[In present day, a truck arrives at a bar. A man, LUDLOW, comes out. Inside the bar, Clark is the busboy while the waitress, CHRISSY, cleans the bar. They smile at each other. Clark is listening to a conversation between military men.]
ARMY MAN #1: Aren't you here for the exercise?
ARMY MAN #2: No, there was a change in the plans. Somebody found something strange on Ellesmere. Aircom's making runs out here all week.
ARMY MAN #1: That rat hole? You gotta be kidding me.
ARMY MAN #2: I know. It's crazy. The Americans are there too, lots of them.
ARMY MAN #1: Anything else?
ARMY MAN #2: They're calling it an anomalous object. Whatever that means.
[Chrissy is at the table where Ludlow is.]
CHRISSY: Back off, Ludlow. I'm serious.
LUDLOW: Oh, come on, Chrissy.
CHRISSY: Knock it off.
LUDLOW: Sit down.
CHRISSY: Let me go.
CLARK KENT: Hey. Leave her alone, man.
LUDLOW: Or what, tough guy?
CLARK KENT: Or I'm gonna have to ask you to leave.
LUDLOW: I think I'll probably just leave when I'm good and ready. [throws his beer at Clark's face] Ooh.
[Clark seems to get angry, but manages to keep his cool]
LUDLOW: Oh, there he is.
[Ludlow attempts to push him, but instead is pushed back as Clark simply stands there. Clark takes a small step towards him, but is stopped when Chrissy places her hand on his arm.]
CHRISSY: It's not worth it, sweetie.
LUDLOW: Hey, asshole, don't forget your tip. [throws a crushed beer can at Clark] Strike
[Clark is subtly yet visibly annoyed by all of this. He steps outside. When hours have seem to pass and it's nighttime, Ludlow goes outside and looks outside to see his truck completely crushed and impaled by two electric poles. Clark is traveling on foot, trying to hitch a ride.]
[In the cold Arctic, a helicopter flies in. Coming out of it is LOIS LANE. Clark, in disguise, helps her get down]
LOIS LANE: Thanks. [turns over to JED EUBANKS] Hi.
JED EUBANKS: Miss Lane. How you doing?
LOIS LANE: Good.
JED EUBANKS: Jed Eubanks, Arctic Cargo.
LOIS LANE: How far to the station?
JED EUBANKS: Camp's just over the rise. I'll walk you over.
LOIS LANE: Great.
JED EUBANKS: Joe can take your bags. [Jed turns to Joe, Clark's fake identity] Joe, help her out.
LOIS LANE: Careful with those. They're heavy.
JED EUBANKS: I gotta confess, Miss Lane, I'm not a fan of the Daily Planet, but those pieces you wrote when you were embedded with the 1st Division were... Well, they were pretty impressive.
LOIS LANE: Well, what can I say? I get writer's block if I'm not wearing a flak jacket.
JED EUBANKS: Heh.
[Lois meets with COLONEL NATHAN HARDY and DR. EMIL HAMILTON]
Col. NATHAN HARDY: Miss Lane. I'm Colonel Hardy, U.S. Northcom. Dr. Emil Hamilton from DARPA. You're early.
[Lois tries to give the colonel a handshake, with no response. She instead shakes hands with the doctor.]
DR. EMIL HAMILTON: Hi.
Col. NATHAN HARDY: We were expecting you tomorrow.
LOIS LANE: Which is why I showed up today. Look, let's get one thing straight, guys, okay? The only reason I'm here is because we're on Canadian soil and the appellate court overruled your injunction to keep me away. So if we're done measuring dicks, can you have your people show me what you found?
ANALYST: NASA's EOS satellites pinged the anomaly first. The ice shelf plays hell on the echo soundings, but there's definitely something down there.
LOIS LANE: A submarine, maybe? Soviet-era?
Col. NATHAN HARDY: Doubtful. That's 300 meters. Considerably larger than anything we know they built back then.
ANALYST: But here's the spooky part. The ice surrounding the object? It's nearly twenty thousand years old.
[They are now outside. The colonel brings Lois to her quarters]
Col. NATHAN HARDY: Miss Lane? Try not to wander. Temperatures drop to minus 40 at night around here. Wouldn't find your body till after spring. [opens the door to her quarters as Clark walks out] And there you go.
LOIS LANE: What if I need to tinkle?
Col. NATHAN HARDY: There's a bucket in the corner.
[It is now nighttime. Lois is assembling her camera and walks outside. She takes pictures of the installations when she sees a blurry image of "Joe" (not aptly dressed for the weather) walking up to these installations.]
LOIS LANE: Where the hell are you going?
[Lois starts following him. Clark uses his heat vision to melt the snow and ice, Lois not too far behind him. He arrives in a large chamber with a small pedestal containing a hole matching the El key Clark has. He places it inside, but before he could push it, he senses something behind him. A robot appears, similar to Kelex and Kelor. It gets into attack mode and attacks him, making him bleed. It tries to stop him from pushing the button, but Clark manages. No longer recognizing him as an intruder to the spaceship, the robot goes on its merry way. Clark sees someone walking from afar.]
CLARK KENT: Hello?
[Lois Lane gets more and more inside and sees the robot from afar. Clark, meanwhile, continues to follow the mysterious figure and ends up in between two pods. One of them has a decomposed corpse, while the other is open with nothing inside. Lois Lane takes a picture with flash of the robot; it treats this as a hostile presence and attacks Lois, flinging her against the wall behind her, her camera broken. The robot is about to attack again, but Clark comes behind it and crushes it with his bare hands. He then stops Lois from moving and looks under her shirt for her wound.]
CLARK KENT: It's all right, it's all right, it's all right. It's all right. You're hemorrhaging internally and if I don't cauterize this bleed...
LOIS LANE: How can-l?
CLARK KENT: I can do things that other people can't. Now hold my hand; this is gonna hurt.
[Clark uses his heat vision to cauterize the wound. Lois, frightened by the red eyes, starts screaming in horror and pain.]
[The analyst feels the earth trembling as well as the rest of the crew. The people look up to see the ship come out of the ground and fly away.]
