Line #48 Fanfic/RocketshipVoyager


1	First serialized in the 1954 September to November editions of ''[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E13FarBeyondTheStars Incredible Tales of Scientific Wonder]]'', ''Rocketship Voyager'' is the classic SpaceOpera that inspired the [[Series/StarTrekVoyager 1990's UPN television series]].
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3	...or, if we can break {{Kayfabe}} for a minute here, it's a fanfic that takes the basic plot of the opening episodes of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' and re-tells it in the style of a 1950’s sci-fi short story.
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5	The complete story is posted [[https://archiveofourown.org/works/26418445/chapters/64360138 here]] and [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13695627/1/Rocketship-Voyager here.]]
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7	----
8	!!''Rocketship Voyager'' provides examples of:
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10	* AndIMustScream: The Caretaker keeps his human specimen in a form of suspended animation that leaves the subject entirely conscious, but cuts off all sensory input. He casually notes that she probably went insane decades ago.
11	* AsteroidMiners: The Maquis are a militant faction of Belters who are resisting the forced evacuation of the Asteroid Belt, which have been claimed by a hostile alien race on Jupiter. At the start of the story, ''Voyager'' is returning to Earth with Maquis prisoners and several holds full of [[AntiMatter contraterrene]] and other minerals [[{{Plunder}} confiscated from the mines]].
12	* AtomPunk: ''Voyager'' has everything from atom-tipped torpedoes to a radium-heated coffeemaker in the captain's cabin, and her {{space marine}}s are equipped with micratomic grenades, bazooka-launched A-rockets and nuclear-powered flamethrowers.
13	* BabyFactory: Captain Qu's plan for the women of the ''Valkyrie''.
14	* BattleTrophy: Janeway has the shipbuilder's plaque of Chakotay's former command, the rocketship ''Valjean'', mounted in her wardroom. When he suggests she should take it down [[EnemyMine in light of their current alliance]], she refuses."I'm quite proud of that trophy. The captain of that rocketship [[WorthyOpponent gave us a good deal of trouble]], as I recall."
15	* BigDamnHeroes: Let's just say certain people don't know how to appreciate a good HeroicSacrifice. [[spoiler: Though considering that the Psiborg intend to use Janeway to help them subject Earth to a FateWorseThanDeath, that's just as well.]]
16	* BigDumbObject: The Array is a cylindrical portal over fifteen miles long, in orbit around a [[UsefulNotes/BlackHoles black star]]. MadeOfIndestructium by an [[{{precursors}} unknown race]], its exterior surface is [[DerelictGraveyard covered with spaceships]] that have been seized by SpacePirates, stripped of technology and reconditioned into habitats for the inevitable HubCity that grows up around the PortalNetwork.
17	* BizarreAlienBiology: As a half-Venerian, B'Elanna has three lungs and retractable "arboreal claws" in the palms of her hands.
18	* BringIt: After defeating Chakotay in battle, Captain Janeway has the shipbuilder's plate of the ''Valjean'' hung up in the officer's wardroom. This gets a CallBack when the Hirogen Alpha decides that ''Voyager'' is [[WorthyOpponent worth his attention]].
19	-->"My name is Karr D'knn. You are worthy prey, Captain Janeway. I shall hunt you down, and your bones will adorn the bulkhead of my ship."\
20	"You're welcome to try," was Janeway's retort. "There's room for another shipbuilder plate in my wardroom."
21	* CallARabbitASmeerp: Justified. What we would call "computers" are "electronic minds", but this is because this version of ''Voyager'' is so low-tech that "computer" retains its original meaning, i.e. a person who does mathematical computation.
22	* CatholicSchoolgirlsRule: To Paris, part of B'Elanna's appeal is that she attended a convent school.
23	* ChekhovsGun:
24	** The decompression-shelter balloons, first seen in Chapter II, reappear in Chapter XII [[spoiler: when Janeway is rescued.]]
25	** In Chapter IX, Janeway considers buying their passage home using the contraterrene they have stashed in Cargo Bay One. [[spoiler:In the climatic battle, it makes a handy WeaponOfMassDestruction when they need to destroy the Psiborg cube-ship.]]
26	* CollapsibleHelmet: Discussed -- it's mentioned that [[AwesomeButImpractical practical experience]] has caused the {{space marine}}s to replace their fault-prone collapsible helmet with a sturdy AsteroidMiner helmet made of armorglass and [[MadeOfIndestructium boron carbide]].
27	* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: The coveralls worn by Voyager's personnel. Space-black with red shoulder-boards for command rank, blue for maintenance, [[LabcoatOfScienceAndMedicine white for science and medical]], and [[RedShirt red for those handling munitions or hazardous waste]].
28	* DeadpanSnarker: Not hard to find on this rocketship, though Chakotay and Paris are notable experts.
29	* {{Deconstruction}}: The goals of the Psiborg Collective aren't that different from the Overlords in ''Literature/ChildhoodsEnd''.
30	* DeliberateValuesDissonance:
31	** Women under thirty are referred to as "girls", African-Americans as "Negroes", B'Elanna is a "half-caste" and Chakotay is a "Red Indian".
32	** Tom Paris thinks that Seska has "the cunning and ruthlessness that [[DirtyCommunists came naturally to a Russian]]”.
33	** The reason Captain Janeway never married Mark Johnson was because she would have [[QuittingToGetMarried had to resign her commission]]. It was a literal CareerVersusFamily choice because the Bureau of Eugenics would forbid her from having children even if she did resign now, having spent so much time exposed to cosmic radiation.
34	** Even Captain Janeway thinks that men have a natural aptitude for tinkering with engines, so doesn't regard it as strange that the Glowing Gang is an all-male clique, and is not willing to force the issue when B'Elanna Torres wants to work in Engineering.
35	*** All that said, the series' treatment of women would still be considered FairForItsDay. Fittingly, as it's meant to be written by "[[MoustacheDePlume K.C. Hunter]]", Major Kira's counterpart from Benny Russell's universe.
36	** The PrimeDirective is a ban on miscegenation (albeit referring to [[BoldlyComing interspecies]] rather than interracial romance).
37	* {{Dissimile}}: Nee'Lix explaining the workings of a holodeck to Chakotay.
38	-->"It's just like your Illusionarium! Well, not like it actually... a bit more advanced. A lot more advanced. In fact, it's so advanced it's not like your Illusionarium at all."
39	* EverybodySmokes: Appropriate for a story written with 1950s sensibilities. Scientist Janeway keeps a pack of cigarettes in her office, and Chakotay, when offered refreshments, asks for and visibly enjoys a cigarette. When the crew relaxes in a shipboard lounge, the air is hazy with smoke.
40	* FactionMotto
41	-->''To Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before.'' It had been the motto of Spacefleet since its foundation in 1966, when the only space exploration Humanity had to boast of was the Big Wheel space station, a struggling colony on Luna and the Martian fiasco.
42	* FailedFutureForecast: Parodied
43	** A significant number of Janeway's crewmembers hail from nations that no longer exist in OTL 2020, including East Germany, South Vietnam, and Yugoslavia. Seska is explicitly an expatriate Soviet Russian. UsefulNotes/ColdWar politics remain with an Eastbloc "Sino-Soviet Union" whose efficient command-controlled economy dominates in the fields of electronics, computers and the safe production of nuclear power.
44	** The first astronaut in space is an American woman, and there's a [[CentrifugalGravity Big Wheel]] SpaceStation and a colony on the Moon by the mid-Sixties.
45	** Earth is on the verge of famine with a [[OverpopulationCrisis population of over seven billion crammed into megacities]]. It's implied the Green Revolution never got started due to war and political conflict. The birth control pill has been invented but [[FutureSocietyPresentValues it had little effect on the morals of society]].
46	* FanOfThePast: Much of Earth's history and culture has been destroyed by three world wars, ideologically-motivated {{Book Burning}}s, and a general apathy towards the past in a [[AtomPunk technological future]]. Over the objections of Spacefleet psychotechs, Captain Janeway tries to preserve some of it by decorating her officer's wardroom with artefacts and books she has salvaged from the [[RuinsOfTheModernAge ruins of European cities]]. She's surprised when Chakotay quotes ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'' to her, which he read in the [[GreatBigLibraryOfEverything Arkive]] of a colony ship he was traveling on.
47	* FantasticShipPrefix: ''UNRS Voyager'' (for United Nations Rocket Ship).
48	* FoldThePageFoldTheSpace: A variation; while explaining various theories of FasterThanLightTravel to Tom Paris, B'Elanna Torres uses a [[ZeeRust slide rule]] to demonstrate folding space and a bubble of alcohol floating in zero-gravity (from a squeeze-tube of [[MilitaryMoonshiner illicit moonshine]]) to demonstrate a warp bubble.
49	* TheGreys: The Caretaker bears a strong resemblance to this old Terran image of aliens. It's suggested he, or his species, might be the source of that image.
50	* HalfHumanHybrid: B'Elanna Torres has a Brazilian father and a Venerian mother, and was raised in a convent after her [[DisappearedDad father took off back to Earth]], until the day her mother turned up with an AmazonBrigade, slaughtered the convent sisters and dragged her into the [[VenusIsWet jungle]] to be trained as a Amazon warrior.
51	* HaveAGayOldTime
52	-->Carey smirked at his gay outfit. "If you're wearing [[HawaiianShirtedTourist that]] to impress the ladies, Paris, you might as well go back to ''Voyager''."
53	* HeroicSacrifice:
54	** It sure looks like ''somebody'' is gearing up for one, as of Chapter X. [[spoiler: And follows through, in Chapter XI.]]
55	** Later [[spoiler: Carey]] will follow suit, by remaining in the engine room despite a radiation leak, to make sure power is available to the drive. Which, of course, is also [[CallBack reminiscent of]] [[spoiler: Spock's sacrifice]] in ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan''.
56	* HotTopicPhlebotinum: At least for the 1950's; Tech Lieutenant [=TuV'k=] is the ship's Tactical Psionics Officer, and Tom Paris brags about the transistors used on their [[MasterComputer Computer Deck]]. [[FantasticPlastic Plastisteel]] also gets a mention.
57	* HumanoidAliens: The work takes several species that were RubberForeheadAliens on the show and turns them into these.
58	** Nee'Lix and his people are smaller (three or four feet tall) and more rodent-like, with {{prehensile tail}}s.
59	** The Hirogen are seven feet tall and have claws, snouts, and long tails. They are explicitly described as [[LizardFolk looking like dinosaurs]].
60	** The Caretaker, as mentioned above, is basically a [[TheGreys Grey]].
61	* InTheStyleOf: Written in the {{retraux}} style of a 1950's science fiction magazine serial.
62	* InsistentTerminology: Janeway insists that the women of the ''Valkyrie'' did not mutiny; they "detained [their] officers." Notably, this was the wording in their acquittal.
63	* IWantMyJetpack: A 1954 sci-fi pulp set in the far future of the year 2020. Humanity has {{flying car}}s; [[MegaCity megacities]]; colonies on [[ColonizedSolarSystem Venus, Mars and the Asteroid Belt]]; and [[RetroRocket torchships]] powered by AntiMatter.
64	* ItWillNeverCatchOn: Tom's opinion of Hyun Kim's preferred video selection.
65	-->'''Kim:''' How about that new space opera series? ''A Trek Through the Stars''.
66	-->'''Paris:''' Come off it, Hyun! That show will never last.
67	* KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter: The only RayGun shown is a cumbersome crew-served weapon that's quickly destroyed by the SpaceMarines who are using flamethrowers and recoilless machine guns.
68	* MeaningfulEcho: "There are three rules about being a Spacefleet captain: always keep your coverall zipped up, go down with the ship, and never abandon a member of your crew."
69	* MeaningfulName: The Belter rocketship ''Valjean'', named after a [[Literature/LesMiserables righteous criminal on the run from overbearing authorities]]... someone was making a point.
70	* MeaningfulRename: On learning of the upgrades her ship will be receiving, Janeway mentally renames it from "Rocketship ''Voyager''" to "[[spoiler:Starship]] ''Voyager''".
71	* MercyKill: Janeway for [[spoiler: the Caretaker's human specimen.]]
72	* MythologyGag:
73	** When Captain Janeway first enters the Array, an ObstructiveBureaucrat grills her on a LongList of hazards her crew might have been exposed to, all of them {{Negative Space Wedgie}}s encountered on ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''.
74	** Ensign Kim encounters a psychic who foretells he will have [[ButtMonkey seven years of torment]] and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking won't get promoted either]].
75	** There's an UrbanLegend about an ensign on ''Enterprise'' who [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycia_Naff ended up with three breasts]].
76	** After getting into an argument with the Dianetics auditor, B'Elanna says to Chakotay that at least no-one is using his religion as a therapy tool.
77	** A former captain of Janeway's, "Qu," is described as a madman who believed he could alter reality with a snap of his fingers.
78	** How Space Lieutenant [[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS2E24Tuvix Tu'Vix]] dies: [[spoiler: cut in half.]]
79	** It's implied that the wine Janeway and Chakotay share was made by the Picard family.
80	** Chakotay describes Michael Jonas as an excellent mole. He means asteroid miner, though that's not the type of [[TheMole mole]] Jonas was in the TV series.
81	** At the holographic beach, three amphibians are looking plaintively at Janeway, apparently not for the first time.
82	--->'''Janeway:''' Shoo! I told you before, [[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS2E15Threshold I'm not your mother!]]
83	** Unlike her TV-series counterpart, Janeway is not about to let Nee'Lix become ship's cook.
84	** The ship's computer -- meaning literally, a person who does computations -- is named Creator/MajelBarrett (who voiced the Enterprise's MasterComputer).
85	** An unplanned, and unwelcome, haircut has Janeway grousing, "A bald captain? [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Maybe I'll start a fad.]]"
86	* NationalGeographicNudity: When B'Elanna is assigned a sleeping pod, she finds a pin-up left by the previous occupant: an actual ''National Geographic'' pic of a Venerian "Amazon warrior". She is not amused.
87	-->[The] female Venerian [was] bedecked in jewels, a sword harness, and not much else.
88	* NoodleIncident: Several in various characters' [[{{Backstory}} back stories]], including Paris's accident on Deimos and Chakotay's experiences in the Venerian War. Averted with Janeway's role in the ''Valkyrie'' mutiny, of which the full story is eventually told.
89	* NotSoDifferentRemark: Chakotay suggests that Janeway's motives in the ''Valkyrie'' incident were not unlike his own motives for joining the Maquis. She doesn't appreciate the comparison.
90	* NuclearTorchRocket: The Cochrane Drive uses "contraterrene" ([[{{Zeerust}} an old-timey word for]] {{antimatter}}) as fuel to accelerate between planets. The ship moves fast enough that it's built like a skyscraper to take advantage of the [[ArtificialGravity pseudogravity]] effects. It's also theorized that the slightest hiccup would blow the ship into gamma rays, but they have an emergency release lever to make people feel better about that.
91	* OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions: Zigzagged. Chakotay follows the spiritual beliefs of his Lakota ancestors, which is regarded as a [[LibertariansInSpace Belter eccentricity]] by Captain Janeway who has little regard for these wacky religious cults because she was raised as a Scientologist like most people on Earth. Agritech Keshari on the other hand wears a turban and believes in reincarnation, implying that she's a Sikh. The Catholic church is also making an aggressive push to gain new converts among extraterran races. HalfHumanHybrid B'Elanna Torres was raised in a Catholic convent on Venus, though she quickly hides her rosary when Chakotay comes to see her.
92	* OutsideContextProblem: ''Voyager'' is an early-[=21st=] Century torchship with no DeflectorShields, {{Matter Replicator}}s or UniversalTranslator, that finds itself on the far side of the galaxy where alien races have access to vastly superior technology like {{Tractor Beam}}s, ArtificialGravity, {{Holodeck}}s and FasterThanLightTravel.
93	* RetroRocket: The UNRS ''Voyager'' is a single-stage [[AntiMatter contraterrene]]-powered cigar-shaped torchship. In one scene, B'Elanna Torres is PlanningWithProps while explaining the theory of FasterThanLightTravel.
94	-->"Imagine this is ''Voyager''..." B'Elanna picked up her spoon, then reconsidered, replacing it with the squeeze-tube which was more appropriate to ''Voyager'''s shape.
95	* ShoutOut:
96	** One of Captain Qu's officers is Space Commander Adams, who shares a surname with the ship's captain of ''Film/ForbiddenPlanet''. Ensign Janeway's fellow mutineers are Alice Keefer and Eve Maryk, who share surnames with characters from ''Literature/TheCaineMutiny''.
97	** Several to Creator/IsaacAsimov:
98	*** Spacefleet's robots (including the doctor) are ThreeLawsCompliant.
99	*** Paris's family underwent a similar experience to that of [[Literature/TheCavesOfSteel Elijah Baley]], with his father losing his job because of technological advancement and the family ending in poverty. "Zymoveal," a yeast-based protein, is PovertyFood in both societies.
100	*** The theory that there might be a small habitable zone on the border between the hot and cold halves of Mercury harks back to an old Asimov short story.
101	*** It's suggested that the ''Voyager'' crew could establish a [[Literature/FoundationSeries "Second Foundation of Man."]]
102	** Creator/RayBradbury
103	*** Janeway's father is described as a "fireman" in the same sense as the firemen of ''Literature/Fahrenheit451'': he burns books. (And like the novel's protagonist, saves a few for himself.)
104	*** A tri-vid on the man-eating lions of Literature/TheVeldt is not recommended for children.
105	** The two space marines mentioned by name are [[Literature/{{Lensman}} Sergeant VanBuskirk]] and [[Literature/StarshipTroopers Corporal Juan Rico]].
106	** [[Creator/RobertAHeinlein Heinlein]]'s [[Literature/TheGreenHillsOfEarth Noisy Rysling]] is among the artists B'Elanna hears and recognizes in a playlist of post-atomic music, along with Creator/TheodoreSturgeon's Starr Anthim. She doesn't know what ''Music/AlsoSprachZarathustra'' is [[Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey doing on the playlist]], though.
107	** Among the sentient species in Earth's solar system, Janeway lists "...some [[Literature/ThePuppetMasters nasty slugs on Titan]] you wouldn't want to meet."
108	** When Nee'Lix is pointing out all the different alien species aboard the Array, he mentions that [[Literature/MissionOfGravity the ones that look like centipedes come from a fast-spinning, high-gravity world]]. (For bonus points, their home planet is called "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS6E12BlinkOfAnEye Kelemane's World]]"; "Kelemane" seems to be a play on "[[Creator/HalClement Clement]]".)
109	** [[Literature/TheDayOfTheTriffids Triffidus]] are among the plants Keshari is growing in the arboretum. As are some [[Film/AttackOfTheKillerTomatoes suspiciously large tomatoes.]]
110	** The early space astronauts include [[Film/FrauImMond Friede and Wolf Helius]].
111	** Among the pictures of past space missions displayed in ''Voyager'''s mess is the spaceship ''Kosmokrator'' orbiting Venus, apparently a "grudging nod to Eastbloc efforts". An expedition to Venus on a ship of that name was the plot of ''Literature/TheAstronauts'', first book of Polish writer Creator/StanislawLem.
112	** Non-SF ShoutOut: Creator/KurtWeill, with Hyun Kim singing his apt "Lost in the Stars."
113	** Keshari, and later Janeway, quote from the story of the Monkey Bridge in the ''Jataka Tales''.
114	* SolarSystemNeighbors: Earth, Venus and Mars are joined in the [[TheFederation Tri-World Federation]], designed to give the latter two worlds equal political and military status with humanity so they won't be overwhelmed by an overpopulated and expansionist Earth. Venerians are a primitive matriarchal ProudWarriorRace, while Martians are the equivalent of Vulcans (with some Creator/RayBradbury influence). There are also the (unseen) Jovians who [[ExtremophileLifeforms live in the upper atmosphere of Jupiter]].
115	* SpacePirates: The Briori hire the K'Zon and Hirogen as mercenaries to kidnap slaves and steal technology, using the galaxy-spanning PortalNetwork they control.
116	* StayInTheKitchen: In early space travel, when a pilot's size and weight were critically important, women were pioneering astronauts. By Janeway's day, however, drives are more efficient, making astronauts' physical size irrelevant, and there is a strong push to limit women to less dangerous roles. A recent UN study suggests that command track should be limited to men, because of "their natural authority." You can guess how Janeway feels about this.
117	* ThisCannotBe: The reaction of the ''Voyager'' crew when encountering a TractorBeam, FasterThanLightTravel and HyperspeedEscape for the first time. The first means the ability to switch on a gravity well and focus it on a single point, the second is theorized but impossible under current Earth technology, and the last should have left the crews of the alien vessels [[InertialDampening splattered against the bulkheads]].
118	* TwinTelepathy: The Delaney twins share it, and are involved in an experiment on the subject, with Jenny on ''Voyager'' and Megan on Mars. Paris suspects something is very wrong when Jenny says she can't "hear" her sister.
119	* UnderestimatingBadassery: Seska thinks Chakotay could easily defeat Janeway for control of ''Voyager'', as he's a fighter by training and Janeway is a scientist. Chakotay reflects that he had expected to defeat her in their last encounter for just that reason, right up until she torpedoed his rocketship.
120	* VenusIsWet: In keeping with the story's {{Retraux}} aesthetic, Venus is a rainy world filled with swamps and jungles (and a race of RubberForeheadAliens who serve as a substitute for the Klingons).
121	* WorthlessYellowRocks: On Earth, the artificial production of diamonds is so common that diamonds are no longer regarded as precious gems, and are used solely for industrial purposes. But on Venus, the native Venerians still regarded diamonds as rare and valuable when the first Terran colonizers arrived, so the Terrans cut some ''very'' lopsided deals with the locals.
122	* WorthyOpponent: In conversation with Chakotay in her wardroom, Janeway acknowledges he was one of these.
123	* YourMom: Nee'Lix attempts this against the Caretaker, only to be informed, "I was born in a cloning tank so I have no maternal ancestor."
124	* ZeeRust: ''Voyager'' has a MasterComputer that takes up an entire deck and has only recently been upgraded from vacuum tubes to transistors, and an 'Illusionarium'--a three-dimensional theatre with interactive couches that provide sound, touch and smell; coordinated with a cabinet-sized microcomputer that uses punched cards and is repaired with a soldering iron.

Context Fanfic / RocketshipVoyager