Posted by Crewman Jonathan Durheim (Engineer) in MPT-“Six Hours From Evil”- the other Leviathan

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Surda (Chief of Security / RTF) in MPT-“Six Hours From Evil”- the other Leviathan

(snip)

Surda looked at what Durnheim was doing for a moment, but she had never been scientifically minded. She walked over to Casela instead, letting out a heavy sigh. “Any ideas on how to neutralize evil Hampton?” She knew how to fight, and how to win, but anomalies weren’t quite her scene.
-Surda, CoS

Casela shook her head. She’d been trying to come up with a way already. “No. He’s not really Hampton though. He is but he’s more, and he’s…twisted. Hampton always thought differently from everyone else. It made him a brilliant engineer but not always able to get along with others. He wanted the truth to prove his theories on what was going on around him were true, but then was disturbed to find out he was right.” She paced the containment deck looking at the destruction. “He has a particularly strong hatred of me. Which is a shame, I have a lot of respect for our Hampton. I would have considered him a friend if he had let me.” And in case Hampton was listening would not find anything but truth to that statement in her mind. She thought over the different conversations she’d had with him. Then her eyes snapped to Surda. “Contingency plans. Hampton always had at least a dozen. He joked once that if anything went wrong on the ship he had a dozen ways off but none of them included a way to kill me first. If his power were to disappear, if he didn’t manage to kill us again like he did here, what would he do? He’s got to have some way off this ship.”
Lt. Synthi-er, CNS

Surda blinked a bit then frowned. “I… It hadn’t occurred to me to make contingency plans” That wasn’t a part of Orion culture. Those were for when you were spying, or stowing away. If you were loyal to the crew of the ship you were on, you shouldn’t need to escape. “I’ll try to think of one though.” She didn’t like it. Just thinking about how to get off the ship made her feel like she was planning on running away. She shook her head and looked back to Casela. “A shuttle maybe? He’s an engineer, he could make them stronger or faster.” It was probably the most obvious answer, but that didn’t make it the wrong one.
-Surda, CoS

“Checking to see if any of the shuttles have been made flight ready would be a place to start. His office in engineering would be another good place to start. He was…well our Hampton IS a dedicated engineer. He was most comfortable there. He also had his own lab on the RTF decks that he keeps locked.” Casela turned and glanced around at the distruction, and horrible deaths. “Hampton wanted others to suffer the way he did. Death was not in his plans. Physical pain was not in his plans, though he wouldn’t have shied away from it. He wanted others to suffer, emotionally-mentally, the way he did. This,” she waves a hand around, “is more than him. Whatever energy is in that thing maybe the energy is compromising his brain waves/patterns. Maybe it’s sentient and is using him like a host?”

Durheim had wandered over by this point, gazing intently at his PaDD and pushing numbers and figures around, trying to make sense of his findings. As he rejoined the small cluster, he refocused on the others. Unfortunately, he didn’t know Hampton well - he simply hadn’t been aboard the ship long enough to get to know the man in any real capacity. Jonathan’s habit of isolating himself in experiments and crawlspaces didn’t help matters.

“I don’t like splitting up, but Durheim needs to finish here,” she looked over at him, “unless you think you’ve gotten everything you can?” She looked at Surda and Raauhl, “He doesn’t like me, maybe I can lead him away and you can figure out what this…thing has done to Hampton or how he’s different?” A thought came to her, “Hampton always thought he was alone on this ship. We need to make him see otherwise. Give him a reason to fight harder against this thing.”

Durheim nodded politely at Casela. “Yes, Miss Synthi-er; I’ve gotten what information I can, though it is less than I had hoped for. There was a faint residue of temporal energy on my and Mr. Bog’s corpses; and there appears to be no evidence of failure within the containment measures used - as if they were....” Here Durheim paused, wearing a concerned expression. “I can’t say that they didn’t work - it’s as if they hadn’t been present, and had no effect on Mr. Hampton. I can try to reconfigure the systems to focus on temporal energy; but I can not make any promises to it’s efficacy. Temporal energy is finicky in ideal situations, and Mr. Hampton is quite possibly not limited to such a narrow focus; given our previous sightings.”

Crewman Durheim, Engineering

=^=Synthi-er to Bog. I’m not sure that this evil Hampton is your dear departed CE. Is there anyway to talk to him, inside the orb? Keep him, keep our Hampton talking? Let him know what you’re trying to do? Not just yes or no answers. Get his ideas or suggestions on what is going on even if he can’t give you specific details? Let’s not abandon him to this thing or let him think we have.=^=
Lt Synthi-er, CNS

The voice that roared back in reply would sound less male Tellarite and more female, half-Klingon.
=^= We have already tried that. And Mr Hampton gave little assistance. But we will try again as we transport the orb to the cargo bay. =^=

• Kara Nakuto (Consultant Researcher)

For them to get answers Raauhl knew they would have to study the orb, doing it on this leviathan was subject to likely severe mental health issues later down the line but doing it on their ship also brought in several issues, he hoped history wasn’t repeating itself.

• LtCmdr Raauhl, XO

Casela looked around. “Bog, Kara, and Lazol are working on the orb and whatever that thing in the cargo bay is. Do we go back or stay and try and figure out what this thing is up to? Hampton had a lab on the RTF deck one below us. There’s the shuttle bay and then main engineering.” They needed to do something. If that thing was coming back she’d rather be moving than sitting still. She waited to see what the Cmdr would choose to do.

And then she did something, very very stupid. She reached her thoughts out, I want to talk to William. She may or may not get a response, but she wanted to know if William Hampton, the one from this ship, was actually alive or not.
Lt. Synthi-er, CNS

An inventory of the shuttles would reveal that in fact, Shuttlepod 2 had been prepped and was ready for lift off at any time, the shuttlebay was on standby. Internal logs would show that Hampton’s lifesigns had been detected in main engineering and the CE’s office within thirty minutes of the time Casela searched for it. The counselor’s mental callout was unheeded.

Storyteller S

Surda nodded. Sometimes the simplest option was right. Sometimes the simplest option was a diversion to trick people into rushing to the shuttlebay, but sometimes it was right. She flicked her wrist, then sighed. “Durnheim. Is the orb still emitting energy or is it latent?”
-Surda, CoS

Durheim shook his head, though an uncertain expression remained on his face. “I think it is latent; I couldn’t detect any strong energies coming off of the remains of the orb. If nothing else, at the time of my scans, the corpses emitted more energy than the orb remnants.” He hadn’t considered looking into the shuttles; and he privately admonished himself. He had gotten overly distracted, and that had impacted his effectiveness; unforgivable in such a dangerous environment.

Crewman Durheim, Engineering

“One of the shuttles is on standby. He’s going out that way. And he’s been in engineering and the CE office. Maybe we can figure out what he’s up to?” She glanced at Surda not liking the idea, but time was running out, “I don’t like it but should we split up? Two to engineering, two to the shuttle bay? We don’t have a lot of time left. And when it runs out I wanna be back on our Levi.” She looked at Raauhl for his opinion. “Cmdr?”
Lt Synthi-er, CNS/RTF