Chapter 57

"A lonely road in the middle of nowhere? Smallville, what are we doing here? I thought you said you were taking me somewhere special."

"Trust me," was all he said as he opened the door of the truck for her and handed her his mom's heavy coat and a pair of gloves.

"Clark, it's like 70 degrees out here. I doubt I'm going to need those."

"Trust me, you will." He held out the coat for her and she rolled her eyes as she slipped it on and donned the gloves.

"Again with the 'trust me.' Weren't those the famous last words of General Custer to his men right before—?"

"Lois, you should probably keep your voice down. We're not that far from the guard's station. He's listening to the radio, but still…"

"A guard? It's a field surrounded by a high fence, Smallville." She looked at him intently. "Or is it? What's back there? Just where are we going?"

"The Kawatche caves."

"Oh! Those caves with all the strange symbols?" Now he had piqued her interest, but she still didn't see why he thought the place warranted a visit in the dead of night.

"Yes."

Suddenly, he picked her up and they both soared over the fence separating them from their destination. Once back on the ground, he led her around a steep rise of land that seemed out of place in the flat Kansas landscape. An overhang from the rocky slope on the other side of the mound revealed a cave entrance that was dark and forbidding, even if one chose to disregard the "No Trespassing," "KEEP OUT by order of the…" and "Authorized Personnel Only" signs.

Lois had no problem with those signs; after all, she ignored that kind of thing on almost a daily basis, but her attention was caught be the three strategically placed around the cave entrance that said "Danger!"

"What danger?" she mumbled.

"Oh, they put those up after the last meteor shower. There was some minor damage to one part of the cave, but it really isn't a problem. I made sure. Now that Queen Industries is the conservator in charge of the caves, Oliver wants people to think the caves are in worse shape than they are to keep people from coming here. He's only allowing certain scientists down here on a limited basis."

"I sincerely hope you brought a flashlight?" she asked, staring doubtfully at the mouth of the cave. This whole midnight excursion of his was seeming less romantic the further it went. Dark caves meant bugs in her mind, creepy, crawly bugs, and she was beginning to think this was a truly awful idea. "I mean, you may have the souped up vision to see just fine in the dark—"

"Actually, I sort of do," he said absently. Most of his attention was on carefully trying to make as little noise as possible as he removed the heavy gate that had been used to seal the caves. He kept his voice low as he spoke. "Dr. Hamilton said I can detect infrared as well as the ultra-violet spectrum of light now, but, for some reason, I can't quite yet make out certain miniscule spans within the terahertz radiation yet. He says I should, but it's like a lot of things about my powers from our different points of view - ineffable." He finished propping up the gate against the side of the iron frame and turned back to a stunned Lois.

"Ineffable?!" She repeated. "Geez, Clark, what did you do? Swallow a dictionary?"

"Well," he smiled, I did read one, and a thesaurus too."

She looked at him as though he'd finally lost his mind.

"Hey, I figured it will help with writing."

"Probably," She chuckled and shook her head in wonder at him. "Okay, increased verbosity skills noted. Let's get this…very dark… show on the road, shall we?"

"It'll be fine, Lois, just—"

"I know, 'trust' you." Again, she rolled her eyes.

He helped her down the steps leading down into the cave and then suddenly the place was flooded with light as he tripped some switch.

Various pieces of scientific equipment littered the confined space, but it wasn't this that caught her eye; it was the art. She was awed by the primitive paintings splashed on all the walls surrounding them.

"Oh, my!" She found it difficult to know where to look. The colors were vivid and the symbols were strange, but somehow strangely comforting. "Chloe told me about this place…but I had no idea…"

"You were here once. Well, actually twice. Do you not remember?"

She looked at him quickly and her brow wrinkled. "Not really…no…wait a minute…that time with Lana and Chloe…some old world witches using our bodies…yechhh…oh yeah." She hunched her shoulders. "Actually, I was a little too freaked out at finding myself dressed like …well, you know, to notice the surroundings that much. That whole thing's all a little hazy anyway."

"Just as well," Clark said.

"Is someone working on translating what all this means?"

"Yes, but I doubt they'll be able to…without my help."

"Your…Clark, you know what all these…symbols mean?"

"Yes. Well, some of them. Some are pictographs that are pure Kawatche. But some are Kryptonian symbols outright. Those I can read." Still holding her hand, he turned to lead her deeper into the cave. "It's this way, Lois. Watch out for the cables," he cautioned.

He led her through to where the cave opened up into a larger space. There, he moved a section of the rock wall as if it weighed only a few ounces, revealing a slim opening, barely wide enough for him to go through. A "room" lay on the other side that was dominated by a large table covered in still more symbols.

"Whoa!" She stopped and stared at the table, and he let go of her hand long enough for her eyes to grow accustomed to the dimmer light within this smaller room. "Is that what I think it is?"

Clark raised his eyebrows. "What do you think it is?"

"It looks like some kind of …altar!" Her eyes widened. "Oh wow! Do you think they sacrificed people in here?"

"No! Lois, no. I don't think the Kawatche people would have done things like that. No, this place was a portal to Krypton once. It was closed off from there before the planet was destroyed, or perhaps some of them could have been saved."

"And your parents wouldn't have had to put their baby in a space ship." She shook her head and sighed. "I don't think there's any way I could have done that." She looked at him quickly. "I mean, I'm glad they did, and you're here, but to entrust your only child to outer space…and not know…"

He nodded solemnly, and then smiled to lighten her mood. "Well, the best way to tell you some of what you want to know is to show you." He took out an octagonal shaped, silvery metal disc from his pocket and placed it into a small slit in the stone table. As strange, bright lights began to engulf him, he reached for her and put his arms around her. Then the lights surrounded them both.

********

Author's notes:

Cloisharley – I like the word dander, but I certainly have never heard of it used that way. You learn all kinds of things with fanfiction, don't you? I'll have to think about a way to use it sometimes in a story. I've been guilty of using traipsing before in a Zorro story, so I figured it was time to bring it back again. Patience, Anacaro – what you want is coming. I just have a fear when I get away from funny and too far into romantic or angst, I get too soppy! Adrigoddess – You compliment me on posting quickly and I immediately fall down on the job doing it! Sorry. I'm now caught up a bit though, if I can quit tweaking stuff. (Guess which one word held this chapter up so long?) Yea! I'm four chapters ahead!