A Man, A Plan, and a Difficult Decisi-an

[Sam_SemaJ 0]

"A Man, A Plan, and a Difficult Decisi-an"

Personal Log - S.K. Sema'J

SD 11002.02

 

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Counselor Sam Sema'J sat at his desk. His chair was the swiveling type, giving him the opportunity to spin back and forth bouncing off opposite corners of his desk. Not really a productive use of his time, but his mind was churning and he tended to be a nervous fidgeter, so back and forth the chair went. Stacked on the corner of his desk were a number of padds, all containing notes and information for the article he had been slaving over, an in depth case study of the the Hammarian society through which he was comparing similar slave-like societies throughout history. Sure all that information could be neatly organized on a computer console...but who had time for that? Today was a Wednesday, and normally for these few hours of every Monday Wednesday and Friday, Sam would dedicate himself to the research project (or try as hard as he could aboard an often-busy starship). But today he had pushed all these pads aside and had a single one sitting in front of him.

 

The single padd was the medical file of Cmdr Zar Alces, a (apparently) joined trill who was "experiencing memory and consciousness conflicts leading to physical complications." Oh, if only there was more noted in the file than that. From the way Dr. Swan fastidiously kept her supply closet, Sam would have expected a more concise medical notation. He now understood, though, that because of the sensitive nature of the material, this is all Katherine had been willing to write into the file, which was deemed confidential anyway. He was now looking at that and Alces' joined status for the first time, one of a handful of people who knew this information. As Alces had explained, the medical file had been locked by the Trill governing council, the type of lock which Starfleet was usually in the habit of accepting for the benefit of political relations. Sam was grateful that the commander was willing to go as far as putting Sam's name as an attending care provider on this case. Being out of the loop, especially with the shards of worrisome information he had been given by Dr. Swan, had been killing Sam.

 

Sam was convinced that anything like this was better in the light of day, maybe not the complete light where everyone knows about it...but not kept secret as it had been. However, as much as he was glad that this was now open to him, he was a bit on edge about the responsibility facing him. Now that he was the ranking care provider for the case, Sam had the right to deem or break patient confidentiality to a superior, in this case the Captain, or other person of interest to the case. The commander insisted keeping this under wraps was for the best, and from his urgency and the way he described the split loyalties the Captain might face if presented with this situation, Sam was inclined to agree with him. But that was conditional upon the Counselor getting all of the information involved, understanding the specific nature of the situation. And it was about to be explained to him. In about 15 minutes he would be walking into the sickbay offices to meet with Dr. Swan and the Commander. He had been avoiding Katherine since talking to Cmdr Alces. He figured that without Alces' corroboration there was no way he was going to convince the Dr. that he had not broken the trust of their earlier conversation. Facing her might turn out to be a bit messy at first.

 

Sam felt quite concerned about what she had gotten herself into. Her remaining silent about the Commander's condition as well as his joined status were all going to be washed over by the political concerns involved, which she probably didn't even know about. However the mind meld and technically stolen medical supplies were still hanging there, waiting for judgement. Sam was prepared for his new confidentiality decision, one he would make upon hearing the whole story from the other two involved. But currently the corners of his desk were being bounced trying to figure out how to pick up the pieces from the other offenses. Sam had always kind of rooted for Katherine. She seemed to come out of such an impossible situation. Sure she had done some wrong along the way, but she was utterly forced into it, and she came out of the whole situation looking like an abused animal, she ducked away from or snapped at any hand that tried to pet her, not to mention the inferiority and guilt complexes she experienced about the Starfleet officers surrounding her. Sam was proud to see what she achieved in pulling herself up into a career and turning out to be an impressively good doctor. He wasn't sure she was a great Starfleet officer yet...but that seemed the harder of the two tasks. Whatever the case, Sam did not want to see her get burned for these current indiscretions. There had to be some way for it to be a learning experience for her. As Sam pondered how that could happen, his feet swung around and bumped into the corner of his desk.

 

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