Vansen's Story

Posted on 21 Oct 2017 @ 1:04pm by Petty Officer 3rd Class Constantin Vansen
Edited on 23 Oct 2017 @ 8:08am

2,081 words; about a 10 minute read

Year: 2377
Location: By the DMZ

“SS Astra, this is Captain Okonjo of the Federation Starship Marco Polo. We have received your distress call. Please respond.”

For a moment, the voice rang through the bridge of the small ship, making the youth in the chair open his eyes. It sounded strange in the room, a female voice with such authority. The boy hesitated for a moment before reaching out with a slender hand to press a button. His blue eyes studied the screen, his brown hair cut so short that the lack of gravity didn't make it float around. “USS Marco Polo,” he said, swallowing. His voice was breaking and he sounded strange even to his own ears. He cleared his throat, both to get rid of the higher pitch but also due to lack of use. “This is the SS Astra. We have a contamination on the ship. Our…our Captain, she is really sick. We got no medical staff.”

“SS Astra, we only have audio. Can we get a visual hail?”

He hesitated for a long moment, frowning. It was an old ship, the image would be grainy. But his parents had always told him that even if the Astra was capable, he should never let anyone see his face. But Daddy was dead, his corpse floating in space and Mummy was so sick, so very very sick. He made the call and pressed the image, seeing a woman’s face. Her skin was so dark, her hair shaven close to her head. She was beautiful. The uniform had red on it. He had never seen a Starfleet person before, but he knew this must be a Starfleet Captain. He saw her face change slightly, a look of surprise on her face. He smiled, even pearly white teeth and all, tilting his head. “I see you,” he said softly, unable to make his voice sound any louder.

The woman frowned slightly and he could see her glancing over at someone. “You’re young to be in charge of a ship, boy,” she said, with guarded friendliness. “We read two life signs on the ship, where is the rest of your crew?”

“It’s just…us. The Captain’s sick, the XO died,” he said and frowned slightly. “We need help, she’s really sick and I don’t know what to do.”

“Okay,” the woman nodded gently, watching him before she clearly spotted something. “Is your environmental controls malfunctioning?”

The boy looked surprised before he shook his head before glancing over at what she had seen. A cup floating by him. He reached out and snatched it easily before he shook his head. “No, it’s…normal.”

It only made the Starfleet Captain frown more and the boy shifted slightly. After a moment she clearly took a moment before asking the next question. “What’s your name, boy?”

“Constantin. Constantin Vansen,” Constantin said with a small smile and waved weakly. “I…My Mum really needs help. Can…can you help?”

“We will send a medical team over,” the Captain said, clearly considering something. “We will be back in touch. Marco Polo out.”

He watched the image disappear, removing the straps before floating away to the consol. He looked over what was there, frowning before he sighed. He had dumped the cargo before sending the distress signal. He had made sure it all looked clean. “Okay…okay, this is okay…” he breathed before he made his way down to the quarters where his mother was. He watched her, glancing at the readings. She was alive. But she was so sick, so very sick, and he had no idea what to do. It was why he had sent a distress call. It was why there was a big Starfleet ship towering outside. They could help her. They had to help her. He watched his own reflection in the mirror. At 15, he was approaching 5’10, his limbs long. To him it looked normal. He knew his father had been shorter and his mother was shorter too. Stockier. They had both been so compact. It smelled like sickness in here. It perfumed the air he breathed from the scrubbers, it latched onto his skin. He didn’t realise he was crying until a drop floated past him and he reached out to grab it, frowning. “Okay. It’s okay,” he repeated to himself before he moved to prepare the airlock for when the Starfleet people came.

~~~~
Year: 2377
Location: SS Astra, by the DMZ


There were four of them. And none of them looked comfortable. In their suits they were clunky, but he had said that the place was contaminated and they had reacted accordingly. What seemed to bother them was the loss of gravity. He watched with fascination as they moved around, clumsily and slow. One of the people was by his mother, scanning her. He smiled weakly as one of the suits came to him. “I…”

“How old are you?” it was a man’s voice and Constantin’s smile died quickly on his lips when the man started scanning him with the…what had they called it? Medical tricorder. It looked like the handheld scanner he used for the ship.

“15…I think,” Constantin moved closer to look at the readings but he couldn’t understand what it meant. So instead he tried to see the face behind the helmet.

“You were born here?”

Constantin nodded weakly before he looked over at where his mother was. “What is going to happen?” he asked, his voice quiet. He cleared his throat and pulled away from the man and his medical tricorder, floating to the supplies and opening the door. He took one of the pouches with a straw and opened it, drinking the water as he watched the people.

“We need to transport your mother to our ship,” one of the other suits said. “And you as-“

“We can’t take the boy,” the man who had scanned him said and closed the medical tricorder. “He won’t cope with the Marco Polo’s artificial gravity. He needs medication…a treatment before we can transport him over. And even then we need to have him sedated.”

“Woah! I am not going anywhere! Astra’s fine, she is still floating,” Constantin said and patted the ship, shaking his head. “You can’t take me from my home!”

“Easy,” the third suit came over to him and he frowned as he was grabbed. “Calm down. You are a minor who isn’t even registered as a Federation citizen. We have scanned your ship and it is a miracle she still works. Your mother, your Captain, is coming over to our ship. You will too, but because you have grown up without the usual gravity, we can’t take you over yet. You need medication to make your body handle it.”

“Like a crash couch,” he said as he looked at them, frowning slightly.

For a moment, they all looked confused. And when no one said anything Constantin shook their hands off him. He motioned for them to follow, taking them through to a small room. There was a bed there, with biogel and an IV. “A crash couch. For when we go into high gee. You got the medication there to sedate and keep vitals going, the biogel helps absorb the impact. I mean, we haven’t done it often and I can safely say I feel really bad for days after but…is that what you mean?”

“We could dose him up with that, take him onboard…get a room and adjust the environmental controls in it until we get more advice,” the second suit said quietly to the others. “We can’t leave a child alone on a ship. We are very close to the DMZ, we shouldn’t stay here too long.”

“Best to contact the Captain and the Chief Medical Officer,” the first suit said before nodding weakly. “I will make the call. Meanwhile, keep him calm.” He pointed over at Constantin to make his point. “And make sure he doesn’t run away.”

~~~~
Year: 2377
Location: USS Marco Polo, Medical Bay

The lights were so bright. But it wasn’t what was bothering him. It was like the world was lying on top of him. His eyeballs hurt. His skin, his muscles, his bones. Every breath was his lungs trying to expand, the ribs not moving with it easily. He felt weak. He felt heavy. It hurt. It hurt and it felt so strange that his organs had settled in various places where they had been designed to go.

“Heart rate is erratic.”

The lights were too bright. He was restrained but it didn’t matter. He wouldn’t have been able to lift his arms even if he had wanted to. He closed his eyes to it all. If there was a place in his mind he could curl up, curl up until all of this was over.

“The blood vessels aren’t adapting.”

It was breathing that was hard. Breathing, which had been natural and easy, was now a struggle. In. Our. Not enough to go around.

“Okay, let us put him under.”

A hiss against his neck. He opened his eyes at it but he couldn’t see. The world narrowed down, two pinpoints. All he heard was a slow humming, a steady purr of something. The ship. He could hear the ship.

And then the darkness dragged him down with his last exhaled breath.

~~~~

Year: 2378 onward
Place: Earth

It took three months.

Three months of medication, of physio therapy, of a strict diet. He shrunk two inches. With gravity, his spine settled the way that humanity always had it, stealing two inches from him. Every day a doctor or nurse would check him. Bone density, muscle mass…everything. Hormone levels too. Someone commented on his shaven head. He shrugged. Washing your hair in zero gravity was difficult, so the whole family had their hair short.

His mother survived. It was something. It was a lot for him. But she refused to look at him or talk to him. She had lost him. Constantin hadn’t realised it at the time, but the moment that the Marco Polo had hailed them, she had lost him. To the Federation, to the system. They would never fly together. He had been unconscious when the Astra had been blown up. Without anyone there to take care of her, the core had breached. The Marco Polo had been far enough away for nothing to be damaged but Constantin had watched the images again and again of his home blowing up. Again. And again.

The ties were completely severed when he came to Earth. Well. Sort of. The moment the shuttle door had opened, Constantin had freaked out. He had panicked. He had acted insane. He had then been sedated and woken up a few days later, in a room. Not safe, but slowly being introduced to what was normal for everyone else. A horizon. Blue skies. The stars above, the ground under his feet.

He had shocked people with his ignorance. He had never heard music before. The first time he cried, but begged to hear more. He had a vague sense of history, but only the bits of technology that was on ships. Wars had gone him by, developments. So much he didn’t know.

Again he had shocked when explaining in detail how to stop a core breach.

When his mother escaped custody and disappeared without a goodbye, Constantin’s response had been to shrug with his hands. He had seen it coming. He would have done the same if he could.

He was in a home with other children. He was taught things. Mind opened, expanded.

He refused to go outside for a year.

He would wake up screaming.

Every day he had to take his medication. Every day. He never skipped a dose. Never. He still remembered the pain he had experienced when he was taken onto the Marco Polo. He would not repeat it.

He applied for Starfleet. He knew he would never be accepted if he tried to be an officer. He applied to enlist. If it wasn’t accepted, he would steal what he could and go to Mars. Or Luna. Anywhere. And then get himself a job out there. But he was lucky. He was accepted.

Fate clearly wanted him to avoid a life of crime...

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