Cover Art by Gigi Kiersten
"I apologize in advance for this very inappropriate behavior," [Seven of Nine] said quietly before closing her eyes and pressing her lips to Samantha's. Samantha Wildman seemed to resist for approximately one-half of one second, before she started to kiss back, moving her own hands to Seven's back. After nearly a full minute, Samantha finally pulled away.
"Apology accepted," [Samantha] said before she started to laugh, putting one hand on the side of Seven's face.
A Fire of Devotion is a 4 part Star Trek: Voyager story, part Slash Fic part Fix Fic, by Zeus Parker that primarily focuses on re-telling the final four seasons of the TV series and how they might've been different had the characters Seven of Nine and Ensign Samantha Wildman had entered a romantic relationship. Other elements of the show are changed to varying degrees, including the running sub-plot of the Borg Degradation (what Seven of Nine calls it), the author's attempt to come up with an in-universe justification for the Villain Decay the Borg suffered on Voyager rather than fixing it or ignoring it.
It can also be found in its entirety on the author's Fan Fiction.net page, and it is currently being serialized on Tumblr.
Although not part of the series proper, Parker's other Voyager fic, Jetrel Redux, takes place in the same alternate continuity as A Fire of Devotion, and retcons Neelix's backstory, as well as the reasons for the Talaxian/Haakonian war. Elements of that fic are referenced throughout A Fire of Devotion, with their ultimate payoff being in the chapter based on the episode Homestead.
The full story's title, as well as each of its four parts, take their names from songs by the band Florence + the Machine. The main title comes from the chorus to the song What Kind of Man, while each part of the fic (one part = one season of the show) takes its subtitle from the chorus to The Drumming Song. A third Florence song, Strangeness & Charm, features on the fic's "soundtrack" which can be found on Spotify.
A Fire of Devotion provides examples of the next tropes:
- Adaptational Heroism: Played straight with the Holograms of the Hirogen, who despite taking similar actions, are not responsible for what their breakaway Lokirrim holograms have done, and are willing to listen to reason. In canon, their leader, Iden, was practically a cult leader, who mind-raped the Doctor and refused to listen to anyone but himself. Here, he and the crew of Voyager are capable of establishing a Holographic Homeworld where they can live in peace. Then the trope is averted partially, as Iden and Weiss reveal at the end of the chapter that they're just waiting for Voyager to leave so they can get back to planning to exterminate the Hirogen. It's only partially averted, as Iden has acknowledged now that while they are planning to genocide the Hirogen, there are organics who aren't bad, and they don't need to purge the whole galaxy of anything made of meat. That sounds bad, but it is a step up from one-note ax-crazy.
- Almost Kiss: Happens to Seven and Samantha a couple of times, but after they've already been a couple for awhile in-story. Doesn't make it any less annoying though.
- Anti-Climax: The reveal of Seven and Samantha's relationship to the rest of crew. The author has said in comments and on forums that he considers it to be the fic's biggest misfire.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: The Equinox EMH deletes himself, incorrectly believing that's what Captain Janeway will have to done to him, despite the Voyager EMH assuring him they won't. This act leaves Voyager's Doctor saddened and confused.
- Big "NO!": The last thing Chakotay hears before being shot mid-transport is Neelix screaming this.
- Bittersweet Ending: Voyager does make it home, just like in the show. Unlike in the show, however, Captain Janeway, her boyfriend Jaffen, new father Tom Paris, recurring gold shirt Lydia Anderson, Equinox survivor Marla Gilmore, and Ensign Vorik end up stuck in an alternate universe just minutes after reaching the Alpha Quadrant. There is hope, however, that they can make it back.
- Crossover: A chapter in Part 2 features characters from Enterprise, while another in Part 4 have Seven of Nine and Captain Janeway interacting with a past version of Jadzia Dax from Deep Space Nine.
- In the re-written finale, the Voyager crew come across a Cyberman ship from the Doctor Who universe. This is not a surprise to anyone who read the Author Notes for Part 1, where the author states that for purposes of this fic, the Doctor Who/TNG crossover comic from IDW is treated as canon.
- Deadpan Snarker: Pretty much everyone, even down to some of the villains, gets at least one Deadpan Snark moment in. The author admits in one of the Author's Notes that one of his writing influences is Gilmore Girls. This probably surprises no one.
- External Retcon: Because the story is in continuity with the Doctor Who crossover, this story explains that the reason that the Borg get progressively less impressive and sillier after Wolf 359 is that as one last "screw you," the Cybermen planted a computer virus in the Borg systems that slowly makes them dumber and less efficient.
- The reason no one remembers the events of the show "Star Trek: Enterprise," is that the NX-01 suffered a problem and... well, even the Time Agents involved aren't sure of exactly what happened, since there was a small explosion and then the NX-01's empty hull was found in the Delta Quadrant by Voyager. Eventually, it's revealed that Time Agents (later) would steal the ship and crew, and return all but Phlox and Archer to their respective time with a little tampered memory. Thus the events of that series never happened, and history wouldn't remember Jonathan Archer other than as a brief footnote.
- Gender Flip: Axum, a character from the Unimatrix Zero two-parter is changed from male to female for the fic.
- Humongous Mecha: One of the tricks Tom Paris and Seven of Nine develop to help the Free Borg of Unimatrix Zero fight off the Queen's incursions in the chapters based on the two-part episode Unimatrix Zero.Tom Paris: What do resources matter in a virtual reality? You just need to be able to convince the people there that they can operate these things, and they'll be able to walk all over any Borg attackers. Literally.
- I Meant to Do That: Seven's opinion of the Borg when she meets the Queen for the first time is that this trope is something the Queen is overusing. She's very disappointed, since she was used to the type of Borg who were, to put it mildly, competent.
- In Medias Res: While most chapters in the story are adaptations of episodes of the show, some chapters avoid adapting the whole thing and will start part way in. Probably the biggest skip comes in the chapter based on Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy which starts just after the previous episode of the series (Barge of the Dead) had ended, and jumps straight to the Doctor explaining to the Captain what has gone wrong with his daydream program.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Jonathan Archer's paranoia is portrayed as a very bad thing that would eventually prevent the formation of the Federation. This is true, but it's hard to not feel that it's at least somewhat justified when he learns that three of his crew are actually time travelling secret agents from the future who came back specifically to sabotage his ship, one of whom is an alien cyborg related to classified alien corpses found on earth. It's easy see where he's coming from when he has a full-on mental breakdown later on.
- Tuvok admits that Archer's paranoia regarding the Vulcans did have a small bit of merit, as it's a matter of historical record that the Vulcans held back certain information that the humans could have used to build a working Warp 5 Engine much earlier. Braxton dismisses this, saying that it's not set in stone what would have happened.
- Lampshade Hanging: Too many times to list, but the author does this not only with some of the sillier aspects of the TV series, but even pokes fun at its own genre in Part One.
- Like Brother and Sister: Marla Gilmore and Vorik, though this is cited more often than sighted.
- Mama Bear: In the chapter based on the episode Memorial, Naomi is affected by the titular memorial, causing her to view herself as a soldier murdering civilians. Seven of Nine, Naomi's step-mom at this point (Step-Mama Bear?) naturally does not respond politely when Neelix suggests they try to fix the memorial transmitting the false memories of the crew committing war crimes into their heads instead of shutting it down.
- Nerds Are Sexy: This is implied to be part of why Seven and Samantha are attracted to each other. Though Samantha admits that one of Seven's other attributes, plays a role as well.
- Noodle Incident: Depending on how much of Voyager you remember. If you have a good memory, almost none of the reference to unadapted episodes/episodes that took place before Seven of Nine joined the crew will come across as Noodle Incidents. If your memory is spotty on the other hand, you may be tempted to spend some time on Memory Alpha to figure out if what the author is referencing happened on the show or was something he made up.
- Obnoxious In-Laws: Samantha Wildman's mother is this to Seven of Nine. Only partially justified due to said mother having lost a brother at Wolf 359. A twin brother. Still, hard not to feel uncomfortable when she really starts laying into Seven. In front of Naomi (See Tear Jerker section).
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: Seven of Nine, as a result of dating the parent of a small child, inadvertently calls out Tom Paris for swearing during the chapter based on The Killing Game. Fast forward to the chapter based on Shattered, over three years later in-universe, and future adult Naomi (makes sense in context) manages to bring it up.
- One-Steve Limit: At one point, the EMH encounters an alien who is named Phlox, like the Denobulan that they encountered among Archer's crew. He even notes how strange it is.
- In the finale, the EMH asks that they call The Doctor by his real name, as he also goes by "The Doctor," as his name. As Seven points out, though, "The Doctor," is also the only name they knew that individual by. Tom suggests they just call the alien "The Gallifreyan," as that is his race.
- The Power of Love: Averted in the chapter based on Infinite Regress. The EMH laments that Seven and Samantha's love for each other isn't enough to fix what's happening to Seven as a result of the anti-Borg virus she contracted.
- Precision F-Strike: Each of the 4 parts has one, following the (apocryphal) MPAA rule regarding F-bombs and the PG-13 rating. In order, each part's F-Strike goes to Captain Janeway, B'Elanna Torres, Maxwell Burke (from the Equinox two-parter), and Seven of Nine.
- Rage Breaking Point: Samantha Wildman has to be talked down from one of these by Captain Janeway after Seven of Nine has been taken by the crew of the U.S.S. Equinox.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Captain Janeway verbally rips the Borg Queen a new one in the chapter based on Unimatrix Zero Part 2, including comparing the (now former) greatest threat the Federation had ever faced to "a cat falling off the back of the couch" and acting like it meant to do that. The Borg Queen demonstrates just how far she's fallen thanks to the Cyberman virus that she's rendered speechless by Janeway's verbal smackdown.
- Chakotay gives one to Captain Archer in Part 2. He was under the influence of a truth serum at the time so you know he meant it.
- Relationship Upgrade: Captain Janeway and Jaffen go from being Temporary Love Interests in the show proper to a full on couple all the way through the finale.
- Sexy Discretion Shot: Except for one scene in Part 4 that greatly pushes the boundaries of its T rating, all of Seven of Nine and Samantha Wildman's more intimate moments happen between scenes or chapters.
- Shipper on Deck: Both Harry Kim and Captain Janeway openly root for Seven and Samantha's relationship to succeed.
- Snow Means Love: Multiple references are made to Seven and Samantha going to locations known for having snow on the Holodeck, including their honeymoon.
- Tempting Fate: After dealing with Archer, Janeway comments how she's glad she won't have to deal with another insane captain for a while. The next chapter starts off with Captain Ransom and the Equinox sending a distress call...
- To Absent Friends: During a "Farewell to the Delta Quadrant" party, Captain Janeway tries to do this by naming every Voyager crewmember who died since the ship had left Star Trek: Deep Space Nine for its fateful mission.
She only gets out about a dozen names before she starts choking up, but Tuvok finishes what she started. - Violently Protective Girlfriend: Seven and Samantha could be this to each other on occasion, the latter nearly injuring herself trying to learn how to fight after the event mentioned in the Rage Breaking Point entry.
- Weirdness Magnet: Seven expresses concern that she's become this. The EMH assures her she's being superstitious, to which Seven responds by casually pointing out how many times she's been kidnapped/held hostage since joining the Voyager crew.
- Will They or Won't They?: Averted as Seven and Samantha are fully a couple by Chapter Five of Part One.
- You Need to Get Laid: The EMH suggests Seven of Nine use some erotic holodeck programs to help her deal with her confusion regarding her feelings towards Ensign Wildman early in the story. It doesn't work.
