Changing Heading - Part One

Posted on Sun Aug 31st, 2025 @ 11:18am by Fleet Captain Torilla Yamaguchi

Mission: Mission 121: The Mobius Loop
Location: Various Locations - Planet Surface. Utgarde IV
Timeline: 0200Hrs - February 8th, 2394

Fleet Captain Torilla Yamaguchi slowly sat up after having woken up. She had been asleep in her own bed. Her husband was asleep next to her. A gentle smile graced her lips as she regarded her spouse. Jake had always brought a sense of peace to her that Torilla had never known throughout her childhood or her teen years. He was everything that Silas Montrose was not. He was kind, whereas Montrose was harsh. He was gentle with her and their children, whereas Montrose was rough. Jake was also open-minded and thoughtful, whereas Montrose was anything but.

Torilla slipped out of bed in silence, so as not to wake her husband. She slowly padded over to the large window, looking out across the night skies and the empty fields of Utgarde. Torilla allowed a gentle smile to grace her lips as she considered what she was seeing.

Torilla recalled her meeting on the Starbase with a woman who was about the same age as Rachael or Gabriel now. She had just had her second child as Torlla had learned. Over the course of their conversation. Torilla had found that this woman was her mother. The thought cheered her, as the two women had much they needed to say. Torilla had touched the other woman's mind and found that it was indeed her mother.

Torilla smiled as she thought back to their conversation.

The young woman had bowed softly to Torilla in the old custom of greeting one Halanan to another. "I greet you. I am Selonis Unal." she had announced herself.

"Welcome to Starbase Six Eighteen. I am Torilla." Torilla responded with a gentle smile. "Before you ask, yes we are known to each other." she paused as she considered how she was going to explain this. So rather than screw with it, she had simply come out, before informing the other woman of their mutual relations. "Yes. I'm your daughter, about forty years from your point of view." Torilla had explained. "I know you just lost your first daughter to a government program." she raised her hand to forestall the other woman's protests. "Don't worry. I'll find her, or rather. She will find me later in life. You needn't worry. Korelii..." Torilla then smiled as she revealed a little something else. "Or rather Koreliicosa does well in life."

Unal paused, the name was a revelation to her. "You adhere to the old ways?"

"I do. Yes." Torilla answered.

"Yet you go by Torilla rather than Torillacosa," Unal answered. "Or do you prefer Torillastraza?"

Torilla had smiled. While she recalled the differences between the two flights in question. One was of the Blue flight, and the other was the Red flight. "I am of the Blue flight." she had answered. "My home is decorated with the colours of the flight. But my children do not share my following." she paused. "Even though I raised them with the tenants of the Blue flight in mind," Torilla added. "My life has been a long and strange one. But I will tell you that while you won't live to see it. We do find a cure to our species' maladies." she paused. "But you need to have hope that what I have said will come to pass. It'll get worse before it gets better but it's always darkest before the dawn. Have faith in your daughter because she will light the way for the lost and oppressed." Torilla paused. "I know all of this before you told me all of this. Including the fact that we would meet. I had dismissed it as a story you made up." Torilla explained to the young woman before her. "Let her dismiss it. She won't forget it as you raised her well." Torilla then smiled widely as she regarded the other woman. "She became me. I have children and grandchildren as a result of that,"

Unal paused. "Children?" she asked softly. "No Halanan has had more than one in close to sixty years... From my point of view."

"Yep." Torilla nodded. "I have seven children, along with several adoptees. All coming from various places," she explained. "One of them ended up leaving my household as he was a mistake. A terrible thing for a Halanan to say. I know."

"Is he loved?" Unal asked softly.

"Oh yes. His biological father took him in, and is raising Kurt among his other children that he has with his own spouse." Torilla explained. "It was something of an accident that my psionic bond to my mate had been severed which had allowed me to become pregnant in the first place."

Unal paused. "Wait, you mated with an offworlder.?" she asked softly, the tone of her voice indicated that she was suprised and then horrified with this revelation.

"Oh yes," Torilla answered. "A human male to be more specific."