Chakotay's Bridge Crisis: Starburst Maneuver Into the Sun
Star Trek: Voyager - Invasion #4: The Final Fury
By Dafydd ab Hugh
ISBN 0671541811
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Chapter 10 puts Chakotay in the command chair with half the senior staff missing and a bridge crew that is basically Maquis with commissions. He wants to pace. He wants to scream. He sits with his legs crossed and projects calm he does not feel. That gap between inner panic and outer control is the whole chapter.
Hunters and buffalo in space
Six Fury ships play a game Chakotay calls hunters and buffalo. Voyager dodges around the planet, keeping the aliens in a line so only the lead ship can fire. One bad turn and four or five ships get clear shots. It is exhausting.
Dalby shows real initiative when Chakotay muffs a turn and luffs the ship in its own wake. Three aliens lock on. Dalby punches straight up without orders. Shots miss by meters. Chakotay praises him and privately kicks himself for thinking like a Maquis raider instead of a Starfleet commander.
Dalby wants to fight. Chakotay says no. They still have Janeway, Tuvok, and Neelix down below. Chell suggests warping around the system to hide behind the sun. Chakotay shuts that down too. The Furies have warp. They would just follow.
Then Chakotay realizes something absurd. His bridge is entirely Maquis. His wildest dream of stealing a Federation starship came true, and he cannot use it for anything. He almost smiles.
Torres suggests the unthinkable
Jarron, quiet Bajoran navigator, mumbles about faking destruction with debris. Not enough. They would board to check. Torres starts to speak, stops, starts again. Chakotay draws her out. Her Klingon side takes over. If the Furies think Voyager burned up in the sun, they will stop looking.
Chakotay asks if she means flying into the sun. She says their shields might hold where enemy hulls would crush. They are a lot like Klingons, half of Klingons anyway. Simulation says they die in 42.6 seconds at max shields. He asks about draining every power source on the ship into shields. Replicators, holodeck, life support, everything but the Doctor. New math: almost 150 seconds. Two and a half minutes can be a very long time.
Paris walks onto the bridge from sickbay. He knows the starburst maneuver. Chakotay offers him helm. Dalby flushes. Paris, wisely, declines and watches. When the aliens finally explode outward in a cone and all six fire at once, Dalby sees it. Starburst.
Chakotay drives through the one gap in the formation. The Furies keep firing and hit their own ships. Three damaged, one destroyed. Nobody on Voyager fires a shot. Paris tries not to laugh. Chakotay wants to laugh too.
Songbird out
Torres finishes shield modifications. Chakotay orders metasphasic reconfiguration. She realizes what he is planning. Directly into the sun. He opens a channel and performs. Screaming, beet-red, spittle flying: “We will never be captured alive! Songbird out!” Then he sits down calmly and wipes his mouth.
Course engaged. Full impulse into the sun. The crew takes several seconds to move. Chakotay notes a Starfleet crew would have been three times faster. That stings.
The sun fills the viewer. Torres chills the ship to minus fifteen before dumping environmental power into shields. The Doctor calls to complain about crew collapsing from cold, scans the log, announces they will all be dead in moments, and signs off. Pursuit confirmed. Chell cannot decide if the Furies are firing. Paris does deadpan enemy captain: “You can’t commit suicide. We have to execute you.”
Chakotay reinforces aft shields, not forward. Would you rather be fried or shot? Paris asks. Fair question.
They thread a solar collector grid with eight to ten meters clearance. Chakotay puts Paris on helm because either Paris makes it or they all die. They clip through. Paris grins sheepishly. Metasphasic shields come online on mark. Full reverse at the photosphere. Warp engine power into shields. Fifteen Gs forward for a tenth of a second. Bridge crew goes down. Paris, sitting against the bulkhead, is the only one still functional.
My take
This is one of the most entertaining command chapters in the book. Chakotay gets to be theatrical and tactical in the same scene. The fake suicide broadcast is chef’s kiss drama. “Songbird out” is petty and perfect.
The Maquis bridge crew angle is great character work. These are capable people, but they are not Starfleet smooth. Chakotay notices the difference and files it away for Tuvok’s training program. That detail makes the crew feel like they are still becoming Voyager instead of already being Voyager.
Torres finding her footing again matters too. She hesitates, then delivers the sun gambit. Chakotay praises initiative twice in one chapter. She needs that after the confidence hit she has been carrying.
The starburst friendly-fire moment is pure comedy in a life-or-death fight. Ab Hugh lets the scene breathe without undercutting the danger. The Furies are still a real threat. Voyager is still one mistake from death.
And then they actually fly into the sun. Not as a metaphor. Literally. The collector grid sequence is tense. Paris taking helm at the last second pays off his earlier restraint. Next chapter, he has to hold the ship inside a star while everyone else is unconscious. No pressure.
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