Editing Eric McDermott (section)

==Childhood:==

Eric Vitellius Devries was born to [[Wilhelmina Devries]] on Stardate 2380.08.04 on Arega IV where Devries was serving a term of imprisonment for smuggling stolen archeological artifacts. While Federation officials tried to convince Devries to give the young boy up for adoption when she was released a year later, Devries refused taking the boy with her. 

Much of Devries' early years were spent in space on one broken down freighter or another that his mother managed to acquire, steal or obtain a position on. Wilhelmina was a brutal woman who has been nothing more than a career criminal all of her life. She has outstanding warrants for extortion, blackmail, smuggling, theft, espionage, and hijacking as well as for several murders. 

Devries grew up in an environment in which brutal beatings for the smallest of failures was commonplace. As such he learned to stay out of sight, show no signs of weakness or emotion of any type and to complete any task assigned to him quickly and completely. At the age of twelve while staying in a cheap apartment on Earth during a layover, Eric made the mistake of trying to defend himself during one of his mother’s rages and was nearly beaten to death in the process. It was only the intervention of a neighbor that allowed him to be beamed to a Federation Medical facility and the medical treatment that saved his life. 

Devries spent the rest of his childhood in an Earth Boarding School and Research Facility known as the Seattle [[Tavis Academy]] where teachers and councilors tried, with little success, to help the boy come to terms with his past and put it behind him. It was during this time that Devries developed an almost obsessive distrust of telepaths and empaths, specifically Betazoids. It was also during this time the boy began training almost obsessively in both Aikido and Kendo. 

Just before the Eric’s sixteenth birthday investigators finally discovered the identity of his father, a Star Fleet Commander by the name of [[Roderick J. McDermott]]. Unfortunately Eric’s father was killed only weeks before a meeting could be arranged between the two. 

As soon as Eric came of age he legally took his fathers last name, becoming Eric Vitellius McDermott and after several months of working odd jobs decided on college.