Enna Vael

Record

Enna Vael was nineteen years old on the night of October 9, 2404, present as a lookout during the act of sabotage at Iapetus's Growth Bed Nine that triggered the colony's nano containment breach. Born on Europa around 2385, she was raised in one of its ice-ceiling congregations before relocating to Iapetus.

Appearances

Her two co-conspirators died within the first minute of the incident. Vael was taken into custody, tried separately from the wider emergency proceedings, and sentenced to eleven years, with time already served counted toward suspension of most of it. Andre — by the record's own count, the sixth sworn witness of his life to testify in connection with the matter — visited her in custody every month of her sentence; the content of those visits is preserved only as privileged. Emergency coordinator Danun Okabe spoke for the Iapetus community on her behalf: "She's one of ours. Send her home to us and we'll put her to work." She served three years in the settlements' halt-architecture commons and chose to stay for life.

Significance

When Iapetus's Hall of Names opened, Vael entered her two dead co-conspirators' names into its record herself, in her own hand, beside a service note of her own composition: "They wanted the dark kept clean. It is. We keep it now with brakes, not bells." Her family line has since tended the commons' brake-work on dozens of worlds. The record's own judgment of her case is a single line, offered without further comment: it does not discard people.