The Second Life of Archimedes?

Posted on Mon 17th Oct, 2016 @ 5:55am by Commander Paul Graves PsyD
Edited on Tue 18th Oct, 2016 @ 4:03am

811 words; about a 4 minute read

Chief Counselor's Log, MD-1, 1300 hours Health Information confidentiality encryption activated.

It amazes me how much I can get done during lunch when I really put my mind to it.

This is an informal entry, as I have not yet arranged for a counseling appointment with Dr. Chlamydia Addams. However, she presents an interesting case, and I want to record my work and my thoughts before she and I meet to discuss anything personally relevant to her.

Dr. Addams is the sole known survivor of the Intrepid-class starship Archimedes, which vanished from Federation space several months ago. Dr. Addams herself was found alone in a life pod three months after the Archimedes' disappearance, with no recollection of the intervening time. The Archimedes' last known stated course was toward Risa for some much-needed shore leave following a horrific mission at Starbase 50 that amounted to a scorched-earth degree of killing to clear it of holographic intelligences that had taken control of the people, overrun the place, and were bent on insurrection.

Dr. Addams' pod was found nowhere near the most likely route that Archimedes would have taken to Risa. This begs the question of whether the captain or crew ever intended to travel to Risa, in the first place. Frankly, if it were me, Risa is the last place I would want to go after having had to slaughter innocent human beings as if they were zombies in some bad horror movie from Old Earth. I would want to go home, if I could bear to share the horror. I would want to weep for days. And I would want people I loved to hold me and reassure me that life could be better again. Compared to that, Risa is not peace; it is emptiness, however pleasant the weather and artful the entertainments.

Dr. Addams believes that her memories were carefully and thoroughly erased by the Archimedes' crew. In my experience, that's extremely difficult to do. On the other hand, a complete erasure is easier than a selective one.

I have studied the specifications for the Intrepid class. Archimedes had 15 decks and a crew complement totaling 141, including officers and enlisted. That is a small enough number that it is conceivable for 140 of them to have ganged up on Dr. Addams and to have put her off the ship for opposing their will. But in that case, why not just sedate her, or put her in the brig, or kill her, and beam the body into deep space or let the warp nacelles destroy it? This is why I asked why she didn't consider that she might be her old crew's message in a bottle.

Addams' reply to that made logical sense, as far as it went. How can she be a message if she remembers nothing? Personally, I can think of several ways, and I'm surprised she hasn't thought of them herself. My guess is, she's too close to it and is not thinking in that direction.

I consider it unlikely that her old crew abandoned her. If it is indeed they who put her into that life pod, they got her into stasis without causing injury, and they put her companion, Thing, in the pod with her. That speaks of considerate and loving care. But why send Addams in particular away? There are several things about Addams that are unique in my experience, but which of them might make her the best candidate for sending her from Archimedes?

And, if Addams chose to leave Archimedes of her own volition, that again raises the question of why. It can't have been a quarantine unless everyone else on the ship died, Addams truly was the only survivor, and she was absolutely certain that she was not a carrier. It is hard for me to imagine right now what else could induce a medical officer to leave her ship.

The Intrepid class ships are lean, mean racing machines. I think to this day, only a Prometheus-class could outrun them, and not by much. I also note that Intrepids are the only class of ship that can land on and take off from a planetary surface unaided. Do any of these capabilities come into play? I don't know, and it's useless to speculate without facts.

I really want to see the telepathic assessment reports on Addams, and I want to examine her myself. But I will wait for her to come to me or for some situation to make it necessary. I don't see an immediate need to poke into memories that she isn't yet ready to face; that could do more harm than good.

I suppose I could hypothesize on this all day if I allowed myself to, but I have mission prep to do. Time to get to it.

End log.

 

Tags: paulgraves, logs-graves-counselor

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