Unto Us a Son Is Given

Zine
Title:	Unto Us a Son Is Given
Publisher:	Unicorn Press
Editor(s):
Date(s):	May 1997
Series?:
Medium:	print
Size:
Genre:
Fandom:	Star Trek: Voyager
Language:	English
External Links:
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Unto Us a Son Is Given is a 62-page het anthology with stories by Diane Bellomo, Betty Dain, Kathy Speck and Brenda Shaffer-Shiring.

front cover by Madalena Mumford, "Father and Son"

The cover art is by Madalena Mumford. The graphics are by R.R. Schmitt.

Summary

Summary from the publisher: "What would have happened if Chakotay had been the father of Seska's son? Find four different views of how Chakotay deals with Tolucay, and vice versa."

From the Editorial

From the moment when we first learned that Chakotay might have a child, back in "Maneuvers," I liked the idea. I could picture it: a graceful, capable man, finding himself awkward and uncertain around his small, new baby. An angry, betrayed man, learning to love the innocent product of that betrayal. A solitary man, discovering once again what it means to be part of a family.

To me, the concept was so fascinating that I couldn’t abandon it just because the powers-that- be wouldn’t let things work out that way. Surely there had to be some way to examine at least a few of the possibilities that came to mind that fateful November evening when we heard Seska tell Chakotay, "You’re going to be a father."

There had to be, and there is. For that’s what this fanzine does: explore that particular "road not taken." In these pages, Chakotay is the father of Seska’s child. Flere, he rears that child (arbitrarily named "Tolucay") and goes through the feelings and the situations that such paternity would bring him.

[...]

Fair warning: though these stories have the same premise (Seska's son as Chakotay's), they don't all take place in the same universe. They're four authors' explorations of the same subject, not four chapters in an ongoing saga. Just so you know....

Content

• The Delivery Room, editorial by Brenda Shaffer-Shiring (3)
• For a Son, story by Brenda Shaffer-Shiring ("It touches on how Chakotay feels about the risks the crew took on his, and his son's, behalf. It also revises "Basics, Part 2" Just enough to make the child Chakotay's, and put him in the first officer's hands.") (4)
• Ebony Eyes, story by Diane Bellomo ("Chakotay must deal, not only with caring for his infant child, but also with his feelings about Tolucay — and about Seska.") (15)
• The Changing Face, story by Kathleen Speck ("A look at how Chakotay develops as a father through several crises in his and his young child's lives. Can Chakotay balance his duties as first officer with his responsibility to his son?") (20)
• My Patience Was Rewarded, story by Betty Dain ("In which takes place in a possible uture where Voyager has returned to the Alpha Quadrant, shows Chakotay and four-year-old Tolucay on a Maquis base. They're waiting for the person who'll make their family complete, but they're going to get more than they bargained for.") (44)

Reactions and Reviews

What if Chakotay had been the father of Seska's baby, and that child had remained on Voyager following the events of "Basics Part II"? That's the question at the center of this zine, illustrated by R.R.Schmitt and Madalena Mumford, which features four different stories about how Chakotay might have dealt with his son. The stories feature Janeway heavily, often as Chakotay's lover, sometimes acting as a co-parent of sorts to the child. Some readers may not be fond of Janeway's domestic angst--she's barely recognizable in the story where Voyager returns to the Alpha Quadrant and she hides from him for more than a year before their predictably drippy reunion. Yet she comes across sympathetically, and reasonably intelligently, in most cases. As in many other Voyager zines, the writers go overboard in their interests in the domestic lives of the characters at the expense of action, science, and politics. I also get a little sick of Chakotay, Chakotay, Chakotay, and his personal problems and concerns. But since the show gives us so little continuous character development and squanders opportunities stemming from plot threads like this one, it's refreshing to see fans taking the raw materials of Voyager and creating entirely new, interesting scenarios.