Dr. Lisa Hall sat in her office quietly reading a paper on the effects of neurological stimuli on Vorta brain chemistry. After her enhanced interrogation of the Vorta commander down on Nasera, she felt she had some updates to submit to the authors.

A chime at the door announced the arrival of Commander Robert Drake, the Polaris’ JAG officer. He strode into the room with proud purpose, his freshly polished boots echoing across the hard floor. Dr. Hall didn’t even look up. He wasn’t here for a counseling session, and she didn’t have any interest in entertaining the shark.

“Ahem,” Commander Drake said as he came to a stop directly in front of the psychologist. Still, Dr. Hall didn’t look up. “Dr. Hall, we need to talk.”

Dr. Hall set down the PADD and looked at him unimpressed. She suspected she knew why he was here, but she had no interest in entertaining the pompous, holier-than-thou defender of Federation ideals. She folded her hands in her lap with a flat expression on her face and waited for him to continue.

“What happened on Nasera?”

“Well, this morning, the sun rose over Nasera City at approximately 0730. I would figure that sometime before that, or after that, most of the population had breakfast. As for what they’re doing now…”

“Quit it Dr. Hall,” Commander Drake interrupted. “You know exactly what I meant with my question.” The JAG’s eyes narrowed on her, but Lisa Hall was completely unphased. She knew men like this. They talked all tough, but if she so much as stood up and slapped him across the face, he’d shrink away and cower like a petrified child. “What happened during the Battle of Nasera?”

“Oh, you would like a history lesson on what happened three nights ago?”

Commander Drake nodded.

“Well, at approximately 1755 hours, a Starfleet Hazard Team dispatched under the orders of Fleet Admiral Reyes executed a series of covert operations to sabotage Dominion-controlled infrastructure, and then, at 1800 hours, a squadron of six ships, led by the USS Polaris, began an assault to retake Nasera from the Dominion.”

“I am well aware of the sequence of events,” the JAG officer interrupted again. This was not what he meant by a history lesson.  “What I want to know is what you and your team did there.”

“The details of that would be in Commander Lewis’ classified after-action report.”

“Well, I’m not reading Commander Lewis’ report right now, am I?” countered Commander Drake. What the counselor didn’t know was that the JAG had already pulled that innocuous and vague report. “I’m here, asking you.”

“And what I’m telling you is that, as far as I am aware, you are not cleared for that information as it was a covert operation,” Dr. Hall replied, her tone shifting from one of petty mockery to one of firm insistence. “If you are interested in the details, you will need to submit a document access request through appropriate channels. And I am not an appropriate channel.”

“That’s bullshit, Lieutenant!” Commander Drake shouted, using her rank to remind her that, while she called herself a doctor, at the end of the day, she was a Starfleet officer first and foremost.

“Commander Drake, I do not appreciate your use of language unbecoming of a Starfleet officer,” she replied with a smile.

“You know I have the clearance to have this conversation.”

“Commander, while I believe I may have an understanding of your clearance level, that is not how the regulations are written.” She was correct in that. The regulations did not defer the interpretation of clearance to each and every individual officer in possession of classified material. “You will need to speak with Commander Lewis if you are interested in understanding the chain of events that occurred on Nasera II.”

Commander Drake absolutely planned to have a conversation – and probably many at that – with dear old Commander Lewis, but not yet. He was hoping to gather some details from the other team members first.  “Let’s try this a different way,” Drake pressed. “We have the body of the Vorta. We ran a full panel on him. Anticholinergics, receptor agonists, amphetamines, angiotensin inhibitors, beta blockers… need I go on?”

“Sounds like our Vorta friend was struggling with quite a set of mental health challenges,” Dr. Hall replied nonchalantly. She spent her life learning to interrogate people. The Commander’s pathetic attempts at interrogating her would get nowhere. “I hope he’s seeing someone for that, and that the medications are helping him.”

“He’s dead Lieutenant!” Commander Drake snapped. “Do you know anything about that?”

“Oh, what a shame. Maybe we should ask that Admiral if she’ll hold a funeral.”

“He was in your custody Lieutenant! This was your doing!”

“You seem stressed Robert,” Dr. Hall replied coyly, using his first name to demean him for the two were most certainly not on a first name basis. “Maybe you should see someone about it. While pharmaceutical drugs are outside my scope of practice as the ship’s counselor, might I suggest you go see Dr. Henderson about something for that?”

“Listen here Lieutenant. Before I’m done with you guys, you and the rest of Commander Lewis’ goons will answer for what you’ve done!” Commander Drake scowled angrily. “This won’t be the last conversation we have on this!” He spun on his heels and departed brisky. He hated spooks. 

Once he was gone, Dr. Hall tapped her combadge: “Hall to Lewis.”

“Lewis here, go ahead.”

“The shark is snooping around.”

“Drake?”

“Yep.”

“Alright, I’ll deal with it. Thanks for the heads up.”

The link hung up, and Dr. Hall went back to her journal article without another thought.