Part 3

Chris's eyes widened momentarily, before narrowing as he looked down at the child still sitting with his back to him on the bed. A Vulcan? I can't feel anything…I've been trying to teach him to block it out…

Sitting down on the bed beside the boy, Vin slowly reached over to him and swept the heavy bangs out of his face revealing the distinctive upswept eyebrow that the Vulcan people were known for. Seeing the apprehension in the boy's eyes, Vin patted him on the shoulder, before gently turning his head away and moving the heavy long hair away from his ear. Again the distinctive feature was present.

Chris and Josiah were, to say the least, stunned. A Vulcan child on a slave ship? How was that possible? The Vulcan might be strict and hard on their children, but they were also fiercely protective too. To have one stolen would have set off a man hunt! And add to that this child neither looked nor acted like any Vulcan Chris had ever seen or heard of.

He had never seen a Vulcan that wasn't tall and slender with straight dark hair and dark eyes. Whether this boy would be tall remained to be seen and he was most definitely slender. Actually he was skinny to the point of emaciation. But red highlights were obvious in the medium brown curly hair on his head and the brilliant emerald eyes were as far from the deep black and brown of most Vulcan's eyes as night was from day. Add to that evidence the boy's obviously emotional responses and all Starfleet's information on how to interact with Vulcan's seemed useless. The only other explanation that came to mind was that the boy was Romulan, but the physical appearance was still all wrong.

"Well, Ezranok?" Vin asked the boy, breaking his friends out of their momentary bewilderment, "How about we let Nathan look you over? We can head back to the ship and see if we can figure out were your family might be, alright?" Vin stood to the side and held his hand out for the boy to take.

"Okay," Ezranok replied softly, standing from his place on the bed. However, when he stepped away from the bed, he cried out softly as his legs collapsed and he passed out.

"Capt'n!" Vin exclaimed as he lunged forward to catch the crumpling figure. Vin lifted the boy's pitifully light body into his arms with ease, while Josiah and Chris rushed to help him. Vin cradled Ezranok in his arms while Chris ordered Josiah back to the hold to continue overseeing the rescue, then called for transport to sick bay for them.

Nathan was just finishing up his treatment when Vin, Chris, and Ezranok materialized in Sickbay.

Looking up, he immediately noted Vin's unconscious burden. "Put him over here," Nathan ordered, patting the bio-bed right beside where the smaller boy Blair lay now sleeping peacefully.

Vin carefully maneuvered the boy onto the bed, arranging arms and legs so that he would be comfortable.

"Nate…" Vin started to try to explain what he, Chris, and Josiah had found out, but Nathan, as sometimes happened when he was in the middle of treatment, tuned him out and activated the sensors without waiting to hear him out. "Doc?"

"What the HELL!" Jackson exclaimed as the readings came up all out of kilter.

Chris grabbed Nathan's arm and ground out, "That's what Vin was trying to tell you." When Nathan finally looked up at him, he continued, "The boy isn't human."

Vin, who had moved over beside Ezranok, gently moved the boy's hair out of his eyes and away from his forehead. Vin didn't say another word, but just looked at Nathan and jerked his head for the doctor to look.

Nathan looked and gasped as he beheld the distinctive features that had been hidden. He stood there stunned for a few moments, then shook himself out of his amazement, to go adjust the settings and norms on this bed's bio-scanners. Reminding himself that this was a child that needed his help, he set aside his memories for the moment and got to business.

Chris, seeing that Nathan now had the information he was going to need to treat the boy, turned to leave, but he stopped after a couple steps when he realized that Vin was not with him.

Vin was standing to one side, out of Nathan's way, with his arms wrapped around his chest and a pained, sorrowful expression on his face. Few people knew that Vin had himself spent time with the Vulcan people, but knowing what he did about them, he feared that they would find that the boy's parents were dead. He could think of no other way that the slavers could have gotten a hold of him.

Chris lightly grasped Vin's arm to get his attention, then jerked his head toward the door. Vin nodded and followed him out.

"What's up, cowboy?" Chris asked, trying to use the nickname to lighten the mood a little.

"We ain't going to find his parents," Vin said quietly. "Vulcans never let their children out of sight for the most part."

"Ezranok might be Romulan," Chris pointed out.

Vin looked at his captain with an exasperated expression on his face. "How'd he get into Federation Space? Romulans maybe a warrior race, but they hate slavery worse than the Federation does. There's no way in hell they would sell a child to anyone."

Chris winced internally at Vin's bald statement. He hoped Vin was wrong, but knew that in all likelihood he wasn't. Chris also knew that if so, it would hit the young man hard, having been orphaned at the age of six himself.

"We'll just have to see," Chris said. "I've got to send a report to Admiral Travis at Star Base 4 and tell him what's going on here, you check in with Buck and Josiah and see how things are going, then set up to tow that hulk out there," Chris waved his hand in the general direction of the cargo vessel, "back to Star Base 4."

"Yes, sir," Vin said as he headed toward the bridge, still subdued.

Chris stopped in the corridor and watched him walk off. He knew this wasn't going to be easy. Vin wasn't one to talk about what he was feeling, his natural reticence having been multiplied by his time with the Vulcans, but right now, it was fairly obvious that the situation had pulled up some bad memories.

What a mess!

Vin went about his assigned tasks mechanically and efficiently, but his mind was far away. The look of fear and hopelessness that had crossed Ezranok's face when he couldn't remember his own name kept flashing in front of his eyes.

After his mother's death, Vin had been bounced around, raised by many different people, and the one thing that he had held on to was her voice telling him never to forget who he was. As he looked at the frightened little boy, he realized he was seeing what might have happened...and it scared the hell out of him.

Vin could remember times his only comfort had been his memories of his mother's face, hands, and voice. Other times things hadn't been so bad, but Vin knew that the worst times he had endured would have been nothing compared to what this boy had lived through. Quite literally Ezranok had nothing left. No name, no identity, no history, nothing. Vin decided right then he was going to do something to fix that.

Grabbing a couple reader cards, Vin strode quickly to his station. Vin stopped and calmed himself as he caught himself about the jam the card into the appropriate slot. After that was accomplished, he placed the first card in the slot.

"Computer, record elementary data Vulcan customs and history, primary schooling level," Vin order the console.

After a few seconds a mechanical voice came back, "Complete."

Vin snatched that one out of the slot and inserted the next.

"Computer, record elementary data concerning the Federation, primary schooling level," Vin instructed this time.

Again a few seconds later, the mechanical voice came back, "Complete."

Vin pulled this one out more slowly, carefully aligning the two in his hands. This would be a start, now he just had to make sure that the boy could read!