Janeway Offers to Mediate the Ancient War

Star Trek: Voyager: Ragnarok
By Nathan Archer
ISBN: 067152044X

Chapter 10 is Janeway putting her offer on the table and getting slapped for it. She broadcasts to the whole battlefield. Clear voice. Federation starship Voyager. Neutral party. Ready to help negotiate.

Then she waits.

Nobody is listening

No reply. Kim tries a tight-beam hail to the nearest ship. A P’nir heavy cruiser. They refuse contact. Janeway tells him to try a Hachai ship instead.

That one answers. The viewscreen fills with an alien bridge. A Hachai commander sits in a transparent globe at the center. Other Hachai work stations on multiple levels. Fat bluish-gray bodies. Stalked eyes. Four multi-jointed arms. Just like the doll. Just like the mummies.

Seeing them alive is oddly comforting. It softens the memory of those dried little bodies in the tunnel.

The commander is not comforted by Voyager’s presence.

“Your transmissions are not wanted. We will not listen to any of your P’nir trickery.”

Janeway insists they are neutral. They do not want anyone to die for nothing.

The Hachai cut her off. They assume Voyager is a P’nir trick. Distraction. Lure. If Voyager is truly neutral, leave immediately. You are not welcome.

Janeway tries again. The commander gives a final warning. Stay and they will treat Voyager as hostile. Screen goes dark.

Kim tries to hail again. Refused.

Warning shot

Paris shouts. A Hachai dreadnought breaks formation and charges toward Voyager. Red alert. Maximum shields. Janeway orders another hail mid-attack.

Tuvok reports fire. Multi-frequency phased energy beam. The screen flares red. Bridge lights dim as power floods to the forward shields. Voyager absorbs the hit without damage.

Then the Hachai ship veers away. Warning shot. Extreme range. Immediate turn aside. Chakotay and Tuvok agree.

Janeway asks about the weapon. Not a true phaser. Similar but more primitive. Coherent energy, not monopolaric. You can shift the phase for different effects. Heat. Cutting. Blasting. No stun setting. No disintegration. Just blast.

Nobody in this cluster developed the Kawamura-Franklin circuit. Phasers never spread here. Their primary armament is weaker than Federation weapons. Voyager’s shields handled the shot easily.

But Tuvok adds context. At extreme range. Against sustained assault, Voyager’s shields would drain power fast. Hachai and P’nir shields are tougher than theirs. They could survive serious bombardment for hours, not years.

That opens a door. Voyager could stay and talk to one side while the other shoots. Not normal diplomacy. Nothing about this situation is normal.

Janeway asks the big question. Could they survive long enough to reach the globe in the center and find out what it is?

Tuvok hesitates. He hates imprecise answers. Finally he admits the odds are several thousand to one against.

How this war actually kills ships

Chakotay wants to know why, if the beams are weak. Tuvok explains. The phased-energy weapons mostly herd enemies. Real damage comes from other tactics. Trap a ship in sustained crossfire until shields overload. Crush vessels between overlapping shield fields. Use pressor beams to ram torpedoes or kinetic weapons through shields. The energy beams rarely finish anyone alone.

That is why the battle is stable. It takes careful maneuvering to kill one ship. Everyone else maneuvers to avoid getting trapped.

Janeway watches the screen. A Hachai dreadnought herds a P’nir cruiser against a smaller Hachai ship. Three P’nir ships close in. The whole mass swirls. Thousands of ships playing this deadly chess game.

Paris asks the uncomfortable question. What if they picked a side? Side with the P’nir and break the deadlock?

Chakotay asks why the P’nir. Paris says because the Hachai just shot at them. Chakotay says it was only a warning.

Neelix looks desperate. Janeway asks if he would pick the Hachai. He would. So would she, thinking of the family in the tunnel and the rag doll. But she does not know the P’nir yet. Everything has been from the Hachai side.

Neelix says she would not like the P’nir as much. Then he sees Janeway’s face.

“You aren’t going in there, are you?”

Horrified. Chapter ends on that note.

My take

This chapter is great at making the war feel real without Voyager firing a shot. The Hachai response is believable. Six hundred years of paranoia. Of course they think Voyager is a P’nir trick. Of course they shoot first and explain later.

The weapon breakdown is nerdy in a good way. It explains why this battle can run for centuries. Nobody can land a knockout punch easily. It is all positioning and shield exhaustion.

Janeway’s moral math is clear. She has to try. She also cannot fly Voyager into the meat grinder. The globe and the tetryon beam pull her toward the center. The Prime Directive and survival pull her back.

Neelix realizing she might go in anyway is the perfect cliffhanger. He wanted to sell guns to these people. Now he wants to be anywhere else.

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