Posted May 13, 2022, 5:09 p.m. by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) (Lucas Foxley)
Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in Side sim: The Problem Family
Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in Side sim: The Problem Family
Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in Side sim: The Problem Family
Posted by… suppressed (7) by the Post Ghost! 👻
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 CalianoRoman 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
It had been two weeks, and Rand was contentedly happy. She hadn’t had one anxiety attack the whole time. Nothing could bother her right now, not even Cpt Rogers. Not even her family’s utter astonishment that she was engaged. They hadn’t known that Rand was even dating anyone seriously. She had mentioned Roman a few times in letters to her parents, but she was just really private and never shared much of her dating life with her parents. Rand felt horrible about that. It wasn’t that it was a secret, but when she thought about family and who she would tell things to, it was Randy and Randy did know. Her parents were very eager to meet him.
Not even Randy’s constant teasing and bombardment of wedding planning questions could set off her anxiety. And, secretly, one of the best parts was Scott still didn’t know. Rand entered the lab at lunch, like always for her second hour with Nibbles. The interactions had become very routine, which the mouse seemed to like, but Rand wondered if she should be doing something more with her. She assumed though, the lab personnel would tell her if she needed to. She set her PaDD down near her console and then stopped on the way to wash her hands before opening the enclosure. Roman was attacking his paperwork like it had defeated him in Jiu Jitsu. “Cousin of Mr Dummy?”
Rand
Roman looked up, smiled just a little, and shook his head. “I just don’t have time for all these reports. Three projects finished off at the same time, two reports of habitable planets, a request for my stellar cartography department to look over something, departmental supply requisition forms, leave requests, shift preference requests, new project reports,” he listed a few other things, both CSO and XO related. “I can do one person’s worth of paperwork, not three,” he complained. He wasn’t as busy as he had been when they’d been between COs, it certainly wasn’t the most paperwork ever (though it was a sizeable stack), he was just in a bad mood and didn’t want to put up with it without some English whining to go with it.
~ Roman
Rand’s eyes went wide for a moment. Wow something was bothering him. Roman’s accent only got that strong and “whinny” if something was wrong. Whatever it was though, they wouldn’t talk about it here though. “Do you want some help?” Rand couldn’t give approval for anything but she could input the information fairly quickly or look up anything he needed information on.
Rand
Roman sighed and nodded, moving over a little so she wouldn’t have to reach around him to get to the paperwork. The news still didn’t feel real, but the Calianos wouldn’t tell him that if it wasn’t true. Not only was he whiny about the paperwork, but distracted from it, and that made him slower at finishing it as they worked.
~ Roman
Rand started with the three finished projects. There was a standard form used and then Roman would either approve or send back for further study. So it was a quick matter of copying the different summary sections of the full report to the form and then a library search to see if there was any new studies/discoveries that would apply. Then Roman just had to read the form (he could of course go back and read the more elaborated details of each section if he chose or needed). Then the two reports of habitable planets were tricky. Rand had to pull up their current course, the location of the planet and then send a request to navigation to find out how long it would take to divert to the planets. Then that information was put into the report for Roman to check. That kind of approval though would need Rogers’ final approval to deviate off course. Roman just had to decide if he thought it was a viable detour. The request for stellar cartography was similar, but didn’t require a landing party and materials and several days detour to conduct the studies. It was just a few hours of study time at the actual location. The destination was actually closer and more like a swerve along their course rather than a detour.
The supply request wasn’t hard. Rand helped the quarter master with these all the time. Several of the items were actually onboard, just in storage and so it was a quick conversation with Chief Helpful to look up the locations and have the supplies sent to the labs. The rest of it was typical requests and Rand was able to cross reference the supply allotment tables for it. However there were two items Rand didn’t know what they were or what they were for and had to leave that to Roman to decide what to do.
By the time she got that done her lunch hour was over and she didn’t have time to help with the rest. Of course it didn’t help that Roman was more distracted than usual, but it was absolutely not her place, on duty, to say something about it. She didn’t know what it was, it wasn’t sleep, he’d been sleeping fine. But she’d worry about it later. She peeked in at Nibbles, pet her briefly, fed her, and then grabbed her PaDD and hurried off to her next task for the day.Rand
Roman took each thing she finished and either signed off or did what he had to do with it. One of the planets was too out of the way for a detour, the other he passed on for Rogers’ review, along with the stellar cartography swerve. The rest of his paperwork took him the rest of the day. When Rand came to get him, he was still working. His usual tactic of avoiding himself by working. He had a sample in front of him, something from the goo lizard but not her goo. Rather, something he thought might be used in the production of the goo. He had a lab journal open next to him, and he was furiously scribbling notes. Then looking back at the equipment he was using. Then scribbling notes again.
~ Roman
Rand didn’t disturb him when she came in. He was intensely concentrated on what he was doing. So instead she walked over to the desk, but he’d finished all the reports, so that mean she could make up some of her time with Nibbles.
Rand
Roman didn’t notice her until nearly an hour later. She was playing with Nibbles and he smiled. “How long have you been there?” He asked as he started closing up his notes and cleaning up his area.
~ Roman
Rand glanced over at him briefly and back to the mouse. Lately it had become an issue to take her eyes off of Nibbles. The mouse was determined to either get out or just stay with Rand. She wasn’t sure which, and would try to climb. “Almost an hour.” She reached in and tried to pick Nibbles up, who was having none of that, so Rand, to Nibbles irritation, just slipped the sleeve off. At that point Nibbles was willing to let go of it and Rand was able to remove it while she distracted Nibbles with her favorite berries. She began cleaning up, jotting down her notes, and then washed her hands and arms, anywhere Nibbles touched. Rand didn’t want Pipkin or Nibbles getting each other sick because she was careless. “Making any progress?” she asked Roman as he cleaned up. He must have for as furiously as he’d been taking notes, or at least on the edge of progress.
Rand
“Sorry,” he apologized as he finished cleaning up and then went to her. “I’m studying one of the components that makes the goo lizard… gooey. One of the components of the acidic goo she coats herself in. But no, I haven’t made much progress on it yet.” He said. “Are you ready for dinner?” There was another good way to keep his mind off it, spending time with Rand.
~ Roman
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