Voyager's Six
"What a coward I am. ... I've been a coward about everything. Everything that really matters."
-- B'Elanna Torres in Day of Honor
Fives, Sixes and Sevens make up the trio of fear-based types. A 5 fears intrusions upon his person and reacts by withdrawing. A 7 fears pain and reacts with hyperactivity. Between these is the Six, who is the most outwardly and consciously fearful of the trio. To a Six, the world is an insecure and often threatening place, and they most often seek protection from authority figures and tradition.
They do this, however, in two distinct ways, so that Sixes can often look very different from each other. Some Sixes are phobic -- they deal with their fear by keeping a low profile and appeasing authority.
On the other end of the continuum are counterphobic Sixes. Their tendency is to face their fears by combating them, a kind of "get them before they get me" tactic. They are still strongly oriented toward authority figures, but will hide their dependency on them with a show of rebellion.
It is extremely rare that a Six will be completely phobic or completely counterphobic. Most exist somewhere along a continuum, their reactions often depending on the situation.
B'Elanna Torres is primarily a counterphobic Six. She is known for her edgy, if nervous, temper, and an antiauthoritarian streak. But at the same time, she can be phobicly dependent on authority figures -- her attitude toward Chakotay can border on hero-worship, and she has come to seek Janeway's approval.
You get a good sense of that contradictory attitude towards authority in the early episode Parallax. Chakotay has suggested her for the job of chief engineer, but she can't make it through the interview with Janeway without defensively lashing out: "Listen, Captain, if you think I'm not right for this job, just say so." She tells Janeway that she quit Star Fleet Academy because it was "a system that didn't give anyone a chance to breathe."
She sabotages her chances, but it keeps her in a safe position. In a like manner, despite her intense dislike of Carey, her main rival for the chief engineer position, she nevertheless obeys his command not to speak until spoken to at a staff meeting. As Clarence Thomson says, Sixes have an "underlying assumption that if I actually do achieve, I will have my achievement used against me (criticized, belittled, found inadequate or become the object of jealousy) -- regardless of the mechanism, the Six knows he will be punished for coming to the attention of the authorities."
Later, B'Elanna apologizes to Janeway and says, "I'm not officer material and we both know it. The truth is, I quit the Academy because I realized I couldn't make it in Star Fleet. And no one was sorry to see me go."
B'Elanna is stunned when Janeway tells her that a Professor Chapman was -- and we get a glimpse of another contentious relationship with authority. B'Elanna says, "I fought with him almost every day. I was always questioning his methods, his assumptions, and he was always slapping me down like some upstart kid. I was surprised he didn't help me pack my bags."
Of course, Janeway does give her the position of chief engineer, which is a good fit for a Six. They are natural problem-solvers and trouble-shooters -- since they are ever-vigilant for what can go wrong anyway.
Prime Factors was the last time we saw her seriously defy Janeway's orders. Only this time it wasn't because of counterphobic overreaction, but rather phobicly buckling under other people's stronger wills -- namely, Seska, who convinces her to go along with a plan to use alien technology illegally. Seska wants to forge ahead regardless of the consequences, but B'Elanna doubts the plan, questions it, and is generally indecisive before giving in.
When the plan fails, she admits her wrongdoing. There is no trace of defiance from her when she gets a dressing-down from Janeway. In fact, she is quite shaken that she has lost Janeway's trust.
Their issues with authority can also make Sixes especially sensitive to the abuse of power. This is undoubtedly part of the reason B'Elanna joined the Maquis, and you can also see that attitude in such episodes as Remember (in which she insists an alien race must face up to its history of genocide) and Juggernaut (in which she has a very hard time helping the toxic-waste-dumping Malon). It's also possibly part of what's behind her dislike of Seven of Nine -- aside from the Borg connection, Sixes can often have a hard time dealing with 8s because of the 8 need to be in power.
The Six's ambivalence and insecurity can often be seen in B'Elanna's relationship with Tom Paris. It was especially apparent during his season-long effort to start up a romantic relationship with her. It seemed she could never decide between returning the flirtation or angrily pushing him away.
Riso & Hudson describe this dynamic: "Sixes fluctuate between compliant and aggressive impulses, feeling that others like them and then do not. Or Sixes feel that they like others and then that they do not. Knowing their ambivalence toward others, they cannot help but feel that others are equally ambivalent toward them. And knowing how quickly they can turn on someone else, Sixes feel that others may well turn on them. So they become guarded and evasive."
It can take a long time for a Six to trust someone. A Six will test the other person, provoking him in some way, looking for signs of approval or disapproval. A small problem can cause a Six to doubt the whole relationship, and then trust has to be established all over again.
In Day of Honor, when B'Elanna finally admits her feelings for Tom, she acknowledges that she is always pushing people away, and that it has its roots in fear. "What a coward I am," she says. "I've been a coward about everything. Everything that really matters."
Day of Honor is in fact a veritable Six-fest. It starts with a conversation with Chakotay over the newest focus of B'Elanna's Six-ish suspicions -- Seven of Nine. Chakotay wants B'Elanna to work with Seven on creating transwarp drive. Notice in the conversation the Six tendency to envision the worst case scenario:
B'Elanna: We don't know anything about transwarp technology. Playing around with it could be dangerous.
Chakotay: That's where Seven comes in. She's offered to work with you.
B'Elanna: What do you think her real motives are?
Chakotay: She's having a tough time making the transition from the Collective. She wants something to do.
B'Elanna: I never thought of you as naïve, Chakotay. The bottom line is, I don't want to work with her.
Chakotay: The bottom line is, I'm giving you an order, Lieutenant.
B'Elanna: Whatever you say, sir.
She visibly caves in with that last line -- showing how Sixes will be defiant to a point, then usually buckle under pressure from an authority.
We also see her indecisiveness about whether to go through with the Klingon "Day of Honor" ritual. Her try at it on the holodeck is brief. Her self-doubt comes through when a Klingon warrior asks, "Have you come to have your honor challenged?" and her less-than-sure reply is: "I guess so. Yes."
Another episode that gives an interesting twist on B'Elanna Six-ness is Faces. A Vidiian scientist splits her into her Klingon and human halves, but in enneagram terms, we can also look at it as a split into her counterphobic and phobic sides. The counterphobic Klingon recklessly steps into danger, while the phobic human is paralyzed with fear.
The moment in which the human B'Elanna is able to set aside her fear -- when she has a technical problem to solve -- makes a telling point about Sixes in general. The Klingon B'Elanna says, "You're not frightened anymore are you?" The human answers, "Maybe I just don't have time to think about it." Sixes can be at their best in a crisis situation that forces them to act and focus on the problem at hand, rather than their fears.
We saw this happen at the end of Extreme Risk, when B'Elanna overcomes her depression enough to come up with a creative solution that saves the day on the Delta Flyer. In that episode, news of the massacre of the Maquis had led B'Elanna to dwell on all the people she had depended on and lost. "When I was six, my father walked out on me," she tells Chakotay. "When I was 19, I got kicked out of Star Fleet. A few years later I got separated from the Maquis. And just when I start to feel safe, you tell me all of our old friends have been slaughtered. The way I figure it, I've lost every family I've ever had."
"You have a new family now, here on Voyager," Chakotay says. "And you're not going to lose us. You're stuck with us."
B'Elanna knows better though: "You can't promise me that."
Chakotay admits that he can't, but promises her that at least as long as she has this family, they won't let her continue the self-destructive behavior she had been engaging in. She said she had been doing life- and limb-threatening stunts in order to help her feel something, anything. It also seems to relate to Riso and Hudson's description of very unhealthy Sixes who try to reduce the threat of the environment by punishing themselves first: "The methods they employ to punish themselves may result in severe debilitation or even death."
The self-destructiveness can also be a reflection of the low side of her 5-wing -- and the fact that neither Chakotay nor Tom knew what was wrong. A Six with a 5-wing will be less likely to go to others for help; she'll try to tough out problems and anxieties on her own.
The low side of the 5-wing also is seen in B'Elanna's violent streak. On the high side of the 5-wing is her exceptional skill as an engineer, especially the way she often successfully tackles dilemmas with original and idiosyncratic thinking.
The longest-standing problematic authority figure in B'Elanna's life has been her mother. B'Elanna blames her for her father's abandonment, and harbors resentment over the way her mother tried to force the Klingon way of life on her daughter. For a long time, B'Elanna reacted by rejecting all things Klingon, and was estranged from her mother by the time Voyager got stranded in the Delta Quadrant.
Barge of the Dead depicts B'Elanna coming to some degree of peace with her mother and her Klingon half. She undergoes a ritual near-death experience to save her mother in the Klingon afterlife, but initially it doesn't seem to work, to her frustration. She has relied on doing what she was told by an established authority -- in this case, rituals in ancient Klingon scrolls -- and now she demands that her mother tell her what else is expected.
B'Elanna: What do you want?
Mother: Who are you asking?
B'Elanna: You! Kahless! The tooth fairy! Anybody who will tell me what I'm supposed to do!
The sarcastic "tooth fairy" aside, it's interesting that she's calling on two definite authority figures -- her mother and a legendary Klingon warrior/religious icon.
In the climatic scene, she is confronted by her mother and the figures of the Voyager crew in her version of "hell." "Defend yourself" is the refrain -- what Sixes feel they must constantly do in a dangerous and insecure world -- and again B'Elanna demands direction from them: "Just tell me what you want from me!"
Her mother and Janeway assure her that all they want is B'Elanna herself, while Neelix says, "We're not your enemies."
Again, Tom says, "Defend yourself," and finally B'Elanna drops her combative posture. "I don't know how," she says. "I'm so tired of fighting."
The experience was not a cure-all, of course, but we have seen growth in B'Elanna from that episode. She has been calmer, more at ease with herself. For example, the way she dealt with Tom's breakdowns in both Alice and Memorial was more understanding and less resentful than she might have been in the past. This is related to the high side of 9, where Sixes can find serenity, trust in themselves and others, and faith that things will sometimes go right rather than horribly wrong.
--Teresa Malcolm