Well here we are. This idea hit me couple of days ago and it wouldn't leave. With that it's time to throw my proverbial hat into this rather crowded ring. Hope you all enjoy the result.

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The origins of the man known to history as Commander Shepard are simultaneously the most well known and most mysterious part of his most extraordinary tale. The facts themselves are not in dispute but the questions they raise most definitely are.

Here is what we know; on April 1st 2155 upon the newly colonised world of Mindoir (A far cry from the modern Mindoir, or Humanity's Second Home as it's often referred to) the small handful of residences were woken in the small hours by an almighty crash. Some feared some sort catastrophic accident at the Colony landing zone, others, noting the date, suspected a student prank. As it turned out it was neither. Barely a few hundred meters from the colony, on what had once been a field of corn now lay a vast, smoking crater. The reaction of the pyjama clad colonists was varied, some cursed the sudden wake up call, some were relieved at what looked to be a near miss and others could only stare. As the discussion continued two of their number crept towards the edge of the crater. The young couple had not gone more than a few steps before they cried out "There's something in the crater!"

What followed was an understandable, but ill advised, charge by over half the colony to see what it was. The couple had a head start but before long the source of interest was surrounded by curious onlookers.

The First thing I remember was the smell; burnt metal through the smoky haze. It was almost overpowering, several others pulled back unable to stomach it but my curiosity was piqued. As the debris in the air began to clear I saw flashes of silver, took me a few seconds to work out that was indeed metal. I'm no expert but I've never seen an alloy like it. Whatever shape it was before the crash it was totally unrecognisable, but it was somehow all still in one piece. Then right at the heart of it, I saw him.

Interview of Engineer Derek Jackson The Star Chronicle 7th April 2155, extract from 'The Miracle Baby of Mindoir' article.

Though the exact timing is a matter of some debate, by far the most popular version of the story is that the young couple who first looked into the crater were also the first to see the baby boy. He, as all versions agree, was completely uninjured and appeared utterly undeterred by his crash landing or the crowd of people around him. Indeed he was preoccupied, as so many other babies are, by gnawing on his foot.

After the initial surprise wore off some colonists were reluctant to go any closer to tangled metal mess, to most however retrieving the baby, and getting him checked by a medic, was top priority. The Medic in question, Dr. Kate Lang, was already on scene and carried the squirming baby back to clinic. She noted later that this rather difficult, in part because the rest of the crowd followed her all the way, but also the baby was unusually strong. Once she finally made it to her station, and forced everyone to wait outside, she got to work. She remained in her clinic for the rest of the night.

When Dr Lang re-emerged the next the next morning, she looked, as one observer put it, 'like someone who had been shaken to their very core'. When asked by the anxious members of the crowd if the baby was alright she replied,

"He's fine, he's perfectly fine,"

And then, almost to herself, but repeated so often afterwards, she said,

"He is perfect."

The full ramifications of that statement would not be known to the general public for another fifteen years.

Nevertheless the unexplained and somewhat miraculous arrival of the baby to the quiet colony provoked considerable media interest. Thankfully for him, and quite possibly the whole galaxy, his adopted parents proved exceptionally tenacious in their defence of his privacy, and ensured that he had as normal an upbringing as possible. For it was the young couple that first found him, George and Indira Shepard, who decided to take the baby in. Dr Lang had confirmed that her own DNA scans showed that the baby had no known relatives, though she took great care to avoid going into details. Without any biological links to go on the matter was settled, at least in practical terms, fairly quickly. Of course that did not stop the press; however with baby's new legal guardians both being ex military (that was how they met) with distinguished service records and, if the rumours were true, a considerable number of 'souvenirs' from their former career path, most journalists kept a sensible distance.

Even without access however the interest remained. Articles and theories by the thousand were written. In an era before first contact was made, at least with living aliens rather than Prothean remains, theories around alien abductions and experimentation on humans were common. Others pointed to virtually every major Government, Military, Black ops (both real and nonexistent) and Business group in an attempt to explain the strange story. These arguments have persisted ever since.

When the headline broke that George and Indira Shepard were given full legal custody and had chosen to name their new son Alexander, an online poll was commissioned as to what the baby's name ought to be instead. Perhaps unsurprisingly the winning answer was 'Superman'. 'Clark Kent' was a close second. This joke would persist for many years, so much so that when a ten year old Alex Shepard met the CEO of DC Comics, after winning a writing contest, the businessman jokingly threatened to sue him for copyright infringement. Shepard, in equally light-hearted manner, replied that would pay that bill by putting all his brainpower into becoming a writer for Marvel. The CEO, having read the boy's work, immediately backed down.

Little did anyone realise at the time how close this joke was to reality.

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