About the Mad Hatter

Posted on Thu Jul 4th, 2019 @ 9:00pm by

Mission: Getting To Know You
Location: Counseling Suite, USS Astraea

Shortly after Lt. Voroshilov left the suite, Bert replicated himself a fresh cup of tea and sat down behind his desk to compose a message to the captain. He took a sip of the light jasmine scented tea before ordering the computer to open the message program so he could manually tap in the message.

Commander Laurens,

I have just finished my session with Lt. Voroshilov. I want to reassure you that I find him capable of doing his job. Without betraying patient/doctor confidence, his odd behavior has much to do with survivor mentality. He can- and will- survive any obstacle that is put in front of him. It's what he does. The trick is to make sure that we don't put ourselves in the position of being obstacles.

My advice in dealing with him is to be as direct and straight forward as possible. Be as truthful and blunt as possible. Give as much detail as you possibly can. He is a man who deals in information and by the occasional disservice of his position may be taxed with extra agenda by his role in Intel, he needs to know where he stands with you. The less he has to guess the better. More than that, the less he stands to work against you and vice versa. Communication will keep you both working on the same side of the fence.

As far as whether he is sane or not, I believe he is sane. And very, very real in a very cruel universe. We all hurt. We see cruelty and horror, but we are able to wrap ourselves in creature comforts afforded to us be the Federation or our families back home, our vacations on Risa, our homes on colony XYZ, our happy idealistic childhoods. Lt. Voroshilov has none of that barrier to fall back on when things get too bleak. It is always bleak.

I will check in on him regularly. Honestly, he was very honest and open with me, so I doubt that he would refuse an olive branch of friendship. Perhaps that would help some.

If there are any other officers that you would like me to check on immediately, please let me know, otherwise, I'll go back to my usually order of check-ins.

Cordially,

Bert Engels

"Computer send message to Commander Laurens," Bert ordered once he was finished. He was running on a gut feeling with this one, but it was a strong one and those were usually right.