Time had passed quickly and pleasantly now that the crew of the USS Valkyrie could consider themselves on shore leave. The increased amount of free time gave them the opportunity to reconnect, and to deal with the things they had seen during their encounter with the subspace anomalies.

But not everyone seemed to get the chance to deal with recent events. What had happened to the away team on the Freighter Huelgh only affected three officers – a number that paled in comparison to the amount of people seeking counselling to work through the aftereffects of the hallucinations.

Seta Jinean, on of the counselling staff on the ship, knew that she should have scheduled a meeting earlier, but had to deal with her own problems before she could help anyone else. Can’t pour from an empty cup.

“Thank you for coming.”, she said softly, and looked at the three young officers in front of her.

Tanna shifted nervously in her seat. It had been a strange few weeks since her escape from the Freighter Huelgh, and she was glad to finally be able to talk openly about what happened.

“Thanks for seeing us, Counsellor.” she said, smiling. “Who wants to go first?” After a pregnant pause Tanna let out a deep sigh and said, “Alright, I guess it will be me. Strap in everyone.” Tanna then broke into the story about how the three of them had met up, went to look for the tech and been promptly captured. She told them about her interactions with Rhaan Velik, and his curiosity with her arm implant, and about her meeting with him on the bridge when she sent the distress message.

Shahr shuffled uncomfortably. He was not looking forward to recalling his brief stint of imprisonment. The Imperial Guard never would’ve given him counseling for it… Someone likely would’ve dressed him down for getting caught. Shahr kept his mouth shut for now, and so did Stroyer.

“That’s the stuff you know about.” Tanna said with a smile, “Now for the fun part. I was in my cell, not sure what steps to take next, and totally unsure if you had even gotten my message. I decided it was high time I took a loved one’s advice, and be strong.” She paused for a moment, remembering the delusional conversation she had with Abbie in her cell. She didn’t feel quite like sharing that one yet.

“The next time the guards came around to feed me, I pretended to be in pain. It’s an old movie trope. When he came in, I threw myself at him and managed to snatch his distruptor off his belt in the scuffle. I gave him a quick stun, stole his coat and eyepatch and went to find myself an escape pod, or a shuttle or something.” She paused to drink some water, and then she produced a old, well worn eyepatch from a pocket.

“Wow. Nice work Tanna!” Obviously, Shahr knew Tanna had escaped. But he hadn’t heard her story yet. He was pleased to hear she’d tricked AND overpowered her guard.

“Great thinking.”, Stroyer agreed, and the Counselor nodded approvingly.

“Thanks! Okay, so anyway,” Tanna continued, “after a while of sneaking around and searching, I managed to find an escape pod that worked. I was just entering in launch commands in a nearby console when another guard showed up down the corridor, then hit some kind of panic button on the wall. Clearly, my disguise wasn’t fooling anyone, so I ditched the coat there. I finished my inputs just before he reached me, and I threw myself into the escape pod. He lunged after me, grabbed my leg, and started pulling me back into the ship. I had to kick him in the face pretty hard to make him let go. When he did, I stunned him too. As I got back into the pod, Rhaan Velik found me. I shouted after him I was sorry I couldn’t help him, then shut the doors and hit the launch button. I heard his fists pounding on the airlock door just seconds before I launched. I was afraid he would start firing on me, but I think the pod managed to get properly lost amongst the asteroids. Then I just had to fire up my distress beacon, and wait for the Valkyrie to pick me up. And that’s pretty much that.”

Tanna sat back in the chair and took another long drink of water as the others continued. It wasn’t a super exciting escape story, but she couldn’t help but feel proud of what she had done. In the face of fear and feelings of inadequacy, she had learned something about herself, and she wasn’t going to let herself forget about it anytime soon.

Shahr’s eyes darted between Tanna and Nevaeh. He hadn’t yet told them of his escape either. Of course, he’d told Starfleet Security all about it. He had to. It was the only way. He took a brief sip of his water, sighed deeply, and began.

“I suppose… I could go now.” Shahr’s words came out haltingly. “I won’t rehash the beginning. I don’t recall the capture itself… not yet, anyway. I remember waking in a cell, with most of my disguise removed. I was tied to a chair. It was hot. I don’t mean hot as in, standard-Federation-ships-are-hot-for-Andorians hot, I mean it was really hot. There was condensation on the walls. I assume it was for my discomfort. No reason for environmental controls to be set that high for any of the species I saw there.”

“It’s a commonly used technique to, indeed, increase discomfort.”, nodded Seta.

“The guards beat me for a while. Eventually, a Reman came in. I expected more beatings, but he actually chided the guards for their work. At this point, I assumed he was simply working a ‘good cop’ routine, and didn’t trust him. We bantered a while, but… if I’m being honest, I could not match him. I’m not trained for that. I tried to get him to slip up, reveal something, give me a clue about the others…” Shahr looked to his friends again, then resumed staring intently at the wall. “He gave up nothing. He did, however, make it clear to me that I had two choices. Death, or cooperation. Something in the way he spoke…” Shahr paused. Re-living the memory was making him uncomfortable. It was making it real again. “I believed him.”

“What happened then?”, Stroyer prompted.

“He offered me a job. I’m not proud to say I took it. Maybe someone else would’ve just said no and accepted death. I truly believed it was the only avenue to escape, and I wanted to live. When I first awoke in that cell, I assumed I’d be interrogated, or tortured… I steeled myself to resist and hold out for rescue. That plan was dashed. So I accepted his offer, and tried to come up with a plan.”

Taking a moment, Shahr sipped his water again. His throat was dry, and his eyes burned with shame. His friend had skillfully escaped. He had given in.

“It actually didn’t take as long as I expected it to. The Reman wanted me to construct a device for him. It was basically a giant holo-emitter for a starship. Not important. That same day, they implanted me with what they called a ‘compliance device’, and the same guards that beat me escorted me to the market to get some supplies I needed. Ironically, I stumbled across some of the tech we’d actually been sent to retrieve. In my case, it was an experimental personal transporter. Experimental because it had been reduced in size to about a breadbox. For emergency use only, since it had a tendency to burn out and delete the user from the buffer before materializing. I didn’t care. It was my first opportunity, and I took it.” Shahr straightened his shoulders. “Similarly to how my story started, I don’t recall the moment of actual transport. I assume I programmed it to find a Starfleet signal and beam me there. What I do remember is waking up in Sickbay. The doctor told me I had suddenly appeared one of our shuttles, running scans to look for us. The compliance device was active. I think that’s what I don’t remember… my nerves were being fried.”

Shahr shook his head, pushing the memories back down. “Anyway. I escaped. Wasn’t very glamorous or brave, but I did. I debriefed with Security, disclosing my acceptance of the Reman’s offer. They said it was fine, but I still feel dirty for it.” Shahr found the nearby plotted plant very interesting then, and kept his eyes locked onto it.

“I think it was pretty brave.”, said Stroyer.

The Counsellor gave another nod. “I think so too. Ensign Stroyer, do you feel comfortable sharing how you escaped?”

Neveah remained silent for a good long while, then she shook her head. “Not really. It wasn’t as brave and glamourous.”

Hearing his companion speak, Shahr broke out of his private pity party. He looked at Neveah. “I, for one, and glad you made it back, regardless of your methods.” He had been worried for his friends during their ordeal. Not knowing if he’d see them again had been horrible.

“I’m small, and I look young. Younger than I actually am, and that has always been an advantage. The guards were not as brutal with me as they were with the others, and they were a whole lot less careful. When I escaped, I found Lieutenant Morishita, and left together with them.”

“I think you’re brave.” Tanna said. “I think it takes a kind of courage not everyone has to escape from a situation like that, no matter the means of escape.”

Stroyer sighed. “I am… sorry we got into that situation to begin with. I mean… I am just an Ensign, but I was the intel officer tasked with the operation. I feel like a failure.”

Shahr’s eyes darted back and forth between Neveah and the counselor, unsure if he should interject or let her speak first. Tactfully or not, he opened his mouth. “I am definitely not an intel officer, but it seems to me like you did your job. You correctly found a target, and briefed us on the dangers. A human friend from the Academy taught me a saying… ‘no plan survives first contact with the enemy?'” Shahr stopped then. He had wanted to say something comforting, but wasn’t sure if he was succeeding.

Tanna turned to Neveah. “Yea, exactly.” she said, “Plus, if we’re being honest, I was the one who really got us into that mess. I should have known better than to suggest meeting someone on their own ship. I’m just relieved we all made it back safely.”

The counsellor nodded. “What is important is that you are back, and that you are not afraid to speak about the things that happened when you need to. The way I see it, you don’t even need me – you are supporting each other just fine.”

Shahr looked as his companions again, and nodded eagerly at Tanna’s sentiment. He too was glad they had all made it back. He figured their individual experiences in captivity would haunt each of them for a while, but that was the price of surviving an ordeal; a price he would gladly pay. Since nobody had glared at him yet for opening his big dumb mouth, he pushed his luck.

“Maybe next time we get a room on a pirate ship, we can spring for a luxury suite?”