Posted by Lieutenant Laraan (Counsellor) in CNS office: New Arrival (Luka’s Arrival Check-in)

Posted by Commander Luka (Executive Officer) in CNS office: New Arrival (Luka’s Arrival Check-in)

Posted by Lieutenant Laraan (Counsellor) in CNS office: New Arrival (Luka’s Arrival Check-in)
Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻
It didn’t take long for Luka to approach the counselor’s office. Her nose twitched slightly, sniffing the air before she stepped over to the door and rang the chime. The visit to Sickbay had been interesting, to say the very least. The alien shrugged quietly and waited for the Ship’s counselor to answer the ring.

She wondered who all was in the senior staff around here. She knew she was going to have to do her best to meet everyone she was going to work with on this vessel. She had already met Koraia and Grey and would soon meet Laraan. She scanned through the information she had been sent upon being assigned to the Athena. They had a Chief Diplomatic Officer, Kaylee Baxter; a Chief Intelligence Officer, Stark Nightstalker; a Chief Tactical Officer, R’han; a Chief Science Officer, Liam Madison; a Chief of Security, Konral Vander; and a Chief Engineer, Orvos Legen. Dear Lune, that was a lot of Senior Staff. This was going to take a while.

Luka, XO

bump
OOC: THanks for bumping

The door simply swished back and opened the view to a very cosly set counselor suite with lots of green plants and a sofa and two arm chairs around a little round coffee table that looked more like a granny’s living room than a counselor’s suite.

Luka glanced around. Another counselor who preferred to keep their office looking homely and comfortable. She’d known quite a few counselors in her time and they were usually one of two types. Either they focused on the business, or they tried to make their patients forget they were visiting a psychologist.

The counselor was a tiny, delicate looking creature that on first sight looked like she had thin long curly red hair. On closer view it became obvious that she indeed had no hair at all, but instead filigree, intricate tattoo-like red designs swirled on her fair skin covering all of it except for her face.
She didn’t look bald though, the red swirls on her skin made it appear as if she had red hair.

She was in the process of pouring two cups of a steaming liquid and looked up. Slightly larger-than-human light grey eyes met Luka’s and Laraan smiled.

“Come on in please and take a seat. Would you care for a cup of tea?” she sang. It was words but Laraan sung them more than speaking them in a multi-layered voice that sounded very soothing and vibrant, a very good voice for a counselor.

• Laraan CNS

Luka nodded with a small smile. “I’m Commander Luka, I was posted here as the executive officer,” she explained shortly, bowing in greeting to the counselor. “I’m pleased to meet you”

Luka would be lying if she said she wasn’t secretly pleased that the counselor was such a short figure. It was nice to be taller than someone for once. Although at six feet she was tall in the eyes of a human, she was dwarfed by the people of her own race. She took a seat, instantly relaxing in the comfortable chair.

Luka, XO

Laraan sat down herself on the sofa and took her cup of tea. “As am I. Please call me Laraan in our sessions Luka.” she said and her large light-grey eyes wandered over Luka’s features. “You look beautiful to me, I have a thing for fur and hair, probably becuase I have none of it. Do you also have predatory instincts like the Caitians if I may ask?” she said.

• Laraan , CNS

“Not to the same degree,” Luka said, shaking her head slightly. The note about fur and the specific call-out of Caitians made her tilt her head momentarily. Ah, yes, the counselor was connected emotionally to the CIO, a Stark Nightstalker. “My people let go of our more savage instincts many millenia ago, in exchange for other skills. My ancestors learned pursuit predation and developed the muscles for endurance around the same time we traded four legs for two legs and two arms. And from that point we learned tool use and started to kill our prey with sharp rocks, and eventually the “wild hunt” was no longer within our nature.”

She spoke simply, in an almost practiced tone. Her practiced manner of responding to the question revealed that such a conversation was far from being new to the wolf-like alien. Her slight sigh revealed that it was far from unexpected. It was true that aspects of the wild hunt remained, in the martial arts of the Laleri and their thirst for and love of games and competition, but it was much further from her than it would be from the much wilder Caitians.

Luka, XO

“Interesting.” Laraan said, bemused by the fact that they also had ‘Wild hunt’ in their history. “Does your physiology require special treatment in any way? I’m asking this because I have to know, similar to the CMO, of all alien species on board, just like myself. In a crisis situation me and the CMO are responsible for catering for your specific needs.” she sang.

• Laraan, CNS

OOC: We got a bit of a glitch - the past mission has rendered Laraan unconscious and I still have to play out that post-sim thread, but there’s no reason to postpone this, let’s just say this happens in a bit more of an advanced future after the last sim after Laraan is fit for duty again :-)

“Any specialized needs I have, I have communicated to the CMO,” Luka said with a small smile. “Luckily my internal chemistry is not too far from that of the standard Federation Races. He is already aware of my differing internal biology - I posess two hearts, and one of them is notably more important than the other to get restarted first in a time of crisis. The smaller heart is that which pumps blood to my brain, and thus is more critical to restart. The larger is still important, but i would rather have tissue death in my arms and legs than actual death due to lack of oxygen to the brain,” she explained.

“Other than that… I’m not sure why the Counselor needs to know about any private medical information, I feel as though that’s the exclusive right-to-know of the Medical Staff aboard a vessel,” she spoke. Speaking of her extra heart was perfectly fine as a conversational topic to anyone. Speaking about her medical details was private information between her and the medical doctors. Laraan was a psychologist, not a doctor.

Luka, XO

Laraan looked momentarily positively surprised. “Oh how interesting. We have something in common then. Heleen have two hearts as well, one for the outer blood circulation and one for the inner. Anyhow, I wasn’t speaking so much about your physical needs, but your psychological or religious ones. Those fall into my area. You’d be surprised how many alien crew members have certain rites to adhere to, rituals to fulfill or religious duties, customs.... being the only one of one species on an alien ship can make somebody feel detached from your own roots and I’m here to help with that. What feels important for you?” she asked.

Also, I’d prefer if you not talk about me in the third person while I’m stitting here, you can call me Laraan.” she added, smiling kindly.

• Laraan, CNS

Luka was silent through Laraan’s words, and looked a little ashamed when Laraan mentioned her speaking in third person about her. “Oh, I didn’t mean you specifically,” she quickly assured the woman. “I was just talking about counselors in general…” she trailed off, then closed her mouth. She took a small breath, then began to answer Laraan’s question with better knowledge of what the woman had actually been asking for.

“I have no cultural qualms against surgery, although in the case of needing transplants or blood I can’t be given anything from other aliens due to biological incompatibility. I’ve brought some of my own blood aboard in stasis - in case of emergency. If I am to die while I am responsible to this vessel, my body should be put in temporal stasis and taken to Galdor if possible so that my soul can be released to Va’al’s realm,” she explained.

Luka tapped her foot on the ground. She had no shoes - they were unnecessary except for in extreme weather conditions. “Obviously with my different physiology I require a different EV suit, my homeworld has provided that for me. My culture follows certain religious holidays, similar to Earth’s celebration of Easter and Christmas - I have already sent the information regarding those days to the Captain.” She paused for a few moments, allowing Laraan to interrupt if she wished.

Luka, XO

Laraan nodded. “Please kindly share it with me too. What is your species’ life expectancy?” she asked in that pleasant singing voice of hers.

• Laraan, CNS

“One hundred and twenty years with today’s modern technology. The same as Humans, under most circumstances. I’ll send you the dates for the next year,” she lifted her wrist and accessed the watch-like device on her wrist, pressing a button to turn it on, then speaking. “Send my holiday schedule to Counselor Laraan’s computer terminal.”

A few moments later, the device beeped, and Laraan’s computer terminal beeped in response. “There. Schedule sent. It’s different every Earth year due to a year on Galdor not syncing up with Earth years,” she grinned slightly. “I don’t envy the people of my race who attended Starfleet Academy and experienced the seasonal disconnect. I hear it’s rather jarring to experience years of different length for the first time.”

Luka, XO

Laraan nodded. “How did you cope with it?” she asked with real interest.

• Laraan, CNS

“I… didn’t,” Luka said with a confused look on her face. She had just said that she hadn’t experienced that. “I didn’t have to… I didn’t attend the Academy. I just said I didn’t envy those who did, and that I had heard that it’s jarring to experience. I haven’t spent more than a few days on the surface of any planet other than my home planet…” she frowned in confusion.

Luka, XO

Laraan nodded. “I see, yes you said that. Well if there is nothing else you would like to raise with me, we may end this session for now. We’ll have lots of chances to get to know each other better. The former XO had a weekly meeting with me to discuss the crew, crew evaluations, promotions, issues with crewmembers, issues with morale as a whole… with more than 1000 heads there is a lot to do. How would you like to work with me?” she asked.

• Laraan, CNS

“That’s fine with me,” Luka said with a small smile. “If you want to meet up regularly to communicate about the state of the crew, I’m good with that. I haven’t gotten around to meeting the whole senior staff even, so I’ll have to meet them all and talk with them about the status of their own staff. And I think promotions are more of a thing for the Captain to discuss, aren’t they?” she asked. Luka hadn’t been an XO before, and even with studying what her responsibilities would be aboard the vessel, she still got confused every now and then.

Luka, XO

Laraan nodded. “Yes for the Captain to decide, but she expects you to make recommendations based on the feedback of the department heads and my assessment.” Laraan smiled at Luka. “So basically we do all the work, present her with the summary and our recommendation and then she decides. On a ship as big as this anything else would take way too much of her time. I think it’s great that you’re meeting all senior staff. If you have any issues with any one of them, feel free to talk to me about it, some of them can be… challenging. I’m your confidant on the ship, here to help you reach decisions should you need help and if you want to vent about something, I’m here as well for you. You can always be assured of my full discretion, even towards the Captain. To make this clear, anything you tell me will stay between us, even if the Captain would want to know. That is because everybody needs one colleague to which they can let loose, and usually for the XO and the CO, that’s me and I’m very happy to be there for you in this capacity as well should you want it.” she sang.

• Laraan, CNS

“That’s good to know. The information is appreciated,” she said with a small smile. “If that’s everything, I suppose I’ll be going. I’ve got dinner with the Captain in a few hours and I haven’t finished unpacking!” Luka stood up.

Luka, XO

Laraan got up as well. “Sure, go ahead, it was nice making your acquaintace.” she sang with a smile.

• Laraan, CNS

Luka stepped out of the office, a spring in her step.

Luka, XO