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So this is the ridiculous, 40k novella-length MASH Star Trek AU that I have been working on for the last few weeks, in which BJ Hunnicut is sent by Starfleet to a distant medical ship in the midst of the Dominion War, where he meets, and immediately adores, the ship’s sweet-but-crazy Chief Medical Officer (and indomitable head nurse!). Hijinks, as they say, ensue, alongside a little wartime romance and a lot of daytime drinking. Hawkeye is a nonbinary empath. Margaret is Bajoran. I had a great time.

If by any chance you enjoy my writing and want to read this though you’re not familiar with the set-up, you definitely could: either as a Star Trek story with all-original characters, set on a medical ship stationed near Bajor during the Dominion War, or as a completely original piece of space opera SF. I don’t think it matters if you know the MASH characters or not - they are a delight to meet for the first time, and obviously these are altered versions of them anyway.

To read this from the other direction or as original space opera SF, I think you’d need to know that there’s a war going on. Our heroes are Starfleet, who were formerly an exploratory and scientific organisation and have become a military force, and who are now are waging a war for the Federation, a giant, democratic alliance of worlds. They’re fighting an advancing empire, the Dominion, who are coming through a wormhole from the other side of the galaxy. The Dominion seek what they call “order” - basically subjugating everyone else in the galaxy to their will. Their forces are made up of foot soldiers called the Jem ‘Hadar, terrifying armed creatures which are organised and commanded by a different set of aliens called the Vorta. The Dominion is actually run from the top by the Founders, otherwise called changelings. They’re shape-shifters, basically people made of goo, who can make themselves resemble anyone or anything. They make perfect spies, because there are very limited ways of proving someone or something is a changeling rather than the thing or person it’s chosen to impersonate.

On MASH: I have changed nothing in this other than the obvious, it’s a show about war and pain and fear and serious mental illness, but to be clear: it’s a sitcom. Hawkeye and co. are much funnier than this story would lead you to believe.

some things you just can't speak about (wherever they come from, they'll never run out) (40893 words) by raven
Chapters: 9/9
Fandom: MASH (TV), Star Trek, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Relationships: B. J. Hunnicutt/Peg Hunnicutt, B.J. Hunnicutt/Hawkeye Pierce, Hawkeye Pierce & Margaret Houlihan
Characters: B. J. Hunnicutt, Margaret Houlihan, Sherman Potter, Radar O'Reilly, Maxwell Klinger, Frank Burns, Sidney Freedman, Hawkeye Pierce, Peg Hunnicutt
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Star Trek Fusion, Friendship, Romance, Mental Health Issues, Polyamory Negotiations, Dominion War (Star Trek), Nonbinary Character

The stranger is wearing a science-green uniform dress with a bloodstained white apron over it and a red dressing gown over that, and they don’t look like any Starfleet officer BJ has ever seen.

BJ Hunnicutt is sent by Starfleet to a front-line medical ship in the Dominion War, where amid terror, boredom and daytime drinking, he falls for his sweet-but-crazy maverick of a chief medical officer.

(Hawkeye, as ever, is doing their best in a difficult world.)

Hey, I wrote a DS9 story over the weekend.

everything we do is stitched with this colour (3635 words) by raven
Fandom: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Julian Bashir/Elim Garak, Kira Nerys/Keiko O'Brien/Miles O'Brien
Characters: Julian Bashir, Elim Garak, Miles O'Brien, Kira Nerys, Molly O'Brien (Star Trek), Keiko O'Brien

On his way back to the habitat ring, he wonders what it would be like to walk home hand in hand with Garak; to fall asleep with him; to stay.

Garak teaches Julian to sew.

This story was intended as a writing exercise. I have been revising a novel manuscript since February (and revising a previous version since the previous August). I am quite fed up. The object of this was to write something in about an hour and a half and revise it as little as possible. It was about Garak and Julian because I was in the Lakes with twelve of my friends who were reading three separate books they described as "the Garak book of Garak". You can read this story at the AO3 if you prefer.

fic:: everything as it was and everything as changed
by Raven
1200w, Deep Space Nine, Bashir/Garak. The fight started with why must you wear a chintz dressing gown covered in blue elephants and ended somewhere else.

( there comes a point where nothing will serve )

Thank you everyone who helped and cheerled with this. I'm also pleased to have finished this exactly a month after Vidukon, where I seem to remember publicly promising to make it.

[vid] Disappear [Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]
by Raven
With a word, with a line, you only disappear. Identity and violence.

music: "You Only Disappear", Tom McRae, from Just Like Blood
content notes: Star Trek-typical violence; one bright flash of red light
password to stream: wakeup / download from mediafire, 80MB

( stream, lyrics )

I am at vidukon_cardiff, which seems like an excellent opportunity to post this vid! It is not a premiere; I finished it between panels!

Many thanks to cosmic_llin, thingswithwings, and the house at no. 46 for their help with this.

[vid] we came to learn the sea [Star Trek: TOS, TNG, Voyager, DS9, and Enterprise]
by Raven
"You are my compass."
-Kathryn Janeway to Tuvok, "Prime Factors"

music: "We Learned The Sea", Dar Williams, from The Green World
content notes: none standard; one bright flash of red light near the start
password to stream: compass / download from mediafire, 65MB

( notes, stream, lyrics )

If you follow me elsewhere, you may know I am writing a story about Janeway and Seven, and, ah, trying to avoid it. To that effect, yesterday I asked if anyone wanted a Star Trek ficlet, and ah, people did. I ended up writing many stories. My favourite is the one with Kirk, Spock, and McCoy meeting baby Tuvok, but, really, I had fun writing all of these:

Dress (1159 words) by Raven
Fandom: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Julian Bashir/Elim Garak
Characters: Julian Bashir, Elim Garak, Keiko O'Brien, Benjamin Sisko, Miles O'Brien

"How do you know I'm not married?" Julian asks, playfully, then realises he's answered his own question.

Velocity (528 words) by Raven
Fandom: Star Trek: Voyager
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Kathryn Janeway/Seven of Nine
Characters: Kathryn Janeway, Seven of Nine

Preparation for command.

War Songs (1257 words) by Raven
Fandom: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Benjamin Sisko, Miles O'Brien, Kira Nerys, Shakaar Edon, Keiko O'Brien, Odo (Star Trek), Jadzia Dax, Jake Sisko, Julian Bashir
Additional Tags: Families of Choice

The first requirement, when one is celebrating the Bajoran Festival of Alignment, is good food.

Learn The Sea (935 words) by Raven
Fandom: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Star Trek: Voyager
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: James T. Kirk, Spock, Leonard McCoy, T'Meni, Tuvok

“Well, now, little one,” McCoy says. “What’s your name?”

Scientific Interest (608 words) by Raven
Fandom: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Kira Nerys, Jadzia Dax

Mandatory Starfleet continuing professional development.

Orbiting (927 words) by Raven
Fandom: Star Trek: Voyager
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: B'Elanna Torres, Seven of Nine
Additional Tags: Post-Canon

Standing there with her eyes steady and clear, Seven looks as impeccable as B’Elanna remembers.

Numbers (691 words) by Raven
Fandom: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: The Next Generation
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Julian Bashir/Elim Garak
Characters: Elim Garak, Julian Bashir, Jadzia Dax, Benjamin Sisko, Data
Additional Tags: Deep Dish Nine

Garak comes to visit before lunch, and as a consequence Julian burns a tray of garlic bread and about two thirds of a ham and pineapple deep pan pizza. (This one is in the collective shared AU where Deep Space Nine is a pizzeria and the gang are all human. It's, ah, a long story.)

Evidence of Things Not Seen (1542 words) by Raven
Fandom: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: The Next Generation
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Geordi La Forge, Data, Julian Bashir, Odo (Star Trek), Miles O'Brien
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, Kinda

"We're really looking at Data as he would be if he were human," Geordi says, wonderingly.

...and that's it, and quite enough too. I am going to Inverness tomorrow for the weekend. Also, a long story.

Happy Diwali, all. Thank you, everyone who came to the party last night - it was a lovely time - and everyone else, I hope your days and nights are full of light.



This is our living room, from last night. Everything there is a gift - the candelabra and candles are from the wedding, the bookends were a gift from my colleagues, the little stone candle-holders are Diwali gifts from previous years - which seems oddly fitting. In lieu of other gifts for y'all, I offer four short stories, on the usual theme:


building normal
Deep Space Nine, Sisko, Kira, Dax et al.

( increased efficiency on Deep Space Nine )


hope
Welcome to Night Vale, Cecil/Carlos.

( on one of the dark days )


comparative religion
Parks and Recreation, Tom, April, Leslie, gen.

( an overwhelming smell of kerosene in the Parks Department )


love in a hopeless place
Gentleman Bastards, Locke and Jean, gen(ish). No spoilers for The Republic of Thieves!

( Locke can't walk )

Otherwise known as STARFLEET NEEDS LAWYERS. I have taken a looooot of poetic licence for this fic. I wish to emphasise at this point that the Federation's legal system is entirely made up to suit my purposes, so there. gamesiplay betaed, as usual; thank you!

Fic:: Malice Aforethought
by Raven
2200w, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, gen, Kira, Sisko, ensemble. "Gentlebeings of the jury, do you have a verdict?" Kira on trial.

Warning: violence.

( ...perpetrator appears to be Major Kira... )

This is cheating a little, as I've had this little scene in my head for ages, but when abyssinia4077 asked for something with Kira, it reminded me.

Ficlet: Birthday Girl
by Raven
G, Deep Space Nine, gen, 1200 words, Kira, Dax. It's too late for presents.

( on a day in early spring )

I've been meaning to make this post for a while! Deep Space Nine, lovelies. People who really don't understand the silly Star Trek thing, look away now. (Except you don't get to make fun of me for it, I love science fiction and I love Star Trek and I am so done being ashamed of that.)

Deep Space Nine is the third Star Trek series. It's the only one to be set in one place, it's the only one to have a large cast of recurring characters, it's the first one not to feature a ship called Enterprise. As for what it's about: oh, god, I have no idea. It's about a space station called Deep Space Nine. It's sort of about war, and a little bit about religion, and a lot about family, and mostly about people.

I watched the pilot, "Emissary", in June 2009, and I just finished "What You Leave Behind", the final episode of the seventh season, and I have been watching this show for ten eleven months and I feel like I should say something about it that isn't just flail. I've been enormously lucky in that not one but two of my best friends were watching it for the first time at the same time as me - jacinthsong and hathy_col, thank you for a) putting up with me and b) lending me so many DVDs - and I've had a chance to properly squee. Squeee!

But first of all ( here are some things I don't like about it )

But what do I like about it, that is the question. Oh, so much. I love the tissue of the whole world it creates. The show begins in literal darkness. The space station is still called Terok Nor, a grim tentacular horror of a space station that is being busily trashed by the withdrawing occupying forces. The Cardassians kick stuff about, they leave. In come the Bajorans, who are throwing off the yoke of the oppressor not with a happy shout but with a sort of resigned efficiency, and the Federation, who are merely helping out. They aren't doing it all that well: Sisko's grieving for his wife and doesn't really give a shit about the assignment, Dax hasn't even been a new person all that long, O'Brien can't make the Federation and Cardassian computers work together. Bashir's all enthused that he gets to be a noble doctor working here in this third-world savage backwater, and Kira, as one of the noble savages herself, is getting ready to kick his head in.

Then, right next to the space station in the back of beyond, a stable wormhole is discovered to the Gamma Quadrant. And suddenly these people are at the centre of the world, and suddenly they have to be the best people they can be. And... oh, I love it, I do. Other Trek shows are pretty rubbish at people, interpersonal relationships, love stories, the rest of it – they're plot driven, spatial-anomaly driven, moral-dilemma driven. And Deep Space Nine is about… it's about Sisko and Jake, working out that father-and-son thing here in this very strange environment. It's about how they build ships together, go on trips together, about how Jake sets his father up on dates and Sisko yells at Jake for not doing his homework. It's about how Kira, who has been a terrorist her entire life, has been fighting the Cardassians her entire life, and has to learn now how to have friends, how to have fun, how not to fight, how to live.

(And let's pause for a moment on that: Kira, a woman with strong religious faith, who describes herself as a terrorist, who never regrets her actions, is nevertheless depicted as consistently principled and awesome.)

And then there's Julian Bashir, who incidentally is both non-white and British, who develops from annoying wunderkind to much more rounded character, and he and Miles O'Brien go on to get drunk together, play darts together, fight at the Alamo together and periodically declare their love for each other, together. And Nog, the Ferengi kid whom Jake teaches to read in the first season, who by the seventh season is a lieutenant in Starfleet, and so well-written and effective has his character development been, you absolutely believe it.

And then there's Odo, Quark and Garak, the three alien characters who are not backdrops to the humans – whose concerns and motivations are both entirely real and entirely at odds, on occasion, with those of the Federation.

And there's the whole world this takes place in: the politics of Bajor and Cardassia, the war against the Dominion, the smaller details like the Bajoran shrine on the station, the baseball in Sisko's office, the fomenting unionists in Quark's bar. The darker cast it puts on the Federation: Section 31, and the infamous root beer analogy. The brilliant, and brilliantly random recurring themes of yammok sauce (this is apparently a Cardassian condiment – why it gets so much discussion is never explained) and self-sealing stembolts (which are never explained at all). It's all so well-realised and internally consistent that these things make sense, and they're deployed with such a light and confident touch that you don't even have these sudden, self-conscious this-is-science-fiction moments, but only, these are people in a brave new world, but they're people.

Obviously I want to finish this by posting a clip from the show. I was going to post Miles and Julian getting drunk and singing Jerusalem, and then I was going to post Kira and Dax wearing the most amazing hats ever seen on television, and then I was going to post Garak, being Garak.

But now I'm going to post this: for the simple reason that it's during this little clip that my mild liking for this show made the leap into full-on love. All you need to know is that Kira has, for various reasons, just lost her job as first officer and liaison between the Federation and the Bajorans, and is preparing to leave the station.

( how can you talk about skin lotion at a time like this )