From: jj1152@mcis.messiah.edu Date: Mon, 29 Jan 96 15:19:00 -0500 Message-Id: <"d057/mr000000000*"@MHS> Subject: "Top Secret" part 1 This is the first chapter of my most daring venture to date. :) I suppose I should offer the warning that Sam fans might be a little disappointed--due to the complexity and the nature of the story, he has a very small part. Al fans on the other hand, will be happy. :) And for all the Leapers, the story sortof centers around PQL, so don't let the fact that this scene is mostly Lois and Clark worry you. :) After all, it's just getting started. :) TOP SECRET A Lois and Clark/Quantum Leap/X-Files crossover by Julie L. Jekel January 24, 1996 Daily Planet Newsroom Metropolis No one paid much attention to the old man who slipped into the Daily Planet Newsroom with a manilla envelope tucked under his arm. No one, that is, except the ever-curious Lois Lane. She watched carefully for a few moments, intrigued by the mysterious envelope and the nervous, chagrined expression on the man's face. Her eyes followed him as he turned to stare fixedly at something or someone behind him. What ever he saw (or didn't see) caused a great deal of tension to flow out of the man's posture. His shoulders relaxed, and the arm that had held the envelope tightly to his side now dangled it casually. Sensing a possible story, Lois moved quickly to intercept the stranger, coming up behind him at the window. "Excuse me, can I help you?" He spun, and his face took on a look of surprised recognition. "Donna?" "No, my name's Lois Lane. Is there anything I can do for you?" Disappointment seemed to sweep over the man's face, which Lois, though slightly affronted, nevertheless ignored. He had apparently mistaken her for someone else. "No...well, could you take this?" He threw a sharp glance over his shoulder, and shrugged, then held the envelope toward her. Puzzled by his strange behavior, she took it. "Yes of course, but what is it?" He started to speak, then with another glance behind him, changed his mind. "Something that should never have existed," he muttered. The stranger turned and began to walk quickly toward the open elevator. "Wait!" Lois called after him. "Can I ask you--" The elevator doors closed behind him before she could finish her sentence. Frustrated, Lois turned her attention back to the envelope. It was unmarked, and sealed with a strip of duct tape that was wrapped tightly around both ends, presumably to prevent it from being opened. Feeling the envelope to try to distinguish its contents, Lois deduced that whatever-it-was was round, three to four inches in diameter, and less than an inch thick. A film reel, perhaps? Or a petrie dish? She remembered the stranger's cryptic description: "Something that should never have existed." What if it was some sort of deadly virus, the only sample of which was sealed in a petrie dish inside the envelope? She shuddered, fear and curiousity fencing back and forth in her mind. Lois heard footsteps behind her, and glanced back to see Jimmy approaching. "You got a package?" he asked. "Yeah...I guess so." "Who from?" "I don't know. Someone just walked in, handed it to me, and walked out." Jimmy studied the envelope in Lois's hands curiously. "Do you know what's in it?" "I have no idea." "Did the guy who gave it to you say anything?" "Only that it should never have existed." The young photographer grinned. "Cool! Let's open it and find out!" "Find out what?" Clark had joined them, his own curiosity piqued by watching the two of them examine the envelope. Lois held it up. "What's in this that shouldn't exist." "Huh?" "Some guy walked in here and handed me this. When I asked him what it was he just said it was something that shouldn't exist." "If it's something that shouldn't exist, don't you think maybe this guy doesn't want a lot of people knowing about it?" Jimmy's face fell. "Aw, c'mon, CK!" "Maybe," Lois hedged, "or maybe he wants the public to know about something that was being done behind their backs." "Lois, it could be something dangerous." "Why would he bring it into a newspaper office and hand it to a reporter if he wanted to hide it?" she countered, striding back to her desk, opening a drawer and hunting for her scissors. "Because he didn't know you were a reporter?" Lois tossed Clark a skeptical expression then turned her attention back to the envelope, attacking the duct tape with the scissors. As soon as the tape broke, she dumped the contents onto her desk. There was an uneasy silence as Lois picked up the reel tape in one hand and studied the sealed file beneath it. Across the tope were scribbled the words "Blue Book:case 145-PQ" and the folder was stamped with a bright red "Classified: TOP SECRET!" "Project Blue Book..." she murmured. Clark looked suddenly antsy. Lois glanced at him, reading the nervousness in his face, then with a grim smile turned her attention to the label on the tape. "'Sodium Pentathol interrogation of Maxwell Stoddard, age 79, UFO witness. May 24, 1966.' Sodium Pentathol...that's truth serum!" "Lois, I really don't think we know what we're dealing with here," Clark warned. He had become even more jumpy, but fortunately Jimmy was too engrossed in the mysterious find to notice. "Jimmy, do you know if we have the necessary equipment to listen to this?" He shrugged. "Don't know. I'll go look." Jimmy disappeared in the direction of the supply room, and Lois turned to the increasingly edgy Clark. "Do you think it has something to do with you?" she asked. "I don't know," he replied honestly. "It's about the right time of the right year..." She nodded. "If there's anything incriminating in the file, I'll figure out some way to keep Jimmy away from the tape." He nodded uneasily and Lois went back to the file. Breaking the seal with her fingernail, she opened the folder and began to leaf through the papers. "Clark...look at this! This can't possibly have anything to do with the tape!" "Why not?" "Because this doesn't say anything about UFOs. It's about...time travel!"