[Report This]Date: 10 Jul 2020 02:45 Title: Part 5
Nice creepy ending... nosebleeds are always bad news in a zombie story. And a little of the man in black to finish it off.
This was a particularly fun read. Lots of classic zombie tropes neatly polished - I might be able to talk the wife into reading this one. She's a huge zombie story fan.
Thanks!! rbs
Author's Response: Can't have a zombie story with an ominous ending. Glad you enjoyed it and if the wife ever gets a chance to read it, make sure to ask her what she thought of it. It's always interesting to get a non-Trek perspective.
[Report This]Date: 10 Jul 2020 02:33 Title: Part 4
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.
[Report This]Date: 08 Jul 2020 18:49 Title: Part 3
Yeah, that arm needs to come off... Klingon Zombies!! Nice call out to klingon mythology and a good body count getting started...
The only good thing about a zombie attack on a klingon ship - plenty of bladed weapons about for removing zombie heads. The bad thing? Klingons have really thick skulls and spinal columns....
Thanks!! rbs
Author's Response: Yeah, this isn't quite the Walking Dead. I always wondered how easy it seems on that show to kill a zombie. Their skulls and bones seem brittle enough that you could take them out with a plastic spork. It won't be quite that easy for these guys.
[Report This]Date: 08 Jul 2020 18:35 Title: Part 2
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.
[Report This]Date: 07 Jul 2020 20:03 Title: Part 1
A risian character... interesting.. Good start and alwyas creepy for junior officers to encounter klingons for the first time.
Isn't there a ferengi aphorism about a klingon in need?
Nice character descriptions and only mildly disfunctional characters.
Thanks!! rbs
Author's Response: The beauty of writing junior officers is that you can get away with them behaving in ways that more experienced officers wouldn't. And that, of course, will inevitably lead to trouble.
Date: 03 Aug 2013 17:58 Title: Part 5
Oh! A well-done and utterly creeptastic ending.
Of course that had to happen! Of course!
Yet you surprised me all the same.
I will not recap it in this review, to keep the shocker for new readers.
But kudos! Sound the trumpets! This was truly terrific. Loved it.
Author's Response: Thanks, really glad you enjoyed it. As you can tell I didn't try to reinvent the wheel with the this story. Instead I really wanted bring Star Trek and the ever more popular zombie genre together, genre conventions, tropes and all. The open ending allow for plenty of interpretation but deep down, I think we all know what happens next ... they'll get married and have a lot of beautiful children together ...
Date: 03 Aug 2013 17:50 Title: Part 4
Well, of course the guy who was able to run the transporter earlier took a nice little trip to the Nebuchadnezzar.
Great name, by the way, evocative of the Book of Daniel.
Date: 03 Aug 2013 17:20 Title: Part 3
Ooooh and Gradkowski's now got issues.
This is reminiscent of the Alien movie (the first one), as the most physically powerful person is often one of the first ones taken out. This amps up the tension in a big way, and gives the reader (or audience) something to truly worry about. When the little and weak and annoying are cut down, it is a lot less of an issue. But when the big rational guy goes, it turns into every person for him or herself.
Date: 03 Aug 2013 17:02 Title: Part 2
Chayton is already immensely creepy, and I would be kind of annoyed with him, too, if I were Yifey. But the truth is, she should not be trying to get encouragement out of him or anyone else. It's a weird kind of confirmatory behavior and approval that she seems to be seeking. And that tells me that that just might be the first symptom of whatever disease they're dealing with. Maybe it's anxiety or even immature behaviors coming to the fore.
Telvin, egad, don't these people watch horror movies?! Being attacked and bitten, man oh man, it's got to be that he's now a carrier.
I love soldier characters and so I adore Gradkowski. He and Aliris are, I think, closer to figuring things out than anyone else is, at least for right now.
Author's Response: If only people in horror movies watched horror movies. Their chances of survival would just be so much higher. I suppose there is a perverse pleasure we take from knowing what is going to happen to these characters before they know it themselves. Add to this that all these guys a young and inexperienced. Their intentions are good but that just might not be enough this time around.
Date: 03 Aug 2013 16:51 Title: Part 1
Our semi-larky adventure is about to get difficult, I am thinking.
I love your mixed crew (a lot of people don't do this) and how they aren't too terribly serious. Nowadays, there is joking around in all sorts of areas. Fighter pilots joke and compete. Doctors in ERs crack wise. Lawyers regale each other with gallows humor pretty constantly. No reason why, when there isn't a genuine issue or emergency, for Starfleet personnel to not do the same.
Author's Response: Oh yeah, absolutely agree. Especially during space travel. I mean, space is big, right? And people are not just sitting at their stations for hours on end staring at their instruments. They talk, they goof off, they flirt. Doesn't help that these are, essentially young kids being let lose on an unsuspecting universe. Or rather, the other way around.
Date: 03 Aug 2013 05:12 Title: Part 5
Oh, come on! You can't kill them after they survived all of that! But seriously, this was an excellent story. Entertaining, filled with awesome action scenes, suspenseful and tense and a real metaphorical page turner. Very well done and thank you for writing it!
Author's Response: Well there were two guys who were still breathing at the end ... kind of. So, you know, you never know. Of course we won't truly know until "Ship of the Dead 2: Klingon Z" in which the entire Klingon Empire will have to fight off endless zombie hordes ... Really glad you enjoyed this. It was of course always only a matter of time until somebody wrote a Star Trek zombie story.
Date: 03 Aug 2013 05:01 Title: Part 4
Nice. It was the one who beamed out! I suspected that, but then you threw me off the trail. These poor kids, they leave one kind of hell for another. I hope at least they survive, but I don't know if they will, all given. But thus far, this is an absolutely rockin' zombie story, and I am loving every word.
Date: 03 Aug 2013 04:44 Title: Part 3
Oh. Oh, this is good. And horrible. And awesome. Another one down, and the chances of them finding a cure and surviving are practically nil. It is so decidedly creepy. Sorry, my review is a bit incoherent, but you have me on the edge of my seat.
Date: 03 Aug 2013 04:32 Title: Part 2
OMFG. Okay, you sure know how to bring the creepy. Brilliant atmospheric work here, CeJay. You totally manage to keep it Trek, but also drive home the zombie apocalypse feeling. These poor kids are so damn screwed. I kept wanting to shout at them to run, and yet, I doubt a one of them would get it. Great work on ratcheting up the suspense and tension, too.
Author's Response: Thank you very much. Tension and atmosphere were on the top of my list of things to deliver in his story. Hard to do a zombie tale justice without it. Glad it comes across is a sufficiently creepy manner.
Date: 03 Aug 2013 00:07 Title: Part 1
Given the title, I can only imagine where this will go. Oh, boy! I love the banter early on. Torain's kind of in over his head, and his crew kind of knows it, and everyone is well aware of the fact that they're a bunch of puppies on a mission. It's an excellent set up, I have to admit. Not surprisingly, I fear for their lives, and I'm not sure that bantering spirit will be an asset in a situation which may be coming up.
Author's Response: Oh yeah, these guys are in over their head as we are soon going to find out. Thanks for the review.
Date: 04 Dec 2011 22:17 Title: Part 4
That beginning definitely caught me by surprise; I would never have thought a zombie could actually have a point of view, but there we go.
Something tells me these young "cadets" (I know they're not cadets, but they sure are green) are either going to come back drastically different than how they were before, or they aren't going to make it back at all.
And now we see another one of the zombies (B'Nera) show a little bit of personality--B'Nera. I wonder if it's a red herring that that scene reminded me a bit of that part in First Contact where Picard shot Ensign Lynch before he could be fully assimilated.
This is an extremely gruesome tale. At least for me, since this is Trek, this zombie plague needs an explanation and I hope we can get to work at some point finding one. That said, I'm not sure how or if that will happen, if this dysfunctional team implodes before they can get back to the ship. And I'm going to mention the "Q" word again...if they fail to implement a quarantine, there is going to be some serious hell to pay aboard the Nebuchadrezzar.
Author's Response: Gruesome tale? Check. Dysfunctional Starfleet officers? Check. Explanations? Uhm ... we'll see. But somebody will be thinking about a quarantine here sooner or later. Promise.
Date: 02 Dec 2011 02:15 Title: Part 3
Yep...definitely a zombie story. And now they're at risk of taking the infection back to the Nebuchadrezzar, considering that someone got bitten here. I can't believe that nobody has brought up quarantine, which seems to me should be the procedure in a situation like that. I wonder if this is already getting to Jiang's mind, given that she as the medic ought to be the one thinking of quarantine first. Whether that's aboard the Klingon ship or the runabout, she definitely can't be allowed aboard a larger ship like that. For that matter, nor should anyone else on that team (though I would separate her from the rest with a forcefield).
I'll be interested in seeing what the 24th century explanation of a zombie plague is. Nanites?
Author's Response: Yeah, quarantine sounds like a good idea, don't it? And I'm sure the likes of Sisko and Picard would have thought of that straight away. Not these guys though, especially not while fighting for life and limb while being pursued by an entire crew of undead Klingons trying to eat them alive. Don't know about you but my first priority would be to get the hell away from the zombies. Let's figure out everything else after.
Date: 02 Dec 2011 02:10 Title: Part 2
When a Klingon medic is the best one at doing triage, that's really saying something about the Starfleet crew here, given that I'm not sure the Klingons really give doctors or nurses very much standing in their culture or the kind of intense education a Federation doctor would get, given that the priority does not seem to be on lifesaving or saving limbs and such.
All the roars and the "dishonored dead" stuff...I get a distinct feeling we're about to get a zombie story here. This definitely is beginning to have the feel of I Am Legend.
And the Starfleet crew is still bickering and acting immature. If this really is World War Z Klingon style, they're screwed.
Author's Response: Yeah, I think you are getting the right feel. I unabashedly borrowed from genre conventions here. If you are familiar with George A Romero's work, you more or less now what's happening here. The twist of course, is that this is set in space and with Klingons no less. And you thought human zombies were bad.
Date: 02 Dec 2011 01:57 Title: Part 1
Wow...even though these are junior officers, the first thing I am struck by is what seems to me like a total lack of military discipline. The banter is certainly interesting to read--but I am not sure how much the Klingons are going to respect a crew that is so obviously busy squabbling amongst themselves and in my opinion, not taking the situation seriously.
Author's Response: Thanks for reading and the review! You are absolutely right, this is no crack Starfleet team, is it? One thing that appeals to me when writing for Lower Deck Tales is that the characters are much more flawed and inexperienced than your regular Starfleet protagonists. These guys make mistakes and misjudgments when faced with a situation they are not trained for. Let chaos ensue.
Date: 02 Nov 2011 12:16 Title: Part 1
As I said on TrekBBS, this is a very welcome return CeJay. I was thrilled to see you return to writing more Eagle stories and especially so with this adventure being another of your Lower Deck tales. I always enjoy your lower deck stories and to be honest I sometimes feel you enjoy the freedom of them more yourself because you go off on great tangents, experiment with the characters and settings and generally give us lots of new characters who if they make it out alive might make onto the Big Screen stories - LOL. Good stuff.
As I said, you packed a lot into a small chapter. You did a terrific job of introducing new characters and putting them all on one tiny craft makes it a perfect setting to explore very quickly the relationships and characteristics of them all. We got a lot of stuff on the character interactions that settles us into the glut of new characters and sets up an interesting premise as to how they will continue to relate and work together in a crisis situation.
I definitely want to see how Jorain and the others measure up when faced with an emergency situation. It was great how Jorain viewed himself as a 'Captain' and even made a captain's log. LOL! I love that trait in him. Reality and the school of life will maybe ut dampners on just how much he will want to covet a commanding role in the future.
Especially given that it won't be a straight forward situation either - what with a name like Ship of the Dead and blood dripping title ... call me physic but I think there may be something up! The mystery remains now as to just what is happening. Super stuff.
Author's Response: Thanks for the great review, Miranda Fave. This is really less of a mystery than an old fashioned horror inspired romp, I suppose. And it's good to see that you enjoy these characters. I don't think this story would work as well if you couldn't connect with the protagonists.
Date: 31 Oct 2011 08:04 Title: Part 1
This means trouble, doesn't it? While I have no idea why Klingons need help, I'm certain it wouldn't be just another Samaritan mission. Our officers and their 'captain' are just about to face something very Helloweenish.
BTW, I'm "impressed" by how many times you managed to misspell Gradkowski's surname--and each time differently. Polish consonant clusters aren't easy, are they? ;)
Looking forward to more...and seems like there is more at TrekBBS already :)
Author's Response: LOL. Sorry about Gradkowski. Funny enough I got confused with all me character's names but for some reason, that one, is the one I didn't think of double checking. I'll make sure to fix that.