The Only Constant is Change
15 Aug 2023Ember Lacson
A lot has happened in the last few months. Unfortunately, I can't talk about some of it. There are NDAs that need to be honored. I had to go no contact for a while in the wake of a certain incident. Rest assured—I am fine. Nicole is fine. We are both well and in good spirits, if not a little stressed. Here are the things I can say:- This was a dissociative episode that lasted from 9 May until 17 May.
- Nicole remembers none of it. This had no detrimental effects on her health, and there have been no changes to her physiology or psychological state since the episode ended.
- Aegis scientists now have a full-time presence on my crew.
- Aegis does not have enough information to determine the origins of this episode. They do not believe this is a case of dissociative identity, but they are not ruling it out either.
In addition, we have another permanent addition to our crew, Priyanka Davidson. Edward proposed on the first day of June, and within a week we were all in wedding mode. Key members of both families chartered flights out to the Morningstar and helped put everything together. For the most part, it was a standard Western wedding ceremony as practiced on Earth, but Priyanka's family brought a couple of Punjabi traditions with them. They held a party of sorts called a sangeet for Edward and his groomsmen (of which I was one), as well as Priyanka and her bridesmaids (of which Nicole was one). Priyanka's sister Nila brought some henna all the way from the Bubble, and the ladies all received temporary tattoos called mehndi. Nicole's were not as intricate as Priyanka's, but she was enthralled—so much so that she said she wants to have bridal mehndi for our wedding. I'm fully on board with that plan.
Priyanka's mother, Lakshmi, explained that a lot of her family traditions were not feasible on a carrier, but they planned to have a second, more traditional ceremony when we returned to the Bubble. They understood that this may have to wait awhile since humanity was under such threat, and they were just happy to see their daughter and new son-in-law finally tying the knot. I look forward to it, even if it won't be on Earth.
The ceremony took place on 21 June, and the happy couple took off for a two week honeymoon on Emerald in the Cemiess system. Edward's absence resulted in a serious lapse of carrier management, and I found myself ten million credits in the hole before I knew it. Thankfully, all I had to do was transfer a few hundred million out of my person account, and I'm currently good until the end of the year. I was glad to hand things back to Edward, because without him I would be up a creek.
Nicole and I are going back to the Bubble on Saturday the seventeenth to visit her uncle's memorial at his old home station, Truly Dock in HIP 7142. Her parents are going to be there as well, and it will be the first time I've spoken to either of them since I left Earth in December. We're going to turn in Nicole's data before we go so that she can have something extra to show for her career, and hopefully that will allay Anneliese's fears a little. Her brother, Ernest, was a pilot, as Nicole mentioned in her call back in January. He pissed off a gang of pirates and paid the ultimate price for it at just twenty-one years of age, less than two years after he began his career. So, Anneliese has a lifetime of trauma surrounding that loss, and the last thing she wants is for her daughter to end up the same way. We're going to leave the Morningstar where it is to save some money, and Nicole and I are going to get back to exobiology once we get back.