Pg.
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Dedication
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For Emmett:
Emmett L. Bennett, Jr. is my uncle, a now-retired classical scholar
and leading authority on the study of ancient Minoan and Mycenean clay tablets.
As the graduate assistant of Carl Blegen at the University of Cincinnati,
he played a key role in the decipherment of the Linear B syllabic script
in which most of those clay tablets were written, using the same skills
he had employed as a cryptographer in World War II.
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Part I: The Quality of Mercy
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Title is from The Merchant of Venice,
Act IV, Sc. i, from Portia's speech in defense of Shylock. Shylock
is one of the many trademark roles of Patrick Stewart's career as a Shakespearean
actor.
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Chapter 1 (May
21 - June 11, 2355)
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3
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Stardate 32217:
The stardate given for the Maxia Zeta incident in "The Battle" was 40217.3,
which would have been in 2363. The date has been adjusted accordingly.
In most of this novel, I have followed the convention that a stardate
"year" (from XX000.0 to XX999.9) corresponds to an Earth year from January
1 to December 31. This chapter is an exception; stardate 32217 would
be March 21 by that scheme, but I wanted Picard's 50th birthday (established
in his personnel
file in "Conundrum" as July 13) to be coming up soon.
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"The Battle" established that Bok's son (not
named there) was on his first mission as DaiMon when he clashed with Picard.
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The 75th Rule of Acquisition is "Home is where
the heart is, but the stars are made of latinum." (DS9: "Civil Defense")
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4
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We know a DaiMon is a Ferengi captain, so I
coined "GuiMon" to be the equivalent of an admiral (with a nod to Guilmon
from Digimon Tamers, a favorite anime series of mine).
I assume it's pronounced "Guy-mon."
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The Great River or Great Material Continuum
was established as a Ferengi belief in DS9: "Treachery, Faith, and the
Great River." The 43rd Rule is my own coinage.
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5
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The 25th Rule: "You pay for it, it's
your idea." (Worlds of Deep Space Nine: Ferenginar: Satisfaction is
Not Guaranteed)
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6
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Here I've attempted to explain why Starfleet
knew nothing but rumors about the Ferengi in early TNG, given what was
later established about how much commerce Ferenginar had with neighboring
powers such as Cardassia even before this point.
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8
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The Stargazer crewmembers in this chapter
(except where otherwise indicated) were created by Michael Jan Friedman
in his novel Reunion.
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My description of Picard's hair at this point
is based on his appearance in flashbacks to 2354 in "Violations."
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Miranda Vigo was established in "Bloodlines,"
but no relationship to the weapons officer Vigo was mentioned. Since
Mike Friedman made Vigo a Pandrilite, the name had to be a coincidence.
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9
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"the sixth-brightest
star in the Berengarian constellation of Maxia": In Bayer designation,
the stars of a constellation are assigned Greek letters in descending
order of brightness. Properly the name would be Zeta Maxia, but
we've seen inverted Bayer designations elsewhere in ST, for instance Ceti
Alpha and Kavis Alpha (in another non-Terran constellation). Berengaria
VII (first mentioned in TOS: "This Side of Paradise") is a Federation colony
world (it was slated for survey in ENT: "Bound" and mentioned as a Federation
world in DS9: "In the Cards").
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The existence of a Maxia constellation also
explains why, in "The Battle," Picard didn't recognize what DaiMon Bok
meant by "The Battle of Maxia." Since there would be numerous stars in Maxia,
the reference is not specific enough.
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10
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I named Lt. Schuster in honor of Michael Schuster,
who maintains a Stargazer
website and gave me lots of helpful advice for this chapter.
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11
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"Can you identify
them, Vigo?...": This line is from "The Battle," spoken
by Picard in a briefing when his memories began to intrude on the present.
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The events in paragraphs 4-6 are based on descriptions
from Mike Friedman's story "Darkness" in Tales from the Captain's Table.
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12
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By the end of this page, the crew has taken
the positions we see in Picard's flashbacks in "The Battle." In
this
image, I'm assuming the man on the left is Durand, the woman is Asmund,
and the man standing behind her is Schuster. (Luckily "Darkness" had Vigo
killed in the second strike, helping me explain why a human was at Tactical.)
The man in this
second image therefore had to be Ben Zoma, though it took some thinking
to explain why he was standing there and giving a weapons report.
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13
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From the start of this page through "We can't take another hit, Captain!" on p.
14 is from Picard's final flashback in "The Battle." The dialogue
is slightly different, though; in the episode he expressed frustration at
his imaginary crew's delay in executing his orders, but I assumed the real
crew was more prompt. I also needed to explain why the woman at helm
was reporting on shield status.
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14-16
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From "Damage report!"
on p. 14 to "Fire!" in para 4 of p.
16 is from the flashback in Picard's quarters earlier in "The Battle."
Again there is a discrepancy in crew responsibilities, in this case,
the man at Tactical (Schuster) reporting on engine status. Initially
I was prepared to dismiss the discrepancies as distortions of Picard's
memory, but I was ultimately able to explain everything except the inappropriate
uniform colors. I did make one change in dialogue, however; the navigator
actually gave the bearing as "seven mark nineteen," which I changed to
match Picard's course setting.
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The idea behind "the Picard Maneuver" is sound
if the enemy has lightspeed-limited sensors, but is hard to justify given
the ubiquity of FTL sensors in ST. Hopefully my explanation here makes
some sense. The idea behind the Constellation class's ability
to switch between pairs of nacelles comes from the fan technical community.
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The staticky view of the ship on p. 15 reconciles
Picard seeing the ship onscreen in "Darkness" with his failure to recognize
Ferengi designs in "The Last Outpost." This is also why I made the
ship a "Raider class" vessel (see p. 3) instead of the familiar Marauder.
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16
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Lisuni, an Ochati science officer, was a Stargazer
crewmember from the novel Vulcan's Heart by Josepha Sherman &
Susan Shwartz, set in 2344.
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16-18
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The abandoning of the ship was described in
Reunion and "Darkness," but I've elaborated on it here. I've
also chosen to disregard two details from "Darkness." That story said
the ship was abandoned due to an imminent warp-core breach, but it proved
too complicated to explain why there would be an expected core breach that
never happened, and why they wouldn't have known it didn't blow up. "Darkness"
also said they'd taken bodies with them, but I couldn't see them carrying
corpses in crowded shuttles and lifepods for ten weeks.
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18
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The description of rotating stators in Starfleet
gravity generators is an apparent contradiction (since stators are stationary
components), but it comes from p. 144 of the TNG Technical Manual
by Rick Sternbach & Michael Okuda, two guys who generally know what
they're talking about. I was willing to trust that they had a reason
for the terminology.
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20
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Picard's last log entry was seen recorded in
the Stargazer's computers in "The Battle."
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21
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Skimming off a planetary atmosphere has been
known to happen with meteoroids hitting Earth's atmosphere at shallow angles.
Also, the shape of the Stargazer's saucer section is not unlike
a skipping stone, and the concavity in its underside could possibly create
a vortex that could push the ship upward. I tested the idea using a
Galoob MicroMachine miniature of the Stargazer and a sink full of
water, and I did get a few minor skims when the angle was right. My
MicroMachines were also useful in plotting out the battle. Isn't it
great to be able to play with toys and call it work?
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Chapter
2 (May 22 - August 18, 2355)
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25
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Stroman was mentioned in Reunion. Yojaleya
was mentioned in "Darkness."
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27
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Batanides and Zweller are from "Tapestry."
Varley is from "Contagion," Keel from "Conspiracy," Vaughn from the DS9
novels, DeSoto from various TNG episodes, and Gold from SCE/Corps of
Engineers. Picard's sister-in-law Marie and estranged brother
Robert are from "Family."
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Phillipa Louvois, her relationship with Picard,
and the events of the court-martial were established in "The Measure of
a Man."
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28
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Picard showing Jack's body to Beverly is from
"Violations." The story of Jack's death was told in Reunion.
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"Measure of a Man" claimed that a full court-martial
is routine when a ship is lost, but in reality, what's routine is a court
of inquiry, which is an investigative hearing. A court-martial is
called only if an indictment is made. I tried to rationalize it by
taking "lost" more literally, suggesting negligence.
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30
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The form of the charges and procedures are
based on various precedents from military law, including the US Manual
for Courts-Martial.
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Excessive force in a combat situation is not
a specific charge I could find in the US Manual, but I felt that
Starfleet would have such a charge, especially given Directive 010 (see
p. 38).
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US regulations forbid the accusing party from
sitting on the court-martial panel. This was not the case as of TOS:
"Court-martial," since Commodore Stone both filed the charges and chaired
the panel. But I think it's a sensible rule, so I assumed it was
instituted later.
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31
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Jerusalmi's explanation about conflict of interest
in military vs. civilian courts is based on information from my colleague
Dayton Ward, a military veteran. Other ST precedents include Areel
Shaw prosecuting Kirk in "Court-martial" and Riker prosecuting Data in "The
Measure of a Man."
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32
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"Faster than light,
no left or right": A "rule" established in VGR: "Fury." At
first blush it implies that turning at warp is always forbidden, but that
contradicts many episodes of ST, and the dialogue from "Fury" leaves some
room for interpretation.
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34
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Early TNG showed a Starfleet dedicated to peaceful
exploration, but "The Wounded" later revealed that Starfleet had been at
war with Cardassia until the third season. Here I try to address
that discrepancy.
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35
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"These are not the
dark ages when prosecutors routinely framed innocent defendants simply to
bolster their own win-loss records!": Unfortunately, we do live
in those "dark ages" right now. Prosecutorial abuse in the United
States is epidemic.
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Chapter
3 (August 21-23, 2355)
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36
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T'Lara also appears briefly
as an Enterprise helmswoman in TOS:
Mere Anarchy Book 4: The Darkness Drops Again.
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My portrayal of the court-martial was based
on this deleted passage from the script for "The Measure of a Man":
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PICARD
The Stargazer court-martial. It should have been a routine
hearing. Yes, I had lost my ship, but my actions were entirely justified.
Phillipa was assistant to the prosecution. She dug up every obscure
case and citation and the panel hammered at me for three days. It damn
near ended my career. It did end us.
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38
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Directive 010 was established in VGR: "In the
Flesh."
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44
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The Atrean species was seen
in "Inheritance." The A7 computer expert rating is equal to Spock's
as of TOS.
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45
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The term "Picard Maneuver" for the warp jump
was established in "The Battle." Behind the scenes and in fandom,
it came to be applied to Patrick Stewart's habit of pulling down the hem
of his uniform tunic (though this was hardly unique to Stewart -- see Spock's
death scene in TWOK).
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46
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Juanita Valderrama was the Stargazer's
science officer as of 2333, seen in the SGZ novels Gauntlet and
Progenitor by Mike Friedman.
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48
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"Ice giant" is currently the preferred term
for planets such as Uranus and Neptune, which contain high proportions
of ices and ice-forming substances like water, methane and ammonia, as
opposed to Jupiter-type gas giants which are mostly hydrogen and helium.
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49
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Polyphemians are named for Polyphemus the Cyclops,
son of Poseidon (Neptune).
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The date of the Crushers' wedding was established
in "Family." The extensive time spent together by Picard and the
Crushers was established in "Attached" and elsewhere.
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The Acamarian Gatherers are from "The Vengeance
Factor."
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Red dwarf stars are typically prone to intense
x-ray flares, especially early in their lifespans.
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55
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To beg the question
is to phrase a question in a way that presupposes one's desired answer,
e.g. "Do you still beat your wife?" The phrase is often misused to
mean "to create/raise the question," perhaps by confusion with "to beget
the question."
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56-57
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The Menthar-Promellian war was established
as an archaeological interest of Picard's in "Booby Trap." The Gorn
contact, of course, was seen in TOS: "Arena."
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Chapter
4 (August 24-25, 2355)
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60
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"I daresay you even
took pleasure from it": Normally, a prosecutor would know better
than to commit flagrant misconduct during a trial. According to Tim Fischer,
a lawyer friend of my father's whose name I misspelled as "Jim Fisher"
in the acknowledgments (sorry), misconduct findings are usually arrived
at on appeal and tend to be based on dry things like failure to disclose
defense evidence or improper instructions in closing. To justify Phillipa
going over the line in cross-examination, I figured she must have gotten
unduly excited by arguing with her lover. Admittedly that's unflattering
to her, but less so than portraying her as incompetent.
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"The Measure of a Man" established that Phillipa
had left Starfleet after the court-martial, and that she felt she had
been forced out while Picard believed "that was
your own damn stubborn pride." The fact that she eventually
returned suggests that her misconduct could not have been too serious,
supporting Picard's interpretation.
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63
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The "seek out new
life/boldly go" passage was established as coming from a Zefram
Cochrane speech in ENT: "Broken Bow." |
64-65
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The post-Stargazer career paths of Ben
Zoma and the others were established in Reunion.
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65
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Professor Galen (Norman Lloyd) was established
as Picard's mentor in "The Chase."
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66
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"I am the captain of my soul" is the closing
line of the poem "Invictus"
by William Ernest Henley. At this point, Picard does not share the
confident, defiant attitude of the poem.
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Note: The short story "Darkness" in Tales from the Captain's
Table occurs approximately two months after this chapter. According
to it, after the court-martial, Picard goes into a downward spiral of drinking
and depression until Ben Zoma pulls him out of it. He remains uncertain
of his fitness for command, and the events of "Darkness" begin to renew
his confidence -- although for my purposes it had to be a limited recovery.
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Part II: Rounded With a Sleep
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From The Tempest, Act IV, Scene
i. Prospero says "We are such stuff /
As dreams are made on, and our little life / Is rounded with a sleep."
Prospero is another role Patrick Stewart is noted for playing.
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Chapter 5 (October
24, 2358)
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70
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A typical doctoral program in archaeology can
take seven to ten years.
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71
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Iconia is from "Contagion" and DS9: "To the
Death." The Sargonians are my term for Sargon's people in TOS: "Return
to Tomorrow." Organia is from TOS: "Errand of Mercy." Kurl is
from "The Chase." Talos IV is from TOS: "The Cage." Clan Ru is
from TOS: First Frontier by Diane Carey & Dr. James I. Kirkland.
Others are my own coinages.
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According to Memory Alpha, the
University of Alpha Centauri and its role in Tagus III research were established
in "Qpid." I'm not sure where in the episode this was mentioned,
though. It may be from background dialogue or graphics.
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71-2
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...even an expert
couldn't keep track of every civilization: To explain
why Picard was unfamiliar with the Tkon Empire in "The Last Outpost."
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72
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Aldea and its legendary status were established
in "When the Bough Breaks."
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Kalandans are from TOS: "That Which Survives."
Fabrini are from TOS: "For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched
the Sky" and are featured in my novel Ex
Machina. Cheron is from TOS: "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield."
The Shedai are from the Vanguard novel series.
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74
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The description of species billions of years
ago expanding across the galaxy and finding themselves alone is consistent
with what was revealed about the First Humanoids in "The Chase," although
at this point, Picard does not yet know of them.
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75
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The Peliar Zel natives
were a frequently-seen background species in 24th-century ST, though only
named in "The Host."
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Thasians are from TOS: "Charlie X."
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76
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In ST canon, there are no known ancient civilizations
between 300 million years ago (TAS: "Beyond the Farthest Star") and 87
million years ago ("Masks").
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The Permian-Triassic
extinction event really happened. Of course, the idea that simultaneous
extinction events happened on other worlds is purely conjectural.
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78
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her statements about
her past ... could not always be taken at face value: In "The
Child", Guinan told Wesley that she'd never met Picard before boarding the
Enterprise, but later episodes established a long, close mutual
friendship between them. Therefore she must have been pulling Wesley's
leg. The fact that he'd just told her "People say you're very old" may
have had something to do with it...
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Picard and Guinan's first meeting is depicted
in SGZ: Oblivion by Mike Friedman.
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79
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As mentioned before, Carl Blegen was a famous
archaeologist who worked at the University of Cincinnati, and my uncle
Emmett was his grad student. Some of my manuscript revisions for The
Buried Age were done in the Blegen Library at UC.
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New Samarkand:
Samarkand has historically been one of the greatest cities in Central
Asia and one of the oldest in the world. It was the capital of the
empire of Timur (Tamerlane), a descendant of the Mongol and Turkish horse
nomads of Central Asia. Such horse nomads were the probable inspiration
of the centaurs of Greek myth, for which Alpha Centauri is named.
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Dr. Miliani Langford:
In "Rascals," Picard mentions that a female Dr. Langford has invited him
on an archaeological dig.
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80
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"Darkness" took place while Picard was en route
to meet his former second officer Elizabeth Wu, now a civilian researcher.
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82
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The ruins of Ligillium and the Zaterl Emerald
are mentioned in "Devil's Due."
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84
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"Centauri VII" was
actually the second planet of Centauri B, added to the five around the A
star: Centauri VII was established as an inhabited world in TOS:
"Requiem for Methuselah." But according to recent simulations performed
by Elisa Quintana et al., the gravity of Alpha Centauri B would have prevented
more than 3-5 planets from forming around Centauri A (with A's gravity allowing
only 2-4 around B). Quintana's simulations generally place either
the second or third planet (or both) in Centauri A's habitable zone, which
is why I went with Centauri III instead of the Centauri IV seen in TOS: Crisis
on Centaurus.
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85
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Centauri was two billion
years older: It's an occupational hazard for SF writers that
the scientific process sometimes outraces the publication process. In
late April 2007, scientists using a technique bearing the really cool name
of "gyrochronology," which calculates stellar ages from their rotation rates
and seems to be more precise than earlier methods, released a paper stating that Alpha Centauri
appears to be roughly 3.9 billion years old, about half a billion years
younger than our Sun. This isn't confirmed yet, though, and different
methods give widely divergent age values. Read more about it here:
http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=1237
Update 4/25/12:
Not to worry -- the latest research constrains Alpha Centauri's age to
around six and a half billion years, give or take 300 million (Analysis of alpha Centauri AB including seismic constraints). So the age figure I used in the novel was right after all.
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Chapter
6 (mostly December 6-27, 2358)
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88-90
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Picard's research lasts throughout November
2358.
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89
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OB associations are clusters of young stars
containing a large percentage of superhot white O stars and blue B stars.
Antares, however,
is a red supergiant with a B-type companion.
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The song "Beyond Antares"
was sung by Uhura in TOS: "The Conscience of the King."
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90
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The stars themselves
would have completed more than one full orbit around the galactic core in
that time: The Sol System takes about 200 million years to complete
a galactic orbit. Other stars at similar distances from the core would
presumably have similar orbital periods.
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97
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The Galen border conflicts with the Talarians
were established in "Suddenly Human." The building tensions with
Cardassia at this time were established in Chapters 18 and 20 of VGR: Mosaic
by Jeri Taylor.
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My use of "Scorpius Reach" for the region stretching
out in the direction of Scorpius (and my use later in this book and in
Orion's Hounds of "Cygnus Reach" for the region containing
Deneb) follows the use of "Taurus Reach" in the Vanguard series of
books. It is not a real astronomical usage, but it sounds cool.
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Stefcia Janasz was named in honor of Anna Dorothea
Janasz, mother of Michael Ventris. Ventris collaborated/competed
with my uncle Emmett on the decipherment of Linear B and ended up being the
one who successfully solved the problem. I'm indebted to the book
The
Man Who Deciphered Linear B by Andrew Robinson (not the DS9 actor/director)
for details on Ventris's work.
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98
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Cleopatra's Needle:
Name given to various famous Egyptian obelisks, one in London, one in
New York City, one in Paris. Since the Stargate film and
TV series featured an Egyptologist named Dr. Catherine Langford, I considered
inserting a reference to an Egyptologist ancestor of Miliani's, but decided
that would be cumbersome and settled for this oblique reference.
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Note: The expedition is
launched on January 10, 2359.
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Chapter
7 (mostly April 20 - May 21, 2359)
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101-3
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Covers January to April 2359.
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101
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Scalos water is from TOS: "Wink of an Eye,"
and has the ability to accelerate people to superspeed.
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102
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Argelians are a hedonistic culture from TOS:
"Wolf in the Fold."
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Allis the Kobheerian linguist
is an homage to Alice Kober, who also collaborated/competed with Michael
Ventris and Uncle Emmett on deciphering Linear B.
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103-4
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My description of the innermost planet is perhaps
slightly sensational, but based on current research. Many such "hot
Jupiters" have been detected in exoplanet searches, since such large planets
so close to their stars are the easiest kind to detect by their effect
on their stars' motion.
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The Jovians here are respectively of Sudarsky
classes IV, III, and II as described in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appearance_of_extrasolar_planets.
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104
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Caldonians are from
"The Price."
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Pacifica is an ocean planet mentioned in "Conspiracy"
and seen in "Manhunt." In the Titan series it is the homeworld
of the Selkie species; however, it does have some small land masses, and
thus does not qualify as an ocean planet in the current scientific sense,
i.e. a world with oceans dozens of kilometers deep and no land whatsoever.
It's unlikely that a true ocean planet would be inhabited, since life
in the oceans depends on nutrient runoff from the land.
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106
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The Mabrae are named for the faerie queen Mab,
mentioned in Romeo and Juliet. Their proper names are
all derived from Shakespearean mystical creatures or forests (e.g. Tanebor
from Titania & Oberon, Coray from Sycorax).
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108
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The Mabrae's appearance is based on a fountain not far from my neighborhood, depicting
a nude woman adorned in strategically placed vines and flowers, with her
lower limbs transforming into (or being transformed from) fluted stone
columns. My bus went by that fountain while I was trying to decide
what the Mabrae would look like.
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Chapter
8 (June 2 - September 4, 2359)
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117
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Potassium-40 and uranium-235 dating:
Radiocarbon dating is more famous, but it only works on organic remains
less than about 60,000 years old, about ten times the half-life of carbon-14.
Beyond that age, there is too little undecayed carbon-14 left to measure.
Radioisotope dating on older or inorganic samples can be conducted
using other elements, if their half-life is long enough. Potassium-40
has a half-life of 1.28 billion years, U-235 a half-life of 700 million years.
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hyponeutronium: A number of ST episodes
have depicted structures made of "neutronium," including the Doomsday
Machine, the Dyson Sphere from "Relics," and the door to Dominion Headquarters
on Cardassia. This is impossible, since true neutronium would be too
dense and have too strong a gravitational pull to function as a building
material, and probably could not exist outside the pressure and gravity of
a neutron star anyway. Hence I've taken a cue from Diane Duane, who
coined the term "hyponeutronium" for an ultradense substance in TOS:
My Enemy, My Ally.
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122
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Tetryons were established as subspace particles
in "Schisms."
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124
|
argument of perigalaction:
Perigalaction would be the point in a star's orbit that brings it closest
to the center of the galaxy. The argument of perigalaction
would be the angle between that point and the point where it crosses the
reference plane of the galaxy from south to north.
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127
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Mary Kingsley was a British explorer who was
the subject of my senior thesis
in history.
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Onna Karapleedeez was mentioned in passing
in "Conspiracy" as a prominent starship captain who had recently died
under suspicious circumstances. Picard's sharp reaction at the mention
of the name implies he knew Karapleedeez.
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Since Kathryn Janeway is aboard the Kingsley,
I timed its departure to match the events of Chapter 20 of VGR: Mosaic.
The chapter begins in January of the year, and a section four months
later has her considering "a command post on
a deep space mission that would depart for the Beta Quadrant in three months"
(p. 254). The chapter is set in the year following her father's
death, which we know from VGR: "Coda" was no later than 2358.
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Chapter
9 (September 20-27, 2359)
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130
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Proserpina is of course a mythological reference,
but it's also a veiled Shakespearean reference, since she's mentioned in
(appropriately) The Winter's Tale.
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132
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Metamaterials are being
researched for possible applications in "cloaking" objects against radar
or rendering them transparent to cell-phone signals. They're touted in the
press as the beginnings of "cloaking device" technology, but are unlikely
to provide true invisibility for the reasons Picard describes.
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132-3
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The description of the bubble trails is based
on footage I've seen from lakes beneath the Antarctic ice. They're
really beautiful, and I tried feebly to capture the wonder of them here.
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133-5
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The architecture of the base is inspired by
Stephan Martiniere's cover art, which I first saw two days after writing
this scene, necessitating a rewrite. My original descriptions were
much more bland and the discovery sequence had much less suspense and atmosphere.
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Technology that can draw power from ambient
heat and other energy is not so amazing after all. Scientists have
already developed prototypes for acoustic
heat engines that can convert heat into electricity. In the longer
term, programmable
matter may also have energy-absorbing properties.
|
137-8
|
Freezing something in time is fanciful, but
the rest is (I hope) a reasonably sound extrapolation from quantum physics,
mostly the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.
|
138
|
A Bose-Einstein
condensate is a state of ultracold matter where the particles overlap
and behave coherently like a single quantum waveform. It's kind of
the material equivalent of a laser beam, and has applications in quantum
computing.
|
139
|
ACB: Annular
confinement beam, the component of a transporter beam that contains the
matter stream and expels air from the destination site.
|
142
|
I made Onna Karapleedeez a Kreetassan because
of the similar-sounding names. The Kreetassans' prickly nature and
taboo against eating in public were established in ENT.
|
143
|
The Hokule'a Class is a non-canonical
starship class introduced by the Star Trek Encyclopedia. Its
appearance is unknown, though some fan designers have portrayed it as
a variant Excelsior class with downturned nacelle pylons.
|
144
|
Ensigns Wright and Sabar are named for two
TNG writers, Herb Wright and Robert Sabaroff.
|
Chapter
10 (September 27 - October 1, 2359)
|
145
|
The death of Janeway's father was depicted
in Mosaic Ch. 18 and described in VGR: "Coda."
|
147
|
Picard saving the Stargazer when its
captain was killed was established in "Tapestry."
|
|
A Grankite
Order of Tactics award for the Picard Maneuver is seen in Picard's
family album in Generations.
|
149
|
Heisenberg compensator:
See note on p. 74 of Ex Machina
Annotations.
|
150
|
Dan Legato is named for TNG's visual effects
producers Dan Curry and Robert Legato.
|
152
|
The Pre-Cataclysm aliens here are "cameos"
by aliens I've created for my original SF. The only one that's seen
print so far is the Chirrn, the kangaroo-bodied
species with bulging eyes.
|
|
"Bolus":
It stands to reason that Kreetassan profanities would pertain to eating
and swallowing.
|
153
|
all great Neptune's
oceans will not wash it clean: Paraphrasing Macbeth's lament
about the blood on his hands.
|
154
|
Dr. Lenama is a Lorini, the name that the people
of Yonada adopted upon settling on Daran IV according to Ex Machina.
His name is derived from the name "Leonard McCoy."
|
|
nucleosomes:
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nucleosome.
|
158
|
My description of Ariel's brow coloration was
inspired by the Kyoshi
warriors of Avatar: The Last Airbender.
|
Chapter
11 (October 3-4, 2359)
|
164
|
"I wouldn't say that,
exactly": After writing this novel in which Kathryn Janeway
meets a character described as "a living universal
translator," I learned that in VGR: "Hope and Fear," set over
15 years later, Janeway says "I can't say
I've ever met a living universal translator." Thus it was
necessary to figure out why Janeway would not define Ariel in those terms.
|
165
|
a clear, throaty alto:
The voice I imagined for Ariel was Claudia Black's.
|
173
|
Platonians are from TOS: "Plato's Stepchildren,"
Omegans from TOS: "The Omega Glory."
|
174
|
Mark Johnson is Janeway's fiance, seen in VGR:
"Caretaker" and Mosaic. Justin Tighe was her first fiance
in Mosaic, killed with her father in Ch. 18.
|
| Chapter 12 (October
5 - November 5, 2359) |
176
|
The pod ship from Questar M-17 is from TAS:
"Beyond the Farthest Star." This discussion is an afterthought; I
didn't realize its similarities to the Proserpina base's technology until
well after I wrote this part of the book.
|
179
|
The Perseus Arm is the next galactic arm out
from our own Orion Arm. It is several thousand light-years from
the explored space around the Federation, according to Star Trek Star
Charts.
|
186
|
Picard's equanimity at the prospect of cyborg
enhancement is, of course, a bit of ironic foreshadowing. It's still
several years before he meets the Borg.
|
|
Note: The expedition reaches Alpha Centauri at roughly the
end of 2359.
|
|
Part III: Brave New World
|
|
From The Tempest, Act V, Sc. i. Miranda
says, "O brave new world, that has such people
in it." Miranda Jones paraphrased this in TOS: "Is There
in Truth No Beauty?"
|
Chapter 13 (January
3 - February 1, 2360)
|
194
|
Trelka is a system in Cardassian space, home
to a Dominion base in DS9: "Once More Unto the Breach" (another Shakespeare
connection).
|
196
|
Timur's Peak:
See note about New Samarkand, p. 79.
|
200
|
Dr. Denis is named in honor of Denise Okuda,
the video playback supervisor and unofficial medical consultant for TNG
and later ST series.
|
|
"the kind of rapid
evolution that can occur on transition to a new environment, where noticeable
change can occur within a few hundred or thousand years": Recent
research has suggested that this is indeed the case, and that the change
can even come faster depending on the species. See, for example: http://www.science-spirit.org/archive_cm_detail.php?new_id=482
|
201
|
The mind-transfer technology of Camus II is
from TOS: "Turnabout Intruder." The assertion that the same technology
appeared on Eris Alpha and Kandoge is from ENT: What Price Honor
by Dave Stern.
|
202
|
Some works of ST tie-in fiction have presented
the Organians as an active presence in the decades following "Errand of
Mercy," or sought to explain their "disappearance" by the TOS movie era.
However, given that "Errand" portrayed them as isolationists who
found interaction with humanoids distasteful, that seems to provide a ready
explanation for their lack of intervention in conflicts not directly involving
Organia.
|
204
|
The Tzenkethi are a species
that fought a war with the Federation sometime before TNG/DS9. Benjamin
Sisko was promoted to lieutenant commander during the war, according to
DS9: "Homefront." Since Sisko is seen as a lieutenant in 2360 in TLE:
Catalyst of Sorrows, this would presumably put the Tzenkethi
War sometime between Parts III and IV of this novel. (I avoided specifics,
though, since there are still plans to do a TLE novel about the Tzenkethi
conflict.)
|
|
Riva was a legendary Federation ambassador
seen in "Loud as a Whisper." Sarek's ongoing prominence in Federation
diplomacy was established in "Sarek" and "Unification." The lack of
fighting during a nominal state of war is another attempt to reconcile the
peacetime conditions of early TNG with "The Wounded"'s assertion that the
war did not end until 2366. There are real precedents; North and South
Korea are still officially at war despite the lack of fighting for over half
a century.
|
206
|
The term "Introdus" for the retreat of a civilization
into virtual reality comes from the fiction of Greg Egan.
|
210
|
Picard's love of Dixon Hill adventure stories
was established in "The Big Goodbye," whose author Tracy Tormé was
credited as the author of the Dixon Hill tales on a graphic in the episode.
|
211
|
The Organians who explore by possessing others'
bodies were seen in ENT: "Observer Effect."
|
212
|
The Breen are a mysterious and
hostile race mentioned in "Hero Worship" and Generations and seen in
DS9. The Sheliak
and the Treaty of Armens are from "The Ensigns of Command." Star
Trek Star Charts placed Breen territory in the direction of Sheliak.
|
Chapter
14 (February 9-15, 2360)
|
213
|
The description of Starbase 20's architecture
is inspired by Starbase
11 from "The Menagerie." The deep greenish-blue of the sky suggests
it orbits an M-type red dwarf, which would give off little blue light
for the atmosphere to scatter. The diminished scattering helps make
the orbital drydock more visible from the ground.
|
220
|
The Darwin Research Station was seen conducting
genetic engineering experiments on human children in "Unnatural Selection,"
conflicting with what DS9 and ENT later established about the ban on human
genetic engineering. The term "Augment" was used in ENT to refer
to the genetically enhanced humans from the Eugenics Wars.
|
221
|
"...the fourth time
you've asked for our help": The previous three would be consulting
Varley for Starfleet navigation charts (p. 96-7), calling in the Kingsley
at Proserpina, and asking Starfleet to investigate candidate Manraloth
worlds (p. 205).
|
|
The TNG Technical Manual postulated
that the Galaxy Class was under construction as early as
2350, with the USS Galaxy being commissioned in 2357. However,
onscreen references in "Booby Trap" and "Eye of the Beholder" implied
a much shorter construction time. Because of this and for story
reasons, I have assumed a later launch date for the Galaxy
(see p. 309).
|
222
|
The Yamato was established in "Where
Silence Has Lease" and seen under Donald Varley's command in "Contagion."
The TNGTM established it as the second Galaxy-class starship
to be constructed.
|
223
|
"But flowers distill'd...":
The final couplet of Shakespeare's Sonnet 5.
|
|
In-story, the Portia is probably named
after the leading lady of The Merchant of Venice; however, I actually
named it after the Portia from Julius Caesar, who was unaware that
her husband Brutus was planning an act of treason and murder. Just
a little thing we call "foreshadowing"...
|
|
It seemed appropriate to make the Portia
a Miranda-class ship, since Miranda is also a Shakespearean
character. The "science configuration" of the Portia is the
same as that of the Saratoga
in DS9: "Emissary" (see also: http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/schematics/miranda-modified2.jpg).
The "sturdy construction" of the Miranda class is my explanation
for why they're still in service after nearly a century.
|
224
|
The main crew of the Portia is named
in honor of TNG directors, while the scientists are named for TNG composers.
The exception is Shawn Rider, who is intended to be the transporter
chief Michael Rider
played in several early TNG episodes.
|
225
|
Starbase G-6 was where Deanna Troi was dropped
off for a brief visit home in "Hide and Q."
|
|
Grazerites were introduced
in DS9: "Homefront"/"Paradise Lost."
|
227
|
Data's computational speed was established
in "The Measure of a Man," and is a fraction of today's fastest supercomputer
speeds. He may have been designed to process data relatively slowly
so as to be able to interact on a human level.
|
228
|
Data's discovery on Omicron Theta was established
in "Datalore." The stated stardate corresponds to February 2, 2338,
his activation date according to his personnel
file. His composition was established in "The Most Toys."
|
|
Data's difficulty perceiving the social and
emotional subtext necessary to understand idiomatic speech is similar to
that experienced by humans with Asperger's Syndrome and other autistic
disorders. Data might have benefitted from reading An
Asperger Dictionary of Everyday Expressions, a reference book that
helps explain idioms and metaphors to people with Asperger's and related
conditions.
|
229
|
Data's limited career and social advancement
here is an attempt to explain why Data was so clueless about humanity
at the start of TNG despite being 26 years old.
|
|
In the flashback to 2364 in "All Good Things,"
Data seems to react to Picard as though they have never met before, but
nothing in the dialogue makes this explicit. I felt it was more logical
to assume that they had a prior acquaintance given their close mentor-pupil
relationship in TNG, and given that Picard was more accepting and patient
toward Data than many others in Starfleet were, as though he'd already
been won over.
|
Chapter
15 (March 4-13, 2360)
|
233
|
Kitalpha is Alpha Equulei,
a yellow G0 giant with an A-dwarf companion, 186 light-years from Earth.
Albireo is Beta
Cygni, a red giant with a blue B-dwarf companion, 385 ly from Earth.
|
234
|
"...listening to McCarthy,
Jones and Deb’ni chat away about their disparate musical tastes...":
In case anyone thought I forgot Jay Chattaway in my homage to TNG composers.
|
235
|
The use of android assassins in WWIII and the
subsequent abandonment of the field is my own conjecture to explain the
underdeveloped state of robotics in the Federation.
|
236
|
"On stardate 37175.5,
at 0537 hours shipboard time, Data was alone in the quantum physics laboratory
on deck 7, sector 03, compartment 02 of the U.S.S. Portia, conducting
simulations on the use of the Jahn-Teller effect to modify the Cooper
pairs in the Bose-Einstein condensate of a standard Starfleet transporter
Heisenberg compensator unit in order to minimize disruptive interference
between its quantum waveform and that of a Manraloth stasis field’s fringe
zone of positional uncertainty.": It took me over 20 minutes
to write this one sentence. It is the most heavily researched single
sentence in the book, if not my entire body of work.
|
238
|
Casting Brent Spiner as Noonien Soong in "Brothers"
was a neat gimmick, but it created a continuity nightmare. How could
Data's origin have been unknown prior to "Datalore" when he looked exactly
like the Federation's leading expert on positronic robotics? It proved
too cumbersome to explain this discrepancy, so I settled for establishing
that Data had not been motivated to piece together the rather obvious clues
to his origin, without addressing whether anyone else had figured it out.
|
239
|
Apparently it was Ariel who gave Data the idea
to create Lal in "The Offspring."
|
245-6
|
The ST universe is full of fictitious nebulae
that are nowhere to be found in the real night sky, and are far denser
and generally more compact than real nebulae. I used to consider this
an unresolvable discrepancy, but then I thought of something. We've
just begun discovering a new class of interstellar objects, rogue planets
or "planemos" that do
not orbit stars and are believed to have formed independently of any star
system. There could be thousands of them out there that we simply haven't
discovered yet because our telescopes aren't powerful enough to find something
so small and dim. And it occurred to me: if star systems form out of big
nebulae, then it stands to reason that there could be smaller nebulae giving
birth to these planemos. Nebulae that would be hard to detect because they're
smaller and dimmer than most stars, although up close they might look impressively
bright and colorful. Indeed, we're still discovering numerous dim
red dwarf stars in our own stellar neighborhood, so it's certain that there
are still plenty of undiscovered objects out there.
So the micronebulae I propose here are something that I think may
well actually exist. If so, I think I'm the first to propose it
(although the term "micro-nebula" was used in passing in the VGR episode
"Tsunkatse"). It may turn out that Star Trek has once again
anticipated a real milestone in science.
|
247
|
Kilif the Bolian is also named for a TNG director,
namely Cliff Bole (after whom the Bolian species was named in the first
place).
|
Chapter
16 (March 25-27, 2360)
|
249
|
Brown dwarfs basically come in two classes,
L-type and the smaller T-type. Read more about them at http://www.solstation.com/stars/pc10bd.htm.
|
250
|
Unlike the brown dwarf classes mentioned above,
"L-class" is a fictitious
ST designation for borderline-habitable worlds.
|
|
Data's immunity to hyperonic radiation, and
Picard's prior knowledge thereof, were established in "The Ensigns of Command."
For more on hyperonic radiation, see p. 349 note in my Orion's Hounds
annotations.
|
252
|
whereas yellow stars
grew hotter over their lifespans and red dwarfs stayed much the same indefinitely,
brown dwarfs grew progressively cooler, their planets freezing over:
It is possible that Psi 2000 from TOS: "The Naked Time" and Exo III from
TOS: "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" were planets of brown dwarfs.
|
255
|
The radiation damage over hundreds of millions
of years is a bit of a fudge on my part. Adonis's radiation belts
would be like those of Jupiter, consisting of charged particles captured
from the solar wind and accelerated to high velocities by Jupiter's powerful
magnetic field. A brown dwarf would have a strong magnetic field
too, but with little stellar wind, it'd have fewer particles. I assumed
that Adonis's radiation belts were recharged by the collision with the micronebula,
but that would've been relatively recent, so it's hard to justify the
radiation levels remaining that high on an ongoing basis. Assume some
unknown source kept the radiation belts charged.
|
256
|
projecting holographic
images: Probably not the same technology as ST "holograms" (which
aren't actually holograms in any technical sense but rather volumetric
images); they could employ the "particle synthesis" used in VGR: "Hope and
Fear" or something far more advanced. Or maybe they are at least partly
the same technology. Hey, we still use fire and string after half a
million years or so.
|
257-8
|
I'm afraid the ratio of technobabble to real
physics is higher in this section than in part 2. It was harder to
come up with a way to undo the stasis just a tiny bit than to figure out
how to create it or demolish it.
|
259
|
It's never been suggested in canonical ST that
telepathy is a form of quantum entanglement, but it's the working theory
I use in my Trek fiction. QE does theoretically allow the exchange
of information in seemingly impossible ways. I don't believe it could
really work like ST telepathy, but it's a handy fudge.
|
263
|
"Like the holodecks
Starfleet was beginning to install on newer starships": Early
TNG treated holodecks as a novelty, though later series treated them as
a well-established technology (for instance, in VGR, Janeway said she had
grown up with Flotter and Trevis holonovels). I have assumed
that they existed in civilian life for some time before the technology became
efficient enough to include on starships.
|
265
|
Given that the quantum aura is virtually frozen
in time and thus virtually incapable of gaining or losing energy (except
immensely gradually), where is the energy for heating the rocks coming from?
I think it's the rocks' kinetic energy, imparted by the platycauds
throwing them and gravity pulling them down, that's getting converted into
heat through friction.
|
Chapter
17 (April 2-6, 2360)
|
273
|
The Odyssey was a Galaxy-class
starship seen in DS9: "The Jem'Hadar."
|
279
|
The "modular delayed-action virus" is a concept
seen in the anime series Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.
|
Chapter 18 (April
6, 2360)
|
293
|
The transition to incorporeality that Ariel
describes is not unlike that undergone by "John Doe" in "Transfigurations,"
although a better analogy would be Kes's more violent transformation in
VGR: "The Gift." The transformation of the Organians at the end of
"Errand of Mercy" doesn't really count, since their corporeal forms were
illusory.
|
|
I was careful to avoid the word "ascension"
in the text, given that the Stargate franchise has made heavy use
of the concept of "Ascended beings" in recent years. There are various
terms for the idea in SF, including "Transcendence" in David Brin's Uplift
universe and "Sublimation" in Iain M. Banks' Culture universe. I was
happy to settle for "transition," so as not to over-romanticize it.
|
295
|
"some of those damaged
entities survive in a weakened form, incorporeal predators who take glee
in the suffering they can inflict": This may be the origin of
beings such as Redjac from TOS: "Wolf in the Fold," the evil pinwheel thingy
from TOS: "Day of the Dove", and the Sha-Ka-Ree "God" from Star Trek V:
The Final Frontier.
|
296
|
The Shakespeare quotation is from Hamlet,
Act II Sc. ii:
|
|
What
a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculty!
in form, in moving, how express and admirable!
in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god!
the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals!
And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?
|
|
This quote will be returned to later in the
book, and is a foreshadowing of Picard's use of this same passage in "Hide
and Q." My assumption is that when standing up for the human potential,
he was recalling Ariel's words on the subject.
|
297
|
"they would have died
hereafter": Paraphrasing Macbeth's reaction to news of Lady
Macbeth's macdeath. Err, death.
|
298
|
"My name is Giriaenn!":
Many years ago, I wrote an unsuccessful story involving aliens that lived
hundreds of millions of years ago. They were named the Manrathoth,
and included a male named Ngarol and his matriarch Giriaen. I changed the
first two names for aesthetics, and added a second n to "Giriaen"
so that it would be easier to distinguish from "Guinan."
|
|
I tend to pronounce "Giriaenn" with a hard
g sound, though your mileage may vary.
|
|
"the Worldring Vairashu
Five": I assume a Worldring is the same thing as a Culture Orbital
or a Halo
from the computer game -- a ring-shaped megastructure rotating for gravity,
with inhabited space on the inside equal to the area of dozens or hundreds
of Earth-sized planets.
|
|
"Number One, tie in
the main computer.": Not sure if this came across, but my intent
was that by calling Vejar and asking her to access the computer -- an unnecessary
step since he could've called the computer directly -- Picard was alerting
Vejar to monitor the communication clandestinely.
|
300
|
Picard is of course paraphrasing Sir Arthur
C. Clarke's famous statement, "Any sufficiently
advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
|
|
Filmed and televised science fiction, including
Star Trek, routinely portrays asteroid fields as densely cluttered
obstacle courses. Most of the time, this is sheer nonsense. In
Sol's Main Asteroid Belt, the average separation between adjacent asteroids
is roughly 16 times the distance from the Earth to the Moon. We've
detected planetesimal disks around other, younger stars that are on the
order of a hundred times denser, but that still translates to a separation
between asteroids on the order of a million kilometers, a few hundred thousand
at least. However, Adonis is on the scale of a Jovian system, with
rings like Saturn's, in which the typical separation between particles
is on the order of a kilometer. So the dense clutter described here
is a realistic depiction, although it's still not nearly as cluttered as
your standard Empire Strikes Back type of fictional asteroid field.
|
Chapter
19 (April 12 & May 2, 2360)
|
308
|
The existence of Bolian co-husbands and co-wives
was established in DS9: "Field of Fire."
|
309
|
Data's promotion to lieutenant commander in
2360 is extrapolated from "Datalore," in which he said he spent four years
at the Academy, three years as an ensign, and ten to twelve in the lieutenant
grades. Data's personnel file (see p. 228 note) established his
Academy tenure as 2341 - 45.
|
|
Commander Orfil Quinteros (Gene Dynarski) was
established as the supervisor of the Enterprise's construction in
"11001001."
|
|
"ready to launch by
the Bicentennial": The Federation was founded in 2161.
|
|
Although Quinn is confident that the Manraloth
sabotage would be successfully purged, one can't help noticing that the
Yamato was destroyed in 2365 ("Contagion"), the Odyssey
in 2370 (DS9: "The Jem'Hadar"), and the Enterprise in 2371 (Generations)
-- all within the timeframe of the catastrophic failures predicted by
Data's simulations. I didn't mean to imply a connection, and my
intention is that the virus was indeed purged. But who knows? (Come
to think of it, the ridiculously easy destruction of the Enterprise
in GEN might make more sense that way....)
|
310
|
Data's prior service on the Trieste
was established in "Clues."
|
311
|
The last sentence here is meant to evoke Hamlet's
vow at the end of Act IV, Sc. iv (also quoted on p. 365).
|
Part IV: Abysm of Time
|
|
From The Tempest, Act I Sc. ii. Prospero
asks, "What seest thou else / In the dark backward
and abysm of time?" -- by which he means Miranda's memory. This
is a fitting reference to the black hole memory archive. However,
Part IV is primarily influenced by King Lear. Patrick Stewart
played a version of Lear in the movie The King of Texas.
|
Chapter 20 (June
4, 2363)
|
315
|
Starbase 324 was established as Admiral Hanson's
base of operations in "The Best of Both Worlds."
|
|
Betelgeusians are
from Star Trek: The Motion Picture and TOS: Ex Machina. Mulzirak
got mentioned in passing in DS9: "Q-Less." Caitians are a felinoid
race introduced in TAS.
|
|
Epsilon Canaris III was on the brink of war
in TOS: "Metamorphosis," and apparently things have not improved much in
the ensuing century.
|
316
|
The Kyushu is a New Orleans-class
starship that will be destroyed at the Battle of Wolf 359 ("The Best of
Both Worlds"). The Department of Temporal Investigations (also mentioned
in passing on p. 48) was established in DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations."
|
|
Captain Zimbata of the Victory was established
(but unseen) in "Elementary, Dear Data."
|
318
|
The story of Picard's first meeting with Geordi
La Forge was told in "The Next Phase." La Forge's service under Zimbata
was established in "Elementary, Dear Data," and he was transferring from
the Hood in "Encounter at Farpoint" (which also established DeSoto
as that ship's captain).
|
319
|
Admiral Hanson's role as head of Long-range
Threat Assessment and Response is consistent with his role in developing
Borg defense technologies in "Best of Both Worlds."
|
|
Daran V is from TOS: "For the World is Hollow
and I Have Touched the Sky" and Ex Machina. The Alraki warlords
were mentioned in my DS9 story "...Loved
I Not Honor More."
|
320
|
Scrooge and Ahab are both characters Patrick
Stewart has played onscreen. Stewart is well-known for his award-winning
one-man theatrical version of A Christmas Carol.
|
|
Risa is a resort planet introduced in "Captain's
Holiday." Picard was reluctant to visit it then, too.
|
321
|
Thomas Halloway was the captain of the Enterprise-D
in the alternate timeline seen in "Tapestry." For more, see the anthology
The Sky's the Limit.
|
|
"And after all the
diplomatic and strategic successes you’ve scored in the past couple of years...":
Given that Picard was eventually assigned command of the Starfleet "flagship"
and became their go-to guy for vital diplomatic or military missions, it
was necessary to establish his reputation in those fields in a way that
was consistent with his spending several years away from starship command.
|
Chapter
21 (June 19, 2363, and extensive reminiscences)
|
322
|
As Picard would later learn in "The Chase,"
the First Humanoids seeded the primordial seas of many worlds with DNA
programmed to encourage the eventual re-evolution of their form. Since
it took 4 billion years for this to happen on Earth, it should've been similarly
gradual on other worlds, varying based on local conditions and chance.
Presumably the number of these worlds producing sentient humanoid
(or "manraloid") forms would increase over time, so there would have been
fewer in the Manraloth's day. Also, perhaps in the wake of the Cataclysm,
with advanced life having to evolve all over again, the biospheres already
"preprogrammed" to produce humanoids may have had an edge over those that
had to develop advanced life stochastically.
|
324
|
This "theatrically
massive hand weapon" may be the same one Guinan wielded in Ten
Forward in "Night Terrors."
|
325
|
The Crux Arm is two arms in from ours, and
according to ST Star Charts is the area where first contact with
the Borg occurred in "Q Who."
|
328-9
|
The anomalies peppering the Delta Quadrant
were encountered throughout VGR. The subspace corridors seen in
VGR: "Dragon's Teeth" may well be an intact remnant of the Manraloth subspace
highways. The interspatial fissures converging on the Small Magellanic
Cloud were established in TLE: The Sundered and Titan: The Red King.
|
329
|
the unadorned, neotenous
facial structure that many manraloids, including humans, tended to converge
upon over evolutionary time: Neoteny is the retention of juvenile
features in adult organisms. Evolution often tends toward neoteny;
flightless birds tend to resemble enlarged chicks of their flying ancestors,
and humans have traits neotenous in chimpanzees, such as our facial structure
and our large brain-to-body mass ratio. Given that alien babies in
ST tend to look more human than their adult forms (due to the impracticality
of applying prosthetic makeup to infants), perhaps the human facial structure
-- already neotenous in comparison to Earth primates -- is neotenous for
ST-universe hominids in general. The evolutionary tendency toward
neoteny could thus help rationalize why so many ST humanoids look virtually
or completely human.
|
331-2
|
The tale of the warrior king who repented and
became a peaceful reformer is based on Ashoka, the great emperor of Maurya
India. The inclusive empire based on nominal slavery to the state
is inspired by the Ottoman Empire.
|
334
|
Guinan's Startrek.com
biography gives her age as "well over 600 years." ST: Nemesis
established that she had married 23 times, and "Evolution" established that
she had "a lot" of children.
|
|
My assumption that El-Auria was located in
the Crux Arm (see p. 325 note) is based on Guinan's statement in "Q Who"
that she had been in the area before, combined with her urgency about leaving
it.
|
335
|
The Sahndarans visited Earth during the time
of Plato, as established in TOS: "Plato's Stepchildren." The Skagarans
taking human slaves from the 19th-century American West was established
in ENT: "North Star." I wanted Guinan's anthropologist friends to be
the Preservers, following up on the effects of European colonization on
Native Americans (TOS: "The Paradise Syndrome"). But the flashback was long
enough without including this.
|
|
Guinan's acquaintanceship with Samuel Clemens
(Mark Twain) was established in "Time's Arrow," which also depicted her
meeting with Data and Picard in 1893 San Francisco. I wanted to reveal
that Guinan had initially fallen in with the financier Henry Huttleston Rogers,
a closet philanthropist who promoted improved race relations, and had
been introduced by Rogers to his friend Mark Twain. However, Twain
and Rogers did not meet until 1893, probably after the events of "Time's
Arrow." It's possible Guinan introduced them, but it
would've been after the events related here.
|
336-7
|
The destruction of El-Auria by the Borg a century
before TNG was established in "Q Who." The refugees' arrival in
UFP space, and their subsequent encounter with the Nexus, was seen in
Generations.
|
|
I avoided using the name "Borg" here because
I feel the name must be of human origin, short for "cyborg." True,
it was Guinan who established that they were called that in "Q Who." But
my assumption is that it was Magnus Hansen (father of Seven of Nine from
VGR) who had coined that name in his research, and that Guinan had come across
it during her time in the Federation sometime before "Q Who."
|
338
|
Guinan's special intuition about time was established
in "Yesterday's Enterprise." Its connection to her Nexus experience
is from the script for GEN, though it was not included in the final film.
|
|
Guinan's tendency to go under false names is
based on a scene in "Q Who" in which Q, upon hearing her addressed as "Guinan,"
asks, "Is that your name now?"
|
Chapter
22 (July 14 & August 26, 2363)
|
341
|
Deanna's 2359 graduation date is from her personnel
file. Her subsequent studies on Betazed were established in
"Tin Man" and suggested by her involvement with Will Riker on Betazed for
several years prior to 2361 ("Second Chances").
|
|
Deanna's "icy" and uptight characterization
here reflects the stiff persona of the character in TNG's first season.
|
342
|
The junior officer's skant was the "miniskirt"-type
uniform worn by both male and female background crewmembers in TNG's first
season, and by Deanna in "Encounter at Farpoint."
|
|
Ian Troi's friendship with Elias Vaughn was
established in DS9: Avatar and depicted in TLE: The Art of the
Impossible.
|
344
|
Ian's fondness for Westerns, which he shared
with his daughter, was established in "A Fistful of Datas."
|
346
|
Is there evidence that Deanna and Picard knew
each other before TNG? In "We'll Always Have Paris," Deanna mentions
to Picard that he has a tendency to bottle up personal issues. But
at that point, we hadn't seen him dealing with any personal issues, unless
you count his discomfort with the Crushers in the first couple of episodes.
It also stands to reason that the aloof Picard would not have been
so willing to confide in Deanna if they hadn't had a prior relationship.
|
348
|
Picard's fateful encounter with the Nausicaans
was established in "Samaritan Snare" and seen in "Tapestry." I made
up Chemenek IV.
|
349
|
Picard's childhood pattern of success was established
in "Family." His failing the Academy entrance exam was established
in "Coming of Age." His freshman victory in the Academy marathon
was mentioned in "The Best of Both Worlds."
|
Chapter
23 (October 8-10, 2363)
|
352
|
Kartikeya is an alternate name of the Tamil
deity Murugan,
who was raised by the Krittika or Kartika (the Indian name for the Pleiades).
|
356
|
"As flies to wanton
boys...": From King Lear, Act IV, Sc. i.
|
357
|
"You are a stranger
to me": Echoing Lear's rejection of Cordelia in Act I, Sc. i.
Like Picard here, Lear mistook Cordelia's honest devotion for betrayal.
|
|
Captain ch'Regda is named for Edgar from Lear,
though other Cybele crew are named in honor of TNG production staffers.
Cybele is a play on Cymbeline and an homage to my
own story "Among the Wild Cybers of Cybele."
|
358
|
Gororm:
Meant to be the "Aliens
with long faces" seen in "Armageddon Game" and multiple other DS9
episodes. I was uneasy introducing a major interstellar power that
we would never see again in subsequent ST, so I decided to base most of
the Carnelian species on unnamed background aliens that we did see "again"
in DS9.
|
|
coreward reaches:
Toward the core of the galaxy, that is, and thus in the direction of the
Federation.
|
Chapter
24 (October 21-25, 2363)
|
362
|
The exposition about the Alpha Persei cluster's
role in shaping local geography (and perhaps evolution) is pretty much
true, aside from the Trek-universe interpolations.
|
363
|
The Thelian is named for the former Federation
president, an Andorian introduced in in the Wildstorm comic Enter the
Wolves. The Tecumseh was mentioned in DS9: "Nor the Battle
to the Strong" and established as Excelsior-class in the ST Encyclopedia.
The Malinche was seen in DS9: "For the Uniform." The
Korolev class is from the ST Encyclopedia. I
named the Puttkamer for Dr. Jesco von Puttkamer, the NASA propulsion
engineer who was the technical consultant to Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
The Nautilus was seen in DS9: "Tears of the Prophets."
|
365
|
The Brunyg are intended to be the "Aliens
with blue skin and facial bone plates" glimpsed in DS9: "Emissary."
|
366
|
Chromatophores are the tiny pigment-containing
sacs that squids and other cephalopods use for communication and camouflage,
changing color by inflating or deflating the sacs (essentially turning "pixels"
of color on and off).
|
368
|
Captain Sanders's first name was not given in
"For the Uniform." Eric Pierpoint played the "Newcomer" George Francisco
in Alien Nation.
|
|
As with the Miranda class earlier, the
sturdiness of the Excelsior design is offered as an explanation
for why it stays in service for nearly a century. The Excelsior
was the prototype transwarp ship in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.
|
|
An ice dwarf is a dwarf planet like Pluto or
Eris (the recently-discovered Kuiper Belt body that's bigger than Pluto
and triggered the recent debate over the redefinition of "planet"). I
used the term "ice dwarf" to dodge the whole planet/dwarf-planet controversy,
given that the terminology remains in flux.
|
|
Hipparcos 14047 is one of the twin blue stars
mentioned on p. 359, a B9 main sequence star. The other is Hip 14043,
a B7. They're about 800 light-years from Earth.
|
370
|
Bodies like this ice dwarf often do have reddish-brown
("salmon") surfaces due to hydrocarbon sludge or "tholins." A notable
example is Sedna.
|
375
|
"Natasha Yar... A real
tiger, that one": Those who have visited my Kitty Pictures page will get the joke.
The Tasha connection was also why I made this planet a Caitian colony.
|
|
In "Legacy," Picard said the following:
|
|
The
first time I saw Tasha Yar, she was making her way through a Carnelian
mine field to reach a wounded colonist. Her ship
had responded to their distress call, as had mine. When it was
all over, I requested that she be assigned to the Enterprise. Her
ship's
captain owed me a favor. In the months that followed, she never
once failed to put the safety of the crew before her own.
|
|
Since this would've been shortly before TNG,
I knew the Carnelians and their minefield had to figure in the climax of
TBA. Since "carnelian" is the name of a gemstone, I decided to do
something less obvious than making them aliens from the planet Carnelia
(or Carnel, as suggested by the ST Chronology).
|
Chapter
25 (October 25 continuing)
|
378
|
The Organians stopped the war in TOS: "Errand
of Mercy" by making all shipboard instruments and hand weapons too hot
to handle. Since combatants also found each other's bodies painfully
hot but were not themselves overheated, this may have been illusory.
|
380
|
"Whatever type of transwarp
they're using": The term "transwarp" has been used for several
distinct types of drive in ST, so I consider it a generic term for a whole
class of faster-than-warp drives. The Manraloth drive bears similarities
both to Borg transwarp conduits and to the theoretical Krasnikov Tube.
It also strongly resembles a deus ex machina, given that
it conveniently allows Picard to get to the black hole in time for the
climax.
|
385
|
The image of Picard being stabbed from behind
echoes his fight with the Nausicaans (see p. 348 note). His father's
disappointment echoes "Tapestry" and his mother's tea set was seen in
"Where No One Has Gone Before."
|
|
Tasha's homeworld of Turkana IV is from "Legacy."
The rape gangs were mentioned in various first-season episodes.
|
386
|
Tasha's sister Ishara is from "Legacy." Her
cat was seen in flashback in "Where No One Has Gone Before." Her
firsthand experience with drug addiction was implied in "Symbiosis."
The novel Survivors elaborates on these hints and introduces
the term "joy dust," although many of its details are inconsistent with later
canon.
|
387
|
The Tarkassian razorbeast was Guinan's imaginary
friend, as established in "Imaginary Friend" (imagine that).
|
389
|
suppressing electron
tunneling in the thalamus: Once again I'm trying to rationalize
telepathy in terms of the concept of quantum consciousness.
|
|
Picard being out of uniform reflects Lear, who
tore off his clothes during his descent into madness while a massive storm
raged around him. Guinan's loss of her hat also symbolizes the loss
of cosmic order.
|
390
|
"not quite in my perfect
mind": Another Lear paraphrase, from Act IV, Sc. vii.
|
Chapter
26 (October 25 continuing)
|
392
|
The Aulacri were seen in ST:TMP and named (and
given tails) in Ex Machina. See my ExM Crew page.
|
396
|
The small orb is the computer core containing
the patterns of the rescued survivors (see pp. 327-8).
|
399
|
"they would’ve just
been developing multicellular life during the Manraloth Era":
Keep in mind that the Manraloth Era stretches back to maybe 5-600 million
years ago. Actually the first multicellular forms on Earth had arisen
by 900 My ago, but the earliest fossils of multicellular life on land are
450-500 My old, though molecular evidence suggests they may have colonized
the land much earlier.
|
Chapter 27 (mostly
November 17, 2363)
|
403-4
|
Guinan's comments about being angry for a long
time are a paraphrase of Picard's lines to O'Brien in "The Wounded." Patrick
Stewart's delivery of those lines felt to me like he was speaking from
hard experience, maybe even passing along advice he'd gotten from someone
else. It also fit the events of this novel perfectly.
|
|
Picard's willingness to see surrender as a valid
option was seen in "Encounter at Farpoint" and "The Last Outpost."
|
406
|
Giriaenn/Ariel brings it back to The Tempest,
quoting Prospero in Act IV, Sc. i.
|
Chapter 28 (December
11-27, 2363)
|
408
|
As it turned out, the Enterprise spent
most of its time in or near known space, rather than embarking on the
kind of 15-year deep-space tour Varley describes. But according to
the TNGTM, that is the kind of mission the Galaxy class was designed
for. The change in the Enterprise's mission profile is discussed
in Titan: Orion's Hounds, p. 116.
|
409
|
I gave Argyle the first name Michael in honor
of the late Michael Piller.
|
410
|
There is no evidence that Tasha Yar served on
the Victory. But I wanted the favor mentioned in "Legacy"
to be something portrayed in the book, and the La Forge incident described
in "The Next Phase" fit the bill. "The Naked Now," TNG's second episode,
implied an existing friendship/attraction between Geordi and Tasha, which
is consistent with them serving on the same ship before the Enterprise.
|
411
|
Picard's protest of Beverly Crusher's posting
to the Enterprise was established in "Encounter at Farpoint."
The backstory of Picard's unrequited love was spelled out in "Attached."
|
|
Admiral Hidalgo was mentioned in David Gerrold's
novelization of "Encounter at Farpoint." Gerrold's interpolations
in the book are inconsistent with later canon, and indeed with TBA, but I
wanted to include an homage.
|
412
|
The story of how Picard chose Riker was told
in "Farpoint" and "The Pegasus."
|
413
|
The story of Riker jilting Troi was told in
"Second Chances."
|
414
|
Before becoming transporter chief O'Brien, Colm
Meaney was seen in various bit parts in the first season of TNG, including
the battle bridge flight controller in "Farpoint." "All Good Things"
established that this was in fact O'Brien.
|
416
|
In "Lonely Among Us," Worf griped that Picard
expected his junior officers "to learn, learn, learn."
|
Interlude
|
419
|
a realm where matter,
energy, and thought became one: As mentioned by the Traveler
in "Where No One Has Gone Before."
|
420
|
The Douwd were introduced in "The Survivors."
|
421
|
"The Voyager" is the name I ascribed in Ex
Machina to the entity formed from the merger of V'Ger, Decker, and
Ilia in ST:TMP.
|
422
|
"The Travelers tell
me some of them are already on the verge": Foreshadowing the
Traveler's interest in Wesley Crusher in "Where No One Has Gone Before."
|
423
|
"Even he could be the
one": As Q says, you'll see, if you read Q & A by
Keith R. A. DeCandido.
|
424
|
I can't cite a specific source, but it's my
understanding that Gene Roddenberry's rationale behind calling the character
Q was because of his role as humanity's questioner or inquisitor.
|
|
VGR: "Death Wish" suggested that the Q had used
that name for themselves before this point, since "Quinn" had been imprisoned
for three centuries and knew the name. However, Quinn was still omniscient
and would have known of this decision -- and of course the Q have the
power to make a decision in the present that affects the past.
|
Epilogue (early January 2364)
|
427
|
The dialogue and action here are based on the
flashback scenes in "All Good Things." I have assumed, however, that Tasha
had her first-season haircut in the original timeline.
|
428
|
Picard's reaction to his sight of the "feminine"
Enterprise is another homage to David Gerrold's "Farpoint"
novelization.
|
429
|
"All Good Things" constrained me to use only
Troi, Worf, and O'Brien at Picard's arrival ceremony. Assistant CMO
Asenzi was mentioned in Gerrold's novelization.
|
|
The stardate given in the "All Good Things"
flashback was 41148, but "The Drumhead" had previously established the
stardate as 41124. This would correspond to February 15 by the method
described in the p. 3 note, but I have changed it to January to fit the
usual convention for dating TNG seasons.
|
430
|
Torres was the conn officer in "Farpoint," quick-frozen
by Q. I picked his first name in honor of TNG writer/producer Rene
Echevarria.
|
431
|
Data's lack of emotion was not actually codified
until the early third season of TNG. Originally he was conceived as
simply emotionally inexperienced and underdeveloped, and was far more expressive.
In retrospect, that must be seen as a form of camouflage.
|
|
Note that I snuck in a contraction: "I've also been practicing a more informal speaking style."
Data used contractions routinely before "Datalore" asserted that
he rarely used them. Unfortunately, later episodes such as "The Offspring"
assumed that he was completely incapable of forming contractions, rather
than simply "tend[ing] to speak more formally" as "Datalore" had asserted.
But there were certainly times after "Datalore" where Data used contractions
-- generally in quoting others or reciting dialogue, but sometimes in his
own person (although the actor has claimed he was simply talking fast). He
also uses contractions in various novels, notably in Immortal Coil,
in which he says "I'm sorry" repeatedly on pp. 33-4. I prefer the
interpretation that he just speaks formally out of habit and preference,
and can overcome that habit if he makes the effort. I assume that
in the first season, he used contractions as an affectation to blend in,
but when he grew more comfortable with "being himself" he stopped making
that extra effort. But that conflicts with conventional wisdom, so
I couldn't make that explicit. I simply tried to suggest it obliquely
here. Sneaky me....
|
|
Note: Given the great distance
from Earth to Deneb, I assume it would have taken several weeks at high
warp (using the fastest possible "space lanes") to reach Farpoint Station
after this novel ends. The pacing of the flashbacks in "All Good Things"
implies that the events of "Farpoint" happen very shortly after Picard boards
the ship, but strictly speaking there's nothing to preclude a gap of several
weeks between the first few flashback sequences occurring on the date Picard
takes command and the ones occurring simultaneously with "Farpoint."
|
|
