"In Confidence"
Posted on 03 Feb 2026 @ 12:25am by Lieutenant Commander Riah Amberlyn XMD & Captain Sabrina Corbin
1,953 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
Lathira Shoreleave
Location: Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: An hour after the Sickbay Staff Mtg
// Dr Amberlyn's Office :: 0915 hours //
After the meeting with the Medical Staff, Amberlyn retired to her office and contacted the Captain's yeoman. "Good day, Yeoman Merrick. This is Dr Amberlyn in Sickbay. I need to make an appointment with the Captain as soon as is possible to inform her about an incident that's occurred in Sickbay. Is there any chance I can do that? It shouldn't take up a lot of her time. I just want to be sure she is made aware."
"Yes, Ma'am. I think your best chance is to just come to her Ready Room now, albeit unscheduled. She's on a comm call at the moment, but I'll inform her as soon as she's off that you are coming."
"Perfect. Thank you. I'm on my way."
// Captain's Ready Room :: 0923 hours //
Riah tapped the comm on the Ready Room door and waited for the response.
The door chime registered distantly.
Sabrina did not look up right away.
The Ready Room was quiet again after the call had ended, but the silence felt different now. Heavier. Admiral MacLaren’s voice still lingered in her thoughts, not in tone but in content. The information had landed without warning and without resolution, the kind that rearranged priorities without asking permission.
She stood near the viewport, one hand resting against the edge of the desk as if grounding herself there. It took a second chime before she turned, expression composed but not fully present.
“Enter,” she said, her voice even, professional, practiced.
Only then did she refocus, drawing her attention back into the room and to the Doctor waiting on the other side of the door.
"Good morning. Thank you for seeing me on such short notice," said the Doctor.
Sabrina listened as Amberlyn spoke, nodding once, slowly. The concern was clear enough. It deserved her full attention, and she was aware that she did not quite have it yet.
She moved before she could overthink it, stepping around the desk and crossing the room in an unhurried line. Motion helped. It always did.
“Doctor,” she said gently, “would you mind if we talked while we walked?”
She gestured toward the door, already reaching for it. “I’ve just come off a call, and I think I would rather clear my head than sit still for this.”
Moments later, they were in the turbolift, the doors sliding shut behind them as Sabrina selected a deck deep in the saucer section. One with long, uninterrupted corridors.
She folded her hands behind her back as the lift began to move, posture relaxed but attentive, her focus settling fully on Amberlyn now.
“All right,” she said. “What is on your mind?”
Amberlyn felt the difference in the Captain's energy from her usual reserved but steady self. This was very different. "Something tells me there is a lot more on your mind and my minor report is suddenly something that can be communicated by messaging. Does doctor/patient privileges apply here? You need to talk? Maybe not details, but personal processing?" she asked, the natural counselor coming to the fore.
The turbolift continued its smooth descent, the muted hum filling the space between them. Sabrina’s gaze lingered on the display a moment longer than necessary, as if tracking the passing decks helped her order her thoughts.
She exhaled once, controlled, then gave a small nod.
“You’re right,” she said quietly. “And I’m sorry. You came to brief me, and I don’t like turning that around on you.”
She lowered her hands from behind her back, fingers flexing once before she reached out and paused the turbolift as it arrived at their deck.
“That said,” she continued after a beat, “I don’t think I can give your report the attention it deserves until I clear my head. And that would not be fair to either of us.”
She glanced toward Amberlyn then, brief but direct, meeting her eyes.
“You came to report an incident. I don’t want you wondering whether it mattered, or whether I was only half listening. It does.” A pause. “I just wasn’t finished with something else yet.”
Her hand remained near the control panel as she added, more deliberately, “I trust you. I will not go into details, but anything that feels exposed needs to stay between us.”
"I pledge my utter confidence. It will stay between us," replied Riah with conviction.
Sabrina inclined her head once, accepting the assurance without ceremony.
“Thank you,” she said quietly. “That matters more than you know.”
Her gaze lingered on the lift doors as they opened, fingers brushing the edge of the control panel as if grounding herself in the moment. She stepped out at an unhurried pace, waiting until Amberlyn fell into step beside her before continuing down the corridor.
“I’ve received some difficult information from Epsilon Fleet,” she said, keeping her voice low. “The kind that makes you start second-guessing things you normally trust. People you rely on.”
She exhaled through her nose, frustration held carefully in check.
“I know that isn’t much of an explanation,” she added, glancing briefly toward the Doctor. “And I’m not ready to make it one yet.”
There was a brief pause before she continued.
“Speaking to you now is a calculated choice,” she said. “I trust you, and I know that trust is justified because I had to verify it with data, not my gut.”
Her expression tightened slightly.
“What I know can’t be shared freely. And the last thing I want is for that restraint to create strain, especially on some of our younger teams.”
She slowed her pace just enough to turn her attention fully to Amberlyn.
“So tell me,” she asked quietly, “how would you approach that, if you were in my position?”
“With support,” Riah replied. “You hold some very critical information. Withholding that from the crew right now is a necessity. It requires patience and discernment as things unfold. In the meantime, you build a circle of support for yourself so you are not bearing that burden alone. Keep the circle small, keep verifying the security of that circle for your own peace of mind. I’m not quite sure how you mean it might create strain on some of the ... less experienced members of the crew, but keep your finger on the pulse of that group. I’ve found they can sometimes provide very creative ideas that can be tweaked to be very effective. Do you have reason to believe they are a target of some kind or just that they may feel the tension and not understand that sometimes, information can't be disseminated to everyone?”
“They’ll feel it,” Sabrina said without hesitation. “The absence more than the presence.”
She kept her eyes forward as they walked, voice even.
“For some of them, this will be their first experience with real uncertainty. The kind where information is limited and trust has to stand in for answers.” A pause. “Starfleet doesn’t ease people into that.”
She glanced briefly toward Amberlyn, then back to the corridor ahead.
“We’re only just getting started, and I haven’t had time to build the kind of trust that carries people through silence.” Her jaw tightened slightly. “They aren’t a target. They’re perceptive enough to know something is being held back, and inexperienced enough to wonder what that means for them.”
She slowed her pace by a fraction.
“That’s the strain I’m trying to avoid.”
After a beat, she continued, quieter but firm.
“And you’re right about the circle. I won’t carry this alone, but I will be deliberate about who shares the weight.”
“I’ll speak with senior staff soon. Beyond that, it goes no further.”
She exhaled once, measured.
“The crew doesn’t need the details. They need to trust that I’m steady, even when they aren’t given the full picture.”
“That’s on me.”
“I trust you. You will know what to do, what to say, when to say it and to whom. And I’m here for you when you need me, whether that’s with tea or something stronger than stand-by-itself black coffee. No one will know this conversation ever took place unless you tell them.”
Sabrina let out a quiet breath and inclined her head.
“Thank you for listening,” she said simply. “Now, tell me what you came to see me about.”
“Mmmm. Tiny matter of Sickbay being totally, almost totally, left without personnel for an undetermined amount of time. But long enough for at least 5 people to have come by and noticed. Two enlisted were in a closet stocking supplies and didn’t realize everyone else had left. And no one of those 5 who wandered into an empty medical thought it was odd and investigated any further. One injury reported to the Sickbay and by chance Dr Jorik was there and handled that situation. I found out about this when I returned later that day from shore leave. I called the entire department into a staff meeting, about 2 hours ago, and found out what happened - which is a combination of being young, being unable to extricate from another situation, and I guess lack of curiosity. I made the point that this would NEVER happen again and I think the whole bunch got the message. It’s resolved for the time being, but I wanted you to hear about it from me, and not elsewhere. I plan to also inform Commander Batenburg. Apparently there was someone in the Annex on 16. "
Sabrina listened without interrupting, her expression thoughtful rather than alarmed. When Amberlyn finished, she nodded once.
“I appreciate you bringing it to me directly,” she said. “But it sounds like you identified the problem, addressed it, and made the expectation unmistakably clear.”
She slowed slightly, hands settling behind her back again.
“Growing pains,” she added. “Uncomfortable, but not unexpected. And I suspect the arrival of the new doctors will help ease that pressure before it compounds.”
There was a brief pause before the corner of her mouth lifted, faint but deliberate.
“Speaking of additional support,” she continued, “we have a new counselor inbound.”
She glanced toward Amberlyn then, the wry note unmistakable.
“I’m considering asking you to take on oversight of that department as well. What are your thoughts on assuming that responsibility?”
"That's a surprise," Riah replied honestly. "I'm more than willing to do that. With the addition of Dr Dunross and Dr Jorik, I think we can arrange my schedule to accommodate the workload as manager. You say we have a new counselor as well. That's good. Dr Emerson is well utilized at present. That said, may I ask the reason you feel this change is necessary?"
“Because of how you lead,” Sabrina said simply. “You already oversee the medical deck as a whole and understand how its parts affect one another.”
She added, “Dr Emerson is doing well. This isn’t a correction. Counseling naturally intersects with medicine, especially right now, and extending that oversight gives us consistency and cohesion.”
"I agree about Counseling. Do I have your permission to bring this up to the Counseling people, or would you want to approach them first yourself?" asked Riah.
“You have my permission,” Sabrina said evenly. “I don’t anticipate Dr Emerson will object. If anything, I expect she may be relieved.”
"I'm sure of that. Ok. I'll keep you in the loop by written reports unless I have something that really needs your touch. Thank you, Captain, for your trust ... in all things."
~~~
Captain Sabrina Corbin
Commanding Officer
USS Arawyn
&
LtCmdr Riah Amberlyn, XMD
Chief Medical Officer
USS Arawyn
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