The thing about about any fictional setting is the potential for stories aside from those followed in the prime material. Some settings even turn to this as fodder for other media (Star Wars being a big example). Make a multiple crossover, and this potential expands exponentially, to the point that the possibilities can feel limitless.
Such is the truth with the Undiscovered Frontier setting. For those unfamiliar with it (that is, if you've missed the other threads here), this is my ode to the space opera of my youth, the arc-based story-telling of Babylon-5 and character-driven elements of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, shows that remain my favorite SF shows ever. This Multiverse setting blends original material of myself and others with established fiction, including Star Trek, Mass Effect, Babylon-5, BattleTech, and Stargate, to name but a few. With technology like interuniversal drives, the range of possible stories that blend all of these settings together is truly limitless.
That brings me to the other point. Looking back, especially at Star Trek (and that is definitely a central inspiration to this series so far), usually the Hero Ship is not just the focus, it sometimes feels like the only ship in the fleet that manages to get out of its adventures. How many times did Star Trek plots revolve around other Starfleet ships that are lost to some unknown force, their crews wiped out or nearly so, and Our Heroes answer their distress calls or come upon what's left of them? It happened quite a few times, yeah.
But with this series, I had an idea that I wanted to downplay this. While friendly ships are destroyed in things like massive spacebattles, I wanted to give the feeling that the Aurora crew (and the related Koenig crew, not to mention the crews of the Huáscar and Heermann in the spinoff) were not the only competent, capable people in the fleet. They were the torchbearers of the Alliance, sure, but there were other ships in the fleet with potentially-interesting crews off having their own adventures in the wide Undiscovered Frontier of the Multiverse. That's why I tried to give character to them when we saw them. Madeleine Laurent and the Challenger, Arik Shaham and the Enterprise, Elizabeth King and the Excalibur, Li Ming-Chung and the Shenzhou, Phillip Wallace and the Thunder Child... I named quite a few over the current three seasons. These characters, and others we've seen across the sixty-plus episodes of UF and UF: Origins already posted... They are all the Heroes of Other Stories.
These are those stories.
I'm not saying I'm going to write these often. But when I do, this is where they will be found.
(And for reference, I will now post the other links to the various seasons)
Series Pilot - "A Time for Heroes"
Season 1 - "Seeking the Past"
Season 2 - "Whispers of Destiny"
Season 3 - "The Coming Storm"
Origins - Season 1
"Tales From the Undiscovered Frontier"
"Shining Like The Sky" - 49,807 words (co-written with Comrade Tortoise)
Following the attack on New Liberty (See: UF Main Series Episode 3-16 "Home Invasion"), Psi Cop Dr. Colin Meier and his compatriots Max Cohen and Rabbi Isaac Liebgott find a ride back to the Earth Alliance on an Allied Systems science ship, the Starship Maimonides.
Features:
New Liberty Characters
The ASV Maimonides
Psi Corps characters made by CT
"Wings of Liberty" - 36,121 words (co-writtenw ith Comrade Tortoise)
Nisa Tari of Toutaine, a metaphysically-gifted psion from the Enclave on Solaris, arrives at Teyan Station to seek out a prospective student in the children of the Psi Corps.
Features:
Psi Corps characters made by CT
Such is the truth with the Undiscovered Frontier setting. For those unfamiliar with it (that is, if you've missed the other threads here), this is my ode to the space opera of my youth, the arc-based story-telling of Babylon-5 and character-driven elements of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, shows that remain my favorite SF shows ever. This Multiverse setting blends original material of myself and others with established fiction, including Star Trek, Mass Effect, Babylon-5, BattleTech, and Stargate, to name but a few. With technology like interuniversal drives, the range of possible stories that blend all of these settings together is truly limitless.
That brings me to the other point. Looking back, especially at Star Trek (and that is definitely a central inspiration to this series so far), usually the Hero Ship is not just the focus, it sometimes feels like the only ship in the fleet that manages to get out of its adventures. How many times did Star Trek plots revolve around other Starfleet ships that are lost to some unknown force, their crews wiped out or nearly so, and Our Heroes answer their distress calls or come upon what's left of them? It happened quite a few times, yeah.
But with this series, I had an idea that I wanted to downplay this. While friendly ships are destroyed in things like massive spacebattles, I wanted to give the feeling that the Aurora crew (and the related Koenig crew, not to mention the crews of the Huáscar and Heermann in the spinoff) were not the only competent, capable people in the fleet. They were the torchbearers of the Alliance, sure, but there were other ships in the fleet with potentially-interesting crews off having their own adventures in the wide Undiscovered Frontier of the Multiverse. That's why I tried to give character to them when we saw them. Madeleine Laurent and the Challenger, Arik Shaham and the Enterprise, Elizabeth King and the Excalibur, Li Ming-Chung and the Shenzhou, Phillip Wallace and the Thunder Child... I named quite a few over the current three seasons. These characters, and others we've seen across the sixty-plus episodes of UF and UF: Origins already posted... They are all the Heroes of Other Stories.
These are those stories.
I'm not saying I'm going to write these often. But when I do, this is where they will be found.
(And for reference, I will now post the other links to the various seasons)
Series Pilot - "A Time for Heroes"
Season 1 - "Seeking the Past"
Season 2 - "Whispers of Destiny"
Season 3 - "The Coming Storm"
Origins - Season 1
"Tales From the Undiscovered Frontier"
"Shining Like The Sky" - 49,807 words (co-written with Comrade Tortoise)
Following the attack on New Liberty (See: UF Main Series Episode 3-16 "Home Invasion"), Psi Cop Dr. Colin Meier and his compatriots Max Cohen and Rabbi Isaac Liebgott find a ride back to the Earth Alliance on an Allied Systems science ship, the Starship Maimonides.
Features:
New Liberty Characters
The ASV Maimonides
Psi Corps characters made by CT
"Wings of Liberty" - 36,121 words (co-writtenw ith Comrade Tortoise)
Nisa Tari of Toutaine, a metaphysically-gifted psion from the Enclave on Solaris, arrives at Teyan Station to seek out a prospective student in the children of the Psi Corps.
Features:
Psi Corps characters made by CT
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