Reviewer: Robert Bruce Scott Signed [Report This]
Date: 02 Sep 2020 16:10 Title: Celestial Fire

Nice exploration from the other side of the argument. Reminds of a movie I saw that took place in the control room for a drone strike. 2 hours of flight officers agonizing over the decision to take out a terrorist and waiting for a little girl who was selling bread nearby to get out of the way.

I don't recall the name of the movie, but Alan Rickman was in it - one of his last movies. The operators were British. Tweed sounds a lot like their American advisors.

Thanks!! rbs

Author's Response: Absolutely remember that movie. I think it had Helen Mirren in it as well as a female general, which was pretty novel in a military movie. It was pretty interesting and may have helped inspire this tale to some degree. Although, of course, the focus here is not on the operators so much as it is on the people working on the intelligence behind the scenes. The short-lived AMC series Rubicon was an inspiration as well.

Reviewer: Robert Bruce Scott Signed [Report This]
Date: 31 Aug 2020 16:15 Title: Celestial Fire

Very timely considering how much we now rely on drones. Of course the danger of such machines is that they are far easier to corrupt and turn back on their manufactuerer than vessles that respond to human commands.

Probably the hardest thing to predict about a putative ST future is what the media would look like and how it would interact with Star Fleet and the Federation - a question I largely sidestepped.

I appreciate the GW quote at the beginning. I have moved my opening quotes so that they do not always appear at the beginning of each episode but are closer to the scene that they provide introductory information for.

Thanks!! rbs

Author's Response: I tend to like to use contemporary themes in my Trek stories to explore them from a slightly different and yet very familiar perspective. As for the depiction of the media, I admit I didn't veer away much from familiar territory here. One would hope, the media is a little more responsible and less sensational in the future.

Reviewer: Robert Bruce Scott Signed [Report This]
Date: 21 Jul 2020 18:58 Title: The Longest Day

Nice chapter-ending cliff-hanger. Andorians are always fun to write as you can express their emotions with their antennae. 

Interesting that the science officer did not defer to the pilot when she probably knew her roomate had better instincts. 

Looking foward to part 2 - Thanks!! rbs

Author's Response: Yeah, I love Andorians and I'd love to see more of them on the screen. I get we got a lot of Andorians on Enterprise, but considering that they are co-founders of the Federation, I'd love to see more of them in Starfleet.

Reviewer: Robert Bruce Scott Signed [Report This]
Date: 17 Jul 2020 15:43 Title: Horizon Protocol

Great ending - "And the crowd went wild..." Has to be one of my favorite ending lines.

And the Prime Directive was... well... not really a player at all after all.

A fun romp of a story. Good characterization on the bolian crew member and the confusion over human aphorisms is always good for a laugh.

Being from Oklahoma, the line "you're not from around here, er ya?" (previous chapter) rang true for me. Just part of our warm southern hostility.

Thanks!! rbs

Author's Response: I don't thinks went exactly the way they had intended. Again really glad the humor worked for you here. Appreciate some of it can be hit or miss.

Reviewer: Robert Bruce Scott Signed [Report This]
Date: 17 Jul 2020 15:09 Title: Horizon Protocol

And why do I get the idea the Litus-Ait might not be entirely trustworthy?

Replicated currency... Evidently these folk haven't discovered latinum yet...

Thanks!! rbs

Reviewer: Robert Bruce Scott Signed [Report This]
Date: 15 Jul 2020 14:56 Title: Horizon Protocol

Another great 007 jump start into the story! The reader can pick up the details along the way, but evidently dealing with a culture/technology analagous to late 20th Century Earth, complete with mysteriously named terrorist groups. 

Nice choice to start the action at an airport (not a spaceport), which quickly cues the reader about what sort of culture might be involved - and evidently one of those mind-numbing gray areas for the prime directive if they're that concerned about a couple of phaser rifles.

Thanks!! rbs

Author's Response: The opening of this story is an almost word-for-word copy of a chapter in "All The Sinners, Saints" which is available at StarEagleAdventures.com. That story deals heavily with terrorism and fundamentalism in a world not terribly unlike ours. That one was a bit of a beast of a novel and I thought it was interesting to explore some of the consequences of that story. Albeit in a much more light-hearted manner.

Reviewer: Robert Bruce Scott Signed [Report This]
Date: 10 Jul 2020 02:33 Title: Ship of the Dead

Yep... I knew an infected klingon beamed himself onto the runabout. Nice foreshadowing. One picky detail.. klingon blood is the color of pepto bismal. I'm not certain they didn't simply photograph some of the stff for Star Trek VI.

Nice chapter length and breakpoints, leaving a cliffhanger on each page.

Thanks!! rbs

Author's Response: I think they may have changed the color of Klingon blood a few times. I actually hadn't even remembered the oddly-colored blood in that movie which was clearly done so it didn't seem too gruesome and the movie could still be considered somewhat family-friendly.

Reviewer: Robert Bruce Scott Signed [Report This]
Date: 08 Jul 2020 18:35 Title: Ship of the Dead

Nice creepy klingon ghost/zombie story, complete with flickering lights, mysterious banging noises and klingons doing weird things. And no doubt things are about to go from bad to worse... 

Spooky, frightened, incoherent, dying klingons - what's not to love? Great visuals!

Thanks!! rbs

Author's Response: Heavily influence by the horror/zombie genre of course. I always thought Trek lends itself well to that genre and there have been some episodes who've gone done that road. Although, I don't think there's ever been a proper zombie Trek story. This is my attempt at correct that oversight.

Reviewer: Robert Bruce Scott Signed [Report This]
Date: 07 Jul 2020 19:35 Title: Beyond Acheron

First rattle out of the box - as soon as I saw the BOC lyrics, I got distracted and had to pick up the guitar and run through Don't Fear the Reaper and Burning for You.. Buck Dharma is one of the most influential guiarists for me and learning those songs kind of taught me how to play and write leads.

Took me awhile to get back to the story.. I like the way you decribe characters on the fly - a detail here and there.

Favorite line - the art of killing subordinates with a single look... We're both working with Bajoran resistance survivers (Dr. Jazz in STH). They are fun characters to explore.

I started to suspect this was a Jacob's Ladder/6th Sense kind of story fairly early on, but in no small part because I'm a fan of Jack London. Well done!

Thanks!! rbs

Author's Response: Well, as long as your first thought wasn't "More Cowbell", it's all good. And yeah, I really like writing Nora Laas for her strength and her flaws. Resistance fighters are inherently interesting for that terrible trauma they went through, particularly Bajorans. That stays with you for the rest of your life, I think. Thanks for the review.

Reviewer: CamSPD Signed [Report This]
Date: 12 Jul 2014 18:43 Title: Celestial Fire

Wow. This was, overall, an incredibly thought-provoking story. All parties involved had valid points of argument, and it's a hard truth the face for the kid that people like him really are a necessary evil. 

Well done, CeJay. Well done.

Author's Response: I'm glad that you could see both sides of the argument. I wanted to make a conscious effort not to favor one too much over the other and may not have always succeeded. Thanks for reading.

Reviewer: CamSPD Signed [Report This]
Date: 12 Jul 2014 18:22 Title: Celestial Fire

Oh. Crap. Shoulda known it wouldn't be that easy, eh? Poor Rory.

Author's Response: Definitely not what he expected ...

Reviewer: Miranda Fave Signed [Report This]
Date: 25 Apr 2014 15:53 Title: Celestial Fire

Wow. I mean, I kinda thought - hoped - that Rhory would decide to pull out of it. That something would trigger in him to make himwalk away from it. But no, you did the brilliant thing story wise to have him remain a part of it. Worse that, he accpets his role and skills that help play the part. He uses his analytical mind to come up with the targets and is encompassing in it. He calculates in the collateral damage and even if he can reason that the collatoral damage would be less now that later it is a horrifying and dark transition of character. Not only that, but Rhory himself accepts, knows and believes this about himself. That's what is scarier still.

A brilliantly political, ethical and disturbing tale CeJay. More than that, it is a great glimpse into a character and a story telling device employed not too often, were you allow the main character to willingly become 'bad' - even if they convince themselves it is for the right reasons they are paying all sorts of wrong prices. Additionally, it is a great expansion of your Eagle universe and the wider United Trek story tale weaved about the Talarian Incursion. UT can always go to the dark places and still have a sense and feeling of being Trek.

As for the character of Rhory, I hope that some day you may return to his story at some later juncture in his life perhaps. In many ways, he is a Talza Star in the making. Someone who will need to find redemption but someone who may not go seeking it or finding it easy to achieve it. Brilliant job.

Author's Response: Thank you very much for the kind words. As for the ending, to me that had never been in doubt even though perhaps his transition happens a little faster than even I liked. But I wanted to keep within the format of the Lower Deck Tales series and not let this become a full blown novel. As for him going 'bad', I'd like to put forth the counter argument that perhaps he's doing the right thing here. Perhaps the Federation needs a few people who are a little darker to keep it safe. No, I'm not talking about Section 31 dark -- even though who knows it may lead to that eventually -- but just people who are willing to make difficult decisions. Of course the idea of this story is for the reader to decide for themselves. I also really liked your comparison to Tazla Star. I didn't consciously think about it but of course just like Rhory she was much in a similar situation once when she had to make a difficult choice with real consequences. It didn't work out to well for her. Here's hoping that it won't be as bad for Rhory. Again, thanks for your awesome and insightful reviews.