Zentmeister
I'm not sure if this was the plan for the story all along (seems likely to me) or if you're just retconning to fix lack of character and relationship writing, but im so glad you did this. I've honestly been thinking about dropping this for a while because it felt like a grind of a dead inside Erich navigating galactic politics but mostly surface level stuff, none of the relationship building and struggle/adventure that made TOS such a masterpiece. But it looks like maybe that was the point, a lesson to learn from that inspires him to become the family man that makes for good relationship writing. I tip my hat to you author, well done and wise choice.