Date: 20 Apr 2010 19:35 Title: Chapter 39
Beckley is a sly dog, he is. And poor Maren-beat up head injuries all around, but at least she's been drugged well. And of course, Icheb is in a bit of a situation. Seems the Borg Resistance is looking for a way to get rid of their Borg parts. Great couple o chapters, kes.
Date: 14 Dec 2009 19:56 Title: Chapter 39
And just when you think things can't get worse - the Admiral shows up! Hee hee. Mind the Admiral might just be of help and afterall he wants to preserve his own ass too. So I'll try and think the better of him. Adele should to - or at least give him a chance to see what value he turns out to be. I guess with Berkley it is all dependent upon his own agenda.
John showing deeping concern and Maren tries her best non-chalant stance but I think she might understand the headache she has caused for the captain down the line. It remains interesting to see how that all pans out.
In addition, Icheb's condition and prognosis are somewaht confirmed. He is in a bad place in more ways than one. Maybe the ship's saviours might prove to be the good smaratian they purport. I doubt it somehow. There's bound to be more to it. But Icheb's stubborness knows just when to kick in - namely at the end of the chapter so we can't discover more. Grrr.
Author's Response:
We'll see how the admiral handles this. He probably does have the same healthy sense of self-preservation as everyone else!
If you think John is a wreck now, wait until he finds out his best friend went missing while he was down in engineering worrying over Maren. As far as Maren goes, yeah, she has an idea this could be problematic ....
As far as Icheb's situation, I could possibly rename this story Icheb and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day and it would work. Except it's gone on way longer than a day. (Actually, you could insert Adele's or Maren's name there, too, and it would still work.) Icheb's "new friends" may be able to help him, but at what price?
Oh, and I have to laugh at the comment about Icheb's stubbornness knowing when to kick in ... his motto is pretty much, "You can't make me," isn't it? He's compliant and helpful as long as it's his choice, but you can't really force him to do much, as Seven found out repeatedly on VOY. Surprise, the stubborn kid turned into a stubborn adult.
Date: 14 Dec 2009 05:20 Title: Chapter 39
Maren takes the prize here for a gutsy play that put the ship’s safety before her own life. Yeah, she’s likely to catch hell from Captain Oyugo, but it was the right call under the circumstances. Her tactics enabled them to incapacitate the Borg drones onboard and render them prisoners, which should help significantly with intelligence on the current Borg situation throughout the Delta Quadrant and beyond.
John kept his head together and acted professionally, despite his personal motivations and the deep regard he carries within him for Maren’s safety. However, I foresee that this incident will only do more to bring his strong emotions for Maren to the surface, and make it more difficult to keep his love for her under wraps.
These Borg Separatists seem suitably cold-blooded and calculating types. If anything can harden a person’s soul, being zombie-fied by the Collective could certainly do it. Now, however, it appears they have a new game plan, and they’re willing to play hardball both with Icheb and Tesseract.
And oh, now the good admiral’s gone and got himself involved. Great. Just greaaaaaat. 
Wonderful stuff and continued excellence!
Author's Response:
Oh, Gibraltar, if only Maren had been thinking that way ... she's going to have to start thinking that way (or at least pretend to start thinking that way) pretty quickly, but I guarantee you some badass notion of taking prisoners and gaining intelligence was the furthest thing from her mind in that moment. (Not to mention that without Telek's intervention, she might have just died pointlessly and had her body fried by radiation minutes later.) So I'm not sure she's getting any prizes out of this -- what you are nicely calling gutsy, some might call incredibly foolish. That it somehow worked out is the only saving grace in all of this ....
And yeah, John somehow managed not to get himself demoted to Ensign there ... he's trying hard. Poor guy. I think right about now he's wishing he'd just stayed on the Titan, which offered him plenty of adventure with none of the emotional baggage.
Icheb's "new friends," as we're calling them now at TrekBBS, are definitely ready to play hardball. We'll see what that means ... thanks for the great review!