Ship of Promises

Me and @trekflower did a thing..

https://archiveofourown.org/works/25334419

2. Chakotay now sounds like even more of a nonsense word than it did before;

3. The pay-off of Evil!Janeway saying

cha-ko-tay

The thing about that kiss in “Hunters,” filmed but never aired, is that if it had aired as originally planned, every single episode after that point would have played out differently. Every single one. Every interaction between Janeway and Chakotay after that point, whether consciously romantic or not, would have had a subtext. To be honest, every interaction pretty much did have a subtext, which is why there were so many J/Cers in the first place. But after that point, the subtext would have been an acknowledged subtext rather than one we fans were reading into the scenes whether RB and KM were playing it that way on purpose or not.

Just think about that for a minute.

How different would “Unforgettable” have been if there had been a J/C relationship on top of it? How different would “Night” have been, and “Timeless,” and “Counterpoint?”

How much more powerful would “The Fight” have been if we knew, if it had been acknowledged instead of built up in our heads, that Janeway was asking her lover to possibly sacrifice his sanity to save them? And how much more moving his quiet and courageous acquiescence?

Would “Equinox” have brought them closer together, or would it have broken them?

Would “Fair Haven” and “Spirit Folk” even have happened, or would we have gotten a much more in-character holoprogram for the Captain? Maybe one in which she is a pirate queen, or an early 20th Century adventurer? Or a super hotshot WASP pilot in WWII, maybe one with a handsome lover in a different branch of the service?

Would the clasped hands on the Bridge in “Unimatrix Zero” have meant even more? Would “Shattered” have ended very differently?

Would the series have ended very differently?

I think about these things. I wonder, and I wish, and I think about these things.

There’s an alternate universe of stories to be told here, from the farce of the crew finding out one by one, to the drama of the moments that almost tore them apart for good, to the powerfully uplifting ending, in which they realize that their reliance on each other, their love and care for each other, kept them alive and sane and human in a part of the Universe that would have irrevocably changed them if they hadn’t had each other to keep them grounded and healthy.

So many possibilities.

No… 2

But Garak and Jadzia…

Wait, but 1 has Kira and Seven…

Shit

I did a thing.

I would sell my soul to the devil to have a Voyager spin-off !

some of my favorite Janeway outfits! 🖖

(click images for optimal quality)

💙 thanks @zonchzone for

1. getting me into star trek in the first place

Summary: Stuck in a turbolift, Janeway and Chakotay address their failing relationship.

Fandom: Star Trek: Voyager Relationship: Chakotay/Kathryn Janeway Additional Tags: Turbolift; Angst; Hopeful Ending; On This Starship We Talk About Our Feelings

Chapters: 1/1 Words: 2,025 Rating: General Audiences Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply

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“What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world. The paragon of animals. And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?”

Hamlet, Act II, scene ii

She’s my very favourite Star Trek character.

Not so much for who she was written to be, back when Voyager was actually being made, but for the energy and life and pathos Jeri Ryan managed to inject into a character who was basically just an excuse to put a ridiculously beautiful woman into a skintight leotard.

Seven of Nine is a person who has chosen every aspect of her personhood. She has created herself from the best of those around her. The loyalty of Captain Janeway, Chakotay’s compassion, the Doctor’s curiosity, B’Elanna’s tenacity, Harry’s idealism and, it seems, Tom Paris’ piloting skills. She chose to commit herself to the Fenris Rangers, to push sand uphill in order to help people who weren’t in a position to help themselves.

She put herself in the same position the crew of Voyager did when they brought her aboard.

Picard is a show about a lot of things, but it’s primarily a show about legacy, about the things we create to leave behind and the way those things turn against us. We’re constantly running into remnants of our characters’ past. Legacy is a beautiful, fragile thing; Soji and Dahj are Data’s legacy, but so are the synths who destroyed Utopia Planitia. Elnor and Zhaban and Laris are Picard’s legacy, but so is the ethnic strife on Vashti and the hundreds of millions of Romulans he couldn’t save. Raffi’s legacy is her broken relationship with her son, but also the life of her granddaughter—could she have been conceived if Raffi hadn’t worked so hard to save Romulans like Gabe’s wife?

Seven of Nine’s legacy was Icheb, the boy she saved from the Borg and set free to pursue his own personhood, his own individuality, the way she had been. She failed, the way Data has, the way Picard has, but her failure doesn’t make the attempt any less beautiful.

The Borg have always interested me as an idea because they’re a funhouse mirror of the Federation. You will be like us, they proclaim, a black swarm that blights and erases everything it touches. A force of nature which annihilates the individual and replaces with the uniform. They don’t innovate; they assimilate. That is terrifying, and it is an inversion of the Federation itself. The Federation demands liberal democracy rather than machine-singularity, but the underlying philosophical ultimatum is the same: you will be like us.

Seven, Picard, Icheb, the xBs on the Romulan Artefact… all of them experienced the most profound violation, the deepest trauma. They lost the very essence of who they were—Seven and Icheb never really got a chance to know themselves before they were lost. They had to build themselves from the ground up.

So it isn’t surprising to me that Seven sought a legacy outside of the structures offered by the Federation. Of course she would want to forge her own path, embrace her individuality as much as possible rather than subsuming it to the Federation’s greater good. Of course she would spend the better part of two decades trying to find her own way to make the galaxy better. Of course she would kill someone who endangers all of that.

To paraphrase Picard himself, what Hamlet might have said with irony I say with conviction: what a piece of work is Seven of Nine? I am so proud to know her. She isn’t interested in asking, let alone demanding, that anyone be like her. Her individuality is sacrosanct and so is everyone else’s. She might not know what form her individuality should take, not yet, but does anyone? Of course not. We’re working on it, always. Just as she is:

Oh, Seven. Perfectly imperfect. So very human.

So I put forth a challenge of sorts to our Voyager Book Club. I asked everyone to pick ONE Voyager fic that they consider to be their favorite. Now, you can imagine, this is pretty freaking hard! There are so many incredible fics out there. I didn’t say it had to be the best written, or the most in character. I gave examples such as: the one you read over and over or your go-to fic, however you want to phrase it. It was pointed out that a favorite fic can change every hour based on your frame of mind and what you are in the mood to read at any one moment. I get it. Even so….I challenged everyone to only pick ONE. And they did it! Or most of them! I got around 20 different favorites picked! So here is the list of our Favorite Voyager Fics, why they were chosen and by whom. Happy Reading!!

Note: Click on the name of the fic for a link to it! Also, this list is in no particular order.

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@curator-on-ao3: ‘Fragile Things’ by @mia-cooper

“Fanfic is about exploring possibilities. That’s what put this fic over the top to be my favorite. In Fragile Things, MiaCooper examines multiple versions of one relationship, pulling different threads to see how things unravel or knit together. It’s thoughtful, it’s meta, it’s realistic as hell, it’s damn good writing — it’s MiaCooper and it’s excellent.”

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@ariella884(yep, that’s me!): ‘2013′ by PCBW

“I had a hard time choosing my favorite (like most people here), mostly because as i was gathering them all from everyone else I kept seeing ones and going, ‘Oh! I love that one!’.  I also didn’t want to have any duplicates so I had to change mine a couple times, that being said, 2013 is easily one of my top three (which of themselves is almost impossible to pick just one. I’m lucky that my other two were chosen already and I didn’t have to!). I love 2013 because it is a modern AU, without being a completely modern AU. No, that doesn’t make sense. But you get our Janeway and Chakotay, Starfleet officers and all, and you get them in the modern world. It’s incredible! We see the challenges they go through of being taken from everything they know and put into a world that is pretty much unknown to them. Add to that the personal differences they have to work out together. Splash in the normal challenges that we all go through when trying to live a life in this day and age (jobs, house, money, love, family, etc). This is just an incredibly beautiful story that I have read many times and will continue to read over and over. It’s also a long fic and those are my favorite because I like to get completely involved in stories!”

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@mia-cooper: ‘Deceiving’ by QuantumSilver

“Because it starts with a canon event that is absolutely devastating and shows just how devastated Janeway and Chakotay are by it (and Tuvok and Ayala as well, though they only make a brief appearance). It shows Janeway at her absolute best - every last inch the captain, going above and beyond for her crew not just physically but emotionally in spite of the absolutely gut-wrenching cost to her - and it really kicks off with one of my absolute favourite tropes: mutual pining to the Nth Fucking Degree.

It has Chakotay being every bit the commander, backing her up even though he’s dying inside, and REFUSING to let her shut herself away even though he KNOWS she’s going to want to murder him for pushing and pushing and pushing at her.

And then OH MY GOD, he’s deliberately getting on her every last nerve just so he can wrench honesty from her because he knows if she doesn’t tell him how badly he’s hurt her, how she’s absolutely bottomed out because of him, she will never open up to him or anyone else again.

AND THEY DRINK WHISKEY OMG GIVE ME KJ AND C UTTERLY MISERABLE AND DRINKING WHISKEY LIKE IT’S WATER AND PINING LIKE FUCK AND NOT SAYING A WORD BUT BLEEDING TO DEATH FROM THE HEART AND I WILL DIE HAPPY FOREVERRRRRRR

I’m sorry for yelling but this fic makes me want to rip off my clothes and run up and down the street screeching how everybody should read it and they are just BRUTAL with each other and they STILL do not understand, refuse to, CANNOT understand, that the other would not just die for them but MURDER WHOLE FUCKING ARMIES FOR THEM and it’s tragic and devastating but then oH MY GOoOoOODDDDD

So that is my favourite fic and the one i read approximately every two months or more if i really hate my writing that day and want to torture myself with How It Should Be Done.”

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@bizships: ‘Fealty’ by MsDisdain

“My favorite story. I honestly don’t have to think about it. It’s one I always go back to.

I love the way the crew pledges their loyalty to her and the way subtle way they tell her that it’s okay that she’s happy too in that they effectively give her Chakotay for her birthday, by way of him “fighting” Tuvok(Starfleet)  for her hand.”

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@arcadia1995: ‘The Space Between’ by lauawill ( @joyful-voyager)

“The Space Between is a story I return to time and time again when I’m feeling down.  I like that it realistically portrays what might have happened between Janeway and Chakotay right after the returned home in Endgame.  I like that no one in the J/C/7 triangle ends up being a bad guy.  I like the hopeful ending and imaging what might have happened after the fade to black (lots of sex!!!)“

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@wishful-thinker-87 : ‘if you came this way’ by tree

“It’s always a go to for me, even though I don’t usually like AUs. The sex is intense and emotional. The characterization is pot on. And we get Phoebe being an awesome sister and some Chakotay/Molly bonding too. What’s not to love?!”

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BlackVelvet: ‘Bluffing the Crowd’ by Ralkana

“Even after years since i read this, just thinking about this story brings a warm fuzzy feeling to my heart and a huge silly grin to my face. I simply love it.”

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@purpledog47: ‘The Future is Ours’ by Dawn

“My favorite is most definitely Dawn’s ‘The Future is Ours. This is my one fic. It’s super long and it tells us what happened after Endgame and it has a little bit of everything in it: angst, romance, hurt/comfort, Q, babyfic, romance.” 

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@amoderngirl: ‘Time and Distance’ by northernexposure

“If I am ever loosing the thread with J/C, I can always read this and I am immediately in love again.”

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@coffeeblack: ‘Soft Light’ by northernexposure

“There are so many reasons why I love it that I can’t even, haha. I’ll start with: it was the first piece of fanfic smut I read, so I love it for that reason - my first time haha. More importantly, it is just beautifully, beautifully written - it’s plotted beautifully, it flows beautifully and the pacing is spot on. The author has complete control over all of that & over the language, which is just used masterfully. There’s so much subtley going on in this story too - the author doesn’t spell everything out for us and instead draws us to the details that reveal what is important - the beginnings of these two getting to know each other. Gosh, it’s so hard to articulate haha! But lines like this just make me shiver in delight for their beauty and what they reveal: “he was kissing her, with a lot more sweetness than was wise. Ah god, I could go on and on but perhaps I’ll finish with my favourite bit, which is when C feels that first stab of lust & realises she might too & tests his theory by blowing softly on the back of her neck. This moment, omg, the moment is just so beautiful, so quiet, so pointed and private and intimate. You really feel that moment as if you are there. Ahhhhh :)

Also….there are two sequels to it that are equally as wonderful ;)  

Oh and one more thing I adore about this story is the way that the C thinks he is lusting after KJ but it is quite obvious he loves her - even before they come together - but he hasn’t realized it yet. The way the author does this is just incredible - so deft! Everything for C is about taking care of KJ … it’s just beautiful.”

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@caladeniablue: ‘Lifeline’ by helenagray

“Why do I like that fic? An unfinished WIP at that (Started in 2013; last update in Jan 2019. No indication how many chapters to go.) The perfect serial story and that’s part of the attraction for me.

The first chapter sets the scene: raw Janeway, alone, without the backup of her ship, her crew or Chakotay. Bare of essentials and with only her courage and intelligence and sheer determination to help her survive, and even she wonders how long those will last her.

And while we learn about Chakotay and how he seeks her while the crew has to move on, I am drawn to Janeway most of all.

The fic jumps back and forth across locations and in time from that first chapter to catch up with it again some 20 chapters later, but there is no jarring. The reader knows immediately what KJ is experiencing , but the past events that led to that situation are as important, and that’s one of the many attractions of this story. No overlong flashbacks, no tedious info dump. It’s all layered, making one wait for the next chapter and the next one, while knowing all the time where KJ has ended up.

The writing is gorgeous, which is a bonus. And it is pure J/C, distilled to its purest by separation.  Perfect.”

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@keiraniels: ‘Bad Ensign’ (Series) by @curator-on-ao3

“Ok so I chose Curator’s ‘Bad Ensign’ because I come back to it often - - it’s such a freaking brilliant idea that I can 100% imagine being canon, and it inspired so many Voyager Bookclubbers to write Bad Ensign stories”

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@cnrothtrek: ‘War Torn’ by @curator-on-ao3

“Why? I had the pleasure of beta reading this story, and I am so glad that I did. It has a great plot, is well-written and perfectly paced, and is hard to put down. The way it pulls together two pieces of canon backstories for Miles O’Brien and Kathryn Janeway is genius. The characters feel so real and their voices can be clearly heard in the text. And the supporting characters of Captain Benjamin Maxwell, Will “Stompie” Kayden, and Molly Walsh are incredible. The story is intense, absorbing, and emotional. I just can’t say enough good things about it.”

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@theshortywrites: ‘The Dragonfly Oath’ by Koneia

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@emmikamikatze: ‘All the Good Things We Never Did’ by northernexposure

“This story brings me to tears, makes me smile and shiver and fear and worry. It’s given me phrases that won’t leave me, that keep repeating itself in my head even months (years) after first reading it. There’s just the right amount of show trivia to make it a fanfiction, but little enough to make it a unique and original story. ne makes me fall in love with these characters all over again as if I didn’t know them beforehand.

This story is special and precious and it speaks to me on so many levels I can hardly comprehend how genius it is. It’s a literary masterpiece of fanfic if there ever was one.”

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@missmil: ‘Here I Stand’ by lauawill

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@manalyzer13: ‘Gravitation’ by northernexposure

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@grace-among-the-stars: ‘Filling the Void’ by Spiletta42

“Filling the Void is the one fic I always return to. It has my fave ships, JC, PT and D7. Minor characters play major parts and it is just funny. It makes me laugh every time. 

JC’s relationship is really explored from all angles, this is not just your average, ‘the crew get them together fics’, it is so much more. It has sexual tension, smut, humour, sadness and is pure JC BLISS. It always cheers me up and I was so happy when Spiletta42 added it to Ao3 because this meant so many more people would find it.”

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Anonymous: ‘Bent, Not Broken’ by @killermanatee

“This is an incredible hurt/comfort Janeway/Chakotay fic. The story is painfully written from both characters’ perspectives, showing how each is suffering in a different way from the traumatic event that has occurred. In the end, their love for each other will help them come together and they will both be able to heal with time, comfort, and support from one another. This is a beautifully told, emotionally heavy story of one couple’s love overcoming tragedy. It is my favorite Janeway/Chakotay fic, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to read a heartbreaking yet fulfilling story.”

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@minakotenjou: ‘Mysterious and Curious’ by H4TO8

“It was so hard to choose - there are a lot of incredible fanfics out there. This was one of the first…shall we say spicier J/C fics I read and for some reason I still think of it often. It’s great smut for sure, but I think it stuck with me because of how it all gets tied together at the end.”

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@leisylaura: ‘The Bitter End’ by @mia-cooper

“We have post endgame books but not one about the original timeline, I remember reading “The bitter end” and thinking “this is it, this is what happened”.  I cried from beginning to end.”

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@killermanatee: ‘The Dying of the Light’ by @cnrothtrek

“This fic is such a gorgeous piece of art. I hadn’t seen the TNG episode before reading it and when I did watch it I was very disappointed because this fic is just on such a completely different level. The storytelling is so delicate and intriguing, that combined with the poignant and elegant writing style, so that it was impossible to put my phone down. I can’t recommend this fic highly enough.”

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@cheile: ‘Marooned’ by Soliquilii9 (aka Running Horse)

“I love how she makes the story unfold in slow steady measures.  Also, she filled in the gaps left by the writers in regards to his heritage by using information from her own Cherokee background and it is done naturally (not in an info dump type manner). “

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2.25 Resolutions