A Tempest Wind

Author's Note: It's BioWare's world and I'm Just playing in it. All the characters, setting and poems belong to their perspective authors. I do not own anything

The clouds were gaunt and few;

A black, as of a spectre's cloak,

Hid heaven and earth from view.

The creatures chuckled on the roofs

And whistled in the air,

And shook their fists and gnashed their teeth,

And swung their frenzied hair

(Emily Dickinson, An awful tempest mashed the air)

Sounds of raindrops echoed, the street lights flickered as furious winds gashed through the vacant alley. A figure in a raincoat concealing an object ran furiously toward the tall-lighted building. From the distance, a red neon light was visible capturing the night sky; the sign read Mercy Hospital. As the figure ran closer to the hospital, the dead night came alive. Shuttles hovered above, as pedestrians rushed from one place to another. The figure decided to take the back alley to avoid the heavy traffic. The figure stood under the street light, looking at the small pod in hand. The pod was worn out; it bared scratches and dents. The pod had a small window; the figure wiped it away, revealing a baby inside sleeping peacefully. The figure walked toward the back door of the hospital, placed the pod on the steps, and vanished into the night.

The door slammed open, a feminine voice shouted as she stepped out of the hallway, "I need a smoke, cover me will…." The Nurse almost fell as she continued to make her way out, unaware of the pod in front of here feet.

The woman in white looked down confused and almost cursed for almost falling. She leaned forward and saw a baby gaggling and reaching for her. She picked up the pod, "well hey there, how did you get here?"

She looked around to see if anyone was around before heading back inside. The Nurse went to her station and unlocked the pod, she motioned the other nurses to gather, " look what I found outside, poor thing was alone in the rain."

The nurses all gathered around the baby smiling.

The head nurse came around the corner and had a mean look on her face, " last time I checked this was a hospital and not a damn lounge. Everybody back to work, Now." None of them moved, they were all busy making comments about the baby; they inspected it thoroughly to make sure the baby did not carry any diseases or contiguous virus.

One of the nurses had let out a gentle smile and shouted, "It's a girl."

The head nurse made her way to the station to figure out what the commotion was about; she looked at the baby and kept a stern look, "whose baby is that, get her out of here."

The women who found the baby looked at the other nurse sadly, "I found her outside, she was in this pod when I went outside for my smoke break." The head nurse had an apologetic look on her face, "oh...I didn't …who would do such a thing." She leaned closer and inspected the pod for a letter, identification, anything that had information about the baby, but found nothing.

The head nurse finally looked at the nurses and ordered one of them to take a sample of her DNA and run it through the system, " Betty, lets see if we can figure out who she is."

It was a standard procedure for everyone to have a record at birth; it was away to keep track of the overwhelming population and other species. The policy is still fairly new, it was mandated ten years ago, of course the procedure was not flawless, some people refused to share their baby's record by not giving birth in a hospital or other official facilities. Moreover, the policy did not include anyone that was born before the law was mandated. DNA records of older generation were recorded only if they were in the military or had criminal record.

Betty came back ten minutes later, handed the lead nurse a piece of datapad, "Nurse Johnson, there are no record of her in the system or similar DNA."

Johnson looked at Betty and gave a slight frown, " Great, she has no name, parent or record." Johnson looked at the baby girl who was smiling and gaggling for the crowd, "we have to contact the authorities, we can't do anything for her here."

The nurses disapproved because they all knew she would be put into an orphanage and become a victim of bureaucracy. If she was lucky, someone will adopt her before she was dead or worse. However, the chances of adoption were slim to none, modern medicine meant everyone could have children, so there were very few who actually adopted as an alternative to having a child of their own.

Betty went over to the baby and chocked on tears as she thought about the baby's fate, " I'm sorry….baby." The baby stopped smiling, sensing the women in pain. Betty took the baby in her arms, "we can't go around calling you baby, and you need a name."

She looked around and thought about what to call her, the pod, which held the baby caught her eyes, on the side there, was an engraving. Upon closer examination, it revealed to be letters, SS. The nurse looked back at the baby and gave her an odd look, "SS, well that's not much of a name." Betty went back and forth cradling the baby gently, "How about Sara Shepard?" The baby smiled and giggled, and Betty nodded her head in approval as well, " Sorry Sara, I can't do much for you, but at least you will have a name."

She gently set the baby in one of the pods in the children's wing, next to other newborns.

The next day child services and welfare were notified, it was necessary to complete a series of paperwork before the baby can be removed from the hospital and into an orphanage.

The service worker was an old man in his sixties; he walked with a slight limp and carried a briefcase. His long and bushy eyebrows covered his eyes, obscuring his vision as he walked past the nurse's station. The old man wore a grey suit that seemed to be older than he was, his badge read: Ken Lane, and underneath his name was his title. Ken removed a datapad from his brief case and started to punch in information, He looked at Betty and asked, "What is the gender of the baby? Name, age, hair color, eye color, and parent's information."

Betty looked at Sara, " She is a female, her name is Sara Shepard, and based on the scans we conducted I would say almost one years old, her hair color is dark chestnut and eyes are deep brown. Parents are unknown" Satisfied with the answer, Ken turned to Betty once more; "I almost forgot race?" Betty gave Ken a grin, "Human." Ken noticed her grin, "Just making sure she is not an alien."

The discovery of other races and species beyond earth meant that humans no longer identified themselves with a particular country or race, as far as the galaxy was concerned everyone on earth were one and the same.