From: Gershon
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 1997 00:58:01 -0500
Subject: USS CHESAPEAKE: The Counselor Arrives
SB DELTA
SD: 90228.0600
MD: 1.1200
Somehow, Stavay felt lucky that she wouldn't have to transport herself
aboard the CHESAPEAKE by D-Warp...she could just meander on over.
"We have a shuttlecraft ready to pipe you over at any time, Counselor
Tats-Marush", replied a middle-aged man in charge of ship-to-base
transportation.
"Never mind. Just beam me aboard."
"Well, most people *do* like the scenic route, Lieutenant...."
"Nah. I've just been on D-Warp, a simple beam-in will do." Tats-Marush
disabled the stack of PADDs she was carting about and after a few moments,
a space on the nearest transporter was found....
****************************************************************************
MD: 1.1205
The blue beam sifted the particles that made up Stavay Tats-Marush into
their proper locations. "Lieutenant, your luggage will be on board
shortly."
"Very good. And my room?"
Stavay received the PADD. "LTJG Stavay Tats-Marush, Counselor: 06-3227".
Sixth deck, 320th degree to starboard (or 40 degrees port from the bow),
compartment number 27. Supposedly, all the other senior officers would
be housed on Deck Six as well.
Nodding goodbye, she turbolifted to deck six at the 00 lift and walked
to her room. Yep, 06-3227 all right, her name posted right on the door.
Entering the room, she glanced at the furnishings (Early Starfleet Department
Head) without comment. Her luggage had arrived ahead of her. Removing
her boots, she walked over to a desk and peeped at the PADDS.
Her profile was the first profile mentioned on the Crew Profiles PADD.
She could see most of the profile, which would have run hundreds of pages
in hardcopy. The text printed in different colors, each color marking
a different level of authorization and a small tab indicating who would have
access to this information.
She nodded at the history she read, and read down to SD 80417. An eventful
day, wasn't it? You wake up a man, get stung by an alien, go to bed, and
wake up in Sickbay, a woman. Certainly a red letter day on any calendar.
That was 10 months ago.
Pressing the PADD, the text revealed who had authorization to this neat
little tidbit:
CPT Amanda Bell, CO
CMDR Daniel Brennan, XO
LCDR Catherine Ledoux, DVM, CMO
That was it.
You know, thought Stavay, this could actually be quite pleasant. Aboard
the SUFFOLK, everyone knew what had happened to the Counselor. No one
made any snide remarks, and no one became too heavy-handed with inappropriate
sympathy, but it was an open fact, and probably discussed below decks
in every department. However, on the CHESAPEAKE, there were over 800
officers and men, and only *three* of those knew that the feminine
Counselor who walked the ship was actually a man for 95 plus percent of
her life. It was almost a new beginning.
But could Stavay play the part successfully? Well, that depended.
It depended on who you listened to. The "culture or heredity" arguments
still raged true in the 25th century. Equality between the sexes had
been achieved, but whether subtle personality "markers" existed that
automatically influenced certain behavioral traits in the sexes through
mysterious genetic means remained a matter of dispute. Perhaps Stavay's
personality would become more "feminine", although she certainly didn't
*feel* any different, intellectually....
There was also the matter of the feminine subculture. Despite the
ironing flat of occupational and household roles, the feminine subculture
still existed for the same reasons that the masculine one survived.
Each sex maintained its subculture to initiate children into adult roles.
The feminine subculture also served other purposes, for example, to
teach the "proper" idea of the feminine self-concept. Another purpose
was to teach females how to relate to each other, and how they should relate
collectively and individually to men. Religious, cultural, spiritual
teachings were also included, as well as biases and stereotypes. Without
access to these teachings, some claimed one could never really be "female".
Not that Stavay hadn't tried to learn. And she *had* learned a lot.
But none of the texts she read satisfied her. One was too clinical.
Another too breezy. One too critical. The next, too philosophical.
Of course, some said that the idea of culture was crap, and that the differences
between the male and female "mind-sets" were trivial. In that case,
it would be quite easy to pass as a "once, now, and always" female.
Unfortunately, Stavay didn't believe that. When men came on to her,
it spooked her. Furthermore, she was still romantically and sexually
attracted to other women, which would continue to make for awkward
moments.
Perhaps, it wouldn't work out after all, and Stavay would just tell everyone
what had happened sooner or later. But right now, it was something she
didn't want to get into.
Looking for an escape, she asked, "Computer: any messages?"
Ugh. Reclining in her chair, she began listening. Most of the messages
were of the "how are you, welcome to the CHESAPEAKE" nature, which
gave out tidbits like how the computers worked and where that commode
was. Some "junk mail", referring to meetings and social functions that had
already taken place.
A few items of worth. One, a medical exam for all new members of the
CHESAPEAKE. This would be fun, or a sadist's idea of it. LCDR Catherine
Ledoux would probably want to proke and prod at every inch of Stavay, for
lots of reasons. Not only to examine Stavay's gender transformation
down to the chromosomal level, but also to try to do one of those
damned internal examinations. Stavay would kindly inform the doctor
that that would *not* be necessary, as 1) Stavay was not pregnant,
2) if Stavay got an infection, she would deal with it, and 3) if Stavay
had cervical cancer (or the Shrevashal equivalent), well, that would
just be Stavay's tough luck. The doctor of the SUFFOLK tried an exam
only a few weeks ago; he learned his lesson.
Besides, what was this DVM going to do? And what kind of a qualification
was a DVM for a CMO posting, anyway?
Two, the name of Stavay's a/COUNS. There would only be two full-time
counselors aboard the CHESAPEAKE. One was Stavay. The other was
LTJG RaSan Trarek, an Andorian, according to the bio-file. She'd never
worked with an Andorian before, it could prove interesting.
The rest of the mail was dispatched quickly. After reading the last file,
the computer spoke its piece:
*Sopa*! Stavay ran to the nearest turbolift, after having wasted an hour
reading mail...hopefully, neither of them had left the *ship*!
******************************
MD 1.1315
Office of the Exec
"Enter." CMDR Daniel Brennan turned around.
So this was the new Counselor. Funny, thought Brennan, she doesn't look
like a man...not at all.
"LTJG Stavay Tats-Marush, Counselor, reporting for duty."
"Have a seat." Brennan walked over to the replicator. "Can I get you
something, Counselor?"
"No thank you," answered Stavay with a smile.
Brennan smiled back. Walking away, he answered, "Oh well, I didn't want
anything anyway. I've read your PADD. It makes for some interesting
reading. Let's see. Trained as a nurse. Institutionalized one year for
mental illness. Gender alteration. And an Orion refugee."
"*Shrevashal* refugee, Sir," answered the green-skinned woman. "Or I'll
have to start calling you an *Earthling*, Commander!"
"Well put, Counselor. *roselawan-chel idathalay*?"
"*Iiyay, dul losala te mecren.* You have a fantastic accent, Sir."
"I have *some* language strengths, Mr. Tats-Marush. Well, let me
introduce myself. I'm Commander Daniel Brennan, your new XO, as you
probably know. The Captain is Amanda Bell, I suggest you meet her soon.
A social gathering of the senior officers
will take place tonight and the Captain will announce the time of
the mission briefing. You'll be there, of course?"
"Of course, Sir."
"Good. By the way, Counselor, I read that aboard the SUFFOLK, the policy
there relaxed the uniform code, and let you simply wear the communicator
pin for non-official duties. However, I'd like to see some unit integrity
aboard the CHESAPEAKE. I'm requesting that you follow the same dress
policy of the other officers and crew aboard the SUFFOLK. It doesn't
give you a lot of variety in dress, but it does show that you're a part of
the CHESAPEAKE family."
Stavay smiled. "I have no problem with the new uniform policy, Sir."
"Very good. The dress is Class B tonight. Non-dress, but no loungewear
or informal duty wear. Standard uniform. Now, if you can excuse me,
this is a difficult time for all of us...but welcome aboard, Counselor."
"Thank you, Sir...."
Stavay left the XO's office quite relieved. This Brennan fellow seemed
quite pleasant. *And* he spoke Shrevashal, too! Of course, "How was
your trip?", didn't require a lot of skill to memorize, but the casual
way he got it out...perhaps, she'd have to tell him something at the
social gathering, something in very complicated Shrevashal involving a
lot of tense changes, idioms, and flying predicate nominatives.
Of course, Stavay loved parties, formal parties being the best. And
the injunction on dress was rather convenient...it solved the thorny
problem of what to wear....
*****************************************************************************
Respectfully submitted,
James Bowman
LTJG Stavay Tats-Marush, COUNS, USS CHESAPEAKE
jrbowman@london2.skn.net AND JBowman489@aol.com
******************
All: Hello! Great to see you ;) ! The Bio-File follows. As indicated
above, unless you're one of those three characters named above, you
don't **know** that Stavay used to be a man before she was transformed
by that unknown alien virus. So, Stavay is just one of the many faceless
women aboard the CHESAPEAKE right now, the only distinguishing feature
being her green skin....
BTW: I came up with that Senior Officers Meeting (social gathering)
just to give us the chance to meet before we sail out...so, drinks are
on the house! Assume the time of the gathering is MD 1.2100....
Amy: Don't worry...Stavay will be by.
Takako: Consider me reported. As for the job of timekeeper: the horror....
the horror.....
Christine: As you can see, Catherine and Stavay are going to get along
just fine :) If she wants to do an internal exam, however, she'd better
have boxing gloves or a restrainer field....
Lynnaea, Melvin: Ping.
Masako: What are you doing *reading* this? You should be **studying**.
Hold off on the rest of your mail, pick up the books for a couple of
hours, *then* treat yourself... :)
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