As I ended the previous post, I entered college still with the idea running in my head of the Raptor and her crew.

College was a wonderful time for me, and I was focused on…ah, who am I kidding.  I can’t even finish that statement with a straight face.  I got involved at the Catholic Student Center on campus.  I was involved in ROTC.  I joined a fraternity.  I began playing my first MMOs (Final Fantasy XI and City of Heroes).  And, I continued to refine my ideas of my OWN Star Trek series.

It would have to be animated, I decided.  You can do anything with animation, to include incredible new aliens that would cost prohibitive to create, either with makeup or CGI.

I began refining the story of my crew, right down to where they sat on the bridge (side note:  Rafale‘s bridge layout, having the helm and tactical console integrated, was because of my thoughts at this stage.  On the Raptor, tactical sat at the front of the bridge right next to the helmsman, so that they could better coordinate their attacks and maneuvers.)

The captain was my character, Captain Steven Scott, a man who had willingly been partially assimilated in order to enhance his abilities.  His right hand was a Romulan woman named Sevlaan.  Tactical was a Caitian named Sayre.

As I continued forward and continued making plans, I realized a few things.

1)  I like too many “S” names.  I wonder why that is… (My name is Steve, btw)

2)  Raptor was a lone warship in a Starfleet of explorers.

3)  I was becoming more involved in my faith, and realized that, while a conflict-heavy setting would be inevitable for me, I wanted a more hope-filled story.

Designs changed again, and I fell in love with the sleek look and feel of the Prometheus class ship as well as the Dauntless NX-01-A from Voyager.  I hit the drawing board again, designing what would become the Gabriel: an escort-type ship that resembled a Prometheus with only the two lower nacelles.  She was slightly smaller, but packed much of the same punch.

My crew transferred over, with a few changes.  I came up with a villain – the Shay’d (damn S names) – who would be more feared than the Borg for the sheer reason that, while similar in methods (“assimilation” of sorts), they’d be worse because the Borg were emotionless, robotic.  What they did was programmed.

The Shay’d were capable of mercy.  And refused to show it.

I needed a new setting.  Most of the Milky Way had been explored.  The Delta Quadrant, while still virgin (Voyager didn’t do much damage) would involve species that were already canon.  I wanted something new.

Then, it hit me.  Why not leave?

My setting would be Andromeda, and a contested region of space that had been all but overrun by the Shay’d.  The last few races of an alliance (the Vinrali “Dragon”) were struggling to survive.  Starfleet would find a way there, hoping to explore, and be caught in the crossfire of a raging battle.  They would quickly try to remain neutral, contacting both sides for a cease-fire and temporary safe passage until they could figure out how to get back home.  One side would laugh and (their universal translators assimilating quicker) say no, firing on the Starfleet ships and destroying a few.  The other side would require a bit of “me Tarzan, you Jane” to come to an agreement, and Starfleet would join the Vinrali in repelling the Shay’d and, eventually, becoming allies with them to help protect the Vinrali and their allies and end the Shay’d threat.

Gabriel, I felt, was too masculine a name for a ship which would be, as all are, female.  Gabriel was kept as the class name (both in-universe and out) and the first ship – my ship – would be renamed USS Archangel, NX-96014.

Sound a little familiar?  This is the backstory, essentially, of how my characters Wirstowx and Jessica St. Peter arrived in the Milky Way.

A few character names changed here and there.  A few alien races changed here and there.  But ever since my freshman year (about ten years ago, now), my series has been Archangel.  I have almost an entire 7 “seasons” worth of material planned, between being on paper or just running around on repeat in my head.

This, friends, is what I consider my first “official” fan-series.  I realize Rafale – Star Trek Online might have been a little confusing at times, as far as back story that references Archangel, but I promise at one point I will have Archangel down on paper.  Though I don’t intend to animate it anymore, I do still want it to be illustrated; I’m leaning more towards a comic/graphic novel format now.

I’m out of college and about 6 years into my tour of duty as an Air Force Officer.  I’ve gotten married, and now have two kids.  I run marathons.  I’ve deployed 3 times, with a fourth only a month away now.

And yet, in all this busy time, I still find the time to play a new MMO that has consumed a lot of my time for the past 3 years.  Why?

Because it’s Star Trek.

And because, without this game and a certain novel series about werewolves and emo-teen girls and sparkly vampires, I would have never found Ad Astra.

And Rafale – Star Trek Online would have never existed, nor would the inspiration to continue to fight to get Archangel on paper.

I guess this post is kinda inspired by jespah’s blog post about how she got into Star Trek.  Although, I promise you, my story is not very in depth.  So, I’ll add to it and let my geek show.

I’m an eighties kid, though I don’t really claim it that much.  I was born in 85, so my first memories don’t really come forward until about 89’ish (and even then, it’s us landing in West Germany, and I have chicken McNuggets from the airport we left from in the States).  My parents tell me I fell asleep and my gum fell out of my mouth, getting all over my dad’s dress blues pants (he was enlisted Air Force at the time, and back then, you were required to be in your service dress when traveling.  Nowadays?  Forget about wearing that uniform ever in public in a new country.)

I was first introduced to Star Trek while we were stationed in Germany.  It was the show we watched as a family at night, usually after the typical Armed Forces Network news.  Saturday mornings had Sesame Street and Transformers and Gumbi, but night had the family watching Star Trek; The Next Generation.  My first episode that I truly remember watching?  Skin of Evil.

I was traumatized for life.

Still, I don’t remember much else of what was watched during that time were stationed in Germany.  I remember my dad commenting on why we were watching Star Trek:

“Because I used to watch this as a kid, and it was great, so I’m passing it on to you and [your sister].”

We left in 92ish, going to a small base in Del Rio, Texas.  Dad left for OTS, and I don’t remember us watching Star Trek, though I finally was exposed to the Original Series movies.

Wrath of Khan?  Also traumatizing to a kid.  *nervously bats at ears*

After dad commissioned, we left for Panama, where our family had probably the very best three years of our lives.  The jungle, the beaches, the camping and hiking and backpacking.  I got into Boy Scouts down there, and it definitely set the tone for what I enjoyed the most in scouts, and was an experience I never found again.

The Next Generation was still going strong in reruns on the main AFN channel there, though it was well into its 7th season.  I saw “All Good Things…” the day it released.  We went and saw Generations opening weekend (which, on base, was about two or three months after opening weekend in the states, lol).  We went and saw First Contact when it came out as well.  LOVED First Contact; still one of my favorites, along with Undiscovered Country.

At that point, I was a Trekkie.  And, though I didn’t know it, a budding Fandom Creator.  See, it was then that I began to really let my imagination fly.  I would play Power Rangers and Star Trek and a number of other games with my friends at the time.  We would run around the street shouting “pew pew” and “hi ya!” and “Morphin Time!”  Star Trek days we’d build a bridge in someone’s carport and pretend to fire phasers and take damage and “engage.”  My first curse word I shouted, rather unfortunately, during one of these play times when I was Riker:

“DAMMIT Geordi, I need shields!”

Yeah…that was fun.

I also created my first Trek, and of course (since I loved Power Rangers and G-Force and Saint Seiya) it was a crossover.  My ship was the “Raptor Claw,” a little yellow-colored LEGO creation with a saucer, two nacelles on vertical-stabilizers, and a giant, green “claw” that held ALL the weapons.  It was a Star Trek/Power Rangers conglomeration that I would draw over and over and over again in all kinds of space battles (some that even had the ‘Claw clashing with the Galactic Empire from Star Wars).  I had characters, I had the ship, I had victories and defeats and “fire everything!” and “Morphin Time!” where the ship would even morph into a more tactical-friendly layout.

Damn, I had fun.

We moved back stateside and the Raptor Claw was shelved.  I got busy with school.  Saw Insurrection in the theater and liked it.

We moved back to Texas next after a two year stint in Ohio, and when I got into High School my geek started showing again.  I played Magic.  I played Video Games.  I watched anime.  I watched Star Trek.  I began drawing trek again, this time creating a more Starfleet version of the ‘Claw.  This one was simply USS Raptor.  She was ENORMOUS; I had her dwarfing the Sovereign class.  Three nacelles made her a dreadnaught, and more firepower than a Borg Cube could shake a stick at.

But still, she wasn’t very classy, and looked hilarious in drawings.  But it was my ship.  And I drew her over.  And over.  And over.

And over.

More little dreams of what she was about.  More characters.  Fun situations and battles and losses and triumphs.  I actually started writing some of them down.

But it wasn’t until I was in college that I truly sat down and refined things.  And THAT is when I consider MY Trek formally started.