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Summary
Summary
New York Times bestselling author Peter David's unforgettable novels of Captain Mackenzie Calhoun and the crew of the Starship Excalibur remain one of Star Trek's most popular book series among fans. Now, David takes the New Frontier universe in a bold direction that will at once shock, thrill, and delight longtime and brand-new readers of this acclaimed series.
Three years have passed since the events depicted in the novel Stone and Anvil, and for the past and present crew members of the U.S.S. Excalibur, life has taken many surprising twists and turns. Captain Elizabeth Shelby has been promoted to admiral and heads Space Station.
Bravo...while her former ship, the U.S.S. Trident, has a new captain. Soleta has left Starfleet to embrace the perils of exploring her Romulan heritage. The powerful Zak Kebron serves as the Excalibur 's counselor and head of security.
And Mackenzie Calhoun? Well, Mackenzie Calhoun's still who he is.
As Si Cwan, prime minister of the New Thallonian Protectorate, prepares to marry off his sister Kalinda in a politically advantageous pairing that will strengthen his newly restored empire, the bride-to-be is abducted just before the wedding in a calamitous event that threatens to destabilize the entire sector--especially since Kalinda's abductor is someone all too familiar.
As the Excalibur, the Trident, and the entire Thallonian fleet attempt to bring order to their sector of space, none could ever suspect that a mysterious alien force may also be playing a part in Kalinda's disappearance--and that the entire galaxy may soon face a long-forgotten enemy.
Author Notes
Peter David was born September 23, 1956 in New Jersey, and raised in Pennsylvania. David originally tried to work in Journalism but finally got a job at Marvel Comics as Asst. Direct Sales Manager. He wrote some "fill in" comics for Spider-man and eventually got to the point where he was the regular writer for several titles. David has had over fifty novels published, including numerous appearances on the New York Times Bestsellers List. His greatest fame comes from the Star Trek novels, where he is the most popular writer of the series, with Imzadi being one of the best selling Star Trek novels of all time.
David is also co-creator and author of the bestselling New Frontier series for Pocket Books and has also had short stories appear in such collections as Shock Rock, Shock Rock II and Otherwere, as well as Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine and the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. David had an award-winning twelve-year run on The Incredible Hulk, and he has also worked on such popular titles as Supergirl, Young Justice, Soulsearchers and Company, Aquaman, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2099, X-Factor, Star Trek, Wolverine, The Phantom, Sachs & Violens and many others. He has also written comic book-related novels, such as The Hulk: What Savage Beast, and co-edited the Ultimate Hulk short story collection.
His opinion column "But I Digress" has been running in the industry trade newspaper The Comic Buyers Guide for nearly a decade, and in that time has been the paper's consistently most popular feature and was also collected into a trade paperback edition. Peter is the co-creator, with popular science fiction icon Bill Mumy of the Cable Ace Award-nominated science fiction series Space Cases, which ran for two seasons on Nickelodeon. He has also written several scripts for the Hugo Award winning TV series Babylon 5, and the sequel series Crusade, as well as the animated series Roswell. David has also written several films for Full Moon Entertainment and co-produced two of them, including two installments in the popular Trancers series as well as the science fiction western spoof Oblivion, which won the Gold Award at the 1994 Houston International Film Festival for best Theatrical Feature Film, Fantasy/Horror category.
David has won many other awards including the Haxtur Award 1996 in Spain, Best Comic script; OZCon 1995 award in Australia, Favorite International Writer; Comic Buyers Guide 1995 Fan Awards, Favorite writer; Wizard Fan Award Winner 1993; Golden Duck Award for Young Adult Series for Starfleet Academy, 1994; UK Comic Art Award, 1993; and the Will Eisner Comic Industry Award, 1993.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Excerpts
Excerpts
Chapter One On the day Soleta was reasonably sure she was going to die, she found herself both surprised and not surprised to see Ambassador Spock standing at the far end of her cell. Every joint, every muscle, every synapse in her body seemed inflamed with pain, and yet she still managed to sit up. She wanted to stand, to look properly formal as the occasion might call for. Try as she might, however, she was unable to gather the strength to do so. So she settled for sitting on the dank floor and simply staring at the tall, lean Vulcan. He, in turn, stared at her. No words passed between them for a good long time. It was Soleta who finally broke the silence. "Well?" she inquired. "Aren't you going to say it?" He cocked an eyebrow as she knew he would. "What am I expected to say?" "I believe the appropriate phrase would be, 'How the mighty have fallen.'" He pondered that for a moment, and then informed her, "That would not be logical." "Why not?" "You were never particularly mighty." "No," and she slumped her head back against the cell wall. "No, I guess I wasn't." They remained that way for a time, and then Soleta allowed a small smile. "Do you find your present situation amusing?" asked Spock. "Not especially. I'm simply considering the fact that, when we first met, I was in a cell. On Thallon. Do you remember?" "Of course," Spock said in a tone that indicated it was absurd to think he would forget -- not the incident itself, but anything at all that had ever happened to him in his entire life. "It is ironic, the way in which life wraps back upon itself," she said. "You and I, trapped in a dungeon on Thallon, prisoners of the royal family. Then we escape, and in later years members of that same royal family wind up on the Federation ship I'm serving on after their family loses power. And now they are no longer a part of my life, nor I of theirs, and I'm back in a dungeon...while from what I hear..." "They are climbing back into power," said Spock. "Yes. That is true. A new Thallonian regime is apparently on the rise. I estimate that in another two point three years, they will be fully in charge. There will, however, likely be marked differences between the former monarchy and the new paradigm. I believe the most likely structure will consist of a -- " "Mr. Spock." Although naturally any emotion perceivable on his face was minimal, it was still obvious that he was surprised at the interruption. Soleta sighed. "I don't really care." "Ah. Because, as matters stand, you will not be alive to see it." "That's very much how the day is shaping up, yes." She gazed up at him through unfocused eyes. "You're not going to help me, are you." "Pardon?" "I said you're not going to help me. Not try to find a way to get me out of here." "I regret that it is beyond my power to do so." She snorted disdainfully. "I don't believe that for a moment." "That something is beyond my power?" "No. That you would regret anything." She leaned her head back, the cold metal of the cell proving oddly comforting against the back of her head. "Not you. You never regret anything. Ever." "What would draw you to that conclusion?" "Well," she almost stammered, as if the reply should be obvious, "because everything you do, you do because it's the logical thing to do." "So?" "So?!" Soleta couldn't follow what he was talking about. "So if you always take the logical path, how can you ever have any regrets over it?" He considered it a moment. "Apparently," he said at last, "you are confusing the logical path with the right path." "Aren't they the same?" "No, Soleta. Not at all." Slowly he circled the cell, his hands draped behind his back, his long robes sweeping around his feet. " 'Right' and 'wrong' are purely subjective terms, to be left to theologians and lawmakers. There have been any number of occasions in my life -- indeed, I would venture to say, in everyone's lives -- where I have been faced not with a right and wrong path, but instead with a variety of paths that are all undesirable. Where one person or group of persons was made to suffer, for instance, instead of another person or persons. In such instances, I made the logical choices, did what had to be done. Given the exact same circumstances, I would make the exact same choice." "So where do the regrets come from?" "The regrets, Soleta," he said wistfully, "come from my inability to conceive of a different path that would solve all problems in such a way that none be made to suffer." She chuckled low in her throat. "That, Mr. Spock, is illogical." "That, Soleta," he replied, "is precisely my point." Before she could say anything else, there was the sound of a heavy-duty security lock being disengaged from the door nearby. Several Romulans entered, dressed in full armor, as was customary for guards. It seemed ludicrous to Soleta; she was hardly in shape to pose a threat. "Who were you talking to?" demanded the foremost guard. He was looking around the cell suspiciously. "No one." She realized, upon opening her mouth, that her voice was far more strained and parched than she would have thought. It sounded totally different than it had when she'd been talking with Spock. She further realized that she was in far more pain than she'd thought she was. There were marks on her from all manner of physical brutality that she had undergone. Strange. Strange that she hadn't felt that earlier or noticed it. It was as if her mind had bifurcated for some strange reason.... Well, not so strange at that. "Remarkable, isn't it," she said thickly. Her lips were swollen as well; she hadn't noticed that before either. "What the mind will do to protect itself from dealing with what the body's going through." "What are you talking about?" he demanded. "Biology. You?" The guard who'd entered behind the first one was scouring the cell with his scowl. "Who was she talking to?" "She hasn't answered," said the first. "Who were you talking to?" "That's a very large weapon," she observed. "Do you use it in order to make up for shortcomings in other areas?" "I'll use it on you, you murdering half-breed!" His hand hovered near the hilt. "Now there's a threat." "It's no threat." "And yet," Soleta said, "I don't see you doing it." He started to pull his disruptor, the prospect of which didn't bother Soleta one bit, but then the second guard put a hand on his fellow's arm, preventing the precipitous move. The first guard took his hand away from the weapon, but then abruptly brought his foot up and around. He slammed it into Soleta's face. She didn't even feel it. The impact was sufficient to knock her backward, but other than that, it didn't register. She was that numb. Thudding onto the floor, she lay there, her arms out to either side, her legs splayed. Her mouth moved for a moment and then spat out a glob of green blood to the side. "Who," repeated the guard, "were you talk -- ?" "Myself," she said. "You were talking to yourself." "Do you see anyone else here?" she inquired, sounding remarkably calm considering her clothes were in tatters and her body was covered with bruises and open wounds. Clearly they did not. They'd already looked several times. With mutual looks of exasperation, they strode forward and grabbed Soleta each by one arm. There were several other guards in view as well, and they already had their weapons out. For one joyous moment, Soleta considered the notion of dropping both of the guards with a nerve pinch. As their bodies sagged to the ground, she would use them as shields for the few seconds it would take to yank their weapons out of their holsters and fire upon the other guards. Once she'd taken all of them down, she would use all her Starfleet training and stealth techniques to make her way to an airfield where she would find a vessel of some sort and get the hell off the Romulan homeworld. "What are you thinking?" demanded one of the guards. She rolled her head around to fix her gaze upon him. "What an odd question." "Answer it." "I was thinking," she said, "about a cunning escape plan." "Oh really. And are you planning to put it into effect?" "No." "Why not?" "Too tired..." They were the last words she was able to get out before her head slumped forward. Copyright (c) 2004 by Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved. Excerpted from After the Fall by Peter David All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.