But the stakes are higher than anyone imagines, for the pull of destiny tugs at other souls who are swept into the vortex of the Prophets, remote and timeless beings who have set these events in motion. Yet the outcome of this struggle for the fate of one universe will ripple across many others, giving shape to a future that will prove to be greatest trial yet for the heroes of station Deep Space 9.

    Now, as part of the ongoing efforts to undo the disastrous fallout from the destruction of Praxis and with the help of aid supplies from the United Federation of Planets, reconstruction is in progress, and after years of slow going hindered by political pressures and old prejudices, headway is at last being made. But the peace process begun by the Khitomer Accords is still fragile just as the deadly plans of what is believed to be a hard-line Klingon isolationist group violently come to fruition. Yet the group thought responsible for the deadly attack has been dormant for decades, and its known modus operandi doesn’t match up to the manner of the strike. And further investigation leads to an unexpected revelation connected to the Gorkon conspiracy of 2293, and in particular one disgraced and very familiar Starfleet lieutenant….

    The final selections gathered here were chosen from an overwhelming number of entries by virtue of their originality and style. With wit, compassion, and an affection for all things Star Trek, these brand-new authors take us where Star Trek has never gone before. Their tales rocket across the length and breadth of Federation time and space, from when Captain Kirk explored the galaxy on the first Starship Enterprise™, through Captain Picard's U.S.S. Enterprise™ 1701-D and Captain Sisko's Deep Space Nine™, to Captain Janeway's Starship Voyager™, with many more fascinating stops along the way. Find out what happens in the Star Trek universe when fans -- like you -- take the helm!

    Kirk on the U.S.S. Enterpris NCC-1701-B, Montgomery Scott decides to leave Starfleet. A chance encounter with a mysterious woman named Guinan leads him to hitch a ride on the U.S.S. Jenolen -- which crashes into a Dyson Sphere, leaving only Scotty to survive suspended as a transporter pattern....Seventy-five years later, he is revived aboard the Enterprise-D -- on which Guinan serves as bartender. But fate has not finished with either Scotty or Guinan. The engineer hatches an audacious plan to travel back in time and rescue Jim Kirk the moment before he would vanish into the nexus and bring him back to the twenty-fourth century without damaging the timeline.Scotty's plan, however, does not go as expected. Though Kirk is rescued, the famed captain and the engineer, as well as Captain Picard, Guinan, and the crew of the Enterprise-D, are trapped in an altered past where there is no Federation, and no human race. Sarek of Vulcan leads a ragtag collection of species fighting a losing battle against the Borg, who have swarmed into the Alpha Quadrant and assimilated Earth.Starfleet's finest miracle worker must find a way to restore the timeline before the galaxy is overrun....

    Its most honored captain is in disgrace, its most celebrated starship in pieces, and the crew of that ship scattered among the thousand worlds of the Federation... Thus begins Prime Directive, an epic tale of the Star Trek universe. Following in the bestselling tradition of Spock's World and The Lost Years, Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens have crafted a thrilling tale of mystery and wonder, a novel that takes the Star Trek characters from the depths of despair into an electrifying new adventure that spans the galaxy. Journey with Spock, McCoy, and the rest of the former crew of the Starship Enterprise to Talin—the planet where their careers ended. A world once teeming with life that now lies ruined, its cities turned to ashes, its surface devastated by a radioactive firestorm—because of their actions. There, they must find out how—and why—this tragedy occurred and discover what has become of their captain.

    With wagon trains, ships, satellites and starships, humanity has chosen to seek out the new frontier, to explore new worlds, and to go where no human has gone before-even to the furthest reaches of the Delta Quadrant. There, Captain Janeway and the crew of the "Starship Voyager(TM) " have discovered many strange and wondrous civilizations...but few as alien as the Chiar. An advanced and scienti?c people who have made great strides with nanotechnology, the Chiar expanded internally rather than externally. Every inch of their planet is crawling with the tiniest bits and pieces of arti?cial intelligence imaginable, working in concert as the new lifeblood of this mechanical world. The people themselves are inseparable from their nanites, which layer their skin and provide extra limbs or senses as required.Caught up in a bitter civil con?ict, some Chiar will try to take advantage of their meeting with the crew of "Starship Voyager." They imagine that their homegrown nanites can harness the incredible power of the deadly Borg, and instead set in motion an experiment that goes devastatingly out of control.

    Enterprise has returned to dry dock to finish its refit before commencing its second five-year mission. The crew has been granted a two-week period of shore leave before preparations for their next voyage begins. Shaken by their encounter with V’ger, Kirk, Spock, and Sulu travel to their respective homes and must reflect upon their lives—now forever changed.

    Spock, and Dr. McCoy struggle to establish new lives apart from each other and the starship. The newly-promoted Admiral Kirk is placed in charge of a specially-created Starfleet division and attempts to defuse a critical hostage situation; Mr. Spock, who, in the midst of a teaching assignment on Vulcan, finds the one thing he least expected; and Dr. McCoy, whose unerring instinct for trouble lands him smack in the middle of an incident that could trigger an interstellar bloodbath.

    After scanning countless submissions for signs of style and originality, the judges are proud to report that the universe of amazing Star Trek writers just keeps expanding. Strange New Worlds IV features more than a dozen never-before-published stories spanning the twenty-third and twenty-fourth centuries, from the early days of James T. Kirk and his crew to the later generations of Captains Picard, Sisko, and Janeway. These memorable new tales explore and examine the past and future of Star Trek from many different perspectives. Join Strange New Worlds in its thrilling quest to uncover the most compelling Star Trek Þction this side of the Galactic Barrier!

    GREED. ENVY. WRATH. LUST. GLUTTONY. SLOTH.The Seven Deadly Sins delineate the path to a person’s downfall, the surest way to achieve eternal damnation. But there is a way out, a way to reclaim salvation: blame it on the demons—taunting you, daring you to embrace these sins—and you shall be free. The painful truth is that these impulses live inside all of us, inside all sentient beings. But alas, one person’s sin may be another being’s virtue.The pride of the Romulan Empire is laid bare in "The First Peer," by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore.A Ferengi is measured by his acquisition of profit. "Reservoir Ferengi," by David A. McIntee, depicts the greed that drives that need.The Cardassians live in a resource-poor system, surrounded by neighbors who have much more. The envy at the heart of Cardassian drive is "The Slow Knife,"by James Swallow.The Klingons have tried since the time of Kahless to harness their wrath with an honor code, but they haven’t done so, as evidenced in "The Unhappy Ones,"by Keith R.A. DeCandido.Humans’ darkest impulses run free in the Mirror Universe. "Freedom Angst," by Britta Burdett Dennison, illustrates the lust that drives many there.The Borg’s desire to add to their perfection is gluttonous and deadly in "Revenant," by Marc D. Giller.To be a Pakled is to live to up to the ideal of sloth in "Work Is Hard," by Greg Cox.

    Now a diplomat for the United Federation of Planets, Spock agrees to a bonding with Saavik, his former protege and an accomplished Starfleet officer in her own right. More than a betrothal but less than a wedding, the sacred Vulcan rite is attended by both Spock's father, Sarek, and a nervous young Starfleet officer named Jean-Luc Picard. Plans for the consummation of the pair's union are thrown off course when Spock receives a top-secret communication that lures him into the heart of the Romulan empire. Enmeshed in the treacherous political intrigues of the Romulan capital, undone by a fire that grows ever hotter within his blood, Spock must use all his logic and experience to survive a crisis that will ultimately determine the fate of empires!

    Spocks! One is the true First Officer of the Enterprise. The other is his complete opposite, a traitor whose very existence poses a grave threat to the crew, the ship, and the Federation itself. One of the Spocks must die. But which one ... ?

    And then Data was destroyed. Four years later, Data’s creator, Noonien Soong, sacrificed his life and resurrected his android son, who in turn revived the positronic brain of his own artificial daughter, Lal. Having resigned his commission, the former Starfleet officer now works to make his way on an alien world, while also coming to grips with the very human notion of wanting versus having a child. But complicating Data’s new life is an unexpected nemesis from years ago on the U.S.S. Enterprise—the holographic master criminal Professor James Moriarty. Long believed to be imprisoned in a memory solid, Moriarty has created a siphon into the "real" world as a being of light and thought. Moriarity wants the solid form that he was once told he could never have, and seeks to manipulate Data into finding another android body for him to permanently inhabit...even if it means evicting the current owner, and even if that is Data himself. ™, ®, & © 2013 CBS Studios, Inc. STAR TREK and related marks are trademarks of CBS Studios, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

    Now the Last Days are once again upon them, and a fiery star draws near. This is the Death-Bringer, the Eater of the World, whose coming heralds the end of all things....But to Captain Picard and the crew of the Starship Enterprise™; the Death-Bringer appears to be nothing but a rogue comet, easily destroyed. Picard faces a difficult dilemma: how can he save the Thanetians' rich and intricate civilization without destroying the very beliefs upon which their culture is based?This quandary is challenge enough, yet the captain's position becomes even more complicated when Deanna Troi discovers that, incredibly, the comet is alive!

    Kirk is the youngest man to be promoted to the rank of captain in Federation history. His crew consists of a first officer who finds him impetuous; a chief engineer who finds him arrogent; a chief medical officer who finds him trifling; and a helmsman who wants a transfer. But the young crew, which would later become the legendary space explorers, quickly puts aside their differences when a monstrous starship appears on their nascent flight path.