Date: 06 May 2012 23:25 Title: Epilogue to Epilogue
First off, I didn't like your line about "this won't make sense." lol Nah, this was good man. I went into it thinking of them all as a completely different crew, but even then, you made the loss of first Libby, and THEN Beverly still very painful. They were the heroes that, when they die at the end you actually get angry and go "what?!!?" The loss of them both, and in that way, cut deep. An interesting look at a hopeless sacrifice; I seriously wasn't expecting to see it at all in this challenge, or I was still waiting for the two of them to get rescued in the end and still make it. Very well done and very tragic.
Author's Response: You're most kind. Firstly, that line about not making sense spins off from the story that this comes from "Improbable Impossibilities" that just ran out of control and saw alternate realities and the like just crashing together. Like some episode of the Prisoner it just didn't make sense...in a way :)
Being the author I don't see them in a way as heroes but I guess they are that even if in the end they and their charges died. It was tempting to save at least Beverly after Shelby died or somehow they were beamed out at the last second (even by the Klingons)...heck maybe they were saved in some other universe.
my profound thanks for the comment
Date: 05 May 2012 16:14 Title: Epilogue to Epilogue
Sad, sad piece, Mack. But great insight into Beverly - she's certainly come to life under your tender ministrations here and elsewhere - and her unconventional friendship with Libby. One wonders what the two of them could have accomplished later in life had fate not had other plans for them.
Author's Response: You're most kind. I like to think this alternate Beverly isn't quite 'ours' (of course). Changed as she is by what she never did that Beverly Crusher did. Yet she's the same in some ways. Her and Shelby likely would have carried on as before had it not been for the war and their deaths. So long as Riker stayed in command of the ENT-E so Shelby would remain embittered.
Date: 04 May 2012 13:46 Title: Epilogue to Epilogue
A hard end for Beverly, for what turned out to be a fairly hopeless cause. But she and Shelby did save the others/contributed to saving them.
One thing I suspect is that, at some point, enough time elapses and enough people are memorialized on the 602 Club's wall that their individual acts are lost to all but the most ardent history buffs. When that happens, Shelby and Howard become dates and a few phrases, almost like memorizing the battles of the Crimean War is for us. I hope it's a long time before their sacrifices are forgotten.
Author's Response: thank you Jesph. Quite hard to put together a feasible sacrifice. I'm sure come the 25th Century Howard & Shelby are merely holo-photos on the wall. Somewhere remembered.