Lost Empire 62

0001 – Tempro

0003 – Conner- Thomas

0097 – Ace – Zimmel

0098 – Lucy

0101 – Shelby (mother ship) – Lucie

0125 – Lars

0200 – Ellen

0301 – Rodrick

0403 – Johnathon

0667 – Marco – Brown

0778 – Jan

0798 – Celeste – Shelby (human)

0908 – Tara – Mara

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Ungrown – unnumbered

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3 – onboard Shelby 2 in re-gen

1000 – Sherry – lost at the moment

0999 – Zan – also lost

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Known and OR numbered

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0501 – Thaddeus

???? – Lena

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Derrick watched as Jonathon appeared from the portal with Ace in tow. Shelby was standing nearby as she also watched both ships appear.

“Have you received any word on Lucie’s condition,” Shelby asked the concern heavy in her voice.

Derrick could only shake his head when he turned to look at her. Sitting with a thud he started to look through the readings that he’d received so far.

Not far behind Shelby were both Derrick’s mother and grandmother, concern on their faces also. Just when things seemed to finally be going right this happens. Dempsy was out for a while, two ships were missing. Then there was the fact that Shelby was damaged along with Lucy.

Shaking his head Derrick was at a loss. At this rate they’d be hunting for ships with the new signal longer than those still lost. Looking at his soon to be Empress, mother and grandmother he knew they needed to get this over as soon as possible. They were obviously in more danger than he thought.

Looking again at what little data there was, there was no real hard evidence that Zan had even got half of them let alone most of them. “Mary?” Derrick called an idea suddenly coming to him.

Mary’s visage appeared before him, “yes Sire?”

“I have an idea; can you extrapolate the number of ships that were there before Zan’s detonation?” Derrick asked after formulating his question.

Mary was quiet for a moment, “I will have to go through all the sensor readings. This may take a great deal of time, Sire.”

Derrick nodded when Mary finished, “Alright, notify me when you have an answer.”

Mary’s visage nodded to Derrick then to her solid holograph twin, and then she was gone.

Sighing Derrick turned to the three women there. “I’m sorry Gram, mother, Shelby. We lost Zan today; he has been with me almost as long as Shelby has. He has gone through much of what I have from the beginning. I owe it to him to find him as soon as possible. As I told you before we only have three days, well,” Derrick paused looking at the chronometer. “Actually two and a half days now.”

Shelby’s eyes were large then she nodded as she gathered Derrick’s mother and Grandmother. “Yes, we still have much to do, especially after Derrick chose his wedding garments.” Both of the older women seemed a little confused then realization set in.

Derrick’s mother turned to him, “We’re going to go finish, son. Everything should be ready tomorrow.” Derrick waved to the three of them, nodding, as they moved off.

Onboard Ace, Zimmel was in the med bay looking over the readings for Lucie. “Any indication of what happened?”

“At the moment it appears that she has suffered from extreme sensory overload. If Miss Lucie Prime were like us I would suggest she reset her sensors. Seeing as she is a corporeal entity that would be an unwise course of action.”

Zimmel was nodding remembering something like this that he’d heard of when he first came here. Shaking his head for the life of him it was presently escaping his memory.

Damn he thought, the harder he tried to think what it was, the more it eluded him. Ace appeared a moment later about to speak stopping when he saw that Zimmel was deep in thought. With a slight sigh Ace waited nearby for Zimmel to notice him.

Still unable to capture his elusive thought, Zimmel was startled a moment later when he noticed Ace waiting.

“Is something wrong?” Zimmel asked as he cleared his head.

“I saw that you were locked in thought with a look of frustration on your face. I thought I might be able to provide you with some aid. Are you well Prime? My initial scans of you are detecting no anomalies.” Ace stated with all sincerity.

Zimmel turned to Ace about to retort when he stopped himself. Ace was after all, not human, so he didn’t know that much about human emotions. He’d really only just gained them.

“I am fine Ace though, I am perplexed with a thought I can’t seem to grasp. I wish there was some way I could…” Zimmel’s eyes went wide as he stared at Ace snapping his fingers, a smile started to dominate his features. “THAT’S IT!” Zimmel shouted as he reached for the comm. “Admiral!”

Admiral Hartwell was startled when he heard Zimmel shouting. “I’m here Captain Zimmel. Are you experiencing a problem?”

“No sir.” Zimmel said then wondered why the holographic system on the Admiral’s ship wasn’t working. “Something Ace said reminded me of when the Admiral and several of his old command were experiencing PTSD. Then they had the A.I.’s…”

“First off son.” Hartwell stated cutting Zimmel off. “Explain just what in the hell you are talking about.”

“Oh, uh… yes sir. Ace says that Miss Lucie experienced sensory overload. That if she were an A.I. like the ships, she could just reset her sensors. I remembered that many of the Emperor’s command crew had PTSD, that an A.I. went in and basically reset part of their brains. I believe that the same thing might work here, though we might have to adjust more for what she experienced.” A now very excited Zimmel was saying.

Hartwell was rubbing his chin as he thought back, most of the old command seeming more normal after Shelby and later Mary had gone in. He was nodding his head, about to speak when a hologram of Derrick appeared in the med-bay.

“Not a bad idea Captain Zimmel. Ace have you any evidence to support such an action?” Derrick asked of the holographic Ace.

“Sire,” Ace said then bowed low drawing another small groan from Derrick. “Much of the data from her bio readings indicate that she has experienced a massive sensory overload. It appears that many of her higher functions have shut down in defense of her personality.”

Derrick was nodding, reaching out, they heard a switch flip. Shelby’s hologram appeared next to Derrick. “Yes Derrick? You called me?”

“I know you are still in re-gen. How much longer before you have trans-warp?” Derrick asked.

“At present I have fifty percent. The discovery that Empress Shelby found has indeed sped up re-gen of the trans-warp system.” Shelby told all of them.

Derrick nodded to Shelby as his gaze softened.