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pixiedaneQ: If they had kept the lizard babies around, how would you have wanted them to deal with it/what should have come out of it?
OMIGOSH AND GOLLY I feel like I’ve been waiting my whole life to answer this question.
First of all, there’s no reason the ship and crew could not accommodate the lizard babies the way they do Naomi Wildman and the Borglings. It would likely have more of an impact because their parents are part of the bridge crew, the captain herself, but there’s precedent.
The babies are fully human so it makes sense The Doctor could de-lizardify them the way he did their parents. It would be cute if they had vague leftover lizardna like Seven has leftover borg implants. Maybe they don’t have hair or have heightened senses or a cooler default temperature or two hearts. Something. But they look mostly human and are raised human. It would make perfect Trek sense for them to age more rapidly than humans do, the way Naomi does, because they were born from a superwarp experiment in time space.
SO. Previously-lizard triplets who age up a little. Neelix is their primary caregiver but they live with their parents in adjoining quarters. Tom and Kathryn are INCREDIBLY AWKWARD for months. At first it is mainly centered around their being surprise parents. The babies probably spend at least a week in sickbay before they move in with mom and dad. Janeway has to be talked into the adjoining quarters but eventually acquiesces for the good of the family. There are many, many rules about maintaining personal space and boundaries. Tom has like four, Kathryn has about 400,000. And the number one remains the same: no fraternization.
But it’s so awkward! They are co-parenting triplets! Tom has to deal with feeling personally responsible for the whole situation, and with all the scary reasons he chose her, of everyone on the ship!, and all his amazing mixed up feelings about it. But he also falls instantly in love with his kids and with fatherhood, he tells himself he is 1000% going to be a better dad than his dad, and on top of that he’s also going to be a Good Dad. He throws himself into it to prove something – to his absent father, to Kathryn, to himself – but he ends up just really actually ultimately loving being a dad.
Kathryn, who has this Career, and had chosen against mommyhood even before Voyager got stuck 75 years from her fiance, and definitely after, feels like a fish out of water with the whole thing. She’s good with kids but not with her own! That’s just not her! Plus Tom is not only under her command, but ten years younger, and her mentor’s son. It’s so weird. Not bad, but for sure weird.
So they are super awkward for months. Sexual tension. Sharing quarters but not really. Worrying about their babies and their responsibilities and wtfever the rest of the ship thinks of all this. Feeling disturbingly inadequate about their parenting skills. Super duper stressed out all the time. And then – they realize they can talk to each other. About all of it. And they can laugh because omigod it’s so funny?! And also cry because it’s so damn hard. And it’s like a switch goes off and they end up in this amazingly close relationship that tbh I always want Janeway and Paris to have but keeping the kids makes it necessary and explicit. They don’t hook up, they don’t fall in love, but they are tied together, they love each other, they are a beautiful happy healthy family unit.
Neelix loves the kids, loves being nanny, takes incredible pride in watching after the Captain’s children. Chakotay hates everything but then he gets close to one of the triplets, a girl, and she’s the daughter he always wanted, and she’s Kathryn’s, and Kathryn and Tom aren’t together together, and once he sets aside his ego he’s a great tutor. Tuvok would never admit it, but he is so sad to be missing his children growing up, and having his best friend’s kids around make that a tiny bit more bearable. Harry and B’Elanna are like Legit, this is the strangest thing to ever happen but hey. Tom’s happy and the kids are cute. Harry teaches one to play the clarinet.
They become the whole ship’s babies. Even more so than Naomi, who is herself, far less lonely with some peers. The ship becomes a hometown that much quicker. If the captain can have kids and still be captain, anyone can. The crew start to live their lives more fully, with less fear.
Gah. I get really upset thinking about the abandoned lizard babies. They deserve so much better!!!
OMIGOSH AND GOLLY I feel like I’ve been waiting my whole life to answer this question.
First of all, there’s no reason the ship and crew could not accommodate the lizard babies the way they do Naomi Wildman and the Borglings. It would likely have more of an impact because their parents are part of the bridge crew, the captain herself, but there’s precedent.
The babies are fully human so it makes sense The Doctor could de-lizardify them the way he did their parents. It would be cute if they had vague leftover lizardna like Seven has leftover borg implants. Maybe they don’t have hair or have heightened senses or a cooler default temperature or two hearts. Something. But they look mostly human and are raised human. It would make perfect Trek sense for them to age more rapidly than humans do, the way Naomi does, because they were born from a superwarp experiment in time space.
SO. Previously-lizard triplets who age up a little. Neelix is their primary caregiver but they live with their parents in adjoining quarters. Tom and Kathryn are INCREDIBLY AWKWARD for months. At first it is mainly centered around their being surprise parents. The babies probably spend at least a week in sickbay before they move in with mom and dad. Janeway has to be talked into the adjoining quarters but eventually acquiesces for the good of the family. There are many, many rules about maintaining personal space and boundaries. Tom has like four, Kathryn has about 400,000. And the number one remains the same: no fraternization.
But it’s so awkward! They are co-parenting triplets! Tom has to deal with feeling personally responsible for the whole situation, and with all the scary reasons he chose her, of everyone on the ship!, and all his amazing mixed up feelings about it. But he also falls instantly in love with his kids and with fatherhood, he tells himself he is 1000% going to be a better dad than his dad, and on top of that he’s also going to be a Good Dad. He throws himself into it to prove something – to his absent father, to Kathryn, to himself – but he ends up just really actually ultimately loving being a dad.
Kathryn, who has this Career, and had chosen against mommyhood even before Voyager got stuck 75 years from her fiance, and definitely after, feels like a fish out of water with the whole thing. She’s good with kids but not with her own! That’s just not her! Plus Tom is not only under her command, but ten years younger, and her mentor’s son. It’s so weird. Not bad, but for sure weird.
So they are super awkward for months. Sexual tension. Sharing quarters but not really. Worrying about their babies and their responsibilities and wtfever the rest of the ship thinks of all this. Feeling disturbingly inadequate about their parenting skills. Super duper stressed out all the time. And then – they realize they can talk to each other. About all of it. And they can laugh because omigod it’s so funny?! And also cry because it’s so damn hard. And it’s like a switch goes off and they end up in this amazingly close relationship that tbh I always want Janeway and Paris to have but keeping the kids makes it necessary and explicit. They don’t hook up, they don’t fall in love, but they are tied together, they love each other, they are a beautiful happy healthy family unit.
Neelix loves the kids, loves being nanny, takes incredible pride in watching after the Captain’s children. Chakotay hates everything but then he gets close to one of the triplets, a girl, and she’s the daughter he always wanted, and she’s Kathryn’s, and Kathryn and Tom aren’t together together, and once he sets aside his ego he’s a great tutor. Tuvok would never admit it, but he is so sad to be missing his children growing up, and having his best friend’s kids around make that a tiny bit more bearable. Harry and B’Elanna are like Legit, this is the strangest thing to ever happen but hey. Tom’s happy and the kids are cute. Harry teaches one to play the clarinet.
They become the whole ship’s babies. Even more so than Naomi, who is herself, far less lonely with some peers. The ship becomes a hometown that much quicker. If the captain can have kids and still be captain, anyone can. The crew start to live their lives more fully, with less fear.
Gah. I get really upset thinking about the abandoned lizard babies. They deserve so much better!!!
