"Nature Versus Nurture, Part Two"

Posted on Mon Feb 27th, 2017 @ 7:53pm by Lieutenant Commander Marit Lantry M.D., Ph.D. & Colonel S'er'in'e

Mission: Shadows and Whispers
Location: Doctor Marit Lantry's Office, Starbase 332
Timeline: Before "The Many Headed Hydra"

"We've talked about what the Overseer believes and I've shared what I believe, but ultimately, what matters most is what you believe. What do you think and what do you feel?"

"I think she is right, I feel that I have lost my edge, a dulled blade devoid of use." S'er'in'e spoke in reply. He could understand Marit's want to help, but perhaps the reality of the situation was that he was wrong, the Overseer was right and he....was not what he used to or should be.

"Devoid of use?" Marit repeated in surprise. "I would hardly use those words to describe you. Without you, the Captain might not have survived after the crash. Furthermore, I understand you'll soon become a father. If parenthood doesn't provide you with a sense of usefulness, I'm not sure what could." It was obvious to Lantry the Colonel was suffering from depression, which regardless of species, often meant those struggling experienced irrational thinking that tended to reinforce depressive thoughts. She had to help him identify and challenge his own irrationality before the Overseer used his poor state of mind to take him away from everything and everyone he had known in Starfleet.

S'er'in'e sat on the chair and pondered, it was true he was responsible for saving the Captain, he was to be a father but how would the Overseer take that development? "I have heard stories about parenthood, until I met my Mate I never thought I would have offspring, or until the Proctor had assigned a Mate to me and forced the issue. Our offspring wont grow up on the Homeworld, they will not be educated and trained like I was because we reside here on the station. How will they be accepted when they are older and not being pure blooded."

"You and your mate will have to love them and prepare them for such a reality," Marit replied. "As long as they have you and know what to expect from others as much as possible, they will get through." Lantry shook her head. "Aren't you angry, Colonel? Aren't you tired of letting someone else, woman and leader of your people or not, tell you what you're going to do and what you're worth? You keep talking about what a danger you are to all of us, what a predator you are, but a predator doesn't back down when someone threatens his family, and a predator certainly doesn't agree with the threat?"

S'er'in'e growled and loudly as he turned to face Marit. His body language had become aggressive, his appearance predatory and now with just one other person in the room with it, no guess needed at who it was aimed it. "Be mindfull Counselor, you know nothing or what I was like before I left the Homeworld, you may not like the alternative but since you have tested me, let me show you."

He slowly closed the distance between them so that she was well within striking distance of him. "Of course I am angry, I am angry because I have let weak and inferior species change me, tell me how to be, how to behave, what to do and how to do it. I tried to fit in with your kind, be accepted not changed. You say you are not afraid of me, perhaps that is the problem and you should be. Killing comes as natural to me as breathing to you, you are no threat to me but I am every bit one to you and I have killed many of your kind in my years of service." He brought his claw armed hand up to her head level since she was shorter than him.

"I am superior to you in every way." He grabbed her wrist firmly. "What are these?" Obviously meaning her finger nails. "Nothing compared to these." Extending his claws to full length. "What you call teeth, useful for chewing food, I kill with mine and have done recently." His lips parted to reveal his own very long, very large fangs and teeth. "You stand there indicating the threat to me is the Overseer. No, the threat to me is you and your kind and many others like it. Changing who and what I am so that I am acceptable to social norms, a concept imposed by lesser species. No the Overseer has made a very painful truth that I have lost my way, forgotten who I am and that I need to find it again."

"The respect the S'er'in'e you know shows you, the bowing for example is an extension of what we do on the Homeworld. I do not need to bow to you, only the females of my kind, you aliens are not worthy of my Caste's respect but I felt that extending that to others would help, all it has done is made it easier for other species to manipulate me to behaving how you want me to behave. Captain Von stopped me from killing that man earlier, if this were the Homeworld I've have killed him and nobody would have bat a tail over it. That man attacked Von, he would have killed her had I not been there but she had the nerve to stop me?"

S'er'in'e circled around Marit. "By letting him live you invite attempts by others. Had I killed him the message would be clear. But alien ways pathetically frown upon death even when it's very message can be a powerful one." He took a few breaths in silence. S'er'in'e also knew his Mate was Human, the very 'inferior species' he'd just blasted Marit for being apart of but all judgement ended the moment she took him as her Mate. A Mate was the exception to almost every rule in Caitian society, the only ones to stand up against the leadership and still win.

S'er'in'e stopped in front of Marit. "Now Counsellor, how did you like the alternative?"

***TBC***