Breen (Star Trek)

22
Sep
2015

Review – Wider Than the Sargasso Sea

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

Barking Up The Muse Tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | Wider than the Sargasso Sea

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).

Like this page? Tweet it!

You can find me on .

Posted by jespah in Fan fiction, Review, 1 comment
04
Aug
2015

Review – Hold Your Dominion

Review – Dominion

One of the major battles of the Dominion War was the attack on Earth, by the Breen, on October tenth, 2375. Millions of human lives were lost. One of those was Michael Nolan, a Xenobotanist in Beijing. He left a widow, Gina Righetti Nolan, who was expecting their first child. This piece is Deep Space Nine/Voyager.

Background

Barking up the muse tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | Hold Your Dominion

Hold Your Dominion

As the tenth anniversary of 9/11 loomed, I looked for a way to get that event onto virtual paper.

Plot

So beginning with the Elizabeth Kubler-Ross stages of grief, Gina Nolan‘s story begins on a rather dark note indeed, as she watches the viewer and frets.

Review – Hold Your Dominion

Breen (Star Trek) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Therefore, the idea I was going for was of a Star Trek Deep Space Nine era version of endlessly watching television during and right after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Then a small shuttle-style ship lands right on her front lawn, directly on top of the little tree that she and her husband, Michael, planted together, thereby killing the tree. The effect is metaphoric, and Gina is well aware who the people who are landing are, and why they’re there. In denial, she hides until she absolutely has to answer the door.

As the story progresses, she goes to Andoria for a memorial service, and then eventually back home again to Proxima Centauri, where her parents attempt to provide some company and help. But everyone’s efforts are clumsy and strange. This is not how Gina’s life was supposed to turn out.

And then the story moves beyond grief, finally, to five years after the attack and a certain moment of clarity.

Story Postings

Rating

The story is rated K+.

Upshot

I think the initial parts of the story do drag a bit, as I had overly committed myself to equating Gina’s grief with the standard pattern of grieving. But overall, I think the storyline is a decent one.

Like this page? Tweet it!

You can find me on .

Posted by jespah in Fan fiction, Review, 1 comment