The Inventor's Perspective

"Clipping Clue-Pons" POV CHALLENGE

The Inventor’s Perspective

By Linda

Rating: PG
Disclaimer: As always, the wrong people have legal possession of these characters – sadly not us, the people who really care about them.
Genre: POV Challenge, angst
Summary: Henry Archer is proud of his son. But he has sown a few dark seeds among the healthy ones in the fertile mind of his son. His spirit speaks here.

AN: Once again Distracted has inspired me. The idea for this little poison pen piece invaded my brain while reading HER latest POV piece!

I had always expected to be able to embrace my son after his first flights on all the various craft he would pilot. It was not to be. Simply put, life shut down for me before my expiration date. Clarke’s disease. Well, it does run in the family, but like many people I had thought that it would not touch ME. Heart disease is prevalent in the family too, and usually takes us down in our octogenarian years. I do hope that my son… Yet all has been well so far, as I can see him standing there on his bridge – trim and fit as a Starfleet captain aught to be. How proud I am that it is my ship that powers his successes!

And see how that ship survived the incredible pounding it took in the Expanse! My word, she has served him well. I have served him well in its creation, and he has, he has, but how can I say it? It is almost beyond conception that my son led his crew on a mission that saved our world. And saved those soulless Vulcans’ world to boot. I remember them standing expressionless over me while I sweated over my engineer’s drawings or while I lay prone on top of some cold engine housing, tweaking this and that. They have the ears of the devil despite what people are saying - ears that heard even my quietest mutterings as I seethed against their constant disapproval while sweating over my work.

Hah! But we outsmarted them, me and my son. My heart swells with pride on that. Didn’t I always, even as a young boy, sow in him the seeds of distrust of those pointy-eared bastards? Heck, if they had been only a few light years beyond their position when the Phoenix made its first flight, we could have done it without them. And done it quicker. Then we may have met the Andorians first and formed an alliance that would have put those smug green-skinned aliens in their place. If only. But no matter, we have proved our worth now. Earth will be the pivotal world in this Federation that my son, MY son, has conceived of. I did well to steep his soul in distrust for those Vulcans. Yes, indeed! Yes, indeed.

And as for the mating of humans with Vulcans, as my son’s engineer did with that…woman. Yeah, I saw her drop her robe, the slut. I say, may they be few, even though the result may add some soul to their cold-hearted race. We will be improving the race, ha, ha. Now where have I heard that before?

fin

Back to Fan Fiction Main Menu

Have a comment to make about this story? Do so in the Trip Fan Fiction forum at the HoTBBS!

A whole mess of folks have made comments

Henry Archer as a nasty bigot... hmmm... now THAT'S one I never would have thought of. Makes a strange sort of sense, though, considering some of Archer's expressed opinions in season one. The man's come a long way if this is the legacy he received from his father. Interesting POV, Linda.

Woah. Scary. That kind of mindless bigotry always chills me to the bone. Well written, Linda! :/

Wow, now I really dislike Henry Archer. Good story.

No, I'm not convinced.

Ok, not convinced of what, Firstevil? Please explain more. If you mean making Henry a real bigot, yes I think I stretched the point because he seemed a nice guy on the first episode. Well, not all our fics work for everyone. These are experiments!

I was trying to account for Jon's early attitudes and maybe overdid it here. If you want to explain your reasons more, please leave further comments or pm me. This writing is a great adventure and hopefully we are all learning to write better and to craft the characters better with the help of our greatest treasures - our readers!

Interesting POV, Linda. Your Henry's one arrogant SOB, ain't he? His paranoia shines through - I think this was convincing enough without being over the top. (Although I think the last line was unnecessary - fortunately, not many racists are truly of Hilter-calibre, if that's who you were intimating.)

A worldly, educated man would probably be sensible enough to mask his bigotry when necessary - but no matter how well hidden, the message gets through to the next generation. The obvious bigots are the easiest to combat, don't ya think?

Well done!

I find it believable. Brilliant men are often emotionally off center, especially when it comes to anything or anyone who is perceived as being an obstacle to accomplishing their dreams. I can easily see Henry Archer becoming irrationally hostile toward Vulcans, even to the point of bigotry. His son's attitude had to come from somewhere after all.

while well written it sorta conflicts with the henry archer we see in broken bow who gets after jon for calling soval ambassador pointy eared and seems more confused then angry about the vulcans motivations.
now perhaps after the clarke's had started to take its toll.

This was well written and I thought it was very original, nice take on a character that we really didn't see in the show but obviously had a such an impact in shaping Archer. I don't know if I agree with your exact portrayal (since I never imagined him as such) but regardless, you did a great job! Nice fic Linda.

I liked the point of view of Henry Archer, but I have to agree with a few up here that the part of him despising got me kinda concerned. For a man of great vision to close his mind to the possibilities of shared knowledge, well I guess he was a bit bitter at the Vulcans at the time of his death, but you'd think he would have gotten rid of his anger after he died and saw the bigger picture. Anyway though, it was nicely written. T

What if he was right and the Vulcans were deliberately trying to impede him? Would he have any reason to like them? Maybe Henry wasn't so much as a racist as a realist.