Contents
Introduction
Dean Wesley Smith
STAR TREK®
Whales Weep Not [Third Prize]
Juanita Nolte
One Last Adventure
Mark Allen and Charity Zegers
Marking Time
Pat Detmer
Ancient History
Robert J. Mendenhall
Bum Radish: Five Spins on a Turquoise Reindeer
TG Theodore
A Piece of the Pie
G. Wood
STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION®
The Soft Room [Second Prize]
Geoffrey Thorne
Protecting Data's Friends
Scott William Carter
The Human Factor
Russ Crossley
Tribble in Paradise
Louisa M. Swann
STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE®
Fabrications
Brett Hudgins
Urgent Matter
Robert J. LaBaff
Best Tools Available
Shawn Michael Scott
STAR TREK: VOYAGER®
Homemade
Elizabeth A. Dunham
Seven and Seven
Kevin Hosey
The End of Night
Paul J. Kaplan
Hidden 230
Jan Stevens
Widow's Walk
Mary Scott-Wiecek
ENTERPRISE
Savior
Julie Hyzy
Preconceptions
Penny A. Proctor
Cabin E-14
Shane Zeranski
SPECULATIONS
Our Million-Year Mission [Grand Prize]
Robert T. Jeschonek
The Beginning
Annie Reed
Contest Rules
About the Contributors
Dean Wesley Smith is the author of over 30 Star Trek novels either solo or written jointly with Kristine Kathryn Rusch. He has edited all six volumes of the Star Trek STRANGE NEW WORLDS short story anthologies and lives in Eugene, Oregon.
This anthology of original fan fiction is good news for anyone who's memorized videos of the original Star Trek and its increasingly attenuated descendants; it gives more chances to watch favorite characters cope with time travel, tribbles and all the other usual gimmicks. For everyone else, the book is less cause for celebration, since understanding, let alone enjoying, the stories depends on not just knowing the characters in general but also remembering specific episodes or scenes. The writers' ingenuity is challenged as they speculate on the consequences of some detail while staying within the established history of the several series and movies. In fact, it is good to see more of the Star Trek crew. They're good people to be with especially, sometimes, the non-humans. In the original series, Gene Roddenberry created an extremely attractive vision of a future in which ingenuity, empathy and adolescent enthusiasm could solve almost any problem. We remember those stories because we want to believe the message. The sequels are somewhat more mature and less enthralling. But fans like those new characters, too, and don't want to see them hurt, just challenged a bit to let them show what they can do. That's what the stories here mainly offer. It's not a contemptible purpose in writing, but the results are rather odd: fiction that's attractive not in spite of but because of readers' knowing how it will come out. (May 8) FYI: As with the previous three volumes in this series, a contest determined the contributions. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
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