Lt. Seta Jinean - The Vase

[Talos Dakora]

A great one from @Arys. Love her explanation of why she wanted to be a counselor.

 

Quote

((Flashback: A few years prior, aboard the USS Helsinki))

Jinean hadn't expected a bad day to get worse. Bad days weren't typical for her to begin with, and she usually took them in stride, knowing better ones would come.
Looking back at what happened, Gin knew that something was off as soon as her combadge chirped and the Captain's voice summoned her to the ready room. To say that the two women were friends was perhaps taking it a little far, but over the past years, they had built a solid foundation of mutual trust and interests.
It was because of this familiarity that Jinean could tell something was off. There was an unusual sharpness to the Captain's voice, the inflexion indicating anger behind a professional facade. 

 

Jinean's stomach was in knots as she entered the turbolift, and her skin crawling. There was really only one thing Jinean could be faulted for, and the Bajoran wondered how the Captain could have found out about it. She and Aldris had been so very careful...

 

Monserrat : Lieutenant Seta, please take a seat. 

 

Jinean nodded and did as she was told, lowering her gaze as to not meet her Captain's eyes. The anger and disappointment in the woman's voice made her forget whatever explanation she had prepared to defend herself. Silence settled between them, and just when JInean was about to ask what was going on, the door hissed open once more. 

 

The Counsellor did not turn around but observed the Captain, whose gaze softened and she motioned to a chair next to her. 

 

Monserrat: Aldris, thank you for coming. 

….

((USS Excalibur, Deck 01, Captain’s Ready Room))

 

Jinean had already introduced herself to anyone who needed to know who she was, she had avoided a meeting with the Commodore for as long as possible. That, of course, wasn't because she disliked the woman, but she had been beyond busy in those past few days. 

 

In addition, rank put distance between people. But more importantly, past experiences did too. 

 

Nicholotti: I figured you would get up here eventually. How are you finding things?

 

Seta: Settled in just fine, thank you. It's surprisingly busy, but I've read reports about the last few weeks, so I suppose that's not very surprising. And after all, it is what I am here for. 

 

Nicholotti: Indeed. I suppose you are. And I suppose you have good timing.

 

Jinean couldn't agree more. Doctor Gott wasn't as incompetent as the Bajoran had initially feared, but he was very... stuck in his own culture and customs. One of the things Gin had learned during her Starfleet tenure was that cultural background didn't mean everything, but that they were different species with different neural pathways and brain structures to consider.

 

Seta: It does look like it ::she nodded:: My last two ships had a large number of counsellors, and I am surprised that the Excalibur does not. But I am sure I will manage. 

The USS Helsinki, due to its experimental nature, had a team of five Counsellors, four of them organic. The USS Saint Raphael had been a hospital ship with more Counsellors than Jinean could count. 

 

Sitting back again, Nicholotti crossed one leg over the other and set her hands down in her lap. 

 

Nicholotti: I know what your career looks like. ::She gestured to the console.:: But tell me...who are you?

 

Seta: Uhm...

 

That did catch Jinean off guard. She had been prepared to talk, in detail, about her career, in particular about the demotion from Lieutenant to Lieutenant JG. Not about herself. She couldn't remember the last time a CO was interested in her. 

 

Nicholotti smiled ever so slightly, which only made the situation more confusing. 

 

Seta: I would default to 'there isn't much to tell', but to be honest, there's a lot. ::she offered a light shrug:: I like to fix things. 

 

Nicholotti: response 

 

Jinean shook her head, relaxing her posture somewhat. While she did keep things to herself and knew how to position them in a favourable light, she wasn't a liar. 

 

Seta: I don't think there is one event. But I do remember a... well, really minor thing. A broken vase. ::another shrug:: My father loved it, I believe it was made by his own mother and somehow survived the occupation. But one evening, during an argument, my mother threw something at him, missed, and knocked the vase down. It broke. 

 

Nicholotti: response 

 

Seta: ::nodding:: Exactly. I figured I can't fix the vase, but had my mother not knocked it down, it wouldn't have broken. Had they not fought, she wouldn't have thrown something. Had there been any kind of support, they would not have fought. ::she paused:: I guess I try to fix people before the proverbial vase breaks. 

 

Nicholotti: response 

TAG/TBC

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Lt. Seta Jinean
Counselor
Excalibur-A
J239809TA4