Son of the force

The child, not more than five years old crept on to the station. He was tired, hungry and lost, very much wishing that he had never left the security of his great grandmother's home in Saint Petersburg. He had left to find his mother, who worked on the station. He had never met her, just spoke regularly to her through letters and the comm channel. Yet she was his mother and he did love her. Wanting to be with her, the child had slipped onto a liner to Babylon 5. It had not been simple. He was supposed to be in school. He had mentioned his mother to several of his friends, one of whom had an older brother. The brother had promised to get him on a ship for a certain amount of money. The child's allowance from now until the end of the year to be exact. In his simple mind, the older boy could do anything and he had trustingly handed over his life savings and a promise for more to come and was given a stolen pass to Babylon 5.

Doing as the older boy instructed he had packed a bag for himself with a few sets of clothing, night clothes and undergarments, a blanket and his prized bear his mother had made for him, food and money. In the morning he had switched this bag for his school bag when he left. When he arrived at school, he was taken to the station and boarded onto a liner with a stolen ticket. The conductor was a friend of the older boy's and often helped him hide illegal passangers.

The last three days had been wearying for the boy. How he had managed to hid was a miracle. Everyone on the liner had thought he belonged to some one else and he had kept very quiet. Now the liner was being emptied as it had reached it's destination.

He took his bag and followed the other passengers. They were all lining up. He lined up too; he thought he was at school. The line moved forward. At last he was at the front. A bald man in a black uniform said without looking up, " Identicard."

It was a relatively slow day considering they were in the middle of two wars. For the first time in a long while Michael Garibaldi had time to see to the details of the station. He made his rounds and had come to customs. Relieving the officers for a coffee break, he took there place. It had been a while. Without looking up he said, "Identicard."

There was a pause. Michael looked up. There was no one there. " What is an identicard?" asked a young accented voice. He looked down. A small child stood in front of him. He looked oddly familiar.

" Where are your parents?"

" Mama is on Babylon, I am going to find her." He said with childish confidence.

" Do you have any one with you?"

" I told you I am looking for Mama."

" All right all right, where is your card kid?"

" What card?"

" Without your identicard, you cannot board, You will have to leave."

They boy hesitated, than as Michael started to speak again, dashed off into the crowd.

" Damn," Michael swore, running after him , " Garibaldi to security..."

Stephen stared at the child in front of him, who sat on the med lab bed as Stephan analyzed his test results. When pressed, he had only given his first name. His features looked oddly familiar, Stephen thought as he handed the child a glass of juice.

The test results came in, Stephen read over them before gasping in shock and hitting his comm link, " Franklin to Ivanova and Sheridan, Report to Medlab 1 now."

" Allright, you found a child who has stowed away on board. What does that have to do with us? It really is your and Michael's department." said the tired looking Commander Ivanova.

" Yes, but it does concern both of you. The child's parents were not with him and he only told us his name was Andre"

There was a slight difference in the Commander's expression at the name. The doctor chose to ignore it for the moment. The captain failed to notice it. " Go on" he urged.

" We tested the child, and the results came back showing that there is a 99.99 chance that his parents are John Sheridan and Susan Ivanova."