These Are a Few of My Least Favourite Things

Posted on Wed 14th Feb, 2018 @ 4:47pm by Commander Paul Graves PsyD & Commander Mikaela Locke

1,823 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: A Phaser as Deadly as a Candlestick
Location: Deck 83: Chief Counselor's Office
Timeline: MD 04: 1033

[ON:]

There were few 'duties' connected to any Starfleet billet that Mikaela Locke hated more than the routine psych. evaluation.

As a relatively introverted and, usually, fiercely private person, there was nothing worse than someone she didn't know asking questions about her life. Usually she lied her way through the awkward questions that she didn't really want to answer. Lying had always come easily to her and a career in intelligence had only honed the skill. Of course, this was not just an appointment with an ordinary counselor - this was an appointment with a Betazoid counselor.

'Half-Betazoid' she reminded herself, hoping that it meant his empathic abilities would be sufficiently limited that she might be able to lie through this evaluation just as effectively as any other. Unfortunately it was unlikely to be the case and, deep down, she knew that she was just trying to make herself feel better.

She had jumped straight into work when she had arrived on Vanguard, and subsequently had managed to get Graves to agree to postpone her evaluation until a more convenient time. Of course, having found a Ferengi murdered on the Promenade not an hour ago, this was hardly 'a more convenient time', however the appointment had been made some days ago and, as much as Mikaela felt she would have been fully justified in trying to reschedule again, she felt that she would only have been prolonging the inevitable discomfort.

All of this explained why she had been standing outside the chief counselor's office for a full three minutes, staring at the door.

Eventually, she took a deep breath, closed her eyes and, before she could stop herself, reached out and pressed the chime.

Paul had begun to conclude that, the longer he could sense people hesitating outside his office door, the more they probably needed to see him. Why Mikaela Locke, his next scheduled patient, should need to steel herself for the routine psych eval, Paul had no idea. She was sane, wasn't she? On the other hand, the higher people went in rank, the less they tended to like being required to see the counselor, he thought as he got up to let her in.

She looked...pensive, he decided as the door slid open. "Good morning, Commander. Come in," Paul said and stepped aside so Locke could enter his office. "Please have a seat at my desk. How's your day going?"

"Well," Mikaela said, crossing the room towards the counselor's desk and sitting down, "First thing this morning, I had a briefing about a murder on the Promenade, and then, about an hour ago, we found a dead Ferengi with a knife sticking out of his chest, in a Klingon holosuite. So, just peachy." She knew that she didn't have to be quite so passive-aggressive with her response but, the truth was, she didn't care.

That got Paul's attention. "Two murders within 24 hours? That's not usual for Vanguard. The last murder I'm aware of occurred last year on board a Dopterian freighter that had to dock here so the crime could be investigated." He gave Locke a sharp look. "Do these two murders seem to be related to each other?"

"Hard to say at this point," Mikaela mused. "Two very different MO's - one far less subtle than the other. I think we'll need to wait until the CSI team finish up and we identify the victims before we'll be able to start putting the pieces together."

Paul nodded. "It's still shocking," he said. "Care for anything to drink before we start?"

"Coffee, please," Mikaela said, moving around the office to take a seat opposite the chair that Graves would shortly occupy.

Paul returned to his desk and set Locke's coffee and his water down. "If I can be of any help to you in relation to these murders or anything else, my door is always open," Paul said. He sat down. "So, aside from dead bodies turning up, how are you finding life here? Is it much different from the starbase you served on before when you were a comm officer?"

"Not really," Mikaela shrugged, "As is always the case in Starfleet, some of the faces are different and my office is larger, but the base itself is essentially the same. It's the difference in the job role that makes things more interesting."

"It certainly does," Paul said. "I made so many mistakes, my first couple of weeks as a second officer, I'm embarrassed to even think about them--not with policy, but with personal interactions. There's a huge difference between being a counselor and being a second officer. There was a lot I had to learn and still do. I hope it is going easier for you than it did for me."

"I'm not sure about that," Locke replied, "As you say, it's a big transition and a lot to get up to speed with in a very short space of time." She paused to take a sip from her coffee. "But, we get on with it, don't we?" she continued, replacing the cup on the table. "It's who we are."

"Seems like it," Paul said with a brief smile. "And how are things between you and Colonel Drake?" he asked. "Do you feel that the two of you are able to communicate and work effectively with each other?"

"Communication has never been an issue for us," she said, "We've gotten on well ever since we've known each other but..." She paused. She wasn't surprised by Graves' line of questioning, but it unsettled her. Her first inclination was to protect Drake - a man she'd known since her Academy days - but something was definitely wrong. And Graves had been around him recently - far more than she had, so why shouldn't she be honest with the man who was, essentially, her right hand, just as she was Drake's?

"Look, I've known Horatio Drake a long time," she continued cautiously, "And I know he's been through a lot lately - I mean, I've read the reports, there's a level of trauma there that I can't even begin to understand - but..." she paused again, trying to frame the next part of her sentence both as vaguely and specifically as she could in the same phrase. "Something's off with him. I don't know how else to say it. I mean, you'd probably recognise it better than I would, but.."

"There was a situation with our previous XO, an infringement of trust that he admitted to Colonel Drake on his own. That understandably soured Drake's relationship with him for a time--though I had thought things were mending between them before they boarded the Bretagne. When they returned, Commander Hunt's condition was worse than Colonel Drake's, and he had to undergo medical treatment in a specialized facility. He recovered and was reassigned elsewhere." Paul let out a breath. "What I'm trying to say is that communication has been a problem, so I'm glad the two of you aren't experiencing it. I think it's very important for Colonel Drake to have someone at his back who he feels he can trust, and I'm thankful that he seems to have found that person. You said, though, that something feels off. What are you observing?"

Mikaela nodded throughout Graves' summary of the situation with Hunt. She was aware that their relationship had been more on the 'professional' side than some, but there was nothing in the official logs that suggested there was a permanent break down of trust. From what she could tell Hunt's leaving had been down to the trauma of his experiences on the Bretagne and the desire to get as far away from that particular incident as possible. And she didn't blame him.

Drake, however, was different. Usually, trauma would cause him to shut down and withdraw - but that didn't seem to be happening here. "Ever since I've known him," she began slowly, choosing her words carefully, "Colonel Drake has been the quintessential marine. Careful and composed. He's always enjoyed a drink, but he's never let it get in the way of duty - that would be unprofessional." She paused again, thinking about the Halloween party... and then the Christmas party and wondered if she should follow this thought-process through to it's conclusion. She steeled herself before finally expressing what she had been afraid to say since the discussion about Drake had begun: "It's not that he's not talking to me or that we have a communication problem," she continued, more assured now, "But he is less engaged and the decisions he is making are more emotional and reckless than usual. My guess is, with everything that's happened, he's self-medicating. He's drinking more heavily off duty and it's starting to affect his judgement. It's not a problem at the moment," she quickly clarified, realising how it could sound, "But I wonder whether it's something I need to address."

"Hm...." Paul glanced back at Locke. "What sort of reckless decisions has he been making that he wouldn't have made in the past?" Paul could think of a couple but wanted to hear what Mikaela had to say.

"it's hard to pinpoint just one," she said. "It's more like he's disengaged. He's not reading reports and rosters before signing off on them. Yesterday, I went into his office on two occasions, an hour and a half apart - and I don't think he'd done anything in that entire time."

Paul frowned. "Thank you for telling me this. I can't be everywhere, but I do need to know what is going on with Drake. He's been disinclined to let me get close because of my being Chief Counselor. With us it's been a professional relationship that has become somewhat warmer lately, but not to the extent that I would call it real friendship yet. I'm closer friends with Chlamydia Addams and Tom Maynard than I am with Horatio. As for the drinking--I've been aware and have talked to him about it, but he's hidden it very well from me. The only way I've known for certain has been by knowing when he feels drunk or hungover. I only saw clear evidence of it at the Christmas party, and that surprised me. It's as you say--he's always very careful to not be impaired while on duty, and I suspect he has a tolerance." He gave Mikaela an amused look. "We won't go into his disastrously inappropriate idea of Christmas gifts."

His expression became serious again. "I'll call Horatio in for a meeting. He seemed to have made a breakthrough of some kind the last time I spoke with him, but apparently more is going on than I've been aware of."

Paul made a note on his PADD and sent a message to Drake. "But now, back to you."

(To be continued.)

 

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