Lieutenant Yogan Yalu — An extraordinary life
jkpbem
(( The Emissary’s Experience Extravaganza, Jalanda City, Bajor ))
Narrator: Welcome to the Emissary’s Experience Extravaganza. Please keep your hands and arms inside the car at all times.
The car lurched forward, or at least the holosuite made it feel like it did, and Yogan gripped onto the safety bar that had locked into place above his lap. All around them, buildings sprung upward out of the ground, creating a cityscape that was unfamiliar to Yogan.
Narrator: The year was 2332, Earth Calendar. The place, New Orleans, Sisko’s Creole Kitchen.
Yogan looked around the recreation of the Earth city. It was an interesting blend of historic architecture and modern development.
Yalu: New Orleans. Hmm, never been there.
Anders: It’s my home, all my family lives there, we moved there when I was young.
Yogan raised his eyebrows in surprise.
Yalu: Really? That’s a coincidence. I was actually born on Earth, but we left when I was ten. How did you find it?
Anders: I loved it. ::point at the Sisko’s:: that is actually a really good place to eat. Do you remember much of your time on earth back then?
Yalu: I was young, and the only non-Human child at my school. I got used to being treated differently because I was ‘special,’ and that made it difficult for a while when we moved back to Trill.
Anders: What part of Earth?
Yalu: South-east Europe. In a city called Sarajevo. Ever been there?
Anders: I have not, the closest I have been to there is Budapest.
The wagon wound its way down the holographic track, picking up speed as the environment around them changed.
Narrator: Relax and enjoy as we time travel through to our next destination.
Baylen looked over at Yogan with a disgusted look on his face, at the mention of time travel.
Anders: we should be old pro’s at this by now.::laughing::
Yogan laughed at the joke. Baylen Anders was clever, and Yogan always appreciated a well-timed quip.
Yalu: ::grins:: No kidding. If I never travel through time again, it’ll be too soon.
The simulated version of New Orleans having disappeared, Yogan looked around him in curiosity as everything faded to black and the ride came to a stop. The darkness was absolute–the kind where you wondered whether your eyes were even open–and the temperature plummeted. From somewhere behind them, an energy beam arced out into space, and a Starfleet ship came into view.
Anders: Wolf-359
Narrator: This is Star Fleets first battle with the Borg, the Battle of Wolf-359, the Emissary was Lt. Commander Benjamin Sisko, the First Office of the USS Saratoga.
Yogan felt a chill run up his spine to match the temperature in the room. Auzell, his sixth host, was a sophomore at the Academy during the first battle against the Borg. He remembered the panic that swept the campus when word came from Wolf 359. Thirty-nine ships destroyed, over 11,000 people killed or assimilated. There wasn’t a person at the Academy who hadn’t lost someone–a friend, a classmate, an instructor–in the massacre.
Narrator: In an attempt to gain knowledge about Starfleet defenses, the Borg assimilated Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the U.S.S. Enterprise, creating a Borg drone known as Locutus. In the ensuing battle, of the forty Federation starships amassed at Wolf 359 only the USS Endeavour (NCC-71805) survived. An estimated 11,000 people were lost, including Sisko's wife, Jennifer.
The narrator’s voice, neutral and even-paced, was unsettling to Yogan, as his memories played in parallel. After the armada at Wolf 359 was destroyed, the Borg ship continued on its way to Earth, and a feeling of futility and despair gripped the Academy campus. Up until then, the Academy had been little more than rigorous study, physical training, and dreaming about putting theory into practice on the bridge of a starship. Wolf 359 was Auzell’s first taste of the dangers that lie in wait out in the galaxy. Seven years after the Borg attack, she would come face-to-face with danger, and danger would win.
Yogan shielded his eyes as the holographic recreation of the USS Saratoga exploded before him. Auzell hadn’t witnessed the destruction of her ship, Valley Forge. Having been carried, mortally injured and barely conscious, off the bridge and into an escape pod, she remembered the swift jerking motion of its launch, followed by the pressure of a hypospray against her neck. Everything faded to black after that.
Yalu: I didn’t know all this about him. It’s tragic.
Anders: response
The wagon moved forward from the aftermath of Wolf 359, and everything around them turned a shade of blue-green. Bajor came into view, with a space station in its orbit. In the distance, a spectacular sight: the wormhole opening the gateway to the Gamma Quadrant.
Narrator: Two years later, the Emissary arrived at Bajor and discovered the Celestial Temple.
The wagon moved on from Bajor and entered the wormhole, giving both passengers a light show of swirling neutrinos.
Yalu: This part I know. ::beat:: I always wondered how I would react if an alien race decided I was to be a religious icon.
Anders: response
Yalu: If everything I did, or said, mattered massively to an entire religion, I don’t know how I would cope. ::beat:: Sometimes I just want to kick my boots off and eat a cheeseburger.
Anders: response
Narrator: But through the Celestial Temple, an enemy awaits. The Dominion.
Yalu: I don’t know if I’m keen to watch this part.
Anders: response
Tag / TBC
Lieutenant Yogan Yalu
Helm Officer • USS Resolution NCC-78145
Justin • D238804DS0