Posted May 12, 2022, 3:10 p.m. by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) (Lucas Foxley)
It had been two weeks since the proposal, long enough that the irritatingly invasive questions had slowed to a near stop. Life and work had mostly gone back to normal, save for the wedding discussions and the start of planning - where the wedding should be, when, and what kind of wedding. Roman still hadn’t said anything new about his family. Roman was his typical self.
Then there was a letter for him, from Earth. Received with the rest of the mail, Roman read it with his PaDD at his desk in the lab.
Dear Roman,
I’m sorry we haven’t spoken often in these last few years. Jason’s passing has been hard on both of us. I hope you are doing well yourself. I am not sure if Eleanor and Franklin have contacted you regarding the recent events here on Earth, and so to be sure you were aware, I’ve decided to write to you myself.
Your older brother, David, was murdered at his home about a week and a half ago. The police have been investigating, but I don’t believe they have any leads on who the responsible party is. If I had more information, I would give it to you, but we haven’t spoken to your parents in many years, and we aren’t family, so what they’ll tell us is minimal. If I or Henry hear anything else, I’ll write to you again.
We’ve missed you,
Maryann and Henry Caliano
Roman stared at the letter for a few minutes, rereading the short bit of text a couple of times. He couldn’t decide how he felt about the news. Or receiving the letter at all. Part of him wished they’d just left him in blissful ignorance to enjoy his happiness with Rand (not that anyone on Earth knew about that yet). He decided he wanted to forget about it. He hadn’t spoken to his brother in fourteen years. It had little to do with him, this many light years away from there. It wasn’t really his problem at all, was it? No. Brother or no, he’d abandoned Roman long ago, the lot of them had. He stuffed the data disk into his pocket, snatched a stack of reports from his desk, and got to work.
~ Roman
© 1991-2024 STF. Terms of Service
Version 1.15.11
RSS Feed