Zantaari Education and Counseling | To: DS13 Counseling and Education

[xanthestar_]

Stardate 93102.9 TO DS13 Counseling Department, DS13 Education Department CC CMDR Caspius FROM CMDR Thiessen SUBJ Zantaari Education and Counseling

To All,

Thank you for taking the time to read this message.


Due to circumstances beyond our control, DS13 is currently hosting approximately 18,000 refugees of a pre-warp species known as the Zantaari. Soon they will number approximately 25,000. While we will be resettling them, this will take time - and in that time, it's possible they will become resentful of their containment.


Due to the pre-warp nature of this civilization, steps are being taken to limit their exposure to the breadth of Starfleet technologies. This is leaving their children unsocialized and some adults resentful and understandably suspicious.

To this end I'm looking for volunteers to work with these refugees. These people have been subject to a slave trade in recent weeks and are going to be suffering from trauma in relation to that, not to mention the fact that we've removed them from their homeworld and 'locked them up' in limiting their access to our facilities.

Commander Isohlah, I understand your department is often already very busy engaging the officer and civilian populations aboard the station, but we have no choice but to push ourselves as much as is possible to ensure these Zantaari feel as comfortable as we can help them be, and that their children are subjected to as little trauma as possible.

Their children will require education and/or entertainment, aside from therapy. We have a good relationship with their leader, so any and all information necessary to meeting Zantaari children's needs are obtainable.


I would like Counseling and Educational departments to coordinate and pool all volunteers for a full list of names to be submitted to command via Commander Caspius in no more than two days time. This is being offered as a voluntary experience because all of you have specialties - some of you may feel more passionate about assisting these people than others. If no volunteers are received, I will ask departmental heads to submit a list of available teachers and officers and assignments will be made based on shift and workload availability.



You have my most sincere thanks for considering this.


//SIGNED//
Commander Tau Thiessen
Acting Commanding Officer, DS13 Command.

[Katriel]

Stardate 93107.8 TO CMDR Thiessen CC CMDR Caspius FROM CMDR Isohlah SUBJ Re: Zantaari Education and Counseling

Good morrow, Commander Thiessen.

With all due respect, I must register my concerns with the current situation and this particular request. While I am, of course, earnestly desirous of a harmonious relationship with our new guests, the contentious nature of their arrival on station makes it very difficult ground for my personnel to attend and I do not wish to subject them to excessive moral quandary.

The role of a counselor is that of a trusted friend, one who can provide answers to those individuals who are troubled, or at least assurance that the road they travel is one they can conquer. In the current circumstances, my counselors can do none of these for the Zantaari. They are not allowed to answer basic questions of where these Zantaari are being kept, what will happen to them, or even if Starfleet will be forced to abandon them after depositing them on some remote M-class in the middle of nowhere. Their role would be relegated to that of a symbolic figurehead authoritarian who may be able to provide some meager kindness and friendly alien companionship, but is ultimately helpless to provide any meaningful or lasting reassurance.

Certainly the potential for friendship without providing answers could in of itself be valuable, were it not for the second issue: the perpetuation of this myth that Starfleet personnel are deities.

Now we have compounded the lack of answers with a serious falsehood and deception. I consider myself a man who understands the necessity of the occasional fabrication of truth, but in this particular circumstance, I cannot foresee positive circumstances in the prolongation of the "godman" fiction. The longer such an illusion is maintained, the worse the potential backlash.

I urge you to consider disregarding the Zantaari Chief's assurances, as he is only one man and could be easily overcome by a dissatisfied mob of ten. Do we have any knowledge of how this man became Chief to begin with? Was he democratically elected or he came to power in some other way? Even if his people believe him now, they have been through much life disruption and are ripe for catastrophic social schisms and we would be directly culpable through our passive participation in their disillusionment.

With this protest filed to you, I will not be surveying my personnel for volunteers and will formally lodge a complaint if any of my officers are pulled against their wishes.


//SIGNED//
CMDR Isohlah, Ezzem
Department Head
DS13 Counseling

[xanthestar_]

Stardate 93108.2 TO CMDR Isohlah CC CAPT Freeman, CMDR Caspius FROM CMDR Thiessen SUBJ Re: Zantaari Education and Counseling

Commander Isohlah,

While I appreciate your honesty, Commander, a 'protest' of this degree wasn't necessary.



I will be completely frank:



The tone of your official response is extremely off-putting. If you think the situation involving the Zantaari and our role as 'Godmen' still persisting is something I or any member of command relishes, you're extremely mistaken. You have my apology if that wasn't clear enough through my memorandum.

It is, in fact, one of the reasons I want you or your people to be in there ASAP. Because yes, we want to dispel this religious notion that they have of us being some kind of deity. It's dangerous and harmful to them and their culture in the long term. In order to dispel this notion though, we need to work with the High Chief and also have a firm and nuanced understanding of their cultural mindset and demeanor.


That is why I need your people in there.


Now with that said we need to be able work toward dispelling this God-myth as soon as we can. To that end, I would like to meet with either yourself or a representative of your department at your choosing. We cannot move forward without a societal understanding as we're not going to allow this to become more of a problem than it already is. We are where we are because it was necessary to save this population from death and injury - as we move forward, I need all officers involved on their game.

I hope I've clarified thing sufficiently. We were never at a disagreement on what's needed, though, and I do want you to know that I respect your opinion and measure of the situation. Unfortunately that doesn't change the circumstances of the situation and the eventual need for people to work with the Zantaari. I'm willing to hold off on the directive for educational and counseling volunteers but once this situation is cracked we will be in need of them and their assistance to the Zantaari.


Please contact me this evening or have one of your people contact me in your stead to meet, tomorrow morning at the latest. I want a plan in place with your department's direction ASAP. We'll work it out together.


//SIGNED//
Commander Tau Thiessen
Executive Officer, DS13 Command.

[Katriel]

Stardate 93107.8 TO CMDR Thiessen CC CAPT Freeman, CMDR Caspius FROM CMDR Isohlah SUBJ Re: Re: Zantaari Education and Counseling

Commander Thiessen,

Let me beg to differ. My tone is entirely appropriate for making a declarative against orders or instructions I do not agree with. While I appreciate the challenging situations that command officers often find themselves in, in this case, I do not sympathize with your reluctant decision-making. Take responsibility for the choice you have made and the choices you can still make from here.

That said, your follow-up request for a form of my assistance is significantly altered from that of your original ask. I agree with the premise that we need to obtain greater cultural understanding of the species before taking drastic action, but I oppose this research being done by my personnel through a lens of falsehood. Not only will we be compromising our ethical values in perpetuating the fiction, the data gathered in the state of that fictionhood is essentially worthless.

As a result, I would propose you work with the High Chief specifically in this endeavor. Require him to select Zantaari individuals with whom he trusts the truth and discover through those people what the ultimate course of action should be. If they have 'counselor' type professionals amongst their people, these would clearly be preferable.


//SIGNED//
CMDR Isohlah, Ezzem
Department Head
DS13 Counseling

[xanthestar_]

Stardate 93108.2 TO CMDR Isohlah CC CAPT Freeman, CMDR Caspius FROM CMDR Thiessen SUBJ Re: Zantaari Education and Counseling

Commander,

Let me remind you that I am not required to justify my command decisions to you. You can take exception to them and have the right to protest them, but in official memorandum do not put my decision-making skills into question so derisively. I would like the two of us to have a friendly relationship and will continue toward that goal. I would strongly advise you make a similar effort to be more friendly in official correspondence. You're not required to 'sympathize' with my decision-making. Your assumptions about my reasoning for doing what I did is not required and is, in fact, not wanted.

A little politeness does in fact go a long way.

With that out of the way I am to assume per your verbiage that you are removing yourself and your department from involvement until the Zantaari have offered up their own professionals. That information will be sent up the chain of command and I will handle this situation directly.




//SIGNED//
Commander Tau Thiessen
Executive Officer, DS13 Command.

[xanthestar_]

Stardate 93108.2 TO CMDR Isohlah CC CAPT Freeman, CMDR Caspius FROM CMDR Thiessen SUBJ Re: Zantaari Education and Counseling

Commander,

Per your counsel we are gathering the highest minds in the Zantaari, their emotional and political representatives, and will be meeting with them shortly to begin making plans. Your department will be included on the results of the initial meeting and we'll get together once a plan is in place.


On further consideration, I do apologize if my demeanor has been more brusque in our communications than usual.


//SIGNED//
Commander Tau Thiessen
Executive Officer, DS13 Command