A New Life

Posted on Fri Oct 26th, 2018 @ 2:45am by

Mission: Run Afoul
Location: Betazed
Timeline: 30 years ago
1185 words - 2.4 OF Standard Post Measure

“I'm coming mother!” 6-year old Lhaes called from the house, grabbing the last of the possessions he'd need for the weekend away. He had just reached the threshold when his father started the hovercar. The explosion that followed threw the Romulan boy back hard against the now closed door, and the last thing he had seen of his parents was his mother, smiling and waving that he should hurry up or they'd miss their transport. “Mother! Father!” the boy screamed, scrambling to his feet and running towards the inferno that was only moments before the family hovercar.

A neighbour who'd been outside, grabbed the boy just in time, pulling the screaming lad back to safety. The boy's hands were slightly burned, and his face too showed first degree burns as he'd been close when the explosion occurred. Emergency services arrived not long after the event, taking a shocked child to hospital. Sadly, there was nothing they could do for the parents, who hopefully had been lucky they were dead before their bodies burned. If not, they had died a gruesome death, and the child had been witness to it.

“Poor woman,” the neighbour had told a police officer, “she was just with child again. Only a few people ever knew, but not the boy.”

== a few days later ==

Lhaes sat in his tiny room in the hospital's children's wing. He hadn't come out to play with the other children, but had merely sat gazing sadly out the window. He could no longer cry, as his tears had run dry, but the feeling still persisted. His parents hadn't been buried yet, but somehow he was keenly aware of the fact that this could happen any day now. Nurses checked on him daily, and even other children came to visit but he had brusquely turned them away, stating the desire to be left alone.

Late in the afternoon, however, a woman with the darkest eyes he'd ever seen walked in, accompanied by a man about two hands taller. The man was carrying something in his arms, but Lhaes couldn't quite see what it was. He sat up on his bed, politely snapping the book he'd been reading shut. “Sir, ma'am,” he greeted politely, though there was little warmth in his voice.

The woman knelt before him. “You are Lhaes?” she queried, her voice warm, her eyes friendly. At the boy's nod, she smiled. “I'm so very sorry to have heard about your parents. Your mother was a good friend of mine. Oh you've never met us, but I met with your mother frequently.” She beckoned the man forward as she introduced both him and herself. “And this is Melinda, our daughter,” she continued, showing the infant to the boy.

Lhaes peered into the bundle, finding a tiny baby who looked up at him with eyes equal to her mother. He sensed something coming from the baby; inquisitional thoughts, though unorganized and random. While he was no telepath himself, he was used to the probing of the Betazoids around him, yet, from both adults he felt absolutely nothing. It was as though they were trying very hard not to read him. He smiled a little as he held out his small hands towards the bundle. To his surprise, the man laid the baby into his arms without question, guiding his hands to properly support the infant. A sense of warmth flowed through the boy as joy lit his small face.


“How would you like for Melinda to be your sister?” the woman offered softly, “you can't stay here forever and we'd like to take you home with us, and raise you as our own son.”

That meant little to the boy, he only wanted to go home but had been told repeatedly that it was impossible as there was no-one to care for him. None of his relatives on Romulus – and he was quite certain he had an aunt and uncle somewhere – had come forward to claim him as family. Bereft, the boy stared up at the man and woman, hope flaring in his eyes. Finally, after a very long silence, he nodded, giving his consent to be taken away from the room he had spent the past few days in.

In a few days, he would attend his parents' funeral, attended by the couple who had started the adoption procedure. After the funeral, the rebel in the boy was quickened, sparked by immense grief. He stayed away from the farm hours on end, sometimes stealing away his baby sister with him. His parents were at the end of their patience after a few days, especially since the child was quick in learning to block them from finding him, telepathically.

“This can’t go on,” his father berated Lhaes, “we’re doing everything we can to make you feel at home, and giving you as much space as we can to let you deal with your grief and your loss. It won’t bring them back Lhaes, please, try to be happy here with us. We’ve the farm, and loads of fields you can play in. Even the barn is open to you, if you desire. But please stop hiding Melinda, and yourself. It won’t do you any good. We will take you to their graves when you desire, if time and business allow us to. You know that.”

His mother was milder in her rebuke. She took his hand and led him to the barn, where one of the goats had just recently delivered a billy. Mother goat, however seemed unwilling or unable to nurse her baby, and the billy was bleating with hunger and abandonment. Mother shoved the billy into her adoptive son’s arms, then pushed a bottle in his hand. “Feed her,” she ordered, “the goat is now your responsibility.”

Lhaes stared at the little white goat in his arms, which had started to suckle on the fingers that were within it’s mouth’s reach. Quickly, he yanked his fingers back and replaced them with the bottle’s teat. The little one drank eagerly, bleating piteously when she was done. Awkwardly, the boy stroked her little head, falling over when the billy nudged him. He laughed at the goat’s antics, his first laugh in days. Eyes sparkling, he looked up at the woman, not sure whether he was supposed to call her mother. “Mother...” he started shyly, “can I keep her?”

Beaming, the Betazoid woman nodded. “She’s all yours,” she smiled, hugging the boy tightly, “and thank you for finally calling me mother. Please don’t hesitate to keep doing so. I can never replace the woman who was your birthmother, but I am going to try and win your confidence, and your love.”

Little Lhaes smiled, shyly returning the hug, with the goat bleating as she was squished between them. “I won’t take Melinda out again without you knowing first,” he vowed solemnly.. From then on, he was less troublesome, though of course he was a typical boy of his age.

---

Lieutenant Commander Lhaes Sommers
CIO