Commander Foster - Perspectives
Jamie LeBlanc
((SB118, Counselor's Office))
There were the things he had come to terms with.
And then the things that he had more or less come to terms with but the still bothered him. That he didn’t ruminate about anymore, but that did creep up in his mind, and make him wonder how it could have played out differently? And wonder about how his command might fare differently if presented with a similar situation.
Foster: Specifically? I hate to admit it’s happened more times than I would like. But for example, While I was Chief Medical Officer of the USS Constitution, our Vulcan Science officer had accidentally melded with a piece of technology from a lost Hinji civilization, and she had their messages imprinted on his glial cells. Basically this information she could only access when unconscious – she started to dream about the lost civilization. Our engineering officer created a device that could scan that information from the glial cells. Well, glial cells also insulate your nerves and help clean out cellular waste. Damaging them from a medical perspective is a very bad thing. So immediately I saw the dangers. I officially recommended against the procedure.
He had realized in retrospect that of the so-called experts involved, the engineer and the science officer were both working with quite new situations or technology. Things they were confident that they understood based on a strong portfolio of past successes.
Wyn on the other hand had clocked hundreds of hours with microsurgery and nerve reconstruction. He understood glial cells and all their complexity – he had far more experience. And ironically it was that very experience that told him he didn’t know everything about glial cells. It brought in doubt. It made him question his hypotheses.
Ivalyan: What happened?
Foster: I didn’t push hard enough. Everyone else had passionate arguments as to why it would work, what amazing scientific discoveries we could gain and the safety measures engineering was putting into place. All this against my ‘gut feeling’ as the highest-ranking medical officer who knew exactly how dangerous it was. But I let them convince me I was paranoid. I relented and allowed them to try the procedure – but only if I was present for the procedure and it operated under my safety standards. Just in case something went wrong. ::he couldn’t help but laugh:: Oh… and did it go wrong. It went so wrong.
His tone took on a sense of humor, as if this story was ridiculous – or it was about to get ridiculous.
And in some ways it was. Wyn knew full well he wasn’t to blame for what happened. That question wasn’t even on the table. The question in his mind was whether there was any way to stop things like this from happening – and if so where did that come from? If not the Chief Medical officer, would a no from the Executive Officer or Commanding officer stopped it?
Maybe?
Maybe not.
You can’t save everyone.
Ivalyan: What happened, Wyn?
Wyn: The science officer and the engineer were friends. Both were somewhat shy, awkward types and they had bonded over the last mission. So, unbeknownst to me or anyone else onboard the Vulcan science officer met with the Engineer in his quarters privately before the procedure. She asked if he would carry her consciousness in case something bad happened. He said yes. And she transferred her katra to him.
He paused there, his tone was grave and serious – but steady. He knew how much of a telepathic burden that was – and what a potential violation it was as well.
Foster: So, once we get into the procedure, the Science officer is set up on a biobed, with the Engineer running the equipment to sift the data on one side of the biobed and me monitoring vitals on the other. We run one sweep, all vitals stay within normal tolerances. We run a second sweep, and I start to see concerning variances in the glial cell breakdown. I tell them to stop – two sweeps have collected plenty of data to start research, and we are pushing safety limits. The Science Officer – who is conscious in all this – urges us to continue. The Engineer asks if we can continue. I say no – we’re shutting it down.
He paused and gave a strange smile, as if he could picture the whole thing. It was sad and absurd all at the same time.
Foster: I start the shutdown process, and the Science Officer speaks directly to the Engineer, telling him to do a third sweep. At this point I don’t know he’s holding her katra, but I watch him hesitate as if he’s listening to something inside his head and instead of shutting down he starts a third sweep. At this point I order him to stop, direct order. The only other choice was to vault over the biobed and tackle him and I wasn’t going to do that. He doesn’t stop, it’s like he’s demon possessed – which would be concerning, but the Science Officer started to seizure and her blood pressure dropped precariously low so immediately I didn’t care why it happened, she was my patient and I had to stop the intercranial bleeding. Long story short, after three hours of surgery she was alive but comatose – the proverbial lights were on, but nobody was home. Somewhere in this mess somebody called the commanding officer – who was a former medical officer and the Executive officer who was a Vulcan, former counselor and former medical officer – and they reviewed the entire mess while I… fell asleep after surgery. It was literally the most exhausting day I can remember in my entire Starfleet career.
It was a long, heavy story. Wyn remembered stumbling out of surgery to give his report to Jalana and Saveron and the rest of it was a blur. He woke up the next day all tucked in to the comfy chair in his office, and he didn’t remember if he had walked there, had help walking there or if someone carried him to it. Not that it mattered. Jalana and Saveron had his back. He had done everything he could do once the procedure started.
His wonder was could he have made that situation going in any different?
Ivalyan: Thank you, sir. :slight smile::
He perked up one antennae.
Foster: You’re welcome… though I’m not quite sure why?
He was polite about it, curious. Mostly he thought his old stories were horror stories. Even as he grew calm and processed in the telling of them, he had lived through some pretty absurd – even awful – things.
Ivalyan: For sharing with me. That's a private moment. And I'm sorry it happened. I truly am. I want to affirm that I heard you, I'm holding the space for the moment, but I want to give this and you the effort it deserves. I'd like to mull it over?
He found himself nodding even before he consciously thought about it.
Foster: Sure. I mean it’s a lot, I know.
Ivalyan: ?
His antennae curled downwards.
Foster: In the end the executive officer – Saveron – with assistance from Vulcan elders via long distance communication, returned the science officer’s katra to her. Unfortunately the Engineer was never quite the same, it took him months of counseling to rehabilitate. And the Science Officer? She was court martialed for the incident.
Ivalyan: ?
He took in a long, slow breath.
Foster: The inquiry involved more than just that incident. But it was a complicated affair. I wouldn’t want to be a judge in that case. Intentions and actions get muddled in situations like this.
Were her actions pre-meditated? Yes. Were they understandable? That was harder to answer. She was a complicated person whose scientific curiosity outweighed her common sense – or focus on rules, which made the situation all the more frustrating for Wyn.
Ivalyan: ?
He paused and gazed at Ivalyan for a few moments, thinking back to the mission they recently finished. Sure people made some mistakes, but no one did anything that broke the rules, and those mistakes were in the middle of stressful, new, and dangerous situations. All of that felt very understandable, very universal to Wyn. A situation that anyone could make a mistake in, and you just learned from it and moved forward.
Foster: But now you also know what kind of things really bother me. And why I’m pretty relaxed about the small stuff. Anyone can bounce back from an honest mistake.
Ivalyan: ?
~*~
Tags/tbc
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OOC – if you want to close the scene, that’s good by me
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Commander Shar’Wyn Foster
Commanding Officer
~Julian Beck
E239010ST0