ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Chapter
One [Preamble]
1.
Mr
Jim Wright, for gracefully allowing me to use material from his excellent
summary and analysis of the "The Killing Game"
2.
Also,
Mr Jim Wright who has given me permission to use a phrase from his analysis of
"The Killing Game" as the title of this story.
3.
The
Cape Town Holocaust Museum where I spent hours just looking at hundreds of
photographs of holocaust victims.
4.
Dr
Hubert Kurzweil and Pascale Chesselet who were kind enough to help me with
translations in German and French. Please, I ask that the reader 'excuse' my
French and German, so to speak. I have also relied on some online translation
services. If it's not accurate, I beg your indulgence.
5.
Paramount,
whose characters Catrine and Miller and the setting of the lovely Coeur de Lion
became the basis for this story.
6
Several
online sites from which I gained valuable information and research material for
the writing of the first chapter. At the completion of this project, a full
bibliography will be given, however, for this chapter, a short bibliography at
the end of it.
7.
Since
I have asked a few editors to work with me on this project, Chapter One will
essentially be a draft and the rest of the project overseen by them.
WHAT
THE READER SHOULD REMEMBER:
1.
This
story is the story of Catrine du Pléssis and Charles Anson Miller. They are not
Kathryn Janeway and Chakotay respectively, although Kathryn and Chakotay did
play those characters in the holodeck programme of the WWII setting. Catrine and
Charles are unique characters further developed and fleshed out by me in this
novel.
2.
Catrine's
name - I have (for now) gone with Claudia's suggestion that I write Catrine's
name with a -C- and not Katrine as the spelling generally used by most
authors who wrote "Killing Game" stories as well as Jim Wright who
also used the spelling of Katrine.
3.
This
story is set entirely in the AU world of the pre-war and war years of Germany,
America and France. It is what we generally term an über story. No mention
anywhere, no reference of whatever kind, is made of Voyager and its characters.
4.
I
have tried to the best of my ability to recreate as accurate a picture of events
of 1936 - 1945. What the reader sees here is an amalgam of fact and fiction.
5.
For
further acknowledgements after the reading of chapter I will appear at the end
of that Chapter.
6.
The
paths of Catrine du Pléssis and Captain Charles Anson Miller cross, diverge,
then cross again. Their lives are traced from events in 1936 and span almost ten
years. When they meet in September of 1944, they each have known and experienced
suffering, yet when Captain Miller leaves, they will have touched each others'
lives and those of others in a manner that remains as enduring as the eternal
flame of friendship and love and loyalty, and realise that out of the ashes can
be born again, a new life.