The Siege of Constantinople

Posted on Thu Mar 5th, 2020 @ 12:29am by Admiral Jake Yamaguchi & Admiral Lil'yanna Olmos & Commander Nalla Furban
Edited on on Thu Mar 5th, 2020 @ 12:37am

Mission: Mission 54: Where Snow Meets Sky
Location: Various Locations - USS Roanoke
Timeline: 1600Hrs - December 9th, 2391

Rear Admiral Jake Yamaguchi walked into sickbay, he could feel his rage seething inside of him like it was a physical thing. Olmos immediately picked up on it.

Normally the elderly Betazed would spend her time on Tranquility. But given Nalla's rough patch, she spent her time hanging around close to Nalla. So seeing Jake enter, she immediately walked to Nalla's lab and stuck her head in there.

"You may want to make yourself scarce for a few hours. I don't want you picking up on Jake's feelings right now," Olmos spoke with concern. "I just don't want you to overload yourself."

Nalla pursed her lips as she thought about the request, then gathered her wireless mobile-assist band technology project. "I will work from my quarters until you tell me it is safe."

Olmos smiled, kissed her daughter on the head, and then walked back out into sickbay with the same amount of concern on her face for Jake himself.

"Admiral," Olmos spoke in polite greeting. "Is there anything I can help you with?"

Jake regarded her. "I'm so angry.... I close my eyes... and I see....'her'." he paused. "I see what she did..... What I did..."

"Hey..." Olmos put a gentle hand on Jake's arm. To let him know he was safe. "Let's get you to lay on a biobed. I'll set-up a psychological scanner and give you something to relax... That is, if you're fine with me entering your mind."

"I am.... otherwise I would not be here.... but... I'd recommend you sedate me first.... I've been angry... and I'm tired of it.."

Olmos helped him to the nearest biobed, then signaled to a nurse close by to bring the curtain around. The elder doctor then grabbed a hypo and programmed a new cartridge from the medicine dispenser on the wall.

"I'm going to give you a concentrated dose of Lorazamine to ease your mood and relax," Olmos told him gently as she began to program the dosage.

Jake nodded his head, as he waited impatiently. Oloms respectfully administered the dosage, then held his hand as she waited for him to go to sleep.

"I need you to relax," Olmos spoke softly and motherly to Jake. "You are safe here."

Jake felt the medication take effect as he instantly calmed, his eyes slid closed as he felt like a massive weight had been lifted off of him.

Inside his mind, Olmos went. She could see many memories foreign to him. Most of them were very violent and she could see how some of those new memories wanted to mesh with his own.

I am here, she thought as she sensed long and hard for his presence.

Jake Yamaguchi looked up as he found himself looking up into the daylight skies of a city he once visited as a child. "I can hear you..." he said aloud as he heard the voice of Olmos. He shifted his attention to the onrushing enemy forces approaching from three sides.

"Well... It was a nice day in Constantinople." Jake said evenly. "I guess we will see how this battle goes..." he turned to a copy of himself wearing a Federation marine sergeants uniform. "Tell the men to stand to.... and prepare to receive the enemy."

Fighting will not work. It will only tire you, so long as you refuse the acknowledge the lives of the others, Olmos reminded him calmly. Surrender yourself to the onslaught, and accept those memories as a gateway to the two women you've only started to get to know.

"Lil'yanna." Jake responded. "Have you seen the size of the force of the army arrayed against me?"

Acceptance of Nalla's and the other Torilla's memories is essential to being able to absorb their experiences, Olmos told him soothingly. Fearing that which you see is a natural response too. But fighting these memories will gain you no ground. Embracing them, making them apart of you, and learning and understanding these two women will cease the turmoil.

Jake regarded the invading armies. "Alright..." he turned. "send a parlay... tell them I want to negotiate a truce.."

"Sir," the sergeant responded before he turned and fled as Jake himself looked out over the western approaches. "I will try..."

Keep in mind that the horrific things you see yourself doing, are not you, Olmos reminded him gently.

Jake raised an eyebrow. "Shoving a child down a flight of stairs... raping and abusing my wife.." he responded in a dry tone. "I should hope they are not me."

Always listen to what your heart says in a situation like this. For the heart knows better than the head, what type of person you are, Olmos explained to him.

Jake smiled as he turned and withdrew into the city itself. About twenty minutes later Jake regarded the gathering before the massive table set in Gülhane Park, located in the Eminönü district of Istanbul that overlooked the eastern city across the Bosphorus.

Jake turned as he regarded Plataea Unal who approached him, behind her was Nalla Furban and next to her was Matron Furban. Finishing the crowd was Admiral Jake Yamaguchi from the alternate reality. "Ahh how the mighty have fallen." The alternate Jake said to his native doppelganger. "As long as you live... I exist."

"Do you?" Jake inquired of his evil twin. "I am the one who owns this mind."

"Do you... These would say otherwise." he indicated everyone else present.

"Memories always rule one's actions," Nalla pointed out as she nodded to Matron Furban. "Without her, we would not be here."

Jake regarded Matron Furban with distaste. "Yes.." as Plataea came over. "Jake.. we must talk."

"Yes.. we must..." as he gently placed a hand on her shoulder, as soon as his fingertips touched her, she gasped as Jake quite litteraly absorbed her into him. "Now... I understand."

Jake chuckled malevolently. "You absorbed her life essence.. Well done."

Jake shifted his attention to Nalla and then to Furban and then back to his evil doppelganger. "No... This is a thought-scape created by my mind... You are all aspects of me.. downloaded into my mind by others by accident. Plataea is now a part of me, I have her memories and I understand her."

Furban growled in disgust. "You insult me.."

"You offend me... yet here you stand.." and with that Jake growled before he went for her throat, he grasped her throat with violent force as he absorbed her. "While I hate you .... I understand you."

The evil Jake shifted to Nalla. "If we attack together... we can overwhelm him... You know how this place works.... right?"

Nalla smiled happily, "Of course. Not all that you see is a trick. Some things will strengthen you. Others will remake you."

Evil-Jake regarded Nalla Furban as he allowed his eyes to roam over her figure, clearly he liked what he saw as good-Jake rolled his eyes. "You are such a horn-dog."

Evil-Jake looked at Nalla. "You would be a magnificent conquest."

Good-Jake sighed before he rolled his eyes. "Pitiful."

"That I would, but I am not easy," Nalla spoke with an evil grin.

"She could be an ally," Olmos pointed out to good-Jake.

"She could yes." Good-Jake responded evenly. "I think my evil doppelganger wants her however." he shrugged his shoulders in a gentle manner. "So... Nalla... what do you think of recent events?"

"I think I feel relief coming... To understand each other is essential, and my soul is not easily opened for others to see," Nalla admitted with a genuine smile. "Peace is something you can strive for too, if you allow it."

Evil-Jake rolled his eyes as Good-Jake smiled at Nalla. "I prefer to have peace in our time but I know that true peace is impossible. It can only be strived for... but never obtained." he explained.

Evil-Jake went for her but Good-Jake got to her first. "I don't think so." as Jake gently grasped Nalla by her arm, before he absorbed her into himself, he slowly smiled as he quickly understood. "Now its just... you and me.... dammmn.. you're ugly."

"You have the strength to rebuke him. Deny he was every part of you. That you are not to blame for the women he touched," Olmos explained to him with earnest.

Jake Yamaguchi beheld his dark reflection as a soft smile appeared on his face. "Nalla is a part of me.. same as the Torilla from your native reality... and now I understand both." Jake suddenly grinned as he went for the other Jake who in turn went for him.

The two men began grappling as the good Jake smiled. "you know you can't win." as he spun the evil Jake around, before he quickly placed the other version of him in a hangman's move before he snapped the neck of his dark reflection.

Good Jake regarded his evil counterpart as he simply faded from view, this left him and Lil'yanna Olmos alone together. "Well... That was.... different."

Olmos nodded sagely. "It was. But it is not over. Now you know what is what. Dealing with what you have absorbed, is the next part."

"I have my family... I have the other Torilla... who I hear goes by her middle name... I must talk with her... and her children.... Let them know..... That if they want a father figure in their lives... I will be there for them..." Jake responded with a soft smile. "So... what now for you?"

As if a fog was lift, Olmos was by his head, still in sickbay. A comforting mother's smile. "Now you rest yourself. Absorb. Ask questions you feel you need to ask. But live, above all else."

Jake blinked as he felt the simulation inside his own mind fade back to the real location of sickbay. "I'll do that...." he responded quietly as he regarded her. "Nalla.... she is... something special..."

"Your Torilla is special too," Olmos pointed out with much respect. "Nalla is more sensitive than she articulates. Cares more than she is capable of displaying. And is the most forgiving and loving person I've come across... She makes me feel ashamed of myself, as good as she is."

Jake regarded Olmos in silence. "Nalla.... doesn't show who or what she is..."

Olmos pulled up a chair and began to talk low. Nalla was someone that did not want people she did not know, to have her life story in their hands.

"When I say Nalla is incapable of socializing the way we do, I do not say it in the way her mother does." Olmos began. "She has something akin to Aspergers, in my expert opinion."

Jake regarded the older woman before him. "Mmm... Makes sense, she processes things differently to most." he mused. "She is the first of her kind after all... Part Deltan and part Betazed."

"Some considered Nalla mentally retarded, until the First House pressed Matron Furban to get Nalla help elsewhere..." Olmos let huge grin take form. "That's how she came to me. I worked part-time at the children's hospital she was sent to, to fix her eyes."

"Well some people... truly are mentaly ignorant ... and I am not in the habit of educating failures of civilization.." Yamaguchi responded, which sounded odd for him. "What memories I absorbed from Ms Furban tells me she is.... a small minded woman who thinks in one dimensional terms..."