Oct

2015

Spotlight on Darvellians

Darvellians are an older invention.

Background

First introduced in If You Can’t Stand the Heat, Darvellians were intended as a kind of alien of the week.

I haven’t written a follow up to this story yet, but I can absolutely see where they fit into my own personal Star Trek fan fiction canon.

Characteristics

I don’t have too much on them. They are gray and furry, and they like it cold. When they board the Enterprise, in an effort to kidnap members of the crew for their scientific experiments, they turn the environmental controls down to -20⁰ C. In Fahrenheit, that’s -4⁰. It is cold, particularly when a person is only wearing a standard uniform.

The only other piece of information I have on them is their use of sulphur-oxylic gas to knock everyone out. Sulphur-oxylic gas is utterly made up by me and the term really doesn’t mean anything.

With no picture, I am going with the gray wolf as inspiration.

Darvellian (gray wolf)

Certainly this animal fits the bill in terms of generalized look.

Darvellian Descendants

Well, not really descendants, per se, but the idea of the Darvellians has been used again by me, particularly in the creation of the similarly-named and similarly-looking Daranaeans. The difference, of course, is that the Daranaeans are considerably better developed.

The idea of knocking out the entire ship with gas was repeated, to a far greater effect, in Together. In that story, it’s the Witannen, with their Imvari henchmen, who perform the deed. As with the Daranaeans, the second use of this piece of the plot is better realized. The older story certainly shows its seams, but some of the ideas were good ones. I just needed to mature more as a writer in order to be able to show them more effectively.

Upshot

These aliens were barely shown but the idea of them is, I think, pretty neat. I should figure out a way to trot them out again.

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Oct

2015

Portrait of a Character – Milton Walker

Milton Walker is complex.

Origins

Jeremy Irons as Milton Walker

I needed a ringleader for the Perfectionists, someone who would have murky motives for mucking about in time. He would also be an Eligian Order monk, allegedly devoted to St. Eligius. Enter Milton.

Portrayal

Milton is played by veteran actor Jeremy Irons. He’s smart and can play mysterious and creepy rather well.

Personality

Highly intelligent and initially motivated by somewhat pure motives, it all goes south rather quickly for Milton and his immoral, bratty daughter, Dr. Helen Walker. By the time he’s ordered the killing of agent Anthony Parker, Milton’s soul is lost.

Relationships

Enid Walker

Next to nothing is known about Helen’s mother. They are divorced when the series begins.

Empress Hoshi Sato

In order to escape the Temporal Integrity Commission, Milton hides out in the past, and in the Mirror, and begins an affair with the Empress. Much like with her other conquests, she doesn’t care about him one bit.

Mirror Universe

I haven’t written a Mirror Universe version of Milton yet.

Mirror Milton

There are a lot fewer Mirror counterparts in the deep future as the odds stack higher and higher against them. But if there was to be a Mirror Milton, I think he would be just as furtive, but his motives would be a lot worse.

I think he would have a lot fewer qualms about using his position to order the death of someone like Parker.

Quote

“You were a philanthropist, you donated all sorts of services and goods to the research into curing dreaded maladies like Piaris Syndrome and Irumodic Syndrome. People thought you were kind and great, a Santa Claus for hospitals! And then you got the idea that improving and perfecting time would lead to earlier medical breakthroughs. You idiot.”

Upshot

So Milton doesn’t have a lot to recommend him. He’s ruthless, he’s careless, and he’s also not above killing an incalcitrant agent or telling his own daughter to try to ensnare Richard Daniels.

I like him as a character, but definitely not as a person.

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Oct

2015

Review – Supply and Demand

A Look at Supply and Demand

Supply and Demand adds a dark underbelly to the E² timeline.

Background

I wanted to cover a small and rather distasteful piece of The Three of Us that I gave hints of but never actually got a chance to show ‘on screen’. Hence Sandra takes center stage.

Plot

Barking Up The Muse Tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | Leighton Meester | Sandra Sloane | Supply and Demand

Sandra Sloane (image of Leighton Meester is for educational purposes only)

During the E² timeline, because the male to female ratio had a skew that was so heavily in favor of about two to three men per every woman (the ratio is canon), I decided that someone would take advantage of the situation and, to put it euphemistically, put out for some privileges. Enter Sandra and her business.

Because of the skewed ratio, and because she is alternately bored and depressed (and is overly horny and aggressive due to her poorly treated depression), Sandra hits upon an idea that, to her, is irresistible. She will supply sex, yes, and to anyone in the lower level crew who shows an interest. However, there is just one catch: it’ll cost ya.

As for the senior staff (which I sometimes write Chef and Shelby Pike the Botanist as being, sometimes not), she does not want anyone telling them a thing. And, for several months, no one does. The business, such as it is, flourishes.

Story Postings

Supply and Demand on Ad Astra
also, Supply and Demand on Fanfiction.net
in addition, Supply and Demand on Wattpad (part of Reflections Down a Corridor)
Supply and Demand on Fictionpad

Rating

The story has a T – MA rating.

Upshot

I really love the idea of someone taking advantage of the horribly skewed ratio, and doing something particularly nasty with it. The Sandra Sloane character works particularly well for this. In addition, she taunts Chef and makes him really pay for wanting to spend time with her.

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Oct

2015

Portrait of a Character – L’Cultura

L’Cultura is a Suliban.

Origins

Dame Judi Dench as L’Cultura

With readers asking for a sequel to Eriecho‘s origins story (Release), I wanted to explore the Suliban side of her family. Enter L’Cultura, whose name is Italian for ‘culture’.

Portrayal

L’Cultura is played by Dame Judi Dench. This smart and legendary actress seems perfect for the role of a newly created matriarch of a suddenly larger and more complicated family.

Personality

Frail and perhaps a bit defeated, L’Cultura knows that her daughter, H’Shema, was untrustworthy and prone to addictions. The news of H’Shema’s imprisonment in Canamar is not unexpected. The news of her death in prison isn’t much of a shock, either.

Relationships

L’Cultura has no known relationships.

Mirror Universe

There are no impediments to L’Cultura existing in the Mirror.

Dame Judi Dench as Mirror L’Cultura

There have never been Mirror Suliban shown in canon.

I like to think she’d be tougher, as a lot of women on the other side of the pond have to be.

Quote

“I can see, a bit, why your kind would like to suppress emotions. The hard ones can be very hard indeed. I, I mourned my own eriecho many years ago, a girl lost to addiction and then to imprisonment. But as I said, the bitter comes with the sweet. And we can celebrate today, my ta-eriecho.”

Upshot

While L’Cultura’s acceptance is important to Eriecho, the truth is that some of it works the other way around. As her son, Enkir, explains, L’Cultura had been hoarding medications and probably considering suicide. But the existence of the unknown and unexpected granddaughter turns that around, and L’Cultura has a reason to live.

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Oct

2015

Review – Quartermaster

I enjoy quartermaster characters. They do things which we do now. We can relate to them easily. As a result, it can feel like a job which an ordinary fan can do. This drabble was written in response to a prompt of the same name.

Background

Dev Patel as Sekar Khan (image is for educational purposes only)

Plot

During the E² timeline, in canon, Hoshi Sato gets married, and has two children, Toru and Yoshiko. But that’s about all we know.

Hoshi Sato (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We learn that Jonathan Archer wed Esilia, Travis Mayweather wed Julie McKenzie, Phlox married Amanda Cole, Tripp Tucker married T’Pol, and Malcolm Reed never wed. Major Jay Hayes‘s love life is never mentioned in the episode.

So, Hoshi married someone. But who was he? And just as importantly, how did they get together?

I cover some of this in The Three of Us. But the idea absolutely fell into my lap and I couldn’t shake it, that Sekar Khan, the Quartermaster, would play to his own strengths. Therefore, he would court Hoshi in his own special way.

Story Postings

Quartermaster on The Delphic Expanse
in addition, Quartermaster on Fanfiction.net
also, Quartermaster on Wattpad
Quartermaster on Fictionpad

Rating

The story has a K rating.

Upshot

The story dovetails with There’s Something About Hoshi, as she wears a similar dress in that one (and reminisces a bit about Sekar, although none too fondly). And that also, now, makes me wonder how things got so sour between them. But the prime timeline is different, and the dice roll another way.

I like this little drabble, and I think it conveys what I wanted well, with a good economy of words and with no loss of impact. Do you agree?

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Sep

2015

Progress Report – September 2015

September 2015 was a good month but not for writing.

Posted Works

This month, as the new semester started, I was not able to get a lot of straightforward writing in, as I was also working at an internship.

I decided that the method of posting one longer ‘story’ which is really an anthology of sorts for short works, was the way to go on Fanfiction.net. Most of the single chapter works there do not do so well, whereas multi-chapter works get a good number of read counts and reviews. Therefore, for the HG Wells stories, the plan is to put prequels up, in an anthology called Clockworks, then post the books, and then post the post-Stranger books as another anthology, called Deep Future.

Clockworks now includes Desperation, Recruitment, The Honky Tonk Angel, Briefing, Preparations, Marvels, Pat the Bunny, Where O Where, and Candy.

On Wattpad, I finished posting Temper and added Coveted Commodity to In Between Days.

On the G & T Show forums, I posted The Puzzle and added More, More, More! to Before Days.

Milestones

See the Stats page for individual read and review counts.

WIP Corner

I spent a small amount of time on the Barnstorming story, Overtime, but it was my lowest priority during the month.

Prep Work

I spent more time working on outlining this year’s NaNoWriMo project, The Enigman Cave. I worked out many of the names and logistics (ship size, etc.) so that I would not have to figure those out during NaNoWriMo.

This Month’s Productivity Killers

School! I was hammered with papers and reports, and it doesn’t seem as if it will let up anytime soon. This is distressing and very tiring. So whose idea was graduate school, anyway?

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Sep

2015

Portrait of a Character – Leland Loomis

Leland Loomis isn’t crazy. Or is he?

Origins

The character is, of course, canon, and comes from the Carpenter Street episode.

Portrayal

Leland Orser as Loomis

As in canon, Loomis (who had no first name in canon) is played by Leland Orser.

This image is actually from the film Se7en, but I think it’s perfect.

Personality

Weaselly, immoral, slobby, and snappish, Leland is always on the make. In canon, he willingly brings victims to people who it’s later determined are Xindi Reptilians hellbent on committing genocide on the human race.

I follow him after the episode, into the maximum security mental hospital that is sure to be his next residence.

Relationships

Leland’s only known (sort of) relationship is with Phyllis in the asylum. But, really, there’s nothing there.

Theme Music

Of course, his theme song is KISS’s Detroit Rock City.

Mirror Universe

There are no impediments to Leland existing in the Mirror. Maybe he’d be kinder.

Leland Orser with his real-life wife, the actress Jeanne Tripplehorn

Maybe he’d even have a family. The possibilities are pretty open although I have no idea where I’d put him. His story, Detroit Rock City, is the earliest full story in the In Between Days series. He even predates Rita Spinelli and Donald Janeway, and Lily Sloane and Zefram Cochrane, so I’m not so sure who he’d be interacting with, except for the first Dr. Morgan (maybe). Bringing the Mirror Universe further into the past isn’t on my current radar unless I really feel compelled to write something new.

Quote

“I’m not faking it. And Christ on a cracker, man, I am not nutso! It’s real!”

Upshot

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Sep

2015

Review – Wider Than the Sargasso Sea

The Sargasso Sea? It might be a stretch. Or maybe not. The gulf between different people and different species certainly feels impossible to surmount.

Background

Wider than the Sargasso Sea

So for a prompt about working together, I made a decision to revisit Gina Nolan‘s universe and wrap things up a bit. The best way, I felt, was to try to bring the story more or less full circle. Hence the Nolan family would have to meet the Breen head on, but not in battle. Instead, in peacetime, they would have to deal with them, somehow. And for Gina and Freela in particular, that feels way too hard.

Plot

It’s about twenty years since the Breen attack on Earth. Gina and Gabby have more or less moved on. Gina has even remarried, to the Klingon, Kittriss. Life’s going pretty well, and Gabrielle is in a special school for the performing arts. Freela, her Klingon stepsister, is starting college (she’s going into engineering).

Then a Breen family moves into the neighborhood, and Gina is one of the many people yelling, “Breen, go home!”

Story Postings

Rating

The story is Rated K.

Upshot

I don’t know if the solution was too pat. I didn’t want for there to be easy answers, but I don’t know. I’m a bit ambivalent about this story. I feel that the characterizations are good and the plot line is a decent one. But I do wonder if the story arc and its payoff are truly believable, and I welcome feedback (as I do for all of the things I write).

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Sep

2015

Portrait of a Character – Mistra

Mistra works as a braver character than Libba, although there are similarities between the two secondary female Daranaean characters.

Origins

Barking up the Muse Tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | Mistra

Mistra, one of the Daranaeans (secondary female)

After writing The Cure is Worse Than the Disease, I got a lot of requests to follow the story and see what else would happen to Daranaean women.

Hence the idea of a protest was irresistible, but the protesters needed something to, well, protest.

Enter the innocent, Mistra.

Portrayal

I generally don’t have anyone ‘playing’ Daranaean characters. Mistra is no exception. But if anyone has any ideas, feel free to put them into the comments section. These images are, of course, of German Shepherd dogs.

Personality

Meek and mild, like most Daranaean secondary wives, Mistra isn’t one for leading like Dratha. But she isn’t completely helpless, like Cama. Instead, she’s in the middle, the filling in the sandwich. And like most secondaries, her job is not only homeschooling the very young sons and most of the daughters (but not the third caste daughters, who are often kept illiterate), but also with the reproductive heavy lifting. It is a difficult and tiring life at best.

When she’s accused of murder, there’s all she can do to keep it together. Confused and frightened, she’s about ready to resign herself to an unfair, unjust, and cruel fate, when others step in.

Relationships

Mistra’s only known relationship is with her husband, Arnis.

Mirror Universe

I have never written Mirror Universe Daranaeans, but the idea is an interesting one.

Barking Up The Muse Tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | MU Mistra | German Shepherd Dog

MU Mistra (image of a German Shepherd Dog is for educational purposes only)

Would the women be in charge there? All I have on them is Empress Hoshi complaining that their planet always smells like wet dog, plus it’s the scene of the faking of Richard Daniels‘s death. Maybe something else could come out of that. I’m not sure.

Maybe Mistra’s intelligence would be celebrated. Maybe she’d even have some confidence.

Quote

“Arnis! Please! I am, am, I am innocent!”

Upshot

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Sep

2015

Recurrent Themes – Plant Lovers

Plant lovers inform many of my stories.

Background

Botanists and plant lovers are canon. In the original Star Trek series, Sulu and Rand both attend to plants. In The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, Keiko Ishikawa O’Brien is a Botanist.

For an older ship like the NX-01, I felt like there absolutely had to be a Botanist.

Appearances

Naomi Curtis

Only seen during If You Can’t Stand the Heat, I’ve retconned her and now consider her to be the first Botanist on the NX-01 Enterprise. Much like Preston Jennings is shifted over to Navigation and Lili O’Day is hired for the Xindi War, Naomi is thrown over for the better skilled and more versatile Shelby. A pity for Chef Will Slocum, as she’s an early love interest for him. But they do get to fight off the Darvellians together.

Shelby Pike

Pike is the best-realized of my botany and plant-loving characters. Her talents range from growing food crops to keeping everyone sane with flowers, colorful fruits, and other pleasant reminders of home.

Eriecho

A true gardener and homebody at heart, Eriecho grows yellow peppers. It’s at her garden patch that she and Sollastek first scandalously hold hands.

Von

A Ferengi engineer at the Temporal Integrity Commission, Von is also an amateur gardener, and gives Sheilagh Bernstein a yellow tulip while she’s deciding whether to join the commission.

Michael Nolan

Gina Nolan‘s late husband is in his Beijing lab, studying Bajoran dicotyledons, when he’s killed during the Breen attack on Earth.

Other Characters

The Hayes family and the Warren family farm during Concord, but that’s more a matter of survival and economics rather than study. Many of the Daranaean women also garden. And in particular they will grow Krivian weed, which is shaped into a type of boxwood-style hedge. But that’s not just for beauty’s sake. They can chew Krivian weed in order to determine the gender of a fetus a pregnant woman is carrying. In the E² timeline, Esilia and the other Ikaaran women farm as a part of their obligation to their government.

Upshot

They may have their heads in the stars, but their feet are on the ground; they’re the gardeners, Botanists, farmers, and plant lovers of Star Trek.

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Spotlight on Darvellians

Background

Characteristics

Darvellian Descendants

Upshot

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Portrait of a Character – Milton Walker

Origins

Portrayal

Personality

Relationships

Enid Walker

Empress Hoshi Sato

Mirror Universe

Quote

Upshot

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A Look at Supply and Demand

Background

Plot

Story Postings

Rating

Upshot

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Portrait of a Character – L’Cultura

Origins

Portrayal

Personality

Relationships

Mirror Universe

Quote

Upshot

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Review – Quartermaster

Background

Plot

Story Postings

Rating

Upshot

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Progress Report – September 2015

Posted Works

Milestones

WIP Corner

Prep Work

This Month’s Productivity Killers

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Portrait of a Character – Leland Loomis

Origins

Portrayal

Personality

Relationships

Theme Music

Mirror Universe

Quote

Upshot

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Review – Wider Than the Sargasso Sea

Background

Plot

Story Postings

Rating

Upshot

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Portrait of a Character – Mistra

Origins

Portrayal

Personality

Relationships

Mirror Universe

Quote

Upshot