#lieutenant torres

[best-star-trek-character]

VOY Semi-Finals

[mandareeboo]

I've deduced that the Voyager's higher staff can be boiled down to:

Janeway: I would like to solve this peacefully

Tuvok: Captain I would prefer we have a way to paralyze the creature if needed / Captain please don't touch that

Chakotay: Captain I've found a way to go around the thing REALLY FAST

Torrres: Captain have we considered murder

[pikechris]

my favourite panels from star trek 2022 & star trek defiant: a collection aka i will not stop trying to make you read these

[bumblingbabooshka]

Do you think Kes' ability to pick up on things so quickly is linked to her being an Ocampa? Like, since she's 2~ years old in canon (and has distinct memories of her father) I imagine her species doesn't spend much time as children and I wouldn't imagine they'd have formal schools (like entire buildings for schooling) and would instead learn from like, primarily parents or other elders. In that case learning things very quickly would be extremely beneficial for their survival. Kes: Oh yes, childhood...what a lovely few days~ Kes was a baby like for a day and then the next day she was up and ready to learn. Kes meets Naomi and every day that passes she becomes more and more amazed that she's still a baby. Wow! It's been like two months and she still can't do anything?? The doctor told her it was normal but wow. What I'm saying is they should have had Kes as a jack-of-all-trades character who could slide into pretty much any of the teams on Voyager. The Doc misses her when she's not in sickbay though!

[milkloomis]

Do do do do do

Voyager crew, currently have tng in process (and I posted spirk ones in the past)

[traxanaxanos]

Re-watched the first 20 minutes of Caretaker to see Lieutenant Stadi and her minute and a half of screen-time, as you do, and I’m trying to contextualize her scene with Tom within the conversations I’ve been seeing on my dash recently about both Tom’s treatment of B’Elanna and the show’s treatment of B’Elanna as always angry and unjustifiably so, and that the anger is because she’s a Klingon, who can only ever be angry.

The first half of Tom’s conversation with Stadi is:

"Stadi, you're changing my mind about Betazoids." "Good." "Oh, that wasn't a compliment. Until today, I always considered your people warm and sensual."

So Tom here is using a base stereotype of Betazoids to inform his interactions, and specifically his sexual advances with a Betazoid woman, and then later repeats this pattern with a different set of stereotypes in his interactions and sexual advances with B’Elanna, where he continually reduces her to his (and the show’s) base stereotype of Klingons and Klingon women specifically. I’m not really sure that the writers knew they were making this a reoccurring trait of Tom’s, given that the Stadi interaction is basically nothing and was all the way back in episode 1, but it still is then a reoccurring trait of Tom’s in that he interacts with women with alien heritage by reducing them to whatever stereotype about their species is most convenient and sexually alluring to him.

Betazoids as a fictional species mainly suffer from the misogyny in their writing; they’re at the nexus of many of Roddenberry’s sexual interests. They can read your deepest desires, they become bonded to a partner, they don’t have cultural taboos around nudity, they have looser sexual mores than the average American viewer. I think they also tend to be exoticised, not so much with the few Betazoid men we’ve seen, but when they’re women. Specifically between Deanna (played by an British-American woman of Greek descent) and Stadi (played by an American woman of Italian descent), there are these occasional attempts at coding Betazoid women as vaguely Mediterranean, exotic and different, but not too exotic. Different in a way that is sexually alluring but “safe” to a White gaze. 

Tom notes that Stadi is not performing his stereotyped version of a Betazoid correctly to try and bait her and shame her for not being receptive to his advances. He uses a similar tactic in many of his interactions with B’Elanna, only instead tells her that she is performing his stereotyped version of a Klingon correctly to shut her down, belittle her, and minimize any conversation she tries to have that may be a little uncomfy for him. B’Elanna is just being angry which is how all Klingons are. B’Elanna just has a violent personality, like all Klingons do. B’Elanna is flying off the handle over nothing, just like a Klingon would.

This stereotyped version of Klingons is rooted in the racism that is frequently present in depictions of Klingons, which is rooted in the creators racism towards people of color. B’Elanna is explicitly Latina, and the way the show and Tom positions her as being too angry pulls from the “fiery Latina” stereotype. Klingons are also either explicitly or implicitly Black, and the anger and hostility Tom reads onto B’Elanna maps onto a white racist stereotype of Black people being inherently violent or destructive.

I don’t think the show is aware that Tom has this racist essentializing tendency, and if it is, it doesn’t necessarily think its a bad thing. Trek is a series whose reach exceeds its grasp - Infinite diversity in infinite combinations has become a cornerstone of the show (or at least in the imagined truly utopian version of the show), but Trek so often uses broad stereotypes to talk about groups of people, and frequently seems unaware that this is reductive at best and outright racist at worst. At the end of the day most of the people in charge of Voyager had the most in common with Tom Paris.

[shmorp-mcdurgen]

A couple small character refs I made, featuring alt au Cesar and Gabriel

[idol--hands]

Star Trek: Defiant [#7, pt.2/2]

[whirligig-girl]

Lieutenant Harry Kim, Lieutenant B'ellana Torres, and Ensign Eaurp Guz sharing the title of women enjoyager of the starship voyager. Ensign Guz and crewman Seven of Nine sharing the title of autism girlie.

in this au:

Mellanus joins the Federation in 2360 when it first develops warp drive, rather than waiting until the Dominion War.

Guz was born 8 years earlier and never worked an internship in the space program, having made the decision to leave for Starfleet earlier. starts off in engineering but eventually shares Operations Officer duties with Kim, as Kim's role increases. She also builds models of the alien ships encountered throughout Voyagers' journey... a slow hobby that's excellent at passing time.

Harry Kim gets promoted in season 2 and in season 4.

Seven of Nine holds the rank of Crewman in season 4 and wears a teal uniform. She might get a provisional field commission as an officer later on. She has more visible implants, both borg and starfleet designs. Instead of heels, she has Advanced Knee Replacements.

Maybe Slamtha is a Maquis who ends up on Voyager? That's a whole different story...

[vorta-vortex]

B'elanna: I failed tuvok’s safety training course today

Harry: Why, what happened?

B'elanna: Well, one of the questions was 'In case of a attack, what steps would you take?'

Harry: And?

B'elanna: Well apparently "FUCKING LARGE ONES" isn't an acceptable answer.

[best-star-trek-character]

Round Two

[quarkanar]

Tuvok: *peaceful walking*

Someone: We need security, on the double!

Tuvok: *concerned walking*

[dax9616]

Today is Seven of Nine day!!

To honor today, I’ll be sharing some of my favorite Seven moments.

To kick things off, here’s Voyager 5:17 ‘Course Oblivion’.

[yes-i-have-thoughts]

Eye for an Eye and the World Goes Blind

Something inspired for the alt AU by @shmorp-mcdurgen that I didn’t have to piggyback off an anon for this time, wahoo!

Also first time writing for both Gabriel and Seth weeee

SUMMARY: Gabriel’s the first person to find out what really happened to the old lieutenant and live to tell the tale. They had help, of course...But from the last person they expected to help them.

TW: PANIC ATTACK, BLOOD, LOSS OF A LIMB, MENTIONS OF STARVING, BRIEF USE OF GUN, IMPLIED (BRIEF) DEATH

If this is what a panic attack felt like, they vowed to never again berate any officer having one in front of them.

Gabriel’s heart seemed to be pounding in their ears, matching along to the blood pumping from where their lower arm used to be. When their heart wasn’t deafening them, the alternate was; it was screaming about how sorry it was and how hungry it is and how it’s not its fault, how he did this to it, he was to blame when it “just wanted to help”. Who “he” was, Gabriel didn’t know and didn’t think they wanted to. Not when the pleading creature damn near killed them and ripped part of their fucking arm off.

And breathe. Despite how fucking hard it was to do that right now. Gabriel had to force themself to take deeper breaths than the shallow ones a panic attack caused, yet the alternate’s rambling would knock their concentration and start it up again.

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry, I’m-so hungry-where did you go? Don’t leave me alone again, please, don’t leave me alone again...”

‘Just let me leave.’ Gabriel fought the urge to bite their lip until it bled as they shuffled away from their pathetic hiding spot behind a wall. ‘Please, lord, let me leave.’

The alternate’s own stumbling footsteps hid Gabriel’s as they went for the front door. They were convinced they were free and clear, leading to them picking up speed.

They hit a can with their foot.

Their blood ran cold as it noisily rolled across the tile floor of the house’s kitchen. For a moment, neither being made a sound; so Gabriel chanced taking another step foreword. The sound put the alternate in motion and Gabriel barely made it out of the room when they were flattened and struggling to keep teeth away from their neck with only one hand. The alternate’s speech was gibberish now, straight-up shrieking in Gabriel’s ears like an excited, starving dog. The lieutenant's hand shaking only made them more sure that they were seconds away from death. Part of them already threw in the towel and almost let their hand slip off the alternate’s teeth-

“HEY, UGLY!”

The alternate jerked away from Gabriel’s neck and looked up. The creature used Gabriel’s collarbone as a launching point, leaving them to curl up in pain for a moment as a dull crack came from whoever the alternate impacted with. 

Someone started nudging them to try and get their attention. “Get up,” they urged them, their voice low but shaky. “Come on! Blunt force trauma isn’t gonna keep him down forever, get up!”

Gabriel tried, to their credit. Apparently they weren’t fast enough for their rescuer, who pulled them the rest of the way to their feet by their shirt collar (ow) and shoved them towards the door. “Get out of here. I’m gonna give that guy someone in better shape to chase aft-oh, fuck.” Gabriel swayed on their feet when they turned around. A man they were somewhat familiar with by now stood with a shotgun in his hands, staring at where their arm now ended. The alternate behind him was now on its feet and crouched as if ready to lunge. Luckily for Seth, apparently he could read eye signals. He’d barely made eye contact with Gabriel for a minute before turning around and catching the alternate’s teeth with his gun. They got caught in a scuffle for a moment until Seth managed to wrench his gun away again and slam the business end of it into the alternate’s neck, making it stumble back and giving him enough time to grab Gabriel’s shoulder and practically drag them out the door.

“I need a hospital-”

“Later.” Seth practically threw them into the side of a white van, which they did not appreciate. “Get in.”

“I’m not bleeding to death in a shitty white van!”

“Would you rather bleed to death between the jaws of that animal?”

There was a loud crash, the sound of something throwing itself against a heavy wooden door. Gabriel’s blood- and saliva-covered hand slipped on the passenger-side door’s hand before they caught it and threw it open.

The van was in motion almost as soon as the door was closed again, flying out onto the road. Gabriel tried to gather their wits and ignore the steady bleeding from the stump, watching the world go by the window.

Seth was the first to break the silence. “Are you okay? Besides the obvious.”

“Oh, yeah, I just love bleeding all over a strange cunt’s van.”

“Having a sense of humour is a good sign.”

Gabriel chose to ignore that in favour of focusing on their stomach churning. “Where are we going.”

“Well the hospital is a good thirty minute drive away, but the apartment is less than five. Pick one.”

“Do you know how to stop a stump from bleeding out?”

“I’ve had practice.”

Gabriel glanced back at Seth. He didn’t return the favour.

‘Not going to ask about that.’

“How did you know someone was in there?”

“You’re talking pretty casually for someone who lost half his arm.”

“I’m trying to stay awake.” Gabriel shuddered when their voice hit a higher pitch. This isn’t good. “Either I keep talking or you drive to the hospital with a dead body.”

“You were screaming bloody murder. I didn’t-had I known specifically that it was you, I would have left you there.”

Seth cringed at his own words. Gabriel raised an eyebrow. “Would you have.”

“I...Don’t know.”

An awkward silence. The Christmas lights they occasionally drove by cast brief rainbows over the two and painted Gabriel’s bloodied stump in pretty colours.

They’re cold, tired and discombobulated. The van’s warm as Hell. Falling asleep now means death, but they were struggling to keep their eyes open.

“Gabriel.”

Seth’s eyebrow furrowed in confusion when he glanced at them. “My name,” they specified. “It’s Gabriel.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“I don’t know. In case you need to identify me, I guess.”

“That’s a comforting thing to think of.”

“I’m cold.”

Seth didn’t respond to that, though the van noticeably was picking up speed as Gabriel’s world faded despite their will to stay awake.

-

The last thing they expected was to wake up again, let alone on a ratty couch in a just as ratty apartment. Their brain felt too big for their head and the rest of their body felt like it was made of stuffing.

They tried putting a hand to their head, only to find their arm ended sooner than they remembered. Their brain pounded as they fought to knit together memories that seemed incredibly elusive. Almost the entire last evening was completely lost on them.

“Oh hey, you’re awake!”

Another person walking into their field of vision broke their concentration. He crouched down beside them, a respectable distance away, and gave them a small, worried smile. “How’re you feeling?”

“Like shit.”

“Yeah, he said that you would.” The stranger rubbed the back of his neck. “You uh-got really lucky.”

“Oh, is th’ bastard up?”

“Sarah!”

Another person walked over, this one a lot less respectful of Gabriel’s personal space. Her smile was also a lot less friendly. “Hi.”

The first person Gabriel had been speaking to yanked Sarah back by her shoulder and began scolding her, despite the fact she clearly wasn’t listening. Gabriel covered their eyes with their remaining arm and decided to try sleeping off their “I feel like a stuffed animal” feeling.

They can deal with their new surroundings later.

[fate-motif]

how the voyager characters would catch covid

janeway: is very well protected but the fact that she’s working around the clock all the time with everyone means it was an inevitability that she was gonna get it

chakotay: same as janeway but he’s working less than her. plus the fact that he’s her second in command means they have to be around each other a lot

tuvok: he’s always in the front lines so he probably gets it pretty early on

tom: probably doing some dumb heroic moment he did not plan beforehand and thus exposed himself

b’elanna: trying to rescue tom from his dumb heroic moment and since she also did not plan it she also exposed herself

harry: he’s fucking fantastic at protecting himself but someone close to him (either tom or janeway) were not watching out for who they could potentially infect so he gets got

neelix: seriously believes it’s not going to be as bad for him, he has a strong immune system and he’s a talaxian!!! [cut to him in sickbay]

kes: gets it nursing neelix

seven: her borg augmentations couldn’t keep up the antibody protection with every new variant coming out

the emh: gave a virtual version to himself to bitch about how no one cares about his safety as a hologram. when it's removed from his matrix he decides to give himself long covid as well go continue to bitch.

[nonepizzawithleftglitter]

I randomly saw your blog and its Ayala-themed mission statement, and I was greatly amused! I believe his only spoken words in the entire series were "Right here" right? (I could be misremembering) but brother was there from day one!

I suppose they never gave him a canonical given name, though I understand the Ayala (/Aiara) surname is Basque. Got any headcanons??

I'm glad I could amuse you. I actually have slacked off on the Ayala posting for a while, gotta get back to that...

He speaks a handful more words in the series. But only roughly a dozen overall, spread over four episodes. (Tbh I wasn't fully sure if that information was correct, I had to cross check with memory alpha.)

While they never gave him a name in canon, the fandom did that for them.

He is pretty much ubiquitously referred to with the first name "Mike". (Greg/Gregory/Gregor used to be common a while ago too parallel to Mike, but has since largely dropped out of use.)

Mikel/ Mixtel would be the basque form of Michael/ Mike (according to Wikipedia). But I'm not sure if it can be shortened to Mike?

And I do hope we've gotten over anglicising names by the end of the 24th century!

(In my own culture shortening names isn't really a thing anymore? If you meet someone named Mike it's likely that that is their legal name, not some variant of Michael so idk how it works.)

But anyways, it is such a deeply entrenched fandom that has existed for longer than I have been alive that I have never thought about it before you asked!

But now I definitely imagine Mikel 🙈 so thank you.

This also got me thinking: often we see new federation colonies that are largely influenced by specific cultures, such as Chakotay's home colony. (There are probably also those with a dozen different species and several dozen human subcultures.)

But it is completely possible that Ayala could be from a majority or even fully Basque colony.

It's also not totally inconceivable that another Basque man might have ended up with the last name Torres (Portuguese/ Spanish/ Katalan according to Google so not far geographically). Especially by the 24th century.

What I am saying is, what if Ayala and Torres are from the same colony? Specifically Kessik IV, B'Elanna's canon, (almost) completely human home colony.

I also have a (sorely neglected) sideblog (@the-ayala-archives) for every piece of Ayala content I can find to collect it, because tumblr search sucks. Most of it is my own stuff though because there just is not a lot out there.

Also thank you for the ask!