Star Trek: Strange New Worlds VIII

by Dean Wesley Smith, Paula M. Block, Elisa J. Kassin

Overview

This newest volume of Strange New Worlds features original Star Trek®, Star Trek: The Next Generation ®, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine®, Star Trek: Voyager®, and Star Trek: Enterprise™ stories written by Star Trek fans, for Star Trek fans!
Each of these stories features our favorite Trek characters in new and adventurous situations. In this anthology, we get to experience a new version of the Kobayashi Maru, feel what it's like to be inside the Borg collective, delight in tasting new foods, and encourage Starfleet's future.
This year's Strange New Worlds winners encompass newcomers and veterans alike, including Alan James Garbers, Kevin Lauderdale, Kevin Andrew Hosey, Paul C. Tseng, Kevin G. Summers, Sarah A. Seaborne, John Takis, Dan C. Duval, Amy Vincent, David DeLee, Muri McCage, Susan S. McCrackin, M.C. Demarco, Annie Reed, Amy Sisson, J.B. Stevens, Robert Burke Richardson, Lorraine Anderson, A. Rhea King, Derrek Tyler Attico, Geoffrey Thorne, and Paul J. Kaplan.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781416503453
Publisher:	Pocket Books/Star Trek
Publication date:	07/19/2005
Series:	Star Trek , #8
Edition description:	Original
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	845,318
Product dimensions:	5.33(w) x 8.25(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Considered one of the most prolific writers working in modern fiction, USA TODAY bestselling writer, Dean Wesley Smith published far over a hundred novels in forty years, and hundreds of short stories across many genres. He currently produces novels in four major series, including the time travel Thunder Mountain novels set in the old west, the galaxy-spanning Seeders Universe series, the urban fantasy Ghost of a Chance series, and the superhero series staring Poker Boy. During his career he also wrote a couple dozen Star Trek novels, the only two original Men in Black novels, Spider-Man and X-Men novels, plus novels set in gaming and television worlds.

Paula M. Block (with Terry J. Erdmann) have jointly written two previous Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ebook novellas: Rules of Accusation and Lust’s Latinum Lost (and Found). Their most recent nonfiction work, Labyrinth: The Ultimate Visual History, was the recipient of the Independent Publisher Book Awards’ 2017 bronze medal for best coffee table book. They also are the co-authors of the nonfiction titles Star Trek Costumes: Five Decades of Fashion from the Final Frontier, Star Trek The Original Topps Trading Card Series, Star Trek The Next Generation 365, Star Trek The Original Series 365, Star Trek 101, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, The Secrets of Star Trek Insurrection, The Magic of Tribbles, and Star Trek: Action! Their additional titles include Monk: The Official Episode Guide and The 4400 Companion. While director of licensed publishing for Paramount Pictures, Paula was co-editor of Pocket Books’ short story series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. They live in Southern Oregon with their two collies, Shadow and Mandy.

Read an Excerpt

Introduction

Dean Wesley Smith

Every year you, the fans, take me on a pleasure ride into the amazing past of the Star Trek® universe.

Now, granted, I am a story junkie. I'm a person who loves reading Star Trek more than anything else I can think of doing (except writing Star Trek). Every October, boxes and boxes of great stories arrive at my doorstep, and every year those stories usher me into the Star Trek universe, in ways, and to places, I would have never thought to go by myself.

But besides that, your stories take me into my own past.

The original Star Trek series premiered in September of 1966 and was aired on Friday nights in Boise, Idaho. I remember how I would rush home from high school to watch it. I never missed an episode back in the days before videotape machines. I didn't dare — there was the awful chance that the episode might not air again. (Yes, I realize that I just dated myself and told you how old I really am.)

The superb Star Trek stories you send in to the contest take me back to my high school days. They remind me of my friends and take me back to the nights of worrying about being drafted and the uncertainty of life — deciding if I should go to college or just go skiing.

I did both, didn't get drafted, and years went by. When Star Trek: The Next Generation® started, a group of us, all hopeful writers, would gather at Nina Kiriki Hoffman's house to watch it every week. We would talk about the episode that we had just seen, talk about writing, and simply enjoy each other's company. If someone had told me that I would be writing Star Trek professionally, I would have just laughed. And wonderful anthologies like this weren't even distant thoughts. Every one of the Next Generation stories we receive reminds me of those delightful "Trek parties" we used to love so much.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine® broadcast its first show via satellite, ahead of when it aired on regular local channels. My wife, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, and I lived in the country and had a satellite dish. We had just finished watching the very first show, about three days before almost anyone else in our area would see it, when John Ordover called. At the time, Kris was editing The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and I was editing Pulphouse Magazine. Before John started at Pocket Books for the Star Trek program, I had bought a story from him, so it wasn't such a surprise to receive his call.

We ended up talking about the new series and how cool it was. The conversation progressed and he asked if Kris and I would be interested in writing one of the first Deep Space Nine novels. Well, duh. What a silly question. It came out a year later under our Sandy Schofield name. These are the memories that the Deep Space Nine entries trigger in my mind. They remind me of those days out in the country, watching shows ahead of everyone else, and getting the first chance at doing something I couldn't even have dreamed of doing ten years earlier.

Star Trek: Voyager® and Star Trek: Enterprise™ both have a similar feeling for me; they lead me to the same place in my memory, even though their starts are years apart. Besides the fact that I love the shows, they bring on a faint recollection of worry and panic, as well as a satisfying feeling of success.

Okay, why such a mix of emotions? Well, Kris and I were hired, for both series, to do the very first original books. When we wrote those books, it was months before the shows aired. We had only a trailer, some still pictures, and a few scripts for guidance. By then, we knew how important getting the characters in Star Trek dead-on was for the fans. And we had never seen the characters, heard them speak. Nor had we experienced the life an actor gives to each of the people that we were writing about. Trust me, that sets off a real fear for a Trek fan like me — and a lot of pleasure when we realized that we didn't miss by too much.

Now do you see why your stories are like traveling in time for me? My life, especially my adult life, has been tied in and around Star Trek. And I consider myself the luckiest person alive for that.

So, send in more stories for the next contest so that I can take new thrilling rides through the history of Star Trek, and take everyone else down their own Memory Lane.

Remember, read the rules in the back of this book, read the stories in this book, read previous volumes to really understand what types of stories we are choosing. Then sit down and write a story (or two, or three). Have fun. Take us all to new corners of this vast universe. And send them all in.

Then maybe, just maybe, you'll get a phone call saying we would like to include your story in the next volume of Strange New Worlds. Trust me, this is one phone call that will be a unique memory to attach to this great universe.

I hope you enjoy these stories. I sure did.

Copyright © 2005 by Paramount Pictures

Table of Contents

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