Jahavus Vharan

Jahavus Vharan is the leader of the group known as the Reformers, and is the primary supporting protagonist of the episode If the Stars Should Appear. His chance meeting with Jenna, Eve, Connor, Andrea and Martin quickly catapults him and the rest of his group out of the shadows and out of hiding from Hamelac, and into an opportunity to seize their chance at finally being heard.

## Relationships

### Other

Mailia Vharan (Wife), Nixavi Vharan (Daughter), Czeloni Vharan (Daughter), Zevrath Naaru (Implied ancestor)

## History

Jahavus is first seen in the Reformers’ barn partway through the above-mentioned episode, and is the first from the barn to greet Jenna, Connor and Eve upon their arrival courtesy of Tomilin, one of the members. He listens patiently to their explanation, along with the other Reformers.

It’s mentioned that several years prior to the beginning of the series, when the pair were young, Jahavus and Hamelac had a rivalry with one another that lasted into their adulthood as a result of their differing ideologies: while Hamelac was strongly opposed to the idea of life and other worlds existing beyond their own - unknown to either of them at the time to be, in actuality, a millennia-old bioship - Jahavus welcomed this concept and found it fascinating. One thing which the two had in common, however, was that belief in their people’s alleged god, Naaru, was involved; Hamelac sees belief about life beyond their world to be an affront to Naaru, whilst Jahavus believed that Naaru deliberately created other worlds and would want people to be curious about them.

It’s revealed during this same conversation with Connor, Eve and Jenna that Jahavus possesses low-level telepathy, a rarity for his and the other bioship natives’ species later dubbed the “Narulians”, which he’s capable of using to sense what the people around him are immediately planning on doing and saying and can sense the presence of nearby family members. His telepathy doesn’t have full access to people’s inner thoughts. At some point prior to the series, Jahavus met and fell in love with his wife Mailia, and at an unknown point after their marriage they had twin daughters together named Czeloni and Nixavi Vharan.

At another undisclosed point, he started the Reformers as a resistance group against the dictatorial reign of Hamelac, who had become the head of state and imposed a death penalty on believers in life outside of their world. Jahavus had also reached the decision to keep his telepathic ability a secret from Hamelac and his soldiers, as in their people’s ancient scripture telepathy is said to be because of that person being destined to bring about a great change.

When Jenna, Eve and Connor went out to find Andrea and then to rescue Martin after the latter had been kidnapped by Hamelac’s soldiers, Jahavus and Tomilin accompanied them to assist. The six successfully infiltrated the Capitol Chamber in the nearby city and freed Martin, after which Jahavus grew furious with Hamelac as the latter refused to listen to the others’ explanation of the true nature of their world and their impending doom of falling into a star.

Once Hamelac was then incapacitated by Jenna, Tomilin and Jahavus led the five to an old doorway which they once found. Said doorway led to an elevator which took the group of seven up to the bridge of the bioship, to the surprise of Jahavus and Tomilin. The former experienced a feeling similar to his ability of sensing a family member's presence when the final pre-recorded message from the ship's now long dead Captain, a man named Zevrath Naaru - the individual who came to be regarded as their creator and whose true origins as a mortal, flesh and blood being were eventually forgotten. Jahavus listened silently with Tomilin and the others as this final transmission played, during which the Zevrath in the recording explained how their people's original homeworld was rendered uninhabitable by their sun, which had transformed into a red supergiant, and he and several other Captains in their starship fleet were put in charge of gigantic bioships to evacuate the planet's population, as well as that of the other, colonised planets in their system which had also been laid to waste by their sun. At some point after this evacuation, this bioship in particular which Jahavus and the others are on got separated from the others during their search for a new home and was left drifting through space, unsure of what had happened to the other bioships.

Jahavus, Jenna, Eve, Tomilin, Martin, Connor and Andrea were all amazed when the outer hull above the bioship populace below opened up to reveal stars and the nighttime sky for the first time, Connor having discovered and activated this function. The former thanked the *Valkyrie* away team for showing them the truth and for standing up to Hamelac, replying to Martin who said that they just gave back what was already theirs that what he, Tomilin and the other Reformers had been given back was their future, and that as a result that kind of feat deserved thanks.

Jahavus is last seen at the end of the episode, still standing on the bioship's bridge with Tomilin while the away team have returned to the now departed *Valkyrie* and waiting for the UIFA training crew which Jenna has promised to send in a few days' time to help to reacquaint the populace with their ship. While Jahavus ponders on the feeling he experienced earlier at the beginning of Zevrath's last recording, wondering whether he's the latter's descendant, Tomilin asks where he thinks they should go once the bioship can get moving again, to which Jahavus smiles and replies that although he doesn't know what exactly the future might hold, they can go wherever they want and they can now be whoever they want to be.

## Appearance

He has tan skin, a lanky body build and short, neat dark brown hair with brown eyes. His hair, which is greying in places and is also slightly wavy at the tips, is parted equally towards both sides of his head, and he has a full grey stubble beard.

## Personality and Interests

Jahavus is a family-oriented man, but he's also still shown to be dedicated to ensuring the safety of his followers and wants the best for his people as a whole; he doesn't allow the importance of his fellow kind or the importance of his family to overtake the other. He's presented to generally be mild-mannered, polite and friendly, and he also displays a degree of wisdom, partially influenced by his telepathic abilities.

He's willing to make changes to his opinions and beliefs in order to accept the truth, as shown when he and Tomilin accepted Naaru being proven to have actually been a mortal man like them instead of a god. Before this discovery of Naaru's true nature, Jahavus, like many others, followed the religion that came from myths of the former, although - unlike most others apart from his fellow Reformers - he didn't become a religious zealot and believed in the existence of other worlds, and was (and still is) very welcoming and tolerant towards other religious beliefs. He gets irritated when people such as Hamelac refuse to show this same tolderance and openness.

## Trivia

* Jahavus' actor Alexander Siddig is most well-known for his role in *Star Trek: Deep Space Nine* as the eponymous space station's Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Julian Bashir, and as Prince Doran Martell in *Game of Thrones*. Doran's wise, level-headed personality and Dr. Bashir's friendly and compassionate traits served as inspiration for writing Jahavus' own personality and mannerisms.
* The Alexander Siddig character was originally going to be Zevrath, but was instead chosen to be Jahavus at the last minute in order for it to be a bigger role in the events of the episode.