“Zulu Time”, End notes
[ Endnotes posted 19 Jul 2024 ]
Where did the idea for the story come from?
Clear back in 2005/2006, someone on my LJ asked me if I would ever do a Buffyfic based on my military experience. That started the thought process; this story was the long-delayed result.
Is there any particular significance to the title?
Explained in the story. Also, at the time of the initial idea, I was trying to get a title for each letter of the alphabet, and this one was always going to be my ‘Z’. (Though “ Zero-Sum Game” actually got there first.)
What is the thing I like most about this story? the thing I like least, or about which I feel most doubtful?
Liked most: The contrast between the narrator’s conviction that Vi ‘just didn’t get it’, and the fact that she was actually operating in an arena where he was the clueless one. He understood everything about his environment except the fact that a supernatural element had crept in. Honestly, I was on his side for pretty much everything he said … but in the single vital area, he was almost fatally ignorant, and that part was of course the point of the story.
Liked least: The structure of the story made it necessary that everything take place inside the compound. I really wish there was some way the team could have taken Vi outside the wire, but their circumstances simply didn’t allow for that. Ultimately, the story was about differing worlviews, and that came across well enough, but I still regret that we never got any external action.
Is there anything I think I could have done better, or might do differently if I had it to do over?
In a way, the difference came at the beginning; my original thought had been for Vi’s capability to be revealed following a helicopter crash wherein she would need to rescue the team in a running fight with the Taliban-aligned Slayer Zahra. I abandoned the idea because I would have had to artificially ‘kill’ a bunch of the other soldiers and then come up with some reason they’d be cut off from the normal Army rescue efforts. Would have made for a lot of nice, juicy action, and everyone knows I enjoy writing action, but in the end I decided it wasn’t a viable approach because of the number of contrivances that would have been necessary.
Do I have any plans to follow up on this story, or to use the character(s) or situation in a subsequent fic?
As a Backstage story, this one is already linked, though not as richly as some others. Farideh, mentioned in Vi’s conversation with Andrew, was briefly profiled in “ Precious Cargo”, and Zahra herself had been indirectly referenced by Madame Tiphaine in “ An Eye to the Future”. As for follow-up stories … further entries in the Backstage series itself, yeah, but unlikely for there to be any stories deriving from this one.
Any observations to add at the end?
I named at least two of the characters for soldiers I actually served with in Afghanistan, and I hope I didn’t make the narrator look dumb just because he had no way of realizing the one specific detail about the situation that had descended on him. And, yes, I’ve known more than one tough, no-nonsense female NCO like SFC ‘Hardass’. Known them, listened to them, and made sure never to cross them. That would have been a seriously bad idea.