Through a Board Director's Eyes: A tale beyond the RDNA-verse.
Or, a snapshot from within the Agency.
Chapter 2 - A Danubian End
15 years ago...
Logan reappeared back in the Portal Terminal from the ruined world. Exhausted and worn down, he stumbled out of the portal-platform and into the stunned operators and onlookers, the rest of his "undertaker" expedition following suit. But exhausted as he was, it did not deter his urgent desperation. The young boy in his arms was at the brink of death. Nein, not on my watch!
"He needs emergency medical treatment now!" he cried out in German. "Bitte, can anyone get me a damn doctor?!"
He only just rescued this boy, the only living survivor left in that dead world, moments ago. As the unconscious figure was teleported away to the Medical Centre, the senior operative was forced to go through the decontamination process, all to make sure that he was not affected by the harmful radiation or God knew what else that poisoned the kid's homeworld. But for the senior Agent, each passing second felt excruciatingly long. I could still see those rotting...Verdammt, can't this get any slower?!
The moment the safety checks were completed, he wasted no time and briskly rushed towards the Medical Centre. Only to be stopped by an old friend.
"Logan!" A firm feminine voice with a British accent called out to the Austrian. "There's a huge commotion among the medics with that stowaway of yours!"
Her turned and saw Catherine Kimberly, a long-time friend and former partner, donning the senior medical officer's uniform of the Agency's Medical department.
"I'll explain on the way," he quickly said in his heavy accented English while she followed suit. "Do you know where the kid is?"
"The boy? He's being put in the stasis bed pods, I've heard. Poor soul's near dying from severe radiation. Can you explain to me what the blazes is going on?"
She led him through the complex maze of hallways of the huge Medical Centre complex. It was essentially its own micro-community of medical staff, health workers and their patients in its own district. But even here, he could still smell the dust and decay of the world he had just come from. Much like how my old home turned out...Schiesse, focus!
"What else do you need to know?!" he snapped. "That kid's the only one left alive from that hellhole!"
The medical officer gasped in shock. "I-Impossible! Readings said the bloody world was devoid of life!"
I've got no time for this. "Then we might need to get our equipment checked," Logan grunted. "Why else did I go back to that world in the first place?!"
Exiting through the elevator doors, Catherine led the weary veteran operative through the busy, recognizably familiar corridors of the Intensive Care Unit. Throngs of medical staff were on duty, not all of which human. Soon enough they made their way through a quieter hallway towards the life-saving stasis pods, stabilisers especially for patients with life-threatening illnesses.
The pair entered into one such room before long, in the middle of which was a large glass bed chamber. Hard to believe how simple that stasis pod looks. And laying inside it was the young boy Logan rescued, asleep with a mask over his mouth and monitors keeping track of his heartbeat and brain activity. His tattered clothes were removed to reveal a nigh-skeletal broken body with scars and burns that horribly plagued his skin. They could almost see his heart beating against his chest.
Logan cringed as he and Catherine approached the pod. "I should have come sooner."
Catherine frowned sympathetically as she lent a comforting hand over her old friend's shoulder, or at least tried to. "It'll be a while before he is cured of radiation sickness and his health stabilises, Logan. I could only imagine what the young lad had to go through."
"You don't have to. I was in the damn thick of it! It's dejavu all over again!"
"Please," she sighed. "Don't punch yourself over it. You did what you could."
Logan frowned. "I saw his parents, Catherine." Closing his eyes, the Agent took a deep breathh. "There was next to nothing left of them."
There was a long standing silence as she let her arm over her former partner's shoulder to comfort him. "Think of it like this, love. At least you were there to save the boy. No doubt his mum and dad would have appreciated it, whoever they were."
"J-Ja. Whoever they were." Yet that kept gnawing at him.