Themightytom wrote: ↑2019-06-26 11:50am
I'm kicking around an idea for a fanfic where the Enterprise is given the mission to track down Chakotay because the Voyager was damaged by the Gem' Hadar (It's a long story)
I toyed with the idea originally of having JUST the stardrive section snagged by the caretaker, because Picard responsibly left it, under the command of Worf with Counselor Troi and Doctor Crusher, at Deep Space 9 with all the families on board.
What would that even look like, what resources does the Star Drive section have, as compared to an intrepid and in addition to having Picard to command
The Enterprise in Voyager's place is always an interesting scenario, as long as its not just an easy pretext for cheap Voyager-bashing.
Picard will bring greater command experience, and probably greater experience as a diplomat and tactician, but less of a broad scientific knowledge than Janeway (but he'll have Data to make up for that for him, and Geordi as well depending on the scenario). He'll probably also be somewhat more aloof and distant from his crew (outside his core bridge officers), and the likely larger crew will increase that. While morale seems generally good under Picard's command, I'm not sure his more aloof style will be better than Janeway's when they're cut off from the Federation so completely. There was a sense of community at times on Voyager that I'm not sure Picard's Enterprise will have.
Since much of the Voyager cast will be the same (Chakotay, Torres, Tuvok, and potentially Neelix, Kes, Paris, the Doctor and Seven will all be present), the biggest difference character-wise is going to be Picard's command style and experience vs Janeway's. I don't know that either is necessarily better (when both characters are written at their best, that is, which they often aren't), but it is very different. Picard probably won't rely on technobabble as much, but will perhaps do better (although be more conservative in his approach) when it comes to diplomacy.
One thing about the Enterprise being bigger is that they actually have the crew and resources to eventually set up their own colony if they can't get home, at least more than Voyager does. Though I don't know if Picard would ever be open to that. He'll also have more support craft, though Voyager managed to replace its regularly.
On the flip side, the star drive can't land on planets, so they are at a disadvantage compared to Voyager there. Voyager is also a faster ship, and generally more advanced, but as Tribble noted, its bio-circuitry seems a bit unreliable. Probably a new technology they haven't worked the bugs (no pun intended) out of yet.
Scenario 1 Riker is a casulty of the transition, Geordie too, for the hell of it, to give Bellana and Chakotay a role.
Scenario 2 kill any other two main characters that made the trip
Scenario 3, Swap anyone I left with the saucer section in, for whatever reason.
Well, Riker and Geordie are probably the two most boring TNG main characters to me, so I'm willing to trade them for Chakotay and Torres. Then again, perhaps no one would die. Canonically, Voyager lost its XO, Chief Engineer, and Chief Medical Officer and Nurse, as well as its on-duty Helmsman. But the Enterprise is sturdier, so might take less damage.
A few character questions I'm wondering about:
1. How likely is it that Picard would be willing to work with the Marquis, especially since he may not be so short on personnel?
2. Is Paris still along as an adviser (or do we swap him for Locarno, who has history with Picard and who was originally supposed to fill Paris's role)?
3. If they meet Seven in this altered timeline, how does Picard deal with her/the Borg?
4. How likely is it that he offers Kes/Neelix a place on board, and how much faster does Picard get fed up with Neelix's bullshit?
5. Does the Enterprise in this scenario have an EMH on-board?
Ah yeah, they cannot escape, good point. Also Picard can't pull out his Q card.
I actually think that for all the abuse Janeway gets for destroying the Array, rather than using it, Picard would have made the same call in the same circumstances, albeit possibly for subtly different and likely better-articulated reasons (Prime Directive concerns, the fact that their presence inadvertently lead to the Array being disabled, plus the risks of using it and the imminent arrival of more Kazon).
Why take the chief medical officer away from the thousand civillians for half a dozen maquis who may or may not even be injured, the Badlands are just physically dangerous.
If they had the time to evac the saucer, that would make sense, yes.
They'd definitely bring Dr. Crusher along on this mission.
Just assume they are making the ship easier to maneuver and don't see a reason to dump everyone off at DS9 when they know they can just separate. It doesn't ACTUALLY make sense that they hardly ever did it, after introducing the feature. It worked fine at Farpoint, Memos and against the Borg, if they know they are going into a stormy lightening patch of doom, it makes sense. They get the shields and the platform, but they don't have to bring the luggage.
That's a really good rational if you want it to be just the star drive, actually. Ability to manuever around the weird storm in space effects of the Badlands is vital, and the E-D is a way bigger and probably less agile ship than Voyager.
Would the Star Drive section weather the journey any better than Voyager when. The Caretaker first brought them? I remember it being like 50% casualties?
I don't think it was that high. The only confirmed casualties I recall were the XO and Helmswoman, the Chief Engineer, and the Doctor and Nurse. Possibly the transporter chief, since Voyager never seemed to have a dedicated one? Probably a few others, but definitely not half.
As to whether the E-D would do better... maybe. Its a larger ship, so you'd think it would be tougher, but the early Galaxy classes are kind of notorious for their fragility and proclivity for warp core breaches. If the core doesn't outright breach (in which case they're either all dead, or stranded in the Occampa system if they managed to eject it on time), then they probably do better.
What is a reasonable compliment for the Star Drive any way, I'd imagine if a Galaxy has just over 1,000 people and leaves families and civillians behind, they'd also be leaving crew behind to run things, so I was thinking maybe 400 or so at most running the star drive with similiar casulaties.
The Main shuttle bay is probably a huge load, but in the other hand, cargo bays could probably be converted into amenities as they are emptied?
Yeah, they'll have lots of space in the cargo bays.
Edit: One more point- the plot of "Scorpion" likely plays out very differently, as I very much doubt post-BoBW/pre-First Contact Picard would try a run through the heart of Borg space, much less consider negotiating with the Borg to do it. If anything, he'd probably give Species 8472 kudos and try to ally with them (which really isn't more implausible or risky than allying with the Borg). Sadly, that means Seven probably dies in this timeline, along with the Borg kids and every assimilated victim of the Collective.
