#LOVE JANEWAY TOO...They're both right <3 everyone's right <3

[bumblingbabooshka]

Watching ‘The Cloud’ VOY and Harry Kim is so right about everything

[isagrimorie]

Part 1, 2, 3

Captain Janeway discovers the nebula they're about to use to get home to the Alpha Quadrant, aside from being littered with Borg is also a Borg transwarp hub.

Captain Janeway is angry at the subterfuge and calls off the trip back home in order to come up with a plan to destroy the Borg hub. Admiral Janeway is frustrated by what she thinks is her younger self's self-righteous idealism.

I love the things the Admiral reveals that make Captain Janeway reconsider:

Captain Janeway: You got Voyager home, which means I will too. If it takes a few more years then that's--

But Admiral immediately cuts Janeway off:

This stops Captain Janeway cold. Her fight drains from her eyes.

Admiral Janeways begins to explain:

Again, Janeway looks like someone dropped a bucket of ice water down her head.

Admiral Janeway: Chakotay. He'll never be the same after Seven's death, and neither will you.

It's the addition of 'And neither will you.' that sells the shippy lens for me. Stuck in a strange love triangle where both Seven and Chakotay loved Kathryn Janeway, and Kathryn loved both.

They could have been a throuple but the chains of commanding have a stranglehold on Kathryn Janeway.

Both Janeways take a pause, for the Admiral it's an old wound, losing Seven, and essentially losing Chakotay too. For Captain Janeway, it's a new kind of knife wound.

They also take a beat because Admiral Janeway knows how Captain Janeway truly felt for both. The only one Janeway will admit it to.

Losing Seven is an ever-present wound. But she isn't the only impetus for Admiral Janeway traveling back in time.

"Leave no man behind." This is one of Janeway's key rules for being Captain.

And to hear that she loses 22 more people under her command on top of everyone else and then Tuvok, her oldest and dearest friend...

Captain Janeway talks to Tuvok about his illness and Tuvok assures her that he is still okay but it's true the only cure he has is in the Alpha Quadrant, meanwhile, Admiral Janeway is attempting to persuade Seven into talking Captain Janeway into stopping her foolish plan destroying the transwarp hub.

Admiral Janeway is not gaining much success because, at this point, Seven of Nine has imbibed Captain Janeway's missions as her own.

The Admiral argues that she knows Seven's real reason why she doesn't want to disobey the Captain.

Seven fires back with: "My future is insignificant compared to the lives of the people we'd be saving."

This more than anything is the connective tissue between this Seven and Picard Era!Seven:

"Ranging is my job. It's hopeless and pointless and exhausting, and the only thing worse... would be giving up."

And honestly, Seven having this ready on hand to say to Picard tells me this is the same argument she's had with Prime Timeline Picard Era!Janeway... Right before Seven left Earth for Fenris. (This is pre-Firewall novel, circa June 2023).

She's come such a long way from that proud Borg drone, to this Seven of Nine who would do anything to save a life and atone for what she's done.

Part 1, 2, 3

[los-ninos-tortugas]

I know you said it probably won't be addressed in the fic, but I LOVE the idea of Donnie being considered an augment! There's so many layers to it too - like the fact that even here, where humanity has opened its arms in acceptance to so many different species, he is Wrong. Or the the fact that he didn't start as a person who was augmented - the augment MADE him a person. He was created in a lab to be a supersolider, a weapon of mass destruction. Does he have rights under Federation Law? The Federation may try, but they are not perfect, and there are always those willing to push the boundaries. I keep thinking of the Next Gen episode "Measure of a Man", and I know it's not the same because Donnie is organic, but I can see arguments being made that he doesn't have a right to himself because he was Made To Be A Weapon. Add in knowledge of his Ninpo, and I can very readily imagine an argument as to whether he should be used as a weapon, or locked away to protect everybody else. Or just looking at the affects aboard Voyager - do people start treating him differently once they find out? Do they trust him less? And Donnie is going to want to know why - is going to want to understand. Imagine him looking up the Eugenics Wars; imagine him reading the phrase "superior ability breeds superior ambition". The original Augment's greatest flaws were their aggression and their arrogance; traits Donnie himself is not lacking in. How would that make him feel?

(Sorry, I just think it's neat to think about <3)

Hmm... I'm trying to figure out how to answer this without also giving spoilers for the next ficlet I'm working on.... cuz yeah after giving it some thought this is something that i DESPERATELY want to get into (so it may just end up in the main fic after all)

"Measure of a Man" is a great pull for this as it does share some similar themes, but I am also now thinking of "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" both because it's incredibly recent and because it tackles this feeling head on through La'An and her struggles with her family legacy. At home Donnie knew he had to hide, but I don't think he ever felt ashamed of being a mutant, but I think he would find the parallels between his own creation and the creation of the augments to be disturbing.

Then thinking of how this goes down on Voyager... on any other ship the crew would be very beholden to procedure, hell in DS9's "Doctor Bashir, I Presume" the precedent is set for a parent taking responsibility for performing genetic modification on a child who couldn't consent. But Janeway has often struggled when it comes to matters of law while they're so far away from the federation, and their ultimate goal is to help Donnie get home, so at a certain point they might just have to decide that the law is neither here nor there, they don't really have the jurisdiction. What it really becomes is a matter of the crew... Would Janeway try to keep Donnie's status as an augment a secret from everyone other than the senior officers? What happens if it gets out? There's a lot of potential for drama but I'm gonna just hold it for now so I can write it properly later.