#contamination possibly 🤩 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

astrodances · 3 years

Note

How does Steelbeak fit in your au

Ok ok, finally getting to this one, and I am Excited! 🤩

This is actually going to be a three-part answer, and I'll separate each section, but the part that will be most relevant to the question will be the middle part, fyi.

Here we goooooo! (under the cut!)

______

First section:

So, actually gonna start things off with a tangent that, at the least, will serve as a possible idea for Steelbeak's origins.

So there's the TOS episode, "A Piece of the Action." As far as TOS/Trek goes, this is one of my top favorites. And for those who have been following this AU, you'll know that I was extremely excited when @lettheladylead posted this parody of one of the episode's quotes, featuring the scheme team! (If and when I get around to actually writing this AU, I'm gonna do my best to incorporate that moment. :D)

Between that and watching the episode around then, and posting some Diamond Thieves AU stuff recently, too, I realized that I could totally work the Diamond Thieves AU into my Star Trek AU in a very natural way!

A quick premise for the episode: the Enterprise crew goes to the planet, Sigma Iotia II, home to the Iotians, an imitative species. The Iotians have turned into a society of 1920s gangsters, based on a book about '20s Chicago mobs that the previous Earth ship to visit left behind (the "contamination").

For my AU, I'm thinking that Goldie, at some point before she and Scrooge reunite on Risa (if that reunion is the equivalent of Glomgold's gala, then I imagine the following would parallel the ten-or-so years they didn't interact before then in the show), would have visited the Iotians' planet while traveling through the galaxy on her own little spaceship. She would've left something there - a book, maybe a classic movie, or a musical recording even ;) - along with some other items (probably at least some photographs, and some technology) that would allow these AU Iotians to follow a similar path as their TOS counterparts: they would become 1920s gangsters, but not like those from the Chicago book. No, they'd create a world that is essentially the 1920s era of my Diamond Thieves AU! :D

(I don't know if there'd end up being an Iotian Goldie and/or Scrooge down there on the planet specifically, what with them being imitative, but at the least, the world and other characters and general setting will be there. And Idk yet if/when the real Scrooge and the Klondike will visit the planet, and/or if the real F.O.W.L. will get involved with the planet, or the Iotians will make their own F.O.W.L.-like organization, but hey, now the scene is set for any/all of that. ;))

As for Steelbeak: it could very well be that he's one of the Iotians from this '20s world, and could even fit well into the following section(s). (And even if this isn't his route, the rest of this section still stands.) But I think I'm going to go with the following...

______

Second section:

There is most definitely a trend here when it comes to my personal tastes, but probably my absolute very-favorite episode of Trek (or at least one of the top 5 - making me choose is just not fair XD) is DS9's "Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang". (Quick premise: It's Ocean's Eleven (or "Louie's Eleven"!) in a holosuite on a space station. :D)

Now one thing that I have to state first: Vic Fontaine is very much here and himself in this AU, just as a duck or some other animal (ooh maybe a fox or a wolf? or a cheery kind of dog?) (in DT87 though Duckworth once mentioned a 'Drake Sinatra' - that's something to consider here, although I'm personally more of a Dean Martin fan - we'll find the right pun name XD). I love Vic so much, and this AU can't exist without him.

So anyway, I'm picturing Steelbeak to actually be one of the hologram characters that arise with the jack-in-the-box that takes over Vic's program in this episode. If we're talking DT17 Steelbeak (which is more '60s that his DW91 counterpart, so he might be the better option for this program), then I'm thinking he'd fit in as a Tony Cicci-type of character. If he's more like the DW91 Steelbeak, then he'd be more like Frankie Eyes. (Or maybe he's a mix of his DT17 and DW91 selves?)

Here's where I start to twist things around.

You know the EMH's mobile emitter in Voyager? Well, I'm thinking that either Ludwig (with his own set of EMHs already), Gyro, Fenton, or Gandra, or a combination of them create a mobile emitter for holograms (or already had one made, for Ludwig's purposes). And they either already had it in the works to give to Vic just in general, or specifically plan to give it to him because of the jack-in-the-box that's overtaken his casino. With the mobile emitter, he could get out of the holosuite, at least temporarily until the program's fixed. (I know in the episode, Vic wasn't backing down from the situation and leaving, and maybe that's the case here, but the main point is that the group is ready to present the mobile emitter as a plan to keep Vic safe.)

At some point, however, the emitter falls into Steelbeak's possession, either by accident and he somehow ends up finding his way out of the holosuite on his own and it's a shock to him, or he perhaps overhears of the group's plan and their talks with Vic about the "real world", maybe even some mention of Vic saying something like, "Did you run when F.O.W.L. invaded?" Something. Something to get him curious about the mobile emitter and the real world, and to get him to make a plan to steal the emitter and escape the program. (Maybe besides overhearing things, there's also a glitch in the jack-in-the-box that makes him self-aware and smarter (like, "able to access station files from his matrix" smarter), like Vic and TNG's Moriarty, and he uses that knowledge in his escape plan.)

And you know what? It works.

After they fix the program (and sing their songs), the DS87 crew is all like, "What happened to the emitter?" "Oh, I thought you had it." Or they don't even notice, and assume it's back in some kit of Ludwig's or Fenton's to take back to their quarters later on. (Either way, it's fine, they reason, Ludwig's EMHs will probably each have one by the end of the week, so it's not like they can't get Vic another before the Klondike leaves the station this time.)

Meanwhile, there's a holographic '60s mobster somewhere out there loose on the station, sneaking onto a transport bound for who-knows-where, with a tiny little device tucked up his sleeve, keeping him in the here-and-now.

(And I would just like to say that this idea almost seems meant to be. Why? Because in DWD's "Bearskin Thug," Steelbeak does indeed say, "Badda-boom, badda-bing." I'll take that as a blessing (and probably for the AU name of this episode). :P)

______

Third section:

So this section is especially subject to change, but where does Steelbeak go from DS87? I'm thinking something along the lines of DS9's "Honor Among Thieves" episode.

He won't be sent to Farius Prime to infiltrate anything like O'Brien was, but I think I'll have Steelbeak end up on (AU) Farius Prime and wind up involved with the Orion Syndicate, at first with a smaller sub-group like Bilby's. (And maybe when his Bilby trusts him enough to witness for him, that'll be when Steelbeak first tells him - tells anyone - that he's a hologram? We'll have to see how that plays out, but it's probably something the Syndicate could use in the end. That, or there's a relationship of a very special kind of trust to be had with these two.) (I'd probably change Bilby's name, but...Steelbil? I'm here for it.)

That life suits Steelbeak very well for a while. It's rough work, sure, but he's literally designed to interact with these types of people, and in the end, he thrives with the Syndicate.

And eventually, he'll learn that his Bilby's higher-up, the AU version of Raimus, has formed an alliance between the Syndicate and F.O.W.L., much like that scene where O'Brien finds out about the Syndicate and the Dominion. Only Steelbeak will be for it, and F.O.W.L. will see him as a member to keep a close eye on, and they'll eventually offer him a chance to join the ranks of F.O.W.L., which he accepts.

And thus, Steelbeak ends up with his home team once again. The hologram angle will be fun to play with (especially for Heron - one of her tasks will be to figure out out to make the emitter more permanent for Steelbeak, or on the flip side, how to control it - and thus him - for F.O.W.L.'s purposes (hello Jem'Hadar and the ketracel white). Perhaps it'll be a secret he tries to keep as long as possible, for his own safety. Or maybe he'll use his secret as a way to bribe High Command for something, telling him that, as a holographic matrix, he knew all the ins and outs of DS87, at least for a short time, and could probably get back into the system, if need be, which is info that F.O.W.L. could definitely use.

Whichever way, Steelbeak is gonna be fun.

#Astro answers #DuckTales #Star Trek AU #Diamond Thieves AU

6 notes · View notes