FC Birthday
Well, this is awkward. The Freedom City mailing list has been pretty much defunct for the last few years, but I've still managed to write something in the way of Blake's Seven fic on its traditional birthday, the US holiday of Labor Day, which I understand to be today.
But I've tried getting through to the list a couple of times in the build-up, and emailed the list-owner when that didn't work, and have had no reply so far; perhaps he's away. The best solution I can think of is to post my gift here. I'm not sure there are many more B7 fans left here than there were on FC in recent years, but it's not for any other B7 community, it's for Freedom City; I always wait until the next birthday before posting the previous piece anywhere else. So if you are or ever have been a Freedom Citizen, this is for you.
It happens to be a poem this year - something I started trying to write many years ago, probably when FC was still flourishing. I've been spurred on to finish it by the death of Tanith Lee in May, because it was inspired by the character of Don Keller in her second episode, Sand. That opens with Keller reciting: "I know a land beyond the heart of time. The sun never comes there. No moon ever shines. And man, a grain of sand, nameless and lost, blows with the dust." The poetical turn of phrase made me think that perhaps Keller was a minor poet, and I imagined that he spent his final days on Virn writing verse. Specifically, I decided that he was working on a very loose translation of Catullus, whose ex-lover Lesbia (Clodia) might have reminded him of Servalan, and the poem I settled on for him was Catullus XI, which is written in Sapphic metre.
(And if FC revives, I will repost it there; but the advantage of doing it here is that I can keep on revising the lines I don't really like yet, whereas with the list once it's posted it's posted.)
Keller's Catullus
Rontane, Bercol - you'll have to serve as comrades -
when I make my way to the farthest sector
through the Darkling Zone, where so many stray but
no ship comes homewards.
Maybe you'd prefer to see Freedom City,
or the Tents of Goth, where they fight for Charldom,
or the halls where Fletch and his men were slain by
gill-breathing Waazis.
We could climb the terraces of Zircaster,
tour the sites of Starkiller Samor's battles,
or we'll sail the edge of the spiral rim to
distant Horizon.
Sure, you'd come. But this is a shorter errand:
just a message to the Supreme Commander.
When you see the girl who was once my lover
skip the good wishes.
Tell her "Screw your decorative staff boys, who
cannot fill the void where your heart is missing;
power's your one true love, and to feed it you will
suck all our lives out."
Once I thought I'd got away, slipped her orbit;
now I know my flight never found its vector,
blown out by the backblast of her ambition
into this sand tomb.
Also posted on Dreamwidth, with
comments.
But I've tried getting through to the list a couple of times in the build-up, and emailed the list-owner when that didn't work, and have had no reply so far; perhaps he's away. The best solution I can think of is to post my gift here. I'm not sure there are many more B7 fans left here than there were on FC in recent years, but it's not for any other B7 community, it's for Freedom City; I always wait until the next birthday before posting the previous piece anywhere else. So if you are or ever have been a Freedom Citizen, this is for you.
It happens to be a poem this year - something I started trying to write many years ago, probably when FC was still flourishing. I've been spurred on to finish it by the death of Tanith Lee in May, because it was inspired by the character of Don Keller in her second episode, Sand. That opens with Keller reciting: "I know a land beyond the heart of time. The sun never comes there. No moon ever shines. And man, a grain of sand, nameless and lost, blows with the dust." The poetical turn of phrase made me think that perhaps Keller was a minor poet, and I imagined that he spent his final days on Virn writing verse. Specifically, I decided that he was working on a very loose translation of Catullus, whose ex-lover Lesbia (Clodia) might have reminded him of Servalan, and the poem I settled on for him was Catullus XI, which is written in Sapphic metre.
(And if FC revives, I will repost it there; but the advantage of doing it here is that I can keep on revising the lines I don't really like yet, whereas with the list once it's posted it's posted.)
Keller's Catullus
Rontane, Bercol - you'll have to serve as comrades -
when I make my way to the farthest sector
through the Darkling Zone, where so many stray but
no ship comes homewards.
Maybe you'd prefer to see Freedom City,
or the Tents of Goth, where they fight for Charldom,
or the halls where Fletch and his men were slain by
gill-breathing Waazis.
We could climb the terraces of Zircaster,
tour the sites of Starkiller Samor's battles,
or we'll sail the edge of the spiral rim to
distant Horizon.
Sure, you'd come. But this is a shorter errand:
just a message to the Supreme Commander.
When you see the girl who was once my lover
skip the good wishes.
Tell her "Screw your decorative staff boys, who
cannot fill the void where your heart is missing;
power's your one true love, and to feed it you will
suck all our lives out."
Once I thought I'd got away, slipped her orbit;
now I know my flight never found its vector,
blown out by the backblast of her ambition
into this sand tomb.
Also posted on Dreamwidth, with
comments.