ALIEN ADVENTURE

Clark alighted on the back deck at 312 Riverside Drive. Jason was already outside waiting for him.

"Mo…" Jason started to yell.

"Hush!" Clark put a finger to his lip and motioned for Jason to stop. "Just go in quietly and tell Daddy I'm here."

"Are you avoiding Mommy again?"

"Yes." Clark was well aware he was not being a stellar example to Jason right now, but he just didn't have the emotional bandwidth to deal with Lois today.

"OK." Jason went inside and a few moments later came back with Lois. "Sorry, Mommy caught me."

Lois stepped outside and leaned against the sliding glass door. She crossed her arms and sucked on one of her teeth.

Clark averted his gaze for a moment, embarrassed. He looked up and tried to grin. "Hi, Lois."

"You're avoiding me again."

"Yup."

"Because of the article, or because you don't want to show me what you were going to show me a few weeks ago?"

"Yup."

Lois lowered her gaze and shook her head slowly. "I know I can have a strong personality at times, but you're going through a lot right now, and I genuinely want to be supportive. Please don't feel the need to avoid me."

Clark was touched. "Thank you, Lois. I appreciate that."

"But when things settle down, you and I are going to have a long talk."

Clark nodded. "We will, Lois. I promise."

"How's Linda?"

"It's been a rough few days. I made an appointment with Dr. Lucus."

"Did you meet her yet?" Lois smiled mischievously.

Clark smiled back. "Yes, I did."

Lois chuckled and then became serious again. "I hope she can help Linda."

Clark nodded and held out his arms to his son. "Come, Jason. Do you want to go meet your cousin?"

"Yeah!" Jason shouted as he leapt into Clark's arms.

Clark was pleased by Jason's enthusiasm. He was so excited to introduce them.

Lois raised her eyebrows inquisitively.

"No, he can't tell you everything this time either," Clark informed her.

Jason playfully wagged his finger at his mother. "So don't ask," he teased her.

Lois didn't look too pleased.

"I promise… after our talk… no more secrets, OK? Come on, you little rascal." Clark shifted Jason onto his back, as that was way the boy preferred to fly with him. He would dangle his head over Clark's shoulder close to his face. That way, they could still look at each other, and Jason could understand what Clark was shouting to him during their mid-flight conversations. Clark nodded at Lois as he and Jason ascended into the afternoon sky.

Clark left Jason inside with his mother while he went outside to have a talk with Kara.

She was lying on the ground on her back, reading a book, using Shelby as a pillow. Clark noted the bandage behind her ear was gone, and the scar had already almost completely faded.

"Hi Kara," Clark announced himself.

Kara jumped to a sitting position, looked up at him and gave him a big smile. She seemed to have recovered from the events of the previous day. She was smiling happily at him. He sat down next to her. Shelby was in heaven when they both started petting her.

Clark held out his hand. "Can I see your comb again?"

Kara pulled the comb out of her hair and handed it to him. He examined it closely. "Can you do anything else with this beside changing your hair color?"

Kara shrugged. "I never tried. I mean, it's a comb. What else would I do with it?"

"It's not the comb. It's the opalquine on the comb. That's the same substance that's making the vulnerablide." Clark handed the comb back to her and held out his wrist. "Try to scratch me with it."

"Why?"

"Just try."

Kara held the comb poised over Clark's wrist. She furrowed her brow for a moment before dragging the comb over Clark's skin.

"Oowww!"

A huge gash opened up in the comb's wake.

"I'm sorry!" Kara shouted, looking on in horror. She pulled the comb away, and the gash healed instantly.

Clark forced himself to outwardly regain his composure just as quickly, though he was still a bit in shock. "I'm fine! Kara, it's OK!" He quickly wiped the blood off and then patted Kara on her shoulder while he considered what had just happened. The sensation of the comb tearing through his flesh was exactly the same as the bombs in Midvale. It seemed Kara was indeed capable of transforming the opalquine to make vulnerablide. "Do you realize you just made vulnerablide?"

Kara stared blankly ahead as she nodded.

"Can you make invulnerablide?"

Kara just continued with her blank stare, but Clark could hear her pulse quicken.

"Did you make invulnerablide for Luthor?"

Kara's eyes filled with tears. Clark felt horrible. No eleven-year-old should have to grapple with such substantial concerns, but he had to know. "Did you?"

At first, Clark was worried she wouldn't answer him. He wondered if he should try to gauge her thoughts with vibrocrystelemetry, the term Emil had come up with for the way he and Kara were able to communicate through their crystalline resonances. He resisted, because he really didn't want to invade her privacy, and anyway, her reticence and tears kind of indicated what the answer might be.

She finally answered after a long silence. "He told me that I did," she finally whispered. "But I don't remember."

Clark sighed. She wasn't even sure if she had provided Luthor with the invulnerablide, and certainly nothing Luthor ever said could be relied on to convey the truth, so they still didn't know if he had it. They would have to continue to operate under the assumptions of a worst-case scenario.

"If I did," Kara continued, her eyes pleading, "and he's not hiding anymore, why can't you just take it away from him?"

"It's not that easy. He was working on this way before he came out of hiding, so he must have a secret lab somewhere that he's probably still using because he knows we want to stop him. He may even have more than one secret lab. We just don't know. With Luthor, we always have to assume the worst. The worst possibility right now is that he already has the invulnerablide. And if that's the case, then we need to have it too." He pulled out a vial from one of the pockets hidden in his cape and showed it to Kara. In the vial was a small blob of opalquine he had taken from Emil's lab. "This is making vulnerablide now. Can you transform it to make invulnerablide?"

"Why? Are you going to turn Earthlings into Kryptonians?"

"No."

"So what are…."

"You're eleven years old, Kara," Clark interrupted her. He shook his head sorrowfully. "I'm trying my best to protect you from as much as I can. I don't want to involve you in this at all, but there may be no other way. Can you?"

Kara nodded. Clark held the vial out to her, but she didn't make a move to take it. She just looked at it. Clark was focused on her face, but out of the corner of his eye he noticed something happening with opalquine, so he quickly refocused on it. He watched in fascination as, for just a moment, the opalquine took on an otherworldly visage, reminiscent of the static interference on vintage television screens devoid of reception. The blob-like form took on an ethereal quality, its contours flickering like a manifestation of cosmic white noise that gradually dimmed and gave way to the opalquine's regular dull blue-grey hue. He wondered if the opalquine had put on such a display any of the previous time he had seen Kara use it, but he had been too surprised or shocked to notice.

Clark noticed Kara was now looking at him. "It's done? You don't even have to touch it?"

Kara shook her head.

Clark looked curiously at the contents of the vial. "OK." He put the vial back under his cape. In the same movement, he took a different item out as he grinned at Kara. "I brought you something."

Kara eagerly took the item Clark held out to her, but her excitement quickly turned to perplexity. What Clark had given her looked somewhat like a belt, but it was made out of grey cloth and it was a bit crude-looking. In the middle of the length of it, there were two tiny metal cups spaced about six inches apart. Each cup had a blue rock set securely inside of it.

Clark chuckled at Kara's bewildered expression. "What's wrong? You don't like it?" he asked, feigning chagrin.

"Uh…it's…"

"Don't worry, it's not a fashion accessory. You're going to wear it under your clothes."

"Why?"

"These rocks are a type of kryptonite that will prevent you from absorbing or using sunlight."

"But I can't do that anyway."

"You can. You are, a little bit."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"It's just in case… in case something happens …and you suddenly have power you can't control."

"What do you mean?"

"What if the vulnerablide was flushed out of your system or it stopped working for whatever reason. You'd have super strength and powers that you might not be able to control. You could hurt someone, and I know you wouldn't want to do that. Better to be safe than sorry. My son, Jason, also wears one of these. He can't control his power either." Clark wondered why neither Jason nor Kara seemed to be able to control their powers. And it was more than a little bit disturbing they had both killed someone. Clark never came close to killing anyone when he was a child, but no one had ever threatened his life as a child either.

"You have a son?"

"Uh huh. He's here now. I brought him here so you guys could meet." Clark gestured toward the house. "Here, let me show you. There's a thin lining of lead in these cups so none of the radiation will leak out through them that way. You have to wear it so the rocks are facing you." Clark wrapped the belt around her and adjusted it. "They should be on either side of your lower back, here and here." He indicated the right spots. "The radiation is too low energy to pass all the way through your body. So if you wear it this way, it won't affect me. You have to wear it all the time. You can only take it off if there's no sunlight, like at night if you want to take a shower or something."

"OK." Kara tried to adjust the belt a little to make it more comfortable, but nothing seemed to help. She closed her eyes and grimaced. "I don't like it."

"I'm sorry, but you have to wear it."

Kara continued to wiggle and squirm. "It's uncomfortable. It makes me feel hot. And my eyes hurt."

"You'll have to learn how to squint like Earthlings do, or wear sunglasses. Or stay indoors or in the shade. What you can't do is take it off."

Kara pouted. "OK."

"Let's go inside so you can meet Jason."

Kara followed Clark into the house. Jason was sitting on Martha's lap. They were reading a book together.

Grinning from ear to ear, Clark introduced Jason and Kara to each other. They eyed each other with curiosity.

"He doesn't look Kryptonian," Kara mused.

Clark's grin became slightly less wide. "Jason is half Earthling, but Kryptonians and Earthlings look exactly alike, on the outside anyway, so..."

"Hey, I threw a piano once!"

The remainder of Clark's grin faded. "Jason, let's not talk about that."

"Does he have a crystalprint?" Kara inquired of Clark.

"No."

"What's a crystalprint?" Jason wanted to know.

"It's… something Kryptonians have," Clark told him.

"Are you the Last Daughter?"

Martha took in a sharp breath.

Clark almost yelled the denial. "No," he told Jason in the most measured tone he could manage. He mentally kicked himself for forgetting to tell Jason not to bring that up. "She's not."

"Who's daughter?" Kara asked innocently.

"Nobody," Clark assured her.

"Krypton," Jason answered.

"Jason," Clark tried to interrupt the children. "I already told you there is no Last Daughter."

"I'm not Krypton's daughter. Kypton's a planet. " Kara told Jason indignantly.

Martha abruptly stood up and deposited Jason on the floor. "Supper's ready!"

Clark gave his mother an appreciative look. "Thank you," he mouthed.

Supper was awkward. The children weren't exactly unkind to each other, but they definitely weren't getting along as Clark had naively assumed they would. He felt a bit disheartened, but he clung to the hope that his post-supper plans would improve the situation. He couldn't help but sigh with relief when Martha finally brought out the dessert-peach cobbler.

Afterwards, Clark got up from the table and faced the two children. "I have to get Jason home in about three hours." He enthusiastically clapped his hands together and rubbed them back and forth in an anticipation-filled motion. "That's just about enough time to go on a little adventure. What do you guys say?"

"Yeah!" Jason yelled.

Kara nodded eagerly.

"Let's go outside. I want to show you something."

Jason and Kara followed Clark out the door. He led them around the house and toward the cornfield.
Under the early summer sun in Kansas, the vast cornfield stretched out before them, a sea of green stalks swaying gently in the warm breeze. Without hesitation, Clark plunged into forest of immature corn. The children followed, and found themselves immersed in a green labyrinth, their view obscured by the densely packed rows of corn. The sunlight filtered through the thick canopy, casting dappled patterns on the fertile soil below. The occasional burst of a wildflower added a touch of color to the sea of green. As the trio ventured further into the cornfield, it became apparent that the direction they were heading didn't align with the neatly planted rows. The immature stalks barely reached Clark's shoulders, and he skillfully guided them across the rows, weaving a path between the verdant walls that towered on either side. The rhythmic rustling of the leaves and the occasional brush of cornstalks against each other provided an audible backdrop to their journey.

Kara and Jason giggled as they jumped and wiggled their way through the maze of corn. Clark smiled, glad he had chosen to let them walk to their destination, instead of flying them there.

"Where are we going?" Jason asked.

"It's just over here." Clark walked a few more feet and turned to them. "Stay right there." He turned back around and uprooted a dozen or so stalks and threw them aside to give the children a better view. He held out his arms to help him concentrate and focus his senses and his energy on the object buried beneath them.

He wouldn't have buried it here if he thought there was any chance he would ever want to dig It up again, or if he had known Ma had decided to rent this field to a neighbor. Clark would compensate them for the two to three bushels of lost corn, but figuring out how to explain what happened to them would be more difficult.

The children watched in awe as the cornfield seemed to come alive. The surrounding cornstalks shivered and then, with a mesmerizing grace, parted like a curtain unveiling a hidden secret. The ground beneath their feet began to shift and buckle. The earth in front of them slowly erupted. Clark's spaceship responded to his call, rising from its hiding place, displacing the surrounding cornstalks in its ascent. The once orderly rows were disrupted as the spacecraft breached the surface, causing the immature cornstalks to sway and shuffle, as if bowing to an unearthly force. The crystalline spacecraft continued to ascend as dirt and vegetation cascaded from it down onto the ground. The gaping hole left behind contrasted with the surrounding greenery and filled the air with the smell of newly unearthed soil.

"What is that?" Kara asked once she was able to find her voice.

"Duh, it's his spaceship," Jason, equally awestruck, told her with as much of an air of condescension as he could muster at the moment.

"What do you mean, 'duh?' It doesn't look like a spaceship."

Clark halted the craft's ascent once it was just above the ground and commanded the entrance portal to open. He turned to face the children. "Jason, it's not nice to tell someone 'duh,'" Clark chided his son. "Anyway, you only know what it is because I drew you a picture of it once. Kara hasn't seen that."

"Everyone says 'duh' at school," Jason protested.

"Well… please don't say it here." Clark gestured toward the open portal. "After you."

Kara and Jason walked inside, mouths agape. Clark followed them and closed the portal.

"Are we going somewhere?" Jason asked excitedly.

"Yup."

"To another galaxy!" Jason shouted.

"No," Clark chuckled. "Not that far."

"Duh," Kara told Jason. "That would take a lot more than three hours."

"Kara…" Clark reprimanded."

"How do you know? You don't know anything about spaceships."

"It would…right?" Kara asked Clark.

Clark turned to look at the two children. "Kids, this is not…. worth arguing about. Stop… telling each other 'duh,' OK?"

"But it would take more than three hours," Kara persisted.

"Yes."

Kara nudged Jason and whispered. "See, I told you so."

"'I told you so' is just another way of saying 'duh.' And he can hear you…"

"Is not!"

"…whisper. Is so! Isn't it Ukr?"

"Ukr?"

"Jason's right, Kara."

"Ukr is 'father' in Kryptonese. See, I told you you don't know anything."

"He said 'I told you so.'"

"Did not! I said 'I told you you.'"

"Kara, enough! Jason, enough! Both of you! I don't believe…. I can't…. we're about to take a trip in a spaceship and you're…" Clark couldn't finish. He shook his head in bewilderment. "I thought you'd be excited."

Jason and Kara looked at each other and then back at Clark. "We are," they said in unison.

"OK… then… great. Just gimme a minute…" Clark approached the control panel and stared at it. He grimaced with concentration as he started emitting a specific frequency vibration towards one of the crystals on the panel. In another moment, Clark detected a vibration coming from a crystal on one of the monitor panels to the side of him, indicating he had successfully activated the cloaking device. The navigation and propulsion systems were going to be more complicated. He glanced quickly at the children. They looked confused, and he suspected their attention spans wouldn't hold up for long. Thankfully, everything was almost ready.

"Where are we going?" Kara asked.

Jason jumped up and down. "Can we go to Saturn?"

"We're not going to Saturn today."

"But I wanna see the rings. They're so cool."

"Saturn is pretty cool, but I wouldn't be able to bring us close enough to see much more than you can see from photos you can find on the internet. The gravity would crush you. And I kinda like you guys."

"So where are we going?" Kara asked.

"I shouldn't have been keeping this thing at the farm. I've been planning on flying it up north where I have a place…" Clark finished setting a course and initiating takeoff. He turned to the children to watch them react to the sensations of flying in his spaceship. It was a very different experience than flying in his arms.

"We're going to the fortress?" Jason was disappointed.

"Yup."

"What's the fortress?" Kara asked. She suddenly felt as if she needed to steady herself. She put her arms out, but then realized that she was in no danger of falling over. She put her arms down.

"What's so exciting about that?" Jason suddenly felt the need to sit down, so he did. It felt weird, so he stood back up.

Clark watched the children in amusement. "You love the fortress, Jason."

"I do. It's really neat, but there's not much to do there. Nothing works cause all the crystals are gone."

"There are a few crystals in this ship that I might be able to use to get some stuff working."

"Really?' Now Jason was excited.

"I'm gonna try. I can't believe I didn't think of it before." The children were getting accustomed to the artificial gravity inside the craft, so Clark turned back to the control panel and sent it a command. "And, as long as we're in the ship, I thought first we might take a little detour to someplace it would be hard for me to take you otherwise."

"Like where?" Jason asked.

Clark turned and grinned at them. He gestured toward a large wall panel. "Like here…"

The children exchanged curious glances as the enormous viewport started to open. Their anticipation was palpable, and as the cosmic curtain lifted, revealing the moon in all its majestic glory, their eyes widened in astonishment. Kara gasped in excitement. Jason's face lit up with a blend of awe and wonder. Saturn was quickly forgotten.

The vast lunar landscape unfolded before them. Clark skillfully maneuvered the spaceship, gliding it gracefully only a few feet above the lunar surface, providing Kara and Jason with a unique and surreal perspective of the moon's geography. The view through the viewport showcased the intricacies of the lunar terrain, a tapestry of contrasts, its ashen hue bathed in the soft glow of Earth's reflected light, shadows playing across the lunar soil, creating a captivating interplay of light and darkness.

Clark began a narration of their journey. He pointed out the craters, even naming some of them - Tycho and Copernicus and others - some ancient and weathered, others sharp and distinct, each one a testament to the moon's tumultuous history. As they traversed lunar mountains, he explained the geology behind these formations, describing how the moon's lack of atmosphere contributed to their rugged, unyielding appearance. They plunged deep into valleys, carved by ancient forces, crisscrossing the lunar terrain. Clark shared tales of the moon's violent past, detailing the colossal impacts that had shaped its canyons, leaving behind scars that spoke of celestial collisions. The maria, vast plains formed by ancient volcanic activity, stretched out before them like dark, serene oceans frozen in time.

Clark's voice, steady and resonant, filled the cabin as he shared humanity's enduring fascination with the moon. He delved into the chronicles of humanity's moon missions, taking them to the sites of the iconic Apollo landings and pointing out the indelible footprints left by astronauts. He highlighted the bravery and ingenuity that propelled mankind beyond the confines of Earth, emphasizing the significance of those early steps on the moon. He explained how this part of Earth's history mirrored that of their Kryptonian heritage, and that of every spacefaring civilization in the universe, taking their first baby steps into the cosmic unknown.

The children listened in fascination, occasionally interrupting with a question or a comment. But mostly they were speechless, their faces pressed against the viewport.

After about an hour, Clark decided it was time for the next surprise. He instructed Jason and Kara to lie on their stomachs on the floor with their legs and arms stretched out. After they were settled as such, without warning, Clark activated immersive holograms to make it appear as though the spaceship had melted away and the children were flying, unaided over the lunarscape. Both children yelped in surprise at the shock and wonderment of it all. Then they began laughing and shouting with glee as they waved their extremities about, alternately pretending to flap like a bird, soar like a jet, and even swim like a fish. Clark looked funny and out of place standing next to them as they were flying next to his feet with his body perpendicular to them and to the direction of their flight, so he got down and laid on the floor beside them and they all roared and rolled hilariously on the floor.

But that wasn't all to this part of the adventure. Again without warning, Clark commanded the ship to respond to the children's movements so they could control its course and speed. Clark, along with the ship's computer, made sure to keep the craft from suffering any collisions or leaving the moon altogether. But other than that, control was relinquished to the children. It took just a few moments for them to realize that, at which point they simultaneously roared with sheer joy. At first, Clark made the children work together to steer the ship, and then they each had a few turns being in complete control. They veered and rolled in every possible direction, sometimes heading toward a destination they spotted off in the distance, but most of the time just for the thrill of it.

The children protested when Clark turned off the holograms and resumed command, but he assured them there was one more part to this adventure they wouldn't want to miss. They only had about an hour left before he had to bring the ship the fortress, Kara back to Smallville, and Jason back to Metropolis.

Clark piloted the ship to what he thought looked like a good spot for what he had planned. He commanded the ship to descend till it was hovering just a few inches above the dust on the surface. He turned to look at Jason and Kara, and smiled mischievously at them.

"What now?" Jason asked.

The children startled as the portal began opening slowly. Instinctively, they both took a few step back and pressed themselves against the wall opposite the portal. Clark had already described to them what happens to people inside a vacuum.

Clark chuckled. "The ship is projecting a bubble of Earth-like atmosphere about 30 yards in diameter. You can go out and play and explore. And don't worry, I'll make sure you stay inside the bubble. Like I said, I kind of like you guys."

The children cautiously exited the spaceship, experiencing the peculiar sensation of the reduced lunar gravity. The initial trepidation transformed into delight as Jason took a few bouncing steps, and Kara followed suit. Laughter filled the quiet expanse as they explored, played tag, tossed moon rocks and each other, jumped and flipped and did acrobatics. Clark joined them in drawing pictures in the moon dust, and making moon dust sculptures, and playfully kicking up literally over a ton, as it weighed in the reduced gravity, of the tiny particles of dust into the air, which the ship quickly filtered out.

When it was nearly time to depart, Clark took Kara's and Jason's hands and led them to the opposite side of the spacecraft. As they rounded the ship, Earth gradually came into view. The blue-and-white orb hung in the sky, a breathtaking sight against the dark backdrop of space.

To the children standing on the moon, Earth appeared like a radiant jewel, casting its gentle light across the cosmic canvas. They stood on the lunar surface on either side of Clark, who wrapped his arms around their shoulders. They stood in silence for a long time.

Finally Clark spoke. "See that beautiful planet? That's our home. I love that planet. I'm so thankful to live there. And I'm so, so, so happy to have the two of you there with me."