round 2 Ensign Christopher Lambert- Fortress of Solitude

[Randal Shayne]

((Hololab, Deck 10, USS Darwin-A))

::For quite some time he had been there, isolated at the fortress of
solitude, speechless, incommunicable, forced by himself to deal with the
consequences of his actions. He deliberately avoided all senior officers
for quite some time and accepted all the assignments that could keep him
busy all day long without having to interact with them. He needed time
to mentally and emotionally purge his sins.::

::The official excuse for his enraged behavior during the last mission
was some kind of radiation within the Nebula that tampered with his
endocrine system. But that was the ease way out, put the burden of his
actions over someone’s shoulders or something.::

::For Christopher, the problem was bigger than that. He had spent the
last weeks confined and assigned to the hololab, reevaluating his
priorities, his life and assimilating the changes that came from the
last mission. Some of them he could not even discuss openly with his
superior and others were a question of wounded pride. He had apologized
with Shayne, and kept distance from Isabel, but would it be enough?::

::But working alone did not mean that he was sad or depressed about what
he had done. It was a time that he chose to dig deeper into his
holographic research.::

::Darwin was undergoing another mission right now and Christopher was
sat next to the primary workstation, resting his eyes for a moment, when
a big white cat came from nowhere and started to purr.::

Lambert: ::stroking his long silky hair:: Ohhhh mon petit!! ::opening
his eyes and pulling his legs down to the ground:: Has the simulation ended?

::Christopher seemed to expect that the cat would answer that question
and he indeed delivered three short meows in return. He then stood up
and stretched his legs and arms. He had worked almost his entire shift
without getting out of that chair.::

Lambert: I guess I will analyze the results tomorrow with my mind
refreshed.

Hocuss: ::meowing and trilling:: The Darwin is rebooting the system.

::A cat speaking came as no surprise for Lambert since he was the one
that gave him that ability at the first place. In fact, he only spoke
when there was no one else around or when he expressly say Hocuss to do
so.::

Lambert: Why are they doing so?

::Another white cat appeared from thin air and gently joined the first.
He was a little bit small but almost identical. The science officer
thought it would be a good idea to give the operation system of the
hololab a more concrete form of expression, but he did not want to
pursue the traditional humanoid approach for an artificial intelligence.
So he chose the twin white cats. They were much more cute.::

Pocuss: ::hissing:: The ship was under an attack. ::growling: Some kind
of virus infected the computer core and they decided to reboot.

::One of the main specifications for that kind of hololab was to have a
dedicated computer core to avoid any leakage of the holo-automata-cells.
Fortunately, enough the safeguards worked as expected and the virus did
not spread into the hololab.::

Lambert: Oh! That’s weird! But they probably have the situation under
control. ::he turned around and grabbed a PADD::  Hocuss, Pocuss lock
down everything for me. We continue tomorrow.

Hocuss: ::meowing: Rest well… ::he started::

Pocuss: Lambert! ::he finished::

::The twin cats disappeared into the air while the lights of the hololab
were slowly dimmed into darkness in the proper sequence. The tired
science officer stepped into the corridor and make his way toward the
quarters 8808. But before he could take the next turbolift his commbadge
chirped.::

Renos: =/\= Renos to Lambert. I wonder if you might be able to head down
to sickbay. We’ve managed to rescue the first of the Talaxians. They
won’t all have major injuries that need tending and because they’re not
a priority medically speaking, it may be some time before anyone can
tend to them. They’ll be scared and need food, water and morale support.
=/\=

Lambert: =/\= Lambert here. =/\= ::he stroked his chin while
contemplating the possibility to meet Isabel again::

::It was quite a while since he and Darwin’s Captain talked to each
other. The last one was probably when he went out to the bridge to ask
authorization for the hololab project. It was a few months ago.::

Renos: =/\= Maybe you can even find out what happened to them while you
are there. Don’t worry if you can’t, they might be too confused and
traumatized to make sense of their situation. We’ll find out one way or
another. =/\=

Lambert: =/\= I´m glad to be of service, Captain. =/\=

Renos: Response

Lambert: =/\= I will report to sickbay immediately. Lambert out. =/\=
Well, socialize a little and play detective. This can be fun! ::he
smiled almost forgetting his tiredness. ::

TBC
____________________________
Ensign Christopher Lambert
Science Officer ~ Physicist
USS Darwin ~ NCC 99312-A
D239306CL0
“When you have eliminated all that is impossible, whatever remains must
be the truth, no matter how improbable.” – / Sherlock Holmes