Voyager's Nines (Part 1)
"Accepting what life has dealt us -- finding the good in it."
-- Chakotay in Resolutions
The complaint I've heard about Star Trek's Nines is that they're "non-characters." In a way, that's appropriate: Nines' chief compulsion is to erase themselves, blending with the environment and the people around them.
But I don't personally react negatively to Nines, on Star Trek or in real life. More often than not, I find myself drawn by their good points: calm and steady, unpretentious and accepting of others. At their best, Nines combine this with a strong sense of their own needs and priorities. How much this is true of Voyager's Nines varies between the three of them -- and, like all of us, how healthy they act can vary according to the situation.
As a Nine, Chakotay is ideally suited to the job he found himself thrust into: first officer with the responsibility of integrating Star Fleet and Maquis crews. Nines are natural mediators, able to see opposing views and find common ground between them. Because they have little ego to defend, they can listen nonjudgmentally and patiently. They try to be gracious and understanding even to people they dislike. Chakotay's scorn of Tom Paris in The Caretaker notwithstanding, for the most part Chakotay exercised great patience with him, particularly during Tom's disaffected phase in the second season. Likewise, he tamped down his initial dislike for Tuvok (a spy on his Maquis ship) and Seven of Nine (a Borg whom he considered a threat to the ship).
Because Nines want to maintain harmony, they can fall into not speaking their own minds -- or even being sure of what their own opinion is. For the most part, Chakotay is relatively healthy in this regard. In the first part of Scorpion and the second part of Equinox, we saw him quite willing to stand up to Captain Janeway and question her decisions.
On the other hand, he does show a marked Nine tendency to merge with whatever environment he's placed in. Most importantly for the series, of course, was how easily the Maquis leader slipped into the role of dutiful Star Fleet first officer. In his own words from Resolutions, his Nine philosophy is "accepting what life has dealt us -- finding the good in it."
That may have worked well on Voyager, but Chakotay's accepting approach has also got him into a few situations where he was taken advantage of. In Unity and Nemesis, his tendency to merge with the group (in this respect he is definitely a social subtype) allows others to use him for their own ends.
In Unity, in particular, one could imagine that giving a social subtype Nine the opportunity to merge with a collective mind could actually be quite enticing. It's what Nines do subconsciously anyway. "Our strength is your strength," the collective tells him. And despite Chakotay's initial protests, he finds the experience "incredible."
In Year of Hell he allowed a strong personality -- Annorax -- to take him along in tow, and he let his empathy for Annorax get in the way of reason. Nines can often be drawn to strong personalities to give them definition and purpose. One could speculate that that's how Chakotay managed to let two spies get past him on his Maquis ship. Interestingly, The Caretaker gives us a hint of how Tuvok may have filled that role -- watch as Chakotay silently turns to Tuvok for his recommendation on whether to board Voyager. And then, of course, there was Seska, who managed to abuse his trust in all kinds of ways.
On Voyager, he gravitated to Kathryn Janeway, and, as he says in Resolutions, found peace in serving her. He tells her about it in the form of a story, a not uncommon device for him. Clarence Thomson says this is something Nines often do -- talk in anecdotes and "little stories." As Thomson says, "How do you attack a little story?"
Anyway, Chakotay tells his little story about the "Angry Warrior," seeking peace, who "swore to himself he would stay by her side, doing whatever he could to make her burden lighter. From that point on her needs would come first and in that way the warrior began to know the true meaning of peace."
It takes a certain amount of self-awareness for Chakotay to acknowledge the anger in him, which Nines defensively try to erase. It's also to some degree a function of his predominant 8-wing. Nines with an 8-wing will have the core type's typical calm, with occasional outbursts of temper -- then they return to their normal, placid self. Whatever Chakotay may say about his anger before he met Janeway, this behavior of a Nine with an 8-wing is really all we've ever seen.
At his state of Nine health, Chakotay does make a great first officer -- as an approachable, kind yet firm liaison to the crew and as a voice of moderation to Janeway. When we saw him act as captain in part two of Scorpion, however, he did not fare so well. And he managed to mess it up in very Nine ways.
Enneagram writer Helen Palmer notes that Nines can be good leaders if the situation presents a clear course of action, but they are not comfortable if it demands a continuing set of decisions. Chakotay agrees to abide by Janeway's agreement with the Borg in Scorpion, but when Seven of Nine starts throwing him curveballs, he does not handle it very well. Janeway had warned him: "They'll push you. They'll threaten you. But they need you. They need this alliance. You have to make this work."
But in the face of Seven's threats, Chakotay instead wavers, and tells her, "I'll think about it," before stubbornly digging in his heels on the original agreement. Except he weakens on the original agreement as well, telling Seven he'll give them the weapons technology without waiting for the Borg's end of the bargain -- safe passage out of Borg space.
However, I'll reiterate that he is very good at the first officer job, not to mention as de facto counselor in some cases. He showed the very best of Nines in Extreme Risk, for example, confronting B'Elanna with the cause of her depression and self-destructiveness. He is both blunt and gentle, firm and compassionate, and he breaks down her formidable defenses, getting her to face her buried grief at the death of their Maquis compatriots.
It's moments like this that make me love Nines. Riso and Hudson sum it up well when they describes healthy Nines: "Because they communicate the feeling of nonjudgmental acceptance, Nines serve as emotional anchors for people; stable and solid, they are always there when others need them. Modest, gentle and approachable, they are sanctuaries of peace to whom others come for solace, rest and comfort. Uncritical and unthreatening, they do not have unattainable standards either for themselves or for anyone else."
A final note on Nines with an 8-wing: They tend to be less intellectual than Nines with a 1-wing; they are more instinctive, more physical. Nines in general have a tendency to take emotions and turn them into physical sensations. We've seen this with Chakotay: his love of boxing, for example, not to mention his myriad homey craft projects in Resolutions.
--Teresa Malcolm
Voyager's Nines (Part 2): Harry Kim