Head Case

Posted on Wed Mar 5th, 2025 @ 1:50pm by Lieutenant Katya Davi & Lieutenant Jayden Meran

1,019 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: The Foragers
Location: Counseling

ON

Katya checked the counselor's schedule to be sure he was free before going by to see if she could get her psychological evaluation taken care of. She generally didn't think of it unless she needed to because of a mission, or she was joining a new ship, so it had been a couple of years. This time, she wanted to get it done early, before she got too busy with the day-to-day needs of operations.

Once she learned there were no pending appointments, she headed to the counselor's office to see if she could see him without an appointment.

Jayden loved the quiet times in his office. It really helped to distress from his busy schedules. Although he loved the challenges that came with his profession, he really needed this moments to rest his brain. He was sitting behind his desk just staring into the empty space that was his office. No people, no noises. Which was interrupted by the ringing of his door chime. It pulled him back into reality. "Come in!" He called to the door.

Katya walked in and smiled. "Hi. I'm new to the ship. Do you have time for an evaluation? I admit I've let a couple of years pass since my last one."

Jayden copied her smile and just pushed back the little disappointment of his disturbed peace to the back of his mind. "Hi, welcome to the Valiant Lieutenant. My name is Jayden Meran. I am the ship's counselor. I am actually a certified Psychiatrist and neurosurgeon, but I like this more. Please have a seat. Can I get you anything, some refreshments?"

"No refreshments, thank you." She sat down and folded her hands on her lap. "I'm Katya Davi, the new head of operations. That's an interesting combination of skills." Neurosurgery and counseling didn't seem an intuitive pairing, but it was impressive.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Lieutenant. And Yeah..." He laughed nervously as he ran his hand through his hair. "My mother said I was probably bored. Anyways, unless you have something pressing since the last time you had a psych evaluation, perhaps we should focus a little closer to the present, if that is alright with you?"

"That's fine with me. There's really nothing that needs to be resolved," she assured him. "So, focusing on the present is fine." At least she didn't think there was anything--nothing since her last evaluation, anyway.

"Excellent..." Jayden opened up something in his computer. "Now I will be asking you a series of questions to assess your mental stability. Now before we begin, is there anything in the past week that happened you like to discuss right now?"

"No." Nothing she wanted to discuss, or that needed to be discussed. Singing in the Jefferies' tubes wasn't that odd. Especially as she usually had someone on her shift who would join in. She smiled at the counselor. "So, what are these question?" Katya knew what the basic ones were, but each counselor had their own particular ones they liked to ask.

"Okay so, this is just a list of questions I have and they are quite simple and you just answer with what comes to mind or how you feel or felt." Jayden explained. "But with each question I want you to just focus on yourself within this past week. I will not just ask you questions about your mental and psyche, but also your physical condition in the last week. Just from the last week. This is because some physical symptoms sometimes can be related to mental health problems like stress. So, are you ready?"

Kat nodded. That was easy enough. "Ready." This was a different approach than the previous counselor and she was intrigued to hear the questions. Hopefully the doctor would take into account that she just arrived so some of her answers would be about her travel here.

Jayden leaned over to his screen and then scratched his throat a bit and then asked his first question. "Looking back at the last 14 days to the best of your memory have you felt the following symptoms, headache, even mild, lightly or heavy, if you did, how often did you had a headache in the past 14 days?"

"I haven't had any headaches recently." She didn't suffer from headaches--unless she wasn't sleeping well, which hadn't been the case of late. That generally happened when there was an emergency or damage that needed to be repaired as soon as possible. Then, everyone was a little short on sleep, so it really didn't count.

Jayden noted her answer in the computer as he continued his questioning. "In the past 14 days, to your memories, did you have any nightmares, and if so, how often did you have them?"

"No nightmares that I remember." She'd been fortunate in that. But Katya didn't have anything happen recently to cause them. The counselor's questions made her appreciate the lack of drama.

Jayden noted all her answers in the computer. He looked over her reactions a moment. He then nodded. "Looks to me all your stats are within standards. I think you are set till the next evaluation." He smiled friendly to her. I will make a notation in your medical file."

"Thank you. And thank you for seeing me." The counselor was pleasant and Kat was happy to check this off her list of things that needed to be done before she could settle in. It was probably a good thing that checkups were part of onboarding. If not, she was likely to head straight to operations and immerse herself in work. At least for the first month. She stood and smiled. "I'll let you get back to your work."

Jayden gave her a warm smile. "Thank you, Lieutenant. Feel free drop by anytime, if you need. If I am not busy, I will always be more than happy to help." He then watched the Lieutenant leave his room. She wasn't that bad he thought, when he got back his personal moment. Maybe he could go read something if he wasn't going to be disturbed.

END

 

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