Star Trek: Prodigy

[MojoJojo]

Overall plot synopsis I've felt the need to write for some reason. Sort of chronological, but there's

Spoiler alert

timey wimey stuff

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so could have started from a different point. Maybe useful if you're curious about what happens but don't want to risk new trek or watch a kids show?

Spoiler alert

Chakotay captains the prototype starship Protostar on a mission of exploration in the late 24th century, when he accidentally goes through a time rift into some point in the future and discovers the Van N'kat people of the planet Solum. The Van N'kat people had been contacted by star fleet (at some point after the 24th century), but having previously believed they were the only intelligent life in the universe, a civil war breaks out over whether they should join the federation. Not wanting to get involved, star fleet leaves, and the civil war destroys the planet.

The remain Van N'kat people come up with a plan - they'll put a booby trap on the Protostar that will destroy star fleet and send it back through the wormhole. With star fleet destroyed, there will be no first contact and no civil war. However Chakotay manages to interfere and sends the Protostar back unmanned. The remaining N'kat desperately give chase, but time rifts are dangerous, many of them are destroyed and those who do survive end up scattered across space time, not knowing where the Protostar is.

One N'kat who survives is called the Diviner. Believing himself to be the only one to make it back, he begins to search for the Protostar. He does this by getting a bunch of child slaves to mine a big rock. Presumably he has reasons for this? Anyway, he uses concern that he won't live long enough to complete the mission to justify making a progeny, Gwen, which he can do using a machine. Gwen is good at languages, which is useful as almost everyone speaks a different language in the child slave mines, and there's no universal translator.

After about 16 years of this, some of the child slaves discover the ship, and they also discover that the comm-badges mean they can understand each other. Long story short, the kids get away with the ship and Gwen.

They have some adventures, and Gwen becomes a trusted member of the crew. They free the child slaves, and the Diviner ends up driven mad.

After some adventures they decide to head to federation space, and find a federation deep space relay. Everything goes well until the booby trap on the protostar activates and takes over the station, and makes it destroy itself. The man manning the station escapes it an escape pods, the kids jump back to the Protostar. Gwen remembers (she had amnesia from seeing a Medusan) how the booby trap works - any contact with star fleet, the trap will take over and force the ships to destroy themselves. They can't warn star fleet because hailing them would set off the trap.

Deciding that if they can't join star fleet, they could try and do good things like star fleet does, and then maybe they'll be a bit less annoyed that they 'stole' the ship. Meanwhile, Janeway wants to find out what has happened to Chakotay and sets off in a pursuit.

There's a lot of chasing each other around, and a lot of missed opportunities to say something about the trap, or leave a note or something. But eventually, the trap takes over the Protostar and flies into the middle of federation space. They try to avoid it, but eventually their shields get knocked down and team beams aboard - unfortunately containing a Van N'kat who has infiltrated star fleet. They suppress the crew, and hail the fleet. The trap activates and all the ships in the fleet drop shields and start shooting at each other. And the universal translators stop working so team work becomes a challenge.

Job done the Van N'kat leaves. The crew realises they can blow up the Protostar if they do it in a particular way. Holo Janeway says they can make a copy of her, but it turns out she's too big now so she dies.

So people want to arrest the kids. Janeway argues they are heroes and should be entered straight into starfleet. This doesn't fly, but she does get to take them on as trainee crew herself. Turns out Holo Janeway used the exploding Protostar to create a time rift that matches the one Chakotay went through, so they're off to try and rescue him.

Except for Gwen, who is heading off to Solum to hopefully not make as much of a ballsup of first contact as the federation did originally and Grandfather paradox herself out of existence.

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I've skipped a lot there, including most character development (in fact, most character names).

Just to answer a couple of questions raised about "Jankom Pog"

Spoiler alert

Pog is a Tellerite word for runt - when he meets another Tellerite, he's treated with contempt.
He was sent out on a sleeper ship in 2160. He was woken from cryosleep some time in the late 24th century to make critical repairs, by a robot that will only acknowledge him if he refers to himself in the third person, which is where that habit developed. The list of repairs gets longer. Until eventually it turns out there is not enough oxygen left unless someone leaves, so he gets into an escape pod, to then end up in child slavery.

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One thing I liked is they actually played with the universal translator a bit. It's clear that the slavery at the start is enabled by the fact no one can talk to each other, and

Spoiler alert

the universal translator plays a key role in their escape

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. Gwen, a translator, wonders what use the federation would have for her. And it was fun how crippled star fleet was by the universal translators failing.

I don't know why I did this.