Ficlets

Kristine Smith:

One of the Big Ideas that I explore in Endgame forms a cornerstone of the entire Jani Kilian series. As often happens, the idea was triggered as I lurked on the sidelines of an online conversation about SF. Someone mentioned a well-known series whose protagonist was a human-alien hybrid, and remarked that this character didn’t seem to suffer any ill effects stemming from their condition. I read that and thought, well, what if there was a character that did? I was still in the process of figuring out Jani, and I don’t recall whether I decided before or after that online discussion to make her a hybrid. But that interchange did trigger the decision to throw a few wrenches in the Kilian works.

Assumptions piled atop assumptions. That there existed an alien species that was genetically close enough to humans to make hybridization possible, and that the medical knowledge and technology existed to pull it off. I’ll admit to handwaving where that’s concerned, but I also took to heart the old Clarke quotation that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. In any case, for good or ill, character has always come first with me. I needed to have Jani experience that sort of challenging physical transition, so I added what I hoped was enough medical grounding to make it seem reasonable within the boundaries of the story.

I settled on a few key points of difference, such as Jani’s gradually changing appearance and behavior. Then came physical issues that she would face, such as reactions to drugs made for humans, her sense of taste and her body’s reaction to food, to alcohol. I dug into medical textbooks, specifically works on gastroenterology, hepatology, and neurology. Would Jani become malnourished as her nutritional needs changed? Would she develop allergies to formerly innocuous substances? As her brain chemistry changed, would her behavior alter, and would she remain self-aware enough to realize what was happening? Would she eventually cross the line, and become something no longer human?

I didn’t explore all these issues as deeply as I wished. I always wondered how Jani perceived color as her eyes changed. The idomeni worlds were a little brighter than Earth and other Commonwealth worlds, and I pondered whether Jani would start to see light edging into the UV-range. Would she see more blue and purple. Would lighting appear different and would her night vision change? So many things I never got the chance to explore.

I set it up so that as Jani battled her own body, she also needed to combat the misperceptions of friends and foes concerning everything from her sanity to her political loyalties. I made her a hybrid of two peoples who had gone through a diplomatic meltdown in the past and didn’t trust one another in the present, then anchored her in the middle of the mess by making her an important diplomatic player. No matter what she did or where she went, she was always the Other, the Outsider. A medical mishap with indeterminate allegiances. A complicating factor. Ever-present tension, in both personal and professional relationships. It was that tension that served as the engine, that drove the story forward.

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Visit Kristine Smith at her LiveJournal, and read excepts from Endgame here.