The Fine Art of Being Fake (1/2)

Posted on 17 Apr 2013 @ 9:05pm by Lieutenant Dawn Meridian

2,550 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 3, Dawn's Office
Timeline: MD 02 - 1600

[ON]

Jeremy sighed as he came to the door. It was not time for his normally scheduled appointment - except - he sighed again. Apparently this was now his regularly scheduled appointment now. And everyday. The biggest problem is that Captain Saalm had ordered this to be 'indefinite', her words being "until improvement is shown".

He hit the chime and put his hands behind his back, waiting with Sidi at his side. He frowned to think about that. Well, he was able to waive confidentiality where Sidi was concerned, so it wouldn't be a problem for him to be in session. He considered leaving him in quarters but...so far Sidi's whine was going to be the biggest issue with his behavior.

Dawn was having a confusing day. It wasn't that the day was confusing, really... just that it was a day, and she was confused. She was confused about a few things, but the biggest one was the notice she'd received regarding Jeremy Stone. The smallest one, incidentally, was that her alarm had gone off eleven minutes early for no reason.

At the sound of the chime, Dawn spun around in her chair. Sensitivity training. She knew what it was, but that didn't mean she had to like it. Based on his file, many others had already tried. She also had no intention of attempting to condition Stone into being polite at all times. That didn't solve any of his problems. What was the point of helping him get along with others if it was all a construction, a lie?

So, she'd do her own thing. Probably. What that was, she had no idea yet. "Come in," she called.

Jeremy entered the office, keeping Sidi at his side. He came to a stop halfway into the room. Looking around, he scowled. "You could have fixed the photos when you were changing the room," he said. He gave Sidi the hand signal to sit.

"You're right," she said, without even a hint of snark. "I could have." She looked from Stone to Sidi and then back again. "You brought your dog." She smiled at Sidi. "Is he here for counselling too?"

Sidi barked, once, a low, joyful thing. He licked his chops before he sat, quiet once more.

"He is not my dog," Jeremy said, scowling. "He is...one of my security officers. I am his handler." he frowned. "I'll have to waive confidentiality for him. I don't have those forms." He glared at the rug. It was switched. He didn't like it. Nor that the chair was not square to the desk again or that the 'sitting area' was disorderly. But the photos...that should have been an easy fix.

"He's one of your security officers," Dawn repeated. She glanced between the two... security officers. It was going to be one of those days. "You won't need the forms if I can get verbal consent from both of you," she said. Asking a dog to form a verbal contract was a new one. She was positive that the entire thing was completely unnecessary, but she really had to pick her battles.

Jeremy frowned. "Sidi, do you agree that what is said and discussed in here is considered confidential under existing Federation law and Starfleet regulations?" He gave the hand signal for speak. Sidi barked several times, his tail wagging.

Glancing at Meridian, "Will that be sufficient?"

"Yup," she said. She barely managed not to laugh. She decided to smile instead. She took a few deep breaths. This was serious business. It actually was, other than the whole... dog thing.

"So," she said as her smile faded. "What exactly did you do to deserve this? 'Sensitivity training', I mean." She paused. "The captain's note said it was... 'until improvement is shown'? That's... really harsh."

He frowned. "I told her the chief flight control officer covered her incompetence under bigotry regarding Sidi." he frowned. No...it...before that. "I told Lieutenant Malevin that I didn't take orders from her. Then the Captain accused me of not treating everyone aboard the same and said I was rude to everyone." He frowned again. "Which is a contradiction. If I don't treat everyone the same, how could I be rude to everyone?" He shook his head. "I don't know. I exist - I get sent to another useless round of sensitivity training."

"Oh dear." Dawn drummed her fingers on her desk. Stone wasn't a liar, but she hoped he was misinterpreting things a bit. From the sounds of it, the captain wasn't being very nice. "Wait," she said. One eyebrow shot up. "Someone was being a bigot to your... er, to Sidi?" Maybe she'd misheard.

"Yes," he said, scowling. "Most of the bridge staff. They consider him lesser, no better than a 'pet'." He spat out the last word as if it were vile poison in his mouth. "I don't know about most of the crew, no one's actively said anything but..." he continued to scowl as he knelt in front of Sidi and ruffled his hackles. "I don't have pets."

Oh dear. Dawn was pretty sure Sidi qualified as a pet, but apparently Stone didn't think so. She was going to have to break it to him somehow. "I'm... not sure they can be blamed for that," she said. "Dogs are... usually pets." She watched Sidi, studying him curiously. Maybe a dog could be a security officer, and she was just overthinking things.

Jeremy's hands stopped as he glared at Meridian. "And Klingons are usually blood thirsty savages, and Vulcans are usually emotionally barren purveyors of pure logic and Ferengi are usually greedy little trolls and Betazoids are usually just hedonists. The Borg are usually mindless automatons. Females are usually shallow, vain and self-involved. Shall I continue, Lieutenant, or are you willing to tell me how I'm supposed to learn any 'sensitivity training' from someone unable to rise above petty and inaccurate stereotypes?"

"Since you are unaware, Sidi was chosen as a puppy for his career. He was raised to become a working dog, a security canine. He had to pass pre-entrance evaluations, work hard to learn his role, pass tests to 'graduate' and then more training for his singular role. He has a Starfleet record as well as evaluations. In what way has his service to Starfleet qualified him to be just a pet?" he stood as he scowled and looked at the door. Shaking his head he muttered, "Another waste of my time."

Dawn's grey eyes had focused on some point on the ceiling. She sighed quietly. She wasn't particularly interested in this conversation or in being scolded again for no good reason. A dog wasn't the same as a person, and even if it was, a Starfleet officer had to obey orders. For some reason, being called 'lieutenant' annoyed her more than 'shallow, vain, and self-involved.' Whatever that meant. Stone was walking the line between being interesting and just... frustrating. He was good at walking that line.

"I didn't say Sidi was 'just a pet', Lieutenant," she said, as if discussing the weather. He was a pet, but she'd decided he was also an officer of some kind. "I was talking about the crew's perception. That's why you're here, after all." She still didn't look at him. He was going to have to let go of the whole dog thing somehow. "And he's at the core of your recent problems with them."

"No," Jeremy said, confused. There was the way she emphasised his rank...why? "They say I'm rude and insensitive. Nobody's complained about Sidi's behavior, just his existence." He scowled. "Or has there been some complaints of which I'm unaware?"

"You're right. I don't think Sidi has done anything wrong." She frowned down at a PADD on her desk. As she could tell, while a lot of the reports involved Sidi, it was more that Stone overreacted whenever the dog was involved. That was definitely true. "What I mean is, when it comes to him, you're..." She paused, searching for the word. "Fierce. And it can be a bit hard to understand."

Jeremy frowned as sat back, pulling Sidi closer to him. He stared into the dog's brown eyes while he contemplated what she said. "Hard to understand? He's a member of my department and he's being treated unfairly. How is it hard to understand that I would vigorously defend him?" He closed his eyes and sighed. "Is it because he's not humanoid?"

That... actually made a lot of sense, in a strange kind of way. She knew she wasn't wrong, but now she was having a hard time putting words to why. Frustrating, interesting Stone. "I think it's a communication thing. There are a lot of things people expect others to understand and dogs have a hard time with. It's harder to know how a dog will react to new situations - anything outside their training." She paused, smiling at Sidi. He was a good dog. "And their chain of command is very different from the one on a Federation starship."

"I don't understand!" Jeremy said rubbing his head, getting frustrated. "What difference? Nobody knows how anybody new they meet will respond to anything, even with training. Or new species will react - or understand. And his chain of command isn't different. He's my personnel, he takes orders from me, I take orders from the Captain. There is no difference!"

He shook his head as he sat cross legged on the floor, Sidi lying in front of him. "It's like...it's like..." he sighed. "Like...people expect that I'm a certain way because I'm Terran but I'm not what they expect and so...it's so frustrating! I don't understand! What is the difference?"

Dawn was silent for a long while. "It's the same when it's that direct. Sidi, to you, to the Captain. But he has no understanding of rank. He obeys people based on his own criteria outside of Starfleet's. And he has a limited understanding of the consequences of his own actions." She was frustrated. It felt like she was the bad guy, but she wasn't doing anything wrong. She curled and uncurled her fingers on her desk.

"He definitely has a place on this crew," she said quietly. "It's just much more... complicated when he's around people from other departments. Especially on the bridge." He was definitely a distraction. An adorable distraction. He was distracting her, at least.

Jeremy rubbed his head while he processed what she said. "I don't understand how any of that matters. He follows orders given by his supervisor, he doesn't need to understand any other rank. He doesn't follow orders given by someone other than me - which is his training. It's what he was made to do. It's just made to be more complicated than it needs to be. The way people want to make everything more complicated."

He sighed. "I told you, this is useless. Sensitivity training. That's making things more complicated than it has to be. So many rules just so someone else feels better about themselves, what's the point in that. It's called self-esteem for a reason." He looked up, realizing he wasn't able to see her anymore due to his position and the desk. "It's not like anyone's making an effort to..." he sighed as he let the words die out. He checked the chrono, wishing the hour was already up.

Dawn was beyond confused. Things would be going much better if she wasn't confused, she knew, but it wasn't like there was anything she could do about that. She took a deep breath. Maybe if she brought enough plants into the room, it would smell like a forest when she did that. That would be nice. She wanted to be in a forest.

Think, silly. And not about forests. Even though she really liked forests. Forests had animals, and rivers, and trees, and stones... Stone. That was what she had to be doing.

She didn't want to talk about dogs anymore, she decided. What was it Stone had said? People weren't making an effort to... what? Not talk about dogs? That was - right. Less Dawn, more Counsellor Meridian. You wanted to learn about Stone, remember? Help him? That was true, at least. But she didn't remember signing up to argue about dogs, cute or not. She was pretty sure she hadn't, anyway.

"Making an effort to what?" she asked at last. Her voice was soft and measured.

Jeremy frowned as he rubbed Sidi's back, between the blades of his forepaws. "Making an effort to help me feel better about myself." He sighed and shrugged. "Doesn't matter," he muttered. "It's not anything I'm not used to."

Dawn frowned back and folded her arms. She looked at him for a time, eyes watching, studying. "That's not true," she said finally. "That's what I'm trying to do, kind of. I wish it was as simple as saying, 'I like you, Jeremy. You're strong and honest and you're in so much pain that it hurts me.'" She glanced down at her desk, scanning the swirling wood patterns with pretend interest. "But it isn't."

Jeremy was torn between the idea of lying on the floor and getting up so that he could see her as necessary. Sighing, he let discomfiture win out and stood, leaving Sidi to rest on the floor. "Why not? Why can't it just be that simple? Why does it have to be complicated and some intricate game of words and hidden meanings and..." he shook his head frowning but looking at his PADD...there was something...Lieutenant Rice. She had..."mental gymnastics to misunderstand what was said. Why not just say it simple and straightforward? Why the games?"

"Because making someone feel better about themselves isn't that easy. Even if one person tells you that you're great, others are still going to be confused by you. They're not going to understand why you act the way you do, and that'll make things worse." Dawn looked at him, happy that she could see more than just his head now, and without leaning forward. "So if I can help with the source of that misunderstanding, I'm trying to help others see you the same way. It's just... slow. And frustrating." She shrugged. "I don't think it's pointless."

"But, they'll only accept me if I become someone else. So you're not helping me but...some fake person. Somebody that isn't real." he shook his head as he stared at Sidi. "I've already become somebody not real, I can't do it again. That's why it's pointless."

[OFF]

Lieutenant (JG) Dawn Meridian
Counsellor
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (JG) Jeremy Stone
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Galileo

& Sidi

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