star trek in between days

Feb

2013

Spotlight on an Original Technology – Pulse Shot

Pulse shot?

Theory

In order to make some of my Star Trek fanfiction work, I needed a means of stepping from our universe to the Mirror, and vice versa. So in Reversal, this is accomplished via shared dreaming, and a crossover is performed by the Calafans by using power from the NX-01, the ISS Defiant, the amplifier dishes on Point Abic, Calafan group meditation and the sodium vapor flares emanating between the two smallest stars in the Lafa System, Fep and Ub. All of this, acting together, brings Doug from there to here, over the course of several hours. The Mirror High Priestess, Yimar (a teenaged girl) decides to leave the doors open in perpetuity. This has the effect of allowing Calafans to pass back and forth between both universes although other species still cannot.

However, the sodium vapor flares in particular are somewhat uncommon occurrences. Plus I wanted a technological solution.

Having read about dark matter, the truth is that it’s exotic and there’s an awful lot of it. It is ripe for fan fiction treatment, as it’s abundant and mysterious. Hence I decided that I would use it for the purposes of heading from here to the other side of the pond, or back again.

Practice

In Temper, the Empress Hoshi Sato has her Science Ensign Lucy Stone, with the help of Vulcan slaves T’Pau and Kefris, devise a means of moving from one universe to the other. In canon, she (Hoshi) is well aware that the Defiant is from another universe. It is an advanced design, with superior firepower, defenses and accommodations. It makes sense that she would be looking for a spare or two or two hundred. Hoshi is a person who wants to be known as a conqueror. So she may have realized it could very well be easier to subjugate our universe, instead of going out to hidden corners of the Mirror.

Three Shots

Therefore, in Temper, in 2161 the Defiant‘s main phaser is calibrated to twenty-one centimeters. And it initially fires a pulse shot into seemingly empty space. Because this works, Richard Daniels is summoned to the Temporal Integrity Commission, as he and Eleanor notice the time change immediately (an ornate sword she was lecturing about, Ironblaze, vanishes). This causes the first alternate timeline, and time becomes incoherent.

The Defiant

Due to temporal incoherence, a few years later, in 2166, another pulse shot opens a second passageway. But this time they fire it near the amplifier dishes. This shot opens things up more widely and it’s not just Calafans who can pass back and forth. Now humans and all other species can as well. At this stage, four people pass from our universe to the Mirror. This act changes history enough, and that triggers Daniels sensing the change but not the specifics.

Then there’s a third instance in 2178. But this is not new. Rather, it’s vestiges of incoherent time. The first repairs to the timeline need to happen in this time period. Richard knows this instance well as it coincides with a major, independently verified historical event in that alternate timeline. After fixing 2178, there is a fix for 2166. And once that is all done, Richard himself repairs 2161.

Aftereffects

Beyond the temporal incoherence, the other effect happens later. Some of the pulse shot is, simply, “lost”. But energy can be neither created nor can it be destroyed. This is according to the Law of Conservation of Energy (Thermodynamics). So where does it go?

The correct question isn’t where it goes. It’s when it goes. And when does it land? 2366, and it hits Wesley and Geordi’s shuttle, thereby causing the toss back in time in Crackerjack.

I have yet to write further aftereffects. I might use this plot device again.

Feb

2013

Portrait of a Character – Arashi Sato

Arashi Sato is ruthless.

Origins

My initial premise for the Empress Hoshi Sato was that she would be a bit like Livia from Suetonius (and from history). That is, this would be a viper of a mother. But she needed to have children in order to assure the succession. Therefore, I hit on a plan. Hoshi would have numerous children, all from different fathers. She would select the fathers from her senior staff. This was to create some security for her. Arashi Sato is the third of her six children. All of the children’s first names have some meaning – Arashi means storm.

Portrayal

I wanted someone who would be, perhaps, wiser than his years. Even though the age does not work out, I like John Lone.

Personality

Not everyone can be a warrior, so Arashi is the money man. Ruthlessly efficient and greedy, he doesn’t want to pay for anything, and wants a cut of everything. In Temper, even as a toddler, he is fascinated by PADDs.

Arashi (John Lone)

In the first alternate timeline, he keeps the books for Chip‘s Game Night wagers. His youngest brother, Izo, does the strong arm collecting, but Arashi does not sully his hands with such pedestrian matters.

Because he is so interested in books and record-keeping, and because he is ruthless and willing to cheat, the mirror Polloria reveals that he is the one of the Empress’s children who scares her the most, saying, “If he gets control after her death, I am sure he will take every means necessary to assure that he is looking in on every single aspect of everyone’s lives. So he’ll be searching for oddities, rebellions, conspiracies, anomalies and anything else that tickles his fancy. Of all of them, I hate her the most, and I wish her dead. But it’s Arashi who truly scares me. Anyone with a brain in their head should, if they take her out, take him out as well.”

Parentage?

His father is technically unknown, with the prime candidates being Frank Ramirez and José Torres. However, since neither he nor Torres has the Y Chromosome Skew, it’s far more likely that José can claim paternity.

So by the time of He Stays a Stranger, Arashi is continuing to handle the books. But – and this is the prime timeline for the Mirror Universe – he is far less interested in rule than in money. Ruling will go to his elder brothers, Jun (son of Richard Daniels) and Kira (son of Aidan MacKenzie). Izo will handle the secret police.

Hoshi is satisfied with Arashi’s choice, noting that empires need funds and treasuries.

Relationships

Arashi Sato has none whatsoever, except with a pocketbook! Even in the prime timeline in the Mirror Universe, he never marries, and any other specifics are not yet known.

Theme Music

As would likely be expected, his theme music is Pink Floyd’s Money.

Prime Universe

Like all of Empress’s Hoshi’s children, he cannot have a Prime Universe counterpart. However, he has an analogue in Doug and Melissa‘s part of the big arrangement – Neil Digiorno-Madden, who also has a head for business. But the differences are apparent, as Neil has two loving relationships, fathers two children and in a lot of ways is more like Lili than Lili’s daughter, Marie Patrice Beckett.

Quote

“I dreamt about collections.”

Upshot

As I wrote the Empress’s children, I needed a way for each of them to stand out. As the money man, Arashi stands out easily. I can see writing more about him in the future.

Jan

2013

Inspiration – Marriage

Marriage matters.

Background

I’m a married woman. And I have been so for over two decades. It was natural, to me, for my marriage to creep into my writing a bit.

Proposals

Oh, the marriage proposal! It’s an occasion for romance and solemnity, but sometimes some silliness as well. In A Kind of Blue, Lili‘s unexpected pregnancy means that Doug drops to one knee when he drops the testing stick – and then he pops the question. In Truth, Bron works hard to convince Sophra’s parents that he will provide for her and love her, and that he won’t physically hurt her, seeing as he’s a Gorn and she’s a Cardassian.

Ceremonies

Worf and Jadzia‘s wedding

The E² stories in particular show tons of weddings. Captain Archer is nearly always the officiant, and so he has to learn all sorts of ceremonies.

He conducts a Jewish wedding for Karin Bernstein and Josh Rosen, and for Shelby Pike (she’s a convert to Judaism) and Andrew Miller, during both kick backs, and conducts a Muslim ceremony for Azar Hamidi and Maryam Haroun both times as well.

Because Chandrasekar Khan is Hindu and Hoshi Sato is a lapsed Buddhist, he may have conducted some sort of combined ceremony for them as well, but neither version is shown. He also conducts a Vulcan ceremony for Tripp and T’Pol, but that is only shown for the first kick back in time and not the second.

Miles and Keiko’s wedding

Cultural traditions or at least something from the Bible (often the Old Testament, and that’s only because I’m more familiar with it) are also inserted into a lot of these ceremonies. For Karin and Josh, for example, it’s the story of Ruth.

Calafan Style

In A Kind of Blue, Lili and Doug marry in the more or less traditional Calafan style. This includes not only the two of them standing up and saying vows, but their required attendants. Treve and Miva aren’t exactly Best Man and Maid of Honor. Rather, they serve to symbolize the openness of those marriages.

Rom and Leeta’s wedding

In Together, when they decide to open up their marriage to Malcolm and Melissa (and, by extension, Leonora), they copy the Calafan style of doing things. That is, there is a primary daytime male-female twosome union, and a pair of nighttime lovers. One for him, one for her. This arrangement, and the Calafan tradition, can happen because of the psionic properties of the entire Lafa System. With shared dreaming that can often become steamy, married couples can have a second relationship. Hence they almost “cheat” but with far fewer consequences.

For the Calafans, the cheating aspect was eliminated by keeping the Mirror Universe Calafans on their own side of the proverbial pond. But when the Mirror teenaged High Priestess Yimar decides to throw open the door permanently (it was opened a crack in order to let Doug through to the Prime Universe), things get a bit stickier. The Calafan people initially adapt because interbreeding is impossible between Mirror and Prime Universe Calafans (although it’s possible between Mirror and Prime Universe humans). However, by the time of Richard and Eleanor Daniels‘s births, interbreeding is possible (they are both part-human from both universes, part-Vulcan, and part-Calafan from both universes). I have not yet explored how the Calafan people handle the end of this final barrier between the two universes.

Daranaean Style

Seppa

For Daranaeans, marriage is a commercial affair, as wives from three separate castes are purchased by their husbands. Divorce does not exist; wives are merely sold to others if found wanting. Or third caste females end up as the subjects of medical experimentation.

Seppa’s life changes when Brantus purchases her to be his third caste wife. But they love each other, and are a good match, as he is with his two other wives, Anatha and Raelia, in Flight of the Bluebird.

Seppa’s mother, Inta, dies as a result of domestic abuse, and the secondary wife, Mistra, is very nearly convicted of the murder of her unborn male fetus, in Take Back the Night. It is the Prime Wife, Dratha, who helps to get Mistra exonerated.

And in The Cure is Worse Than the Disease, the secondary wife, Libba, and the third caste wife, Cama, are not treated well at all by the Prime Wife, Thessa. The triangular dynamic works in her favor but against the two of them.

The Bedroom

There are any number of between the sheets moments for these couples. These are part of many of the stories, particularly in Together and Fortune. In You Make Me Want to Scream, Keiko Ishikawa O’Brien reveals that things with Miles are very, very good. Married people having a good time are also all over the E² stories. This includes two instances of characters (one male, one female) losing their virginity.

Everyday Life

There’s more to marriage than weddings and sex. There are homes and families. In Pacing and The Gift, Doug works on making a home for Lili. That home is being added to in Temper. In Fortune, Malcolm realizes he needs to do something similar. However, because he has less of a mechanical inclination and isn’t around as much, he doesn’t help build the home. Whereas Doug helps build his own house, a small plot point in Together.

Children aren’t a part of every single marriage, but when they are, they are of course a huge part of any couple’s (or group’s) life. Tumult covers some of the ways that children can change the dynamic. And older children, as in An Announcement, can change it again.

Later Years, to Death and Beyond

Marriages with longevity mean that people experience each other’s inevitable declines. In A Single Step, Zefram Cochrane and Lily Sloan Cochrane quite literally depart at death, as do Doug, Lili and Malcolm in Fortune. In Candy, Kevin O’Connor is the main caregiver for Josie (Jhasi), his critically ill wife. To honor their marriage, he takes her to renew their wedding vows. Jonathan and Miva are shown in later years in A Hazy Shade.

Gina Nolan deals with her husband, Michael’s, early death at the hands of the Breen in Hold Your Dominion. Her second marriage, to the Klingon Kittris, is shown in Wider than the Sargasso Sea.

Divorce

The E² stories contain a few calls for divorce. Plus the captain conducts one during the first kick back in time , between Mara Brodsky and Robert Slater. The cause is adultery – hers – as there is a child who clearly is not Robert’s. And he turns out to be the son of Star Trek: Enterprise canon character Walter Woods, who she later marries. In the second kick back in time, this is avoided when Mara and Walter marry. Therefore Robert, instead, marries Ingrid Nyqvist. In Together, Lili and Doug fight bitterly and consider divorce, but ultimately decide against it, particularly to protect not only their love but also their son, Joss.

Upshot

People don’t just ride off into the sunset. And I prefer it that way. They have lives and arguments and privacy violations and sicknesses and sorrows. But they also have kindness, sexiness, togetherness and some pretty profound joys. It doesn’t have to be in the context of marriage, and sometimes it isn’t. But for the characters who do wed, I hope I’ve done their unions some justice.

Jan

2013

Portrait of a Character – Gary Hodgkins

Gary Hodgkins starts out with a lot of strikes against him and doesn’t improve much.

Origins

I wanted a MACO who would be, at times, a bad guy, or a guy with some pretty hard luck. Star Trek: Enterprise canon didn’t really cover that, but that didn’t mean that I couldn’t cover it in fanfiction. Enter Gary Hodgkins, who first shows up in Intolerance.

Portrayal

Gary Hodgkins (Justin Long)

I wanted him to be fairly young and perhaps a decent-looking guy who has a lot of bad things happen to him. He deserves many of these bad things, both in our universe and in the mirror. Bad stuff can happen!

I selected Justin Long for this portrayal.

Personality

Duty-bound but sometimes difficult, Gary follows along in the mischief that Dan Chang often finds himself getting into. It isn’t until the end of his life in the first E² kick back, and during the second, that he finally becomes a decent person. In the prime universe’s prime timeline, he doesn’t really get a chance. This is because, in Intolerance, he becomes permanently disfigured and disabled. This forces him to leave active Starfleet service. He’s often paired with Tristan Curtis as they are friends and sometimes, quite literally, partners in crime.

Relationships

Sophie Creighton

Because Gary dies young during the first kick back in time (and he has behaved rather badly), he has no relationship then. But in the second kick back, he and Sophie wed. I only give a little about their relationship but there’s a lot on their descendants.

Their grandson Richard marries Jolene Tucker, T’Pol and Tripp‘s (and Susie Money and Mario Lattimer’s) granddaughter. Jolene and Richard’s twins, Stephen and Stephanie, are married (respectively) to Marie Helêne Archer (granddaughter of Jonathan, Esilia, Lili, and José) and Connor Greer IV, who is the father of canon character Greer (although that character did not have a canon first name or even a first initial).

Mirror Universe

Justin Long as MU Gary Hodgkins (image is for educational purposes only)

Gary has numerous issues in the mirror universe. He is seen in Coveted Commodity, loyally guarding the Empress in Sick Bay and spelling trouble for Travis.

In Temper, in the first temporal dislocation, he loses his life with a lot of other people from both universes when the Luna is destroyed in a head-on collision with the Bluebird.

In the second temporal dislocation, he dies during a Calafan slave revolt. And in the correct Mirror Universe timeline, he is falsely accused (as is Tristan Curtis) and is executed for helping Chip and Lucy get away with the Empress’s twin children, Takara and Takeo.

Quote

“The captain, when he told us all about it, he said he hoped it wasn’t due to a lack of trust. I mean, I can see how it could be really upsetting. He married an Ikaaran woman the last time out. To know that she kept something that big from him, I mean, that’s gotta be hard.”

Upshot

I’m not so sure where I can go with Gary, as he’s got to be off the ship (the nature of his disability means that he’s got to fly a desk). But there’s no reason why I can’t show him before Intolerance, or in an office or civilian capacity otherwise.

Jan

2013

Review – Demotion

Demotion sets up two separate story lines.

Background

This is a story to nicely bridge between Star Trek: Enterprise canon and the beginning of both E² kick backs in time. There was a prompt about going AWOL, so there was the opportunity. I decided to dovetail with the canon Hatchery episode.

Heroes and Villains

Corporal’s insignia

There have been so many slash stories written about Major Hayes, it’s not funny. But I have never seen him as gay, so I wanted to riff on that a bit. So I wanted see what it would be like for Hayes to be mistakenly confronted with homosexuality. Furthermore, I wanted the person doing the confronting to be nasty about it. It wouldn’t be a little question, gently asked. Instead, it would be accusatory. It would be like an inquisition. In short, I wanted it to be like Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

The story opens with Corporal Daniel Chang combing his hair and otherwise getting ready for an assignation with Sandra Sloane. He’s guarding T’Pol, and he’s fine with that. But then Hayes tells him to guard her again. But Chang decides he has had enough. Ignoring Hayes’s orders, he instead goes to Sandra’s quarters. He is close to the door but hasn’t hit the chime or knocked yet.

Private’s Insignia

Hayes, nearby, calls him by name and tells him to report to the galley for KP duty as a punishment. Lili and Jennifer are walking by, and they see what’s happening, so they turn to go a different way. They come back quickly, though. It’s when they hear the sound of fabric being torn.

Story Postings

Rating

The story has a K rating.

Upshot

So it’s a quick story, with fewer than 800 words. But I feel it nicely makes my point I had to establish Chang and Sloane as problem children before either kick back in time. I think Demotion does that.

Jan

2013

Portrait of a Character – Rona Moran

Rona Moran has more depth than she used to.

Origins

The Dispatches from the Romulan War series covered this unseen Star Trek canon war through the eyes of news outlets. It had been going on for a few years and was winding down by the time I had an idea to contribute to it. And so I decided I wanted a gossip columnist with a heart of gold.

Portrayal

Rona Moran (excuse me, Verona Linda Moran Dodd Fisher D’Angelo Sherwood) is played by real-life gossip columnist Cindy Adams.

Personality

Larger than life and overly

Cindy Adams

dramatic, Rona is every bit the air-kissing celebrity watcher. She’s been married (and divorced) four times, and occasionally digs at her third ex, Maurizio. She has a British background.

She seems as if she’s very shallow. But the truth is, she isn’t.

In Soldiers’ Marriage Project, she reveals that she’s in charge of a charitable trust that provided all the trappings of a group wedding for 1,000 couples where both members were going off to war. The charity provided all sorts of things, including celebrity waitstaff like actress Alyssa McKenna and shortstop Lefty Robinson. Food and hotel rooms were donated, and rings were provided at cost.

As a reporter, Rona concentrates on one couple, as the huge ceremony is otherwise far too overwhelming. And the story she tells about them is sweet, full of hope for their new life together.

Because of her understanding, Jonathan Archer seeks her out during Flight of the Bluebird in order to dispel a rumor, and it’s revealed that Malcolm and Lili talked to her when the Cochrane was launched as they had had to explain their arrangement in a way that would be understood by the free and open press and would not tank Malcolm’s career.

Relationships

She’s got four ex-husbands, but only the third one, Maurizio D’Angelo, is ever mentioned in any detail. Tthe others are, in order, Dodd, Fisher and Sherwood. Dodd and Fisher are two of Elizabeth Taylor‘s real-life husbands, and Sherwood is a shout-out to HG Wells character Crystal Sherwood. In Flight of the Bluebird, Rona Moran is a lot kinder when mentioning him.

Quote

“I want you all to know, darlings, that there is nothing greater in the galaxy than love. The love in this family is self-evident. As for my exes, you all know, darlings; that I have spoken less than kindly of them in the past. But to all of them and, particularly, to my third ex-husband, Maurizio D’Angelo, I want to apologize. At the very least, in the name of the love that we once shared, I do hope that you can forgive me, Maurizio. And for my part, whether or not forgiveness is forthcoming, I swear to you I will not belittle you again.”

Upshot

I have been trying to find a way to give this rather unique character more air time. Rona Moran will be back, darlings!

Jan

2013

Spotlight on an Original Technology – Pulse Shot

Theory

Practice

Three Shots

Aftereffects

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Portrait of a Character – Arashi Sato

Origins

Portrayal

Personality

Parentage?

Relationships

Theme Music

Prime Universe

Quote

Upshot

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Inspiration – Marriage

Background

Proposals

Ceremonies

Calafan Style

Daranaean Style

The Bedroom

Everyday Life

Later Years, to Death and Beyond

Divorce

Upshot

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Portrait of a Character – Gary Hodgkins

Origins

Portrayal

Personality

Relationships

Sophie Creighton

Mirror Universe

Quote

Upshot

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Review – Demotion

Background

Heroes and Villains

Story Postings

Rating

Upshot

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Portrait of a Character – Rona Moran

Origins

Portrayal

Personality

Relationships

Quote

Upshot

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