And so the story took shape.
"The Shoulders of Giants" – FAIL or UNFAIL?
It starts with an encounter between Captain Archer and the primitive, plant-based Kolyati people, who think he's a god and misinterpret his words as a commandment equating murder with holiness. Many years later, Captain Kirk's crew visit the Kolyati, who have developed a society based on religious murder-sacrifice. When McCoy is mortally wounded, a rebel leader abducts him, leading Kirk and Spock on a trail to a forbidden hospital facility. The rebels save McCoy's life, and Kirk brings the death-worshippers around to a new way of thinking, planting a seed that he hopes will change their murderous society for the better.
The next captain to visit the Kolyati is Rachel Garrett (as seen in the Next Generation episode "Yesterday's Enterprise"). Inspired by Kirk's ideas, the Kolyati have gone from a society of killers to a race of total pacifists...but this change has left them vulnerable to Romulan invaders. Working with Klingon allies, Garrett helps the Kolyati people find their inner warriors and save their world.
Which leads to the era of The Next Generation. In the final segment of the story, planet Kolya has become a peaceful place...but that peace is jeopardized by a serial killer on the loose. Working with a curmudgeonly old local cop named Nyda, Picard investigates the crimes, searching for clues to the killer's identity. In the end, though, Nyda is the one who solves the case, revealing the killer as none other than Armus (Tasha Yar's murderer from "Skin of Evil") in the body of Will Riker. Nyda saves the day, driving out Armus and proving that the Kolyati have become mature enough to handle their own affairs.
The story ends with an epilogue jumping even further forward in time to the first Kolyati space shot. A Kolyati leader looks back, assessing the impact of Starfleet and the Federation on his world, concluding that the net result was a good one. Now the Kolyati people stand on the verge of joining the interstellar community and making their own contribution to other species who might need a hand up the ladder.
"The Shoulders of Giants," as you can see, was chock full of details, characterization, ideas, and action. I was pleased that I managed to fit so much into the story, including personal stakes and character arcs for each narrator and captain. My favorite part of this story, however, might just be the story of the old woman, Nyda, who has the chutzpah to refer to Picard, Riker, and La Forge as Snooty, the Bearded Weirdo, and the Wallflower, respectively.
But did it all work? Would it make the grade when I submitted it to the Strange New Worlds editors? I held my breath and dropped the envelope in the mail.
FAIL CALL: "The Shoulders of Giants" - FAIL or UNFAIL?
UNFAIL! "The Shoulders of Giants" received an honorable mention and would appear in Strange New Worlds Volume V. My hard work had paid off with a second breakthrough.
Now what would I do for an encore?
Madborg
After scoring my second Strange New Worlds publication, I felt like I was on a roll. I had Trek publishing credentials, and I knew editors at Pocket Books. It was time to strike while the iron was hot, I thought, and try to sell my first full-length Trek novel to Pocket.
Which Trek era would I choose to write about? Since Voyager was on the air at the time, that was the one I picked. And since the Borg were such exciting antagonists on the show, I knew I wanted to write about them. But I also wanted to give them a new twist.
So I came up with Madborg, in which the Voyager crew face the threat of an overwhelming force of insane Borg in the Delta Quadrant. Only by uniting the quadrant's disparate species into a proto-Federation can Janeway and her team hope to end the threat of the Madborg and their leader, the Borg King, Sequitur.
After developing a detailed outline of the novel, I pitched it to the Trek books team. I was so in love with the story, I was convinced I would get the go-ahead to write the book.
Star Trek: Voyager: Madborg – FAIL OR UNFAIL?
Time Frame: Stardate 54910.5
Between the 7th season episodes "Renaissance Man" (Stardate 54890.7) and "Endgame" (Stardate 54973.4). (Neelix is gone.)
Introduction
The Madborg assimilate a ship's crew in horrific fashion.
Voyager is chased by the Borg to Bedlam's solar system. The Borg stop at the system's rim. More Borg cubes join them, blocking all escape routes.
Voyager can't leave the system because of the waiting Borg...and Janeway wants to know why the Borg won't enter. Seven tells her about Bedlam and the legend of the Day of Reckoning...and Janeway sends an Away Team to the surface of the one inhabited world: Chakotay, Seven, Chell (Bolian), Dalby (malcontent), Terek (Bajoran). Janeway hopes the team will find something to aid in their escape from the system.
Voyager
The Madborg attack Voyager and drive it away from Bedlam.
The Borg Queen comes to Voyager alone, in a transport pod launched by one of the cubes, and proposes an alliance to defeat the rogue Madborg.
The Borg Queen taunts and teases Harry Kim.
The Borg Queen tries to intimidate Naomi and shows contempt for Icheb as a Borg reject.
As the Queen and crew work on a plan, Harry awakens as a Borg sleeper agent. (As suggested in the episode "Unimatrix Zero.")
Harry assimilates crewmates, including Tom Paris, except for Janeway, Tuvok, B'Elanna, The Doctor, Icheb, Naomi, Marla Gilmore and Noah Lessing (Marla and Noah are from the two-part episode "Equinox.") Most of the crew is assimilated, but in a limited fashion, with implants generated by nanoprobes, not heavy prosthetic hardware.
The Queen reveals that Harry has been a sleeper agent since he was compromised by Borg implants in "Collective." She not only wants to destroy the Madborg, but Bedlam as well, because this is the "Day of Reckoning," when the Bedlamites are supposed to rise up and wipe out the Borg, according to legend.
Janeway, Tuvok and Naomi flee the ship in the Delta Flyer. (Janeway is unconscious from a phaser blast.)
B'Elanna, who is pregnant, single-handedly fights the Borg to save her unborn child's life.
The Borg Queen orders preparations to use Voyager's quantum torpedoes to start an atmospheric chemical chain reaction that will wipe out all life on Bedlam.
The Doctor and Icheb fight Voyager's Borg crew.
B'Elanna fights for her life, but is cornered...by the Borg Tom Paris.
The Borg Queen contacts the King of the Borg and proposes a cease-fire and alliance. She suggests they work together to destroy the Bedlamites and head off the Day of Reckoning. He refuses, saying that he has come to Bedlam to join the Day of Reckoning and exterminate the Borg.
The Doctor and Icheb continue to fight and run. Their attempts to retake the ship's systems fail.
The Borg Queen learns that calculations and preparations for the quantum torpedo launch have been completed, and she orders the launch.
On the verge of assimilation, B'Elanna is rescued by Gilmore and Lessing of the Equinox. They set out for Engineering.
Before the torpedoes can be launched, the Borg-controlled Voyager is attacked by the Borg sphere.
Icheb tells the Doctor to reactivate the Borg-killing pathogen in his system. When the Doctor refuses, Icheb gets him to switch to the Emergency Command Hologram ...who agrees not only to reactivate the pathogen, but to temporarily boost its potency.
The Borg Queen trades threats with Janeway, then returns fire.
B'Elanna, Gilmore and Lessing fight their way toward Engineering. (Gilmore and Lessing want to redeem themselves after betraying the ship in "Equinox.")
The Doctor reactivates the pathogen and Icheb heads for the Borg Queen. The Doctor plans to flood the ship with a pathogen neutralizing agent to save the Borg crew after the Queen has died.
Janeway outmaneuvers the Queen, uses the ship's prefix code to drop the shields, and damages Voyager.
Sneaking through Jeffries tubes to the bridge, Icheb fights his fears and overhears the Queen cursing Janeway. (He realizes she's on the sphere.)
B'Elanna, Gilmore and L
essing take control of Engineering. They kill all power to the engines and weapons.
Facing his fears of the Queen, Icheb sneaks onto the bridge and infects her. (He carries the Doctor's mobile emitter.) The pathogen, with its increased potency, immediately disables her and renders Harry, Tom and the Borg bridge crew unconscious. Icheb uses the emitter to bring the Command Hologram on-line, and the hologram transports the dying Queen into space...as a spread of atoms. The E.C.H. contacts Janeway on the Borg sphere ...which then comes under attack by the planet Bedlam.
Borg Scourge
Janeway, Tuvok, and Naomi, in the Flyer, are rescued by the Borg Scourge and taken aboard the Best of All Worlds. They are welcomed by a team of Delta Quadrant aliens from different species – Voth, Hirogen, Krenim, Kobali.
After being treated and regaining consciousness, Janeway joins Tuvok and Naomi on a tour of the Best of All Worlds with Annorax, the Krenim first officer. He explains the origins of the Borg Scourge and the New Federation. They meet the captain of the ship, Omega, who claims to be the last survivor of Species 1.
Omega tells Janeway and Tuvok that the Scourge have come to join the Bedlamites on their legendary campaign against the Borg. A Borg transports onto the Best...General Korok...and the Scourge forces surround him with weapons drawn.
Korok repels a handful of Scourge defenders and proclaims his peaceful intentions. Janeway vouches for him, but Omega insists on scanning him with Bothan and Brenari telepaths. The scan is painful, and Janeway tells them to stop. Korok explains that some of his Free Borg crew have been assimilated by the Madborg, and he's come to retrieve them. (They had contacted the Madborg in hope of enlisting them as allies in the Borg civil war.) He says that one of them is Axum, Seven's lover from Unimatrix Zero. ("I believe your Borg crew woman is quite familiar with one of this group.")
Go to revelation of Axum to Seven and Chakotay.
Janeway decides to join Korok on his Borg sphere, while Tuvok and Naomi stay behind on the Best. They plan their assault on the Madborg and Voyager, and Janeway takes her leave.
(While Janeway battles the Borg Queen,) Tuvok and the Scourge fleet battle the Madborg cube. Tuvok works with the Voth weapons officer, Ayek. The Best fires its first shot, a direct hit that staggers the cube...but the cube fires back and rocks the Best.
The Madborg fight with a random savagery that devastates the Scourge fleet. A ship and some fighters are destroyed, and the Best is damaged. How can the logical Vulcan match the random ferocity of the Madborg?
The true Bedlamites stir on the surface of Bedlam and attack the first Borg vessel they find – the Madborg cube.
When the Madborg cube is destroyed, the Borg King beams onto the Best with a boarding party.
While the mad drones fight the crew, especially the Hirogen, Voth, Vidiians, Krenim and Bothans, the Borg King battles Omega.
During the battle, the Borg King announces that Omega was the true King of the Borg. ("Do they know that you were Borg? Do they know that you were greatest of the Borg, the true King of the Borg?") As the Madborg assimilate members of the ship's crew, the King pins Omega and prepares to kill him.
In the nick of time, Janeway and the Free Borg transport onboard as their sphere is destroyed. They help turn the tables in the fight with the Madborg.
Omega single-handedly kills the King of the Borg.
Bedlam leaves its orbit and moves toward Borg space. It's only moving at Warp 1 and will take a while to get there...but its far-reaching energy blasts wipe out the waiting Borg ringing the solar system.
Borg Sphere
Janeway and Korok, onboard the Borg sphere, battle the Borg Queen on Voyager.
Janeway outmaneuvers the Queen, who is then incapacitated by Icheb's pathogen. Voyager's engines and weapons are deactivated.
The awakened Bedlam world being destroys the Madborg cube, then attacks the sphere. The sphere is destroyed.
Janeway and the Free Borg beam to the Best, where they join the fight against the Madborg and turn the tables against them.
Bedlam's surface
The Away Team beams down and explores the planet's incredible surface. Primitive locals converge, growling...and attack the Away Team.
The Away Team fights the locals...who flee when the Madborg beam down and attack the Away Team themselves.
The Away Team fights the Madborg, who fight with erratic, un-Borglike ferocity. (More hand-to-hand combat, verbal outbursts, unpredictability.)
The Away Team kills two of the Madborg. While tussling with the third, Seven is surprised to see that it's Axum. He takes advantage of her surprise and moves in for the kill.
Chakotay incapacitates Axum just in time and saves Seven's life. They decide to move him to a cave.
In the cave, Seven tends Axum's injuries. She removes a bizarre implant from his skull, unlike any Borg device she's seen. The implant is what made him a Madborg.
Free of the Madborg's influence, Axum wakes and explains how he came to be there...that he traveled through a nearby transwarp hub (the one from "Endgame," actually) to join with Korok and seek an alliance with the Bedlamites, only to be attacked and assimilated by the Madborg. He reveals that the Day of Reckoning is supposed to be that very day.
Seven and Axum share a moment as Chakotay steps outside to contact Voyager. Axum says he really missed Seven, and one of the reasons he came to the Delta Quadrant was to look for her. Seven says it's strange to meet him face to face, in his Borg form, after so many encounters in Unimatrix Zero, in which they were free of Borg implants...and in which they were never truly physically together. He reaches out to touch her face...and Chakotay runs back in, weapon drawn, fleeing the Madborg. He tells them that they have to go deeper into the caves.
Chakotay, Seven, Axum, Chell and Dalby move into the caves. They detect a huge chamber ahead, and follow their tricorder readings to it. They emerge into a vast cavern holding a glittering underground city...the hidden Bedlamite civilization.
The Away Team wanders into the city. They say "Maybe the idea of these people attacking the Borg isn't so unbelievable after all." Then, a group of Bedlamites converges on the Away Team, growling as if they're about to attack. They spring...
Instead of attacking the Away Team, the Bedlamites leap over and around them and pounce on a Madborg emerging from around a corner. They all pile onto the Madborg, silently...and he drops to the ground, succumbing to a psychic assault by their organic collective. As they leave the twitching, subdued body on the ground, their tiger-striped leader removes his fur and reveals his true form...silvery, translucent, shimmering skin.
Zenya, the leader of the Bedlamites, reveals that the Bedlamites are actually the Imic, disguised as the original Bedlamites to avoid assimilation by the Borg. He describes the collective link of his people, which evolved since their arrival on Bedlam. (Ironically, since they came there to flee the Borg Collective.) What happened to the original Bedlamites? Quakes follow the question.
Quakes rock the underground city. The Away Team wants to know what's going on. Zenya reaches into the collective link, seeking information, and Imic on the surface describe powerful shifts of the planet-covering organisms. Then, a stronger force interposes itself on the link. He shakes violently and screams.
Zenya seems to fall into a trance, under outside control. Imic assemble from all around and advance as one on the Away Team. Zenya explains that Bedlam itself now speaks and thinks and acts through him, and all the Imic. The massive organisms covering the world are the true Bedlamites, merged and transformed over the centuries into a planetary consciousness...and they have altered and developed the Imic, as well. Now, it is time to rise up as promised ages ago and exterminate all Borg...starting with the Borg among the Away Team...namely, Seven and Axum.
Chakotay, Chell and Dalby surround Seven and Axum with weapons ready...and Chakotay tries to convince the Imic to spare their lives. Bedlam and the Imic decide to probe Seven and Axum's minds...and the painful probe leads the two to scream in
agony.
Bedlam and the Imic agree to spare Seven and Axum, claiming that their ability to experience love for another individual signifies their freedom from the Collective. (His love is for her, but they won't say who hers is directed at.) The Imic and their adopted planet turn their attentions outward, looking for Borg to kill.
The world being lashes out at the Madborg cube, crippling it.
The planet attacks Korok's sphere.
Conclusion
Protected by the Best and its Scourge fleet, who are following Bedlam as it moves toward Borg space, Voyager undergoes repairs. Many of the crew who were Borgified have been returned to normal by the Doctor and a Scourge medical team. (Restoring them was not as difficult as usual, because they were only partially assimilated with nanoprobes, not full-fledged implants.) The rest of the crew is still undergoing treatment.
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