LTJG Lhandon Joseph Nilsen - A Damn Good Day Cuz!

[Lhandon Nilsen]

(( Sickbay, Deck 5, USS Octavia E. Butler ))

This was a lot to take in for both Lhandon and Barney. Lhandon had learned that they shared the same last name, and he'd recognized his own accent anywhere. At the same time, Barney had been through a situation that seemed ten times worse than Lhandon's own experience in the engineering section.

Lhandon learned that Barney had been an engineer but transferred to security when they lost the chief security officer. It certainly sounded like everyone had been pulling double shifts at that time. Meanwhile, Barney had many questions, and Lhandon couldn't blame him.

Barney: You mean we died and you brought us back? Then where did my cousin, Wilma, come from? Or go? She’s been gone a very long time. ::beat:: Just what’s going on here??

Nilsen: I know, I know, it's a lot to take in. We recovered the Unity Dow, as well as some of the crew, so you're safe now. We've left that system.

Barney: Okay. ::leaning back on the bed:: Okay.

Nilsen: Why don't you tell us what happened? And we can fill in any blanks you have or answer any questions.

Lhandon had a hundred questions of his own as well, but Barney was still recovering. Yet Lhandon was on the other side, so he was willing to give Barney all the patience that was required.

Barney: ::softly:: Wilma. She was my cousin. We played in a treehouse. Somewhere. She was killed in a shuttle accident. ::looking at Toz then Llandon:: So how would I see her? Did I really see her get phased? Or…

Toz: We don’t know.

Nilsen: I can answer some of that. There were these nodes, they were like about this big ::Showing with hands:: made of some kind of metal and were all around the Dow, They gave us visions of our scariest moments you know those moments we keep ::gesturing with his hand:: pressed down. They interacted with this other thing on the planet that I’m yet to fully get my head around.

There was a pause as the questions were forming each others minds.

The very question Toz was thinking about.

Nilsen: So are we…related?

Toz: If you played in a treehouse, was that on Gault?

Barney: I don’t really know. My dad was Henry Bales Nilsen. I don’t know who Wilma’s parents were. But dad’s brother was named Harold. I never met him. We were chased off Gault when I was a teenager.

Nilsen: ::Quietly:: Woah.

He had taken a sharp intake of breath and steadied himself mentally for a moment. He'd never heard of Henry, but suddenly all the torture in OVIV had been worth it to find Barney.

NIlsen: Harold is my papa, he’s my dad. :Beat: I think that makes us cousins.

Lhandon smile was as wide as the galaxy, He certainly was holding back some emotion but was likely not doing the best job.

Nilsen: My ma is called Morgaine, and I’ve three brothers and three sisters. Which means in total ya' got seven of us cousins.

Barney/Toz: Response.

Nilsen: This is…this is a damn good day cuz! I got like a hundred questions!

Barney/Toz: Response.

He was almost short of breath as he spoke, not because of any medical issue, but because he was processing this information. He had thought all of the Nilsens were accounted for, yet here was proof that there was another branch of the family; a cousin, no less. But more than one question remained. He wanted to ask about Wilma, but also how on Earth a branch of the Nilsens had been chased out of Gault.

Nilsen: You mentioned you got chased off Gault, what happened? Was it the FAC?

Barney/Toz: Response.

The FAC (Ferengi Agricultural Consortium) was a group that bought up farms and land on Gault over a period of decades. They started small and slowly wore down the farmers on Gault until they caved. As they acquired more land, they became increasingly greedy, taking larger cuts of profits, adding complex terms, fees, and additional charges that made it difficult for farmers to maintain ownership of their lands

In response, a loose group called the Free Gault Family Farms, which tried to create a united front against the FAC, the Nilsen’s being one of the spearheads of that. Yet despite the resistance, many farms eventually succumbed to the FAC's offers, leaving only a few families independent.

Lhandon had been quietly proud of what his family had done, but more than that, he was proud of Barney, who had survived longer in the torture chamber of OVIV.

TAGS/TBC

Lieutenant JG Lhandon Joseph Nilsen

Assistant Chief of Operations.

USS Octavia E Butler

O240007LN1

He/Him/His (Both player and character)