And this dude is calling Denobulans annoying.

I haven't quite made up my mind yet if I'm impressed or irritated with Boles. I think I might lean towards the latter.

Author's Response:

Sounds like you've got Boles spot on... He's going to test the limits of Plesc's optimism.

I agree. The outrage over that name is justified. Not at all professional. If our contemporary medical community can come up with SARS and COVID, Starfleet should be able to do better than the Scumuk Virus.

And Pepper left an impression? Yeah, I bet he did.

Author's Response:

Not an easy guy to foget..

My question precisely. I doubt those were mere ravings of a mad mind. Very ominous, indeed.

Author's Response:

Roll teaser credits for Episode 9: The Library...

I really like Irons and Shae's relationship. I'm sure there is an unwritten rule somewhere that every good starship captain must have at least one old buddy on board.

Author's Response:

And none better than the ship's doctor. Tali is kind of a female McCoy... With antennae.

A bit heavy on exposition here but I appreciate the insight into the Bolians, a race that was never really explored much in canon.

Author's Response:

I think I can improve this one - I'll add it to the list. I'm going back and adjusting a few things here and there to make for a better read and reviewing this one it redas a little clunky to me too. 

Hunter is basically trying to stop waves in an endless ocean. A near impossible task. Good thing they just got some help.

I like how it's not Starfleet this time around but what appears to be the Bolian Fleet. Always made sense to me that most Federation worlds would have their own, homegrown forces as well. Great detail.

Author's Response:

I found some writings by the original ship designers about what N.C.C. 1701 means. 1701 means the first ship of the 17th design. The original designers wrote that all Star Fleet ships were the property not of the Federation, but of United Earth Governments and were built under a contract with the United States Navy. On rare occasion, the original series and STNG would reference ships owned by Federation membrer governments, but those series relied on scale models that were really expensive so you rarely saw such ships - only a pickture of a tellerite on the viewscreen at a really tight angle so they wouldn't have to build much of a set.

Computer viruses transmitted via comms? Yeah, I can see that and how that makes thing more complicated. Boles solution is pretty ingenious though. Very old school, that is, if cavemen would have had access to directed energy weapons.

Author's Response:

Napoleon is the complete opposite of Irons, Carrera and Dolphin. He doesn't break the rules so much as make up his own rules. 

Worrisome that Ivanovic has supporter even among supposedly enlightened Vulcans. Although we have seen that Vulcans can act dubiously as well.

And what's up with Boles? He's pretty handy with a phaser rifle for a scientist, that's for sure.

Author's Response:

Vulcans aren't perfect. They just have really good PR. And Ivonovic's growing following cuts across all the Federation member species.. Except denobulans. For some reason he doesn't appeal to denobulans - or, oddly, klingons.

Uhh, cliffhanger. Nice. And Mlday continues to give the creeps. I love how casually she suggested that she claw at somebody's brain stem. In other circles this could earn you a week in the brig ... or the asylum.

Author's Response:

She's just a seriously fun character to write. She does get away with a lot that no one else could. 

I liked this chapter. I kept thinking, "I thought all the Bolians are dead." Didn't occur to me that the Bulldog wasn't really there, just figured he had survived somehow. Nice although sad reveal.

Author's Response:

That scene is a re-write. I initially provided all of that background through expository prose and it just dragged. Then I hit on the idea of having Captain Kelley narrate the background to his late first officer. 

Things are off to a torrid start here. The story is barely underway and we're already dealing with a possible genocide.

Scumuk seems like a victim here considering his not so hidden lie, but who or what is controlling him.

Oddly, I also suddenly felt somewhat troubled by the idea of a judge being in control of a starship. Irons is one of the good guys, of course, but what if she were not. Absolute power and all that. Reminds me a bit of Judge Dredd.

Author's Response:

I'm quite gratified you picked up on how much power Irons has - judge, captain and matriarch. And that it might be a problem...