Earth - Then

William sat in an uncomfortably comfortable chair. He spent time amusing himself with that contradiction, the chair was a large recliner that one could sink into and relax. Of course, for the past eight years, the most comfortable chair he’d sat on with any regularity was his office chair and that barely had a cushion, either that or the Captain’s chair back on the Chernov. He’d gone through the standard physical training of the Academy and passed so he’d never considered him to be a soft man but years spent as the Science Chief on a Battlecruiser had shown him otherwise, being marginally fit wasn’t good enough. It had been a slow process but overall worth it.

“William?” The voice stopped his contemplation of unimportant things like the comfort of his chair. He looked up at the person sitting across from him, she was a middle-aged human woman in Civilian clothing, a Federation psychologist. “You stopped paying attention” She admonished him gently “Again” She added with a shake of her head. Internally he cringed, this was the third time he’d lost focus, this never happened “I apologize Doctor Pereira, It was the chair again” He offered a polite smile that did not reach his eyes

“Too comfortable?” She asked with annoying insight. Her Federation standard was slightly accented, southern American, he knew she was from Brazil and she spoke with a slightly Sao Paulo accent but he detected hints of a country accent, he suspected she was originally from further north “The last time you were on Eart you mentioned that you’d found some creature comforts to be just too much, do you still feel that way?” William kept the annoyance off his face and mostly out of his voice “I’m not some hardened soldier, Doctor. It is true that I have gotten used to fewer comforts on the Chernov but I still have a soft bed and warm food” That got a slight smile from the psychologist “That may have been true back when you were just the Science Officer but you’ve been the ships second officer for a number of years now and from what I’ve been authorized to read you’ve had to take Command on a few occasions and even led forces in combat”

That comment got a visible reaction from William, a slight furrowing of his brow, close to a scowl for him. He’d forgotten for a moment that Doctor Pereira was a former Starfleet Officer and had clearance to read the Chernov’s after-action reports to some extent, something she was granted after he’d been cagey about his answers and hiding behind Operations Security, classified nature of his work or some nonsense like that. “At most I’ve had to sit in the Captains chair as acting First Officer on a handful of occasions” He said defensively which was a mistake he noticed far too late “And that business with the Romulans were extenuating circumstances” Pereira had an actual physical book which she wrote in, with an actual pencil. William had only ever seen a pencil in a History museum in Texas, he’d commented on it during their first mandatory session years ago and the good doctor said that she liked the feel of pencil on paper.

After writing for a moment she looked directly at him “William, you took soldiers into combat in a ground engagement and according to the other team leaders you shot and killed two enemy combatants” That did get a scowl from William that took nearly a full three seconds to smooth out. He tried to swallow but his mouth had turned dry “That was the mission” He said after almost a full minute of silence “I’ve taken part in combat operations before..” He was interrupted before he could continue “But you’ve never used a phaser in combat before. You often complained about having to use one before but until that mission, you’d never fired a shot. Don’t distance yourself from that fact, you need to face it.”

William Grey