Fic Thing and Notes: "Starchild, Part 17"

[mark_asphodel]

Atlantis touched down safety just before six AM (EDT) this morning.  The space shuttle era is officially over.

-x-

I think one reason I'm so hell-bent on working on "Starchild" is that the level of intrigue at work has dulled my appetite for "Sleep of the Just"/"Another Piece of Blue" political machinations.  Too close to home, man.  The behind-the-scenes action in "Starchild" doesn't feel personal to me and it ain't keeping me up at night.  I tried to work on "Ghosts," an Archanea 'fic dealing with the ramifications of the two arguable canonical suicides, and that just was too heavy for me right now.  Do not want.

I did work on a glossary for "Starchild," with the historical reference points sketched out, but I accidentally deleted a chunk of it and then saved the deletions by mistake.  Whoops.  Maybe next time I'm bored...  

Anyway, here's Chapter Seventeen.  We've cracked the 30K-word boundary, and we've finally on the verge of an answer as to what this entire charade is about.  Hint: it's not about collecting moon rocks.

-x-

This weather is awful.  The Blue Angels were practicing at the airfield by my workplace, and it was too damned hot to go out and enjoy them.

-x-

Had some plans for a post about crit and literary reviews-- not in a fandom sense, but of possible interest to fellow fan-writers.  Too sleepy right now.  Zzz.

Comments

[amielleon]

You said something resembling end of an era. Call the interviewers!

It's a fine coincidence that I caught up on Starchild at work just before you posted the new chapter. I'm still planning to leave a longer review for Starchild "someday", but I wanted to say that I was delighted to recognize Soren when the reference was made (even if putting him in the last-chapter old man's club made me giggle).

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

Ha ha ha. ;P

I wanted to say that I was delighted to recognize Soren when the reference was made

Heheh.

I really like the idea of Soren as the resident ICBM guru. For some reason.

[amielleon]

My headcanon says this has a great deal to do with why Ike was not sent on the Plot-Important Dangerous Mission.

[korsriddare.livejournal.com]

Blue angels? Piloting blue and yellow FA-18s?

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

Yep. Those guys-- flying so close we could see the pilots in the cockpit. :)

[korsriddare.livejournal.com]

Hnnnnnngh. You have all my envy!

[samuraiter.livejournal.com]

This is the age of the long knives. I am sad to say that the situation at my (dying) workplace is similar. ... But I am sadder that it now looks increasingly like humanity will never escape from this planet. We were born here, and, thanks to our own folly, this is where we shall remain.

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

We (humans) will get people up in the end. Maybe they won't have US flags on their shoulders, but we'll get there. And if it's the survival of the species at stake, it shouldn't matter if our pioneers are astronauts, cosmonauts, taikonauts... or whatever the Indians or Brazilians end up calling their star-men.

[samuraiter.livejournal.com]

I am a general optimist, but I tend to be more of a nihilist when it comes to the fate of most of the 7,000,000,000+ other people on Earth with me. The chief obstacle to space exploration is economic; the means are there, but only the superpowers have been able to pay for them. I do hope that changes before it gets to be too late in the game.

And, yes, there need to be brown people in space. :-)