Jerez Rivera

## Family Members

**Betroth:** Dannel Playdon

* **Twin brother:** Drew
* **Unnamed parents**

* The End, and the New Beginning
* Full Circle
* The Real Jerez Rivera
* Year End 2788

## Biography

**Jerez Rivera** is the deputy team leader of Cassandra 2, and later of Cassandra Prime. She appears only briefly in the *Earth Girl* trilogy. In *Earth Prime,* she narrates "The Real Jerez Rivera" as well as appearing throughout other stories.

### Personality and Characteristics

Jerez is generally practical, sensible, and fair, often a voice of reason to Rono's antics.

She has a particular interest in historical dress and food. She enjoys recreating ancient clothing as accurately as possible, having learned to weave and spin wool for the sake of authenticity. She also recreates historical cuisine and is known for regularly handing out unconventional drinks.

Jerez has a stone cottage in Earth Europe that she tells her team she bought in order to have a place to work on her reproduction clothes, but which she later tells Dannel Playdon she actually bought as a respite from the drama surrounding Rono and Cassandra 2.

Despite her reputation for having good sense and practical judgment, that reputation is not the entire truth of her character– in November 2789, Dannel sees a more emotional side to her after proposing a relationship to her. She also gives up historical reproduction at the end of 2789 before moving to Fortuna with the newly dubbed Cassandra Prime, where she says her hobby would be out of place and impractical.

### Early years

Jerez grew up on a Military base in Gamma sector and attended a Military school. At age 18, she enrolled in the Military Academy as a fast-track Military Security candidate. She made use of the free interstellar travel for Military personnel and developed a passion for the historical sites of Earth. Unsatisfied with life as a Military cadet, she dropped out of training halfway through and completed an accelerated Pre-history introduction course with University Asgard.

Following the introductory course, Jerez joined the same Pre-history Foundation course as Dannel Playdon, Rono Kipkibor, and Stephan, all of whom went on to become members of Cassandra 2. Near the end of her Foundation year, Jerez and Dannel hovered on the edge of starting a relationship. However, the following year, Cadee joined their specialist degree course and began Twoing with Dannel. By the time Jerez felt ready to look for a different relationship, there were few options left in the class, and she ended up Twoing with the team 1 sensor sled operator, Byron.

Byron and Jerez dubbed themselves a "leftover couple" as two of the only remaining single members of the class. Their relationship lasted for three years, only the first three months of which involved a Twoing contract, as neither cared enough to renew the contract. At the end of their degree course, Byron and Jerez decided to visit each others' families in order to decide if they'd like to get serious about their relationship before moving on to careers as professional archaeologists. However, they broke up in Europe Off-World when Jerez explained her Military background, and Byron got angry with her for keeping her background a secret.

Jerez's degree course lecturer invited her, Byron, Cadee, Dannel, Rono, and presumably Stephan to join his new joint research project with University Asgard and University Cassandra. Byron accepted an offer from University Jason instead, but the rest all joined the joint project, which grows into the Cassandra 2 research team.

She took on the role of deputy team leader in addition to heavy lift operator in 2775, following Cadee's death and Dannel leaving the team.

### Family

Jerez's parents are civilian Military advisors working as encryption specialists. They raised her believing that she was an only child, but in 2789, she learns that she actually has a twin brother, Drew. Drew was born with Immune Syndrome, and Jerez's parents immediately chose to relinquish him as a ward of Hospital Earth. They coldly refused attempted contact by Drew at age 15. They only tell Jerez of his existence following the media sensation surrounding Jarra and Fian's betrothal after having a change of heart and hoping that she will manipulate Drew into having contact with them, as he refuses to forgive them for cruelly rejecting him as a teenager.

Jerez pretends to agree to send a manipulative message so that her parents will give her Drew's contact information, but then sends him a message saying that she understands his refusal of contact with their parents and hopes to meet him one day. Drew replies, saying that he is also an archaeologist and currently teaching a Pre-history Foundation course with University Earth.

After learning about how her parents treated her brother, Jerez breaks off contact with them. She gets to know Drew and finds that they have lots in common; they can discuss history and archaeology for hours.

## Summary

### Earth Girl trilogy

Jerez is only mentioned briefly in *Earth Girl* as Cassandra 2's deputy team leader and an extra heavy lift operator.

She is present as part of Cassandra 2 in the other two books so is involved in all of the activities that the team is, but she is never specifically mentioned again.

### Earth Prime

#### The End, and the New Beginning

Cassandra 2 is at the Berlin, Earth Europe dig site, working on the tall "City Heart" buildings that have remained standing even though the insides have mostly fallen in. Asgard 6 is with them so that Rono Kipkibor and Keren can teach Jarra and Fian about working on tall ruins.

Jerez is Cassandra 2's deputy team leader and if when needed fills in on missing positions, mostly as a heavy lift operator.

When Reno sets up a competition to fire anchors in the building so that climbing ropes can be attached, Jerez becomes the competition judge because she will be fair and impartial. But Jerez says it is because she is the worse shot on the team. She announces the rules, the scoring system and the special case scoring rules.

As each person fires she announces the points awarded and the teams total points after each person has finished their round.

When Jarra was conducting the Next of Kin ceremony and giving her speech to explain why she made the decision to join and off-world university instead of University Earth, Jerez was one of the people that spoke up explaining that they had been wondering since first meeting her why she more or less sabotaged her future career by not going to University Earth, when it was obviously something she had been working for her entire life.

#### Full Circle

In the short story, Full Circle Dannel Playdon visits Jerez to explain some things to her about his past and to see if they could have a future together. Jerez tells Dannel about her brother Drew. The story is told from Playdon's POV.

#### The Real Jerez Rivera

The Real Jerez Rivera is the first story that is told from Jerez's POV. At the beginning of the story she is with her brother Drew at her house which he will take care of for her while she is on Fortuna and he will see to it that her personal belongings are picked up by the appropriate people. She leaves to meet up with Dannel Playdon so that they can elope to Epsilon Sector where before their betrothal she has to revel some startling information to him about her life prior to her attending the foundation class that they had originally met at.

Once they arrive on Galahad, Epsilon sector Interchange 2 and decide on their venue for registering their contract Jerez starts a campaign with the undercover security guards to keep their distance, she uses this method to also revel her secret to both Dannel and the security guards.

When the attacks started against Jarra and Fian, Colonel Leveque used an obscure military regulation to reactivate Jerez even though she had not completed her military training. He ordered her to watch for threats against them and in return she insisted that she hold enough rank to actually deal with any situations that she uncovered. Leveque also promised her that as soon as they report to Zulu base to prepare to go to Fortuna her undercover days would be over and she could go back to just being an archaeologist.

#### Year End 2788

Cassandra 2 is at the historic site "Field of the Cloth of Gold" and Dannel Playdon joins them for the Year End holiday. Playdon admires Jerez's reproduction dress complimenting her on it as her best ever. Rono keeps trying to fix Dannel and Jerez up but he keeps insisting that he isn't ready for another relationship yet.

{{quote|I could see that tomorrow was likely to turn into a battle between Rono’s passionate love of a dramatic costume, and Jerez’s passionate love of historical accuracy.

### Trivia

* During her Foundation year, all of Playdon's underwear was stolen from his room, and Jerez used her Military Security training to lock pick the underwear to freedom. She returned them to his room in a box labeled "skintights."
* In *Earth and Air*, Valeska Orlova mentions that the last time she saw her ex-husband Peregrine, he was "besotted with Jerez of Cassandra 2."

## References

### Citations

1. ↑ Edwards, Janet. Earth Prime (The Earth Girl Aftermath Stories Book 1) (p. 403). Wallam-Crane Press. Kindle Edition.
2. ↑ Edwards, Janet. Earth Prime (The Earth Girl Aftermath Stories Book 1) (p. 412). Wallam-Crane Press. Kindle Edition.
3. ↑ Edwards, Janet. Earth Prime (The Earth Girl Aftermath Stories Book 1) (p. 311). Wallam-Crane Press. Kindle Edition.
4. ↑ Edwards, Janet. Earth Prime (The Earth Girl Aftermath Stories Book 1) (p. 440). Wallam-Crane Press. Kindle Edition.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Edwards, Janet. Earth Prime (The Earth Girl Aftermath Stories Book 1) (p. 411). Wallam-Crane Press. Kindle Edition.
6. ↑ Edwards, Janet. Earth Prime (The Earth Girl Aftermath Stories Book 1) (p. 391). Wallam-Crane Press. Kindle Edition.
7. ↑ Edwards, Janet. Earth Prime (The Earth Girl Aftermath Stories Book 1) (p. 442). Wallam-Crane Press. Kindle Edition.
8. ↑ Edwards, Janet. Earth Prime (The Earth Girl Aftermath Stories Book 1) (p. 414). Wallam-Crane Press. Kindle Edition.
9. ↑ Edwards, Janet. Earth and Air: An Earth Girl Novella (EGN Book 2) . Wallam-Crane Press. Kindle Edition.

### Bibliography

* *Earth Girl (Earth Girl series Book 1)* (2015)
* *Earth Star (Earth Girl series Book 2)* (2014)
* *Earth Flight (Earth Girl)* (2015)
* *Earth Prime (The Earth Girl Aftermath Stories Book 1)* (2020)