Survival
Roma was standing outside the light of the Crystal Palace looking at the sky and star up there, each and everyone representing a reality. Merlyn walked up from behind and put a hand on his daughter's shoulder.
"It's so many of them." Her voice was strong and clear.
"I know."
"Sometimes I can feel the weight of the worlds on my shoulders. In a way we are responsible for all of those worlds. To keep them whole and balanced."
"It is not the only thing we do."
"No, it's not. We manipulate them to serve our purpose. And then I doubt what we're trying to achieve."
"You shouldn't doubt. I have everything under control."
"The new arrives. You even control them? I know that I could control the man, but the woman..."
"She truly is an enigma."
Roma nodded. "I think that she has the potential to be all knowing. The all knowing."
"It is possible. But right now this is not the place for them to be. They may not be a threat to my goals, but you have became a liability. Your purpose is spent." He lifted his right hand in which a sword lay. "I am truly sorry Roma, but this is the way things must be."
~o~
Roma stumbled out on the balcony where Tessa was looking out over the Omniverse. She was bleeding heavily from a large stab wound that had pierced her body. It was a miracle that the woman still was alive. The sound of someone approaching had made Tessa turn around and the sight of Roma, who by any human standards were to be considered a goddess, fatally hurt cased a rare show of shock on the normally cold womans face.
Roma's bloody fingers took a tight grip around Tessa's face and held it with strength that seamed super human. Both women's eyes began to glow with Roma's power.
"My knowledge must not be lost." She hasped out before they collapsed in a heap.
~o~
Dr. Brown, known as Mike to most people was standing outside his lodging in the outskirts of McMurdo Station, Antarctica. He was having a smoke, a bad habit, but the times he had tried to quit it he always had failed and in Antarctica he appreciated the semi warmth it gave him. He was at the biggest of America's research centers on this frozen continent, heck, it was the biggest "city" on the godforsaken place. McMurdo housed around a 1000 people in the so called summer and fewer than 200 during the winter. Mike was a climatologist and he was damn lucky that he only had to stay there during a couple of months.
Now it was in the middle of the summer, the temperature average lay a few degrees below freezing in January. After the winter when the sun never rose above the horizon, summer was very different. The sun never went down. Extreme conditions had never been something Mike liked. For him it was the return home that he longed for the most. Just two more weeks.
Mike was in his late fifties, his hair had turned withe early, but at least it wasn't thinning to much. Once he had been married, now he wasn't. They had thought that they could deal with his long absences but in the end Marissa had broken up with him. They had a son and after Marissa's remarried she had gotten two more. All of them was adults, except her youngest one that still was in high school. They knew Mike well and saw him almost as a uncle. He had liked that. He liked most things, cold and snow being part of the few things he didn't like. Grandkids was something he very much wanted even if it probably would take a few more years.
He had a sunny nature that also made him very hard to shock, but when he saw made him gasp and drop his cigarette. Towards him walked a large man that carried a smaller figure. Both appeared to be smeared in blood.
"Help..."
Mike could barely hear the man's voice, it was hoarse and sounded as if he had very little energy left.
"Help us..."
It was first then that Mike reacted for real. He ran up to them. When he came closer he saw that neither of them was dressed for Antarctica, both wearing summer clothing.
"You have to get into the warmth. You could freeze to death. Come on, let's get you inside." Mike leaded them to the cabin where he lived, it was the closest one.
"Wait in here, I'll be back with some med personal." Mick walked out the door and started running towards the infirmary as soon as it had closed behind him.
~o~
The medical attention available at McMurdo was not the best. It was equipped mostly for the basics, broken bones, sprains, not to serious wounds, minor heart problems and for the medication, both prescribed and not. And for hypothermia. Crises was thankfully rare and something similar to this had never happened.
When the medics arrived to the cabin the personal didn't really know what to expect, but they prepared for the worst.
In there the man sat on a chair and the woman he had carried lay on the bed. There was blood on both, but it was most on the woman. The strange thing was that it didn't seam like they had any kind of physical injury. The man clearly had hypothermia. He was shivering and pale. Perhaps in stage two, Dr Janet Frasier observed. The woman on the other hand was dead pale, her lips blue and she was unconscious. Her hand was held by the man and he kept talking to her.
"Don't die on me now. Don't you dare die. Come on Tessa. Don't die."
They moved right in with the standard procedure for treating hypothermia patients. After checking the girls pulse they connected an I-V filled with slightly warmed liquid to her arm. She was still alive, but barely. The doctor in charge, Janet Frasier, was afraid that she had passed the line where it would be possible to save her. They didn't dare moving them to the infirmary yet, moving them would mean exposing them to the cold of Antarctica once again. An other I-V was put into the man's arm. He was obliging and didn't work against them, something Frasier was thankful for.
There wasn't so much more that could be done for them, only time would tell if the woman would make it. That was one of the things Frasier hated about being a doctor. To have done everything there was to do in means of trying to save a patient and still not knowing. The wait was nerve wreaking. She seated her self on one of the other chairs and looked at the man. He meet her eyes.
"Will she survive?"
"At this point I don't know. We have done everything possible to do that would not endanger her more."
"Why no heated blankets? You gave me one."
"If she is warmed up to quickly she could suffer from arrhythmias, irregular heartbeat, which could kill her."
"Tessa will make it. She's tough."
"Tessa, that her name?"
"Yes."
"I'm Janet Frasier. Could you tell me who you are?"
"Sebastian Shaw."
"Do you know where you are?"
"No..."
"You are at McMurdo Station, Antarctica. You are sure that you don't have any memories of how you got here?"
"Antarctica? How the hell did I get here?"
"We don't know. I were hoping that you could tell us." Frasier said patiently.
"I really don't know. The last thing I remember before being here is Tessa entering my office."
"Tell me about her. About Tessa. Is she your daughter?"
"No, but I wish she were. In a way I've been a better father to her than I have been to my own son."
"How did you meet?"
"Some high school students had a field trip and was visiting my company. They got to meet me and I wanted to see if any of them could have a future working for me. I asked them about some things on the stock market. Most just stood there looking like question marks, but she answered. And nailed it. Even better than my employees. I asked if she would wanted a job there after she graduated and she did. When she started working I mentored her and it didn't take long before she was my personal aide. Not the kind that brings coffee and such, but the kind that helps me with decisions, one that I truly can trust. More than one time she have saved me from making bad choices. She usually knows everything."
"Does she have a last name?"
"Niles. Tessa Niles."
"And you are Sebastian Shaw. The billionaire?"
"Yes. And is this some kind of interrogation?"
"Not really. But to know as much about you can only benefit us."
"Shouldn't you check on Tessa to see if she is getting better?"
"I probably should." The conversation was over. Frasier knew that she had been dismissed.
~o~
When the morning came Shaw had recovered and Tessa had gotten some more color to her skin. During the night Frasier had executed lavage on her with some successes, although she still had to retain consciousness. They where moved to the infirmary for observation. Once again Frasier wished that she had some more advanced equipment. If she had that she could have run a full diagnostic on Tessa, she was afraid that the girl was in a coma. Even if that was the case or not she needed to come to a real hospital. So when the next flight left McMurdo both Shaw and Tessa was on it.
~o~
At the Christchurch Hospital in the city with the same name, located on New Zealand a nurse stopped Dr William Lee.
"We've got a patient coming in from McMurdo Station."
The doctor raised an eyebrow, it was rare to get patients from McMurdo.
"What do we know this far?"
"Female, late twenties, recovered from severe hypothermia, unconscious and non responsive. Probably in coma, but has no problem breathing on her own."
"Okey, when is she coming in?"
"The plane is landing with in fifteen minutes and there will be an ambulance there to meet up. We need to be standing by to take care of her when she arrives."
~o~
Tessa continued to baffle all the doctors that came in contact with her. There was no explanation to why she was in a coma and when they measure her brain activity they were all shocked. They were expecting the EEG to show a frequency somewhere between eight to twelve Hz, which is what most coma patients have, but the readings they got from Tessa were not like anything they had ever seen before.
Her brain activity was thorough the roof, far higher than the EEG of a normal person. Her results were sent to the American EEG Association in hops of them having some answers. They had none. The only thing that they could do was to wait and see if Tessa would eventually wake up.
After a week of constantly watching over Tessa, Shaw went back to New York. He had put the business on hold for far to long.
____________________________________________________________________
Author's Note: So here is the latest chapter of my little story, a chapter I ending with a cliffhanger. Next week you will be able to read the continuation, if it contains any answers you will get to see then. Aaa, the suspense. Pleas leave a review so I get to know what you think. And my description of the McMurdo Station is most likely not so accurate, I took a few libertys when describing it. But I'm pretty sure I got the climate right. Dr Janet Fraiser is borrowed from the Sci-Fi series Stargate SG:1, so she ain't mine.