Posted by Lieutenant Shock (Chief of Security) in Aliens are alien – Cllr Kingston’s office (Tag: Kingston)

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Janna Kingston (Counsellor) in Aliens are alien – Cllr Kingston’s office (Tag: Kingston)

Posted by Lieutenant Shock (Chief of Security) in Aliens are alien – Cllr Kingston’s office (Tag: Kingston)
Shock had reached out to the counselling department over the internal messaging system a few days to book a time with Dr Kingston. It was an agreeable experience to book the time, as they did not ask why he wanted to see a counsellor or why he wanted to see Kingston in particular. They simply gave him suggestions for time, and today was the appointed time – the one slot in his schedule that he could accommodate Kingston’s empty times.

He had much on his mind. He wasn’t sure where to begin, but surely, that was a counsellor’s job to help him unpack.

He walked up to the counsellors’ offices, presented himself at the reception, and waited for his turn to get to see Dr Kingston. As he waited, he stood still, looking patient.

– Lt Shock (COS)

One of the other receptionists, other than the ubiquitous Risian, Cherry, was working the desk today. With light brown skin, subtle nasal ridges and dark eyes, Alayra was a mix of many heritages. She greeted Shock and sent a note to Kingston that her next appointment was here.

A couple minutes later, Janna appeared and smiled. “Lieutenant Shock, come in in,” she said, gesturing with her head.

Shock nodded, and sensed warmth emanating from Janna. It was agreeable to see her again – under different circumstances when they last saw one another, during those temporally confusing times involving the Shai and “counsellor Elena”, both of whom are off limits talking about under temporal directives. Strange things, indeed. Shock envied his grandparents, who lived during an era when the Vulcan Science Directorate had determined that time travel was impossible. For obvious reasons, the Directorate had to change its tune thereafter…

Inside her always clean but cozy office, little had changed except that the usual ocean scene painting had been replaced with an abstract forest scene, the trees varied and rich in their greens. A path carved through the scene.

Returning to Kingston’s office gave Shock a peculiar feeling. It was almost as if coming home – yet it was not home, and he had only been here once before, for about an hour’s name. He noted the change of the scene, however.

“Can I get you anything before we start?” she asked.

~Janna Kingston, CNS

“No, thank you,” he stated succinctly. “How come you changed the ocean scene to a green forest one?”

The new scene looked more alien to him. An ocean was easy to him to identify with, but a forest – Vulcan forests were drier, much less green – with only the most primitive plants on Vulcan using chlorophyll, with more complicated plants instead using [insert Vulcan term for the red version of chlorophyll], giving Vulcan forests a more reddish hue. The feeling of home was suddenly gone.

– Lt Shock (COS)

Janna gestured for him to take a seat and she sat in one of the arm chairs, giving him the freedom to chose the other armchair or the sofa. “You know, I just felt like a change. I’ve been on the Athena for seven years and I was promoted to head of the department three years ago. I haven’t changed anything about my office in all that time and I felt like it was a simple one.” She could sense his unease and that was curious. “What do you think of this new one?”

~Janna Kingston, CNS