Code of Honor

You may be looking for the Star Trek: TOS zine Courts of Honor or the NCIS zine Honor Code.

Zine
Title:	Code of Honor
Publisher:	Orion Press
Editor:
Author(s):	BEKi
Cover Artist(s):
Illustrator(s):
Date(s):	1997
Medium:	print zine
Size:
Genre:
Fandom:	Star Trek: Voyager
Language:	English
External Links:
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

reprint cover?

the single illo by BEKi

Code of Honor is a 188-page het Star Trek: Voyager novel by BEKi.

The cover and the single illo are by the author.

It is a rewritten version of a story in Delta Quadrant #2.

The author notes: "This story was written before either Chakotay's racial heritage or his reasons for joining the Maquis were explored."

Summaries

Honor. Loyalty. Trust. When Chakotay left Starfleet to join the Maquis, he did so because he had no choice. Now, almost a decade later and seventy thousand light years away from the war that forced him to sacrifice his future to the dictates of an intractable code of honr, he finds himself once again trapped. Originally, published as a short story in Delta Quadrant #2, Code of Honor now re-written and expanded to novel length is a shadow play that pits right against wrong, truth against perception, honor against the illusion of duty. While the line is drawn and time runs out, Chakotay and Janeway must face the ultimate test of their commitment to not only to duty and honor, but to each other and the deeper issues that define who they are and who they will become.

Expanded from a story in Delta Quadrant 2. When Chakotay left Starfleet to join the Maquis, he did so because he had no choice. Now, almost a decade later and seventy thousand light years away from the war that forced him to sacrifice his Mure to the dictates of an intractable code of honor, he finds himself once again trapped. Struggling to save the life of an alien accused of terrorism, Chakotay loses traction on the treacherous footing of Starfleet regulations. Duty acquiesces to conscience, placing him in direct opposition to Janeway, Tuvok and the Prime Directive. While the fine is drawn and time runs out, Chakotay and Janeway must face the ultimate test of their commitment to not only duty and honor, but to each other and to the deeper issues that define who they are and who they will become.

From Author's Notes

Deja vu.

Yes, this is the same Code of Honor that appeared in Delta Quadrant 2.

And no, it isn't.

Have you ever had a story that just wouldn't quit? Code of Honor is that kind of story. I thought it was finished when I sent it to Marge Robles to edit for DQ2. I thought it was finished the first, second and third time I called her with last-minute changes. I really thought it was finished when it finally went to press and started circulating to the readers.

Yeah, well, I guess I was wrong, wasn't I?

Like that guy Garth and his friends in low places, I found that sometimes you can write a story, and someone can edit it wonderfully, and they can actually put it on paper and start sending it out and about, and it's then and only then that you realize: something's wrong. I didn't notice it at first. I read it, and I read it, and one day I was reading at home, and it came to me, and I thought to myself, "Beki, (that's what I go by back home, Beki) is that the way you’d write that story?" And I thought, "Nope. I don't believe that is the way I'd write that story." So I hope you'all don't mind, but I’ve added another hundred pages or so and re-wrote all the dialog in between to make it a little more me, if ya know what I mean.

For those of you who may not consider Mr. Brooks to be a poet in boots, let me rephrase:

It’s my story, and I'll change it if I want to,

Change it if I want to,

Change it if I want to.

I hope you like this version. My thanks to Marge Robles, the original editor of this piece who let me make changes right up to the drop dead of DQ2 in an effort to ease a few nagging dissatisfactions that we both attributed (and probably rightly so) to rampant perfectionism; Randy Landers, who convinced me that my own personal copy of this saga should be seen by more than the two people it was re-written for; Greg Lash, who said he'd buy the new one even though he'd already read the old one; Ann Zewen, who agreed to line-edit this dog for the spelling and punctuation atrocities I do so favor but which make all you grammarphiles whine (you may thank her that Chakotay now "Walks with the Prophets" instead of "Walking with the Profits" ... damned Maquis, anyway. Gotta watch 'em every second...); and Robert (bel-TRAAAAN' for those of us who've been pronouncing it wrong), who may be acting the tatoo [sic] but definitely is NOT acting that twisted sense of humor.

Gotta love it.

Reactions and Reviews

Code of Honor, originally a short story in Delta Quadrant Two, makes better use of the Voyager characters in a hundred or so pages than the show has in three seasons. The dialogue crackles with the energy of standup comedy, the relationships have complexity and depth. This is a Janeway/Chakotay novel in the best sense--it's about the working relationship between two people with dramatically different ideological commitments, who are pledged to working together for a common cause, and who care deeply about one another. Janeway perhaps spends too much time dwelling on procedure and too little taking action, but she's multidimensional, warm and passionate without losing an iota of her intelligence or force in command.

The story concerns a group of xenophobic aliens, the Goshin, offered assistance by Voyager and rescued from their failing ship. During the rescue, Chakotay discovers Desh, an alien of a different ethnicity who has been tortured horribly by the racist Goshin. Desh's experiences remind Chakotay of the reasons he joined the Maquis and shunned Starfleet. He becomes committed to protecting Desh, a suspected terrorist, from the possibility of being returned to Goshin custody, which Janeway -- citing the Prime Directive a little too thoughtlessly -- feels Voyager may have to do.

This is a terrific setup, though the entire crew is a little too obsessed with Chakotay's obsession--Janeway dreams about him, Paris frets about their history together, Tuvok doubts him and later admires him. Chakotay is given a compelling, moving backstory, in which he had political as well as personal reasons for shunning Starfleet and joining the Maquis. His wry sense of humor and loyalty to his beliefs are a welcome change from the muddled character he's become on the series.

The Doc is BEKi's great comic achievement: I loved his revelation that he has been programmed with the Hallmark database of platitudes and condolences.

I also liked Janeway and Tuvok for most of the story, though they're a tad too paranoid about the Maquis and too rigid as Starfleet officers.

The weak link is B'Elanna Torres. In the shorter story in Delta Quadrant, she was in fewer scenes, yet came across as a much stronger character--Chakotay's equal and confidante. Here, she's not only his lover, she seems to exist to serve as his personal support system. She gives him backrubs, she gives him pep talks; her contributions have little to do with her knowledge and skills as a scientist, and, since she's much more Klingon here than she's been in the series, it's hard to understand why she identifies with the Maquis beyond her devotion to her former captain. It gets tiring, especially since every other character in Code of Honor--Tuvok, Paris, and, most disappointingly, Janeway--come around to believe in Chakotay's righteous self-absorption, to accept that he's a prince in wolf's clothing.

When Janeway and Tuvok tacitly approve mass murder of aliens as "the Maquis way" of responding to the killing of a crewmember, the story and the characters become caricatures of their television counterparts. While Chakotay and Janeway are balancing one another, representing opposing approaches to the same basic values, this novel succeeds admirably.

The Starfleet-bashing, perhaps justified due to the heavy-handed praise of conflicting Federation values on the television series, ultimately weakens this story. That said, this zine is still vastly better than any of the Pocket Books Voyager novels, in terms of both the characterization and the issues brought up by the plot. It costs more than a mass market paperback but I think it's well worth it.