[Report This]Date: 29 Nov 2011 20:54 Title: Heavy is the Burden of Command
Interesting story, personally there seems to be a mismatch between Starfleet orders, and the situation on the ground. Morrison knew it was a hopeless cause, he was outgunned, and it was probably the right thing to do. Why add 20 more deaths to 1500? Good topics, intriguing, thought-provoking...
I like Morrison's thoughts/monologue at the end. I wasn't sure whether he was suffering from massive underconfidence or just being pissed off by the 'bureaucrats'.
Good job, but some of the minor errors were a little annoying! But you and I are in the same boat with that one, I can miss things when I check over my stories. So it wasn't that bad.
Author's Response: Thanks for pointing out those errors that I often don't notice until looking through them again, but anyway, glad you still enjoyed. It's a phobia that he's developed of ordering officers to their deaths, more so than under-confidence, especially with the perils he sees Major Davis's successor in-- more of a conflict of interest when he and Lisa become "friends with benefits".
Date: 30 Mar 2011 00:16 Title: Heavy is the Burden of Command
exemplary work indeed, top story.
Author's Response: Thanks for all the positive reviews, everyone and to the one anonymous voter. The events of this story again alluded to in "True Lies" as part of some even greater inner demons.
Date: 28 Mar 2011 20:28 Title: Heavy is the Burden of Command
How could I top what Sam said? Ditto.
KayCee
Date: 24 Mar 2011 22:37 Title: Heavy is the Burden of Command
I like this look at Morrison. It shows just how damaging war can be. For Morrison to survive but be affected is bad enough, but the other end of the scale is that he should apparently be happy to endure losses to get the mission completed. I guess it shows the twisted nature of war.
[Report This]Date: 24 Mar 2011 16:55 Title: Heavy is the Burden of Command
This is a great story, full of action and deep emotion. Some great points about the rules of war we sometimes give ourselves such as casualty limits... a great piece...
Date: 23 Mar 2011 19:55 Title: Heavy is the Burden of Command
A very hard look into the mind of a military man, and at what point he has to decide what's more important - the objective that's been passed down to him from Command, or the lives of his own people.
An extremely tough choice, and I've often wondered how soldiers deal with it on a day-to-day basis. This piece really struck a chord with me - and after all, the best works are those that give us pause, and make us think about the bigger issues and the tough choices. Nice job!
Author's Response: "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." It seems like a good motto in practice when 1500 trapped miners are at stake. But then Morrison couldn't stomach seeing his people "dropping like flies" as he put it. As I understand it, twenty percent is the maximum acceptable casualties in the military. Though, I would imagine the Dominion War was far more costly.
Date: 23 Mar 2011 17:08 Title: Heavy is the Burden of Command
I like how you build the story one statement at a time, leaving much of it to the reader’s imagination to complete. The narrative and dialogue are told from the perspective of an experienced soldier who puts his life on the line every time he laces his boots, only to have his efforts and perhaps eventually his entire life scuttled by political maneuvering.
There’s no romance, nor any other ‘B’ story here – just a soldier, his honor and his investment in his mission.
Author's Response: Thanks. It took me awhile to get this laid out on the computer screen even though it's a character arc that has been addressed before. Since this particular series is a spin-off of Deep Space 9, it leaves a lot of ambiguity. Morrison wasn't absolutely right to abandon the mission and the politicians weren't absolutely to want a scapegoat. Yes, we did see outside observers seemingly determined to prove our heroes completely screwed up rehashing stories of previous episodes. But we never really saw in the Trek universe, even during the Dominion War, politicians were looking to penalize someone for a failure even when no one person or group of people was to blame.