JP: Lt. Cmdr. Yogan Yalu & Cmdr. Karrod Niac: Between Two Trills PT1
Karrod Niac
(( The Round Table, Deck 13, USS Excalibur-A ))
Yogan didn’t come into places like The Round Table often. He enjoyed a bit of conviviality, but drink never suited him, so he preferred places like the mess hall, or the sidewalk cafes in the central square of Leran Manev near the Symbiosis Institute Complex. The Round Table, by contrast, was part after-work tavern, part anodyne lounge, and had a vibe to match. There was even a Romulan tending bar.
As Yogan’s eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, he found who he was looking for sitting at a table near the expansive floor-to-ceiling view of space. He ordered a glurtch from the bar and brought the drink over to the table where Karrod Niac was sitting.
Yalu: ::sits down:: Thanks for making the time.
Karrod looked at the man across the table over the top of his drink. He’d met Yogan ‘in body’ when he’d been otherwise occupied by Ensign Dakora and separately met Yogan the being when he’d been all but trapped in a cave with him, deep below the surface of Cytaris V. At least, Karrod mused to himself, all the pieces were back in the right place now. Their telepathic contact had given each an unusual insight into the mind of the other but Karrod had still been surprised by the suggestion that they chat.
Niac: Not a problem, Mr. Ya…::A flash of memory made Karrod pivot slightly.:: Yogan. There something specific I can do for you or were you just looking to start a chapter of the Between Two Trills here on the Excal? I assume there’s…well, a few of us anyway.
Yogan noticed Karrod hesitate when speaking Yogan’s full, Joined name. When in the body of Talos Dakora, Yogan almost felt like he was cheating if he still went by Yogan Yalu. Strangely, the experience of unwillingly reverting back to his pre-Joined self had him using given names almost exclusively, technically a violation of protocol. He appreciated Karrod’s consideration, even if it was a holdover from the body swap confusion.
Yalu: I had Resolution’s crew manifest committed to memory––
Yogan hesitated, momentarily disquieted at having dredged up that particular unpleasantness. He recalled standing in the shuttlebay of the USS Carpathia, watching escape pods from the destroyed ship being brought aboard one by one and ticking the names of the surviving crew members off of his list. He stayed until there were no more survivors left to rescue, and each of the 115 names were burned into his memory even still.
Yalu: But I haven’t had the chance to acquaint myself with everyone on the new boat. ::beat:: Besides–– ::taps temple:: with eight, now nine, people in here, and all that lingering telepathic stuff to process, I could stand a break from learning any new names for a while.
Karrod couldn’t miss the cloud that passed over the younger man's face and put down his tumbler and padd.
Niac: I understand your last ship was lost…first time?
Yalu: ::nods:: I served on Resolution for over a year. I was part of the crew that returned her to active service. Place was just starting to feel like home. ::beat:: It’s still a bit raw, sorry. I was acting first officer when she was lost, and I still think about what could have gone differently if–– Well, just ‘if.’
Karrod nodded grimly and signaled to the bartender for another glass without saying a word. When the tumbler arrived Karrod poured a dram of his ‘private reserve’ scotch into each and raised his with strict solemnity.
Niac: Losing a ship isn’t a small thing and the first time…well, it stays with you. To the Resolution…if her crew is any measure, I’m sure she was a fine ship.
Yalu: ::raises his mug of glurtch:: I’ll drink to that. It was great that so many of us got to transfer to Excalibur together. I think it’s helped us all get over losing Resolution. And I’ll drink to all the officers and crew joining us, yourself included.
Karrod nodded in thanks and, seeing Yogan deferred on the scotch, drank both drams. They pleasantly warmed his gullet going down although he had to suffer the objections of Rostil who felt grief was better toasted with a rich red Tellurite wine of a vintage he’d spend the next hour describing if Karrod gave him the chance. He didn’t.
Niac: At least we won’t be parched. So, what did you really want to talk about? Doesn’t really seem worth holding much back between us, you’ve taken quite a wander around my brain. If you’ve got questions, ask. If I’ve got answers, I’ll give them.
In the underground caves of Cytaris V, the three unwitting telepaths’ encounter with the alien orb consciousness had left each of them with fragments of the other two. Yogan was curious and a bit uncertain about the bits and pieces of Karrod he’d glimpsed.
Yalu: I couldn’t help noticing that you have a–– ::beat:: complex relationship with Niac. I wanted to ask, but it didn’t seem appropriate with everyone else around.
Karrod blinked at the question, snorted, then laughed out loud. His bark was deep and loud and long. When he stopped, he had to wipe a tear from the corner of his eye.
Niac:...complex is a particularly diplomatic way of saying I mostly hate the damn slug, but I appreciate it all the same. ::Karrod shrugged and poured himself another dram:: That said, I think Niac’s warming up to me. I’m definitely adhering to the edict I got from the stuffed shirts at the Symbiosis Commission - plenty of new experiences for that ugly little thing and I haven’t even been here a week.
Now it was Yogan’s turn to blink–half-surprised, half-stupefied–by what Karrod had just said. He’d never met a Joined Trill who spoke about their symbiont with such characterful language. It was hard for Yogan to hear–he’d put his whole life on hold for years to earn the privilege of being Joined–and it also begged a half-dozen questions, first among them, “huh?”
Yalu: The rest of your life is a long time to be stuck with a ‘slug’ you hate. I’m surprised you let Commander Morgan have her body back.
Karrod snorted again and nodded somewhat sheepishly.
Niac: Well trading four voices for eight hundred plus wasn’t exactly an upgrade as far as I was concerned, but I take your meaning. I know how hard you worked to make Yogan into…::Karrod spread his hands in haughty pantomime::..Yogan Yalu. I’d guess the idea of a Trill who isn’t honored by the experience is downright offensive to you. You wouldn’t be the first…I’ve been scolded by damn near everyone I know at this point.
Yogan took a draught of glurtch to put some space between himself and the pressure to speak again. The lengthy quaff gave him a moment to think of what to say next, at the risk of leaving a glurtch-stache on his upper lip. Karrod seemed to be the type who preferred honesty over diplomacy, a quality several of Yogan’s past hosts–Zedro foremost among them–had in bounty.
Yalu: Yeah. It does a bit. I know a lot of people who worked their whole lives for it, only to get washed out of the Initiate Program. It’s hard to think anyone could make it through the selection process who wasn’t on board with it.
Well, that wasn’t exactly true. Keroga, Yogan’s fourth host, had been “persuaded” by a Symbiosis Commission eager to Join renowned artists and public figures with symbionts. But that was over a century ago, and the initiative was such a failure that the Commission went to great lengths to downplay it in its own historical narrative. Yogan himself hadn’t known about it until he received Keroga’s memories.
Niac: Oh then you’ll be twice as upset when I tell you I didn’t even go through the Initiate Program. I went on vacation to Trill for the first time in a few decades and ended up with the worst souvenir I could’ve dreamed up. Poor little Niac wasn’t doing too well and the Guardians said the only way it would thrive was in a host who was in Starfleet. Guess who has two thumbs and regrets checking that box on his travel forms.
Karrod gestured derisively towards himself with both hands and shook his head.
Niac: I got a week of badgering, then a week of counseling, then the slug. Afterwards there were so many blood tests and medical scans I think they would’ve saved time by just cloning me and keeping one behind, but I didn’t want to give them that idea. That was…hmm…about four months ago now. And, huzzah huzzah…it seems the Joining was a success.
Karrod raised a glass in mock salute and drained it in one gulp.
Yogan rested his hands on the table as he listened to Karrod’s story. He had heard of unprepared hosts becoming Joined out of necessity in extreme circumstances, but didn’t really believe that was a thing. He grasped at the few remaining wisps and fragments of Karrod’s memories from the orb encounter, trying futilely to recall anything that might either corroborate this story or reveal the “real” reason behind such a cover-up. He could get neither.
Yalu: And you never wanted to become Joined. Never considered it? Never picked up a pamphlet or completed a questionnaire about it?
Niac: Nope. Honestly, I always found it…so limiting. I saw so many people I knew throw away their lives…their talent and energy and passion…on getting a slug…rather than just...living. Just having a life of their own. I’m not sure when one life became ‘not enough’ for our people but it always bothered me, even when I was young. So I went my own way.
Yogan was grateful to be having this conversation in his own body. If he were sitting across the table from Karrod in his erstwhile Betazoid rental, as Yogan Verso rather than Yogan Yalu, he might have found what Karrod was saying difficult to hear. Yogan’s seventh host, Eira, the Senator for whom lively debate was an art form as well as a job, moderated what might otherwise have felt like a personal attack on something Yogan worked hard for and was tremendously proud of. The “I wanted to live my own life” bit was usually what people said after they’d tried–and failed–to make it as an Initiate. To hear it from someone who never wanted it, but somehow got it, was a bit jarring.
[TBC]
Lt. Commander Yogan Yalu
Strategic Operations Officer
USS Excalibur NCC-41903-A
Justin D238804DS0
&
Commander Karrod Niac
Chief of Operations
USS Excalibur - NCC-41903-A
Commodore Kali Nicholotti, Commanding
V239509GT0