Unfinished Business Part 1

Posted on 29 Oct 2026 @ 7:46pm by Ensign Mimi & Lieutenant JG Delainey Carlisle

2,982 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Episode 21 - Helix
Location: Dr. Delainey Carlisle's Office, USS Galileo
Timeline: md02

Exhaling slowly as she put down Mimi's personnel record and the stylus she had used to make notes, Delainey knew she and Mimi had a complex challenge to tackle together, one that was long overdue, and was recently exacerbated by what she was mentally calling the "volcano debacle."

To refer to it as Mount Tarin, even in her own mind, would be to prejudice herself against the woman who orchestrated it, and while it was true Carlisle had had a difficult first encounter with the woman and had many, many, intense thoughts and feelings about the commanding officer attempting to play therapist at the crew's psychological and emotional expense, the professional in her knew she also had a responsibility to understand Tarin's psychological make-up to not only offer Tarin the same support and perspective she owed to anyone, but to do so without bias.

That would be tomorrow's problem.

For now, she just hoped she could help Mimi begin to heal from everything she had been through.

With the Galileo's departure from Regula One, Mimi's appointments with a counsellor there had been ended and now she stood outside the chief counsellors office on the Galileo. She'd met the ships new counsellor before and the woman had attended her wedding a few days earlier but she'd never really chatted with her, especially in a working environment. A new counsellor meant retelling her story again, going over the same painful history once more, hopefully it would have a better outcome than the first one. Taking a breath she tapped the chime.

"Come in," Delainey called out softly, the doors parting automatically as she had programmed them. Seeing her visitor, the counselor smiled and stood from her desk. "Well, if it isn't the blushing bride! Come in, come in," she gestured enthusiastically.

Mimi gave her a small smile as she entered, from what little interaction she'd had with her Delainey seemed very enthusiastic almost all the time. "I saw you in the holodeck, thank you very much for being at my wedding."

Delainey's grin widened. "Thank you both for giving us something to celebrate. It seems those events have been a bit lacking for the crew of late?"

"Things to celebrate have been... few and far between, I think is the term." Mimi said. "Last weeks shoreleave had been delayed for quite a long time."

Carlisle nodded. “I gathered as much. Before I get to know you a bit better, may I get you something to eat or drink?“

"Some Tarkelian tea will be fine thank you." Mimi replied as she headed for a seat. "We were supposed to have shoreleave when we first got to Regula one but then the whole classified thing happened, and some Klingons showed up, then another classified thing."

The tea request was easily fulfilled and as she handed the cup to Mimi and returned to her seat, Delainey said, "Yes, for a small science ship out in the far reaches, even one classified event feels like a lot." She paused, then added, "I want to thank you also for meeting with me. I know counseling was ordered, but I still acknowledge your decision to be here and to work with me after previously starting with someone else on station. I have read your file as well as the previous counselor's notes, and I'm not planning to go anywhere, so you should have continuity from now on."

Mimi smiled slightly. "Good, I would not want to have to explain everything again to a third counsellor."

"I don't blame you," Delainey replied sincerely. "Would you mind starting off by sharing your perspective on why you were ordered to see a counselor and how you feel about that?"

"Captain Tarin thinks I am a racist, towards Klingons, she called me a 'bigot' too, then explained what it was because I had not heard that word before, after she explained it I somewhat agreed with her. I have had several incidents with Klingons; fights I started, fights they started. Not being in control of my emotions as much as she thinks I should be." Mimi tried to answer the question without going into too much detail about her history; there would be time for that later. "It felt like if I did not accept she would find a way to have me removed from starfleet."

Delainey listened carefully, noting the words Mimi used and whether her perspective matched Delainey's understanding of what precipitated compulsory therapy. Mimi offered an honest overview of events and expression of feeling. "You said if you did not accept counseling, it felt like the Captain would find a way to have you removed from Starfleet, but I'm wondering, how do you feel about being in counseling? Do you think your behavior warrants mandatory therapy?"

Mimi pondered for a few moments. "It was nice to not have.... someone snap back at me almost straight away about why I am wrong." Though she didn't say it, it was fairly obvious who this 'someone' was. "Inara was a very good listener."

Carlisle recognized the name from reading Mimi‘s notes. “I’m glad to hear that. We counselors wouldn’t be very good if we didn’t know how to listen.“ She couldn’t help but notice Mimi didn’t exactly answer the question, but she decided to tread gently. “Is that how you felt before? People were just trying to tell you how wrong you were without really listening?”

"It was mostly Tarin," Mimi eventually said. "Almost everything I tried to say to her she always came back with a reason why my view was wrong and how much I am not acting like an Starfleet officer should, and things like that."

“I’m curious to know what you think about your behavior,“ Delainey replied. Her words were a statement, but it was clear. Her intention was to ask a question.

Mimi pondered for a few second how best to answer the implied question. "My behaviour... could be better at times. I tried to avoid getting into situations involving Klingons but it is not always possible. It is hard to keep my feelings from coming to the surface whenever they are around with what they did."

Carlisle nodded. “That makes sense to me. I’ve read your file, so I know about your various experiences with Klingons, at least in summary. I’m sure we will talk about the specifics in greater detail well down the road, but I want you to know I don’t expect you to do so now or ever before you feel ready.“

"I have told my story to a lot of people over the years," Mimi said with a slight shake of her head. "it is not a good story to tell but it answers the questions people have when they meet me."

"How do you feel inside when you tell your story?" Carlisle asked. She noted Mimi mentioned sharing her story to satisfy the curiosity of other people, but the counselor was curious about the impact of such behavior on Mimi herself.

A slight shrug was Mimi's first reaction. "It upset me the first few times but less now. I sometimes tell them the more.... gruesome details?"

"I wonder why that is?" she asked, her tone one of genuine curiosity.

"Sometimes they ask for more about what happened, I do not go too far." Mimi replied. "It is.. easier to talk about it now."

Carlisle wondered if the ease Mimi described was the result of true healing or dissociation. She also wondered if there had ever been a time Mimi believed she had the right not to share any of the traumatic details if she chose not to. Certainly, recent circumstances suggested she didn’t have that option. “As a therapist, I believe talking about traumatic events can be important to healing, but I also believe people should have the right to share what they want in their own time. My understanding is that hasn’t always been the case for you, including during a recent holodeck outing?“

"The Captain and her methods are confusing at times," Mimi replied. "before the holodeck outing I had spoken to her about confirming the date and time for my wedding, she asked why I did not want Chaplain Hovar performing the ceremony the talk of course then turned into why I do not like Klingons and I described the things I saw them do to my people."

"Then while on the holodeck she ordered me to explain what happened again, even though I had just told her earlier, she got very..... aggressive when I bought that up, told me off for questioning her orders. I thought I knew what she was planning, let the Chaplain hear all the details so he can understand and begin to help me. So I told them everything in full detail just as she ordered me to, how they killed our leader Hikay with a Bat'leth to his back before opening fire on the crowd, how I saw friends cut to pieces from bladed weapons, chunks blown out of them from disruptors or fire from the skies, how later I saw some with their tails cut off and stuck to destroyed buildings as trophies."

Delainey listened as Mimi recounted the details of her early trauma, noting just as Mimi had indicated, it seemed the details had been recounted many times before. Carlisle knew that didn't mean she wasn't traumatized by the events, just that she had perhaps learned to distance herself as much as possible in any given moment from the emotion of those experiences.

Delainey was more than confused by Tarin's motives, but she appreciated Mimi's layout of just the facts, even though that too, she suspected, was courtesy of trauma. "What happened next?"

"She handed me a phaser and told me to shoot the Chaplain." Mimi said then quickly added assuming what Delainey's next question would be. "I did not but part of me wanted to."

Naturally, Delainey knew what had happened from Hovar, so she knew no one had been shot. What she didn't understand was why Tarin wanted people to believe they could have been. Carlisle nodded in response to Mimi's admission. "Makes sense to me, but tell me more about the part of you that wanted to shoot him."

"The holodeck scenario she made us do is very hard on me, Too hot, too long and hard and a pack that is nearly as heavy as I am. I do not sweat as much as a human, when we reached the peak I was mainly focused on panting to keep cool." Mimi paused and pawed at her ear slightly. "I had a weapon, I saw a Klingon. It took a while before I was thinking straight again. Though another part of me wanted to press the trigger to see if she had even given me a working phaser."

"So, if I'm understanding you, you were physically and emotionally irritated, a bit curious, and found Hovar to be an acceptable outlet?" Delainey inquired.

"I never really said anything to Hovar after the Captain ordered me to take the phaser." Mimi replied. "I was angry at her for trying to force me to shoot him. She thinks I am a cold blooded killer and shooting him just because he is a Klingon would have proven her right, I know little about my own species but I know we do not like violence, there have been times where I have fought, injured and even killed people....." She didn't add that a few of those times Klingons were involved. "But there was always a reason, there was no reason for me to shoot Hovar."

Delainey knew she would circle back to Mimi‘s mention of her past interactions involving violence, but for now, she wanted a better understanding of her overall impressions during the interactions with the Captain and Hovar. "What was your understanding of why the Captain wanted you to shoot Hovar?"

"Klingons killed my people, Hovar is a Klingon." Mimi replied. "so why have I not tried to kill him in revenge like happened with Keh'g, here is a weapon do it now."

"What were your thoughts with regard to the weapon? Did you believe it to be a functioning phaser, capable of killing Hovar?"

"It felt like it should," Mimi said after a few moments, a charged and uncharged phaser felt very similar. "I do not think I would have been surprised if she did give me a working phaser or if she had deactivated the holodeck safeties."

"Oh? Why wouldn't it have surprised you if the phaser was working or that she had deactivated the holodeck safeties?" Delainey inquired.

"Her methods are extreme, the first time she made me climb this volcano it put me in sickbay, from heatstroke." Mimi replied, "never checked on me afterwards. And then made me climb it again."

Carlisle nodded. “I did read you needed to receive medical treatment previously from the same simulation, but I was unsure what she told you about participating the first time. You mentioned you believe her methods are extreme. What was your understanding of what she hoped to accomplish the first time you participated in this climbing scenario?“

While the captain and this particular history was not going to be the entire focus of their conversation, to address this incident as well as properly attend to Mimi‘s mental health, she wanted to understand all of the circumstances that had led Mimi to this point and contributed to her current state of mind.

"It was me and a former chief of security Lt Rice that were on that first climb." Mimi replied smiling slightly at remembering Aria; she missed her. "We were talking in the mess hall during breakfast after one of the Captains....." She paused thinking for the right word but it never came. "You have no choice but to be there Pt sessions, that almost everyone hated. She said something about training to be the best of the best but Rice said she did not think she could ever be the best of the best. Then Tarin asked me if I thought the same, I said I had some problems that made things harder for me to on the same level as someone without those problems.. That set her off, you could see in her face she was not happy with what we said. That afternoon we climbed the volcano.... she said it would be fun."

This seemed to be another example of Tarin trying to fix something she thought was detrimental to the crew, and Delainey wondered if perhaps Tarin mistook Mimi and Lt. Rice's self-awareness as a mere deficit in motivation and/or self-worth. "Was that your understanding of the goal for the first climb? The Captain wanted to do something fun with the two of you?"

"Climbing up a volcano is not my idea of fun," Mimi replied. "Especially after having Pt that morning and then my full shift. It felt more like a punishment."

"Punishment for not believing the two of you could be the best of the best?"

Mimi nodded. "That is what it felt to me."

Delainey filed that bit of information away for the moment. "I understand you became quite ill after that first climb?"

"I was told I fainted when we got to the summit." Mimi replied with another slight nod. "Nekomi are not built for endurance, or to carry nearly half my weight extra on my back, I like being warm but the heat was far too much."

"That makes sense. What was your understanding of how serious your medical condition was at the time?"

"At the time, very little." Mimi replied. "Later I was told I came in with a temperature of nearly 45c, definitely heat stroke and I know that can kill people. They got me to sickbay very quickly.... thrown over the Captains shoulder, so there was not any permanent damage and I recovered quite quickly."

"I'm glad to hear that," Delainey offered sincerely. She noted Mimi was aware she could’ve died from her first excursion, yet another trauma in a series of suspected traumas. “As I mentioned earlier, besides wanting to discuss the incident on the holodeck, officially we’re meant to be addressing your difficulties with Klingons. I’ve read the reports on your previous interactions with them, but may I trouble you to recount events from your perspective?“

"Klingons killed an entirely colony of my people leaving me the only survivor I know of." Mimi started to reply. "I saw only a few Klingons after my rescue, I was young but every part of me wanted some form of justice, despite my peoples non violent....lifestyle, so I attacked almost every one I saw. Untill I learned It was a bad idea to attack random people in the street."

"I agree, probably not the best idea,“ Delainey replied with a small smile. “So I think that begs the question, how much of your reactions are under your control when it comes to Klingons? Does understanding it’s a bad idea translate to being able to choose your response?“

Mimi squirmed a little, there was the inevitable question of intent or nature. "I have seen other Nekomi become extremely violent when pushed hard enough, sometimes almost blind with rage, overriding everything. It can be hard to control. I did not always understand what I was seeing when I was little but I have experienced it myself."

"It's not uncommon for other beings to experience similar reactions, especially during fight, flight, or freeze," Delainey offered. "Will you tell me about the more recent times you've encountered Klingons? My understanding is, there have been a few."

TBC


LTjg Delainey Carlisle
Chief Counsellor
USS Galileo-A

Ensign Mimi
Deputy Ops Manager
USS Galileo-A

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