Lt. JG Yinn: I Have One Mouth And I Must Scream

[Alora DeVeau]

Yinn's writer has been exploring an interesting concept of a merging of minds - quite literally - but not of bodies (think Tuvix, but where Neelix and Tuvok bodies still walk around but they share a mind that is technically a single entity).  Here, we see what happens when those two bodies are rent apart due to a temporal anomaly and now she finds herself as only herself again.  Great sim!

 

IC:

 

(( Cargo Bay, Deck 33, USS Sequoia, Sol System [Frontier Day] ))

Half of Yinn was gone. The stronger, heavier set of limbs. The eyes that could see better in the dark. The pain in her other back she grudgingly admitted bothered her sometimes. But worse than that, half her mind was gone. She knew, in the abstract, that she had grown up in Hitorah colony, but she could no longer remember the smells of her house there, the sound of her mother, Bu'kah, singing opera to herself when she thought no one was listening. She couldn't remember her life there.

Except that wasn't her life. It was his. Loq. Who had been a part of her. Who had been her. And without warning, with no reason she could understand, he was gone. Was he dead? Was she? Their bodies had been separated before; out of phase with each other, but even as her Bolian body was comatose, her mind was intact.

But not this time. She kept reaching out, trying to make her phantom limbs, her phantom body move. But it was no use. That part of her was gone. 

Herrick: Frontier… Day?!

Richards: The Enterprise!

Yinn barely registered that she was no longer at the party, no longer on the treasure moon at all. What happened to Stendhal? Who seemed to be in two places at once and then nowhere? What happened to Caras? Yinn had tried to save him and put him in even more danger. Why were they back on the ship? Why was Herrick here?

Richards: Wait. 250th? That’s the…

Nijal: (tilting back and forth) The most recent one. Where that fleet formation almost took out three-quarters of the fleet.

Yinn: Zi... what happened to us?

Was she speaking with her Bolian mouth or her Klingon one? Was she speaking at all? It used to be easy to keep track.

Richards: Maybe we already have an assigned viewing lounge?

Nijal: You mean, like, maybe we're meant to be here? Because we already were here? Even while we were also in the Gamma Quadrant?

Yinn's fellow crewmen sounded serious. Something had happened, but she couldn't make sense of what they were saying. They're also in the Gamma Quadrant? As opposed to where?

Herrick: I suspect we might be able to blend into any of the lounges as the ship’s staff. I doubt the security is that tight (beat) yet. Our priorities should be confirming if anyone else from the Butler is onboard and figuring out a plan to get home.

They weren't on the treasure moon, but they also weren't on the Butler. Maybe weren't in the Gamma Quadrant. Was that why she couldn't feel Loq? Were they too far away? Had they gone through the wormhole? Her scientist brain, singular, started slowly coming back to life. Questioning. Analyzing.

Richards: (with a reluctant nod) Right. (another nod) Well then. We have twenty minutes.

Yinn: oOSir... what happens in twenty minutes?Oo

But Richards looked past her at Nijal. Was Yinn even here? Was she out of phase again? Or had she just forgotten how to speak out loud? She took a breath and felt the air filling her lungs. Not real air, salt air, but the sterile air of a starship. She closed her eyes and felt her skirt, snug around her hips, the hundreds of shells of her necklace ever-so-slightly digging into her chest. She flexed her fingers, then her arms. She ran her tongue across the roof of her mouth. This was her body. Her one body. All she had left.

She touched her tongue to her teeth, then pulled it back a millimeter. She sent a stream of air across it, an experimental hiss, just to see if she could form words.

(ooc: Bolian speech is mostly hissing, I decided a while back)

Nijal: It's probably better if we see as few people as possible, just in case.             

Richards: Responses

Yinn: Sir.

Herrick nodded and kept going. He heard her, she was real after all. He just thought he was agreeing. 

Herrick: (nodding) It’s best to avoid the transporters… (lowering his voice) you may recall that it was the primary delivery mechanism of the nanoprobes, and I’d rather avoid becoming a member of the collective today. ::motioning to Nijal:: Can you ascertain where we are?

Nanoprobes? Collective? Had Yinn awoken in the middle of a mission? She was still dressed for the party... on that moon... something about a knife... Betazoids in cages... had that all been a dream? Yinn needed to stop everything, just for a minute, and find out what had happened to her. But the rest of the crew were lost in conversation. Something serious was happening. And she still wasn't sure she knew how to speak.

Nijal: (reading from the wall panel) Deck 33. And this is (beat; reading) the Sequoia. (looking to Richards) Why did you think this was the Enterprise? Wasn't the Galaxy class Enterprise destroyed decades ago?

Richards: Response

Herrick: (nodding) That’s right. Even decades after her commission she remains infamous.

Richards: Response

Herrick: Do we recall what happened to the Sequoia?

Richards: Responses

Nijal: (continuing on) How'd we get here?

Yinn: Yes.

Finally. That was the question that needed answering. Yinn reached out to put an arm on Nijal's shoulder, but it just drifted off in another direction.

Richards: Responses

Herrick: (unsure) Maybe something happened if we did end up exchanging fire with those cult folk? ::opening his tricorder, running some scans:: There only seems to be the four of us from the Butler… and some scattered temporal readings. (beat) 2 are moving, and 1 seems stationary.

Yinn: Cult?

Richards/Nijal: Responses

Herrick: (shaking his head) I’m not too keen to split up unless absolutely necessary. It adds more risk of exposure or further separation.  

Yinn: Separation.

Richards/Nijal: Responses

Josh looked at his tricorder and increased the resolution.

Herrick: It looks like the moving signatures are up on Deck 2 and the stationary one is on Deck 9… in Solid Waste Reprocessing

Yinn still didn't understand where they were or what had happened, but three of the crew elsewhere on this ship? Crew they had to find? That part, at least, made sense.

Richards/Nijal: Responses

Herrick: Alright team; let’s press onward.

Yinn finally found her voice. She could finally push a solid stream of air between her lips.

Yinn: Wait. 

Herrick stopped and looked back at her. Finally.

Yinn: Sir. I don't understand what's happening. I was on the treasure moon with Nijal, I blacked out, and I came to in the middle of this mission. And...

She was almost afraid to say it. Saying it made it real. This wasn't just some wild hallucination. Half of her was really gone.

Yinn: I'm just me, sir. I can't feel Loq's body, or his memories, or... 

Herrick/Richards/Nijal: Responses

Yinn: I'm sorry, sir. I know there are crew we need to find. And something happens in nineteen minutes. But... I don't know how I got here, and half of me is gone. I...

Can't? Can't complete the mission? Do her duty as a Starfleet officer? Would she dishonor herself and her house?

Yinn: I'm sorry, sir. I just needed a minute. Tell me where I need to be.

Herrick/Richards/Nijal: Responses

Tags! and TBC!

---

Lt. Junior Grade Yinn
Science Officer
USS Octavia E. Butler
O240011Y12

Edited November 14 by Alora DeVeau

[Avander Promontory]

I was just going to post this sim here as well!

 

It was a great build-up and pay-off. AND managed to navigate profound personal character changes while also still engaging with the wider plot and moving the scene forward!