Date: 12 Nov 2009 03:39 Title: Part II: The Lady Grey - Chapter 5
You know, I've actually managed to forget what happens next...or at least, what the timing of it is. And I'm really pulling for Scotty here, hoping that he'll be able to realize that maybe it's time to really, truly talk instead of letting this continue to eat at him all alone.
On a side note--OK...I have GOT to stop picturing Professor Barrett with grey skin, Cal Ripken-blue eyes, and hooked ridges to go around them! ;-)
But ya know, that brings up an interesting, random thought. I do like the fact that you have not everybody attending Starfleet Academy in San Francisco (like I said a long time ago, very bad logistics there), but I do find myself wondering something. Maybe it's just the fact that I know the 24th-century shows better, but I would've thought there'd be at least a few foreign exchange students, or a professor or two from a different part of the galaxy, to give the students a little experience in dealing with peoples whose cultures and histories are worlds apart.
(Mind you, I am NOT for the PC environment of the 24th century. I just found it a really cool, beneficial, and even fun experience for me in college to work with people from other countries and cultures, and I think that's a very good one for kids to have. Very mixed-culture areas are extremely stimulating for me to live in.)
Author's Response: I actually was gonna try to slip in more multiculturalism, but given how character-driven this story actually is, I didn't want my secondary cast to get out of control. In the original draft, I had a ton of secondaries and it really bogged the story down. I figure that in the first two years (or, in Scotty's case, probably additional classes in his third and fourth given that he tested out of the first two), there would be cultural classes required and that. Even though 23rd century Starfleet is still mostly human. But, again, I had to cut a lot of stuff to keep my pacing okay.
It is a lot of fun, and in the yet-way-unfinished Churchill era there are more non-humans about. But here, I just kept things as close to the ground and as pared down as I could, and it still came to almost 100,000 words. ::laughs:: Thanks!