Duck and cover! [SPOILERS for "Star Trek: Destiny" novel trilogy]

Omigosh, I accidentally found this (above) today on Memory Beta, the online Star Trek wiki concordance of licensed materials.

In 2381, Charivretha zh'Thane was amongst the 63 billion Federates killed by the Borg Collective during its attempted extermination of the Federation and allied worlds, gathered in Therin Park in Laibok along with hundreds of other Andorians awaiting their doom (ST - Destiny novel: "Lost Souls"). (Memory Beta.)

I finished Book 2 of David Mack's "Destiny" trilogy only yesterday, and am just about to commence the final book... Sob.

Where did they say????????????? Dammit D.M. Thanks so much for the nod, but......... Nooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!

Captain's Log: Supplemental.

Therin Park was coined in 2004 by author Heather Jarman, and named for my Star Trek alter ego, in the novel, "Andor: Paradigm", in "Worlds of Deep Space Nine, Book 1".

About a year ago, another ST author, Terri Osborne, briefly made reference on TrekBBS, as to how I might feel about what she'd done to Andor in the "Starfleet Corps of Engineers" eBook, "Remembrance of Things Past, Book 1" (2007). Now, I'm so far behind in my ST reading, so I haven't given the now-defunct eBook range much of a look-in, but this excerpt (of a much longer excerpt) turned up just now in a Google search:

Bart cringed. "I hope Sarjenka's got sickbay stocked with antacids. And speaking of stomach acid, where's Tev?"

Stevens gave a snort of derision. Much as Tev was making an effort to get along better with everyone, Stevens still wasn't a fan of having the big furry oaf in a social gathering, not one that he was throwing, at least. "He's not on board. Remember those bombings on Andor a couple of weeks ago?"

"Yeah, it was all over the Federation News Service. The Shran memorial, the Wall of Heroes, you name it. If it was a location worth hitting, sounded like they hit it. Last I heard, the real surprise had been why they hit Therin Park, but, man did they raze everything they hit to the ground. Still haven't caught the terrorists who claim to have done it." Faulwell paused, his eyes widening. "Wait a second, Tev wasn't there, was he?"

"We aren't that lucky," Fabian said with a shake of his head. "Turns out a friend of his from the Academy was in Therin Park, though. He was too close to one of the bombs when it went off. The Elgin escorted him to the funeral on Andor after they dropped you off."

"Wow, I've got to admit, that's a surprise."

"What," Stevens said, "that Therin Park was one of the places that got bombed? Everyone's surprised by that, you just said so yourself."

Faulwell shook his head. "No, that Tev actually had a friend at the Academy. Learn something new every day." (Simon & Schuster website.)

Wow. I thought she was joking! I'm honoured, Terri. I think. So, had the park just been rebuilt in time for David Mack to um, "salute" it again in "Destiny"? Welcome to Ground Zero. Don't feed the thizzards.

"Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb..."

Remember that iconic scene from the feature film version of the 1960s "Batman" TV series? Yeah, the same film that had the unforgettable exploding rubber shark, four arch villains teaming up as the United Underworld, and those poor ol' dehydrated world leaders?

At a crucial stage of the film, Batman ends up with a huge, cartoony, spherical bomb, its wick fizzing noisily - and everywhere our stoic superhero runs to attempt to dispose of it, he comes across a crowded pub, a young couple necking, a marching band, a group of nuns, a mother duck paddling with her young...

Well, I felt like that today (er, * looks at the time *, yesterday). I took a parcel into work, to be sent via the internal mail/courier to State Office. I thought I was being really clever by recycling the padded envelope, and by peeling off the label to reveal the original address underneath. As I suspected, the addressee I needed was already mentioned on the envelope, since she had already recycled the envelope to me in the first place!

I had no packing tape handy, but the school's clerical assistant organised for her offsider to tape it up for me, then it was ready for the mail bag. Or so we both assumed. A few minutes later, the parcel was back in my classroom, albeit beautifully taped up.

Now, the package didn't have boomerangs in it, just children's picture books I'd been reviewing, but I had a strange sense of deja vu. I raced the package back to the mail bag, worried it had been collected by the courier during the parcel's unanticipated return sojourn in my room. (Actually, I'd already missed the mail bag collection before I'd arrived at work.)

But, Murphy's Law and all that, needless to say that when I went into the staffroom at morning tea break, and attempted to check my pigeon hole for incoming mail, the parcel was there, too! Now the boss had delivered it to me. The pigeon hole was crammed full... of that damned parcel!

Sure, my name was on the back of the package, but as the sender. This parcel seemed determined to plague me. That'll learn me, as Foghorn Leghorn (or someone) used to say, for not finishing the final draft of my reviews before the official deadline. As Batman (Adam West) once said, "Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb..." I'm actually terrified to go to my pigeon hole before the weekend rolls around. I just know that parcel's not giving up yet.


The above Battalion Australia photograph (from 1990) features Brett Harrison as Batman, Ian McLean as Robin, Steve Simpson as The Riddler, Christopher Sequeira as The Joker (soon to be recast by Heath Ledger if the Hollywood rumour mill is running true) and Jonathan Sequeira as Two-Face. Photo by the very talented Andrew Rankin, wherever he is these days.