Changing Connections

[Jeikor]

Great story! I read all 13 chapters in about 2 weeks (as well as Ken's RU story) in anticipation of the upcoming anniversary event. I had already read Roland's story; in fact Roland was the one who told me I should read all the stories before 'And Justice For All' started. I am so glad he did.

After I think I need to read 'Disconnected.'

 

Thanks for this story and looking forward to the big event starting next week.  

[Wolfhighlander]

There is one more chapter to go before AJFA.  It leads up to it.  Later there will be more chapters to continue the story.

[Castle Herald]

Chapter 14 presented at http://www.castleroland.net/library/author/eric_aune

[Mark C.]

I have one complaint about stories like these and it is not about the story itself. So Eric, relax, this chapter is your usual fantastic writing and I wish I could buy you dinner and tell you that in person. What is difficult is since the chapters come out with time inbetween them and I read other stories, it takes me a bit of time each chapter to "come up to speed" on the story and characters. Who are Logan Brett again? Oh, yeah, now I remember. Of course, the solution is to read a story only when it is finished, but who can wait for that...

[Wolfhighlander]

Mark,

 

Unfortunately in a group of stories, that are set in a particular universe like the RU, there is always some of that.  The reason is that they are posted so that they sort of synch with the other stories in the RU.  Like you said, reading a finished product makes it work out better, but in the RU, like in other such story lines, we have to be careful that we don't write something that conflicts with someone elses story.  So there is a lot of behind the scenes effort that goes into this.

 

For non RU stories.  It pretty much only takes one person, maybe two to do the editing, so that the stories are a good finished product for our readers.  For RU stories, 5-6 editors work on each chapter, to make sure that it works with the other chapters in the story, that it meshes with the other stories in the universe, so that it meshes with what is going on in the universe.  The authors stay in contact with each other.  So that we can make sure that something one of us is writing, doesn't conflict with what another author is writing.  It can be hard at times to keep track and some of us have had to rewrite things because of that sort of issue, but in other ways it is really fun.  Such as the collaboration between Ken, Dave and I on JFA.  We did a lot of discussion on Skype, through emails, etc, to come up with the finished product and connect it to each of our stories.  The result of all of this is what comes out at the end. 

 

I can tell you that we do enjoy doing this, especially when we hear from our readers.  Thank you for reading the stories and I hope that we continue to give you some enjoyment in the reading.

[Castle Herald]

Chapter 15 presented at http://www.castleroland.net/library/author/eric_aune

[NiteOwl13]

Great catch up chapter with action. If memory serves me right the last time I saw Major Smiley he was serving in the Med

Good read

[Wolfhighlander]

You are correct in where he was serving.  I brought him back home for this chapter and now he is Maine National Guard instead of USAF.

[Castle Herald]

Chapter 16 found at http://www.castleroland.net/library/author/eric_aune

[NiteOwl13]

Great to read a new chapter and get caught up with the guys now I need to find out who set up the IED

[Steve T.]

I'm with NiteOwl.  I'm wondering where the IED came from.

 

Nice to see Vanya again.  I'd completely forgotten about him.  Will he become a UNIT member and learn to fight?  I guess we'll see.

 

Jamie and the rest of the boys seemed to take a back seat in this chapter, but that's OK.  It was good to see them again.

 

I'm ready for another chapter!  (But I'll wait patiently as I can!) 

[Wolfhighlander]

Yep, they kinda did take a backseat.  They will be seen in an upcoming mini story and then of course more to come when 17 comes out.  Thank you for reading, and for being patient.  With so many things going on in the RU, it does seem to take a while for chapters to come out.  We're working on streamlining the process, but I know they don't come out as fast as y'al would like. 

 

Once again thank you for reading and for your kind words.

[Wyatt]

I just started reading Changing Connections, and so far it is a great story.  I haven't yet read its predecessor novel, so I'm just learning all the characters now.

 

There appears to be a "bug" (if that is what such a thing is called in a story) in chapter 2, near the top.  The boys discover that Brett is dead, then text sort of repeats or something, because Ian realizes the dead man is not "their" Brett, twice.  The two sections are right next to each other, with the second being shorter than the first.  Maybe Eric rewrote a section and forgot to remove the original.

 

Readers, we gotta use the forums more (... he writes to the readers not using the forums).  I'm sure I'm not the first person who noticed this.

[Wolfhighlander]

Wyatt,

 

I went in there and tried to find a repeating text and could not find it.  If there is something i might be able to entice the editors fix the issue, but sorry maybe I've read it so many times, my eyes are filling in and washing over the error.

[Al Norris]

Eric, I've looked at the text 5 times, and I'm not seeing what Wyatt is seeing. Maybe I'm just dumb.

Wyatt, could you quote the exact text, please?

[Wyatt]

* http://castleroland.net/library/chapter/eric_aune/cc/cc_002

 

Sorry to include such a big quote, but it is a long doubled thing.  If you compare the two sections I started with red, you'll see that they repeat Ian's realization that dead Brett is not their Brett and the other boys being led to realize the same thing.  I'm guessing that Eric and the editor(s) missed it because it is not just a one paragraph thing, but two different takes on the same partial scene.

 

The sorta-doubled section begins at the bottom of the 5th paragraph after the first horizontal rule:

 

 

... When he finished Logan and Sean who had been helping him, saw a confused look on Ian's face.

"What?"

"I don't know. Something's not right."

"Well yeah, our brother just lost his dad."

Ian looked at the other boys clustered around Jamie and lowered his voice to a lower volume.

"No, that's not it. Something isn't right about the body."

"What do you mean, something isn't right?"

"Well this body, doesn't have anything wrong with his leg."

"Of course not, his head is crushed…."

"No, damn it! That's not what I mean! I've done some healing on Jamie's dad; you know when he hurt his leg in the lab explosion. I was able to ease some of his pain, but he still had a limp when he walked and it still caused him some pain if he was on it for too long. I did as much as I could but I can't regenerate what's missing."

"What do you mean, what's missing?"

"When he injured his knee and with the subsequent operations that he went through to repair it, he had almost no cartilage left in his knee. The cartilage helps cushion the joints. He told me that he had been putting it off for some time while he searched for all of us and worked on getting us together, but his doctor had told him that he would probably need the knee replaced at some point in his future."

"Okay, so he's going to need his knee replaced…"

"No, that's just it. This body does not need its knee replaced. The knee is exactly how it should be for someone his age and build. There's nothing wrong with it."

It took the other two just a moment to connect the dots and then they all looked at the body between them. They studied the face and although it was a little misshapen, there was no doubt it was Brett. They looked at Ian.

"I don't understand. How could that be?"

Ian shrugged.

"I have no idea. I know it sounds completely insane, but this body, looks like Brett and has the same build, and if it could talk, I bet it would sound just like Brett, but somehow, it's not him."

"But how can it not be him? He was here last night, we all saw him."

The three of them were speechless for a few moments before Logan looked up with an expression that looked like he had figured something out and it scared him.

"What if….it wasn't an earthquake? What if it was a bomb? What if the GRA, the ones that escaped or maybe there were others that were part of it, or maybe even in charge of the whole thing, that we never found out about, are behind the destruction."

The other two started to nod, but Ian shook that idea off.

"But what about the body?"

"Maybe they snuck in last night, kidnapped him and substituted this body so that we would think that he died, but their keeping him at another of their labs and are trying to get the information about his research so that they can make more of us."

"I don't know. Maybe. But they said that they got everyone. Sean, are you sure, you found everything about the GRA?"

Sean thought for a few moments as he ran through all the searches that he had done for any trace of the GRA or the PRI or anything having to do with Archer or Kelly or any of them. He knew that he had searched everywhere, but he also knew that there were some highly secure systems that he had not hacked into for fear of being caught. He shook his head.

"I searched pretty much everywhere and found nothing, but there were some high security government systems that I didn't want to try to hack into, because of the level of security and it looked from what we took from the lab and the DC office that we had everyone. We never found anything that pointed to someone above Archer. I'm certain we found everything."

"But the idea of this being a…a double, seems like a movie script."

"I know, but I don't have anything else. I know that Brett's knee was pretty trashed, and the knee on this body is in perfect health. Something is completely off about this."

"I gotta get to my workstation downstairs. Oh shit, I hope it's not trashed."

"Wait, we gotta take care of the others first and see if anyone else is hurt. But first we gotta tell the others."

They nodded, and after Ian covered the body back up, turned to the boys around Jamie.

"Uh, guys?"

The others except for the two holding onto Jamie turned their attention to Ian.

"Um, something's wrong."

Ethan was about to say something but he stopped and looked at Ian in surprise.

"What?"

Ian pointed at the body on the bed.

"Uh, this isn't Brett?"

"Huh?"

"What?"

"Of course it is, we all….."

"NO, it's not. I checked."

"But we all saw his face."

"I know, but like I told Sean and Logan, I've done some healing on Brett's leg to see if I can fix his limp."

The others nodded.

"Well this body doesn't have any of the damage that Brett had. The leg and knee is fine. There is no damage."

There was some stunned silence for a moment.

"Maybe you checked the wrong knee?"

"No. I know which knee was damaged, but neither of these knees are damaged. I swear to you, this is not Jamie's Dad."

Ian's last statement seemed to cut through to the boys on the ground or at least one of them, as Jamie looked up from the huddle he was in and turned his head towards Ian.

"What did you say?"

Ian got off the bed and went to Jamie. The others around him made way and he knelt down next to Jamie and reached out his hand to place on Jamie's shoulder. He pointed at the bed.

"That body is not your Dad's."

"But I saw his face and this is his room. It has to be."

Ian shook his head and tried to give Jamie a reassuring smile.

"I know you did, but I know what I know. That's not him, unless by some miracle his knee was magically healed before he was crushed by that wall."

Jamie's face took on a look of hope as he slowly extricated himself from the arms of Josh and Dylan. Ian snapped his fingers as something occurred to him.

"I know a way to prove it. C'mon."

He stood up and held his hand out to Jamie. Jamie grasped at it, almost as if he was grasping at straws and allowed Ian to pull him up. Ian started to lead him over to the bed, but Jamie pulled back. Josh joined his boyfriend and put his arm around him.

"Trust me Jamie."

"But I don't want to see his face."

"I don't need to uncover him, except for his leg."

Jamie looked between Ian and the shrouded body. Josh leaned in close, put both arms around him from the side and kissed him gently on the cheek.

"I'm right here. Let me help you."

Jamie held back a moment more before nodding. He swallowed a couple of times and then allowed Ian to lead him over to the side of the bed. Ian let go of his hand and he turned so that he had both arms around Josh and his head turned to where Ian was standing. Ian reached to the covers and uncovered the body's leg. He reached down to the bottom of the pajama leg and pushed it up until the knee was bare. He leaned down for a moment before turning around with a satisfied smile. He pointed at the knee.

"I was right. Come and see."

Jamie hesitated and then slowly moved next to Ian, so that he could see what he was pointing at. The two boys stood next to him and looked to where his finger was pointing. They looked but didn't see anything. They looked at Ian and shrugged, still looking confused. Ian barely restrained an exasperated look.

"The scars!"

They looked again and the other boys started to crowd around to see what Ian was talking about. Jamie looked at Ian, still with a confused look."

"What scars?"

"Exactly."

"What?"

"There are no scars. Your dad had a lot of scars around his knee and on his leg."

Ian pushed the pajama bottoms farther up, exposing more of the leg. Jamie and Josh, as well as the others looked again and it finally connected in Jamie's mind. There were no scars.

 

It is certainly possible I'm the one missing something.  I'm pretty sure I'm right though.

[Al Norris]

The very first section, the boys in that conversation were:

Jamie; Josh; Dylan; Logan; Sean; and Ian

This first conversation concludes with:

"Wait, we gotta take care of the others first and see if anyone else is hurt.  But first we gotta tell the others."

*********

"Uh, guys?"

This begins a second conversation that now includes Ethan (and presumably the rest of the boys).

The conversations are similar, but hey are in front of different audiences.

[Wolfhighlander]

Yeah, that's what I was thinking as well.  That's why I couldn't find any duplicated conversations.

[Wyatt]

I apologize for wasting your time, then.  Maybe I'm suffering from Kid Name Overload -- before coming here, I had been reading the CSU.  I've read now thru chapter 14, but in chapter 2 I didn't yet have a good feel for who was whom.  I'm ready to start reading And Justice for All (and have read its two other precursor stories.)  Eric's characters are well written and Changing Connections is an exciting story.  It intrigues me that folks from three universes are now involved.

 

Concerning my "bug report", I realize now that Ian was speaking to two overlapping sets of friends.  The first time thru, it appears that he is speaking only to Logan and Sean.  Presumably Jamie was too out of it to pay attention to that conversation as were Josh, Dylan, and Ethan, who were all apparently comforting him.  (At least I don't see where Ethan enters the room at a later time.)  I missed the import of the transition paragraph:

 

 

"Wait, we gotta take care of the others first and see if anyone else is hurt. But first we gotta tell the others."

After that, Ian got everyone's attention.  What I had not understood was that, even though everyone had been in the same bedroom, half of them had not been paying any attention to the conversation of Ian, Logan, and Sean.  Again, my apologies.

[ken barber]

Wyatt,

 

the real fun in "And Justice For All" is the "blending" of the 3 universes. I am not sure blending is the right word as they are literally thrown together. And your right "Changing Connections" is an amazing story. I have to say its a real privilege to write with someone of Eric's caliber. 

[Al Norris]

Wyatt, no apology is necessary.

 

We take it very seriously (as you have just seen), when we get reports of possible errors in one of our Revolutions Universe stories. Even though all of these stories go through a very extensive period of editing, there will almost always be something that gets missed. It happens even in the best professional publishing houses.

 

What I can use as a take-away point, is that two conversations were made, that confused a reader. So we, the author and the editing team, need to look at such things, in the future, to make sure the story is more clear in certain situations, so that the reader is not left in confusion.

 

A rather long-winded way of saying: Thank you, Wyatt. I've learned something.

[Wolfhighlander]

Ditto to what Alan said.  When you posted I went into the story and checked and checked it.  I know that my mind can and does fill in missing things by itself, so I was sure that I must be missing something.  I just couldn't see it.  Than Alan went in and he figured out what you were looking at, making it clear now.

 

Anything that helps us be better writers and editors, is never a waste of time.  You did it as constructive not destructive and that is always something that we appreciate. 

 

So Thanks

[Wyatt]

,,,

What I can use as a take-away point, is that two conversations were made, that confused a reader. So we, the author and the editing team, need to look at such things, in the future, to make sure the story is more clear in certain situations, so that the reader is not left in confusion.

 

A rather long-winded way of saying: Thank you, Wyatt. I've learned something.

You're welcome.  Since no one else commented about it, maybe I was the only one who got confused.  Like I mentioned in my last post, I failed to realize I had read the transition paragraph.

 

"Wait, we gotta take care of the others first and see if anyone else is hurt. But first we gotta tell the others."

I remember being kind of distracted by the repetition of the word "others".  Instead of trying to parse out Eric's intended meaning, I fell into the trap of assuming it had just been phrased awkwardly.  Not realizing the transition, I assumed there had been a bug.  But now I realize it is actually natural speech.  I can envision Ian making a slight pause between the sentences and then including a very slight stress as he intentionally repeats saying "others".

 

- - - - - - - - - - -

I've read thru ch.16 of Changing Connections now, including JFA.  (That's all there is at the moment. )  I enjoy the story a lot, although still somewhat overwhelmed by the large cast (include all the parents and Brett's guards).  If I had read Disconnected first that probably would be less of an issue.   I found the refresher exposition in the middle of chapter 16 to be very welcome, where it discusses each of the eight friends and what power each has.

 

It is clear Eric has plans for his character Ivan.  Although he came into the story later than everyone else, it is nice to have a kid actually from the RU who  I sense will have an important function as events progress.  (It looks like there are other kid "natives" who have important roles too, but so far I've only read the first stories by Darkstar, Roland, Eric, and Ken.)

 

Speculative question: since Darkstar might not author any more RU stories, could Ivan end up filling the role that Samuel Reynolds (the VP's son) would have played?  At least in my convoluted way of thinking, that would explain why Ivan shows up so far into the story.

[Wolfhighlander]

I'll tell you how Vanya came about.  We were working on JFA, some of it had already been written and I saw a Russian Language Film about a young boy named Ivan (Vanya).  It was probably done in about the 60's it was black and white.  The boy saw his family killed and became a partisan.  He dies in the end, caught and hung by the Germans.  They don't show it, but a Russian officer who knew him and wondered what had happened to him found files in the Reich Chancellary when the Russians took Berlin. 

 

After I saw that that movie, the character of Vanya appeared in my head as an RU Character and added to most of the first two chapters of JFA.  Now he's part of the team and he will start learning what he needs to do to be of help.

[Castle Herald]

Eric Aune

Changing Connections
Part of the Revolutions Universe

Chapter 17