New Counselor - Old Chief Medical Officer

Posted on Wednesday 2 January 2019 @ 20:49 by Commander Caroline Miller & Commander Save'ena (Sav) Tillatix & Lieutenant Colonel Kachiko Bayushi

Mission: The New Collective
Location: XO Briefing Room
Timeline: After Drone Capture
1632 words - 3.3 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

Caroline followed the XO into her briefing room. With everything that was going on, after the red alert, the other woman clearly felt she needed to speak to her about something to ask her to join her. Caroline waited stood to attention for the other woman to speak.

Kachiko sat down behind her desk before looking back to the Counselor. At this point, she sighed audibly, "Counselor, please sit down, relax."

"It's my job to be the Captain's so-called 'enforcer', but as long as you don't go off the reservation and get yourself in trouble, you have little to fear from me," Kachiko smiled across the desk.

Caroline sat down and resisted the urge to tell the other lady it was her job to worry about people going off the reservation. She had yet to see the XO's file but hoped there was nothing there the lady in front of her had to fear talking to her about, as she could not make the same claim back.

"So almost the entire crew of the Merlin went missing. The only crew or passengers located were Miss Tillatix and the Captain's daughter, Sierra. My confusion is how this applies to you?"

"Well thats the part I can't understand. I put in for and was granted to go back to the academy and study a counselling elective. The paper trial is there at Starfleet HQ's end. Perhaps something went wrong in the records onboard the Merlin? And not everyone is missing. I was on Earth studying, and Commander Jones is working on a Starbase in some pretty interesting engineering leaps at present. We have been staying in touch. She recently had a baby - Sansa. Unusual circumstances but thats another story and not one I can go into. Doctor/Patient confidentiality I am afraid.

I was the Merlin's Chief Medical officer when I was here, I am still a qualified doctor now and will ensure my licence stays up to date but I was interested in expanding my career ands skillset, so I took a side step in my specialities. Upon completion of the elective I took a junior position on the Agamemnon as a counselor for further experience and then we met up with you guys. The orders suddenly from Starfleet to transfer over to be Captain Bairstow's Chief counselor surprised me, and I was informed I had to transport over immediately. So here I am."

"Very good, Doctor," Kachiko nodded with a blank face. "You're going to have a lot of work ahead of you, it appears. I know that you wouldn't have been assigned to the Merlin if you weren't already cleared to know more about me and my past, but I must do my due diligence and make sure."

"Otherwise, Miss Miller, a prerequisite for my returning to duty is regular counseling, as my going off the reservation would be a critical threat to Federation Security," Kachiko frowned."Please understand that I won't fight you on the counseling front and entirely understand their requirement. I just don't want to continue dredging up the past."

Caroline kept her face as neutral as the Xo's and responded, "I am going to assume with us currently on a mission involving the Borg that you are familiar with Captian Picard and his interactions with them.

At the academy, we did a whole module on his previous counsellor, Deanna Troi. She has written some interesting papers but I won't bore you there. One of the more important things learnt from this woman was "people come to talk to you about things they want to reveal. A ships counsellor has to get people to talk about things they don't want to reveal.

It sounds to me by your firm declaration that you don't want to dredge up the past, that I would not be doing my job appropriately if we did not explore that further. Usually someone who has dealt with their past issues, has no problem talking about them freely."

She let those words sink in to the XO, making it clear she was not having this woman dictate her required therapy sessions to her.

Kachiko frowned, "It isn't that."

"It's just that no matter how well I can be 'repaired' of past trauma, I will always remember what happened and it's probably among the worst things possible one could remember," Kachiko sighed. "I have a video recording of the incident, if you'd like to witness it for yourself?"

"I would frankly, not to tell you how to do your job," Kachiko offered the other woman a tight smile. "Rather that we looked towards the present and the future. But that's just the way I function. Most of my trouble with my past comes whenever I try to sleep."

"Well we can delve further into your sleep when we schedule our first session but for the present and future, I intend to review your file and read prior counselors notes. We will meet, talk and go from there. However I cannot make any promises that we won't have to dredge things up," Caroline stated firmly.

"Try not," she added slightly softer, "to think in terms of repairing. It's more about coping. Most trauma, I hate to say, never fully goes away but you can find ways to make things easier to manage."

"Perhaps," Kachiko looked noncommittal. "Well, if we're going to start dredging up my sordid past, which is Secure Compartmented information, we may as well start with the terror that was my wife's death."

"One of the Marines that had accompanied her had a body camera that recorded everything," Kachiko sighed. "I've gone through it more than once since then, so the video itself... I've been desensitized to it."

"I can imagine," Caroline said gently. She crossed her legs sitting a bit more comfortably back into the chair as the women in front of her although, and understandably, not happy to go through her experiences again was willing to open up to her. "I'm sorry that you had to suffer seeing your wife in that situation and reliving it reviewing it again.

Are you concerned that you feel desensitised to it?" She asked. "How does that make you feel?" She wondered whether the poor woman was experiencing any guilt now from not experiencing her emotions of of the event as strongly.

"If anything, Counselor, the desensitization should be good. It means I'm not letting it control me any longer, right?" Kachiko looked unsure.

"That said, that's an issue for our first official meeting," Kachiko sighed. "We have work to discuss. I don't know how much you're aware of Miss Tillatix's past, but I have been party to a lot of the abuse she's endured, in a fashion."

"I was her Academy counselor, for a lack of better words," Kachiko quirked a white eyebrow. "She put up with a lot of crap from other cadets and Academy officials. Several of whom are currently incarcerated for the things they were involved in. Vice-Admiral Chen was most displeased with their behavior."

Then a wicked grin crossed her face, "I got to have the joy of arresting most of them myself. The Vice-Admiral used me as her errand girl for several years after my tenure at the Academy was completed, before I was cleared for fleet duty again. I can't discuss much, but it involved trafficking in sentient humanoids... of which Save'ena almost became a victim of."

"I don't know that much about her past," Caroline said simply, "But I do know shes experienced some very dangerous medical procedures that have required some work to correct. The basics of what I just told you are in her personal file and as XO you would have access. I am afraid that due to doctor patient confidentiality I can't go much further into that."

"Well, as both Sav's friend and both of your's senior officer... I'd like to request that you keep close tabs on her," Kachiko frowned again. "She's dealing with a lot, trying to recover & cope with the past and the mind screwing she'd received. I wish there was more I could do to help her, but I don't know how receptive she'd be to my poking around in her head."

"Oh, right... almost forgot to mention. I'm a class-six telepath, part of what makes me so effective as an Operator," Kachiko's face was blank, completely devoid of emotion. "Should you ever need assistance on that level, I'd like to be able to help you or any member of the crew in need of that help. I am the Ex Oh, after all. Everyone aboard is my responsibility."

Caroline nodded. If she was a class 6 telepath she would have already got off her, that she was also planning to keep close tabs on the woman in front of her too. Caroline didn't need to hide it as everyone aboard was also her responsibility too. "Good to know," she said with a smile. "May I be dismissed or is there anything further you want to discuss?" she asked the other woman conscious that she really needed to get down to sickbay and liase with the CMO that they were ready to receive this borg.

"Of course, Miss Miller," Kachiko offered the woman a smile. "I'm pleased to have you aboard. A two mastery officer like yourself will be excellent in keeping our crew put together right. Welcome back."

"Thank you," Caroline nodded getting up. "I'll be in touch with some scheduled in sessions."

"Roger that, Counselor," Kachiko nodded. She has chosen to take a more relaxed approach to senior officers most of the time. That included how she dismissed said officers, "Take it easy."

OFF:

Commander Bayushi Kachiko
Executive Officer, USS Merlin

Counselor Caroline Miller
Chief Counselor, USS Merlin