This is an example of a project becoming far larger than intended. The concept arose as a result of my discussions with CT about Colin and his peeps getting home after the attack. I'd already made references to the Maimonides in writing the episodes, so I figured it would work well as their way home since it's not a combat starship and wouldn't be wanted for defensive fleets. And since I'd already taken a couple of the minor Facility characters to be the ship's CO, I decided I liked the idea of showcasing it in some way.
Then as we talked about it, the idea of having it involved in stopping the Aristos trying something came up, a way to give an action beat and show an Alliance crew without a powerful set of Darglan-tech weapons or ersatz Jedi showing their stuff. There were some variations over what would happen in the discussions but ultimately we settled on what the story actually did.
The title actually came late. I really liked the Hebrew prayer that CT wrote into the scene of the three being shuttled up to the Maimonides and, given the plans for the story, it made sense to title it from the phrase in the prayer.
Because the sacrifices involved, that was always going to be a big thing of this, and reflect the shifting of attitudes. It was one thing for Robert, Lucy, and Talara to risk themselves at Tau Atrea, and that was indeed highly appreciated. The Maimonides' crew lost some of their own. In fact, I deliberate evened the casualties out for the symbolism of it: thirty non-telepath crew members of the Maimonides died to save thirty of Colin's people. As CT has them say, it's not something they're used to. It's not that they don't fight and die alongside "mundanes", but usually it's the telepaths saving the day with their abilities and not the non-teeps saving the day, and there are non-teeps who would consider it the duty of teeps to die so they could live. I've even jokingly referred to Dragon Age's Chantry line about mages, joking to CT about the idea that "Telepathy was meant to serve man, not to rule over him".
To make those sacrifices more meaningful, I went back and added the Act 2 scene of Lt. Manchester briefing her security personnel, letting me introduce them all and give you a feel for these people, including the ones who would not live through the fight. Kretulo's particularly important because he reflects that one can be worried, perhaps too worried, about telepaths without being an utter bigot. When the chips were down he was there in the fight, bringing relief to suffering telepaths.
Of course, if you're not a fan of this interpretation, it probably did undermine your enjoyment of the story. That's always a risk with these things. I don't regret it, but I'm not going to tell you that you have to like it either. Hopefully you'll like other things we do in the setting.
Nasira, given her age (she's 24 at this point), is basically a case study in how the Gersallians think. Her command, and prior post on the Challenger as XO, comes from Maran's side of the institutions of the Alliance fleet. The Gersallians are like the Turians in that respect: merit matters for a lot. At the same time, this is a sign of how the Nazi War has altered the Alliance's institutions: Maran might've given her a bigger ship, but he had to settle for the science cruiser offer. Nasira taking it despite her colleagues warning her it might undermine her postings to the star cruiser fleet reflects a mix of ambition, confidence, and trust in Maran and the Alliance as a whole.
And I think she may be the first Coptic starship captain I've seen in SF fiction.
I had to do some research to get her references to her faith right.
Using Andrus from TNG "Night Terrors" was done to widen Colin and Max's experiences with other telepaths of the Multiverse (the same with the shuttle pilot Ensign Topakos). Then when researching the character to remember if he survived in a state I could use, I found out something fun: he'd been portayed by John Vickery. Vickery's had an interesting career (sometime ago he voiced Lucifer in the video game "Dante's Inferno" for instance), but for B5 fans he's eminently recognizable as Neroon, the Minbari Warrior Caste leader, and as the Nightwatch official Welles who later returned on the brief spinoff "Crusade" as an Earth media relations man. So naturally we played with that.
I do have other things I didn't say about some of the characters. The engineer Tagiya, for instance, I had in mind that he was a POW of the Nazis early in the war. His left limbs are prosthetics to replace limbs destroyed when his ship was lost. They experimented on him and his surviving crewmates, killing them off bit by bit in attempts to learn Dorei physiology and create bioweapons tailored to kill Dorei, and would've killed him in the end if Alliance forces hadn't liberated the facility he was held in. He still lost most of his crew and suffered severely, so he's picking himself back together while serving this supposedly easier position on a science cruiser that's not supposed to get shot at.
As a final note, Lt. Manchester is another one of my little homage characters. I like to play riddles with my fans, and they don't always get it. None did here either. If you're not sure who she's meant to homage, consider that her name is Wendy and she's a tall, action-capable redhead with freckles who comes form the Pacific Northwest, and acts laid back and friendly to the point she doesn't really fit being a security chief in some eyes. Now consider that "Manchester cloth" is a term for corduroy cloth. I think you'll get the reference now, if you're familiar with the source of the homage.
Anyway, that's it for now. I don't know when another Tale of the Undiscovered Frontier will come, or who it'll be about, but @Captain-General and I have had some ideas...
Then as we talked about it, the idea of having it involved in stopping the Aristos trying something came up, a way to give an action beat and show an Alliance crew without a powerful set of Darglan-tech weapons or ersatz Jedi showing their stuff. There were some variations over what would happen in the discussions but ultimately we settled on what the story actually did.
The title actually came late. I really liked the Hebrew prayer that CT wrote into the scene of the three being shuttled up to the Maimonides and, given the plans for the story, it made sense to title it from the phrase in the prayer.
Because the sacrifices involved, that was always going to be a big thing of this, and reflect the shifting of attitudes. It was one thing for Robert, Lucy, and Talara to risk themselves at Tau Atrea, and that was indeed highly appreciated. The Maimonides' crew lost some of their own. In fact, I deliberate evened the casualties out for the symbolism of it: thirty non-telepath crew members of the Maimonides died to save thirty of Colin's people. As CT has them say, it's not something they're used to. It's not that they don't fight and die alongside "mundanes", but usually it's the telepaths saving the day with their abilities and not the non-teeps saving the day, and there are non-teeps who would consider it the duty of teeps to die so they could live. I've even jokingly referred to Dragon Age's Chantry line about mages, joking to CT about the idea that "Telepathy was meant to serve man, not to rule over him".
To make those sacrifices more meaningful, I went back and added the Act 2 scene of Lt. Manchester briefing her security personnel, letting me introduce them all and give you a feel for these people, including the ones who would not live through the fight. Kretulo's particularly important because he reflects that one can be worried, perhaps too worried, about telepaths without being an utter bigot. When the chips were down he was there in the fight, bringing relief to suffering telepaths.
Of course, if you're not a fan of this interpretation, it probably did undermine your enjoyment of the story. That's always a risk with these things. I don't regret it, but I'm not going to tell you that you have to like it either. Hopefully you'll like other things we do in the setting.
Nasira, given her age (she's 24 at this point), is basically a case study in how the Gersallians think. Her command, and prior post on the Challenger as XO, comes from Maran's side of the institutions of the Alliance fleet. The Gersallians are like the Turians in that respect: merit matters for a lot. At the same time, this is a sign of how the Nazi War has altered the Alliance's institutions: Maran might've given her a bigger ship, but he had to settle for the science cruiser offer. Nasira taking it despite her colleagues warning her it might undermine her postings to the star cruiser fleet reflects a mix of ambition, confidence, and trust in Maran and the Alliance as a whole.
And I think she may be the first Coptic starship captain I've seen in SF fiction.
I had to do some research to get her references to her faith right.Using Andrus from TNG "Night Terrors" was done to widen Colin and Max's experiences with other telepaths of the Multiverse (the same with the shuttle pilot Ensign Topakos). Then when researching the character to remember if he survived in a state I could use, I found out something fun: he'd been portayed by John Vickery. Vickery's had an interesting career (sometime ago he voiced Lucifer in the video game "Dante's Inferno" for instance), but for B5 fans he's eminently recognizable as Neroon, the Minbari Warrior Caste leader, and as the Nightwatch official Welles who later returned on the brief spinoff "Crusade" as an Earth media relations man. So naturally we played with that.
I do have other things I didn't say about some of the characters. The engineer Tagiya, for instance, I had in mind that he was a POW of the Nazis early in the war. His left limbs are prosthetics to replace limbs destroyed when his ship was lost. They experimented on him and his surviving crewmates, killing them off bit by bit in attempts to learn Dorei physiology and create bioweapons tailored to kill Dorei, and would've killed him in the end if Alliance forces hadn't liberated the facility he was held in. He still lost most of his crew and suffered severely, so he's picking himself back together while serving this supposedly easier position on a science cruiser that's not supposed to get shot at.
As a final note, Lt. Manchester is another one of my little homage characters. I like to play riddles with my fans, and they don't always get it. None did here either. If you're not sure who she's meant to homage, consider that her name is Wendy and she's a tall, action-capable redhead with freckles who comes form the Pacific Northwest, and acts laid back and friendly to the point she doesn't really fit being a security chief in some eyes. Now consider that "Manchester cloth" is a term for corduroy cloth.
I think you'll get the reference now, if you're familiar with the source of the homage.Anyway, that's it for now. I don't know when another Tale of the Undiscovered Frontier will come, or who it'll be about, but @Captain-General and I have had some ideas...