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Johann's Quarters- Unexpected Messages

Posted June 23, 2022, 12:28 p.m. by Captain Johann Dvorak (CO) (Joe P)

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Vora Zorell (Scientist) in Johann’s Quarters- Unexpected Messages

Posted by Captain Johann Dvorak (CO) in Johann’s Quarters- Unexpected Messages

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Vora Zorell (Scientist) in Johann’s Quarters- Unexpected Messages
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

Johann noticed that Vora looked like she had something to say, but didn’t. He wasn’t sure how to read that because that was something he had never seen her do before. Rather than stop to probe, he decided to simply continue the conversation; it would either make sense or not.

“It’s also something you could ask him about,” he said eventually. “I mean, I think we’ve found out enough about him to know he’s not a dangerous crackpot or something, assuming he actually did write this letter.” That was a safe assumption since the authenticity of the subspace message’s origin point could be trivially determined. He would make sure to do that a little later.

“I agree,” she said softly. The nuances of that message were not lost on her and her instincts told her that Kiero Roden was a good person. Someone she might want to get to know.

“I don’t know how you want to play it. With the anonymity of your authorship, I mean. But you could write him back. Meanwhile I can see if we can get the ship to head to Tenra.” It was in the Black Fleet’s area of operations, and Starfleet ships did visit the planet regularly despite Tenra not being a member (yet) of the Federation.

– Johann Dvorak, CO

A startled expression crossed Vora’s pale yellow face. “You would do that? You would go to Tenra? But why?” The words slipped out before she fully realized how they might sound. Even if it was a reasonable question, she sounded… defensive? Wary? “You were willing to put our wedding on hold because of someone I don’t know but am likely genetically linked to, but now that he seems okay, we can just hop on over to a planet full of people I’ve had interesting interactions with and that’s okay? I don’t mean to sound incredulous, but I guess I’m confused.”

~Vora Zorell, Sciences

“Well, I assumed you wanted to meet the guy,” Johann said reflexively, confused as to what seemed to bother her. “We don’t have to go to Tenra.”

Further confusion played across her face. She wanted to go, didn’t she? Except for the part where she had avoided it so far except in the most dire of circumstances, and that trip had cost her friend her life.

After a brief moment, he realized that he didn’t explicitly articulate why he thought they had to at least pause their wedding for a little bit until they knew more. “It’s two different types of risk we need to assess. You being ‘genetically linked’ to this gentleman has consequences we don’t understand. I mean, legal consequences. Stuff like how property and inheritance work. Stuff humans don’t feel the need to think about all that often these days, because most of us don’t really need to care about wealth anymore. You need to care about that if you’re this guy’s daughter, if only because other people on Tenra will. When we are married,” he seemed to emphasize the ‘when’ somewhat strongly, “I will need to understand that also. And how Tenra’s law interacts with Federation or Earth law.”

“Does that make more sense?” he asked.

– Johann Dvorak, CO

“It does,” she said with a slow nod. “We dealt with it already with Cortallo though. I refused to get involved. I’m sure there have been consequences for that, and they could be a factor we should be cautious about if we go. If my being his daughter changes something, what if I don’t care? What if I don’t want any of it. Because I don’t Johann.” But there was Jerrin to think about. If she inherited things, then so would he through her. Family legacies and all that.

“Well, it’s not just you,” he said. “This is going to impact Jerrin and we don’t even know how yet.” He could sympathize with not wanting any of it though; it wasn’t something they’d particularly need.

Bracing her arms on the desk, she rested her head in her hands, pale yellow fingers sliding into her fluffy cherry hair. “I’ve spent so long avoiding Tenra but suddenly it’s like I don’t really know it at all. Because I don’t.” She turned her head to gaze at him. “I want to go. I want to meet this man, find out for sure what it means for our life. But I have to be honest, I’m scared, Johann. I’m scared what it all might mean. I’m scared when these people learn about who I am and what my life was like before that I will be rejected. I’m scared that you’ll get to see something else about my people and maybe you don’t really be a part of that. I mean, let’s face it, we’re in a nice isolated bubble here. I tossed so much at you before thinking it would be too much, that’s you’d rightly walk away. But you didn’t and you amazed me and I got to finally feel at ease. It’s been along time since I felt so self conscious, but I’m scared we’ll find a reason we can’t be together. We’ve not rushed to get married but now I’m scared it’s not going to happen.”

~Vora Zorell, Sciences

“We’ll still get married,” Johann said simply. “It’s just a wrinkle we need to understand fully. Frankly, it can’t be any worse than anything else we’ve already dealt with.” Despite saying the word “frankly” he was still not frank enough to explicitly point out that their isolated bubble had already been invaded by a criminal that she ended up killing in self defense, with whom she had a son previously, who was now living with her. Which would be a pretty big reason for most people to not be together. That’s way more drama than most people would put up with, and it technically involved Vora lying to him about whether she even had a son, which was also something a lot of people would put up with either in ordinary circumstances. Vora’s circumstances were never ordinary…

“I mean, ‘surprise, you have a long lost rich dad!’ isn’t typically a reason people don’t get married. It does affect how they get married. That’s really the only reason we would need to pause, to make sure we have the ‘how’ right. I’m pretty sure there is a ‘how’ that would make all of this not-our-problem too, but we may need to ask a lawyer about that sort of thing.” He actually did know one, but the specialty there was interstellar intellectual property law. He probably knows a guy, Johann thought.

“We could just keep our bubble, you know. Have him meet us somewhere in space. I’m sure interstellar travel is within his means.”

– Johann Dvorak, CO


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