Posted by Lieutenant Commander Harrison Callahan (Chief Tactical Officer) in Pre-sim: Psych eval for the CTO

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Janna Kingston (Counsellor) in Pre-sim: Psych eval for the CTO

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Harrison Callahan (Chief Tactical Officer) in Pre-sim: Psych eval for the CTO
Posted by… suppressed (5) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

She nodded as she leaned back into her chair and took a generous sip of her coffee. Janna was a rather petite woman but she took up her space without a shred of obvious self-consciousness. “Subtleties control so much of our lives, even when we might not think so. What do you focus on when you’re not preparing for a potential battle?”

~Janna Kingston, CNS

Harrison considered that for a moment, his expression easing from the sharp focus he wore on the bridge to something more reflective.

“When I’m not preparing for a potential battle?” He let out a faint breath that might have been a quiet laugh. “I try to prepare for not having one.”

He folded his hands loosely in his lap. “On my last assignment, I learned that the best tactical victories rarely show up in the logs as ‘engagements.’ They show up as incidents that never happened. A tense border that never flared. A pirate cell that decided our patrol pattern wasn’t worth testing. A junior officer who didn’t freeze because someone took the time to run one more drill.”

His gaze drifted briefly, as if seeing the Athena’s corridors in his mind. “So I focus on readiness without paranoia. Training my team until responses are instinctive, but not fear-driven. Reviewing sensor data not because I expect trouble, but because patterns tell stories long before weapons fire does. Intelligence work taught me that the smallest anomalies—the missed shipment, the unusual power fluctuation, the captain who’s just a little too cordial—often matter more than the obvious threats.”

A faint, almost wry smile touched his lips. “And when I can manage it, I focus on the crew. This ship carries families. Children. That changes the equation. Tactical decisions aren’t abstract. They have names and quarters assignments attached to them. So when I’m not studying firing arcs or shield harmonics, I make a point of knowing who we’re protecting.”

He tilted his head slightly toward Janna. “Exploration isn’t the absence of danger. It’s the willingness to face it in pursuit of something better. My job is to ensure that when curiosity leads us into the unknown, fear doesn’t make the decisions.”

A brief pause, then more quietly:

“And if I do my job well, most days will feel… uneventful. I’ve found that’s usually the sign we’re getting it right.”

Lt. Cmdr. Harrison Callahan
CTO-USS Athena

Janna was not a mask. She did not conduct therapy that way. She would control her expressions to ensure they didn’t interfere with a person’s introspection and reactions. But she was not one to hide away from her patients. She was as real and fallible as they were. So when the smile tugged at her lips, she allowed it. “I think most of the command crew would agree with you. And we do have uneventful days. The ones that aren’t are often ones handed to us externally. Such is the curious nature of the Athena. A holdover from its previous life as a tactical destroyer. There’s a reputation here, of this crew that has ebbed and flowed. We take on the jobs that others might think unsuitable for a ship like ours, but we do so because we understand what is at stake. It is calculated risk.”

She leaned forward slightly, catching his gaze. “Thank you for sharing your philosophy. I think you will find it very compatible with the rest of the team, and the crew as a whole. But there is one variable that you are missing, Harrison Callahan. Do you have any idea what it is?”

~Janna Kingston, CNS

Harrison raised an eyebrow and sat silent for a moment with a quizzical look on his face.

“I consider myself a pretty observant person, sooooo I’m kind of embarrassed that I have no idea what you’re getting at. So, please, enlighten me.”

Lt. Cmdr. Harrison Callahan
CTO-USS Athena

A tiny smile tugged at her lips. Janna wasn’t one of those therapists that tried to create aha moments, nor did she think that was useful. Instead, she aimed to create openings for people to come to their own conclusions. That being said, sometimes, straightforward observances were the most useful.

“I’ve heard about preparing for battle, and preparing not to have battle, but nothing that tells me how and when you shut that off.” She lifted her mug to her lips and sipped. “That concerns me, because even if you aren’t existing in a heightened state every hour of every day, that sort of vigilance wears on a person over the day. So, is there anything you do to relax, to shut off, even for a little while?” Burnout was a real thing and he would not be the first one to be dismissive, but she wasn’t yet sure if it was actually an issue or one to keep en eye out for.

~Janna Kingston, CNS

Harrison laughed. Yeah, I kinda did leave that part out, didn’t I? It’s partially because some people might not consider it relaxing. But, I do, and that’s what’s important, right?”

“First off, there’s baseball. I’ve played pretty much since I could fit my hand in a glove. Was good enough that I earned a full-ride to the University of Texas. It was tempting, but I had been already been planning on attending the Academy. But, I still like to go to the holodeck and take some cuts, take part in classic games, or face some of the legends throughout history.. Test my mettle against them. I don’t look at it as a what-if? Or what-could-have-been? I do it for fun, though I did strike out Sadaharu Oh on four consecutive at-bats..”

“There are a few other things, but, again, I don’t think most people would find them ‘relaxing’.”

Lt. Cmdr. Harrison Callahan
CTO-USS Athena

Janna shook her head. “I never used the word relaxing. I said shut off that part of you that is hyper-vigilant and on-duty, even for a little while. Sports are a great way to do so.” She smiled. “Humour me, what are the other things?”

~Janna Kingston, CNS

Callahan leaned back slightly in the chair, as he considered the question. There was a faint smirk tugging at one corner of his mouth, the kind that suggested he knew the answer might earn him a raised eyebrow.

“Alright… fair warning, Counselor. You asked.”

“Strategy sims, mostly. Historical engagements, fleet actions, sometimes small unit tactical problems. I’ll run them on the holodeck or in a sim suite and see how they play out if you change one variable… move a ship five thousand kilometers off its original vector, delay a launch window by thirty seconds, that kind of thing.”

He gave a small shrug.

“Most people would probably call that work. For me it’s… puzzles. Patterns. You’re not reacting to real threats, you’re just exploring possibilities. It scratches the same itch as a good chess match.”

Janna braced her elbow on the arm of the chair and rested her chin on the top of her hand, listening to and observing every detail

Callahan paused, then added with a faint chuckle.

“And before you say it, yeah, I know that probably sounds like I’m not shutting the tactical part of my brain off.”

His expression softened slightly.

“But the difference is control. In the chair, every decision has consequences for real people. In a sim? It’s just theory. I can lose a battle ten different ways and learn something each time. No casualty reports afterward.”

He leaned forward a bit, resting his forearms on his knees.

“The other thing I do is physical training. Not just standard Starfleet fitness routines. Hand-to-hand, sometimes old Earth martial systems. It’s very… present-moment focused. When you’re sparring, you’re not thinking about fleet formations or sensor telemetry. You’re thinking about balance, breathing, timing.”

A quiet beat passed.

“That clears the noise out better than anything else I’ve found.”

Callahan tilted his head slightly toward her.

“So yeah… baseball to blow off steam, simulations for the strategist in me, and sparring to empty the rest of my head.”

A small grin crept back onto his face.

“Like I said. Some people might not call that relaxing.”

Lt. Cmdr. Harrison Callahan
CTO-USS Athena

Kingston lowered her hand back to her lap and smirked. “I people watch on my off hours. My favourite game is to watch people interact and then come up with a narrative and dialogue. The more outlandish, the more fun.” She shrugged one shoulder. “Some might consider that an inability to set my own work aside, but we are who we are yes? My follow-up question to these hobbies is, do you find yourself rejuvenated afterwards?”

~Janna Kingston, CNS

Hiss grin lingered for a moment at her admission, a quiet huff of amusement escaping him.

“People-watching with invented backstories?” He gave a small nod. “I’ll admit, Counselor, that tracks. And now I’m wondering how many elaborate lives you’ve assigned to half the senior staff.”

Her smirk deepened into a full and her eyes lit up. Janna said nothing and simply sipped her coffee. The reality was a bit different given she had personal and/or therapeutic relationships with most of them, but that does’t mean it wasn’t true at one point or another. With some though, reality truly was more reamarkable than anything she could have conjured in her imagination.

There was a brief glint of humor in his eyes before it faded into something more thoughtful as he considered her question.

“Rejuvenated…” he echoed, rolling the word around like he was testing its fit.

He leaned back again, one arm draping over the back of the chair, gaze shifting briefly to the middle distance.

“Yeah. I do. Just… probably not in the way you’d put in a report.”

“I don’t think we’re aiming for textbook definitions around here,” Kingston said.

A faint smirk returned.

“The simulations? They don’t relax me, not really. But they reset things. If something’s been bothering me tactically—some scenario I can’t quite resolve—I can run it, break it apart, prove to myself there is an answer. That… quiets the part of my brain that doesn’t like loose ends.”

His tone was matter-of-fact, but quieter now.

“The sparring’s different. That’s closer to what you’re getting at. After a good session, everything else just… drops out. No projections, no contingencies, no second-guessing. Just breathing and muscle memory. When it’s over, it’s like someone cleared the board.”

He glanced back at her.

“So yeah—after that? I’m sharper. Calmer. Less… crowded up here.” He gestured lightly toward his temple.

A brief pause, then a more candid note slipped in.

“If I don’t make time for it, that’s when things start stacking. You carry one problem into the next, and eventually you’re not reacting—you’re anticipating ghosts.”

He exhaled softly , then straightened slightly.

“Baseball’s somewhere in the middle. It’s… uncomplicated. You focus on the next pitch, the next play. No galaxy riding on the outcome.” A small shrug followed. “Win or lose, you walk off the field and it stays there.”

Harrison studied her for a beat, a hint of curiosity creeping back in.

“So I guess the honest answer is—yeah, I come out of it better than I went in. Maybe not relaxed in the traditional sense… but reset enough to do the job right.”

The corner of his mouth ticked upward again.

“Which, I suspect, is the answer you were actually fishing for?”

Lt. Cmdr. Harrison Callahan
CTO-USS Athena

The pad of Janna’s index finger traced a small circle on her mug. She had let his explanation ebb and flow and how he addressed each point so methodically told her plenty. “Believe it or not, I’m not looking for something so precise as you might think. I’m always going to looking for red flags for things I need to address that might be a barrier to duty, but for the most part I’m trying to understand how you see things, Harrison, and how you navigate your daily life. That way, not only can I intervene and help when it might be needed, but I can help ease your transition into this senior officer team.”

She drained the last of her coffee and set the mug to the side. “Truly, if I thought you weren’t going to be cleared for duty then we’d be having a very different conversation and I’d be wanting to question the mental health officer at your last posting,” she said with a wink.

~Janna Kingston, CNS