And This Is His Story 1
By Zappy Zaps
Thank you to Brigid Johnson for beta
reading this story
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Characters, Thomas
Paris, Chakotay, Harry Kim are not mine. I don’t get any money for
this blah blah blah…yada yada yada…you know the rest.
Part 1: Future Encounters
“Ow!”
“Stop moving.”
“Why don’t you just use the
regenerator?”
“Because we can’t waste the
power on little cuts,” the older man said to the ten year old in front
of him. This cut was not little though. The large gash on the
right side of his forehead was bleeding profusely. “How did you manage
to get this, anyway?”
“You try get the Captain out
of a bar after he’s been drinking,” the child scoffed. He reached
up and touched the right side of his forehead. The stinging sensation
when his fingers touched the gash caused him to hiss in pain and pull his
hand quickly away. He had been sent to the surface to search the
local bars when their designated time of departure had arrived with no
captain to be found.
“Thomas, don’t touch.
You’re just going to infect it,” the man said. “What did you do,
walk into a broken bottle?”
“Let’s just say, next time
I should watch where he’s swinging the broken bottle,” the young boy explained.
Murphy put a bandage over the gash.
“Finished. Clean yourself
up and get some rest.”
“Thanks, Murphy,” Thomas said
quietly as he touched the bandage on his forehead. Murphy was the
ship’s engineer and, unofficially, the ship’s medic. He was human,
with ebony skin and out of all the members of the crew only Murphy and
one other looked out for the young boy. Thomas quickly wiped off the blood
off his face and left for his quarters.
Walking to his quarters he
didn’t meet any of the other team members but he didn’t find that odd.
It was a pretty big ship with only six people kept it running. Five
years ago only five people ran it but then Thomas had joined the group
and became the sixth member.
Since then they had been training
Thomas as one of them; a thief, a conman, escape artist, and given him
training in demolition, weapons, self-defense and the list of less than
appropriate activities for a ten year old goes on. They were not
an easy bunch to live with and if Thomas weren’t so good at what he did,
he probably would not have made it this far. Despite his age Thomas
was very independent. He had to be. There was no one here to
take care of him. When he was younger the crew helped out in his
care more often but now of himself.
“Thomas,” a female voice called
him. The boy turned around and saw Takara coming towards him and
smiled. She was the other person that had taken care of him when
he first came aboard, and to some extent she still did. “Have you started
on the exercises that I gave you?” she asked. Her slender dark brown
eyes, evidence of her Japanese heritage, looked down into his.
Thomas nodded and said “I’ve
finished them,”
“Already? I only gave
them to you this morning.” Takara had given him some math and science
problems to work through since he wasn’t going to school but needed to
know the basics so that he could learn about warp engines and other things.
One day he might be helping Murphy with repairs; he was already flying
for them, who knows what else he could be capable of.
“What else am I supposed to
do?” Thomas shrugged. There wasn’t much for a child to do on this
ship. They had a holodeck but it was only used for training.
Thomas usually spent his free time reading anything and everything.
Whenever they visited a planet or a space station, Thomas would look for
new texts to read and if he was lucky he might find a vid that he could
watch. He had a few but had watched them over so many times, he could recite
each line from memory. Only Takara and occasionally Murphy, would
make sure the material that the boy had found was suitable for somebody
his age.
“True.” Smiling at him,
she pushed an errant strand of black hair from her face and patted him
on the shoulder before continuing on her way. Tom watched her for
a few seconds before he turned to go to his room. He paused and thought
for a moment. It wasn’t that late. Maybe he could go and find
something to do around the ship. From around the corner he heard Takara
yell: “Go to bed!” So much for that idea. He shrugged and went towards
his quarters.
A few weeks later they where
prepping for a mission in the holodeck. The ship was parked on the
dark side of a moon in an uninhabited star system. All six members
of the crew were assembled in the holodeck. They had to prepare carefully
for this mission since they were going into Federation space. Their
objective was just inside the boarder of the Federation but it was a big
tourist spot so they had to be very careful on this mission.
This wasn’t the first time
since Thomas had joined the team that the Federation had something that
they wanted but they never considered trading Thomas, even though doing
so was well within their power. Thomas was more valuable to them
as a partner than he was as bait or in a trade. With his help they
could get what they wanted without giving up anything.
“Myself, Takara and Thomas
will be going in as tourists,” said their captain, Douglas. He was
a muscular man with light brown hair and hard features. Douglas was
half human and half another species from outside of the federation.
Whatever features he had which where not human were not expressed physically;
he looked completely human. He kept the crew in check with threats and
with his fists and that went double for Thomas. For one reason or
another, Douglas despised Thomas and was harsher towards him. “Mec,
I want you and Vaiyer to stay on the ship. Watch out for Starfleet
vessels and monitor our progress.” They nodded. Mec was half-vulcan
and half-betazoid. Out of all of them he was the calm one, rarely
displaying emotions. Mec was short for his given Vulcan name.
It was an odd combination of species in Mec but his personality held a
strange balance of the two. Vaiyer was the other man/woman.
Vaiyer was from a species from outside the Federation whose people did
not have distinguishable sexes. His skin was a light grey and it
was easy to see some blood vessels below the skin. He also had very
small ears and no hair. Vaiyer was a tall and skinny being with an
elongated cranial structure. In personality Vaiyer was much like
Douglas and like Douglas he kept his distance from Thomas. “Murphy
you’re going to be going in with us as back up,” Douglas said and Murphy
nodded. “Here’s the plan…
A few days later Douglas, Takara
and Thomas arrived on the planet. Not too far behind them was Murphy.
They were all dressed in civilian clothes and blended into the crowd of
people. Thomas also wore a black headband that covered the scar on
the right side of his forehead. They where in a large open area like
a small park that was located in the middle of the business section of
the city. This particular park was a big tourist attraction.
Around them were families enjoying the pleasant weather and the scenery.
Takara looked at Thomas.
She could tell the he was excited when he saw other children his age playing.
She could see the longing in his eyes to be playing with them. Thomas
may be an important member of the team and experienced beyond his years
but he was still just a child with the same needs and desires as all children.
Thomas watched the father
of one little boy lift him up and placed him on his shoulders as the child
laughed. Thomas envied the boy; he had a real family that loved him.
Thomas felt a wave of bitter emotions flow over him the last one being
intense sadness as he thought of his family who didn’t want him.
Takara watched the emotions
play over his features before he hid them away. Douglas would only
get mad at him if he saw Thomas acting like a weak child. “Come on,”
Douglas said and they began to move towards their destination at the other
side of the small park. They didn’t notice the dark haired child
sitting on his father’s shoulders watching them go.
In this job as in most, it
was Thomas’ job to go in first and let them in since he could fit in places
that the others could not. They walked the perimeter of the building
until they found a small access hatch. Carefully and inconspicuously
removing it, Thomas crawled in and Douglas replaced the cover. Now
Douglas and Takara only had to wait for Thomas to open the side entrance
where they were waiting.
A few minutes later the side
door opened and Thomas stood there. Douglas didn’t give a word of
commendation to the boy, walking right past him. Takara patted his
shoulder once as she walked in. Thomas smiled and closed the door
silently. He liked Takara and wanted her approval more that anyone’s
even if she was a girl.
The three crept quietly and
carefully through the building. This particular building was storage
for items confiscated by Border Patrol and a storage place for large quantities
of goods waiting for transport. They had a buyer lined up who was
interested in buying one of the items, which had been confiscated when
it was being exported from the Federation by smugglers. They had
to find it, set up pattern enhancers and then leave undetected. When
they were leaving the planet they would beam it up to the ship. The
thick metal of the building prevented them from beaming it up from orbit
but the pattern enhancers would remedy that problem. Quickly they
found what they were looking for while they avoided cameras, security patrols
and took out internal sensors. A few minutes later they emerged from
the side access where they had entered and walked away as if nothing had
happened.
“We’ll meet back here in forty
minutes.” Douglas informed them. He walked away from the other two
to go see Murphy and tell him they had some free time. Thomas began
to walk off but Takara grabbed the back of his shirt collar.
“Where do you think you’re
going?” she asked him.
“To get something new to read
and maybe get some new vids.” Thomas intended to make full use of
this opportunity to get new reading material.
“I’ll come with you.”
Thomas smiled faintly and together they went to explore the shops.
About thirty minutes later
Thomas was sitting on a bench in front of the fountain where some kids
where playing. Thomas was looking through what he had gotten while
Takara did some shopping of her own. One of the children approached.
Thomas looked up from his purchases. In front of him stood a boy
who was a few years younger than him; maybe four or five years old.
Thomas recognized the boy as the same happy child who had been playing
with his father when they had first arrived. Thomas didn’t say anything
so the other boy spoke first.
“Hi, I’m Harry Kim,” the little
boy introduced himself “What’s your name?”
“Thomas.”
“Do you want to play?”
Harry asked, hoping he would soon have another playmate.
“No, thanks,” Thomas answered
politely. The boy was too young to be any fun. Tom went back
to looking at his new possessions. Harry looked at the boy in front
of him for a few seconds before he sat down on the bench next to Thomas.
“Are you here with your parents?”
Harry asked.
“No.”
“I am. I’m on vacation
before I go back to school. Where do you live?” Harry said.
“On a ship.” Thomas
didn’t look up.
“A real starship?” Harry
asked excitedly. He liked travelling on starships. “Wow!”
“Whatever.”
“You don’t like it?” Harry
asked, noticing that Thomas didn’t seem very happy with his current accommodations.
“It’s alright.” Thomas said
neutrally.
“You should be thankful for
what you have.” Harry said, repeating what he had learnt at school.
Thomas looked at Harry and then looked around, seeing what he was missing.
“I have nothing to be thankful
for.” He said solemnly looking down.
“Thomas! Here!
Now!” Douglas yelled. Thomas looked over his shoulder and saw
Douglas with Takara. He could tell by their stance that something
was wrong. Thomas began packing up the PADDs and data chips quickly.
“I have to go,” he told Harry
quickly. Harry watched in confusion as the other boy got up.
“Harry!” Harry and Thomas
looked to the person that had called and saw an older woman who vaguely
resembled Harry. She was smiling and waving for Harry to join her.
Harry started to get off the bench.
“That’s my mom.” Harry
explained. He was going to run over to her immediately when he paused
and looked at Thomas. “You’re luckier that you think,” He said.
Thomas looked thoughtfully at Harry for a second. He had already
seen that the universe was not a fair place. One day Harry would
know the same thing but hopefully not too soon.
“Before today I may have agreed
with you,” Thomas said, now understanding more than before what he was
missing. “Don’t take what you have for granted,” Thomas said looking over
at Harry’s mother. Harry followed his gaze and smiled at his mother.
When he looked back to where Thomas had been standing, he was no longer
there.
“What the hell took you so
long?” Douglas asked angrily. He grabbed Thomas by the collar
of his shirt in a grip that was so tight it choked and prevented Thomas
from responding.
“Hey!” one human man who had
been passing by, saw what was going on and was coming to Thomas’ aid.
“Vaiyer we need a transport
now!” Takara said into her communications device. A second
later the three disappeared just before Thomas’ would be saviour reached
them.
“Let him go! We have
other things to worry about,” said Vaiyer. Douglas glared at the
child in his grip for a second more before roughly shoving him towards
the helm. Thomas gasped a few times before he took his place at the
helm. Vaiyer was right, they had bigger problems to attend to.
There was a large vessel on an intercept course.
“Beam the cargo up!”
Douglas ordered.
“I can’t! They must
have raised the shields around the building!” Murphy said. “I can’t
get a lock!”
“At a lower altitude you could
beam it up,” Thomas suggested.
“Did anybody ask you?”
Douglas yelled at him. Thomas started bringing the ship into the
atmosphere of the planet.
“The signal is getting stronger,”
Murphy said. The ship continued to descend. “I’ve got a lock!
Transport in progress!” Douglas was fuming in his seat at tactical.
“Got it! Let’s get out of here!” Thomas started a rapid ascent as
soon the ship jumped to warp and exited Federation Space.
Douglas slowly rose from his
seat and walked to the helm. In the reflection of the control panel
Thomas saw him coming. He put the ship on autopilot a moment before
he was roughly hauled out of his seat. Douglas used both hands and
grabbed Thomas by the collar and lifted him up. His feet dangled
a few feet above the floor and hid head was above Douglas’. Douglas
slammed him against the nearest bulkhead and held him there. Thomas’ head
connected solidly with the hard metal surface and he winced.
“What were you doing?”
Douglas yelled at the boy. His fists were pressing into his neck
and Thomas once again was unable to respond. “I give the orders around
here!” He slammed Thomas into the wall again. “Do you get me?”
Douglas yelled at him harshly. Thomas nodded weakly. Douglas
pressed him against the wall before letting go and letting him fall to
the ground. He looked at the boy at his feet for a moment before
leaving the bridge. Vaiyer left with him.
Thomas sat there gasping for
air for a minute before he got up and went back to the helm. He sat
there not touching the controls. He felt the back of his head and could
feel a bump forming, a physical reason for the headache he was getting.
He took off the headband that he wore and let out a deep breath.
He thought about the boy that he had met on the planet. //Yeah, I’ve got
a lot be thankful for// he thought sarcastically.
In the corridor of the ship
Vaiyer and Douglas walked towards the cargo hold to check their new acquisitions.
They walked in silence until Vaiyer spoke.
“He was right,” he said looking
forward, not at Douglas.
“And I hate him for it,” Douglas
said.
“I think that you’re afraid
that one day he’ll be better than you.”
“I am not afraid of a child.
I can kill him easily.”
“Today maybe, but one day
he will surpass you,” Vaiyer stated. They were silent the rest of
the way to the Cargo Bay. Thomas was a smart and resourceful child.
He picked things up quickly and if his progress continued he would surpass
the skills of those who trained him in a matter of years. Vaiyer
knew it and, though he would never admit to it, Douglas knew it too.
He vowed on that day to make Thomas’ life on this ship, under his command,
more difficult than ever before.
Two years later Thomas was
in the holodeck with Mec doing some physical training. They had another
difficult assignment coming up and Thomas would be going solo on this one.
Currently Thomas was standing on a long slender beam. Mec was standing
next to him, spotting while Thomas attempted some moves. Around the
holographic room were several other apparatuses. The large room looked
more like a gym where gymnasts practice but with slight differences.
“Again.” Mec ordered.
Thomas lined up his feet on the narrow bar and performed two consecutive
back walk-overs. “Good.” Mec commended him. This was
just the warm up. Mec explained to Thomas what he was supposed to
next.
Mec has been working with
Thomas for years, improving his physical strength and endurance and flexibility.
Children are all flexible to a certain extent but as they grow much of
their flexibility is lost. Many of the exercises Mec created were
specifically designed to help Thomas retain some flexibility as he grew.
Thomas was now on the open
floor doing some tumbling. This was no normal floor though.
Upon activation three-foot rods would emerge from different areas on the
floor and using their sensors they would aim and fire a short energy burst.
When one of those energy bursts hit a person the muscle in that area would
contract painfully like a muscle spasm for a few seconds before relaxing.
They could change the intensity of the burst so that it would cause the
muscle to contract for a longer or shorter period of time. Not only
did this train him to avoid weapons fire but also how to continue while
injured and in pain.
“Thomas,” Mec called him and
Tom ended the last little routine with an aerial before he ran over to
where Mec was. Mec placed the special covering over the left side
to the young boys chest. The energy burst could not penetrate that
material so it would protect Thomas’ heart. Thomas prepared himself
and a moment later Mec activated the floors system and watched as Thomas
easily avoided every shot and deactivated each rod. To deactivate
a rod it had to be struck somewhere on it and it would lower back into
the floor. The exercise was soon over. Mec commended him on
a good performance and concluded that he was ready for the mission.
Thomas slouched against the
wall of the small room. He sighed for the umpteenth time in the few
minutes that he had been trapped. He looked over to the other person
who was trapped with him. The man wore a black and red uniform.
Thomas guessed that he was from the organization called ‘Starfleet’.
He didn’t know much about it only what he had read and what the others
had told him, which wasn't much. Douglas and the others were being
more careful to keep him from learning about Starfleet. It felt to
him like they were hiding something from him but he didn’t know what, nor
did he inquire. He had done that once and only managed to incur the
wrath of Douglas.
“What’s your name?”
Thomas looked over to the man leaning on the adjacent wall. It was
the second time the man had asked. Thomas hadn’t responded the first
time and was not interested in responding now. It was the older man’s
fault that he was stuck here now anyway. He looked away and heard the adult
sigh in frustration. He wasn't the only one frustrated right now.
Thomas’ mission had been going
perfectly before those stupid Starfleet officers had shown up. Granted
they were in Federation space so it was Thomas who was trespassing but
they still ruined his mission. It seems they weren’t the only ones
interested in the decrepit old Starship had crashed on a rogue planetoid.
The small, damaged Starship had crashed here after being pulled in by the
gravity of the planetoid. The crew has abandoned the doomed ship
and left the Cargo behind. It was one small piece of that Cargo that
Douglas had found a buyer for. Starfleet was only here to investigate
what had happened and to make sure that there was nothing harmful on the
ship. The mangled vessel still had an atmosphere even though the
planetoid did not have enough mass to keep a heavy one of its own.
Thomas had managed to stay
hidden from them even though their scanning devices had said there was
another person on the ship. Thomas had finally made it to the Cargo
hold and found what he wanted. All he had to do was get out of there
and contact his ship to pick him up and the mission would have been complete
but then it happened. The reactor to this ship finally went critical when
some of the engineers where trying to stabilize it. The rest of the
Starfleet away team managd to get to the beam out point and had been beamed
out but due to their close proximity to the reactor the officer and Thomas
could not be, nor could they send any communications.
As the reactor went critical
power conduits ruptured and plasma was released into the air causing explosions.
In the chaos Thomas had come across the other man. He was going to
continue his attempt to escape but the Starfleet officer had other ideas.
Although Thomas was probably trained as well or better than the other man
he was still only twelve years old and the larger man easily over powered
him. The officer decided to take refuge in room a that did not have
too many power conduits near it. It was some sort of holding cell.
No furniture just four plain, dark walls. When the explosions had
died down somewhat they tried to get out but there was something blocking
the exit and the door was jammed shut; thus their current predicament.
“We may be here for a long
time.” The officer stated. “I just want to know your name,” there
was silence in the room and the man didn’t think the boy would respond.
“What’s your name?” Thomas
asked, not looking at the man.
“I asked you first.”
“If you want me to answer
your question you’ll have to answer one of mine.”
“Chakotay.”
“Thomas,”
“Thomas what?” Chakotay
asked. There was no forthcoming response. “What are you doing
here?” Chakotay asked another question. The boy didn’t move
or say anything. He was wearing all black and had on a backpack,
sunglasses and a black head band. “A little dark for sunglasses don’t
you think?” The only lighting in the room was provided by the little
fluorescent light that Thomas had turned on and the wristlight that Chakotay
had.
“They aren’t sunglasses.
They allow me to see things that I can’t see with the naked eye.
I just like them tinted.” Thomas said. The dark tint prevented
Chakotay from seeing the boys eyes. They sat there in silence for
a while longer. The temperature in the room was increasing slowly
but steadily and they soon found themselves sweating and thirsty.
Thomas was prepared for just about anything so he had a few bottles of
water with him. Chakotay however was only expecting a simple away
mission and thus had not come with all the gear. Thomas took a drink
from one bottle and tossed another one over to Chakotay.
“Thanks,” Chakotay said and
drank from the bottle of water. Thomas finished drinking before Chakotay
and put the bottle away. He pulled out one of the weapons that he
had on him. Chakotay looked at it but he didn’t recognize it as any
phaser or disrupter he had ever seen before. It looked more like
and old firearm that shot projectiles. “What is that?” Chakotay
asked.
“A gun,” Thomas said as he
pressed the small button the released the empty bullet cartridge.
The gun was modeled after late twentieth/early twenty-first century guns.
Chakotay remembered seeing guns in old vids from earth and had read about
them when he studied earth’s history.
“You used all the bullets?”
“I had to get the case open
and I was in a bit of a hurry.” Thomas told him. He jammed
in the new cartridge and put the weapon away.
“What are you doing here anyway?”
“My job,” said Thomas.
Chakotay left it at that.
“What’s your rank?”
Thomas asked, taking the opportunity to learn more about Starfleet.
“Ensign,” Chakotay told him.
Tom turned his head to really look at the other man trapped with him.
He was muscular looking and hard dark hair and skin darker than his own.
“Where are you from?”
Thomas asked.
“Dorvan V,” Chakotay said,
“It’s a small colony at the outskirts of the Federation, not too far from
Cardassia.” Thomas looked away from Chakotay. After a minute
of silence Thomas took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes.
“How old are you?” Chakotay
asked him, thinking that this boy was far too young to be out here under
any circumstances. Where was his family?
“Twelve,” Thomas said looking
over to him and young blue eyes met older brown ones. “How ol-”
Thomas was stopped in mid-sentence when the doors blew open with a resounding
bang in the small room. Thomas immediately stood, put on his glasses
and pulled out his weapon, aiming it at the smoke filled opening.
If it was more Starfleet officers he wanted them to get their man
and leave him alone.
When the smoke had cleared
Thomas saw Douglas and Mec standing there. Thomas put his weapon
away and went to join them leaving Chakotay alone in the room. “Did
you get it?” was Mec’s question. Not ‘Are you okay’ or any
such inquiries as to his well being and Chakotay wondered who they were.
“I have it.” Thomas
said just before Douglas hit him hard on the back of head.
“How did you screw up this
time?” Douglas said in anger.
“Hey!” Chakotay began
to approach but stopped when the man who hit Thomas pulled out a weapon
and aimed it at him.
“The reactor started to breach.
He saved me.” Thomas said quickly so that Douglas wouldn’t hurt the other
man. Chakotay didn’t say anything and neither did Douglas but he
lowered the weapon. They turned away and made their escape.
Chakotay left the room as well and went to an area that was not as close
to the reactor and contacted his ship, which quickly beamed him aboard.
Despite looking, no ship appeared
on sensors. Chakotay had told the Senior staff of his ship about
the boy he had met down there. The staff had been ordered back to
their duties and to continue the investigation of the crashed ship, but
the Captain had kept Chakotay was back to talk to him. Chakotay had
given a brief description of the boy he had met and Captain Martin had
taken interest in who the child was.
“Did you get his name?”
Martin asked.
“Yes, he said his name was
Thomas.” Chakotay told him wondering what was going through the Captain’s
head. The name Thomas conjured a vague memory of something from years
ago but he couldn’t put his finger on it.
“How old did he look?”
“He said he was twelve years
old. I’m fairly certain that he’s human so he may be twelve in earth
years,” Chakotay said.
“Did he look it?” Martin
asked. Chakotay nodded. Martin was lost in thought for a moment
before he remembered that the ensign was still there. “You’re dismissed,
Ensign.” Chakotay nodded and left the briefing room. Martin
continued to sit there thinking. That couldn’t be Thomas Paris could
it? The boy Ensign Chakotay described fit the description and the
age was right but the chance that was Thomas Paris was slim to none.
He would send a report to Starfleet Headquarters on earth telling them
what he thought and leave the rest up to them. Maybe he could finish
the job he had started seven years ago.
End Part 1: Future Encounters