Once upon a time.....

[Gentle]

Head clearing....mist clearing........smell not clearing but lessening. A face emerges with wild eyes penetrating the polymer skinfilm that had held the body parts intact. New blue eyes look upon an old world through the plas glass and for the first time the mind behind the eyes are confused. Smiling for the first time in over a century with muscles that belonged to anyone else, whoever, and turning his head to one side a sound emerges. A laugh.... or something like a laugh. Maybe a laugh. A deep breath. A very deep breath. A chuckle. Someone has removed the horror... the things that caused the deep insanity and psychosis. Was it Doc? The man raises in the Plsa suit from the bed. Crinkles of faith and healthcare surrounding him. Once upon a time ....... humanity would have been too much. Once upon a time you would have died for reading this. Once upon a time.... someone would know what to say. A body...human... own DNA......own eyes......past.......haha "past is where it belongs" Gentle sits up and watches the door ....someone is behind it.

---

The Madness of the Pirate King

[Doc Holliday]

Aboard Med.Force.One

The door opened and closed with only the sound of the wisp that opened it. Doc himself was in his smock, a stethoscope over his neck and datapad in his pocket. He moved quietly so as to not disturb the.......man who was his patient.

Months before, he was found by a Zoner transport who had stumbled upon a wrecked Phantom ship. That Zoner must have been bored as most would avoid a Phantom wreck. After all, Phantoms had a reputation of surviving in places not even Nomads could. The report from the Zoner was fairly simple.

He was alive but unconscious. He had no idea who he was. He was just figured it would be useful salvage. A bit of a humanitarian himself, the Zoner brought the "specimen" to the only man who may have a clue of what to do, Dr. John Henry Holliday. Doc never did hear from that Zoner again.

In the months that "the specimen" slept, Doc did manage to learn of his identity. It was the former Corsair pirate, Gentle. Doc could only wonder what transformed him or why. The man he knew and shared a drink with in his own estate long ago over Zoner trade was but a shell of himself. He had heard of the Phantoms and what they had done to people but he was only now witnessing it. He referred the case to his genetics team, to see if they could return Gentle to his former self.

Doc noticed Gentle sitting and watching. Not wanting attention, he shut off the security camera.
"This is Doc," he called into his comm, "I have shut the camera off where I'm at. Nothing is wrong so don't panic. I'll turn it back on shortly."
Although he was unsure of how Gentle would react, he took a seat next to him.

"Gentle, old friend, do you know who I am? I think you do."

---

[MFE]Med Force One | Tales of Recovery|Med Force Enterprises

[Gentle]

"So...it was you" Staring at the new found hair on his arms through human eyes Gentle turned his gaze upon a familiar face. "Fate for whatever reason handed me a calling card with your name on for the second time". Emotion begins to swell in the corsair like no emotion he has felt for over a hundred years. "i dont know what to make of this amigo........" Tears well up in his eyes and drip steadily upon his human skin forming a pool of saline wetness in his cupped hands. "So many families and people I have destroyed... you cant know.. All my reason for being has gone now.... I destroyed everything in my path first for the corsairs and then...for the masters of the dark places...my link to the revenant.....gone...Amigo why do I live?"

Standing for the first time in 2 years Gentle approaches the view panel to look into the stars.

"Do you remember the time I took you aboard the Venganza de la puta to meet my wife senor? I killed her ........ And the time you stopped at my old home at Cadiz where my mother raised me.... I killed her too. The phantoms had a hold of me and I didnt even realise. The atrocities I performed ...you cant imagine what I have to deal with now. Im human now amigo.... This could be the best and worst thing anyone has ever done to me."

Head hanging low Gentle sits and stares into space, regret and fear present like Air in lungs he had forgotten. "What is to become of me?"

---

The Madness of the Pirate King

[Doc Holliday]

Doc stood silently in front of his chair while he listened to Gentle speak. He felt some very heavy empathy. Killing wasn't new to him as he had done it before himself over his life, a long time ago, but being forced to kill his wife and mother was very much unexpected.
He knew a faker when he saw one. You know, the man who says he was sorry but wasn't? He saw no faker in Gentle. He saw a man who was genuinely sorry. He wasn't sure there was much he could do.

The Phantoms weren't entirely new to Doc. Commander Haddock had documentation of encounters with a Phantom who demanded he drop all passengers into space. He refused.
Altered humans weren't new to him either. His old friend, Christopher Dangen, was one. He had a violent past, much as did Gentle, but he saw the human side of them. But for Gentle, he was uncertain. Doc knew the code of honor the Corsair Empire held and enforced. He knew how vengeful they could be. For now, he wasn't near ready to hand him over nor did he intend to.

"I remember," answered Doc softly as he slowly walked up behind him, "I remember your wife well and I remember Cadiz.
He then placed a re-assuring hand on his shoulder, "It wasn't your fault, Amigo." After a pause, he removed went around to the front of him and looked him in the face, both hands at his shoulders. He spoke softly but more firmly, "Amigo, it wasn't your fault!" Again he paused but stayed before him, "I can't say what your future will hold because I don't know but I do know the man you once were. Let me bring him back. Let me help him.

He then removed his hands and stood beside him, looking into the stars. He just looked out as he spoke, "I'm thinking this happened for a reason, Amigo. You were a violent man before the Phantoms. Perhaps this happened to make you realize that even the most powerful amongst us is vulnerable. I think that.....now you understand.
"I also think that you being here has purpose," he continued, "I got some good, first hand knowledge of what the Phantoms do and some of their physiology. The scans, the samples...they all helped....and I'm not finished helping."

He pulled the datapad from his pocket and used the remote function, "I can show you in picture just how far you've come in the short time you were here. I will tell you this, if you hadn't provided me with a DNA sample when you did back at Tombstone, I too would probably be dead right now."

---

[MFE]Med Force One | Tales of Recovery|Med Force Enterprises

[Gentle]

Days passed in silence for the former pirate. Thoughts of suicide drifted like ash on the wind in and out of the forethought of Gentles tormented mind. Efforts made by Doc and his staff to break through with words smashed waves of futility on an endless beach of despair.

Memories of the battles for cadiz under attack simultaneously from SCRA and Hessian forces bring him to his knees. Gentle recalls watching his sons ship destroyed. A single word escapes his clenched jaw through cracked lips. "Sparta...."

That was the last thing he could clearly remember before the voice from the temple of the revenant began to control his thoughts. His sons death. That was the trigger that tipped him over the edge that lead to the massacre of his wife and his genetically modified mother.

A sense of clarity starts to creep into the twisted knot of emotion in Gentles mind. DNA only His mother, his son and Himself. Doc must be truly a genius to be able to replicate DNA strands designed to mutate. Gentles mutations were what interested the Phantoms. His ability to genetically modify to take cybernetic enhancements most humans could not cope with.

Flexing his hands Gentle recalled his longevity had always seems a miracle to the people of Crete but he had known his father Caspar Gonzales had fallen in love with his mother Gina DeLoisi and wanted their love to last forever. His father a genius in his own right had been one of the forerunners of the modern genetics schools but had always been too keen to push the boundaries of what was acceptable experimentation. When he had run out of test subjects he turned to Gentles mother whom he intended to keep young forever. The results of his experiment were beyond his imagination. her cell regeneration and mutation capability were 10,000 times faster than the average human and she began to change before his eyes. Skin changing upon her whim like a chameleon. The real changes took place in her brain. Gina became aware of other peoples thoughts and emotions. Soon she could channel her own thoughts to influence minds not strong enough to resist. Gina saw the darkness in her lover and husband Caspar. Fear overtook her and in desperation she fled Crete aboard a transport headed for kusari space. Gina was drugged by the unscrupulous captain Mendosa and sold into a geisha house in kusari. Gina on arrival at the geisha house was found to be already carrying child and for a while at least was spared her decency until after his birth.

Gentle recalled the day of his birth. Entering the world fully sentient and coherent with all of the knowledge of his mother and the absorbed knowledge of the geisha house and all its visitors. Gentle had some of the gift of his mother and was delivered to his father at Crete.

For weeks his father wept when he looked upon Gentle who smiled at his father with understanding that brought fear from the aging man. The child without full vocal chords began to use sign language to tell his father about his life so far.

Filled with regret for his actions Caspar took his life 6 months after Gentle arrived leaving his fortune to the child.

Gentle sighed deeply. Repressed memories like these could be his salvation... but how to face them. he decided to tell Doc Holliday about his early days. Maybe he could make some sense of his Genetic disposition and help to find a way to stabilise the DNA changes already beginning to mutate this new body.

Gentle pusshed the comms panel and selected Docs callcard.

---

The Madness of the Pirate King

[Doc Holliday]

A security detail came to escort Gentle. Upon entering the room, they informed him that he was being escorted to Doc's personal quarters. The two men weren't.....human but of an alien humanoid race. Maybe Gentle recognized the Klingons, perhaps he didn't. Either way, he was escorted to Doc's quarters where he waited dressed in a fine robe.

Doc's quarters were quite large. A com center consisting of a large desk occupied an area to his right. In the far back corner was a baby grand piano. In front of a large window, overlooking Gran Canaria was a table and chairs. As Gentle would walk about, exploring his surroundings, a door would slide open revealing another area consisting of a bedroom and an extra room with some toys for Doc's children when they were aboard.

"It's my home away from home," Doc said to Gentle, pouring a drink of a clear, red fluid, "so I figured I'd better make it comfortable."
Taking a sip, he then offered Gentle a drink. "I keep things here from all over Sirius and Gallia. Gallic wine, Kusari saki, Liberty Ale, Coalition Vodka and yes, Corsair rum. Please, just don't ask how I get some of it."

The table had two place settings on it and a silver platter with a cover over it. Doc continued, "I thought a change of pace was in order. I asked my wife to make up a dinner of her Mahi fish from Honshu with all the trimmings since no one has disliked it to this point." He smiled and put his hands out, "I think conversation over dinner is a bit more relaxing."

Doc respected Gentle's looking about, wanting him to feel comfortable. The man had been through enough already and his road was far from traveled. He had come this far under Doc's care and he wanted his progress to continue. For the time, he said nothing of his past, nothing of what may come rather, he focused on his mental well being. Some food, some drink and maybe some enjoyment.

---

[MFE]Med Force One | Tales of Recovery|Med Force Enterprises