Posted by Lieutenant Commander Faye Calloway (Chief Intelligence Officer) in Arboretum 3- A BIt of Honesty

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Serena Stone (Executive Officer) in Arboretum 3- A BIt of Honesty

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Faye Calloway (Chief Intelligence Officer) in Arboretum 3- A BIt of Honesty
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

Serena nodded, letting Faye speak as she wished, a small smile resting across her face. It wasn’t pleased, but supportive. “I know what you mean,” she murmured, her words meant for Faye’s ears only. She’d had her own moments long ago when she’d checked out. “Tell me what you need.” Her first instinct was to offer Faye some shore leave, or suggest she go see Miss Kingston, or find a way to temporarily decrease her workload. Sure, those things might help, but Faye was an adult and had been dealing with her issues for some time. She trusted the other woman’s judgement, especially as a Starfleet Officer. This wasn’t an official command visit either. Of course, being in the arboretum and talking about her old one lead to certain conclusions, but so too did she wish to avoid making assumptions. The ball was in Faye’s court.

Stone, XO

Faye shook her had. “I’m not sure. I will talk to Dr. Kingston, who is my therapist now, but other than that I don’t know if it’s just something that needs more time for me to adjust, or if this will get worse before it gets better.” Her stomach tightened. “I have had crises before, but this doesn’t feel like one of those times, and I’m in a very different place in my life now.” She looked at Stone. “I just wanted to be transparent given the fact that I’m a member of the senior staff now, and not just going about the ship doing my own thing.” She also didn’t know quite how to find her place here on the Athena. It was a challenge that was proving awkward at best.

~Faye Calloway, CIO

“I know what it’s like. Feeling out of place. I’ve honestly been feeling it too. Being a department head is one thing. This change was pretty sudden. But i understand the reasons, and the day-to-day operations are going fine. It’s an adjustment.” She paused, looking around at the arboretum, then turned her attention back to Faye. “Do you think it would be helpful to reconstruct your old arboretum here? Or maybe make a new version with any tweaks you might have wanted with the old?” She was willing to bet this was where the discussion was heading anyway. Not that she was planning on outright giving blanket permission for that. There was at least a protocol to follow for this. But first, the idea merited testing.

Stone, XO

Faye shook her head. “No. All three are well established and intentional places. Mine was a blank space that was allotted for storage or crew green space. I got permission to take that blank slate and make something of it. Besides, that would be going backwards.” She looked at Serena. “I didn’t realize until after when my mom pointed it out that the feel of the garden I created was a tribute to the growing spaces we had on my home colony before the Dominion destroyed it. To try to do that here would mean I’ve regressed, and that’s not what’s happening.” What did she want? Faye wasn’t sure. “I mean, I wouldn’t say no to working in these spaces, but I’m not science staff anymore and it’s not my realm. People are phobic enough with Intelligence as it is without feeling like I’m coming in and stepping on their toes.”

“I’m trying to move forward, and the one thing that I was doing actively on the Manhattan was doing my distance training for the Command Training Program. Captain Cochrane is still my mentor, but he’s not here to run simulations with me. I’ve been doing the study modules and with my memory they are frankly boring and and easy, but it’s the practical parts I need to work on and figure out how to adapt my brains’ rather interesting way of doing things with something Command will say ‘yeah, that approach is acceptable’.”

~Faye Calloway, CIO

Serena listened and nodded with a small smile. “Well first, reclaiming something we lost that was important to us both when we were younger, and in more recent times isn’t really a regression. A lot of arboretums are maintained by our civilians aboard, so not being part of the science team doesn’t really matter. If you want to volunteer down here, you can. Working in here could be rather beneficial. And not just for your mental health but your overall performance. Stuff like this is grounding, but also can allow space for the conscious mind be occupied, let the subconscious process. And also clear out stress chemicals and reset your brain for high performance and productivity. It sounds stupid but working in these kinds of spaces can actually be healing and healthy. Like meditation. There’s a bunch of things that you can leverage. That I can leverage.”

She paused for a moment. “My dad was an engineer, my mom a scientist, and also musician. She loved going out and studying the local flora on our colony. She kept a garden too, and we all worked in it. In some ways, this also reminds me of home, before the Dominion. Whatever you wanna do or not do as far as all this goes, I understand. We’re all different, but don’t be so quick to write it off.”

“As for Command training, Captain Legen can probably help with that, but I’d be happy to oversee that as well, if you want. And only if you’re up for it. We can add a few other measures as a safety net if you want, as it can be rather rough,” she said gently. Of course, she expected all the senior staff to be mentally resilient, and she knew Faye had been through some extremely traumatic stuff. She was still here, still kicking, which was a testament to her character. But Command training could bring out all kinds of things, and there would be times where it would be almost impossible to remember that the situations they would be in were only simulations, and not real. A little extra care would probably be a good thing. Though in the real world there would be no time-outs.

Stone, XO