January Meme: Introducing Saru to Picard
Jan. 9th, 2021 06:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakbimo asked: Imagine you were at a multi timezone social gathering at Starfleet Headquarters. How would you describe or introduce Captain Saru to Admiral Jean-Luc Picard?Okay, first of all, I would let Captain Tilly - because you know some years into the future, she'll make Captain, too - do the introducing. In case you're wondering, she herself has met Jean-Luc through Kirk, with whom Tilly was at the academy. (This is is a popular fanon I'm fond of, ever since someone in fandom decided they are the same age and would have shared classes at the Academy.) Tilly:
"OMG, you have to meet Saru! He's one of the bravest and kindest people I ever served with. First Kelpien in Starfleet, when his people were still pre warp, and he was in a state where he was basically afraid most of the time due to his biology. So basically like me when I was with my Mom and she was reviewing my everything. Only one of the reasons why I went into space was to get away from that, but Saru? He was stuck with it in space more than ever. Then the Captain of the Shenzou where he was serving on and a whole lot of other people died in the battle of the Binary Stars, and we were at war with the Klingons, and Saru ended up as first officer on the Discovery which was brand new and super duper secret in those days. I was an Ensign, and no one told Ensigns even a quarter of what was going on, certainly not under Captain Lorca's command. Okay, later we found out that Lorca was evil and from another universe, which explained a lot, but I think he wouldn't have told us that much more if he'd been the happy cheery version of him, not that I think Lorca had a happy cheery version, because there was a war going on, but, you know. Anyway, so here we were, fighting a war, on a supersecret mission with this brooding secretly evil Captain, and I think I'd have lost about three times a day before Michael arrived - did I tell you about Michael yet? - anyway, if not for Saru. Who just projected calm when you talked to him, even though I later realized he must have been incredibly tense all the time, but I didn't notice that then. He never bit your head off for asking questions or when giving orders. Then he had to take over command when we were in the Mirror unverse and I had to roleplay my evil self and Michael and Lorca and Ash were gone. My evil self was the Discovery Captain of the Mirroverse, so basically I was the face whenever we were in contact with someone, and Saru did the real commanding, but he also kept us all together and kept me from freaking out on a five minute basis. And that was before we found out Captain Lorca wasn't really Captain Lorca and we'd been commanded by an evil megalomaniac all the time, though Stamets, when he was looking back on those days years later, said he'd known that from the start. Now we could have gone into a major existential crisis, which would have been bad, because we had some universe saving to do, and the sole reason we didn't was because Saru did this really cool speech - hey, Jim said you do great speeches as well, this is why you really MUST meet Saru - and then we knew that maybe Lorca was a lying liar who lied but the rest of us weren't, and then Saru got us universe saving and back to where we came from.
Now let's be honest, no one likes being replaced or overlooked when it comes to the top jobs. After the Klingon war was over, we had figured Saru would go from Acting Captain to permanent Captain, but that was when Captain Pike came on board. Don't get me wrong, I really was into Captain Pike - have you met him yet? -, but I know I'd have been pissed off or at least wondered whether Starfleet just didn't think I was good enough. Well, okay, actually I'd think my mother had a word with some Admiral, but that's neither here no there. Anyway, Saru took it in good grace and that was one of the reasons why the rest of us did, too. He did go through a big crisis later that year, but that was biology again. Have you ever served with a Kelpien going through his - anyway, beside the point, just not the part where back then they assumed they had to die, and Saru learned this wasn't the case the hard way. And then we had to save the universe again, you know how it is, except this time it all ended up with us ninehundred years into the future. Not by accident, I'll have you know. We chose to. The ship had to, and my friend Michael, but the rest of us made the choice. Now Saru had just reunited with his sister and his people earlier that year after believing he'd never see them again. And he and Michael were good friends that point, but they hadn't always been. It was - complicated on the Shenzou, from what I've heard. But still, when I brougth it up to him - the idea to go with Michael and Discovery into the future, I mean - he said yes. Partly for Michael, but also because he felt responsible for us - the crew of Discovery, I mean - and there was no way he'd abandon us to the future. When we got there, he finally did become our official Captain, and a good thing, too, because we started out crashed on an ice planet with evil pirates. But again, Saru held us together. He picked me to go with him on our first First Contact in the future, well, our future, and I thought, welll, if Saru has this confidence in me, I'd better live up to it. Nor was this the last time he did that - have confidence in me. And that's how I got to watch first hand and for the first time how a Captain handles a really dangerous First Contact and away mission. What it means to win over people who have good reason to distrust everyone, how you behave in a hostage situation when the odds are against you, how when you win that's not an excuse to handwave your ethics. Oh, and how to make a former Evil Overlady respect you. We were travelling with the Emperor from the Mirroverse then - did I mention her yet? - and she sometimes felt like my mother if my mother knew kung fu and had way better fashion taste. Also she was the evil version of Saru' s first beloved Captain, and in her universe, they ate Kelpiens. Not metaphorically, literally. So until this point we all thought Michael was the only one who could get the Emperor to do anything, because the Emperor had a thing for her, but Michael wasn't there, and when Saru gave the Emperor an order, I held my breath and expected her to take off with an evil laughter. But no. In the end, she listened to him. So you see, that's who Saru is, and why you absolutely have to meet him!
...no, I'm not related to Lwaxana Troi, why do you ask?"
The other days
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Date: 2021-01-09 05:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-01-09 05:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-01-09 05:25 pm (UTC)(And poor Jean-Luc not being able to squeeze a word in between is worth its weight in gold pressed latinum ... *g*)
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Date: 2021-01-09 05:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-01-09 05:47 pm (UTC)As for the Quark icon: I've had that one for ages, so probably one of the old DS9 communities back in the good old days when DS9 was still a thing on LJ. I just went to check and saw that I credited the creator but not the place where I got it...
(Oh, and speaking of DS9: Guess what Cavendish and I went straight to rewatching right after finishing with Babylon 5...)
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Date: 2021-01-09 06:33 pm (UTC)...no, I'm not related to Lwaxana Troi, why do you ask?"
Hahaha!
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Date: 2021-01-10 09:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-01-09 10:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-01-10 09:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-01-09 11:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-01-10 09:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-01-10 07:22 am (UTC)I need a new Tilly icon...
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Date: 2021-01-10 09:43 am (UTC)