Ensign Talon Morda: A receptive audience
Eston Melton
(( Security Suite, Deck 8, USS Khitomer, en route to DS33 ))
Morda: The last time was during the Kebnekaise FTX last January. Before that, one during my plebe year. A few more times back in Kerelian space. But, there you have it.
Morda unfolded himself, and Zerba must have registered how he’d subconsciously balled himself up.
Zerva: I want you to do something for me. Stand up straight, shoulders high. ::Ezra pulled out his chair and did the same:: Close your eyes. Close them. Clear your mind of everything. Focus your mind on something relaxing for you. Like sitting on a beach as the tides come in. Or watching the stars at night by a campfire. That one always works for me. Do you have it in your mind?
He rose, set the coffee on the desk, and closed his eyes. He thought about a Kerelian lakefront, and a cottage that’d been in his family for six generations; one day, it would be his.
Morda: Lake Rose, back home.
Zerva: Good. Now take a deep breath. Hold it for five seconds and then let it out. Now take two more and do the same.
It reminded him of square breathing on the lake dock. He’d learned the technique at the Academy, and it’d become a regular habit -- heck, he’d done it for a while before bedding down.
Morda: Relaxing, sir. Nice centering technique.
Zerva: Trust me. Open your eyes. Now roll your shoulders back like this five times and then reverse the direction once you're done and do five more. Make sure your back is straight. You should feel it on your shoulders. Once you’re done with that, shake your arms down to your sides like this and let all that stress roll off your shoulders down your arms and hands, off your body.
Morda followed direction. He expected it to feel a bit silly, but then recalled uncurling from a defensive ball moments ago. The activity felt good.
Morda: Feels similar to some quick destressers the Academy encouraged. Where’d you learn it?
Zerva: It’s a Kempo exercise I learn in my dojo from my Sensei. It helps me when I am feeling stressed, especially in the shoulders where I keep most of it. It gives me a moment in between work to get rid of some of that tension I feel, especially when I am stressed. oO Which comes a lot with this job. Oo. If you're interested, the dojo holodeck program is always available at any time. How do you feel?
Morda: From the engagement, I feel … okay. ::Thinking back:: Right before the explosion, the captain ordered us to “brace.” I wasn’t braced, as it were, for how quickly and definitively such an event could occur. The order of magnitude -- the energy, the distance, the body count -- this is the first time it’s been real to me, not just academic. Does that make sense?
Zerva: Response
Morda: Right. And as for the flashbacks: I hear we have shore leave coming up. I want to spend part of it working not just with a counselor, but also with a veteran of sorts who was there for me last time and might be helpful.
Zerva: Response
Morda: What’s funny -- well, that’s not the right word -- is there’s everything else about the mission that could feel distressing. Temporarily losing a crewmate, nearly getting sliced up by filaments with Lieutenant Michaels, securing a mass on the bridge, putting an away team at risk. It was rough, and I felt out of my element plenty on the bridge, but through the twisted lens of hindsight: I loved it. I’m glad to be here. This is good work.
Zerba: Response
Tags/TBC