[snip]

Stanley was quite glad that the captain had returned. He was in a hurry to introduce himself and get started with his job. Stanley could only hope that this would be a few quick interviews and a bit of written observation, and he could leave. But one never knew. He hadn’t completely liked the tone of Doctor Reynolds, his superior when he had given him this assignment. Stanley was pretty sure that the fellow was still angry at him for refuting one of his papers.

Stanley took a deep sigh then and rang the captain’s quarters. Stanley had slept and changed since he had been in sickbay, so he was back to casual dress. His slight frame covered now with a red and green paisley print poncho, loose green slacks and hand-crafted leather sandals.

“Come!” said Captain Glen, in reply to the door chime.

Stanley walked carefully into the captain’s cabin as soon as the doors swished open. He had never quite trusted these doors on star ships. And then there was that call.” Come!” It seemed so rude as if one were calling a dog to dinner. He walked though into the captain’s cabin his poncho moving as he walked making him look for all the world like someone’s view of the ocean after ingesting a hallucinogen.

As he always was Stanley was friendly to a fault as he stood in front of Glenn. He clasped his hands together beneath his chin and smiled broadly as he said, “Ah Captain Glenn! It is good to meet you at last! I am Doctor Wong, Stanley Wong. Just call me Stanley if you wish. I have been assigned to you from fleet.” Stanley paused and seemed to consider something before saying, “I am sorry I can’t give you anything computerized concerning my orders but as your admiral said and I quote him, “He can tell Glenn his orders verbally and this will be on a need-to-know basis. I don’t need everyone knowing that I have any of these people on my ships.” By those people I am assuming that he meant a psychiatrist. “

“It is good to meet you at last too,” replied Glen. “Your presence has caused quite a stir on my ship and while I have no doubt of the validity of your orders, I have wondered what those orders might actually be? Given that you seem to have visited every department and every spare cupboard aboard my ship, and even logged a shift in Sickbay!”

Stanley shrugged. “I like to keep busy so I help whenever I can. And of course, in my line of work things go easier if people trust you and don’t perceive you as some sort of threat. “A confuse look appeared on Stanley’s face. “Actually, I thought that you might have been the source of my orders. Or that you knew something in advance.” Again, Stanley shrugged as if it were of no great concern either way.

“But to be specific or not too specific since my own knowledge of my orders are it seems limited. There was a concern voiced through someone in a command position concerning some of your crew members. At the moment I have been sent here to interview these people and while I am here to chat with as many others as I can so that we can assure those in command of the status of your whole ship. I must confess that in the short time I have been here I have run into some rather interesting behavior to say the least. But what am really needing sir is your permission to begin my interviews.”

“No, I didn’t request a psychiatrist myself!” replied Glen, now quite puzzled. “Look, to be quite honest I’m not at all surprised that you found some ‘interesting ’ behaviour here really. This ship has been through hell and back. Some of the long-serving crew have experienced things that no one should ever experience. I include myself in that group. There are complex post traumatic stress disorders, there are symptoms of anxiety, feelings of isolation or of great loss, some have constant nightmares and flashbacks, others have broken marriages and relationships, a few have high emotions such as guilt resulting in irritability and depression. We’ve never had anyone qualified to identify these cases, never mind anyone who was actually qualified to treat them…”

Glen continued, “…You are welcome to interview them if you think you can help them, but this ship has had a least three missions that were ‘Top Secret’ and several others that were ‘Secret’ or ‘Classified’. I obviously cannot disclose the finer details to you because of General Orders and Directives, but some crew are aware of things that would shatter the Federation itself. There was some torture involved, and there were, er… temporal elements to some missions too. They cannot share those things with anyone, cannot disclose those things to you either, yet it is the very effort of withholding those facts and details that is the very cause of their problems. So, it is a puzzle to me what Starfleet hopes to achieve by sending you here? What they need is talking therapy and counselling, something we’ve attempted to put in place, led by my CMO. Can you tell me, was there an officer or crewman in particular that was a concern?”

-Glen, CO