A small hall was reserved for a seminar to be held. There were arranged chairs and a small podium up on the front. People were getting their seats, mumbling with each other about the set theme. The Department of Counseling was holding this seminar, and the set subject is close to anyone’s heart, the Borg. Lots of cross-talking in the hall was heard as a junior ranking officer clapped his hands and looked at everyone. “Attention, attention, please! We are about to start. I would like to welcome Lieutenant Arwa el-Imam, the Deputy of Starbase Bravo Department of Counseling.” Everyone started to clap as no one took the stage or joined the junior officer. They started to look around as the officer shrugged awkwardly, “Uhmmm.” he didn’t know how to tackle this problem and looked at his side, seeing his fellow officers shrugging, not knowing where Arwa was. 

“Breath, Ensign, I am here,” Arwa’s voice echoed as the officer looked around. Arwa slowly stood up from a seat in the crowd. “I am right here.” She winked at him after seeing him shrug a bit and leave the stage. Arwa took a deep breath and walked towards the podium. “Our perspective of life is a challenging one for officers and enlisted personnel that serve in the stars. We face the unknown on almost a daily basis, well, almost everyone. The Admirals are sitting in their offices, and politicians are bickering with each other.” Hearing a laugh among the crowd. 

Arwa turned around when she stepped onto the stage and clapped her hands together, looking around. “I have been asked to give this seminar about a recent event, crisis, or happening. Everyone classifies or categorizes it differently. But down the pipeline, it is what it is, something devastating that has happened to us all. The Borg.” A silence went as a wave through the crowd. “It has not quite been our time to be fair,” she continued. 

“First the Blood Dilithium crisis, then the Lost Fleet that came knocking with their Breen friends, and now the Borg. This took a hefty toll on our mental health.” Arwa walked a bit from one side to the other but didn’t break her look on the crowd. “We have seen our friends, family, and co-workers getting wounded, killed, or worse, added to the collective”. Taking a deep breath, “It does, to a certain degree, matter what species you are; your brains are differently wired, which is not bad. But the best example is that a Vulcan can process and withhold emotions better than anyone in this room. Does it mean they don’t need help? Discover if they are affected by whatever has happened. In my opinion, they do need help.” 

Arwa raised three fingers. “I will do this seminar a few times, where I speak over different perspectives of behavior acts that everyone does. Freeze, fight, or flight” lowering one finger at the mention of each word. “Research has given us a view into these behaviors, and it has been conducted a few times. When a person is faced with the act of the moment, life, and death situation. They fall back on these three reaction elements within a fraction of a second.” She lowered her hands and placed them behind her back.

“The Borg signal that was activated and influenced many of our people has left a deep scar on many layers of mental health. Sedatephobia is the fear of not hearing anything in your head any more; you feel uncomfortable in quiet rooms, and sleep is difficult. This fear results from the mind being connected to the collective for the brief moment it was.” Arwa let it sink in for a moment and continues. “Oneirophobia is the fear of experiencing a nightmare or night terrors that are the result of a traumatic event in a person’s life.” 

She stood still for a second and shrugged a bit. “But the one thing that was the most common among all the patients I had seen was Autophobia, a fear of being alone” A bit of mumbling went through the crowd. “It is a fear that is seen with xBs as well. They are pulled from a collective mind that feels comfortable, warm, and unified. It is treatable, but it all takes time.” 

“Back to the main topic at hand that I wanted to address. People act as a new element is presented within the situation. Survival. Early research concluded that this sympathetic nervous system response is related to stress response. I believe it is a step further than that. It is an act of survival.” Arwa took a second to think before she continued. “We fight the moment your brain detects and the core beliefs that it is in danger, and you can overpower that threat. Your body starts to receive signals from your brain to act in a fight situation.” 

“ Grinding your teeth, urge to punch something, feeling the intense anger building up in you, and off you go in full attack mode.” Arwa looked at everyone for a brief moment. “Flight is a moment where your brain believes that you cannot overcome the danger, and it’s best to get the hell out. Your body is getting excessively exercising, feeling tense, trapped, and restless. Your pupils are dilated as your eyes dart through the area to find a way out”. 

Walking to the middle of the podium, “And freeze, a stress response that causes you to feel glued to the spot you are standing. Unable to remove as your brain thinks, you can’t fight or flight this. You become pale skin, feeling stiff and heavy; you will hear a loud pounding of your heart in your ears. You accepted the fate of what is coming….” 

Arwa smiled at the crowd. “My next seminar will be in a few hours, but my co-worker will resume this one with the effects of the treatment and what we found during such. Thank you, and enjoy.” She lowered her head in grace as people clapped. She left the stage, letting her co-worker take over.