Date: 01 Jun 2013 23:52 Title: Chapter 13
Oh, poor Captain Archer. He’s definitely feeling the sting of regret and envy here. He wishes he could have committed to Deb and the happiness and togetherness she has and that’s a fine wish. Some people aren’t meant for it but I hope he did find that at some point in his life. You capture the regret and envy here well … it’s something I wish no one had to feel but we’re human: we all feel this eventually.
We get Q fast forwarding to the future once again and once more we find him taking Lili to see one of her two beaus, this time Malcolm. Malcolm’s quarters and ship are nice, I’m thinking it’s a Dadealus class by its registry. Seeing him give that speech and admit to his crew that the nature of his relationship doesn’t conform to what most humans would see as “normal” was heartwarming to me. He didn’t hide from it, he wasn’t ashamed of it, he didn’t push it to the side, he faced his crew and the people he was going to get to know and he told the truth. He wasn’t bashful about it and he wasn’t ashamed of it, it was his family.
It was really cool to see Declan’s various paintings around and they were described very well. I’m a bit saddened though that Malcolm didn’t stay at home and stay with Declan … he seems to indicate that Doug was the man in the boy’s life, as he indicated would be the case upon Declan’s birth but I had hoped two years with the baby would have changed that feeling in him.
Even Archer himself admits that togetherness, happiness of that sort, is really final frontier. The coordinates of it are hard to find and harder still to plot, but Malcolm did find them … it seems though that he’s fine with it. If he is, all the better for him.
Author's Response:
There are influences on Declan that Malcolm probably didn't realize were happening at the time, and they mainly are going to come from Doug.
In another story, the Bluebird is a doomed ship in a lost cause. Here, it's hopeful. The DC was for DC Fontana; I wanted a ship between the NX-01 and its first successor, and the eventual Pike Enterprise. I'm not much of a ship designer, but this one is set up to patrol the Romulan Neutral Zone, mainly.