star trek in between days

Jun

2015

Review – To Wish, To Want, To Desire

Wish for … what?

To Wish, To Want, To Desire Background

Wish. Want. Desire. On January 11, 2162, Treve and Pamela talk about their expectations for a relationship.

Barking Up the Muse Tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | IBD Arrangement | To Wish, To Want, To Desire

In Between Days, the Arrangement

Plot

In response to a Star Trek fan fiction prompt about wanting, I went with a trio of synonyms, each pushing in what I felt was one rather particular direction. I wanted it to be a thwarted desire, the kind of thing that is temporarily put off in anticipation of a far greater payoff. That led me to the idea of Pamela Hudson and her relationship with Treve.

I had already established, in The Best Things Come in Pairs and Complications that this couple do not have sexual relations until they have been dating for a good year. However, given Pamela’s history, I knew that this character would want to move far more quickly than that. She would have to be put off somehow.

It is just after Fortune, and Treve is driving Pamela to her uncle, Cyril Morgan‘s, home on Lafa II. She begins to hint around – and not too coyly, I might add – that she wants their great first day to turn into an even greater first night. Treve, on his part, has to explain to her that he is a virgin, and that casual sex with a Calafan can sometimes turn into a profound bonding experience. To do so too quickly could be exceptionally awkward for both of them if they find out in the future that they are incompatible.

Story Postings

Rating

The story is rated K.

Upshot

I liked the idea of Pamela essentially being told to hold her horses. For the character who is possibly the most sex-obsessed of all of my creations, the idea of making her wait was irresistible.

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Jun

2015

Review – The Facts

The facts of life are complex in an open marriage.

Tommy Digiorno-Madden gets an eyeful when he’s sent home early from school one day.

Barking Up the Muse Tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | IBD Arrangement | The Facts

In Between Days, the Arrangement

Takes place on September 11, 2166.

Background

In response to a Star Trek fan fiction prompt about facts, my mind immediately went to the idea of the facts of life. What can I say? My mind is in the gutter half the time, I suppose.

During Fortune, Q shows Lili the family at a later date, after her death. It is a conversation that she would not normally ever be able to witness. It is Marie Patrice, Joss, Tommy, Neil, and Declan talking a bit about sex. They discuss various ages when they figured out certain terminologies. Then Tommy gets to speak, and he reveals that he learned something rather intimate when he was very young.

Plot

The story opens with Tommy getting into trouble at school. Miss Elenyakiah, a Calafan teacher, is not too pleased at being referred to as Miss Elekai. She sends Tommy back to the Beckett house, where he is staying with Neil, Melissa, and Norri, as their apartment in Fep City is being renovated. Doug and Lili have a full house. Lili is at Reversal and Doug is drilling with his troops. The only people home are Leonora and Melissa, as the children are all at school. At least, that’s what they think.

Then Tommy barges in.

Melissa and Norri throw clothes at each other quickly and, in record time, they dress. To keep Tommy distracted, they ply him with tofflin juice.

Story Postings

Rating

The story is rated K.

Upshot

I like how this little story puts together a bit of embarrassment but also a contrast between Norri and Melissa suddenly having to clue Tommy in on where babies come from, versus the lies that Tommy tells earlier in the story in order to avoid trouble at school. I liked the scene so much that I have Tommy recall it in Seven Women and then the follow up happens in Linfep Linfep Linfep.

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Jun

2015

Portrait of a Character – Carlos Castillo

Carlos Castillo has a mixed origin.

Origins

For Doug‘s confession to Lili (in the Star Trek fan fiction book, Fortune) to be at all credible, there needed to be a history behind each of the fourteen men he had killed in the Mirror Universe. Furthermore, just like the death of the Mirror Norri, I wanted at least one of those murders to be for the flimsiest of reasons or at least be hard to take because the person would scarcely be remembered.

Then, when writing the 2013 ficlet flash dance story Conversations With Heroes, I needed a filmmaker. Carlos works for both.

Portrayal

I see Javier Bardem for this character.

Barking Up the Muse Tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | Javier Bardem | Carlos Castillo

Javier Bardem as Carlos Castillo (image is for educational purposes only)

I wanted an intelligent, versatile actor. It was also important to me that he be of Latino descent.

I also liked the idea of someone who has played both heroes and villains, as Carlos has a place on both sides of the pond.

Personality

In the Prime Universe, Carlos the independent documentary filmmaker is essentially looking for an easy paycheck. He is given an assignment to speak with the crew of the NX-01 and get their personal takes on the end of the Xindi War. While he does talk with everyone, he only records the following in the story: Jonathan Archer, Maryam Haroun, Lili, Jennifer, and Malcolm, who talks about Jay. For the first and last chapters of the piece, it is Carlos’s own words about the film and also about the people he interviewed. While he remains somewhat neutral, he is far from unaffected. At the end of the piece, he ends up angrily and frustratedly pitching his coffee cup against a wall.

Relationships

There are no known relationships, but there had to have been someone for Carlos, as he is Marisol‘s ancestor.

Mirror Universe

Barking Up the Muse Tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | Carlos Castillo | MU Osh

Javier Bardem as MU Carlos (image is for educational purposes only)

Carlos is barely even known by name in the Mirror. Doug did not know his name until after he was killed. During wartime, Doug grabs the person closest to him and uses that person as a human shield. That unfortunate person turns out to be Carlos, who Doug never knows and never talks to.

Quote

“But it’s hard to not be affected, or to see what could have happened if one thing, or another, was different. These people certainly see it that way. And the reality is that this is, for the most part, just a ship full of damaged people. I know that there are those who are happy and excited about the conclusion of this war. I can’t say that I haven’t felt my own sense of relief, for I most certainly have. But I think we, as humans and citizens of Earth, I think we need to keep these people’s thoughts and aspirations and guilt and personal pain in our heads as we wave our flags and sing the United Earth anthem. We need to remember that these heroes come complete with consciences, and miseries and regrets. This victory did not come without a price. Thank you.”

Upshot

At some point, I would like to find another place to showcase Carlos, as there has got to be a spot for a filmmaker. I will try to bring him back.

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Jun

2015

Review – The Medal

A medal does not have be an award for bravery.

Background

In 2203, Neil Digiorno-Madden runs his first 5K.

Plot

For a Star Trek fan fiction prompt about medals, I wanted to write about Neil.

Later Days

Furthermore, I did not want this award to be for anything heroic or even related to Starfleet at all.

Because I have run 5K races, and I am often last or one of the last people who finishes, I know Neil’s situation all too well. All by himself at the end, he trudges and plods along, oh so slowly. He drinks his water and admires the scenery but also silently curses to himself and wonders if he has bitten off more than he can chew.

At the end of the race, he thinks that only Ines will be there. He is rather pleasantly surprised when the entire remaining family (Lili, Doug, and Malcolm are all dead by this point in time) is there to greet him. Ines and Yinora even give him a new tee shirt, on which it is printed, Kiss Me, It’s My First 5K. The shirt, the kiss, and the race are all a little throwaway that I had slipped into Fortune as being one of the pictures on the video wall. I had not originally intended to write the story and follow up on the image, but the prompt presented the opportunity right on a silver platter.

Story Postings

Rating

The story is rated K.

Upshot

I really like Neil. However, I had had few occasions, until this short story, to really give him any substance or depth. I change my mind all the time when it comes to which of these second generation characters is my favorite. Yet Neil is always in the conversation, and a lot of that points right back to this little story.

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May

2015

Review – Remembrance

Remembrance serves as a look ahead to a younger character’s eventual fate.

Pamela Hudson’s eulogy, in 2232.

Background

For a Star Trek fan fiction prompt about memory, I decided to write about a memorial service.

Later Days

At the time, I had written very little of anyone’s later years. Pamela in particular was young and vibrant in my stories.

Plot

The story begins with a young man going to a podium. But the speech he is giving is a eulogy. And he isn’t even human. He’s Treve, but he’s not Pamela’s husband. Instead, he is her nephew, named after the first Treve, who is long dead.

Pamela as drawn by Declan (actual image is by Deviant Artist zindy)

As the eulogy is delivered, the action pans around to the younger generation. Joss and Jia are there with Jay (who is there with his own wife and children) and Shaoqing.

Neil is with both Ines and Yinora, and it is established that Treve is Yinora’s son. Tommy is there, in uniform. As always, Tommy is by himself. Marie Patrice is there, too, as is Declan with Rebecca and their two boys.

As the panning continues, the reader is shown a large image of Pamela in younger years, as drawn by Declan. I really love this drawing of Kaley Cuoco and think is captures the essence of both the character and the actress.

As the younger Treve speaks, he reveals a bit about Pamela’s later life. He reveals to the family that she had been abused as a child by her father, but that the elder Treve had accepted and loved her and helped her to heal. As a middle-aged widow, Pamela essentially half-adopted the younger Treve, as she had no children of her own. She would take him skiing on Charon or to her old stomping grounds in New Hampshire. I saw her as being a bit like Auntie Mame. Treve even reveals her last word, which was his name. He believes she was referring to the elder, but it’s possible she was talking about him. The matter has never been resolved, and I like it that way.

Story Postings

Rating

The story is rated K.

Upshot

For a character who was originally a one-shot bad girl, Pamela the character has had a full life in my Star Trek fan fiction and, I feel, her eulogy in particular makes her seem real.

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May

2015

Review – Movie Night

Movie Night, of course, is canon. In November of 2159, Malcolm takes Melissa to Movie Night.

Barking Up the Muse Tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | IBD Arrangement | Movie Night

In Between Days, the Arrangement

Background

In response to a Star Trek fan fiction prompt about fraternizing, I decided to go with a date that would not really be a date at all. Instead, it is a bit of a cover. Melissa is pregnant with Tommy, but has not yet been ordered off the Enterprise. But that time is drawing nearer. Melissa’s plan is to go home to Ceres and Norri and await Tommy’s birth there.

Plot

Robert Strauss (Animal/Stanislaus Kuzawa) in Stalag 17

The story opens with Malcolm carefully getting ready for the evening. But he then smacks his own forehead – he’s forgotten the flowers.

So he visits Shelby Pike in Botany and she makes him a colorful bouquet with the understanding that the flowers and the ribbon can be any color except for blue. Hence it should be obvious to sharp-eyed readers that this is a reference to Lili. I also spell out that the date is not with his true beloved.

While in the lift with Tripp, Tucker asks if he and Melissa are getting serious. Therefore, Malcolm confides that it is all for show, and he is taking care of her as a friend (and as a part of the Doug/Lili open marriage arrangement), but he does not have romantic feelings for Melissa.

However, he arrives to find the door to her quarters locked, but he can hear Melissa retching. He uses (rather, he oversteps, really) his authority and bypasses the lock. He holds back the flowers, unsure if they will set her off again. Then he also scolds her, and then realizes that that is not his place. Not his child, not his girl. A bit tentative, she insists on going out, and the story ends with them going to see Stalag 17 together.

Story Postings

Rating

The story is rated K.

Upshot

I liked the little touches in this one, as Malcolm seems like he is suiting up for a date, to Melissa’s complaining about being sick all the time, to the colors in the bouquet and then the film, which is also referenced in Day of the Dead.

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Apr

2015

Review – Gremlins

Gremlins is another dual meaning title and piece.

Background

The prompt was about breaking down.

Later Days

I decided to go a bit silly but also capture a moment in the later lives of Lili, Doug, and Malcolm. I had already established, in Fortune, that Lili suffers from some mild hearing loss near the end of her life. Hence the idea was to explore the origins of that issue, but to do so in a more or less humorous fashion.

Plot

On August 28, 2164, Malcolm and Doug investigate a mysterious pinging sound. The story opens with the two of them underneath Lili’s car, working on it. In canon, Malcolm is established as not being an engineer, of course, but he is still able to take some minor things apart and perform some repairs. I wanted Doug, who in some ways is the consummate ‘man’s man’ to have a bit of an ability to tinker with things.

Eventually, the guys figure out that there is absolutely nothing wrong with Lili’s car. At dinner that evening, she is the only one to hear a pinging sound. Unspoken, this is not Lili hearing things as if she were insane. Rather, she is beginning to suffer from tinnitus.

Story Postings

Rating

The story is rated K.

Upshot

I like the little domestic drama (I tend to write a lot of small domestic dramas for this family), but because I never really spell out what is going on with Lili, the story is somewhat unclear. It would be better to, in some fashion, clarify that the sound is not a sign of mental illness, but instead is a sign of a creeping auditory problem.

But the family is still, on the whole, happy. It’s a problem, yes, but not a major one.

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Apr

2015

Portrait of a Character – Vidam

Vidam rises to greatness in my fan fiction.

Origins

During the Star Trek fan fiction story Take Back the Night, I wanted for there to be a believable witness who would be able to refute Arnis’s accusations against Mistra. But this person would have to be a little afraid of Arnis although ultimately they would do the right thing. Yet given the sexist nature of Daranaean society, this person would have to be male. In order to put him into the right position, I made him the Prime Wife, Dratha‘s, eldest son. Enter Vidam.

Portrayal

As with nearly all Daranaeans, I do not have anyone in mind to play Vidam.

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

Adult Vidam, one of the Daranaens and son of Prime Wife Dratha

This is an altered image of a Golden Retriever. As always, readers are encouraged to use their imaginations when thinking about the look and sound of most Daranaeans.

I actually envision him as being more fox-like in appearance, so the snout would be thinner and more pointed.

Personality

The name is Hungarian for “cheerful”, but Vidam is usually far from cheerful. Instead, much like the Calafan, Treve, he is an elder son with a great weight of responsibility on his shoulders. At the end of Take Back the Night, with Arnis taken away in the futuristic equivalent of handcuffs, the teenaged Vidam is suddenly responsible for his family. He insists that Dratha in particular help him, but it is he who makes the decision to allow Seppa to learn to read and write.

When he gets older, he becomes a politician, and is the standard bearer for the liberals in the Daranaean government, in his role as a Beta councilor.

Relationships

Like all wealthy Daranaean men, Vidam takes three wives, one from each caste.

Ethara

Unlike other Prime Wives, Ethara is more of an equal partner to Vidam. Like many human political spouses, she attends functions with him and is otherwise a part of a charm offensive.

Morza

The jokester secondary, as is seen in Temptation, is one of the daughters of the war hero (and eventual Alpha), Acreon. Morza is also a close friend to Vidam’s half-sister, Cria.

Kela

The least known of Vidam’s wives, Kela is a member of the third caste (and is named for one of my great-grandmothers, actually).

Mirror Universe

Mirror Vidam

The Daranaeans exist in the Mirror (Empress Hoshi refers to their planet as “always smelling like wet dog”).

I see them as more like wolves than dogs, and being rather vicious indeed. I doubt that Vidam would be so cultured and congenial in the Mirror Universe.

Quote

“Thylacine Paramyxovirus has devastated our population, yet we devastate it even more with compulsory euthanasia. Doctors, I know, are working around the clock to try to cure that horrible malady. My brother, the doctor, Trinning – he says that they are close to a true breakthrough. What will we do when they have finally cured it? Will we, then, decide to make a law to euthanize our secondaries? Where does it end? I say it ends now. It ends here! Third caste females who are menopausal can do all manner of things. They can still cook and keep house. They can still care for children. {and} They could, I dare say, do more if we gave them the opportunity. A vote for, for me, that is a vote against the euthanasia law. I say we end it now!”

Upshot

It was very important to me for the Daranaean men to not necessarily be bad guys. At least not all the time. Vidam is one of the first male Daranaean heroes that I wrote. I will bring him back at some point.

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Apr

2015

Review – Gilded Cage

Gilded Cage came about because I needed to bridge a gap between Together and Temper on the other side of the pond. For a prompt about being trapped, I decided to write about a Mirror Universe trap.

Background

Hall of Mirrors

The most likely candidate for being trapped, who would also (in some ways) be a sympathetic character, was Aidan MacKenzie.

Plot

On January 7, 2161, in the Mirror Universe, the Empress confines Aidan to quarters. So it’s just before Temper, and the Empress Hoshi Sato is looking to get her act in gear and start pushing to get more advanced ships like the ISS Defiant. And she can tell that the star ship will not last forever. As she contemplates her next move, Aidan has had enough. Furthermore, five children already exist. And Hoshi is pregnant with Izo, the last one. And so Aidan then complains that he can’t keep up with it all, and makes the mistake of referring to Hoshi by her first name. However, this simply will not do. The Empress will not stand for it. Angrily, she demands that she only be referred to by her title by him, the Royal Babysitter.

So in a move toward independence, Aidan picks up Kira (who he refers to as Kirin) and threatens to leave, telling her that he’s quitting. As the Ready Room door opens, Shelby Pike, Chip Masterson, and Lucy Stone give him quick sympathetic glances; however, Travis Mayweather and Gary Hodgkins do not. And then Hoshi orders Josh Rosen and Tristan Curtis up, to move the bassinets into her quarters, as Aidan and the royal children will be confined there.

Yet Aidan goes willingly, as he has no choice in order to assure that his toddler son will not be harmed.

Story Postings

Rating

The story is rated K.

Upshot

So the menace of the Mirror is back (because it never really left), and I like how it foreshadows Aidan’s resentment and in particular Chip and Lucy’s urge to leave as soon as possible.

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27

Mar

2015

Review – Completely Hers
Review – Completely Hers

Completely Hers gives Declan a commitment and a half.

Background

After his parents’ death, Declan first cares for an aging Melissa and Norri and then, after their deaths, he returns to Earth to visit Europe.

Paul Bettany as Declan Reed (image is for educational purposes only)

He goes to London and Oxford University (where he is an artist in residence, so that trip does have some actual business attached to it) and then France and the water lilies at Giverny, where Monet painted. This is where he meets Rebecca Shapiro again, and they fall in love.

Plot

There is only one tiny catch, and it is something that even Rebecca does not care about. But Declan does. She is Jewish, and he is not. And so he decides that, in order to give himself up over to her completely and without reservation, he will convert.

Keifer Sutherland as Tommy Digiorno-Madden

The sole plot of this drabble is Declan calling his brother, Major Thomas Digiorno-Madden, and asking if Tommy knows any rabbis. The date is May the 6th of 2213, so the occasion for the call is Tommy’s birthday. He is turning 53. There isn’t enough space in a drabble (they are supposed to be exactly 100 words long, and this one is) for them to exchange pleasantries or for Tommy to mention what he is doing or anything like that. Instead, the quickie story line has to get right down to business, and it does.

Story Postings

Completely Hers on Fanfiction.net

Completely Hers on Fictionpad

In addition, Completely Hers on Wattpad

Completely Hers (original posting)

Completely Hers in context

Rating

The story is Rated K.

Upshot

The introduction of this small plot twist (I had not planned it when I wrote Fortune) proved to be the pathway to another story, Faith. And so this drabble is, in a way, more than just a drabble.

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Posted by jespah in Fan fiction, In Between Days series, Review, 0 comments

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