New Arrival and Lingering Pain

Posted on Thu Jul 16th, 2020 @ 8:19am by Lieutenant Ronan St. Cyr M.D. & Captain Taliserra Tigran
Edited on on Sat Jul 18th, 2020 @ 4:07pm

939 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: To catch a thief
Location: Captain's Ready Room, Deck 1
Timeline: 30th March 2395

A sudden voice over the comm system woke Taliserra out of her day dream, she sat back up in her chair and shook the cobwebs from her head.

=/\= Transporter room two to Captain.=/\= A young male voice repeated.

=/\= Go ahead.=/\= She replied.

=/\= A Lieutenant St. Cyr has just beamed aboard, he has orders to report to you immediately and is on his way up to the ready room.=/\=

=/\= Thank you.=/\= Taliserra cut the link and quickly set about tidying some of her paperwork Padds away, it didn't make for a good image to be meeting one of her new senior officers with an untidy ready room.

Ronan had served on ships long enough that he had more than a passing familiarity with their layouts. Tall and lean, with short black hair, he gave the appearance of someone fresh out of residency. If one were to look closer, there was an age to his amber-flecked brown eyes, a look that spoke of perception and experience. As he made his way to the Bridge to observe the formalities, he thought how he would know these people; he would know them in a way that few did. He would be their doctor and before too much longer, he would be responsible for their continued health and well-being. Truth be told, he wouldn't have it any other way.

He arrived at the door to the Captain's Ready Room and pressed the chime.

Throwing one last Padd away Taliserra looked up towards the door. "Come in."

Ronan entered and cross to the Captain's desk. He dropped a worn, serviceable backpack at his feet and proffered a PADD containing his orders. "Lieutenant Ronan St. Cyr reporting for duty, Captain," he said in a warm tenor enlivened more by his New Orleans roots than his El-Aurian heritage.

"Welcome aboard Lieutenant." Taliserra said as she took the padd, "Thank you for making yourself available at such short notice, the reassignment of your predecessor was unexpected."

"Thank you, Ma'am. I was given to understand I wouldn't have had much time for proper shore leave in any case," Ronan said with a slight shrug and a decided twinkle radiating from the depths of his eyes. "Stockpiling shore leave for something better in the future seemed the wisest course."

Taliserra motioned for him to sit. "We haven't received any new orders yet so there is still time for you to enjoy some time on the station but we may get orders any time so I wouldn't make too many plans."

Ronan nodded as he slipped into one the chairs facing the desk. "Slow starts are good," he said as he shifted to the side, stretching out a bit as he did so. "Gives me time to get settled and review recent logs." One corner of his lips quirked upward as he added, "and time to harangue people if my gear didn't all make it to the ship safe and sound."

She handed him the Padd back. "Lt Seleya updated all the medical logs before she left so everything should be correct. My crew has been through a lot in the last few months, we've been shot at, nuked and lost quite a few friends, not everyone has come out of it the best."

His expression sobered, the smile drawn down and away on the strength of past experiences intertwined with empathy for those that had suffered in the line of duty. "I'm sorry to hear that," he said quietly. "Being new here, the more I understand about what the crew has been through, the more I can help. Myself and my staff will look for signs of post-traumatic stress. Nausea, sweating, pounding heart and the like."

As soon as Ronan started to speak about the signs of ptsd she knew what he was about to say, she'd had them all over the years plus several others. "In the last few months I've lost over fourty crew, some of them new, some of them old timers of the ship, most of them in one incident. Some of the crew have taken it well, others it has had a serious effect on them."

"PTSD can occur in just about anyone who has witnessed a traumatic event," Ronan said, "but it can also occur second-hand. Now, most of this you can learn from your counselor, its not my specialty, but there are things we can and will look for as we treat the crew. And while I'm at it, I'll have a chat with your counselor so we're working in tandem on this. Its not something to tough out," he said, as he gave the captain a pointed look. "It can lead to serious problems and treatment helps."

Taliserra broke eye contact with the man, looking down at her desk, it felt as if he was reading her like a book. "Our counsellor Deepak is a good man, he's not fleet but understands what we've gone through as he was right in the thick of it when it all happened."

He gaze followed hers to the desktop and then back to eye-level though hers no longer met his . "Yes," he said quietly, the warmth of his voice taking on a musing quality, "I'll be certain to have a chat with him. Was there anything else, Captain?"

"For now, I don't think there is anything." Taliserra replied. "Be sure to ask Po Saral on the bridge for your quarters assignment."

"My very next stop," Ronan said as he rose smoothly from his seat though he made a mental note to track down the ship's counselor as well. There were, it seemed, things to discuss.

 

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