Yorrik

Yorrik
Medical Specialist
Race	Elcor
Gender	Male
Appearances	Mass Effect Andromeda: Annihilation

Yorrik is a 398-year-old doctor specializing in ear, nose, and throat infections. He serves in the Sleepwalker Team Blue-7 maintenance crew of the Andromeda Initiative vessel Keelah Si'yah, alongside his friend Senna'Nir vas Keelah Si'yah.

Background

Yorrik was born Naumm on Ekuna's New Elfaas city. His father had been a doctor, as well as his grandfather Varlaam.

When Naumm was a young 112-year-old calf he grew sick and almost died were it not for Varlaam's resourcefulness during a power outage caused by criminal quarians stranded on Ekuna. His grandfather tried teaching him the same values, but Naumm only half-listened as he never wanted to be a doctor in the first place.

Regardless, Naumm became a medic in the military early in his career, participating in the battle of Viluuna. He eventually returned to civilian life as a pediatric allergist, though he grew tired of staring at frightened little elcor throats and yearned to do more with his life.

Viewing his old name respectable but plain, Naumm legally had it changed after becoming a superfan of William Shakespeare's Hamlet, after the eponymous dead court jester character. He auditioned for Francis Kitt's all-elcor Hamlet adaptation and (according to him) was the second choice for Polonius, though Kitt went with a younger actor for the part.

The old elcor had a couple of unique beliefs regarding Shakespearean literature. The works resonated with him so much that he theorized Shakespeare was secretly an elcor, writing about elcor characters. As evidence he pointed to certain Hamlet lines that seemingly indicated elcor physiology (Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight, ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all) or elcor mindsets (Dennmaark apparently is a bastardized form of Dekuuna).

Yorrik got over his negative experiences with quarians when he met and struck a friendship with Senna during the latter's Pilgrimage. He readily accepted the quarian's invitation to join the Initiative when it was offered. Prior to departure he spent the rest of his time on Hephaestus Station composing an elcor rendition of Macbeth, projected to be 16 hours long. He had been rewriting Lady Macbeth's last monologue in his head when he boarded the ark; while drunk he previewed parts of the play to the crew during the midpoint journey festivities before passing out.

Mass Effect Andromeda: Annihilation

Yorrik is brought out of cryostasis by the VI K to deal with a possible medical emergency. Initially irritated at being woken up, the VI gives him an increased dosage of stimulants that he's practically high and bouncing by the time he meets two of his Blue-7 teammates at the Radial. However, even in that state his sense of smell picks up the stench of death.

Sarcastically misusing elcor prefixes, Yorrik bids everyone good morning and asks what horrible thing they think has happened. His friend Senna takes the lead and delegates the responsibility to K, who reports that 10.1% of the drell have seemingly died in their cryopods. Yorrik describes the decomposition byproducts detected by K for his teammates' benefit, though he balks at being expected to do the medical examinations since it's not part of his job description. He hasn't touched a corpse since the battle of Viluuna, and he thinks no amount of drugs or children's candy can turn him into a drell coroner.

One hour later after visually inspecting the affected pods, Yorrik reports that the corpse in front of them smells like usharet flowers and wet volus. Senna doesn't smell anything, so Yorrik jabs with mild inter-species prejudice about his inferior nose. Initially the doctor thinks Soval Raxios' death is her own because cryosleep prohibits active microbial replication, but his other teammate Anax Therion points out the dead drell's sores and blacktongue rule out equipment malfunction. Yorrik thus leaps to the conclusion they've been sabotaged, though the analyst follows up with other possible reasons. Chastised, Yorrik justifies his impulsiveness due to the stims in his system, and shuts up in embarrassment.

Back at the Radial, now with all six of Blue-7 in attendance, Yorrik attempts to ease the other three out of their own post-cryo disorientation. On learning the situation Borbala Ferank wants the bodies airlocked immediately, but Yorrik counters that they may need those yet. Anax floats the possibility of an elcor saboteur, causing the doctor to protest the accusation through a snippet from What a piece of work is a man: "In form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god. The beauty of the world. The paragon of animals.".

The discussion soon turns to the other possible causes of the deaths. Yorrik shares how cross-species contamination should not be possible given that even hanar seem to be afflicted as well. In conclusion, Senna appoints Yorrik and Ysses to examine three corpses, though the doctor protests they have no usable equipment to work with. He rhetorically asks if they expect him to conduct an autopsy with a shotgun and some omni-gel when Anax remembers a toy microscope in the cargo bay that might help.

Privately Yorrik thinks he isn't much of a doctor on a barely perfunctory medbay. Because the computers are also nearly useless, Yorrik sees the medbay as a fancy closet with one shoe inside that isn't even fit for elcor.

While waiting for the microscope Yorrik and Ysses silently idle in the medbay, observing the scabbed body of Ysses' prophet Kholai. Yorrik uses his nose to figure out what Ysses might be feeling, though he has no baseline since he never really interacted with hanar before. Still fueled by the revival drugs he engages the jellyfish in small talk, disclosing his views on Hamlet and his future Shakespearean plans before revealing his birth name in confidence. When Ysses wonders why he did the last one considering the hanar take on soul names, Yorrik's annoyed as there's little else to do.

Yorrik then inquires about Kholai's life, prompting Ysses to ask if the elcor can simply smell the cause of death and save a great deal of trouble. It's possible, but dangerous if there's an infectious agent at work. The medical specialist hopefully asks if he can learn Ysses' soul name since the jellyfish already knows his, though it declines.

Anax and Borbala interrupt Yorrik and Ysses' bonding session with the news that they have obtained the toy microscope from a quarian family crate. Utterly frustrated, he furiously inquires if there's also a medical scan, diagnostic VI, blood analyzer, cellular regeneration cart, or even petri dishes there. The doctor explains he needs technological assistance to do his job as he isn't from a backwater where people are treated with berry juices and sticks, and he can't be expected to grow cell cultures between his toes.

Remembering his lessons with Varlaam, Yorrik has an epiphany and informs Anax he needs fluorescent dyes to determine what they're dealing with. Ysses inadvertently blurts out Yorrik's birth name, causing the elcor to squawk in indignation before continuing. Varlaam taught Yorrik the mnemonic Happy Turians Treat Raloi and Rachni to Dinner, signifying the six dyes minimum for a full-spectrum blood analysis.

While Anax looks around the crate Borbala suggests checking for quarian makeup for trisulfonic acid, leading Yorrik to belabor the obvious that quarians don't live inside suits their whole lives only to put on lipstick each morning. Rhodamine, another dye on the list, can be found on fish, earning Yorrik's snark about the Initiative building an ark for all the Thessian Sunfish who also wanted to leave everything behind to start anew. He doesn't think people have cryo fishbowls aboard since pets are contraband and would die quickly anyway, though Borbala disproves his assumption later and sends them her smuggled fish.

Meanwhile lights on the medbay flare briefly then go dark. Senna reports they've restored full power, though Yorrik replies otherwise and reminds him the sensors also report no drell casualties. When Senna and Anax's teams sign off comms, Yorrik attempts to befriend Ysses again by regaling it with elcor Macbeth, claiming he can do all three witches.

Anax later informs Yorrik they found an empty quarian suit, to the latter's relief since it's also a sophisticated piece of medical equipment. The doctor vows to replace everything he's about to break in pursuit of solving their predicament. Once they've received their supplies Yorrik and Ysses set to work: dismantling items for the dyes with no regard for cleanup, taking blood/tissue samples, working the few diagnostic tools at their disposal.

Yorrik and Ysses are barely able to use the microscope since its loud and aggressive krogan VI keeps grating on their nerves. With it, they are able to rule out bacterial infection. Using the dyes they rule out blood toxicity but confirm the presence of a virus. After a few hours, Yorrik instigates quarantine protocols and summons his teammates to the medbay. Originally intending the quarian suit, named Horatio by Yorrik, to synthesize possible treatments only, he then injects the suit with a blood sample from Soval in an effort to identify the virus, and comes up with the diagnosis that it's 91% Yoqtan.

The rest of the group arrive at the medbay seeing discarded garbage, glowing dyes, and guts everywhere, giving the impression of a murder scene in an Afterlife dumpster. Yorrik explains he got lonely and Ysses is faceless, incompetent, and religiously zealous, so he also drew a crude face on Horatio's faceplate. After disclosing the initial findings, Yorrik adds they still don't know the infection cause, patient zero, or even disease progression model as they've only examined dead specimens. He recommends airlocking the corpses as they've learned all they can, concluding the report with "the rest is silence."

When Senna initiates revival procedures for Captain Qetsi'Olam vas Keelah Si'yah, Yorrik warns him the chances of infection increase the more people are around and active. Suddenly a batarian wanders into Blue-7's midst and vomits, essentially rendering quarantine a joke. Yorrik doesn't think the newcomer is a saboteur, though he suggests putting the sick man in the iso-chamber while urging Anax to stay away as a precaution. The analyst thinks she's already exposed if the virus is airborne, so Yorrik explains with strained patience susceptibility variations and the fact the transmission vector has not yet been confirmed.

The six of them cannot afford to lose their only investigator, causing Yorrik to utter in soft reflection: "On Fortune's cap we are not the very button." When Qetsi arrives and ups the count to seven, Yorrik recalls what he knows about Senna's ex-girlfriend and recontextualizes it with a quote from Macbeth: "Out, out brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more." The captain hears that the ship is fucked, so Yorrik is determined to prove otherwise. He asserts his medical authority, persuading everyone without a containment suit to leave, telling the sick batarian Jalosk Dal'Virra to provide him with biosamples or he'll sedate him and take those anyway.

Yorrik fervently hopes Jalosk is only suffering from a bad case of cryosickness, but if he's infected with the Yoqtan-like virus the doctor pledges to take copious notes and attempt to save him: "Murder, though it have no tongue, will speak with most miraculous organ."

Over the next 18 hours Yorrik works with Jalosk to chart the progression of his symptoms. His partner Ysses has gone to sleep after the three corpses' disposal, and nobody has been responding on comms. The doctor has resigned himself to the fate the three of them can never leave quarantine, though he's comforted to know K still reports his teammates as alive. Jalosk disputes it given the VI's unreliability: "Alas, poor Yorrik, it’s just you and me and a crazy jellyfish." Yorrik perks up thinking he found a fellow Shakespearean, only to be disappointed when he learns it's just coincindence.

Jalosk's results are in, and Yorrik announces he's also sick with the Yoqtan-like disease that killed two of his teammates in Sleepwalker Team Yellow-9. the sick batarian wants people to know it's important to him he won't be remembered as an imbecile, while Yorrik can't do anything about that so he just encourages him to report every physiological thing he's experiencing. Every time Jalosk feels the need to scratch his sores Yorrik advises him not to, to the point he finally refers him to a medi-gel dispensary in the iso-chamber.

The captain returns to the medbay having left earlier to meet Senna, so Yorrik queries her where's the latter. Senna's busy elsewhere containing forcibly revived passengers and Qetsi asks if she should leave to assist, though Yorrik persuades her to stay promising results in his research. The captain thinks Jalosk should be put out of his misery, but the doctor still wants to save him for his children's sake. Jalosk pulled himself up by the bootstraps for his kids, though Yorrik despises the typical batarian means by which he did. The elcor wonders about the kids' mother, so Jalosk tells him about her. Eventually the batarian starts weeping, though the doctor informs him those aren't tears but cerebral spinal fluid. Yorrik assures him other things will kill him first before he cries himself to death.

Qetsi finally demands Yorrik's report, so he opens with a depressive quote: Thou art a scholar, speak to it, Horatio. The doctor injected Horatio with the virus from Jalosk's samples hoping it will come up with a countermeasure, though nothing has been effective thus far. The suit, however, has sequenced the virus' artificial chimera genome and computed how infectious it is. Because the virus has unparalleled destructive ability, Yorrik decides to name it the Fortinbras Plague. Qetsi seems to understand Yorrik's lecture enough, though he's incredulous Jalosk doesn't even know what metaphors are. The elcor tries to put it in terms the batarian can understand: a pirate ship commandeering other ships.

Ten hours after iso-chamber confinement Yorrik still observes Jalosk's worsening symptoms. The elcor turns to Ysses for help, but the hanar is still snoozing. In between bouts of madness Jalosk waxes about class inequality, though Yorrik has trouble following as he thinks they're still talking about lights having feelings. A few hours later, the doctor watches helplessly as Jalosk dies raving and shrieking. Ysses finally wakes up, and notices Yorrik has begun to smell like flowers.

Pushed beyond exhaustion, Yorrik falls asleep and fails to notice Ysses breaking out of containment. The elcor awakes to teammate Irit Non screaming at his face, who went to him to present evidence that even quarians have contracted the disease: a dead quarian girl. Seeing the volus in distress, Yorrik advises her to adopt elcor speech patterns to help keep her focus. Qetsi also returns to the medbay, reporting that an insane Ysses wrapped its tentacles around her near the bridge. Irit finds the captain's suit to be compromised and the latter realizes she's been exposed, so Yorrik remarks in wry humor she should join the club. He tries to collect his thoughts but could not remember Hamlet's worries about suffering: "To be or not to be, that is the question, whether 'tis nobler in the minds of men to suffer the... suffer the..."

Yorrik has identified the virus, but still has no data on incubation period nor possible cures. Reflecting on the decades Fortinbras had to mutate, the elcor thinks eezo could be used to engineer a retrovirus along with an immune patient's blood and a functional gene-viral lab. Anax and Borbala show up to retrieve the krogan microscope, but Yorrik is reluctant since it's one of the few barely-working tech in the medbay. Hearing about the eezo, Borbala tells the doctor she can procure some. Qetsi wires the public address system to direct everyone to the medbay for "treatment", though Yorrik wishes she didn't do it since he's only testing for immune people and he's already feeling nauseous. It turns out later that Qetsi herself is the immune person the doctor's looking for, and so he notifies her immediately when comms and basic medbay functionality are restored.

Yorrik is leaking fluids and bleeding from glass cuts by the time Senna finds him. He wants Senna to send him off with a Shakespearean ode, but the quarian isn't ready to let him go yet. He recalls a line from Macbeth, though it bothers him he failed to preface it with emotion: "Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?" He's beginning to feel the madness, fixating on the fact they took the microscope from him, though he restrains himself. Even with the materials at hand Yorrik only has enough for one retroviral hypospray for one person, who should go on to "infect" others with the cure. He orders Senna to leave so he can finish his work.

By the time Yorrik completes the cure sores are blossoming all over his body. Senna, Qetsi, and Anax return to him, his friend forcibly persuading the captain to take it. The elcor lunges at Qetsi in Fortinbras-induced rage and slams her into the glass wall, unclear if he understands the captain's role in the pandemic, though that is the last of his remaining strength and he begs Senna to send him off. His friend finally complies, the last words he hears before he dies: "With infinite grief and friendship: ‘Now cracks a noble heart. Goodnight, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.’

Trivia

• Not accounting for cryostasis Yorrik is almost 4 centuries old, but Mass Effect 2's data on his birth world Ekuna indicates it was only founded in 2103 CE, only 83 years before Keelah Si'yah's launch toward Andromeda.