With every medical clearance of the away team, Laural was notified. Serving as a medical officer herself, she could appreciate the ease with which medical clearances could be done. Not only could simple scans identify acute and impending injuries or illnesses, but people were far more likely to cooperate. After all, symptoms like physical pain or extreme fatigue could be just disruptive enough not to be easily ignored. On top of that, it was hard to justify the avoidance of a process that could take as little as 30 seconds.

Identifying psychological changes, on the other hand, could not be so easily identified or addressed. Psychic pain, if acknowledged at all, could be suppressed for years, even though it could be even more destructive over time because the sufferer could take it out on others.

All this Laural understood even as she acknowledged some would always seek to if not avoid the post away team psychological evaluation, at least delay it.

That was why Laural was persistent.

~Doctor Laural Witley, Counselor