History Main / CyborgHelmsman

** The Navigators are ''mutant'' helmsmen, capable of navigating through the Warp and allowing the Imperium to exist. Many officers in the Imperial Navy are so heavily augmented that they're often described as being more part of their ships than autonomous beings.
** Also, some ship captains, especially on Adeptus Mechanicus ships. One such captain appears in the first ''Literature/GauntsGhosts'' book.

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In nearly every [[StandardSciFiFleet Ship Based]] Science fiction novel of relative hardness, your search for the most heavily augmented individual will usually end at one of two people, the [[GrizzledVeteran grizzled war veteran]], or this guy, the ship's navigator. Why? Maybe they need more brainspace for all the calculations necessary to adjust the ship's position in Warp Space, or they need better reaction times, or maybe they really need those ElectronicEyes to find and follow the normally invisible "Safe Zones" in hyperspace.

Appropriately, the word "cyborg" derives from "cybernetic organism". Where does "cybernetic" come from? The Greek word "kybernetes", which means helmsman. Which makes this one a recursive trope.

See also SpaceshipGirl.

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* The pilots in ''Anime/MartianSuccessorNadesico'' all have visible implants in their arms that let them interface with ships and mechs. On Earth they're strictly military, but they're used for more mundane purposes on Mars - so when Martian civilian Akito is zapped to Earth during a Jovian attack, everyone assumes he's a deserter from the war.
* ''Manga/OutlawStar'' has Melfina, an artificial human, as a helmsman.

[[folder: Comic Books]]

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': The fellow revolting slave who piloted Diana's revolutionaries' first couple of ships and acted as an AcePilot for the rebellion had cybernetic implants on the sides of her head.

[[folder: Film ]]

* ''Film/FlightOfTheNavigator'' [[PlayingWithTropes plays with this a little]], where the robotic ship needed to store some of its data in a human brain while it rebooted itself. After redownloading that data a little HumanityIsInfectious takes place and the ship develops some very human emotions and personality.

* ''Film/{{Alien}}'': Before Prometheus was released, the Space Jockey was intended to be this; H.R. Giger designed it as essentially an extension of the ship. Dallas remarks on how the creature appears to be fused into the chair.
* ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'' has a background character called 0718 who has a cybernetic implant in the back of his head. Interviews with his actor say it's like a miniature version of the Enterprise computer and that he's telepathically connected to the ship's computer at all times.
* Fully robotic but one of the functions of astromech droids like R2-D2 in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' franchise is to plug into a ship and be its copilot.

[[folder: Literature ]]

* The Navigators of ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'' arguably qualify, albeit without the ''usual'' biomechanical augmentation; they use [[AppliedPhlebotinum Spice]].

* The Master Captain in ''Literature/GreatShip'' verse. While she still looks fairly human on the outside, she is [[LargeAndInCharge far larger than a normal person]] to help disperse heat as her skin is jam packed with computers, AI assistants, and communication systems to interface with the [[PlanetSpaceShip Great Ship]].
* Ship captains and pilots in ''Literature/TheNightsDawnTrilogy'' have extensive neural implants for controlling the ship and mapping out trajectories. Physically modified {{Cyborg}}s are primarily used as engineers and for patching up damage - some of them are so heavily modified that they don't even need space suits to survive in the vacuum, instead just needing a bottle of oxygen.

* In the ''Literature/RevelationSpace'' universe, the crews of interstellar spacecraft have formed their own culture, and most of them are cyborgs. A more extreme example is John Brannigan, a starship captain who became infected with a [[TheVirus nanotechnological virus]], [[BodyHorror causing his mind and body]] to merge with his ship in a very disturbing way. Even before the virus, he is described as being more robot than man, with the only visible trace of his humanity being his dreadlocks and the skin around his highly [[GasMaskMooks modified]] [[ElectronicEyes face]].
* The pilot of the Vandervacken in ''Literature/SpaceAssassin'' is a robot, whose body is permanently connected to the pilot's seat due to it's navel having a wire hooked into it's control panel.
* ''Literature/VattasWar'' uses implants that allow access to certain funtionalities not normally allowed, as well as allowing mental activation and use of some controls.
* In the Literature/VorkosiganSaga, starship pilots need special implants to interface with ship's navigation during wormhole travel. A recurring character is Arde Mayhew, who is unable to receive upgraded implants for medical reasons and so can't pilot more recent models of ship, and in ''Literature/TheWarriorsApprentice'' faces disaster with the decommissioning of the last remaining ship he is able to pilot.
* A number of mentions regarding cyborg pilots are made in ''Literature/TheMoonIsAHarshMistress''. They never appear directly but are apparently superior to normal pilots. This doesn't stop the protagonist from regarding them with disdain, referring to one as a "wired-up ex-human".

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* ''{{Series/Farscape}}.'' The living ship Talyn (who is himself a cyborg) forms a telepathic link with his captain by way of a cybernetic interface implanted at the base of the captain's neck. It's less for navigation than a instinctual need for a captain due to his native biology with a healthy dose of genetic engineering thrown in.

* ''Series/Foundation2021'': "Modern" Imperial jumpships are crewed by genetically engineered [[SpacePeople Spacers]] who can handle the mental stresses of jump, but older ships [[spoiler:like the ''Invictus'']] needed a cyborg navigator with his brain wired into the main computer. It's possible for an unmodified human to chart a course, but has a high chance of killing them [[spoiler:as seen when Pirenne flies the ''Invictus'' back to Terminus.]]

** In spite of ''Star Trek'''s usual stance on [[NoTranshumanismAllowed cybernetics and transhumanism]], Geordi [=LaForge=] wore a VISOR that connected to his brain and allowed him to see. In the [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration first season]], his role on the ship was as the Helmsman, although he eventually graduated to Chief Engineer.
** And in ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', Seven of Nine uses Borg technology to create Voyager's Astrometrics lab, a 3D map of the space they're traveling through.

** Pilot Keyla Detmer has cranial and ocular implants, but it's unknown if they grant her any special qualities. She was established as an outstanding pilot prior to suffering the wounds that the implants repaired.
** Paul Stamets gets cybernetic implants in his arms to facilitate his connection to the spore drive. He's able to get rid of them in season 4, when Adira finds an alternate connection method.
** The Borg Queen in ''Series/StarTrekPicard'' was able to hack and control the ''Stargazer'' due to it being based on technology from a salvaged Borg cube and was able to mentally control ''La Sirena'' after being plugged into it to help with a slingshot maneuver.

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

* The Navigators of ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' are ''mutant'' helmsmen, capable of navigating through the Warp and allowing the Imperium to exist. Many officers in the Imperial Navy are so heavily augmented that they're often described as being more part of their ships than autonomous beings.
** Also, some ship captains, especially on Adeptus Mechanicus ships. One such captain appears in the first ''Literature/GauntsGhosts'' book.

[[folder: Web Comics ]]

* In ''{{Webcomic/Homestuck}}'', this is the ultimate fate of the Psiioniic, with a dose of BodyHorror thrown in for good measure - with his incredible psychic abilities, he's implied to not only steer but also power the Condesce's flagship, to which he is literally fused.

** ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' has Keyla Detmer at the helm, who also happens to have cranial and ocular implants. However, these mostly just serve as repairs to the damage that she suffered in battle and so far they have not been shown to confer any special benefits.
** The Borg Queen in ''Series/StarTrekPicard'' was able to hack and control the Stargazer due to it being based on technology from a salvaged Borg cube and was able to mentally control La Sirena after being plugged into it to help with a slingshot maneuver.

* In spite of ''Franchise/StarTrek'''s usual stance on [[NoTranshumanismAllowed cybernetics and transhumanism]], Geordi [=LaForge=] wore a VISOR that connected to his brain and allowed him to see. In the [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration first season]], his role on the ship was as the Helmsman, although he eventually graduated to Chief Engineer.
* And in ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', Seven of Nine uses Borg technology to create Voyager's Astrometrics lab, a 3D map of the space they're traveling through.
* ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' has Keyla Detmer at the helm, who also happens to have cranial and ocular implants. However, these mostly just serve as repairs to the damage that she suffered in battle and so far they have not been shown to confer any special benefits.

* Katherine Kerr's ''Polar City Blues'' has Lacey, a former (space) Navy pilot who has a neural-link port implanted in the back of her neck for connecting to ships, which has since sealed over.

* Fully robotic but one of the functions of astromech droids like R2D2 in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' franchise is to plug into a ship and be its copilot.