I just posted the link, but if people want, I can post it in its entirety here as well.

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings.
Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of; wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hovering there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air;
Up, up the long delirious burning blue
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace,
Where never lark nor even eagle flew;
And while, with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high, untrespassed sanctity of space
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.*

*Fl. Officer John Gillespie McGee (1922-1941)

You had to include this ... I was being very successful not crying until I hit this. Damn, you write well and wring emotions out of characters that were sometimes two dimensional.  You're actually writing and making a living at it under another name? Right? Straker is scary in this. Foster just lived up to his potential to be a jackass .. LOL. And Alec was always Straker's conscience ... Back to the story.

d

Yeah, I myself got annoyed when it just kept going on for forever!  HOW many chapters is it?  Anyway, I got about halfway through and it's pretty grim.  I'm sincerely hoping there is light at the end of this tunnel, because it's a serious downer to continue reading about Straker being that short-sighted.  As well as just plain stupid -- which wasn't how I ever saw him.  (And no, Dragon.  Your vampire Straker was scarier.  Because he was brilliant AND menacing!)

Please, Deb.  Give me the heads-up.  Does it get better?  Or should I just stop now and go read something a little on the lighter side?  Because I don't do grim.  (Life is grim enough.  I read to escape all that.)

Maybe I'll go reread Harvest of the Planters . . . 
Yours,
Denise

Hey!  That sounds cool!  You don't know when you'll write that one?  Please don't wait too long!  I like to see my favorite Man on the right side of things. 

So, are you saying that he doesn't get wise in this story?  I was thinking that maybe it wouldn't seem so grim if we read it in parts.  Maybe you should consider putting it up in chapters.  That way we could comment on the story a bit at a time, and it won't seem so overwhelmngly dark.  Just a thought.

BTW, Harvest of the Planters was as wonderful as always.  Thanks! 
Yours,
Denise

Deb,

Read your notes on FF.n and I think you nailed it with Richard. I too saw him being portrayed as a hero. Your intuitive thoughts about the kind of man that Lois Lane would be attracted to, in my opinion were spot on.

Can't wait for you to get around to the sequel with Ed coming to the right side. This story was one hell of a ride! (He did make a good "bad guy". Of course Ed seems to be good at anything he does.)

Straker imo so easily goes over into the dark side, he himself might even think he inhabits the dark side. With the episode about him neglecting his ex wife and putting his son's life at risk to find the one alien who might have helped him remove the alien threat, he seems like a callous, cold blooded s.o.b. A closer look shows he isn't. I myself struggled with my feelings a bout what he'd done. I later realized in a sense Straker  not only wanted to protect his own child with that gamble, but all children (and others) from the alien threat. It always irks me when people talk about Straker as being this stern no nonsense callous guy with no feelings. In the episodes themselves, imo this is clearly shown not to  be true. Bishop himself referred to Straker as'the old fart' but he said Straker's heart was in the right place. You see many indications that Straker had heart, feelings, tenderness. If you look at The Long Sleep, you see Straker openly struggling with the demands of his job. He attempts to explain his actions to Catherine, perhaps either consciously or unconsciously trying to atone for what he was forced to do to his own son in the hope of success. He in this new situation still cannot prevent another tragic death. He is not the rational Commander at that point. Alarmingly, Foster had to make the decision for him.
Straker's complex personality, just as rich and mesmerizing as any character in classic literature, never fails to intrigue and inspire me. Plus he's damn cute!
Just my two cents, or true sense
Amelia

I saw him as a man with very deep feelings, and I agree Deb, he walks a tightrope between the darkness and the light. As I've said before, he walked through ordeals that would have crushed a lesser man.

Amelia, you raise some valid points as well.

I think there is a huge difference between callousness and a devotion to duty. Straker's humanity imo is what drove him.

Quote:


I remember that. So chilling. So sad. Straker without purpose. Part of the theme of Maelstrom is  change, opening Straker's mind to the possibility that he could accomplish what he needed to, without being distant and without being alone. So when Alec finally demonstrates physically his connection, friendship and loyalty to Straker, Straker is shocked and thrown off kilter and breaks down.
Of course, my pal Yuchtar described that major scene as slash!
Okay so it's my version of it, Yuchy!