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thegeminisage · 6 months ago

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STAR TREK UPDATE TIME. wednesday we did voy's "deadlock" and last night we did ds9's "rules of engagement" and voy's "innocence."

deadlock (voy):

this one was soooo fun and exciting. harry kim is now the wrong harry, just like o'brien is 30 minutes from the future. not the same guy we started with in both cases. why is this stuff always happening to harry, also. please give him a break

also, i cannot believe they killed that baby. yes we have an alternate baby from the other ship but STILL.

janeway talking to janeway was a real another earth moment. god i'm fucking obsessed with her. imagine just chit chatting with yourself like that. they really were gonna let both crews live on one voyager too no "you guys aren't the REAL voyager crew" here. just like john crichton and his different shirts......

that question of whether any given character would fight their clone or fuck them. janeway would fuck her clone. kes would too possibly. it's really too bad we couldn't get tuvok on tuvok action in this episode

it really was the cutest baby, is the thing. take a little baby and stick tiny horns on its forehead and go it's a space baby for star trek!! :D like putting that dog in the unicorn costume and calling it an alien on tos. girl, if this was my baby, i would be reminding them for the rest of their LIFE that they were the baby on star trek.

that said, there is a huge logistical problem of how this baby was born. if a human mother is giving birth to a half-alien baby with, say, tiny adorable spikes on its tiny adorable head that would potentially adorably rip through all her uterine tissue (which iirc WAS the complication suffered), would we not consider: a c-section? like, they acted like beaming the baby out was a last resort, because it's, you know, a baby. i get that. i'm willing to roll with that, because they had to do something to it after which didn't even WORK on one of the ships, killing said baby, because beaming the baby out was a bad and risky business. do you know what's not a bad and risky business? a c-section. we've been doing those since shakespeare was alive. it's OLD old school.

this is my problem with voyager. i enjoy it a lot most of the time but they just don't pay attention to the DETAILS. it has a better way with character interaction than tng did, the cast is way more loveable, but the plot is like swiss fucking cheese

rules of engagement (ds9):

this episode was by and large quite dry. i do love worf's struggle with like am i klingon or am i human bc it's very spocklike and i'm a sucker for little guys who can't seem to find anywhere to fit in, BUT

worf never really gets to land anywhere with this. i really, really, REALLY hate to come out defending tng over ds9, but in tng he was quite literally one of the only characters, besides data, to have a series-long arc: he fell from grace, and then was restored to it. was it good or interesting to watch? ehhh. but it WAS an arc, in a series that desperately lacked them. and then ds9...took him back to square one? i want to trust the process, but i have been spoiled re: some alexander plots and also that thing with his brother...i don't think he's returning to grace bro. i feel like he's really not too different from season 1 worf, except he's older and a dad now.

furthermore, most of the episodes asking whether or not worf is a klingon or a human usually involve some klingons going "hey has living among humans made you a fucking pussy? it has, hasn't it?" and then worf beats their asses (sometimes metaphorically, but often literally) and they back off. to ds9's credit, this isn't EXACTLY what happened here, but it's pretty close. and, continually, it is a little racist to be like "yeah the defining trait of klingons, who are almost always played by black actors, is that they're unrestrained savages on the battlefield." give us some depth!!! i know there's more to klingon culture than that because we get to see characters like dax and kor explore it. in fact, the only time we ever got to see worf HIMSELF explore it was when he was trying to teach it to alexander, who thought it was stupid because his mom thought it was stupid. i wonder what makes dax and kor and alexander and his mom so different than worf 🤔 think hard.

THAT SAID. the end of this episode, after worf won, and everybody was like yay worf won :D and sisko and worf went to worf's quarters on the ship and worf was like yeah no actually. i should NOT have fired on that ship. that was fucking stupid. and sisko's like you're damn right it was stupid and gave worf a whole ass lecture after HAVING HIS BACK all episode. that's loyalty. sisko had some excellent fucking scenes in this ep. i love when he gets really mad but i also love that when he threatens people, it's with a smile. i'd like to think he picked that up from kira.

speaking of loyalty, also, wtf is up with o'brien. bro, just lie. "yeah i would have taken the shot" JUST LIE. you know the trial is a farce anyway. you guys were bros on tng. JUST LIE! YOU CAN LIE TO COPS

finally, speaking of cops, i did NOT enjoy odo calling himself a police officer in this episode. he's NOT a cop he's a SECURITY GUARD there is a DIFFERENCE

innocence:

why does every single episode with tuvok go so hard...

firstly, did you guys know he has 4 babies. he has 4 babies and he breeds orchids and he has been married for 68 slutty, slutty years. AND HE CAN SING! he plays the lute and he can sing and he used to sing his babies to sleep. every time he talks about his family i take maximum psychic damage and need to lie down for 1000000 business years

like, fatherhood mode activated. vulcan childred are more well-behaved but he still knows how to raise. children. oh god

they were such adorable kids, too. on tos every child was so offputting but all the tng kids and so far all the voyager kids have been so fucking cute, it's unreal. like OBVIOUSLY you wanna tuck them in and sing them to sleep and OBVIOUSLY tuvok indulged them even though he's a logical vulcan

"they are part of my identity i am incomplete without them" AAAAAGHHH

also, tuvok trying to teach these little kids emotional control and vulcan meditation techniques. it's so cute but also such a kind look into vulcan culture. like, all we got from vulcan culture before now was filtered through spock's eyes, and this culture rejected him to the point where he never felt at home on his own planet. which means that they obviously have some problems, but fast-forward a century and change and let us see it from the perspective of a long-suffering vulcan dad who has already raised 4 babies and you DO see the kindness in treating children like little people ie being honest with them, respecting what they say, teaching them to control their emotions. spock basically got slapped with a rolled-up newspaper every time his face twitched but tuvok showed a lot of patience in teaching these kids to identify their emotions and then PRACTICE letting them go. in was really cathartic in a way

the twist about the age was VERY shocking but mostly because it shows up in the animated series, except in that the enterprise travels to a world where everything is backwards, including the aging processes. i don't really think you could have wrapped it up any other way though

final note janeway being so excited about first contact. nerd. she reminds me SO much of kirk <3

NEXT TIME: ds9's "hard time" and "shattered mirror" so that should be one hell of an evening

#personal #star trek blogging #voy lb #ds9 lb

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angsty-violet · 4 years ago

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Agony - Chapter 25

Agony Masterpost

@whumptober2020

Tuvok woke from his short nap with his ears ringing. He wasn’t sure what was causing it, but he was concerned. He had taken several blows to the head in his time here. He was at risk for there being permanent damage if he slept with a concussion. He pried his eyes open and looked around. There wasn’t anything noticeably different about his cell.

No chemicals were coming under the door. He had no recollection of a head wound in the past few hours that could cause the ringing. Although Tuvok had field medic training, he wasn’t qualified to diagnose what was causing it. Until he could get some real medical attention, he would just have to put up with it.

Tuvok stood to try and get a little exercise. He could tell his body was wasting away without the physical activity to keep it fit. It wasn’t a pleasant experience. He was trying to get as much movement in as possible between days. His resurgence in the will to live was demanding that he not be a complete invalid when he got out.

However, when he stood up, he immediately became incredibly dizzy. Black spots appeared in his eyes, and the world spun around him. He used the wall to steady himself and waited for it to abate. It did, but not before the ringing in his ears increased in volume. He swayed dangerously and finally slumped against the wall. He leaned against it until he was sitting on the ground. His ears still ringing, but the spots had been replaced. Instead of black, they appeared as colored arcs and circles.

He blinked his eyes to try and clear them, but they stayed where they were. Tuvok knew that he was in the beginning stage of a migraine—the aura phase. Tuvok’s migraines completely debilitated him. He would be incapable of taking any steps towards escape during it.

Janeway watched as the planet came into view. She raised an eyebrow at the sight of it. They still didn’t have very much information on what was happening there. They knew that a madman was holding Tuvok and torturing him. They even knew roughly where the building was. However, they had no idea if this was happening with the government’s knowledge.

“Hail the planet. Let’s see if they are in on this.”

“We have a response.”

“Onscreen.

An alien appeared on the screen. He was reptilian with green scales.

“We are the Groanl. How may we help you, travelers?”

“We’re searching for our crewmember that we think might have been brought here. He’s been missing for several weeks.”

The alien looked surprised. “What makes you think he was here? We don’t get many alien ships through here.”

“We believe that one of your kind abducted him. He sent a message buoy from your planet a few weeks ago. That’s what set us on your course. We also encountered another who said that they were also abducted by the same man.”

The alien took on an alarmed look. “You must wait for one moment. If it is who we believe it to be, we will help you retrieve your crewmember with the knowledge that his captor will be sent to us for punishing.”

Captain Janeway inclined her head. “We have no intention to get between him and your justice system. We are only after our crewmember. As soon as he, or his body, are recovered, we will leave the rest up to you.”

The alien nodded quickly. “I will be back momentarily. We must move quickly. Every moment your crewmember remains, there is another moment that his life is in danger.”

Once they had spoken to the supervisor, they had beamed down and made their way to the equivalent of a police station on the Groanl’s planet. They were led into a room that held numerous maps, charts, technology, and a lot of people. They were brought to the desk of an alien who looked up sharply when he saw them.

“My name is Selvent. Please, step into our conference room. I want to have this conversation in private.”

They followed him into a small room where he shut the door behind them. Then he scrubbed a hand over his face and looked at Janeway and the crew she had brought with her.

“You said that your crewmember was taken a few weeks ago. He looks like you?”

Captain Janeway felt a bolt of worry shoot through her. Had they found a body, and they needed an identification? She slowly nodded.

“Yes, the only external difference is his pointed ears. He’s got dark skin and brown eyes.”

Selvent looked relieved. “We haven’t found his body yet, which means there is a good chance he’s still alive. We’ve been pursuing Dr. Kell’an for almost a year. He has continued to elude us and take victims. It would go faster if we had a location to search for him and his partner, but we haven’t gotten anything yet.”

“We might be able to help you with that. We ran into another one of his victims a few days ago; they were on their way back to their home planet. They passed along the approximate location of the building Tuvok is being kept in. As long as he hasn’t been moved since then, we should be able to find them.”

Selvent looked hopeful. “If we could take this sadist down, we could keep him from hurting anyone else. If your crewmember has been there for as long as you say and survived, he must be absolutely incredible. I hate to tell you this, but the bodies we discovered have all shown signs of severe torture. It looks like they were tortured to a certain point and then murdered. You need to prepare yourself for what happens if you get him back. It’s not going to be pretty.”

“We are well aware of the possibilities. The crew has already taken the initiative to come up with ways to help him once we have him back.”

Selvent nodded in approval. “If he could survive that monster, then I gave no doubt that he can recover with your help. It might take some time, but anyone that strong is a true survivor.”

Janeway felt a tendril of hope within her, and for the first time since Tuvok disappeared, she didn’t squash it. Maybe she could afford a little hope, especially since they were so close to having him back. Although she didn’t know how awful it would be if they didn’t manage to rescue him. She didn’t even want to contemplate that thought.

#whumptober #no.25 #ringing ears #star trek voyager #fic #hurt tuvok #torture #protective crew #pain #evil captors #evil original characters

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annakie · 4 years ago

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Am I once again posting about the Voyager Relaunch Novels? Yes. Yes I am.

I am re-reading the Post-Endgame Voyager Relaunch novels and marathoned reading The Eternal Tide over the last two nights and all I have to say is Janeway and Chakotay love each other so much, I was literally sobbing through about six sections of the second half of that book.

The Kirsten Beyer books are SO GOOD. And as I’m re-reading them I love how she handles every single one of the Voyager characters but especially Chakotay. I feel like she understands Chakotay and gives him everything the writers of Voyager never quite grasped about his character in seven seasons. Full Circle is such a powerful story of his love and his grief, and the rest of the crew’s love for him (especially Tom, B’lanna, Harry and Sev-- wow his friendship with Seven is so awesome throughout the Beyer books, everything it should have been in the show and not what we got in Endgame. The support they have for each other without forcing a cringey relationship back onto them adds so much to BOTH of their characters. Hey this paragraph went way off the rails but I don’t care.)

Anyway I really love the plots of each of these books, I love how they handle EVERY character (well, I miss Tuvok -- at some point I’m gonna get to the Titan novels) and the new characters are pretty great (oh man Cambridge is a fave, and so much better than the new consular that was introduced in the Spirit Walk books. Loved Eden, love Farkas.)

I made a post a few days ago about how Chakotay is the whole “upstanding, solid, good guy” archetype that some people dare to call “boring” I’ve previously talked at length in a post about Mass Effect about how that’s just... my favorite kind of character. And Chakotay is just... so that. It also made me realize that the Janeway / Chakotay dynamic is also very similar to a Shepard / Kaidan dynamic (powerful commanding officer of her own ship woman character, solid, good, honorable mature right-hand man first officer (or close to it) male character and maybe that’s why they’re both two of my favorite ships.

Anwyay here’s some spoilery thoughts about The Eternal Tide.

Chakotay telling Seven about his relationship with Janeway evolving before she died, and how he doesn’t think he’ll ever love any other woman!

Confirmation that Chakotay was thinking about proposing when they were supposed to met in Venice!??! What!?

Janeway thinking about Chakotay right after her resurrection and how deeply she feels for him and wondering about how her death affected him! Also I kind of love that Chakotay DIDN’T come to her mind when deciding whether to return to life or not? This was her decision and making it about A Man I think would have made it feel less about her and how she knew she would be taking responsibility for The Multiverse, which is what it absolutely should have been about. Realizing what her death would have done to him basically the second she was alive again... that part was so well written. I loved it. Her relationship shouldn’t become the basis of who she is -- but it adds to her.

Their... reunion... scene... almost being ruined by Q... Chakotay’s utter shock and disbelief and the description of him slowly beginning to have his heart open up to the possibility, him inching closer to her as she’s thinking that maybe she’s made a mistake and understands just how deeply her death hurt him... that.... entire... SCENE. (Actually about once a year I dig that book and Full Circle out just to read their getting together / reunion scenes.)

Getting Seven’s reaction to Janeway was also very, very good. I wish they hadn’t cut past the scene where the rest of the Voyager staff sees her for the first time but we did get a little taste of it.

Um okay and then Janeway tells Chakotay she loves him for the first time and he says it back, naturally but like, this is as Chakotay was preparing to go on a suicide mission? SOBBING. They didn’t even get a day together, but at least they got to say goodbye this time.

Janeway forcing herself not to think about Chakotay’s death because things just got so much more dire.

Yes they won, but Janeway all alone on the battle bridge and she can’t even bring herself to contact Voyager yet because she just needs time to mourn Chakotay for a few seconds and takes a few seconds, a few breaths, a few moments... and then... OMG.... Chakotay is returned by Godson Q just before his death and they’re so happy... I CANNOT.

THE EPILOGUE where they’re in bed and had spent every possible moment together and so casual and free and happy together... it’s everything we ever wanted for seven seasons and seven more books.

Oh I started this post now almost a week ago and now I’m a few books forward and hey am I now going to talk about Protectors? Yes, yes I am.

J/C don’t get to spend a lot of time together in this book. Janeway gets sent back to the Alpha Quadrant to undergo counseling and evaluation which, tbh, is totally valid considering she DIED A VIOLENT HORRIBLE DEATH and then WAS DEAD FOR FOURTEEN MONTHS and then you know RESURRECTED AND IMMEDIATELY HAD TO SAVE THE MULTIVERSE oh yeah not to mention WAS REUNITED WITH THEN HAD TO TELL CHAKOTAY GOODBYE FOREVER A FEW HOURS LATER then oh wait THE MAN SHE LOVES WAS ALSO BROUGHT BACK FROM THE DEAD (or the brink of death, whatever.)

There’s a short and sweet goodbye scene then for the bulk of the book Janeway is back on Earth going to counseling (which, that second counseling scene was so great, and seeing her slow down and enjoy life with her mother was so great, and um also that scene with her and Picard? Wow. Just Wow. Also I can’t wait to go back and read some TNG books because I need to see JL/B actually get together.) And the entire time she’s just like... not even doubting her relationship with Chakotay even a little. She thinks of him and is excited to be reunited but every time it’s like “the man I love” “The person I plan on spending the rest of my life with” and even “the love of my life.” WOW. Just Wow. Chakotay worries a bit but never doubts.

Oh and then she basically tells her commanding officer “yeah um, thanks but I absolutely have no plans on curbing my relationship with Chakotay to make you feel more comfortable. Also JL/B and Riker/Troi are all married so fuck you?” She does agree to keep separate quarters on another ship which is like.. fine... whatever. But also her going “Yes he’s my subordinate but we’re not going to let that affect our working relationship, we’re adults.” Fuck. Yeah. Montgomery asks if they’re gonna get married and Janeway is all “IDK, probably? We’ll let you know.”

And B’Elanna asks Chakotay the same thing and his answer is also basically “Yeah at some point, we haven’t talked about it yet but yeah we’re spending the rest of our lives together now stop prodding me.”

Their reunion when she returns doesn’t go as planned and it’s a teensy bit worrisome at the end but with notes of positivity.

OK I’m only about 1/3rd into Acts of Contrition but I got to a part last night that made me put the book down for a minute and thank Kirsten Beyer out loud.

J/C finally get to spend some time alone several days after she makes it back to the fleet in the Delta Quadrant. They have a brief discussion about The Plot, then Chakotay is like “Know what? We’ll talk about The Plot Stuff tomorrow in the briefing. Let’s instead talk about us.” And then he stands up for what he wants! And Janeway listens, and they talk, and agree! And then Chakotay is like “Okay, now I really want to hear about what happened to you back on Earth for all those weeks!” So... literally they just... sit and talk for several hours like, I don’t know, real people would? There’s no drama! And they both affirm their commitment to each other and their relationship!

It’s just... it’s... so good? Their relationship is so solid! They LOVE EACH OTHER and it’s based on their solid friendship (something else they actually say out loud!) and they talk to each other and there’s no like drama for drama’s sake about their relationship so far and it’s like, better than even any fanfic I’ve ever read (and there’s some great fic out there for these two) because nearly every other character is also getting their screentime and character development (minus Tuvok -- who’s off with Riker and Troi on the Titan and Neelix isn’t around much -- though he’s spoken of and we see him a bit when they visit New Talax). Also it’s... beta canon. No matter what, this is real and accepted beta canon.

I have been going back and listening to all the episodes of the Literary Trek podcast episodes about these books, and for Eternal Tide and Protectors Beyer herself was on the podcast and listening to her talk about Chakotay and Janeway both individually and as a couple her love for them both is clear, she loves the show and knows what she’s doing and is allowed to do it, and her writing is so damn good. One of the hosts of the podcast has said in several episodes that he used to really dislike Chakotay as he was in the show and now book Chakotay is one of his favorite characters. And honestly? I do love show Chakotay but book Chakotay is... everything show Chakotay should have been. But he’s also been through hell and back and I love how Beyer used that experience -- and now Janeway’s resurrection experience -- to advance them BOTH individually and how that’s affected them as a couple now that they actually get to be that.

There’s so much other good in these books. Tom and B’Elanna’s storyline and the way she writes them and their marriage... I could write so much about it. Harry gets better characterization! A plotline! A promotion! A love interest that may actually work out?!!? We’ll see. And SEVEN. Wow. So much happens with Seven and it’s so great, I love her so much and Book Seven is again, even better.

Two more books have come out since the last time I read the series and the final book comes out next month, I can’t wait to see all the great moments Beyer has coming up for them. It also makes me twice as happy that Beyer is so involved with Picard. It’s so clear the love she has for these two and I can’t imagine J/C not still being Alpha canon with her involved.

#star trek #voyager #janeway x chakotay #kathryn janeway #chakotay #Kirsten beyer #annakie's misc stuff

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summahsunlight · 5 years ago

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This Way Became My Journey, Ch. 23

While the computer was running its diagnostic on the alien device, B'Elanna Torres had snuck away to the mess hall to grab a ration pack for lunch. Well maybe she hadn't really snuck away; Captain Janeway had after all given her permission to take a small break. But it sure felt like sneaking away, with Michael breathing down her neck wanting to know every little thing that came up about the device. Snatching a ration pack up she went to join a Bajoran, by the name of Seska, who was sitting at a table in the middle of the room.

"I didn't think Janeway was ever going to let you leave the bridge," Seska drawled with that sly grin of hers as B'Elanna took a seat.

B'Elanna shrugged her shoulders. "I think she felt bad that her kid was watching over everything I did. Anyways I don't have a lot of time. I need to get back up there to finish working on that device that Chakotay brought back from the planetoid."

"If you ask me this is a waste of time," Seska replied, pushing her empty ration pack to the side. "We shouldn't be chasing after any aliens that like to harvest organs. It could end up getting us all killed."

"Neelix could die if we don't track them down," B'Elanna said, slightly shocked by her friend's cold tone.

It was Seska's turn to shrug her tiny shoulders. "The Doctor has kept him alive this long; that's better than most people can say if they had just had their lungs stolen."

"And what if it was Chakotay that had been attacked? Or Harry? Would you feel the same way?"

"Of course. Neelix should be counting his blessings while the rest of us get to the real work of finding dilithium to help the power shortage," Seska answered, her dark eyes studying B'Elanna's face. "You don't actually agree with Janeway's decision to go chasing after these aliens do you?"

B'Elanna averted her eyes. "To tell you the truth, I think it's rather noble."

Seska scoffed. "One noble deed doesn't make up for her selfish decision to strand us here."

The hatred for Janeway that was laced in Seska's voice was not lost on B'Elanna and the young Klingon woman suddenly found that she was not hungry anymore. Pushing the tray away from her, she looked her friend, or someone she had once regarded as a friend, in the eye. "Seska, I know it hasn't been easy the past month, adjusting to life on a Starfleet ship, but believe me when I say that Captain Janeway has the best intentions of this entire crew at heart."

"You didn't think that way a month ago," Seska pointed out.

B'Elanna shook her head. "No, I didn't. But the past few weeks I've worked closely with her and my opinion has changed. If we had used the array to get home, there would have been people back in the Alpha Quadrant who thought her decision to sacrifice the Ocampa selfish. Either way, she couldn't win."

Seska got up from the table angrily. "You're starting to sound like all those delusional Starfleet idiots."

The Chief Engineer watched as the Bajoran left the table and stalked out of the mess hall. B'Elanna wasn't sure why Seska was having the hardest adjustment out of them all. Perhaps she felt like she had been slighted by Janeway when she wasn't given a higher rank, after all, she was Chakotay's former lover. And then there was B'Elanna's promotion to chief engineer. It was never spoken between the two, but B'Elanna knew that Seska was jealous of her friend's promotion and the trust that Janeway put in her. She also knew that Seska wasn't too keen on all time the B'Elanna had taken to hanging out with Harry Kim in the mess hall or for a stroll on the holodeck. But Harry had been the only one nice to her, on the Starfleet side that is, for their first few days, and she was grateful for that.

It wasn't her fault that she was sliding into fit with the crew and Seska was struggling. She just needs to make friends outside of the Maquis, that's all.

B'Elanna decided that the next time Harry joined her for dinner she was going to ask Seska to join them. She was sure that Harry would be friendly and make an attempt to befriend Seska no matter how unreceptive Seska seemed.

Speaking of Harry, B'Elanna was sure that Janeway had given him a fifteen minute break to eat something as well. Maybe she had missed him when she had first come in the room. Glancing around she soon found that it had been easy to miss him. He was seated at a corner table with Sarah Barrett. B'Elanna instantly felt…jealousy.

She was shocked by this, at first. There was nothing romantically going on between her and Harry so she shouldn't be bothered if there was something between him and the counselor. But then she remembered Elle Platt, back from her Academy days. Elle had the same dark, coffee brown hair as Sarah, same enticing sapphire eyes. B'Elanna had thought Elle had been her friend and had told her about her crush on one of their classmates. They never spoke of it again, until B'Elanna had seen Elle with her crush, cuddling on the lawn one warm afternoon. Elle later told her some story about wanting to keep B'Elanna safe because she only would have been hurt, that her crush never would have dated a half Klingon.

B'Elanna, who had always resented human girls, with their silky locks of hair, and smooth foreheads, had shortly left the Academy after that. So was it this fact that Sarah looked so much like Elle that she was jealous of the time she spent with Harry? And if she ever did want to be more than Harry's friend, how could she compete with the perfection that Sarah was?

She was shocked at this realization. Being more than Harry's friend? He was Starfleet, a nice guy, but still Starfleet. Well what's so wrong with that? They had been through so much together on the Ocampa home world, she had connected with him in a way that she had yet to connect to anyone else on the ship, with maybe the exception of Chakotay. And that's when her emotions switched to jealousy to downright anger.

Sarah could have any man she wanted on this ship, with the bat of her pretty little eyelashes, why was she with Harry? Good, even Tom Paris was eating out of the palm of her hand and she had taken the one guy that B'Elanna actually felt…feelings towards. It figures the one nice guy on this ship—

"Seat taken?"

B'Elanna glanced up to see Tom Paris. She shook her head. "No."

He sat down and dropped his ration pack tray in front of him. His grayish eyes looked up to see what she was looking at and he frowned.

This peaked her curiosity even more. Was Tom's feelings about Sarah more than just wanting a date? B'Elanna suddenly didn't feel so bad that she was not the only one who was jealous on this ship. "Something wrong with the view?" she teased.

Tom only frowned more as Harry and Sarah got up and left the mess hall together, laughing about something. "No, nothing's wrong with the view."

"If I didn't know you any better Paris, I'd say you were jealous," she continued teasing getting up from the table and going to recycle her tray. It was time to get back to working on the alien device and the diagnostic. She would have to push thoughts of Harry aside until further notice.

However, the thoughts of Harry and Sarah eating lunch together, sharing a laugh, just would not escape her no matter how hard she tried to get her work done. Michael Janeway was still standing over her shoulder, soaking in every last bit of information that the computer was coming up with. If that kept up he could his mother the report and B'Elanna could return to engineering where her real work was.

Mindlessly drumming her fingers on the console she noticed Tuvok raise an eyebrow. "Does that form of activity make the computer scan faster?" the Vulcan questioned her.

"No, but it keeps me occupied while we wait." The doors of the bridge swishing open brought her attention about and Paris strode back onto the bridge, no trace of the frown he had worn in the mess hall. How can he let it go so easily? Oh, that's right, he's a pig. He probably has another love interest lined up behind Sarah and the Delaney sisters.

The computer beeping brought her attention about. "Captain," she called out, getting Janeway's attention. "We've completed our diagnostic on the alien device."

Janeway strode over to join the group, which was an odd mix when you really thought about it; a Vulcan, a five year old human boy, and a half Klingon. "What have you got?"

"It appears to be more than a weapon," B'Elanna reported. "It's also a very sophisticated medical scanner and surgical instrument."

"From what we can tell," Tuvok said, handing the device to Janeway, "it uses a neural resonator to stun the victim while a quantum imaging scanner begins a microcellular analysis of the entire body.

"The amount of information this thing can gather puts a tricorder to shame," B'Elanna continued. "You fire this at someone you learn everything about their anatomy, right down to their DNA sequencing."

Janeway turned the device over in her hands. "So we're dealing with aliens who've developed a technology specifically designed for extracting organs from other beings. The question is…why?" Chakotay demanded her attention and she mindlessly put the device down onto the science console.

"The alien ship has dropped out of warp," the first officer reported. "It's approaching a large asteroid."

The captain went to stand on the command station next to Lieutenant Barrett while Tuvok took his own station. "On screen."

"It's entered the asteroid captain," Paris reported.

"Hold position."

There were very little options that Janeway had at this moment. She could either take the ship into the asteroid if it was wide enough or she could try to flush the aliens out some how. But that could take hours, and Neelix didn't have hours. Even though the Doctor had come up with a solution for the time being, no one really knew how long he could survive using holographic lungs, not to mention that if ship's system ever went down and the emitters went off line, Neelix would die.

"MICHAEL!"

The shear volume of Lieutenant Barrett's voice startled everyone on that bridge and all eyes snapped about looking for the child.

The boy was standing at the door to the ready room and immediately Janeway could see that he had the alien device clutched in his little hands. The captain had moved the baby into the ready room so she could comfortably nap and she had no doubt that her son was about to test the device out on his baby sister. How could I be so careless with something that dangerous around? She hadn't even seen Michael move from his spot near the science station, for that matter, neither had B'Elanna. Michael was terribly clever, a trait that Janeway knew had been inherited from her; he could easily slip away from baby sitters, his mother, etc.

So how had Sarah seen it?

Michael looked sheepishly up at his mother. "I just wanted to see Ava's DNA."

His mother gestured that he give her the device back and he complied.

"Sit there," Janeway instructed, pointing to her chair.

Chakotay cleared his throat while the boy did as he was told. "Uh, Captain, we've determined the asteroid is man made."

Fascinating. What's even more fascinating that Sarah knew Michael had that device; another question for another time, perhaps.

"I think I've located where the alien ship entered the asteroid, Captain," Paris was saying bringing their attention about to the situation at hand. "There's an open crater on the limb of the asteroid."

"Let's see it," Chakotay ordered and the viewscreen changed from the image of the asteroid to the opening that Paris had found.

Janeway crossed her arms over her chest. "How large is that crater, Mister Paris?"

"Two hundred meters in diameter."

"Captain," Tuvok cautioned. "May I suggest that you consider carefully what you're about to do?"

"How do you know what I'm about to do?" Janeway asked, raising an eyebrow and glancing at Tuvok.

"I could describe you in detail the psychological observations I have made of you over the past four years," Tuvok answered, calmly. "Which lead me to conclude that you are about to take this ship into the asteroid, but suffice it to say, I know you quite well."

"One of these days, I'm going to surprise you Tuvok," she replied, with a wry grin. "But not today."

Janeway moved back into the command station and briefly looked at her counselor. "I've already consider other options. If Neelix has any chance of surviving, we have to act fast. Red Alert. Mister Paris lay in a course. Mister Tuvok maximum shields, phasers at the ready."

The Captain turned about in the command station and looked hotly at Michael, "And you stay right there and don't touch anything."

"Yes ma'am."

Voyager glided into the asteroid while Janeway made her way down the command steps to stand next to Chakotay and behind Paris. Her eyes watched the screen intently as the cavern's walls began to narrow.

"Captain," Paris said. "I'm reducing power to the aft-thrusters only. This passageway is getting a little too narrow for my taste."

"Use your discretion Mister Paris," Janeway replied, turning towards Tuvok. "Any sign of the alien ship, Commander?"

"We're still following the ion trail," Tuvok answered, "but electromagnetic interference is limiting our sensor range. I'm only able to scan five hundred meters a head of us."

Chakotay asked the next question. "Are there any indications we're being scanned or probed Mister Kim."

"Not yet."

"Sick bay to Bridge. May I enlist the services of Counselor Barrett please?"

Janeway glanced up at the lieutenant. Was it her imagination or did the Doctor sound anxious? "Certainly Doctor, she's on her way, Janeway out." For a moment the women made eye contact. "You heard the Doctor, he needs your help, we're just going to have to handle first contact without you."

#star trek voyager fanfiction #kathryn janeway #chakotay #janeway x chakotay #tom paris #sarah barrett (oc)#tom paris x ofc #harry kim #b'elanna torres #kes #neelix #tuvok #the doctor (emh)#this way became my journey

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mia-cooper · 7 years ago

Note

J/C #38? Please? Rip my heart out if you want?

What would you do with those last few precious seconds?

Explosive

(Warning: major character death(s). Not that this should surprise you given the prompt, I’m just saying.)

“General, if you would just hold your fire for a minute and talk to us, you might discover we’re not your enemies –”

A renewed volley of torpedo blasts cut her off, Voyager lurched, and the captain stumbled to her knees. Chakotay was up in an instant, gripping her upper arm and helping her back to her seat.

“I guess talking is off the agenda,” he offered.

She sent him an absent, humourless smile. “Harry, report?”

“We took minor damage to the deflector array,” Kim answered smartly. “The main life support generator is failing. Switching to backup.”

“Tuvok, what’s our shield status?”

“Shields are at twenty-two percent.” Before she could ask the next logical question, Tuvok added, “Phaser power is down to twelve percent. We have three photon torpedoes remaining.”

She barely grimaced.

“Paris, can you get us out of here?” Chakotay demanded.

The pilot shook his head. “No can do, Commander. They took out impulse drive with that last shot.”

“Bridge to Engineering,” Chakotay called. “B'Elanna, how long until we have warp drive?”

Torres shouted to be heard above the mayhem in Engineering. “The plasma couplings to the intermix chamber are completely depolarised, Commander. We’re looking at two hours at best, and that’s only if we can keep the plasma pressure below three thousand kilopascals.”

Janeway cut in. “Lieutenant, I’m sending Seven to help you.” She turned to nod at Seven of Nine, standing at the auxiliary science console. “Do the best you can.”

Seven strode to the turbolift, and Chakotay tried to quell his sudden premonition that this would be the last time he saw her alive. As turned back to the viewscreen he caught the captain’s eye. The same sense of foreboding was written in the strain on her face.

He tried to bolster her with a smile and a brief touch to the back of her hand. We’ve faced worse odds than this, he told her silently, and was gratified by the gentle curl of her lips in response.

“Tuvok, ready torpedoes at full yield,” she ordered without taking her eyes from Chakotay’s. “Aim for their forward weapons array, aft shield generator and main bridge. Tom, prepare to initiate evasive manoeuvre omicron five. B'Elanna, can you hear me?”

“Here, Captain.”

“We’re going to need a burst of power to the thrusters. Can you divert energy from the main EPS relay?”

“Sure,” Torres replied, “but if I can’t control the flow rate it could blow out the power converters on every deck of the ship. There’s no way of keeping the plasma chamber pressure down if that happens. We’d be looking at a core breach.”

“Do the best you can,” Janeway said grimly. “Is everyone ready?”

“Aye, Captain,” three voices chorused.

“Initiate on my mark. Three – two – one –”

Phaser fire shot out from the alien ship’s bow, blossoming into crimson flowers as it impacted Voyager’s shields. Chakotay heard the screech of complaining metal as Voyager pitched to starboard.

“Shield are down,” Tuvok intoned.

“Captain, the port nacelle was hit,” Paris shouted, voice strained as he struggled to keep his seat.

Chakotay scrolled through the litany of systems failures lighting up the command console. “Hull breaches on decks five through ten, port side. Repair crews are sealing them, but we took heavy damage to the Jeffries tubes and turbolift shaft in section 47…” his voice trailed off and he looked up at the captain, horror widening his eyes. “Seven of Nine was caught in the breach. She didn’t make it.”

Janeway’s face almost crumpled, but she pressed her lips together. “Weapons status, Tuvok?”

“Ready.”

“Tom, are the thrusters still online?” Her fingers curled into the arms of her chair.

“Yes ma’am.”

“B'Elanna?”

“Captain, that last hit destabilised the power relays on decks ten and eleven. I can’t guarantee the converters will hold.”

“We don’t have a choice. Mark!”

Three torpedoes streaked out from Voyager’s aft array, their aim deadly and true, striking the three vulnerable points the captain had noted on the alien vessel. Chakotay’s view of the ship – fire racing along its hull – was lost as Tom punched the thrusters, dipping Voyager’s nose to avoid flying debris as the alien ship broke apart.

Alarms of varying tones rang out from every console on the bridge.

“Report!” Janeway shouted, feet braced against the listing of the deck.

“Secondary life support generator is failing,” Ensign Kim began. “The hull breach on deck five is widening and the Doctor is evacuating Sickbay. There’s a power spike in the –”

“Torres to bridge,” the engineer’s insistent voice cut him off. “Captain, the EPS relays on deck eleven are overloading and the power surge has reached the main converter. There’s a cascade reaction building in the intermix chamber. Core pressure is at four thousand kilopascals and rising. I can’t stabilise it…”

Chakotay’s stomach clenched.

“Try shutting down the antimatter inducers,” Janeway snapped back, head bent over the console.

“Kathryn,” Chakotay said.

“I’ve tried. They’re fused.” Torres paused. “Pressure now at four thousand eight hundred kilopascals. Captain, I can’t stop the reaction.”

“Dump the core,” Janeway said harshly.

After a moment the reply came. “I – I’m sorry, Captain. The ejection sequence failed and I can’t override. I estimate six minutes to a warp core breach.”

A workstation exploded on the aft of the bridge and Chakotay heard Harry Kim cry out in pain. Janeway swivelled to look at him and saw Sam Wildman bending to take his pulse. A few seconds passed before Wildman met the captain’s eye and shook her head silently.

Stricken, Janeway turned back to face the viewscreen.

“Kathryn,” Chakotay said again, urgently.

“Maybe I can override it from here,” Janeway murmured aloud. “Computer, eject the core. Authorisation Janeway pi one one zero.”

Unable to comply. Warp core ejection system is offline.

“Captain!”

She turned to him, her eyes bleak.

“We have to abandon ship,” he said gently.

A piece of alien debris somersaulted into view and collided with the hull just below the bridge. Chakotay heard Tom Paris swear as Voyager shuddered and the stench of superheated duranium filled the air.

“I can’t hold her,” Paris shouted. “I’m losing attitude control.”

Janeway briefly closed her eyes. When she opened them again she fixed them on Chakotay’s understanding gaze and spoke clearly. “All hands, this is the captain. Get to the escape pods and abandon ship. I repeat, abandon ship.”

Chakotay reached across the console between them and squeezed her hand. “I’ll go coordinate the evacuation,” he said. “Don’t get left behind.”

“I’ll be right behind you.” Her answering smile faded quickly as he stood and nodded, exiting the bridge quickly.

With only one turbolift and one transporter room online, it took precious extra seconds to load the able-bodied and wounded into the shuttles and escape pods, and the computer had just given the one-minute warning when Chakotay reached the ejection pad just behind the bridge, where escape pod alpha waited for the command team. He expected her to be there waiting for him. But the captain was nowhere in sight.

He tapped his combadge. “Chakotay to the captain. Our ride is ready and waiting, so I hope you’re on your way.”

There was no answer.

“Captain …” he paused. “Kathryn. Please tell me you’re not still on the bridge.”

Her voice came through softly. “I’m here.”

“Kathryn …”

Alarmed, he let the pod’s hatch slam shut and started running along the corridor. He burst out onto a deserted, battered bridge, bathed in alternating red and black. She had silenced the alarms. Conduit hung from the ceiling, showering sparks into the hushed, electrified air.

In the centre of the bridge, staring at the devastated alien ship through the viewscreen, was Kathryn Janeway.

Chakotay stumbled down from the aft level and took hold of her upper arms. “Kathryn, for God’s sake, what are you doing? There’s no time!”

She turned her face to his, pale and sad. “No Chakotay. There’s no point.”

“What are you talking about? Everyone has evacuated. We’re supposed to rendezvous on the other side of that asteroid field we passed yesterday.” He shook her gently. “Come on, we have to go. They’ll be waiting for us.”

Tears gathered in her eyes. “Nobody will be waiting for us,” she whispered, and turned to point at the viewscreen.

Chakotay followed her gesture and saw two more of the alien vessels, swooping through the debris, phasers targeting Voyager’s escape pods and destroying them one by one. Sickened, he felt his grip tightening on Kathryn’s arms. She winced, bringing his attention back to her, and he loosened his fingers deliberately.

Twenty seconds to warp core breach, announced the computer.

They stared at one another.

“Chakotay,” she stumbled over the words in her haste to say them, “I know it’s too late – I wish we had more time – but I need to tell you…”

He shifted a hand to her face as her voice trailed off. A console exploded behind her and a halo of sparks lit up her face.

“I know,” he said. “I’ve always known.”

Ten seconds to warp core breach.

Her eyes spilled over, but she managed a smile. “I guess I’m not that good an actress after all.”

“No,” he smiled back. “I just know your heart, Kathryn.”

Five.

He tilted her face up and bent toward her. She caught her breath.

Four.

Their lips met, softly at first, but growing in hunger and urgency. Her hands found his chest.

Three.

He could no longer see the searing flash and eerie shadows of the emergency lights or smell the acrid stench of burning metal and fibre all around them. All his senses were filled with her: her smooth skin, her soft, sweet mouth, her trembling hands curving around his neck, bringing him closer and closer.

Two.

In their last moments, having lost everything but each other, they knew only peace.

One.

#miawrites #janeway x chakotay #a ship + a kiss #you asked to have your hear ripped out anon #anonymous #askbox

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juniortjenkins · 6 years ago

Text

Bridge Log: Analysis

-Lang, Campbell and Jenkins are gathered around the large panel at the rear of the bridge-

Lang: Okay, Let’s recap what we’ve learned so far. We were traveling on a clear route through normal space when we… hit something. And now we seem to be in an invisible bubble. Well, the three of us anyway. She glances back at Tuvok’s unmoving form. Tuvok appears to be on the outside of it. The bubble is in red; and Tuvok is the green dot. I opened the turbolift doors, but found the bottom of the bubble was only about 2 meters below us.

Campbell: Internal sensors, external sensors, environmentals, helm control, communications well all the ships systems are malfunctioning in some unexplained way. They seem like they’re fine, but they can’t give us any new data and new commands are accepted by the system, but they don’t seem to do anything.

Jenkins: They must be working on autonomously because we’re still getting oxygen, the artificial gravity is working and we can see Tuvok outside the bubble. Even if we can’t get through it, and his side of things looks okay too. All right. Let’s think this through. We know that this happened suddenly. Lyssa did anything unusual appear on the sensors?

Campbell: No, both short and long range scans didn’t show any signs of spatial or temporal anomalies, but we can only scan for the ones we know about so we can’t rule out that there was something in this part of space that we’ve never seen before.

Jenkins: Good point.

Lang: I don’t think this is some kind of attack. I can’t rule it out, but the Laetheans gave us really good information about these sectors and they didn’t mention anyone with a weapon capable of this kind of thing. Plus if someone was trying to disable and then attack us, they probably would have done so by now. Groups that use disabling weapons attack the bridge of the ship quickly. Something like 80% of the time. They don’t want their quarry to have time to find a way out of the trap.

Jenkins: Lyssa, what do you think?

Campbell: I think Audrey’s right. We’ve seen so many things that were previously unknown to science in this quadrant.

Jenkins: That’s my feeling too. So the question becomes what kind of phenoma are we dealing with here?

Lang: Do you hear that?

Jenkins: Is that the tricorder?

Campbell: It is the tricorder. I didn’t even realize I’d left it open. You remember the medical scan of Tuvok I tried to do right after the impact? Well it just finished.

Jenkins: What do you mean “just finished”?

Campbell: Here, have a look. It shows Tuvok is alive, no sign of life threatening injuries.

Jenkins: Well that’s good news at least, but it the scan took 4 hours and 56 minutes. It usually takes 1/10th of a second right?

Campbell: Or less.

Lang: There’s another tricorder under my station. Let’s make sure that one is working correctly… Diagnostic scans and the self diagnostic both show that the tricorder is working correctly.

Campbell: I believe it. The replicator in the Captain’s ready room is working and at its normal speed. Thank goodness for that. I was starving.

Jenkins: Speed… Normal speed…

Lang: TJ, you think this is a temporal phenomena?

Jenkins: I’m starting to. It would explain why things seem fine on both sides of the bubble.

Lang: So are we in a bubble dimension? If we were in a different timeline, we shouldn’t be able to see Tuvok.

Campbell: When I was a kid, my physics tutor pointed out to me that even though air molecules vibrate back and forth at a few hundred miles per hour, if you could run fast enough there would be a point where the air molecules were no longer moving fast enough to get out of your way and you would literally bump into the air in front of you. I think maybe we’re in the same time line, but time is moving at different speeds. I think time is moving orders of magnitude faster in here then it is for Tuvok over there.

Lang: That would explain why the bubble is so rigid.

Jenkins: And a good number of the issues we’re seeing with the ships systems. They aren’t actually damaged, they just haven’t had enough time to reply to our commands.

Lang: Well they could be damaged, right? They just haven’t gotten the readings to us? Or.. do we know that things are OK because we’ve got power and environmentals?

Campbell: I have the hardest time getting my head around temporal problems. I always get a headache.

Jenkins: Let’s focus on getting some information we can use to get us out of this. Lyssa, take the tricorder up to your station and put it as close to Tuvok as you can. Then ask it to ping Tuvok’s comm badge. That usually takes what 1/10000th of a second? That should tell us how big the time differential is. Once that’s set up, see what you can do with the communications systems. Look for anyway we could send messages faster, or use smaller packets to send messages.

Campbell: Got it.

Jenkins: Audrey, let’s see if we can make any headway with the external sensors. If there is an anomaly out there, I want to find it.

#Voyager RP #Speedbump crisis #Lang Lyssa & TJ #on the bridge

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firstofficerchakotay-flute · 7 years ago

Text

A letter to Kathryn

Dear Kathryn,

a few years ago today, I met the bravest person I’d ever seen in my life. She was the captain of a Starfleet starship and looked imperious in her red and black uniform. She was more than that; decisive, heroic, fair, persistent, compassionate and fearless. No, I didn’t fall in love with her the moment we met. It would be really romantic though, right? On the contrary, I felt threatened by her and I was almost frightened. She gained my respect though when she chose the difficult way. The captain decided to sacrifice her crew’s safety (and her own as well) in order to save a large community of good and innocent people but she gave everyone a promise: she would lead us back to home at any cost. She needed more people though. So, she asked for my help and I followed her without second thought. I convinced my people to do the same. Some of them were hesitant at first but soon everyone realized how capable she was of....literally everything, how strong and smart. Soon they respected her and even cared for her. As time passed, I had the chance to get to know her better. We became good friends. I found out that she was even more than I thought; insecure, lonely, sensitive and very guilty. She loved coffee and dogs. She adored science and challenges. She was a stable person and didn’t like change. Once, I got stranded with her in a planet. We were all alone - alone in the world. I’ve already known her for years but everything was suddenly new. I saw her laughing and crying. I saw her trying to get closer to me and making jokes. I heard her talking to me about her life, her family, her dreams, hopes and fears. I saw her finally relaxing after a really long time. This was when I noticed how beautiful she was and like that, I fell in love with her. I wasn’t direct and she wasn’t ready. She wouldn’t be for years. But from then on, she let me call her by her name: Kathryn.

Obviously you know how this story goes on, right?

Every year on this day, you’re sad and you hide in your ready room or your quarters. But this year is different, Kathryn because we’re together and I can finally tell you eveything that I’ve wanted to tell you for years.

I know how difficult this day is for you and I’m not trying to cheer you up. I’m trying to make you to understand that you’re not alone, to understand that nobody blames you and you’re not really guilty. Kathryn...have you ever wondered what would have happened to Tuvok if you hadn’t came after us? What would have happened to my crew (think of Torres and Dalby and so many others) and me if Voyager hadn’t followed us? Val Jean would probably be destroyed by now and we would be dead. It was a good ship but it wouldn’t survive in the Delta Quadrant. What about Kes? She would be dead and Ocampans wouldn’t exist anymore. Neelix? Would he be the individual he’s today? He had the chance to find true friends and a safe home. Dalby? This man was depressed after Mia’s death. Aboard Voayger he found peace and most important, he met Kes. He has the chance to build a new life here, to create even a family. Tom? Do you think he would develop like this if he wasn’t aboard Voyager? He really became a great person, a loyal friend, a very good pilot and officer. He found friends and he’s always ready to give his life for them. He found B’Elanna. I’m glad they found each other. Both of them found their missing piece. What about Harry? He grows up here with us and he becomes an extraordinary person. What about the Doctor? If you weren’t his captain, he would be just another medical emergency hologram. And Kathryn...really...what about Seven? You saved her from the Borg and she has became a remarkable young woman. This crew needs you, respects you and loves you. You’ve done so much for them and you don’t really seem to realize it.

What about me or even us? I wouldn’t be the man I am today if I didn’t met you. You’re my peace and my happiness. But you know that, right?

Yes, we lost crewmen but they were on duty. They were aware of the possibilities and ready to die - as I am, as you are.

You feel guilty but what other choices did we have at the time? How could we sacrifice Ocampans to return to Earth? What about our conscience? Many of us couldn’t live with this, Kathryn. Also, are you able to guarantee that everyone would be alive, safe and happy if we were on Earth? You know, everyone would probably be dead because of the war.

Please, Kathryn. Don’t close yourself off again from your crew, friends and me. We made a promise. Remember? We said we’d share everything and your burdens would be mine as mine would be yours. Let me in, let me comfort you, let me be here with you now that I finally can.

I know you need some time all alone. Take your time but don’t hide yourself from me for long. I’ll be in my quarters if you wanna talk.

I love you,

Chakotay

@voyagerscaptain

#i let it to her ready room #i'm wondering if it'll make her feel better

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clockscountingbackwards · 6 years ago

Text

Idiosyncrasies, Part 3

Away on an away mission Chakotay and Seven decide to fake date to capture the Captain’s attention. They, however, get more than they bargained for and not so unexpected emotions crop up. Takes place after Human Error.

Part one

Part two

“I clearly would have asked you out first,” Seven argued.

“No one is going to believe that,” Chakotay commented.

“And why not?” she shot back.

“Your social skills aren’t really compatible with initiating romantic relationships. You avoid every social gathering that we have on board. You missed Tom and B’Elanna’s baby shower for god’s sake.” He punctuated his response with course corrections.

“I can socialize just fine. I just choose not to,” she responded loftily.

Chakotay sighed, “Why don’t we make a compromise.”

“Proceed.”

“You had asked for me so that you could initiate the relationship but I seized the opportunity and asked you out.”

“Deal.”

Chakotay smiled. They weren’t even really dating and already they had their first argument.

“What first date did you take me on?” she asked.

“Dinner in my quarters, chicken, broccoli, and rice. Did we kiss?”

The thought of kissing the real commander Chakotay thrilled her but she kept it to herself.

“You wanted to but were too nervous to actually do it.” She couldn’t let him have all the control. “Why haven’t we said anything until now?”

“Gossip travels fast and we wanted to make sure it stuck. Also, you never saw that reasoning enough but didn’t want to create tension so you let it go.”

“Have we had more than one date?”

“Not yet. This is kind of half of one and we have one scheduled for when we get back.”

“A picnic,” she told him.

“What?”

“A picnic is our next date. I asked you this time.”

“Of course.” Chakotay wouldn’t have it any other way.

XxXxX

For the few days they had left they talked over the little details they would need to know to look like they were actually dating. Seven couldn’t believe that this was happening. She had wanted to date Chakotay for a while now and by some accounts now she was. It wasn’t the way she wanted it though. This farce was only a mask and she wanted so much more. She would do it however because within these past few days she had learned more about the commander than she had ever hoped to. She would be close to him and right now it didn’t matter what the reason for that was. She just hoped it would last a while and she hoped that along the way she would get even closer to the commander. She wanted him too much to say no to this farce because in a way she would get him. She knew though, in the far reaches of her logical mind that this would not end well and would probably ruin her chances with him forever. She didn’t care. Her reasoning was that this might be the only time she comes even close to getting what she wants and she was going to take the chance with it. She looked at the back of Chakotay over her console and a rush of emotion ran through her.

She knew the story they told would raise eyebrows. She didn’t think people on this ship knew she was capable of romantic attraction and the presence of mind to actually act on it. There would be a lot of questions and she needed to be prepared for that. She hoped that her conversations with Chakotay had prepared for most of that. She knew it wouldn’t cover everything but it had to be enough. They only had so much time. At least the continuation of it shouldn’t be that hard. They would have to fake their dates in order keep up appearances and so basically go on those dates to begin with. Eventually they would probably fake a break up in order to get out of it. All would be well.

Chakotay knew all wouldn’t be well when this was over. He didn’t know what came over him when he suggested that they should fake date. He knew enough about human life to know that this would not end well. Yet he persisted anyways. He knew it was partially because he wanted to be close to Seven. His heart ached for her. He knew that was cliché but he didn’t know how else to describe it. When he looked at her it was like he could barely contain himself in his skin. His chest pounded and he lost his breath time and time again. He did want Kathryn or else he wouldn’t have suggested this but right now he was cursing how stupid he had become. Things would never be the same now with Seven, when this ended badly they would probably barely even been friends. He didn’t know if he could stand that. He hoped that maybe, just maybe, this would all work out. He doubted it but he hoped so badly that this would work out.

He had been slowly falling for Seven before but now he was falling fast and hard. He had gotten more than he bargained for out of this close contact with Seven than he had anticipated and to think this almost turned out to be a boring week. If Seven hadn’t broken the silence he was sure this wouldn’t have happened at all. He wasn’t sure if he was grateful or not. This masquerade would allow him to be close to Seven for a while. It might be worth it just for that. It would have to be or else he wouldn’t be able to live with the after effects. It was a small ship and he knew he would still be working closely with Seven afterwards and he had to deal with the consequences he now created. There would be no other choice. He just hoped that before all of this was over he would have the chance to kiss her at least once.

He was basking in that thought when warning alarms started blaring in his ears. He shook himself out of his reverie.

“What’s going on?” he asked Seven.

“We’ve hit a subspace eddy,” she said as she quickly read her sensor readings. “It’s damaged our port nacelle.”

“I thought you had accounted for all the eddies.” Chakotay maneuvered them away.

“I thought I had. This wasn’t there before.” Seven was frazzled. “There are two more forming in front of us.”

“We need to get out of here. Send all the locations of the eddies to the helm and we’ll see if we can get out of here without any more damage.”

“Understood.” Seven hurriedly tapped her fingers on her console and sent the data needed to Commander Chakotay. She took a breath. They would get through this, Chakotay was an excellent and experienced. pilot.

“Taking us out of here.” He maneuvered the ship upward, the shortest direction out of the nebula.

“Commander! There is an eddy forming right in front of us.”

He wasn’t able to move them away in time and they hit the eddy full on. Something exploded behind the helm and sent Chakotay backwards on to the floor. He hit the floor unconscious.

“Computer transfer the helm controls to ops,” Seven ordered. She looked worryingly at Chakotay but she had to get them out of here before she could do anything. Another direct hit from an eddy could leave them drifting in space. They already couldn’t make more than warp two. She kept a close eye on the sensors and she steered them out of the nebula. She breathed a sigh of relief once they returned to normal space. She sent a distress signal to Voyager and sank to the floor to help the commander.

She first checked for a pulse and finding one she grabbed a tricorder to see if there was anything she could do for him. The burns on his face and hands she could treat simply with a med kit but there were internal issues that the doctor would have to deal with when they got back.

Once she treated his burns she pulled him up into her lap and held him.

“I cannot lose you. It would bring me too much pain,” she whispered to him. His eyes fluttered as if he heard her.

XxXxX

When Kathryn heard that they had received a distress call from the Flyer she was distraught. She couldn’t bare it if anything had happened to them.

“Take us to them Tom maximum warp,” she commanded. “Bridge to Sick Bay.”

“Sick Bay here, Captain.”

“The Flyer has sent out a distress call they may be injured. We rendezvous with them in an hour.”

“I’ll make sure I’m ready, Doctor out.”

The hour couldn’t go fast enough. She couldn’t take the anticipation of what had happened to them. She hoped they were alright.

“Tom,” she started at one point, “if they are injured be prepared to help out the Doctor.”

“Yes, ma’am. What do you think happened to them?”

“The Commander said something about subspace eddies before he left. I’m sure it had something to do with that.”

“Subspace eddies,” Tom commented, “there probably won’t be much of them left.”

“Lieutenant, your pessimism is not needed.”

“Sorry, Captain.”

In truth her own pessimism was ringing in her ears. Hearing Tom say it out loud just seemed to make it worse. She could feel Tuvok’s eyes on her back. She knew he could see her distress. She just hoped that no one else could. If some concern passed on her face she wished it would just be passed off as the general concern she had for her entire crew. She knew everyone on the bridge knew she had a close attachment to the two in danger but she couldn’t let them see that her concern was overwhelming her. She gripped the arm of her chair tightly. She had to keep in control of herself. This is exactly why she couldn’t have romantic relationships on the ship. She could care too much about what was going on with them that she would make mistakes. She couldn’t let her relationships impair her ability to command, her ability to make the hard choices.

A small part of her mind knew that some of this anxiety came from the fact she thought she as losing them in more than one way. She had a feeling that these two would come back in a relationship and even though she would never enter into a relationship with them she knew that this would ruin any chance she had with them. She liked to imagine herself in a different situation when times were hard and now she wouldn’t even be able to that. She couldn’t lose them in both ways. She needed them at least alive so her friendships with them stayed as much. She could deal with the heartbreak as she had dealt with it many times before but she couldn’t deal with their deaths. XxXxX

“Voyager to the Delta Flyer,” Kathryn called once they were in range, “if you can please respond.”

“Delta Flyer here, Captain,” Seven voice came through. Kathryn was glad she was standing her knees had gone weak.

“What’s your status?”

“Commander Chakotay is injured. I’m not sure to what extent but he is unconscious. I’m fine but the Delta Flyer is in need of repairs.”

“Alright I’m preparing to beam the Commander to Sick Bay, Seven, get the Flyer into the shuttle bay when we arrive,” Kathryn ordered.

“Captain, with all due respect, I would prefer to go to Sick Bay with the Commander. I want to make sure he is alright,” Seven responded.

“Understood. I will beam both of you to Sick Bay. Voyager out.” Kathryn took a breath. She was glad at least one of them was okay. She hoped that Chakotay would be fine once the Doctor had a chance to look at him. There was a lot the Doctor was able to handle. She has faith that he would be able to fix whatever was wrong with the Commander. “Tom, get to Sick Bay. I want you ready for their arrival.”

“Yes, Captain.” Tom could tell she was anxious. It was unusual for him to be able to notice it. He guessed that the Captain’s feelings were strong for the Commander whatever type of feelings those may be. He got up from his chair and left the bridge.

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bumblingbabooshka · 3 months ago

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Crossover Crack Ship Toxic Yaoi

Important!: In these scenarios, Spock and Bones are just normal people to Tuvok and the Doctor and NOT practically historical figures whom they may or may not have read about and looked up to. This is just person-to-person and vibe-to-vibe. 'Winning' in this context means 'most interesting' or 'speaks to your heart more' - which brand of toxicity is emitting the most enticing siren's call? Vibes and potential points of friction under the cut.

S/T Overview: Spock and Tuvok have canonically clashed in the past, with Tuvok "speaking out against" his more radical ideas. (Though that obviously hasn't happened in this scenario, since their personalities are the same I don't see why it wouldn't) I can imagine that if they were on the same ship for any length of time, Spock would be compared to Tuvok and it would remind Spock of being back on Vulcan slash negative. Tuvok frequently dictates what is and is not Vulcan in casual speech, leading to even more avenues for direct comparison and not-so-subtle digs. I can imagine Tuvok seeing Spock as reckless and inappropriately emotional, especially since in this scenario there is no historical-figure-spock who's proven himself to be a wise and revolutionary thinker whom Tuvok respects. I can imagine there's something here about Kirk since I don't think Tuvok would mesh well with him and might outright dislike him. Tuvok negs Spock about playing chess instead of kal-toh, which he canonically thinks is leagues above chess - the game for baby idiots. Dr/B Overview: Bones canonically distrusts tech and would absolutely not take a holographic doctor well, especially as the only Doctor on board his ship. They are both prone to being snide and neither are great about interacting with women but would 100% view the other as being worse. The Doctor often talks about how he's better because of his holographic nature (despite his clear longing to be more Human) and this would infuriate Mccoy because no stinkin' hologram could ever compare to Human hands! A Human heart! They are both prideful and resolute in what they think is right, which I imagine would often be in conflict with one another. What does it mean to be Human? What does it mean to be alive? Loud opera singing during work hours. Both want romance and are unlucky in love but would immediately blame the other for their own romantic blunders. What kind of woman would want YOU? The Doctor would lecture Mccoy about his drinking and peer over his shoulder making corrections to every little thing he does because it's not Perfect[tm] like what HE can do. But if you're fine with being subpar... These are just the vague shapes in my head, if you have other potential avenues for toxicity that sparks YOUR interest/joy please feel free to share them in the reblogs, notes, etc!

#Spock #Leonard Mccoy #Bones Mccoy #The Doctor #The Doctor (emh)#Tuvok #tos #voy #star trek #star trek tos #star trek voy #tee hee hee hee hee hee hee <3 #writing this made me realize that the voyager crew are kind of menaces

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aion-rsa · 3 years ago

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Star Trek: Enterprise’s Recycled Episodes

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One of the things Star Trek became somewhat infamous for in the late 1990s and early 2000s was recycling old plots in new episodes. Voyager and Enterprise both featured several episodes throughout their runs that seemed to be re-runs of earlier stories from The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine or even the Original Series, with a slight tweaking to the setting.

Originality in fiction is often over-rated – Shakespeare didn’t make up his own plots, and simply noting the use of an existing plot or theme is not, in itself, a criticism. However, it is important for a new version of an old story to put its own stamp on that story. Each new version should bring something slightly different to the table and put its own twist on the material.

Star Trek: Picard — Could Season 3 See Jean-Luc’s Starfleet Return?

By Kayti Burt

Do Star Trek Characters Watch Star Trek?

By Ryan Britt

Here, then, we’re looking at ten episodes of Enterprise that were “recycled” from earlier Star Trek series and asking whether Enterprise improved on the old formula, or whether the earlier episode was the better outing. We’re focusing on episodes recycled from other branches of the Star Trek franchise for this list, so we won’t mention other examples, like “Shuttlepod One”’s strong resemblance to Red Dwarf’s “Marooned.” Though that one is worth a mention. They’re both really good.

“Terra Nova” (Season 1, Episode 6)

Recycled from: “Friendship One,” Season 7, Episode 21 of Voyager

“Friendship One” was an odd episode of Voyager, as it featured the crew going on a mission set for them by Starfleet, something they didn’t do in earlier seasons because they had no contact with Starfleet for most of the show’s run. As such, it has a very “typical 90s Trek” feel to it, like this could easily have been an episode of The Next Generation or even Deep Space Nine. Or, of course, Enterprise. The fact both episodes take place mostly in the same “caves” standing set on Paramount’s Stage 16 doesn’t help. Both stories feature hostile groups who are suffering radiation poisoning, though in the case of “Friendship One,” it’s the result of aliens using human technology incorrectly (hello, justification for the Prime Suggestion) whereas in “Terra Nova,” the human settlers have been hit by an random asteroid strike.

Who did it better? The Voyager episode has the more philosophically interesting set-up and is notable for bringing back Lt Carey after five years only to kill him off, but “Terra Nova” fits in much better with the “scary space dangers” themes of Enterprise’s first season than Voyager’s random guilt trip thrown in right at the end of the show’s run. “Friendship One” is also, let’s face it, really rather dull. “Terra Nova” isn’t the best Enterprise has to offer, but it just about has the edge here.

“Oasis” (Season 1, Episode 20)

Recycled from: “Shadowplay,” Season 2 Episode 16 of Deep Space Nine

This one is probably the most egregious example on this list, because both episodes star René Auberjonois. Auberjonois guest stars as the chief engineer of a “haunted” ship in the Enterprise episode, but the story repeats elements, including the final twist, of a Deep Space Nine episode that heavily featured his own character, Odo. In both cases, an entire group of people turn out to be holograms of the dead, created by a middle aged white man wanting to recreate his lost loved ones. We love to see the late and much-missed Auberjonois in anything, but this was a strange episode to have him guest star in.

Who did it better? Although it’s tempting to complain about the Enterprise episode, given that it’s the second of the two and the stories are so close as to be almost identical, we’re actually going to give Enterprise the preference here. The “haunted ship” idea is cool, and the relationship between Auberjonois’ Ezral and his daughter, for whom he has re-created the crew including her dead mother, not only brings extra depth to the story, it also recalls Shakespeare’s The Tempest and the classic 1950s film “Forbidden Planet,” which partly inspired Star Trek in the first place. So we’ll say Enterprise actually improved on this story and it was worth recycling – though a different guest star might have been a good idea.

“Vanishing Point” (Season 2, Episode 10)

Recycled from: “The Next Phase,” Season 5 Episode 24 of The Next Generation

Star Trek isn’t the only franchise to deep its toe in the “out of phase” well, but The Next Generation’s “The Next Phase” is a classic of the sub-genre, in which Geordi and Ro think they’ve died and attend their own funeral before realising they are, in fact “out of phase” with everyone else and still very much alive. Enterprise’s Vanishing Point is a twist on this idea, with Hoshi’s fears surrounding transporter technology playing out as a terrifying experience in which she slowly disappears from view as a result of a transporter malfunction, only to discover none of it really happened and it was all just a paranoid delusion.

Who did it better? It almost could have gone to Enterprise, as “Vanishing Point” is genuinely creepy, not to mention being a rare opportunity to explore Hoshi’s character. But that final “it was all a dream” twist, the one that every writing teacher tells you never to use in your first writing class, lets it down, so we’ll give the win to The Next Generation for a more thoughtful reflection on life and death.

“Precious Cargo” (Season 2, Episode 11)

Recycled from: “Elaan of Troyius,” Season 3 Episode 13 of the Original Series, and “The Perfect Mate,” Season 5 Episode 21 of The Next Generation

Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. How is it possible that a franchise as forward-looking as Star Trek has made this episode not once, but three times?! Basically, the story is that there is alien princess (or upper class woman) who is on her way to a political arranged marriage that borders on forced, or in Enterprise’s case, who has been kidnapped. She ends up falling for Kirk/Picard/Trip, but in the end goes back to her duty – marriage in the first two cases, ruling as First Monarch in the third. All three are epically sexist in various different ways, depending on whether they were produced in the 1960s, 1990s, or 2000s.

Who did it better? Here’s the thing – all of these episodes are bad. There are those who give “The Perfect Mate” a bit of a pass because it’s always fun to watch Patrick Stewart and Famke Janssen together, but if you want to do that, just go watch the X-Men movies. “Precious Cargo” is not a good episode of Enterprise, but it is actually not quite as bad as the other two – the “stranded on a deserted island” aspect is kind of fun, and of the three horribly sexist episodes, it may be the least sexist – at least Kaitaama is able to suggest Trip comes to visit her at the end, instead of leaving forever pretending to be bonded to someone else (Kamala) or leaving in tears while her paramour cheerfully goes back to his ship (Elaan). So, perhaps surprisingly, we’re going to give this one to Enterprise.

“Dawn” (Season 2, Episode 13)

Recycled from: “Darmok,” Season 5 Episode 2 of The Next Generation

Dawn does not have the best reputation online, but it’s an episode that deserves reconsideration. It’s a classic story of two mutual enemies stranded in a hostile environment, forced to work together to survive. It’s tense, it’s a nice character piece for Trip, and it works its way to an obvious but satisfying conclusion. What brings it particularly close to “Darmok” is the complication that Trip is stranded without a functioning universal translator, creating an added communication barrier (this also happened in “Voyager’s Gravity,” but there the alien fell in love with Tuvok instead of trying to kill him). However, unlike “Darmok,” there is nothing particularly unusual about the alien language – the translator simply isn’t working, and once they’re back on the Enterprise, they can understand each other perfectly. This is at the root of the episode’s poor reputation. Because “Darmok” approached the idea of an alien language in a really interesting and unusual way, this similar episode with a simple malfunctioning translator comes off poorly in comparison.

Who did it better? “Dawn” is seriously under-rated, but “Darmok” is a classic, so this one is going to have to go to The Next Generation. Shaka, when the walls fell.

“Judgment” (Season 2, Episode 19)

Recycled from: Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and “Tribunal,” Season 2 Episode 25 of Deep Space Nine

This episode isn’t so much recycling one of the best Star Trek movies as deliberately paying homage to it, building sets that recreate the Klingon court and the prison of Rura Penthe from the film as closely as possible on a TV budget and telling a similar story. Archer’s experience of an alien trial where the outcome has been decided before it begins also echoes Chief O’Brien’s experience with the Cardassians in Deep Space Nine. “Judgement” is a very good episode that calls back to the movie very effectively while also expanding the franchise’s mythology around the Klingons and Klingon culture – while it may not be entirely original, this is a good example of a creative re-use of old tropes.

Who did it better? The Undiscovered Country has a completely unfair advantage here, as it has a feature film’s budget and a runtime of nearly two hours. But life isn’t fair, and while all three are pretty good, it’s the best of the bunch.

“Similitude” (Season 3, Episode 10)

Recycled from: “Tuvix,” Season 2 Episode 24 and “Drone,” Season 5 Episode 2 of Voyager

If you know nothing else about Captain Janeway, you probably know that Janeway killed Tuvix in the infamous episode of the same name, in order to restore Tuvok and Neelix after they were blended together in a transporter accident. Later, she was spared having to make another difficult choice when newborn drone One – also the result of a transporter accident – commits suicide in order to protect Voyager from the Borg. But for all the flack Janeway gets, somehow no one blames Archer and Phlox when they deliberately create a clone of Trip with a shortened lifespan to save Trip’s life, and pretty much bully the poor guy into giving up his life for Trip rather than trying to have as much life of his own as he can, which he doesn’t have much choice about anyway as he’ll die before he gets anywhere interesting. It is horrifying. Justice for Sim!

Who did it better? “Similtude” blends two rather good episodes of Voyager and the ethics of it are dodgy in the extreme. Voyager gets the win here, though whether the ultimate prize goes to “Tuvix” or “Drone” is a matter of personal opinion.

“Doctor’s Orders” (Season 3, Episode 16)

Recycled from: “One,” Season 4 Episode 25 of Voyager

The premise for this one is simple: the entire crew have to go into stasis for a while, except for one or two members who are impervious to the biological threat. Originally, this was a way to explore Seven of Nine coming to terms with her life as an individual, by isolating her almost completely. Enterprise puts Phlox in that position – while he has never been a Borg drone, Phlox is a very sociable, chatty character with three wives and a huge, complicated family, so isolation is hard on him too. Both are pretty good episodes, with a “haunted spaceship” vibe and a sense that not everything is as it seems.

Who did it better? This is a really hard one to call, because they’re both very similar and they’re both pretty good. One has Seven’s Borg background to add extra weight to the story, but on the other hand “Doctor’s Orders” has Porthos in the traditional “cute dog in a haunted house story” role. Give it to Enterprise if you like dogs, and to Voyager if you don’t.

E² (Season 3, Episode 21)

Recycled from: “Children Of Time,” Season 5 Episode 22 of Deep Space Nine

In both of these episodes, some timey-wimey weirdness results in our heroes meeting their own descendants, plus one or two long-lived members of their own group. In both cases, these descendants end up dead, wiped from existence, or possibly both. Both stories focus a fair bit of attention on possible future romantic relationships among the crew, a theme Star Trek has touched on numerous times over the years, though in Enterprise there is the added confirmation for the characters that humans and Vulcans can reproduce together (though of course, the audience already knows that). Both episodes are pretty decent without being stunningly brilliant, and both are a bit of a downer.

Who did it better? Enterprise puts in a good effort, but the dark conclusion to “Children Of Time,” in which Old Odo willingly sacrifices his friends’ children and grandchildren just to save Kira, means we have to give it to Deep Space Nine.

“Daedalus” (Season 4, Episode 10)

Recycled from: “Jetrel,” Season 1, Episode 15 of Voyager

These episodes have different themes, with Jetrel being inspired by the idea of a survivor from Hiroshima meeting Oppenheimer, while Daedalus, like the Greek myth, is about the relationship between a father and son. What both have in common is a guest character who wants to use the transporter system to rescue someone. The title character in “Jetrel” wants to bring back an entire planet’s worth of people – Emory Erikson in Daedalus just wants to rescue his son, and is marginally more successful, since although his son still ends up dead, he is at least rescued from a half-life in a transporter buffer.

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Who did it better? Jetrel is a good episode and an especially good hour for the usually comedic character of Neelix, but the titular scientist’s plan is so audacious, it seems a bit ridiculous that he thought it could work. Erikson’s desire to save just one person and the emotional pull of the father-son relationship slightly give Enterprise the edge here, in an episode that’s a bit obvious, but nonetheless emotionally affecting. It’s also, like much of Enterprise, rather under-rated. Enterprise was an old-fashioned sort of show, and it wasn’t always the most original of offerings, but it was good, classic Star Trek, and deserves to be recognised as such.

The post Star Trek: Enterprise’s Recycled Episodes appeared first on Den of Geek.

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ljones41 · 7 years ago

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"STAR TREK VOYAGER" RETROSPECT: (4.08-4.09) "The Year of Hell"

"STAR TREK VOYAGER" RETROSPECT: (4.08-4.09) "The Year of Hell" While reading some of the TREK forums and message boards over the years, I have noticed that many fans seemed to harbor mixed views of the "STAR TREK VOYAGER" Season Four two-part episode called (4.08-4.09) "The Year of Hell". "The Year of Hell" began with the U.S.S. Voyager entering Krenim space, the same region of space that the former Ocampan crewman, Kes, had warned about in the Season Three episode called (3.21) "Before and After". Only Kes' description of Krenim space was set in an alternate timeline in which a very powerful race came dangerously close to destroying Voyager within a year. The Krenim space encountered by the Federation starship at the beginning of this episode seemed a lot more benign . . . until something or someone alters the timeline. Unbeknownst to Voyager's crew, a Krenim military scientist named Annorax had developed a weapon ship designed to create temporal incursions. He used the to supervise the complete genocide of the Zahl, an enemy race that had ended the Krenim's status as a dominant power in their region of the Delta Quadrant. But the erasure of the Zahl nearly caused the destruction of the Krenim. Annorax's attempt to undo his actions led to the erasure of other worlds . . . and his wife from existence. And for two centuries, he has been creating one causality paradox after another in an attempt to get his wife back. However, one of Annorax's actions allowed a formerly harmless Krenim ship that Voyager had encountered at the beginning of the episode to develop into a powerful starship and inflict heavy damage upon the Federation ship. In this new timeline, Janeway and the rest of Voyager's crew are forced to endure a "year of hell", as they struggle to survive. Screenwriters Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky created a fascinating and complex tale of what could have befallen Voyager if some of Kes' experiences in "Before and After" had occurred in their regular timeline. There have been occasions in which Voyager's crew had encountered more powerful alien vessels and societies. The starship was also captured by alien forces on two or more occasions. "The Year of Hell" featured the second time that Kathryn Janeway and her crew were forced to survive for a period of time in a damaged starship. But "The Year of Hell" took place during a period of nearly an entire year. Watching Voyager' become an increasingly uninhabitable vessel struck me as both fascinating and depressing. By the time Voyager was left with its senior staff (sans the kidnapped First Officer and Chief Pilot) after Janeway sent the rest of crew away in life pods, it had become a desolate place to be. Braga and Menosky provided the episode with plenty of complex drama and characterizations. Kate Mulgrew gave an outstanding performance as a besieged Kathryn Janeway, determined to keep her crew alive and ship together by any means possible. Even if it meant sacrificing her health and sanity. The other outstanding performance came from guest star Kurtwood Smith, who portrayed the Krenim scientist, Annorax. Like Mulgrew, Smith portrayed his character as a leader determined to save or protect those he held dear - his species, his homeworld and especially his family. Unlike Janeway, Annorax's determination led to a more tragic conclusion. Both Janeway and Annorax - on a larger scale - reminded me a great deal of the Captain Nemo character from Jules Verne's 1870 novel, "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea". The supporting cast were given plenty of opportunities to shine. The best performances came from Tim Russ (Lieutenant-Commander Tuvok), Robert Beltran (Commander Chakotay), Robert Duncan McNeill (Lieutenant Paris) and Robert Picardo (the Doctor). Both Chakotay and Paris found themselves as prisoners aboard Annorax's time ship in Part II of the episode. This situation gave Beltran an opportunity to convey Chakotay's dismay at Annorax's abuse of temporal mechanics and his desire to help the Krenim scientist restore the damaged timeline. McNeill was excellent in portraying Paris' dismay at Chakotay's cooperation and impatient desire to stop Annorax and find Voyager. Russ gave a poignant performance as the uber-efficient Tuovk, who is forced to depend upon Seven-of-Nine as his guide after he lost his sight in an explosion. Picardo had two juicy scenes in which he gave it his all, involving the Doctor's moral dilemma in sacrificing several crewman in order to save a few and himself from the destruction of one of the ship's decks; and the Doctor's confrontation with Janeway over her careless attitude toward her health. Roxann Dawson, Garrett Wang and Jeri Ryan provided a bit of fun in a comedic scene in which Ensign Harry Kim, an injured Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres and Seven-of-Nine recalled a bit of Federation history from the 1996 movie, "STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT". And second guest star John Loprieno was excellent in his portrayal of Obrist, Annorax's first officer who becomes increasingly dismayed by the scientist's abuse of the time ship. Unfortunately for "The Year of Hell", it has accumulated a good deal of negative comments about its ending. The mixed opinions of the entire episode stemmed from an ending that many fans viewed as a cop out. When Seven-of-Nine discovered a chroniton torpedo in one of the ship's Jeffries tubes, the crew realized they had been the victims of temporal manipulations. Seven used a devise on the torpedo to successfully shield Voyager against Annorax's time ship and any future temporal changes. However in Part II, Captain Janeway made an alliance with two species to attack the Krenim timeship. The remaining crew members move to the allied ships, while Janeway remained behind alone on Voyager to pilot the heavily damaged ship herself. After learning that the Krenim ship's temporal core had been placed offline and theorizing that the true timeline will be restored if the Krenim ship is destroyed, Janeway ordered the fleet to drop their temporal shields before ramming Voyager into the time ship. Her actions destroyed Voyager, caused the time ship to destabilize and erase from history . . . and reset the timeline to the day Voyager first encountered the temporal waves. Many TREK fans accused the episode's writers of using the "reset button" to restore Voyager to its original timeline and erase the one featuring the year of hell. They also criticized Braga and Menosky for this act. Braga also did not want to use the "reset button" device. He wanted Voyager to remain wrecked for the rest of Season Four. But he failed to get his way, thanks to Paramount and producer Rick Berman. I do recall a fan fiction - a coda to the Season Seven episode (7.11) "Shattered" - that left Chakotay lost in time and both Janeway and Tuvok dead. As the new captain, Tom Paris was forced to land Voyager on an "M" class and order repairs on the ship that lasted for a year or more. Recalling the state of Voyager in the alternate timeline, I saw no other fate for the ship if Janeway had not reset time."Before and After" saw Voyager still traveling through Krenim space, despite its condition after nearly a year. But it did not look as damaged as it did right before the time reset in "The Year of Hell". The idea of a wrecked Voyager still traveling through space after nearly a year . . . strikes me as illogical. And how did Braga plan to deal with Annorax and the time ship? Did he have plans for the Krenim scientist to remain the series' main adversary for the rest of Season Four? Did he have plans for a series of plotlines featuring the adventures of the Voyager crew on an "M" class planet, while they repair the ship? I am not saying that I am against the idea of time NOT being reset. But I still have bad memories of the early Season Three episodes of "BATTLESTAR GALACTICA", in which some of the colonists ended up as prisoners of the Cylons on some planet. And combining that with the knowledge of the "reset button" being used on many occasions, I find it difficult to get upset over the ending for "The Year of Hell". More importantly, I find it difficult to understand the fans and critics' reactions to the use of the "reset button". I guess I still find it so ridiculously strident, especially since such use of the plot device had been used so many times. As far as I am concerned, "The Year of Hell" was a pretty damn good episode that featured an interesting twist on the Captain Nemo character and the alternate timeline subplot. It also featured superb performances from Kate Mulgrew and Kurtwood Smith, and some excellent acting from the rest of the cast. I am not surprised that it has remained one of my favorite episodes from the series' Season Four.

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angsty-violet · 4 years ago

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Agony - Chapter 16

Agony Masterpost

@whumptober2020

Tuvok immediately knew that the day was different. Kell’an had been acting different since he had been branded. He talked to him more, chatted about various parts of his life. He had become more open and began to show affection towards him in odd ways. It seemed that his claim on Tuvok had made him more protective. That and the fact that Tuvok had made it further than any of the others.

Kell’an had been visiting regularly, although it had almost begun to feel perfunctory when he tortured Tuvok. The time that seemed to most satisfy him was when they were talking. Therefore, most of the time, he was almost robotic with his tortures. Using the same ones over and over again in different ways. There was none of the same glee and excitement behind his actions.

However, this time when he entered, the grin on his face was pure joy. He was dragging someone else behind him. Tuvok knew right off the bat that it was one of Kell’an’s own people. He shared the exact same physical features as Kell’an and even bore a resemblance in the way their scales shown in the light. Tuvok hadn’t met any others yet, but he was confident that Kell’an’s people had no idea what he was doing.

If they did, they either couldn’t find where he was keeping his victims, or he was someplace they couldn’t get to. Being denied by the Science Academy was enough to know that they didn’t approve of his methods or of his research. That was likely why both Tuvok and Reinchaln had been other species than his own. There wouldn’t be Kell’an’s own people looking for them.

Kell’an tossed the being to the ground and smiled at them both. “I have to say that this was an amazing idea. Tuvok, you reacted most strongly when there was another involved. You place the lives of others before your own. So, as part of our own going experiment, the two of you are going to decide. One of you will be tortured. One of you will be blindfolded and let go. You have an hour, get talking.”

Tuvok helped the alien sit up against the wall. “My name is Tuvok.”

“I’m Verant. We need to talk about how and why you are here. First, however, I will be the one that remains. You are the one that needs to leave and go get help.”

Tuvok could immediately see why Kell’an had thrown the two of them together. “I can not in good conscience nor in logical thought, allow you to remain here. You are from this planet, you are aware of the terrain, and you are more likely to remember where we have been taken. More than that, should you seek help, they are more likely to believe one of their own kind rather than a strange alien. Logically, the person who has the best chance of actually retrieving help should be the one to leave. I have been here for a while now. I can assure you that I will survive a while longer. He doesn’t plan to kill me; I cannot say the same for you.”

“No, will not allow you to remain here a moment longer if possible. I am responsible for the safety of people, and I can’t let you remain in an unsafe situation.”

“Please, Verant, you must listen to me. He will not spare you. Kell’an has a plan for me that involves keeping me alive. While I am still around, he will not focus on anyone else. His entire focus is on me. That means that this is all just a head trip against me; you don't even matter to him. He wants to either force me to choose my own freedom over your life or to choose to remain with him. Neither of them are good ideas, but he isn’t going to let me go either way. Please, you need to do this. If you really want to save me, you must.”

Verant looked at him uncertainly. The alien turned his head away and sighed. Tuvok was near to the point of getting on his knees. He figured that if his begging hadn’t already sent him over to where he needed to be, nothing would. Verant turned to him and sighed lightly.

“Crew, this is the Captain. I am once again speaking to you about a matter of great importance. All of you know about our search for Tuvok. We have discovered the origins of the buoy. It is precisely the place that Reinchaln had said it would be. We are only a week away. We have seven days to get the ship in shape. Once again, I am informing you that you may speak out against this. However, I am very confident that if we continue, we will find our missing comrade. You may speak now or privately later. So far, not a soul has spoken out against it.

“I find this very heartening from my crew. As many of you are aware, Tuvok has, in the past, done the same for several of us. Continued even when logic itself dictated that he shouldn’t turn back. However, it is not just his life on the line. It is all of ours. Please, think, but if you feel this is worthwhile, we must finish our repairs.”

There was no dissension from anyone, so Janeway turned off the communicator. For a few moments, it was quiet on the bridge. There was only the sound of people going about their jobs. Then Chakotay spoke up from where he had been sitting quietly.

“I don’t know if I speak for everyone Captain, but I can assure you that I and many others would be more than willing to risk our lives for the chance of retrieving Tuvok. He is more than just a tactical officer or a Lieutenant. He is our friend and our comrade. He had stood with us through some of the worst challenges imaginable, and he has held firm the entire time. I don’t believe we would’ve gotten nearly as far as we did without him. We would go to the ends of the universe for him.”

There was a chorus of agreeing noises from several of the other people on the bridge, and Janeway felt a proud smile touch her lips. She didn’t believe there was another crew anywhere in the universe as loyal and good as hers.

#whumptober2020 #no.16 #forced to beg #star trek voyager #fic #torture #hostage #mind tricks #protective crew #hurt tuvok

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delwin47 · 8 years ago

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Fanfic (ST:Voy), Blind Draw

In honor of the anniversary of its original air date, I thought I’d re-post a couple of my old “Caretaker” fics over here today. Anyone else have early Voyager fics and want to join the fun?

Summary: Janeway and Paris. Beginning at the beginning and filling in some blanks during "Caretaker".

Originally posted on FFN and AO3

Blind Draw

It is the sheer contrast of expression that demands her attention, despite her better intentions.

The cynicism, the guardedness, the affected arrogance have fallen away leaving... leaving the look of a man who was dying of thirst and has been offered a drink.

Kathryn knows better than to be drawn in. She has her ship waiting for her, with a crew that will no doubt have its share of lost sheep needing attention and care, and a trusted officer who is already in danger and in need of her aid. The man sitting at that table, staring out one of the viewports of McKinley Station that faces not Earth, but open space and endless stars, is an after-thought, his presence an (unasked for) favor to a long-time friend and mentor. She has neither the time nor the inclination to hand-hold him.

Nonetheless, she finds herself approaching his table, curious as to when he will notice her presence, or anything other than those stars in front of him. When he does, the effect is instantaneous – his features falling into practiced lines of politeness. He moves to rise from his chair and she waves him back to sitting with the hand unencumbered by her habitual cup of coffee.

"Captain," he nods his greeting.

"Mr. Paris," Kathryn returns. "Enjoying the stars?"

And whether he doesn't choose to or is unable to mask it in time, there is a flash of emotion in his eyes and a catch in his otherwise casual and off-hand, "I never got used to seeing them from the Southern Hemisphere. And even a right-side up Orion and the Big Dipper can't compare to this," and he gestures generously at the view before them.

She can't help noting the difference in his manner from their encounter planetside. Guarded he might still be, but the particular peevishness? adolescent-pique? that he displayed in New Zealand has been replaced by an almost urbane politeness. And sitting there in his command red Starfleet uniform, she has little doubt that most would assume him to be an officer – until they came close enough to notice that pip-less collar.

Kathryn begins to wonder how many other personas this man can pull on at will.

She is still standing, despite the fact that his last gesture was also an invitation and there is an empty chair in front of her. He waits patiently, undisturbed by her silence and hesitance, acknowledging her age-old right as a superior officer (as an officer – apparently it's not just those at a distance who might be prone to seeing non-existent pips where Tom Paris is concerned) to choose whether or not to join him at the table.

At one of the docking ports in view, a starship begins to power up, pulling her attention away from Paris. The coffee in her hands is beginning to cool, its presence a reminder of the tasks she still has to accomplish in the next few hours. "I'll be leaving for DS9 in the morning; has the rehabilitation board arranged transportation for you once your final paperwork comes through?"

A shadow of a smile crosses his lips and his nod is not only an acknowledgment of her question but also of her decision to keep her distance. And – Kathryn is fairly sure – an expression of approval for that decision. He answers, "I'll be heading out a day behind you; Voyager won't have to wait long for her 'observer'." And then he does stand, knowing that she will take her leave.

She gives a perfunctory smile and a nod of her own. "I'll see you on Voyager then, Mr. Paris. Safe travels," and she turns to leave, the mention of her ship pulling a myriad of pre-mission details to the front of her mind.

"Captain?" Paris calls after her, interrupting her thoughts. She turns back. "Thank you," he says simply and then turns back to his stars, releasing her from any burden of response.

"Mr. Paris, take the conn."

The words require a moment – and a double-take in the Captain's direction – to process, and it is still more ingrained habit than conscious decision when he responds, "Yes, ma'am," and moves to relieve Rollins at Voyager's helm. Rollins, in turn, heads up to take over for Tuvok, but Tom's focus is on the controls that his fingers have found of their own accord and on the feel of the ship – alive and responsive – beneath them.

"Maintain transporter locks, Ensign. Emergency beam-out status." Behind him, he hears Janeway's final order to Kim and then the swish of the turbolift doors, almost immediately followed by another blast from the Kazon vessel.

He half turns towards Rollins at tactical, awaiting any order, but the man is focused on his station, apparently unaware that the bridge has once again been left in his hands. Turning the other way, Tom sees Harry at ops, who evidently has made the same observation and looks slightly panicked in response.

Taking a single deep breath, Tom turns back to the helm, entering a series of commands. "Initiating evasive sequence alpha-beta-alpha," he announces to the bridge at large. "Rollins, you should have a clear shot as we come across their starboard bow. Harry," and he can hear in his own voice a confidence that he learned to mimic long before he ever reached Starfleet Academy, "how is that transporter lock?"

The relief in his friend's voice is unmistakeable. "Holding for now. They've arrived on the array."

Tom nods, his hands now steadily dancing across his panel. "Good. Keep an eye on them and let me know if anything changes," and he rolls Voyager away from the Kazon's renewed fire.

"You asked to see me, Captain?"

She had, though she almost regrets it as she surveys his expression, which has tightened considerably from when he and Ensign Kim checked in a few hours earlier. Given that and the less than warm welcome that he received from Cavit on the bridge, Kathryn suspects that Tom Paris's sojourn aboard Voyager is not off to the best of starts.

She nods though and indicates the chair on the other side of her desk. As Paris moves to sit, she asks neutrally, "You were able to find your quarters?"

He gives that small smile of acknowledgment. "I was. By the way, your replicators could use some work. I had a heck of a time getting mine to produce a bowl of tomato soup."

She lifts an eyebrow at that, but, having already had her own arguments with the device about the meaning of "coffee: black", lets it pass. She moves to the business on which she has called him to her ready room. "I know you've already given what information you have on the Badlands to my conn officer, but I wanted to have the chance to speak with you about the region myself." Which is partially true, but more, as Voyager approaches danger, she has found herself wanting to get a better read on this unknown variable who has temporarily taken up residence with her crew.

And what is it about the slight twist to that smile that tells her that Paris knows that as well? "What would you like to know, Captain?" he offers, evenly enough.

She picks up a PADD sitting before her. "I've read what little official information Starfleet has on the region, which is less than helpful; and my security officer who is embedded on Chakotay's ship has sent back snippets of information, though his reports are focused on the movements of the Maquis themselves." She glances up at Paris here, but, if he has any reaction to the mention of his erstwhile shipmates, it escapes her notice. "What I'm looking for is firsthand knowledge before I take my ship in." She quirks an eyebrow at him. "You flew through those storms, Mr. Paris: what was it like?"

He gives her an assessing look, as if considering where to begin. "Have you had experience with plasma storms generally, Captain?" he asks.

"Not really," Kathryn answers; few Starfleet officers have. General directives are clear about giving such phenomena a wide berth. Then, she admits, "I've always been curious about them, from a scientific perspective."

A spark of appreciation glints in Paris's eyes. "Your average plasma storm defies prediction, far more than something like an ion storm. While ion storms will typically travel along a straight path, plasma storms can shift direction at any time." He glances over at the viewport of the ready room. "In the Badlands, you have not one, but dozens of active plasma storms in close proximity. Not only are they individually unpredictable, but they can merge and increase force exponentially without warning."

She nods. Some of this has been in Tuvok's reports. "So how do you navigate the unpredictable?"

Likely unconsciously, he gives the barest hint of a shrug. "You avoid them where you can, and ride the waves at the edges where you can't – or when you need to get close." Kathryn gives another nod: Tuvok has also described how the Maquis have been able to use the plasma storms as a weapon against Cardassian pursuers. Paris continues, now somewhat hesitant, "Frankly, Captain, when it comes down to it, a lot of it is just..."

"...instinct?" she finishes.

The corner of his mouth twists again. "Not exactly the explanation a former science officer wants to hear, I'm sure – not to mention a Starfleet captain."

Kathryn chuckles and wags a finger at him. "You might be surprised, Mr. Paris, how much instinct and intuition factor into the work of a science officer – as well as into the decisions of certain Starfleet captains."

And the twist turns into what Kathryn could swear is an honest grin. "You know, I just might at that, Captain."

At which point she makes her own gut decision about the easiest way to get a better grasp on both the Badlands and Tom Paris before Voyager crosses into the storms. It's an idea that Cavit will no doubt be less than happy with, but, then again, every new first officer needs a bit of breaking in.

"When we arrive, Mr. Paris, I'd like to take a shuttle into the Badlands before Voyager enters. Would you be willing to pilot?"

For just a moment, she sees the excitement she's expecting. Paris sits suddenly forward and his fingers visibly twitch. Then, however, altogether unexpectedly, a frown creases his features and he shakes his head. "Captain, I can't recommend that. Voyager may be able to handle the plasma storms, but there is no way that a Starfleet shuttle could without significant modifications. I wouldn't be able to ensure your safety."

As willing as she was a moment before to throw her first officer's expected objections out the airlock, Kathryn finds herself listening to Paris's measured assessment and nodding.

Damn, he would have made – must have made – a fine officer. And she begins to understand both the sheer pride that once sparked in his father's eyes when he talked about 'his Tom' and, for the last two years, the depths of his pain and disappointment.

"All right, then, we'll skip the scouting mission." She lets just a touch of honest regret color her tone as she continues, "Though I would have liked a chance to really study those storms, if only for a short time." And seen Paris handle a shuttle under those conditions. This quiet confidence makes her reconsider whether his whine in Auckland about being "the best pilot you could have" might, in fact, have been the truth and not just the empty boast she had assumed. His hands are now clenched together in his lap, and she wonders how much denying himself the chance to sit at a helm once again has cost him. "We'll be approaching the Badlands in a little under four hours. I'll call you to the bridge when we arrive."

"Yes, ma'am," he acknowledges and then rises and turns to leave. After the door closes behind him, she finds herself staring at it distractedly before pulling her attention back to final reports sent by her security officer before his disappearance.

And just when everything was going so well...

"Rollins, are our weapons penetrating that ship's shielding at all?" Tom shouts in exasperation as he banks Voyager hard starboard. The viewscreen shows the lumbering mass of the Kazon's idea of reinforcements – a vessel that could visually define 'mother ship'.

"I'm not reading any appreciable damage to their hull or major systems."

Tom swallows a profanity and calls back to Harry: "Any word from the Captain?"

"She says they need more time." Kim's tone is borderline apologetic, and Tom allows himself a brief moment of self-congratulation as another curse goes unuttered.

Catching the edge of a weapon's blast, Voyager shudders, and Tom ducks her under the belly of the larger ship. The Captain needs more time and he damn well would like to buy her some but, right now, he's running out of options.

Chakotay's voice, coming over the open comm line between the ships, breaks into his thoughts. :Paris, my crew's coming over. Tell one of your crackerjack Starfleet transporter chiefs to keep a lock on me. I'm going to try and take some heat off your tail:

Caught between profound relief at Chakotay's offered aid and amusement at his assumption that Tom has any status on this ship, the pilot shoots back a sardonic reply to the Maquis captain before glancing towards Rollins. "Make sure you keep that lock, okay?"

"I'm holding the lock on him, sir, but he's getting too close."

'Sir'? Tom has a flash of empathy for the emperor in that old children's tale who must have known on some level that he was naked despite the insistence of all around him that he was fully clothed.

But he can see the Val Jean ahead of them, its tail now aflame, and he turns his attention back to the comm line. "I'm getting you out of there, Chakotay."

She literally runs into him as she turns in the corridor toward the mess hall. It's deep into the ship's night and she had little expectation of encountering anyone; those crewmen who are awake are on duty making slow repairs as Voyager limps from the array to the neighboring system and the planet towards which the energy pulses appear to be directed. A frazzled and clearly pacing Tom Paris takes Kathryn by surprise.

A frazzled Tom Paris? Kathryn had been under the impression that the man was unflappable.

"Captain!" he stutters in apology, backing away and rubbing at the nape of his neck. "I wasn't expecting..."

She waves off the apology. "Quite all right. There aren't many people wandering the corridors at this time of night."

Her intonation turns the statement into a question and Paris answers somewhat sheepishly, "Well, I had some energy to burn." And although he avoids her eyes, Kathryn has little difficulty reading the worry in the lines of his face and she remembers his earlier statement on the bridge: "I'd hate to see anything happen to Harry."

She reaches out to touch his arm. "We'll get him back, Mr. Paris," she reassures, with all the confidence which she so recently admitted to Tuvok that she does not feel. Then, on impulse, she gestures toward the mess hall doors. "I was just about to find some late night coffee. Care to join me?"

Paris's surprise is evident and she is struck again by how easily she can now read him. Perhaps he's always this transparent if one catches him during the graveyard shift, but Kathryn suspects it's anxiety for a friend that has caused the shift: it may well have been more than just the stars for which the grounded Tom Paris was starved.

He nods his assent. "Of course, Captain."

Entering the mess hall, she heads for the replicator, explaining breezily as she does so, "The replicator in my quarters and I have been having some disagreements. I thought I might have better luck here. Coffee?" Paris politely declines and she rolls her own dice with Starfleet's most stubborn piece of technology before joining him at the table.

His posture is much the same as it had been that evening at McKinley Station and she can't stop herself from reflecting that it is a very different starscape into which he is staring. "As disorientating as the stars of the Southern Hemisphere?" she asks, indicating the view as she takes a seat.

Paris chuckles in response. "I'll admit that I never expected to be getting to know the constellations of the Delta Quadrant."

"Not exactly the trip you signed up for."

Kathryn means for her tone to be light, but she knows there is some underlying guilt there. Paris hears it, she is sure, and cocks his head towards her. "I think you'll find that I'll be the last to complain about that, Captain."

She sips at her coffee – mercifully unadulterated this time though the temperature still needs some work – and considers asking him how he's faring with the crew. But that would be to admit that it matters, that this little detour of theirs might well last more than a few days, and that is a concession that Kathryn Janeway is not yet ready to make.

Instead she throws over the easier, "So I take it you don't have many friends on Chakotay's ship," curious how he will respond.

Paris snorts. "Not likely. I didn't do much to endear myself to my fellow freedom-fighters while I was among them." As she watches, his jaw tightens. "There are one or two that might have still tolerated me, but seeing me in a Starfleet uniform will no doubt cure them of that." Paris looks back over at her then, his expression once again etched with cynicism. "I seem to have perfected the art of burning bridges, Captain."

Kathryn meets that gaze evenly, brows raised. "And yet you seem to have found a friend in Mr. Kim."

And, as she can now predict, his jaded look falls away to be replaced by that obvious worry. "Harry seems to be the exception to the rule there." He holds her eyes for a moment. "He's one of the good ones, Captain."

Again, she musters confidence and reassurance into her tone. "We'll get him back, Mr. Paris," she repeats. "I don't give up on my people."

Tom doesn't bother to hide his relief when the Captain strides back onto the bridge. Particularly with Torres and Chakotay already hovering somewhere just behind his left shoulder, he is more than happy to have this particular situation back under someone else's command.

As a result, his "Yes, ma'am" in response to Janeway's order to move Voyager into position to destroy the array is reflexive, and only after entering the commands – and hearing Torres's virulent objection – does he process what they are about to do.

Destroy the array. Destroy their means to return the Alpha Quadrant. Destroy their one path home.

Except Tom Paris hasn't had a home in years, and the Alpha Quadrant means only a return to a penal colony in New Zealand.

And right now, either by some odd stroke of fate or by some whim of Kathryn Janeway, he is sitting behind the helm of a starship.

Which is why, as the Captain gives the order to fire, Tom is fairly sure his reaction is dynamically different than that of the rest of those occupying Voyager's bridge. In fact, as he watches the impressive destructive effect of the tricobalt devices upon the array, the flippant thought passes through his mind that perhaps he yet has something to learn from this captain about how to burn bridges with a vengeance.

After the array disintegrates and the Kazon move off with their less than veiled threat, the Captain moves up behind him and rests a hand on the back of his chair. "Mr. Paris, consult with Mr. Kim on what's ahead and plot a course for us away from here. I'd like to put some distance between Voyager and this system."

And there again is that confidence, that trust, as if she were speaking to any member of her crew. Wondering if she fully understands the gift she has just handed to him, Tom responds, "Aye, Captain," and prepares to take Voyager into the vast, unknown space before them.

#fanfic #star trek voyager #delwin47 fanfic #voyager anniversary fic

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summahsunlight · 5 years ago

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This Way Became My Journey, CH. 17

Harry Kim entered a subdued mess hall for lunch. The news that Commander Chakotay and Counselor Barrett's shuttle was missing had spread like wildfire throughout the ship. With a solemn glance around the room, Harry went to the replicators to replicate himself a sandwich for lunch. After the food had materialized he grabbed the tray and made his way through the sully crowd to a table in the corner that Tom Paris was occupying.

The young pilot, who had become Harry's friend in the last three weeks, was eating what looked like soup, and staring out the windows at the stars moving by. Harry set his tray down across from Tom and took his seat. "So much for the Karvaians being a morale booster," the young ensign mumbled. "The way people are acting around here, it's like we've already had a funeral for Commander Chakotay and Counselor Barrett."

Tom ran his tongue over his lips. "I didn't care for Chakotay too much; guess it was because he was right about me on a lot of things. However, I'm going to miss Sarah, she knew how to make me feel better and was easy to talk too. I feel bad for the Captain, having to replace her first officer, again, in a matter of weeks."

"You're one these people who make it sound like they're dead," Harry replied. "We don't know if they are."

"We don't know if their alive, either," Tom retorted, solemnly. He leaned forward. "Listen Harry, we have to be prepared for the worst here. It's not like we're home and replacements can be sent. We lose our first officer, we lose our first officer. And… no one else on this ship has the credentials to be counselor."

Harry took a bite of his sandwich. He thought back to the last time he had gone to speak to Barrett. It had been two days before her and Commander Chakotay were due to depart for Karva. He had been homesick; she had made him laugh with some ridiculous story about when she was a kid. Tom was right, she was easy to talk too and he was going to miss her. Her presence alone had been comforting, not too mention she was quite pretty; her smile alone could make anyone feel better. Realizing what he had just thought, he snapped back to attention. "Let's not think about replacements unless we have too, okay?"

"Sounds good to me," Tom said, pushing his tray away from him. "So, are we still on for Venice?"

Harry had completely forgotten, in all the excitement, that Tom had arranged for them to go on a double date with the Delaney sisters, yet again. Of course Harry had been against it from the start, seeing how he had a girlfriend back home, but Tom had forced him into that first date with them by guilt tripping him and now was setting up another. "I don't know, Tom. The last time didn't go over so well."

"The last time you were too preoccupied with your girlfriend back home. It wouldn't have hurt to have said a few words to Jenny," Tom said, with a smile. "Let your girlfriend go Harry. She deserves to have a life, be allowed to fall in love again. Besides, you really think she's going to wait seventy-five years for you?"

"We've had this discussion," Harry pointed out. "But… you're right, I do need to let go. She probably doesn't even know I'm alive."

"If it makes you feel any better, Harry, none of our families know if we're alive," Tom said. "We're all in the same boat."

Harry smiled sadly. "Counselor Barrett said the same thing to me."

"You've been seeing a lot of our resident psychologist," Tom said, smirking, meaning his gears were turning. "Perhaps it's her you want to take to Venice and not Jenny Delaney."

His friend frowned. "Knock it off Tom. Counselor Barrett is a nice person to talk too, I'd even consider her a friend, but that's it."

"For now anyways," Tom said, noticing Harry roll his eyes. "Oh come on, Harry. It's okay to admit you have a crush on her! She's pretty easy on the eyes."

"So why don't you ask her on a date?"

"I did," he said. "She turned me down, gave me some mumble jumble about us being too much alike that it would never work out. Not too mention she said I was a walking hormone."

Harry suppressed a chuckle, and grinned, "Is this why the sudden attention on Megan Delaney? You were rejected by one pretty brunette so now you're going after another?"

"Oh, so you do admit Sarah's pretty," Tom tried changing the subject. "You know, if she's still alive, and we end up finding them, you better make your move before some else does. I heard several crewmen have made a pass at her."

Harry didn't know why but that bothered him, a lot. Could Tom be right, that he did have a crush on Sarah Barrett? Harry finished his sandwich and pushed the tray away from him, glaring at Tom. "This is crazy, Tom. I shouldn't be jumping into a new relationship on the chance we're going to live the rest of our lives out here. Maybe, Chakotay and Sarah found a wormhole and are in the Alpha Quadrant right now, trying to find a way to get in contact with Voyager. If that's the case I could be sitting down to eat dinner with Libby tomorrow."

"Or, you could be stuck out here for seventy-five years, a lonely old hermit if you keep that attitude," Tom argued. "I think she'd understand if you went on with your life, especially if she goes on with hers."

"Senior officers report to the bridge."

The conversation about girlfriends, the Delaney sisters and Sarah Barrett ended, as the two officers got up from their table and went to recycle their trays. However, Harry couldn't shake the emotions that Tom had stirred up inside of him. I only have a crush on her because she's helping me cope with being away from home, that's it; nothing more. But uncertainty kept creeping into his brain as they stepped out of the turbo lift onto the bridge.

Captain Janeway was standing in the middle of the command station, hands on her hips, an alien ship on the view screen.

"They're hailing us Captain," Tuvok reported from tactical.

An image of a humanoid alien appeared on the screen, with skin in various shades of green with navy blue spots blotted down the temple all the way to the collarbone. He, or she, had yellow eyes, a slopping forehead, and did not look particular happy to be speaking to Voyager. "My name's Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation starship Voyager, what can we do for you?"

"You can turn your ship around and leave Rupor space," the alien responded, dryly.

"We mean you no harm," Janeway tried to assure the alien, "but maybe you could help us. I'm looking for two of my crewmen, who may have crossed through your space a day or so ago. Have your people reported any unidentified crafts passing through the vicinity?"

"No," the alien snapped. "Except you."

"Perhaps then, you'd be kind enough to allow us to search your space for them. We'd only be here about a day-."

The alien glowered. "No! You are to turn your ship around, there will be no compromise!" He disappeared from the screen and the bridge crew all looked around perplexed at one another. Tuvok reported that the tiny scout ship was in retreat.

Janeway glared at the blank screen, straightening her uniform. "Tom, hold our position here," she ordered the young man. Tapping at her combadge she requested that Neelix join her in her ready room. And before anyone could ask her what she had in mind, the woman disappeared back into her private sanctuary and was gone.

"The woman is insane!" Neelix sputtered as he entered Kes' quarters after meeting for an hour with Kathryn Janeway in her ready room about the Rupor. "No one attempts to travel through Rupor space! No one!"

"But if Commander Chakotay and Counselor Barrett are in trouble, it maybe her only choice," Kes replied, softly, trying to use her tone of voice to sooth him and calm him down. She had to admit she knew very little about other species outside of her own and the Kazon, so she had to take what Neelix said seriously. "Wouldn't you want her to do the same for you?"

Neelix looked speechless for a moment, but then stuttered, "Well yes. But that's not the point, Kes. The Rupor are fanatical when it comes to outsiders entering their space. If the Commander and Counselor crossed into their space even for the slightest second, they would have pursued them, and quite possibly shot them down."

"But they didn't attack Voyager," Kes pointed out. "Maybe Commander Chakotay and Counselor Barrett's shuttle didn't pass through their space at all."

"They didn't fire on us because Voyager packs a bigger punch than a shuttle. A Rupor scout ship would never have fired on Voyager," Neelix replied. " Smaller crafts, that a different story. They offer for you to surrender and if you don't, they shoot you down. They gave Captain Janeway their warning and are no doubt sending a warship to deal with us."

Kes got off her bed and went to place a hand on his shoulder. "Neelix we just have to trust the Captain's judgment."

"I know," he grumbled. "But sometimes that woman is more trouble than she's worth."

Kes rubbed his shoulder and smiled. "Would you rather be stuck trying to make a living in a debris field?"

"No," he answered. "I guess the fact that she has allowed us to journey with them is a redeeming quality. But if we survive traveling through Rupor space, we'll be lucky." The ship lurched suddenly with weapon's fire and red alert was immediately activated. "It seems that the Rupor have already showed their displeasure in our presence here," Neelix told her. "I wouldn't be surprised if this ship is destroyed within the hour."

"Return fire!" Kathryn Janeway bellowed from her command chair, as conduits and consoles sparked around her. "Mister Paris, evasive maneuvers."

She had expected to be confronted by the Rupor, since she was after all ignoring their request not to travel in their space, and from what Neelix had told her, they were not friendly to outsiders. But they had traced Chakotay and Sarah's ion trail this far and she was not about to give up searching for them. What she had not expected was the ferocity and quickness of the Rupor attack.

"Shields are down to seventy-three percent," Tuvok reported.

"I'm detecting hull breaches on decks four and five, repair teams are on them," Kim said through the shaking of the ship under constant bombardment.

Janeway ran a hand over her face and then with a determined stare, stood up. "Tuvok, target their weapon's array, and fire two photon torpedoes."

"Aye, Captain."

She watched on the view screen as the torpedoes made their way through space and hit the alien vessel square on. She held her breath for a moment, praying that they had disabled their ship. And then, let it out as Tuvok reported that they had indeed taken the alien's weapons off line. "Mister Paris, get us out of here, warp seven, following the shuttle's ion trail. I have a feeling that the Rupor are going to be back and they're going to come with reinforcements."

"Yes ma'am, setting course zero one five mark nine, warp seven," Paris echoed, fingers running over the conn.

"Engage."

"Captain," Neelix's voice said, not to Janeway's surprise. "Can I have a word with you?"

Janeway kicked a piece of debris away from the command station. "I'm a little busy right now, Neelix." With an audible sigh, she turned to face her Talaxian guide. "I have repairs to make, officers to find, and aliens to keep from tearing my ship apart. But…I suppose I could squeeze you in."

"It's just that, the Rupor, they'll come back," Neelix said.

"I figured as much."

"No you don't understand," Neelix rasped. "They were just testing your capabilities. Now that they see you can disable one of their ships, they'll come back with even more and won't stop pursuing you until you're either out of their space or destroyed."

"I'm not leaving my people behind, Mister Neelix," Janeway snapped, eyes narrowing on him.

"Your people are most likely dead," Neelix retorted. "They wouldn't have given that tiny shuttle the chances they are giving your starship. Chances are a scout ship has blasted them out of the sky."

"Captain," Kim's voice said, strained, from ops. "I've traced the ion trail to a Class L planetoid, three light years from here. I'm also picking up traces of ignited plasma in the planet's atmosphere and some debris." He put the image on screen and immediately the bridge crew could see that it was part of a nacelle.

Janeway felt bile rising in her throat. "What about weapon's residue?"

"I'm picking up two signatures, one is Federation, the other Rupor," Tuvok answered, stoically.

Bastards, Janeway thought, angrily. "Any sign of the shuttle?"

"Negative, Captain."

The news wasn't about to stop her though. "Maintain course, Mister Paris. I'm not about to give them up for dead, not yet. The Rupor can go to hell for all I care."

"Captain, I'm picking up an automated distress call," Kim said. "It's on a Starfleet emergency signal. It's badly damaged, it's going to take a couple of minutes to clean it up."

"Do it, Mister Kim."

A few moments later he had cleaned it up as best he could. The message was distorted and faint, but Sarah Barrett's voice came through loud and clear to everyone on that bridge. "Voyager, we're under attack, repeat we're under attack. We had to land on an L Class planetoid. We need assistance. Our systems are heavily damaged, again we are in need of assistance." The message ended and Janeway felt her heart sink lower into her chest.

"Mister Paris how long until we reach the planetoid?"

"At our current speed, I would estimate forty minutes ma'am," Paris reported.

"Captain," Tuvok said, "long range sensors have picked up a Rupor fleet moving in to intercept us. I estimate that they will do so in forty-five minutes."

"Well that doesn't leave us much time then," Janeway said.

"Time to do what?" Neelix asked.

"Get to the planet, get our people, and get the hell out of Rupor space."

"Rise and shine, Lieutenant," Chakotay's voice stirred her from a light slumber. "We've survived our first night."

Sarah Barrett opened her eyes to see Chakotay standing over her, holding a medical tricorder in his hand and running the hand scanner over her body. "Anything from Voyager yet?" she asked, noticing a burning sensation in her lungs. That can't be good, she thought, arching her back slightly, trying to find a comfortable position. The movement only made her lungs burn more.

"Not yet, but I'm sure they're on their way," Chakotay answered her with a shake of his head. He put the tricorder away and looked at her grimly. "I'm afraid your injured lung is filing with fluid, you've contracted an infection. I've given you something to stall its progress, but until we can get you the proper medical treatment, I'm afraid that your lung will continue to fill and the infection will spread."

"It's okay," she said, trying to sound positive. "Voyager will find us soon. Captain Janeway won't rest until she does."

That much he knew, he had seen her loyalty to members of her crew while spending five days with the woman trying to locate Harry Kim and B'Elanna Torres after they had been abducted by the Caretaker. The thought of Janeway's loyalty comforted him. "Are you hungry?" he asked the counselor. "We've got fresh ration bars for breakfast this morning."

"Sounds delicious," she replied, sarcastically as he handed her a ration bar. "But I guess it's better than nothing." She munched on the ration bar for a few seconds, watching as he carefully lowered his body back down onto the floor of the shuttle and gazed out of the open hatch. "At least the view is nice."

Chakotay nodded his head, resting his hands on his knees. He had watched the sunrise over the mountains that morning, half hoping to see Voyager in the distance, swooping into a low orbit to search for them. However, he couldn't be sure that Captain Janeway knew that they were in trouble or missing from the diplomatic mission on Karva. Letting out a frustrated breath of air, he nudged the stones he had warmed the night before with phaser fire, long ago burnt out.

"Something on your mind, Commander?"

He looked at her, dark eyes studying her face. "Yesterday, when we talked, you told me about your father, the pressure to live up to his Starfleet standards, what about your mother? You only spoke of her that one time, in the shuttle before it crashed, that she was killed at Wolf 359."

Sarah fidgeted nervously. "Well, my mother and I weren't particularly close. I mean, yes I grieved for her after her death, but it didn't devastate me like losing my father did. What about yours?"

"Still alive, but always trying to talk me out the Federation and then the Maquis," he replied, with a small smile.

"My parents couldn't push into the Academy fast enough," Sarah said. "Especially when my brother decided against a career in Starfleet, the pressure to be their little Starfleet darling was even greater."

"You're brother must be worried about you now, with Voyager missing," Chakotay ventured.

She scoffed. "Luke? No way, after my father died he ripped me apart for not being there for the funeral, that Starfleet was the reason our parents were both dead at young ages and that I was only going to end up like them if I didn't leave. Of course I couldn't just up and leave, I had my work on the Borg to complete and Starfleet had already asked me to infiltrate a growing group of terrorists who were calling themselves the Maquis."

He chuckled, "We could have known each other sooner."

"Well, no, I never went on that mission," she replied softly. "After Luke basically told me that everything in Starfleet disgusted him, including me, I ran into some narcotics dealer on some deep space station, and thus began my battle with drugs. He pushed away further from me when he learned I had been arrested and was being court martial. I haven't talked to him, well, it's been almost two years now."

"He never came to visit you in rehab?"

"I never told him I was in rehab. As far as he's concerned I'm serving my time at Auckland."

"He must know by now you aren't at Auckland. I'm sure Starfleet would have informed friends and family that Voyager had disappeared," Chakotay mused.

Sarah shrugged her shoulders. "I'm not sure it would change a thing. He always told me that Starfleet was going to kill me one day." She laughed then, looking down at her blanket covered legs. "I guess he was right, look at me now; hanging on to dear life on some barren planet in uncharted space."

He gave her hand a reassuring pat. "You said yourself that Captain Janeway won't rest until she finds us."

"Yeah, you're right I did," she said. "What about you Commander, if the situation were reversed and you were in command, looking for the captain, would you not rest until you'd found her?"

It was an odd question, but one he knew she had to ask, to see where his loyalty lay. "Three weeks ago if you had asked me that question, I would have said, no, because the thought of joining Starfleet again was the furtherest thought from my mind, let alone being forced to serve on a Federation vessel. But, today, after all that has happened in the past three weeks, the Kazon, the Caretaker, quantum singularities; yes, I wouldn't rest until I was certain of her demise or otherwise found her."

"Even though she's Starfleet, through and through?"

"She maybe Starfleet, but she's my captain now," Chakotay answered her, tensely. "Have I given you any reason to doubt that?"

Sarah shook her head, the lose pieces of coffee hair falling in her eyes. "No," she whispered. "I'm sorry, Commander. I shouldn't be questioning you like this."

Chakotay felt immediate remorse. "No, I should be the one apologizing. I suppose my loyalty being questioned is still a sore spot, probably will be for a while." He saw her wince in pain, as she tried shifting about to get in a more comfortable position. He reached for a hypospray. "Speaking of sore spots, here's something for the pain again." Pressing the hypospray to the fleshy part of her neck, he asked, "How are you holding up?"

Sarah fell back on the makeshift pillow he had created for her using his uniform tunic and an extra blanket. "I've felt better, that's for sure."

Chakotay stood, getting her a glass of water and noticing that their supply was going down. "Here, take this. I'm going to go get some more snow so we can melt it down again."

"Keep an open comline like usual?" she guessed, drinking the water.

He grinned at her. "Of course, there's still so much that I want to learn about Sarah Barrett."

"Oh, but we were just getting to the fun part; learning all of your dark secrets," she snapped back playfully.

He laughed, gathered up the storage containers and once again trudged out into the rocky terrain to find their only source of water, snow in the higher elevations.

Usually she spent lunchtime with the children, but duty called that mid afternoon. Instead, Kathryn Janeway replicated a pot of coffee and some finger sandwiches to nibble on while Voyager cruised closer to the planet they believed Chakotay and Sarah's shuttle had landed on. Since they first traced the shuttle to the planetoid and found debris and weapon's residue on long range sensors, Kathryn had felt a feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach. Neelix had mentioned the Rupor were relentless when it came to outsiders in their space.

Voyager had already had one brush with them and she was sure that the ship would not be able to withstand another attack. They might have been able to disable the warship that had come to greet them, but Voyager had sustained heavy damage as well, seeing how many of her systems had been under going repairs in the first place. Voyager would not survive another attack by the Rupor. She was faced with a frightening choice; if the Rupor attacked again before they reached the planet, for there were no guarantees that the fleet Tuvok had picked up would be the first to intercept them, she would have to either turn the ship around and retreat into friendly space, leaving behind Chakotay and Sarah to die; or she would have to press onward to save her people, thus writing all of their death sentences.

There was no easy answer and she wished that her counselor was there to help her sort through the fog.

Kathryn leaned forward to pick up a finger sandwich off the plate, which was resting on her round coffee table. As she did so she felt something cold brush against her neck and she instinctively reached underneath her undershirt and pulled out a gold chain. On the end was her engagement ring, a simple gold band with a sparkling aquamarine gem in the middle. Welded to the engagement ring was her wedding band. She had taken the rings off her finger when she had gone back to active duty, after Ava's birth. Even though her marriage had ended, by the tragic death of her husband, she was not ready to part with the rings yet, so she had purchased a gold chain at some starbase, and thus started wearing them around her neck, hidden underneath her uniform. Running her fingers over the cool metal she felt tears press her eyes. I'm in over my head, Bryan. I wish you were here to give me the answers that I'm seeking.

She could almost hear his soft voice telling her that she would figure it out, his gray eyes smiling at her, how his arms had felt so sheltering when she felt out of control. She hated being out of control, hated having control taking away from her, like it was now with the Rupor breathing down her neck. Bryan I can't do this, I just can't.

But you can, Kathryn, you can, she could hear him speaking in her head, or at least what she imagined he would say to her. Bryan had often told her that he had never met a stronger woman than her; it was one of the things he loved about her, her resolve. It was the first thing he had said to her when he proposed to her.

Suddenly she was overtaken with emotion and shoved the necklace back underneath her tunic, trying desperately to fight her tears. I will not cry, I cannot cry, not now, not when I have crewmen to rescue.

Voyager shook with weapons fire and red alert came on. Tuvok's voice could be heard over the comlink, "Captain Janeway report to the bridge."

Burying all the emotions deep down inside of her, Kathryn stepped out onto the bridge, asking Tuvok for a report. The Vulcan brought his dark eyes up to hers and she could see them flicker to the view screen. Following his gaze, as he rattled off his report that Rupor warships had come in undetected by their sensors and proceeded to open fire on them, she could see three large warships, sleek in design and packing a deadly punch.

"We barely had enough time to raise our shields, Captain," Tuvok said, finishing his report.

"Hail them," Janeway ordered, still hoping for a diplomatic solution. Tuvok told her the channel was open. "This is Captain Janeway, we mean you no harm, we're simply trying to find our people."

"They are not responding, Captain," Tuvok reported.

"Return fire!"

"Firing phasers," Tuvok said. "They had no effect Captain."

Voyager groaned with another hit, and Janeway had to grip the railing near tactical to stay on her feet. Someone was yelling that their hull was losing integrity and then Paris was yelling that they were losing warp drive.

Janeway felt like the walls of the bridge were closing in around her as the Rupor continued to fire. Consoles were exploding, their shields were failing, and causalities were being reported all over the ship. If she stayed in Rupor space she risked losing more than just Chakotay and Sarah, she risked losing her entire crew, her children. Swallowing the bile that had risen in her throat, she turned to Paris. "Do we have enough power to the warp drive to get us out of here, Mister Paris?"

"Yes ma'am," Paris answered, blue eyes studying her face.

"Set a course out of Rupor space, maximum warp," Janeway instructed a tone of dread in her voice.

"Aye, captain."

Janeway felt the ship lurch with the new course, the walls seemingly getting smaller and smaller the further they moved away from the space that Chakotay and Sarah were trapped in. I've abandoned them, she thought miserably. No captain should abandon her crew, should not leave them behind. I'll be damned if these aliens bully me into leaving my people to die.

"The Rupor are not pursuing, Captain," Kim said, and then in a soft voice asked, "Does this mean we're giving up the rescue attempt?"

The Captain spun on her heel, tears threatening to escape her eyes, and Kim could see the fire smoldering in them. "No Ensign, they may have us back on our heels, but I refuse to give up trying to rescue Commander Chakotay and Lieutenant Barrett. Contact the Karvaian Prime Minister, maybe they can help us."

#star trek voyager #star trek voyager fanfiction #kathryn janeway #chakotay #tom paris #sarah barrett (oc)#harry kim #tuvok #neelix #kes #the doctor (emh)#janeway x chakotay #tom paris x ofc #this way became my journey

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