Valerie the Nightbird

Fan
Name:	Valerie the Nightbird
Alias(es):	Nightbird
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Fandoms:	Star Trek: DS9
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Valerie Nightbird was a Star Trek: DS9 fanwriter.

Comments by Nightbird

From the 2000 project, Writers and Writing:

I posted my first completed fanfic, a DS9 tale of kidnapping, torture and recovery called Dark Journey, a couple of years ago. But I guess my real first foray into fanfic was way back when TOS was in its first run. A couple of my friends and I made up tapes of our own stories. I still have them. Let's just say it's fortunate I don't have any way to play them anymore.

I had lots of great story ideas, but never got to the end until Dark Journey. It took on a life of its own, merging with certain events in my own life to become a meaningful story. I wrote lots of essays before that, but stories are a very different kind of writing.

I was scared stiff when I posted it. Not only was the material very, very dark, but I was certain I would be told it was awful and I should go away.

But instead I got lots of good feedback. People pointed out the mistakes in grammar and punctuation, taking note of it being a first story. I met some wonderful people I still have contact with.

I eventually rewrote it, not changing the plot but fixing the grammar, punctuation, redoing whole sections with conversations and action. I found I had trouble getting past all the mistakes when I read it myself, and I wanted it readable for others.

Practically all of my stories are dark, and some very violent. I tend towards alternate resolutions and histories. I have a few post-war tales that are more or less canon and several in which the Federation loses the war, (not yet posted, but soon).

The ones I'm most proud of have a definite point to them. In Limited Options, we take Bashir into a nightmare world where Sloan finds something odd about him at the end of Inquisition, and he isn't released. When he is, suspicion falls on him and he falls into the ungentle hands of internal security, where he stays the rest of the war.

The dedication, a consecration said over the victim before the rushing waters of the river tested them for heresy, makes the point. When survival is at stake, the Federation is willing to sacrifice the innocent to guarantee the guilty are caught, and when it's done you can't magically undo the damage.

The other story that I consider a statement of sorts is Dark at the End of the Tunnel, prefaced by the opening question at the hearing held by the Committee on un-American Activities. Once you cross the line, telling yourself it's for the general good and the safety of all, it gets too easy to do it over and over. Just because the emergency is done doesn't mean you go back to what you were.

Both are about a very different sort of Federation which survives the war.

Then there are those stories where it doesn't. I have one long tome, as yet unposted, where the war ends early and with the capture and abandonment of many former Federation citizens who are forced into a very hard and different way of life. The completed parts of this will go on my website when it goes up, but I won't post it until there is enough to not leave people hanging.

The other is currently being edited for posting asap, and is based on the idea that the battle over Cardassia is not won, and the Federation and its allies are eventually all forced to surrender, with terrible consequences. This is based on the background in the Dominion War novels where the prisoners of war are being used as easily disposable slave labor.

My other series is a Section 31 novel, made up of (currently) three stories which will eventually end with the aftermath of the war, in the form of a very alternate history. This includes Seduction, Shadowdance, and Paying the Piper. Eventually I'll finish Redemption. There are so many others.

The most unusual story I've ever done is Exile (which Gabrielle Lawson's The Doctor is a sequel to). This story came in a dream and exactly two lines have been changed.

But generally, what I find is that my style is evolving and improving all the time. It's very hard not to go back and "fix" all the old ones.

I give credit to Gabrielle for a large measure of this and her early and uncompromising reviews and edits. If someone doesn't tell you what your problems as a writer are, you'll never find them. Thanks, Gabrielle.

I have a directory of half-finished stories that will someday see the light. I've fallen in love with writing and the way it's taught me to look at the world. I see the guy getting on the bus with the ruined shoes and wonder what made him that way. I notice the birds are louder today than they were before, and the trees make a nice rustle in the wind. I can site research as a good reason to build a library of memories and diaries.

Someday I'll go beyond DS9 and trek, but for now I'm still learning. I thank fanfic for redefining my image of the world and my own image of what I can do.

Fan Comments

Her view of Bashir and Section 31 is very dark, certainly darker than mine. If you really want to see the Section 31 concept taken to its limit, you should try Valerie's stuff. She makes a special effort to accurately show the psychological damage that such an organization could inflict on an idealist like Bashir. The scary part is, she's not exactly off-canon, yet. Don't expect any reset buttons here, though. This ain't your grandmother's Star Trek.

Works

• Dark at the End of the Tunnel
• Shadowdance (Star Trek: DS9 story)
• Limited Options
• Seduction (Star Trek: DS9 story)