Star Trek

Jan

2016

Recurrent Themes – Soldiers

Recurrent Themes –Soldiers

Background

For Reversal in particular to work, there had a to be a number of people ready and able to go to war.

In particular, as the Mirror Universe is so different from the prime universe, a lot of people would be soldiers there who wouldn’t be so here. Or they would be more violent and less disciplined than in our universe. As it is explained to Lili, the percentage of military personnel is deliberately kept very high over there.

There are more MACOs in particular than the group listed here, but these people are seen the most.

Appearances of Soldiers

Aliwev

This Calafan recruit drills directly under Doug and, in the Mirror, in one of the alternate timelines, assassinates the Empress Hoshi Sato during Temper.

Douglas Jay Hayes Beckett

Doug, a trained killer, spends much of Reversal trying to leave the practice of making war. When he can’t find anything else to do with himself in Together, he eventually becomes the captain of a defense unit on Lafa II, and instructs recruits.

Daniel Chang

Chang, a canon character, defends the Enterprise but, in the E² timeline, commits crimes.

Tristan Curtis

Curtis is another E² timeline criminal. In the Temper alternate timelines, he’s named Craig.

Brian Delacroix

In the prime universe, Delacroix is a security guard who becomes a chef. In the Mirror, he nearly kills Doug.

Tommy Digiorno-Madden

Unlike the other five kids, Tommy joins Starfleet and goes into Tactical.

Thomas Grant

In the deep future, Tom is assigned to the Breen homeworld before he joins the Temporal Integrity Commission.

Deborah Hadden

Deb works in Security in both universes. In the Mirror, she kills Brian before he has a chance to off Doug. But her victory is short-lived, and she perishes when he leaves that universe.

Jay Hayes

The consummate soldier, Major J. Hayes is so committed to defending the ship that he has nearly no time for people.

Gary Hodgkins

Yet another E² criminal, Hodgkins often pairs with Curtis, particularly in the Mirror.

Chandler Masterson

Chip is wasted in Security and moves over to Communications. This isn’t possible in the Mirror, so he stays in Tactical. In the prime timeline, he escapes the Empress, but in one of the alternates, he rises to become captain of the Defiant.

Travis Mayweather

Travis is a soldier in the Mirror Universe only. He’s a poor soldier, though, and an even worse leader. In the alternate timelines, and in the prime timeline, he is fragged by his own troops.

Andrew Miller

Like Travis, Andy is only a soldier in the Mirror. When the Empress taps him for somewhat earthy duties, he manages to get himself reassigned to Science.

Malcolm Reed

The other consummate canon career soldier, Malcolm is more ambitious and tries for a command as soon as he can get one.

José Torres

José is another person who is only a soldier in the Mirror. He is not cut out for command at all and, in an alternate timeline, destroys his ship, the Luna, and everyone on board is killed.

Upshot

Star Trek fanfiction will always have a place for men and women (and other genders) in uniform.

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Dec

2015

Review – You Make Me Want to Scream

Scream? Oh yeah.

Background

For a prompt of the same name, I could not get a rather earthy idea out of my head. The trick was to make it all about unexpected people.

So many sexual-style stories are all about young people. Or they are pretty people. Or they are folks in new relationships. Hence the unexpected twist is that the people in the story are none of these things (although Keiko is lovely). Instead, these are people with a history and all of the regular domestic stuff we all have in our lives. They aren’t on the run or at war or in any sort of big adventure. Rather, this is the quiet adventure of their lives.

Miles and Keiko

Plot

So I told this short story in first person, entirely from the perspective of a woman. She frankly talks about sex with her husband and owns up to being rather loud. In addition, the narrator also admits to having a fondness for a certain slightly unconventional methodology. However, she doesn’t mention her man’s name or even the act at all.

I reveal the couple when he says her name aloud – and tells her that her scream during orgasm woke up their baby daughter.

Oops.

Story Postings

Rating

The story is rated T.

Upshot

I love this little silly story. Because why should the leading men and women get to have all the fun? And I particularly enjoy the fact that this story pulls in what happens after the curtain comes down. What comes after ‘happily ever after’? So much like in Doug and Lili‘s marriage, my main idea was to give the characters spice well into their forties and beyond.

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Nov

2015

Progress Report – November 2015

November 2015 worked out for me for continuing works. Hence there was little new stuff.

Posted Works

It was a month for continuations, and not really for starting anything new. So on Wattpad, I continued posting Fortune. In addition, on Fanfiction.net, I continued to post A Long, Long Time Ago. Finally, on the G & T Show forums, I continued to post Reversal.

November 2015 Milestones

See the Stats page for individual read and review counts.

WIP Corner

Main work was done on wholly original fiction as Star Trek fanfiction took a backseat to NaNoWriMo. And I do not mind that one bit, as NaNoWriMo is very important to me. As a result of the push I got from NaNoWriMo, I wrote a book called The Enigman Cave.

Prep Work

The month began with the end of the 24 Hours of G & T and I got a chance to talk writing! It was great fun and will be on YouTube soon.

This Month’s Productivity Killers

NaNoWriMo!

Which technically isn’t a productivity killer at all; it’s more that I was productive, but it sure as heck wasn’t for fanfiction. Instead, I worked on an original science fiction book, The Enigman Cave. I ‘won’ NaNoWriMo on the 20th by making it to 50,000 words and then I continued as the story was only maybe one-half to two-thirds completed by then. This cushion will come in very handy at editing time.

Furthermore, I had schoolwork as I was looking to get as much accomplished as possible in preparation for the end of the year. I am already set to take some time off from my internship. It’s enough already. I am pretty burned out and God I want school to be done with already. Feh!

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Nov

2015

Focus – Vulcans in Star Trek Fan Fiction

Focus on Vulcans

Vulcans are the backbone aliens of Star Trek.

Focus

A focus (unlike a spotlight) is an in-depth look at a Star Trek fanfiction canon item and my twist(s) on it.

Of course, all of fan fiction is like that, but the idea here is to provide a window into how a single canon concept can be used in fan fiction.

Vulcans – Background

Because the series that speaks to me the most is Enterprise, I have had to deal with Vulcans all along. The truth is that I always found T’Pol to be wooden. As for Spock in the Original Series, I have read far too much of him in fan fiction. I never got into Voyager, so my experience with writing Vulcans was limited and difficult. That is, until Eriecho and the Alternate Original Series. Thank you, JJ Abrams.

Occurrences

Aviri

Joanna Cassidy as Aviri (actually an image of the actress as T’Pol’s mother, T’Les, courtesy of Memory Alpha)

Lili is admitted to the Mars Culinary Institute based upon the strength of a meal prepared for Admissions Director Aviri.

Charles Tucker IV

Charles Tucker IV (actually an image of an infant Spock, from a deleted scene in Star Trek 2009)

In the E² timeline, during the first kick back in time, Tripp and T’Pol have twins. Charlie becomes captain after Jonathan Archer’s death.

Eriecho

Mariel Hemingway as Eriecho

My favorite Vulcan, Eriecho never learned true emotional suppression while at Canamar Prison, and only tries it in a mistaken effort to please Sollastek.

Kefris

Kefris (this image is from the Star Trek Online wiki)

This character is named but rarely seen, and is often paired with T’Pau when I write Mirror Universe Vulcans. In the prime universe, he is T’Pol’s eventual husband.

Lorian

Canon character Lorian is seen during the second E² kick back in time.

Lorian

Saddik

Eriecho’s foster/adoptive father cares for her as if she were his own.

Sarek

Spock’s father is overwhelmed by the changes wrought by Nero in the JJ Abrams timeline, but he rises to the occasion and accepts his new child.

Ben Cross as Sarek

Sollastek

Sollastek (this image is from the Star Trek Online wiki)

Eriecho’s mate is a lot younger than she is and was not a good student. Leaving class early saved his life during Nero’s attack on Vulcan. He witnessed the death of Amanda Grayson.

Soval

Gary Graham as Soval

When Soval is a lot older, he experiences difficulty in maintaining emotional control, as I show him in Biases.

Spock

Iconic and sometimes hard to pin down, I do better with this classic character in the JJ Abrams universe than in the prime timeline.

Spock

Sybok

Spock’s canon half-brother is redeemed in the Eriecho universe.

T’Les Elizabeth

T’Les Elizabeth (this is actually an image of Elizabeth Tucker from Star Trek: Enterprise)

In the E² timeline, during the first kick back in time, Tripp and T’Pol have twins. T’Les is Charlie’s twin.

T’Pau

Often paired with Kefris in the Mirror Universe, T’Pau is brought aboard Empress Hoshi‘s ship when she proves she is a genius in mathematics and physics.

Kara Zedicker as T’Pau

T’Pol

This canon character is easiest for me to write when I remove her emotional control.

Valeris

Saddik’s love interest also catches Sybok’s eye. In the JJ Abrams timeline, Valeris acts as a Pon Farr comforter, a kind of Vulcan sex worker.

Valeris

Others

E2 timeline

Jolene Tucker Hodgkins
T’Mir Ryan
Daphne Tucker

All of these characters are on the older version of the NX-01.

Freak School

Stellak – Rayna Montgomery’s love interest.
T’Bek – one of Rayna’s teachers (I’ve used this name in a few other places).
T’Mia – one of Rayna’s classmates.

Eriecho universe (JJ Abrams timeline)

T’Moona – in canon, Spock is the child of Sarek and a Vulcan princess. Her name is the Hebrew word for picture.

Upshot

For a species that I often have difficulty writing, I’ve sure got a lot of instances. Maybe I’ll get this species right someday, without having to strip them of their emotional control.

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Oct

2015

Progress Report – October 2015

So October 2015 kept me going. And I needed that!

Posted Works

First of all, on Fanfiction.net, I posted The Stranger. I then added A Lesson and began to post A Long, Long Time Ago.

In addition, on Wattpad, I began to post Fortune.

So then on the G & T Show forums, I posted Letters from Home, Throwing Rocks at Looking Glass Houses, Paving Stones Made From Good Intentions, Bribery, The Light, First Born, and Waiting. I then started to post Reversal.

Finally, on Fictionpad, I posted the Clockworks collection, consisting of: A Lesson; Briefing; Candy; Desperation; Marvels; Pat the Bunny; Preparations; Recruitment; The Honky Tonk Angel; and Where O Where. I also imported Faith, Seven Women, The Decision, and The Stranger.

Hence there were a lot of changes although admittedly many of them were pretty damned effortless or close to it.

Milestones

See the Stats page for individual read and review counts.

WIP Corner

There is a lot going on. However, the Barnstorming series is mainly on hold as I work out NaNo and do schoolwork.

Prep Work

So as the month wound down, I got caught up in getting reading for this year’s NaNoWriMo. Also, this meant more work on The Enigman Cave, including naming many of the characters and the ships in that fleet. Because these are small decisions, but they can really slow you down if you don’t get them done, I am happy to have them all set in advance of the first of November!

This Month’s Productivity Killers

School work and travel! In addition, my cousin got married in the middle of the month and that of course changed my routine. We also put together the 24 Hours of G & T and that kept me busy. I was one tired pup!

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Oct

2015

Portrait of a Character – Libba

Libba takes on a life of her own.

Origins

In The Cure is Worse Than the Disease, I wanted a kind of sandwich wife, who would get the worst of both worlds. Enter Libba.

Portrayal

Barking Up The Muse Tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | Vizsla Libba

Libba (image of a Hungarian Vizsla is for educational purposes only)

Like nearly all Daranaean characters no one really ‘plays’ Libba. This is an image of a Hungarian Viszla. Readers are encouraged to use their imaginations.

Personality

Timid, oppressed, not very bright, and more than a little frightened much of the time, Libba is the very definition of stuck. Her position as a secondary wife requires her to do much of the reproductive heavy lifting. At the same time, she is also in charge of homeschooling the children. She is tired and weakened from her burdens. All she wants is for it to stop already.

Relationships

Elemus

Like all other Daranaean women of her time, Libba marries once and that’s it. There are no other options or prospects for her. If Elemus predeceases her, she will not have an opportunity to remarry.

Mirror Universe

Mirror Libba (Vizsla)

I have never explored Mirror Universe Daranaean women.

The idea of the women possibly being in charge or assertive is intriguing and I may write it some day.

Quote

“I will, one of these days, I will die. I keep getting more and more tired, and weaker. The last time, it was less than a month from when I gave birth to when I became pregnant again. I was sick and weak and still pouch feeding, but already moved onto this one,” she indicated the baby in her pouch. {and} “I do not think I can do this anymore. I don’t want to do it anymore.”

Upshot

At the end of Flight of the Bluebird, things have considerably improved for the third caste women. But secondaries don’t get a lot of improvements to their lives. To Dr. Nguyen, Libba looks tired. She undoubtedly is.

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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 – 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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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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Recurrent Themes –Soldiers

Background

Appearances of Soldiers

Aliwev

Douglas Jay Hayes Beckett

Daniel Chang

Tristan Curtis

Brian Delacroix

Tommy Digiorno-Madden

Thomas Grant

Deborah Hadden

Jay Hayes

Gary Hodgkins

Chandler Masterson

Travis Mayweather

Andrew Miller

Malcolm Reed

José Torres

Upshot

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Review – You Make Me Want to Scream

Background

Plot

Story Postings

Rating

Upshot

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Progress Report – November 2015

Posted Works

November 2015 Milestones

WIP Corner

Prep Work

This Month’s Productivity Killers

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Focus on Vulcans

Focus

Vulcans – Background

Occurrences

Aviri

Charles Tucker IV

Eriecho

Kefris

Lorian

Saddik

Sarek

Sollastek

Soval

Spock

Sybok

T’Les Elizabeth

T’Pau

T’Pol

Valeris

Others

E2 timeline

Freak School

Eriecho universe (JJ Abrams timeline)

Upshot

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Progress Report – October 2015

Posted Works

Milestones

WIP Corner

Prep Work

This Month’s Productivity Killers

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Portrait of a Character – Libba

Origins

Portrayal

Personality

Relationships

Elemus

Mirror Universe

Quote

Upshot