Star Trek: Voyager: Mirrors and Smoke has a really simple premise: given that we know that Star Trek has a “mirror universe”, y’know, the one where everybody has goatees, then there must be a mirror universe Voyager. So what would happen if they ended up in the Delta Quadrant? Well, in true Terran Empire fashion what happens is she and her crew turn buccaneer, taking the opportunity to strike out on their own with nobody around to tell them what to do, and start pillaging their way through the Kazon, Ocampa and anyone else who gets in their way.
One day they’re in the middle of a tussle with the “Dread Ship Baxial”, captained by a certain familiar looking Talaxian and his Ocampa sidekick that Janeway refers to as the “psychotic bitch”, over a shuttlecraft that contains the only other human lifesign in the entire Delta Quadrant. The shuttle, it turns out, contains an entirely unassimilated Annika Hansen (aka Seven of Nine) who is relieved to be rescued, but astonished that the other Terrans have somehow never heard of the Borg. While she’s being treated in sickbay by a familiar balding hologram doctor, strange things start to happen aboard the ship. Is it merely a coincidence, or is this lone human more of a threat than she appears?
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And y’know what? It works. For those familiar with the way the Terran Empire works through its depictions in Deep Space Nine and Discovery, this is totally in keeping with the Terran mindset. Enough tantalising little tidbits of information and open plot threads are left dangling by the final page that the reader will be left hoping for and wanting more of this darker and more violent take on the Voyager storyline. Personally I’d love to know why they ended up stranded there. I can’t see THIS Janeway blowing up the Caretaker to save the Ocampa but then it’s implied that she sees the Terran Empire as a losing proposition so maybe she came up with some excuse to destroy the Caretaker or maybe she just wanted to make sure nobody else could control it.
Either way, it’d be great to see more of this, so we can only hope this one-shot is popular enough to encourage more. While the art style isn’t my particular cup of tea, every character is easily identifiable and emotions and expressions are communicated well. Couple this with a solid “what if?” style story and this version of Voyager deserves to run for a few more issues.
Star Trek: Voyager: Mirrors and Smoke is out now, and available digitally and from comic shops.
