Xindi War

03
Oct
2014

Review – A Perfect Note

Review – A Perfect Note

What is a perfect note?

Background

In response to a Star Trek fan fiction prompt about “the dying of the light”, I decided to create a story where that line would be the first line of a Shakespearean sonnet. I hadn’t written a sonnet in a while, so this proved to be an opportunity to brush up and improve this skill. This was also a chance to write an IDIC story. Hence at least one character would be LGBTQ, if not several.

Plot

Barking Up the Must Tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | A Perfect Note

A Perfect Note

As Lili cleans up after dinner one night during the Xindi War, Lucas Donnelly sits at a table in the mess, trying to write a perfect note to his object of desire, Dave Constantine.

As this is going on, Ethan is talking about asking Karin to Movie Night, where Chip will be showing Night of the Living Dead, as it’s almost Halloween.

When the ship is attacked, the two men take their posts at the torpedo station, to make sure that the equipment is working perfectly. This station (in canon) is also close to the weapons locker. Ethan and Luke are crewmen, and they will be handing out the weapons if the Enterprise is boarded.

But it can be a little dull. As they stand, minds wander. And so Ethan tells Luke that Dave is going to Movie Night with Preston.

Story Postings

Rating

The story is Rated K.

Upshot

The little story seems to hold up over the years, and I particularly like how the sonnet turned out.

Before the dying of the light
All I wish is to hold you near
You would be such a wond’rous sight
Allow me to whisper in your ear

Within the vastness of deep space
Anyone can feel so small
Yet I just want to see your face
Well, I admit, that isn’t all

So far apart, and yet nearly beside
But still intrudes this nasty war
A kiss could start a wild ride
And isn’t that what starlight’s for?

Yet after all this contemplation
It’s just a no-win situation

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Posted by jespah in Fan fiction, In Between Days series, Review, 1 comment
11
Feb
2014

Review – Conversations with Heroes

Review – Conversations with Heroes

Conversations with Heroes was a lot like taking dictation.

Background

As a part of the 2013 ficlet flashdance challenge, we were tasked with creating a posting every day of one week, with at least 1,000 words. I decided to tie the whole shebang together with a documentary filmmaker creating a work about the Xindi War.

Plot

Barking Up The Muse Tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | In Between Days | Conversations with Heroes

In Between Days

It’s just after the war has ended, and independent filmmaker Carlos Castillo has an assignment to cover the Xindi War from the perspective of the people who fought it.

Sharp-eyed readers should spot that Carlos is a prime universe counterpart to one of the men killed by Doug Beckett, as is outlined in Fortune.

The prime universe Carlos comes to the NX-01, but he also tracks down crew members like Lili, who are off the ship (as is established in Everybody Knows This is Nowhere). He interviews the following crew members –

  1. Jonathan Archer – he discusses the turning point for this character, a Star Trek: Enterprise canon act where he forced an Ossarian pirate into an airlock.
  2. Maryam Haroun – Maryam mentions her Muslim faith. Also, she talks about the deaths of fellow crew members and feels that her failure to pray may have had a correlation with that.
  3. Lili O’Day – Lili relives killing She Who Almost Didn’t Breed in Time, which was originally outlined in Reversal and The Mess.
  4. Jennifer Crossman – her memory is of the canon act of deceiving Degra.
  5. Malcolm Reed – Malcolm talks about Jay‘s death.

The final piece is Carlos’s own statements about having met the Enterprise‘s crew. And he mentions the effect this assignment has personally had on him.

Story Postings

Rating

The story is Rated K.

Upshot

The story was  well-received. I also loved the pressure creativity aspect of it. This story also has the third-highest number of reviews of any story of mine (only Reversal and Revved Up have more).

I can’t wait to do this kind of story again.

Posted by jespah in In Between Days series, Review, 11 comments