The Hero's Companion (The Hunter Legacy) (4 page)

From two characters in Stargate SG1. Daniel
Jackson and Jack O'Neill. O'Neil with one l, because in the series, the
character makes a point of there being two, and we didn’t want the character to
be mistaken for him.

Order of ship sizes, according to Jon:
"Corvettes were the smallest type of Capital Ship. Frigates were bigger.
Next up again was the Destroyer, with Cruiser bigger again. Beyond that were
Battleships and Carriers, but there weren't many of them, since there was
little need for them."

From flat screen Lord of the Rings, part 1.
Boromir is closing the door to try to keep the Orcs out, when he says "… and
oh look, they have a cave troll!"

From the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy,
by Douglas Adams.

From the Heris Serrano trilogy, by
Elizabeth Moon, which mixes Space Opera with Horse.

Also from reading Dick Francis novels,
which all have a horse theme.

From the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy,
by Douglas Adams. Eddie the shipboard computer offers to analyze their
personality problems to ten decimal places.

Jedburgh was a character in the miniseries
square screen Edge of Darkness, which was also adapted into a flat screen
movie.

Call sign of one of the female pilots in
the computer game Wing Commander Prophesy.

The original Maniac was Lieutenant Todd
Marshall, whose first appearance was in the computer game Wing Commander 2, as
an 18 year old kid straight out of flight school. There was something quite mad
about him. The character lasted all the way through to Wing Commander Prophesy
(5), and was played from 3 on by Tom Wilson, as comedy relief. "Chalk one
up for the Maniac" was his kill statement.

The cluster of ships has been used a number
of times in computer games. Early on in Wing Commander Prophesy, and later in
X2 and the X3 trilogy.

A central theme in the remake of Battlestar
Galactica. The Cylons were able to disable Colonial ships through Wi-Fi network
connections. Galactica survived because she had no networking of any kind, and
Pegasus survived because her networks were all down at the time of the attack.

And variations. The author uses phrases
like these in real life. A lot.

The favourite expression of Homer Simpson.
The author used this expression as a substitute to teach himself not to swear,
during his spiritual healing phase.

This was a favourite saying of the second
Doctor Who, played by Patrick Troughton.

James (Jim) McLauchlan was an Australian
engineer, sent to England during World War 2 as a liaison for building the
Lancaster Bomber in Australia. His wife Violet was responsible for starting the
sending of food packages to Britain, after Jim commented in a letter that the people
there were starving.

He remained an engineer until his
retirement.

He was the author's Grandfather, and we
have no doubt that in the 27
^th
century, he would have been the Chief
Engineer of a major Shipyard.

Biggles was a pilot in a life spanning
series by W E Johns, beginning in World War One, and spanning well into the jet
age. Biggles was a born leader, as well as a natural pilot.

Favourite saying of "The Fonz",
on the tv square screen show Happy Days.

Ghost Whisperer. Jennifer Love Hewitt. Enough
said.

A defensive position designed to force your
enemy into a kill zone where you can inflict maximum damage for minimum
casualties.

The best meat grinder was positioned after
a series of easy defensive positions, so by the time the enemy reaches it, they
expect this one to be just as easy to take. Or if they are more paranoid, it
causes them to be overly cautious, and thus take longer getting there.

For a good example of its use, see the
novel Shards of a Broken Crown, by Raymond E Feist.

The last message from Tasha Yar, towards
the end of the first season of square screen tv series Star Trek The Next
Generation.

"Death is that state where we live
only in the memory of others. No goodbyes, just good memories."

One of those lines which comes out of
Sci-Fi, which the author will never forget, and has used several times at
funerals.

From the poster advertising the square
screen movie Alien.

Refers to the parts of a battlefield which
have no oversight, or sensor coverage. Anything could be happening there, and
you won't know until something moves into your sensor range or sightlines. Most
battlefields, even in space, are only partly visible to each side.

As ships or units move on the battlefield,
the fog is either dispersed, or moved to where they used to be; dependent on
how far each unit can push away the fog. How much coverage you have, depends on
the number of ships you have, their placement, and how far they can 'see'. As
ships move, the area covered changes.

From the square screen movie Top Gun.

Toast made after the battle of Helm's Deep,
in Lord of the Rings part 2.

Pull back on the joystick, going into a
loop backwards. At the top of the loop, straighten out. You are now upside
down. Roll back to normal orientation. You are now pointing back the way you
came, albeit higher up.

It was
named after
German World War I ace, Max
Immelmann
.

Most computer games give you some way of
saving the state of the game, before you shut it down, so you can start again
in the same place next time. Other games allow you to save any time you want,
which allows you to 'save the money' and/or 'save the reward', before going on
to do something dangerous again. In this way, if you get killed, or seriously
screw up, you can reload the last save game and try again a different way. This
is particularly useful during mission oriented games, or sandbox games where
something unexpected could occur at any moment.

The catch cry of serious gamers giving
advice to newbies, is 'Save. Save. Save. Save often. Save as soon as you
complete doing something.'

Jon of course, had been doing that from a
very young age. The author since his late teens.

From Jon: "Jane looked at me with a
look of pure glee on her face, and raised eyebrows. I gave her the thumbs up.
Her suit changed to a strange black armour with tubes going in weird
directions. She focused an obviously mechanical eye on the nearest cam, and
turned the vid on. General Smith appeared on the screen, with Alsop and a few
others in the background."

"This is BigMother of Borg," Jane
said in a multitude of simultaneous voices. "You will be assimilated.
Resistance is futile." End Jon.

The Borg were first introduced into Star
Trek Next Generation season two, and continued to be a recurring species until
the end of Voyager, with yet another encounter in the prequel series Enterprise.

Borg being short for Cyborg, meaning a
humanoid body implanted with cybernetics. In this case, linked with a Hive
mind, something akin to Bees.

They were supposed to be the ultimate evil,
having suppressed all emotions and individuality.

Their only attempt at creating an
individual, was named Locutus of Borg. This sparked innumerable joke names all
ending in 'of Borg'. One such joke is a corruption of the Simpsons. "I am
Homer of Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is … Oooo Donuts!"

A simple trip to do something equally
simple, where nothing unexpected should happen. For pilots, it means something
long and boring, to be avoided if at all possible.

The combat attitude of Star Trek's Klingon
race. Usually said by Worf, the only Klingon in Starfleet. To die in battle was
their highest aim. To die gloriously in battle was to earn them a place in the
Klingon afterlife, which all Klingons sought.

Success, in Klingon, as it sounds.
Deliberately not spelled correctly to avoid copyright issues since anything to
do with Trek is a copyright minefield.

Said by the character Rose, in Doctor Who,
2005.

The advice given to Ellie Arroway by her
father, in the square screen movie Contact.

"I have given a name to my pain, and
it is Batman." Said by the Joker in the 2
^nd
Batman square
screen movie of 1989, (first remake).

Said by Bugs Bunny, a character in the
Looney Tunes square screen cartoons.

The opening words of the computer game
Starship Titanic, said by the Doorbot, written by Douglas Adams.

Australian slang for someone who
attempts to deceive, treat someone like a fool, or misrepresent a
situation.

Burnside was a Detective Inspector in the
British police show The Bill. He was a bit of a rogue, while being on the good
side. The character went on to have his own mini-series, with the rank of
Detective Chief Inspector.

Burnside was the bad guy in the novel
Double Share, 4
^th
book in the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper
series, by Nathan Lowell.

The author thought the name needed
redemption when we were looking for a name for the detective character for the
series.

James Patterson is the author of many
detective stories, mostly to do with some form of murder. Using the name for a
murder victim felt like sweet irony at the time.

Early Superman always changed inside a
phone booth.

Phone booths were where early
communications were made, using a box installation and a hand device. These
began to be phased out at the end of the 20
^th
Century, as the hand
held mobile phone phased in. All types of hand held or worn communication
devices were phased out when the ping, pulse and hollo chat became available.