Talking Stick/Circle by Macedon and Peg (PG-13)

[beatrice_otter]

ETA: Links updated to AO3

Fandom: STAR TREK: VOYAGER
Pairing: Chakotay, Janeway, the whole crew
Length: series of stories and novellas
Author on LJ: none known
Author Website: Macedon's Taberna. I can't find a website for Peg, but she has written two stories published in the New Worlds anthologies, and one for New Frontier: No Limits
Why this must be read:

A remarkable "braided novel" of 8 stories and novellas which Macedon wrote in tandem with the equally remarkable Peg Robinson. Too sprawling (in the grand sense) in scale and reach to reduce to a mere synopsis; let us just say that this is Voyager unfettered and red in tooth and claw, such as Paramount with its nice tidy pander-to-the-demographics mentality could only dream of producing.

This is what the show could have been if they had allowed the characters to be real, flawed, but still courageous people. This is what the show could have been if they had allowed it to actually deal seriously with issues instead of platitudes. The writing is awesome, the characters and plot will grip you, and if it doesn't make you think, you have no brain. There are not words to describe the awesomeness of this series. When I read it, I stayed up all night to read the whole thing despite having to work in the morning because it was just that incredible.

Among the many issues that the TV series ignored or glossed over that this series does not:
1) the fact that Chakotay is an Indian from a tribe that has somehow managed to keep its identity as a tribe despite the fact that the Federation has screwed it over almost as much as the US did back in the white settlement of the West.
2) the fact that Janeway and most of the Starfleet officers, enlightened and culturally sensitive as they may be, still carry the backpack of privilege, still look at the world through that lens.
3) the fact that the Maquis are not Starfleet, and have their own identity and pride, and that is very different from Starfleet identity and pride.\
4) the fact that religion isn't just a nice bit of local color for the Indian character, but a true and deep faith.

After the circle broke up for the evening (evening to me),
Tuvok approached.  Since we had spoken following B'Elanna's story
a few months ago, he had begun to wait for me after and we would
share the walk back to our deck and our respective cabins.
"Commander," he said now a little tentatively--or what passed for
tentatively with Tuvok--"might you permit me to examine the staff
which you carry?  I do not wish to breach a custom but I have
seen you allow others to hold it...."
      I handed it to him.  "You're not breaching a custom, Tuvok.
The custom is to give the stick to whomever is speaking.  It
doesn't 'belong' to me; it's a symbol.  It confers the honor of
speaking before a people."  He held the oak stick in his hands
and turned it, frowning slightly as he looked at the carving
along it.  "This"--I pointed to the figure at the top--"is an
Announcer.  It's a privilege to call the people together, to
speak before them."  He nodded absently.  That was something
which, as a Vulcan, I knew he would understand.
      "How did you come by it?  Was it made for you?"
      "It was given to my father, actually.  About thirty years
ago now, when he visited Earth, my father went to a meeting of
Elders on the East Coast.  The Sulish coastal peoples have this
tradition of Talking Sticks.  One of them said to my father,
'Winnemac, you always go about, speaking for your people.  You
need a Talking Stick,' and give him this one.  My father took it
with him to the colony, where he continued to speak for our tribe
as the medicine man.  When the Cardassians came, and killed him,
and when I left Starfleet to join the maquis, my father's
apprentice gave the stick to me.  I became the voice of my people
against oppression."
      I had said all this matter-of-factly.  Tuvok stopped looking
at the stick to study my face.  "I had wondered," he said, "why
someone with your record would leave Starfleet to join the
maquis."  It was evident from his tone what he thought of the
maquis resistance.  I felt a point needed made here.
      "I consider myself a peaceful man, Tuvok--but to choose
peace is not to chose capitulation.  And peace without justice is
no peace at all.  My people have spent five hundred years trying
to pick up life from the fragments.  We do not need to walk
another trail of tears."
      "I would...agree," he said, then looked down again at the
stick still in his hands.  He frowned, clearly troubled.  "But I
made an oath to Starfleet.  I cannot break that oath or I break
my honor."
      "We each do what we feel we have to do, what we feel is
right.  I said before that it's not my place to judge you, Tuvok.
You were working for Starfleet.  As you said, you have an oath,
and you were following orders."  He seemed about to say
something, but did not.  I almost said what I thought he had
meant to, but did not, either.  We stood in the nearly empty
messhall, not quite looking at one another and feeling awkward.
      After a moment, and with a last run of his dark hand over
the dark wood, he handed the Talking Stick back.  "You may try
not to judge, but you do, in fact, still hold it against me.
Though I believe you do not wish to do so."  He tilted his head.
"I also believe that your people chose rightly, when they gave
your father's staff to you.  You are a...fitting...representative
of your people in the Delta Quadrant, Commander."
      "Thank-you, Tuvok.  That...means a lot to me, coming from
you."
      He nodded once, turned on his heel, and went out, brown
robes swishing against the doorway.  I stood there a long time
and thought about what he had said.  And the beginnings of an
idea began to grow in the back of my mind.

Talking Stick  [Macedon]
Circle  [Peg]
A Cherished Alienation  [Macedon]
The Red Queen's Repose  [Peg]
Walking Across Egypt [Macedon]
Raisins and Almonds  [Peg]
Otterskin  [Macedon and Peg]
The Rose and the Yew Tree [Peg and Macedon]

Comments

[drlense.livejournal.com]

Thank you for reccing this! I read this series years ago- it was the first longer fic I read, and like you, I stayed up for hours. It's a beautiful series and I'm happy to have a link for it.

[beatrice_otter]

You're welcome! I was just shocked it hadn't been recced before.

[deltachild.livejournal.com]

I've just started reading 'String Theory' in my quest to read more about Voyager and you have literally recced this fic at the perfect time for me. Thank you :)

[beatrice_otter]

You're welcome!

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you for reccing this as i would never have found it by myself. I have just sat down and read the entire series straight through and it is gorgeous.

[beatrice_otter]

You're welcome.

[canadasuperhero.livejournal.com]

The link provided no longer works but I dug around the internet for you.

http://snerk.net/tsc/

[beatrice_otter]

Thank you!

[beatrice_otter]

Macedon and Peg's stories have been uploaded to AO3: Macedon's Taberna

The Talking Stick/Circle story is here