LtJG Jovenan – In the deep end
Jovenan
((Morgue, Deck 7, USS Artemis))
To be entirely honest to herself, Jovenan found dead bodies rather appalling. She would have loved to help if an elderly or injured family member couldn’t wash themselves. She would have done so to a friend as well, although all her friends were offworlders, and offworlders tended to make normal interactions weird for no apparent reason. But washing a dead person, a corpse? She found out that she had difficulty in proceeding to do so. Luckily, PO Black, who acted as the officiant of this ritual and their guide, seemed to be understanding of her hesitation and had offered her wise words, although she didn’t quite understand the meaning of them all. Doctor Adea didn’t seem to struggle as much as she did, but his medical profession most likely had made him more comfortable with, uh, bodies.
Continuing to wash what had been the leg of an alternate universe counterpart of a new ensign, Jovenan tried to learn more about the rituals surrounding death of this culture, while also distracting herself from what she was doing.
Jovenan: Could you please tell what happens after this ritual? Will the body be buried, and will there be other parts in the overall ceremony?
Black: ::chuckled softly:: We will follow the Federation policy and shoot him into space without ceremony, correct, Commander? ::looked at Jovenan:: He's something his people call afikursus, a heretic. Jaseb's people would never accept the body for proper burial into the ground, as it should be buried. ::combs and straightens J's hair:: What do you think? Space burial sounds better than to be burned in a steel furnace, isn't it?
Jovenan found it sad that they seemed to have different rules for “heretics”, even at death. PO Black combing alternate Jaseb’s hair and seemingly talking to him, however, appeared a rather lovely gesture, although she wasn’t sure if the deceased could hear those words even in their belief system.
Black: But for the second question. After that nothing. Except the fact Jaseb is holding his shivar. That is a three days long intense mourning period for the family member who passed away. It's a sad and nice time in the life of his people, a time when they support each other together as a community. You can visit him, if you want, and bring him some food of consolation. Nothing more is expected, just to be a comforting presence in mourning during this period. You do not need an invitation, everyone is welcomed.
Well, that explained why their version of Ensign Chevalier wasn’t present in the ritual. After washing the remains of the alternate Jaseb, she thought she might as well visit the living one, although she didn’t know him at all and worried her appearing to his quarters at random during his mourning might have been awkward.
Since PO Black didn’t seem to mind them questioning him constantly during a solemn ritual, she decided to ask one more, less practical one than the previous.
Jovenan: How about the, um, spirit? Soul? You mentioned the afterlife. Could you tell about that?
Black: For this I have no direct answer. Only the dead know what will happen after death, Lieutenant. For you to understand - teaching of Sanctum Transpoli is more like a cult than open catachic religion. They can live around you for two hundred years, give you magical gifts of technology and education as they gave to us, but this question is something that they don't talk about with nonbelievers. Closest to answer is what once told me a priest of Sanctum Transpoli as he reprimanded me for my rebellious attitude when I was a student. He thought I was one of them, not an outsider - „Believe in One Machine, boy, and you will ascend in the age of death from these hollow remains of flesh and blood to share your knowledge and life with those who loved you once and still live.” - But what he meant by this, I don't know and I cannot answer.
Jovenan frowned a little. That wasn’t as clear of an answer as she had hoped for. Sure, many religions were vague in that aspect, and revealing religious secrets only to insiders was also not a rarity among them, but she was curious about the culture and mythology surrounding these people. Perhaps not all curiosities were meant to be satisfied.
Black: Commander, lieutenant, what's your opinion? What do we become after we die?
Adea: Well in the Betazoid religion, we are sorted into the four heavens… or the four hells.
Doctor Adea was first to answer. Jovenan had taken some Betazoid language courses in the Academy, and since those domains of the afterlife popped up in some Betazoid expressions, she had at least heard of them before. That being said, she didn’t know much else about them.
Black: Response
Adea: Not sure I would necessarily agree though, but I’ve never been terribly devout. More spiritually adjacent in my beliefs.
Jovenan nodded. She found herself opposite of him in some respects, although it might have been more of a matter of semantics since comparison of Betazoid and Edo philosophies was difficult with her very limited cultural education.
Black: Response
Jovenan: Well, uh, some of the Edo believe in spirits and all that. The spirits of the dead are thought to eventually fade in as a part of the nature and continue strengthening the community that way, although the spirits of criminals or their victims might take time or require convincing first.
Black/Adea: Response
Still continuing the washing ritual, which she hoped was closing to its end, she thought for a moment how to express her thoughts. She didn’t want to unintentionally cause an insult to either of her companions, or the deceased for that matter. After all, this was essentially a religious or at least a cultural ritual they were taking a part in.
Jovenan: It’s not as much a matter of religion as it is of spirituality. We consider transdimensional lifeforms in our orbit our God. Even Starfleet has interacted with them. Meanwhile, I’m personally, um, not fully convinced that the tales about spirits in my culture are entirely accurate.
She tried smiling apologetically after finding a fairly diplomatic way to express her personal beliefs. She couldn’t help but thinking about her sister from the other universe. In this reality, Jovenan’s request to relocate to Hurkos in order to study there had been subjected to the whims of their God, but otherwise they weren’t really present in the everyday life. Meanwhile, in the other universe, the Edo had what they called a “Divine Fleet” and seemed to think of themselves as the instrument of their will, not to mention gaining information directly from them. She wondered what the other Jovenan had thought about death and what came after it.
Black/Adea: Response
They were moving on with washing the body. Jovenan wanted to turn the conversation back to the ritual at hand and maybe learn more about it.
Jovenan: The next part was clothing him, do I remember correctly? Does that have a special meaning to it, or anything we should know?
Black/Adea: Response
((OOC: I’m sure you all understand this, but it doesn’t hurt to say it out loud: Everything what Jovenan says or thinks about religions or worldviews is entirely fictional and doesn’t (necessarily) represent what I think. I’m not making metaphors or analogues to real-life religions in this sim. Thanks!))
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Lieutenant JG Jovenan
Assistant Chief Science Officer
USS Artemis-A
E239911J11