Counseling Counsel

Posted on Tue Mar 28th, 2023 @ 9:25pm by Lieutenant Sky Jansen-Carey

Mission: Shoreleave
Location: Counselling Offices

Just like every starship before it, the Resolution was made to fly. Or float vaguely at impulse most of the time until gunning it through the stars at warp speed. Tale bemused as she instinctively bobbed her way through the corridors. She felt the occasional eyes on her, it was not anything new and it would not continue to be so. It would, however, continue to be old for Tale Gilohesh. The Orion therapist from StarFleet command. She was a spectacle wherever she went in her blue and black body suit, her black green hair pulled into a messy top knot, the sides shaved down to the skin. Her face olive freckled from sun exposure when she was a child, but not recently. If she knew more people, she would've be more brash about the stares from the young ensigns working.

These big ass galaxy class space yachts all have the Counselors whisked off in the same area, tucked away, not too far from the Captain, but not so near that the Captain has to deal with constant haranguing on the daily. Tale was only mildly surprised it wasn't locked or requiring an appointment like her office. But it was a large ship and it was only the outer door. She heard about galaxy class ship that had one counselor that the Captain kept on the bridge and expected to communicate with a jellyfish and that sounded like a nightmare. Everyone on that particular ship was getting their therapy from the bartender. Tale looked around the offices, buzzing with chatter. "Hello?"

Sky was just starting to get through the final appointments she had as people filtered off ship for their Shoreleave, and new faces started to arrive onboard. Hearing a voice above the chatter she smiled as popped her head around her door. “Hi I’m Sky Jansen, Chief Counsellor. Can I help you?”

"Lt Jansen, so happy to meet you! I'm Doctor Tale Gilohesh from StarFleet Command, I'm here to do an assessment of the crew," Tale did in her overly adept way. Clearly she's been doing this for a long time. She immediately felt the mood shift and wanted to have the Counselor on her side. "I'm just here as the ship's therapist. I'm the Counselor's Counsel as it were. The only difference is we get to talk about big feelings."

Sky nodded. “To be honest I’ve kind of been expecting this. Please come in” Sky motioned Tale inside.

Tale followed in step behind her, taking in her new surroundings. The Counseling office didn't have the sterile smells she had become accustomed to on the last ship. That guy was a germophobe that was addicted to disinfected sprays. Smelled like that faux lemon. This office in turn, smelled like warm honey and it was such a welcoming invitation. Almost disarming. "It shouldn't be anything to feel any extra stress about. Nothing to be concerned about on a larger scale."

“Well I’m glad about that” Sky smiled warmly. “I’m getting married soon, so I’m aiming for it to be as stress free a couple of hours as it could possibly be! I’m only here to catch up on a few loose ends at present.” She smiled warmly. “So I take it you’re going to be staying onboard for the foreseeable future?”

"I usually stay as long as StarFleet deems necessary. I swoop in, do evaluations. Could take a few days. Could take a few months. The longest eval I had took two years because I wound up having to counsel the ship," Tale chuckled. "They were at each others throats like it was Verona. Science Dept were the Capulets and the Engineering, Montagues. The Captain and XO, Romeo and Juliet trying to get everyone to get along. Security would literally have to sit guard during group therapy. It was an *experience* in boundaries."

Tale giggled again, getting comfortable. "This brings me here. StarFleet does these randomly through your personal logs and reports. You know, they get fed into the computer systems and churn out a chart for the bureaucrats at Command. Resolution is the same deal. Yours got a ping to bring me in here. There's been a few red flags. Now, I don't know what those are, that's for Command to have on some chart and for me to help with your wellbeing. Miss Jansen, you expected me, why is that?"

Sky sighed. “Well there’s already been some misgivings about the fact that I’m engaged to Captain Carey, and that I’m about to be his second wife. That, and the fact that I’m on reduced duties, due to stress and being pregnant. The stress comes from an accidental telepathic journey into the mind of another member of the crew.” She offered a wry smile.

"His second wife? As in he's a prior divorcee?" Tale very casual made some notes on her padd about the conversation. "We also need to discuss the use of telepathy, but we don't necessarily need to do that right now. It sounds intense. Definitely put a tea session on the books once I figure out my own space here."

“No. Not a divorcee Xavier is married to Talsi Carey. She serves onboard ship. We’re in a... three person relationship. I started off becoming part of their family to give Talsi and Xavier another child, but I miscarried Talsi’s child. The twins I’m carrying now are Xavier’s.” She paused. “As for the use of Telepathy, I know the rules and I obey them, my entry into Soran’s mind was accidental.”

"I think I'll need to diagram that out, I kid, I am not making light of your trauma, that's a lot to take in," Tale replied jokingly. "Let's put you in for a regular session. I have a great pregnancy tea. It has lemon in it. It keeps nausea at bay. You'll love it. It sounds like you'll have plenty to just degauss and discuss. Do you have any questions or concerns for me?"

Sky gave Tale a blank look before nodding. “I take it what gets said here gets reported back to Starfleet, so what happens if they don’t like what they hear? I’m not willing to be reassigned anywhere else.”

"You will not be reassigned, I'm not in the business of breaking up ships and families. You honestly don't have to worry about a thing as long as the ship is running smoothly and this is only big of a deal as we make of it," Tale explained. "I'll just do crew intake. Daily sessions with them. I make a report that says something along the lines of crew efficiency in regards to mental health and well being, We build a road map for your crew to communicate and have boundaries for work effectivity and personal time for after I leave."

Sky nodded and smiled. “That sounds good to me, thank you. I’ll have an office set up for you, we have some spare offices available. You can set it up however you like.” Sky stifled a yawn. “Right now my time for today is up, I have a wedding to go and prepare for.”

"Don’t let me hold you up from your nuptials. Congratulations. I'm going to get settled in and find my quarters, I have to go meet this Security Officer and scare the blazes out of him and *that* should be fun," Tale said the last part more to herself as she began seeing herself out. "Have a lovely rest of your day Lt Jansen, I look forward to working with you."

OFF