Group Therapy, Part 1

Posted on Tue Mar 19th, 2024 @ 11:02pm by Captain Remy Johansen & Commander Maxun Spello & Lieutenant JG Thivi
Edited on on Fri Mar 29th, 2024 @ 2:40pm

2,599 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Artifact or Artifiction
Location: USS Astrea, Deck 12
Timeline: MD 5

Muriel wasn't sure why she was here really. The room was strange. The people were strange. But Malada and Galvin had urged them all to come and participate so here she was - feeling conspicuous and somewhat embarrassed. Despite spending the last few thousand years in stasis, she really just wanted to be alone right now.

Brugel was quiet. It still felt like his mother and fathers had just died. He hadn't said anything since he was brought aboard, nor had he said anything since he was brought out of hibernation. The aliens seemed nice enough, but he was still afraid of anyone not Ataran.

"I don't get why I'm here." The one who'd spoken aloud was a rough-looking girl with reddish hair and dark skin named Jheva. "I thought I told you people that I'm fine without my mom and dad." She huffed and crossed her arms. She'd been found with injuries all over her body, much to the shock of the medical team who'd treated her. She'd been understandably shocked that these strange people could heal injuries without trace, if a bit quiet. "I'm not sad or anything!"

Feeva smiled lightly at the group that had gathered around. She'd placed out trays of "kid friendly" food-or so her own child told her-popcorn, soft drinks, and candy. The mom in her cringed, but did it.

"It's ok if you're not sad," she said. "Not all of us only deal with sadness," she said. "I am Feeva Drylo. You can call me Fee, if you'd like," the small woman said. "Counselors talk about a wide variety of things. Surely, you're having at least some questions about what has happened or what will," she said. "Or we don't have to talk at all. We can watch a holoprogram, or do something creative," she said. "Can you tell me if you...guys had school on your home planet? Any form of daily educational exercises?" She asked. That'd be a good place to start. The Vissian had stumbled on the term "guys"-a Terran word she wasn't fond of but wanted to be relatable and relaxed. She pulled Jacques out of his carrier. "Does anyone know what a "dog" is?" She said, holding the animal in her arms. "I promise he won't hurt you. You can hold him or touch him, if you'd like," she said. She set him down, and would let the children approach him if they wanted. He would just sniff them and then settle down, as he was trained to do.

Brugel watched everything and everyone from the corner of the room. He had scurried over to it as soon as the aliens brought him in here, and hadn't moved from it. When he saw the little furry animal, the alien who called herself...Phee...said it was a...a dug? Her accent was very strange and difficult for him to understand fully. Whatever this dug was, it reminded him of his pet feltoögan, Kriga, though the dug didn't have the razor fangs or striped fur. Not to mention no wings either.

Feeva noticed the young man watching Jacques. "If you stay quiet, he'll probably come to you. Do you want me to fix you a plate? Just go like this if yes," she said, nodding her head. "Or this, if no," she said, shaking it. Trauma often left young ones unable to speak. With time, trust, and therapy, he'd be able to, she knew. She wouldn't push him. "Well. I will sit here, then, and you three can let me know what you decide," she said, settling into a table with plenty of room for them to keep their distance. She spread out some art supplies-drawing was a good way to interact silently, and whatever they drew would give her some insight. "Do you guys have a specific food you like to eat? If you can describe it, I might be able to figure it out for you," she offered, but then started to doodle. She wasn't an artist by any stretch of the imagination, but she could doodle little animals, which she often did for Leena.

After a few moments, Brugel slowly moved from the corner. He moved to the table just long enough to grab some paper and colored pencils. He then scurried back to his corner and started to draw quickly. Image after image, in perfect detail. One was of a handsome looking couple smiling at him. Another was of an alien ship, the image of a bird in flight on its hull was unmistakable. The next image was of a Romulan in battle armor, blasting away with a disruptor rifle.

Jheva wasn't nearly as engaged as the other younger ones were. She prowled round them, not picking up any pen to draw or engaging with Jaques (whom she seemed to view with veiled fascination) while watching Feeva very, very carefully indeed - though there was something quite sisterly about her mannerisms, as if she were trying to protect the younger ones from harm. "Of course we have school. It's six days a week from dawn till the sun rises below the horizon." She stated brusquely. "Our parents pay for it until we're sixteen cycles old - and then we are expected by law to finance it ourselves. Except in... some cases." The way she said that suggested that she knew painfully well what she was talking about, somehow. "I was never so lucky. You lot wouldn't understand, with all your fancy tech. You probably didn't even pay for it." Her face darkened seeing the drawing Brugal had made; she knelt next to him and spoke softly in his ear: "R'lyeh ka tiva'at je." Still, thy fluttering heart. Then she put her arm on his shoulder and squeezed once.

Feeva nodded. "Thank you, that is useful," she said. "You are correct, on my planet, education is free, but it's compulsory. That means that it's legally required, until age seventeen," she said. "At that time, you're permitted to enter the workforce if you choose to not pursue more educational opportunities," she said. "Unless you're a cogenitor. Then you aren't permitted to attend public schools. We have special schools for them," she said. She hated it. "Here on the ship, school is also free, but not compulsory, though I am sure that if you didn't send your child, it wouldn't be tolerated well," she said. "If you're interested, I can arrange for you three to attend classes with the other children," she said.

When Jheva spoke to him, then put her arm around him, Brugel stopped what he was doing and leaned into her. He then started to use some form of sign language with her. I'm scared, Jheva. What if the pointy ears come back?

"Then they will rue the day they decided to come back for seconds." Jheva knew she sounded far more harsh than was necessary, even speaking softly - but at this point she didn't care anymore. Their lives were gone, all of them. They had nothing - which meant there was nothing for her to lose speaking her mind. What could these weird people do, send them home?

Muriel watched the Counselor. When the animal was placed on the floor she watched it for a few minutes, then sat on the floor and tapped the floor trying to get the animal's attention. It was the only thing that had really taken her attention. "It is a pet?" She asked.

Feeva shrugged. "Not exactly," she said. "It was intended to be. My daughter's grandparents bought it for her when my husband died, but I felt she was too young for the responsibility, so I've trained him as a therapy and emotional support animal," she said. "On my planet, ownership of other animals that isn't for your personal food use is not common, so a little bit of it is that, too, I am sure," she said. She tried to remain ever aware of her own biases. She watched as Jacques nudged the girl's hand gently, encouraging her to pet him. "He likes it when you scratch by his tail," she said. She watched the interaction between the loud girl and the scared boy. The girl seemed to be a protective sort. Perfect. They were going to all need to help each other out. "Brugel, may I be allowed to see your drawings?" She said. "I promise I won't show or tell anyone else," she said.

Jheva's head snapped up, and her eye twitched as Feeva talked. Whether she was angry or something else was not immediately clear. She let the Vissian finish, for the sake of the others, before speaking her mind - and it didn't take an empath to realize that she didn't like what she'd heard. "Good for you, bumpy-face. You probably didn't grow up in a household that was so stifling you feel like you have to ask for permission to live, did you? My parents were soldiers, both of them, and somehow they got it in their heads that the only correct profession for a child of soldiers was, you guessed it, a soldier! I didn't even get to call them mother and father! "Yes, ma'am, no sir, permission to use the head, sir, permission to consume dinner, ma'am! I was nine cycles old! NINE! That was my life until I turned... gah, it doesn't matter now, does it? So I ran away. You would too, living my life, wouldn't you?"

Brugel looked pained by the anguish he heard from his best friend. Jheva had always looked out for him when they were in primary classes, when the bullies targeted him, she always stood up to face them down.

In an effort to calm her down, he reached out and hugged her, then signed that they were safe so long as the pointy eared aliens weren't around.

Feeva smiled sadly, but reached out to touch the girls arm. "No. But let me tell you a little bit about my life, so that you know that you're not the only one who's had it bad. My mother left the family when I was a baby. I was raised only by my father-he never remarried. We were VERY poor-Vissia still has a monetary system, and there was never enough money for anything. Not enough money for animal feed, so we had to sell our cows. Not enough money for a car, so I never went anywhere. Not enough money for new clothing credits for the replicator. I had to learn to sew to make my own out of whatever pieces of materials the ladies in town would give me," she said. "While it's not the same, it's still not good. And the brunette woman who's the second in charge? She was a prisoner of war when she was only eight years old," Feeva said. "I know it seems like the worst things have happened to you, and ONLY you, but everyone has something," she said. "I appreciate you sharing that with me. Did they...survive the pods?" She asked. She knew the answer, she just wanted to judge the girl's reaction.

"I'm here, ain't I? Everyone here has lost one or both parents? You know that! Why are you asking me for information you already have!?" Jheva jerked her arm away from Fee and wrapped it around Brugel instead. "Are you trying to psych me out, bumpy-face? Is that what this is?" She narrowed her eyes at the Vissian. "I already said I'm not sad that they're gone, didn't I? Because good riddance! Thanks but no thanks for depriving me of a normal childhood and treating me like I'm your poster child to-be!" Jheva spat.

Muriel scratched the dog where the counselor had told her to and was pleased that the animal stayed nearby. It was a welcome distraction to the anxiety in the room that Muriel was trying to shut herself away from.

Feeva looked at Jheva. "I asked because it will help me know how to help you," she said. "Your reaction tells me much," she said. "And like I said....you don't need to be sad," she said. "Your anger is justified," she said.

Feeva stood up to take the pictures from Brugel. She peered at it. "Romulans," she said. "Did they hurt you?" She asked. She turned to Muriel. "Where were you guys when the Romulans came?" She asked.

Muriel looked at Fee. "The ones on Serenity, likely close to the city of Jabal. They closed the schools down to evacuate." Muriel stopped petting the dog and rested her arms on her knees. "I didn't see any in person, just images later. There had been an attack somewhere though. People were panicking."

Feeva nodded thoughtfully. "When did you become involved with the others? Did you pick them up? Or they, you?" She asked Muriel. "Brugel, it's ok. There's no Romulans anymore. At least not many; their main star went Supernova and wiped them out and the Remans. The ones that remain are currently being closely monitored," she said. "And my friends are making sure that you won't have to live anywhere near them," she said. "Would you like to sit by me with Muriel and meet Jacques?" She asked. Perhaps she should ask one of the teenagers from the school to come down. She was a family therapist, and a mother, but she hadn't been a teenager in a while, and life on Vissia was clearly different.

Brugel shied away a little when the woman called Phee spoke to him. While the aliens had been treating them nicely so far, he still didn't fully trust them. He signed something to Feeva. Then, when he didn't get a reply, he signed again, a bit more agitated.

Muriel looked at Fee. "He's worried about what will happen to the kids with no parents," she told her.

Fee nodded. "Thank you for translating. Is that sign language in your native tongue?" She asked.

Muriel shrugged. "Not really. It's used with traders."

Exhaling angrily, Brugel looked over to Jheva and signed again, What is going to happen to those of us with no parents?!

I don't know. It hurt Jheva to sign the words. She might not have been sad about the loss of her parents, but what about Brugel? She'd known him to be as close to his family as any of their people would've been, with a normal childhood - and surely the same was for that girl whom she didn't know. Stay strong. That felt better to sign. Hope was good. She just hoped that it wasn't misplaced.

"What will likely happen is that we'll do our best to place you with some of your shipmates that you already know. A few of you might be able to stay with a family-it's called "adoption"-a family on a starbase or even here on the Astrea may want to take you in, and make you a part of their family. I know it seems...strange, and scary. But it wouldn't be to replace your parents, only to ensure you face no future traumas. Even maybe you can stay together," she said. It would take some doing, but Feeva was confident that at least two of the kids could be paired and the others could be scattered around. It wasn't ideal, but it would work. She'd need to send out a quiet, carefully worded communique ship-wide.

> > > To Part 2 > > >

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