“Hello Kal-El. I am your mother...”

Clark felt his whole body begin to shake, and his knees begin to cave in under the sudden immense weight of his own being. This was what he had come to discover, but he had never envisaged seeing his biological mother with such vivid clarity.

“Kal-El,” he repeated the name, even though it now seemed suddenly so familiar to him; as if he had heard it a thousand times before, and had always known that it was his true identity. He squinted, not wanting to shift his gaze from the apparition now beckoning him closer with an outstretched hand, “Mother…?”

The ghostly woman smiled, agreeing with him, and the whirling mists behind her seemed to open slightly. As she spoke, angular symbols that appeared more like Egyptian hieroglyphs than true words began to form in the glowing, icy images. While the message continued to materialize she continued her introductions.

“I am Lara,” She pointed to the still visible, symmetrically arranged white surfaces of the world behind her, “and this is your home planet, my son…” She paused, letting her biological offspring take in the information.

Clark felt every cell in his body go numb and devoid of sensation. It was as if Lara’s words were bringing a former life back to him, and it was scarier than he could ever have imagined.

“Krypton,” The name came to his lips as easily as the word ‘Kent’. “I’m from somewhere called Krypton…I shouldn’t know it, but I do!” Clark looked over to Chloe for the first time in over two minutes, shaking his head at the things hidden within his own psyche.

Chloe gazed back, but all that she could do was smile. No words could come to her to help him. This was Clark’s journey of self-discovery, Kal-El’s rebirth from the ashes like the legendary phoenix. Will Clark live for 500 years too, like that mythical bird? It was a strange comparison, but one Chloe found herself making after seeing the advanced civilization he obviously came from. She squeezed his hand, hoping that the action alone would intimate her support.

Encouraged, Clark moved closer into the light, towards the phantom image of his mother. He was tempted once again to touch her soft, opaline features and know the woman who had given him life, but this time he knew it would be futile.

“Where is my father? Why did you both send me away?” He had many more questions, but right now he needed to know if his parents had indeed abandoned him, or if there had been some purpose to their actions. Clark’s voice quivered, and he feared what Lara’s reply might be. What if I’m an outcast for a reason?

“Jor-El knew dispatching you in the raft was the only way to ensure your well-being…your destiny.”

“Jor-El is my father, and he sent me away to protect me? You both did?” Clark wanted more than the illusive Lara was willing to give. He almost begged now to be told more about his history, and the chronology of his people. “Is Krypton still like those images? Are you still out there in the universe somewhere?”

Lara’s dreamlike presence floated back until the message they had seen materialize earlier was in plain view. The language appeared like some cryptogram to Clark, and it distressed him to think he had no genetic memory of it, like the other names and images that had come to him from his own subconscious.

“I don’t understand what you’re telling me!” He frowned and paced forward slightly, not wanting the session to end until Lara had given up more of his inheritance. “Please!” He begged.

Without warning, the rectangular key shot from the still open pod, or ‘raft’ as Lara had called it, and floated across the cellar. As it reached the illusionary message, the incandescent Kryptonian letters seemed to dissolve in a tiny explosion of untold brilliance, and instantaneously Clark found the alloy tablet back in his hand. He gaped at the almost numinous object, and then realized the symbols on it had changed to match those in the message.

Clark looked up to the now dissipating outline of Lara. “Wait! What does this mean? I can’t decipher it without your help!” His voice rose until it was at crescendo point, but Lara only gazed back affectionately.

“When the day comes that you can read this, Kal-El. It will be time…” The white clad figure was abruptly sucked back down into Clark’s ship with all of the other remaining imagery, and in the briefest of seconds the pod’s metal exterior reformed to hide the secrets trapped within.

“Oh, wow!” Chloe stepped forward and felt herself go giddy at what had occurred. It would be every reporter’s dream to witness what she just had and then write about it, but she would never tell a living soul. “That was amazing,” She looked over to Clark’s pale, stunned form, “Are you okay?”

Clark wasn’t sure what he was feeling, but okay definitely didn’t fit the description. He sat shakily on an old wooden crate that had been left to gather dust, and then looked up at her with moisture filling his eyes. “I’ll never be able to read this. I’ll never know the truth…for a moment I really thought she would give me the answers I’ve longed for all this time.”

Chloe squeezed onto the end of the crate he had appropriated and put an arm around him comfortingly. “We made a start today. No one who is adopted finds searching for their past easy, not even when their biological parents are from earth. Trust me I know, you won’t have answers just handed to you, you have to persevere.” Boy, I live with my dad, and he won’t even tell me about my mom!

“But how can I learn to translate this, when it’s not even a language known to man?” He ran a fingertip over the indents in the tablet longingly.

Chloe rolled her eyes. Clark may not be human, but he certainly had all the typical male attributes. “You’re such a pessimist! Why don’t we go back to the crash site and dig around some more? With your extra sharp vision we could find anything.”

Clark shrugged. He just didn’t think there was more to find. His life had come to a very blank, dead end. “All that’s left in the ground now are tiny fragments of metal. I think maybe it was from some kind of outer shell on my ship. I can’t collect them all; it would take forever, and be pretty pointless.”

This time Chloe had no sharp comeback, because in reality he had a point. She sat beside him instead, waiting for him to come to grips with what he had seen.

From above, a sound made Clark look up, scanning the open cellar doors in case he needed to quickly conceal his ship from the newcomer. Shafts of light played on the steps like dancing demons as he waited, daring him to leave the evidence of his past to be revealed to the person about to enter.

Luckily, this time the interloper was only Jonathan, and the pod could remain in view without any danger. “Son, is everything alright? Your mother and I, well…” It was hard for the parent to put into words just how he and Martha were feeling. It would be difficult enough to deal with if Clark was human, but no they may have to contend with parents who might quite literally be ‘out of this world’.

“I saw my mother, at least an image of her…” Clark stopped what he was saying, realizing his wording might sound insensitive. Martha was his mother, and in his heart always would be, but the woman in the vision was part of who he was too.

Jonathan smiled slightly and nodded, and then walked over to join his son. In the silent moment that followed, Chloe decided it was her cue to leave. “I’m sure you two have a lot to discuss, and I have a pile of work that’s competing with Mount Everest for the altitude above sea level record! So, I’ll get going, and I’ll come by in the morning?” She looked at Clark who nodded, and then scooted out of the cellar feeling a little awkward.

“What was she like?” Jonathan took the place on the crate that Chloe had occupied, “your real mother, I mean.”

Clark appeared surprised at his father’s question. He had expected Jonathan and Martha to be a little reserved about any parent who could abandon a child as he had been. He had also worried that finding information about his real parents would make the Kents feel pushed out of his life somehow.

“She was beautiful, graceful, and somehow I sensed she loved me very much.” Clark stared Jonathan straight in the face, wanting him to know how deeply he meant his next statement. “None of that changes anything though, you and mom are my real parents, and you always will be. You took me in and nurtured me, protected me, loved me, taught me everything I need to know…those are the things that make real parents, not sets of genes and chromosomes.”

A tear almost came to Jonathan’s eye, even though he knew Clark well enough to realize how he would react. “Thanks Son, and we’d do it all over again, that much I can tell you! Your mother and I wouldn’t be without you for anything.” The farmer grew more serious, “Did you find anything else out about your past?”

Clark turned the tablet over in his hand and then passed it over for Jonathan to check out. “Lara, my biological mom, somehow changed the writing on this. She said when I can read it, it will be time. But how will I ever read that?”

Jonathan squinted in the dull light at the newly created message. He had tried for some time to decrypt the first set of writing on it without success, but this message seemed even more complex. There were far more symbols, all arranged in some kind of pattern.

“I’m assuming your real family wanted you to see this, or your mother wouldn’t have just given it to you. That suggests they also expected you to be able to decode it at some point. You just have to be patient, Son.”

Clark had to smile, “Chloe said that, too. I guess you both can’t be wrong.”

“Nope,” Jonathan assured him. “What do ya say we go inside and deliberate some more over supper? Your…mom cooked your favorite.”

Clark detected the slight pause before his dad had said the word ‘mom’. It must be eating away at them. If this is what knowing my past is causing, then maybe I don’t want to learn anymore, or read the stupid message! He didn’t voice his concerns, but simply pretended he hadn’t noticed Jonathan’s troubled slip of the tongue.

“Sounds good to me!” Clark sniffed appreciatively, hoping to catch the airborne odors of Martha’s efforts. Instead, he felt an intense tingling in his nose that just ached to be gotten rid of. It was nothing like anything he’d ever sensed before. Realizing what it might be, he grinned and then let his brow furrow as he asked the question. “Dad, do you think aliens sneeze?”

Both father and son couldn’t resist the urge to laugh, and the poignant moment was broken. Minutes later, they were inside enjoying a hearty meal while Clark retold his tale of dazzling crystalline imagery, and a world that time and space may well have forgotten.