Prison Letters

Posted on Thu Nov 22nd, 2018 @ 12:08pm by Commander Rita Paris & Captain Enalia Telvan & Hera
Edited on on Fri Sep 6th, 2019 @ 4:14pm

Mission: Escaped Pantheons
Location: Odin's Breath, Hera's cell
Timeline: 2395

The PaDD slid through the door like one of her meals, which was going to be the core of her confinement here, apparently. But they'd not given Hera much to do, so she assumed this might be some confusing court documents or whatever passed for the judicial process of the Asgardians. However since it was a Federation PaDD, it piqued her curiosity.

Tabbing it open, it required a genetic match. Letting the device scan her thumb, the instrument unlocked.

=^= Identity confirmed: Hera. You have 1 new message =^= the mechanical voice of the device droned.

"Yes, please play the message," Hera ordered the device, which promptly complied. There onscreen was the face of one Rita Paris.

"Hello Hera! If you are going to do time in prison, I figure it helps if you get letters from the outside, too. And it's not fair to put the responsibility on you to be better, I should help you. Because it isn't that hard for me, it doesn't take much of my time, and I feel a bit responsible for you. If you do anything awful it's my fault, but if you turn out to be a great person, then I helped bring that to pass. And that would feel pretty good, I think. So I am morally obligated to help you rehabilitate."

"To that end, I will write to you. I made a deal with one of the Valyrikor, a really lovely woman, and she'll allow my messages to be received and delivered to you. So when I can, I'll drop you a line and tell you about my life, because asking about yours isn't going to be very exciting for either of us. So."

There was a paused, and Paris looked bashful, but she owned up. "I... we talked. Last night, Sonak and I, we talked about children and maybe taking a shore posting and a five year mission plan and... and he helped me pick out baby names, and..." Tears filled Paris' eyes as she struggled to keep her voice from warbling.

"We never... we never planned for a future together. Maybe someday when our old five year mission was over, but we'd never talked about it. But here... we've been through so much, and to know that he came so far for me... I don't believe anything can tear us apart. We're gonna do it. I don't know if I'll still be sending you prison letters, but he and I, we're going to build a future together. A nauseatingly domestic soccer mom band mom basketball volleyball swim team Starfleet mom. And I'm gonna start in my forties, which is still really young these days..."

Looking off camera, Rita refocused on the camera again, those big blue eyes excited by the possibilities of the future. "You did that. You knew why I came to see you, and you told me. No tricks, no riddles, no supplication or offering needed, just out of you knowing I so very much wanted to ask, you told me anyway. We talked, he and I. We planned. And I'm helping the Captain and her holographic wife have kids, apparently. But the point is, if you had not done that, none of this might have come to pass. We picked out three names, male and female, and if they decide to go in another direction they can inform us. But... good names."

"I believed in you, just a little. And you validated that belief. You did something selfless for Doc, and you did something selfless for me. You're already doing better at making the universe a better place, Hera."

"You can do it. I really do believe in you, at least as far as that goes," Paris smiled, knowing that it was risky to give power to the gods. But she honestly did believe the ancient goddess could change, and live up to the nobility of her legend.

"To help you rehabilitate, I asked the computer to give me the 100 greatest love story videos in human history, because at least I have seen some of these and can vouch for them. They're all on this PaDD, along with those mythological films from last time, because I know you didn't watch them, but now you are reallly bored. I threw in the complete works of Shakespeare, because he came along after you, but I think you'll really enjoy his work. I threw in a copy written in Klingon as well, if you want to take that in. I can't read Klingonese, so I will have to take your word for it whether it is better like they say."

"Which is all I can think of for now. It should stave off boredom, and... hopefully it might make it just a little better in there for you, knowing that somebody out here still cares about you and still writes. Bye for now, Hera." Paris wave at the screen then it cut out to the Starfleet insignia.

As Hera finished watching the message, she knew instantly that what she had been told and the books she had been reading were right. There really was a better way. She had gotten a slight surge of energy from Rita’s letter. Not from worship or fear or love… but from sacrifice. Hera had done something good in the galaxy and made a difference for someone, at no benefit to herself. In fact, she had allowed herself to pay a heavy toll for it. This was similar to the Asgardian way of service- a good way to live, and it may be true that Apollo had found this way as well, in his own time.

Checking the PaDD for anything else, she found it had been wiped of any other material other than the letter, if there really had been anything. It seemed she was meant to only get what the Asgardians thought she needed for reading material, then.

Leaning back on the fainting couch, she reminisced about her time aboard the ship with her name. She had enjoyed her time there and come to like the people much more than she had expected. Her quarters now were only slightly smaller and barely as comfortable – a nicety they afforded her due to her station, but they would soon grow confining as she would likely spend several hundred years in them before her trial was concluded. That was if Asgard even lasted that long, according to rumors. Perhaps if she could learn this method of energy collection through sacrifice, she could earn her jailer's trust and become a productive member of some society some day…

For now though, she had a letter to compose. Straightening her hair a bit and splashing some water on her face from her pitcher, she composed herself before trying to figure out how to record a message on the device.

“Ah… Is this it? There we go… I don’t know if I’ll be able to get this reply to you so I’ll make it short.” Hera smiled bravely for a moment, trying to compose herself. “I want to thank you. You showed me a path that… well… We never considered. We always gathered our life energy through fear, love, worship… But now through you, I know there’s a better way. The Asgardians have allowed me some reading materials and from what I’ve found, they get their energy from selflessness, the same manner in which you showed me. It’s a much leaner energy, so no more feats and miracles like I used to do. But I think that they can stay with the old vengeful me. In the past.”

“As for your plans for the future, it’s great to hear that you’re planning now. You have plenty of time for family, but the future isn’t set in stone, you know. I just know you’re destined to have three kids and two will be twins. As for your captain, I saw a single girl in her future, but a lot of complications. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t say too much.”

Taking a deep breath, Hera continued. “Anyway, I just wanted to thank you and let you know that I’m doing well. There’s no set dates for anything and I don’t even have a representative assigned to me yet. I’m told that might not happen for a score of years with how backed up the system is so who knows how long this will take. Please take good care of yourself.”

With that, Hera clicked the record function off, and set it as a reply to the original sender so only Rita could read it. She then slipped it back under the door from whence it came, hoping that it would somehow find its way back to its owner.