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Reviewer: Robert Bruce Scott Signed Liked [Report This]
Date: 13 Oct 2020 12:12 Title: Day Eight: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy: I

Well, how xenophobic of them... And with no guarantee that further sabotage and mayhem might ensue if Xylion were to trust that promise and give them the one thing they want. 

We have plenty of evidence societies can shift almost overnight, particularly in response to the advent of new religions. The UFO panic of the 1950's and the Roswell cult developed over the period of less than 2 years - which was the time it took to go from a farmer finding some aluminum and sticks on one of his fields to wild stories of alien autopsies. That and throughout the series from STO to STE, vulcan nureology seemed to be more vulnerable to radiological events than human nureology. 

Thanks!! rbs



Author's Response: Those are some interesting parallels. I suppose societies can change rapidly under the right circumstances. It's clearly obvious something odd has happened to this one. Thanks for reading and great bit of background insight. Thanks.

Reviewer: Robert Bruce Scott Signed Liked [Report This]
Date: 12 Oct 2020 11:31 Title: Day Seven: The Devil in Disguise: VIII

Very interesting development and just enough clues about it along the way to point to it without making it obvious. A nice epiphany moment for Nora on the intellectual property angle and interesting development on Gedar's desire to leave Star Fleet as well as desire for money. 

All of which, along with his many dalliances, might well have nothing to do with his murder. Red herrings getting dragged all over the place...

And nice touch about Rosenthal's husband.

Thanks!! rbs



Author's Response: That's the fun bit of writing a murder mystery, getting to peel all those layers and discovering all this other stuff that was going on. Some of it pertinent to the investigation, some of it maybe not. All of it, hopefully interesting. It certainly all fits into the bigger picture somehow.

Reviewer: Robert Bruce Scott Signed Liked [Report This]
Date: 09 Oct 2020 13:37 Title: Day Seven: The Devil in Disguise: VII

Vulcans are particularly talented at both post hoc rationalization and being quite stiff necked. Nice B-story mystery to intercut with the murder mystery. 

Lively little place, this radiated soup.

Thanks!! rbs



Author's Response: And also glad the B-plot continues to hold your interest as well. Still a lot of mysteries to unravel in this story.

Reviewer: Robert Bruce Scott Signed Liked [Report This]
Date: 09 Oct 2020 12:56 Title: Day Seven: The Devil in Disguise: VI

Nice processing scene - getting down to brass tacks and tracking timing down. 

Turning out to be a good detective story.

Thanks!! rbs



Author's Response: Glad you are enjoying the investigative part of the story, it was fun to turn Trek into a slightly different genre here. Something we have seen before, of course, but perhaps not quite to this degree.

Reviewer: Robert Bruce Scott Signed Liked [Report This]
Date: 08 Oct 2020 13:03 Title: Day Seven: The Devil in Disguise: V

Nice technology and something we're probably very close to inventing - the ARA. And believable use of acronym. 

It appears Nora is still getting plenty of exercise jumping to conclusions - and seriouly needs a grounding in preserving evidence. The simple introduction of a betazoid into the interrogation room could cause all kinds of "fruit of the poison tree" legal issues.

Thanks!! rbs



Author's Response: Once more her inexperience and eagerness to try and solve this crime shows quite a bit. Thankfully she has Clancy by her side. Prosecuting this case certainly won't be fun for the JAG office,

Reviewer: Robert Bruce Scott Signed Liked [Report This]
Date: 07 Oct 2020 14:03 Title: Day Seven: The Devil in Disguise: IV

Now we seem to be getting somewhere - sharp eyes on Clancy's part.

And the awkwardness between Clancy and Nora gets more awkward - enjoying this.

Nice use of the holodeck.

Thanks!! rbs



Author's Response: Agreed. The holodeck being used for some actual, practical purposes. You've said it before, we didn't get to see that too often in Trek.

Reviewer: Robert Bruce Scott Signed Liked [Report This]
Date: 06 Oct 2020 13:07 Title: Day Seven: The Devil in Disguise: III

Even with just a few lines, Katanga pops off the page. It looks like Owens is finally tired of the sparking between Nora and Star and enforcing a little discipline. Beginning to get the feel of a captain.

Thanks!! rbs



Author's Response: Admittedly he's been an absentee captain for much of this story. Probably off trying to catch up on missed sleep.

Reviewer: Robert Bruce Scott Signed Liked [Report This]
Date: 06 Oct 2020 12:50 Title: Day Seven: The Devil in Disguise: II

And this one - which also makes far more sense as I had missed the entire vulcan colony, not to mention the episode with the horror-movie cliff-hanger.

Thanks!! rbs

Reviewer: Robert Bruce Scott Signed Liked [Report This]
Date: 06 Oct 2020 12:49 Title: Day Seven: The Devil in Disguise: I

Another that I already saw, but now the relationship makes more sense as there were beats in the relationship I had skipped over.

Thanks!! rbs

Reviewer: Robert Bruce Scott Signed Liked [Report This]
Date: 06 Oct 2020 12:47 Title: Day Six: Military Justice: VII

Okay - I think this is one of the chapters I already read when I inadvertently skipped ahead.

Thanks!! rbs

Reviewer: Robert Bruce Scott Signed Liked [Report This]
Date: 05 Oct 2020 12:49 Title: Day Six: Military Justice: VI

Mistake number one in horror - go outside without backup in an iffy place to investigate a mysterious noise. 

This is one of those moments when people say to the screen, "No, Spidy, No, look out behind you..." 

It's missing the whump sound and quick dissolve to black at the end that I would expect from horror, but a cogent cliff-hanger in any event.

Thanks!! rbs



Author's Response: It's like people in horror movies have never seen a horror movie before. Or like that commercial. "Girl: Why don't we just get into that running car? Guy: Are you crazy? Let's hide behind those chainsaws." It gets me every time. In Srena's defense, this isn't a horror movie and she probably has never watched one.

Reviewer: Robert Bruce Scott Signed Liked [Report This]
Date: 02 Oct 2020 14:11 Title: Day Six: Military Justice: V

More fun character development for Nora and Clancy and another beat in their relationship. Interesting development with Wasco. It was an inappropriate request on his part and against protocol both for him to ask and for Nora to aquiesce. 

It will be interesting to see how that particular call plays out. There are a lot of ways it could go wrong.

Thanks!! rbs



Author's Response: For all her insistence to the contrary, Nora really is a softie at heart. I suppose you can take the girl out of the Marine but you can't take the Marine out of the girl.

Reviewer: Robert Bruce Scott Signed Liked [Report This]
Date: 02 Oct 2020 14:01 Title: Day Six: Military Justice: IV

I have to agree with Deen. Vulcans can be awfully bloody-minded when they get a notion in their heads and are every bit as prone to post hoc rationalization as humans in defense of their hardened opinions. If not moreso.

And Xylion is no exception to that rule. Interesting that it's Deen who is kicking up the dirt in this situation. Nice character development on Srena and good choice to start the scene from her POV so that the confrontation can be observed from the outside.

Thanks!! rbs



Author's Response: Glad you picked up on Deen being the vocal lead here. Not only is this a bit out of character for her, she's not even the highest ranking officer after Xylion. But she clearly is a woman on a mission here. This is part of a wider character arc for Deen which continues in the next few stories.

Reviewer: Robert Bruce Scott Signed Liked [Report This]
Date: 01 Oct 2020 13:36 Title: Day Six: Military Justice: III

But he might have liked being bitten... Nora definitely gets her exercise jumping to conclusions. The whole sex/love angle is probably a red herring.

Interesting that Katanga can identify the bite marks as clearly bajoran - possibly from remaining DNA fragments as well as from the shape of the teeth. Either of those techniques should immediately identify the biter. 

Nice call on the stasis. One of the hardest things to do in writing scifi and especially Star Trek is to keep up with the technology as well as derivitive tech that should reasonably also be available and alternative or unexpected uses.

Thanks!! rbs



Author's Response: All of us can only guess what technology will look like in the 24th century. That's 300 years in the future and consider where we were a hundred years ago, few people could have anticipated back then where we are now. But I guess that the fun bit about sci-fi.

Reviewer: Robert Bruce Scott Signed Liked [Report This]
Date: 01 Oct 2020 12:49 Title: Day Six: Military Justice: II

Tazla has a good scientific method, but not so good at handling the XO job yet. As captain, she would have demanded the same as Owens just did and would have had the same concerns and perogative. An XO has to think like a captain to anticipate the captain's needs. 

This is a particularly good chapter in Star's character arc.

Thanks! rbs



Author's Response: It may be worth pointing out at this juncture that Tazla Star has been a captain before and was demoted. That assignment lasted just a few months and she didn't have a wealth of XO experience before that either. So that might help explain some of her shortcomings. Thanks for the kind words.

Reviewer: Robert Bruce Scott Signed Liked [Report This]
Date: 30 Sep 2020 12:48 Title: Day Six: Military Justice: I

"You bitch!" - classic cat fight words. A nice beat in the Nora/Clancy relationship. And a good fight description. 

Action is typically difficult to pull off in print - especially to an audience used to seeing plenty of it fairly realistically portrayed on screen. Good fight scene.

Thanks!! rbs



Author's Response: Thanks, glad you liked the fight. I always approach these with a bit of trepidation since I've read so many fight scenes before that I just found either boring, difficult to follow or just far too long. I always strive to find the right balance when I try my hand at them.

Reviewer: Robert Bruce Scott Signed Liked [Report This]
Date: 30 Sep 2020 12:38 Title: Day Five: Presumed Innocent: VII

Now the chapter I had inadvertently skipped ahead to makes far more sense. I kind of figured there would be an attempt to Stockholm the Eagle's crewmembers. 

There's more to this band of vulcan outcasts than just the absence of children... I catch the faint whiff of heresy.

A settlement of vulcan heretics sounds like a lot of fun - from a scifi aspect. I'm sure it will be less fun for the Eagle's stranded crew.

Thanks!! rbs



Author's Response: A lot less fun for the away team, that's for sure. Glad you had a chance to go back and read the missed chapters and that things are falling in place now.

Reviewer: Robert Bruce Scott Signed Liked [Report This]
Date: 29 Sep 2020 15:44 Title: Day Five: Presumed Innocent: VI

And the plot thickens. Really nice detective story going on here. And good intercutting between the A and B storylines - both of which present mysteries.

As always, Katanga just pops whenever he shows up. A really vibrant character. Kind of like Maya's wildcat - you just can't get enough of him.

Thanks!! rbs



Author's Response: Really glad the detective story aspect resonates so positively and I was actually really quite happy how the two plot lines played out here. You may be able to tell that I like to have at least two major plot lines running in parallel in my novels. Here it might have worked out better than in most other stories I've written.

Reviewer: Robert Bruce Scott Signed Liked [Report This]
Date: 29 Sep 2020 14:57 Title: Day Five: Presumed Innocent: V

No children.. always a bad sign in a settlement. People get twisted when they realize they are up for extinction..

And a mysteriously protective vulcan in a forbidden place. Lots of mystery.

I'm intrigued by the description of the rogue planet. Not entirely unlike Vengeon-Roux... Although its survivors are far less pathetic and rather ominious.

Thanks! rbs



Author's Response: No familiar with that planet but things are mightily odd here, that's for sure.

Reviewer: Robert Bruce Scott Signed Liked [Report This]
Date: 28 Sep 2020 15:18 Title: Day Five: Presumed Innocent: IV

Looks like the rookie detective is getting her exercise by jumping to conclusions... Always fun to see someone learning the ropes the hard way. Nice continuing beats in the relationship between Clancy and Nora. And good commentary on Clancy's part at the end. 

Thanks!! rbs



Author's Response: Yeah, Nora is all over the map, ain't she. Good thing she has Clancy to try and rein her in a bit. Not that he's being all that successful.

Reviewer: Robert Bruce Scott Signed Liked [Report This]
Date: 26 Sep 2020 12:59 Title: Day Five: Presumed Innocent: III

Working under an alien influence... I kind of suspected that with the murder. 

Tazla is definitely trying too hard, but it seems to have worked out for the moment.

Totally fun and a good tease.

Thanks!! rbs



Author's Response: Thanks for the kind words. I like this chapter as well, it has a bit of everything, including Star behaving like a big jerk. She even gets to punch somebody. Good times.

Reviewer: Robert Bruce Scott Signed Liked [Report This]
Date: 24 Sep 2020 10:08 Title: Day Five: Presumed Innocent: II

Nothing like a cold board lineup straight out of Homocide Baltimore..

The captain's announcement doesn't strike me as wise considering the lost sleep time. That's sometimes a sign of sleep-walking and he may not be the only one acting unconsciously. 

Thanks!! rbs



Author's Response: This is going right to crime investigation 101. Got to have a scene like this to set up all the players. As for the captain's announcement, I blame his need for honest and transparency. Obviously it does their investigation no favors.

Reviewer: Robert Bruce Scott Signed Liked [Report This]
Date: 23 Sep 2020 14:04 Title: Day Five: Presumed Innocent: I

Ah - it appears I fat-fingered the navigation and skipped a lot of chapters. Now things make a bit more sense. 

So these aren't entirely wild vulcans, but very recent refugees. So we can expect them to be largely vulcan with some regional variants. It will be interesting to see what the environment has done to them.

Small, stranded populations too small for successful reproduction can become quite twisted.

Thanks!! rbs



Author's Response: It's a common trope, I know. Although there is a bit of a twist with these stranded colonists.

Reviewer: Robert Bruce Scott Signed Liked [Report This]
Date: 23 Sep 2020 13:53 Title: Day Seven: The Devil in Disguise: II

Interesting character development on Deen and yet more sleep issues. It appears they all slept through the attack or otherwise failed to notice. 

Wild vulcans... of course they might not be the only inhabitants. I seem to have missed something though...

It seems they have met the community, but I don't recall seeing that in the preceeding chapters.

Thanks!! rbs



Author's Response: Yep, all will be made clear (I hope) in the previous chapters.

Reviewer: Robert Bruce Scott Signed Liked [Report This]
Date: 23 Sep 2020 13:47 Title: Day Seven: The Devil in Disguise: I

Missing sleep and a surprise spark. Not necessarily unrelated although there is clearly an attraction on Nora's part. 

Another beat in the sleep issue. And always good to have a workout ep. Staying in shape is critical for people who live in space.

Reminds me of stories of William Shatner throwing curtain weights around for exercise during taping of the original series. 

Thanks!! rbs



Author's Response: Didn't know about the curtain weights but wouldn't surprise me. Nora is fairly obsessed with staying in peak physical condition as one would expect for a security chief. Poor Clancy probably not so much.

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