Reading Room: Free Trader by Debra Hicks

[tinturtle]

Hello, everyone. Welcome to the reading room discussion of Free Trader by Debra Hicks. When byslantedlight leads reading room discussions, she sometimes does recaps of the story, so I've written one for Free Trader:


As the story opens, Star Fleet officer Ray Doyle is leaving a formal diplomatic reception. As he makes his way home, he is attacked by two Auadian ships, which attempt to destroy his shuttle for reasons unknown to him. Fortunately, Bodie, a free trader, arrives in his ship the Solar Hawk. He destroys the Auadian ships and beams Doyle aboard just before his shuttle breaks apart. Unfortunately, the Solar Hawk sustains serious damage, leaving it far from the nearest starbase with only slower-than-light engines operational. The damage will take months to repair, so Bodie and Doyle are stuck together.

Bodie tends the injuries Doyle sustained in his fight with the Auadians, feeling unusually protective toward his new passenger. After a little initial friction, they find both a friendship and a growing attraction springing up between them, to the evident jealousy of the Solar Hawk's AI, Cory, whom Bodie has illegally augmented with a personality. Meanwhile, repairs on the Hawk continue, with Doyle's assistance, and Doyle analyzes the diplomatic documents he had been delivering, hoping to find out why the Auadians tried to kill him.

While doing sexy spaceship repairs together in a cramped access tunnel, Bodie and Doyle share their first kiss. Directly afterward, Doyle receives an electric shock from a cable that should have been inert, the second unexplained accident that has befallen him on the Hawk. He is not seriously hurt, but Bodie is disturbed by his own strong reaction to the event. He is falling in love with Doyle, but believes he will loose him as soon as the repairs are complete and the Hawk returns to civilization. The two decide to make the most of the time they have together, however, and they have sex.

The next day, Doyle finds a hidden message in his diplomatic documents, which reveals that a Star Fleet captain, Lojo, has been extorting money from planets with the help of the Auadians. He becomes afraid that Lojo and the Auadians might assassinate the ambassador who tasked him with delivering the documents, which could trigger an interplanetary war. Thus, it becomes urgent to inform Star Fleet of Lojo's activities. Bodie and Doyle devise a way to send a distress signal where it might be picked up by a Star Fleet vessel. The effort will leave their ship with compromised shields and weaponry, however, and could draw the attention of pirates.

They decide to send the signal, but having overheard their plan, Cory tries to kill Doyle by locking him in his cabin and pumping the air out. Bodie erases Cory by loading the back-up AI, and Doyle escapes relatively unharmed.

Bodie and Doyle go to work on the modifications needed to send the distress signal, and Doyle decides that if they survive, he will leave Star Fleet to live on the Hawk with Bodie. He dresses up in a pirate costume inspired by the historical vids he has seen Bodie enjoy, and they have sex.

The next day, they send the signal, but unfortunately it is Captain Lojo's ship that responds. Lojo becomes suspicious and summons an Auadian ship, and both ships fire on the Hawk. The Hawk is critically damaged, and Bodie and Doyle head for the escape pod. Yet before they can get there, they are trapped and injured by falling debris. Meanwhile, however, the Enterprise has arrived, and it transports them off their ship just in time.

The Enterprise's medical staff treat them for their injuries. Bodie's are much more serious, and despite several surgeries, he doesn't improve until Doyle comes to visit him and assure him that they both survived. Doyle tells is story to Captain Picard and subsequently, by video link, to a Star Fleet tribunal. Finally, when both Bodie and Doyle have recovered, they are transported to another ship, which Doyle reveals he talked the tribunal into giving to Bodie to compensate him for the destroyed Solar Hawk. The end.


What did you think of this fic? Were this Bodie and Doyle the Lads we know? Was their relationship satisfying? Did the alternate world come alive for you? How did you like the plot? Would you want to read more adventures of free traders Bodie and Doyle in their new ship?

Comments

[tinturtle]

I'll be posting my thoughts, but right now I need to go to bed.

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

I'll give a few thoughts.

I love this story because I love a good AU. I really have no interest in the ST aspect. Full disclosure: Deb is a friend and when we talked about this story long ago, she told me that the only reason she wrote this was to see the lads in ST uniforms. I can't attest to the ST accuracy but I think this is great fun. I have no trouble picturing the lads in this (with or without uniforms). I can imagine the space ship and I believe totally in their relationship. Like other scifi AUs, I get sucked right in. Works for me!

And yes, I would read more adventures of Bodie and Doyle in this setting, as I have already read in other scifi AUs.

Interesting that we still don't believe AI can be a problem. Read fanfic or scifi! Ask Dave. *snirk* LOL!

[tinturtle]

"I'm sorry Bodie, I'm afraid I can't do that..."

I'm fond of sci-fi AUs, as well, and, as a sci-fi AU, I think this is a good story. Where it fell down for me was in the believability of the relationship. I felt as if a lot of space was devoted to its development but not much development actually took place. YMM (and evidently does) V.

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think they had plenty of relationship development, even in a short time. There are many, many stories where they are in lust instantly. I prefer those to the ones where they hate each other for years before they finally decide they don't. If that's developing the relationship, it's not for me. And of course, everybody likes stories differently, which is why we have so many. Stories people love I scratch my head at. But in any case, I like talking stories overall. It's fun. Every story hits me differently and if I feel like I've had a good journey by the end (and if I even make it to the end!), I'm a happy reader.

Thanks for doing this!

[firlefanzine.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for this new Reading Room! Times have changed — but maybe... :-)

And I did enjoy reading this story!

I have problems with the technical stuff in many scifi stories, but here it's all the right way of a story of friendship and love and a little bit of danger and fear and h/c and happy ending.

"Love among the stars", yes the uniforms and the great idea of the jealous machine make the story special!

And no! This comment is not AI generated! Just look at all the mistakes! :-)

[tinturtle]

I did think Cory was a good addition to the story. Her jealousy created a sense of suspense during what was otherwise a slow part of the plot.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

What did you think of this fic?
I didn't enjoy this story as much as I'd hoped to. The Star Trek elements weren't intrusive, because it was really more B/D in the Star Trek universe than a Pros/Star Trek cross-over, but of course that meant I was more focused on the lads...

Were this Bodie and Doyle the Lads we know?
...and the lads weren't the B/D that I know. It started out okay — Doyle is a competent ship's pilot who feels more at home when he's active/out in the world piloting his ship than he does at a fancy reception. Then we switch to Bodie — and at first he's okay too, although he gets to be heroic under fire rather than sitting calmly, being shot at, and trying to run away. But then it rather falls apart for me - Bodie becomes super-Bodie, the one with experience, knowledge and authority, and Doyle becomes Doyle-who-needs-protecting and looking after, and advice - not the Doyle I see in eps at all. Even though the story says he's a successful lieutenant in the Federation, we're not shown him with the qualities you'd need for that, and he's missing competencies that Doyle has in the episodes too. Doyle knows his way around an engine - this chap needs Bodie to show him. Doyle in the eps isn't particularly impressed with authority figures - but in this story he has to be disuaded from calling Bodie "Captain". This Doyle is modest - he clutches a blanket to him when Bodie looks at him, and I definitely don't see that in our canon Doyle! *g* He jumps to conclusions about Bodie in this story, and flinches when Bodie calls him on it. He doesn't even recognise a talking ship's computer when he first hears Cory, despite being a Star Fleet officer and apparently a spy! I just couldn't buy this Doyle — nor a Bodie who was shown as so much his superior, and Doyle accepting him as his superior!

Was their relationship satisfying?
Again, sadly not for me - from the moment Bodie says "Hush, sunshine", without knowing why he was calling him "sunshine" I was a bit lost - it didn't make any sense, and there hadn't been any hint that Bodie was immediately attracted to him in a way that would prompt some kind of unconscious nickname. I didn't see a satisfying build-up of emotion between them, they seemed to go straight into deciding they wanted each other and were in love. I like them wanting each other and being in love, but half the joy of that for me is seeing it happen... And of course it felt like an unequal relationship to me, with Bodie the great wise teacher, and Doyle the delicate flower who needed to be taught things...

And I hate to say it, but I wasn't convinced by the sex scenes either - they were a bit too much alongside the rest of the plot, almost as if there were two stories thrown together rather than one story in which both things happened... if that makes sense!

Did the alternate world come alive for you?
Yes, I was happy with where they were, and loved the description of Bodie's bridge with all the windows onto the universe. Cory was well done as a ship's computer, I thought, though I could see where that was going pretty early on. I believed in the setting of the story, just not the lads themselves.

Out of curiousity, why the name "Cory" for the computer? Is that a ST:NG thing?

How did you like the plot?
I could see what washappening with Cory, but it had a decent build-up (though I was uncomfortable buying a Bodie who was so oblivious to Cory's needs, despite having designed her that way himself, and dismissing her so bluntly for Doyle etc. The Bodie I see in eps is much more of a charmer, because he never knows when he might need someone in the future (although that's clearly partly my interpretation, obvs!))

We seemed to go a bit abruptly from that part of the plot to the second part with the hidden message and all, and then I think less time was spent on that in the story, despite it being the "bigger" plot in many ways, so it felt a bit unbalanced to me.

Would you want to read more adventures of free traders Bodie and Doyle in their new ship?
I actually would, because I do like Bodie-and-Doyle-in-space stories, just... not this Bodie and Doyle I'm afraid... *g*

[tinturtle]

Interesting. I didn't really get a sense of super-Bodie and flower-Doyle from this story. I didn't get a very strong sense of either of their characters, really. I think the reader was meant to supply most of that from past experience. As for Doyle not having canon competencies, I thought he was shown to have more knowledge of engineering than Bodie expected of someone specialized in a different field.

Bodie followed his stare. "Took it dead on. Don't worry, not as bad as it looks. The bulkhead is solid." He pointed to a large conduit running along the wall, "Unfortunately that is the main...."

"Power converter," Doyle supplied. Bodie nodded, led them on.

The lack of real development of the relationship was the main difficulty I had with the story, and given the amount of time devoted to it, it was a major difficulty, unfortunately. Like you, I didn't like this story as much as I'd hoped.

As for the sex scenes, those rarely engage me, as you know. I did find the pirate outfit a bit...random.

I also found the setting one of the strong points. Pacing was perhaps a little uneven, though I think if there had been more substance to the getting-to-know you section, it would have helped.

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

I tend to agree. They were both very competent overall.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Sorry it's taken me all weekend to get back!

It definitely wasn't a bad super-Bodie/flower-Doyle story, but there were enough hints of it for me that I was less keen.

I think the reader was meant to supply most of that from past experience.
Yes, and I think that was the problem for me, even though that's what fanfic is. In that case the story-lads should have matched their canon characters, but as I said, they didn't quite get there for me. For example:

"He looked at Doyle hopefully. "What do you know about engineering?"
"I'm a linguist, not an engineer. Sorry."
Doyle then shows he knows a bit about engines, as you say above, but in the eps we see them both working with engines/mechanics, to an equal degree. In the story here, Bodie can fix an engine, and Doyle knows what one looks like, but Doyle can't fix one without guidance.

"Bodie stood, started to clear the table.
"Here, I can get that," Doyle volunteered.
"Stay. You're my guest. Besides... you don't have to keep apologising. You've already done that."
....."I didn't know my motives were so transparent."
I just don't see canon-Doyle repeatedly apologising to Bodie about things. The lads are both very much "alpha males", but I don't get that sense of Doyle in Free Trader.

"Bodie knew he could have pinned Doyle if he had resorted to any of the numerous dirty tricks he knew..."
Again, we're also told that Doyle was good, and had that Bodie'd been "forced to use a few unusual maneuvres to get away from Doyle", but ultimately, we're told, Bodie would have won.

Then there's the whole Bodie calling Doyle "Sunshine" ("an old nickname") and Doyle not knowing what it meant — despite being a cryptographer and spy. And Bodie using it like that rubs me the wrong way too — it's not what "sunshine" is when used in the eps, and comes across as a bit patronising, like using "sweetheart" to a woman you barely know. It's clearly not meant to be like that, but that's the result for me.

There's a bit too much of Bodie ruffling Doyle's curls in the story for me too - he doesn't do that in the eps, despite having his hands all over Doyle's hair on occasion. It's stronger actions he does, not "ruffling" as you would do to a child. Again, I don't suppose it's meant that way, it's just how it reads to me - maybe it's just the author's choice of language clashing with my understanding of that language.

Also, as I said above, Doyle covering himself in a blanket in front of Bodie; flinching when he feels he's been wrong; not knowing what a shipboard computer would sound like; whereas Bodie is shown as confident, bold and knowledgeable throughout.

Doyle's not un-competent in the story at all, but I don't get the impression that Bodie really sees him as an equal: different, but equal.

I think it could have been a much longer story, actually - it's a good plot and of course I do like a B/D love story, but as you say, I think we need to see things developing as readers. If they seem to happen out of the blue, then I'm less convinced by the story in general, which was what happened here. The pirate outfit could have been fun, but like you I wasn't entirely sure what the point of it was (especially after hearing that the author wrote the story cos she wanted to see the lads in ST outfits!) Maybe a good way of describing it is the bones of a really good story - we just needed more to flesh it out!

I hope this Reading Room has been what you were hoping — and I hope we have another one soon! *g* Thank you!

[tinturtle]

I see what you mean now, yeah. I still don't find the unequal engine knowledge, in particular, to be a problem, though. Warp engines don't seem like the sort of thing someone would work on as a hobby, and Doyle was part of an organization with specialized engineers, so he would not have been trained in that area. Bodie, as the sole crew member of a small ship, would need that knowledge.

I think this reading room has been a success. Quite a few more people participated than I was expecting. Yay!

I'm hoping to do start organizing another one next week and hold it on Friday 11 August.

[krisserci5.livejournal.com]

This is a top favorite for me! The type of characters that Bodie and Doyle represent make their insertion into this AU very workable for me. I can see Doyle being interested in Star Fleet and Bodie not so much. I do love how the relationship develops and that the AI is jealous (WARNINGS re AI have been in all s/f since I began reading . . hopefully humanity has been reading as well).

The story was well done and believable. I can see as an ep of ST: NG . . I did like the use of Data, he was the only one that would have been able to save them.

I would love to read more adventures . . . I can see them flying through the universe . . . helping others and themselves.

[tinturtle]

Yes, Doyle joining Star Fleet and Bodie setting up in (occasionally illegal) business for himself fits their canon backstories well. I would also like to see some additional adventures in which they help others during their adventures, growing into the Lads we know from canon.

[tinturtle]

I wanted to love this fic. I am partial to IN SPACE! stories, and this one had a lot going for it. I found the setting vivid and the plot included a lot of good material. For me, though, the relationship between Bodie and Doyle couldn't support the amount of time devoted to it. More than half of the story is dedicated to Bodie and Doyle getting to know each other and falling in love. Yet I didn't get much sense of them learning about each other or forming a bond. Doyle shares a bit of back story, but we never see Bodie reciprocate, and they aren't shown to share any experiences that don't revolve around mutual physical attraction.

When there is a lot else going on, I tolerate simply being told by an author, "okay the characters are in love now," but Debra Hicks made a lot of space to show rather than tell, then didn't really do it. One moment that I found especially frustrating was when Ray said that they could refrain from putting themselves in danger to notify Star Fleet of Lojo's activities and simply pass on the information when they reached the starbase. Bodie replied, effectively, "yes, but you'd never do that." How did he know? We never see him learning about Ray's character in a way that would allow him that kind of certainty.

As I said, other than that, I liked the fic. The sci-fi setting was well done, and the plot was well constructed and interesting.

(ETA: I guess the other difficulty I had was with the conclusion of the Cory plot, which felt a little anti-climactic after so much built-up. I would have liked a bit more suspense and danger. Compare the showdown with ANN in A Future to This Life.)

[cim3745.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this reading room.

I never would have read or tried Free Trader without it. I am not a fan of sci-fi and have a lot of problems with crossovers. The first reply to your poll from sc_fossil convinced me, though.

Were this Bodie and Doyle the Lads we know?
Yes, they were "my" lads after a couple of pages. And I always like it when some things from the eps are included — .... you Dumb Crud .... both arms .... and there were a lot more :-)
The characterisation worked well for me.

Was their relationship satisfying ?
A bit to much for me — I don't like I love you said with this frequency.

Did the alternate world come alive for you?
It really did, wouldn't have thought it would :-)

How did you like the plot?
I have to admit, I haven't understand everything but I didn't need to to follow the story and get a feeling about what happened.

Would you want to read more adventures of free traders Bodie and Doyle in their new ship?
No, one story is enough for me ;-)

Have you tried Of Angels and Angels by Sarah K ? (https://archiveofourown.org/works/113554)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/113554 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/113554)
I loved it.

[tinturtle]

I'm glad you enjoyed the story, despite the sci-fi setting. I agree with you that things got a touch mushy at times, especially near the end.

I have read Of Angles and Angels. I liked that one a lot. Did you like it?

[queenafoster.livejournal.com]

I could also see their backstories going the other way as well with Bodie being in Starfleet (he was the former soldier) and Doyle being the space trader.

I enjoyed the story but I didn't love it. I liked them in the Next Generation universe, but I wish we'd had more interaction with those characters.

I liked the jealous computer angle, but that angle was pretty apparent early on.

I wish Cowley had put in an appearance.

Decent story, but not a keeper for me.

[tinturtle]

Hm. I can't really see Doyle as a space trader. Not sure why, though. Maybe it's just because I haven't read that story yet. *g*

Yes, it would have been fun to see who Cowley would be in this universe.