Spontaneous Conversation thread

[JadziaKathryn]

Can someone please tell me where evcake's signature is from? It's familiar but I can't place it...

[Jedikatie]

^
It's from The Forge.

[JadziaKathryn]

Thanks. I'm sure I'll sleep better knowing.

[blacknblue]

Is anybody gonna publish anything anytime soon? I am vapor locked. I got chapter two underway with three scenes started at once, which I hate doing. But none of them are moving. They are all just sitting there, in still life as if photographed. I need some inspiration, some emotional fire to get me going. Somebody please publish something to get my creative mucus oozing again, willya?

[justTripn]

Elessar wrote a great opening paragraph for a story WHILE Chatting on line with me and Bether. Elessar, can you post it here?

Parts 2 and 3 of The Taming of the Raptor are coming.

There is another body swap story in the works.

I wish I had as much energy as some of you.

[CoffeeCat]

^^ I'm trying to - I even outlined and set a deadline. But then yesterday I got whacked in the head with unexpected writers block. It was like I forgot who the frig Riker was (not literally, I just could not write from his perspective save my life). I think I'm getting over it today so I'll be bangin' out a few scenes while I still have the ambition.

I think it would be fun if eveyone posted one paragraph from a story that they've been writing but are stuck on: Just so we could encourage each other.

[blacknblue]

^^ I'm trying to - I even outlined and set a deadline. But then yesterday I got whacked in the head with unexpected writers block. It was like I forgot who the frig Riker was (not literally, I just could not write from his perspective save my life). I think I'm getting over it today so I'll be bangin' out a few scenes while I still have the ambition.

I think it would be fun if eveyone posted one paragraph from a story that they've been writing but are stuck on: Just so we could encourage each other.

Okay. I'll show you mine if you show me yours.

(excerpt from chapter two of Purgatory (pending)

The sun woke him. A slow burn started to penetrate through Trip's closed eyelids, getting brighter and more painful minute by minute. He stirred and squinted, mumbling uncomfortably. Then he threw a forearm across his face and took a deep breath. The blast furnace temperature of the air seared its way across his tongue and tore the lining of Trip's windpipe on its way down. He coughed and sat up, shaking his head. The ledge he had picked the night before wasn't quite as well sheltered as he had thought.

The sun wasn't completely up yet, but already the light was blindingly bright, even through Trip's tightly closed eyes. The heat pounded against him like angry fists, jealously resentful of this alien interloper. Trip fought his way up against the powerful drag of Vulcan's remorseless gravity and hooked his precious water supply over one shoulder. The banner marking the artesian spring hung limp in the dawn stillness.

Both of the Vulcan priests squatted comfortably beneath an awning, munching what looked like fruit snack bars and sipping something juice colored. Trip briefly considered murder, but regretfully put the idea aside. He just wasn't familiar enough with the territory to hide the bodies effectively. He sighed and scanned the cliff, looking for a better hole to crawl into for the day.

There. You asked for one, I give you three. Now its your turn.

[Rigil Kent]

Excerpt from "Counting Down to Zero", a Rigil Kent scene addition for Countdown.

Z Minus Twelve

"I expect you to keep him in line." Captain Archer's tone was sardonic as he stood in the airlock, and a teasing glint was in his eye. T'Pol frowned slightly. Only a human could possibly find humor in their current situation. She gave Trip a glance, noting instantly that he was as unamused as she was by the captain's poor attempt at levity. Not for the first time, she found herself silently lamenting the loss of the Commander Tucker whom she had first met in Captain Archer's ready room so many years ago. He had been arrogant and brash and incredibly emotional, but that was infinitely superior to this ... ghost who play-acted at being Charles Tucker.

It was an entirely illogical notion.

"I'll do my best," she replied, ignoring the subtext of the captain's remark as best as she could. His statements, directed to her instead of Trip, seemed intended to communicate his understanding – and approval! – of the new dynamic between her and Tucker, a dynamic that she was still trying to figure out herself. Archer gave the chief engineer another nod before turning away, disappearing into the Xindi craft that would carry him to the weapon.

She tried not to think how ominous the airlock's hiss sounded as it sealed behind Archer.

"Mayweather to T'Pol." The ensign's voice crackled out of the comm panel a few moments later, and she turned to it, aware of Trip's eyes on her. She was always aware of his eyes.

"This is T'Pol," she said as she depressed the transmit button.

"Degra's ship has undocked."

"Then take us to warp five." There was no need to give the helmsman a heading.

"I'll be in Engineering," Trip muttered as he turned away, and T'Pol frowned at how slowly he moved, as if under the strain of an impossible weight. He had been working nonstop since the battle ended, conducting repairs and coordinating the damage control teams. Even before that, she knew for a fact that he had not had the opportunity to rest for any significant period of time.

"No." He gave her a sharp look, anger stamped on his face, but she continued before he could speak. "I need you fully rested, Commander. Your team has everything under control for the time being. Consider yourself relieved of duty for eight hours." For a moment, she thought he was going to argue.

To her surprise, he did not.

"All right," he said softly. His grin looked weak and altogether too forced. "I am kinda tired." As he walked away, he looked broken and exhausted.

It took every gram of her control to not follow him.

[CX]

Here's about the first page of "Reconciliation" part IV, albeit unbetaed.

Trip waited anxiously in his small cabin, waiting for T'Pol's arrival. It was their second day into their two week journey to Vulcan, and he was itching to have a chance to do more than simply bore her with his idle small talk in the transport's communal passenger area. At first the plan had simply been to not risk seeing each other like this, as her reputation definitely didn't need an illicit affair with a human in addition to all the other things her people seemed to have against her. The first day had been smooth sailing, but by the second day, well, temptation was just proving to be too much. After all, when they got to Vulcan it just wouldn't be proper. Add the travel time to that, and well… that was just way too long to wait.

His mind was buzzing with everything that was happening though. He'd made some real progress with T'Pol, got her to open up to him, got her talking to her mother again…

Deep down, Trip was a little sad that T'Pol had never brought him up, but he understood. Since T'Pol was only now getting back to speaking terms with her mother, so mentioning him might not be the best thing to keep that going. How would she even broach a topic like that?

"Oh, by the way, Mom, I'm involved with this human engineer on my ship," Trip sarcastically imagined T'Pol saying. Yeah, that would go over real well…

Plus, there was that somewhat prudish, Victorian attitude most Vulcans had about sex in general, not to mention a certain bigotry about humans in general. So he could live with having to pretend he and T'Pol were "just colleagues" and nothing more for the next few weeks. He was stoked just to be going to Vulcan. He'd done a lot of reading on it and had a mental list of all the places he wanted to see while he was there, which he hoped would be a shared experience with T'Pol so she could share more of her culture with him. Getting a chance to see where she grew up would be the icing on the cake. He just hoped that the heat and the gravity wouldn't get to him while he was there. Remembering the heightened sense of smell Vulcan women possessed, somehow he doubted he'd make a very good first impression with T'Pol's mom if he was all sweaty and smelly from the heat.

In the meantime, this was the deep breath before the plunge, their last chance before getting to Vulcan to be with each other. Well, may not their last chance, but these little meetings were sure to be few and far between. They had to be real careful about this, because while Vulcans claimed to value privacy so much, some of them had a way of sticking their noses where they didn't belong. That's why T'Pol was the one doing all the sneaking around. Even if their rooms were right next to each other, he just didn't trust himself, not with his luck.

The door slid open, and suddenly she was there. He heard the muted "beep" of T'Pol locking the door behind her before she approached him. Looking at her in the dimmed light, he couldn't help but notice the stark change in her appearance. He'd noticed her growing steadily thinner since they'd gotten back to Earth, losing what little body fat she'd had to begin with. She'd blamed it on her recovery from her recent addiction, but it still concerned him.

[blacknblue]

Excerpt from "Counting Down to Zero", a Rigil Kent scene addition for Countdown.

Oh man. Why didn't they put something like that in the dang SHOW!?

[blacknblue]

Here's about the first page of "Reconciliation" part IV, albeit unbetaed.

Trip waited anxiously in his small cabin, waiting for T'Pol's arrival. It was their second day into their two week journey to Vulcan, and he was itching to have a chance to do more than simply bore her with his idle small talk in the transport's communal passenger area. At first the plan had simply been to not risk seeing each other like this, as her reputation definitely didn't need an illicit affair with a human in addition to all the other things her people seemed to have against her. The first day had been smooth sailing, but by the second day, well, temptation was just proving to be too much. After all, when they got to Vulcan it just wouldn't be proper. Add the travel time to that, and well… that was just way too long to wait.

His mind was buzzing with everything that was happening though. He'd made some real progress with T'Pol, got her to open up to him, got her talking to her mother again…

Deep down, Trip was a little sad that T'Pol had never brought him up, but he understood. Since T'Pol was only now getting back to speaking terms with her mother, so mentioning him might not be the best thing to keep that going. How would she even broach a topic like that?

"Oh, by the way, Mom, I'm involved with this human engineer on my ship," Trip sarcastically imagined T'Pol saying. Yeah, that would go over real well…

Plus, there was that somewhat prudish, Victorian attitude most Vulcans had about sex in general, not to mention a certain bigotry about humans in general. So he could live with having to pretend he and T'Pol were "just colleagues" and nothing more for the next few weeks. He was stoked just to be going to Vulcan. He'd done a lot of reading on it and had a mental list of all the places he wanted to see while he was there, which he hoped would be a shared experience with T'Pol so she could share more of her culture with him. Getting a chance to see where she grew up would be the icing on the cake. He just hoped that the heat and the gravity wouldn't get to him while he was there. Remembering the heightened sense of smell Vulcan women possessed, somehow he doubted he'd make a very good first impression with T'Pol's mom if he was all sweaty and smelly from the heat.

In the meantime, this was the deep breath before the plunge, their last chance before getting to Vulcan to be with each other. Well, may not their last chance, but these little meetings were sure to be few and far between. They had to be real careful about this, because while Vulcans claimed to value privacy so much, some of them had a way of sticking their noses where they didn't belong. That's why T'Pol was the one doing all the sneaking around. Even if their rooms were right next to each other, he just didn't trust himself, not with his luck.

The door slid open, and suddenly she was there. He heard the muted "beep" of T'Pol locking the door behind her before she approached him. Looking at her in the dimmed light, he couldn't help but notice the stark change in her appearance. He'd noticed her growing steadily thinner since they'd gotten back to Earth, losing what little body fat she'd had to begin with. She'd blamed it on her recovery from her recent addiction, but it still concerned him.

I can't stand it. You cannot seriously be planning to let this jewel decay into that... that... thing that they put on the air can you? Surely not. Tell me you are going to make it work out properly this time?

[CX]

Like I've said from the start, I've always intended this to stick as close to canon as possible.

[CoffeeCat]

B&B - I really like what you have. Descriptive and it really feels like I'm living the story from Trip's perspective.

CX & Rigel - I've always been pretty dumbfounded how fan fiction writers have this amazing ability to write stories that are better then the crap that goes on air. You're both right in character and very thoughtful when it comes to showing us what went through the character's heads during those moments.

This is high praise coming from me. I've been around fan fiction long enough to have seen other authors who can't do what you're both doing with these stories.

Thank you for peaking my interest, you guys. I can't wait to see all of these stories finished.



Here's an excerpt from mine that doesn't reveal too much plot information.

"Thank you for meeting me on such short notice, Admiral."

"B'Elanna. I told you, you're not under my direct authority any more. Call me Kathryn."

The two women sat across from each other in the small casual dining area at Starfleet HQ dubbed The Vulcan Bar. B'Elanna blushed slightly at Janeway who seemed to pick up on B'Elanna's reluctance to call her by her first name. It still didn't seem right.

"How's Seven doing with her studies?"

Janeway sipped her coffee. "Annika. She wants to be called Annika now."

"Does she? When she graduates does she know her name will be Ensign Hensen?"

"Chakotay already warned her."

B'Elanna smiled slightly. She and Chakotay were often on the same page. But her expression didn't last very long as the two women drifted into an awkward silence.

Janeway cut in, "You didn't travel all the way from Jupiter to San Fransisco to make small talk, B'Elanna. Is everything alright? I heard Captain Riker offered you and Tom positions on the Titan."

"Yes. I wanted to thank you for your recommendation. We accepted last night."

"But that's not what this is about."

B'Elanna pulled out a data PADD from the shoulder bag she had with her, placing it on the table. "It's Tom. He's been digging into something that I think might put him at risk. He claims he's researching a new holonovel, but this..." she indicated the PADD, "looks like a little more than research."

Janeway picked up the data PADD and began to scan. After a second she looked at B'Elanna. "Where did he get this?"

"Out of a holodeck program called These Are The Voyages."

Janeway shifted in her seat a little, taking a swig of her coffee. The Janeway Swig. It wasn't like her usual casual sip as she had done while they were talking about Seven. The swig usually meant "this is not good" and was often followed by a rubbing of the forehead as she was doing now.

B'Elanna continued, cautiously. "He said he got the program from Lieutenant Barclay who got it from Captain Riker."

"Does Captain Riker know about this?"

"Tom mentioned that the Captain almost confiscated the entire holodeck program. But then he said that he was going through it with the Captain later today."

"B'Elanna, I'm going to bring this to a friend of mine who might be able to shed some light on the subject. In the mean time, I would suggest that you try to keep Tom busy with something other than this program. Get him packing for your new assignment. If it's what I think it is..." Janeway stood up, taking one final gulp of her coffee...

The Let's Move It Gulp. B'Elanna stood also, hoisting her bag onto her shoulder.

"...then you're better off pretending neither of you ever saw this," Janeway concluded.

[CX]

I'm not really with you on the Seven thing, but otherwise it's pretty interesting.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

Oh, and Seven's real name is Annika Hansen, btw!