Date: 17 Nov 2011 23:28 Title: The Spear in the Other's Heart
Intriguing beginning! I wonder where you're going with this, and what you're responding to, in the original tale (not just Saratt's condition but, really, all of it).
A thousand questions but - no spoilers!
Author's Response:
Thanks. :-)
I wrote this story while Gul Rejal was still posting for the first time. I had not seen what her response to Saratt's condition was going to be yet, and I was so afraid that he was going to die that I wrote a story involving the only solution that I could see. Of course as it turns out, Rejal had her own solution in mind, but this one turned out to have its own interesting set of ramifications.
If you have other questions, feel free to add them to the PM I sent, and I'll see if I can answer them without spoiling anything that isn't already included in this story.
Date: 17 Nov 2011 03:54 Title: The Spear in the Other's Heart
I remember when I was reading it for the first time, it took me a long while to understand what her plan was, but I did realise shortly before she did it. This time, reading it after a long time since the last time and knowing exactly what was coming--I could barely breathe.
On one hand she had a very strong need of doing it, on the other she tried not to think about the act itself not to change her mind; not to be scared by her own decision and back out.
And then, after she accomplished the first stage her mission, she joins him and offers her help. He protects her from danger and then expresses his enormous surprise. She can't really explain it, but she's still determined to continue.
It's a great honour for me that my story inspired this one and all the others that later followed :)
Author's Response:
This story definitely happens right in the heat of the moment, and it's a confused blur in places, as a result. And it was very much that way for me as I wrote it, too. I myself was feeling that intense need to do something for Saratt--especially since I was almost sure you were going to kill him. :-(
It's good to know the tension was still there, rereading.
She overrode her self-preservation instinct in a huge way here. This is an act that she could never have contemplated under normal circumstances, but faced with the horror of what was happening on the ship, the way Saratt had treated them all (with what she perceives as kindness), and the conclusions she was coming to from her technical knowledge, she was so desperate to do something that she was able to do what would ordinarily be unthinkable.
That said...I think the fear and the dread of what's coming proves that ultimately, however unusual her state of mind is, she's sane.
And I thank you for the inspiration.