2351 July

Tommy's real age is 7, assumed age is 11.

"Do you understand me, son?"

Tom grimaced. "Yes sir! No interruptions whatsoever, under any circumstances."

"And stay out of the library. The Mars colony students and their parents are here today for the tri-annual grand tour of the Academy grounds. They'll be based in the library for the next two days and the staff don't need you underfoot as well."

"Yes sir." Tom worked to keep a bland, rather than mutinous expression on his face. And if you'd let me go away for summer camp with all my friends instead of forcing me do more extension classes then I wouldn't be here to be underfoot."

"Fine. I'll only be a couple of hours." Reassured that his son would be out of everyone's hair for the duration, Owen walked rapidly away. Once out of earshot and eyesight he stopped and sighed. Keeping Tom out of Julia's line of fire took a lot of energy and effort. More than he could really afford. If only the woman wouldn't make her dislike of the boy so obvious. Would it really have been so bad to let Tom go to summer camp. It's been three years since the accident; even longer since I took care of the 'paper trail'. And I did that just as soon as Dean Wetherby and the other admirals caught Tom using the simulators all those years ago. No one suspects Tommy's real age. Why should they? Owen growled softly. If anything, it was Julia's insistence on isolating Tom socially that would finally be the undoing of them.

His communicator beeped.

"Admiral, everyone has arrived and are awaiting your attendance to begin the presentation."

"Thank you, Ellis. On my way."

With one last glance behind him, Owen put the issues with his son behind him. Being late for his own meeting would not be a good start to the latest admission's drive.

Owen was just making his closing statements and preparing to open the session up for a question and answer time when the explosion was heard and the alarms went off. Owen gave the command to get the facility evacuated to the safe houses and then tapped his communicator badge.

"Owen Paris to Tom Paris."

After a full minute of silence, Owen tried again. "Owen Paris to Tom Paris."

Thirty seconds later his comm badge chirped. "Security to Admiral Paris"

"Paris"

"Admiral, this is Lt Anders. We just found your son standing guard over some attempted terrorists."

"My son was doing what? How did that happen?"

"We're not sure of the details, sir."

"Hell! Is he okay? He hasn't been answering my hails."

Owen took a sharp breath as silence answered his query. "Lieutenant?"

"Yes sir, I'm here. Sir, it appears your son lost his communication badge during a scuffle with one of brigands."

"But he's okay?"

"Actually sir, he has sustained some rather serious damage in the event. I'm amazed he was able stay conscious, focused and dangerous enough to protect the other hostages until help arrived."

"Hostages? What hostages?"

"Aaaah. Yes, sir. It will all be in the security report once the details are ascertained. But, the most important thing right now, of course is that no one was killed."

"And my son?"

"Still unconscious sir, but stabilised, and about to be transported straight to medical. They'll want you there as soon as possible; but for now Lt Hendrix is with him and has offered to coordinate with the doctors concerning treatment options until you get there."

Owen ground his teeth at the dreaded name. He hated the idea of that Hendrix woman being the one to go to 'Tom's rescue.' Tom still didn't have his original memories back and regularly made his resentment at being taken away from his 'foster parents' obvious at every turn. Unfortunately, I'm acting head of this facility this weekend. Now that I know Tom is safe, my first priority has to be the safety of the Mars delegation and my staff. "That's fine, lieutenant. Please ask Lt Hendrix to keep me informed and to comm. me straight away if any serious decisions need to be made surgically."

"Yes sir."

Owen tapped his communication badge closed. After a calming breath he schooled his features before looking across to his personal admin. assistant and personal security team. "Let's go Ellis. Make sure that Medical know to keep me in the loop and organize Danvers to come and trail me. If my son takes a turn for the worse and needs me, I want to be able to get away and be there for him."

"Yes sir."

"Mitchell, Davis, You're with me."

A.N. Just one more chapter in this story about Tom's pre-teen years.

Reviews, even one or two words long, would be really appreciated.