It’s all in the Genes

Posted on Fri Sep 18th, 2020 @ 2:31pm by Lieutenant Commander Aeryn Jameson & Telhas thu'S'Terion Sa-Shasol'kor t'Cheleb-Khor

2,603 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Mission 3: Diplomacy, what’s that?
Location: Romulan Embassy, Faltan

Since his invitation to Aeryn, Telhas had debated with his security staff how to establish a secure transport before everything would be setup correctly with the direct transporter link to Faltan Station. The options were simple: 1) Continue existing protocols, which meant that all visitors had to enter by speeder, hence no transporter protocol. 2) Ask visitors to beam to the outermost defense perimeter and pick them up there. 3) Use Telhas' personal cruiser as transporter relay station. After lengthy discussions, they agreed on option 3 as the best compromise between safety and minimized effort.

When Aeryn materialized in the atrium, both Telhas and Nevala were waiting for her. "Welcome to my embassy, Aeryn. As you are visiting in private, let me introduce to you my wife, Lady Nevala, Duchess of Cheleb-Khor. Nevala, please meet Lieutenant Commander Aeryn Jameson."

Nevala smiled. "A pleasure to meet you. Please call me Nevala."

Aeryn nodded politely. “Thank you for the warm welcome Nevala.” She looked to Telhas. “It’s nice to see you again Ambassador. “As I’m here on a personal visit please feel free to call me Aeryn.”

"I will," Nevala replied smiling friendly, "And you can call my husband Telhas." She grinned as she added with a low voice "He tends to forget to offer this."

Aeryn smiled and nodded. “Thank you, I will do my best not to slip back into titles instead of names.”

"Unless in official occasions, of course," Telhas added before he signaled to follow him to the turbolift.

"Did I understand my husband correctly that you want to learn a little more about your Romulan heritage?" Nevala asked.

Aeryn nodded. “Telhas has...peaked my curiosity about what it is to be Romulan.” She offered a warm smile. “I know absolutely nothing about my father, and I’ve never been to Romulus.”

"Romulus was a beautiful planet," Nevala said calmly, but the pain of losing the planet was clearly readable for an empath.

"It was," Telhas added, "but I prefer Vulcan." The turbolift doors closed behind them when he entered the destination 'holodeck'.

“I can’t imagine what it’s like to lose a whole planet.” Aeryn offered Nevala an understanding smile.

"I guess nobody can, unless you share the loss," Nevala replied with a grateful smile.

The turbolift doors opened and Telhas led them to the holodeck entrance. "Aeryn, as you want to understand our heritage, we should start at the very beginning," Telhas explained. When the doors opened, a desert of gravel and rock could be seen. In the same moment, the hot heat of the desert could be felt as well. Telhas pulled the hood of his robes over his head as he entered. "Welcome to Cheleb-Khor."

Aeryn was taken by surprise at the heat of the desert yet it wasn’t overwhelming thanks to her Romulan blood. She smiled as she shaded her eyes from the light and looked toward Telhas.

"This is the holographic recreation of Cheleb-Khor, the central desert of Vulcan," Telhas explained. "If you look to the south, you can see a mountain range. Behind these mountains is the plateau on which you find Mount Seleya, the sacred mountain of Vulcan. To the south-east, you find the City of ShirKahr, today Vulcan's capital. And if you look northward, you find Fort Aba'kur, which controls and protects the Valley of Nal'shin." He pointed at each direction while he mentioned it. "All these places played an important role in ancient times. You had no unified Vulcan, but many city-states and kingdoms fighting for the planet's resources. The most precious resource of all was water. The cities are built at springs. But you also have some wells here in the desert, although they are difficult to find unless you know them. Endless armies crossed this desert and fought endless wars. This is what Vulcan's ancient times were like."

Aeryn was enthralled, she wasn’t expecting a history lesson but it was fascinating nonetheless. The holodeck had done a good job of replicating the conditions and heat of the dessert, which made her glad that she had her Romulan half to help with coping with it.

"Psionic warriors had a high reputation, but all psionic arts flourished," Telhas continued, "And besides that, fine arts, sciences, and philosophy. And as technology advanced, the wars became more and more cruel and devestating. Psionics were less important, technology became more important. And then a man appeared, a philosopher from ShirKahr. His name was Surak and he developed a philosphy that encouraged people to ease the heat of emotion and become calm, logical, and peaceful. In this time many found it appealing. Yet another man, named Sudoc, tried to bring peace in a different way. Sudoc tried to conquer all of Vulcan and unite it under his rule. But he was very old at this time already, and he died of an embolism during a mind meld session with his inner circle of most trusted officers. The psychic shock of a sudden death, spread through the mind meld, turned some of them crazy, others died, and the remaining ones had enough of the warrior way of life. And so, the military unification was brought to an end. And two schools of philosophy became most important. The School of Surak with their teaching of emotionless logic, and the school of S'Task, with their teaching of emotion controlled by a code of honour and discipline. S'Task himself was a scholar of Surak. In the end, S'Task's followers decided to leave Vulcan. Instead of ripping their society apart, they preferred to exile themselves. And so they left and became... well... us." He shrugged. "And by the strange ways of destiny, we found a green, fertile, planet. And we named it ch'Rihan. Your explorers named it Romulus."

“I knew that Romulans were an offshoot of Vulcans but to learn the history behind it is amazing.” She smiled. “From what I understand there are no Romulan telepaths except for the Remans, I’m one of very few, if not the only half Romulan.”

"Yes and no." Telhas smiled gently. "After settling ch'Rihan, many of the settlers decided to improve their genes a little to make them a better fit for the new environment. And at the same time, they decided to abandon telepathy. The stories were still there of the ancient Vulcan warlords, powerful telepaths, who could control the thoughts of others. The settlers wanted to build a better world, free of fear. It seems the lack of usage made those genes responsible for telepathy at least quiet. We have extremely few telepaths today. Most of them are from those houses where the Vulcan heritage is still held in high regards. Or as we say, where the Vulcan blood is strong."

"Perhaps you should mention that telepaths scare the majority of Romulans," Nevala added.

“We do?” Aeryn looked at Nevala in surprise.

Nevala nodded. "Yes. Imagine that someone controls your thoughts. Or your actions. I mean, who tells us that a telepath does not turn us into puppets? You may have a code of honour to prevent this, but I doubt every telepath has it. I trust Telhas, and I start to trust our Reman guards, but I am still cautious when I meet a telepath."

“But you’re not afraid of me ... are you?” Aeryn looked at Nevala curiously.

"No, but..." Nevala shrugged and smiled uncertainly "Maybe just because Telhas is here. I know he would do everything to defend me."

Telhas threw a loving glance at her and smiled.

Nevala smiled back at her husband before she continued talking to Aeryn. "I do not know you well enough to trust you yet. I am sorry, this is another Romulan habit I guess."

“It’s fine” Aeryn smiled warmly. “I completely understand. I’m new to all of this, up until I met Telhas I never had any interest in learning about the Romulan part of myself. Now I want to know more.”

"If you want to learn about Romulan history and the philosophical foundations of our society, you can learn a lot from Telhas," Nevala said and grinned, "But if you want to learn how the life of an average Romulan is, you should ask me. Telhas is upper class. He was born upper class." She looked at him and smiled softly. "I am sorry, my Love, but I do not know anyone who is more upper class than you. The demeanor, the ideals, the thinking... just everything. I love that part of you, it makes you unique, but... you know... it is as it is."

Telhas nodded understandingly and smiled gently. "I know, my Dearest." Turning to Aeryn he continued "She is right. Although she is nobility, her childhood was middle-class, as well as her upbringing. She is... how shall I say... she knows what a 'normal' life is like. Honestly, I have to admit that she gave me a new perspective in my view on our society."

“In that case I’d like to hear from both of you, on life from upper class to middle class. If I’m to learn about my people then I’d like to learn it from all points of view.” Aeryn smiled warmly.

"So, what would you like to know first, Aeryn, a Patrician's way of life or a commoner's way of life?" Nevala asked.

“Well given that I know nothing of my father or which side of the divide he comes from, how about a commoner’s way.” She smiled at Nevala.

Nevala smiled. "Sure. Where shall I start? Maybe with living? We do not live in vast estates, the maximum is a small city villa. The richer ones also have servants, but that is all. We want to get a good job, something that serves both our abilities and society. And we want our government to ensure that this is possible. The other thing we want is peace and security. If the government fulfils this, we support them. This is the simple version, but I can also go into more detail."

“I’d love to go into more detail that’s if there’s time, I know I have much to learn.” Aeryn smiled warmly. “Up until now I’ve never been interested but Telhas has shown me that my heritage is important, it’s part of who I am.”

"I think I... I think we start with the very beginning." Nevala smiled gently. "Birth. The most important thing is that a Romulan is able to serve the Empire in any sense. So the first thing that is checked is if the newborn child is fit. There should be no disabilities. Of course, the pregnancy would be aborted usually in such a case, but sometimes it still happens. The parents have to decide if the child shall live. If it has a right to live. The decision has to be made within the first week after birth, because then we have the first rite of transition. Nimaz, the naming ceremony. Once you give a name, you turn a child into a person. A citizen. Someone who shall get all your support. Names are very important to us. Extremely important. We name our children after important ancestors, great heroes, virtues, anything alike, and we help our children to grow into the heritage of their name." She shrugged. "Or at least we try. Sometimes, however, they follow their name in a different way than we expect." She grinned.

"Yes, like you did, my Dearest," Telhas added.

Nevala smiled softly. "Maybe yes, maybe no." Turning to Aeryn again she continued. "You see, names are extremely important. This is why it was so shocking to everyone when Telhas changed his Romulan name into a Vulcan name. His Romulan name was Valkis ir-Kae'raktar tr'Tellus. But he changed it into the Vulcan name he has now."

Aeryn nodded. “What of those of us who have no name? In Romulan society I would be no one. I know nothing of my father, my mother never told me anything about him.”

"Have no... name?" Nevala could not believe what she just had heard. "This is cruel. I mean... I... I... This is just cruel." She felt sorry for Aeryn, and shocked, and at the same time was angry that someone could be so cruel to his child.

"You can make a name of your own," Telhas said calmly. "My bloodline starts with a man without a name. He is just known as the Sword-Bearer. But his son, S'Terion, will be known forever. We make our destiny, do not let others interfere with your destiny."

"That's just a legend, Telhas," Nevala replied. She thought for a moment. "We have to find out the identity of her father."

"Maybe," Telhas said thoughtfully.

“You’d be willing to do that?” Aeryn looked at Nevala. “I’ll admit I’m nervous about finding out just who my father might be.”

"Of course I am," Nevala replied enthusiastically, but her enthusiasm soon faded. "The problem is... I my have relatives in the Tal Shiar, but they tend to ignore me. Telhas is the one who could find out." She looked at her husband, hoping that he would agree.

Telhas staid quiet for a long moment. Finally he said calmly "Nevala, you are asking me for a lot. And we will most probably deal with upper echelon. The average man has no children with aliens."

"Please, my Love," Nevala said with her sweetest voice, "Not for me, but for Aeryn. For her birthright."

Telhas sighed. "Nevala, I already have many enemies."

Nevala looked at Telhas, then at Aeryn. Her eyes told Aeryn 'say something'.

“I understand if you don’t want to do this” Aeryn looked at Telhas. “I have no wish for you to gain enemies because of me.”

Telhas nodded thoughtfully. At the same time, he thought about opportunities. "Well, maybe your father is already an enemy of mine. What you should be aware of is that you would be in danger as well, should your father decide that you are a threat. Maybe you would even be more in danger than me. I have my guards, my ships, my allies in the Senate and some agencies. And my own training. There are a couple of assassination attempts which I survived unharmed. I am used to it. So, simply said, if you are willing to take that risk, I am willing to start some secret investigations. Your decision, Aeryn."

Aeryn nodded. “I want to know, if it puts my life at risk then so be it. I have Starfleet to back me up, so I don’t think anyone will be willing to risk that in a hurry.”

Telhas nodded thoughtfully. "As you wish. Then I will need the sequence of the Romulan part of your DNA."

“Thank you Telhas, I appreciate you helping me.” Aeryn smiled warmly.

Telhas replied with nothing but very slight nod.

Nevala took the initiative then. "I am sure we will find your father, Aeryn. Although I must admit that I like your name."

“Thank you” Aeryn smiled warmly. “I don’t have any major plans to change it. I’ve never known my father and he hasn’t made any attempt to get to know me so I don’t see why I’d need to change my name.”

"As soon as I have your DNA sequence, I shall contact some... let us call them friends and allies." Telhas grinned. "Probably the next time we meet I need to tell you a few things about Romulan politics."

{OFF}

 

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