The Three-Handed Game: Introduction

So this is it.  The climax.  What would be the grand finale, if I'd, y'know, stopped writing at the end of it.

However, it is the conclusion of Ronnie Grau's big character arc, when we finally get a complete explanation of what happened to her in the course of her multiple time-warps... and I drew on a number of other things, like Q saving Tylha way back in my second Literary Challenge entry, so it all looks as though it's been carefully planned in advance and I am dead clever.

Since I was building this up as a narrative climax, it needed to be suitably, well, climactic... so I needed an adversary that started small and built up to galaxy-shaking proportions.  I indulged myself shamelessly in making the Siohonin leaders thoroughly nasty... I have to confess, I enjoy writing villains.  That probably says something about me.

Also, I enjoy making my main characters suffer.  I don't believe the heroes of a story should ever have things too easy; there's no satisfaction in seeing someone win a victory that's a foregone conclusion from the start.  So, I think, in this one, my characters get fairly comprehensively stitched up, beaten down, and knocked sideways, and that's all good in my book.  (One example: ever wondered what actually happens when you get blown up in space combat and have to press the "Respawn" button?  Basically, it's chapter 37....)

So.  What actually happened to Ronnie Grau in the Stygmalian Rift?  How, exactly, was she liberated from the Borg Collective?  And what is the awesome cosmic significance of Tylha Shohl's thing about Holst?  Read on to find out.