Personnel File for Ensign Craig Benson

[Deck 7, Counselor's office, USS Rhode Island
January 11, 2387
1500 HRS]

As the turbolift car began it's journey towards Deck 7, Craig let his mind begin to wander, he thought about the friends he had left behind on DS10, the awesome leavers party they had thrown several days ago and the not so awesome hang over he had received from the booze. He thought back all those years ago to when he was a small boy, crying, clinging to his Mother's leg refusing to be scanned by the Betazoid doctor after he had had an accident, it was those jet black eyes, piercing into his soul. I was terrified she was a monster, Craig mused to himself.

The young Engineers mind snapped back to reality as the lifts' door slid open, revealing Deck 7. The ride had seemed unusually short, one of the things Craig would have to get used to, was the contrast between his new post and the old one, the ship itself seemingly giving an example by the minute long lift ride. He stepped into the corridor and proceeded to his destination, in truth he had been thinking about everything but the impending doctors appointment because he didn't know what to expect, there had only been one other time Craig had required a counselor evaluation and that was at the beginning of his Academy training. Craig remembered the room being uncomfortably warm, scented with some foul smelling incense intended to help relaxation but doing nothing of the kind.

He gave himself one last check over as he reached the door, clean shaven? Running his hand in a broad wipe over and around his mouth to check for stubble he found none, check, uniform? It had been freshly replicated this morning, check, shoes? Polished this morning, check, Hair? At the moment it was too short to do much with but leave to it's own devices, the sandy brown tuft on the top of his head he hoped would at least be presentable, It'll do. Craig chimed the door to the counselor's office and took a deep breath, exhaling with an audible blow. Once it's done, it's done.

Eiri stood from behind his desk as he had done so many times before and tugged on the hem of his uniform. "Enter!" he called out before focusing on the mind on the other side of the door. The human seemed new and nervous, young and a little too concerned with appearances. Eiri chuckled at the checklist and waited for the young man to enter his office.

The office was warm and inviting. Every manner of meditation device decorated the room and the standard starfleet issue sofa and chairs were a dark chocolate brown in color. Between the sofa and chairs was a low glass table and in the middle of the table was a large, brass, Tibetan singing bowl, sitting on a cherry colored pillow with little tassels at each corner.

The office doors opened with a light swoosh and Craig took a step into the room. No incense this time, shaking off the previous counseling session he moved over to the desk separating him and the counselor.

"Sir." He said with a nod, then standing to attention in front of the Lieutenant Commander, unsure how formal he should be with his superior officer and counselor. Better play it on the safe side. "Reporting as ordered."

Eiri smiled, his blue eyes warm and friendly. "Please, none of that in here. You can call me Eiri and you are Craig, yes? Is it alright that I call you Craig? Or would you prefer something else? Please sit and make yourself at home. Can I get you something to drink, perhaps?" The small, silver-haired counselor headed for the replicator.

Craig's posture sagged a little, smiling a small smile back politely he found himself unsure where to start with the influx of questions "Erm, you can call me Craig, sure, anything but Ensign Benson." He moved over to the rich brown sofa, sitting on the left side. As he leaned back he found himself surrendering all the tension his muscles held to the comfort that had taken it's place. "I'll just have some Tarin juice, so how do we go about this then?" Craig asked, curious as to where the conversation would lead to.

Eiri returned, a smile still on his face, with a glass of Tarin juice and a cup of Vulcan spiced tea for himself. He proffered the glass and sat down in the chair closest to Craig. "Well, it is actually very simple. I ask you questions that are designed to test your mental stability and you answer as truthfully as you can. Does that sound, alright to you?" He set his teacup on the table and picked up a PADD, looking at it seriously. More then likely it contained Craig's personnel file.

"Sounds simple enough." Drawing his attention from the odd brass bowl on the table in front of him to the PADD Eiri had picked up, several guesses flicked through Craig's mind, if it wasn't a questionnaire it would be a score sheet or some way to measure how many peas short of a casserole he was, if at all. Taking a swig from the sweet tasting juice, he felt ready to take on what ever was thrown at him.

Eiri set the PADD back on the low table and folded his hands in his lap. "Shall we get started? It may seem awkward at first but you will adapt. My first question is simply, how are you? In your own words please." He continued to smile.

"How am I?" Craig considered the question, he could answer with the three little words 'I am fine' but there was always more to it than that, Craig decided to go with speaking his entire mind "Well, I'm excited. New assignment," he gestured upwards with an open palmed hand to the ship around them "new people to meet, new gizmos and toys to play with in engineering, aside from the fact I've never worked on a starship before." He let the buzz that still came with thinking about the fresh start he had here momentarily rush through him before returning to a more calm demeanor. "I love working as part of a team, looking forward to getting to know everyone, not that that'll be hard considering the tiny size of the ship, heh." He stopped himself from babbling any further and instead opted to take a sip from his drink.

Eiri chuckled and took a sip of his tea, looking once again at the PADD for a moment. "Good! Sounds like you are getting along well in your new position. Sometimes it can be very hard for people to adjust. How is your concentration? Are you able to focus on your duties?"

"Yea." His first few shifts had been run of the mill, diagnostics, scans and the like. "I mean most of what we've done so far I've fallen back on my training for, concentration hasn't been an issue at the minute, I've chatted away with a few people here and there while working, but as long as the work got done I didn't let the conversations become too distracting." Speaking of distracting, Craig looked past Eiri, to the painting on the wall behind him, it didn't seem to be a painting of anything in particular, a random assortment of coloured swirls and lines. He cocked his head, staring at it further wondering as to the meaning. "Is that Bek Alaans' work?"

Eiri blinked and looked over his shoulder at the painting on the wall. "Yes... yes it is?" he grins. "One of my favorites. I have always loved the colors of Bek Alaans' work. So bright and hopeful and the images... if you can call them that... are always soft and comforting. Do you enjoy art?"

Craig realized where he had seen the painting before: during his work for a presentation in his art class at school, he had specifically chosen Alaan because of his abstract theme based on emotions he felt toward the Occupation of Bajor and how his faith carried him through. Craig demonstrated how they could be applied to the war with the Dominion the quadrant was facing at the time by presenting his own attempt using Alaans' style, earning him a fairly high mark, the project had been interesting but art wasn't his thing. "I won't go out of my way to see exhibits, but it's an interesting way to see the world through someone else's eyes," he admitted, "music is more my type of art."

"Oh! I did not realize that you were a musician. Is that what you do in your free time?" Eiri seemed sincere in his interest. Even if the counselor was faking his interest he was doing a good job of it. He took another sip from his tea and looked down at his PADD again. "It is good for people to have a hobby. I am not much of musician myself, but I do love music."

"Me too, listening to it that is, I don't play." Feeling a little awkward for misleading the counselor, he continued "In my spare time though I prefer to be keeping busy socializing or playing Parrises Squares, Velocity, Jem Kat Rings that sort of thing, or walks, there was a National Park on Deneva that me and Stacey used to spend days out at." A grin spread over Craig's face, reminiscing over the only person he'd been in a serious relationship with, there had been others but none had compared to her, beautiful, witty and so compassionate about Cytology. The first time they had visited the park Craig had built her a hand scanner out of spare parts for her birthday and they spent the whole afternoon, wandering the woods together scanning any and every form of life.

"Stacey? Is that your girlfriend?" He did not make any apologies for assuming that Craig was a musician, besides they were just getting to know each other. "Does she serve here or somewhere else?" He had not remembered seeing a Stacey on the roster, but that did not mean he had not missed someone. There were a lot of names to look at.

Craig took another gulp of his juice "She was, we split after she joined Starfleet, with her studies at the Academy and being light years away we thought it best. She serves on a long range science vessel as a xenobiologist now I think. The Horizon if I remember it right." He made a mental note to send a message to her later on to see how she was doing, it had been a while since they had last spoke.

"Mmm... I am certain that you miss her, hopefully you parted amiably. So, tell me, how are you sleeping? Any disturbing dreams I should know about?" He looked up from the PADD again, not giving any indication that he had heard the inner conversation as well as the outer one.

A look of bewilderment dawned on Craig's face at the sudden change of conversation, "No...Nothing I can think of worth mentioning." His dreams of late had been the usual surreal, disconnected random fragments of half used imagination combined with reality. He looked to his glass, it was almost empty, as he waited for the next question he began to swill the liquid in its' container.

Eiri chuckled at the human's reaction. "Sorry, that was rather abrupt. We can talk about those things too if you'd like to, but since it is our first session I wanted to make sure that we could get through the things I have to ask. Things like... seeing or hearing things that I do not see or hear?"

"Uuuhm, like hallucinations? I've never hallucinated as far as I'm aware. There's been times I've been awake for longer than I should have been and started hearing things but never anything worse than that. No external alien influences on my mind have affected me either, my career's still in it's early days for that kinda excitement." As he finished his sentence he downed the rest of his juice and set the empty glass down on the coffee table next to the bowl and gently took the striker from it, observing it closely, rolling it in his hand to examine it from every angle.

Eiri watched Craig with interest. The striker was wooden and simple, with very little decoration, its surface smooth from use and age. There were two distinct parts, the handle and the striker. "And do you have any thoughts of hurting yourself or others?" he asked softly.

Craig's gaze broke from the striker to look the counselor, "No." He said bluntly, self harm had never been an option for him to use against his problems, nor was violence, he saw both as fighting fire with fire, only making matters worse. At the end of the day if Craig had a problem he talked it out, dealt with it and moved on. When it did come to blows, however, that's where the young Engineers partial knowledge of Judo came in handy.

"That is good to hear," Eiri smiled warmly and got up to refill Craig's cup, returning quickly with a new drink for the Ensign. "If a problem did arise..." the silver-haired Vulcan mix sat back down in his chair, "... who would you go to?"

"Thanks," he said as he took the refilled cup from the counselor gently, "could you be a little more specific?" the question seemed vague, the problem and who he would go to may rely entirely on the situation.

"Well, essentially what I am getting at is... if you came across an issue would you follow chain of command? And if you had a personal problem who would you bring that to? Sort of what I am looking for here is do you have someone that you feel comfortable confiding in and are you comfortable enough with your senior officers to trust them with problems as well?" He smiled warmly.

"Oh, well yea, I bring work related problems up to my superiors, it's part of working as a team, sometimes though I get carried away and try tackling stuff myself, I like a challenge. If it's a problem with someone else I usually try and talk it out before I have to get superiors involved." He stopped briefly to sip from the recently refilled cup. "But personal problems are something I only discuss with my close friends."

"Do you have people on the ship that you consider close friends? I got the feeling that you and this Stacey person are still close." He reached out and picked up the bowl, pillow and all, setting the whole thing in his lap. He then picked up the striker, struck the bowl once and then ran the striker around the edge of the bowl, producing a clear, deep, soothing tone. As long as he continued to run the striker around the bowl it continued to hum.

"I've made a few friends with the people I've worked with in engineering, and while I was having dinner in the mess hall, but I'm still getting to know everyone really. I hope I get to consider them close friends at some point." He had spoken to Ensign Paaku who worked on the station adjacent to his own a couple of times when they were on the same shift and recently felt like he was getting to know him, and the Chief had given him a warm welcome and a friendly chat when he had first boarded the ship, but apart from them and the handful of people he had spoken to on his lunch breaks there was no one he felt truly close to yet, he knew the bonds of trust and friendship would take time.

Eiri stopped the ringing of the bowl and smiled at Craig. "I think you are going to get along just fine." He offered the bowl out to Craig. "Would you like to give it a try? It is one of the most ancient human devices I have. This one I did not replicate it was a gift from one of my first teachers. It is called a singing bowl."

The Engineer took the bowl gently from Eiri with his left hand, with the striker in the other hand he began mimicking the same motion along the edge of the bowl near the rim. When nothing happened Craig remembered he'd missed a detail, gently striking the bowl he tried again and the bowl produced a low hum. Mesmerized by the circular motion and the sound he was producing, the young man smiled, he had never seen anything like it. "Kinda sounds like a warp core." The statement not so much directed at Eiri but a simple thought out loud. "How old is it?"

Eiri smiled. "That one is about four hundred and fifty years old. Do you do any meditation?" he asked, please that the Ensign was interested in the bowl. It was one of Eiri's favorite meditation tools. For some reason the sound of the bowl soothed him in a way that no other device ever had. He wondered if it would do the same for Craig.

Craig shook his head, "No, I've never meditated." while the relic certainly had a calming effect on him, it was not something he was into. Stopping the motion of the striker, the room was filled with silence once more, placing the striker in the bowl, he took the instrument in both hands, turning it left and right, appreciating it all the more for being so ancient. "You say this is from Earth? It's amazing stuff like this survives for so long."

"It is from Tibetan culture. I have put the information into the matter replicator if you are interested. There are a wide variety of "notes" based on the shape and size of the bowl." Eiri blushed. "Sorry, it is one of my passions so I do tend to go on a little. Do you have any questions for me, Craig? You can ask anything you like." He smiled.

"Don't worry about it," giving a broad smile back to the counselor at the involuntary out burst, he continued "these first few shifts I've been acclimating, getting into the swing of things and so on, it's left me little time to explore, is there anywhere about everyone likes to go to unwind after a shift? A mess hall or lounge, that kind of thing?"

"I believe there is a lounge, but I am not certain where it is located. I have heard crewmembers call it the Violet Lounge, so maybe if you ask the turbolift for that it will take you there." He chuckled. "I do not usually visit places like that. Because of my abilities it can be difficult for me to be in large crowds."

"Uuuh-huh," not quite understanding the last comment, must be something to do with patient/doctor confidentiality, he guessed, "Thanks for the info anyway, was there anything else you wanted to go over?" glancing at the chronometer Craig could see the hour had almost entirely slipped by them and his shift in was due to begin soon.

Eiri shook his head. "I am done with my interview, Craig. It was very nice to meet you. Thank you for keeping your appointment." The counselor stood and offered his hand for shaking, a smile on his face. Craig rose with the counselor, shaking the hand he offered firmly, smiling back.

"No problem, it's been a much better meeting than the last one I had" he replied with a chuckle, tensing and then releasing the muscles in his legs as feeling rushed back into them "nice meeting you too, see you around." Raising his hand to signal his good bye, Craig turned for the door and began to walk out of the office.

[[Unless there's anything you wanted to add?]]
<Tag Trek: The Next Generation>

Evaluation for Ensign Craig Benson
To: The Desk of Captian Holmes
From: The Office of Eiri Ashshy

Sir,

I have evaluated Ensign Craig Benson and found him to be an upbeat individual. He is self-confident and yet aware of his own shortcomings. He has respect for the chain of command and seems to be an honest individual.

His scores are as follows:

CNS	3	Cannot say.
F-K	4	Honesty of test responses/not faking good or bad.
Es	5	Ego Strength Scale.
SOD	3	Social discomfort scale.
A	3	Anxiety scale.
R	5	Repression scale.
Depression	3	Characterized by poor morale, lack of hope in the future, and a general dissatisfaction with one's own life situation.
Social Introversion	2	Assess a person’s tendency to withdraw from social contacts and responsibilities.
S	5	Improving upon K scale, "appearing excessively good"
K	6	Denial/Evasiveness

Average score 39/10 = 3.9 is not a score we should be concerned with. Patient can be monitored with minimum effort. No further counceling sessions are needed at this time.