Product Description
From Earth to the edge of our galaxy and beyond, from the early days of warp flight to the latter half of the twenty-fourth century, humankind and its alien partners in the Federation have looked to their heroes to expand the limits of their knowledge. And as each generation's pantheon of heroes has passed on into legend, a new generation has risen to take its place.
So it was with the crew of the S.S. Valiant, the first Earth vessel to cross the galactic barrier. So it was with the crew of the Starship Stargazer and her fledgling commander, Captain Jean-Luc Picard. And so it was with the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D, the flagship of Starfleet, which Picard commanded with wisdom and temperate maturity.
Over the years, Fate has woven the voyages of these three vessels into a vivid skein of treachery and sacrifice, hardship and determination, tragedy and courage -- each step of the way demonstrating the immeasurable worth of the flawed but farseeing heroes who commanded them.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Chapter One
Carlos Tarasco of the S.S. Valiant stood in front of his captain's chair and eyed the phenomenon pictured on his viewscreen.
It was immense, he thought. No -- it was beyond immense. It stretched across space without boundaries or limits, a blazing vermillion abyss without beginning or end.
"Amazing," said Gardenhire, his redheaded ops officer.
Tarasco grunted. "You can say that again."
Sommers, the curly-haired brunette who was sitting next to Gardenhire at the helm controls, cast a glance back at the captain. "You still want to go through it, sir?"
"Do we have a choice?" Tarasco asked her.
The helm officer recognized it as a rhetorical question and returned her attention to her monitors. With her slender fingers crawling across her control dials like an exotic variety of insect, she deployed additional power to the propulsion system.
"Ready when you are, sir."
Was he ready? The captain drew a deep breath.
The phenomenon had puzzled him ever since it came up on the viewscreen earlier that day. Their optical scanners registered what looked like the universe's biggest light show, but there was nothing there as far as their other instruments were concerned.
Unfortunately, it wasn't merely a matter of scientific curiosity. Tarasco and his crew of eighty-eight had set out from Earth years earlier, aiming to chart a stretch of space from their home system to the farthest reaches of the Milky Way galaxy -- part of a sector that Terran astronomers had labeled the Alpha Quadrant.
They had almost completed their assignment when they encountered an unexpectedly powerful magnetic storm. At first, it seemed that they might be able to outrun the thing. Then they found out otherwise.
The storm caught them up and flung them light-years off course, well past what Tarasco's cartography team reckoned was the outer edge of the galaxy. If not for the readings their scanners took along the way, they wouldn't even have known which way was home.
But knowing the way was only half the battle. The storm had wrecked both their warp and nuclear impulse engines, forcing them to drift on emergency power until the crew could get them up and running.
Finally, after weeks of languishing under the glare of alien stars, Tarasco and his people got underway again. They knew that their trip back to Earth had been lengthened by nearly eleven months, but no one griped. They were just glad to be heading home.
And all had gone well from that point, the captain reflected. Until now, that is.
He couldn't be sure if the phenomenon had been there when the storm threw them so precipitously in the other direction, or if it had sprung up since that time. Certainly, their computer hadn't made any
(1 customer review)
See all customer reviews...