The Scenery Along Your Path
Posted on Fri 7th Aug, 2026 @ 11:40pm by Commander Paul Graves PsyD
831 words; about a 4 minute read
Mission:
[MAIN] Learning to Fly
Location: Chief Counselor's Office
Timeline: Reopening +1 Day
Reading a mountain of emails after enjoying a steak lunch left Paul fighting a food coma while being doggedly determined to get them all dealt with today so he could spend tomorrow attending to actual current work.
He almost wished he could take another week of sick leave, just to read them all. Paul scrolled through the seemingly endless list, sorting and archiving as he went and deleting what no longer needed his attention. He could see that Heriah had taken over a lot of his paperwork during the past three months, and he sent himself a reminder to write her a thank-you letter. In fact, he owed thank-you letters to several colleagues and therapists.
As the day drew to a close, Paul finally neared the end of his pile of email. To his surprise, he noticed that he'd received an auto-acknowledgement of receipt from Captain Francis for a suicide incident report he'd sent the man just before the explosion.
Whaaat! On whom? Paul scrolled through the report, swiftly finding the officer's name. He went cold and still, staring at the name: Heriah Khatain Rex.
Paul sat back in his chair and wracked his brain. He drew a complete blank. But this did explain his extreme joy at seeing her again. He'd rejoiced that she was still alive, without knowing that was why he was so happy to see her. Perhaps it also explained her odd habit of reminding him that she'd kept Captain Francis updated on his recovery progress. He'd supposed that was a given that she shouldn't have needed to tell him.
So the memory existed somewhere inside him; it would just require some digging or perhaps simply patience. Paul let out a breath, feeling massively impatient, and continued reading the report.
It felt like reading an account written by a total stranger, yet he also recognized that the words and writing style he used were eerily and distinctly his. They were clinical, detailed, and firm: ...While Heriah appears minimally affected by Rex's emotions at present, there are effects when her cytoboramine is low. For instance, while Heriah is usually very conscientious in all things, she sometimes forgets to take her medication when her levels are low, and I tentatively attribute this absentmindedness to some way that Rex can influence her.
At present, I have no proof to support that assertion, but I have begun researching the issue. There has to be some reason why two of Rex's previous hosts died within five years of Joining, and Rex is the only common denominator that I am aware of. I am concerned that Rex may be trying to wear Heriah down over time into surrendering to his will. That raises concerns in my mind for the station and its inhabitants, as well as for Heriah and Rex....
At the end of the report, Paul saw that he'd added a postscript: I'm very sorry to have to write this report, Capt. Francis. I know that you and Rex knew each other in your youth, so this must have been an extremely difficult thing to read. If you need to discuss this situation with me, I will be glad to speak with you. --Paul
And then he'd suffered a brain bleed and had been in a coma for a week, followed by almost three months of several intense therapies, just to get back to normal functioning. Poor Francis--and now, poor Mindo. I hate that I had to dump this into their laps--and Heriah's and Rex's laps, too.
Paul reviewed the report once more and paused at the sentence in which he'd mentioned doing research. What kind of research? Paul opened Heriah's medical record and looked through the folders list. He remembered the correspondence from Dr. Rikata Mol and reread it. Then he paused at the filename 'Research' and opened it.
Paul's eyes widened. He'd had little time to even begin researching the issue before his illness, but apparently, he'd spoken to Victor Delling about it and learned that Victor had a passkey to the Vulcan Science Academy's archives. They were trying to find information about emotionally troubled symbionts, information outside that collected by the Trill Symbiosis Commission.
Paul wondered if Victor had discovered anything during the past three months. He suspected not. Victor seemed ten kinds of exhausted and had clearly been attending to immediate work, not speculative research. Victor was swamped, and returning to normal starbase functioning would only make that worse, for a time.
I'm going to talk to him and take him out to dinner, Paul decided. He made a formal appointment to see his friend, because that might be the only way Victor or he would be able to block off enough time and have enough privacy to do the work they needed to do.
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