Posted by Lieutenant William Hampton (Chief Engineering Officer) in Following the Strings- Weapons/Research Lab
0100 hours. Prime weapon building time, at least normally. It was the day after the Chief Engineer’s fateful alcohol induced conversation with the counselor. The conversation had plagued his mind all day, he could barely work or eat and he definitely could not sleep. The man was hunched over a console in his lab. Normally it showed schematics of Hampton’s personal arsenal. Tonight was different, it was display internal ship data from the day before. The bloody rat had done something, and Hampton wanted to find out what. He knew there was more to this ship, and its crew, than he knew, and he hated that. The event only intensified his crippling sense of loneliness, more than ever, he needed someone to confide in. But there wasn’t and he was going to have to keep his chin up and head high. There was no back up, there was no safety net, nobody to help. Hampton stood alone. Once again, he felt himself staring down life, and once again, he knew he would not blink. The counselor was a force of evil on this ship. That he was sure of. The amplifier was now on his belt, and he was ready at any moment for to walk in and try explain to him that even though she “wasn’t RTF” and “didn’t have a choice” she was going to have to get rid of him. He smiled, let her try, her brain would be a puddle in seconds.

What scared the man was other than her, he didn’t know who else was against him, and he was certain the counselor was not alone.

The thoughts of fear and concern where the only things to keep him company, and so he took it. After several hours, Hampton groaned. The internal sensors detected nothing anomalous on board the ship, the diagnostic on the computer core and engineering systems came back negative as well. He slammed his fist on the console. There had to be something he was overlooking, some system, some subroutine, something had to be out of place. His hands were in his hair, gripping tightly. He could not figure out what he was missing. “Think you idiot think.” He told himself.

Lt. William Hampton- CE

The Doctor knows she isn’t the most pleasant visit for most people, circumstantial ‘issues’ ironically follow her around like the universe is trying to make her more ominous than she really is. This doesn’t inhibit her ability to do her duties though and she has a report to deliver and a need to pick an engineer’s brain. Who better than the Chief Engineer himself then, he surely knows everything she would need. With a sigh, the Doctor reflected on what she needed to tell Hampton. Cooper will live, but he lost his arm to the anomaly and would need special considerations until a replacement arm could be obtained or manufactured. Coming up on the research lab, the doctor presses the chime and waits to be allowed in, if nothing else she’d rather not spook the man like she did last time.

• Doctor Fey Kastil