Well, response to my slip has been enough to convince me that there are
enough people interested in my drivel to merit a general post. So I
guess I'll post all of what I've done so far and judge responses.
Now, let me make a few things clear:
This a self-insertion fic. *Not* a story.
What's the difference? A story has a beginning, conflict, resolution,
and conclusion.
This SI is just my avatar slipping into the middle of the Robotech story
and interacting with the characters. He gets to talk to people and
stuff, and fight in the wars and stuff, and be friends with Minmei and
Rick and stuff. But he really doesn't have a *story*, if you follow
what I mean.
So, keep that in mind as you read along. What you're reading is
basically my fantasy life written down. I get to be much cooler in my
fantasy than I am in real life. :)
Okay, here's the setup. Some background to my avatar. (This is cut and
pasted from my web page, with some editing on my part, so if you're
familiar with this you can skip it.)
Richard Lawson, Universe Traveler, lives in the far future. After being
purged from a government job by a close friend in his rise to power (a
story I come back to much, much later), he gets sick of Earth and goes
to join an archaeological dig in a planet very far away. During the
excavation process, he uncovers something incongruous - something that
looks very much like an ancient plane, but with some technology that
defies logic. Many of the circuits are burned and broken but there does
appear to be one piece of technology still working - a black box
strapped to the back of the airplane. The technology seems to be of an
entirely different kind than the surrounding alien culture being dug up.
And the resemblance to a late twentieth-century fighter plane is too
close to be a coincidence.
Work on the rest of the excavation halts while the find is studied. The
dig files a report to Earth, but seeing as they're so far out and there
are much more important things going on in the galaxy, they don't expect
a response soon. RL,UT fixes up the plane as best he can, with the help
of the others. The plane shouldn't work; too many things in it
apparently defy the laws of physics. But when power is channeled to it
(through the mysterious black box), it starts up. It's about then that
the base is attacked by pirates, who have been contacted by the leader
of the dig, a less than scrupulous man bent on getting some kind of
monetary gain out of the whole thing.
RL,UT jumps into the plane and takes off just as the pirates attack the
base. He hopes to draw them off. He's trying to fly a barely-operable
craft of unknown characteristics that's thousands of years old. He's
not doing very well, and the pirates are closing in. In desperation,
RL,UT activates a special circuit, one that's tied directly into the
black box. A circuit that he has no idea what it does, but it *looks*
important.
The universe vanishes around him. He ends up in a place of strange
colors and lights, with no reality that he can really determine. He
quickly hits the circuit again.
It takes a while, but he figures out that the black box is a device for
traveling from one universe to another. He's making random jumps from
universe to universe. It slowly begins to dawn on him that he's a long,
long way from home and may never be able to get back.
RL,UT finally hops into a universe just above an Earth-like planet. He
manages to make a less-than-graceful landing, but he's amazed at the
craft's sturdiness; it went from near-space to the ground without
incurring much damage. He's greeted by the planet's inhabitants.
He is introduced to the High King of the planet, a very old man
doddering on a staff. Despite his advanced age, he is still quite
sharp. RL,UT notices that everyone seems to be afraid of the King, for
reasons that escape him. The King takes a liking to RL,UT if for no
other reason than the fact that he's *not* afraid. RL,UT's lack of fear
is mostly from ignorance, as it turns out. The High King made himself
that way by acquiring tremendous power, power that made him personally
invulnerable to attack, and allowed him to smite just about anyone he
wanted. He used that power ruthlessly, killing thousands in his effort
to consolidate power for himself. While his means were evil, the end
result has been good, as the planet has known an unprecedented period of
peace under his tyranny. Now, however, as he approaches death, many
people are hovering around him, waiting to acquire his power as he dies
and assume the throne for themselves. The planet teeters on the edge of
war, waiting only for the High King to die in order to ignite it.
As the High King finally falls onto his deathbed, Richard is attacked
and dragged away. No one wants to kill him for fear of facing the High
King's wrath should he recover sufficiently to ask about Richard. But
he's chained to a rock in the middle of a desert half-way around the
planet, well away from the High King's palace. He tugs morosely on the
chains, waiting to die of either thirst or a bullet. Eventually Richard
falls asleep.
This just about coincides with the High King's death. As he dies, his
staff glows and becomes a ball of plasma-type energy, that leaps away
from his body, much to the chagrin of the Lords waiting around to claim
it. It flashes across the planet, and settles on RL,UT. Instead of a
staff, it takes the form of a weapon Richard is more familiar with - a
laser gun. The gun is orange.
Richard awakens to find that he's holding a gun he didn't have when he
was awake. He decides to test it out. He points it at the sky, pulls
the trigger - and promptly vaporizes a large cloud above him. Richard
stares at the gun in awe, glad that he didn't try to fire it into the
ground below him first.
Richard learns how to control the gun, and eventually learns how to use
it to defend himself. He learns that the High King willed the gun to
me, unwilling to trust the Lords around him. A bunch of stuff happens
(this is a complex fantasy), but eventually Richard conspires with one
Lord, the least evil of the bunch, to place him on the throne. Richard
draws the rest into the desert where they basically ambush each other.
While they're busy destroying each other, RL,UT's selected Lord
consolidates his own power. He politely suggests that Richard leave the
planet - it is best that the power he has not be subject to the
temptation of any other people with dreams of ambition. Richard agrees,
clambers into the ship, and jumps to another universe.
My internal fantasy is very "Quantum Leap"-ish, except I've been
fantasizing like this long before I saw QL. My avatar goes from
universe to universe, gaining a measure of control over the hops -
enough so that each universe contains a human or human-like race. His
arrival always seems to coincide with a major conflict of sort, in which
he can play a part in helping to resolve for the good guys. In
repayment, he always receive an enhancement to his craft, which means he
gets more powerful as he moves along. He's gone to Eternia, Thunderra,
Middle Earth, several other variations of Earth... whenever a comic
book, piece of animation, or book really captures my imagination, I find
a way for Richard Lawson, Universe Traveler to make an appearance.
In one universe, Richard determines the plane's origins: it's actually
a Transformer, a deceased Autobot named Skyfire. Some of the other
Autobots are not happy to find Richard walking around in their friend's
animated corpse. He doesn't help matters by refusing to believe that
machines could actually be alive. All sorts of interesting stuff
happens in that fantasy (it's one of the ones I've evolved the most),
but in the end, it's Galvatron who convinces Richard that the
Transformers are actual living beings. Galvatron also nearly destroys
his craft. While he's recovering, other Autobots repair the craft (it's
their technology, so they can do it as RL,UT never could) and gives it
back the ability to transform into a humanoid shape. They take it
before Vector Sigma, the device at the heart of Cybertron that gives
life to new Transformers. They ask Vector Sigma to restore Skyfire's
life. Vector Sigma refuses, stating that each Transformer is given one
life and no more. Richard learns of the proceedings and rushes in to
try and stop it, only to find several emotional Autobots pleading for
the life of their friend. The debate is cut short by an attack of the
Decepticons. While the other Autobots run off, RL,UT debates over the
morality of using someone's corpse for his own gains. He finally asks
Vector Sigma if Skyfire can't be brought back to life. Vector Sigma
says he can't. Richard then asks if there is no way life can't be put
back into Skyfire's body. Vector Sigma says yes, there is a way.
Richard asks him to do it. So he does. His idea, it turns out, is to
merge RL,UT with the remains of Skyfire. When the smoke clears, Richard
is gone and the humanoid shape of the craft remains, sleeker then
before. Vector Sigma christens me "Jetfire". Jetfire takes off and
participates in the battle above, remaining in its humanoid shape.
Jetfire plays a pivotal part in beating off the Decepticon attack.
Afterwards, the other Autobots ask Jetfire what's happened. Optimus
Prime asks if anything remains of Richard Lawson. Jetfire thinks it
over, then transforms into fighter plane mode. The cockpit opens, and
out Richard steps. It turns out that Richard can still be himself, but
when he sits in his spacecraft and deliberately think "Jetfire", the
ship transforms into the humanoid shape. RL,UT is still there, in a
kind of deep connect. To him, it feels like he *is* the ship.
I have a lot of fun with that fantasy. :)
Anyway, my avatar eventually visits the ST:TNG universe. After getting
into a battle with the Enterprise over a misunderstanding (standard SI
fodder), he helps them fight off a Romulan plot.
Our story picks up around there. :)
Part One to follow.
-Richard