Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Janna Kingston (CNS) in Counselor’s Office - Psych Eval

Posted by Commander Tello Anaar (Executive Officer) in Counselor’s Office - Psych Eval

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Janna Kingston (CNS) in Counselor’s Office - Psych Eval
Posted by… suppressed (4) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

Janna nodded. “Does that work for those instances when you have less control over your empathic abilities?” she asked, her tone light and easy. Some might assume that that could be a challenge but Janna wouldn’t do so. She’d let Anaar reveal her own relationship with her abilities and how she coped.

~Janna Kingston, CNS

The first officer took a deep breath, demonstrating what she’d just talked about. “No…that’s very different.” Her voice sounded a little more stressed than a moment before. “For the most part, nothing bad happens, but occasionally the emotions are so strong that …” Here, she bit her bottom lip. “Actually, Counselor, I’d like a little more time to acclimate to the Athena before I try to tackle this subject with you. You don’t mind, do you?”

—Anaar, XO

Kingston considered Anaar for a long moment, her own thoughts calm. If anything though, Janna was simply curious. “Actually, I do. Your are the Athena’s Executive Officer. You and the captain are responsible for a thousand-odd people, many of whom have been through trauma-inducing missions the last couple years. Our emotions, the crew of this ship, are going to be strong, sometimes uncomfortably. If it’s going to be that much of an issue for you, Tello, than we need to discuss it now. We don’t have to have a solution, by any means, but I cannot in good faith sign you off for duty if you are in any way unable to handle the assignment you’ve been given.” Her tone was matter-of-fact, but definitely not cold.

~Janna Kingston

The expression on Tello’s face didn’t change at all, but her thought process did. She saw the counselor’s response as uncalled for. Surely granting her a few days to get used to the ship and settle in wasn’t an unusual or outrageous thing to ask for. Apparently, Kingston thought otherwise. “If I wasn’t able to handle the assignment of being first officer, Lt, it is doubtful I would have been placed in the position. Also, you already know it isn’t my first posting in the position.” She had to at least touch on the emotional dumps she received or the woman opposite her wouldn’t clear her for duty.

“Very well, since you insist. It doesn’t happen very often, but once in a while I receive a flood of emotion from someone else. The strength of it depends on a few things, how close the person is in context to me, physically, and how strong the emotion they feel is. It is mostly a ‘glancing’ contact, meaning I am aware of it, but it doesn’t affect me personally.” She folded her hands in her lap. “Does that make you feel better about clearing me for duty?”

—Anaar, XO

It wasn’t that she didn’t hear Rollo’s question, but for the moment it was set aside. “It might not be your first position as first officer, but your last ship was not this one. And since I wasn’t there, I have no way of knowing if what you strategies you were using then will work here. So… when you’ve had the stronger floods, the ones that you can’t just brush off, what do you do when it happens and how do you cope in the aftermath?”

~Janna Kingston, CNS

So, it was to be a test of wills, then. “My coping skills are not tied to a ship, Counselor, they are internal, so what worked at my last posting will also work here. Besides, it doesn’t happen very often so no one needs to lose any sleep over it.”

—Anaar, XO

“Okay,” Janna said simply, her tone light. “My question is still valid though. When the larger floods happen, what do you do right then and what do you do later to cope?”

~Janna Kingston, CNS

This woman was very persistent. You would think a counselor would pick up on the fact that Anaar wasn’t ready to talk about the subject with her. The fact that Kingston was trying to force the issue bothered the first officer. “I’ve taken care of it, Lt. I have set up any intervention I might need with someone else on the ship. So, in the unlikely event it happens, your services won’t be required to deal with it—just in case that’s why you are trying to force the issue.”

—Anaar, XO