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Mess Hall -everyone welcome-

Posted Oct. 4, 2022, 6:29 p.m. by Crewman Faith Hopkins (Yeoman) (David Fergusson)

[snip]

As she got up off the bridge from her station she then went to the mess hall to get something. She went and got a coffee and sat down in a chair alone. She wanted to make sure that it was best that she sat alone due to the fact she was on the bridge a lot lately. While being on the bridge for so long she was ready to get up and head to the mess hall and get some coffee to drink.

Stanley was paying more attention to his getting a message sent off to Doctor Cross than anything else when Lt. Lovejoy came in. As he finished however and prepared to leave, he spotted Lovejoy sitting at a table by herself. He walked toward her table and smiling asked her, “Ah Lieutenant Lovejoy, isn’t it? We met briefly on the bridge earlier as the helmsman was trying to prepare for a first encounter. It’s good to see you made it through your shift alright. May I sit with you for a moment?”

“Please doctor. Please have a seat. How can I help you, doctor?” She asked Wong as she smiled and looked at him. Wondering what was going to be about she had no idea.

Stanley set his food down and sighed deeply before he said, “I would like to apologize about earlier. I am quite sorry if I got you into trouble. I really expecting to find the bridge of a starship with so many people angry at one another though! Is that the way the bridge usually is?”

“It’s an all right doctor. We on the bridge have been under a lot of stress. It’s nothing you did. It was just something we didn’t know. The captain wasn’t sure who you were neither did the rest of us. That’s why I got a hold of sickbay to see about it. Honestly, it is something that has common thing with all of us. It’s not just us. Although, it is something that happens on the bridge.” She said.

Stanley looked stressed again as he scratched his head. “That’s something else I was wondering about. Why on this ship should sickbay need to be apprised of my arrival? I did meet Mister Hunter when I arrived. And then I saw him again on the bridge complaining because sickbay hadn’t been informed about an inbound trade vessel. On every other ship I’ve been on the bridge officer would have been in command with the first officer and captain both gone. And at the time we were not even under a yellow alert! And if doctor thought there was an emergency shouldn’t doctor Hunter have been in sickbay? ” Stanley laughed then and said, “Perhaps I’m reading the wrong manuals!”

“Doctor. Please sit down. I should discuss this with you if you have time.” She said. “I don’t know the reason why sickbay should be informed. I didn’t know anything about this transfer of yours, and neither did the captain nor Doctor Hunter. I’m not 100% sure what all this was about. I just figured something or someone came on board and we didn’t have any knowledge about it. Although, I don’t have any say in this. I would recommend this to the captain and have the captain get a hold of Star-Fleet. If he gets a hold of Star-Fleet, we should know the answers and explanation of why your transfer was here. Although, I don’t know what was going on or anything but I think they sent you here without anyone’s knowledge and decided to send you here. I don’t know.” She added.

Stanley sat and listened as Lovejoy went on speaking. He smiled and clapped his hands together in front of his face after a moment and said, “But my good Lieutenant! There is no great mystery here! My orders were sent shortly after I had left to come here. I can only surmise that the captain either wasn’t checking incoming messages or he was already gone with the away team. And as I said when I came aboard, I met Doctor Hunter. I even took a shift in sickbay to help the poor man out! And after he came back, he gave me a boarding physical which would have gone into the records. And then of course your bridge officer knew of my presence. ” Stanley had to stop for a moment while he laughed. “No wonder people around here are looking at me in an odd fashion. They think I’m part of some great conspiracy! I was sent out here as part of a program that has been proposed. It’s called the Counsellor program. ” Stanley shook his head and said, “Quite frankly I think it will be a grand failure.”

Ade had been admiring the contents near the bottom of of his Japanese whisky glass, sitting quietly with Faith Hopkins at a nearby table, while the conversation between Lovejoy and Wong had gone on. At the mention of the “Counsellor program” his ears perked up and he turned around to face Doctor Wong. “HI there again Doctor! Excuse the interruption! We met when you first arrived, and didn’t Hunter take your bags for you? No matter anyway; what is this ‘Counsellor program’? Could I apply for a position? I’m good at observing behaviour and listening, and I’m patient and empathetic, and I don’t judge! I don’t get much work as a dentist since we began extractions with the new transporter-based devices, and I think I need a career change. There is only so much Poker a man can play in one day!”

Stanley turned to see who he was talking to. He thought for a moment before replying, “Ah yes I remember you! How are you doing?” Stanley listed to the man carefully before he answered. ” Well at the moment it’s purely just a pilot program. As I recall there is just myself and two others who have been sent out to do this. Of course, you have to have a degree in psychology at least and at least be conversant in alien behavioral sciences. Other than that, though if fleet decides to start the program up, I don’t see why you couldn’t apply.”

“I see,” said Ade. “Well, I don’t have a degree in psychology, so I guess that counts me out. Thanks, anyway!”

Faith joined the conversation, “A degree is psychology? Surely what one needs is just empathy? And Doctor Hunter seems okay once you get to know him. He does seem strange at first, but he has offered to help me with my Starfleet medical application, so I don’t have a problem with him.”

-Faith, Yeoman

“While empathy is fine it is something that everyone has in some measure. ” Stanley said. ” Empathy is just the ability to understand and feel the feelings of other. Nothing more than compassion really in one form or another. To do the job of a Counselor you would have to understand why a person feels the way they do and what you might want to do to help them with their bad feelings. It’s like the other day I knew that the replicator wasn’t working. I could say, poor replicator you aren’t working. well. Or I could be the person who knows the replicator isn’t working and repairs it. “

Stanley couldn’t help but to smile. “Yes, I seem to hear a great many such comments about Doctor Hunter like that. He seems to be a very gallant soul indeed.”

“I wouldn’t go quite that far,” Faith said. “I hate the way that the female crew swoon over him like he is an object, and he enjoys that. He even tried it on with me, and I’m too old for that, but once you dig beneath that mask, he is a pretty good guy. That’s all I meant”

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