Samuel Laffite



Samuel Laffite

Ship: Airship Daedalus

Title or Job: Physician

Age: ?

Race: Human

Homeworld: Helena

Hometown: Airship McKay

Date of Birth: ?

Personality:
Samuel is quiet and calm. His past has left him pessimistic and slow to trust, with a distaste toward pirates or thieves of any kind. To those that he considers noble, he is friendly and respectful. To those that he finds corrupt or immoral he is often hostile, bitter, and cold. Samuel usually acts with calculation and precision, often putting aside his emotions to achieve his goals. He is driven by a strong desire to take revenge on the Order for killing his family, and to rid the Multiverse of their presence.

Early life
Though very little of Samuel Laffite's early life is known, an article in the 1862, 18 August, issue of the Manchester Guardian stated that 'The Scottish freight airship McKay was found destroyed, yesterday, North-East of Manchester. "The nature of the wreckage suggests that the attack was not made by pirates," said the Chief Constable, "but we are unsure of who the attackers were, at this time." The Police have reported the ship to be owned by one Mr. Samuel Laffite, however none of the bodies at the scene were identifiable as the owner.'

Another Manchester Guardian article, 1863, 3 March, mentions Samuel again, saying 'Recent studies by Russian professor Dmitri Mendeleev suggest the existence of a 57th chemical element. The presence of element 57 has been noted most prominently in those involved in recent airship attacks. The effects of element 57 on the human body is varied and hard to predict, noting specifically the case of one Mr. Laffite who, after extended exposure to traces of the element found in his blood stream, received major brain trauma and a gradually developing memory loss, but showed a distinctive resistance to the element's lethal properties. Professor Mendeleev suggests that Mr. Laffite's birth and life on airships may be the cause for his unique condition. It is unsure whether the subjects will survive.'

Post-trauma life
Samuel's earliest memory was in a hospital in Manchester, as the subject of the research of professor Mendeleev. He only had with him a single relic of his past, a locket engraved with the name Samuel Laffite. He spent most of his time wandering the hospital, his new home, and observing the medical practices done there. He particularly enjoyed when students of the local Owens College would come to the hospital to observe a procedure. In these visits, Samuel befriended Meghan VanHausen, an English medical student attending Owens College studying to receive her doctorate.

On March 7th, 1863, the hospital containing Samuel was destroyed in a fire. Although the news report called it an accident, Samuel saw several suspicious figures in the smoke, as he escaped.

At the offer of Meghan VanHausen, Samuel lived in the house of the VanHausens for several months. On November 12th he was contacted by a secretive military force, petitioned by queen Victoria at the suggestion of her daughter, princess Helena, called the Royal Flying Corps (or RFC). The RFC representative revealed to Samuel that the attack on the airship McKay, which resulted in his infection of element 57 and cost him his memory, had been made by a malevolent insurgent organization with goals to take control of the country. The representative called the malevolent organization 'the Order'. He went on to inform Samuel that the Order also destroyed the hospital, which once contained Samuel, to prevent further research on element 57. Samuel was then invited to join the RFC's efforts to stop the Order and expel them from the country.

Samuel was recruited to work and study under Dr. James Crowley, the ship physician of the airship 'HMS Theta' in the 9th brigade of the RFC. During his days working for the RFC he spent six month terms on duty, broken by nine month periods on leave. He spent much of his first leave researching his past, but only managed to discover two articles in the Manchester Guardian about himself and a French family line showing three consecutive Samuel Laffites. He was unsure of whether he was the third or perhaps fourth Samuel Laffite, and so he ignored the family line completely.

On September 3rd, 1865, Samuel Laffite married Meghan VanHausen. A small controversy was stirred about Samuel's unknown age, and made life in Manchester uncomfortable for them. The Laffites moved to London where Samuel stayed until his next term, to return home in November. On December 28th, 1866, Meghan Laffite gave birth to Michael Laffite, she and Samuel's first and only son.

On August 19th, 1867, the airship HMS Theta, of which Samuel was now the physician, was attacked by an Order man-of-war and the HMS Theta was crashed, leaving few survivors. Samuel managed to retrieve only a few things from the ship before Order forces arrived to search the wreckage themselves. He was forced to flee to scene, injured, and return to London.

On September 9th, Samuel traveled to Bath to meet with an RFC representative about his continued service. When he reached the meeting point, he found an Order ambush waiting for him, and only barely escaped. When he returned home to London he found his estate burned, and news was brought to him about the death of his wife and son in the fire.

Samuel slowly declined into depression and poverty, over the following months. He only managing to feed himself, in the later months, by dealing with local cut-throats and vagabonds. He emerged from his depression hardened, bitter, and desiring nothing more than revenge on the Order. In an attempt to avoid another ambush, Samuel started searching for another way to fight the Order. After months of research and information dealing, he finally discovered a crew of sky pirates fighting against the Order. They called themselves the Airship Daedalus. He made contact and noticed that the captain of the Daedalus showed the distinctive effects of an element 57 infection. In an attempt to get further information on the infection and research it's effects, on March 24th 1868, Samuel Laffite requested to serve as the physician on the Airship Daedalus.