IN THE BEGINNING

By Juls

RATING: G, safe for all readers.

Summary: Birth of a legend.

DISCLAIMER: Star Trek was created by Gene Roddenberry, belongs to Paramount, and is being used in this story for entertainment purposes only.



IN THE BEGINNING
By Juls

"I will not support you in this! Can't you see how wrong it is?"

"They're inferior. They're like sheep, in need of being tended."

"Is there nothing I can do to change your mind? Do you truly intend to participate in this war?"

"I intend to lead this war, and I will win it, for our kind, Brother!"

"Then it's a war you'll fight without me. I'll have nothing to do with it!"

He, himself, had often been accused of being ruthless, but this was beyond even his cold, clinical view of humanity.

"If you want to reject your heritage, that's your weak decision. Destiny is already in motion!"

"Come with me. We can hide in the steppes. Let destiny take its course and then we can emerge. You'll still have your herd."

"I will not hide. I'm not going to cower in a wasteland when there's a world to conquer! Go!

You disgust me! You're not my brother. My brothers are out there, ready to go to battle, to rule or die beside me. Go hide! And if you survive, when you crawl out of your hole, I'll be your master, too."

"I'll be there, if you decide to follow."

*******

The next time he'd seen his brother, there was silent maddness in his eyes. His campaign had failed. The world might never recover. The Eugenics War was over. There had been no victors, only destruction. No more than a handful of shepherds had survived the stampede of the herd, and now the wolves that had been born of sheep were hunting them. His brother was ready to hide.

What was left of the Earth was too small to conceal them. Perhaps a quick death would have been more merciful, but they had been bred to survive. While his brother had been planning conquest, he had planned their escape. He was ready.

Though willing to save his brother's life, he would not join them. He would remain on Earth, to serve his own sentence. After he'd seen their ship on it's way, he had looked at his own provisions, and wondered if he would find imprisonment or sanctuary. Then, he had entered the same prolonged sleep that shrouded his brother, to hide and hope for a day when humanity could forgive them.

*****

Almost three hundred years passed during his frozen sleep.

When he awoke, the world had healed, but offered no clemency. There was no place for those such as he. He had changed his name and denied his heritage, as his brother always claimed he had done years prior. He'd taken a wife, a gentlewoman, to temper his ambitions. She knew the truth, the history that he had to conceal, and had devoted herself to that end.

When he looked down at his newborn son, he saw only his wife in that tiny face. Perhaps he would escape the aspirations of dominance that had destroyed his bloodline, remaining forever unaware of the superior genetic code that would drive him.

Yet, the child was as engineered he, just as his brother had been; born to exceed past limitations of man. There was no denying that fact! In tribute to their greatness, he would name the babe after his brother.

Their family had been destroyed, even in name. He could no longer pass along the proud name of Singh, so it would be the first name that served as reminder of all he had lost and all he should fear.

Noonien is your name, child. Noonien Soong.


END