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Date: 28 Feb 2021 09:38 Title: Episode 21.7: The Enemy of My Enemy - The Wreck of the I.K.V. 'Iw Hov
One of the unanswered questions had been what happened on that Klingon ship. We've already seen a few glimpses which give me a good idea, but now, finally we get more or less the full picture.
A sad end, no doubt, and ironically delivered by one of the cutest aliens in the galaxy. Darn.
Author's Response:
STH references a number of pre-warp civilizations that didn't make it. In the case of the gamorlans - as Captian Pepper put it - the galaxy dodged a big one when these little guys snuffed themselves out.
Thanks!! rbs
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Date: 25 Feb 2021 21:37 Title: Episode 21.6: The Enemy of My Enemy - - Escape
So Hunter is free at last and from the sound of it needs to get a move on. Sela ain't gonna be pleased with this development.
Also worried about Irons, crawling around that ship like she did. She's getting to old for that s!@#
Author's Response:
I juat have to rub my hands together and cackle... Because I suspect you'll get a kick out of both of their reactions when you get to them.
Thanks!! rbs
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Date: 24 Feb 2021 20:58 Title: Episode 21.5: The Enemy of My Enemy - Read Later
Apologies for the delay but I wasn't sure of the appropriate time to read this chapter ... Okay, lame dad joke over.
Somber and sad segment here, especially tough on Dolphin who has endured so much loss, maybe more so than most others of the crew.
What's impressive to me is how they all have the mental wherewithal to address each other by their ranks, no matter that Mlady just ate Tauk and Dolphin is wrecked with grief. That's Starfleet indoctrination for you.
Author's Response:
The fun thing about science fiction is just how weird it can get... But there is kind of an analague. Tauk is sort of a posthumous organ donor...
Thanks!! rbs
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Date: 23 Feb 2021 21:44 Title: Episode 21.4: The Enemy of My Enemy - Buddy and the Borg
This feels like a bit of a mashup of a bit of Monty Python and Star Wars/Indiana Jones which is hilarious.
Boles didn't exactly comport himself like a command officer here, but hey, transporter to the rescue. It all worked out, For now.
Staggering numbers they're up against here.
Author's Response:
Really glad the humor came through.. Who knew that a desperate fight with a hoarde of borg drones would produce the moment of comic relief?
Thanks!! rbs
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Date: 22 Feb 2021 21:42 Title: Episode 21.3: The Enemy of My Enemy - Strapped Down
I liked Sun's response. Very poignant.
Also like the visual of a starship literally strapped down. Lo-tech but effective. Unless you keep a bunch of huge space sissors lying around nearby.
Author's Response:
Glad you got a kick out of this scene... Yeah - having the space-scissors laying around might have been a bit of an oversight...
Thanks!! rbs
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Date: 21 Feb 2021 09:49 Title: Episode 21.2: The Enemy of My Enemy - The Blue Romulan
The poorly disguised Romulan is a hoot considering how impeccable those surgically altered Starfleet officers tend to look like when they go undercover.
For some reason I hadn't made the connection that the Hunter crew was being kept prisoner on Sela's ship but thinking back on it now, it's pretty obvious. Are they going to end up saving them all? Now that would be pretty ironic.
Author's Response:
I accidentally responded to this comment in a previous response.. As for Hunter's crew saving Sela's ship - it would only be fair...
Thanks!! rbs
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Date: 21 Feb 2021 09:41 Title: Episode 21: The Enemy of My Enemy - - Introduction
Good point, Klingons. But you've clearly stolen part of that proverb from those idiom loving humans.
Author's Response:
That oft used human aphorism, like Shakespear, sounds better in the original Klingon...
Thanks!! rbs
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Date: 21 Feb 2021 09:39 Title: Episode 21.1: The Enemy of My Enemy - Battlegod
The Borg are back, not good. And Sela clearly has the tactical acumen to know how to fight them, also not good. Although if it's between the Borg and the Romulans, I guess the latter might be the lesser threat.
The reasoning behind the battle gods is interesting. I had been wondering about the logic of building such massive ships. Economically, they don't seem to make a great amount of sense.
Author's Response:
Glad you got a kick out of the blue romulan... Since Anana is Trantor Police instead of Star Fleet, she's a little more rough and ready to improvise.
I develoeped a backstory on Sela saving the empire out of the Hobus tragedy and holding it together... Some of that will come through later.
Glad you liked the reasoning on the battlegods - born to fight the borg and repurposed for a desparate conservation effort as gamma radiation is gradually steralizing the empire..
Thanks!! rbs
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Date: 18 Feb 2021 21:07 Title: Episode 20.14: Survival - - The Inevitable
I guess I'm not the only one who likes cliffhangers.
Very somber chapter overall. Things are getting rather dark in ST: Hunter.
Author's Response:
Tauk's sacrifice was one of the driving storylines that made me want to write STH. I wanted to explore a number of ethical issues - death with dignity is one of them.
Thanks!! rbs
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Date: 17 Feb 2021 21:54 Title: Episode 20.13: Survival - - Breaking Buddy
Okay, I get it now, I see what you're doing here. This whole thing of having Hunter's crew imprisoned on some sort of farm/ranch inside a huge starship was just so you could get Boles put on a rodeo. Nicely played.
Author's Response:
It was that obvious? Well... It does serve quite a few other story purposes, but as long as he's there we might as well have a little fun...
Thanks!! rbs
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Date: 15 Feb 2021 21:28 Title: Episode 20.12: Survival - - Pepperheart
I have been wondering about Pep and Mlady, it had been a while since we heard of the. Didn't expect this outcome. What's gut punch. At least Mlady is still alive. But will she ever recover?
Author's Response:
You might not remember all the way back to 7.9 - Mushroom Dreams... Dr. Carrera had dreamed of Pep with an ecstactic expression, his rib cage split open and his disembodied voice saying that his heart wasn't missing although it had been removed..
Thanks!! rbs
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Date: 14 Feb 2021 10:25 Title: Episode 20.11: Survival - - Passive Aggression
The sleeper agent awakes. This sounds like it's gonna be fun.
Irons and her crew are lucky Sela is not the impatient type. At least not yet. Romulans are known to be ruthless and there might come a time they decide to turn to less sophisticated means to get answers, namely by torturing and executing the crew until they have what they want.
Author's Response:
One of the few things I liked about Sela as presented in STNG is her ability to cut her losses - and use that as a teaching moment for her subordinates. She's a long-term thinker. Most romulans would see the Hunter and its crew as a prize. She sees them as a means to an end...
Glad you're enjoying this episode - Thanks!! rbs
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Date: 14 Feb 2021 10:16 Title: Episode 20.10: Survival - - Taking Stock
As I suspected, Irons is already thinking escape. What is interesting is her insistence of showing reverence to their prison and play along. Not sure if that's in the Starfleet SERE manual, but it will buy them time to make a plan.
The thing being a massive ship is a fun wrinkle to their dilemma.
Author's Response:
Irons is a lifelong learner. She's not about to pass up a teaching moment for her crew. And she's minding crew morale by keeping them focused - everyone has a job to do. She's in a really tight spot and she's enjoying it - and teaching her crew to do the same.
Glad you like the giant ship angle. Lots more of that to come...
Thanks!! rbs
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Date: 14 Feb 2021 10:11 Title: Episode 20.9: Survival - - Roat Farm 1-A-179,792
I cannot decide if this form of inprisonment is unsusally cruel or unusually lenient. It is, however, rather creative. Psychologically, I can see how something like this could break prisoners more quickly than say a stay at Rura Penthe. Irons's surprisingly grateful response to Sela has to be a ruse, as regardless of idlilic their new prison may appear, it's still a prison and their first duty has to be a way to escape it.
Author's Response:
Irons is modeling grace under pressure for her crew - and simultaneously playing the diplomat with a foreign head of state. Both of which are a bit of a trick for a captured spy...
I am very much enjoying your analysis.
Thanks!! rbs
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Date: 11 Feb 2021 21:46 Title: Episode 20.8: Survival - - The Ghost
Like Jonah and the whale. Well, if Jonah were a Starfleet ship. Guess it's time for Plan B. Good thing they thought that far ahead.
Interesting tidbit about the origin of Federation ship registries. I hadn't heard that one before.
Author's Response:
I picked that tidbit up listening to the J.J. Abrams commentary on the 2009 reboot. He had one of his people research it.
You might not remember all the way back to Episode 1 - this is the same scene, but told from Dolphin's POV. The pilot episode (the first I wrote for the series) told this moment from Justice Irons' POV.
There's a comparitive size chart for Star Trek ships up to the size of a borg cube -
https://geekologie.com/2017/03/08/star-trek-spaceship-size-comparison.jpg
The Defiant is so small it's really difficult to identify. The Hunter is just a little smaller than the Defiant - taller but shorter and not so wide. The Bestia is between 1/3 and 1/2 the size of a borg cube.
Thanks!! rbs
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Date: 08 Feb 2021 21:12 Title: Episode 20.7: Survival - - Blue Morning, Blue Day
Interesting pivot, from existential threats straight to alien BO.
I think you stated this in a previous chapter, that Bajorans have the most sensitive sense of smell. Always thought that was Vulcans.
Regardless, it never occurred to me, and Trek rarely addressed this, but with so many different species and hybrids around in Hunter's case, you'd think that ship had one seriously unique odor.
Feeling a bit sorry for Boles here, being outright to,d that you stink ain't nice. I'm sure he takes regular sonic showers.
Author's Response:
As T'Lon observed, Kenny has become a hardass... Dr. Jazz is a much nicer guy.
I took my cue about bajoran olifactory talent from the nose ridges. Vulcans might have more sensitive noses, or it may be that they don't go nose blind as quickly as we do. Humans typically adjust to oders within 2-3 seconds. Strong oders - maybe 5.
Glad you got a kick out of the pivot. Thanks!! rbs
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Date: 08 Feb 2021 21:04 Title: Episode 20.6: Survival - - Doctor Prometheus
Time travel sure gets mighty confusing, that's certainly no secret, and your doing a great job to keep up the mystique here, particularly since I'm still scratching my head a bit on how all this is gong to fit into the bigger picture. Although I have no doubt that it will.
Author's Response:
Thanks for the kind words!
One of my favorite Douglas Adams tropes was his statement that the biggest problem with time travel is verb tense. He contended that no less than 37 new verb tenses had to be invented to handle the vagaries of time travel but that the future perfect tense was dropped when it was found that it isn't.
Thanks!! rbs
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Date: 06 Feb 2021 08:13 Title: Episode 20.5: Survival - - Rescue Planning
Oh, I'm sure this is not confusing at all, two Hunters who speak as one but also are seperate.
A lot of plans in the making here. As the old saying goes, everyone has a plan, until they don't.
Author's Response:
So if they're following a Tauk plan, would they be Tauking?
I probably should have introduced the concept of Hunter Tactical earlier in the story - the ability of the tactical unit to carry a backup/copy of the ship's AI was part of the initial design of the ship. But there really was never any context in which to introduce it. Aside from enabling the tactical unit to also travel in recursive warp, he really doesn't serve much other purpose.
Thanks!! rbs
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Date: 06 Feb 2021 08:00 Title: Episode 20.4: Survival - - A Woman's Intuition
Sela is back. Nice. And she seems suprisingly measured here considering her deep hatred. That'll make her a dangerous foe for Hunter and her intrepid crew.
Author's Response:
I took some liberties creating a far less cartoon villain Sela than what Denise Crosby had written for her - someone who plays the long game. Glad you're enjoying her!
Thanks!! rbs
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Date: 03 Feb 2021 22:02 Title: Episode 20.3: Survival - Grooming Napoleon
Ah yes, the true and tried tough love approach. Still having trouble seeing Boles in a command role, and isn't he a doctor, or at least a medical professional? Not that that should keep him from command. Besides, stranger things have happened on this ship.
Kudos to T'Lon for one hell of a zinger.
Author's Response:
T'Lon does deliver a lot of jokes for a vulcan - glad you got a kick out her naughty humor!
Tali said Boles was the last person she wanted in charge of anything, so Dolphin is definitely going out on a limb. Boles' doctorate is in biology from an ag university on the Colony of New Hope, where he spent years as an expert wrangler working for various ranchers before joining SF. Not an obvious choice for command.
Thanks!! rbs
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Date: 02 Feb 2021 22:00 Title: Episode 20.2: Survival - - The First Signal
Not sure if Boles is command material, certainly not quite yet. Either Dolphin sees something in the man or Boles has found a way to annoy the hell out of him. Knowing Boles, my money is on the latter.
Author's Response:
Most of the Hunter's crew would probably agree with you - including Napoleon...
Thanks!! rbs
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Date: 01 Feb 2021 21:12 Title: Episode 20.1: Survival - - How Did Hugh Know
I admit I'm slightly at a loss what's going on here but I'm used to this by now. I'm sure things are gonna clear up soon enough.
Certainly enjoying this version of Hugh.
Author's Response:
Dr. Carrera has been busy while he's been off screen...
Glad you're enjoying my treatment Hugh!
Thanks!! rbs