From: Live Long and Prosper
Date: Sat, 26 Apr 1997 16:02:06 -0500 (EST)
Subject: USS CHESAPEAKE: Puzzles
SD 90426.2014
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CSciO's Quarters
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MD 6.1500
Anne sat on her bed, holding the holocube that the Counselor had
given her. She turned it over and over in her mind, thinking... about
everything. She put it down before she threw it across the room; she
wouldn't want to damage it.
Why was it that everything was reminding her of her past?
Between the last three days, she had encountered more reminders of her
own vulnerability than she cared to count. All right, she amended to
herself, the last two and a half days. Sleeping through the afternoon
didn't constitute a real "day," as far as she was concerned.
"You see, Anne, you have this... problem. You can't accept
yourself as a human being... as an *emotional* human being. You don't
let yourself be anything but rational and cool-headed, and do you know
how hard that is on your psyche? Don't say anything, because I know what
you're going to say... you're going to say that you're like a Vulcan now,
aren't you? Well, I've got news for you, Annie... you're *not*."
Anne looked around her sharply. The voice was so familiar, the
words those she had heard before. She had heard them as clearly as she had
been hearing Commander th'Tellan just minutes earlier.
But all she saw were the bed and the dresser, the white wall of
the partition, the soft cream of the carpet. A hallucination? She shook
herself. She had never been psychotic; even when she had spent a short
time in the Psychopathology Unit at San Francisco Medical, she had never
heard voices or seen visions.
"You're not doing anyone any favors by pretending to be something
you're not, you know," the voice continued in her mind. Anne grimaced,
shaking her head, wishing that her mind wouldn't play
sound-recorder-playback so much. "My job, as Counselor, is to make sure
that you don't go around kidding yourself. We've known each other for
what, almost five years? And there's been no improvement at all, has
there? None that I can see, anyway... and I should know. Let's try
something different, then... come here, Anne... I'm going to prove to
you, once and for all, that *you have emotions*..."
Anne screamed at the top of her lungs.
It was a rather horrid time for her comm badge to chirp, but that
was exactly what it did. Anne tapped it automatically, managing, with
great effort, to cut off her shriek in the middle.
"*WHAT DO YOU WANT?*" she yelled, unable to summon enough
presence of mind to bring down her speaking voice as well.
[Anne.] It was Karen Decker, and she wsa not sounding like her
usual brash, cheerful, energetic, weird self. [You'd better get down
here. Oxmyx's been hurt.]
"Denise Oxmyx?"
[Hurry, Anne. We need you.]
"But what *happened*?"
[A Researcher shot her with a phaser.]
"WH--!"
[Please, Anne, hurry up. The PSD is in toal chaos! Just come
down to PSD headquarters and I'll tell you what happend... just... please
hurry.] Karen was beginning to sound frantic.
"I'll be right down," said Anne tersely, rushing out of her
quarters, her mind a complete blank. A member of her staff had shot
a superior officer. Her past would have to wait.
She only hoped that, once she got to the Physical Sciences
Headquarters, she would know what to do.
Respectfully submitted,
Masako Goto
Lt. Anne Murray, Ph.D.
CSciO
USS CHESAPEAKE NCC-31813
<>
This post came to me in a flash of inspiration, so sorry if it makes no
sense to you.
Yes, there is a perfect explanation for this turn of events. I'll just
say that it's almost entirely internal to the Science Department and
*shouldn't* affect anybody else's... oh, except Medical... they get to
take care of an Iotian now. :) Also... remember, this *is* your wacky
Science Department. ;)
Chris: I'll NRPG you in a bit... ideas & other stuff. ;)
Melvin: Enjoyed your addition to the th'Tellan/Murray conversation... and
yes, I do suppose that writing-capable Engineering students who
don't make it may very well turn to psychology. ;)
James: Aren't you glad that Anne didn't throw Stavay's holocube???
Takako, James: Even if Brennan doesn't go to the poker game on MD 5, I
think Fielding might... if junior officers are allowed.
Fabian: That rabbit incident is going to haunt O'Graeach for at least a
few more days.
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Thought for the day: Is there a time when it's difficult to accept love
from others; and, if so, why?
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