![]() Author has written 55 stories for Star Trek: 2009, StarTrek: The Original Series, and Harry Potter. Ex-teacher, current journalist, future (if the gods are merciful and kind) something completely different. Community: http://www.fanfiction.net/community/Stranger_Than_Canon/82860/ FORMAT PROBLEMS: As occasionally happens here, the FF-format monster ate my lesser page breaks. I've begun the process of restoring them (it took me hours to find a workable solution!), but the project will take many, many months to complete. In the mean time, longer stories like Once and Future, Entanglement and Don't Lose Your Compass will likely be difficult to read. Even some of the shorter fics, like Playing With Toys might pose a challenge. Please bear with me until I've gone through each. I'll post a message here when I'm through. Notes on the World(s) of My Fics You may have noticed that while some of my fics are clearly related, others are only vaguely linked and still more are pretty ambiguous. I thought it might be helpful to post a hierarchy of stores. First Grouping: I consider this world to be my "true" S/U 'verse. Most of my Trek fics (posted and not) take place here. Second Grouping: Just a bit of fun that was never supposed to be more than a series of oneshots. Oops. Third Grouping: Not everything is sunshine and roses between Uhura and Spock. Fourth Grouping: Secret fics, written under a secret name. Fifth Grouping: (mostly) unrelated TOS fics Sixth Grouping(?): Nothing to do with anything else at all. Seventh Grouping: "sorta" independent fics Eighth Grouping: sheer crack!fic Notes on the History of Nyota Uhura as I Envision Her First off a note about the woman, herself: Her name is "Uhura." Nyota to Spock, to her family and to (some of) her friends. But she's Uhura to everyone else. Always has been, always will be in all of my 'verses. (Just a personal pet peeve of mine. Had to get it out of the way.) Her parents call her their "Little Star" because sometimes parents give their kids cutesie nicknames. Her siblings sometimes call her "Ennie" because I've been told that the correct Kiswahili pronunciation for "Nyota" is en-Yoh-tah, or more accurately (as one speaker pointed out to me) n-Yoh-tah. Gaila, other female friends and, once in a while, Bones, sometimes call her "Ny" but mostly, it's "Uhura." And that's the way Uhura likes it. Mother: M'Umbha Uhura (nee Wakufunzi) was formerly an under-ambassador of the Federation Diplomatic Corps, is currently a professor of linguistics who comes from a long line of people dedicated to studying and preserving various languages. She is warm and extremely extroverted. Although she is devoted to her career, she loves being a mother and has a tendency to "go mommy" on unsuspecting young people who wander into her sphere of influence. Most Wakufunzis work in academe or in the diplomatic corps. The family began their defining work around the time lands of Africa united to form a revolution and was reinvigorated as Federation Standard proliferated to the exclusion of all other tongues. The family name, Wakufunzi, is a Kiswahili word that means "instructors" or “senior-level students” and was chosen in honor of their family’s long-standing commitment to learning and preserving endangered languages. (There are several other words in the language that translate to “students”, but I thought this one was most appropriate because of the alternate translation. Please note, though, I’m learning all my Kiswahili from CDs and online, so the word may not be entirely accurate.) Father: Benjamin Uhura is a prominent xenopsychiatrist renowned for his pioneering studies into non-human psyches. Gardening is a particular hobby of his, made all the more challenging by his decision to live among the Wakufunzis in the dry Garissa District of north eastern Kenya. He was named after 20th Century pediatrician, Benjamin Spock, in the hopes that he would follow in the man's footsteps. Benjamin, much like his youngest child, was fiercely independent and chose to follow his own path. In spite of his quiet demeanor, he is still prone to doing the unexpected. The Uhura family were famous freedom fighters during the conflicts that eventually led to the creation of the United States of Africa. They adopted their surname, taken from the Kiswahili word uhuru (freedom) in recognition of work to build a free African state. Sister: Upenda Uhura is Benjamin's and M'Umbha's eldest child. She is four years older than Nyota, a doctor and known for throwing a good party. She lives, and practices medicine, in New York City. Brother: Muta Uhura is named for the father of Wangari Maathai. He is two years older than Nyota and is a researcher for the Mombasa Language Institute (who were very happy to snare a member of the Wakufunzi clan). He is a talented musician and songwriter. He and Upenda are very close. Though they both tried to make sure that their little sister rarely felt excluded from their play while all three were children, sometimes life didn't allow them to succeed. Uncle: Tabansi Wakufunzi is a communications specialist with Starfleet. He gave up life in academe after his fiancee, Estella Libertad y Dominguez was killed while serving on the USS Kelvin. He joined Starfleet in her honor. He is very close to his niece, Nyota, who shares Estella's birthday, and is named for her. (see TCS, chapter 6) Homeland: Garissa is a district in the North Eastern Province of Kenya, which borders Somalia and Ethiopia. The area is now arid to semi-arid and very hot. Right after the African Revolution, the building of the Tana River Dam severly altered the desert ecology. In Nyota Uhura's lifetime, the climate is vastly drier and its residents and scientists have become famous for their hydration research. In our time of the population of the province are predominantly ethnic Somalis. By 2113, when the Wakufunzi family settled there, the area had become much more diverse. A Note on Human/Vulcan Pregnancy: As is often the case when trying to take everything every authority considers to be canon, some things just don’t add up. So I take a fanfic writer’s prerogative and pick and choose among examples. In this case, normal Vulcan gestation = 13 months, normal human gestation = approximately 280 days. Hybrid pregnancies fall somewhere in between the two. GENERAL TREK RESOURCES The Vulcan Language Institute Reclamation Project The folks at StarTrek Online Geekipedia rushed into the breach to save content from the missing Vulcan Language Institute. Using cached or saved pages, they reposted what they could find into their wiki. |