Yogan Yalu/Professional history, 2398
This article documents the professional history of Yogan Yalu in the year 2398.
Shore leave (SD 239801 – 239802)
After Resolution returned safely from the future, the ship made a brief stop at Deep Space 224 to offload some of the refugees rescued from the Sau planet. Most of them, however, had closer connections to the Federation's core worlds, and so remained aboard for the trip to Vulcan. En route, Yalu was contacted by Rohjess Beem, a Trill Guardian, who informed him that it was time to return to undertake zhian'tara, and Yalu began preparations to take the journey at the earliest opportunity. Yalu also took the opportunity for medical and counseling check-ups with Lieutenant Commander Genkos Adea and Lieutenant JG Meidra Sirin, respectively. During these check-ups, Yalu asked invited the officers to participate in his zhian'tara, and both were pleased to accept.
Upon arrival at Vulcan, Yalu held a shuttlecraft training simulation at the Vulcana Regar Orbital Spacedock. Sirin and Ensigns Aine Sherlock and Callium Treetus took part in the training, which simulated landing and evacuation of a crippled spacecraft. Midway through the training, Lieutenant JG Jamie MacNemar modified the simulation, making an impromptu appearance as Queen Arachnia, a fictional antagonist from a 20th century Earth film series. Also at Vulcan, Yalu had the opportunity to meet some new crew members: Ensign Etan Iljor, with whom Yalu was assigned to share quarters; and Ensign Hallia Yellir, whom Yalu helped find suitable accommodations onboard for herself and her pet cat.
The Ties that Bind (SD 239802 – SD 239804)
With Fleet Captain Kalianna Nicholotti on medical leave, command of the ship passed to Lieutenant Commander Addison MacKenzie for the duration of the next mission. Resolution was dispatched back into the Borderlands to mediate a dispute between two non-Federation species, the Nascaik and the Thama, who both claimed a planetoid which lie on the border between their respective space. To prepare for the mission, Yalu joined a team comprising Lieutenant Commanders Genkos Adea and Rune Jolara and Ensign Hallia Yellir, to determine what each side hoped to gain from unrestricted access to the planet, Vionus IV.
When the delegates from each government arrived aboard Resolution, Yalu joined Lieutenant Commander Tai Ilsam and Lieutenant JG Aine Sherlock in giving a tour of the ship to the representatives of the Nascaik Defense Coalition, consisting of Rossk Shes Ar-Dev, Terza Malyk Vey-Dex, and Ar-Dev's five-year-old son Foss. The Nascaik, a militaristic and expansionist people, were unimpressed with Resolution and its Starfleet crew, and could not comprehend why scientific exploration and peaceful coexistence were such prized values for Federation societies. With the tour cut short, Yalu returned to the bridge, whereupon newly arrived chief engineer Lieutenant Commander Chandra Amari discovered a series of mysterious power failures. Yalu noticed that the power failures originated in places visited by the Thama delegates during their tour of the ship, and were radiating outward to all parts of the ship. Before any action could be taken to resolve these failures, the Thama diplomatic aide Ashal Koas ended the negotiations in an act of terrorism, blowing up the conference room, kidnapping Ar-Dev, and nearly killing MacKenzie and Lieutenant JG Meidra Sirin, who were present during the explosion.
Resolution pursued Koas' shuttlecraft to Vionus IV, but the damage to her systems and the gaping hole in her hull slowed them down significantly. As the remaining diplomats spoke of their true intentions for the planet, Yalu attempted to distract the Nascaik child Foss with a selection of computer games. He was then called away to join an away team consisting of Adea, Ilsam, and Sherlock, to rescue Ar-Dev and Koas from the planet's surface. The team was successful in rescuing Ar-Dev–with Yalu breaking his ankle in the process–but could not beam Koas back aboard before her explosive device detonated, killing her. Once back aboard, Yalu received treatment for his minor injury while the surviving delegates negotiated a graduated settlement over Vionus IV.
With the document signed and the two delegations departing back for their homeworlds, Resolution limped back to Deep Space 224 for repairs and shore leave.
Zhian'tara (SD 239804 – SD 239805)
Resolution arrived at Deep Space 224 in need of extensive repairs, which permitted the crew to enjoy an extended period of shore leave. For Yalu, however, his stay on the starbase was brief. The morning after arriving, he and four of his crewmates–Lieutenant Commanders Addison MacKenzie and Genkos Adea, Lieutenant JG Meidra Sirin, and Ensign Etan Iljor–departed for the Trill homeworld, where Yalu would perform zhian'tara, the Trill rite of closure. Yalu's weeklong stay on Trill was an emotional experience, not just because of the ritual, but also because of a long overdue reunion with members of his family.
After completing the ritual, Yalu and his four traveling companions returned to DS224, where they continued their shore leave. As repairs on Resolution neared completion and a new mission loomed on the horizon, the crew gathered in the restored conference room for an awards ceremony, where Yalu received the Peacekeeper Service Ribbon and a promotion to full lieutenant.
Stranded (SD 239805 – 239807)
Resolution was sent to the Briar Patch to find a Starfleet science ship, USS Hanno, which went missing in the region. Yalu worked with Acting Chief Engineer Lieutenant Commander Chandra Amari to modify the ship's propulsion systems to function in the unpredictable region of space. The two devised a plan to reroute plasma coolant from the warp to the impulse engines, and Yalu had the time of his life crawling around the ship making the modifications.
Upon entering the Briar Patch, Resolution discovered a signal buoy from Hanno, and followed a relatively stable transport corridor to search for signs of them. The ship passed by a rogue planet and was pelted by hundreds of thousands of rocks, seemingly launched from the surface. The assault overwhelmed the ship's systems, and Yalu was forced to bring Resolution down onto the planet. The ship suffered damage from the unplanned landing, but no one was seriously injured, except for Yalu, who fell ill almost immediately after Resolution enters the planet's atmosphere. Barely able to stand upright, he goes to Sickbay, where doctors Genkos Adea and Rion Sladek discovered the balance between host and symbiont has been disrupted. With his isoboramine levels plummeting, and the prescribed treatment becoming less effective with each dose, Yalu became concerned that the symbiont might need to be removed to save it, although this would kill the host.
After setting out to explore the surface, an away team located survivors from Hanno and from a Romulan ship that had crashed. They also discovered the native inhabitants of the planet, a sentient, non-corporeal race called the Skarn, exist in a symbiotic way with the the planet and an entity within it called Baab, which provided a possible explanation for Yalu's sudden illness. The crew then raced against time to repair the ship, get back into orbit, and leave the Briar Patch with the survivors.
Upon returning to orbit with the Hanno and Romulan survivors aboard, Resolution set course out of the Briar Patch and back to Deep Space 224 for repairs and shore leave. En route, Yalu have Meidra Sirin a flight lesson, and shared a bottle of sapphire wine with Genkos Adea, enjoying pleasant friendly conversation during both. With Resolution undergoing repairs, Yalu joined a team consisting of Kalianna Nicholotti, Addison MacKenzie, Rune Jolara, Meidra Sirin, Aine Sherlock, Hallia Yellir, and new tactical officer Arek Ketteik, on a humanitarian project to resettle the Romulan survivors from the Briar Patch.
Traveling aboard the USS Gemini, the team set course for Oreen V, the site of an existing Romulan settlement, playing a friendly game of poker on the way. After a brief welcome by Janain, the settlement's leader, Yalu, Nicholotti, Jolara, Ketteik, and Yellir set themselves to the task of constructing a new dwelling, while MacKenzie, Sirin, and Sherlock assisted in upgrading the medical clinic.
Time in a Bottle (SD 239807 – SD 239809)
Returning to duty in the Borderlands, the USS Resolution was sent on a routine survey mission. An old Klingon D-7 soon caught them off guard and attacked the ship, causing severe damage and an imminent warp core breach. Seconds before the ship was expected to explode, time froze, and then appeared to rewind by five minutes. Yalu, at the helm during the initial attack, was able to better predict the ensuing events and keep the Klingon ship at bay, but the warp core breach still threatened Resolution.
The attacking Klingon ship, IKS qorDu, was from approximately 130 years in the past, a time when the Klingon Empire and the Federation were enemies. Yalu and LtJG Aine Sherlock beamed over to qorDu to help conduct repairs. Meanwhile, the teams on Resolution discovered that both ships have been transported from their time and place into a null-space arena, and that the entity responsible for their plight is a Q. Yalu and Sherlock managed to repair the Klingon ship, and witnessed a mutiny in the process, during which Captain LehleQ was overthrown. The Q's experiment on the ships eventually came to an end, and both Resolution and qorDu were returned to Resolution's present, complicating things for the Klingons somewhat. Yalu and Sherlock put them in contact with the present-day Empire, and beamed back home.
After being released from the non-space cube in which the Q had trapped them, the USS Resolution departed for Deep Space 224, where the crew transferred aboard the USS Excalibur-A. Using Excalibur's quantum slipstream drive, the crew made for Bajor and some much-deserved shore leave. En route to Bajor, Yalu underwent firearm certification training with Lieutenant Junior Grade Aine Sherlock, and visited Lt. Commander Genkos Adea for a follow-up medical visit. Adea gave Yalu the less-than-welcome news that his isoboaramine levels were continuing to rise and fall erratically, but the cause was unknown. As a short-term solution, Yalu agreed to report regularly to Sickbay for booster doses of benzocyatizine.
Upon arrival at Bajor, Yalu explored Jalanda City on foot, and with Ensign Baylen Anders, visited an interactive holo-museum called The Emissary's Experience Extravanga. Back aboard Excalibur, Yalu attempted to utilize the ship's variable gravity astrometrics lab, but ended up stranded and floating in mid-air. After calling for help, Lieutenant Zy Matu arrived and rescued him. Yalu also continued experiencing issues with the balance between his host and symbiont, to the point where the memories of one of his past hosts, Auzell, began to overwhelm him.
Jalanda City's gratitude festival coincided with shore leave, and provided a festive backdrop for a promotion and awards ceremony. Yalu was awarded the Defense of Temporal Flow ribbon and the Joint Meritorious Unit Award, as well as a promotion to the rank of lieutenant commander. At the end of the ceremony, however Fleet Captain Kali Nicholotti revealed to Adea and Addison MacKenzie that she had been involuntarily "jumping" through time. The crew returned to Excalibur and slipstreamed back to Deep Space 224 for treatment.
Cats among the Pigeons (SD 239809 – SD 239811)
Pigeons are liars.
Shadow out of mind (SD 239811 – SD 239901)
Pigeons are liars.