Pilot Episode, Act II

Oobadek watches the displays showing the encroaching failure and attempts to program an algorithm to compensate for the uncertainty in the energetic hand shaking between the disparate hardware. He sees Avery every bit as concentrated on her task, and Pyri monitoring her own PADD.

They already think we're lesser than them in technological know how. Show them what we can do. The unknown voice rings in his ears' memory.

He taps faster, then apparently satisfied, begins, "Lieutenant, I believe that I-"

"Got it!" Avery suddenly shouts triumphantly. Her frantic nature relaxes, and the warning signals dissipate as the activity on the monitors steadies.

"A range of 5-10 kilo-volts should more then suffice for the current operation. I'll want a full diagnostic report every half hour for the next three hours, afterwards only hourly should suffice." She visibly relaxes, but her face is still glued to her PADD.

The camera lingers a moment on Oobadek's face before cutting to the interior of Counselor Edgar Mitsk's office. He's multitasking, alternating between looking at the computer screen on his desk and poking around on his padd when the door chime sounds. He gives permission to enter, and the door opens to admit Dr. T'Shen.

She says, "I hope I'm not disturbing you, counselor," then after looking around his office calmly, says, "My compliments on your office."

Edgar is deep into a statistical analysis on the effects of the Tangle on the amygdala and nerve impulse latency, when he hears the knock on the door. He looks up, slightly irritated at being disturbed.

"Ah Dr. T'Shen. Uh, no, it's fine. I was ironically working on some analytics concerning the amygdala. Please come in," Edgar says and gestures with an outstretched hand to the chair across from his."

As soon as he says this he realizes that there is a stack of padds strewn about on the chair and hurries out from behind his desk to clear them off. He places them unceremoniously on the nearby workstation with a clatter. One slides off onto the floor. He stoops to pick it up. One might almost think he was nervous.

"Uh please... do sit."

As he goes back around the desk to his chair, his initial bewilderment at Dr. T'shen's remark about his office turns into one of amusement when he realizes that she is just trying to be polite. He tries to fight the smile that is starting to form.

"So. How can I help you today Dr T'Sen?" he asks as he peers over his large monitor. Realizing that it's blocking his view of Dr. T'Sen, he slides it to the left a few inches. There is an uncomfortable moment of silence as the two just look at each other.

T'Shen waits, imperturbably, for Edgar to work through his response to having a visitor in his office. Once they've both been seated, she hesitates, appearing to be choosing her words thoughtfully.

"Counselor, I wanted to follow up on what I mentioned to you at the end of the staff meeting, and to perhaps make clearer to you what I am asking you for."

She shifts in her chair. It's not a huge change, but there's something calculated about it rather than natural. It takes Edgar a second to realize that she is slouching. But when she resumes speaking, her calm tone is unchanged, resulting in a strange dissonance.

"I am a very capable physician, having trained fully first on Vulcan and later graduated from Starfleet Medical School. I've also served on two Starfleet ships prior to the Hodgkin. My skill at diagnosing and treating medical conditions is exemplary and has earned me commendations. However, I have come to realize that for some species - humans, especially - the emotional detachment of a Vulcan is frequently a barrier in a doctor-patient relationship. Many of my past human patients reported finding my manner too clinical. Some have even found it... distressing."

T'Shen inhales, holds for a second, then exhales fairly deliberately. Edgar recognizes this as the most artificially constructed sigh he's ever witnessed. "I've made the study of human psychology a special project, counselor. I am actually quite good at deducing what emotions patients are experiencing by their facial expressions, body language, and other behaviors. The problem I haven't been able to solve is how to interact with my patients in a way that forges trust between us. In a word, I seem unable to bond with my patients. I would like you to help me find a way to mimic, or at least suggest, emotional responses that would help me to bridge that divide."

She stops talking, then quite deliberately sets one elbow on the armrest of the chair and rests her chin in her palm. It's a bit like watching a very basic android run through a subroutine called "Relaxed and hopeful."

With a slight nod of acknowledgment, Edgar replies, "Well...I think I can help you with that. You see I have this program"....Edgar stops in mid sentence....gets up, goes over to the workstation, and flips noisily through the padds..."Ah! Here it is." Handing the padd to Dr T'Sen, he goes back to his chair and continues, hands waving about enthusiastically. "You see a bunch of thumbnails there with a description below, Yes? Now... open any one of them. You will see photographs of humans, wearing various expressions along with a detailed description below the photos describing what those facial expressions mean. I am still working on cataloging all of this but it is almost complete and certainly more than enough to get you started. Think of them..... like flash cards. I even included an option to hide the descriptions so you can test yourself."

Edgar is very pleased with himself and this project and his pride shows. He allows Dr. T'Sen a moment to flip through the photos.

"Now, If you go back to the thumbnails, you will see a drop-down menu where you can select species. "Edgar waits a few seconds letting Dr T'Sen find the menu. "I have just started work on Inphirians and parsing those most expressive tentacles! And don't tell anyone this but I find some of the tentacle "expressions" as it were, to be quite amusing. Sometimes it is difficult to maintain my professionalism."

Edgar instantly regrets sharing that tidbit about himself and wonders why he did it.

T'Shen takes the padd as Edgar hands it to her, following his instructions and browsing through the captioned photos. "This is a quite exhaustive collection of emotional expressions, counselor. Although I feel very confident in my ability to interpret human facial expressions and body language, I do see some cataloged here that I haven't considered. And the inclusion of other species, especially Inphirians, is equally helpful. I appreciate your giving me this tool."

She looks up to meet Edgar's eyes. "It has been my observation, counselor, that when a human has difficulty maintaining an appropriate professional demeanor, that one of two things is often true. The first is that the human feels a lack of respect for a person, group, or institution. The second, that the human feels uncomfortable or insecure."

She tilts her head to one side slightly, a movement that appears far more natural than her clunky attempts to act out human responses. "I do not know you well enough to judge your attitude toward Inphirians, but I have seen you display an outsized emotional reaction to what you appeared to perceive as a professional insult when Lt. Iron Eyes used the slang term for Entanglement Psychosis. To me, this suggests an element of insecurity on your part. If that interpretation is correct, it would be logical to extrapolate that your 'difficulty maintaining professionalism' is rooted not in disrespect, but in your own feelings of insecurity."

There is a beat of silence, during which T'Shen simply watches Edgar. Then she says, "This is generally the type of observation that prompts humans to express that they find my manner unsettling."

Edgar takes a deep breath. He knows that Dr T'Sen doesn't mean to be obtuse, but he also knows that she might be right, causing an alarming amount of discomfort on his part, which leads him to do a 180 in his chair and start rummaging through his bookshelf. He squeezes his eyelids tight for a millisecond and resolves to recover gracefully from his faux pas. He fingers through the data sticks that are neatly arranged label side out on the shelf until he finds what he is looking for, an old data collection from his college psych classes.

Swiveling back to face the doctor, a bland expression on his face, Edgar says, "You know... the photos are not just for learning how to identify non-verbal cues that you might not be familiar with. They can also serve to help you practice the facial expressions yourself. Humans at least, like to see empathy from their doctors. If you want to bond with them, you should mirror their emotions or at least approximate some form of empathy."

Edgar hands her the data stick realizing that his tone of voice might have been a bit harsh. So much for graceful, he thinks.

"So this series of videos is from a class I took back in college. We were being challenged to act out the whole array of human emotions. The videos could be very useful to you. As for the other...uh....perhaps we can work on that. Learning to filter what you think into something less....um...." Edgar couldn't finish the sentence and shrugged, offering a tight smile.

"...Into something less blunt, I think you are trying to say," T'Shen finishes for him. There might be the barest hint of a glint in her eye as she says it. "I have been told that I should not share every observation in full detail. My desire to help sometimes overrules my successful application of that advice. I apologize if I was too direct, or even rude."

She looks at the data collection he has handed her and asks, "Do you think that it will be possible for me to credibly approximate human emotional facial expressions? And if so... do you think it is advisable? I have been told by a few people that it might appear disrespectful. Even mocking. Obviously, I don't wish to make interacting with me even more stressful for humans than it might already be."

Edgar starts to get frustrated and the crease of a small frown begins to form on his forehead. He is offering the tools he has but clearly they aren't adequate for the dilemma at hand. But he dances around Dr. T'Sen's observation of herself and her apology because it causes him embarrassment.

"You are probably right about people reacting badly to your attempts at human facial expressions. Uh...I should have realized that wouldn't work."

Edgar hesitates for a moment, tapping his forefinger on the desk, feeling totally inadequate to the task at hand.

"But the collection from my college class should still be helpful in giving you examples of what to say and...uh... perhaps what not say in various situations. But having said that, saying the appropriate thing without the accompanying relevant facial expression might not help in having good rapport with your patients either."

T'Shen takes Edgar's lack of a clear solution impassively. "I understand, counselor."

Standing, she says, "I do appreciate your attempt to help me. I'm sorry to have wasted your time. Although I will probably find it useful to study this library of human facial expressions. Thank you."

She turns to leave.

"Uh...," Edgar clears his throat and stretches out an arm, "Wait...Dr T'Shen. How about I, we ... practice? I can pretend I am the patient and you can be...well... you. How does that sound?"

T'Shen turns back toward Edgar. She tilts her head, thinking. "I have sometimes heard a human expression - 'Practice makes perfect.' I suppose it is possible that engaging in practice with a human coach could produce better results than my own unassisted efforts have yielded so far."

She appears to come to a decision. "I accept your offer. How shall we proceed?"

Edgar's mildly startled expression at Dr' T'Sen's acceptance would almost suggest that he has forgotten his offer. "Well...uh I haven't figured that part out yet."

Edgar swivels around to the bookshelf again. "Let me find the.....," and his voice trials off into clatters of data sticks and padds beng shuffled about. The camera cuts to Edgar's face, wearing the frantic WHAT have I done!? look.

Feeling a modicum of composure come back, Edgar faces Dr. T'Sen again.

"I...suppose we could act out a scene. You react the way you normally do and I will critique your response....try to warm it up, if you will."

"You say you already know how to read people, it's just a question of knowing what to say for the most part. So...let's say, you are at a patient's bedside. I am the patient." Edgar's demeanor seems to suddenly lose the uptight nervous posture from before and relaxes into a more comfortable, contemplative one. Then the faintest of devilish smiles creeps across his lips and is gone in a flash.

"Ok." He clears his throat and assumes the posture of a sick patient the best he can while sitting at a desk. "Let's try this....."

"Do you mean to say, doctor, that I will need to have my entire hand amputated? You said it was a pinched nerve! I neeeeed my hand. I can't bear the thought...." ....and Edgar the "patient" clutches his hand, pretend fear in his eyes...

Edgar nods at the doctor, an expectant glint in his eye, hinting that now is the time for her to respond. He is clearly having fun now.

T'Shen raises an eyebrow slightly at Edgar's melodramatic performance, but seems to settle into the fiction of the doctor-patient enactment. She moves to stand at Edgar's fictional bedside and pats him twice on the shoulder.

"There, there. You must calm down. You have clearly misheard my course of treatment. In no circumstance would a pinched nerve result in amputation. Although even if amputation were indicated, a cybernetic replacement would enable you to lead a full life with minimal restrictions, if any. So you see, there is no reason for histrionics." She hesitates, then adds, "Perhaps you would like a glass of water."

"See now, you had it in hand until you mentioned histrionics. Well actually... I take that back. A few word choices could be amended. So let's go though it shall we? Firstly the tone is too clinical. You need to soften your delivery. But we already know this is the issue. Perhaps in this case, if you could put yourself in the patient's shoes, knowing what you know about human psychology and think about what it means for a person to lose a limb in terms of how they would be perceived by human society. Human beings are often uncomfortable around people that are different. Then there is the additional stress of learning how to use a new prosthetic and the lack of total independence in the meantime.

"There there" was a good start at attempted empathy but you ruined it with "You must calm down". You are negating the patient's emotional reaction by being a little condescending. And using the word histrionics would be considered insulting. This is a genuine response and should be respected for what it is, heartfelt and serious. And the glass of water. Let me ask you Dr. T'Sen. Why would I want a glass of water?"

T'Shen tilts her head slightly. "My research has indicated that in times of physical and emotional distress, humans frequently offer water to sufferers. It often seems to have no medical value in the situation, so I concluded that it must offer some sort of emotional comfort.

"As to your suggestion of putting myself into the patient's shoes, perhaps that would be best accomplished if we traded roles in this exercise. It might help me to gain the necessary perspective."