(Jim's POV) Sentinel III
Jim was asleep, in his dump of an apartment, when the phone rang. He glanced at his wrist watch. The glaring, blue numbers said it was currently six a.m. Jim groaned, buried his head under his pillow, and attempted to ignore the damned machine. After ten minutes of listening to it ring, stop for a minute, and ring again, he decided to take the call.
"Six a.m. on a Saturday? Whoever they are better have one hell of an excuse," he grumbled to himself. He made slow work of crawling out of bed and slumping over the the phone. For his credit, he only stumbled once, before taking a seat at the desk by the videophone.
Out of habit, he checked the caller I.D. before putting the call through. 'What the fuck...' he wondered as the listing came up for some local hospital. 'Oh God, what on Earth has happened now?' Jim's only consolation was that he knew this didn't have anything to do with Gene.
When the gang had finally settled down on Sentinel III, things had been great, at first. But everything had gone slightly downhill for Jim, when Gene and Mel decided to get married. It had been good initially, but he'd started to get the feeling that he was underfoot and in the way far too often. He had been somewhat relieved when they'd announced that they were going to be moving to Hayfong. It worked out pretty well, actually. Jim handled the local jobs and the technical stuff, while Gene did relations and transportation for the cargo. Sure, Mel had had her doubts, and Jim got lonely every now and again, but they visited often (not including the time spent working with Gene), so things were just fine is Jim's opinion. Yep, not a single problem at all!
Jim suppressed the mocking laughter bubbling up inside him, and finally picked up the receiver, deciding that for whatever reason the idiots were calling, it must be important - either that or they were going to pay dearly.
"Hello, this is Dr. Ruth of National Sentinel III Medical. Is this Mr. Jim Hawking?" said a cool voice on the other line, as a man about his late thirties came onto the screen. He had dark, gray hair with flecks of white, and blue eyes that spoke nothing but business.
"Yes, it is! Mind if I ask what the hell this is all about? It's six in the morning! Don't you people feel the need for sleep?" he said, in a grumbling voice as he attempted to stifle a yawn
"Right." said Dr. Ruth briskly, completely ignoring Jim's other comments. "Well I'd like to inform you that there is a Mr. Fred Luo here, and we need you to come and get him."
Jim nearly dropped the phone in his surprise. He had not seen Fred in years; nor had anyone else. Last time he'd heard anything regarding Fred had been seven years ago. It had been about the time when Gene, Mel, and he were still traveling the universe, and they had needed some parts, but they hadn't been able to get in contact with Fred at all. No one in the Luo family had been willing to be exceptionally helpful and offer up the information, either.
Jim was soon brought back to reality when he heard the doctor calling his name.
"Why the fuck do you need me to come get him? And why in the hell am I listed as a contact? That idiot's got tons of people that could pick him up. Why me?" He didn't really know what was going on, but he sure the hell wasn't going to go out driving at six in the morning. It may have been summer, but in the rain at this early in the morning, it was going to fell like ten below!
"I'm sorry to say, but there was no one else to contact, Mr. Hawking. You were actually the very last contact on the list. You see, by all records, Mr. Lou's parents are dead," Dr. Ruth stated calmly.
"And what about his bodyguards? This is their kind of thing; shouldn't they be the first people to be called?" he said testily. He was losing his patience fast, and the doctor's derogatory tone was not helping one bit!
Dr. Ruth sighed, and spoke calmly, as though trying to talk to an ignorant child. "His body guards were unattainable as he no longer has them. His family refused to continue paying for their services when they became aware of how long Mr. Luo was to remain here." This caught Jim's curiosity.
"How long has he been in the hospital?" he asked.
"Nearly eleven years."
The statement itself was simple enough, but Jim suddenly felt as though he'd been sucker punched. He stared at the monitor without really looking at it, and his ears no longer registered what Dr. Ruth was saying.
'Eleven years…' he thought dazedly. 'That's a long time to be in the hospital. What in the hell has he been doing all this time?' Then another, more amusing idea drifted through Jim's thoughts. 'Fred's got to be at least forty! He must be hating the idea of being such as old geezer!' He brought his hand up to stifle his laughter at imagining Fred all old and pruney.
"Mr. Hawking! Could you please attempt to pay attention!" demanded the irritated doctor. Jim quickly swallowed his few remaining chuckles and turned his full attention back to the screen.
"I'm sorry. What were you saying?" he asked, showing no signs or caring what he'd said.
"Are you coming to get him or not!" demanded the now furious doctor. Jim debated this question for a moment but quickly decided against making the doctor angrier.
"Yeah, I'm coming. Keep you pants on," he yelled at the tightwade, then slammed the receiver back onto the jack for good measure.
He stood up to his full height, a whopping 6' 7". He'd grown a lot from the kid he had been at eleven, and being a mechanic, it had been inevitable that he would fill out a little. He was a bit disappointed thought; where Gene's body was obviously rippling with muscle, his own was more toned than ripped.
Sighing, he moved on to trying to find his clothes. He first checked under the bed, as that's where he was pretty certain his clothes from the day had been kicked to. Because Jim worked such demanding hours these days, it was pretty common for him to just leave his clothes on the floor until morning, when he'd discover they'd gotton kicked under the bed again.
He moved to the mirror to make sure he at least looked presentable. he was going to the hospital, after all. Jim had decided to where a plain, blue t-shirt and apair of blue jeans - both of which happened to fit him rather nicely. He wasn't shallow, but lokking nice never hurt. To complete the casual look, he slipped on his plain white sneakers and brushed his shaggy hair out of his eyes. 'I need to get the damn thing trimmed again' he thought miserably. He didn't often worry about his hair, but when it got to the point where he was tying it back (like he was now) he knew it was time to get it cut.
'I'm going to hate this so much. I mean I haven't seen the guy in eleven years and he's been in the hospital this whole time! What the hell am I supposed to say to him!' he thought miserably. He grabbed his keys and leather jacket on his way out the door. Quickly buttoning up and going into the garage, he wasted no time in hopping onto his "Loup be Bleu" or Blue Wolf. He just stuck with calling it Louie. Nest to Ehefrau, this was his most treasured possession. It was an antique; its original model name was a Suzuki GS500F. He'd had it outfitted with a few more modern engine parts and had decided to also install a miniature radio into the system.
He quickly fastened his helmet and ordered the computer to open the garage door. After starting up the engine and taking a second to listen to Louie purr, he put up the kickstand, pulled back on the throttle, and was soon out speeding through the streets.
He arrived at the hospital in a short amount of time to find a doctor was waiting for him outside the doors to the building. Jim parked Louie by the curb and walked towards the doctor, who he could identify as being Dr. Ruth now that he was up close.
"As you may have already noticed, I'm Dr. Ruth. If you would, please follow me." He said all of this rather quickly and then walked off, assuming Jim would follow; which he did, as he didn't seem to have much choice. At first, nothing was said, as the two made their solitary walk down aisles, up stairs, and past rooms. Finally the question that had been nagging at Jim's subconscious broke loose.
"Dr. Ruth, why exactly has Fred been in the hopital for eleven years?"
He gave Jim a quick, evaluating look, but said nothing. Soon enought they stopped outside of a simple looking door. His first impression of the room was it was very cold and dark room. When Dr. Ruth turned on the lights, Jim's jaw dropped. Circling the room were thousands of tubes, stacked on top of another. Just barely visible through the glass of them was...
"Oh my God!" shouted Jim. There were people in there! " Is this a cryogenics lab? I mean, I'd heard the rumors but never thought... even in my wildest dreams I'd never have..." he trailed off there and just stood, gawking at the mant tubes. Finally it registered that the doctor was trying to get his attention.
"Over here, if you will, Mr. Hawking. You see," he said as Jim dumbly followed him, "Mr. Lou has been frozen for 11 years because at the time of his freezing, he was noted as having a rare strain of heart disease." He paused, and turned to stare Jim in the eyes. Now, instead of the cold detachment reflecting from his eyes, there was gleaming victory radiating off of him. "We have found a cure. It took longer then we thought it would, but it's finally ready."
"Does this mean you're going to 'un-freeze' him now?" Jim asked lamely.
"Yes, we are." He said happily and even went so far as to smile. "Thank you for coming to get him; there really was no one else we knew to contact."
"Don't get the wrong idea. I'm not happy about being here." He frowned at Dr. Ruth and crossed his arms for good measure. The doctor simply laughed.
"Alright; shall we 'un-freeze' his now?" he asked, a faint smile lingering around his mouth.
"Fine," Jim said finally. The whole time, he wondered 'What have I gotten myself into?'