Date: 01 Jun 2013 21:48 Title: Chapter 6
Oh, twisters. They’re never any fun, especially with young children and in times/places you don’t expect them. I’ve encountered a few in my time, cleaned up a lot of their messes, and as violent weather goes twisters are the worst kind. Hurricanes you can predict, storms you can predict, but twisters are a different beast all together. Even Hollywood treats them with a bit of caution and fear.
Here, we see that fear in full effect and also some strain in the family. Malcolm is used to dealing with Xindi, Romulans, crazed Vulcans, and other types of opponents, but being in a critical situation with children is out of his realm and it shows here. He’s not comfortable having to put on a good face with the kids he cares for so dearly nearby and he falters a bit.
Doug and them run into the basement and try to get everything they need in a hurry, but they just don’t get everything. Doug’s stuck, doing nothing, and he’s starting to snap at people because he can’t do anything. He’s clearly in need of some patience for the situation but he’s not that type of guy. The difference and dichotomy between Doug and Malcolm is fully on display here.
But this tornado that hovers over their house … I wonder, is this Q? They’ve done this before in canon in the TNG episode “True Q” where they murder Amanda Rogers parents with a tornado that seemed to just hit their house and theirs alone. It’s pure speculation, but I anticipate something/someone causing this.
Author's Response:
Not gonna tell ya. :)
Date: 01 Jun 2013 21:29 Title: Chapter 5
Well, that certainly got interesting! I didn’t realize that Doug and Lili had met through the dreamlike state across universes! Wow, that’s a powerful (and kinda scary) realization that you can reach across entire universes to the other side to meet other people. Here, Lili is contacted by the alternate Chip Masterson, who is in a bad way himself it seems. On the run from the Empress and hiding out in caves with two very pregnant ladies, Chip’s in need of some serious help. Here’s Lili, to the rescue, ready and willing to do what is needed to help out.
I don’t know for sure how it’s going to work out on that front. I hope that the mirror docs are nice and don’t make Chip’s life a pain in the ass when they get to him but there’s no guarantee of that. But Lili goes and gets help and she does so all while knocked out and in surgery. That’s impressive.
But back to her and the surgery, it seems she gave her last child to Malcolm there and won’t need to get her tubes tied afterall. Good that nature has prevented more surgery for her and hopefully she’ll let Malcolm know. I kinda think he took it a bit personally when he heard about the scan but he’s just feeling a bit left out as he wants to be married to her so badly but can’t. This is as close as he can get but sometimes second place feels like dead last.
Author's Response:
Yes - and second place is a very, very tough role for him. That is the thing that burns amidst all of this.
The universes - they intertwine there. The idea I had was - for real - the Earth's crust is varying thicknesses. Around Fiji, if I recall correctly, it's at its thinnest point. I don't know why. The line of reasoning was - why not have a place where the septum between the two universes is at its thinnest? Then add in a race of beings who are psionically gifted and boom - you've got the Calafans and their dream states and their meetings. Calafans are meeting mirror people all the time, and call them the night people. To them, this is all the very definition of normal.
Date: 01 Jun 2013 21:16 Title: Chapter 4
Well, so comes the big day and man, Malcolm was nervous and frankly, so was I. I don’t have much experience in these situations. I remember being the kid I these situations, the one who had to stay behind and be baby sat or do the baby sitting for my younger siblings. Oldest of four and all, what happens after the mom and dad get into the car and head off to the hospital is all a mystery to me.
So, seeing it played out here def had me wide eyed. What exactly goes on in this situation? I don’t know. I’ve heard what happens from friends who have been through this but experiencing it through Malcolm’s new eyes really helped drive home the point that this was a nerve wrecking type of thing. The birth of young Declan, the big moment where Lili introduces and explains all the intricate little relationships that are going on between the group is well done. There was potential for it to get confusing but you kept it nice and straight.
Malcolm’s simultaneous reaction of joy, shock, and a bit of sadness (at Lili getting her tubes tied, oh, poor Malcolm) really hit me. He has his family, he has his one son, but he’s not going to be there all the time and the way he has to explain that to the young baby (redundant? Ah, sounds fine to me) is bittersweet. I want Malcolm to stay. I want him to stay on there and serve there, for his duty is there now. But he may not … I hope he doesn’t fall into the Starfleet officer trap where he shirks family for duty. Be there for that kid, Malcolm, he’s going to need you and he’s going to look up to you whether you’re there or not. So why not be there?
Author's Response:
Malcolm needs Doug, BIG time. And that's not easy to admit.
Date: 01 Jun 2013 20:52 Title: Chapter 3
I won’t pretend to comprehend fully the way their large dynamic works out. I know, for me, it’d be a damned nightmare keeping track of all that … but on the other hand, isn’t that what we all do anyway with our families and extended families and our friends we’d call family? It’s a confusing, engaging, and I think rewarding dynamic going on here. It gives me a lot to think about.
Admittedly, I’m not having sexual relations with my family members, of any kind (I may from the South but most of that is frowned upon, lol) so that adds an entirely new set of variables to the equation that I can’t begin to understand. That’s out of my realm but the scenes, taking on face value without my deeper understanding, communicate two things to me: one, the love everyone has for one another and how that love has been nurtured to the point of being near-bouts unbreakable. Two: how the individual pairings here all have passions for one another, physical limitations, fears, and age be damned.
The dream-like state in which they meet reminds me of Unimatrix One in a way (as poor an episode as that was from a Borg standpoint) but here you manage to make it real and not overdone. It’s not some sort of paradise but rather a meeting of the minds in a dreamlike plain where reality is what you make it.
I wonder what feels more real. The dreamlike state or the reality they exist in? A question to think on for me.
Author's Response:
For Calafans, it is a second, separate reality. And the five people in the main arrangement (and their five offspring) are kind of, when in Rome, doing as the Romans do. So for them, both planes are meaningful, and both feel very real because they are real.
And thank you for reading, and making me laugh!
Date: 01 Jun 2013 20:36 Title: Chapter 2
Malcolm Reed! I always knew you were a romantic at heart. You had a few glimpses of it here and there in the series, but here it’s on full display as his caring and genial nature is easily felt over the comm. Lili seems to be doing fine and is running the house well despite her pregnancy, dealing with kids, the house, dinner, and more. You capture the dynamics of a family very well here, with the constant chaos but some semblance of order. Malcolm’s worry over the child is there, but isn’t necessarily misplaced. He’s the father after all, he can be worried, but he really does care for them all, especially Lili. I get that he’s not married to her as much as he and she love one another, but it’s a very sweet relationship between the two despite the very different dynamics.
Doug shows up, and seems to treat Malcolm like a bit of a brother here. Their dynamic reminds me of that and the way he just causally accepts that Malcolm is there, with no feelings of jealousy and such, is good of him. I always worry about jealousy in these types of relationships: men are stupid, we compete, and we want what we perceive as ours to be exclusively that.
Archer’s film choice was strangely appropriate. Kramer vs. Kramer is not one of my favorite Dustin Hoffman films but the story had heart and it had a lot of meaning in a grander context, a message there. The crew’s reaction to Malcolm’s impending fatherhood was sweet and makes me smile. Ah, that’s an era of Trek that is has a lot of potential to be explored and one day I might dip my toes back into again. You’ve captured the camaraderie with the crew here well. I’m happy for Malcolm.
Author's Response:
Oh, thank you!
Doug's had his time to be jealous, and he's taken it. Things have not always been so easy between the two men. But now, things are a lot better. The other piece of this is that Doug tends to defer to Lili a bit too much; that is one of the drivers of his actions, here and elsewhere.
Date: 01 Jun 2013 20:18 Title: Chapter 1
Well, this is an unexpectedly sweet story about Malcolm Reed with some nice canon throwback points as well. It always bugged me that after E squared, Malcolm never made a super consistent effort to get to know any more of the ladies on the crew. I mean, sure, it was an alternate future that didn’t come to pass but you’d think knowing you were one of the few aboard to die a bachelor you’d make a larger effort to get on some dates. But, sadly, Malcolm never did that (at least that I can remember anyway). So, with that said here you have addressed that.
Admittedly, it’s a little odd to normal human sensibilities, a group marriage/shared life arrangement that is separated into two parts, but it’s a very interesting arrangement and one that works within your own universe here. Archer’s apprehensiveness at the beginning of it is understandable (as I’m sure it sounded off to him) but by the end the genuine feelings Reed had about it seemed to speak to the man. Thinking ahead, he went ahead and did Reed a nice favor by giving him all that leave time and certainly seems to reflect a bit fondly on his interactions with Deborah. So, all that said, it seems like Archer has come around.
And Reed has found his happiness and his family, which is nice to me. He deserved a happy ending.
Author's Response:
Thank you for reviewing.
I always hated that he had no one in E2, and that was one of the drivers of my earlier fan fic. And into that the fact that, in Shuttlepod One, he's dictating what are essentially generic good-bye laters to faceless old girlfriends who would have likely been really weirded out by the whole thing, and you're left with someone who had a lot of trouble getting close to anyone.
For me, before things work out with Lili, Malcolm pursues only two kinds of women - those who are wholly unattainable, and those who are thoroughly inappropriate for him. Canon certainly supports the latter, as he had something with Ruby, the waitress at the 602 Club, and, in Silent Enemy, his best friend, Mark Latrelle, tells Hoshi that the only reason he and Malcolm ever went to a fish restaurant (and Malcolm hated the food) was because of Malcolm's interest in the waitress, Maureen. His interests in Talas (who was with Shran) and Veylo (who left quickly) point to the former indirectly, plus at Malcolm hooking up with women who he didn't have to hang around with and face later.
But the Malcolm of the 2160s must be, by definition, more mature. And, at the end of E2, he vows to put interpersonal relationships onto the front burner. Hence he's ready for more. But he wants to stay in Starfleet (and he's needed; they've fought the Xindi War and the Romulan War, and the peace with Romulus is not so secure); hence, to have a family means, by definition, separation. The Calafans give him a chance to have intimacy (not just physical) as they can be, more or less, in each others' presence and have the kind of give and take that's a lot easier in person than it is even with videochatting. But it's certainly complicated.
As for Archer and Haddon (Deborah), he does feel some residual affection for her, and wants to do right by her. Plus, this is the first child of two active Starfleeters. He can set the tone here. Plus, with the ship being mothballed, he can afford to be a bit generous with the time as it'll easily be a few months before his next ship, the Cochrane, is really ready to go. Three years off for Deb and Chip is more like 2 1/2. But if the cold war turns hot again, he'll have to see if he can bring them back early, particularly Deb, as she's in Security.
Thanks again for reviewing.
Date: 01 Jun 2013 07:37 Title: Chapter 1
This is nice, jespah. So glad I stopped by to read it. I'm familiar with many of these characters and ideas (the Night and Day lives of the Calafans, and the dream bracelets) from your free writes and challenge entries that I've read, so it feels like I'm visiting with old friends.
The nice thing is, I'm getting additional background; filling in the gaps that of necessity had to be in some of the shorter pieces. I very much like the idea of the 'open marriage,' and that all the children (including the soon-to-arrive Declan) will have parental role models to look up to, even if their biological parent is away doing their service with Starfleet.
I like how Malcolm is reticent and nervous about opening up to Archer. How Jonathan thought he'd like to get to know Reed better, and suddenly found himself bombarded with TMI.
This makes me want to know more about all of them, and how the unique relationship between the five works. And it does seem to work for them - quite well, in fact.
One thing I dearly love about all your pieces is the depth and richness you bring, not just to canon characters but to your OCs as well. They are a vibrant, three-dimensional, brought to life due to your tender and loving handling of them. And that makes them stick with the reader, hence my visit with old friends. :-)
Author's Response:
Aw, your kindness honors me. I do hope you'll find the time to continue, when real life gives you some time. :)
Deb and Chip are, of course, the couple from Where No Gerbil Has Gone Before. And now, of course, things have changed for them as well. I have always loved films where things were happening in the background, where, if you watch them again and again and again, you see and hear things, and understand things, in some utterly different way. In one of my favorite films, O Brother Where Art Thou? there is a scene where Holly Hunter and George Clooney are talking, and they are divorced. She has several mouths to feed and it is the Great Depression. It took quite a few viewings before I realized that the edges of her straw hat were frayed, and I realized that she was a woman desperately trying to keep up appearances for the sake getting her family fed.
So the OCs and the background are that frayed straw hat, or at least its edges, I feel.
The open marriage was devised partly as a way to keep Malcolm in the stories (otherwise, it can rapidly turn into The Doug and Lili Show), but also to give a means for children to be raised better when a parent is in Starfleet. After all, how does that happen? If the child is kept on board (like Wesley Crusher in TNG), then he's in danger every time the ship goes into battle, plus resources have to be devoted to care, education and upbringing; parents are distracted and this is, well, kinda like ballast, particularly when they're infants, as they can't do anything to literally pull their weight. Hence in ENT times, the kids can't be on the ship (except for the E2 episode, which was a generational ship). Getting the kids off the ship means that families are separated, or everyone gets a long leave, and babysitters/nannies are employed, and parents can become strangers to their own offspring. This is, possibly, what will happen with Chip and Deb's child, as they're both going to have to go back to work.
But for Lili and Malcolm, she's already off the ship so Declan will naturally stay with her. Just as good is that Doug will be there, so Declan will have a male role model and will have the economic advantages of more than one person bringing in a salary. Plus Lili can confidently go back to work after a few years, as she and Doug can just juggle their schedules. Often I see in fan fic stories that nobody knows what to do with children who are born, and often there is a designated babysitter character so that the lovers can continue to do their thing.
Life isn't like that. I want Lili - with either Doug or Malcolm - to continue to have a romantic life, but she and they will still change diapers, wash clothes, cook meals, teach kids to read, etc., like people do today, of course. The parallel is Melissa and Leonora - they, too, can have their romantic life together, but they still pick up dropped toys and take kids to soccer practice and the like.
Thank you again for reading, and for your kind review.