Sandoval quickly put in a call to his private physician Dr. Murran. While he awaited his arrival from the public portal station a mile away he carried the child upstairs cleaned him up and wrapped him in a towel. Despite repeated attempts he couldn't get the child to tell him anything except his first name. He absently noticed the news that continued to play in the background, "breaking news just in. Our sources report that the President and the ANA have received a communication originating on mothership from an unknown group of aliens…"
A buzz from the gate interrupted his thoughts. Sandoval walked over to a screen and called up the images from his security cameras. One man who he instantly recognized as Dr. Murran was at the gate. Rotating through the cameras revealed that no one else was anywhere near the wall surrounding his home. Sandoval activated the gate to let the doctor into the courtyard and hurried down the stairs to meet the doctor at the door to the house.
Sandoval gave the doctor a brief explanation changing only the location of the child's appearance from the secret portal to the front gate. He trusted his doctor to an extent but, he didn't trust anyone that much. The doctor took Liam into the room Sandoval had had equipped with extensive medical equipment and gave him a thorough examination.
Sandoval paced in the hallway while behind him the news announced that the Atavus who had been Da'an and Vorjack was the leader of his people. He expressed regret that Major Kincaid's body had apparently been completely consumed by the massive energies that filled the subterranean chamber before the Atavii had been automatically portaled out to the Mothership by Ma'el's systems. He had announced that while physically integrated, mental integration of the two species would take some time. So they were departing on the mothership and would request permission to return sometime in the future, but Sandoval paid little heed to this momentous news, as he was preoccupied with the strange events in his own life. Who is this child? How did he get here? Who knows about my secret portal? After what seemed to Sandoval to be an eternity but was in reality less than an hour Dr. Murran brought Liam out and took Sandoval aside.
"Aside from a few minor abrasions he seems to be perfectly healthy. Standard procedure when dealing with an unknown child is to run his DNA so his parents can be notified."
"I am aware of that," Sandoval said curtly.
"His DNA was not on record so I ran a DNA analysis to identify any close relatives, be they parents, siblings or even an aunt or uncle. There were some anomalies but, well see for yourself, matches are in blue," he said showing a small display screen.
The display was divided in half. In each half there were 23 rows with two chromosomes displayed on each. In every row one chromosome on each side flashed blue. The left side was marked Liam, last name unknown. The right side displayed the name Ronald Sandoval.
Sandoval looked from the screen to the small child still
draped in an enormous bath sheet staring up at him with huge green eyes. The concept was simple biology but his mind
still had trouble grasping it. "My
son," he finally whispered.
