Operational Assessment Needed

Posted on Wed Nov 15th, 2023 @ 10:01am by Lieutenant Olivia O’Riley & Colonel Ezekiel Bagwell

2,532 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 118 - "It's About Family"
Location: Deck 40, Colonel Bagwell's office

Ezekiel had a lot to complete before he left for his honeymoon. He wanted a full review done by the time he got back, and so far Colonel Kyle was on board with the idea. He wanted to make sure that his Marines are mentally capable and ready. It had been a while since his Marines had completed a psychological assessment not a full evaluation, just an assessment. All he needed to make sure they are ready to go.

Ezekiel heard the intercom to his door go off. He walked over to the door and with the forced smile on his face, he said "enter." He was eager to meet the counselor, who had been assigned to them originally as a combat medic but he felt like that was a underutilization of her skills set.

Olivia had been surprised to get a call from Colonel Bagwell, as far as she knew she’d only be needed in combat situations as a medic. Not that she’d been called up yet. “Reporting as requested Colonel.”

"Please Lieutenant have a seat." Ezekiel said his motion for her to have a seat at the chair, he walked back over towards his desk but not before stopping by the replicator. "Can I offer you a beverage?" Ezekiel asked.

Olivia took a seat, looking towards Ezekiel as she did so. “A fruit juice would be lovely thank you Sir. I don’t mind what kind.”

Ezekiel inputted into the replicator an order for him to get a coffee and her her a fruit drink, she was getting a drink call the passion punch which is just a variety of fruits it was sweet and a little tardy. A perfect blend to stimulate the taste buds."I hope this is to your liking, it's one of my favorite drinks when I'm not drinking coffee." Ezekiel said is he handed her the glass.

Before she responded he reached over on his desk and handed her a data pad. On the pad was a list of names broken up by division starting with his being the commanding officer and going all the way down to the fire team members. He had no doubt that she was familiar with this list already. She was their combat medic and probably knew some of the names on that list. But she didn't know was what he he wanted her to do with that list.

Sipping her drink as she looked at the PADD, Olivia nodded. “Hmm that’s a lovely drink Sir, thank you. Now I obviously recognise this list..”

"Given the circumstances that we've gone through in the past couple years, especially more recently with the Borg. I would like you and others that you feel need to be brought into the project to assess all my Marines and their mental capabilities I don't need a full evaluation I just need to know if they're fit for duty." Ezekiel said, he couldn't imagine how the Young survived the forced assimilation.

Olivia nodded. “Given recent events I am only too happy to do what I can Sir. Does this mean you’re requiring me to be Counsellor for the marines as well as Medic?”

"Yes, I believe it to be crucial to perform an assessment at this time. Given the unique situation of what's transpired I want to make sure that the Marines are prepared and able to perform their duties, given your background I believe you be the ideal candidate." Ezekiel said waiting for Olivia's input.

Olivia nodded. “I don’t see a problem with that Sir, but it’ll need running by Commander Monroe-Wayne as I’m officially listed as Counsellor’s aid alongside Marine Medic.”

"Your background tells me that you're more than qualified, maybe we should talk to her about removing the word aid and just making a full-time counselor for the Marines and a backup counselor for her. I'm pretty sure your ' counselors aid' duties could be replaced by another." Ezekiel said thinking all logically, knowing that her skills are not being properly utilized.

“That would be a good idea Sir” Olivia nodded. “It would take some of the workload off of Commander Monroe-Wayne, which I’m sure she’d appreciate.”

"I'll reach out to the Commander. The good news is we're good friends so it shouldn't hopefully take too much convincing." Ezekiel said, hoping that Ariana would be okay with Olivia becoming a full-time counselor and a part-time combat medic with the Marines.

Olivia nodded. “I think it’ll save Ariana Pat least part of her workload. She’ll probably be only too glad to have the extra help.”

"Any resources you need, I'll make sure to get them for you. How long do you think it'll take to assess the Marines?" Ezekiel after, hoping no more than month but he also knew he had a lot of Marines and he didn't know how long her assessments would take so if she needed extra personal resources he would move mountains to make it happen.

“Given it’s just assessments, I can probably get through in a week, maybe two depending on the number of marines I need to assess. Is this a list of the total compliment?”

"It is, I would like you to start with me." Ezekiel said, knowing deep down that he wouldn't ask his Marines to do something he wasn't going to do himself.

Olivia nodded. “Very well, would you like to start now while I’m here?

"If you have the time, that would be great." Ezekiel said. He wanted to get his over with so he can focus again on his wedding, but he still had obligations to division. He wanted to set a good example.

“By all means” Olivia smiled warmly. “In that case tell me how you feel about what happened? How has it affected you personally?”

"Straight to the point, I like that. For being honest I didn't like it at all. I believe you are familiar that I went to OCS for the last few months I assumed you read my file. Preparing for my transition to be the new division commander here for the Marine Corps. when our younger generation officers started to attack us." Ezekiel said is he stopped, he tried his best not to easily till Force but he did have to stun a few other Borg infected crew. It was not an easy task to do. Even though you've been in special Operation had several years of combat training. He never thought he would have to use those skills against young officers in Starfleet.

Olivia nodded. “Trust me I completely understand, we all had to do things we didn’t want to. It wasn’t like any of us had a choice.”

"I'm just grateful I didn't have to shoot anybody, I feel sorry for these young officers and enlisted men. I can't imagine the suffering that they went through." Ezekiel said is he trade his best to express his concerns for his fellow officers, while maintaining a level of professionalism and separation from his emotions.

“What happened was an unprecedented event, no one expected the Borg to make a come back and especially with the changelings as well.” Olivia offered an understanding smile.

"Do you know Lieutenant Aubrey Miller?" Ezekiel started to ask. He took a moment to gather his thoughts and then he continued on. "I think of her as a little sister, and it made me sad and heartbroken to learn that she was being influenced and controlled by the Borg. I couldn't get myself to stun her." Ezekiel said. Eventually he just pulled the trigger and try not to think about the repercussions but that decision had haunted him.

Olivia nodded. “That must have been very difficult, put in your place I wouldn’t have been able to make that choice either. At least it was just a case of stunning her, have you told Aubrey how you feel about it?”

"No, I have a hard time expressing my emotions. I know you're here to do an assessment on me and I should but I'm not sure how familiar you are with my medical file?" Ezekiel as he looked over to Olivia.

“To be honest I haven’t had the chance to study your medical file yet” Olivia offered an apologetic gaze. “Why don’t you tell me what I need to know.”

"My childhood has been pretty traumatic, I was on Vulcan as a child along with my good friend Jasmine's Haynes. We are both assaulted by a Vulcan boy. You did a deep mind meld that damage my synaptic pathways but thanks to a unique Vulcan procedure they were able to restore my synaptic pathways to a point. Another broken boy name T'Vol performed a rare bulletin procedure that basically linked our three minds together that in proximity to one another we can send each other's thoughts and if we're close enough we can even talk to each other via our thoughts. Because of this I've had to learn how to control my emotional outburst, I follow the teachings of the kohlinar. I have attempted to do so to the best ability. I still have my feelings, they are very overwhelming for a lack of a better term. I find it helpful to limit my emotions, and control them as much as I can." Ezekiel started to say. I feel like he was talking too much he wanted to give the counselor enough time to process what he was saying.

Olivia nodded. “How does this affect your relationship with your fiancée Colonel? It must be difficult if you have to limit your emotions. I take it she is aware of these facts?”

"Luckily for me she's a doctor, she started off as my doctor but there was always an attraction between us before too long that developed into a relationship. Of everyone I know she's the most understanding and caring person and she has patience, that I can only dream of having." Ezekiel said as he started thinking about his lovely fiance, and realizing how lucky he was to have Anna in his life.

Olivia smiled warmly. “It’s always a help to have someone that you can talk to, do you plan on having a family?”

"Of course, we've been talking about it for some time now. We're both ready." Ezekiel said, what he wasn't telling her was that they've been trying for a few months now and both are getting a little frustrated and both had to remind themselves, that it'll happen when it's time.

“I get the feeling there’s more to it than you’re saying Colonel?” Olivia looked at Zeke curiously.

"You're good counselor. Very good." Ezekiel said is he didn't really save much, he started to get lost in his own thoughts thinking about his soon to be wife and the life they were going to have together. He didn't really want to talk about the frustrations of not getting pregnant just yet, he was hopeful that they would and that when it was their turn it would just happen. He had a sneaky feeling that the counsellor wasn't going to let it go. He looked into her eyes to see if he can find any wiggle room to get away from this uncomfortable conversation. Then it dawned on him, this is the whole point of the assessment. So he took a deep breath before continuing on. He knew he had to share his feelings. "I am a little frustrated, we both want to have a child badly and we keep trying to pep talk ourselves up but I can't help but think maybe it's me."

Olivia nodded. “Being a mother myself I completely understand. Have you stopped to think that maybe the two of you could be trying too hard? Perhaps some romantic time to yourselves would reap rewards.” She smiled warmly. “The stresses of the job can make such things difficult.”

"Honestly I never thought of that." Ezekiel said, thank you doing so that could be part of the problem maybe we're both too stressed out partially from work partially from trying.

Olivia smiled. “Just try having some time away from the stresses and strains of things, your upcoming wedding and honeymoon for instance.”

"I am really looking forward to going to Trill." Ezekiel said with his smile on his face, which is very normal for him but the idea of spending a week with Anna and learning about the Trill culture was just really appealing to him.

“Sounds lovely, Ive never been to Trill myself” Olivia smiled. “I’m sure you’ll have a wonderful time.”

"I hope so, I was hoping to learn a little more about their symbiotic relationships between their symbiotes and their hosts." Ezekiel said, he felt like he should be honest with her since this was an assessment.

“I’m sure you’ll find that fascinating” Olivia smiled warmly. “Please do come and tell me all about it, I’d like to know more myself.”

"I'll make sure to do that, I'm being told it's an incredible experience just to be invited to the caves. I heard you need permission, and that's what I'm currently trying to work on. I'm hoping to talk to Lieutenant box, hoping maybe she can help me or at least point me in the right direction."'Ezekiel said, wondering if they're going to set up an appointment or if it's just going to be more of a casual conversation down the road. He wasn't sure if his assessment was going well, if I was going bad. But she seemed to be engaging with them so he assumed that was a good sign.

“Okay I seem to have taken your assessment right off track” Olivia grinned. “However I’m happy that you’ve answered enough to pass with flying colours.”

"I didn't mind, sometimes it's just nice having someone to talk to. And giving you a unique perspective you can always provide insights into my life. At first I was opposed to the idea of counseling but as a Division Commander, it might be a good thing once in awhile for us to have a follow-up and make sure everything is going good." Ezekiel said hoping that she understood that occasionally he wouldn't mind additional assessments. He wasn't a flag level officer position, and someday he would be a general. And he had heard the rumors that once an officer becomes an admiral or a general they kind of go on the deep end and he didn't want that happening to him.

“By all means Sir.” Olivia nodded. “I’m happy that you’ve been the one to suggest it.”

"Once I get back from my honeymoon, we'll set up appointments. With that said, I hope you will attend the wedding?"'Ezekiel asked Olivia with a smile on his face.

“I would be honoured Sir” Olivia nodded and smiled. “I love a romantic wedding!”

"I'll make sure to send you an invite." Ezekiel said it's a scene starts to fade away with them finishing up their counseling session.

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