CE 74
Sarik pulled the heavy sled forward, nearly exhausted to his limits. Despite the fact that he had dumped most of his equipment back at the lake, Sarik still had to pull Stella, in addition to some of the more necessary or antique pieces of equipment that he was unwilling to part with. For fourteen hours straight, the boy had forced himself forward through the dark and battering snow. His only breaks were to get sips of water, inject himself with powerful stimulants so that he could continue onward, and to occasionally sedate Stella when she began to grow restless.
By now, Sarik knew that he was not far from his home. He had just passed through the stone arch that marked the off-road entrance to his family's summer estate. That was located at the fence line. He knew he had only another mile or two before he reached the house itself.
With a grim attempt at enthusiasm, Sarik started to take another step forward, just to fall face first into the snow. When he finally came to a rest, he found it nearly impossible to move. Eventually, though, he motivated himself enough to get going, as it was the latest time of night, and hypothermia was an imminent danger. Crawling through the snow, Sarik propped himself on the sled and ripped open his medical kit.
Inside, all of his stimulants had run dry. Sarik had intentionally measured them so he would not be able to kill himself easily through overdose, accidental or otherwise. All that he had left was a small amount of pure adrenaline. He pulled out a sterile hypodermical and the bottle of adrenaline, then emptied the substance that remained, just barely filling the needle to the minimally safe amount of adrenaline.
After unzipping his coat and dry suit, Sarik stabbed the needle directly into his heart and injected the substance, providing him with a burst of power that he had only felt a few times in his life. After returning everything to its rightful place, Sarik pressed on, practically running through the snow.
Twenty minutes later, the young man was almost there. Sarik could see the automated lights located at the back end of the house flicker on. He blazed through the snow, literally running, the sled now only a mere inconvenience.
There.
He finally made it. Before him stood a relatively humble two story, four bedroom house. Most of his few good memories were from the summers that he spent here as a young child, at least before he had been taken by Blue Cosmos. Thanks to them, he didn't remember much from back then.
After taking a moment to catch his breath, Sarik walked beside the sled and felt Stella's neck for a pulse. It was there, and it was surprisingly steady. Wasting no time, he ran to the nearest door and unlocked it. Sarik had to force it open, as the hinges had frozen over during his week away. One good kick, however, and he was through.
Sarik ran back to the sled and delicately scooped Stella into his arms, who was still wrapped in the emergency blanket. He quickly carried her inside, where the air was still cool due to the fact that the power was turned off. Sarik set her on the couch in the front room, then ran down into the basement to turn on the house's power.
On his way back to the front room, Sarik glanced at the old fashioned grandfather clock that loomed in the foyer. It was nearly two in the morning.
After checking Stella's condition once more, Sarik left the front room and stumbled up the house's stairs, growing weaker as the adrenaline wore off. He walked down the short hallway to one of the bedrooms, one that he had not been inside of in a long time.
Sarik's mood was that of reverence as he entered into his late mother's room. Everything was exactly the way she had left it years before. The drawer left so slightly cracked open on her vanity, the small family portrait taped to her mirror, the bed sheets lain out perfectly.
Sarik strolled over to the closet and slid the door open. Inside, his late mother's belongings were stacked neatly on the many shelves that made up the space. Sarik removed a heavy blanket and a robe, which he lay out on the bed neatly.
Satisfied, Sarik returned downstairs and checked on Stella's condition. Her pulse was a little relaxed, but Sarik figured it was from the cold. Her breathing was still normal, but her sickly pale skin remained cold to the touch. He knew hypothermia was setting in. That had to be dealt with quickly. Sarik completely unwrapped her from the emergency blanket, the internal material soaked with moisture. After ensuring that he had a good grip on her, the Extended carried Stella up the stairs, a somewhat difficult feat now that the adrenaline had almost completely worn off.
As he arrived at his mother's room, Sarik was panting. As quickly as he could, he set Stella down onto the large bed. After taking a moment to catch his breath, he proceeded to remove the remains of Stella's soaked flight suit. Carefully cutting away at it with his knife, Stella was soon laying on the bed in nothing but the light clothing under her suit. This, too, was soaking wet.
Preserving her chastity as much as possible, Sarik changed Stella out of her clothes and into his mother's robe, irrationally embarrassed at himself. As he was changing her, he noticed she had an almost unnoticeable scar immediately above her stomach. There was no mistake about it. This was the girl he was searching for. A lifetime of debt could finally be paid.
After wrapping Stella in the fresh blanket, he proceeded down the stairs, through the front room, and into a office branching off of it. Sarik sat himself down into his father's large leather chair and proceeded to activate the comm unit.
He waved his hand over the desk and a single, paper-thin screen extended up out of it, a feature that was common in computers these days. On top of it sat a small, almost unnoticeable camera, rotating to keep its attention of Sarik's face.
"Call headquarters," Sarik ordered the computer. "Channel Sierra Sierra India niner zero two niner, level zero Encrypted. Direct to Doctor Walters."
"One moment please," a monotone woman's voice replied.
Sarik waited all but two minutes before a middle-aged man with shaggy blond hair appeared on the screen before him.
"Well, if it isn't the President," he remarked. "How's your hunting going, kid? We haven't heard from you in a week. Some of us were getting a little worried."
"I haven't been back in a week," Sarik replied emotionlessly.
"And you look it, too. Didn't take a razor?"
"I did, but you don't find much hot water in the Eurasian countryside mid-winter," Sarik informed bluntly.
"Understandable. So, whatcha needing?"
"I need someone with some medical know-how," Sarik told him.
"Run into a wolf?" Walters asked.
"No. I dove into a frozen lake."
"Ha ha, good one," Walters remarked sarcastically.
Sarik simply continued to stare, his facial expressions unchanging.
"You actually did it?!" the doctor exclaimed. "Don't tell me you went through with another one of your crazy dreams!"
"The girl was there," Sarik informed.
"It still doesn't justify...oh," the doctor started. "Are you sure she's the same one?"
"Yes," Sarik replied. "She has the scars that I gave her, among other things I would recognize. You can test her genetically when we get back, if it would comfort you."
"You know that she may not remember you? We just received that intelligence you wanted from Lodonia via our informant on the Minerva. It shows that Blue Cosmos's Extendeds may have had a few complete and dozens of selective memory wipes throughout their lives."
"I know," Sarik assured Walters. "I'm still recovering from the ones I received, as you already know."
"How is that going?" Walters asked in a concerned tone.
"It's getting a little better every day, but I still don't have it all back. Traveling out here is like de ja vu."
"I'm sorry there wasn't more we could do."
"What you did for me has been more than enough," Sarik assured him.
"No, it wasn't," Walters replied. "They had no right to impose such a thing upon a child, especially something so damaging. What I did was very little to repair the total damage."
"It's fine, doctor," Sarik said adamantly. "But it's time you help another in need."
"Alright. Do you still have that medical equipment?"
"Yes," Sarik replied.
"You know, I think that you may be getting a little paranoid," the doctor remarked jokingly.
"Order a weapons search on my room sometime," Sarik replied humorlessly. "You'll be convinced."
Walters let out a short laugh.
"Sync it up and I'll give the girl a look," he told Sarik, a smile still on his face as he shook his head.
Sarik removed a small device from one of his desk drawers, looking similar to an over-sized personal digital assistant. On it was a small camera, like that on his computer, and a small screen. Sarik waved his hand over the office computer, causing the screen to lower. Soon after, Walter's face appeared on the comm device.
"You know that Sarah's been worried about you, right?" Walters told him as he walked up the stairs.
"She always has," Sarik replied. "Let her know what's going on, if it'll make you feel better."
"I'll more or less have to once she finds out about this transmission," the doctor told Sarik. "Being your second in the corporation and everything...and my wife."
Sarik mentally smiled at how that relationship came about. If it wasn't for him, it was likely the two never would have met. Walters would be just another doctor in Eurasia, and Sarah would still be working for Blue Cosmos. However, Sarik thought they turned out to be perfect for each other, despite his initial objections in his youthful ignorance. A teacher paired with a doctor. Who could have guessed how good a match they would eventually turn out to be? At least one good thing came as a result of him.
Sarik moved into the top floor's main bathroom and opened the overly-furnished closet. Setting on the floor inside was a large case that weighed altogether about thirty kilograms. Sarik hauled it silently into his mother's room and began unpacking the contents. First, he set up a small transmitter in the closet so that he could send the equipment's readings all the way to SSI headquarters via the house's communications array. After that, he attached an electronic stethoscope to Stella's finger in order to keep constant readings on her condition. Then a thermometer, an IV, and even a basic brainwave scanner for kicks. After he was done, Sarik pulled out a small hand-held device that also looked like a PDA, accepting much smaller this time.
"You gonna scan her or what?" the doctor asked impatiently through the comm speakers.
The device contained a miniature X-ray machine and a limited MRI within, though any readings from it wouldn't be nearly as detailed as he could get out of its full-sized cousins.
"Starting with her head," Sarik reported after syncing the device.
He held the scanner half a meter above Stella's head, then slowly moved it over the other parts of her body. When he was done, a small map of Stella's internals was presented on the scanner.
"My God, what did you do to her?" Walters asked in astonishment.
"I gave her a triple dose of general anesthetics to keep her from killing me," Sarik replied in an slightly defensive tone. "What's wrong?"
"I don't know where to start," the doctor began in a rant. "Major concussion, skeletal damage, heavy bruising to her internal organs...she should be dead! Three times over!"
"She was," Sarik replied darkly.
"And you revived her on your own?"
"Yes," Sarik informed.
There was a moment of dark silence.
"Amazing," the doctor remarked. "But she would have to go through a maintenance process far more advanced than yours, if the Lodonia intel was correct."
"Four times more advanced," Sarik replied.
"What?" Walters asked, puzzled.
"It took four times the dose of the drug you developed to permanently revive her," Sarik answered.
"You could have killed her!" the older man exclaimed. "Your drugs, the triple dosage of anesthetics...Why the hell did you put her into anesthesia anyway? You know how dangerous it is to put someone with organ damage under anesthesia."
"I was unaware of her overall condition," Sarik responded calmly.
Sarik could hear Walters sigh.
"Well, you did good. Just don't knock her out anymore. Keep a mild sedative pumping, nothing too strong. She's in a lot of pain, even while unconscious, but the sooner she wakes up, the better."
"How soon can you have a medical evac out here?" Sarik asked.
"No earlier than twenty-four hours. We'll have to send one of our airborne carriers from the home base. Berlin HQ was destroyed with the city."
"Berlin is gone?!" Sarik exclaimed quietly.
"Most of it. And most of the entire population."
"Do we need to take shelter?!" Sarik asked, fearing some sort of nuclear attack.
"No. The weapon was purely conventional."
"How?" Sarik inquired.
Sarik heard something opening and voices in the background.
"We'll discuss everything when you arrive," Walters told him. "And I'll get that medivac moving right away."
"Send a military escort, too," Sarik told him. "I've got a sick feeling in my gut."
"Will do," the doctor complied.
"And please keep on eye on Stella," Sarik asked Walters. "Give me a call if her condition changes. I truly need to sleep."
"Okay," the doctor complied again, his tone indicating slight annoyance.
"Who was that?" Sarik could make out from one of the voices.
"Sarah, we need to talk," Sarik heard Walters say before signing off.
Sarik sighed, mostly at himself and his stupidity. Again, he had gone about making irrational decisions that could have endangered other's lives.
After his moment of moping, Sarik glanced at his watch. Nearly three in the morning. He had to get some sleep.
Sarik strolled down the hallway and into his room, which was literally memory lane for him. Stored here were his belongings from all stages of his life, ranging from children's toys to aircraft models to ancient weapon replicas.
After he took a moment to look around, Sarik changed out of his clothes and dressed in a robe, then strolled down the hallway into the bathroom. Ten minutes later, he was cleaned and shaven from the week's trek.
After slipping into a clean set of comfortable clothes, Sarik strolled back downstairs and went about putting everything away, albeit the fast and sloppy way. He placed the sled back into the shed, replaced the rifle back into its storage case in the utility room, not bothering to disassemble it, and refilled his med kit, which he also left in the utility room.
After ensuring the security systems were on, his defenses in place, and all of the doors and windows locked, Sarik lay down on his couch and quickly fell into a deep and much needed sleep.