Tristam Core/Relationships
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This page details Tristam's relationships and histories with others.
Family
Gamighan Core
Gamighan Core, Tristam's father is a retired man residing on Rodul. Some sixty years ago, he exchanged basotile with Meredyn Tjaent. During this time, they lived in Myiron, of which had been occupied by Klingon forces during the Betreka Nebula incident. His early life includes a lot of time traveling around the quadrant for his work, and Tristam notes he has interesting and favourable stories regarding species such as the Betazoids. Gamighan believes that the Federation "can't keep themselves together", and that it requires every individual in it's presence to keep it from crumbling apart - though Tristam is not entirely sure why his father is of this opinion.
After careful preparation, decided to have a child - though neither expected to have twins. Unfortunately, this cost Meredyn her life, and Gamighan raised his two sons alone. He is described by Tristam as somewhat eccentric and cheeky, though is usually hung on Rodulan beliefs of the last Era. He is skilled at making Rodulan swuit sticks, of both the regular and frozen variety. Tristam was extremely close to Gamighan, and for many years during his Starfleet career, he sought his father's advice, and did not go for three days without calling home.
Tristam knows much about telepathy due to his father's continued study on the subject. He'll often quote, or will compare new information on the subject with, something Gamighan has told him over the years. Though he is many lightyears away, his father's words will occasionally influence Tristam's own beliefs on the matter (such as avoiding a telepathic inhibitor, and how quickly Tristam is frustrated or angered at telepaths being discriminated against). Tristam often gauges what Gamighan's reaction would be to certain situations, using what he believes would be his father's intuition to assist in a troubling scenario.
Early in his life, Tristam was not independent, struggling to make his own decisions and relying on his brother to do so for him. When Taywor leaves home to pursue studies in a medical area, Tristam spends three weeks at home without a purpose, causing Gamighan to drag him to the university he was teaching classes and introduced him to Guan Medledore (an expert in Rodulan medical technology, on top of other fields of tech). As a personal favour to Gamighan, she tutored Tristam in the basics of everyday technology. Years later, after Tristam has a "significant failure" in an attempt to achieve a higher degree in propulsion technology, Gamighan encourages him to study and apply for Starfleet Academy, acknowledging that his own beliefs about life in Rodulan society did not suit Tristam.
Gamighan was deeply affected by the accident that impaired his son's telepathy, and struggled to come to terms with Tristam's lack there-of. Though he encourages his son to remain in Starfleet after the incident on the USS Pioneer, he becomes increasingly concerned about the activities Tristam is involved with. Because of this, it takes Tristam a significant amount of time to explain to Gamighan that he'd spent over two weeks in a jungle thousands of years in the past - which was almost detrimental to his health.
Though his father is "strictly professional" when working, Tristam gets much of his dramatic tendencies and sarcasm from Gamighan. He has been known to brag to others about his length of lives compared to their own in a joking fashion, which has led to various results - including one scenario where he actually made someone cry. Tristam recalls that Gamighan had "the most epic grin" on his face when it occurred.
He becomes ill on stardate 239303.10, though blames his daughter-in-baso Yanata for keeping the thermostat low as the cause when Tristam catches him coughing during a comcall. Later, during his shore leave home on Rodul, Tristam would find that Gamighan had been keeping a respitory disease from him, and was refusing treatment. Unable to stand by and watch his father crumble away in a medical centre, and angry that his father and brother kept this from him for years without end, Tristam left his home and spent the rest of his leave on his best friend's couch, essentially estranged from his family.
Taywor Core
Taywor Core is Tristam's identical twin, younger by a mere minute. He is a budding psychologist, interested in the workings of a Rodulan's brain. Despite he and his brother believing themselves to be of equal intelligence, neither can truly understand what the other is saying when speaking their study's jargon, Tristam often likening it to speaking two separate languages. Taywor apparently struggles with working technology from cultures within the Federation. He was incredibly important to Tristam, the two having been extremely close to one another prior to Tristam's leaving for Starfleet.
As younger kids, the two experimented with their own telepathic abilities. It resulted in bloody noses and severe headaches, though weren't seriously harmed due to their telepathic lobes not being fully developed.
He is often spoken of as the "cute one", despite their identical appearances. He's described as rather restrained when speaking with others, quiet and well reserved. He is more mindful of his actions, typically more responsible, and takes things a little more seriously than his twin. Despite the large distance between them, he often has to remind Tristam of various events - at one stage, this also included their own birthday. Taywor also becomes increasingly worried about Tristam's health the more time he spends away from home - when Tristam spends time on a small moon for shore leave, Taywor cites to him that there had been times that a person was so ill from home sickness on a trip away from their home on Rodul, that they ended up in a medical facility. Tristam tends to ignore these warnings.
Upon returning home to Rodul, Taywor and Yanata continued a facade for Tristam until Roshanara Rahman returned to her vessel, at which he found that all was not as well as it seemed. Unable to watch his family fall apart, Tristam left home.
Samual Core
Born to the incredibly young Samual and Yanata, his Rodulan heritage dictated that Samual was at a considerable disadvantage before he was even able to walk. Samual was of high interest to their surrounding community, as many felt Samual and Yanata simply were not prepared and too 'inexperienced'. Not considering himself capable of looking after a baby at the time, resorted to assisting with equipment - he has fond memories of building Samual's crib, of which he describes as an "eco-friendly disaster".
Tristam, due to a societal rule followed since the 7th Era, did not dare to hold Samual until he was three weeks old - a mentality he shares when visiting Rune Jolara shortly after the birth of her son, Krystyan.
Core: If you want to leave, you only have to give the word, and I'll have people on the com to make it happen. You just have to say when and who.
Samual: Okay. But . . . not today.
Core:::nodding:: Not today.
LtCmdr Tristam Core, "We feel."
As he grows, Tristam prides himself on Samual feeling comfortable to talk to him, reminding the boy constantly that he wasn't his parent. Because of this, Samual opens up about his insecurities as an adolescent, facing new relationships and emotional experiences, and worried about his telepathic development.
When Tristam returns to Rodul for the first time in over ten years, it would be the first time Tristam interacted with him in person since the boy was a toddler. However, the longer Tristam remained on Rodul, the more it became evident to him that Samual was undergoing a rebellious streak, caused primarily by the conflict between his parents - so much so that Samual is expelled from his area of education due to a fight with another student. With his parents "unable to attend", Tristam is forced to step in as a temporary guardian, reloacting Samual to new carers when his parents disappear in the boy's time of need, 'fighting a war' with his brother to do it.
Romantic
Roshanara Rahman
Pioneer
Tristam met Roshanara Rahman whilst serving as an ensign aboard the USS Pioneer. A hard worker and passionate about her field, the two banter about propulsion technology in comparison to theoretical transwarp beaming. Unfazed by her reputation as somewhat of a 'slave driver', the Rodulan offers to assist with her slipstream drive project.
At some point during the project, Tristam introduces Rahman to the Rodulan swuit stick.
On the final night of preparations, Tristam finds Roshanara still working. In an attempt to alleviate tension, he invites her to dinner, where they point out their most alien features. He almost invites her to stay longer, but second guesses himself. Instead, he accompanies her back to her quarters, and bids her goodnight.
When the presentation of the slipstream drive goes wrong, Tristam is critically injured by a falling bulkhead. Rahman's thoughts would be the last Tristam hears telepathically, of which will impact him for a long time to come.
Garuda
When he's assigned to the Garuda, his first interaction with Rahman is less than favourable, feeling distrustful towards the Krosian. At this point, part of him held her responsible for the loss of telepathy, and injury to his leg. Learning that he in fact transferred to the USS Vigilant only to be rerouted to the USS Garuda just three weeks later, he remains irritated with her for the next few days.
On an away mission to Pleethion, Tristam steps on an active mine. Roshanara reminds the panicking Rodulan of his capabilities in disarming the mine, of which Tristam is forced to coach Alora DeVeau through. Regardless, these efforts fail, and Rahman is forced to transport them back to the ship. Unfortunately, it also results in a mine embedding itself into the leg of Alleran Tan, of which, after moving Roshanara out of the way, Tristam beams back to the surface. The incident causes a minor squabble between the two, but they quickly move on to address a potential traitor aboard the Garuda. And by the end of the day, to make up for having insulted her during the incident, Tristam invites her to dinner mid-crisis.
However, when Tristam finds evidence proving Rahman to have sabotaged the Garuda, all plans are put on hold as she is taken into custody by Bakari and Shryker. When fighting for a way to assist her in her trial, Bakari points out that Tristam likes her, but Tristam shoots the idea down.
Following her removal, and adamant to help, Tristam attempts to convince Roshanara to see Nic del Vedova about a "neurodegenerative disease", but after much prompting, she reveals to him that she is in fact an empathic metamorph, manipulated by Harrison Ross to disable security feeds. As a Rodulan, Tristam is one of very few people whom cannot influence Roshanara through empathic means.
The Rodulan met a holographic version of Roshanara whilst aboard the USS Mercury, of whom then proceeded without warning to hold Alora DeVeau hostage. Despite attempts to talk the hologram down, it was ultimately Lieutenant Evan Delano and a holographic version of Mei'konda to temporarily deactivate the hologram and free Alora. Tristam became rattled and almost non-responsive, to the point where the real Rahman had to slap him just to get his attention and any form of coherent words out of him. He had been required to go to a lower level of Engineering and restart containment sequences, but as he was about to initiate the restart, the holographic version of Rahman attacked him. In the end, after an attempt to distract her and conversing with her, Tristam shot the holographic Rahman with a type 2 phaser that had fallen from the deck above. He was able to initiate the restart, and because of that, was part of a small group of people that saved the Mercury from exploding. The real Roshanara found Tristam as a mental mess, and ordered (with the very little authority she had at that time) the Garuda to beam him directly to Sick Bay.
After regaining consciousness, Tristam was unusually high on a medical drug. He was allowed to leave Sick Bay, so long as he had a carer for the short two days he was taking the medication. Roshanara became the unwilling "nurse" when he called her to Sick Bay for a "visit". After pleading with her, she agreed to looking after him. He caused little trouble - the majority of it being his unusual willingness to assist her in packing (as she was staying with him in his quarters due to her own being too small house two people). The two speak about his telepathy (or lack of) the next morning whilst he is still in his medicated state, though he doesn't remember this conversation.
Their friendship took a turn when Lieutenant Sean Naughton proceeded to exploit Roshanara's metamorphic state in an effort to prove her innocence of the Garuda's sabotage. When Tristam reveals that he asked Naughton to do so, she becomes angry, and Tristam confesses that he has always wanted more than just her friendship. After kissing her (proving his point), she leaves the Garuda.
During the time Roshanara was not aboard the Garuda, Tristam was reunited with his ex, Juanita Sanchez, when the Maquis attacked (and sabotaged) DSX. Whilst working to create an EMP, Juanita managed to coax Tristam into talking about Roshanara (though he didn't mention her by name). Juanita encouraged him to go after her, or else he'd regret it.
Core: You told me that you believe you’ll follow in the same footsteps of this random alternate timeline that you somehow heard about.
Rahman: It’s already started, hasn’t it? ::She looked aside.:: Seems that way...
Core: There’s one factor you hadn’t accounted for.
Rahman: And what’s that, commander?
Core: Me.
After the situation on DSX had been contained (and after theirs setting off an EMP), Tristam ended up in Bakari's quarters, who then gave Tristam an itinerary for Roshanara's travel, further encouraging him to go after her. Waiting for a chance to leave the Garuda, Tristam found himself unable to repair his own toolkit - they had been severely damaged from the release of the EMP, and the tools Tristam had then been using to repair them were faulty for unknown reasons. After returning that toolkit to the Engineering locker, Tristam found Roshanara's personal kit, with a note to him. Using her kit, he was subsequently able to repair the rest of his tools (except, for some unknown reason, his PADD).
Tristam ended up listening in on a university lector Roshanara was presenting (much to his own distaste). During question time, he asked her why propulsionists believed slipstream to be a higher priority than life support systems publicly, peaking audience interest and Roshanara's annoyance. The two began to banter about the topic, until Roshanara wasn't able to provide a further argument. When the room had cleared of others, she began to voice her anger at his embarrassing her in front of an entire lecture hall, when he interrupted and returned her toolkit. They reconciled after he convinced her to return to the Garuda as a Project Manager for the Starfleet Corps of Engineers, and the two begin a romantic relationship.
When the Garuda is invested with vines, Roshanara is taken hostage and becomes entangled. Upon the conflicts' end, Tristam finds her wrapped tightly. Instead of immediately cutting her loose, the Rodulan takes a holoimage of the Kriosian wrapped entirely by the ferns.
Despite Tristam's original wishes, they are unable to have a "first date" when he developes a Rodulan stomach flu. Coupled with a case of homesickness (which he claims to be a real illness in Rodulan culture), he refuses to join Roshanara in her quarters for dinner in fear of getting her sick. However, instead of cancelling their date, he tells Roshanara to set up a vid-com link on her PADD, and to send him what she'd prepared for dinner via the replicator files, and they have their date.
After a mission to Peppalexa (and a subsequent "two-week holiday" to the past), Tristam and Roshanara set up another date, though he falls asleep on the holodeck and keeps Roshanara waiting. He apologizes to her multiple times, though she brushes it off and they go to the Mess Hall for dinner. It is shown that their relationship has progressed somewhat, and Roshanara is practicing keeping metamorphic state under as much control as possible when in a room filled with people, Tristam acting as something she can fall back on should she require it. She confesses that she is still unsure of herself, afraid that she will lose herself to her ability, and Tristam does his best to console her. Towards the end of the date, it is seen that she is making progress in controlling her ability.
Invicta
Their relationship becomes somewhat strained when Tristam begins to avoid her due to the decrease in his verbal skills. Rahman removes him from duty due to this medical condition, frustrated and becoming increasingly worried about it. He apologizes (or tries his best to) and proceeds to explain the problem to her, and both promised to work through the problem together. The two later spent time together, though both awakened to find that Tristam's telepathy had (somewhat) returned during Roshanara's mad dash to prepare for the launch of the USS Invicta.
When someone makes a deal within the Engineer's Trading Post involving the Invicta's bridge briefing table, Angeline Loupaz is forced to create a false holographic table as they locate the original. Tristam attempts to swap the holoprojector with a model more sufficient for the job, but is forced to distract Roshanara - namely kissing her on the bridge of the ship, asking instead for 15 minutes away for a quick bite to eat, priding himself on the fact that he has never lied to Roshanara. It would also be the first of few displays of their relationship whilst at least one of them is on duty.
On the island beach of W Cygni 5C, Tristam and Roshanara share shore leave with the rest of the Invicta crew. As the Avandar crew arrives, Tristam is introduced to Nikki Ryan, and Roshanara jokingly implies jealousy and threat regarding his interaction with Ryan. Later, they go out on a trip in the shuttle, discussing Roshanara's relationship with Tasnim Shandres, whom was now her ward, when the shuttle is forced to land due to an error. They spend the remainder of the day together playing three-dimensional chess, despite having repaired the issue.
Their relationship takes another turn when Tristam begins to struggle to differentiate Roshanara and "Captain Rahman", beginning with the supposed death of their Invicta captain Aron Kells - where the crew becomes struck with grief over the presumed death of their captain, Roshanara snaps at Tristam on the bridge. She later apologizes when he leaves the Invicta with an away team.
Upon her promotion to Commander in 2393, Tristam kisses Roshanara in front of the crew. He later expresses to Kells that he is actually concerned Roshanara is holding him at an arms length, and fails to notice the awkwardness of the conversation.
Much later, the two discuss the possibility of going to Rodul, having been many years since Tristam had seen home. Roshanara expresses a small amount of concern over exactly how much Tristam's family already know about their relationship, of which he explains isn't actually all that much.
Core: You're a beauty in nothing and everything, ervami.
Rahman: Hmmph, you really know how to lather the butter, don't you?
When Roshanara is reassigned as captain of the USS Syracuse, she recommends Tristam as First Officer to Joseph Washington. He would later refurbish the Syracuse lounge into a self-sufficient holodeck, concerned that a ship of engineers could not test future developments. Catching him mid-refurbishment, she'd go on to assist him.
Following a stressful mission on Adova, Tristam spends time running simulations for his MST project in Roshanara's quarters. Here, he explains the importance of ones feet to her, in that they're the sole part of the body that keeps one grounded.
They speak again about going to Rodul, to which Tristam admits he feels uneasy about. However, they're interrupted by Kinan Venroe, resulting in the crews of the Invicta and the Syracuse in making the museum ship USS Venture space-worthy so that it may front the Khitomer Centennial parade. When the Venture finally launches, they banter over the 22nd century uniforms they're required to wear. Later, Tristam finds himself once again in conflict as to 'which side' of Roshanara he was speaking to mid-mission.
After a stressful mission in which the Venture crew was thrown back in time, in which Tristam suffered through what he considered to be a traumatic engagement of telepathy, Roshanara and Tristam travel to Rodul, where Roshanara meets Tristam's immediate family and his home. As she explores his bedroom, which had remained unchanged despite the long period of time, Tristam notes to her how juvenile he was. They spend two weeks on Rodul together before Roshanara is called back to duty. However, unable to come to terms with the violent encounters of his time in Starfleet so far, he decides to remain on Rodul, without further discussion with Roshanara.
They go on to maintain contact despite the distance between them, but the relationship proves to be minimal at best, as Tristam fails to tell her about the ongoing problems he has with his family. In spite of the lack of contact, he sends Roshanara his Eye of the Artist for safe keeping.
Veritas
After weeks of silence, and prompting by Kinan Venroe to return to service, he calls Roshanara in hopes for a placement aboard the USS Veritas, suggesting he could potentially work on circumventing the tetryon emissions of which play havoc with the ship's communications. However, after long periods of time without contact from him, Roshanara forces him to answer pressing questions regarding their relationship, and Tristam admits to not only being unable to differentiate her off duty and on duty personas, but feeling uncomfortable as to burden the ship's captain with unnecessary information. They agree to work on communication, and Tristam is accepted aboard the Veritas.
Two Rodulan engineers board the Veritas to oversee the use of Rodulan technology in the upgrades to ships communications, and Tristam starts to feel uncomfortable working with them looking over his shoulder due to his age and "inexperience". Because of this, he begins to triple check his own work, and at one point, forwards adjustments already confirmed by the ship's chief engineer to Roshanara to confirm. Given that he is already a qualified engineer, she replies in a memo questioning why he forwarded it to her in the first place.
Rahman: ...if you ever break up with me over subspace, I’ll hunt you down, stuff you in a torpedo and shoot it into a blackhole…
Core:::chuckles:: It'd be a waste of a torpedo.
LtCmdr Tristam Core & Captain Roshanara Rahman, "Last Night. (Part 2)"
In mid-2394, Tristam is reassigned to Outpost 3, and the two are once again faced with a long-distance relationship. With their last separation fresh in their minds, Roshanara expresses concern that he may feel trapped in an obligation to her despite being separated by lightyears of space. He assures her that he doesn't feel that to be the case, and they both promise to be better.
They finally come face to face again after months of separation when Roshanara visits Outpost 3 to see the work he'd completed thus far, but the happy reunion comes to a stall when Roshanara suggests ending the project to spend resources elsewhere. They are unable to finish the argument, instead finding a stash of felicium hidden within the outpost's bulkheads. Following a thorough investigation with the crew of the Veritas, Roshanara decides to remain behind much to Tristam's surprise when the crew finally leave to head back to Star Station Esperance, and assists with the extensive repairs on the station.
During the time spent together on Outpost 3, they again discuss Tasnim and her enlisting in Starfleet, and whether her mother, lost in an alternate universe, would approve. Tristam tells Roshanara that they come from vastly different backgrounds, that the Starfleet from Roshanara Shandres's universe could differ incredibly from their own after having lost the Dominion War. He also points out that, now Tasnim has enlisted in Starfleet, she can learn and experience with the guidance of the crew. They also discuss the prospect of returning to Earth, with Tristam expressing his interest of meeting her family.
After 23 days on the outpost together struggling to meet the repair schedule, Kallo Ver conveniently arrives. In return for much needed supplies that would get the outpost back on its feet, Ver asks Roshanara for a single favour, to be fulfilled at a later date. She accepts his offer, regardless of Tristam's concerns, and he later likens it to her having sold her soul to "black paint".
The Veritas returned to retrieve them following an incident with the USS Astraeus, battered and bruised but otherwise functional. Without consulting him, Roshanara has the Veritas leave the outpost with Tristam still onboard, effectively "kidnapping" him from his duties, much to Tristam's irritation. Despite being anxious to return to the outpost, he is unable to remain irritated with her for long, and accompanies her to Mei'konda and Evan Delano's wedding.
During the wedding reception, he explains that although he wants to stay, he believes he has an obligation to the outpost and Kolby Selrus - after some much needed prompting by Roshanara, however, he changes his mind when he realizes he is placing work above their personal lives (something he'd been trying to avoid prior to having been reassigned, and worried Roshanara would do once she'd been promoted to Captain). He remains with Roshanara, putting their relationship above everything else.
Tristam subsequently joins Roshanara for a trip to the USS Atlantis (along with Lael Rosek and Sky Blake) for the promotion of Captain Brell, where he meets Oddas Aria, whom works with Roshanara on the warp 15 engine, and shares a small reunion with fellow Vigilant alum, Irina Pavlova.
Juanita Sanchez
When Tristam is assigned to Deep Space 17 after his medical leave, he struggles to connect well with 17's crew. He butts heads with Juanita Sanchez in particular, believing that she 'judges' many of his actions, to the point where Msafiri Bakari is forced to break up an argument. Despite their conflicts, they ultimately begin somewhat of a romantic entanglement.
Though they end up working together for an extended period of time, their romantic relationship was brief, if not fleeting. It ended with an a fight, of which they would reconcile weeks later, and remain somewhat good colleagues until Tristam is reassigned to the USS Vigilant-A.
A holographic version of Sanchez was used aboard the USS Mercury, of which he meets when he transfers the active holoprograms to a storage device aboard the Garuda. He'd been relieved to see a friendly holographic face, and overjoyed when she assists with the other programs deactivation. Supposedly, her personality had differed substantially from the real Sanchez.
He runs into Sanchez again when the two meet on Deep Space 10 mid-crisis, and together build an EMP. They discuss his current relationship with Roshanara (during this time, she was facing charges of treason), and Tristam acknowledges that a relationship may not be appropriate at this time, to which Sanchez simply tells him to 'go after her'.
During an awards ceremony of the Garuda, Sanchez would tease Tristam about her having to 'save' him again, suggesting that he is a clutz by nature.
When the Invicta's briefing table goes missing, Tristam comes to Sanchez (as she's a member of the Engineer's Trading Post) in hopes of her assistance in locating it. He goes so far as to actually beg her, much to her amusement, and she agrees to help.
Though he believes Sanchez to be a good person to work with, Tristam looks back on their relationship with dread, as it occurred during as he was healing from the accident aboard the Pioneer - but looking back on it, he will state that there was no justifiable excuse for his behavior towards her. He acknowledges that he did not treat Sanchez as he should have, and is particularly regretful that it was Juanita who attempted to reconcile the argument that broke them apart, despite Tristam being the one that caused the initial conflict. Because of this regret and embarrassment, he is especially frightened of Sanchez being in the same room as Roshanara, indicating that even after all that has occurred, he still does not truly trust Juanita. He has never, however, omitted details of his relationship with Sanchez to his current significant other.