Deep Conversations - Part 1

Posted on Fri Feb 20th, 2026 @ 12:09pm by Lieutenant Lanna Alexander & Lieutenant Commander Sabastian Walker

1,059 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Forgotten Wounds
Location: Mess Hall | USS Arcadia

ON:

Sabastian sat going over the engineering schematics in the mess hall. It was lunch time, at least for his shift, and the place was full. Normally he hated the sound of so much chatter but today it created the perfect backdrop to his loneliness and pain. A sense washed over him as a shadow appeared over his various papers. He sighed. "Hello Counselor." This meeting, he knew, was fated.

“Hello Commander” Lanna offered a smile, but was feeling more than uncomfortable, there was little space available in the hall at present apart from at Sebastian’s table. “Would you mind if I joined you?”

Sabastian fought hard to keep from pressing his lips together. He took a breath and motioned. "Please have a seat." He shuffled his papers to one side. "I will not stay long. I have a couple of more modifications to the schematics before I go back to Engineering."

“You don’t need to leave because of me Commander” Lanna offered as she took a seat. “I would, however, like the chance to earn your trust again, if you’re willing to let me?”

He sighed and then rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Counselor may I ask you some questions?"

Lanna gave Sebastian a curious look then nodded politely. “By all means.”

"Do you treat all your client's the same? Grief, while a universal concept is as individual as a fingerprint. Do you, at all, take the time to know the person before you recommend their ruin?"

“I take the time to get to know all my patients Commander, as best as I can.” Lanna paused. “It wasn’t my decision to temporarily remove you from your duties as Executive Officer, I merely agreed that you need time to process your grief. I could simply have disagreed with the Captain, and watched you ruin your own career, but I happen to care what happens to you. It may not seem like it now, but in the long run you’ll come to realize that we’re only trying to help you.”

"Yes but you never asked me what I needed. You applied what you thought I needed. I needed my job to help me through this you agreed to have it taken away. You do NOT understand me." He paused. "I find it." He paused. "I find it difficult to trust you or the Captain. You both share the blame as he is the one who came in as an outsider and didn't consider me. He applied his own travels through grief over his son onto me. If he needed a break so did I. I expect that of him, he's human. They have that weakness of applying their morals, values, and ethics, and processes to others. You should have been the voice of reason to say he should speak with me, you both should but you stayed silent playing into him as if what I thought didn't matter. I consulted you when we were in a dangerous situation with respect to your pregnancy but you did not extend the same curtesy. That said I understand that you did what you felt was right but I feel you should have had this conversation with me not behind my back. Perhaps at that point you both would have known how much my job means to me and what a connection it was to Zai. How it kept me getting up in the morning. If you cared what happens to me you would have spoken with me in the Captain's company and perhaps things would not be different but at least I would have known you cared enough to include me." He paused.

"Counselor T'Prel, has encouraged me to talk to you but I resisted and now I agree with her. If I didn't speak with you I would have been doing what you and the Captain did to me. So here it is, Counselor. No, I will not realize you both are trying to help me because I feel you are not. When you took away my post you almost took away the reason I got up. Going to a job I loved that made my ..." His voice slightly broke. "That made my husband proud of me. Going there, doing that job, made me feel closer to Zai, it gave me some peace and you and the Captain took that from me. That is when I realized that if I wanted to help myself I would have to do it alone without you and the Captain and those whom I considered friends. I asked for a counselor and got one that knew me. That knew that I was mute and spoke not a word until my first day at the Academy, until I met Zai. Zai gave me the courage to speak. Now part of this is my fault because I didn't tell you my history so I am just as guilty. So I don't put the blame on you for that much but as a counselor it is your duty to bring issues of emotional pain and upset to command, you did that correctly, but as a friend and counselor you work with the patient to figure out a way to the light from darkness and not behind the patient's back implementing what you think is best for them without consulting them. That much, with my command experience I know. I have built myself up from way too many holes of darkness several times and I will do it again."

He paused. "I do need counseling, you are right. But I need a counselor I can trust and right now that is T'Prel. I have spoken to her about you and the Captain and she feels that trust can be rebuilt and perhaps it can. But it will take time."

Lanna nodded. Sebastian had raised a valid point, she could have spoken to him along with their new Captain. “I understand, and you do raise some valid points.” She paused not wanting to try and make her point sound valid, knowing she could alienate Sebastian further. “If you wish to speak with T’Prel from here on in I have no problem with that.”

They sat in silence a while before he said. "May I make a professional suggestion?"


To Be Continued...

 

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