Posted by Lieutenant Commander Llakar Harel (Chief of Operations) in Office of the Counselor - Psych Eval

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Todd Nyman (Diplomatic Officer / CNS) in Office of the Counselor - Psych Eval

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Llakar Harel (Chief of Operations) in Office of the Counselor - Psych Eval
He stood outside the counselor’s door for a moment longer than he probably should have—long enough to be aware of it, but not long enough to be obvious.

Mandatory psychological evaluation.

He had been through them before—after Turkana IV, after the Apollo, after the Ogawa, after the Leviathan… A litany of well-intentioned questions and carefully neutral expressions.

“This is routine, Commander.”

So was breathing. That didn’t mean he had to enjoy it.

He tapped the door chime, one sharp motion.

-Lt. Cmdr. Harel
Chief of Operations

The door opened to reveal the counselor, in uniform and looking slightly disheveled.

If one hadn’t read the briefing given to all Command level staff, you wouldn’t know he wasn’t human. And that was the point. He presented as 6’ tall, Caucasian, with sharp green eyes and shoulder-length blonde hair. A long face with a sharp nose.

He smiled, green eyes sparkling with a subtle charm,

“Oh, hello. You must be Commander Harel. Todd Nyman, I’m the ship’s new Chief Counselor. Well, come on in.”

He waved the officer in. The room was also slightly disheveled. Armchairs were moved haphazardly to different parts of the room. The Counselors’ desk was covered in small to medium boxes of miscellaneous decorative items he had yet to display. A couch sat at an odd angle in the corner, cluttered in a similar way but with at least one seat’s worth of room left free.

“Have a seat anywhere. And pardon the mess. I’m still getting settled.”

|Lt. Cmdr. Nyman, Diplomatic Officer / CNS|

Lieutenant Commander Harel had skimmed the personnel file and half expected to be greeted by a being with antennae, gills, or at least a few extra limbs. Instead, he found himself facing what looked like a perfectly ordinary Human—a touch disheveled, perhaps, but otherwise entirely unremarkable in form. Somehow, that was more disarming than any tentacled visage might have been.

“I’m not the sort to judge a messy office, Counselor,” Harel said, stepping inside. “Frankly, it’s almost reassuring. Proof that even counselors don’t have to have everything perfectly put together.”

He eased into the nearest available seat, brushing aside a stray holoframe and resting his hands lightly on his knees.

Todd picked up a half-full glass of water from his desk, and with his free hand pulled an armchair to be across from Harel. The motion was effortless in a way that made the chair seem much lighter than it was.

“It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance. And if I read the manifest right, it looks like I’m not the only new addition to the senior staff. Are you new to the ship as well?” He offered a small, wry smile—measured but not cold.

“Yes, I actually just transferred from…” he paused. How should he put it? Someone had slipped him the information that Harel was also former ARU. But at the same time, it was all still very covert, which he respected.

“Well, I was temporarily an Executive Officer, research vessel, covert operations, all classified stuff. But, I missed being Chief Counselor.”

He smiled, eyes squinting as he did. It was hard to tell if it was practiced that way or completely genuine.

Still, he couldn’t help but glance at Nyman’s eyes—so distinctly Human, yet clearly by design. The curiosity itched at the back of his mind.

“You don’t have to answer this if you don’t want to, and I hope it’s not insensitive of me to ask, but… what do you actually look like?”

-Lt. Cmdr. Harel
Chief of Operations

The counselor stopped drinking his water, mid-sip. The question’s directness blindsided him. Theo had warned him that this might happen though. Especially coming onto a new ship. Humans were relentlessly curious.

“Well, I um… we don’t really tend to think of it in that way. All of our forms we consider a part of who we are. How I look now is just as real, to me, as any other way I look.”

It likely wasn’t the answer that Harel was looking for, and Todd knew that. It took the philosophical approach rather than the real answer.

There was a real answer: Vendorians are cephaloforms. Tall and wispy in appearance. They have a head dominated by five eyes. Bulging, pupilless, and bright amber, almost like a moth’s. These are positioned all the way around the head but slightly clustered around the front. They have no visible mouth, only a pair of pseudo-gills that lay flat underneath the eyes. They have no true body either, instead heads are attached to a sort of curved plate. Then connecting to six thin tentacle limbs that, despite appearance, do manage to hold up their weight. As for Todd himself, his skin was a deep coral color, he had a slight green tint to his eyes, and the deeper red markings on his head indicated he was of the Femaren region of his planet.

“Oh! I’m sorry, I forgot to ask if you wanted anything. Coffee, tea, water… What can I get you? ”

|Lt. Cmdr. Nyman, Diplomatic Officer / CNS|