Playing House

Posted on 20 Jun 2025 @ 12:51am by Lieutenant Commander Joey Geisler & Commodore Harvey Geisler

2,001 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Imposters Among Us
Location: Geislers' Quarters
Timeline: July 5, 2390

Joey stretched out on the couch in the Captain's quarters, the hum of the ship's systems a familiar lull that barely registered anymore. Rico lay beside her, his massive frame pressed against her legs, his rhythmic breathing a comfort. In their room, the twins slept soundly in their small beds, the gentle glow of a nightlight casting soft light over their peaceful faces. They had no idea their parents weren't actually their parents, and with any luck, they never would.

She traced lazy circles over Rico’s head, her mind anything but relaxed. The Confederation had gained ground, but it wasn’t enough, not yet. There were still pieces to move, alliances to secure, threats to neutralize. The weight of it all sat on her shoulders, but she bore it willingly. She had come too far to let hesitation slow her down now.

Rico huffed when her fingers stopped moving. Joey exhaled, then started to rub his head again. “Alright, boy,” she murmured. “I understand the importance of pets.”

The doors to the cabin updated, permitting the facsimile dubbed as Harvey Geisler entrance. Pequeno, resting in the corner, instantly shot up and raced to the door. The former K9 unit immediately assumed a defensive position and softly growled, as if he were sizing up the new arrival.

Harvey smirked and knelt in front of Pequeno. "Smell something do you?" he asked, knowing there would not be a response he would be able to easily recognize. Thankfully, he had wisely prepared for this response and produced a small container from behind his back. Harvey opened it, withdrew a strip of meat, and placed it in the palm of his hand. He then extended his hand to Pequeno, offering him to sniff and partake.

Pequeno immediately performed the first part of the dance, leaning in to sniff the meat and the hand of the new arrival. Both scents were different, unusual. But the meat... the meat was tantilizing. Pequeno cautiously accepted meat and began to chew it. As he did, his posture weakened, and Harvey took full advantage by placing his now clear hand atop Pequeno's head and gave it a pat. "Good boy."

"Smart," Joey said with a smirk. Unlike him, she had plenty of time to win over the children and canines. For him, it would take a little more coaxing. "I trust things have been going well in your new role?"

"It's been new everything," Harvey admitted as he rose to his feet. "This body may be just a few days old, but it's still a mental workout. I have much of his memories. And also the commands programmed by our benefactor. You picked an excellent location for us to work. I'm right at the tap of all knowledge in this part of the quadrant. I don't even think Gamma Command knows everything we know."

"I don't think they're quite aware of everything, either," she said, getting to her feet. "There are certainly people we need to be extremely careful around. Your Yeoman and di Pasquale are at the top of that list. If they suspect even the slightest thing as off, everything we've worked for could come tumbling down."

"For once," Harvey said with a smile, joining her in the living room, "I'm thankful there's not too many familiar faces around here. We'll just need to come up with a few things to keep them busy and distracted until we can get off the ship."

"They will be soon enough with di Pasquale in charge. She's good at what she does. That's why the real Harvey shanghaied her back into the position after she left," Clone Joey said, moving over to the replicator to get herself a cup of tea. "Would you like something while I'm here? We can discuss plans while we relax a bit before the major things start to take place."

"I'll have whatever you're having," he stated, as he moved to the couch and unzipped his uniform jacket. "You keep mentioning di Pasquale. I thought she and her team were supposed to be running deep and silent. They must have found something."

Joey had another cup of tea produced and brought one over to set on the coffee table for him. "Perhaps, but they weren't going to be gone forever. If I had my way, that might have been a possibility," she said as she sat back down on the couch. "We're just going to have to be as careful as possible. Our current positions can do a lot for the Confederation."

"It'll be a lot easier to be careful if we can get off this ship," Harvey remarked. "Sure there's a novelty of commanding a ship and running interference out here. But, that's child's play, and apparently, our counterparts are skilled about solving mysteries they stumble into. And so will this crew. We just need to come up with a good way to get transferred to Gavara until we can find a natural way to get to Gamma Command."

"And that might be a problem," she said, pausing long enough to take a sip of her tea. "How do we get ourselves to Gamma Command? Harvey always said he would retire before he ever took a desk job."

Harvey winced, taking a sip of his tea to help him process. "I'm still working on that. O'Connell's not going to be happy I got off the line unless there's a really good reason to. Gavara is easy enough to accomplish. It's the new forward operating base, despite how... not ready it is. But we get the task group to take a defensive perimeter and dig in, it'll give us time to work out the next steps."

And that's when the faux Commodore turned to look at Joey. While he had all the memories of the real Harvey, and the woman beside him had several memories of the woman who married Harvey, neither individual was the complete whole of who they were meant to impersonate. His own flesh was days old, and his brain carried more programming than borrowed memory. The woman beside him was much older, a mix of the real Joey's memories, and a fair amount of her own. But she also bore a purpose, and it was Harvey's purpose to get her positioned to be the most effective. Whatever became of this... relationship... as a result would be dependent on next steps.

"The real question is," he asked, "is what do you need for the next phase of this?"

Joey didn’t answer right away. Her gaze drifted toward the window, as if the stars beyond might speak the truth more plainly than she could.

Finally, she turned back. "For now and until we can get off of the ship, stability. Not the kind you can dig into the ground, but the kind that lets people look you in the eye and trust what they see. I need time with the crew. Let them measure me. Let them find the seams.”

She leaned forward, taking a sip of her tea. “And I need you to keep me in the loop. Anything you learn, anything you hear, you have to tell me. No secrets."

There was no malice in her tone — just a hard edge of resolve, shaped by experience both implanted and her own. She hadn’t asked to become Joey any more than he’d asked to become Harvey, but they were here now. What they built from this moment forward wouldn’t be a replication. It would be something new.

"Done," Harvey immediately confirmed. He had no reason to withhold confirmation, much less act in a way that was insubordinate. Outside this cabin, he was the master and commander of the vessel, at least as far as anyone else was concerned. But in private, he was most certainly the lesser. "It will be easy to play the Commodore, just so long as we can control the circumstances."

A twinge of nervousness flashed in his eyes, and his teacup wavered a bit as he brought it to his mouth. "What about... you and I? We are mere actors on this stage, and it is only our memories that are connected. We share DNA with the young ones in the other room, and we are not their parents."

Joey cast a glance toward the direction she knew the twins to be sleeping. When she first switched places with their actual mother, her maternal instincts were nowhere to be found. But, now things were a bit different since she'd slipped into that role. "I have to admit that I have grown rather fond of those two," she admitted. "When the time comes, I will be taking them with me."

She looked thoughtful as she mulled over his question. "If we are in the public eye, we would be required to play the roles of a loving husband and wife. Behind closed doors, we can keep things as professional as you would like," she answered, then decided to add a little more clarity. "If the twins are around, we will have play our roles as well. They may be young, but they're smart."

Harvey nodded, considering her words carefully. His eyes too looked past Joey and towards the bedroom where the twins were sleeping. "Should be easy enough. To play the roles of parents, I mean. Taking the children into the arms of the Confederation won't be too difficult. Both are young enough to adjust to a new lifestyle, and with you as their mother, they would be protected."

He closed his eyes for a moment, taking the opportunity to replay a few different memories that had been copied into his brain. Clearly there were some holes, but he should be able to make do with what he had. "As for our relationship, I'm unsure how to proceed. The real me... well him... had no idea of what's been truly transpiring these last couple of weeks. He very much enjoyed how well you committed to the role. And I'm unsure if what I'm feeling is him... or me..."

Harvey opened his eyes and looked at her, his expression more inquisitive and curious than anything else. "How do you reconcile these two worlds? It is... more challenging than I anticipated."

Joey couldn't help but smile at the mention of how much Harvey enjoyed her role of being his wife. She was certainly committed to their cause. There was no mistaking that. "It takes some getting used to, but you will as time progresses. If you're struggling, let me know, and I will help you. Even if we don't actually do the husband and wife thing, we are in this together, and I won't leave you on your own."

Harvey nodded, gently. "I will certainly turn to you for advice. But, most importantly, I will follow your lead. Until such time as it is needed, perhaps full surrender into our multiple roles will keep us from being discovered. There's more than five hundred people on this ship, but it's still a small space. Mila especially tends to visit the children. We can't afford even a minor slip."

"No, we can't, and that's why we need to be as careful as we can be until we're all safely off the ship," she said as she finished off her tea. "Tonight, I would like to go over some things that you aren't aware of yet. Things about me, the twins and some other things. I'm also going to give you some listening material from some bugs that I've planted. It will fill in some gaps and help the cause."

He smiled, pleased to be able to focus on something that would restore his clarity in this challenging moment. "Then a briefing it is." He raised his near-empty mug as if he were going to give a toast. "To the cause, and the Confederation."

Despite her cup being empty, she tapped it against his. "To the cause, and the Confederation."

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