Opening Up

Posted on 09 Aug 2012 @ 11:54am by Tarishiana Barel & Lieutenant JG Brayden White Ph.D.

2,084 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 3, Counseling Office
Timeline: MD07 - 1600 hrs

[ON]

Tarishiana had put it off long enough. To the point that she had received a notification of a few recommended appointment times for her to meet with a Lieutenant JG Brayden White. She let out a little sigh as entered the counseling suite. "Master Wa...uh...Lieutenant JG Tarishiana Barel...I believe that I have an appointment with Lieutenant White."

"Please," Brayden shook his head. He was still feeling stifled by the uniform and the new rank, he didn't need a reminder. "I'm Brayden. It's nice to meet you, Tarishiana. Come in and take a seat?"

Tarishiana simple smiled. "Nice to see I am not the only one still adjusting to being a Lieutenant." She easily took a seat. "I apologize for that." She said as she cleared her throat slightly. "I typically avoid reading other peoples thoughts but sometimes the emotions attached intrigue me."

"Right," he said, remembering what he'd read from her file. Betazoid. He'd never had an occasion to work a Betazoid before. There hadn't been any on either of the ships he'd served on and while some had passed through the station, somehow he'd always missed conversations with them. And now he was on a ship with three. Maybe karma was a chameleon, after all. "How does that work, exactly? You feel the emotion and then go after the thought? Or... are the thoughts like images you can choose to look at or not?" He wasn't entirely sure how he felt about having his mind read. Then again, that was probably how everyone felt when they came into his office and he didn't even have the benefit of an extra-terestral genetic gift. Turnabout was fair play.

"Well....emotions are hard to ignore." Tarishiana started as she adjusted her uniform jacket one more time. "With training you learn to not allow them to invade your own." She smiled slightly. "Thoughts are more like trying to avoid listening to the conversation of the people around you in the mess hall. While it is fairly easy to just listen and take it all in...one has the option to ignore them." She thought over how to explain the second half of her telepathic abilities. "After extensive training, I have the ability to pull at past memories and thoughts...but it is not something I enjoy doing, pretty much ever."

"You've needed to before?" he asked.

"When my life depended on it." Tarishiana started, "I used to do it to my parents all the time when I was younger." She grinned at the memory. "Also when I was in school...it was part of my training when it came to control my empathic and telepathic abilities."

"Your life depended on it?" It was a little difficult to reconcile this cordial, likable woman with a life or death situation, but she was from Betazed. Had she been there during the battle? Or was she talking about another time? Sometimes, he had to take a moment to be in awe of the universe he found himself in. He'd taken years getting his own thoughts under control. The idea of adjusting to everyone else's was utterly impressive and useful, he was sure, in many situations, but he found he didn't envy her at all. That was surprising.

"You would be surprised what kind of trouble a Betazoid socialite can get herself into when she puts her mind to it." Tarishiana did her best to make light of a situation that was anything but light. She grinned easily. "

Brayden absorbed her decision not to discuss the event she'd mentioned and allowed her to leave it be. If she wanted to discuss it, she knew where to find him, but it didn't seem to be impacting her ability to communicate or do her job. "How does a socialite come to be the chief of a science department on a research vessel?" he asked.

"By accident..." Tarishiana replied with a slight laugh. "I enlisted with Star Fleet when I was eighteen. Became a non-commissioned officer and eventually a Warrant Officer when I took over the Science department of my last posting. " She wasn't sure she wanted to explain how the whole genetic bonding thing had played a part. Especially since that wasn't much of an issue any more. "I was recently given a commission and promoted to Lieutenant JG." She finished simply.

"Congratulations," he told her. "I'm sure it's well deserved. Did you want anything, by the way? I have water and mangoes; I could replicate coffee or tea."

"Water...would be great." Tarishiana said with a grin as she tried to down play her bit of embarrassment at the congratulations.

He nodded, getting up to fetch her a glass. "Tell me about the department - and your staff?"

"Most of them are great..." Tarishiana started honestly. "We are super swamped with the current mission and that fact that we are slightly understaffed isn't helping." She paused for a moment. "What exactly would you like to know?"

"Whatever you'd like to tell me," he told her with a smile, offering her the water before taking his place across from her again. "You said most of them are great. We could start there if you want."

Tarishiana laughed lightly. "My staff is amazing...at least the ones that I have met so far." she couldn't help but let her mind go to Ensign Cho for a moment. "Some are simply a little harder to crack then others." she grinned, "Which is saying a lot when you are a Betazoid."

Brayden nodded in total agreement. That was a surprising thing to hear from a telepath and empath. But it was reassuring to know that even someone with those skills had trouble figuring out some of the people on this ship. And also a bit daunting, now he thought of it. "Harder to crack?" he inquired, gently encouraging her.

"I have a closed off officer who has no intention or desire to open up" Tarishiana said with a grin. "But she is a bit of a conundrum in the fact that she doesn't want anyone thinking she is closed off....but I am hoping that as time goes one she will feel like opening up." She cleared her throat slightly, "I have no intention of pushing her though."

That was Kiri, all right, Brayden thought to himself. And it did make sense that her CO didn't want to nudge her out her shell; it wasn't Tarishiana's responsibility to see to Kiri's emotional state. Only to make sure she could do her job. He smiled slightly, "So your department is running smoothly for the most part. How are you settling into the Galileo outside your work?"

"Pretty good I guess." Tarishiana couldn't help but smile as she thought of Markum. "I have made some great friends." She wasn't sure if she should mention her relationship with Markum but she couldn't help herself. "I even found a relationship...and in a moment of impulse we moved into together." The smile betrayed her happiness.

Brayden issued a little hum. The ship had only been in the air for... what - less than two weeks? And they'd already moved in together? It seemed a bit fast. Fast could be exciting, but rarely did it work out well for everyone involved. A romantic entanglement going south on a ship this small could be a truly disastrous thing. Then again, she was Betazoid. They had instincts about these things. Sometimes. "When did this happen?" he asked, mirroring her smile.

"Earlier this week." Tarishiana said with a grin. "Markum Quinn and I met at the prelaunch party." She paused for a moment as she tried to think over what she was going to add. "I will admit that it moved quickly...but he is my Imzadi." She said as if that explained everything.

"And he understands the implications of this, I gather?" Brayden asked, genuinely interested.

Tarishiana nodded, "He has spent quite a lot of time among Betazoids." She said easily. "And I explained it to him as much as I could...as much as I knew. In hindsight it wasn't as much as I know now since this is the first time I have experienced it." She had no doubt that the whole situation sounded absurd to the outside world. "I understand that this might sound a bit...impulsive or even a bit crazy. I know I have thought that at times, but I have waited my entire life to find him." She laughed slightly.

"Not too crazy actually," he told her, thinking of the two women back home who were his closest friends and how they'd been bamboozled by each other from their first meeting. "Especially not when you know," he added. He'd studied Betazoid psychology fairly extensively at Uni and had had occasion over the last several years to expand on his knowledge. He wasn't an expert, but there were certain things he knew and one of those was that 'imzadi' wasn't a word thrown around lightly. "As long as he understands what it means as you do, that should keep you two on an even playing field. Discovering what a relationship is built of together is one of those universal unifying factors." He smiled, "I'm glad to hear you've discovered this joy on board."

"Me too." Tarishiana replied simply with a large grin. "I consider myself quite lucky." She began to fiddle with her fingers in her lap. She adored talking about Markum, but she didn't want to sound like some love crazed teenager.

"I see that," he answered with a wink. "Anything else happening, anything you want to talk about?"

"Oh I have plenty of things to talk about." Tarishiana started with a knowing grin. "I am a Betazoid of pomp and circumstance. My mother would be quite disappointed in me if I didn't have something to speak about in regards to myself at all time." she grinned.

"Well, if there's anything you need to hear out loud, to talk through, that's what we're here for." He returned her grin. "You're welcome to use the rest of your session time to chat, and free to go as you please. Whatever you prefer. I am here to serve."

"I will keep that in mind." Tarishiana said with yet another grin. "So...you get to know everything about your patients...do we ever get to know anything about you?" She tipped her head to the side as she asked the question.

"First, I don't get to know everything about my patients. Just what they're willing to share," Brayden stipulated with a little wag of his brows. "But sure. I'm not the Wizard of Oz. What do you want to know?"

"What made you choose counseling?" Tarishiana asked with little hesitation. "I have always wondered what it was that made someone choose your career, but I have never had the opportunity to ask."

Brayden smiled, sitting back a little in his chair to let her know he was comfortable with the question. "I like people," he said simply, then folded his hands on his stomach and continued thoughtfully, "When I started out in medical school, I didn't know I'd end up going into counseling. I thought I'd be doing trauma care. I studied psychology because it was easy for me. I'd grown up around neuroscientists and psychiatrists; mental medicine was familiar and I thought it would make me more useful in a high stress situation. Then... I'm not sure when it happened exactly, I just... love the work. Meeting people. Seeing them grow. Being able to give them some peace and reassurance. Being useful." He shrugged. "What was it that made you choose your career?"

"I enlisted in Starfleet and was originally in operations and engineering." Tarishiana started, "The major difference that I have learned about between Officers and Enlisted is that our career paths are discovered in the field...not chosen." she laughed. "I have always had a love for languages but it wasn't until I was doing some work with the universal translator that I discovered and error it its software and I ended up training as a linguist." She smiled as the thought brought back the memories of a time that seemed so long long ago. "The rest is...what is that human phrase...history, that is it...the rest is history."

[OFF]

--

LTJG Tarishiana Barel
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Brayden White
Counselor
USS Galileo
NPC'd by Kestra Orexil

RSS Feed