back of the cargo bay." Simmons continued.

"So wait? You're saying you found a crate in the cargo bay? Are you serious?" Thevia said rolling her eyes. Simmons scowled at her.

"Not just any crate Thevia, a large blue crate that we cannot seem to open. There could be some kind of explosive device… or possibly even…"

"Could it be how they got here?" Asked Captain Eli. Simmons shrugged in response.

"I'm no expert sir, but I don't see why not. It's large enough. I'm sure two people could fit inside with some espionage equipment."

Thevia was about to interject another protest, but it was at that moment an alarm went off loudly echoing through the chamber. The room was bathed in crimson light. Captain Eli hunched over a nearby console tapping the screen and twisting the knobs. Simmons and Thevia rushed over and carefully watched over the man's shoulder. Travis' voice came over the intercom.

"Captain Eli sir, it's the Neutronic-transmitters. The relay sensors have gone offline sir. The last solar event must have fried them." Travis' shouted over the intercom. The level of panic in his voice was all too obvious.

"So what are you telling me?" Eli shouted back over the intercom.

"I'm telling you that we're all dead! We need those Neutronic-transmitters up before the next solar event or it's us that's going to be fried. Those relay sensors are imperative to our entire operation. They have to be reset before the next solar event if we want the Neutronic-transmitters to be able to counteract the sun going into critical nova sir."

"Last I checked CHIEF ENGINEER TRAVIS, you were the one that was responsible for maintaining operations. It sounds like you know what you're doing so do what you get paid to do and fix it. You have…" Captain Eli looked at a nearby chronometer, "…approximately forty-five minutes before the next solar event. So get your little engineer buddies into gear."

"No sir! I'm afraid you are not understanding the gravity of the situation. It's impossible to fix. In order to reset the relays, we would need to reroute the sub-power conduits into the thermal conduction units and trip the override controls at each transmitter manually. Do you understand? MANUALLY! In order to override the transmitters each one has to be tripped within sixty seconds of each other. Essentially they all have to be overridden at the same time and rerouted through the primary databank in main engineering."

"OK, so it sounds like you got it all figured out. Get your geek pals on the job and get it fixed. Stop crying, put on your big girl panties and just do it." Replied Captain Eli.

"There are only three of my 'geek pals' on this station. We simply don't have enough engineers to do it. We're all dead!" The intercom went silent. Captain Eli did the math in his head. They had four viable engineers that could reprogram the system; if what Travis was saying was true they would need six if the plan was to succeed.

"Simmons can do it! Me and Thevia can stay in main engineering and reroute the primary database, you guys and Simmons can take care of the Neutronic-transmitters. We can do this!"

"Sorry sir, but Simmons is a gun toting primate and does not have the delicate brain function to do something like this. No offence. " Said Travis.

"None taken." Simmons said with a slight smirk on his face.

"And while I firmly believe that Thevia may have some rudimentary knowledge of engineering schematics and programming, I sincerely doubt that you do. Face it sir, it's hopeless. We're all lost."

"Why don't we use the two in the holding cells?" Thevia pleaded. "The one already said he could help with the blast shield, so obviously he's somewhat technical. If this station is destroyed so is he, I'm sure that will be enough motivation for him. And Kal-El said he would do whatever it took to help us. I'm telling you, he is not here to get us. We can do this, but we have to trust them. If we trust them they may betray us and we will all die. But if we don't trust them at all we will definitely all die. What do you say Eli?" Captain Eli looked between her and Simmons. He stroked his chin. There was no doubt time was running out and they had to do something.

"Then I guess we should go have a little chat with them, shouldn't we?" He finally said.

xXxXx

The heart of Borneo is known for being ruthless and savage. Predators tirelessly stalk the jungle in search of prey. The thrill of the hunt, the rush of the kill, the cycle of life and death continues effortlessly and without any sign of slowing. But not all predators walk on four legs in this jungle. Nestled in the dark heart of the jungle rests an old abandoned structure; a structure that the very jungle is even now trying to reclaim. Thick clinging vines climb the exterior of the small one story derelict building. The road to the building has long since been lost, taken over by weeds of the worst kind. Ferns and other local flora sprout through the jungle floor and obscure the building from view of even the most cunning predators.

However it's not what's on the outside that most would find of interest. Nor would it even be what is on the inside of the run down facility. It's what was happening below the surface that people would be most interested in knowing about. For deep under the surface of the jungle floor, beneath the seemingly docile and defunct looking building, lays the heart of what was once a crown jewel in the Luthorcorp manufacturing facilities. It was a facility that had never been on any map in existence; a facility whose very existence was shrouded in rumor and conjecture. It was a facility that up until now had been resting inert and lifeless. In its very essence the facility served as a cold contradiction to the heaving swarm of life that thrived above it.

The empty factory was cold and desolate. It was as silent as the dead. It did not stay that way for very long. Soon it became as alive as the jungle above it. It started with the feint buzz of the florescent lighting as it filled the factory floor. That was soon accompanied by the dull thrumming of machines coming online. The whine of hydraulic arms moving this way and that was added to the mechanical orchestra. The roar of the subterranean plant reached a cacophonous high as the construction began. Strangely enough, as the noise of the factory became deafening, a hushed silence settled over the jungle above.