Task Force: Gamma

Aria · Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2010 10:13 pm Post subject:

Aria Lioy's Office
Speaking to Koester

Aria blinked at Koester's bitter candor. "You don't sound as if you want to learn to forgive them."
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Marek · Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2010 8:34 am Post subject:

Croft eyed the counselor for a moment, then looked at his hands as he spoke, "Well, I won't bore you with the details, but the short version is that I was engaged to be married. Allie was a science officer in Starfleet, serving on the Odyssey, she was killed when the ship was destroyed. My father, the Admiral, didn't care for her. I always assumed that he pushed through her assignment to a different ship, and hence, blamed him for her death. While my differences with my father have deeper roots than one incident, I feel I have finally accepted her death, and forgiven my father for interfering in this instance." He never looked up from his hands, and he lost some of his contentment as he spoke, but then he looked up, his emotions shifting.
"It doesn't hurt that I have been accepted on this crew, I'm sure you understand that telepaths aren't always welcome around humans."
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Aria · Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2010 2:37 am Post subject:

Aria Lioy's Office
Speaking to Croft

Marek · Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2010 8:20 am Post subject:

Croft smirked at the counselor, then realized it might be misconstrued and tried a more sober demeanor, although a smile was still evident at the corners of his mouth, "I understand, and perhaps, someday, when I am ready to delve deeper into my..."he paused for a moment, looking for the right term, "Mistrust of my father, we can dig deeper into that subject. As it is, one chip off the shoulder at a time." He laughed nervously, "It is a relief to have another Betazoid on ship, I was worried a bit when Zeara left." He realized he was near babbling, but for some reason, wasn't his usual confident self, Guess I'm being a little too candid
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KarlKoester · Guest

"Do you think I can forgive what they took from me!? My fiancee was innocent and the Cardassians killed her and several other prisoners in a riot that broke out in the female cell block." Koester replied.

"Anyway Counselor Zeara wanted to have me see past what happened to Andi and remember the better times we had to put me on the path to heal. I remember those times. How she loved winter. Her love of Lewis Carroll. And then I remember the reptiles caused her death and I feel the craving for vengeance again..."

Aria · Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2010 8:02 pm Post subject:

((OOC: I'll respond to this in a couple of hours. My housemates just stuck Merchant of Venice in the DVD player and I'm discovering that I can't listen to Shakespeare and type Star Trek at the same time. At least, not without the word 'prithee' popping up far too often. Very Happy

So, I'll respond shortly. I just didn't want you to think I'd forgotten 'bout this thread...since I've posted in a few other places already.))
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Aria · Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2010 10:08 pm Post subject:

Aria Lioy's Office
Speaking to Croft

"Well, anytime you wish to dig, we can." She smiled to put him at his ease. She could feel the nervousness rising in him.

His last comment made her pause, however. This was the second time he'd implied an interspecies problem. That was an entirely different issue than his past with his father. If something was making him uncomfortable, it was best she broach the issue.

"You were uncomfortable being the only Betazoid aboard?" she asked.
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Aria · Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2010 10:14 pm Post subject:

Aria Lioy's Office
Speaking to Koester

"Let's get something straight right off the start," Aria said. "I am not Counselor Zheara. I have nothing but respect for the woman, but her techniques and mine will likely be very different. So I think you and I should start fresh."

"In that vein," she went on. "I think you need to consider a very simple question. What is it you wish to gain from these meetings? What is your goal here?" In a softer voice she added, "I need to know this if I am going to be of any help to you. Because I can only help those who are willing to be helped."
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Marek · Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2010 10:06 am Post subject:

Croft thought about his answer for a moment, "Not so much the species issue, but I have had issues in the past with stigma of a telepathic species. Even though my telepathic abilities are spotty at best, I am a strong empath, I found some people didn't like the idea of a 'mind reader' around. Human's can be prejudicial at times." Croft paused, wondering if he even wanted to go back to those feelings.
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KarlKoester · Guest

"Well what I want from these sessions is to be able to move on. To try and remember Andi without being overwhelmed with the rage of what the Cardassians did to her. Hate. Pure unadulterated hate is what kept me alive fighting as a one man resistance on Dantana after my unit was overrun. Fighting as a sniper against the Cardassian vermin was a fight that needed sharp focus to keep me at my best and anger helped me fuel it when I operated on little food or sleep or water while stalking the vermin."

Aria · Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2010 4:08 pm Post subject:

Aria Lioy's Office
Speaking to Croft

Aria watched Croft's face closely. "You sound like you've had some bad experiences," she said. She could sense the amibivalence in him and, with an effortless thought, reflected that emotion back to him in a sending, showing him that she'd picked up on it.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked. No idle conversation starter, but a sincere question. "Talking might help ease the hurt those experiences caused," she added. "Sometimes it helps just to get it out in the open."
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Aria · Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2010 4:35 pm Post subject:

Aria Lioy's Office
Speaking to Koester

"If that's the case," Aria replied. "Then I think you have a problem. Your feelings for Andi are irrevocably tied up with what happened to her. Every time you think of her, you think of Cardassians...and your hatred for them. And that hatred is consuming your thoughts."

"What we have to do is chip away at that hatred. It's obsessing you, and that makes any type of balance impossible."

She spoke the next words more slowly, to add to their import. "Cardassians are people. Not vermin. Not animals. People." She cleared her throat. "What they did to Andi was unquestionably wrong. I'm not denying that. But they were at war with us. And, in your service during the Dominion war you killed them. You widowed people and destroyed families with those actions. But we were at war with them."

She stopped and then spoke again. "We are no longer at war with them. You have to start seeing Cardassians as people again. Until you do, you'll never be able to forget. You'll never be able to move past the pain that they caused you."

"I have an idea, if you're willing," she went on. "I've looked at the crew manifest and it seems that on this Tower of Babel ship we have a Cardassian crewmember. His name is ((OOC: I don't know. I was told he existed but that's all I know. I'll PM the Powers that Be and find out)). With your permission...and his, of course...I'd like to schedule a counseling session in which the three of us sit down. Perhaps if you talked to a Cardassian you weren't trying to kill you could start seeing them as people again. I believe that would be an important step forward."

"So," she said. "What do you say?"
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KarlKoester · Guest

(OOC: I think you might be referring to Professor Kolar who was rescued at an earlier mission).

"It's tough not to think of them as vermin. I saw the video of the riot. I saw the riot club that struck Andi's skull. I saw them flush the dead and dying prisoners out of the airlock. And I promptly shot fifteen reptiles that day. On Dantana I reaped a bitter harvest of two hundred and seventy-two of them that fell victim to my shooting." Koester said: "I was Der Vergeltungswaffe or The Vengeance Weapon to be more accurate."

"And as to my destroying their families. They destroyed any hopes of my having one first. I simply repaid them for that favor." Koester said before composing himself.

Koester remembered every second of that terrible moment when his computer intercepted that internal feed from the Cardassian space station. The riot in the female cell block. The Cardassians in riot armor advancing in a phalanx amongst the prisoners. He saw the clubs strike the prisoners down. He remembered focusing the rage he felt and killing fifteen Cardassians in the span of that day with precision fire from the TR-116.

He composed himself as much as he could and said: "If it will help me remember Andi without that surge of emotion I would be willing to speak with the man."

It took Koester everything he had not to call the Cardassian a reptile or vermin.

"I am willing to sit down and speak with the man." [/i]

Aria · Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2010 7:33 pm Post subject:

Aria Lioy's Office
Speaking to Koester

((OOC: You are right. Thank you. ...I PM'ed our fearless leader and he agreed to do this as well. So I'm going to time skip to that meeting and he'll be joining us as Kolar. This could be a lot of fun if we play it right. Smile

))

"Good," Aria nodded. "I'll do what I can to set it up." She stood up. "Well, I'll stop picking your brain until then. I'll get in touch with your after I've spoken with Professor Kolar."

*****

(Two days later)

Aria stood up as Koester entered her office. "Petty Officer Koester, it's good to see you again," she greeted. "I'm glad you got my message. Please, have a seat." She sat down herself. "Professor Kolar should be along shortly so we can begin the session."
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Marek · Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2010 7:45 pm Post subject:

Croft thought for a moment, doubt evident in his thoughts and demeanor,
"I'm not sure what there is to say, you know how kids can be. They like to single out those that are different. Then they turn to adults, and put on a good face, but behind the mask the same ugly thoughts. What I find the most irritating, is that the more upset and frustrated I am, the more thoughts I 'hear'. Right now I am content and comfortable, and I haven't heard another's thoughts, besides yours, in weeks. Sure, if I want, I can sense people's emotions, but what telepathic ability I have is uncontrollable, and only seems to manifest when my emotions are in turmoil." His thoughts strayed to his dead fiancee briefly, before returning to the present, "I guess I miss the advice my mother used to give me, she always seem to have a good answer for my whining." A brief flash of a smile on his face, before the calm but slightly doubtful look returned.
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