LTJG Lhandon Joseph Nilsen - You Okay Sir?
Lhandon Nilsen
(( Bridge, Deck 1, USS Octavia E Butler ))
Promontory: Take us in, full-speed—er, well, maybe a little more cautiously.
Nilsen: Aye sir, moving closer. Three-quarters impulse.
His instincts were playing up; there was something here, something wrong. There was no reason for the bridge evacuation hatch of the Unity Dow to be open while in orbit, and there was no foreseeable reason for just a singular escape pod to be launched.
Yinn: Sir, I'm not getting any life signs from the planet, but given the interference, I'm not getting much of a reading at all. I would recommend we investigate in person, but I couldn't begin to guess where on the planet to start.
There was something else. He couldn’t put his finger on it, something beyond the déjà vu of him flying into another spooky, scary cloud. The first was the Esh-o Micronebula, then a moon attacked (a phrase he never thought he’d say), and now he was flying through this system that made his hair stand on end.
Promontory: Sensors on max and let’s… Let’s go ahead and put us on Yellow Alert. I don’t want to be caught by surprise by… whatever’s out there.
That helped a little bit. There was comfort offered by the yellow alert, one that somehow acknowledged his worry. Parts of the UI on his console turned amber, as did the lights around the bridge that cast a hue of gold.
Nilsen: ::in response to Yinn:: Where would we even start with investigating in person
Yinn: Then maybe we start with the ship. Send a team over in EV suits to try and get any clue as to what happened.
Katsim: We would get a better idea if we did.
Trying to hide his worry under a joke, Nilsen de-assigned himself to an EV walk.
Nilsen:: If it’s all the same to you, inside is warmer. I hate the outside of space.
Of course, he was only referring to the outside of the ship; EV walks were the source of that joke. There was an attempt at a laugh, a laugh meant to hide his anxiety, but it was a weak one. He couldn’t bring the full joke out.
Promontory: We have some time before we’re in range for that. (beat) And let’s bring the Captain in before we make any decisions about sending our own officers out.
Wanting to be helpful, Lhandon asked
Nilsen: What can we do before that? Maybe even avoid sending people out unless we need to?
Yinn: Response
Promontory: Let’s be sure to get all the data we can before that point then. That ejected escape pod can't have gone far, let's find it.
Data was good. Data helped. Data was comforting
Katsim: I’ll continue scanning.
Nilsen: The auxiliary batteries are still 95% full if you want to take some of that to help your scans.
He was being helpful. This was good.
Yinn: Response
Promontory: Mr. Nilsen, warp factor 4 to the edge of the inner system and we can proceed on impulse from there.
Warp factor four felt right, not too fast, like peaking through the gap left by a door slightly ajar.
Nilsen: Aye sir.
Yinn: response
Fortunately, the Oort was far enough away from the inner system that a warp jump was allowed by the regulations. Traveling at impulse would have taken too long, and going too slowly would have put Nilsen’s and everyone else’s nerves more on edge.
The warp jump was smooth; it only took a few minutes to get to the inner edge of the system. He tapped on his console, the UI and the holographic display reacting to him and anticipating his every press. The warp controls were on his left, just within easy access for his dominant hand.
Katsim: I’ve run a scan for any sort of biological matter aboard the ship.
Nilsen: Is it?…that pause is worrying
Promontory/Yinn: Response
Katsim: Excluding biological components of the ship itself, there are no organisms, either dead or alive, on the Unity Dow.
Nilsen: Which means logically the crew must have left the ship. ::A hint of opermisim:: That must mean they’re all still alive.
Promontory/Yinn: Response
Katsim was about to speak, but she didn’t. Instead whatever she was going to say was forgotten about.
Katsim: Did…did that…
Nilsen turned in his chair to look at Katsim; he saw that she had pointed directly at the doors.
Nilsen: Are you okay sir?
Lhandon had been here before. He had once seen his father on the bridge of the Oumuamua. It turned out to be the people of Alpha Brenkelvi trying to make contact with them. They were a people who had ascended to a different plane of being, and when they were interacting with our reality, they could only appear to each person and point. It wasn’t until Nilsen, Rouiancet, and Brzezinski made the jump to their plane via the use of chronotons (that Yinn helped collect) that they could then communicate.
This also led to Nilsen acting as a bridge, having his consciousness removed from his body and put into the mindscape of Commodore V’Airu.
It had worked, right up to the part where he nearly died.
He had obviously recovered, but for a week afterward, he certainly felt like he had the biggest hangover ever.
Katsim: I’m…I’m sorry. I thought I saw something, but…I think I’m just tired.
Nilsen: You might have done…If I’m not over stepping my station, that’s how Alpha Brenkelvi started for me. ::Turning to YInn:: You remember that mission Yinn, reckon an internal scan is worth it? Same kind of stuff as before?
Promontory/Yinn: Response
If anyone was going to understand seeing things, it would have been Nilsen. He still wondered how he’d explain this to his family back home. It had been nearly half a year now, and while he’d still been sending messages and leaving comms videos, it wasn’t the same. Just as he had found a home on the OEB, he felt his birthplace slipping away. His heart yearned for home, and now he figured it would be the right time to tell them that he had a boyfriend, a message that would be awkward, because it would seem Kocavs understood that they were just dating and not yet at the boyfriend stage.
Katsim: Response
Nilsen: Alright.
He accepted the answer he was given with a nod, his experience with this weird stuff at play, and he resolved to be on hand if Katsim needed him, just like she had been able to help him figure out all his mental abilities when he first got them.
Katsim/Promontory/Yinn: Response
His console then beeped.
Nilsen: Fifteen seconds to our destination.
Tags/TBC
Lieutenant JG Lhandon Joseph Nilsen
Assistant Chief of Operations.
USS Octavia E Butler
O240007LN1
He/Him/His (Both player and character)