Posted by Lieutenant Siennadye Nox (Counselor) in Arboretum - Sienna Comes Clean

Posted by Captain Johann Dvorak (CO) in Arboretum - Sienna Comes Clean

Posted by Lieutenant Siennadye Nox (Counselor) in Arboretum - Sienna Comes Clean
Posted by… suppressed (4) by the Post Ghost! 👻
SNIP

Siennadye turned from the cherry blossoms to look at the spitting image of her husband. Her eyes to in his outfit and the corner of her lips twitched to a hint of a smile. She knew exactly the image he was conveying by his outfit.

“Hello.” She replied before pausing for a long moment. How could she start this conversation? The millions of run-throughs fled her mind, giving her no help at all now that she was standing before him and the time for them to talk had come. Sienna stepped forward a pace and her hands lifted on either side of her, palms up. “I had hoped you would never know.... then again, I had hoped to be back home by now.” She dropped one hand in a frustrated gesture and ran her other hand through her hair with a sigh.

Nox, CNS

“Yes,” he said simply. “It’s understandable.”

It was too easy for him to understand. He remembered why he left the Korolev; it wasn’t just because he was angling for promotion. People didn’t treat him the same after the accident. He needed to get away from the specter that haunted everyone around him on that ship. The only way he could have stayed, was if someone wasn’t haunted by it. Someone… special…

“I told Vora what I thought happened. The… short… version.”

– Johann Dvorak, CO

“I am assuming the short version being that your counterpart and I met on the Korolev where we became involved and later married, leading to a shift of opinion of him on the ship. Therefore it was easy for him to remain on board and become Captain there. He was respected and effective as a leader there. Obviously if he had been transfered to the Europa instead, I would have gone with him. Is that your understanding?”

She was careful to use the term “him” to refer to her husband as a way to differentiate between them. It was so weird finally talking about him to the Johann here especially since she had to keep herself from reaching out to touch him or engage in anything that might be construed as inappropriate. All she really wanted was to be held and cry for a while. It wasn’t going to happen though. So, as she had bee. Doing since arriving, she tried to make things easy for him.

Nox, CNS

“Basically,” Johann said. “I imagine… he… must not have sought the transfer in the first place.”

She smiled sadly and nodded confirmation.

“You met him off duty, somehow. That’s the only way it could have worked. I’m thinking it was probably a few months after that particular away mission. Just long enough for… him… to be up and about, and back on duty. You must have introduced yourself, some time shortly after you were assigned to the ship. That would have been… difficult… during that time. But you had an… advantage… nobody else did, I take it?”

– Johann Dvorak, CO

“Yes. Basically. We had a connection even though we had never met. I felt his frustration at the implants. He was never my patient, but I helped anyway.” She smiled
with less sadness as she thought back to the day they met. “I think he was intrigued enough by me to take his mind off his implants.”

Nox, cns

“Probably,” Johann said. “I’m guessing that you were also the only person on the ship who wasn’t treating him with pity or dread.”

She grimaced, knowing that this Johann must have dealt with it more than her husband due to her presence on the Korolev. She knew and understood the pain of it and also knew that this Johann never really faced it.

There was still a bit of bitterness at the thought of it. Like most of the things that he just didn’t feel like dealing with, he had shelved it. That was very effective for things that didn’t need to be actively confronted; he’d quickly forget about whatever it was, tucked away in its tidy little compartment.

What were you wearing? The question popped into his head, a passing idle curiosity. Almost immediately he regretted it; he wasn’t actually interested in the answer and he certainly did not intend to ask it.

She took in a breath and looked away as his errant thought hit her mind. There were downsides to the connection they had. He wasn’t going to ask it aloud, she was certain of that. Even if he had the gall to ask, she wouldn’t have answered that she had been in her nightgown and had been bare foot.

“So, I know now. As does my fiancee. Now you know what we know, so all of us are on the same page. Do we need to actually… do anything… with this information?”

– Johann Dvorak, CO

Her dark eyes returned to his and she shrugged. “I don’t imagine there is anything to be done. You are not my husband and even if I was interested in pursuing some version of my life here due to the near identical person you are to him, you are not free to do so… and I am not wanting a facsimile of my life before.”

Simple enough, he thought. But simple didn’t mean easy.

“Do you or Vora imagine I am simply biding my time until I could steal you away?” She wanted her question to be light and almost managed it though there was a bitter edge to it. Sienna had done everything she could to prevent Johann or Vora from ever having to deal with this uncomfortable situation. She had lied and remained apart from everyone so that she would not burden them with her sadness. She had worked hard to garner trust and respect among the whole crew while dealing with the ghost of the previous XO and silently suffered for over two years. She felt a little hurt that Johann and Vora might feel she was out to find a replacement husband.

Nox, CNS

“Pfft, no,” he said, chuckling slightly. “No, we imagined that you just didn’t want this to be a problem. It’s pretty clear that your evil plan was to simply suffer in silence indefinitely.” He was trying to mirror her own attempt at levity, though it didn’t sound right. Probably because it wasn’t something to be light about.

“I didn’t mean to ridicule or trivialize that,” he said a second later. She probably knew, but it was the sort of thing one had to be sensitive about.

– Johann Dvorak, CO