We learn that General Order 7 applies to the planet (violation of the quarantine is punishable by death, except for the periodic inspection and disarmament teams).
It's a trap, and the team is attacked with jets of chemical foam that blind and disorient them like tear gas. Tiburons swarm over them, giving the team some trouble with sheer numbers. Just as the team fights them off, they notice that the sun is going down.
Contacting the ship, the team finds out that somehow, the planet's rotation has speeded up, plunging their location into darkness prematurely. They ask to be beamed up immediately...and learn that the transporter is being blocked. They're on their own.
Flashback. POV Sintilla captain onboard a ship in orbit. He's lost contact with one of his teams on the surface. One of his shuttles approaches, with one bio sign that quickly vanishes...after which the shuttle crashes into the ship. The creature piloting it beams itself onto his ship, and the captain hears reports as the thing tears its way through the crew and equipment, approaching the bridge. The lift doors fly open. (Again, we cut away before getting a description of the attacking creature.)
As darkness falls, terrible sounds rise up around the team on the surface. Picard recalls that Zora's reengineering process was not entirely successful; her super soldiers only come out at night. (Away from Tiburon, they will remain transformed, as the change is triggered not only by light, but other environmental factors on their homeworld.) Ish metamorphoses into a monstrosity and attacks. They barely manage to hold her off and get behind closed doors. The transformed natives pound on the walls and door...then beam in. They have biological teleportation capabilities.
Flashback. Victorious, Zora marches onto the bridge of the captured Sintilla flagship. She rallies her troops and takes the helm (as the only qualified pilot of a warp-capable ship). She announces they're heading for the Sintilla homeworld; if the Sintilla are not extinguished, they will keep coming back to Tiburon.
Picard's team battles the Tiburon Nighttimers, which are super-strong, super-fast, indestructible, telepathic, and telekinetic, as well as being natural teleporters. Members of the team are killed. The others barely hang on.
Flashback. The day after the Sintilla defeat at Tiburon, Aktar is rendered lifeless. Incredibly, it only takes 25 transformed Tiburons to do the job. They start on the night side of the planet and work their way around the world as it turns, staying in the darkness.
The Enterprise team is saved when one of the security men, Pollux, a Lumen capable of generating bioluminescence, emits a sustained burst of bright light. Pollux's light burst drives the Tiburons back and disorients them, making them drop the jamming field long enough for the ship's transporters to beam them away. Before the team leaves, Geordi has a last look at Ish, who has half-reverted in the brilliant light. Again, he feels a stab of pity for her.
When Zora and her warriors return to Tiburon, the natives revert to their harmless alter egos upon exposure to direct sunlight. The Tiburons cannot aid her when Captain Pike and his away team from the Enterprise arrest her. The harmless versions don't even remember that they were transformed at all. She dies in prison, unrepentant and unreformed to the end. Starfleet implements General Order 7 and declares Tiburon off limits...but is unwilling to wipe out the inhabitants, though it could be easily done when they're in their dormant forms. Starfleet will settle for periodically revisiting Tiburon to keep warp technology out of the inhabitants' hands.
The next morning, in the light of day, the Tiburons have changed back to their harmless daytime forms. We see, however, that they are no longer so innocent; as they stand in the wreckage left by Starfleet, they resolve to find a way to get into space and take revenge on their oppressors. Their consciousnesses are completely separate from those of their nocturnal selves, and they aren't even aware that the Nighttimers are their own alter egos...but they are becoming similarly twisted.
FAIL CALL: Hearts of Darkness: "Sympathy for the She-Devil" - FAIL or UNFAIL?
FAIL! The editors at Pocket declined to move forward with Hearts of Darkness or any of the stories pitched for the book.
Green Blood
In 2004, I approached the editors at Pocket with another idea for an Enterprise novel. This one, titled Green Blood, revisited one of my favorite villains, Redjac. In the original series episode "Wolf in the Fold," we learn that Redjac traveled into space along with humanity. I thought it would be fun to tell the story of exactly how and when that happened.
Enterprise: Green Blood – FAIL or UNFAIL?
Are humans murdering Vulcans on a unique human/Vulcan scientific outpost? With tensions flaring between Earth and Vulcan, the Enterprise crew sets out to investigate. While vying for answers with a Vulcan investigative team led by a former colleague of T'Pol's, the crew discovers seemingly damning evidence implicating a human scientist...then exposes an anti-human faction among the Vulcans, a group that might be framing the humans to deepen the rift between Vulcan and Earth. All bets are off, however, when humans start turning up dead, as well. Bodies pile up...the outpost itself is threatened with destruction...and a secret force, a spirit of violence as old as mankind, is revealed as the true engineer of the deadly events: Redjac, the puppet-master who steered Jack the Ripper and has moved into space along with humanity. These events jeopardize Earth/Vulcan relations, as well as the still new and fragile restoration of Surak's teachings.
FAIL CALL: Enterprise: Green Blood – FAIL or UNFAIL?
FAIL! Once again, Redjac failed to seal the deal for a Trek novel with Pocket Books.
Dem Bones
Though Redjac blew it for the second time, I thought maybe Doctor McCoy could cure my no-Trek-novel blues. To that end, I pitched Pocket a McCoy-centric novel called...you guessed it...Bones.
Star Trek: Bones – FAIL or UNFAIL?
New light is shed on the life and career of Dr. Leonard McCoy, as a menace from his early days as a physician--a killer, sentient virus brought to life by irresponsible use of transporter medicine--returns to haunt him near the end of his life. Bones will reveal how a "simple country doctor" became a Starfleet legend; the story of McCoy's divorce and estrangement from his daughter; the real reasons he dislikes transporters and Vulcans; whether he ever reunited with Natira of Yonada; and what he did during the century between Star Trek Vi and "Encounter at Farpoint." Bones will also provide a closer look at the world of medicine in the 23rd and 24th centuries...and will show why transporter technology never became a miracle medical treatment and fountain of youth. Early in his career, McCoy is a proponent of the transporter therapies pioneered by his mentor, Dr. Rajiv Gupta; when a flesh-eating exo-virus turns uncontrollable (and self-aware) due to overuse of Gupta's transporter therapies--and claims the life of a loved one--McCoy rejects his mentor's work and sets out to halt an epidemic of the virus. McCoy's battle to destroy the virus will span his lifetime and the depths of space. In its wake, the super virus leaves planet after planet stripped of life, carpeted with fields of bones. McCoy wins the Legion of Honor award for repelling the viral epidemic...but late in life, he must halt the virus' march again before it can decimate the population of the Federation. McCoy is able to defeat the super virus with his usual combination of know-how, intuition, and determination...and some help from a promising young doctor named Beverly Crusher.
FAIL CALL: Star Trek: Bones – FAIL or UNFAIL?
FAIL! Bones himself may have been a fine surgeon, but the novel about him failed to make the cut. Too bad; I liked the idea of "transporter medicine" and explaining why it wasn't in widespread use. If it worked, why would anyone ever need a doctor anymore? You could just beam away your sickness or injuries and go about your business.
K'ehleyr's War
One of my favorite characters from The Next Generation, a character I'd always wanted to see more of, was Worf's lover, K'ehleyr. At the time, the editors were talking about a project they were then calling "Othertimes," in which novels set in alternate realities could feature Trek characters in surpr
ising new scenarios. This project, which later came to life under the title "Myriad Universes," seemed like the perfect opportunity to resurrect K'ehleyr. Though she was dead in the reality we knew from The Next Generation, I could write a book about her latest adventures by setting them in a parallel reality in which she hadn't been killed by Duras.
Star Trek: K'ehleyr's War – FAIL or UNFAIL?
Q: What if K'Ehleyr had survived the events of "Reunion?"
A: Duras would have survived, too...
K'Ehleyr lives! Without the need to avenge his lover's death, Worf does not kill Duras, whose role in the poisoning of K'empec is revealed. Gowron is chosen to lead the Empire...Duras is marked to stand trial...and Worf and K'Ehleyr, having nearly been separated forever, pledge to marry when the succession is complete.
Before Gowron can take the throne, however, he and the entire High Council are assassinated by Duras' Romulan-backed family of traitors, which includes Lursa, B'Etor, and Toral. Duras seizes power and ships Worf and K'Ehleyr to the Rura Penthe penal colony...while their son, Alexander, escapes into the capital city with the aid of a Klingon woman named Grilka (DS9: "The House of Quark").
While Duras and his Romulan patroness, Sela, work to turn their new subjects against the Federation, Worf and K'Ehleyr escape their captors and set out to retake the Empire. They join with Worf's brother, Kurn, in assembling what amounts to an army of women and old men--though the old men are legends like Kor, Kang, and Koloth, and the women are members of a secret warrior sisterhood called the puqbe' Hegh (daughters of death). Through the sisterhood, K'Ehleyr gains a deeper understanding of women's roles in Klingon society...an appreciation of Klingon ideas about honor (the women have a code of honor separate from that of the men)...and a call to greatness. This call spurs her to action when the puqbe' Hegh recover their own Excalibur, the long-lost Dagger of Lukara. According to suppressed, ancient texts, Lukara, wife of Kahless, was cofounder of the Empire but lost her power to her husband; the puqbe' Hegh are dedicated to restoring power to Klingon women and balance to Klingon society. Before embarking on the quest to overthrow Duras, K'Ehleyr embraces the philosophy of the puqbe' Hegh, then surprises everyone by claiming the dagger--and leadership of the rebellion--for her own.
Branded as fugitive traitors, the rebels are pursued by their own countrymen, including a general named Martok...and the relentless Reman hunter known as Shinzon. Even so, the rebels achieve hard-fought victories and move ever closer to their goal. The long struggle also brings Worf and K'Ehleyr closer to each other, forcing them to grow and overcome their differences. They often clash but never waver in their need to reach Qo'noS, retake the Empire, and rescue Alexander.
Then, someone comes between them...a Starfleet military advisor with Klingon ties, a Trill named Jadzia Dax. When Dax and Worf are isolated during a mission gone wrong and end up in each other's arms, K'Ehleyr leaves, taking half the rebel forces with her. Their pursuers deal crushing blows to the divided forces, and it seems that all hope is lost.
Everything changes when Alexander is captured. Duras promises to kill the boy unless Worf and K'Ehleyr surrender immediately. That is enough to reunite Worf and K'Ehleyr, though surrender is not what they have in mind. They outwit and destroy Shinzon, then gather their forces for a final strike at their enemies. Martok joins them.
As Duras' fleet prepares to invade the Federation, Worf and K'Ehleyr return to Qo'noS. The rebels storm the Klingon homeworld in a battle to end all battles. Worf ends up crossing bat'telhs with Duras...K'Ehleyr faces Lursa, B'Etor, and Sela...and the life of Alexander and the fate of the Empire hang in the balance.
FAIL CALL: Star Trek: K'ehleyr's War – FAIL or UNFAIL?
FAIL! Even a resurrected Klingon hottie could not save this one...at least not in our reality.
Voyager: Distant Shores
Though I wasn't getting any interest in my novel pitches, I did receive occasional invitations to pitch story ideas for Pocket anthologies. In 2004, I got an invitation to pitch for Distant Shores, an anthology marking the tenth anniversary of the premiere of Star Trek: Voyager. I wanted a spot in this book so badly, I came up with six pitches and sent them to the editor.
Star Trek: Voyager: Distant Shores - 6 Pitches – FAIL or UNFAIL?
1. "You Will NOT Be Assimilated!"
Seven of Nine finds herself coaching an alien species on being assimilated. The species is not technologically advanced or unique enough to attract the Borg's attention. They've worked hard at staying unremarkable and under the Borg's radar...but now, their sun is about to go nova, and the only way they can get away fast enough is to be assimilated and taken off-planet as Borg. Though the aliens have a secret weapon that they think will enable them to reject the Borg tech once they've escaped the nova, Seven isn't convinced they'll ever shake Borg control. Nevertheless, she helps the aliens to draw the Borg and appear valuable enough to be assimilated. Again finding herself in the position of aiding in a species' assimilation, Seven must come to terms with the residual guilt she feels over the atrocities she committed as part of the Collective.
2. "Finally, Someone on My Level"
Crewman Mortimer Harren--the cosmologist who was redeemed (to an extent) during a mission with Janeway in "Good Shepherd"--conducts an unauthorized experiment involving the bio-neural gel packs, an experiment that seemingly endows Voyager with self-awareness. A lonely (and insufferable) outsider, Harren becomes obsessed with communicating with the starship, which he finds more stimulating than any of his shipmates. Eventually, Harren comes to realize that he is falling in love with the Voyager intelligence. The ship has a lot to say about its crew and mission; however, what it says gradually becomes more erratic and shocking. Finally, Voyager tells Harren that she is going to self-destruct. Harren seeks help from Seven of Nine, and the two of them discover that the communications are not originating from the ship itself, but from a reclusive female crewman who is having a nervous breakdown. The ship isn't planning to self-destruct; the crewman is. After Harren and Seven prevent the crewman from hurting herself, Harren finds that she is attracted to him and was reaching out to him for help through the phony Voyager communications. Harren promises to help her through her troubles...and the spark of a relationship that can redeem them both is kindled.
3. "Dead Men Tell Tales"
Chakotay sees a familiar face in the background of a holodeck program (Fair Haven? Sandrine's?)...the face of a dead shipmate, Lt. Durst, who was killed by a Vidiian in "Faces." When Chakotay later switches to another program, he again sees Durst and follows him. Chakotay discovers that Durst's image is a vanity memorial programmed by Durst before his death to keep his memory alive by drifting through shipmates' holodeck experiences. Holo-Durst was programmed to activate if Durst himself didn't visit the holodeck after a certain period of time (meaning he was dead). Holo-Durst and Chakotay talk about life...and Chakotay decides not to deactivate him. In fact, Chakotay does some programming of his own, adding some other faces to the holodeck cast. Later, Paris tells him he thought he caught a glimpse of another departed shipmate (Ensign Jetal? Ensign Ballard?), but Chakotay dismisses his suspicions.
4. "Neelix Season"
After leaving Voyager (in "Homestead"), Neelix must defend himself and his Talaxian colony home from Hazari bounty hunters (or Hirogen). Naturally, the crew of Voyager left plenty of enemies behind when they returned to the Alpha Quadrant; there's a price on the heads of any crew members...and, unfortunately, Neelix is alone and within reach. Overcoming his initial feelings of guilt for bringing this threat down on his people, and defeating his own self-doubt over having to act without his Starfleet friends to back him up, Neelix devises a strategy that enables him to defeat the hunters. He leads them on a merry chase and kicks their butts with help from his new family, the asteroid-dwelling Talaxians.
5. "Harry Is My Friend"
Harry Kim quickly comes to regret being assigned to work on a tactical assignment with Bolian Crewman Chell (somewhat reformed since "
Learning Curve" but still on the "talkative, disruptive, and unreliable" side). Harry's friendly attitude is misinterpreted by Chell, who thinks they're best buddies and won't leave Harry alone. Finally, Chell's intrusions become too much, and Harry tells him to keep things professional. Chell reacts by becoming resentful and uncooperative; Harry can't seem to avoid him, and Chell makes his life miserable (while never quite giving Harry grounds for an official complaint). Eventually, the two have it out verbally...but must pool their efforts during an emergency situation and come to an understanding. (Which, in Chell's book, means he thinks that Harry is his best friend again...and the cycle continues.)
6. "On The Grapevine"
According to a rumor that spreads through the ship, the reason why Bajoran Crewman Tal Celes ("Good Shepherd") has been acting funny since leaving an alien world is that she was possessed by a hostile, non-corporeal lifeform. The rumor makes Tal's life difficult, disrupts shipboard routine, and finally reaches Janeway, who tries to nip it in the bud. However, in spite of disciplinary measures for rumor mongers and tests that reveal no alien influence, the rumor continues to thrive. It turns out that Tal has been acting strangely because she had a spiritual vision on the planet; the vision seemed to include a glimpse of her death in the near future. The vision comes to life when Tal must battle another crew member--one who actually is possessed by an alien lifeform and was the person who started the rumor to draw attention away from himself. In the end, Tal survives and defeats a being similar to the Pah-Wraiths of Bajor. Her faith, which had been flagging before all this, is reinforced.
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