14
Jun
2013

Portrait of a Character – Ruby Brannagh

Portrait of a Character – Ruby Brannagh

Ruby Brannagh is an extension of canon.

Origins

This character is Star Trek: Enterprise canon, and is part of the episode, First Flight. Since she did not have a canon surname, I used the actress’s real name.

Portrayal

As in canon, Ruby is played by Brigid Brannagh.

Portrait of a Character – Ruby Brannagh

Ruby Brannagh (Brigid Brannagh)

About all that is really known about her in canon is that she owns the 602 Club, and had romances with both Tripp Tucker and Malcolm Reed (Reed writes her a fairly generic good-bye letter in the canon Shuttlepod One episode, thereby revealing that their relationship wasn’t terribly meaningful for him).

In Intolerance, I reveal that she also had a fling with Travis, which is a plausible supposition.

In Where No Gerbil Has Gone Before, she makes eyes at Jonathan Archer but there’s no evidence that anything happens.

Personality

Portrait of a Character – Ruby Brannagh

My grandmother’s shotgun says I can. (Brigid Brannagh)

Feisty and sexy, Ruby might not necessarily have the greatest judgment.

As I write her, she defends her bar but not her person, and ends up in a heap of trouble in Shell Shock, where she nearly dies.

Relationships

Aside from flings, Ruby doesn’t seem to have anyone. And one of those hookups almost gets her killed.

Mirror Universe

It is unknown whether she has a Mirror Universe counterpart, although there are no impediments to her existing there.

Barking Up The Muse Tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | Brigid Brannagh as MU Ruby

Brigid Brannagh as MU Ruby (image is for educational purposes only)

Maybe she does. And she might even be on the Defiant. However, given the large number of lower class Mirror Universe women who are little more than hookers (in my fanfiction), it’s a bit more likely that a woman like her would earn her money and dubious privileges by engaging in more earthy pursuits.

Quote

“We split a tablet of methylqualone, and began drinking from a bottle. At least, I thought he had had a half of the methylqualone, but maybe he didn’t.”

Upshot

So characters aren’t necessarily wise and they don’t always make the right decisions. Ruby is one of those people.

Posted by jespah in Fan fiction, In Between Days series, Portrait, 2 comments
11
Jun
2013

Spotlight on an Original Non-Sentient Species – Procul/Prako

Spotlight on an Original Non-Sentient Species – Procul/Prako

Background

When I wrote the E2 Star Trek fanfiction stories, I decided that the Amity planet would have plenty of wildlife. But none of it would have developed a backbone. Enter the procul (pronounced PRO-kull; the word is Latin for distant).

Characteristics

Huge, lumbering, and dumber than a box of rocks, procul (also called prako, which is pronounced prah-KO) are essentially giant ambulatory amphibious squid.

Spotlight on an Original Non-Sentient Species – Procul/Prako

Mega Squid (Procul/Prako)

When I dreamt them up, I was thinking about the Animal Planet speculative futurism show, The Future is Wild, and the mega squid.

The image is pretty close to what I’m shooting for. But procul have a total of fourteen legs, and their eye spots (much like we found in flatworms – planaria – here on Earth) are on the underside of the animal. This makes them blind on land but surprisingly graceful underwater as they swim in a manner that we would perceive as being backwards.

Appearances

First showing up in the E2 first timeline in Entanglements, no one really knows what to make of them. Characters don’t even know whether they are sentient, and no one attempts communications. When the characters determine that they are no smarter than maybe an herbivorous fish, one is shot by Jay Hayes and brought back to the ship for study. Once the study is complete, he brings some pieces to the galley, and Lili cooks them, although she tries it raw first. When she shoves a piece of uncooked procul into Jay’s unsuspecting mouth, he has a rather visceral reaction to what is, essentially, a come-on.

In the prime timeline, prako are for sale at a large open-air Calafan market in Local Flavor. Lili inquires about their cost. But determines that they are too expensive for her current small budget. The reader learns that Eska hunters brought in the carcasses. In The Three of Us, I revealed that Amity is called Archer’s Planet in the prime timeline.

Natural Enemies

Procul only have one known predator (other than sentient hunters) – malostrea, which the Eska call hard devils.

Behaviors

So I don’t even know about their behavior in water. However, on land, they herd together, much like cattle. In Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, dogs herd them.

Since they are all hermaphrodites, the natural leader is the largest animal. This is as opposed to, perhaps, a male which would have been analogous to a bull or a stallion. The leader, at times, rears up on its back legs and rubs two forelimbs together. This produces a high-pitched sound, not unlike that of a penny whistle.

They also have chromatophores, and characters observe them changing colors, from rust to celadon to milky white. They have open circulatory systems, much like we see in mollusks here on Earth.

Upshot

Chameleon-like in coloration, circulation like in a clam, legs like an elephant, call like a cheap wind instrument and dumber than a box of rocks, procul are a bit of a mess, but I like them.

Posted by jespah in In Between Days series, Interphases series, Spotlight, 6 comments
07
Jun
2013

Review – First Born

Background

First Born has an irresistible background, I feel.

Barking Up The Muse Tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | First Born

First Born (Jun Daniels Sato)

In response to prompts about disciplining and decisions, I wrote First Born, a story about Richard Daniels, the Empress Hoshi Sato and their son, Jun Daniels Sato.

The story works as a bridge between In Between Days and Times of the HG Wells. Other such bridges include November 13th and More, More, More!

First Born Plot

In Reversal, I established that the Empress had given birth to Daniels’s child, but she thought him (the elder Daniels) to be dead. But Daniels isn’t dead.

Therefore, there had to be another side to the story.

This story explores the fallout at the Temporal Integrity Commission, and in time itself. Eleanor Daniels, Rick’s sister, is a docent at the Temporal Museum on Lafa II. She begins by lecturing about Empress Hoshi’s five children, but suddenly she shakes very, very slightly and ends her sentence talking about Hoshi’s six children.

Uh, oh.

Fallout

Variant logo based on the Terran Empire symbol...

Rick is hauled into his boss, Carmen Calavicci‘s, office. She is, understandably, livid. Carmen has been looking the other way for a while as he’s been bedding women in time. She has been figuring that it’s a way for him to cope with the fact that there are often deaths, or he has to restore deaths. So she has been kind or, at least, indifferent. But this is something else entirely, as the Mirror government is breathing down her neck. They demand that Jun Sato‘s existence be wiped out, thereby restoring Aidan MacKenzie‘s son, Kira, to his rightful position as first born heir.

Rick and Carmen meet with a Mirror government representative and begin to sort everything out. Rick wants Jun to live, but how much of a pound of flesh with the other side of the pond extract in order to make that happen?

Story Postings

Rating

The story is rated K+.

Upshot

I like the interplay among Carmen, Rick, and the Mirror representative (Ray Jiminez), as they essentially wheel and deal the past. It makes you wonder if that might eventually really happen.

Posted by jespah in Hall of Mirrors, In Between Days series, Review, Times of the HG Wells series, 16 comments
04
Jun
2013

Portrait of a Character – Josh Rosen

Portrait of a Character – Josh Rosen

Josh Rosen was originally an afterthought – sorry!

Origins

First seen in The Light, Josh starts off as something of a background character in my Star Trek fanfiction. Friends with Ethan Shapiro, Karin Bernstein, and Andrew Miller, Josh was originally just meant to be more expositive filler material and not much more than that. Along the way, I found other ways to make him shine.

Portrayal

Josh is played by Seth Green.

Portrait of a Character – Josh Rosen

Seth Green as Josh Rosen

I like how this actor can be rather affable in some portrayals whereas, in others, he can be utterly menacing and evil.

I also like that he plays nerdy rather well. Josh in the prime universe is an engineer, and that is often my experience of engineers. Since he is a security guy in the Mirror Universe, that also works with the actor.

Personality

Dutiful and loyal to a fault, Josh is almost like Malcolm in that he will do nearly anything for the people he works for.

In the prime universe and prime timeline, he is pleasant and funny. In the E2 stories, he is a romantic guy but also is truly perplexed as to how to fix the problems that his marriage has created, and the wedge it has forced between him and his friend, Ethan. And in the Mirror Universe, in both the Temper first alternate timeline and in the prime timeline, he shows a loyalty and devotion to his mother that no other Mirror Universe denizen shows except, perhaps, for Doug Beckett.

Relationships

Karin Bernstein

Josh’s relationship with Karin only happens in the E2 stories, although they marry in both iterations. He is playful with her, calling her angel and generally surprised that she would go out with him, let alone marry him. In the second kick back in time, Karin herself wonders a bit about why she didn’t pursue Andrew herself. But the answer is the same for both iterations – Josh gets there first.

Yimar

In the Mirror Universe, the start of this relationship shows up in He Stays a Stranger. Josh has fairly recently struck out with Leah Benson (although he did help her to escape the Empress), and he is alone. When Daniels and Tom Grant  get the Flux Capacitor back, Josh ends up on Lafa II. Telling her that he doesn’t know anyone, she tells him, “You know me.” When Branch Borodin, a millennium later, explains that time period’s events to a tour group at the Temporal Museum on Lafa II, he mentions that Josh became High Priestess Yimar’s consort.

Mirror Universe

In the mirror, Josh Rosen is a security crewman, and often guards the Agony Booth.

Barking Up The Muse Tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | Seth Green as MU Josh Rosen (image is for educational purposes only)

Seth Green as MU Josh Rosen (image is for educational purposes only)

But he wants to get out. He also well aware – more than most Mirror Universe denizens – that he needs to help others so that they will help him.

Hence in Temper and The Conspiracy, he is a part of the plot to get Chip, Lucy, and Chip’s two children off the Defiant.

Once they are gone, he still wants to get away, but he’s realistic about his chances. In Bread, he helps Leah Benson leave, as a fulfillment of his mother’s dying wish.

His continued caring for what his mother would have thought of him marks him as one of the few righteous persons in the Mirror Universe. This puts him on a par with Doug Beckett.

Quote

“We’re members of the same tribe. There aren’t a lot of us left. My, heh, my mother sent me a last message last week, before she died. She said I should look out for anybody in the tribe.”

Upshot

This below decks character shows up a lot. And he has been a bit of a utility infielder character, ending up in nearly every series but Hold Your Dominion and Mixing it Up. Not bad for the guy who, at the end of The Light, is neither the star (Ethan) nor the romantic lead (Andrew).

Posted by jespah in Hall of Mirrors, In Between Days series, Interphases series, Portrait, Times of the HG Wells series, 18 comments
31
May
2013

Progress Report – May 2013

May 2013 Posted Works

May 2013 began with my Barking up the Muse Tree | Janet Gershen-Siegel | jespah | Quill | May 2013 hijinks story, Where No Gerbil Has Gone Before, winning the April 2013 Ad Astra challenge. The prize was to select the next month’s challenge topic – I selected forgiveness. For that topic, I wrote Saturn Rise. In response to a prompt about sex, I wrote Complications. For fun, I added a second response, Transported. In response to the flash fiction challenge, I added Conversations with Heroes. Finally, in response to a challenge about childhood, I posted Bribery. In response to a challenge about famous last words, I posted Who Shall Wear the Robe and Crown?

I also finished spinning out The Three of Us on Ad Astra. Also, I added Where No Gerbil Has Gone Before, Conversations with Heroes, Saturn Rise and November 12th to In Between Days context. I added November 13th to Times of the HG Wells context. I began posting Everybody Knows This is Nowhere.

On Fanfiction.net, I finished spinning out Day of the Dead. I added Where No Gerbil Has Gone Before, Bribery and Conversations with Heroes.

Milestones

On Fanfiction.net, Concord exceeded 1,000 reads before the 25th. Temper made it to 10,000 reads on Ad Astra. Ohio, A Long, Long Time Ago, More Than a Will to Live and Take Back the Night are all at over 5,000 overall reads. The Daranaean Emergence series is getting close to 10,000 overall reads. Interphases and the AU series are both at over 10,000 overall reads, the HG Wells series is at over 30,000 overall reads and the In Between Days series has over 100,000 overall reads.

WIP Corner

I continued working on The All-Stars, although I did not always have time for it. For Ad Astra’s summertime Twelve Trials of Triskelion, I elected to work with the bluesman.

Prep Work

I spent time on the website and on some of the pages here (e. g. Accolades).The bluesman and I also had a lot of work to do in order to get our collaboration to make sense. I created a cover for Saturn Rise, to be entered into the cover competition on Ad Astra.

This Month’s Productivity Killers

English: The Bourne Bridge over the Cape Cod C...

English: The Bourne Bridge over the Cape Cod Canal, with the Cape Cod Canal Railroad Bridge in the background. The bridges are located near the town of Bourne in Barnstable County, Massachusetts. These are two of the three bridges over the Cape Cod Canal. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I went on vacation to Cape Cod for a few days, mid-month. It was great fun but I still had to work and I also had to share the one laptop computer with my husband. On Ad Astra, the Twelve Trials of Triskelion prompted some creativity but also smothered some, as time was spent in all sorts of endeavors. Great fun, but the number of hours in a day was still, alas, limited.

Posted by jespah in Fan fiction, Progress, 0 comments
28
May
2013

Review – The Reptile Speaks

Review – The Reptile Speaks

A reptile speaks?

Background

I can’t recall the precise circumstances, but I was a fairly new member of Ad Astra and we were talking about mixed-species couples in Star Trek fanfiction.

Barking up the Muse Tree | Jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | The Reptile Speaks

The Reptile Speaks

My point was, as we get deeper and deeper into the future, we’d start to see a lot of – to us – bizarre combinations.

Why wouldn’t a Gorn recite love poetry to a lovely, blushing Cardassian maiden?

And so someone threw the gauntlet down and told me, write this.

Plot

For teenaged boys Bron and Skrol, the upcoming Sadie Hawkins dance is an occasion for nerves. Skrol is trying to make time with his girl, Tr’Dorna. Skrol encourages Bron to ask out Tr’Dorna’s roommate, Etrina. But Bron will have none of that – he likes Sophra.

Oh, and did I mention that the boys are Gorn, Etrina and Tr’Dorna are Xindi Reptilian, and Sophra (and her roommate, Ylinka) is a Cardassian?

Perhaps that detail shouldn’t have been left out.

But, truly, teens are teens, wherever you go, and whatever age adolescence happens for a particular species (for Vulcans, it apparently happens somewhat later). And so there is a bit of a push and pull. Who will end up together? Will she accept or repel Bron’s advances? Bron’s got a secret weapon, but you’ll have to read the story in order to find out just what it is.

Story Postings

Rating

The story is rated K.

Upshot

Finally, Gorn are nearly universally hissing, sneering bad guys, and I wanted there to be a way to redeem them. After all, they’re not too terribly different from Xindi Reptilians, and that species saw redemption by the end of ENT. Plus, I would hope that, eventually, the entire galaxy will be at peace. That means breaking bread with Gorn. And if they are at all like Bron, and even Skrol, it’ll be easy.

Posted by jespah in Fan fiction, Mixing It Up Collection, Review, 7 comments