Getting Better

Posted on Tue Apr 29th, 2025 @ 5:05pm by Lieutenant Commander Deanna Celes & Lieutenant JG Kate Kono & Lieutenant JG Benjamin "Ben" Dalton & Lieutenant JG Eislyn Jortho

2,126 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Genetic Purity
Location: USS Washington

Deanna made her way down the corridor and saw Kate and Ben dressed in civilian attire. "Headed to the holodeck?" she inquired.

Seeing Commander Celes and hearing the question Bens smiled. "Eventually Commander at least I hope so. Kate has an appointment with Counselor Jortho first."

Kate waved at Deanna and grinned. "There's always time for the holodeck!" Kate cheered as she held her arms in the air. Her pocketless one-piece body-conforming blue attire with yellow triangle accents made her look like a walking bag of Doritos. Nevertheless, the outfit was as cheerful as her personality seemed to be.

"Want to join us later? I want to fly another jet. Maybe the SR-72 Darkstar or something."

"I don't mind the holodeck, but in this case, I must decline. I'm still working on the deployables we are putting in place before we leave this planet." She took a moment looking at Kate and couldn't help but pickup on the surface thoughts. "I see, you are trying to avoid seeing the counselor. I don't know why you are so concerned about seeing Eislyn. She is pretty easy going. You are better off just going to see her rather than risking her wrath if she has to come looking for you. Medical officers are notorious for tracking people down" she said with a smile. "I'll leave you to it."

Kate raised her brow curiously at Deanna. "What are you talking about? I wanted to see the counselor right away, but the doctor told me that I couldn't because we have to set up an appointment..." Kate blinked rapidly with confusion considering Deanna read her so wrong. There was nothing more she wanted than to get it over with. "Apparently, either the counselor wants us to wait just to make us wait, or there's so many messed up people onboard that I have to get in line..."

"Kate sweetie, Deanna is only asking a question, nothing more. I don't think the counselor is deliberately making us wait. It is just what it is and we'll go with it." Ben replied.

Deanna looked at the two junior officers with a quizzical expression. "You know Eislyn is waiting to see you. Off you go." Deanna offered a quick smile and then headed down the corridor.

Kate happily ran toward Eislynville dragging Ben along with a tight handhold.

Ben had no choice but to follow after Kate. It was either run behind her or get tracked to the counselor's office and he didn't want to explain that scene.

Eislyn was in her office looking over the medical reports that Sam had sent regarding the various away team members who had been injured. She had seen most of them, but Lt Kono had been elusive thus far. She would have to track her down if she didn't show up soon.

The door to Eislyn's officer pulled into the wall and a streak of speed-blur slammed into the seat on the opposite side of her desk with no warning. Once stationary, Kate smiled and waved as the chair rocked from side to side as if enjoying a refractory moment from the impact. "Hello!"

Eislyn placed the PaDD down and looked across the way at the hyper young female and then looked at Ben. "I understand why she is here. Why are you here lieutenant?"

Ben gulped. "Kate asked me to come with her ma'am. I thought it would make it easier for her if I came with her."

"We were going to go to the holodeck, but I heard that your appointment schedule cleared up, so we diverted as soon as we heard you were free!" Kate explained. "I wanted to go right away, but then the doctor said we had to make an appointment, so we made one, and then we were told that you were ready right now so here I am! Ben was with me when we found out, and he's my BF, so -- it would be okay!" Kate explained.

"This isn't couples therapy lieutenant, it is a psych eval to determine your fitness to return to duty. You seem rather aloof, hyperactive considering the situation" Eislyn replied bluntly. "You are rather young to be in StarFleet, and you act even younger. I have to admit, this is not the way I thought we would start this meeting."

"Umm..." Ben said standing. "I don't want to be a distraction, so I'll just go and wait in the outer office. When you finish Kate sweetie, then we can go to the holodeck." He looked at Eislyn. "Sorry Counselor."

"No need to apologize Mr. Dalton. I promise we won't be too long" Eislyn replied. She waited for him to exit before focusing on Kate. "So, let's discuss what happened."

Kate waved again, having happily ignored the crass comment about her youth and continued as inquired.

"So we went down to this planet after popping a sleeper ship in orbit and we met with a bunch of people that apparently thought they were better than us, and before we could do anything to defend ourselves, they started stunning us on a high stun setting. They disarmed us and tortured us, and then after that, they cut me open and started taking parts out of me. But the doctor said I could still have kids so that's cool, but they also ended their sentences in contractions and butchered the English language just about as much as they butchered me, too. I totes almost bled to death on the transporter pad but the doctor was able to juice me up with enough gogo juice to bring me back like Frakenstein. I wasn't ducking you. I wanted to to your office right away but the doctor like, big-time told me how I had to get an appointment and all that Jazz just to be able to see you -- only to find out on the way to the holodeck that the ship wasn't so messed up that I had to wait which is why Ben was with me when we got here. It's not our fault - technically it was just bad onboard ship information. I'm just so super-glad that I was able to see you sooner. Not just for my sake but for the knowledge that the ship isn't so messed up that I needed to wait in line, too!" Kate shuffled in her seat while beaming with a genuine smile.

She reached out to Eislyn's desk and fiddled with random stuff on it a moment before pushing her finger up in the air.

"... oh yeah, and I lost my trusty sniper rifle. I'm going to need to have that replaced. I'm going to miss it. A lot. That rifle dripped..."

Eislyn looked at Kate in awe. "That was..." she began, "an interesting synopsis of what happened. I've read the reports and spoken to nearly everyone else that was down there already though. I'm actually more interested in your feelings about the events."

Kate's lips pulled back tight a moment as she gave serious thought to it. Her eyes rolled back as if accessing her thoughts and then they locked back onto Eislyn's eyes as she shook her head and shrugged her bony shoulders.

"I think -- after what happened last year with Section 31, and going through that -- the physical aspects of what I experienced here and now, wasn't something that I could lose sleep over. But the idea that someone could be so normalized to butchering a human being. I don't think anyone can really get over the knowledge that we, as Humans, or I rather, AS a Human, can resort to that level of evil, you know? It wasn't the pain of being cut into, or of being murdered during surgery, as much as it is the shock that someone can do that to a person without an ethical reason or cause."

Kate kept shaking her head as a way of expressing more confusion than hate, or fear, or even stress. The young Lieutenant was simply perplexed; truly and honestly.

"I know you probably expected," Kate paused to best try to explain but was at a slight loss for words. "... me to be traumatized or something but out of everything, it just makes me wonder about people. The event itself was just surreal. Like -- I'm watching him slice into me and despite the pain I couldn't really think of anything until the act was over and I had been transported. After that -- I remember seeing the ceiling of the transporter pad. I wasn't thinking about anything profound, or poetic as I looked up and heard the sounds of all my friends trying to save me. I was just thinking..."

Kate pointed to the ceiling as if recreating her thoughts.
"Hey, isn't that what they used in the original Enterprise? Just flipped upside-down. That transporter pad thingy?"

Kate dropped her arm and looked to Eislyn, "I guess if I feel guilty about anything it was more the fact that I couldn't think of anything significant to say or do before I died -- before I thought I was going to die, anyway. But nah, I strangely don't have many feelings about it other than a dwindling faith in humanity." Kate squeezed her fingers in front of her face between her and the counselor as if saying Just a pinch

"I have to admit, never had anyone say that to me. You may be the most aloof person I have ever spoken with." Eislyn considered the situation, "I don't remember ever encountering a human quite like you, not in my nearly 300 years. And I haven't a clue what you are talking about regarding the transporter."

Kate instinctively reached into her leg-pocket of her usual uniform but realized she was wearing civvie clothing.
"Ah well..." Kate reached for her desk and downloaded schematics off one of the PaDD's and excitedly flipped it over so she could see it from her point of view. She pushed it over to Eislyn and pointed at it.

"The aesthetic design of the ceiling of the transporter pad is almost an exact replica of some of the first floor-transporter pads from the original USS Enterprise back in the Kirk days! I mean -- isn't that neat! It's not something you would notice until you're lying on your back bleeding to death but there it is!" Kate flung an open palm toward the data display as if it were some sort of exciting magic trick. "Isn't that neat?!" Kate flopped back down in her chair. "Oh, and I'm not aloof. I notice pretty much -- everything. I just don't' dwell on things outside of my control. It's a gift!"

Eislyn looked at the shown material, "Interesting." She placed the PaDD down and returned to a focus on Kate, "An attention to detail is a wonderful and necessary thing, especially for an intelligence officer. I do pick up that you might have a touch of manic behavior though, and you not dwelling on things sounds good in theory but can be bad in practice. We need to have an honest conversation about your actual feelings. I am concerned that you may be glossing over them rather than taking time to actually consider them. Consider this a time for some personal introspection."

"I guess I'm just in an interesting place in my life," Kate admitted. "It's not that I should be feeling upset about what happened as much as it is that I recognize the significance of where I am and the family, I have to help me through anything that happens. I was shocked about what happened, but I was also content in the knowledge that the people that cared about me were with me in the end, no matter what happens," Kate said.

Eislyn considered Kate's words and her sudden change in attitude. She wasn't certain she wasn't masking that manic behavior, but she sounded more levelheaded at this moment. "I'm going to allow you back on duty, contingent that you take the rest of the day off, and I want you to come back for additional meetings, give us a chance to explore things further."

"Holodeck here I come!" Kate smiled and stepped out of the chair.

Eislyn watched the young Kate leave and went to pour herself a glass of Bajoran Spring wine. She took her wine and grabbed a PaDD to start her post meeting notes. She was the busiest she had been since coming aboard, but that was to be expected when your boss is knocked out of commission. She thought for a moment...she'd likely need to seek out her boss, clear her as well. One more thing to put on the docket.

 

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