Lt. Cmdr. Lhandon Nilsen - Are You Waking Up Yet!
Lhandon Nilsen
((OOC: Just one new tag to help keep my regular schedule and guide us to the end of the act - Will do one more to round off the act after Ryan’s had a chance to set up his stuff.))
((Ward 31-B, Third Floor, L’Kar General Hospital, Garasi District, Argratha Capital City, Argrathi V))
Lhandon had not been entirely sure what setup Ragh had put in place. Whatever it was, Ragh had seemed to know what he was doing. Some kind of process had been underway, but beyond that, it had just looked like very valuable scientific equipment. The interior design had still left something to be desired. Brutalism had been the name of the game for the Argrathi, but maybe it had been a case of making an environment so inhospitable (even the beds were angular) that people would get better just to get out of it. They had had some time apart as a group. Lhandon had been working the diplomatic beat, helping to make Starfleet a little more popular in the eyes of the hospital staff, and getting to know them. The group had met back up at Ragh’s experiment to compare notes and, hopefully, conclude the work on a cure for the rage.
Nilsen: So, I chatted with the staff and let them know what we were doing. Our friend is being monitored, and he’s still sedated, so we should be good. Word of what we are doing has started to get out, and we’ll likely get the press soon. I’ll handle them. I haven’t had any word about the shuttle, except for some rumours on their social media, so you just focus on your work. How’s it looking?
Anton was at work, monitoring various data streams and offering his own commentary.
Richards: Well it’s going… it appears as though they is working on keeping people calm, while the media appears to be trying to do the opposite for the most part.
Ragh: Response.
Nilsen: That’s good news?
Then, like a meerkat taking bipedal form, Richards peeked his head up once again.
Richards: Sounds like it.
Ragh: Response.
But then he spoke once more. Lhandon could not place it. He wondered if there had been doubt in the security chief’s voice, or perhaps a certain degree of processing, the kind Lhandon had come to trust.
Richards: Oh. So…
Nilsen: So?
Ragh: Response
Richards: Well if that’s the case, it makes our job a bit easier I suppose.
Lhandon nodded. For the first time, it felt like Lady Fate, who until then had been throwing obscene gestures at them, as if she was taking revenge for various acts of audacity, was finally on their side.
Nilsen: And after we had done this, the rest of the mission should be quiet. We just need to get in contact with the other teams, find out what happened to the shuttle, and try to hold off the more curious members of the press until we have something set in stone to report all before the OEB gets back.
Ragh: Response
Anton seemed to be in agreement, and he nodded before he turned back to the screens and gestured at them.
Richards: I think we’ve been made. Knowing these guys they are going to say we brought the sickness with us.
Lhandon also saw the screen flash with the Starfleet logo on a news channel, and before he could process it, the host leaned so far into the camera that his nose was almost touching the lens.
Vane: Are you seeing this? Are you waking up yet, Argratha? Look at the screen! Look at that delta! That 'Starfleet' mark! They call it a symbol of peace. I call it a brand of subversion!
On the screen, the host Kaltor Vane, with dark deep-set eyes, slammed his palm onto the desk and pointed a trembling finger directly at the viewer. His voice had a raspy, rhythmic growl to it, and Lhandon understood what Richards had said earlier.
Vane: We have reports, unconfirmed, because the 'Health Ministry' wants to keep you sedated... that these... these explorers didn't just land here. They didn't just 'arrive.' They brought the rage, the drugs in their cargo holds! They’re not here to help our sick; they’re here to study how we break! They want to turn Argrathi into a petri dish for their 'Utopian' experiments!
Lhandon closed his eyes, muttered an ancient Serbian curse to himself, one that had the effect of cursing the gesturing host's entire bloodline, and then he looked up at the ceiling.
Nilsen: I need a press officer!
Ragh/Richards: Response
Tags/TBC
Lieutenant Commander Lhandon Joseph Nilsen
Executive Officer & Senior Diplomatic Officer
USS Octavia E Butler
O240007LN1
He/Him/His (Both player and character)