Lt. Commander Yogan Yalu — Brownie make it all better
Yogan Yalu
(( Tea-Hee-Hee, Deck 227, Deep Space 224 ))
The affable shopkeeper went round the table and filled Yogan’s cup with steaming water, then left to fetch Genkos a brownie and Sleepy a beverage. Yogan dropped a ball of Fendausian woody tea chunks in to steep, and almost immediately, the scent of conifer forests bloomed upward from the cup, giving Yogan an overall warm fuzzy feeling.
Yalu: Ensign, I’d love to learn more about you. Where do you come from? Where did you grow up? What got you interested in serving in Starfleet?
Tiberius: hmmm. Well as you know I've got two mums, I love plants, um, I'm from Earth, Australia, Queensland, hmmmm, what got me interested in starfleet... was, I was interested in space, planets, alien cultures, I wanted to see what I didn't know about yet.
Adea: Fascinating; but why medicine? Why not helm or comms?
Tiberius: It just felt right.
It seemed Sleepy Tiberius was following the path she felt was right for her. Yogan was pleased, and a little jealous. His university and academy careers were complicated by his obstinate pursuit of two, increasingly diverging goals: medicine, the discipline which he had been encouraged, perhaps a bit groomed, to follow; and spaceflight, for which he possessed a seemingly innate skill and which was a joy to accomplish. Trying to do both led to a period of time when he did neither very well–the ‘D-plus’ he received in his nonhumanoid surgery class still haunted him–and only after he earned his Starfleet commission and got out into the galaxy did he start to find a balance.
The shopkeeper returned with Genkos’ brownie, served as the Humans called à la mode, and Yogan couldn’t help staring at it with the attention he typically only reserved for a cheeseburger. The Betazoid doctor took a bite and melted faster than the ice cream sitting atop the desert.
Adea: This… is… amazing. Do either of you want some?
Tiberius: I do!
Yalu: Don’t mind if I do. Thank you.
Genkos grabbed a pair of forks from a neighboring table, but not before he enjoyed another bite.
Adea: Please… be my guests.
Yogan manoeuvred the side of the fork into an unclaimed corner of the brownie, making sure to get a bit of ice cream and some additional melted chocolate onto the utensil before stuffing his face. Genkos was telling the truth; it was fantastic. A particularly sassy memory belonging to Benim, Yalu’s fifth host who lived his retirement on Genkos’ home planet, surfaced. Benim was right: Betazoids knew chocolate.
Tiberius: Hey, before we go, would it really be ok if I got that plant?
The delicious dessert might have altered Yogan’s brain chemistry, or maybe he was just in a good mood. Either way, he’d already promised Iljor that he’d forward a crew transfer request to Commander MacKenzie with his additional recommendation attached. He might as well add his name to the “Let Sleepy Tiberius have a plant” petition. Yogan glanced at Genkos, then forked another chonk of brownie.
Yalu: I don’t see any reason why not. ::beat, playfully:: But if it ends up murdering us all in our sleep, I am going to be so mad.
CHOMP.
Fin
Lt. Commander Yogan Yalu
Strategic Operations Officer
USS Excalibur NCC-41903-A
Justin D238804DS0