Entrance Exam: Lieutenant Mara Cross

Posted on Wed Feb 17th, 2016 @ 9:29pm by Lieutenant Arnon Barak MD, PsyD & Chief Petty Officer Markos Ileos & Lieutenant Mara Cross

1,408 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Point of View
Location: Counseling Offices
Timeline: Current

ON:

Arnon was in his office dictating notes.

"...and he's been afraid of gorilla's ever since," he said. "Pause recording."

Arnon looked over at the life-sized stuffed gorilla sitting on the couch.

"Don't take it personally, Mongo my friend," he said. "I'm sure he'll love you once he get's to know you better."

He was interrupted by a beep that came from the comm on his desk.

"Doctor Barak?" came the voice of Chief Markos Ileos, who managed the Counseling department. "Your next appointment is here."

"Excellent!" Arnon replied. "And who am I seeing?"

"Lieutenant Mara Cross, Doctor," Markos replied.

"Wonderful!" Arnon replied. "Send her in."

Mara stepped inside the office. The doors closing behind her. She noticed a man, and opposite to him was a couch with a life-size gorilla. She wondered what she had walked into but didn’t say anything. She smiled. “Good day, I’m Mara Cross.” She taking a couple of steps into the office.

"Ah, Lieutenant Cross!" Arnon said as he stood. "Please, have seat. Don't mind Mongo over there, he's harmless."

"Thank you." She stated as she approached the couch and took a seat near the life-size gorilla. She looked over at Mongo. She examined Mongo for a few seconds before looking over at Arnon. "He's a cute one." She smiled.

"Ah, yes," Arnon said. "He's very popular with the ladies. We have someone on board who has an issue with gorillas so we replicated Mongo here to help them. So, what should we talk about today?"

She nodded in response as she listened to his explanation to why the gorilla was there. "That makes sense." She said in addition to her nods. She honestly didn't know how to answer his question. She didn't feel as if she had anything to discuss. "I'm not really sure to be completely honest. I don't feel like I have anything to discuss."

"Well," Arnon replied. "I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you're not hopelessly boring. You're not, are you? Never mind. How about this: Is there anything you don't want to talk about?"

This has always been strange for her. Her species is known for their listening skills, and whenever she was asked to talk and have someone listen to her it didn't feel normal. She leaned back in the sofa. "Maybe if we had sat down to have this talk a few years back before I joined back with Starfleet I would have had a decent amount of juicy details to spill but all that is behind now. I have been able to rebuild the relationships with my family and been able to get my career back on track. So, maybe I am a little bit boring now." She shrugged her shoulders. "Who knows. All I can say is that I feel in a good place. A happy place."

"That sounds like a wonderful place to be," Arnon replied. "What brought you back to Starfleet?"

"It really is. A sense of belonging." She replied. "I left because I wanted to be free and explore on my own without being told where to go, and when to go. And for a very long time I did that, but while its exciting it also gets lonely." She explained.

"I imagine it does," Arnon replied. "Tell me about some of your adventures."

"There have been so many." She let out a gentle sigh. "I spent close to fifty years exploring various parts of the quadrant. I did spent a significant amount of time on Vulcan. I explored their history in great depth. Also, took an interest in Romulan history, and culture. An interesting group of people to say the least. I visited Bajor after the Dominion War. I found their religious believes to be very fascinating."

"My people are related to Vulcans," Arnon replied. "Rigel V was settled by a group that broke off from the Debrune, who had broken off from the soon to be Romulans who, as you know, left Vulcan to preserve a way of life that their fellow Vulcans had abandoned in favor of logic. We share some distant history with all three."

A smile light up her face. She was pleasantly surprised. She didn’t think she’d be getting a history lesson during this meeting. “How interesting.” She said leaning forward in her seat. Her interests peaked. “I have read about Debrune, however I can’t say recall reading about a group breaking off from Debrune and settling to Rigel V.”

"Admiral Debrune was leading his off-shoot of the soon-to-be Romulans to find a place to settle," Arnon said. "When they encountered the Rigel System. A group led by Debrune's Vice Admiral, a man named Torek, decided they had searched long enough. They decided to settle on Rigel V. We had a scuffle with the local Kaylar tribes, secured the temperate areas for ourselves, opened up trade with the nearby Orions, and built a little society for ourselves. So, you mentioned that traveling around the galaxy by yourself was lonely. Now that you're back from your wanderings, have you been able to make connections with your co-workers? Even brief connections? You seemed to get along well with Victoria last night."

Mara listened to his story nodding ever so often. "That's really interesting. I will have to do some research into this." She smiled excited then her faced turned a bit more serious with his question. "I don't really have any problems making connections with people. I would like to think that I'm easy going and friendly. I'm always open to listen to people and make new friends." She smiled again. "Victoria seems very nice and friendly. I like her sense of humor."

Arnon smiled.

"I do, too," Arnon said. "You seem very personable and at ease with your lot in life. Let me ask a few more questions just to get a feel for who you are and where you are in your life. Obviously this will change as life goes on and the answer will be different when the question is asked in one or two hundred years from now, but do you feel it is a challenge to keep your horizons broadened?"

Mara shook her head. "I don't think it's a challenge. We live in a rather large universe as we have mentioned previously in our conversation. There are a number of things that I have yet to experience. I wanted to explore the world of science and history, so I did that. It was challenging and fun. Then over the years I developed a interest in computers and communications. Technology in general. I wanted to explore that world, so here I am and that's a challenge in itself. There is still a lot of things I would like to learn and challenges I'd like to experience. Who knows, I might explore the possibility of being a Captain one day."

Arnon nodded.

"Well," he said. "That seems very healthy to me. I hereby declare you to be of reasonably sound mind and body...well, I guess the soundness your body is more up to Victoria than me. In fact, I think she would be very upset if I did tests to determine the soundness of your body...oh dear, that didn't come out like I meant it to at all. Let's just forget I said all that and say that you are mentally and emotionally fit for duty!"

Mara couldn't help but laugh as he fumbled over his words. She honestly didn't take what he said as him being serious. "What if I told you that she has already determined the soundness of my body?" She asked with a grin as she had already visited sickbay and was cleared by Victoria.

Arnon laughed.

"I'll have to consult with her about that," he said. "Feel free to come back and see me should you feel the need. I'll check in with you in a little while and see how you're doing."

"Alright, sounds good to me." She said with a smile. "Thank you for taking the time to see me." She added as she stood up. She turned to the giant gorilla that sat next to her the whole time and patted him on the head before turning to head out.

OFF

Lieutenant Arnon Barak, MD, PsyD
Chief Counselor

&

Lieutenant Mara Cross
Chief Operations Officer

&

Chief Petty Officer Markos Ileos
Arnon's Assistant

 

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