Date: 26 Nov 2009 11:28 Title: The Secret Life of Orchids--Fertile Ground
Some wonderful moments between Tolan and Elim, as 'father' tries to pass his skills and knowledge to his 'son.'
Author's Response: Thank you. It was a fun chapter to write, a little bit of brightness in an otherwise dark environment.
Date: 17 Oct 2009 09:42 Title: The Secret Life of Orchids--Fertile Ground
What a marvellous and beautiful glimpse of Tolan as a father and his place of work - a labour of love. Wonderfully evoked and described. You really can picture the idealic little place amid the cityscape of the capital and this memorial park. Almost seems like it is a hushed secret not to be enjoyed by the masses.
Now not only is Tolan being a loving father figure to Sleg one can see the little influences he is trying to impart on Garak. The talk of freedom and liberation is telling and one imagines very easily that Tolan is up to more than one knows. Keeping secret food growth for Orchids is perhaps the least of his secrets. Rivetting to follow the path he may or may not be taking.
However, the skills of cultivating the palnts and listening are actually skills Garak will use in his future to great effect. And yet a very ominious warning as Tolan thinks about the future influence Tain will have on Garak.
Author's Response: Thank you so much. I greatly enjoyed writing this chapter for a variety of reasons. Tolan and Sleg are a couple of bright points in an otherwise dark situation, and you could very well be onto something about Tolan's efforts being more subversive than they seem on the surface. Time will tell. :)
Considering we already know much of Tain's affect on Garak, I found it appropriate that Tolan also knows the score. He lives with the man, after all. I'm so glad you enjoyed this chapter, as it evoked very pleasant memories for me in the process of writing it.
[Report This]Date: 05 Oct 2009 05:07 Title: The Secret Life of Orchids--Fertile Ground
You must have a love of gardening, because you've really captured Tolan's love for it here in such a realistic way, and that's been the case in every chapter where you've described the gardens. It's like being there.
Sleg is such a sweet kid here, it's so bittersweet knowing what we all know about his future. Tolan's awareness of Tain's "ownership" of the boy and his conscious decision to give him interior gifts in an attempt to give him something the Obsidian Order can't get to is touching.
I have a question -- what is a Cardassian three year old's human equivalent? Sleg seems a little old beyond his years, but I'm thinking in human years. I'm not sure what the conversion is between human and Cardassian.
Author's Response: I do love gardening. It's something my whole family did together when I was growing up. We were always outside working the beds, or raking, or something. To this day I can have the worst day ever, but if I can get my hands in the dirt afterward, it all falls away.
Sleg is a good boy. We see glimpses of the goodness even in fully developed Elim Garak. That had to come from somewhere, and we can be fairly certain it didn't come from Tain, so it had to be Tolan's and Mila's influence, perhaps Tolan even more since Mila's sympathies and inclinations are closer to Tain's.
Because I've read that the Cardassians begin stringently schooling their children from the age of four onward, training them to have eidetic memories, independent hand, foot, and eye coordination for complex fighting, and mental discipline that can withstand Vulcan mind melds, I decided that they must develop faster mentally than human children and also perhaps be more naturally intelligent and complex overall. I can't imagine any four year olds here on Earth who'd be ready for such schooling. I also thought of their roots as not quite mammalian in the sense that we are, and it made sense to me to have them develop faster. It's the same reason I had infant Sleg able to focus his gaze at a distance in just a few hours and be generally calmer and less apt to cry than most human infants. Sleg is smart even for a Cardassian, though.
Thanks for the review!