What's up with the Doc?

Posted on Tue Oct 13th, 2026 @ 7:43pm by Lieutenant Commander Maximo (Max) Vero & Lieutenant Vireya Talvaren

1,928 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Season 1 Episode 2: The Garden at the Edge of Night
Location: Runnabout
Timeline: On route to Eden planet and blackhole

ON:

Max had Reruk and the doc relieve T'Luz and Vi for a break on route and insisted they eat. His own stomach growling he happily replicated a slab of lasagne. At least everything in the shuttle seemed to work. And he had last had half a pastry that had attacked him when the gravity had gone whacko that morning.

Was it morning when that had happened? So much had happened in the last 12 hours he was not sure anymore.

T'Luz seemed to be in conversation with the science chief handing over so he took the moment to try find out what the hell had he witnessed earlier.

"You want some?" he asked Vi indicating the dish. It was far bigger than he had expected so he had replicated plates so others could enjoy it. Better to have everyone fuelled up before they set foot on a planet. Let alone an impossible one near a blackhole.

Vi eyed the lasagne, then the size of the portion Max had somehow convinced the replicator to produce. “A little,” she said, reaching for one of the plates. “I’m not going down to an unknown planet on an empty stomach, but I’m also not doing it carrying half a kilo of pasta.”

She cut herself a modest piece and settled in beside him, apparently quite happy to let him deal with the rest of his culinary ambition.

"So level with me. You clearly know something. What happened with the Doc back there?" he asked straight to the point before his stomach growling louder than he anticipated. His cheeked flushed momentarily at the noise. Deciding to draw no further attention to the fact he was ravenous, he stuffed a spoonful of the pasta dish in his mouth and let her speak.

Vi looked down at her plate for a moment, nudging the edge of the lasagne with her fork before she answered. “I should’ve spoken to you and the Captain before we left. I meant to. Then the ship nearly tore itself apart and it dropped rather spectacularly down the list.”

She glanced back at Max. “His recertification was a mess. Not because he couldn’t hit a target. That I could’ve worked with. He didn’t want to touch the phaser in the first place. He kept telling me there were less violent ways of dealing with someone, hypos from Sickbay, things like that. I pointed out that most of those involve getting close enough for somebody to hit you first, and that a phaser on stun is actually a fairly humane way of stopping someone without doing lasting damage.” Vi gave a small shake of her head. “He understood the argument. Didn’t make any difference to how he felt about the weapon.”

Her expression tightened a little as she remembered the range. “When I finally got him to fire, he closed his eyes. Just shut them and pulled the trigger because he didn’t want to watch himself hit the target. Then he did it again.” She looked directly at Max. “That was where I stopped being patient about it. Being uncomfortable is one thing. Firing blind is dangerous to everyone around you.”

Vi picked up her fork again but didn’t eat yet. “I slowed it right down after that. One target. Standard stun. Eyes open. Take as long as you need. He was shaking so badly he needed both hands on the phaser, and even then it took him several minutes to take the shot. He barely clipped the target.” Her voice softened despite the frustration underneath it. “Then he asked me what happened if he never passed. That was when it became pretty obvious this wasn’t just him disliking weapons. I could feel how frightened he was.”

She finally took a small bite, mostly to give herself a second before continuing. “So I didn’t certify him. I couldn’t. I told him I’d rather delay it than pretend he was safe with one when he wasn’t, and we started talking about registered non-user status instead. That would mean we plan around him on away teams rather than pretending he’s an armed member of one.” Vi gave Max a look. “He also knows how to defend himself. The issue isn’t that he’s helpless.”

Her mouth curved very slightly. “We even got as far as the knife question. He was happy enough with an appropriate field knife for medical or survival use, cutting someone free, that sort of thing. I made it clear I wasn’t replacing a phaser he won’t use with something he’d have to stab somebody with. That would be a fairly spectacular misunderstanding of the problem.”

Then the humour faded again. “We finished with me telling him I’d speak to Captain Steyn and get the non-user status sorted properly. He knew I hadn’t certified him. He knew we still had to make it official.” Vi glanced towards the cockpit, then back to Max. “So when you ordered everyone to come armed, I think he panicked. Putting the phaser in the medkit was probably his way of technically bringing one without having to touch it.”

She sighed and rested the fork against the plate. “You were right to take him off the team. In that state, I would’ve done exactly the same. I’m just frustrated it got that far. I should’ve got to you and the Captain before we were standing in the shuttle bay trying to solve it five minutes before departure.”

"Well with everything falling apart its been busy. I'm not upset about that," Max said. "And there's no point you beating yourself up there. There was no such thing as a registered non user for weapons when I applied for Starfleet in the past and I'm not aware of it existing now if honest but then I'm playing catch up still on many things. So who knows. The Captain and I will pick it up with the doctor when we get to a point we can do if he hasn't already.

I really can't see the logic in that though. You're expected to wear and if necessary use weapons. I grappled with that fact against my mothers upbringing and made the choice to sign up when I did. I mean don't get me wrong I don't like seeing anyone panicking and struggling but I can't see how we could ever say an away mission will be completely safe and if there's a chance its not, we can't plan for it.

I'm not comfortable with it if they cannot use a phaser to defend if needed and don't like the idea that we have to make a plan around them and if we get into a situation all good plans might go awry when there's other staff who can carry out those duties.

I will state that for the record," he said firmly. "I think clearly he's had a traumatic experience and like with the rest of us when that happens you talk it through with a counselor so you can do your job. He needs support to get to the point he can do it not plans to make it so he doesn't have too.

Also this pasta is terrible. When we get back I make you all good proper lasagne." He pushed his plate away and decided to go to town on the garlic bread instead.

Vi listened, taking another small bite while Max worked through it. By the time he finished she was nodding. “No, I’m with you. The more I’ve thought about it, the less comfortable I am with simply building around him forever.” She set her fork down against the plate. “When I mentioned non-user status, I was trying to get him out of that range before somebody got hurt. He was frightened enough that continuing wasn’t going to achieve anything. I needed him to understand that I wasn’t going to force a phaser back into his hand five minutes later and call that training.”

Her fingers rested around the edge of the plate as she looked across at him. “I don’t like weapons for the sake of weapons either. I respect them. There’s a difference. A phaser on stun is probably one of the safest ways we have of stopping somebody who means you harm, and half the value of carrying one is that sometimes you never have to fire it. Same principle on a larger scale. Sometimes you use the torpedoes. Sometimes you put one close enough to someone’s hull that everybody suddenly becomes much more interested in talking.”

A faint smile came and went before she returned to Syvar. “But on an away team, it isn’t only about him. If something happens and he can’t defend himself, somebody else has to do it for him. That changes what the rest of us can do, and plans have an irritating habit of becoming useless at exactly the moment you need them.” Vi shook her head slightly. “I don’t want him terrified. I certainly don’t want him pushed until he shuts down again. But I think you’re right. Whatever’s underneath that reaction needs dealing with, not accommodated forever.”

What bothered her more now was how long it had apparently gone unnoticed. “And honestly, I can’t quite understand how he’s got this far without it coming up before. He’s a lieutenant. He’s been in Starfleet for years. He’s presumably been certified before, gone on away missions before. So either something has changed, or this has been sitting there for a long time and somehow nobody’s dealt with it.” Her brow furrowed. “Either way, the Captain needs to know the whole thing, and Syvar probably needs some help working out why holding a phaser suddenly scares him that badly.”

Vi looked down at what remained of her own modest helping, then across at the abandoned bulk of Max’s.

“And yes, this lasagne is terrible.” Her mouth curved. “I was trying to be polite.”

She picked up her fork again. “I’ll hold you to the proper one.”

“I’m Italian. We live for food. Never be polite. If it’s awful only eat it if we have to entertain alien dignatories,” Max suggested. “And hope it’s not Ferengi. The gree worms and spore pie they served me and my Vulcan Captain on my last ship was quite the experience, one I hope to never have to repeat.”

He grinned at her and stood up. “The docs in good hands,” he nodded. “And we best get back to work.”

Vi’s nose wrinkled at the mention of gree worms. “Sounds delightful. Remind me to develop a sudden diplomatic illness if Ferengi catering ever appears on the itinerary.” She finished the last of her considerably smaller portion and pushed the plate aside. “And yes. We should get back. Syvar can wait until we’re aboard Genesis again. We’ve got enough in front of us without trying to sort that from a runabout.”

She stood with him and collected her plate, glancing towards the cockpit. “But I haven’t forgotten the lasagne. You’ve made a very specific promise now.” With that, Vi headed forward to relieve whoever had taken her place at the controls.

Mex raised two fingers in her direction and saluted before heading back to his monitor.

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