The entire race thinks with one mind and strives toward one purpose: to add our biological distinctiveness to their own and wipe out individuality, to make every living thing Borg.In over two centuries, the Federation has never encountered a greater threat. Twice Starfleet assembled and threw countless starships to stand against them. The Borg were stopped, the price paid in blood. Humanity breathed a sigh of relief, assuming it was safe. And with the destruction of the transwarp conduits, the Federation believed that the killing blow had finally been struck against the Borg.Driven to the point of extinction, the Borg continue to fight for their very existence, for their culture. They will not be denied. They must not be stopped. The old rules and assumptions regarding how the Collective should act have been dismissed. Now the Borg kill first, assimilate later.When the Enterprise manages to thwart them once again, the Borg turn inward. The dark places that even the drones never realized existed are turned outward against the enemy they have never been able to defeat. What is revealed is the thing that no one believed the Borg could do.

    Nearly a decade after Captain Kirk vanished, his protege, Captain Hiraku Sulu of the USS Excelsior, leads a dangerous mission into uncharted political waters. Unprecedented peace talks with the violently xenophobic Tholian Assembly trigger a deadly confrontation aboard the Excelsior. Now Sulu and his crew - including Chekov, Rand, Chapel, Tuvok, and Akaar - are thrust into an unexpected conflict between the Tholians and a mysterious new enemy, the Neyel... whose origins, if revealed, could lead to war with Earth itself. As the Tholians weave a web of vengeance, the Excelsior is flung beyond the galaxy and the crew discovers the hidden truth about the alien Neyel, forcing Sulu to question where his responsibilities lie - with the fragile peace he must preserve, or with the victims of his own world's tragic past.

    His holographic excursions into 1940s San Francisco, a colorful world of gunplay and gangsters, provide a welcome diversion from his hefty responsibilities as a Starfleet captain.But not this time.The starship Enterprise has lost power and control, its own momentum carrying it ever deeper into a dangerous zone of warped space and time. And the only way out is hidden somewhere in the mean streets and back alleys of old Frisco. But so is a cold-blooded murderer…Now Dixon Hill, alias Jean-Luc Picard, must get to the bottom of a tangled mystery that threatens the lives of everyone aboard the Enterprise!

    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.

    Their victory sent shock waves through the Alpha Quadrant, and put the Dominion within striking distance of Vulcan, Andor, Tellar -- and possibly Earth itself.To secure their position in the very heart of the Federation, the Cardassians begin constructing the space station Sentok Nor in orbit of Betazed. The station is to serve as both the seat of the Dominion occupation and the site of horrific experiments by Cardassia's foremost exobiologist, the infamous Dr. Crell Moset. With Starfleet's forces spread too thinky in the ongoing struggle to retake Betazed outright, the U.S.S. Enterprise along with some old and new friends, is deployed to carry out a dangerous and desperate plan. But no matter what the outcome, the consequences could alter Betazed irrevocably, forcing Deanna Troi to choose between her world's survival and its very soul.

    Amoral, shrouded in secrecy, answerable to no one, Section 31 is the mysterious covert operations division of Starfleet, a rogue shadow group committed to safeguarding the Federation at any cost. Six months before their ultimate battle against the Borg for the fate of Earth, Captain Jean-Luc Piccard and the crew of the "USS Enterprise"™ face a very different kind of crisis. A world in turmoil becomes the focal point of conspiracies and betrayal as an unexpected reunion brings with it startling revelations. Old friends become bitter enemies and one young officer reaches a crossroad when he's forced to choose between the greater good of the Federation and the ideals for which it stands.NO LAW. NO CONSCIENCE. NO STOPPING THEM.

    At least that’s what the happy couple always told their friends. On the anniversary of that blessed day, however, Worf and Geordi La Forge manage to coax the real story out of the pair, to discover a tale of mythical treasure and a lost civilization in the Delta Quadrant. It all begins when the omnipotent being Q crashes the festivities, declaring himself best man and bringing along an unwilling guest as a surprise for the groom…

    Sometimes a brawl may break out but it's all in the family, more or less. Just remember, the first round of drinks is always paid for with a story...even beyond the final frontier. Captain James T. Kirk must join forces with Captain Hikaru Sulu, new commander of the U.S.S. Excelsior, to resolve a simmering political situation in a distant star system. For more than twenty years, the ancient enmity between Nykkus and Anjiri has resisted the best efforts of Federation diplomats. Now Kirk and Sulu have one last chance to end the bloodshed -- before it erupts into a full-scale interstellar war!

    Now an old-fashioned "gold rush" is underway as a flood of would-be prospectors, from countless worlds and species, races toward the planet to stake their claim.The galactic stampede threatens the stability of neighboring planets and space stations, as widespread strife and sabotage and all-around pandemonium result in a desperate need for Starfleet assistance. Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the Starship Enterprise are dispatched to deal with the escalating crisis... which lies on the other side of a famously perilous region of space known as the Antares Maelstrom.

    But when an alien spacecraft crash-lands in the South Pacific bearing visitors from another world, the Vulcans, Earth must decide whether to extend the hand of friendship, or the fist of war. In the distant future, horrible dreams torment Admiral James T. Kirk, dreams prompted by his reading of Strangers from the Sky, a book about that historic first contact. He dreams of an alternate reality where he somehow changed the course of history, and destroyed the Federation before it began.

    There are moments glimpsed only in shadow,      where darkness rules and evil incarnate thrives. You hope against hope that in your lifetime,      evil is relegated to the shadows.               But what if it wasn't? What if you lived in a universe where your life was measured only      by what you could do for the Empire?      What would you do to survive?      Would you sell your soul to free yourself?      If you were offered the chance to rule, would you seize it?      If you could free your universe from the darkness but only           at the cost of your life, would you pay that price? Age of the Empress (Star Trek: Enterprise)           Set in 2155. The story follows on directly from the end of In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II.              She seized power in a heartbeat, daring to place herself against all the overlords of the Empire. Empress Hoshi Sato knows the future that could be; now all she has to do is make sure it never happens. For her to rule, she must hold sway not only over the starship from the future but also over her warlords, the resistance, and her Andorian husband. As quickly and brutally as Hoshi seized power, imperial rule is taken from her. Her only chance to rule again is to ally herself with a lifelong foe, and an alien. The Sorrows Of Empire (Star Trek: The Original Series)           Set in 2267-2295              One man can change the future, but does he dare? Spock, intrigued by the vision of another universe's Federation, does what no Vulcan, no emperor, has ever done: seize power in one blinding stroke of mass murder. And at the same instant he gains imperial power, Spock sows the seeds for the Empire's downfall. Is this a form of Vulcan madness, or is it the coolly logical plan of a man who knows the price his universe must pay for its freedom? Sdlrow Htob Fo Tsrow Eht (The Worst of Both Worlds)           (Star Trek: The Next Generation) Set in September, 2371              Humanity is a pitiful collection of enslaved, indentured, and abused peoples. No one dares to question the order, except at peril of their lives. One man survives by blinding himself to the misery around him. However, Jean-Luc Picard resists, just once. And in that one instant he unlocks a horror beyond the tyranny of the Alliance. Can a man so beaten down by a lifetime of oppression stop the destruction?

    She has survived. But her homeworld, Deneva, one of the planets targeted in the massive Borg invasion, has not. The entire surface has been wiped clean of everything, killing anyone who did not evacuate and rendering the planet uninhabitable. Choudhury is left to wonder whether her family was one of the displaced. Or are they all gone forever?The Enterprise is just one ship, and Jasminder Choudhury is just one officer, yet her story is being repeated over and over across the galaxy. Hundreds of thousands of displaced persons haunt the space ways, seeking comfort, looking for someplace safe, somewhere, anyway to find solace. Captain Jean-Luc Picard is ordered to do everything he can to rescue and if need be to recover the lost souls from the Borg invasion.For the first time in generations, citizens of the Federation know want, uncertainty, and fear. Bloodied yet unbowed, the Federation now stands on the edge of a precipice. The captain of the Enterprise finds himself in the unenviable position of wondering whether it is true that those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace.

    The U.S.S. Enterprise, under the command of Captain Christopher Pike, responds. Starbase 18 lies in ruin. There are no survivors. And there is no clue as to who is responsible for the attack, until Captain Pike’s brilliant science officer discovers a means of retrieving parts of the station’s log. Lieutenant Spock has detected signs of a unique energy signature, one that he believes is Klingon. There are unsubstantiated reports that the Klingon Empire has made a technological leap forward and created a cloaking device—code-named Black Snow Seven—that can shield their ships from even the most advanced sensors. The destruction of the base and the unique energy signature that remains prove that the Empire has succeeded. For generations the Orions have been known as pirates,operating at the margins, outside of legal conventions. A proud and powerful race, the Orions were once a major force in the sector, and they have been using the tension between the Klingon Empire and the Federation to rebuild their power. Captain Pike is charged with trying to foster cooperation between the Orions and the Federation. A distress call from an Orion vessel offers him the perfect opportunity. But the Orion ship lies in disputed space long claimed by the Klingon Empire, and crossing it could be the spark that sets off an interstellar war.

    Yet though they remain tenuously allied, the Federation, the Romulans, and the Klingons are unready to become embroiled in another sustained conflict, forcing Ambassador Spock, Admiral Uhura, Admiral Chekov, Captain Saavik, and some unexpected allies to defy their governments in order to meet the new threat head-on. But the first blood drawn may prove to be among the dearest of all. Unknown to the defenders, the secret behind the Watraii's attack is buried in Vulcan's violent ancient past, during the time of Surak himself, when the proto-Romulans -- staunch opponents of Surak's reforms -- were compelled to take their chances among the cold and distant stars. Now Spock must begin the first leg of a long and dangerous road to learn the truth...before his hopes for the future become ashes.

    Here you can read a fresh and original take on Captain Benjamin Sisko's role on Deep Space Nine, Captain Kathryn Janeway's homeward journey with the crew of the Starship Voyager, Captain Archer's encounters with the Xindi -- and many more ports of call along the way.Strange New Worlds 9 includes stories from all five Star Trek incarnations:Star Trek: The Original SeriesStar Trek: The Next GenerationStar Trek: Deep Space NineStar Trek: Voyagerand Star Trek: EnterpriseThis year’s contributors include John Coffren, David DeLee, Steven Costa, Jeremy Yoder, Paul C. Tseng, Jim Johnson, Scott Pearson, Jeff D. Jaques, Emily P. Bloch, Gerri Leen, Mike McDevitt, Ryan M. Williams, Susan S. McCrackin, Russ Crossley, Catherine E. Pike, Allison Cain, A. Rhea King, Ben Guilfoy, Randy Tatano, Kenneth E. Carper, Kevin Lauderdale, Marc Carson, R. S. Belcher.