Tea and Tranquilizers

Posted on 23 Nov 2018 @ 8:34pm by LuAnn Lovegood PhD & Lieutenant Lake ir-Llantrisant & Verity Thorne

2,279 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 17 - Crystal of Life
Location: USS Galileo-A - Deck 3, Counseling Office
Timeline: MD -174 - 1300 hours

[ON]

"Now that you've had a moment to meet most of the crew..." Lake ir-Llantrisant said, as preamble, to his gathered counseling team. Sat at the small meeting table in their shared office, Lake poured out a thick, foamy coffee from an ornate bronze pot of Romulan design. He poured one cup for civilian counselor LuAnn Lovegood and another cup for Chaplain Verity Thorne. Once he poured his own cup, Lake asked, "Who do you think will be the first to shoot up the engine room with a phaser rifle?"

"That depends," LuAnn said. "There are several that could prove violent under the right circumstances." She took a sip of her drink before continuing. "From the launch party it looks like some have already begun looking for alternative entertainment."

Verity had almost choked on his mint tea at the way Lake had phrased it. He looked to Lake first, and then LuAnn, shaking his head as he recovered, chuckling softly. "I suppose it is bad form to say you, Lake?"

Unperturbed, Lake raised an eyebrow with interest as he raised his small cup to his lips. "It's not bad form if you can back it up," Lake replied. His intonation was somewhere between encouragement and a challenge. Lake sipped at his rich coffee and then he tilted his head to the right, after he had a second thought. "Or if it's a punchline," he added. After putting down his cup, Lake spoke with academic poise to ask of Verity, "Make your case. What are the warning signs you've seen in the patient?"

Verity leant forward as he adopted a mock thoughtful stance, to make it absolutely clear that he was only joking around with him. "Hm...possible alcoholism, if the party was anything to go by...acerbic delivery of come backs...questionable taste in music...caffeine abuser, which can lead to high anxiety...can take things very, very seriously..." he finally smiled to him, shaking his head as he looked down with a chuckle.

Without irony, Lake took the assessment too seriously. "Not exactly the clinical indicators of pending violence..." Lake replied in a thoughtful manner. The way he rubbed the back of his neck and the movements of his eyes suggested he was still processing everything Verity had said, and hadn't reached a conclusion, because, "I'm not well-versed in your mental health modalities. I'm not an expert. In it's wisdom and infinite diversity, Starfleet sees a value in your approach and I, must admit, I've been reading up on your successes with the previous Galileo crew."

And then the smile came. Lake was in on the joke. "What treatment would you recommend?" Lake asked, like a straight man begging for a punchline.

"Self-flagellation and a cup of nice, soothing rooibos tea?" Verity suggested with an innocent smile, his eyes shining as he took a slow, deliberate sip of his own tea.

While Verity looked away, Lake affirmed, "I'll take it under advisement." After he sipped from his cup again, Lake looked to LuAnn and watched for Verity's eyes to figuratively come up for air. "The Captain has taken some time to familiarize me with this new Galileo," Lake shared. "What questions do you have about the ship?"

LuAnn's eyes were not doing a good job about hiding her laughter. "What resources are at our disposal for treatment?"

Lake spread his arms to indicate the grey bulkheads around them, accented in purple and green. "Between the three shifts," Lake said by way of explanation, "we share this office. Our replicator has pharmacological access and the desk is equipped with a medikit, full stocked with a medical tricorder, psychotricorder and hypospray. Stored under that LCARS display is the equipment to conduct psychotronic stability examinations. Further tools can be sourced from the cargo bay or industrial replicators.

"Operations will give us priority access to the holodecks or observation lounge for talk therapy or treatment," Lake condintued. "Science will allow us some exclusive access to the multi-purpose labs and the arboretum for psychological research or sessions that require a dip in the pond. Sickbay can provide a biohazard isolation unit in the surgical suite, nanotherapy therapy for treating central nervous system disorders, and gene therapy for limiting mental illness risk factors. We also have access to training simulators and classrooms for workshops and lectures, which are as much as obligation as a resource."

"Can we have plants here in the office? Not flowers, because of allergies, but some nice fern or other greenry," LuAnn asked.

To Lake's Romulan ears, the question sounded patently absurd. A high-pitched chuckle exploded from his diaphragm, clearly beyond his control. He snorted as he tried to swallow the laugh down, but it escaped him, unbidden. Some small corner of his mind knew LuAnn was asking if it would be permissible to have plants in the office, but most of his brain heard it as was it possible to have plants in the office. Lake had just described a miraculous array of medical technology that he never could have dreamed of on Romulus or Tracken II, and the first thing LuAnn asked for was a plant. "Yes," Lake said, sounding as if he were desperately trying to get his breathing under control again. "Yes, we can have as many plans as you like."

Verity had scrolled down over his PADD as Lake reeled off their resources, trying to keep up with the impressive list as he went. Obviously, many of them wouldn't be relevant to his particular position, but it was good to know in case he needed to refer people. "I was hoping to be flexible with my hours," he admitted quietly. "Not with the amount of hours I'm on duty, of course, but more changing the timings of my shift now and then instead of staying to the exact same team everyday. So anyone on any team is able to come and see me when they have spare time instead of those on the same team as me feeling uncomfortable doing so during their working hours."

"Of course," replied Lake, encouragingly. He nodded to Verity and he looked to LuAnn too. "I do expect I can persuade the command staff to make exceptions to the duty roster. I'm sure the Captain will see the value in flexing our availability to the crew. Prepare a write-up for what you have in mind."

"I agree with Verity. It would be nice to have a more flexible schedule as long as we ensure that someone is around to help walk-ins," LuAnn said. "Or perhaps we could have on-call hours and office hours?"

"Yes, you're right," Lake affirmed. He nodded to LuAnn, but his gaze was lost somewhere in the middle-distance, thinking back to the kinds of situations that had arisen aboard the starbase. Standard duty shifts likely wouldn't be enough, especially since this team offered three very different modalities and perspectives on mental health. "Include both on-call and office hours to your proposal," Lake said.

Verity added the hours proposal to his to do list. He didn't want someone who felt the need to talk about spiritual matters to feel unable to because he was only available during their work hours. "Oh, I've finalised the activity groups I want to restart," the chaplain's smile brightened at that.

"So there's one for every day of the week," Verity looked down over his list, to make sure to get it right. "We'll have singing on Mondays. Then the book club on Tuesdays but with a creative writing section added this time. I've combined popular music band and orchestra to have just one all round 'band' for Wednesdays. Thursdays will be Amateur Dramatics with a new addition of dance in it. A new club of horticulture with a section at the end for cooking with what we've managed to produce will be on Friday. Saturday is arts and crafts...and then Sunday will be the ancient history, classical civilisation and mythology group, only this time the first half will be earth based and the second half with be histories and mythologies of other alpha quadrant cultures...."

Verity looked between them with a small smile, nodding to indicate he hadn't missed anything. "Oh...and instead of having a movie night club every week, I thought we could change it to just adhoc movie nights now and then, say...once a month. And then I thought we could have a final eighth club, a fitness club, that runs over the whole week instead of just once a week, but with different sports on different days so people can choose to do all the fitness classes or just some of them...so we could have, say, yoga on Mondays, skiing on Wednesdays, rowing on Fridays....and then after a few months we could change them up to new sports."

"That sounds wonderful," LuAnn said. "There's enough there to keep everyone busy."

"That's the idea. The Devil makes work for idle hands and all that," Verity chuckled softly, shaking his head as he set his PADD down. "Mine included. I'll run most of these groups, keep myself out of trouble. Some bits I'll need help with or for someone else to run, so I'll get that sorted out as soon as possible and they're ready to go."

His eyes on the down, Lake studied his cup as he considered what he wanted to say. "I, uh, I am," Lake said a little sheepishly, "an amateur playwright. If that may be of assistance?"

"So we can not only have plays produced by the amateur theatre, they'll be written by our own counselor." LuAnn beamed at both men. "That will be lovely."

"Perfect," Verity grinned as he made a note of it, so there was no backing out of it for Lake. "And I expect to see you signed up for the book and creative writing club," he glanced to him with a teasing smile.

"On that note," Lake said --after a quick, tight smile back-- "What questions do you have for me?" And he clarified with, "As a counselor, or a department head, or a Lieutenant, or as a fellow passenger on this tough little ship?"

LuAnn would have to join the creative writing club. She had a lot of ideas about the adventures of a squirrel girl in the forest. "Can we ask for a wooden swing in the arboretum?" That could be a fun way to relax, just sit in the swing and enjoy the trees.

Nodding vaguely, Lake took another sip of his coffee and then dragged his PADD across the table top, closer to his chest. "Yes, I can do that," Lake replied as he made a note of it on his to-do list. Raising his eyes to the both of his colleagues, Lake prompted, "Do you have any other questions about me? About working with me?"

"No. From what I've seen so far, a tranquilizer dart is not out of the question," LuAnn replied, smiling at Lake.

Verity chuckled softly at LuAnn's comment, shaking his head gently as he glanced up from his padd to him. "I have every confidence in working with you," he said quietly but seriously. He'd seen enough of a glimpse into the man's background to know that he wouldn't let anyone fall through the cracks. "But what about you? How do you feel about us? Any questions?" he asked lightly, but clearly expected an honest answer. Neither of them were regular fleet counselling officers after all.

Pursing his lips, Lake gave Verity's question the appropriate consideration. His mind moved in a similar direction as Verity's had done, and Lake rubbed the back of his neck as he pondered how to string the words together. "What do each of you find most frustrating about Starfleet?" Lake asked.

"Their unwillingness to deviate from what they consider normal," LuAnn said immediately.

"That's a broad statement," Lake said, his eyes widening -- more because he didn't know how to process such a statement than because he disagreed with it. "Can you give me an example?" he requested.

"They don't take too kindly to skinnydipping in the moonlight as a form of therapy," she said. "They do like growing gardens, though, which is good."

"From everything I've heard," Lake replied, "Captain Saalm may surprise you. I don't think she'd get in the way of you prescribing skinny dipping as treatment. I know I won't."

"No, she's not like most Starfleet officers. But since you're in charge of that, I'll just come along for the ride--or swim."

"Out of interest..." Verity cleared his throat lightly. "What, exactly, would skinny dipping be prescribed for?"

"Stress," LuAnn replied succintly. "It's one of the best ways I know of to shed your inhibitions and relax."

The ex-priest took a few moments to think on it, taking in a deep breath as he mused on what would have happened if he'd have recommended that to parishioners back in the day. Verity finally gave a soft chuckle, shaking his head as if he suddenly felt old. "I'll leave that to you bright young things..."

LuAnn grinned. "Not so bright and not so young, but I'll take it as a compliment."

"I'm excited for what's to come," Lake said, looking to them both. "Between us three, I expect we can handle whatever the crew needs of us. And when we can't, we can learn. Don't you think?"

LuAnn grinned. "Absolutely."


[OFF]

LuAnn Lovegood
Counselor
USS Galileo-A

Lake ir-Llantrisant
Chief Counselor
USS Galileo-A

CH Verity Thorne
Chaplain
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Blake]

RSS Feed