The Gold Corps: Chapter 9: Deadly Reunion
"Code blue, people, code blue. C'mon, folks, make a hole!" The EMTs hurried an unconscious Ragnar, an oxygen mask already over his face, into the emergency room's direct entry room. "What've we got?" asked the attending physician, already masked and gloving up.
"Knife stab wound." The techs had staunched the flow of blood from the golden garbed figure and applied pressure, but the blood flow wasn't letting up. "Don't think it hit his heart, but, if not, it's a miracle. It's right where the heart should be." The stat X-rays were just then coming in.
"What about the other one?"
"He's not so bad off, but we've definitely got him restrained. Four points. Leather restraints, too. Unless he's Houdini, he ain't gettin' outta that so easy."
"Hm. What's this?" The doctor was looking at the X-rays. "This can't be right. It looks like his heart's off center…take another X-ray. Any other victims?"
"No, sir. The rest of 'em are still scared half out of their minds, but they're alive. Thanks to this guy, evidently."
Whatever, thought the doctor. Right then, that didn't concern him all that much. "Blood type? I'm sure he'll need a transfusion…he's bleeding all over the place." And he was. The Joker's blade had narrowly missed Ragnar's heart. "Get some type O down here, until we can determine his specific type."
The doctors worked feverishly to stem to bleeding. They couldn't get his uniform off of him, and the strange golden ring on his finger couldn't even be scratched. But they were able to get a line into a major vein in his arm, and began pumping unit after unit into his unconscious form….
"Doctor, we're losing him."
The doctor ground his teeth. "No, we're not." To the quiescent form on the gurney, "Don't you dare die on me, hero. Not in my ER." To the nurse, "Set him up with an IV, fluids, stat. Ready a defib, just in case" He paused a moment, noting Ragnar's deep blue skin. "And, uh, as soon as you can… give the Justice League a call. This guy's more in their field than ours. He might have needs we don't know about."
"Doctor, his vitals are dropping."
"Dammit. Where's those new X-rays?"
Ragnar drifted in a kind of limbo. He didn't hurt, and he felt warm and comfortable. Strangely, he felt completely unafraid, for perhaps the first time in his life. Some part of him knew he was dying, but he really couldn't bring himself to care. He'd tried his best to do what he thought was right, and he really had no regrets. He wished he could see his friend Sarah one more time…and while he was at it, maybe the green girl. Maybe she hadn't been so bad after all. And even if she had been, she was the only person he'd ever met (besides Sarah, of course) with whom he'd actually talked.
And, yes, she was, what was the expression? Pretty? Yes, he guessed she was pretty. No matter what her true form was—and somewhere in the back of his mind, he had some general idea as to what her true form looked like, but it really didn't matter to him; she was still pretty. He'd never really thought about that, about anybody, before. Not that any of that mattered, of course. Stars were pretty, but he knew better than to get too close to one.
But he remembered their conversation, the way she twirled her hair…
He remembered eating his meal, those cheeseburgers, with Sarah, there in that brightly lit establishment that sold food. That had been a nice time. Odd that she hadn't eaten anything, but he supposed one only ate when one was hungry. Yes, that made sense.
All of a sudden, it seemed like he was back at that restaurant, and Sarah was sitting across the table from him. There was a peculiar intensity to the way she was looking at him. "Mr. Ragnar! Mr. Ragnar! You've got to snap out of it! You're dying! You don't want to die, do you?"
Somehow, he found himself replying without using words. Maybe just as well. At least I won't be alone anymore.
"But you don't understand! There's something you've got to do, something only you can do! If you don't, lots of people are gonna die! C'mon! Come on back to us! Come on back to me!"
But what? What can I do? I don't even know what I'm supposed to do, anymore!
In his mind, he could feel her take his hand. "Just trust me, okay? You do trust me, don't you? Trust me now. We need you! I need you! You've got to fight!"
He didn't understand any of this, but if Sarah said she needed him, then she must need him. He'd fight, for her.
The attending doctors and nurses were caught completely off-guard when the still form they were working on coughed, and tried to move, weakly. "Okay, good deal. Maybe…where's that lab? Oh, never mind. Start some type O, stat!"
…..
Ragnar came to, barely, aware that he was lying on some sort of bunk, not totally unlike what he'd had back at home. It was soft, and contoured. But his head ached, and there was a curious sensation on his right arm. Looking down, he saw the IV drip, going into his arm. While he'd never had such a thing before, it wasn't difficult to figure out what it was there for.
He struggled to remember. Oh, yes. The green girl betraying him, when all he wanted to do was talk. His decision to return home, and his desire to say goodbye to his only friend, Sarah. Seeing her outside the school, her telling him about the evil man inside, his fight with that same madman…gradually, it all came back to him.
Consciousness faded…
The two figures in white lab coats walked hand in hand down the hallway. A passing nurse's aide saw them and smiled. Look at them, she thought. They must be newlyweds. Can't bear to be without the other. But as they passed, she was conscious of a foul odor coming from somewhere, and resolved to have somebody from Maintenance check the ventilation system. Something must have crawled in there and died. It wouldn't be the first time.
The two walked confidently up to the nurse's check station, there in the intensive care unit. The taller of them, the man, picked up the chart on the patient in room 7, and began flipping through it. "Who's the nurse on duty for bed 7?"
"I am," replied the charge nurse. "You two must be new. You been assigned to his case?"
The two exchanged the briefest of glances. "Yes. We have some experience with extraterrestrial beings," said the man. The nurse took a moment to look the couple over. The man was tall and slim, with a thick shock of close-cut black hair and black eyes, while the woman with him, also attired in the white lab coat doctors normally wore, had a dark, almost Mediterranean skin tone, and wavy black hair, with one long highlight down the left side. No doubt it was her imagination, but for some reason something about their appearance reminded her of the patient in room 7. But both of them exuded an air of complete competency; clearly this wasn't their first rodeo. The charge nurse noted the man's badge identified him as a "Dr. Osborn." She shook her head. Too many changes. She didn't remember a "Dr. Osborn" as being mentioned on any rotation list, but if he was a specialist, brought in from outside, that information just might not have reached her yet…"He's extraterrestrial? An alien, you mean?"
"Of course. Look at these X-rays." He held them up to the light. "Heart in the wrong position—for a human; that was the only thing that saved his life. As it was, the blade narrowly missed a lung. And look: he's got some odd looking organ right on top of his heart, and, in case you hadn't noticed, he doesn't even have an appendix. Instead, he's got this." He pointed to a strange looking organ just above what appeared to be the kidneys. "I've seen this sort of thing before: different evolutionary patterns produce similar but not identical results. He comes from some other planet, where the people evolved differently, that's all. Fortunately, for him, not wildly different, or he'd be in serious trouble. But as it is, just enough to require special attention." He smiled at the charge nurse, who was studying the X-rays. "As I said, I've some experience with these cases." He glanced at his wife, who smiled back up at him. "We both do. Now. "Suddenly, he became business-like. "We'll need about 10cc's of norepinephrene, to start with. The important thing is to keep his blood pressure stable, and watch for any sign of infection. You got any recent lab on him? No? Let's get some…we need to know if he's allergic to our standard antibiotics. Make that a priority; he might not have any immunity to some bugs we don't even think twice about. That's never a given, with ET's. And while we're at it, get me some morphine, just in case. I'll write the orders and see to it that they go in the chart."
"Yes, sir." Off she went.
The tall figure in white turned to look at the other one, and took her hand in his. "Ssoon, my love. Ssoon."
"Let it be soon, my dearest. I long to hold our boy in my arms, again."
To be continued…
