Seeking Out a Counselor

Posted on 18 Feb 2015 @ 6:08am by Lieutenant Commander Dea Mialin & Lieutenant Prudence Devin Ph.D.

1,263 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Episode 08 - NIMBUS
Location: Starbase 84 - Deck 21, Office 11
Timeline: MD -03, 15:00 hours

Dea wasn't one for meeting with a Counselor. Perhaps more than others she'd been through a very rough time during Galileo's last mission. Her discussion with Wyatt had helped but things happened to be far more complicated than that. After the Flight Control evaluations had been completed she found herself wandering the starbase.

Prudence Devin had equipped her temporary office the best she could. There was a plant, hypo-allergenic so no one would break out in rashes. There was the teapot and the two Japanese cups...there was the colourful cushions too, and the decanter with water and glasses. Things that made this into her calm space. She even had scented candles, although those were for her own time, not for her sessions. All in all, she did the most with her time her on the base.

Reaching the designated office Dea triggered the door chime. Shifting back and forth from one foot to the other while she waited. Currently she looked forward to getting this meeting out of the way.

"Please enter," Prudence called out as she heard the chime, standing. She wore her hair up today and she took a moment to watch the woman before smiling. "Please come and sit down. I am Prudence Devin."

"Dea Mialin," she introduced herself as she entered the office, "I'm Galileo's Chief Flight Control Officer. " Taking a seat in one of the empty chairs. Her attention remained focused on Counselor Devin.

Prudence nodded as she picked up the teapot, pouring the green tea into the two small cups. "A pleasure, I'm sure. I take it what brings you to my office isn't social though?"

"I wish it were. Although I'm not sure I'm ready to talk about it," Dea paused, "Yet on some level I have to as its required by Starfleet." Her gaze shifted from Prudence to the window.

"As a Chief, you are in charge of other people's...destiny, I'd say. That does require being able to make those decisions without being crowded by...other things," Prudence said before smiling gently. "However, we are all people and with that comes...the other things. That make us who we are. They're not negative either, once we face the causes and emotions and are able to accept them and move on should they be negative."

Her attention focused on Prudence, "That is true. In this case however it was something that happened while on duty. And in some ways due to the situation at the time there were limited options. Long story short I'm still not clear on all that transpired. But I ended up having first contact with an alien species that resulted in mental overload. Given the aliens had shown us what they were capable of attempting to communicate was our only option."

She gave a small nod, watching Dea closely. "Tell me about it," she said, sipping her tea. "So that I can understand what you mean without any confusion of the facts."

"We were trapped in a mine and had been attacked. To communicate they stuck an energy tentacle like appendage through my EVA helmet. It was unnerving to say the least."

Prudence watched her, frowning slightly. "I can only imagine. Were there any medical side effects?"

Dea nodded, "Thankfully they were only temporary. However it left me in a semi-coma for a bit right after the encounter. Details are in my medical record."

"And psychological?" she asked as she searched Dea's eyes. "I am assuming you were in a session with your counsellor after you woke up?"

Shaking her head, "Not exactly we were in the middle of a crisis due to a Tribble infestation. So I was monitored by medical closely and returned to duty."

Prudence frowned at that. Now someone had slipped through with that. Regardless of situation, there were things that needed to be done properly; and psychological follow-up after a traumatic experience was one of them. "I see. So you never got to...analyse the psychological effects this had on you?"

"Not officially with a Counselor, but I can't say I've ignored those individually. There's been a lot of time to reflect on what happened and ponder what I could have done differently," Dea responded.

Prudence watched her for a long moment before looking down. So this woman would do what, operate on herself late? "Well, should anything like that happen again, I will assure you that anyone who undergoes a trauma while on this ship will end up in my office, to work through it."

Dea nodded, "I'm in your office now." At the moment it didn't seem to matter that she'd come herself. "Beyond that I'll just say there's a lot of things that didn't go like they should."

"And what do you expect, in my office?" Prudence asked with a small smile, her eyes gentle. "You came in here, saying you were not ready to talk about it yet but I take it you felt...compelled to get here because of Starfleet?"

"I guess thats the best way to put it. Your going to ask me to explain what happened or how it made me feel. In honesty I said I'm not ready to talk about it because I really can't put the experience into words. For lack of a better way to describe things they played with my brain. Parts of me were taken and other things stuffed in."

Prudence watched the other woman before frowning. "Well, clearly you need to sort your mind out before you can talk to me. I want to recommend writing a journal. To write down what you feel, what you think...sometimes, putting it in words helps. And then come for a session, with something concrete that you can use as a point of reference. Does it make sense?"

Dea nodded hoping it would be easier than that. "I'll do my best. Yes I'd like to be able to convey it better for my own piece of mind. But I'm honestly not sure I'll ever fully understand it. In some ways I don't think a humanoid being like me was supposed to experience what they put me through, yet that was initially the only way to communicate what they wanted with us."

"Any information, any emotions and thoughts you can identify and note down, will help you," Prudence stressed, but with a friendly smile. "It's about you putting it in perspective and seeing how it changed things, or not, depending."

For the moment Dea remained quiet. "Thank you Counselor," there wasn't really anything else to say at the moment. She had a hard time with trying to sort through the experience one piece at a time even though she knew thats what it would take.

Prudence nodded gently, watching the other woman. "Baby steps. It's all I can recommend. And we will set up another session next week. Take the time to...think about what you wish to bring here, mentally."

Dea got up from the chair as she nodded, "Thank you Counselor. I'll see you next week." There was not much else to say at the moment.

Prudence nodded, watching the other woman leave before frowning. She hoped Dea could work some of it out; she clearly wanted to get it moving in her mind but the alien experience had seemed to make sorting it difficult. "The journal might help," she whispered to herself. And she truly hoped it would.

OFF:

Lt. Prudence Devin
Chief Counselor
USS Galileo

&

Lt Commander Dea Mialin
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

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