Blood Of Kings
Malcolm heard the apparent fellow Englishman shout dramatically, "I am Death!" "Perhaps," he replied, "but you certainly are not modest. What the hell have you been drinking? Andorian ale, by any chance? That stuff will kill you!" (A sort of Star Trek – Highlander crossover . . . mostly Star Trek) Crackish I guess.
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Chapter One -
The first time Malcolm Reed almost died, he was not even an hour out of his mum's womb; he was born so premature that the very idea of his birth was still some months in the future.
Mary Reed had gone out for a bit of shopping – nothing major – just down to the local grocers for milk and bread. She was living at home with her parents whilst Stuart was 'at sea' serving with the Royal Navy aboard 'the Hyperion' as first officer. Madeline was under four years old, very energetic , and a handful for the young Mrs. Reed, so the Martins' had extended an invitation to their daughter to come stay for as long as she wished – even to the birth of her second child and beyond.
Everyone knew – Mary, her parents, even Maddie and especially Stuart 'out at sea' – that the unborn babe, was a boy. A name had already been picked out – mostly by the expectant father – 'Malcolm Stuart Reed' – Malcolm in memory of a distinguished ancestor who was an admiral, also in the Royal Navy – though not with the last name of Reed. (While Commander Reed's own father and grandfather had been admirals, it was highly unlikely that he, himself, would rise to that exalted rank. An acquaintance (not a friend – Stuart Reed didn't have 'friends') explained it thusly – 'Reed pisses people off – he is such a prick . . .' Whilst Stuart Reed knew 'how to be an officer – he wasn't unintelligent – he had no idea how to be a good officer, forget being a great one. First officer, under the tutelage of someone who owed the younger Admiral Reed a favor, was as high as Commander Stuart Reed was to attain in the Royal Navy. And he knew it.) Commander Stuart Reed intended that his son, Malcolm would be an admiral in the Royal Navy and show that he was of 'fine stock'.
The baby had a destiny to fulfill even before being born.
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Mary Reed didn't even have the excuse of Maddie being with her, that day when she delivered Malcolm so early. She did admit later that she had been tired, but not unusual for the young woman. Mary had never quite recovered after Maddie's birth – 'low iron' was her mum's theory, and her parents kept plenty of iron-rich foods available for their daughter to eat.
The local doctor (and obstetrician) – the Martins lived in a small village – was of a different mind. He had recommended to the Reeds that they not have a second child (and when Mary did become pregnant – considered for a brief moment, advising termination of the foetus.) Both Stuart and Mary were 'carriers' (to use a common term) of an extremely rare condition, which would almost certainly result in the death of any child who received a 'double dose' of the gene involved, from its parents.
Nonetheless, both parents were so desirous of having a second child, that they thought 'they would take the chance. Mary's health was not robust to begin with – at least they had the joy of one very healthy offspring . . . Maddie was a sweet child, who was a bit of a 'tomboy' and liked to bring home all sorts of things on the walks that her grandparents took her on . . . thank God, they had kept her occupied whilst Mary was in hospital . . .
As was stated earlier, Mary had gone to the grocers for a bit of milk and bread . . . Mary was quite fond of milk and was even able to tell the difference between milk from Holstein vs. Jersey vs. Guernsey cows. To an aficionado of dairy products, there was a great difference in the taste, which of course carried though to ice cream and cheese products. Some people might think her 'a snob' about it, but to the people in her family 'it was natural' . . . so she was standing in the dairy isle of the store contemplating the available choices. (She hadn't picked out the bread yet – another time-consuming chore as depending on what type of bread she bought she would be considering the sell-by date – shopping with Mary Reed was not a rushed affair.)
She had been so thinking of the tastes of the various milk products that the first sensation of pain coming from her body had been ignored. It felt like 'a hitch', as she would later tell Doctor Clarke – a specialist brought in to treat both mother and child. That 'hitch' meant that the Reed child was going to make an unscheduled entrance to this world, and most likely – a quick, and sad exit.
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By the time Mary had been transported to the local hospital, things had progressed to the point that there was no doubt of the early arrival of the Reed child. Calls had been made to the main neo-natal facility in London – if the child survived its untimely entry into the world, it would be transferred to the unit as they had the best facility to handle the crisis. Generally speaking, the amount of time that a premature infant would spend in the unit would be equivalent to the natural time of entry, so if a child was three months early, it would be in the unit three months. Maturation of children could not be rushed; medical science certainly advanced to be sure, but nature took its sweet time . . .
But first Malcolm Stuart Reed had to be born . . . and the babe seemed determined to both want to leave, and stay behind as evidenced by its getting tangled up in its placenta and cord. It was decided to remove the child by surgery; the baby also had a caul about its head giving it a look of a tiny spaceman complete with umbilical hookup to 'the mothership'. The doctor, upon pulling the child from Mary's abdomen, made a comment about the 'newest' space cadet – the nurse responded by saying that the caul if saved, would protect the child from drowning as the family was 'Royal Navy'. The doctor huffed at that, but he didn't discard the tissue, and merely boxed it with the placenta for later examination.
Which almost became moot, as the child developed cardiac problems and was whisked away to be given aid in the cardiac unit . . . this was precisely what the earlier doctor had feared, Malcolm Reed had inherited a particular gene from both sides of his family. (From a strictly academic standpoint, the 'gene' was a mutation that occurred in the far, far, distant past in only one individual, so that if both parents carried the gene, they were distantly, very distantly related.) But young Malcolm Reed was apparently very lucky that day and the hospital was able to keep the child alive until the neo-natal unit took over his care.
(However, there was one very unfortunate aspect – Mary Reed was unconscious whilst her son was being born, and since his condition was tenuous, he was transferred to the neo-natal unit, before she could hold her baby, and it was most distressing for the young mother . . . Her parents, the Martins were able to console their daughter, as well as bring Maddie to show the young girl that her mother was 'okay'. It would be several days before she was well enough to leave hospital to see her son.)
Commander Reed, aboard the Hyperion, was informed of the situation, and was offered a chance to return home to see his wife and newborn son. He might have refused the opportunity, except that his captain, Ronald McClendon, 'jollied' the man into accepting – Reed really was clueless as to his responsibilities in the matter. He arrived at his wife's bedside, and was surprised to find that his son was 'in London' being cared for.
Mary's father, an old Royal Marine, told the uncomfortable man (who was also uncomfortable to be with) that although 'only a wee mite' was after treatment, likely to survive, but it would be several months in the unit before he could be released. Leo Martin then made a mistake, mentioning the lucky circumstance of Malcolm having a caul at birth and that they had saved the tissue.
It was at this point that Commander Stuart Reed showed exactly how 'not in tune' he was with the feelings of others – he told his father-in-law that 'old wives tale' was pure bunk (plus some other more unsavory terms) and informed him that once he got hold of said 'item' he would throw it in the rubbish.
And he did.
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