What’s a little thinly veiled racism among friends? Keep in mind that this is a military war drama set in space and my commentaries on various social practices are not an endorsement of them. Especially not the negative ones. This is no different than Chief O’Brien on DS9 declaring “BLOODY CARDIES!” in reference to the Cardassians (I also recall “spoonheads” being tossed about). There’s a lot of history to unpack here with the Crysallis, and rest assured, as the series progresses, that flavor will come out. Also, be sure to check out my novels as they are released in order to get the rich backstory that led us to this point.

Whew! Ok, this is a big deal. Commander Sarah Izsa is a somewhat “new” (meaning she did not exist in ‘canon’ until 2006) character to the franchise. She has a bit of a role in the new book “Square Peg in a Round Hole” that I am still working on. Her character is Saudi Arabian and is written as “Liberal Muslim”. Now, as to what exactly that means is up for debate as the Starship Moonhawk franchise is set in a post-dystopian future where humanity crawled back to the top of the food chain after centuries of struggle and subjugation at the hands of alien invaders. So what all of the different classifications, nationalities and faiths mean will probably have skewed versions from how they are presented today. This character is an evolving piece and as such, I don’t have a lot to say about her at the moment. The details I have fleshed out are that she is pescaterian (the only animal she eats are fish/sea creatures), she wears a “modesty scarf” in public spaces, and she is the ship’s affable Quartermaster. This actually makes her a lesser-known member of the senior staff and in this story, she is Acting Executive Officer and her usual position is “Night-Shift Operations Officer”. I’ll flesh out her character as the series evolves.

Special thanks to Keith for helping me to refurbish these ancient pages. In the original story, Commander Izsa’s dialog belonged to Rachael Harrison. Transforming the art to conform to the new standards and designs was an interesting challenge. Especially since it meant keeping my original style while fixing all the outdated uniforms and consoles. Did you know that I drew these pages NINE YEARS and ELEVEN MONTHS ago? Damn near ten years ago. Wow, how time flies.

~Mac