To: 
From: "Steve Oostrom" 
Reply-To: trekcreative{at}yahoogroups.com

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>>I wrote the story, "Madwoman," in May 1977.=20
>>Although the quality of the writing is not all that great and some of the
terminology and some of the concepts have changed, "Madwoman" is
still in t= he
continuity.

>Care to summarize it for us?

"Madwoman" concerns Cpt.Margo Johnson of the starship Europa
(heavy cruiser=
 class like Kirk's
Enterprise, in fact, exactly the same ship; I had long believed I got the
n= ame from the Franz Joseph
book, but apparently not, as it is not listed).  She returned with a
landin= g party from the recent ruins
of a civilization.  Unbeknownst to her, a virus present on that planet had
= infected her, but the
effects did not show up until later, once the ship was underway again.  She=
 started to act in an
eccentric manner, and the crew started to question orders.  The doctor,
Rei= nhart Yott, examined her,
but the initial tests did not reveal the virus (equipment back then I guess=
 was not sophisticated enough).
Nevertheless, he took blood samples and wanted to run further tests, to see=
 if he could culture
the virus.  Suddenly, Cpt. Johnson ordered everybody off of the ship.  When=
 the first officer, Wayne
Chin, balked at the order, she set the self-destruct on the ship and
barric= aded herself in main
engineering.  Chin took command and had the saucer section separate with
th= e rest of the crew on
board, leaving only Johnson in the engineering hull.  Once the rest of the
= crew was off of the ship,
Johnson deactivated the self-destruct system and took the remainder of the
= ship to warp.  She
headed back to the planet where she picked up the virus.  Meanwhile, the
sa= ucer section sent out
a distress signal, while Yott did further work on the virus.  He determined=
 that it was difficult
to detect and culture because it was an amalgamation of several different
a= lien species, but once
he had determined that, he also was able to determine an antidote.  Yott
co= ntacted Johnson to
give her instructions to prepare the antidote, but he did not believe him. =
 Afterall, in her mind, she was
rational and acting of her own free will.  She just could not explain why. =
 Meanwhile, the Enterprise
under Kirk responded to the distress signal, but Chin informed them to
foll= ow the rest of the Europa
to the planet and attempt to stop Johnson.  In the end, Johnson begins to
b= reak down, and starts to
see herself as two people.  Part of her wants to keep going, and another
pa= rt starts to doubt what
she is doing.  In the end, the Enterprise catches up with the ship, and
thr= ough some careful work by
Scott at the transporter, they beamed off Johnson.  McCoy administered Yott=
's antidote.  The Europa
stardrive section (although I didn't use that term) slammed into the
atmosp= here and exploded, doing
significant damage.  As Johnson recovered in the Enterprise sickbay,
attend= ed by both Yott and McCoy,
she revealed she had a sense that the virus was somehow relaying control
fr= om an alien entity which
had infested the population of the planet and caused them to destroy
themse= lves, and that she had
wanted the crew off to prevent them from being infested.  The last line of
= the story was to Chin, her
first officer.  "Sometimes, Wayne, a captain's orders are not as
eccentric = as you believe them to be."

In the Steve-Trek universe, this incident is still in the continuity.  In
C= aptain Thorpe's history, this
event happened, although perhaps not exactly as told.  Elements of this
sto= ry appeared in an unposted
"Athena" story.

From this, it is clear that certain episodes of the original series
influen= ced this story.  The story also
introduced some of my ideas about how the warp drive works (although those
= ideas have undergone
significant revision), but the Odonans were not yet introduced.  The first
= volume of Steve-Trek stories,
eight in all, are more like an anthology, featuring different crews.  I
gue= ss I was picking the crew I
liked the most, although after "Madwoman," the Europa was
obviously no long= er an active ship.  The=20
story is about twenty-five handwritten pages, and despite what Garry has
sa= id about "said" being an
invisible word, the frequent "he said, she said, the captain said,
Johnson = said, Yott said," became
very noticeable.  Someday, if I find the time, I might enter the story
(sli= ghty rewritten to improve the
quality of the writing), but time is hard to find nowadays.

Steve
The Universe Unbounded.

Visit "Star Trek: Athena" at http://ussathena.iwarp.com The
Athena was not the first ship I took out into deep space.


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>>I wrote the story, "Madwoman," in May
1977. >>Although
the quality of the writing is not all that great and some of
theterminology and some of the concepts have changed,
"Madwoman" is still in
thecontinuity.>Care to summarize it
for us?
"Madwoman" concerns
Cpt.Margo Johnson of the
starship Europa (heavy cruiser class like Kirk's
Enterprise, in fact, exactly the
same ship; I had
long believed I got the name from the Franz Joseph
book, but apparently not, as it is not
listed).  She returned with a landing party from the recent
ruins
of a civilization. 
Unbeknownst to her, a
virus present on that planet had infected her, but
the
effects did not show up until
later, once the ship
was underway again.  She started to act in an
eccentric manner, and the crew
started to question
orders.  The doctor, Reinhart Yott, examined
her,
but the initial
tests did not reveal the virus (equipment back then I guess was not
sophisticated enough).
Nevertheless, he took blood
samples and wanted to
run further tests, to see if he could culture
the virus.  Suddenly,
Cpt. Johnson ordered
everybody off of the ship.  When the first officer,
Wayne
Chin, balked at the order, she set the
self-destruct on the ship and barricaded herself in main
engineering.  Chin took
command and had the
saucer section separate with the rest of the crew on
board, leaving only Johnson in the
engineering
hull.  Once the rest of the crew was off of the
ship,
Johnson deactivated the
self-destruct system and
took the remainder of the ship to warp.  She
headed back to the planet where
she picked up the
virus.  Meanwhile, the saucer section sent out
a distress signal,
while Yott did further
work
on the virus.  He determined that it was difficult
to detect and culture because it was an
amalgamation of several different alien species, but once
he had determined that, he also was able to
determine an antidote.  Yott contacted Johnson to
give her instructions to prepare
the antidote, but
he did not believe him.  Afterall, in her mind, she
was
rational and acting of her own
free will. 
She
just could not explain why.  Meanwhile, the
Enterprise
under Kirk responded to the
distress signal, but
Chin informed them to follow the rest of the Europa
to the planet and attempt to stop
Johnson. 
In
the end, Johnson begins to break down, and starts to
see herself as two
people.  Part of her wants
to keep going, and another part starts to doubt what
she is doing.  In the
end, the Enterprise
catches up with the ship, and through some careful work by
Scott at the transporter, they beamed off
Johnson.  McCoy administered Yott's antidote.  The
Europa
stardrive section (although I
didn't use that
term)
slammed into the atmosphere and exploded, doing
significant damage.  As
Johnson recovered in
the Enterprise sickbay, attended by both Yott and McCoy,
she revealed she had a sense that
the virus was
somehow relaying control from an alien entity which
had infested the population of the
planet and
caused them to destroy themselves, and that she had
wanted the crew off to prevent
them from being
infested.  The last line of the story was to Chin,
her
first officer. 
"Sometimes, Wayne, a
captain's
orders are not as eccentric as you believe them to be."
 
In the Steve-Trek universe, this
incident is still
in the continuity.  In Captain Thorpe's history,
this
event happened, although perhaps
not exactly as
told.  Elements of this story appeared in an
unposted
"Athena"
story.
 
From this, it is clear that
certain episodes of
the
original series influenced this story.  The story
also
introduced some of my ideas about
how the warp
drive works (although those ideas have undergone
significant revision), but the
Odonans were not
yet
introduced.  The first volume of Steve-Trek
stories,
eight in all, are more like an anthology,
featuring
different crews.  I guess I was picking the crew I
liked the most, although after
"Madwoman," the
Europa was obviously no longer an active ship.  The

story is about twenty-five
handwritten pages, and
despite what Garry has said about "said" being an
invisible word, the frequent
"he said, she said,
the captain said, Johnson said, Yott said," became
very noticeable. 
Someday, if I find the
time,
I might enter the story (slighty rewritten to improve the
quality of the writing), but time
is hard to find
nowadays.
 
Steve
The Universe
Unbounded.
 
Visit "Star Trek: Athena" at http://ussathena.iwarp.com;">http://ussathena.iwarp.comhttp://ussathena.iwarp.com">http://ussathena.iwarp.com;
The Athena was not the first ship
I took out into
deep space.
 



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