Nightwatch
Series Bible (Version 2.0)
Developed by Jeff Williams and
Robert Moriyama
At one time
or another, the idea of a multipart story written using the "round robin" format
has been suggested, and while the idea is intriguing, the logistics behind it
(coordination between writers, heavy oversight to see that plot and character
development are proceeding normally, etc.) make this a very difficult
proposition. Because of this, I have
devised--to borrow a phrase from Blackadder--a cunning plan!
What if the
idea is adapted to something more akin to the Mare Inebrium stories or,
for that matter, to episodic television?
A set of characters is devised and parameters defined, but each writer
can provide his or her own "script" for this shared universe.
Listed
below is the idea for the series along with some basic character breakdowns,
possible recurring characters, etc.
The time is
the near future though we will never pin down exactly when in the
stories. (When you read what has been
written so far, however, there are clues such as the number of Popes since the
last Polish one, the name of a Pink Floyd song you might not recognize, some
paintings by an artist you’ve never heard of, etc.) In the
The
institute is founded on the idea that if you can think it, and it is for the
common good, then it can be done. A
strong sense of idealism is present in every aspect of the institute’s
workings, at least in theory, and the institute is involved in projects
throughout the world (reconstruction of war torn regions; humanitarian projects
such as irrigation, food distribution, etc).
Nightwatch is also an NGO and has some presence in many of the world’s
hot spots.
Nightwatch
also has a thriving consultancy business as well, providing advice and
strategies for various public and private entities.
The
Nightwatchmen
|
Litchfield is in his early to mid-fifties with silver hair
and brown eyes and a penchant for comfortable khaki suits and hats (and
occasionally tan cloaks if he is feeling particularly ostentatious) though he
is not above “dressing or acting the part” if the situation requires it. He has been married twice, and his ex-wives
tended to be very much like him (which was probably the problem). He refers to his second wife, Morna, as his
“precious ghost” or “my darling phantom” or some similar combination of words. Simon is also a bit of ladies’ man.
Litchfield was originally born in
Litchfield is far more pragmatic than many of the idealists
who populate the official arm of the Institute, which in part left him amenable
to the plans of the “unofficial” arm. He
has extensive martial arts training including ju jitsu and akido. However, he is not above using “street”
tactics either (learned during the long walks home from piano lessons in
Litchfield
is generally healthy though he does suffer from arthritis. The arthritis can be painful, particularly in
cold, wet climates, but it is not, at this point, debilitating.
Simon
drives a gray Saturn VUE when he is home.
There does
appear to be a certain element of coercion involved in motivating Simon to
action at times, implying that there is more to Litchfield’s past than meets
the eye. (A good example of this can be
seen in Part I of the “The Kindness of Strangers.”)
Stephanie
Keel works
heavily with computers (though she adamantly does not do secretarial work or
word processing beyond the articles she publishes about computers, drag racing,
etc.). Stephanie is one of the major
computer gurus at Nightwatch and is also a wizard at finding information,
particularly if someone does not want it to be found.
She also is
a big fan of Junkyard Wars (though she decries the damage done to it by Junkyard
Megawars) and often goes on challenges devised by her friends to build
items inspired by the series. Because of
her talents, she is more than capable of improvising in the field, of
modifying/building/jury-rigging equipment in the field (though not ridiculously
so), etc. Stephanie could modify the
software on a computer to make it run more quickly and perhaps do some things
it couldn’t do before, but she could never build a bomb with a road flare, some
copper wire, and a russet potato!
Perhaps
because of her background in programming, Keel enjoys challenges to be
overcome, and if she is truly engrossed by a particular problem, reaching her
can be quite difficult.
Stephanie
has black hair and hazel eyes.
Stephanie’s normal wardrobe tends towards to the “slouchy comfortable”
end of things though she is quite striking when she wants to be and has a
rather impressive collection of formal wear if the situation calls for it. While she is very feminine, she is not so in
a stereotypical sense. She is
ferociously opposed to any suggestion that she use her “feminine wiles” to gain
information or access and tends to resort to their use only if no other
alternative is available. She is, in
fact, very good at finding extremely viable alternatives!
Stephanie,
at heart, is also the bravest of the group, or at least the most willing to
take necessary risks. She is not
foolish, but she also does not believe in holding back unnecessarily. She is also quite opposed to killing people
and seeks to avoid deaths.
Stephanie
spends most of her time working as a computer goddess and as a writer on
various subjects for various publications.
She is also
the least sentimental of the group, which doesn’t mean that she isn’t a sucker
for cats, babies, or the love life of the narwhal. (There is no great significance to the
latter. She just loves that particular
type of whale!)
There is,
however, a much darker side to Stephanie as well, stemming from a horrible
episode in her past. She was held
prisoner and experimented upon by a man named William Gryphius. The first meeting, in fact, between Simon and
Stephanie occurred when he came to rescue her from Gryphius’ chamber of
horrors. This tragic time in Stephanie’s
life is covered at length in Kate Thornton’s “Cardenio.” While Stephanie has moved on and has in many
ways thrived since then, her time in Gryphius’ dungeon has left its
psychological wounds.
Because of her drive to never go
through such treatment again, she learned krav maga and small-arms skills from
a female Mossad agent.
Both Stephanie and Simon are avid
racquetball players.
Stephanie owns a thoroughly exciting
(and thoroughly impractical) small sports car.
Tom
Weldon is a psychologist, though as with
Dr. Litchfield he has a variety of interests, including body-building. If a situation calls for “muscle,” the others
can certainly hold their own, but Tom is the best suited for the role. Weldon wears black suit pants and jackets but
with a black t-shirt and a Wild Turkey belt buckle. His hair is brown and his eyes are blue. He is also stocky though not truly
overweight,
Weldon is
not officially associated with the Nightwatch Institute. He is the senior counselor at Arlington
Counseling Group in
Weldon
claims to not be involved because of any particular idealistic bent though he
sometimes accuses himself of being somewhat “Quixotic.” In fact, his reasons for involvement are up
for discovery, and there certainly seems to be some very mysterious elements to
him (a penchant for travel to odd locales, the ability to speak fluent Russian,
his out-of-town trips on “personal business”).
Ian Callow, described later in this document, dislikes Weldon and
dislikes the fact the portions of Weldon’s past can’t be adequately researched.
Weldon, by
the way, is the most likely of the three to be overcome by sentimentality and
emotion. He has never been able to make
it through the ending of
Simon, Tom,
and Stephanie form the core of the Nightwatchmen--a jack-of-all-trades and
engineer with a keen, analytic mind; an observant psychologist who can also
kick in the doors if required; and a computer confident junkyard improviser who
can prod the others along if they need a kick in the pants. There is no need, by the way, to include
everyone besides Simon in a story, particularly if the story doesn’t call for the
talents of either Stephanie or Tom.
The
Lower Echelon
This is the
name, or at least the only name ever used, for the “activist” branch of the
institute, and the group seems to include some very influential people since
the Nightwatchmen have very little trouble obtaining needed funds and certain
types of relatively hard to come by equipment.
The primary
representative of the Lower Echelon is Callow (first name Ian, though no
one besides Litchfield ever calls him anything other than Callow or Mr. Callow). When the Nightwatchmen are needed, Callow
summons Litchfield to the institute’s library, specifically the popular culture
section (which the others hardly ever visit).
It is also sufficiently blocked from the view of the security
cameras. (Not every story has to begin
with this library scene though a great many of them will.) Some good examples of library scenes can be
found in “Dragon’s Egg,” “Alconost,” and “The Orion Affair.”
Callow
believes very
strongly in the Echelon’s mission, enough that if the situation calls for it he
will threaten to blackmail Litchfield, damn the consequences. He does have a decided affinity, however, for
the trappings of cloak and dagger, which irritates Litchfield. Very often Callow provides computer disks or
CD Roms, passports, false identities, etc.
Melvin
Squibb is the
institute’s Inventory Control Manager, and in addition to being a wiz at
obtaining paper clips and copier paper, he also can get for the group more
specialized toys. Squibb is not ‘Q’ by
the way. There are just some things he
cannot get no matter how hard he tries, and he cannot simply invent needed
gadgets. Squibb also should not be
portrayed as a “geek” or “nerd,” partly because this is too convenient a plot
device and partly because I would like to see stereotyping kept to a
minimum. Squibb is seen most prominently
in “Alconost.”
Bill
Starsmore is
one of the pilots employed by Nightwatch, and he is usually assigned to flights
where hazards are expected. He is a
top-notch pilot, a former Top Gun winner, and he probably wishes that the
aircraft he flies were equipped with everything found on an F/A-18
SuperHornet. Starsmore is seen for the
first time in “Dragon’s Egg.”
Ed
Wendell is
another Nightwatch pilot, first featured in the story “Alconost.”
Allison
Corwyn is a
Nightwatch co-pilot and former Air Force crew chief. She was primarily responsible for F-15E
Strike Eagles. Allison also appeared in
“Alconost.”
Within
reason, you are free to create other minor characters for the institute and for
the Lower Echelon.
Nightbird
One is a
converted Canadair Regional Jet (CRJ) equipped with an opulent passenger cabin
at the front followed by a large fuel tank (which has tripled the range of the
plane) and a modified cargo bay allowing the transport of oversized and
specialized items for Nightwatch. The
plane is also equipped with a significant number of goodies including extra
shielding, extensive defensive capabilities, military-quality communications,
and engines that are definitely not commercial standard. The plane is kept at
Nightwatch
One is a
standard CRJ for more routine flights.
It is safe to say that Simon and company normally will not fly on this
plane.
Nightbird Five
is a highly experimental stealth plane that is very expensive to
operate and maintain. NB-5 is a
variant of the SR-51 design, combined with elements of the
Soviet stealth MiG and the US F117A. The cabin has room for the pilot,
co-pilot, and a maximum of four passengers. Cargo space is less than the
average minivan. There are no weapons, but electronic countermeasures are
state-of-the-art. The aircraft is
supersonic (Mach 3 at altitude) and has limited VTOL (Vertical Take-off and
Landing) and limited water landing capabilities.
NB5 (so named because it was the
fifth aircraft of its type built) was described by Tom Darby in “The Orion
Affair” as being a white elephant. The
fuel, JP-88, has to be specially ordered, an expensive undertaking in itself
and a process made more expensive by the fact that it has to be obtained
surreptitiously through “back channels.”
For lengthy flights, refueling stops or in-flight refueling is
required. Tanker service for this type
of craft is limited under normal circumstance and, again, is made more limited
by the need to obtain it through “back channels.” Flight time at subsonic speeds and without
in-flight refueling is
4.2 hours, absolute maximum.
Like the F-117, there is simply no way for the plane to blend in with other
aircraft, so it is limited primarily to night missions and is absolutely
forbidden from taking off or landing in public view. The underground hanger for the plane is also
expensive to man and maintain. The
hanger is under a deserted airfield roughly an hour's drive from the Institute.
Finally, the plane is in many ways a mechanical nightmare
with balky software and engine turbine problems brought on by the fuel. Because of the extraordinary difficulties
involved with operating the plane, and because of its limited capabilities, its
availability is limited to extreme emergencies.
Nightbird Five is described in detail in “The Orion Affair.”
The
following is some geographical information for Nightwatch:
1. The Nightwatch Institute is a cluster of
buildings off of Whitehaven
Parkway (and near
of
2. Nightwatch also leases some office space in
the Foggy Bottom area of
Of course, the institute leases (or
occupies) temporary working spaces as
needed throughout the world.
3. Simon lives in a townhouse on
It is a two-story townhouse with two
bedrooms, a library, a fireplace, a kitchen,
a dining room, etc. The library is modestly sized but crammed
with books,
maps, and other items of interest. His office is part of his bedroom. The outer
walls and fireplace are a rich deep-red
brick. The interior walls are primarily
crème-colored.
4. Stephanie lives in an apartment near the
is described in “Cardenio.”
5. Tom lives and works in
alone.
Tom’s practice is in the L’Enfant Building (a slowly decaying
structure)
near a DC metro station on the Van Dorn
Extension. (The current Van Dorn
area can be found on maps of
6. Because of his training as a civil engineer,
Simon, particularly when he is
troubled (when he is home, that is), tends
to go to the old
drawn boat trips along the canal. Actually, the history of the canal is very
interesting if you get a chance to
research it! The canal is mentioned most
prominently in “Dragon’s Egg” and “The
Kindness of Strangers.”
7. While Simon is certainly at home in the world
of fine dining, his favorite place
in town to eat is the Cannon Moon Cafe
(which is fictional, by the way) on
it is a lovely place to eat a mean lobster
bisque and has an owner--Gillian
Eckelberry--who keeps on hand Simon’s
favorite wine and has a particularly
nice bottle of Black Label if he ever
wants it.
By the way, maps of
and at www.earthamaps.com.
Dr.
Rachel MacMillan
is the Executive Director of Nightwatch.
While she is the unquestioned leader, she only becomes directly involved
in the day-to-day aspects of running Nightwatch when she absolutely has to.
Jared
Molinski is the
chair of the Major Projects Committee.
Nearly every major activity of the institute branches out of this
committee, and many subcommittees report to it.
Dr.
Subramahnian Divakaruni is the chair of the Asian Affairs Committee. He also teaches at
Dr.
Paula Mankiller is
the chair of the American Affairs Committee (comprising both North and
Nabil
Safian is the
chair of the European/North African Affairs Committee.
Dr. Molly Wilcox runs the
Middle Eastern Subcommittee,
Dr.
Sundaygar Terrell
is the Chair of the Sub-Saharan Africa Committee.
Dr.
Rosalyn Chambers is
the Director of Economic Affairs.
Economic Affairs handles the consulting side of Nightwatch. She also teaches at
George
Nathan-Gallecio is
the Nightwatch Comptroller.
Dr.
Willis Eddison is
in charge of Nightwatch Analysis and also heads the Special Tasks Subcommittee,
which reports to Jared Molinski. Ian Callow, incidentally,
is the Vice-Chair. Special Tasks is
modestly budgeted and, honestly, does very little within Nightwatch. Eddison, in fact, only convenes the committee
once a year just after the New Year’s holidays.
There is nothing remarkable about Special Tasks. Officially.
The
information above is provided to give you a glimpse at the overall organization
of Nightwatch. The people above (along
with anyone else associated with those individuals) need not appear in your
stories unless there is a driving reason for their presence. More than likely, the most you will do with
them is bring them up in conversation.
Other
Characters
These are
some other important characters who have appeared in Nightwatch so far.
Alexei Yakonov is a representative of a Russian
intelligence agency. He has appeared in
“Dragon’s Egg” and “Ghost Rockets of Sweden.”
Morna Litchfield is Simon’s second ex-wife and is a
molecular biologist. Morna is seen in
“Rogue Harvest,” and a little of Simon and Morna’s history is also discussed in
“The Kindness of Strangers.”
Celinde Gryphius is a woman who is hard to
kill. Gryphius’ story is a complex one
and is best learned by reading “Cardenio” and “Dimensions’ Gate.” Suffice it to say that Gryphius often leaves
a significant body count in her wake.
Gillian Eckleberry is the owner and head chef of the
Cannon Moon Café. She is one of Dr. Litchfield’s
closest friends, and there are indications that more, in fact, may be brewing
between them. Eckleberry is seen in
“Cardenio” and “The Kindness of Strangers.”
Dr. Lyman Eckert is Nightwatch’s resident mad
scientist, someone primarily concerned with the mechanics of time travel. We first meet him in “The Kindness of
Strangers” though some additional background material about him can be found in
“Dimensions’ Gate.”
You are, of
course, free to plumb the depths of the various Nightwatch stories for other
characters of interest (except for Tom Darby in “The Orion Affair”). Dr. Litchfield’s first wife is also
unavailable at this time and should not be discussed.
--Nightwatch
has a time machine. The device was
designed and built by Dr. Lyman Eckert and is powered by the egg-like artifact
discovered in
The machine
has several operational limitations.
First, it cannot currently scan the future nor can it send anyone into
the future. Second, it can neither scan
nor send anyone more than 100 years or so into the past. Finally, it is only capable of scanning and
sending travelers to a limited area, an area roughly the size of
Georgetown/Washington, DC. To send
someone anywhere else would either require that the machine itself be moved or
that the person undertake his or her own travel upon reaching the desired time
zone.
As you can
imagine, the time machine brings with it its own set of dangers and operational
challenges, so its use is limited to extreme situations. The machine is first used in “The Kindness of
Strangers,” and the currently known properties of the egg itself are discussed
in greater detail in “Dragon’s Egg.”
--The
motivations of the Lower Echelon itself may be drawn into question as the Nightwatchmen
carry out their orders. For instance,
some of their operations may produce results that on the surface are extremely
favorable but carry with them brand new potential consequences. The benefit of some operations may even be
difficult to see at all.
--Some
skeletons are lurking in Litchfield’s closet, and you are certainly free to
allude to them if the moment is right, without, of course, being terribly
specific…unless being terribly specific is an absolute story requirement, in
which case we’ll talk! J
I have some
story ideas if you need them though, of course, I can’t post them in this
online bible. J
Nightwatch, however, is not X-Files. Strange things can and do happen, but the
series shouldn’t dwell on alien and government conspiracies (though if you have
a good idea for a story featuring something like that, I’m certainly open to a
pitch). Nightwatch should also
not be an ‘alien invasion of the week’ series.
While the stories themselves are important, do not forget the characters and strong characterization. All the action, adventure, and intrigue in the world won’t matter to the readers if there are no characters. (“Dragon’s Egg,” for instance, has several characters who play small but important roles in the story and are quite memorable.)
Also, for
the time being, writers should not use the old doppelganger device (unless, of
course, you’ve come up with a really unique idea for one, that is).
Really, the
best way to learn what Nightwatch is about is to read a selection of the
stories.
Nightwatch is a little unusual in that I’m
trying to achieve a series feel. Because
of this, seven new stories will run each year in series format, something
analogous to a television season. The
third “season” will run from March 2006 through approximately September 2006.
If you are
interested in writing a Nightwatch story, I’ll begin reviewing story
pitches and submissions in July and will continue through January 2006. Potential writers will be given additional
series information as needed.
Stories
must be at least 7,501 in length.
Submissions and story ideas should be sent to serials@aphelion-webzine.com
SEASON ONE
1. “Dragon’s Egg” by Robert Moriyama
2. “Alconost” by Martin Delgado-Scott
3. “Rogue Harvest” by Ralph Benedetto, Jr.
4. “Dimensions’ Gate” by Jeff Williams
5. “Cardenio” by Kate Thornton
6. “Ghost Rockets of
7. “The Orion Affair” by Dan Hollifield
SEASON TWO
1. “The Kindness of Strangers, Part One”
by Jeff Williams
“The Kindness of Strangers, Part
Two” by Jeff Williams
2. “Jigsaw Creek” by Robert Moriyama
I’ll add stories to this list as they are published.
I think that Nightwatch has a great deal of
potential, and I look forward to seeing how it develops over time. The series, however, cannot develop without
you, and I hope to hear from you soon!