Visiting The Counselor

Posted on Friday, 24 April 2020 - 12:22pm by Commander Soral & Lieutenant T'Lanna Vali

Mission: Operation: Overdrive
Location: Counselor's Office | USS Fontana
Timeline: 2393 (Just before Tender Love and Care post)

{ON}

Soral had spent the rest of the night, after his talk with Eyelaya, staring at the stars. He had then done some digging and had decided that he was out of his element. His steps found him in front of the counselor's office. He stood there and rang the chime.

T’Lanna was marvelling over not only the news of her pregnancy but having found love with Raith too, it seemed her life was going in a good direction right now. She stood and walked over to the door, opening it she smiled warmly as she greeted Soral. “Commander Soral please come in.”

Soral gave a nod. His hands clasped behind his back he entered and stood off to the side until invited to sit.

“Please sit down.” T’Lanna motioned to the seats. “Can I get you something to drink?”

He sat down. "I do not require anything to drink." He was silent for a breath. "I wish to discuss a crew member with you."

“By all means” T’Lanna took a seat and waited for Soral to elaborate.

"Chief Petty Officer Eyelaya. I believe she requires some assistance. I have attempted to assist but I do not feel I am the best person to do so."

“I see” T’Lanna nodded. “Can you tell me what it is that makes you believe she needs help?”

He sighed, "If you will check with Doctor Rose she was admitted to sickbay suffering from a panic episode. She also has a low opinion of herself and has confided in me that she has nightmares. I believe they are about a work accident on Vulcan. She clearly has more mercy for others then for herself."

T’Lanna nodded. “I see, it sounds like I need to make a visit to Eyelaya as soon as possible. The main problem is if she doesn’t want my help I can’t force her to accept it. At least not until it becomes an enforceable matter, which would require either the Commander or yourself to order her for Counselling. I’d like to start by going the voluntary route.”

"That would be wise." He paused. "She does not trust counselors. I do not understand why but I am looking into the matter. I have a few connections on Vulcan that can assist me with that."

T’Lanna nodded. “Please let me know what you find out. In the meantime as she confides in you perhaps you could call her here? She may talk to me if you are here as support.”

"She is not that forthcoming. She may open up to you more since you are part Borg. She has shown an affinity for technology. She has even requested a date from the EMH."

“A date? With the EMH?” She sighed. “Actually Eyelaya and I have already met, we got along quite well. She was fascinated with my Borg side. It may come in useful when talking to her.”

"She is...complicated." He said, his lip twitching slightly. He stood. "Well I will leave you to it. I have a few things I must do." He looked at her. "I have not had the chance to speak with you when you returned. My condolences on your loss," he said referring to the Borg the had found.

“Thank you” T’Lanna nodded. “However I did get some good news from the doctor while I was in Sickbay getting the results about my mother. It seems that I’m....pregnant. Seven weeks according to the doctor’s scans.

Soral inclined his head. "Congratulations."

“Thank you Sir” T’Lanna smiled warmly. “It came as somewhat of a surprise.”

Soral was at a bit of a loss. He wasn't very comfortable with respect to children having made a decision not to have any of his own so he simply said, "Indeed." He paused. "Well I will leave you to speak with Eyelaya... I mean the Chief."

“Yes Sir” T’Lanna nodded. “I’ll do what I can to help.”

He gave a nod. He was grateful that she'd missed his little slip up as he headed out.

T’Lanna had noticed the slip but let it go. She smiled as she tapped the comms. “Vali to Eyelaya, please report to my office.”

Eyelaya had just finished fixing an environmental regulator for Deck 3 when the call came in. She thought a moment. There was a bit of trepidation but then she recalled that she had promised the woman help with nannites. She went back to engineering and picked up her tool kit and then headed to the office. She had just stepped up to the door when it opened.

As the door opened T’Lanna smiled warmly as she greeted Eyelaya. “Chief...Eyelaya, please come in and have a seat.”

She held up her back. "Nannite check right?" She asked.

“Good idea” T’Lanna smiled and nodded. “I’d like them checked after being hit by lightning in the nebula. Do you mind if we talk while you’re checking?”

She smiled and waved her hand. "No problem. I get nervous when the docs work on me too." She pulled out an engineering tricorder and began scanning. "Okay! So I see some minor fluxes. I'm going to have to take a few more readings. It's a deep scan so it'll take some time but won't hurt."

“That’s okay” T’Lanna smiled. “Actually I wanted to talk to you. I understand that you had a panic attack not too long ago?” I was hoping you’d trust me enough to talk to me, I’d like to help you.”

Sudden anger flared inside her. Had Rose set this up? "Doctor Rose had no right. He made this big hoopla about patient doctor confidentiality he had no right to say anything!" She put away her tricorder grabbing a small nannite tool to scan the around the implants on her lobe. "I don't need help. I've been on my own a long time."

T’Lanna resisted the temptation to move to look at Eyelaya. “Doctor Rose didn’t tell me anything, as a member of the medical staff I have access to all medical files. Eyelaya what is said here stays here, conversations are confidential and I’m here to listen. You’re helping me, please trust me to help you. Talk to me?”

"I don't like counseling. I had enough of it on Vulcan to last me a life time thank you."

“I can imagine!” T’Lanna offered a smile. “Vulcan counsellor’s can be...rigid and seem totally uncaring. They tried Counselling me too when I was young. Then how’s about we just talk? it’ll be completely off record. Like you said my scans will take some time.”

Eyelaya sighed and she shrugged. She reached into her bag and pulled out a small device that had a long clear tube attached to it. "This is a nannite capture device. I've seen a few damaged ones. I want to finished the scan but we can remove the damaged nannites and either repair and reintroduce or you can allow you system to create new ones. The only time this gets tricky is if an ex Borg is pregnant. We'll wait for the full scan to complete. I don't want to do the removal twice. As for talking I'm not good at that." This last statement being a stretch as anyone who knew her knew that talking was something she did by marathon.

“You don’t have to be good at talking.” T’Lanna smiled. “As for the nannites you should know that I’m seven weeks pregnant. If you need replacement nannites I syphoned some from my mother’s body, they haven’t been reprogrammed yet is the main problem. You could introduce them to my system but there’d only be a small window of time to reprogram them before they’d overrun my own nannites. How fast are you at programming?”

"Extremely fast but we don't need to. I can repair the damaged ones and reintroduce them within the hour. What would you prefer to do?"

“There are risks either way, but my nannites have to be repaired.” She paused. “Carry on with your plan, I don’t have much choice. You did say it gets tricky if an ex-Borg is pregnant, in what way? It won’t harm my baby will it?”

"No. Once I remove your nannites I can fix and have their programing set within the hour. It becomes tricky if it's longer then that." She smiled. "Don't worry. I won't let that happen." She pointed to T'Lanna's stomach. "Are you excited?" She listened to the answer as she continued to pull out some equipment from her bag.

"Actually...Yes!" T'Lanna smiled. "It's exciting. I'm looking forward to being a mother even though I didn't plan this." She looked at Eyelaya. "How's about we share information, I've told you about this so you tell me something. We go one for one on what we both want to share."

She shrugged. "I sometimes wonder if my mother was excited about me and Gaylen." She said. She began preparing a long device that would help her remove the nannites. "This device will help me remove the damaged nannites. It emits a signal that imitates the damage thus drawing those ones to itself. I can then grab them and pull them out. They then move to this box and using the mobile computer I can begin repairs." She held up the device. "I will need to take them from your arm though It's like getting blood drawn."

T’Lanna nodded. “That’s fine. I’m worried about what will happen when my baby is born. This isn’t a family ship, if I want to stay onboard then I’ll have to find someone to care for my baby off ship.” She looked at Eyelaya. “What makes you wonder about your mother?”

She shrugged. "Never met her. When I was at the Bajoran orphanage they told me that they found me by the door. I didn't even know I had a brother until I got my locket...the one that I've lost." She was angry with herself. "What about the dad? Can he take the baby?"

“Jason is...he died.” T’Lanna’s smile faded a little. “He was on an away mission, he never came back.”

She held up he needle like object. "Ready?"

T’Lanna nodded. “Go ahead.”

She proceeded to insert the instrument and turned on the box. Within minutes she had seven nannites trapped within the box. She pulled out the needle and used a dermal regenerator to heal the area. She sterilized the needle again and set to work. Her hands moved just as fast an lightening. She adjusted the power on the mobile computer and soon the repair of the nannites began.

T’Lanna watched as Eyelaya got to work. “It must have been the lightning. When we were on the shuttle it was hit by some kind of lightning, it knocked us all out. The nannites are shielded but it wasn’t normal lightning, that must have be what caused the damage.” She paused. “So you said you lost a locket? Do you remember where?”

As If pulled from a trance Eyelaya looked up. "Sorry...I get lost in my work. I'm sorry about Jason." She made a few calibrations. "They are almost ready." She grinned, "With a half hour to spare!" She sighed. "I'm not sure where I lost it. It was he only thing I had from my past."

“Do you recall last time you had it? Maybe I can help you pinpoint when you had it last and what you’ve done since.” T’Lanna smiled.

She sighed. "No. It was before I got on the ship." She took a deep breath. "Hmmm. Was Commander Soral in here?"

T’Lanna looked at Eyelaya curiously. “What makes you think that?”

She laughed. "He smells like cake and cinnamon. I have a sensitive nose so everyone and every ship smells different to me. I can tell people by the sound of their steps and their scents."

“That’s an interesting and handy skill to have.” T’Lanna smiled. “Commander Soral was here.” She didn’t go into details as she wouldn’t anyway. Conversations were always private and confidential.

"Alright. These are ready." She looked at T'Lanna. "I can put them in a hypo if you prefer."

“No it’s fine” T’Lanna smiled. “Trust me I’m used to being treated in all sorts of ways. I had numerous operations to remove the main body of my implants, mainly because I was injured in my body was weak. I got used to all the tinkering and sorting out. I have to say you’ve been wonderful.”

She smiled, "Thanks." She worked quickly and within minutes the nannites were back in T'Lannna's body. She scanned the ex Borg and was happy with the progress and the way that the nannites were integrating. "Excellent. Everything is working."

"Wonderful, thank you" T'Lanna smiled. "Have I managed to earn your trust now? Will you talk to me and let me help you?"

Eyelaya stayed silent. "Why, why does everyone want to 'Help' or change me or 'make me better' why am I not okay the way I am." She packed away her equipment. "I have to go... they have new engineering manuals in the library. I appreciate it but I'm fine." She picked up her bag and headed for the door.

“Eyelaya wait!” T’Lanna offered an apologetic smile. “I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with you, you are special just as you are. We are all special in our own way. I just...wanted to be there for you, that’s all. If not as a Counsellor then as a friend.”

She shrugged. "I should go. See you later Counselor Vali."

T’Lanna nodded and offered a smile. She hoped to see Eyelaya again but she wasn’t sure whether she would.

{OFF}

Lt T’Lanna Vali
Psychologist

&

Lt. Cmdr. Soral
Executive Officers

&

Chie Petty Officer Eyelaya
Engineering Officer