Sabrine Phillips leaned back in her chair letting out a deep sigh as she watched the clock tick out the minutes to her next patient. Normally she did not feel hesitation or anxiety before a session but this was no ordinary patient. Reaching across her desk, she picked up a PaDD to review the facts once again to be sure she was prepared. Scrolling past the basics of his height, weight, and age, she paused taking in his image. He was not only easy on the eyes, his eyes had a gaze you got lost in even in a photograph. They had a penetrating stare that felt almost telepathic. Glancing up at his race, her brow furrowed slightly re-reading that he was again human and not a telepathic race like the Betazed, Vulcans, or Ulians.

Moving to the next page she glanced at his service record. It was not linear but scattered with periods as an officer a civilian, and officer again. This explained why he was only a Lieutenant at thirty-three years of age. “So ask why the back and forth and if he ever found satisfaction with either,” Sabrine jotted down another possible question to ask on a second PaDD next to her coffee cup. Dropping the stylus with a clink, she scrolled to next page which contained all his personal information. The estrangement from his wife was easily understood given that his daughter had died only a few months ago. The death of a child was a major cause for divorce but not often when a person had other children in the home. Writing down a few notes, she circled them with her stylus. Hopefully, he would volunteer the information needed and not make her press him for responses. If he didn’t, it would be her job to ask them.

Standing up she reached her hands above her head stretching first to the left and to the right. It was not that she was stiff, but more to work out the tension building between her shoulders. As the acting chief counselor, it fell to Lt. Phillips to check-in Lt. Harland. The stress came from her having to decide if her new boss was mentally competent to get to work. If she found Lt. Harland unfit for duty, he would probably resent her which was a heck of a way to meet your new superior. If she found he was unfit for duty and claimed he was, she could lose her license. Either option was a lose-lose situation for her. “Please don’t be bat butt crazy,” she said as a soft prayer looking at the clock as she waited for the chime of the door to signal his arrival.

Lt. Sabrine Phillips, counselor
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