LTJG Lhandon Joseph Nilsen - Applying Logic To The Unexplainable

[Josh Herrick]

There are a few things I really enjoy about @Lhandon_Nilsen's post here.

First, I enjoyed this flash forward of a scene post mission, done with @Alora DeVeau's PNPC Nesre Salo, giving a unique reflective view of the character's mind set after the action had settled down. Second is the ability to weave bite sized character development in via narration — sometimes we get so caught up with the mission that we neglect this until shore leave. And, lastly, having his character's limits and frustrations be present while still being able to advance the plot.  ❤️

Quote

(( Sometime after the Unity Dow Mission, The Writers' Room, Deck 8 Saucer, USS Octavia E. Butler ))

Lhandon was glad that this session was taking place outside of Salo’s office. That’s not to say that it wasn’t a nice place to be—far from it. Salo clearly took a lot of pride in her office, and it was decorated beautifully, but sometimes these kinds of conversations needed a more casual environment.

He sipped on the tea that came with Nesre's recommendation. He liked the taste of the ginger tea and wondered why he had never tried it before.

Nilsen: You know what I wish :beat: I wish I could go back in time and slap the Lhandon that was on the Unity Dow.

Nesre studied the man across from her as she lifted her cup and sipped at her tea, eyebrows arched upward at the admittance of the man.

Salo: And why is that?

Nilsen: He was getting so hung up on working out why he couldn't get his gifts to work that he wasn't looking around him in that moment.

The cup lightly tinkled as she set it upon the saucer and levelled her gaze at the HCO officer turned assistant chief of operations.

Salo: And why do you think he was?

Nilsen: Honest answer? ::taking a zip from his cup:: He was scared

(( Present Day, Ready Room, Deck 1, USS Unity Dow ))

He didn't understand it at all. He had been given these gifts to facilitate communication, and in the last mission, he had been able to do that with great success. But now, here, with a bunch of the crew of the Unity Dow likely interphased, in a situation where he should have naturally excelled because he might have been able to sense them, he had nothing to show for it.

He would have been feeling useless if he didn't have something else to do. They had found the log of the captain of the Dow, which was an incoherent rambling of someone who seemed to have lost grip upon reality. It made no sense to others, but Lhandon did notice that there was a syntax to the ramblings, and perhaps, the ramblings made total sense to the captain.

Nilsen: I think there is a syntax there. Whatever the captain is saying…no matter how…freaky. It’s making sense to him.

Rouiancet: You think so?

He was certain of that. There was something about the pattern of the voice, the length of the sentences, and even the body language that indicated there was some kind of logic to be applied here.

Nilsen: (working at the console) I’m going to send this back to the OEB’s main computer and (tapping) and see if one of my programs can figure something out. The translator is going to working overtime.

Or is he just applying logic to the unexplainable?

Rouiancet: We ought to have a counselor analyze it, too. Karen's on the Sower, but maybe Nesre Salo.

He’s was 100% happy with that suggestion, the counselor could take his hunch a step further.

Nilsen: It will take some time but hopefully something good comes out of it.

Herrick: I’d take anything either of them could give us at this point. We saw the Cap’ here, but we don’t know where he went after.

With the data sent over to the OEB and instructions for Salo to have a look at it, they could now turn their attention back to the mystery that had brought them to the ready room.

Nilsen: l wonder (beat) what you said…the readings that were there before we enter the room. If they were affected by us showing up, like can we watch them on a security camera or something?

Rouiancet: We should be able to. The tricorders' library storage should have saved whatever Josh's saved.

Herrick: (nodding) We can link our current readings to the ship’s internal sensor logs and work to create a from-to readout to see if there’s anything of note. But ::waving his tricorder around:: I don’t see any additional recording devices.

He moved forward with an idea, one that would be quicker to do than to say. He started to poke around the captain’s console, perhaps in a move that would be better to ask for forgiveness than permission. He accessed the logs from the internal scans of the ship, something a captain could do from the comfort of their ready room.

Nilsen: There wouldn’t be, but I can access the library storage from here so we can get something compared.

Lhandon worked on the captain’s console and soon, the results came up but Rouiancet took the words out of his mouth.

Rouiancet: (frowning) That's strange. Nothing unusual in the library storage at all. (looking up at Josh) But something piqued your interest.

Herrick: Do you notice these tiny spikes of energy?

Nilsen: Those ones there?

He pointed at the readout on the tricorder and hoped that he wasn’t showing that he was freaked out by this.

Kessler: =/\= Kessler to Captain Rouiancet. =/\=

Though he had reacted a little more than he'd liked to the comms call as he jumped slightly at the sudden sound of Kessler's voice.

o0 You saw nothing Josh. 0o He shot Josh a look that said “no, don’t you dare mention this again”

Rouiancet: See if you can find whatever it is you found before. (tapping her badge; stepping back onto the bridge) =/\= Go for Rouiancet. =/\=

Rouiancet made her way out of the ready room to answer the comms call.

Herrick: What d’you suppose these are? They don’t look like Federation tech to me. Definitely a different energy source.

Nilsen: It’s a spike right, so sudden movement of power. Either something connected or disconnected. Cables do that sometimes, residual power will jump. What you make of that erm ::pointing to a number displayed near the element:: decay? It’s like the “not-chroniton, chronitons” we picked up eailer.

Herrick: Do you think it’s some localized spatial phenomena? Or (beat) something more nefarious?

Nilsen: With everything we’ve seen…we should assume the latter.

Ro had returned, and it seemed the update brought no new information for them, otherwise she’d tell them. She was interested to see what the boys had been up to.

Rouiancet: Anything?

They talked as one well-oiled team

Herrick: Well these energy readings are foreign, and we’re hard-pressed to tell if they’re natural or artificial, but our best guess is… (nodding to Lhandon).

Lhandon picked up on the nod and smoothy added the next thoughtt

Nilsen: that they work in a similar way to chronitons but…there’s something else at work here too.

Herrick: Around the same time as we saw a spike in these energy readings, all the crew's comm signals went… fuzzy.

Nilsen: and even 10 com-badges suddenly disconnecting from the main computer would cause a power spike like that. The computer isn’t prepaired for a sudden de-sync of every combadge.

It was just like being with Toxin; the two would riff off each other. But as Toxin had gotten his new promotion, something in Lhandon’s heart felt wrong. He figured he knew what it was: they hadn't worked closely on something that wasn't work, and even then, they had been doing their own work. Lhandon meant making sure that Toxin didn't work all the hours in a day.

Rouiancet: Response

Herrick: Right, the crew’s combadges started to fall out of sync and, after it reached a certain pace, it created a cascade failure that took some of the logging offline. That combined with the fact that it seems like some of the combadge signals are slowly phasing away, even now, is creating havoc with getting clear readings.

Nilsen: Yeah. There's a chance they could be here watching us right now.

He put his hands through his hair, hoping that the spirt of Carl Sagan would inhabit him for just a minute so that he could explain what he wanted to say

Rouiancet: Response

Nilsen: But…Josh…::he was about to say an idea:: We need to be on the bridge for this. I’ve had an idea. I also think they knew what was happening to them. I can’t put my finger on it, something from that log.

He gestured for Rouiancet and Herrick to follow him. Something Lhandon can be stubborn on something, he’ll get an idea and he’ll follow it through, without regard for processes or procedure “sheer bullheadedness” is what V’Airu called it.

Herrick/Rouiancet: Response

((Bridge, Deck 1, USS Unity Dow ))

They had found their way to the bridge and Lhandon was talking as they moved.

Nilsen: Josh, you said that there combadge signals are phasing away right? Which means, they’ve not phased away yet.

Herrick/Rouiancet: Response

Nilsen: I think we’re thinking the same thing, could we do something really stupid like transport them back, help them rephase with our reality?

Herrick/Rouiancet: Response

He was at the science console and was overwhelmed by the choices he had. He figured this would be the best place for it. While he wanted to hit every button just to see what would happen, this wasn’t a 5th-grade science project; these were the lives of 400 crew members of the Dow.

Then he hit a wall with his thoughts. He hadn't thought it through and ended up stuck, the science console mocking him as various results, experiments, and displays that he didn't understand flashed in front of him.

Nilsen: I…just…I’ve no idea how to do that.

Herrick/Rouiancet: Response

He wished that his gifts had been working then. He wished with all his being that he could have sensed where the crew were and reached out to them. But as he tried everything he had learned, to open up his mind, to send out mental images of the help he was offering, he got nothing. He just felt like there was a giant wall around him, and Lhandon wondered if Horque’s mental defense lessons had worked just a little too well.

Tags/TBC

((OOC: Huge shout out to Amanda for the start of this sim.))

Lieutenant JG Lhandon Joseph Nilsen

Assistant Chief of Operations.

USS Octavia E Butler

O240007LN1

He/Him/His (Both player and character)

 

[Lhandon_Nilsen]

@Josh Herrick you're too kind to me, thank you so much for the kind words. 💛

Of course, my gratitude to @Alora DeVeau for taking the time out of her day to help with the flash-forward