Incident at Arbuk Ch. 19: Voyager Blocks a Sperian Warship
Star Trek: Voyager #5 - Incident at Arbuk
By John Gregory Betancourt
ISBN: 0671520482
Previous: Neelix and the Power Supply
Next: Empty Galley
Chapter 19 is pure standoff energy. Voyager is repaired enough to fight, but not enough to win a straight shootout. Janeway’s answer is to get in the way and hope Sperian culture gives her time to think.
Janeway races to the bridge
Sozoas does not want to leave the conference room. Janeway suspects the mind-meld side effects are wearing off on him too. Argumentative mode incoming. She tells Tuvok to drag him to the bridge if needed.
She expected this. That is why she waited to pull the black box until repairs were mostly done.
On the bridge, the new ship closes fast. Silver sphere hull with two smaller spheres on the sides. Gun ports. Two or three times Voyager’s size.
Chakotay reports weapons armed, course set for the three disabled Tech Faction ships.
Janeway gives them the benefit of the doubt for about ten seconds. Then Dvorak calls it. Photon torpedoes locking on the nearest target.
“Full impulse, Mr. Paris. Put us between that warship and the disabled vessels.”
Tom complies. Voyager leaps into the line of fire.
No reply, no fair fight
The warship decelerates. Weapons lock shifts to Voyager. Shields up.
Chakotay says they emerged from warp too late to detect early. Harry has no transmissions yet.
Janeway hails. Identifies herself and Voyager. Silence.
She asks Chakotay about capabilities. Voyager can outmaneuver them. They outgun Voyager. A heads-up firefight is a loss.
Paris preps evasive maneuver Omega Twelve. Janeway will not sit still and get carved up. The disabled Sperians and her own crew depend on it.
Marta shouts they are almost in range. Tuvok and Sozoas arrive. Sozoas still holds the black box.
He needs to speak to the other ship. Janeway agrees. Anything to defuse this.
Ritual insults and Ferengi energy
Sozoas and the warship captain Sezau trade formal bows and a conversation that sounds like a street fight. Tuvok translates the highlights.
Sozoas identifies himself as subLeader of the warp-acceleration project. Sezau leads an Action Group. Sozoas calls the Military Faction dishonorable, treacherous, and inefficient. Motives based on greed, executed without skill.
Tuvok notes this is standard complaint registration between Factions, not a personal meltdown.
Chakotay mutters that Neelix was right. Janeway compares it to Ferengi haggling. The more she learns about Sperians, the less she likes them. Sozoas is tolerable mostly because Tuvok’s mind rubbed off on him. She did not like what Sozoas’s mind did to Tuvok.
Weapons power down while the argument runs. Janeway pulls Chakotay and Tuvok aside for translation and strategy.
How long can this go? Hours. Days in rare cases. It usually ends when someone collapses, concedes, superiors intervene, or one side takes arbitrary decisive action.
Which is most likely here?
“Arbitrary decisive action.”
“An attack?”
“Precisely.”
Four ships, zero reliable allies
Janeway asks about the three Tech ships. One already has warp. Another in twenty minutes. Third in a little over an hour. Four ships together could beat this warship.
But Janeway does not trust the Sperians to help. Chakotay cannot believe they would watch themselves die.
Tuvok agrees with Janeway. Sperians move slowly even in crisis. They will likely watch Voyager fall, then argue with the warship one by one until they are gone too.
Tuvok adds a silver lining. Sperians are not suicidal. Faced with a fight they cannot win, the Military ship may back down. Voyager outguns them right now, in a specific way.
He means the warp acceleration tube. B’Elanna slaved controls to Voyager before beaming back.
Janeway hears near miss and flinches. Shock waves could hit them too. One shot only.
Tuvok clarifies. Not a near miss. Point the tube straight at them.
Janeway almost refuses on moral grounds. Tuvok stops her. He is not saying fire. Just aim. The Military built this weapon. They know what it can do.
Chakotay grins. Bluffing. He thought Vulcans did not bluff.
“Perhaps you have never played poker with a Vulcan.”
Janeway orders the bluff. Power-up simulation says two hours twenty-seven minutes. Chakotay whispers orders to Harry at communications. Tube controls transferred there. Do it quietly. Tip the hand and they attack now.
Janeway watches Sozoas enjoy the argument. Stems pointed at the screen. Voice full of rage. Sezau matches him gesture for gesture. Two kids fighting over a toy, if the toy were a planet-killing research project.
Keep it up, Sozoas. She is counting on his argumentative nature.
And she hopes Tuvok’s agreeable Vulcan side does not show up at the wrong moment.
My take
This is the chapter where Betancourt’s Sperian culture pays off. The yes-no ritual from chapter 17 was funny. This is funny and terrifying at the same time. Formal insults pause a weapons lock. That is worldbuilding with teeth.
Janeway’s read on the Tech Faction ships feels painfully honest. Voyager keeps trying to protect people who may not protect themselves. That is very early Voyager.
Tuvok’s tube suggestion is the big character beat. Old Tuvok would not talk about aiming a mass driver at a crew so casually. Is it mind-meld residue or cold math? Janeway cannot tell. Either way, the bluff is the only move that uses what they have.
The closing image of Sozoas and Sezau bickering while Harry quietly slews a doomsday device into position is dark comedy at its best.