C James

Wow indeed! This chapter is a MUST READ!!! I loved it! One thing though: It's not on linked on the page! The chapters there end at 17. It can be viewed, though, by pulling up any of the other chapters and then changing the chapter number at the end of the URL to 18.

And that was Vic's 1000th post! Congratulations, Vic! The joke was hilarious, too! Thanks!

Naper Vic just made his 999th post, so he should hit 1000 any minute now!! Congratulations, Vic!!!

I didn't quite do that (and I very rarely drink, these days). Congratulations on the staying sober, James! That's a darn hard road to follow (I've helped friends get sober, so I've seen firsthand what a daily battle it is).

Absolutely superb!! One of the very best space battle scenes I've ever seen! (and I read a lot of sci-fi!). I loved the clear "image" of the tactical situation. Conveying that clearly is incredibly difficult, but it was clear throughout. One thing especially caught my eye: the inclusion of Azimuth in addition to bearing when giving Nav orders. Spacecraft operate in a 3-d environment so you have to have azimuth, but I can't recall ever seeing it used in a sci-fi battle sequence like this before. (and it's absence is glaring to me). So, I really loved seeing it! The tactics were believable and consistent, and also totally unexpected! A few small details caught my eye, too. The use of "Trousers" as opposed to the more normal (for Americans) "Pants" worked to help aid the feel of a different culture as well as a different time. I also loved the response of the Frigate captain: "By the little Buddha!" Well, my predictions were 100%... 100% wrong! There are a lot of questions remaining, and a lot left to cover, but I'll leave that for later in the discussion. There was only one bad thing about this chapter: that nasty little scroll bar on my browser that showed me that I was nearing the end of the chapter. I didn't want this chapter to end!

From what I hear, the first thing is to avoid some of the damage when drinking by drinking decent quality alcohol: It's supposedly less likely to cause hangovers than the cheep stuff (and this applies to bear, wine, and liquor). Secondly: drink water, both while drinking and after you wake up. OJ is good too as it addresses the electrolyte issues somewhat. I have zero personal experience regarding the effectiveness of remedies, as I've never actually had a hangover, ever. I do drink too much on occasion, and during college the "occasion" was several times a week. I developed a rather high tolerance during college, and I could (back then) get through a fifth a whiskey in a night if I was in the mood, so I wasn't exactly a light drinker. The worst effect I'd get would be feeling thirsty and little tired the next morning. Drinking water took care of the thirst, and a cup of coffee took care of any tiredness. So, why don't I get hangovers? Wish I knew, but I have no idea. So far, the most popular theory among my friends is this: "A hangover is mainly in the brain, so someone who doesn't have a brain wouldn't get a hangover." (Nice, aren't they? )

So, why would they only attack with four fighters? I'll bet there is a reason! My hunch is that either they expect Garret's ships to all be defenseless, or this is some kind of a drill or wargame. OR, maybe the other fighters are as yet unseen? What a wicked cliffhanger!!! I am so glad that you aren't making us wait a whole week for the answer! I'll let another poster (whose name I can't seem to recall ) on another forum enunciate my feelings.

Well, That's stereotypical Arizona, but most people don't know that over half of the state isn't like that. Much of Arizona is high-altitude, which drastically affects the climate. For example, I live at just over 7000 ft, on a mountainside covered by a Ponderosa Pine forest. In winter, I get snowed in a lot, often with drifts in excess of 10ft. It's presently 4pm, and 68 degrees outside. As for Phoenix, I couldn't agree more! I lived there for a few years, and 110 is not even a hot day! Also, that bit about "It's a dry heat"? That's a lie! Once you get past July 1st, it gets humid. So, yes, you can get it 120 degrees and very humid. (I had to go to Phoenix a couple of weeks ago, and it did exactly that in some parts of the city, even though the official temp was only 118.) I will say this, though: the scenery in Phoenix can be spectacular. (plenty of hot looking guys who decide to take off their shirts. ). But, other than that, I couldn't wait to get out of that oven! I love the desert in winter, though. I'm into 4-wheeling, and there are some truly spectacular trails.

What a great insight! That never occurred to me, but it makes sense. The sounds that started Connor listening were unusually loud, as I recall. So, perhaps it is a setup! One with good motives: to let Connor know that he is loved. As for Connor, he's no angel! He swiped a stethoscope for this purpose, and it isn't clear when he did so (is this a regular need of his?). I like it when characters have foibles like this, and my first thought was "what an imp!" Good point. But, Connor is nearly 18, right? A week alone seems to be no big deal to me. When I was growing up my parents let me travel to and from Europe by myself (I have family there) starting at age 10. This included changing planes, going through customs, making my way across the UK and elsewhere by train, etc, by myself. They also left me home by myself for a week when I was far younger than Connor, and I turned out... Uh, OK, maybe that's not a good argument for me to be making... Maggie intrigues me, though. She was very involved and concerned about Connor's situation in the early chapters, but has seemed to become more distant and less involved. However, we are seeing all this through Connor's perspective, so we may not be "seeing" many things.

Hi, Greg! Congratulations on your first post, and on joining GA! dkstories's stories were what bought me to GA, too. You raise some great points! I especially liked the part about the fighters. Great point! I think you might be on to something regarding the attack: What if it's a drill, or a "warning" to Garret? I can't wait for Friday (when, hopefully, we get to see Ch 7!)

Ahhh! I was wondering which show it was from. B5 is one of the very, very few TV series that I've watched. They looked like they tried, mostly, to avoid glaring scientific errors (which is almost unheard of in a TV series. I wish more would follow their example). Of course, the fact that space battles had sound was a bit jarring, but was needed for dramatic reasons, probably. My favorite character was Kosh. "Understanding is a three-edged sword." Hi, Carmen! It's absolutely addictive, isn't it?

If the information was deemed to be self-serving for the US, IMHO, based on prior interaction between the intelligence agencies in that era, the information would be treated with great skepticism (at best) by the majority of the governments. This very issue was discussed within a few compartments in the upper echelons of the US intel community when trying to decide whether to assure US allies that there would be no Soviet military response (including threats) to the US use of nuclear weapons in Vietnam. It was decided that the information would not be believed without being able to evaluate the source, so nothing was done. Vietnam was two separate countries for an equivalent period of time. Yemen never really had a civil war. As I recall, what was called the South was a British enclave, which became independent when the British withdrew. But history belies that, and both sides would have known, without Davey or Alexi, that both sides had at various times come close to nuclear use (the US closest of all, and the Soviets were aware of it). That's one of the reasons that the Soviets made such a big propaganda push to try to get the US to agree to "no first use" of nuclear weapons (and one reason why the US would not do so). I really need to re-read DO, but if they were going in and out of the Red sea, then yes, that's a good bet. Subs from the Soviet Mediterranean fleet, perhaps. As for the mouth of the red sea: Yes, it is shallower, but still over 500 ft deep in many areas. Nuclear Attack Subs don't often operate much deeper than that (they can't) and although max depth varies (the Soviet Alfas, for example, could go considerably deeper than US subs due to having Titanium hulls) anything over 1400 ft is fairly useless. Very deep water in and of itself is no aid to a sub. It's the bottom features within it's operational depth range, and also (more importantly) passive sonar conditions that are most important. The bottom topography, from what I remember, is very rugged in that area, and the many islands would make things harder, not easier, to track subs. As for US subs, US subs (like their Soviet counterparts) mainly use passive sonar (active broadcasts your own position, and generally is only used in close combat). The passive sonar conditions in that area are awful, duw to salinity variations, strong currents (flow noise) etc. To give an example, Soviet subs often were able to sneak through the Gibraltar straits undetected, in spite of the NATO base at Gibraltar, and the SOSUS (cable mounted sea floor underwater microphone array) across the straits, which are quite narrow (about ten miles). Thanks, I'll go have a look! Davey AND Sean, not Davey alone. If he was rational, he would not have been disclosing all that info and not expecting trouble as a result. I also cannot support his actions of putting a knife to an innocent woman's neck. I'd love to keep conversing with you (I'm enjoying this very much) but I'd prefer most any means instead of chat. I really don't use chat at all, as I strongly dislike it. I'm not sure why, but for me it just seems a very awkward and slow way to have a conversation. This might be because I'm a very poor typist and can't touch-type, or it might be because I find it uncomfortable having to concentrate on it, I don't really know. I've tried to learn foreign languages, and outside of a few words and phrases I never had any success. I've always admired the multilingual, but I'll never be able to be one. We seem to share a love of multi-perspective analysis. I love doing that, and seeing things from different points of view.

Hi, Jack! Thanks for reading, even if it took ya a few days.. I think I can forgive ya.. Seriously, thanks for reading and commenting. I had to go with somewhere I was familiar with, and I grew up in that area. I could have set it in Florida (the only Eastern-seaboard state that I have spent enough time in), but that would have made the sea-side cliff-climbing a bit problematic. I don't disagree at all about California being over-rated: I moved to Arizona because I no longer wanted to live there any longer. The "jumping in bed" part was kinda quick, I agree. I didn't plan it that way. I originally had them just making out a little, but I couldn't get the scene to work. I had a deep-seated fear of trying to write a sex scene, but the story just seemed to keep pushing that way, so I said "what the heck" and wrote it.

Hi, LeLe!! And Welcome!! Lele, that's a darn good point about Garret's clone crew being prone to obeying GC orders!!! I'll bet that's going to be a big factor! Good catch on the typo! ROFL! The line read "Gary started to say with a sinking feeling but the snort from Gary cut him off" You know what this means, don't you? Thanks to your good catch, we get to partake of a favorite hobby around here: Emoe-teasing! :ranger: But, DK... Emoe needs his eyes for editing... Couldn't you pick another body part to deprive him of instead? I'm sure you could think of something.

CONGRATULATIONS!!! Nick, I'm very happy for you on the new hosting at RCWP, but I'm not surprised: you write great stories! Thank you for the Award, too! That surprised me!! Time for me to get caught up on WTDBYM! I'm a few chapters behind.

That would fit perfectly for Gene Corps! I like that theory a lot better than my own, which was that these are the Pirates, and are in league with House Tremere. (one major hole in my theory: Tremere currently thinks that Garret is co-operating). That idea of a "setup" onboard never occurred to me, but it makes perfect sense! It could also explain how the Virus got on board. And as for Garret's Dilemma, I was trying to come up with a theory for that, but couldn't. I think you have got it right!! The "Grand Attack" makes perfect sense, as well as does revealing Garret;s background to him. I wonder if Garret's other ships are equally incapacitated? If so, he's in major trouble. We already know that Billy's ship is patrolling the boarder region (that they are now in) so my theory is that Billy's warship makes a very timely appearance during this attack.

You are right, he did! My bad memory strikes again! Philistine, you amaze me! Every single chapter, and you have not only gotten it first, but extremely fast. wow! Speaking of "Wow", this chapter was great IMHO. As it's new I'll either be vague or uses spoiler spaces below: The first part was very poignant, regarding Garret's dedication to Billy. We haven't gotten to "meet" Billy yet, but I hope he's deserving of such devotion. Highlight the blacked out areas below to see the text, but read the chapter first! And IMHO the most potentially significant line of the story is this: "Instead they had a blue circle that showed a hand in white grasping a double-helix DNA strand." That last bit sounds very, very interesting indeed!! Who and what are they? That bit about the DNA strand sounds especially significant.

WOW!! And it's mid-week, too!!! I didn't even see it in the announcements, and wouldn't have a clue that it was there if not for this thread! For once, I have absolutely nothing to say about the chapter. (because I haven't read it yet) So, why the heck am I flapping my gums when I could be reading DoH? Bye!

ROFL! You aren't far off with the "don't sleep" part! I often have insomnia, and the only way I can ever get to sleep (at any time) is to read, so I do spend a lot of time reading when i should be sleeping! I have odd tastes in reading material. I have no interest in sports (I like to play them, but that's it) or "pop culture", and so I don't read in those fields at all. I'm totally clueless in those areas as a result. But, that leaves me more time for reading in areas that I do enjoy. Generally, my areas of interest are History, Geology, Meteorology, Physics, Astrophysics, Electronics, Aerospace technology (Primarily modern military), Geopolitics, Geography, Travel, Sociology, Economics, Medicine, Architecture, Engineering, and military tactics. Yep, that's one weird list, and I want to make clear that I don't claim to be an expert in any of it. I'm basically a generalist, not a specialist. I'm better in some areas than others, but in none am I an expert. As for my posts, please don't get the idea that it's all me: I sometimes fact-check myself by using google. On the Internet, anyone can pose as an expert at anything, due to the ability to look things up within seconds. As for reading, I'm weird there too (noticing a trend here? ). When I was four, I became fascinated that my Father spent so much time reading newspapers. Naturally, I wanted to look, so he gave them to me to play with when he was finished. I knew my alphabet, and started asking questions about different words, and spent hours with the newspapers (I was never one for regular toys as a kid). Basically, I taught myself to read, and could read newspapers before I turned five. But, due to having no instruction, I hadn't learned the "correct" way: I had learned to read word groups rather than individual words (I later found out that this is a speed-reading technique). So, by happenstance, I'm a natural speed-reader, hence I read quite a lot of material. I also have ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) which makes it taxing for me to concentrate on any one thing. This makes me a sort of chronic multi-tasker: when I'm watching TV, I'm reading a book as well. Or such as right now, I'm reading the news online, writing a business contract, and switching back and forth to this post every couple of minutes. End result: I do a lot of reading. I generally have a good memory for concepts and overviews, but I have poor recall for detail. For example, I could describe the tactics and timeline for the battle of Waterloo, but I couldn't name more than a few of the people involved, and in fact I can't even remember the date (Which I just realized!). I'm very poor at remembering dates, so when I post a date, take it with a big grain of salt! (treat it very skeptically). I've been very fortunate in that I have traveled a great deal. That's helped my education, as my usual practice is to read a few books on wherever I'll be visiting. I also love to analyze and deduce, which gets me into trouble at times (I can seem like a chronic nit-picker, or worse.). I also have a great love of polite debate, which can make me seem overly argumentative. And, as you can see from my posts, I have a strong tendency to be long-winded, too! So, what about you? I enjoyed reading about your family background BTW.

Good points, Bob. I just wanted to expand on a couple of the issues you raised...

I have an older version of Mathematica, and love it!! I highly reccomend it. Schroedinger might not be so reviled by feline-lovers?

It's definitely a completely different story. Aside from the "Father and son in the closet to each other" situation, everything else is far different. There is another teen living there when the protagonist arrives, but it's not "Luke", as there are some differences. For one thing, she's a Lesbian. There is also no live-in partner for the father, and the protagonist is far different from Rory. I was originally going to set it in Arizona (not because of DD, but because I live here) but decided on New Mexico instead, as that gets rid of a glaring similarity to DD. (that's just my own preference and comfort level). I'll thank Dom at the end of the story for the inspiration, and mention which story it came from. Thanks, Wynter!

I spotted this thread a while back, and then forgot to have a look. I remembered today, and read your story. I love it! I hope you continue it.