Janeway/Michael

Janeway/Michael is the het ship between Kathryn Janeway and Michael Sullivan from the Star Trek fandom.

Fairhaven
Captain Janeway enters Sullivan's bar. They meet for the first time. She asks if he's seen Tom Paris. At the back of the bar, Harry Kim is having an arm wrestle in the bar, and Janeway bets on him winning. Sullivan jokes she's an optimist, but Janeway replies by saying she's a realist. They exchange looks before she leaves the bar.

Janeway stops in to see the bartender, and they have tea together. She introduces herself as Katie O'Claire. They talk about her Irish relatives. Sullivan entices her with a game of rings, being competitive, suggesting she might lose. Janeway (or "Katie") is up for the challenge. They spend the rest of the night until morning playing rings and then arm wrestle. They agree on making the arm wrestle a draw. Sullivan says it's nice to make a new friend. Katie talks about books, but Sullivan doesn't read. Sullivan's wife Francis enters and meets Katie. Janeway leaves.

Back on the starship, Janeway reprograms Sullivan. She makes adjustments, first giving him the education of a 19th-century third-year student at Trinity College, next making him more outspoken and confident, more curious about the world around him. She increases Sullivan's height by three centimetres, and finally, deletes his wife.

The next time she meets him is by the train station. He asks if she knows Jane Eldon, a poet, or Sean Gogarty. But Janeway doesn't. They talk about Castle O'Dell and decide to visit. They take a walk, with Janeway holding on to his arm. Sullivan asks if she has a man back at home, and maybe suggests she would like a 'barkeep'. They are interrupted by Chakotay. Sullivan is confused as to why Chakotay called her captain.

Later they meet again at the bar, and dance to music. She then asks the computer to remove all characters except for Michael. Sullivan asks if she can kiss him, and they do. They have three romantic days together. On the last day, they have a picnic near a lake. While Sullivan sleeps, he snores, and Janeway was about to remove his snoring, but then realises the abnormality of their relationship. A relationship where she can change anything at will seems wrong.

Back on the Starship, she confesses to the Doctor, and he gives her some advice, suggesting she should give it a try with Sullivan. She has no other options for romance, since the rest of the crew are her subordinates, so a hologram is a logical alternative. He suggests she should stop trying to control him; a relationship is built out of similarities and differences. Next time, she should just 'let him snore'.

Janeway takes his advice. She activates his programming in the holodeck. She tells him that she needs to leave Fairhaven, and he is confused. But he says she loves him. She says she will see him in 6 weeks since that is the time it will take to reprogram Fairhaven. Then she modifies Sullivan's paramaters, telling the computer to refuse any future access from Captain Janeway, no longer allowing her access to change his behavioural subroutines.

Star Trek novels
In the novel Homecoming, set after the events of Season 7, Janeway orders the deactivation of all personal holodeck programs. She makes one last visit to Fair Haven and tells Michael she is unable to see him anymore. They say their goodbyes, and Janeway leaves and feels ready to move on to a new partner, a real one.

Quotes
"Tenderly, she reached out and touched his cheek, feeling the warmth of his holographic skin, the scratch of his holographic beard stubble. He wasn’t real, but in a way, he had become very real to her. She had learned to care for him, but where she was going, there was once again a chance for her to learn to care for a living, breathing person."

- Janeway in ''Star Trek: Homecoming

Fanon
This is one of the few canon pairings involving Janeway. Despite this, it is more of a rarepair, nowhere close to the colossal popularity of J/C. Fanworks for the pairing is rare. On AO3, as of 2022, they only have a mere 17 fanfictions. However, many of these fanfictions are in fact J/C stories, with Michael/Janeway being a side pairing. Or alternatively, some writers have written fix it fanfic, aiming to rewrite the Fairhaven storyline but with J/C as the main pairing. As a result, often bashing Michael's character. Additionally, some Iritsh people found the Fairhaven storyline offensive, due to it's historical inaccuracy and stereotypical nature.

Despite this, the pairing still has some fans. Some people enjoyed the Fairhaven storyline (and it's sequel Spirit Folk), and adored the almost oddball pairing of a hologram bartender and a Starship captain. Some fans wished the Fairhaven holoprogram was used more in the series. Additionally, some fans found the almost horror-like nature of their relationship interesting, in that Janeway can change Michael attributes at a command, even going so far as to deleting his wife (and pseudo-cheating in the process, dependent on if you view holograms in the same vein as humans or not).

Fandom
FAN FICTION