LtJG Jovenan – You'll be with me for as long as I remember you
Jovenan
((Elysium, Deck 6, USS Artemis))
Jones: I'm sure that was quite the jolt - to go from gaining someone with whom you feel like there's so much in common to losing them in such a short time. I won't pretend I know what it's like, but losing someone you care about hurts like nothing else can. How are you processing it all?
Jovenan poked her salad with the fork, haphazardly trying to catch a crouton with its point. She had already discussed her finding and subsequently losing her sister with a few other people, but it was different with her brother. He was closer to her than anyone on the ship, and what had happened to him had also caused much worry to her.
Jovenan: I- I have cried several nights. About my sister. About the scientist who also died in the attack. ::looks into his eyes:: About you, brother. I thought I would lose you.
Jones: ::deep breath:: To be honest, I wasn't sure if I was going to see the inside of this lounge again.
She nodded. Losing him completely would have crushed her. It had been a real chance that it would have happened, too. From what she had heard, Hiro had been close to death, or maybe even beyond it at one point. It was terrifying how many things in life were figuratively at the whims of a dice.
Jones: But here we are
Jovenan raised her eyes to meet his gaze again.
Jovenan: ::smiles:: Yes, we are.
Jones: I know you know it, but just so it's been said, it doesn't matter whether I'm in the next room over, three decks away, or across the galaxy. Heck, even if I were to die, you'd never lose me. I don't think it's truly possible to fully lose someone we love. People like that make a mark on our hearts that can't be scrubbed away by things as temporal as distance or death.
Looking at him and then her salad, she considered his words. She had many joyful memories with Hiro: stargazing in the null-gravity astrometrics, the movie night, showing him the sensor pod, crying, cooking, playing, talking… But she cherished every memory she had with him, from the free jump from the Excal to DS224 to this day. She also had many memories of other people who were no longer in her life, the likes of Luxa, Commander Niac, Commodore Nicholotti. She’d always have the memories of them. And like with them, she wouldn’t be certain she could serve with him to the end of days, but she’d always have those memories.
Jovenan: Thank you, Hiro. You’re right. I guess I was just scared I wouldn’t be able to make any more new memories with you.
After saying that, she shifted her focus to her meal again. Her appetite was finally returning.
Jones: So how have things been since bidding the rest of our visitors adieux? I've been so bored being constrained to that biobed. I want to hear everything.
She thought for a few seconds. Most of the stuff she had been up to during that time had been rather depressing and uninteresting. Writing and reading reports concerning the death or injury of many, many people, studying the effects of ripping a hole in the multiverse, trying to work out the vulnerabilities of the Hazardous Materials Lab and their other facilities. But there were a few things she was sure would interest him.
Jovenan: Oh, I got to wash a dead person.
Jones: Response
Jovenan: Yeah. It was one of the counterparts, someone named Jaseb. He and our Jaseb, Ensign Chevalier, are part of a religion that require the ritual washing of the body. It was very solemn, and I’m honoured that I was invited… but I also struggled with touching the body. Luckily the celebrant was very understanding.
Jovenan had thought about what the celebrant, Petty Officer Black, had said about them learning to view death differently from then on. Would it have been easier for her to accept that Hiro or any of her friends might have died if she had been closer to death and the dead before? Probably not, but at least she wasn’t as disgusted by corpses anymore. Hiro, a medical doctor besides his main duty post, was likely accustomed to them, better than her for certain.
Jones: Response
Jovenan: I also talked with Silveira. He’s planning to have a memorial for my sister in the arboretum.
Jones: Response
TAG/TBC
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Lieutenant JG Jovenan
Assistant Chief Science Officer
USS Artemis-A
E239911J11