Introduction
I have been a Star Trek fan for many, many years. I watched the original
series. I waited in line at a movie theater to watch "Star Trek: the Motion
Picture," and when I was stuck at work on a weekend I dug out an old black-and-white
TV to watch the premiere of "Star Trek: the Next Generation." I collected
the action figures, I wore patches on my jacket, and I went to the fan
club meetings. I watched "Deep Space 9," "Voyager" and "Enterprise" come
and go.
Through it all, I always wondered: what would I do differently?
If I was to produce a Star Trek series, what would the story line be? How
would I do it? That's where this story comes from. I wanted to take
the Star Trek universe and put in my own characters --write my own stories.
This novel is the result of that dream: the first season of my imaginary
series. Each chapter could be considered one episode. It turned out much
more complex than I ever imagined. When I started this project, I certainly
had no idea it was going to run over 100,000 words.
For the sake of continuity, this story takes place in 2379, four years
after the end of the Dominion War (seen in "Deep Space 9"), one year after
the USS Voyager returned from the Delta Quadrant, and shortly after
the events in the movie "Star Trek: Nemesis."
This novel was written in November, 2006 as a project for National Novel
Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), but
it was something I'd been thinking about for a long time. My experience
with NaNoWriMo has been overwhelming positive, and I highly recommend it
for anyone looking to be a writer.
I don't have any qualms about putting this novel on the Internet, because
there's already so much Star Trek fan fiction out there (and I'll never
be able to sell this, anyway). I created my own pictures and maps to accompany
the text of the novel. This novel is also a work in progress; I may still
go back and change things. I hope you enjoy it.
--T.F.
|
