#where I compare Seven and Tuvok

[bumblingbabooshka]

My own personal journey, everyone gets there differently (their relationship is miserable and they break up quickly)

[fate-motif]

list of voyager characters ranked by least to most done dirty by the writers

10. tom paris: this boy got everything he could have ever wanted from a trip to the delta quadrant. he got a bestie who’s way too good for him, a wife he refuses to cherish and yet she married him and had his child!!! and authorities who refuse to punish him most of the time because he’s a pretty talented flyboy. even modern day trek writers cannot start lavishing praise on this douche and like, okay, he’s not all bad, but compared to what other voyager characters had for story potential and performances it’s crazy how good he got it. the only true indignity this bitch got was threshold.

9. neelix: i feel like neelix lovers are gonna brawl with me about this but i’m still steadfast that neelix was one of the characters least done dirty in voyager, but only comparatively. like, if neelix were on ds9 or on tng he would absolutely be considered an insane waste of story potential with his sad clown complex and his weird little relationship with tuvok but lbr. if they had gone even harder on neelix’s tragedies it would have felt less like he’s a sad clown and his sad all the time and that takes away the appeal of the character. also the mere fact he got to date kes when he never would have deserved her in a million years is already too huge a win for him. i mean it. 

8. the emh: he gets to be a step above neelix because the writers are so fucking bad at writing about hologram rights that it’s a serious disservice to him when the whole of the show star trek voyager bends over backwards over this guy and i cannot stand him. he gets all the screentime, all the tragic episodes, everyone is forced to be sympathetic about him, but at the same time the show makes everything so much worse for him by letting him engineer hologram characters on the holodeck to be his toys (when there’s a whole episode where we realize yes the holodeck characters are real and do not like being murdered, so maybe having two hawaiian babes or your white blond 50s housewife fawning over you is horrifying???) the writers of voyager suck so hard they can’t even write their golden boy well enough to actually make the core of his very character ideologically consistent. depressing.

7. seven of nine: i know people want me to put her over janeway, and i refuse. i’ve made no secret of this, i resent seven, i resent her so hard for taking over everybody’s screentime, i find how serious and untouchable and perfect she’s supposed to be among the voyager cast, the show writers absolutely screwed over every other character save for the emh for her sake and i resent that!!! i will never forgive her, even if it’s not her fault!!! but i’m gonna be realistic. it’s the catsuit. it’s the catsuit, it’s the obsession of putting her in the most stereotypically feminine storylines as an extension of finding her humanity, it’s the mere extension of being a woman written by mostly men. she was screwed over, hard, but i’m serious when i say: not compared to everyone else above her.

6. janeway: oh boy. i know, i know, how dare i put janeway over seven when janeway wasn’t forced to wear shrink wrap, but she’s up this high because the writers could not agree over anything she ever did and it shows. god bless kate mulgrew for making a consistent character out of that mess, but if it weren’t for her sheer talent and professionalism, janeway would be up there with archer in the list of captains with the moral backbone of a chocolate eclair. the rest of the shows lavish love on their captains. they talk about their backstory in-depth. they let them have romantic adventures every once in a while. janeway gets to be almost solely defined by her mission to bring her crew home and considering how multidimensional characters like picard and sisko are, that’s…depressing. to say nothing of how kate mulgrew was being forced out of spending time with her family for a show that in the later seasons started to edge her out in favor of the bouncier, sexier girl they brought in. like. as a captain, janeway was done SO dirty by the writers. it’s crazy. we should talk about this more. 

5. tuvok: why is he above janeway? … aside from the fact that after they introduced seven his screentime went to the chopping block. to put it simply, waste of potential. so many of tuvok’s episodes rehash his insistence on staying steadfast to traditional vulcan values, which is great, except for the fact that we don’t need that story told over and over and over again when they could follow more interesting avenues that several tuvok-centric episodes pointed towards. we could have seen more of his relationship with janeway in the past. we could have seen him truly come to terms with trusting the maquis with his life in the earlier seasons. we even had a planned episode where we met his family! imagine if we had actually seen t’pel and have her be an actual character instead of a representation of why we’re not seeing tuvok fuck! it’s tragic. it’s absolutely tragic. 

4. b’elanna: ending up with tom paris the way he treats her should make this one a no-brainer, but i’m going to keep going, because there’s a lot more to be done here. the white male writers have no idea what they’re doing writing this character, and yet, much like janeway, roxann just barely claws out a cohesive character from the mess she was given, but that doesn’t mean that the process was graceful. so she hates herself because she thinks her klingon traits make her unlovable, then why make the other voyager characters berate her on her temper incessantly and with no room for argument and make them in the right? are we also supposed to see her as hindered by her klingon ancestry? yes. the answer is yes. the writers are racist. the writers are so goddamn racist it’s nit even a joke b’elanna i’m so sorry they did this to you you deserved so much better. 

3. kes: yes she’s in third place. nobody wants to talk about kes, because her writing was weird, and jennifer lien wasn’t as successful in sculpting an engaging character out of the garbage writing she was given, i say that if b’elanna had been taken out of voyager in s4, the same could be said for her. everything that the writers do to disrespect janeway and seven is triplicated in her, even more so magnified because she’s not a tough boss ass bitch who uses guns, but a lowly nurse, which means the writers are completely disinterested in exploring her inner life. i cannot stress this enough. kes left her homeworld when they are going to lose all support making it in a desert planet frequently raided by slavers, and we never talk about it again. it is galling how little the writers ever give a fuck about her and nobody mentions it, because again. she’s the most feminine of the female characters, which means not even the fans who understand how misogynistic the voyager writers are care about interrogating her inner life and that is the most depressing thing of them all. that’s why she’s the female character done dirtiest by the writers.

2 and 1. harry and chakotay: they’re tied. they’re tied because the racism is just inescapable in both their characters and it’s so ever-present, so impossible to ignore, so repellent that most people give up on even looking at them as characters because they so often end up channelling the writers’ naked, unabashed racism you want to avert your eyes. i mean it. i mute most early voyager episodes when chakotay is onscreen because i hate that fucking pan flute. if you fuck up writing a character of color this hard, you automatically owe reparations. and that’s why i’m fine with that insufferable republican freak robert beltran having been on prodigy because look at me in the eye and tell me paramount did not owe him from everything they put him through while working on voyager. and that’s also why i’m demanding harry be rescued the same way in the future. it’s just reparations. garrett wang is owed so hard i’m not even joking. i don’t care about debates about the other spots on this list so long as you admit that in first place rightfully goes to harry and chakotay. 

[quasi-normalcy]

Surprising Things I Learned From Rewatching All of Star Trek (as of mid 2022)

The first season of the original series is good. Like really, really, good. You can definitely see why it caught on.

"Spock's Brain" isn't actually all that bad. Like, for all it's infamy, I wouldn't even put it in the bottom 5 episodes of TOS. Maybe not even the bottom 10.

The Motion Picture is an amazing movie if you watch it like a symphony with incredible visuals, rather than an action movie.

The weird utopianism of TNG season 1 is actually really appealing now

Wesley was just as bad as I remembered

I actually like Worf. Quite a bit, actually.

Kinda wish that Deep Space Nine had kept a major focus on Bajoran politics. Like, the Dominion War stuff is good, but the political arc in the first few seasons is actually really fascinating.

Voyager has lots of absolute banger episodes, and they're good enough to forgive the overall lack of continuity

Seven of Nine's arc has uncomfortable overtones of reparation therapy when you know that she's queer (and even when you don't, it's basically seems like learning how to mask neurodivergence)

Tuvok is actually a brilliant detective. I didn't notice before.

Enterprise is...well, I'm not going to say "good", but I get what it was going for now. And the Xindi arc is way less jingoistic when considered as a whole than I remember it being.

(The fourth season isn't as good as I remember, just because the constant continuity references have gone from being an exciting novelty to being freaking everywhere)

The 2009 movie really doesn't have a lot going for it, in retrospect. The cast are good, though.

Into Darkness...was even worse than I remembered. Like I'd forgotten just how unlikable it made Captain Kirk. That said, the "anti-militarism" messaging felt somewhat less "tacked-on to the last five minutes of screentime" than I recalled

Even though I don't think it ended well, the first season of Discovery is actually a lot better than I remembered when I already knew where it was going.

The second season of Discovery fares much worse, though. Strange, because I'd thought it an improvement over the first when it was airing.

I'd been disappointed by how the first season of Picard had wrapped up it's plot threads, but on a rewatch, I actually thought it was close to being a masterpiece

The first season of Lower Decks is kind of lacklustre compared to all of the subsequent ones.

[peachviz]

I finally finished Voyager so you know what that means.

It’s a Voyager Wrap Up and notes party:

(Beware: hot takes ahead)

- I like and I hate this show. It was my slowest watch. I should have probably started with this instead of DS9 bc as you all know nothing can top DS9 and when you start out with the best meal nothing can compare. But tbh I don’t know if it would have made a difference.

- There’s a problem with this show that I’ve noticed that it’s a common problem within Star Trek as a whole. This one was just noticeable. There’s parts where they build up plots and characters and then half way through they just give up.

Kes was the biggest atrocity, they couldn’t figure out what to do with her so they give up on her and replace her with a new shiny toy. Won’t even get into the misogyny of the situation, we are all aware I don’t have to keep beating a dead horse. (Also aware of the hostile situation on set I’m not interested in that debate)

Chakotay is another example. He starts to lose lines and he kind of just floats. Tuvok is another big one. Because why tf did I have to sit through more Neelix focused episodes than Tuvok???????

Like the writers constantly do this but it’s so noticeable with this series. It’s like Patrick trying to open Sandy Cheeks’s door in SpongeBob and he just holds his hands over the door and goes, “Open Seasme!” The door doesn’t open and he shrugs and goes “Well, I’ve done all I can do.” That’s the writers of this show.

- while on the topic of Neelix. Here’s a hot take. What an incredibly pointless and annoying character. He made a lot of episodes unwatchable. Kes and Neelix have to be the worst poison I’ve ever ingested from Star Trek as a whole and I had to sit through TNG sexism and somehow this pairing was the worst. How incels feel about JarJar Binks is how I feel about Neelix. If you like him, great. If you don’t like him, let’s hug.

- there is something about this show that I feel they do better than DS9 and that is mental health episodes. It’s so subtle and there doesn’t have to be a lot of theatrics. While DS9 is good at portrayal, there are things that Voyager does with the Doctor, Seven, and even B’Elanna that I found the most relatable

- which btw B’Elanna is like super relatable it’s almost scary. I love Kira Nerys, she’s still my all time favorite, but I find myself gravitating to being like B’Elanna. I feel like she had the best character development besides Seven. Now granted, she can do some really selfish fucked up shit. Like the Doctor’s holofamily, etc, but I find her character refreshing. This show needed that.

- Seven of Nine. Idk what to say to make everything fit so here’s a lightning round. The cat suit is fucking annoying. We had to have Gene Roddenberry dying to get Deanna Troi in a real uniform and then we have the goodness of DS9 just to have the men be like “we need to bring back sexy” and then bring this wonderful character just to keep her in a cat suit. A suit, btw, that she doesn’t even want to be in bc in all her holo fantasies she’s either in a uniform, pants, or literally anything else. And don’t even get me started on Chakotay and Seven. What an odd paring with zero chemistry. It felt almost fatherly and then that shit happens bc they had to dispel the J/C shit and I think it was along the lines of Beltran getting tired of Chakotay being a “chump”. ??? Idk if that’s the exact quote but like boooooo that’s boring. It’s just ew no thanks.

- but seven is a wonderful character and if there weren’t so many men in the writing room then we could have had it all. Looking forward to seeing what Picard retcons

- Janeway is an amazing captain and I’m glad we have a complicated female captain but this goes along with my first topic. For the first four seasons, until she cuts her hair, there’s still too many cooks in the kitchen. You have her naked somehow multiple episodes per season until 4 (?) and then she has that dumbass governess holo program. Like by the time she has her hair cut, we could have just had all that from the start. Everyone say thank you Kate Mulgrew

- lastly, I’m glad that J/C didn’t become canon while they were away bc sometimes yearning is hotter than having. Kate Mulgrew stating that it was inappropriate for an office place romance bc young girls shouldn’t have to see (once again generalizing a quote) is totally valid. And tbh I feel like it would be a distraction to Janeway specifically

Idk in closing it’s an alright watch. It wasn’t really spectacular to me anyway. There were a lot of good parts, but I feel like it lost steam midway through season 6 and a lot of it was rocky. I could just be getting Star Trek fatigue.

Picard is next and then Prodigy. Probably won’t even go near Enterprise and I’ll be doing an actual rewatch of discovery to finish it. And another rewatch of lower decks bc now I’ll be able to understand it in total. So the Rankings below will exclude prodigy, ent, Picard, and discovery.

Current Series Ranking:

1) Deep Space Nine

2) Strange New Worlds

3) The Original Series

4) Lower Decks

5) Voyager

6) The Next Generation

Current Captain Ranking:

1) Sisko

2) Janeway

3) Pike

4) Kirk

5) Picard

6) Freeman

Anyway, I have two voyager edits to get off the ground and my notes app looks like the Bible so getting this footage is going to be super time consuming.

Now onto Picard

[thegeminisage]

janeway/seven: spirk if it were messy dyke drama. thoughts

HAPPY SEVEN OF NINE DAY! i didn't wait so long to answer this just for seven of nine day on purpose, but i love the happy little accident.

i've given this a lot of thought and as though i agreed with you initially because janeway reminds me SO MUCH of a female kirk it's uncanny sometimes i actually detect notes of spones in this vintage.

consider that seven accuses janeway of wanting her to become an individual, but balking when she decides she doesn't like the kind of individual seven is becoming. this REEKS of spones because bones often goads spock into admitting he is having a feeling...or giving him shit because he is not having a feeling, or not having the correct one. kirk basically NEVER does this - he accepts spock's feelings or lack thereof at face value. he sometimes tugs spock's pigtails (happy 10k to this post!) and alludes to the fact that he knows that deep down, spock is having a feeling, but he never tries to catch spock in a lie or force him to admit to said feelings.

the tholian web, the menagerie, the empath, requiem for methuselah, journey to babel, all our yesterdays, and the paradise syndrome (even though i hate this one, it's racist af) all arguably contain examples of spock doing things bones disagrees with with the primary factor behind him doing those things BEING his emotions. consider also their iconic scene in bread and circuses in which bones yells at him while they're stuck in a cell together and compare it to the scene where janeway is basically spooning seven in the brig while she goes through the painful transition from borg to an individual and they're both shouting their way through it. (i think this was during the gift? but memory is hazy.)

now i have a plot twist for you. even though tuvok is the vulcan on this ship, i think his relationship with seven is closer to what kirk and spock have, even though tuvok and seven care about each other platonically and kirk and spock are a romantic couple. (nobody come to this post and try and dispute me. they are.)

seven is the spock in both situations: standoffish, unable or unwilling to show emotions like affection or concern, trapped between being human and being Other and unsure of where they fit. but much like bones, janeway wants seven to be more like her ideal idea of a person: a human being and an individual. she tries to teach her to socialize, to exercise her agency (even though it backfires at times), and even suggests seven go back to using her birthname, annika. seven reacts to this with predictable confusion and frustration, the sparks fly, and the romance just writes itself.

tuvok, on the other hand, behaves more like kirk: he meets seven exactly where she's at. he accepts whatever emotions she has, but he also isn't troubled when she doesn't have them. he's just as satisfied to speak to the human part of her or the Other part of her. he steadily helps her through the emotional crises she does have in the raven without judgment (vaguely similar to kirk prying that vulcan biology speech out of spock by being absolutely 100% nonjudgmental about it), as a result seven feels very comfortable with him and trusts him a great deal - even going so far to ask him if janeway still doesn't trust her, which is a pretty vulnerable thing to do, since it lets him know she's very concerned about it, and even seems to believe his answer! and even though she's bad at feelings, she also supports HIM when he's vulnerable - offering to help him shave and walking him around the ship during year of hell.

anyway, i don't have an eloquent conclusion, but these are my thoughts ✌

[isagrimorie]

Part 1, 2, 3

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

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

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

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

But Admiral immediately cuts Janeway off:

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

Admiral Janeways begins to explain:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Part 1, 2, 3

[autisticandroids]

(same anon) Hnnnnn I might follow anyway... ok, I decided I will, unless you hit the Big No. So pls tell me: honest opinion on Neelix?

Also, double checked just now and results are inconclusive so I have to also ask this. Honest opinion on Wes?

honest opinion on neelix is i watched voyager kind of spottily so i didn't really see the worst of his relationship with kes, so i can't really gauge that. i was pleasantly surprised by how normal and decent he was towards seven of nine (as compared to most of the rest of the cast who are all unpleasantly weird to her in some manner, with the exception of tuvok and maaaybe chakotay), so he gets points for that. i think him and tom paris make a funny duo and enjoy episodes where they team up. the way he treats tuvok really bothers me but not nearly as much as the way tom (and harry kind of by extension) treats tuvok bothers me, because a lot of the thing with neelix seems to be more earnest, whereas tom straight up just bullies tuvok.

however, to me, neelix's greatest crime is he's like. voyager's take on quark. and he is NOT quark. he is NOT my little man. i want to see EARS. i want to see COWARDICE. i want to see JERK WITH A HEART OF GOLD. i want to see UNFATHOMABLE CONSTANT HORNINESS. 0/10 NOT quark.

my opinion on wesley is much more succinct, which is that i'm interested in his and his mom's relationship because the idea of a parent-child relationship in that situation is interesting to me, and also because dr. crusher has a lot of compelling neuroses re: motherhood. however, i'm not super interested in wesley outside that context.

[elephant-in-the-pride-parade]

I just really want a Voyager episode where Lwaxana Troi shows up - maybe Q poofs her over. Maybe the temporal investigations dude is her new beau, maybe her consciousness gets sent through a subspace anomaly and shes a hologram for a while. w/e. I am just dying for this to have happened at some point.

She would flirt with EVERYONE

She would take Seven under her wing and tell her one cannot learn the deep arts of romance and sexuality from a photonic being who is still learning his own

She would sense all the complicated tension between Janeway and Chakotay and she would delight in investigating it and delving into it and poking at it.

Harry'd probably fall in love with her.

She'd probably try to fix all Neelix's cooking bc leola root offends the fifth house or something.

Definitely borrows Janeway's bathtub and then stroll around her quarters starkers while Kathryn tried really really hard to read some department briefings.

She would sit in Janeway's chair and definitely comment on how theres been like some kinda a secret command console on the other side of KJ this whole time masquerading as an armrest and she and Chakotay just share the middle one for an excuse to bump hands with eachother

Tuvok and she would just thoroughly and shockingly enjoy each other's company. bc they both old compared to all these spry young humans and they have definitey encountered eachother before like these two have gossip to swap. And they've both loved and lost love and she thinks his devotion to his wife is the damn sweetest thing and offers to go visit T'Pel for him or something

Just imagine this is after Voyager gets video calling with the AQ and Lwaxana cant help herself barging into some meeting that Barclay and Deanna are at and shocking her daughter all the way from the Delta Quadrant

[paris-torres-month]

FEVER FEBRUARY DAY 17: TWISTED TROPE THURSDAY

“B’Elanna, I am never going to leave you.” “You say that now. But think about how hard it is to live with one Klingon. Pretty soon it’ll be two.” “And someday I hope it’s three or four. I mean it. And I hope that every one of them is just like you. B'Elanna, I am not your father and you are not your mother. And our daughter is going to be perfect just the way she is.” “Do you really think so?” “I know so.”

We love any episode that’s a deep dive into B’Elanna, and her father’s abandonment of her when she was a child goes to her very core. She’s worked very hard to hide her fears that Tom will abandon her too, and to accept her Klingon heritage: confronting that fact that her Klingon self will forever be a part of her in Faces, allowing herself to take Tom’s comments in the turbolift at the end of Blood Fever at face value, agreeing to try that Klingon workout programme, agreeing to try Tom’s enhanced version of her Day of Honour programme, her meditation exercises with Tuvok, insisting on being allowed to visit the Barge of the Dead so she could restore her mother’s honour…

Taking a chance on marrying Tom. Taking a chance on having a baby with him. And, initially, they’re both thrilled. Until B’Elanna’s old fears resurface.

It’s tragically ironic that in Lineage (today’s calendar quote is from that episode) she basically tells Tom to leave:

“You heard the captain. We have to work this out.” “There's nothing to work out. You're getting what you want.” “What I want is to have a civilised discussion with my wife. Maybe a change of scenery would help. How about the holodeck?” “That's your solution to everything.” “At least I'm trying. Look, I don't care where we do it, but we have to talk this out.” “I am tired of talking, all right?”

Just like she did with her father:

“If you can't stand living with us, then why don't you just leave?”

Better to have Tom leave now, than after her daughter has grown to love him and need him. Because B’Elanna is certain that Tom will leave her, leave them, one day.

It’s an irritating (and obvious) but necessary plot device that Tom does leave her, if only for a night, when he shows up at Harry’s door with his duffle-bag over his shoulder. I prefer to believe that he came home from a shift on the bridge to find his packed bag in the corridor & the door lock code changed: better that she tossed him out than he left her. His pride—and the desire to have someone agree with him—sends him to Harry’s quarters rather than standing in the corridor pounding on the door. And by the way, Harry’s advice—to placate B’Elanna by lying to her and telling her he understands how she’s feeling—is shit advice! Because Tom doesn’t understand. At all.

At least he’s willing to break down a door when he needs to.

Is Lineage an example of a twisted trope? It has a Sudden!Pregnancy, marital strife, B’Elanna as a child. It’s chalk-full of hurt comfort. And it’s also the ONLY plot line in this episode. No Harry or Doc with an alien-of-the-week in a comparable situation, no threat of being blown up by a new enemy, no Borg equivalency with Seven having a ‘can I ever have a baby…?’ scene stealing. It’s all Tom & B’Elanna, as it should be.

So maybe that’s the twist? The subject matter of this episode was treated with the gravitas it demanded. It was given the time necessary to play out to it’s natural conclusion without being rushed, and without the typical ‘90’s/‘00’s dude-bro sex jokes and elbow nudging. Tom & B’Elanna were allowed to take centre stage while the rest of the crew/cast were true supporting characters.

Tom tells her he’ll never leave her. And he never does.

….and just as a little aside here, can we mention the fact that the Doctor names his holographic daughter Belle, then marries a woman named Lanna? No? Okay then!

[ezrisdax-archive]

Thoughts on a fun way to make a Star Trek/Mass Effect crossover? Or characters interactions cross-series?

like a full crossover? hmmm, certainly it’d be a parallel worlds type situation where I feel in Trek world the Leviathans didn’t evolve and create the Reapers and thus life wasn’t constantly wiped out and that’s why there’s more of an alien populace in the galaxy to explain the stark differences. And then time travel would get involved too since ME takes place before Trek.

So depending on which Trek you’re gonna go with (which for me I can pick any) there’s some wormhole shenanigans going on only what they call wormholes are the dark energy spots that Reapers use in ME time. The crew is investigating them when they go through it and end up in ME time (or if you want the ship accidentally goes through a la Voyager crossing over quadrants).

At first the crew is clearly trying to not get involved but can’t resist the chance to explore and learn the differences and when they realize this isn’t their actual past and can interact with the place more, which brings them into contact with the Normandy which has been sent to investigate the strange readings so we get to crew interactions of (which I’ll put under a cut cause it got long):

Spock and/or Tuvok, and Liara discussing the Vulcan Mind Meld versus the Asari meld and coming to the conclusion that they might have a genetic link back

Tali and B’Elanna having a field day comparing notes (and complaining) on what it’s like keeping a ship together when you don’t have all the parts you really need since Tali used to do that with the Quarian ships and B’Elanna does that now

Kirk and Shepard discussing choices made that shape worlds for better or worse despite the best of intentions and geeking out over model ships. You can’t tell me that doesn’t happen.

Bashir and Mordin are the only people able to understand each other in their speed talking and excitedly sharing notes about different aliens.

Worf and Wrex and Grunt immediately start a fight (bonus points for Wrex insulting Worf for sounding like Uvenk whom Dorn voices)

Seven and Legion (in a world where he lives, what do you mean he dies) discussing what it’s like going from a hive mind to being individuals and coming to find yourself and who you are as a person, like Legion clearly was more involved in finding this aspect for his people as opposed to Seven who had it forced on her but they share the desire now to learn and become an individual and protect those they care about

Janeway and Shepard blow something up by accident while trying to investigate something because of course they do

Samara and Deanna sitting down and just discussing life because I feel like these two would be friends and smirking at their friends antics and secretly betting on who’s gonna get into what danger

I actually have a lot of thoughts about paragon!Shepard and Michael being similar characters in the sense of having this burden of the galaxy placed on them and speaking out against things that people refuse to see except for the crew they’re apart of and trying to warn people of a war and do their best to prevent it and bring people together

Tilly and Tali and Gabby together would be a delight I feel, just talking excitedly about everything under the sun. including the sun.

Sulu and Joker arguing who's a better pilot and Sulu being fascinated how Mass Effect fields work when it comes to piloting and Joker proudly explaining it

Sisko tries to adopt Grunt from Shepard (no I’m mostly kidding, I think that Sisko and Shep have a great deal of respect for each other in caring for the crew and having in placed in an almost god like reverence in certain situations and the struggles with that. and then also Sisko brings back baseball to the Mass Effect world. Shepard absolutely hates that)

I figure the EMH would actually be most interested in biotics and the science of that and writing down to make a paper to publish as the first hologram to do so.

Likewise EDI is fascinated with hologram technology that Trek’s have and if the ships have ever developed sentience in any way and if she can incorporate some of that technology into the Normandy to further her own development

I think Kira gets along with Wrex and is angry at Salarians on his behalf once she hears what was done to the Krogan because the genocide of a species hits hard with her

Tilly and Samantha are even worse than Bashir and Mordin at talking so fast no one gets it but them and they very much do enjoy talking to each other

Tom and Steve have shuttle races until they’re ordered back by their bosses because really guys

Geordi has a lot of talks with EDI, some about his friendship with Data and the human side of interacting with a being that’s trying to learn about humanity themselves but most about the ship and the benefits of integration with it that allow you to be aware of everything that’s happening on it

also Data and EDI tell the worst jokes and everyone regrets this

Picard and Thane drink tea together and discuss philosophies and Thane talks about his species old artifacts and how they were lost to his culture and Picard just listens with interest and some ideas on how you could maybe get those back

Jadzia and Jack get along surprisingly well, they have a holodeck fight at one point and Jadzia takes tricorder readings of biotics and then they go out drinking together

on the flip side Ezri and Miranda get along in terms of being forced to live up to unreasonable family expectations (all though far less harsh in Ezri’s case) and having to carve out your own identity and also like...weirdly everyone hating you for no other reason than your character exists

Bev gets into playing poker with Kaidan and Steve and now they’re all trying to beat each other constantly at it

Saru and Liara get along the easiest at first and discuss the wild things their crews get up to and how they eventually just started to go along with the madness

Kasumi keeps trying to steal from Tuvok but can’t manage it and thinks it’s the best challenge she’s had in years. Tuvok just wants to talk to Thane and get back to the Delta Quadrant already captain.

Harry and Jacob get to talking about having to prove themselves and always being looked over and the troubles of trying to get your own command

Bones hates all of this, Kirk what the hell have you done now. That said he and Zaeed get to drinking and talking about the bullshit that comes from space travel. All though Zaeed’s is more about how annoying it is to try to kill someone in it. Bones thinks he’s just over exaggerating and not a mercenary at first.

James keeps showing off for literally everyone and turning things into a competition with whoever he can when it comes to physical activities, he’s still sulking that Data beat him until he finds out that Data is an android and then calls foul on it.

Odo and Zaeed grumble about everything together

B’Elanna and Ashley have a book club that they don’t tell anyone about and share romance novels and poetry while complaining about how everyone doesn’t expect it from them and that’s part of why they don’t tell people those parts of themselves

Uhura gets the translators turned off on the Normandy to listen to everyone’s dialect and language and is quick to pick up on it, she’s especially good with Drell and enjoys conversing with Thane in it

Liara is absolutely freaked out that Deanna sounds like her mother and Deanna is absolutely using this to troll her whenever she can because it amuses her

Grunt and Chekov get into arguments about history of all things despite that people keep pointing out that they’re from alternate worlds and therefore it’s different anyway

Chakwas and Chakotay sit down to talk about what it’s like sorta taking care of the crew and just ridiculous stories of things they’ve put with

Riker at one point talks to Miranda about clones and dealing with someone who is the same genetically as you but isn’t you and do you have a relationship with them or leave them be (they don’t come up with an answer really)

Mordin gets banned from taking samples of other aliens

Nog and Gabby talk one point about being sorta new to the experiences of war and frontline suddenly and the horrors that come with it and share their experiences of being trapped by the Reapers vs being in a Jem’Hadar fight and coming back from that

Guinan doesn’t care much for Javik but they do have one good discussion about what it’s like being one of the last of your species and seeing so many of them die due to a machine race (and worse, converted to serve that race) that you just can’t fight back against no matter how much you try (or that’s what they thought at the time)

Samantha and Spock and Kirk and/or Airiam have strategy game nights and really get into it and Spock will typically leave while Sam and Kirk are still geeking out over it until the morning

Quark is banned from the Normandy point blank

Worf tries to get everyone to appreciate Klingon opera, the only one he manages to get into it are Grunt and Legion

Scotty is especially fascinated with the drive core of the Normandy and talks to Adams about it constantly

Chakotay and James having a boxing match at one point

Jake interviews like everyone and is thinking about turning this experience into a novel and enjoys listening to everyone’s stories

O’Brien and Garrus get caught up in calibrations, can you come back later

okay this literally is getting too long already but I could keep going. I think then there’s a group discussion about the Borgs vs the Reapers and the troubles everyone faces in those fights and a lot of back and forth about things that have worked for one crew that may help someone else out (like the Changeling cure to maybe help the Genophage cure or vice versa)

[blue-mint-winter]

ST Voy s4e8 Year of Hell and s4e9 Year of Hell part II -  Voyager pulls off another time travel story and does it well. The crew is out through a real wringer and brought to almost complete destruction like in Kes’ vision, but details are much different, for example Janeway and B’Elanna don’t die and there’s Seven on board. I really liked how the bonds between the crew became even stronger in the hardship. Janeway became very extreme too, constantly taking risk on herself and making everyone worry (I mean myself too!). She also got a haircut. I really felt the stakes in this ep, the desperation they felt. Btw, Tuvok’s blind shaving with a big knife was extra too. I liked the symbolism of that pocket watch Chakotay gave to Janeway on her birthday. The main villain, Annorax, was detestable. The show tried to make us feel bad for him by comparing him with Voyager crew, but the key difference is that one was erasing other races from history as if that would bring back his family and other wasn’t. Chakotay almost buying into his way of thinking and methods seems to continue in line with his character’s tendency to get influenced by authority figures he encounters. Thankfully, Paris was there to say it how it was. I thought the ending solution to the problem was clever, how erasing his time manipulating ship from the timeline erased the reason his race got in trouble and Voyager was also restored back to normal. On the other hand it means the loss of memory for everyone, of the good ones too, but they still have the chance to make new memories, so they can make up for that.

s4e10 Random Thoughts - Voyager visits a peaceful planet of Mirians who are telepaths and B’Elanna get arrested for having a violent thought that caused one of them to commit an assault. The concept of this ep reminded me of that TNG ep with Wesley getting sentenced for trampling a lawn, but this ep’s story has much more finesse and complexity to it. It explores the idea of a society in which thought crimes are real and can be persecuted. Interestingly enough, it brings a dose of realism into something that at first glance was an utopia where everyone is nice and there’s no crime. Turns out outlawing something and memory purging isn’t going to make the problem gone, it just went underground. People will want the forbidden fruit and total control over thoughts is impossible. I liked that Tuvok once again took charge of investigation, it was cool to see him work. Though I do wonder since when Vulcans could speak telepathically like Betazoids? Btw, I like Seven’s friendship with Tuvok, they are both set apart from their human crewmates. I liked the moments with Seven questioning Janeway’s decisions to explore other planets instead of just going home as fast as possible.

s4e11 Concerning Flight - In this ep, I realized that the actor who played hologram of Leonardo da Vinci played Gimli in LOTR. Anyway, it was a fun ep. From the beginning, I thought that Janeway’s Leonardo holodeck program was a good idea and I liked those short scenes. It makes a lot of sense that she’d choose Leonardo da Vinci as her mentor and role model. He brings together two things - hard science she pursued in her career and arts which is something she struggles with. In this ep, Leonardo is part of an adventure to take back stolen main computer from the thieves. What makes this story worhtwhile is how thoughtful it gets, but still maintains the flow of action. It has a message about opening your mind, pursuing dreams - like Leonardo’s flying machine - even if others ridicule you for it. It’s just very hopeful and uplifting. Also, Janeway’s undercover clothes make her look like a working mom lol.

s4e12 Mortal Coil - In this ep, Neelix dies, but it’s okay because Seven knows how to bring him back. However as a result Neelix has an existential crisis because he didn’t see Talaxian afterlife he believed in. I think the episode was interesting in trying to explore Neelix’ problem, but it wasn’t done in a satisfactory way. They used Chakotay’s vision method, but it just made Neelix worse and he almost offed himself. I can’t expect a TV show to find an answer to the meaning of life, but Star Trek approached the topic of life and death and beliefs about what’s in the afterlife before with more thoughtfulness. Here, it was simplified and shallowed, everything just went away because Neelix was needed by the living so he decided not to kill himself. Idk, it just didn’t feel right after everything that happened with him. It was just a rushed ending.

[bumblingbabooshka]

Ok so what would you change about Voyager if you could :eyes:

More time spent on the Maquis-Starfleet divide/integration More arguments amongst the characters (related to above) More screentime/episodes devoted towards non-white characters (especially in later seasons) Harry Kim gets promoted shortly after Tom Paris gets demoted (dramaa....) More Tuvok episodes where he's fully himself and not altered in some way (he already has a suspiciously low amount of screentime for being The Series Vulcan [comparing him to Spock and T'Pol] and a lot of the plots he has hinge on him acting out of character) More time spent actually showing Tuvok and Janeway hanging out together. (I want to see those decades of friendship in action.) Tell me more about Tuvok's family (and as an extent, typical Vulcan family/relationship dynamics) right now. Tom & B'Elanna actually break up in 'Drive' (won the race but lost the girl...) Less time spent on the Borg in later seasons (I have a personal preference for more episodic plots being the norm and I truly do believe this can be achieved while building characters and keeping them consistent+interesting. I just find the borg stuff a bit boring and would like it more as like...a thing Seven has to contend with herself and the people around her, not an enemy that's actively attacking the ship all the time. Plus since they're in a new quadrant I'd personally prefer that the Villains of the show be things/people that Voyager has never encountered before, keeping them fully out of their depth.) Maybe related but I don't think the Borg Kids do much. Seven already has Naomi, she doesn't need to be a more literal mother imo. More horror/mystery episodes bc I just like them and I think Voyager's a perfect series for them given how they're trapped alone in space. The ultimate "I have no cell service!" Q appears in that one episode where Janeway & Tuvok have to argue for or against suicide and that's IT. He does NOT come back again. B'Elanna's call from the alpha quadrant comes from her mom instead of her dad. Generally more character relationships being built in a way that feels distinctly different/closer than in any series bc of their circumstances. I love character interaction. I always want more.

[actionfigurebullshit]

MORE projects I’ll never finish!

I kind of wish I had found it in myself to do that DS9 stuff. I was all ready to go, all I had to do was set up the camera and start taking pictures.

Oh, well. There will be other chances to do it, hopefully with more tolerable weather. To that end, I should probably wait until October... another film bonanza?

This hasn’t stopped me from collecting more action figures.

As stated on STID, I got a lot (”lot” as it collection, not a short world for large) of 14 Star Trek action figures. Of the 14, 8 were Star Trek Voyager- the original main cast minus Torres. I wrote about these on STID because there is the potential to do the Better Than Voyager stuff that’s been dreamed about for almost a decade now.

Of the other six, there’s Saavik, Nurse Chapel (regular), Rom (with Nog accessory!), Jake Sisko, Tasha Yar (original), and Yeoman Rand.

WHAT A FIND! Was there a catch? It was an estate sale, apparently... and they were coated in a strange film which I suspect was talc that mixed with the oils in the plastic. It seems harmless enough- it may have preserved the joints to some degree, and it’s easy to remove if you can get something to wipe it off. Some of the action figures have details that’s hard to get into, but we’ll see about that when I go after it with a Q-Tip. A little powdering isn’t such a bad idea, as that could keep from making the action figures too reflective, especially if I try out some green screen effects.

Today, I got seven more action figures.

The first is a Seska action figure... she looks nothing like Seska, but I like that. I like that she’s generic looking and she’ll work out just fine for that one script. I’ll need a few supernumeraries back there tooling around here and there in the background. Perfect.

The other six come from this “command” like- Sisko and Kira action figures, Picard and Riker in dress uniforms, and Kirk and Spock in dress uniforms. I wanted a Kira action figure, so that’s cool that I have it even if there’s no plan to use it for filming. This action figure is... weird. Her head seems so tiny, and she’s shorter than the others. Curiously, the smaller head might actually make her proportions more accurate to real life compared to the others. Still... it’s kinda funny, but at least they put a lot of nice detail into it!

I don’t have much use for Kirk and Spock right now, either, but if I continue to do TOS stuff, these will come in handy.

I have some bold plans for Sisko, Riker, and Picard. I want to make a new action figure out of some of these. I wrote about this a little bit. They already have a dress uniform Sisko, but I think I can make one out of these parts. Sisko gets Picard’s body, and Picard becomes OTHER TEMPORAL SPHERE PICARD. It will be unique- it won’t be Picard’s head on Bashir’s body with command colors. It will be Sisko’s instead, and he will have the rank of commander, better fitting the line on the back of the “Picard in a DS9 uniform” regarding him being unsuitable for starship command.

I may do something about the arms, if possible. The TNG ones have Geordi’s weird arms, and the arms show up on a lot of the action figures- they stick way out because of the shoulder piece. I thought...

Oh...

I got to step back a little bit.

Why do I want a dress uniform Sisko? I was thinking about one day redoing the “TV Room” scene from Action Figure Bullshit, with the biggest difference being that the scenes from “Move Along Home” are replaced with action figure bullshit. I got a Jake! Soon, I’ll have Sisko in a dress uniform. Harry Mudd can be tweaked to become Falow, and since Quark appears for a split second, I might as well use the Rom action figure... Niners will notice, but maybe it can be fudged a little since he’s there for just a second, if at all.

Back to Picard. He can also be modified a little further to become a Voyager officer, although his uniform might look a little funny. Season 1 and 2 DS9 uniforms are not the same as the Voyager ones, and this especially so with the action figures. Still... another gold shirt in the background will go a long ways. Or, I could leave Sisko alone for now, color his hair gray, and he can be that one guy who is always in the background in the mess hall in a blue uniform.

There are so many possibilities!

More are on the way. I got a second Kirk in a space suit. I hope I find the helmet to the first- it’s been missing for a while, probably in a box somewhere (I hope!). Having two would make things a lot easier for some ideas I’ve had for a long time, like having a whole bunch of them running around. I could put Spock’s head on it, or put someone else’s head in it.

Then there’s AGT Data. I might use his body with Tuvok’s head for the one scene where Tuvok is wearing “casual attire”. During Vorik’s one scene, a Romulan could borrow his body. I need to cut this entry short, but you get the idea, there’s a lot of possibility here!

[lodessa]

Please?.. Star Trek Voyager

001 | Send me a fandom and I will tell you my:

Favorite character:  Janeway (tough call though)

Least Favorite character: Neelix (sorry, I would always rather they focus on any other main cast character)

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): Janeway/Chakotay and (since it would be cheating to just type that five times right?) Paris/Torres, Kes/EMH, Seven/B’Elanna, and (grownup) Icheb/Naomi (you know like from “Shattered”)

Character I find most attractive: Chakotay

Character I would marry: Chakotay (in a universe where he doesn’t know Janeway clearly)

Character I would be best friends with: maybe B’Elanna.  I have a history of friendship with smart prickly women.

a random thought:  Last night I was randomly thinking about how they should have installed some sort of counselor holoprogram, at least after they got in contact with Starfleet and could have had the file for one sent over eventually.

An unpopular opinion: The way the Doctor behaves when it comes to Seven is not sweet or romantic it is super creepy.

My Canon OTP:  Janeway/Chakotay (yay book canon)

My Non-canon OTP: Janeway/Chakotay (boo show finale)

Most Badass Character: Janeway

Most Epic Villain: The Borg Queen

Pairing I am not a fan of: I think everyone knows I hate C7 with a fiery passion

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): Honestly ALL OF THEM.  That said, characters like Chakotay, Tuvok, and Harry (oh wow most of POC on the show what a “random” coincidence) mostly just got neglected, vs the show devoted such a disproportionately high amount of time to Seven and yet so often was grossly male gaze filled and inconsistent.  Compare the writing choices they made with her vs. Data or Odo and weep.

Favourite Friendship: Tuvok and Janeway

Character I most identify with: That totally depends on the day.  

Character I wish I could be: Janeway

[thegeminisage]

STAR TREK UPDATE TIME! last night we watched voy's "vis a vis" and ds9's "in the pale moonlight."

vis a vis (voy):

i really liked when tom paris didn't fuck b'elanna, but my goodwill is wearign thin. in a way he and b'elanna make a good couple bc theyre always both kind of shitty to everyone when they're struggling emotionally, i guess. sigh

like, aside from tom paris's emotional arc not being...clearly outlined at all in this episode, which made it confusing boring and difficult to care about, this episode ALSO makes b'elanna look bad. she's always yelling at him for """no reason""" and then she falls for a fake apology from a fake tom, and even kisses the fake tom, which is a kiss without consent on her part since she doesn't realize this guy isn't her boyfriend but a total stranger

in fact, most people seem incredibly stupid in this episode not to realize tom is faking it...seven even caught him red-handed trying to download tom's information and nobody put it together, not even tuvok

three points of merit for an otherwise boring dredge of an episode: 1. evil janeway hot 2. i figured out from looking that b'elanna's actress is really for real pregnant in this episode which explains last episode a bit 3. that one scene where the fake tom paris said to the emh that he just wasnt coming in because he felt his skills could never compare to the emh's skills which then prompted the emh to wax poetic about how great he was without realizing this was the most un-tom paris thing anyone had ever done. that was genuinely so funny and IC for the emh i was cracking up the entire time. would that the rest of the episode was that good

in the pale moonlight (ds9):

HOLY SHIT!!!!

SO I LIED

I CHEATED

I BRIBED MEN TO COVER THE CRIMES OF OTHER MEN

AND THE MOST DAMNING THING OF ALL

I THINK I CAN LIVE WITH IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LIKE..........................

like i've seen the speech memed so many times i could quote it cold without ever having seen the ep and i more or less knew what was gonna happen but god DAMN the mark of a truly great episode is that none of that mattered...it still blew my fucking mind

obviously garak is incredible in this episode. his willingness to get his hands dirty and do what needs to be done for the greater good, the loss of his old favors and old friends that he takes with total equanimity

but the real star of this show is my best friend benjamin sisko. speech or not i had no idea he was gonna LOOK AT THE CAMERA. i felt like i couldn't blink when he did that shit. he's not supposed to look at me!!! he's making me complicit!!!

HIS DESPAIR AT THE WEEKLY CASUALITY LIST. THE PACING IN HIS QUARTERS AS HE DELIVERS THE PERSONAL LOG. HITTING GARAK (TWICE!). THE MONLOGUE AND THE TOAST AT THE END. GOD!!!!!!!!! he is so FUCKING talented he should have been a movie star. he should have been more famous than. think of the most famous person you know and triple it. he is SO fucking talented it's insane

and i mean in the end. romulus enters the war. damn. just like they wanted. and everyone will think it's because the dominion was gonna betray them and sisko and garak will take the truth to their fucking graves. jesus.

TONIGHT: voy's "the omega particle" (nobody fucking say it) and ds9's "his way," the summary of which looks...sketchy. potentially bad, even. fingers crossed i guess

[dork-empress]

AUvember Day 4 Voyager/Spy

This turned out a bit more heist than spy but it kinda works.  

“Coffee,” the red haired woman said, “Black,”

“Are you sure I can’t get you something more relaxing to drink?” the man behind the bar said, “A martini, perhaps?”

“I like to stay on full alert,” she said.

He raised his eyebrows. “Alright,” He went to pull out a cup and start the machine, “But I can promise it won’t be very good.”

“I’ll take my chances.”

He smiled, “If its all about chances, you should try your luck at the blackjack table,” he said, nodding across the room, “I hear the house is having an unlucky night.”

She looked down where he pointed. A thin black man was dealing cards, and clearly was losing to a pair of excited guests. “Well, then,” she said, “Why don’t I go and…make his night a little worse?”

He nodded, moving onto his next customer. She gave the tattoo around his eye one last glance before heading over and sitting beside the couple. “Oh, Kes, this is brilliant!” The overly fuzzy man said, “We’re going to be rich!”

“Maybe we should stop while we’re ahead,” the young woman said, “I don’t want to jinx anything.

“Oh, nonsense,” the man said as the dealer started dealing the cards, “Just a little longer.”

Kathryn couldn’t help smiling to herself. What an interesting couple. Too bad their luck was about to dramatically change. She placed her bet and asked to be hit, which the dealer did, gladly. A perfect 21 with 3 cards. Not bad.

She looked over at her neighbors. The man asked to be hit again. Upon seeing the card they both froze.

With their metaphorical tails tucked between their legs, the couple took the barest scrape of their winnings and left the table. Kathryn tried not to laugh. “A shame, that,” She said, “For their luck to turn so quickly.”

“Indeed,” the dealer, her old friend tuvok said, dealing another hand.

“I’ve never seen a casino owner tending his own bar,” Kathryn said, pointing her eyes over to the tattooed man she had just talked to.

“Mr. Chakotay is unique,” Tuvok said, “But not a fool, to be certain. He likes a hands-on approach with all aspects of his operation.”

“Well, a terrorist has to have a hobby. I suppose tending bar is as good as any.” Tuvok gave a short nod, and dealt an extra card into her hand. She picked it up quickly, looking at it and pretending she was considering her options.

On the code were hand-written (though with impeccable handwriting) notes with codes and times. “a gift for Mr. Kim,” Tuvok said.

“And its not even his birthday, he’ll be so pleased.” She looked around at the sound of the audience cheering. A singer had stepped on stage. Her singer.

Seven swept the audience. She was never the most subtle member of Kathryn’s team, but she had a good voice and a mind for numbers. She’d keep watch over the crowd and make sure nothing got in the way.

“There is one further problem,” Tuvok said, drawing her attention again. “The door is guarded by Chakotay’s right hand, an engineer who designed the vault. She’s also his head of security, and from what I’ve seen, has a ruthless temper.”

“Easily riled up?” Kathryn asked, “Well, lucky for us we have an expert Rile-r. Let me go get the face.”

“I thought he was still zero-zero-seven.”

Kathryn smirked, “Double-o seven. And seven of nine had problems with the nickname, so it got changed. She looked at her cards. An ace in her hand and a jack on the table. Tuvok was truly cruel. “I fold,” she said.

Back at one of the tables she found the last two men of her crew, watching seven’s performance. “Tom, Harry,” she greeted, sitting beside them.

Harry raised an eyebrow, “Should you be seen with us?” he asked.

“It’s fine,” she assured, “Besides, I make the calls. Tell me Tom, how flirtatious are you feeling tonight?”

Tom raised an eyebrow, “Flirtatious enough for anything, but you know my rules, cap, never someone I’m working for. I’ve been burned before.”

She rolled her eyes. “See the brown-aired woman by the door?” Tom gave her a quick glance. “Head of security. And I’m betting what we need to find is behind that door.”

Tom smirked. “She looks feisty. I like her already.”

Janeway slipped the card with codes to Kim. He took it and compared it to his phone, “Seems well enough in order. We’ll have 20 minutes from when the computers turn on. Hope the doc can work fast.”

“He always does,” Tom said, swigging his drink. “Hand him over, will you?”

Harry handed him the triangular device. “Go get ‘er tiger,” Kathryn encouraged.

He nodded and sidled his way up to the woman, “Hey, gorgeous,” he said, leaning up against the wall, “Come here often,”

“You’re honestly going to try a line that tired?” she said, “I don’t know whether to laugh or feel sorry,”

“Oh, I can do worse than that,” he said, “’whats a pretty thing like you doing in a place like this?’ or just the straightforward, ‘can I buy you a drink?’”

“I’m working, she told him, barely sparing a glance.”

“That’s why I didn’t offer a drink,” he said, “But you can still talk and work, can’t you? I’m honestly curious about what leads to a life of being a casino worker.”

“You make it sound like I’m a prostitute,” she said.

“I would never presume.” He said, “Though I’ve known a fair share of perfectly respectable prostitutes. You got a name.”

“Not one for you.”

He sighed, “Hey, I’m not trying to be rude or anything,” he put a hand on her shoulder, “I’m just trying to get to—whoa!”

Before he could do anything, she twisted his arm and planted his face in the floor. “When I let up, you will walk away and not speak to me again.” He nodded quickly. She let up and he stood.

“Mission accomplished,” he said, walking away, “The doctor is in.”