Missing the Mark

Posted on 09 Nov 2014 @ 6:06pm by Lieutenant JG Delainey Carlisle & Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm

3,038 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Episode 07 - Sojourn
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 1, Saalm's Quarters
Timeline: MD -15 - 1630 hrs

[ON]

Though the events of the last mission had begun to fade now that they had begun to get back into a routine, Delainey couldn't entirely close the book on things. This had less to do with the images of the "zombies" as they were being quietly referred to, and more to do with the troubling personnel issues that had been exposed while they were all under stress. As a counselor and a physician, Carlisle couldn't help but take the lashing the medical department received personally, as whether it was deserved, handled correctly or otherwise, she felt a certain sense of responsibility for what happened. Counselors were expected to proactively intervene to prevent such poor command and crew relationships, and doctors were supposed to provide more efficient care to their patients.

Delainey was confident the problems would be corrected and the crew would be better for it, but she had to admit, Lirha pulling a weapon had absolutely floored her. Orions were emotional people, granted, and Carlisle understood the circumstances, but she was also concerned that a senior officer had escalated to that action so easily. It was so unlike the woman Delainey knew, she decided to reach out. The counselor was less concerned with placing blame and more interested in offering an ear.

Having contacted Lirha beforehand, she rang the chime and waited.

So far it had been an uneventful day for the young Orion, and with Galileo's mission at Lyshan now complete and the ship heading back to port, Lirha had found a bit of downtime for herself and was currently curled up on her couch reading through a series of new Starfleet intelligence reports that had recently been made available to her. She had always found that reading helped her relax, even if it was mundane reading, and so the stack of PADDs in front of her on the coffee table were on the agenda for the evening. The sound of the door chime was not, however, but Lirha quietly sighed and hoped that whoever was outside wouldn't take up too much of her time or have any important issues for her to address. A stress-free and quiet evening was all she really wanted.

A short moment passed without a reply before Lirha's muffled voice sounded quietly through the door. "Enter."

The doors opened as directed and Delainey entered, a bit hesitant when she realized the Commodore was reading. "Hello, ma'am. Did I misunderstand your message about coming by?"

Lirha looked up from her PADD towards the door and took sight of the familiar blond counselor who had just entered. Great, Lirha sarcastically thought to herself with an inaudible sigh. She just now remembered Carlisle asking to speak with her this afternoon, but the details of the arrangement had slipped her mind. Over the past year or so, she also had developed a growing disdain for people poking into her thoughts and feelings, and perhaps her forgetfulness was more of a conscious act that she cared to admit.

"Hello, lieutenant," she replied politely enough without shifting from her position on the sofa. She then wondered what the woman meant by 'misunderstand'. Despite her having actually forgotten about the meeting, there was no outward evidence to suggest it, and instead she was simply reading on her couch passing time until Siren returned from her duty shift. "Have a seat," she added while motioning to the opposite side of the couch.

"Thank you, ma'am," Delainey replied as she sat. "I'm sorry if I caught you in the middle of something important, but I promise not to take long. I just wanted to see how you were. What happened in sickbay seemed so unlike you, I just wanted to make sure you were alright."

"Sickbay?" came the commodore's quiet reply to Carlisle's statement. She quickly tapped on her PADD to bookmark the page she was reading then set the slim device down on the table in front of her before looking back towards her guest. In truth, Lirha hadn't thought much about the incident since it had happened, aside from the brief conversation her and John had had. It wasn't exactly an important issue in her mind and therefore she hadn't spent much time pondering the events that had transpired.

"I feel just fine," she added before focusing her green eyes on Delainey's. "What about the incident do you feel is out of character for me?" she proceeded to ask with curious raised eyebrows.

"Well, I've seen you in some really tense situations before, but I've never seen you get so upset that you pulled a weapon on one of your own." Carlisle raised a hand to forestall the inevitable protest. "Granted, I know nothing about what you saw and experienced was routine, but I've also seen you think on your feet and deal calmly with the unexpected even when none of us were calm. I also know they don't hand out all your pips to people who're prone to fits of poor impulse control."

Lirha stared at Delainey with an unamused expression. "Poor impulse control?" She pointedly repeated each word, not exactly positive about what the counselor was attempting to say.

Not deterred Delainey said, "I've seen you angry, stressed, and I've even seen you discipline a member of the crew, and on none of those occasions as upset as you were, did you ever pull a weapon on one of your own before. I don't expect you'd have gotten very far in the ranks if that was your way of handling anger or stress, so yes, I'm wondering if you're ok. I care about you and I respect you, so I'm here."

"Yes, I am quite fine," Lirha answered, "and thank you for the candor. However, you are comparing peaches and oranges." Was that the right expression? Lirha wasn't sure but quickly shrugged it off after a short moment's pause to refocus on her thoughts.

"Let me be perfectly clear, counselor. What happened in sickbay was not the result of my 'impulse control' nor anger, stress, or whatever else you think it might be. I did what I did because I witnessed a junior officer curse at me then refuse to answer my questions regarding the status of the patient she was treating -- of whom I happened to be the next of kin -- all the while performing open surgery as if this were the 21st century," she tersely explained. "I will not comment on this any further, but suffice to say, we both know such type of behavior is unacceptable in Starfleet, and not only is it grounds for an officer to be put in the brig and court-martialed, it also poses a direct threat to the safety of the rest of the crew specifically those who she might have had to treat or will treat in the future."

Lirha glanced down at the PADD on her desk while wondering why someone would somehow question her actions considering the truth of what had transpired. "The lieutenant is lucky I did not shoot her there on the spot then have her dragged to the security office. And I assure you counselor, if it ever happens again, I will indeed do just that," she thoughtfully added.

"That's the part I don't understand," Delainey replied, genuinely perplexed. "You're a leader within the fleet who understands the importance of getting things done without escalating matters unnecessarily. I've seen you dole out discipline coolly and appropriately without resorting to threatening physical violence."

Carlisle paused, then added, "I've never seen you allow someone to use a 'she started it' explanation to justify making things worse. Case in point? Quinn's blow up at the dinner with the Cardassians. The delegates were rude, they were disrespectful, and several people were personally attacked and had their credibility challenged. Did you allow Quinn to throw them out an airlock or even pull out his weapon to induce them to stop? You didn't do that, but you managed to keep them in their places while also holding Quinn accountable for how he chose to respond. You and Blake helped him understand that as a leader with power aboard, he's entrusted with using his authority judiciously. We're helping him see he has more choices than being meek and mild when challenged or exploding with anger or violence."

Lirha cocked her head at Delainey with her own perplexed expression. "I did not speak to Quinn about his incident with First Glinn Tratar," she simply replied. Apparently the counselor had been misinformed about the transpiring of that situation, and as far as Lirha was aware, it was Blake and Holliday who -- as the ship's command staff -- had handled the situation. Not her.

"And even if I did," she continued with a dismissive wave of her hand, "not every situation calls for the same sort of action or discipline." Lirha was becoming quite annoyed with the counselor but did her best to smile politely regardless before adding to her thoughts. "If you think I am using childish excuses to justify my behavior, then that is your prerogative I suppose," she shrugged without much care. "That is certainly a way to twist my words and motives, but I do not particularly care to debate semantics with you." She stared at Carlisle and gave the woman a cautioning look, one which clearly indicated for her to remember why she had come and to closely evaluate the words that were coming out of her mouth before she spoke them.

"I didn't say your behavior was childish," Delainey pointed out, even more troubled that Lirha would put words in Delainey's mouth. It was a move she would've expected from Stace, but not Lirha. "I said I was concerned about your behavior because it's not like you to pull weapons to settle disciplinary matters. I know that because you wouldn't have made rank if it were, and because I've seen you refrain from blasting people out of the sky or where they stood even though they gave you cause. As for Quinn, you may not be in charge anymore, but I know your opinion as an advisor carries weight, and if you'd wanted him off the hook for his behavior, it'd be strongly considered. This isn't me blasting you, ma'am. This is me reaching out to you because I know what you saw and what you dealt with isn't an image that goes away easily."

Lirha rubbed her forehead in frustration. It seemed her previous explanation about the reason for her actions had missed the mark, and so she tried to explain again for the last time. "I did not pull a weapon on the lieutenant because of a disciplinary matter. As I already explained, the doctor's actions were not only insubordinate and a direct violation of protocol, but also posed a direct threat to the safety of this crew -- which is why such protocols exist in the first place. That was my judgement then, and my judgement now. And as I also stated, I will not hesitate to do the same if such a situation ever arises again." There. Clear as a holographic window, hopefully.

"We may not agree on the degree of threat the doctor posed, ma'am," Delainey replied, "but I do respect your read of the situation and the desire you had to address it. What I'm concerned about, from a psychological point of view, is that you chose to draw a weapon to manage that threat, which psychologically speaking, is a tactic which escalates the situation and increases the risk to all around you. I can't help but wonder why you didn't order the doctor into custody. It would have addressed the insubordination and taken care of the threat the doctor posed. That you chose to point a weapon at someone, rightly or wrongly, when you were witnessing something personally so traumatic at the same time is a highly dangerous set of circumstances."

Delainey paused. "That said, I'm not unsympathetic to what you witnessed, ma'am, and I hope you know I'm sincere when I say, I hope you and Siren are doing well. I meant it when I said I respect you, and it's my hope that while you may not agree with my point of view, you'll at least understand it was out of genuine concern that I stopped by."

Leaning back into the couch and taking a deep breath in an attempt to relax, the commodore did her best to calm her agitation. She did not like her methods being questioned nor her judgement of situations; both of which were the reason she was a member of the command department and wore a red collar, and why others -- the counselor sitting in front of her included -- did not. All things considered though, Lirha did understand the reason for Carlisle's visit. It was probably an alarming situation for a counselor to hear about, but since the woman had not been present at the time, it was also difficult for her to fully understand what had transpired and why.

"Yes, I do understand your concern, counselor," she began to reply. "However, it was not a situation that afforded the time and luxury of going through the process to put a person in custody." Surely that had to be somewhat obvious to anyone who had been there in sickbay at the time, but then again, Delainey had not. "My method -- while a bit...unorthodox -- achieved its desired result and the message was made very clear to the lieutenant. That was the most important reason for my decision," she explained.

Delainey hadn't been there, but she was a doctor and she had worked triage and trauma situations. Time was critical for the appropriate provision of care in emergencies, but she had a hard time believing it took less time for Lirha to draw a phaser and negotiate with Tuula for even a few seconds, and say, calling for Tuula to be beamed to the brig directly. It was a few seconds of shock and negotiation versus a tap of a combadge and a two second beam-out. Carlisle also wasn't sure what threat Tuula posed, if, as Lirha said, the issue wasn't her insubordination and rude refusal to provide information, but something else. What threat did Tuula pose to the crew as a whole in that moment, and without medical training herself, how did Lirha know what it was?

"What message was that? If I'm understanding you, you weren't just reacting to a disciplinary matter in which their was rudeness and insubordination, but something more. Was it her medical approach that alarmed you?"

"A combination of the factors I mentioned earlier," the commodore answered plainly enough. She'd already explained the reasons for her actions earlier in the conversation and didn't particularly feel like reiterating them at the moment. In fact, she really didn't feel like continuing to talk about the incident at all. It had happened over two weeks ago and was now done and over with in her mind. No one had been shot, Siren was alive and well, and through the chaos there was now calm and order. But now, speaking to the counselor about it was making her slightly unsettled.

Delainey wasn't empathic but she didn't have to be to know Lirha was annoyed and thought her reasoning was perfectly clear. Carlisle, however, still thought her logic was muddied. First, she'd said she wasn't reacting to a disciplinary matter, but now it seemed Tuula's insubordination had played a part in Lirha's reaction. Then there was the issue of Tuula's choice of medical approach. Was that the threat to the crew she referred to?

Ultimately, however, she'd said what she'd come to say, and her curiosity wasn't going to make anything better for the moment. Instead, she offered, "I've found how a person communicates a message is just as, if not more important, than the message itself. I've no doubt the message you wanted to send was received. I suppose it's the unintended messages I'm most concerned about."

"Your concerns are noted," Lirha replied without missing a beat. "Now, if there is nothing else, will that be all for the evening?" She didn't have much else she wanted to say to the counselor at the moment regarding the topic at hand, and continuing the current conversation was a waste of time in her opinion. It seemed to her that the reason for Carlisle's visit was mostly focused on questioning her handling of the sickbay incident, and Lirha had no further intentions of defending her actions. Nor did she really need to. What had started off as a relaxing evening had now turned into a stressful one much to the commodore's displeasure.

It didn't take a telepath or an empath to know Delainey had worn out her welcome. All in all, however, the conversation had gone better than she'd expected, and Carlisle was as pleased as she hoped to be. In her view, neither Tuula, nor Lirha had behaved entirely appropriately, and she just hoped there wouldn't be a repeat for either of them.

Lirha watched the counselor take the hint and depart from her quarters, then curled her legs tight underneath her and let out a long sigh of relief now that she finally had her apartment back to herself. The counseling session which had just transpired -- if it could even be called that -- had been about as useless as a trying to herd targs, and it was not something she wanted to repeat anytime in the foreseeable future. It seemed Carlisle had not understood what Lirha was attempting to tell her, or if she did, it certainly hadn't come across in such a way, and there was only so much patience Lirha had for such types of situations before she called it quits. Reaching out to pick up her PADD and resume her reading for the evening, she let out a sleepy yawn while she waited for Siren to return home for some now-needed relaxation.

[OFF]

***

CDRE Lirha Saalm
Mission Advisor
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Delainey Carlisle, M.D., Ph.D.
Counselor/Medical Officer
USS Galileo

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