Somewhat Mandatory

Posted on Sun Aug 2nd, 2020 @ 10:51am by Lieutenant Commander Savin & Lieutenant Commander P’rel M.D

Mission: The Shadow of Arachne
Location: Counselor's office
1725 words - 3.5 OF Standard Post Measure

The patient list wasn't that extensive for today, though one name - presumably his next appointment if he had to go by the listed time - caught his attention. "A Vulcan," he mused, "well this should be interesting. Having been raised Vulcan himself, though emotive through his handicap, and now finding a balance between his birth heritage and how he had been raised, he did consider Vulcans to be a challenge. From experience, he knew they could be quite closed.

He had of course interacted with the woman down planet, but their conversation had been rather limited and he'd been unable to form much of an opinion about her given the predicament they'd been in. Aside from the fact that he'd been injured and not at full physical and thus mental capacity.

Ringing the door chime to Counsellor Savin’s office, P’rel brooded over her immensely unfair and very sudden change of circumstances. Her posting to Command was gone, assigned instead to the awful ship: Commander Kane had seen to it that she was stuck here; Bennett had refused to help and to top it all off ‘Commander Calamity’ had checkmated her into a ridiculous waste of time with the Counsellor, when she very well should have been working up background files on Captain Munro and Commander Brill.

Alerted by both a vibration and a strobe, Savin looked up from he file he'd been studying. "Come in," he called out, triggering the door to open with his voice command.

She steeled herself as the door opened, and stepped inside. The Counsellor certainly looked in better shape than the last time she had seen him. “Lieutenant P’rel, here under duress” she offered, in a weak attempt at including some levity to the conveyance that’s she most certainly did not want to be here.

"Duress?" Savin arched a single eyebrow at her as he gestured towards a seat on the other side of his office. "Make yourself comfortable lieutenant," he offered as he came away from his desk to join her. He could see she was tense. "Relax lieutenant, I do not bite," he said with a warm smile, "if you prefer, we can move to a location where you feel more comfortable, we do not need to be in my office."

P’rel walked deeper into the room, very much wishing that her direction of travel was back the other way. Internally grumbling to herself she thought she’d be more comfortable about a light year away, with a broken subspace transceiver. Barely detectable. P’rel lightly shook her head and said flatly “The content of conversation would be unlikely to alter depending on our location thus I see no logic in doing so”.

The tone was obviously lost on the counselor as he sat himself down. "The content might not alter, but your anxiety might," Savin answered lightly, "why do you feel you are under duress to be here?"

Turning away from Savin, she eyed the doors longingly, “I do not feel anxiety” she answered, half truthfully. She genuinely didn’t feel anxious at that moment, more-so frustrated, but it would be disingenuous to suggest she never felt it. Her main concern at the moment was getting through this ridiculous farce.

With her turned away, Savin was oblivious to something being said. "Lieutenant, please remain facing my way so we can talk," he requested, "when you turn away, I cannot see what you are saying and I do prefer not to use my PADD to have your words being rendered to text for me to read."

P’rel turned straight around to face the Counsellor, and was sure her surprise was poorly masked “You’re deaf?” She asked, concluding the same from the Counsellor’s words. She had no idea, admittedly they hadn’t interacted a whole lot on Parata, but Savin had been conversing and there was nothing which had given the apparent disability away to the Vulcan woman.

Which was just as Savin preferred it to avoid special treatment. He nodded, taking note of her surprise. "I am," he replied calmly, "therefore I request you face my way. I do not have my interpreter with me, I usually do not during counseling sessions despite him being bound to the same oaths as I am." He paused. "Could you please answer my question?"

P’rel was genuinely caught off guard, and impressed - both rare events. “Of course, Counsellor. I had no idea.” She replied sincerely. “Duress...” she began; “well, let’s see - I have absolutely no desire to be here, in this room, on this ship, anywhere near here in fact”. She took a moment to pause and inwardly confirm she was still facing Savin; “I’m here purely to tick the right boxes, to make the best impression I can, so I can get off this monstrosity as soon as possible.”

"Is there a reason why you do not want to be here? A starship offers plenty of opportunities for an intelligence Officer. Being so negative will not help you achieve what you want."

Were she not a controlled Vulcan, P’rel would have sighed with exasperation; “Simply put, I was content with my life the way it was, the job I was doing and the people I worked with - or lack of, to be specific - now I’m thrown onto this ship by Kane, reporting to someone who...” and the exasperation crept out “... - and I’m sorry, I have NO idea how she became one - Commander Taeler. So now I need to do what is required of me, so that I can get off this ship and back to my old job.” She sat down on a small sofa, it was functional which the Vulcan appreciated, without being unnecessarily inviting nor especially comfortable.

"So you seek no new challenges?" the counselor challenged, "as for Commander Taeler, she has quite a bit of experience as an officer, but she is new to the role of executive officer. As you need time to adjust now to your new role, so does she in hers. The challenge we faced down on the surface was not an easy one. She had an inexperienced diplomatic liaison who was male, and myself in her team. Two team members who were considered inferior so she only had herself, and Lieutenant Sar to count on. Sar and I were injured in the process and it was her job to get us all out safely. Give her some credit lieutenant, because your attitude did not help matters."

“New to the job...I had concluded as much” P’rel replied with a more than just a little of a sarcastic edge; “My attitude was very simple - conclude the mission and extract the team,” she thought back to the mistakes made that evening “dragging a wounded and compromised team through a warzone in unfamiliar territory, moving away from a confirmed location - I would say that did not contribute to the conclusion of her job”. There were few times she had needed to rely on others, and this latest escapade had only sought to reinforce her experience that getting involved with other people operationally was a very bad idea.

"Your attitude is exactly that of not a team player," Savin countered, "in order for you to find your place here, you will need to try and fit in. Be part of the team and trust those you have to work with, especially if you want them to trust your expertise. Teamwork is finding the balance of what you can and cannot do or say in public." He paused. "Commander Taeler did what she felt she had to do. Despite recommendations, she felt she could not leave us behind, which is her command choice and one she will have to live with. Was it the wrong decision, maybe, but that is only for her to judge, not us."

“Axioms and platitudes won’t alter the situation I am in, Counsellor” replied P’rel, already tired of the witless ‘psychobabble’ - a term she had caught a human using once, it had amused her to such an extent that it still surfaced half a century later and caused her to suppress a small smile each time. Expediency was the logical course of action here, she could argue that there were in fact many more objective judgements which could be made of Taeler, the least of which being the Bajoran’s own self reflections, but nonetheless P’rel had Earth to get back to, and arguing about the hapless Commander wasn’t going to serve that aim. “Perhaps. I will do all you imply. May I leave now?”.

"Yes, but I would like to speak with you again in a few days." Savin gave her a mild nod. "After you had some time to settle in and meet people."

P’rel reeled with suspicion, this was too easy, but nonetheless it was an opportunity; “Counsellor, the Commander ordered me here, I have been here, I have fulfilled my order and I have no intention of returning.” She rose slowly and steepled her fingers at her navel, nodding politely she turned to leave...

"They have ordered you here yes, but it is up to me to decide how long or how often you need to be here. A lack of compliance will result in a report towards the commanding officer regarding your fitness of duty."

Stopping at the door, the Vulcan turned to face Savin; “I have work to do -“ she was irritated, one more blow against her, life had been so much simpler before the Paratan assignment, exiting through the door and into the corridor she called back disdainfully “ - you can add the word ‘team’ to that if it helps matters!”. She didn’t have time nor sufficient patience for this nonsense, if she had to work on board Athena for now so be it, that was now a given, but jumping through procedural and bureaucratic hoops was anathema to that work.

Het irritation was palpable, and her last call went unnoticed as Savin had turned towards his desk. He presumed already she wasn't going to comply and as such would send a report to the captain. An outline only, to respect her privacy.