Times of the HG Wells series

Apr

2016

Review – The Honky Tonk Angel

Who is the Honky Tonk Angel? The answer might surprise you.

Background

For a prompt about vices, I decided that the vices would, perhaps, be small ones. It would be the kinds of things that you might talk about on a first date. And so I thought of my favorite odd couple. Their first date had been mentioned but not shown; this proved to be a good opportunity to rectify that.

Plot

Clockworks

Kevin O’Connor and Jhasi Tantharis go on their first date, on December 21, 3088.

They go to a baseball game, and he has to help her get a cap that will fit. However, she accidentally grabs one for the wrong team. But that is more than forgivable.

After all, she’s blind.

But that hardly matters, as they have a lovely time of it. Then Kevin messes up, and calls her Josie. But Jhasi is okay with this, and finds it amusing. She then confesses that she does not always keep in touch with her family like she should, and gives up on things too soon. Kevin, to his credit, seizes the opportunity and asks her to not give up on the two of them.

Josie, of course, does not.

Music

The music is, of course, the Kitty Wells song, It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels.

Story Postings

Rating

The story is Rated K.

Upshot

I really enjoyed putting together this first glimpse into one of my favorite love stories.

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Apr

2016

Review – Recruitment

Recruitment is just plain weird.

Background

It is perhaps one of the odder stories I have ever written for Star Trek fanfiction. It is about the recruitment of a new Section 31 agent. Because it was written for Andorian Week, the main character is an Andorian.

Plot

Clockworks

In 3087, Section 31 puts a potential agent through her paces.

However, in a scene reminiscent of Men in Black, an Andorian is thrown into an utterly unfamiliar situation. And she is expected to solve a puzzle. Complicating matters is the fact that it’s hard to tell who is competing against her, or even if anyone is. And perhaps they aren’t.

At the time, I was in the middle of helping out with Multiverse II. And I was also writing about Daniel Beauchaine‘s betrayal of the Temporal Integrity Commission. Hence I combined those ideas a bit. Furthermore, I added a holodeck simulation of Duluth, destroyed by nuclear war (an event also commemorated in The Three of Us). At the time, Rick Daniels was the only deep future branch of Malcolm‘s family (along with Eleanor and their father, Steven). Hence I added a pale fellow (a shout out to ancestor Lili O’Day), who the main character only refers to as ‘Sven’, as he seems to look Swedish.

Story Postings

Rating

The story is Rated K.

Upshot

Since the story is strange, it suffers from some odd dreamlike qualities. Some of it was quite literally was taken from a dream. That included a strange, almost living, elevator. Therefore, it is an offshoot. It’s a kind of spur on the highway right now. I don’t know if I’ll ever get back to it. Although Steven Reed might be revisited a little in the Barnstorming series.

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Apr

2016

Review – Desperation

Desperation comes in an odd place in this story. But parents will know this feeling all too, uncomfortably, well.

Background

For a prompt of the same name, I decided to go with one of life’s little desperations. While others might have concentrated on a damaged ship or a damaged relationship, I zigged instead of zagged. Therefore, I wrote the merry mix-ups that occur when you are trying to toilet train your recalcitrant mixed-species toddler.

Yes, I went there.

Plot

Clockworks

Future Temporal Integrity Commission employee Otra D’Angelo experiences a small milestone in her young life. Takes place in 3069.

However, her parents are getting a bit impatient. But she doesn’t care. And so little Otra D’Angelo will not become toilet trained for love or money or any amount of coaxing.

So her father, Marco, is driven to broken English, mixed with Italian. And her mother, Chefra, wants to go back to work and is tired of this nonsense already.

But, like countless little children before her, Otra knows that she’s in control. So she takes full advantage of that. While Marco tears his hair out in frustration, and Chefra tries to sweet talk her, Otra has her own ideas.

Story Postings

Rating

The story is Rated K.

Upshot

Star Trek is rather famous for not showing family life. But this is not only a mixed-species family, it is also a family where four separate languages are spoken! However, I think it’s a fairly decent introduction to Otra, the woman with an odd gift for seeing alternate timelines.

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Mar

2016

Portrait of a Character – Tina April

Origins

To play up just how much of a rat Rick Daniels is at the beginning of the Times of the HG Wells series, he had to have a girlfriend, who he would be cheating on. Enter Tina, who is named for the girlfriend in Quantum Leap and for canon starship captain Robert April (in fact, her father is named Bob).

Portrayal

Amy Smart as Tina April (image is provided for educational purposes only)

Tina is played by actress Amy Smart.

I wanted a lovely, younger actress who would be a bit out of Rick’s league.

Personality

This intelligent and sophisticated schoolteacher is not above using tears to try to get her way (she doesn’t succeed).

Relationships

Rick Daniels

Tina and Rick meet when Eleanor introduces her friend to her brother. It’s one of the initial drivers of Temper and is part of how the deep future part of that storyline gets kicked off. The relationship is mainly sexual; Rick breaks them up when she starts to insist on knowing where he is going and that she wants him to meet her father.

Troy Scott

During Spring Thaw, they start dating. Tina pushes for things to become serious a lot more quickly than Troy does.

Mirror Universe

There is no reason why Tina can’t be in the Mirror Universe.

Amy Smart as the Mirror Universe Tina (image is presented for educational purposes only)

She would have to be sexier and tougher. Since I have already established the role of ship’s teacher, Tina could be a much later version of Susan Cheshire, but without the alcoholism.

Quote

“You’ve got an implanted communicator. You’re quiet about what you do – and don’t think I haven’t noticed when you’ve oh so artfully changed the subject whenever I’ve asked you anything. I know more about what you think of Plato’s Republic than I do about what you’ll do or where you’ll go when you leave this apartment.”

Upshot

This initially throwaway character provides some grounding to Rick, at least in the beginning, and a person for Eleanor to confide in. But I don’t know if she’ll be back.

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Mar

2016

Portrait of a Character – Pawel Balcescu

Origins

Dragos Bucur as Pawel Balcescu (image is used for educational purposes only)

Milena Chelenska reveals that Pawel met Noemy at a transit camp after they were liberated from Dachau, which would put their meeting as immediately after the end of the events depicted in Day of the Dead. Time traveler Rick Daniels meets him when he (Rick) is tasked with making sure that Prague Spring, like in the original history, ends.

Portrayal

Pawel is played by Romanian actor Dragos Bucur. It was important for me for this character to be played by someone who is actually Romanian.

Personality

Bereft, shy, maybe not too intelligent, but full of heart, Pawel is utterly in love with Milena‘s younger sister, Noemy. But they are at a stalemate, still far too damaged to commit after the horrors of Dachau. Milena reveals that Pawel and his family were not Jews. Rather, they were imprisoned because his parents were Communists.

Relationships

Noemy Chelenska

Pawel’s sole known relationship is with Noemy. After Rick leaves, they marry, and eventually have two children.

Mirror Universe

There is no impediment to Pawel existing in the Mirror.

Dragos Bucur as the Mirror Universe Pawel Balcescu (image is presented for educational purposes only)

I still haven’t decided whether the Holocaust actually happened in the Mirror Universe. It may seem like a no-brainer, but the truth is, I am unsure. I write Jews in the Mirror (including Leah Benson), and of course the Mirror is a rather rough place. To zig rather than zag, and for there to have not been a Holocaust, is an idea that intrigues.

Quote

“I suppose enough time has passed, and we can bury the dead once and for all.”

Upshot

I like this damaged but ultimately sensible guy who drives a milk truck and is the glue that holds the Chelenska sisters together. Pawel, much like Frank Ramirez in particular, is a man you can count on.

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Feb

2016

Spotlight on Trichronium

Trichronium is a useful (and tasty!) plot device. It serves as one of the oddest ideas I have ever come up with for Star Trek fan fiction.

Yet, in a way, it works.

Background

During the Times of the HG Wells series, I wanted an odd and different way for the Perfectionists to travel in time. It would be something unique and weird and utterly different from the canon time ships or time portals.

This involved a great deal of brainstorming, as I tried to come up with something that would be, to me, sufficiently wacky.

Eventually it came to me, that it would be a hormone. But instead of being injected, it would be swallowed. That delivery method just struck me as being more practical when traveling in time. Eventually, I decided that it would taste like cantaloupe (Helen Walker says so). Because what the hell. That may have been silly, but it gave me a point of reference I had not had previously. Therefore, that was a rather useful revelation.

How It Works

For the simplest explanation, I decided on a cuff similar to the Cuff of Lo. The temporal enhancer cuff would be useless without trichronium, and vice versa. The traveler would swallow a dose, someone (not necessarily the time traveler) would set the controls on the cuff, and the traveler would end up whenever and wherever. Another swallow, and you can stay longer, as digested foods pass through us eventually. The cuff could override and recall the traveler, as could enough of a drop in trichronium levels. But otherwise the dosages would decide whether a traveler would stay in the past, or not.

Upshot

I like this invention and will probably try to find a way to resurrect this technology at some point.

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Jan

2016

Recurrent Themes – Soldiers

Recurrent Themes –Soldiers

Background

For Reversal in particular to work, there had a to be a number of people ready and able to go to war.

In particular, as the Mirror Universe is so different from the prime universe, a lot of people would be soldiers there who wouldn’t be so here. Or they would be more violent and less disciplined than in our universe. As it is explained to Lili, the percentage of military personnel is deliberately kept very high over there.

There are more MACOs in particular than the group listed here, but these people are seen the most.

Appearances of Soldiers

Aliwev

This Calafan recruit drills directly under Doug and, in the Mirror, in one of the alternate timelines, assassinates the Empress Hoshi Sato during Temper.

Douglas Jay Hayes Beckett

Doug, a trained killer, spends much of Reversal trying to leave the practice of making war. When he can’t find anything else to do with himself in Together, he eventually becomes the captain of a defense unit on Lafa II, and instructs recruits.

Daniel Chang

Chang, a canon character, defends the Enterprise but, in the E² timeline, commits crimes.

Tristan Curtis

Curtis is another E² timeline criminal. In the Temper alternate timelines, he’s named Craig.

Brian Delacroix

In the prime universe, Delacroix is a security guard who becomes a chef. In the Mirror, he nearly kills Doug.

Tommy Digiorno-Madden

Unlike the other five kids, Tommy joins Starfleet and goes into Tactical.

Thomas Grant

In the deep future, Tom is assigned to the Breen homeworld before he joins the Temporal Integrity Commission.

Deborah Hadden

Deb works in Security in both universes. In the Mirror, she kills Brian before he has a chance to off Doug. But her victory is short-lived, and she perishes when he leaves that universe.

Jay Hayes

The consummate soldier, Major J. Hayes is so committed to defending the ship that he has nearly no time for people.

Gary Hodgkins

Yet another E² criminal, Hodgkins often pairs with Curtis, particularly in the Mirror.

Chandler Masterson

Chip is wasted in Security and moves over to Communications. This isn’t possible in the Mirror, so he stays in Tactical. In the prime timeline, he escapes the Empress, but in one of the alternates, he rises to become captain of the Defiant.

Travis Mayweather

Travis is a soldier in the Mirror Universe only. He’s a poor soldier, though, and an even worse leader. In the alternate timelines, and in the prime timeline, he is fragged by his own troops.

Andrew Miller

Like Travis, Andy is only a soldier in the Mirror. When the Empress taps him for somewhat earthy duties, he manages to get himself reassigned to Science.

Malcolm Reed

The other consummate canon career soldier, Malcolm is more ambitious and tries for a command as soon as he can get one.

José Torres

José is another person who is only a soldier in the Mirror. He is not cut out for command at all and, in an alternate timeline, destroys his ship, the Luna, and everyone on board is killed.

Upshot

Star Trek fanfiction will always have a place for men and women (and other genders) in uniform.

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Dec

2015

Review – Calendar Turning Event #3111

Calendar turning event? Yes – it is New Year’s Eve.

Background

As the real calendar turned from 2013 to 2014, I hit upon the idea of having the Temporal Integrity Commission celebrate a bit. This celebration, because it’s the TIC, would have a bit of a twist and adventure to it.

Review – Calendar Turning Event #3111

Plot

Otra D’Angelo is throwing a new year’s party, and everyone in the TIC is invited, not just the Human Unit. Admiral Carmen Calavicci has her charges together, but Levi Cavendish has not thought ahead far enough to bring her a gift. So Carmen is well aware that he has adult ADHD and is squirrelly and has human relationship problems even on his best days. But she still feels that’s rude. When the gifts go missing during a transport, and then Carmen and Levi do as well, they have to work together in order to get back.

Story Postings

Rating

The story is rated K.

Upshot

I like this little look into the Commission but also into how difficult Levi really can be, and how Carmen makes a lot of allowances for his brilliance. In addition, these two characters get to work together. They cooperate and solve a problem. This is a far cry from how I had originally envisioned Levi and Carmen in the Times of the HG Wells series, where he would mainly be a reason for her to get migraine headaches. Instead, they work to get out of their predicament, and do it with style. Carmen’s love of booze comes to the forefront, but so does Levi’s preoccupation with his PADD and inattention when it comes to nearly anything else.

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Dec

2015

Recurrent Themes – Unintentional Time Travelers

Background

Time travel is such a great trope that I just had to cover it. The most fun was when time travelers didn’t really want to go, but something or other swept them along anyway.

Appearances

Barking up the Muse Tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | Times of the HG Wells logo courtesy of TemplarSora | Unintentional Time Travelers

Unintentional time travelers are such a fun idea to explore that I’ve gone to this well several times.

Concord

Concord is all about unintentional and intentional time travel.

Robert Lenox

Lenox, the real time traveler, is testing out a new device when Reed is accidentally swept along, and Reed’s ancestor is also displaced, as is Lenox’s own ancestor.

Malcolm Reed

Right before the start of the Xindi War, Malcolm is accidentally transported to 1775 Concord, Massachusetts.

Crackerjack

In Crackerjack, inadvertent time travel occurs because the errant pulse shot from Empress Hoshi (and the Temper story) hits Wesley and Geordi’s shuttle.

Wesley Crusher

For Wesley, the trip to 1941 Washington, DC is a voyage that he would rather not have taken.

Geordi LaForge

For Geordi, the voyage to Washington, DC in 1941 is the occasion to meet Rosemary Parker, although he also feels the effects of the prejudice of the time.

Day of the Dead

The Traveler is to blame for Chuck McBride and Tripp Tucker traveling in time.

Chuck McBride

McBride the jokester is yanked out of Upper Bavaria, but it’s never made clear as to exactly where and when he ends up.

Tripp Tucker

Tucker’s personal temporal displacement gets him to the 1944 liberation of the Dachau concentration camp.

The Continuing Adventures of Porthos – The Future Cat

Another pesky anomaly sends Porthos forward in time, in The Continuing Adventures of Porthos.

Porthos

The NX-01‘s resident quadruped takes his temporal displacement in stride, and makes friends with Data’s cat, Spot, although Porthos does miss Archer.

E² Timeline

For both kicks back in time, the entire ship unwittingly travels in time.

The Entire NX-01

No one is left behind when the Enterprise is kicked back in time.

Theorizing

In Theorizing, whatever is leaping Sam Beckett around does it to Jonathan Archer, too.

Captain Jonathan Archer

Archer’s mission is to help Sam Beckett’s wife, Donna Elise, move on with her life.

Dr. Sam Beckett

Dr. Beckett’s mission is to convince the Xindi Humanoid, Degra, that the deaths of millions of humans like Lizzie Tucker should be on his conscience.

Upshot

I adore this trope so much that I am continually trying to figure out another way to shoehorn it into my fan fiction.

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Nov

2015

Focus – Vulcans in Star Trek Fan Fiction

Focus on Vulcans

Vulcans are the backbone aliens of Star Trek.

Focus

A focus (unlike a spotlight) is an in-depth look at a Star Trek fanfiction canon item and my twist(s) on it.

Of course, all of fan fiction is like that, but the idea here is to provide a window into how a single canon concept can be used in fan fiction.

Vulcans – Background

Because the series that speaks to me the most is Enterprise, I have had to deal with Vulcans all along. The truth is that I always found T’Pol to be wooden. As for Spock in the Original Series, I have read far too much of him in fan fiction. I never got into Voyager, so my experience with writing Vulcans was limited and difficult. That is, until Eriecho and the Alternate Original Series. Thank you, JJ Abrams.

Occurrences

Aviri

Joanna Cassidy as Aviri (actually an image of the actress as T’Pol’s mother, T’Les, courtesy of Memory Alpha)

Lili is admitted to the Mars Culinary Institute based upon the strength of a meal prepared for Admissions Director Aviri.

Charles Tucker IV

Charles Tucker IV (actually an image of an infant Spock, from a deleted scene in Star Trek 2009)

In the E² timeline, during the first kick back in time, Tripp and T’Pol have twins. Charlie becomes captain after Jonathan Archer’s death.

Eriecho

Mariel Hemingway as Eriecho

My favorite Vulcan, Eriecho never learned true emotional suppression while at Canamar Prison, and only tries it in a mistaken effort to please Sollastek.

Kefris

Kefris (this image is from the Star Trek Online wiki)

This character is named but rarely seen, and is often paired with T’Pau when I write Mirror Universe Vulcans. In the prime universe, he is T’Pol’s eventual husband.

Lorian

Canon character Lorian is seen during the second E² kick back in time.

Lorian

Saddik

Eriecho’s foster/adoptive father cares for her as if she were his own.

Sarek

Spock’s father is overwhelmed by the changes wrought by Nero in the JJ Abrams timeline, but he rises to the occasion and accepts his new child.

Ben Cross as Sarek

Sollastek

Sollastek (this image is from the Star Trek Online wiki)

Eriecho’s mate is a lot younger than she is and was not a good student. Leaving class early saved his life during Nero’s attack on Vulcan. He witnessed the death of Amanda Grayson.

Soval

Gary Graham as Soval

When Soval is a lot older, he experiences difficulty in maintaining emotional control, as I show him in Biases.

Spock

Iconic and sometimes hard to pin down, I do better with this classic character in the JJ Abrams universe than in the prime timeline.

Spock

Sybok

Spock’s canon half-brother is redeemed in the Eriecho universe.

T’Les Elizabeth

T’Les Elizabeth (this is actually an image of Elizabeth Tucker from Star Trek: Enterprise)

In the E² timeline, during the first kick back in time, Tripp and T’Pol have twins. T’Les is Charlie’s twin.

T’Pau

Often paired with Kefris in the Mirror Universe, T’Pau is brought aboard Empress Hoshi‘s ship when she proves she is a genius in mathematics and physics.

Kara Zedicker as T’Pau

T’Pol

This canon character is easiest for me to write when I remove her emotional control.

Valeris

Saddik’s love interest also catches Sybok’s eye. In the JJ Abrams timeline, Valeris acts as a Pon Farr comforter, a kind of Vulcan sex worker.

Valeris

Others

E2 timeline

Jolene Tucker Hodgkins
T’Mir Ryan
Daphne Tucker

All of these characters are on the older version of the NX-01.

Freak School

Stellak – Rayna Montgomery’s love interest.
T’Bek – one of Rayna’s teachers (I’ve used this name in a few other places).
T’Mia – one of Rayna’s classmates.

Eriecho universe (JJ Abrams timeline)

T’Moona – in canon, Spock is the child of Sarek and a Vulcan princess. Her name is the Hebrew word for picture.

Upshot

For a species that I often have difficulty writing, I’ve sure got a lot of instances. Maybe I’ll get this species right someday, without having to strip them of their emotional control.

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Review – The Honky Tonk Angel

Background

Plot

Music

Story Postings

Rating

Upshot

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Review – Recruitment

Background

Plot

Story Postings

Rating

Upshot

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Review – Desperation

Background

Plot

Story Postings

Rating

Upshot

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Portrait of a Character – Tina April

Origins

Portrayal

Personality

Relationships

Rick Daniels

Troy Scott

Mirror Universe

Quote

Upshot

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Portrait of a Character – Pawel Balcescu

Origins

Portrayal

Personality

Relationships

Noemy Chelenska

Mirror Universe

Quote

Upshot

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Spotlight on Trichronium

Background

How It Works

Upshot

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Recurrent Themes –Soldiers

Background

Appearances of Soldiers

Aliwev

Douglas Jay Hayes Beckett

Daniel Chang

Tristan Curtis

Brian Delacroix

Tommy Digiorno-Madden

Thomas Grant

Deborah Hadden

Jay Hayes

Gary Hodgkins

Chandler Masterson

Travis Mayweather

Andrew Miller

Malcolm Reed

José Torres

Upshot

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Review – Calendar Turning Event #3111

Background

Plot

Story Postings

Rating

E² Timeline