Disclaimer remains, I don't own Star Trek. I'm kind of glad I didn't make up Sevek - that means more FF writers might use him in fics! If you haven't seen the commercials featuring the Vulcan life coach yet, go check them out on YouTube.
Thanks for all of the reviews, subs, and favorites. And a big special thank you to Tom Foolery for your encouragement. I highly recommend all of their Star Trek works, especially if you like Sarek/Amanda or reading continuity-friendly Trek.
It had only been 64.74 hours and Sevek was already regretting taking this job. While he had been recruited and entered in an accelerated training program just for this position, perhaps he could have requested a different posting.
Somewhere where the people weren't insane.
Sevek looked back to his report. He was supposed to send a series of reports about his first few days as the USS Eagle's newly-created role as Ship Counselor. One to the Interspecies Integration board, one to Command, and one to the new Counseling Center.
He had been ordered to familiarize himself with the crew and their practices. This resulted in him basically being given free rein to explore the ship and its people, but not to actually touch anything, as the crew members had so frequently reminded him over the last few days.
This freedom of movement had, of course, made the already fractured and defensive crew furious. Everywhere he went crew members scoffed and scorned him, demanding to know why he was here and insisting he leave.
He offered his services and asked questions everywhere he went, typically receiving no reply or expletives directed at his mother - which is patently illogical considering they knew nothing about her - but he continued on faithfully.
Sevek leaned forward in his desk chair and slowly lowered his head on his forearms while exhaling a deep breath - a human gesture, he was well aware - and considered the situation.
His concerns were no longer limited to what to do about counselling the crew but what he was going to tell Starfleet.
62.51 hours earlier...
Shortly after his strange encounter with T'Jor, he had began reviewing the crew dossier.
It was an unusual mix but the crew selection was seemingly logical: they were capable, qualified, and well-behaved officers before they arrived on the USS Eagle.
There was no unusual rate of disciplinary hearings, complaints, or sudden, unexplained transfers from the majority of the crew's previous postings and academy records.
Except for Lt. Rah-Likn'n, his original receiving officer who failed to meet him in the transporter room and accept his orders, leaving him to wander the halls confused.
She had every criminal and social charge she could have without being dishonorably discharged, and likely some unreported. Like the one against him.
He had no idea how she made Lieutenant, and there was no reason in her file. He hypothesized she had been ceded in from previous military experience among her own people, in the way T'Pol once was.
Having been verbally assaulted out of four departments in one hour fifty-one minutes, he was on his way towards Engineering when he had spotted a reptilian woman in the hallway, who was none other than Lt. Rah-Likn'n.
"Ssssso you're the one who is going fixxx this mess?" Her right eye rotated in its socket, staring him up and down.
"I've been assigned to the counseling and reconciliation of the USS Eagle's crew. And I will, as you phrased it, attempt to fix this mess."
"How?" She quickly took a step forward and back, and Sevek wished more material was available on her species to be able to better interpret her psychological attributes. Afterall, T'Jor had implied she believed the Lieutenant to be one of the more xenophobic members of the crew.
"I will begin by observing the crew's behavior, and interviewing various members. I will also be holding office hours to allow for personalized counseling."
Rah-Likn'n made a strange choking sound and bobbed her head, and he realized she was laughing.
Typical.
At least she was supplying various behavioral patterns he would add to her file for future reference.
"Counssssseling? With a Vulcan? Why would anyone want that? Maybe out there." She swung her arm back, as if to illustrate the universe beyond the walls of the starship. "But certainly nobody in here," she finished and she folded her arm back towards her body.
Sevek was mentally cycling through his standard array of replies to Vulcan counselor-mocking, but then paused.
Maybe there was something to consider in her words.
"Why do you believe the crew of this ship would be less attuned to accepting help from a Vulcan counselor, in comparison to those outside of the Eagle?"
She gathered herself, squaring her shoulders and looking him straight in the eye.
"Because T'Jor is evil! And the rest of the Vulcans all do whatever she sssssays. Let me tell you everything she's done…"
Sevek stood there for the next two hours while she droned on and on with an endless list of conspiracy theories on T'Jor.
The list ranged from the vanilla "she believes Vulcans are better workers and gives them the best projects" to the more extreme "one of my friends said they saw a mental antenna sticking out of her head once; she could be an advanced android from an enemy planet."
She finally left when she claimed that the lowest deck labs were now open for use on personal projects and she was going to attempt to run various scans on her friends to see if T'Jor had been using mind controlling devices on them.
He now understood why T'Jor thought Lt. Rah-Likn'n was against Vulcans. If she went around sprouting hairbrained conspiracies to whoever would listen, surely the science officer had heard them all by now.
"You know, they killed the lasssssst Vulcan hybrid, be careful," before turning and walking off.
Sevek was aware of the Vulcan-Trill hybrid who had served aboard the Eagle. The dead Ensign had been hit by a boulder while scanning in a cave on Metac-B. He had been accompanied by a human officer who was cleared of all misconduct. The investigation report stated it was a genuine accident. Hardly evidence of a murder plot by Vulcan officers, and almost certainly another one of her conspiracy theories.
Sevek sighed and considered the last two hours. Lt. Rah-Likn'n had loudly and repeatedly proclaimed that the Eagle had good crew members put in a toxic situation by the evil T'Jor and her Vulcan henchmen.
Based on the lack of history of misbehavior among the other crew members, Sevek already knew some environmental issues to be valid. It was highly unlikely that hundreds of seemingly good officers would randomly stop functioning properly at the same time without the same cause.
But due to the conspiratorial nature and absurdist claims she had made and racist nature of the rant, claiming only Vulcans caused problems and everyone else was perfect, her presented data was fully unreliable.
And Rah-Likn'n had admitted, despite her great efforts, she had not obtained a single piece of evidence.
He sighed again so lightly only a Ferengi could hear, wandering towards the mess hall in hope of more receptive individuals to discuss the on-board situation with.
Sevek sat down at the mess hall table and stared at his lunch. He had requested a vegetarian wrap, but had received a frozen rock-hard waffle instead. He wasn't surprised, but decided to rise above their theatrics and demonstrate his maturity to the crew.
As he attempted to cut through the traditional Earth breakfast item still in stasis, he suddenly felt the table beneath him jolt as a blonde male human jumped up on the bench seating.
"Hey everyone," the young Ensign shouted, and Sevek felt the eyes focus their attention on him.
The blonde continued, "Look at our new babysitter! Starfleet thinks so little of us that they sent their worst shrink - a Vulcan - to fix their worst ship! The irony!"
The room broke into laughter, as always.
Sevek stared at them defiantly before returning to his waffle-cutting project.
"Is that a frozen waffle?" The Ensign grabbed the waffle, held it up, and announced, "Even the replicators don't like him!"
The room exploded in laughter.
Sevek ignored them and reached to retrieve his food from the Ensign. He paused as he noticed two Vulcans seated near the back of the room, watching the scene unfold.
One was an older male with pale skin and salt and pepper hair. Sevek knew his name was Tilok from the roster. The other was about Sevek's age who appeared to be from the capital city, but Sevek didn't recognize him. Perhaps he was visiting?
He saw the younger Vulcan's lips tilt up ever so slightly and glance at his companion, an air of mirth passing between them. They both glanced up and caught his gaze before looking back towards each other.
In other words, they were also laughing.
Sevek momentarily closed his eyes and steadied his breath. The events of the day were wearing on him. He hadn't been this bothered by taunting in a long time.
He stood and strode out of the mess hall without another word. As he made his way towards his quarters, the laughter and mocking chatter, still audible to his Vulcan hearing, reached all the way to the lift.
He wasn't hungry anymore.
61.21 hours went on like this.
Listening to conspiracy rants, getting thrown out of departments, encounters with obnoxious humans, subtle snubs from the Vulcans, and of course, having his profession, combined with his parentage, mercilessly mocked.
While Sevek felt he capable of handling all of this for an extended period of time, it was, to use a human phrase, getting old fast.
He knew he had to write those reports, but decided to take care of another matter first.
Sevek glanced in the mirror as he used his index finger to straighten his precise Vulcan bangs, then nodded in satisfaction with his appearance. He sat down at the console and initiated the recording function, eager to get a message out...so he could get one back.
"My wife, it is my desire that in the 79.89 hours since I last received a communication from you, your experiences have been pleasing..."
Sevek trailed off and frowned slightly, and then pressed the key to delete that draft. Desire? Pleasing? Way too emotional; she expected better from him.
He briefly considered meditating before sending his message, but then reactivated the terminal and began again.
"Greetings my wife. I am contacting you because…"
Why was he contacting her? Oh right, he wanted her to send him a message and make him feel better without meditating for five hours. But he couldn't say that. Delete.
"Greetings T'Zel. I am contacting you to inform you my experience on the USS Eagle has so far been….illuminating. The crew is-"
He paused the recording again. What was he going to tell her? He couldn't say how poorly his experience had been thus far as that would be confirmation of her doubts about his decisions. If he said nothing, surely she would ask.
He decided to play it safe, deleting the recording and starting again.
"Greetings my wife. I am calling to enquire about your meeting with Chairman Sirok, and verifying your well being. I am adapting to my new position aboard the USS Eagle."
There. He was adapting. He decided to conclude with a slightly emotional ending.
"I wish you a prosperous and productive day, my T'Zel."
Sevek gently flopped down on his bed, fully aware of the immaturity of such an action.
He had finished the reports, but the process had been highly unsatisfactory.
He could propose no solution yet, though he was confident Command was going to demand one. Perhaps when they heard his first-hand report on the condition of the ship, they would order it back and re-build, casting aside the politics.
He needed a plan, something clever to get through to the more receptive members of the crew. The Captain and the Chief Engineer will be returning in a few days from their away mission; perhaps they will be helpful.
Suddenly his PADD chirped, indicating a new message. He all but flew out of bed, illogically thinking T'Zel had already replied. He controlled himself, considering it was hardly possible the relay had already occurred. It was most likely his mother or a colleague back on Earth.
His eyes widened when he saw the subject line: COUNSELING REQUEST.
One of the crew members had reached out to him! He had to actively suppress his joy.
Perhaps being laughed at for three days had paid off after all.
Poor Sevek. I think my introductions are done for now, going to try to get further into the meat next time...with Sevek's first counseling session! Trying to make him less melancholy than Spock's hybrid angst. Justifications for canon are on my profile.