Troubles with Trembles
Posted on Wed Jul 3rd, 2019 @ 7:54pm by Camille Petrovich
Edited on on Wed Jul 3rd, 2019 @ 9:18pm
1,751 words; about a 9 minute read
Mission:
Episode 7 - Home Again
Location: HS Room 7, Deck 5
Timeline: MD006 1000 hrs
Cami's VIP quarters aboard the station were lovely. But too quiet. She'd enjoyed the busy, if tense, atmosphere and she'd wandered and done her performances. But she was having trouble sleeping and was starting to feel like an empty shell.
Neil. Even as she walked the corridors of the Pioneer, tears threatened to over whelm her and she hated it. Why was she so upset? She was nervous about even being aboard the Pioneer, but had been told Neil was on the station.
She felt the need to talk to someone. Maybe a shipmate of Neils would help her understand what was going on.
Camila knew she really needed to talk to Neil, but if she did that and things fell completely apart she might explode. So, she'd made an appointment with the Pioneer's counselor.
Maybe she could help.
She arrived at the appointed space on time and announced herself, "Camille Petrovich to see Dr. Ovaa?"
Tallida hadn't had the opportunity to counsel any non Starfleet personell before today. In fact she was having a hard time understanding why any one who wasn't Starfleet would have made an appointment with her. The name had brought up some interesting items in the ships computer when she typed in the name 'Camille Petrovich'. The doctor heard a voice and spurred by curosity she popped out of her office taking no care look before she collided with a cart of supplies that had been passing by her door. "Shoot" she scolded under her breath as she bent to help the crewman pick up everything she had attempted to murder. "Ms. Petrovich?" She asked once she had finally settled herself.
Camile let the door open, looked down to see an errant PADD laying there and stepped over it, looking up and smiling as she entered the warmly, if clinically, appointed room. Hesitantly taking a seat, Cami smiled at Talli. "Hello and thank you for seeing me Counselor. I...Well I find myself in a position I've never been in before and it has me at a loss. I thought because it involves one of your crew-mates and because I'll more than likely be traveling with the Pioneer in the near future, it would be best to get an opinion from an expert." She settled her hands into her lap and watched the doctor with interest. Cami had been to councilor's before of course, but never a Star Fleet one.
"I am happy to help, but I am far from an expert." Tallida replied as she moved to pick up the errant PADD. Taking a deep breath she smiled easily at the beautiful women that was in her office. "Please make yourself comfortable. Can I get you anything to drink?" She asked as she moved to the sideboard. This really was standard operating procedure and she hated the Marine CO just a little bit more.
Cami settled into the chair a bit more, smiling her thanks and said, "Water would be very nice, thank you. I imagine I'll be talking and may need it," the dark haired woman said. She sighed a bit and said, "It's strange to be here like this. Six months ago I'd never have imagined it. But, I have to complement you on your surroundings. Very cheerful and warming. It makes it easier, I think."
"Studies show that the less clinical a room is the more at ease a person feels." Talli replied as if reading it from a textbook. "I figure that since this profession is based on putting people at ease I would change things up a bit." She added as she finished pouring the glass of water and returned to her chair. "So, where did you see yourself now, six months ago?" she asked curiously.
Cami sipped at the water, smiling her thanks before setting it on the side table's cooling round. "Well, six months ago I was due to play Vulcan for a year. I am a pianist, specializing in combining species music into my own work to help other races, hopefully, grow an appreciation and understanding for it."
She smiled then, "Six months ago I was playing on Casper Prime, near the end of a six month engagement. It's a lovely planet and they were offering very good money to stay for another six months, but..it's a tourist trap and I've always wanted to see Vulcan," she said, her eyes going soft at the thought of it.
"And then HE came into my life, as they say," she said wryly. "Your crew-mate Cornelius Alphons Tremble, 2nd Lt. of the Pioneer's Marine Detachment. You know him of course, I would imagine." She smiled warmly at Talli then, her light brown eyes glinting.
Talli almost started choking as the man who she had hoped to never interact with again came up. He was a specter that was haunting her as it was. "Excuse me." she pleaded as her face turned read and it was everything she could do to not cough. Before she spoke she started nodded. "Yes, I have heard of him."
Cami smiled and sat back a little, but a bit of frustration traced across her face. "Of course you would have. He's... so very distinctive, isn't he. I honestly have never met anyone like him and that's part of the problem." She uncrossed and recrossed her legs then, discomfort or perhaps embarrassment showing in the movement. "I have to be honest. I chased him like, what was the word I found...a camp follower. It's so incredibly embarrassing. And then at the Captain's western party, I saw the chance. Hoped at it, honestly, to see him again. And he did show up...and... was shocked. He claimed not to know what to say in seeing me. And... then I. Well, I don't know if you were there. But I ran off when he was trying to talk to me...but he wasn't saying what I wanted to hear!"
Her voice was going up octaves at that point and Camille cut her self off, misery settling across her face. "Like some stupid school-girl..."
Tallida listened to the women and had to will herself not to smile. She could tell the women was genuinely upset by what had happened but it didn't change the amusement she had to the fact that Tremble had the ability to cause even the most sane and put together females to lose their cool. "I am not sure distinctive is the word I would choose but I could see how one could think that." she said calmly. "I take it this action is out of character for you?"
"I guess what they say about uniforms is true in my case," Cami confessed. "He was wearing what he called dress whites." She shrugged helplessly and slumped a bit, "And yes, very out of character. I've had relationships of course. All of them ending for one reason or another. But, I couldn't...can't get him out of my head. Then I get here...and..." her eyes closed and she made a face, her fist rapping on the arm of her chair.
"And I'm a mess!" "I'm scared to talk to him. He obviously doesn't feel the same..." at that she swallowed hard and opened her eyes to look at Talli. "But I have to talk to him. You know him though, right?What should I do...am I just fooling myself?" Her voice fell as she said the last, making it a question to herself as much as Tali.
"How do you know he doesn't feel the same?" Tallida asked. She had spared with the Marine and she was only partially sure he was actually a marine based on their conversation. He was pompous and arrogant. He was most assuredly a Marine. "Have you asked him?"
Cami sat quietly, thinking about that and shrugged. "No. What if he tells me I should leave. What if he doesn't feel the same way that I do...I'm such a fool!" Burying her face in her hands, Cami sat there for a few quiet moments.
Tallida reached over and placed a hand on her arm in a comforting gesture. "You are not a fool." She said softly. "I would imagine that someone in your place, as accomplished as you probably doesn't time for interpersonal relationship." As the words tumbled out of her mouth she knew they weren't going to mean to the women what she wanted them to mean. "That is too say that we can't always explain why we want what we want." She wasn't making this better.
Cami brought her head up at Talli's words, her brown hair cascading away from her face revealing dampened eyes. "At times like this, I turn to my music. I understand music," she then tossed her hair angrily, and wiped at her eyes. "But, I also don't want to pull the music up over me and burry myself. I can't. I tried. It's why I'm here now."
Then she caught Tilli's gaze again, "I was sort of hoping. Maybe, you being a ship mate of Neils and such that you might be able to talk to him for me? He'd listen to you!" Hope was tinging Cami's words and tone now as she looked at the Pioneer's counselor.
Talli's eyes went wide. Her mind raced. What on earth could she say to get out of this? "I, uh," she started as she looked around the room. Look around at anything but the women who was pleading her to inject herself into the love life of a man who hated her. "I don't get the impression that Lieutenant Tremble likes my profession." she started. She knew she would do it if for no other reason then to help the women. "But I will try."
Cami's eyes took on a look of gratitude at that and they rimmed with tears."Oh thank you. I knew coming to ask a friend of his to help would be the right thing to do." Impulsively, Cami hugged Tilli, continuing, "Thank you. Thank you. I'll save you a seat at my next performance!"
Standing, her face beaming, Cami moved toward the door and waved to Talli. "Again, thank you so much, Doctor. You're just wonderful!"
A Joint Post By
Camille Petrovich
Civilian, Empok Nor
Lieutenant Tallida Ovaa
Chief Counselor, USS Pioneer
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