doctor bashir, i presume?: amor

amor_remanet

doctor bashir, i presume?

Sep 15, 2011 22:29

Randomly: I actually like Dale Stuckey from s10 of SVU. He's an irritating Scrappy-cum-Wesley, and yeah, he goes bugfuck batty at the end of the season, but I find his annoying personality kind of adorable - plus it's a refreshing take on the "person means well but happens to be kind of unstable, gets rejected, and goes nuts" trope, in that the rejection is actually understandable and interesting to watch, rather than the person being a total woobie.

1. Speaking of tropes: TV Tropes makes my life really awkward. Especially when combined with Star Trek.

See… I was poking around a few nights ago, as I'm wont to do, and… someone pointed out that, in the Star Trek alternate universe/timeline/thing created by the reboot's canon, wherein Vulcan gets destroyed by Nero/Erik Bana Being A Ham And Cheese Sandwich In Romulan Makeup… the ending isn't really that great. Like, sure, it LOOKS happy, but there's really not a lot to be happy about, aside from the heroes surviving.The Star Trek reboot may suffer from this. The drilling laser Nero fires at Earth is stopped, and the wreckage conveniently lands in the water right where the beam had hit, but there is still a massive hole in the mantle beneath San Francisco bay. This may cause lots of water to rush in, it would hit the magma, it would flash-vaporize, there would be an earthquake, the earthquake would plug the hole, and that would be that or something potentially more catastrophic.

It gets worse. Vulcan was the voice of peace and reason in the Federation. With it gone we should expect a much more violent history. This means lesse hippie-talk of peace and diplomacy, and more shooting bad guys. Alternately, consider how much deference the world gave to America in general and New York in particular after 9/11: feeling bad for the few survivors of Vulcan, the Federation may allow them too much influence.

And see… I'm pondering this, and I want to write something like… an equivalent of DS9 fic set in the reboot!verse. …Meaning: mostly I want to write Bashir/Garak in the reboot!verse, sort of going with the latter interpretation (the "Vulcan gets too much influence in the Federation" idea) albeit… bad. Very bad.

Like, "some grieving survivor managing to pervert the Vulcan dedication to logic, appeal to other survivors' grief, and gather a pseudo-cult of personality, which eventually leads to Federation-sanctioned and fear-motivated vengeance on the reboot verse!Romulans (since, hey, Nero was from an alternate continuity, but still a Romulan, and dude, the Romulans are JERKASSES), which leads to shenanigans" very bad. One issue I'm having is that the reboot timeline MENTIONS Federation contact with Cardassia - at least, enough contact for there to be something called a Cardassian Sunrise, which I could just chalk up to JJ Abrams being made of FAIL, but I'd rather not; I read the Midrashim, Kabbalistic mysticism, and other Biblical commentaries for fun, so… just letting little things go seems… really silly - so I'd have to parse that out… and I'm also trying to think about the Federation ban on genetic engineering and what would happen with that. Because… like I said: mostly, I want to write about Garak and Bashir, and since one's a Cardassian and the other is genetically engineered…

Anyway. Obviously, the Eugenics Wars are way, way in the past, and by the time the reboot's events happened, anti-genetic engineering laws would've been on the books for a long while, bias against genetic engineering and genetically engineered people would've been integrated into the cultural mindset… but, at the same time. Nero bumped up the date of first contact with the Romulans, who are a formidable opponent and seriously dangerous, especially if they're currently allied with the Klingons and the Cardassians. (Come to think: IIRC, splendorbug mentioned there being some line in the reboot that indicates Federation knowledge of the genetic link between Vulcans and Romulans, so… Nero wouldn't have bumped up First Contact, though… whether or not the Romulans and Cardassians are in alliance bears considering.)

Then there's the question of Bajor. Now… given that reboot!canon doesn't have the Terran Empire, a la the Mirror Universe, but there's definitely a possibility, given the above stipulated things, that a similar construct could come about: not an empire, but a Federation whose voice of peace and reason is gone and, instead, drives them toward vengeance and domination based on the admittedly logical-sounding threat that the reboot!Romulans could try to go down the same road that Nero did. Now, substitute the Romulans for the Vulcans in the Mirror Universe's Klingon-Cardassian Alliance, and have them fighting against the Federation… Make it last over a hundred years; over a CENTURY of war and terrorism and quagmire. And the Bajorans get involved with the KCA for a similar reason to the Mirror Universe Bajorans: the Nega-Federation goes, "hmmm, Bajor has lots of natural resources and WE NEED THEM," so they occupy Bajor instead of the Cardassians, shit happens…

Back on the note of genetically engineered people: considering the enemies they're up against, one possible event would be something like… say, Khan is found again, a la TOS: "Space Seed." But he's clearly found under different circumstances: the Enterprise and its crew aren't just an exploratory ship now; they have several possible functions, but… they could definitely still be on primarily exploratory duty, but it would be motivated by the war. Reconnaissance, looking for new allies or new ways to get them, etc. - so, if the Eugenics Wars and their aftermath have been ignored in Federation discussions until now, then finding Khan brings them back to light, and…

Of course, Khan is Bad Fucking News. Everybody knows that Khan is Bad Fucking News. But the Federation perceives itself as being in a dangerous position and underground, black market genetic engineering obviously exists, and… well. It's not like people are above making a deal with the devil. Given what HAPPENED with Khan in the Eugenics Wars, though, the Federation would want to keep tabs on everything. Like, say, medicating Khan, assigning him a handler or more than one, and making sure that the genetically modified kids end up being monitored by the appropriate authorities. So, for instance: you have people lining up to get genetically modified … only to later find out that they just sold their souls to Starfleet. They have to leave their friends, families, homes, dreams, hopes, everything they love and everything they wanted… because they belong to Starfleet now.

And, sure, some of them just end up in regular Starfleet command, running ships or answering to General Khan and his entourage personally about high-security missions against the Klingon-Cardassian-Romulan-Bajoran Alliance. Some of them are above average, sure, but not enough to be singled out. Not enough to do much more than be put into strategically advantageous places and (the Federation hopes) give their side of the war an edge. But the best of the best of these genetically modified people end up being whisked off into a life of secrecy and lies, and espionage, and double-crossing, and… essentially, being subjected to various crimes against humanity, all in the name of taking down a bunch of people who, in this continuity, are still militaristic and potentially dangerous, but have legitimately not done anything wrong.

So underground modifications end up happening. If you don't get caught, awesome, cookie for you. If you DO get caught, though… pbbbbt. Sucks to be you. Now… jump-cut to Richard and Amsha Bashir, with their young son Julian, who isn't developing as quickly as he ought to, falls further and further behind his classmates daily, and they know it's dangerous, but… they have him genetically modified. Unlike DS9 canon, they tell him this early on. They have to do so because they have to keep him safe, he has to know that, despite anything Richard says about excelling, he needs to be careful. He needs to seem normal. He can't get caught - he can't even go on to be a doctor the way Richard used to want for him - because getting anywhere too close to Starfleet means that his entire life goes up in smoke… to be specific, it goes up in the smoke of war and freaking firebombs. He's a genius now - utterly brilliant, one of the best success stories since Khan himself and debatably even better because, unlike Khan, Julian doesn't show any signs of emotional instability.

But they do get caught. And Julian IS taken away from his parents. Richard still does time in prison, not just for illegal genetic engineering but for some trumped up charge of high treason against the Federation, and he's only not executed in the hopes that he'll recant - that is to say, rat out the facility where Julian's modifications were made. Which he won't because he doesn't want any other families to get torn apart like his has been. And Julian knows the name now, but he won't rat them out either because… well, he'd still be fairly young at this point, maybe early teens or late preteens (read: 11 to 14ish), and while he's not absolutely loyal to his parents and their view of the world, the way really young kids are… dude, the Federation tore him away from them, locked his dad in prison for so-called "treason," and basically left Amsha to suffer in loneliness. Like he's going to let them do that to more kids.

Because I love the Hell out of Amsha Bashir and want her to get some kind of chance to be a badass, and because I really don't think the Federation could get away with this without some internal resistance happening… I kind of want her to be involved in the movement of people defecting away from the Federation and going to the Alliance instead. Said movement would probably involve people like Picard, Sisko, Dax, probably Riker and the Crushers, Data (assuming Data still gets created, which I do because I love Data)… So basically, I want Amsha to get all up in that. Possibly as an assistant medic or something, under Beverly. (Wesley, unfortunately for him, is going to end up not doing so well. Being a genius prodigy child, Wesley Crusher is suspected of being genetically engineered and, given his mother's defection, kidnapped from under her nose by the Federation. Once it turns out that he ISN'T genetically engineered… well. He's going to GET genetically engineered and subjected to various crimes against humanity AND SO ON. …dear GOD, I'm so evil.)

This movement unfortunately wouldn't involve Miles because I'm going to be MEAN to him instead so as to enable my love of the Miles/Julian bromance. Instead of being allowed to flourish with his machine-fixing expertise, the Federation somehow notices his interpersonal talents, and how he's like… one of the best, sweetest people ever, and subsequently bullies him into being one of the super secret special people to handle the super secret special modified people… like Julian. The nega!Federation will probably be like, "So, Mister O'Brien. You have no children, we have your parents, and your wife has mysteriously disappeared after expressing all kinds of anti-Federation ideas. We don't have a detail specifically assigned to finding her… YET. She's not special to us… YET. If you don't play nicely, we can MAKE her special to us. :|" …which he goes along with partly to keep the Federation from going after Keiko, and partly because hey, it's an opportunity to try and help the genetically engineered people who've been traumatized in the name of the war.

So he ends up being assigned to Julian. …and they're going out on an assignment where they are subsequently surprised and bombarded by a Klingon-Cardassian Alliance vessel, then taken hostage. …aboard which is one, Elim Garak, son of Enabran Tain, head of the Obsidian Order - which, under the current climate, doubles as the Alliance's intelligence agency and, because of the amount of psychological adeptness necessary for being a secret agent, the major source of … basically, Alliance psychologists/therapists/etc. Probably medical training as well. For some reason or another that I haven't parsed out yet, possibly an injury, possibly not, possibly to keep his father safe or something, I DON'T KNOW YET, Garak is on the vessel as its Obsidian Order representative, meaning responsible for parsing out any intelligence they get as well as maintaining the crew's psychological health.

And, well… after talking to the traumatized young genius and his only friend, and developing a personal interest in the young Bashir, Garak has the ostensible choice between telling the Alliance whom they've picked up (thereby giving Julian to them to get used as a weapon against the Federation), or committing treason by keeping the truth about them secret, which is even worse in his eyes because an act of treason against the Alliance is passively condoning the actions of the Federation, the group that's engaged most of existence as they know it (Gamma Quadrant exempt because the wormhole never opened up) in a war, one that's gone on for over a century, all because of an act of destruction perpetrated not by one of this universe's Romulans, but by a troublemaking villain from a different universe, one who died and was thus neutralized as a threat.

…or, in the tradition of every Trek verse having some kind of Kobayashi Maru-esque decision to make: he could try to find a third option. (Ensue badassery, Miles/Julian bromance, hurt/comfort, psychological healing, and sooner or later, Garak/Julian developing a profound bond, if not outright getting it on. And a tearful mother-son reunion for Julian and Amsha. …Beverly and Wesley might get one too, but… I kind of feel like Wesley's more likely to go dark side than Julian, given everything that happens for/to him, so… the tearful Crusher reunion is more likely to be something like, "Wesley has been fashioned into something vaguely Big Bad-ish… oops."

…Wesley still gets to be sympathetic-ish, or at least understandable, if he goes dark side, just because… well, he was subjected to unnecessary genetic modification and various crimes against humanity by the people whom he now fights for. Psychological breaking had to happen at some point in there. …And I'm one of the weirdos who actually LIKES Wesley - like, I will grant that the way the TNG writers blatantly favored him and had him doing things that should've been utterly unrealistic and ignored the legitimate fan complaints to just stop it? Yeah, that's annoying. But… I really like the idea of there being some genius prodigy kid on a Starfleet ship who's irritating, sure, but also very misunderstood on account of being so unreasonably gifted and totally not acting like a kid.

…Also I'm not big on making things COMPLETELY black and white here in this fucked up AU idea. It's more like… gray and slightly lighter gray. Or… black and slightly less black. Or something. I mean, even individual Federation characters get to be sympathetic/understandable - I'm specifically thinking of the primary Enterprise crew here, and even more specifically thinking of Uhura, Spock, and Kirk as the Most Understandable Ones because they're my favorites and because, as much as I like Bones and as much as HE doesn't like Vulcans… he's the blatantly emotional one, and thus I think a lot more likely to be swept away in things. UNDERSTANDABLY swept away in the emotional manipulation of things because… it's does have some ostensible grounding in logic and, dude, Nero like BLEW UP A PLANET, not to mention what he did in San Francisco, or at least tried to do, since dammit, I will find SOME way to fix it, even if I have to handwave it with, "space magic.")

…and the awkward part of this is that writing this fic would probably mean I'd have to finally get around to seeing the reboot flick, just to really, properly orient myself in its canon before trying to build a social, political, and military history from it … and I've been pretty much pretentiously avoiding seeing the reboot flick because JJ Abrams and I are in a fight. You know. One of those fights where he's famous and I'm not, so it's not really real because he doesn't know it's happening; I just really dislike him. I know I dislike him for petty, irrational reasons, but I also can't be bothered to give a damn because… he just annoys me on such a personal level. …also *shrugs* … shippy Kassie is shippy, but … *blows a raspberry at Spock/Uhura.* I like Zoe Saldana, I love Uhura… I'd love her getting a ship a lot more if it would cater to my desire for Uhura femmeslash costarring Spock/Kirk. XD

The Ferengi aren't involved in the above travesty because they irritate me. Maybe they get blown up. Maybe I'll spare them because I like Rom, Nog, and sometimes Quark (and the Nagus, but that's just because he's Wallace Shawn), then just ignore them in the fic. I don't know, I don't care, ew Ferengi.

2. temporalranger is EVIL. an EVIL, EVIL wench. Today she twittered me a Text From Last Night - "(517): Bible prof is the guy I made out with at the gay bar on the fourth. He doesn't remember" - with the stipulation that it's a fic waiting to happen. She knows just how to throw plot tribbles at me. Why do you assault me with tribbles, bb? Why?

…that was even more TL;DR than I thought it'd be. Anyway. And now… icons. I experimented in making some today. I'm actually kind of pleased with them… but I'm still not sure if that's just because I love looking at Lauren Cohan/Bela Talbot.

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