Family Notification

Posted on Sun Nov 25th, 2012 @ 7:06pm by Commander Oralia Zeferino & Ignatius Reilly

Mission: Sections of the Delta Quadrant
Location: Oralia's Quarters

After having seen her brother’s lifeless form lying on a cold slab in Doctors Harding’s and Kona’s stasis unit, Oralia had lost quite a lot of her anger. The sight was one that chilled her to her core and made her wish she had done as her parents had wanted her to do: stay at home; work with Dad in the family business; find a husband and have children, and, on the whole, live a quiet, unremarkable life. If she had, Chance wouldn’t have been here, in the Delta Quadrant, and he wouldn’t now be laid out, dead and awaiting disposition for a funeral.

Oralia knew there were several decisions ahead: whether to stay here, on SB900, or to go and accompany Chance’s body back to Earth for interment. If she did the latter, would she - could she return to SB900? Would Wegener replace her as CSEC? How could he not? Her own failure as CSEC had killed her brother. Before this, her failures had killed her lover, Connor. How many others would die because of her?

In the darkness of her quarters, her thoughts chased each other, spiraling around and getting darker and harsher the longer she sat.

Stop that!

The calmly alien, yet exceptionally loud voice broke through her navel-gazing and dispelled her negative thoughts in a heartbeat. “Oh! Ow! No need to shout, Iggster.”

Hmmphm. Bullshit. That was not the first time I had spoken to you.

“It wasn’t?”

No, but you were too far down that slippery slope of self-blame to hear me, Iggy griped at Oralia. I was on the verge of biting you again.

“No need for that! I’m listening now.”

You have a task you set yourself, Oralia. Who are you contacting first?

Right, that’s why she was sitting here, thinking about Chance: she needed to notify the rest of the family. “I’ll contact Arch, first. He’ll know what to do,” she answered Iggy. In just a few minutes, she had a secure commchannel opened to her oldest brother. She was almost surprised when the man moved into the camera’s range. But, then, where she was fifteen years older than Chance; Archibald was sixteen years older than she was. At age forty-seven, his black hair was just starting to be tinged by grey at his temples. Leaning forward slightly to look closer, she asked, “Are you... Arch, are you coloring your hair?”

Slightly abashed, he touched the grey at his temples and laughed. “Would you believe me if I said it was natural?”

“No,” she shook her head.

“Yeah, I’m coloring it,” he confirmed. “So what’s with the call? This is a bit off-schedule from your usual once-in-a-blue-moon contact.”

Ouch, she winced. He had her there: she wasn’t the best at keeping in touch. “Sorry, big brother. I know, I should be better about it.”

“No shittin’, Oz. Mom hates that you don’t call more often. Just the other day, she was crying on my shoulder about it--,” he stopped and stared at Oralia through the monitor. “Hey, what’s up? Are you cryin’?”

Swiping at the tears on her cheeks, Oz started to shake her head no, but then nodded and suddenly found she had no voice for what she needed to say. Covering her eyes a moment, she sobbed and finally managed, “Chance is dead. He was killed....” She choked and coughed then added, “Murdered, actually. The docs....” She looked up in time to see the screen go black.

Did the connection get cut, Oralia?

“I think he hung up on me...,” Oralia stared at the screen, disconcerted.

Several long moments later, her console chirped and a new comm opened. This time, it was a dark-haired man in a Captain’s uniform. His face registered his anger, “Oralia, what the fuck happened?”

“Harry....”

News travels fast in our family, I see, Iggy commented.

“Do not make me come there and ...you weren’t just pulling Archie’s leg, were you?” The man blinked at Oralia, taking in her wet, red eyes, then sat back and ran a hand down his face. “Fuck. Little Chance? What happened?”

Stumbling through what had happened, Oralia filled him in, ending with: “The Doc said his file says he’s half-Vulcan. That’s not possible!”

Hariwald bit a knuckle and looked like he had a secret. “Mom...? Mom never discussed Chance with you, Oz?”

“What?” She blinked, utterly confused by the whole situation.

“Oh... I guess... well, I assumed she’d told you. I mean, it’s not a huge secret. Well, it kind of is,” he hedged then shrugged. “But more a not-so-closely held secret for folks outside the family. Wow. I really thought you knew. You were..., c’mon, Oz, you were old enough to know.”

Frustrated with her brother’s hedging, Oralia glared at him, “What!? What should I have known?”

“Oh... you were fifteen, right? Hmm... yeah, you had that Eric kid sniffing around at the time. I was twenty-six and came home on leave from Starfleet for a little bit,” he shook his head. “Remember when Mom was gone on that science thing?”

“I remember her going somewhere. She was gone for ...three or four months, right? You came home to help take care of Thad?”

“Oz,” Hariwald rubbed his brow, sighed and stared at his little sister a moment. “Try eighteen months. Jeez. No wonder you call so rarely. Time passes differently for you, doesn’t it? Anyway, science vessel going I forget where, really light on staff and crew, but there was a Vulcan on board and, a few months out, they ran into something... I don’t know, Mom was never real clear on just what happened, but when she came back, she was pregnant with Chance. I always thought it musta been that Vulcan’s pon farr time, and you know how Mom and Dad are about their marriage.”

Despite her shock, Oralia said, “You mean their non-marriage.” Her attitude towards fidelity was a direct result of her parents’ attitudes towards the matter.

“Yeah, call it what you will. There was a touch of genetic engineering in there, to make sure Chance’d survive. I think they altered his ears, too, so he wouldn’t be out of place with us.”

“He’s half-Vulcan,” Oralia stated, amazed that she could have missed something like this in their mother’s life.

“Yeah, he is. And he’s dead, for real? Archie was kinda angry when he passed that tidbit on; he thought you were playin’ around.”

“That’s not something I’d joke about,” she was scandalized.

“No? What about the time you told Thadius his gerbil had been eaten by your cat? Poor kid cried a river till Mom produced the gerbil.”

“Oh, c’mon! That was about pets! Besides, he needed to keep that little rodent in a cage,” she shuddered. “This is our brother, Chance, and I wouldn’t kid about him.”

“Fuck, Oz,” angrily, Hariwald spit the epithet out and again rubbed his face with a hand before looking at Oralia. “I’ll handle telling our parents, and whomever else needs to know. And now, Lieutenant Commander, I’ll pull rank, even though I’m not in your chain of command: send me every report on this matter.”

Nodding, Oralia answered, “Will do,” even though she knew there’d be reports she couldn’t just turn over to him, even if he was a Captain in Starfleet.

“I’ll let you know what the family wants you to do, Oz. It might be best if you bring him home yourself.” There was a world of unspoken context behind his words but he closed their commchannel before letting Oz ask about any of it.

Staring at the black screen, Oralia was too overloaded to put it all together. “I’m going to bed, Iggy.”

I shall let Jackson know when he returns.

“You do that,” Oz murmured on her way to the bedroom.

___________________
Oralia Zeferino, Middle Child

Archibald Zeferino, First Child
Hariwald Zeferino, Second Child and Starfleet Captain

Ignatius J. Reilly Zeferino, Newest Member of the Family