Millie sat at the desk in her office. The cup of tea cradled in her hands had long since gone cold. She’d spent the last hour combing back through her own medical file, unable to come up with any more answers to the myriad of questions she’d failed to ask the leader of the giants. She’d completely omitted the fact that he’d looked directly at her when speaking about mixing species–and specifically ones that they had not previously encountered. She’d come into Starfleet with no answers about her paternal heritage, and their initial medical scans only served to increase her questions.

Whomever her father was, he wasn’t human. And now a species who’d traversed the universe before her people developed simple tools found her to be an unknown as well.

The chime of the door brought her thoughts back in a brutal whiplash. “Enter.”

 

K’Naut started at the counselor’s response to his request to enter her office. He wasn’t sure why he was so nervous about this appointment. It wasn’t as though she was a stranger. She was frequently on the bridge when he was at the engineering station. They had been on a number of away missions together. And then there had been that awkward conversation during which she’d asked for advice on raising felinoid children. Which he couldn’t give. He didn’t have any offspring, nor had he ever considered having any. Being an engineer and a Starfleet officer was all he ever wanted to do.

 

Which brought him back to why he was here to see the counselor. As a term of his re-enlistment, he was required to see a counselor on a regular basis. It wouldn’t do for him, or any other augmented person, to try and start another Eugenics War. The powers that be felt that a counselor would be the best person to see the signs of an impending tyrant. That was the deal agreed upon with Starfleet. He couldn’t complain about it. He had played a small part in making it happen by testifying, at the request of the Bashir Group, before the Federation Council’s Starfleet Oversight Committee. It was better to have this obligation than the aimless banality that he encountered in his civilian life.

 

He opened the door and stepped into the office.

 

“I’m here for my appointment, Counselor,” he said. 

 

Millie smiled, stepping around her desk to dump her cold tea in the sink. “Good afternoon, Chief.” She gestured to the small cluster of seats. “Can I get you a drink?” She set her cup next to the kettle, activating the small appliance. “Tea? Water? Something from the replicator?” It was only a moment before the kettle started to whistle.

 

K’Naut looked at the available chairs and was delighted to see that one of them had a hole in the back. He sat at it, taking care to thread his tail through the hole.

 

“I’d like some Vulcan tea, S’yet Mountain blend, please,” he said.

Her brow furrowed as her fingers worked their way through the canisters of tea leaves on the small table. Millie gave a soft sigh, making a mental note to add that to her supply requisition the next time a shipment was scheduled. Vulcan tea shouldn’t be too hard to acquire. She scooped her own tea selection into the small strainer and topped her tea cup with steaming water. A brief pause at the replicator for the Chief’s order, and she soon joined him in an adjacent chair.

Millie gave a soft blow on her tea. “Quite the adventure we had yesterday, wasn’t it?”

 

K’Naut took a sip of his tea. He scowled into the cup as he swallowed. Every cup of S’yet from the replicator tasted the same, except for the odd, faint aftertaste that every replicated food or drink had to the Caitian’s genetically augmented sense of taste. 

 

“I’m a student of history,” he said. “I’ve read dozens of accounts of encounters with powerful entities, and none of them gave any indication of how unnerving it would be. I still feel a little disoriented from being transported. What a way to discover that my kinesthetic sense was enhanced along with the others.”

 

He hopped out of his seat and began to pace the length of the room. The end of his tail lashed the air in short strokes, first to one side, then to the other.

 

“But mostly, I’m pissed off by that fellow’s Sitchin bullshit. What a load of crap!”

 

Millie gently set down her cup of tea on the table next to her chair. “Your feelings are quite valid. Several of the other crew members are having a hard time digesting the new information we received on this trip–myself included.” She tucked a foot under her, settling into her seat. “I am sure we are not the first explorers from either of our worlds that have found our belief systems challenged by a new discovery.”

 

K’Naut stopped pacing and glanced over at her.

 

“That’s not it, Counselor,” he said. “As a Starfleet officer, I have my belief systems challenged on regular. This is different.”

 

He resumed pacing, trying to think of a way to express himself. 

 

“Imagine having dinner with someone important that you admire, only to find out that they like to eat ketchup on their sushi,” he said after a few more passes. “It’s a huge disappointment for such a powerful being to have ideas like that.”

 

Millie nodded, folding her hands into her lap. “What about the encounter did you find to be disappointing?”

 

K’Naut stopped pacing again and gaped at the counselor.

 

“What did I- By the Clans, woman! I-” he paused as he felt himself losing control. He began the Vulcan exercises to calm down.

 

He returned to his seat and continued the exercises while holding his head in his hands. 

 

After a minute or two, he felt calmer. He took a long pull of his tea. The herbal flavor calmed him further.

 

“I apologize, Counselor,” he said. “I don’t know why your question affected me like that.”

 

He swirled his tea and took a sip. It had gotten cold. “I would have thought that as a human, you would understand my disappointment. After all, the sort of distrust created by all manner of pseudoscientific ideas nearly tore your society apart during Earth’s early 21st century. True, the giant’s story was a relatively innocuous one, as these things go, but it’s one that’s been thoroughly debunked.”

 

He got up and got a fresh cup of tea from the replicator. As he sat, he continued, “I’m trying to figure out why our ‘ertwhile’ overlord thought that some hoary old conspiracy theory from 20th century Earth was the right way to deal with us. And sending us back like that. ‘Hey, you used to be our slaves but you’re doing great on your own. Now get the hell out of here.’ I just don’t get it.”

 

Millie sat quietly, her hands folded in her lap, as K’Naut worked his way through his waves of emotion. “Therein lies the struggle with First Contact scenarios–” She forced her own smile. “We don’t have guidelines for interaction. We don’t have cultural knowledge to go off of. Humans had very similar growing pains in our first contact with the Vulcans. Even now, we–” She gave a quiet sigh. “We still don’t always get things right.”

 

She picked up her own cup, cradling it in her hands. “We don’t have guidelines for how to interact with this new culture. We don’t have information on their history, their technological advances, information from other places in this region– and they didn’t seem inclined to let us stick around to ask. That’s difficult to wrap your head around when you are suddenly no longer the first in the conversation to have charted the stars.”

 

K’Naut nodded. “I see your point. I have tried to imagine what it was like for my ancestors to encounter a Starfleet vessel for the first time. For those bold explorers visiting Cait’s celestial neighbors in their tiny warp-3 ship, meeting such an advanced starship, so much bigger and capable of the unheard speed of warp-7.5, must have been quite a shock.”

 

He took a sip of tea. 

 

“This has been a fascinating discussion, but maybe we should get to the point of me being here. Counselor, in your professional opinion, do I pose the threat of starting another Eugenics War?”

 

Millie chuckled softly. “That may be why you were told you need to be here. But that’s not why you need to be here.”

 

The Caitian sat back and crossed his legs. “I can think of a number of reasons for me to be here,” he said with a wry grin. “But this is only our first session. We should pace ourselves, we don’t want to get overwhelmed.”

 

“Lessening the likelihood of becoming overwhelmed is the hope for our time together. Perhaps, in time, we can lessen the need for spur-of-the-moment Vulcan meditations.” She tucked her other foot underneath her body, taking another sip of her tea. “Perhaps you and Ms. Liski would be less likely to lose your cool with each other on the bridge.”

 

K’Naut’s grin grew wider. “I guess you really are a counselor. I’m not interested in getting rid of my Vulcan exercises,” he said. “They have uses beyond calming me down.”

 

He took another sip of tea.

 

“And as far as Z is concerned, the only time she’s yelled at me on the bridge was under the influence of gravity wave narcosis.”

 

“And yesterday?” Millie paused, waiting for an acknowledgement that didn’t come. “You two had quite the argument just outside the turbolift.” She set down her cup on the adjacent table. “It picked up about ninety minutes later after you were released from Sickbay, and continued clear to your personal quarters.”

 

K’Naut leaned forward to deliver a cutting denial, then sat back.

 

“Huh,” he grunted with a frown. “That’s odd…”

 

He sat quietly for a few minutes until the counselor shifted in her chair. He tried to take a large drink of his tea, only to find, to his surprise, that there were just a few milliliters left at the bottom. He swallowed the meager dregs.

 

“I clearly recall the away mission and arriving on the bridge,” he said softly.

“But after that, it’s all a jumble of images and sounds. By the Clans, was I even coherent?”

 

“What can you remember?” Millie asked softly.

 

K’Naut stood and began pacing again.

 

“Only flashes,” he said. “Me throwing my tricorder, Statzia looking frightened,  being in the turbolift.”

 

He made a few passes before taking his cup back to the replicator and getting a fresh one. He returned to his seat.

 

“I’ve blacked before… when my rage took over, but I still remember most of what happened,” he said after staring into the cup for a moment. “This is different. It’s unnerving.”

 

Millie nodded. “You and Ms. Liski have had verbal alterations before, da? Have you lost time in any of your previous interactions?”

 

The Caitian grinned again.

 

“Oh, yes, we argued,” he replied. “It got so heated sometimes that Security was called. But that was back in our days on Deep Space 10. We haven’t had an argument here, at least not until yesterday.”

 

He took a sip of his tea.

 

“I’ve only blacked out during combat. When my life was threatened,” he said. “I guess it’s like one of those ancient Norse warriors from Earth. Berserkers, I think they were called. That’s disturbing too, in a different way. It’s not something that Caitians do.”

 

Millie nodded. “I remember that you had a brief interaction with one of the planet’s residents–with your claws. Did you feel like you were in a similar combat situation on the planet’s surface?”

 

K’Naut shrugged. “I had a hunch about their culture and I decided to test it out. I had a pretty good idea of what would happen, so I didn’t feel threatened.”

 

Millie stepped over to her desk, picking up a PADD. She returned to her seat, tapping at the screen with her stylus. “And you didn’t notice any symptoms until you returned to the ship?”

 

“Nothing but scorn for the leader’s claims.”

 

Millie scrolled through the information on the PADD. “I would like to take you back down to Sickbay.” She glanced back up at the Caitian. “We’re in unknown territory out here, and we’ve already seen how the unknown can impact members of the crew.” She gave a gentle smile. “Just to be sure you’re not being impacted by something we couldn’t detect.”

 

“If you think that’s for the best,” K’Naut replied. “But I feel fine now.”

 

“It might be good to compare how your body was responding to the stressors now that you feel more calm. Just to give us a baseline for comparison.” Millie gave a gentle smile. 

 

“Yes, I understand that,” he replied. “A good deal of medicine is not too dissimilar from engineering. You need to how equipment behaves when it’s working properly so you can tell when it’s not.”

 

Millie chuckled at that statement. “Well, hopefully you cooperate more than the equipment in Engineering. Evelyn regales me with all of the repair issues.”

 

“The Merc is only around 30 years old,” K’Naut said with a grin. “But she’s been a busy ship. I’ll report to Sickbay.”