SEP/OCT Origins

[Vylaa]

((Stardate 237511.23))

Nothingness, and then…

HISS!

The pod door opened and the boy opened his eyes, squinting at the light. It was a strange place. Bright lights were everywhere, even on the walls, but those were multi-colored and blinking.

“My god, he’s alive!”

The boy turned his head stiffly to see who had spoken. His vision was blurry; all he could make out was that it was a man wearing a blue and grey shirt.

“Where am I?” he thought to himself. “Who am I?”

He put out his hand, and unknown hands grasped it, pulling. The boy allowed himself to be led out of his cold pod into the warm room. He could see now there were other people there. He thought it odd that they were all wearing the same blue and grey.

“Easy son,” he man said. “It’s always a shock when you wake up from stasis.”

The boy just stared. “What’s stasis?” he thought.

“I’m Dr. Stevens. What’s your name?” the strange man asked.

“I’m, I’m… I don’t know.” The boy said.

The man was holding a strange box in front of the boy. It was blinking and making beeping noises. The boy wonder what it was for. The man helped him over to a bed and had him lie down. He kept moving the box over his body and muttering to himself.

((Later that day))

The doctor was sitting in his office with his commander, Captain Farrell.

“The boy John Doe has no memories. He knows how to talk, walk, eat… But when you ask him who he was or where he came from, he has no idea,” the doctor said.

Captain Farrell looked out the office window into Sickbay.

“Could he be faking? Lying?”

“No, I did a deep brain scan while asking him about his past. There was no activity indicating deception, nor memory node activity. He’s a blank slate, for lack of a better term.”

The captain sighs in frustration.

“I guess the next step is to find a place for him. We’ll set a course for the nearest starbase, but that’s two weeks away.”

He looks again out the window. The boy was gone.

“Where the hell did he go!?”

Unbeknownst to either man, the boy had snuck out the door. He was now running down the corridor, blindly running into people. Tears ran down his cheeks. He had no idea where he was going, all he knew was that anywhere was better than that place they called “Sickbay.” He was so confused. He didn’t know what was going on, and no one was telling him anything. He found an open hatch low in the wall and crawled in. It was a small cramped space with lots of tubes and more of those blinking lights. The tubes glowed and gave off heat.

Lieutenant Commander Alfons Vess was coming off shift and was on his way to get some food. The New Caledonians job as Chief Helmsman was challenging, and he loved it, but like most days, he felt a strange feeling of incompleteness. Sobbing noises lead him to an open access hatch. Getting down low to look inside, he sees a crying boy of about 10 years of age.

“Hey, laddie! Get outta there! That’s no place for wee kiddies to be playin’!” His voice, thick with a Scottish accent, sounded gruff.

The boy crawls out of the hole. He’s covered in dust from the hole he had been hiding in. He wipes the tears from his eyes, streaking the dust down his cheeks. He peered up at the man wearing red.

“Are you taking me back?”

Alfons looks quizzically at the tall boy.

“Back? Back where?”

“They called it Sickbay,” the boy replied, “but I don’t… I don’t know who I am!” Another tear escapes his eye. Alfons suddenly knew who the boy was. He had been on the bridge when the away team had reported finding an occupied stasis pod on the ancient abandoned station. This must be the boy from the pod.

“Easy, laddie. Ah’m not gonna take yeh back ‘til yer ready.” The boy was shaking quite violently. Alfons realized he needed to calm him down. “My names Alfons. Ah was just about to get a bite t’ eat. Wanna join me?”

The nameless boy nodded his head. He felt like he could trust this man, and a deep rumbling in the pit of his stomach told him he was hungry. Wordlessly, he followed Alfons, who lead him into a strange room. There were tables and chairs everywhere, many of which were occupied. Alfons lead him over to a small box stuck into the wall. He turned to the boy.

“What would yeh like t’ eat?”

The boy just stared for a moment.

“I don’t know.”

“Well, what’re yer favorite foods?”

“I don’t know.” The boy wasn’t being snotty, he really didn’t know. He couldn’t even name something edible, that much of his memory was gone.

Realizing he wasn’t getting anywhere, Alfons speaks to the replicator.

“Macaroni an’ Cheese an’ apple juice.”

The boy literally jumped back from what he saw. Shimmering lights were followed suddenly by food appearing from no where. It smelled good. Alfons hands it to him then makes his own order. With food in hand he leads the boy to a table. He picks up a fork and begins eating. After a bit of a pause, the boy follows suit.

“So.... Ah’m guessing this is all kinda scary to yeh.”

The boy looked up from the fork halfway to his mouth. For the first time all day, someone was asking him something he could answer.

“Yes! I have no idea what’s going on! Everyone keeps asking me who I am, where I come from, what I was doing on that station! I can’t take it! I just don’t know!” He was breathing heavily, and the blood was pounding in his ears. Without realizing it, he had been waiting all day to say those words.

Alfons said nothing, merely chewing his food. He sensed deep down that this was what the mystery boy needed, and he let him talk.

“I wish I could tell them. I really do. But I can’t. I dig deep down inside myself, looking for the answers. But their not there! Just blackness…”

He quiets down, spent. In silence the two finish their meal, then Alfons takes the boy back to Sickbay. Unbeknownst to either of them the Sickbay staff had been scrambling, searching for the boy. For some reason they never thought to check the mess hall…

((One week later))

The week passed as the ship, the USS Rodimus, traveled to a nearby starbase, and slowly the boy called John Doe was becoming more comfortable with his new surroundings. A major factor was the kindness and friendship of Alfons Vess. He had taken it upon himself to work with the boy. He ate meals with him, and taught him about the Federation and Starfleet. He had even begun to teach him to read and write Federation standard, as well as Gaelic, the primary language of his homeworld New Caledonia. He even took the boy to the holodeck, laughing cheerfully at the boys wonder as he showed him different locations from around the Federation. Thinking back to when he met the boy, he suddenly realized what the feeling of incompleteness was about, and went to speak with Captain Farrell.

The nurse brought John Doe to the conference room. There were only two occupants, the captain and Alfons. Captain Farrell smiles.

“Have a seat son.”

John complied and took a seat next to Alfons. There was an awkward silence. The captain is the first to speak.

“John, we asked you here because we have to make a choice. You need a home. We’re on our way to a starbase, where we can transfer you to an orphanage.”

John was terrified. He didn’t want to go there. He was just starting to make friends here, and now he would have to go somewhere else. Alfons cleared his throat.

“There’s one more option, laddie. Ah care about yeh like a son, and Ah want yeh t’ prosper.” He falls silent for a moment. “Ah want yeh t’ stay here, and be my son.”

The boy looks from Alfons to the captain, wondering if it was some sort of trick. The captain nods.

“Yes! Yes, I’ll stay!”

The broadest smile breaks across Alfonses face. He had been so nervous about what the boy would say, and was truly happy that the boy would stay and be his son.

“That’s wonderful laddie. But… we canna call yeh John Doe the rest o’ yer life,” he things long and hard for a moment. “Yeh know, Ah’ve always been partial t’ the name Alucard. What’ya say?”

The boy smiles widely. “I like it,” he says.

And he did. He didn’t know who he really was, or where he came from. But the future no longer looked scary to Alucard, because now he had a father who would guide him through the unknown.