Storm Signs

Author's Foreword

Or

What You Should Probably Read Before You Read This Story

"Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the quantum leap accelerator and vanished. He awoke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were not his own, and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better. His only companion on this journey is Al, an observer from his own time who appears in the form of a hologram that only Sam can see and hear. And so Dr. Beckett finds himself Leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong, hoping each time that his next Leap will be the Leap home".

Quantum Leap was my favorite fandom for a very long time, and one of the most challenging ones I've ever found to slash. How do you get together two men who can't touch because one is in the Past and the other is only a holographic observer? But slash it I did, blithely ignoring that last, heart-wrenching episode that ended with the (for me) totally unacceptable, "Sam Beckett never Leaped home."

"In all tribal cultures every village had a Sentinel. Now, a sentinel is chosen because of a genetic advantage, a sensory awareness that can be developed beyond normal humans. Your time spent in Peru has got to be connected with what's happening to you now. I've got hundreds of documented cases of one or two hyperactive senses, but not one single subject with all five. You could be the real thing."

Then I caught the premier of a show called The Sentinel, not too impressed with it at first, but slowly and surely getting drawn into it. I knew I was hooked when I had an image of Detective James Ellison, the sentinel with five heightened senses, his guide and partner, Blair Sandburg, and their best friend and boss, Captain Simon Banks, sitting around a table with a note that I knew was from Sam Beckett.

The image haunted me without any story to go with it for the better part of two years, while I wrote Sentinel story after Sentinel story and devoured all I could from zines and the Internet. Then I read a set of stories, written by the very capable saraid, called The Panther Tales.

In them, for reasons unknown and undiscoverable, Jim and Blair were tormented and tortured until they were transformed, much against their will, into ruthless, violent mercenaries who killed when necessary, hiding who and what they really were from everyone except a trusted few. These are not stories for the weak-hearted; saraid clearly paints this agonized future history with absorbing, painstaking care that makes you bleed for the Jim and Blair that were, and the Chief and Panther they became.

They also told me beyond any shadow of a doubt what the note from Sam said, what the 'right that had gone wrong' was. I wrote her almost immediately and asked for permission to use her characters, outlining what I wanted to do. She very graciously agreed, proofread me as I went, and gave me encouragement and endless ideas. I publicly and loudly thank her for letting me play in her universe. Thanks saraid!!!!!!

This is the finished product, and, truthfully, it was one of the easiest things I've ever written. I've had twice as much trouble with stories a third as long. The whole thing flowed out of me, allowing me to 'right my own wrong' by explaining, to my own satisfaction, what happened to Sam Becket and Al Calavicci after the last episode where Sam Leaped as himself, giving Al's first wife, Beth, back to him. It also allowed me to give Jim and Blair a life filled with joy despite their transformation into Panther and Chief.

It helped considerably that I had the help of the world's best alpha reader - my spouse of 20+ years - and some of the best beta's I've ever had the pleasure to work with. I'm especially grateful to my Ozzie friend, Bron, who so patiently picked on all my Americanisms, and to my very understanding New England Gather friends for their endless encouragement. Thank you each and every one, but especially my husband. "Thou are beautiful and I love thee."

One Last Note: I have chosen to use the fictitious name ARM (Aboriginal Rights Movement) created in the movie Thunderheart in place of the actual AIM (American Indian Movement) because this is a work of fiction not intended to reflect historical fact.

 

J/B, S/A, NC-17. For disclaimers and warnings, please see Owlet's Standard Warning and Disclaimer. Or email me here!

 

Storm Signs

Part 1 - Gathering Clouds

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3

Part 2 - Rising Winds

Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7

Part 3 - Distant Thunder

Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10

Epilogue - Lightning

Chapter 11

 

Eye of the Storm

Author's Notes:

When The Sentinel was first canceled, fan protests of epic proportions were directed at the powers that be, including an ad taken out in a major industry magazine, and a letter writing campaign to end all letter writing campaigns.

One method used to get as many letters as possible sent was a story auction. Various authors promised to write specific stories that were then put up for bid with letters to bring back The Sentinel used as the 'currency' of choice.

Though I offered a 'Final Exam' story as my auction item, Wolfling, who won that bid, had just finished beta'ing 'Storm Signs' for me, and asked for a sequel to it instead. Since I already had one floating in the back of my head, I agreed, and it was subsequently printed in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

This time it's Jim and Blair who are 'putting right what went wrong' for a very special person in Sam's life.


Eye of the Storm

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7

If you have any requests, comments, suggestions, or criticisms, please send them to me here. Thank you!

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