Myriad Universes 02_ Echoes and Refractions - Keith R. A. DeCandido [209]
Their conversation was interrupted by a subspace call from the planetoid beneath them, its immense positronic brain reminding Data that he’d asked to be alerted when the Dominion signaled that they were ready to begin discussing the terms of the treaty with the Federation.
“Thank you,” Data said to the planetoid. Reluctantly, he rose to his feet, and turned to face Picard. “Jean-Luc, I’m afraid that you’ll have to excuse me, but duty calls.”
“Duty, Data? Or fun?”
Data grinned. “Why should there be any distinction?”
As Data moved off toward the gateway beneath the pergola, Picard walked beside him, deep in thought. “You know, running into you here, I can’t help but be reminded of the way things once were, and to wonder what the future might hold. We’ve come so far, so quickly, and it seems inevitable that the Federation will someday expand to the farthest corners of the galaxy, with no more new worlds left to discover. At the rate we’re going, it might be only a few millennia before we reach that point.”
As they stopped before the gateway, Data’s smile widened. “There are other galaxies out there in the night sky, Jean-Luc, as many more as there are grains of sand on all the beaches of Earth. And, after all,” he added, stepping into the gateway, “the sky is the limit.”
Acknowledgments/Authors’ Notes
THE CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT
I absolutely wish to thank:
My wife and family for their unwavering support; my colleagues at the library for giving me a place to belong; Marco Palmieri for the tremendous opportunity; Jim McCain and Alex Rosenzweig for bringing me “into the fold”; Jason Barney and the mysterious Rigel Ailur for their inspiration; Keith DeCandido, Terri Osborne, and Bob Greenberger for their professional assistance; the maintainers of Memories Alpha and Beta, along with Ian McLean’s Rogue Gallery, for providing invaluable online resources; Heather Jarman for her rich Andorian worldbuilding; and Gene Roddenberry, Harve Bennett, and Nicholas Meyer, for creating this sandbox for me to play in.
A GUTTED WORLD
Thanks to:
Marco Palmieri, the editor who dragged me into this. Lucienne Diver, the agent who kept me honest. GraceAnne Andreassi DeCandido, the mom who read it all over and made sure it didn’t suck. The many writers of the TV shows Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager and the movie Star Trek: First Contact, on whose work I riffed. The novels Vulcan’s Heart by Josepha Sherman and Susan Shwartz, Reunion by Michael Jan Friedman, and A Time to Kill by David Mack; the eBooks A Sea of Troubles by J. Steven York and Christina F. York and The Oppressor’s Wrong by Phaedra M. Weldon; the series New Frontier by Peter David and Corps of Engineers by various folks; and my own Articles of the Federation, Q & A, The Art of the Impossible, The Brave and the Bold Book 2, Perchance to Dream, War Stories Book 1, Demons of Air and Darkness, and the I.K.S. Gorkon novels, all of which provided characters and/or situations used herein. Star Charts by Geoffrey Mandel and the websites Memory Alpha (www.memory-alpha.org) and Memory Beta (startrek.wikia.com), valuable reference sources all. And the folks who live with me, human and feline both, who remind me every day that I am blessed with love and affection.
And finally thanks to the actors who provided faces and voices for me to work with: Marc Alaimo (Dukat), Rene Auberjonois (Odo), Casey Biggs (Damar), Avery Brooks (Sisko), Lanei Chapman (Rager), Josh Clark (Carey), Alicia Coppola (Stadi), Elizabeth Dennehy (Shelby), James Doohan (Scott), Michael Dorn (Worf), John Durbin (Lemec), Terry Farrell (Dax), John Fleck (Koval), Michelle Forbes (Ro), Jonathan Frakes (Riker), Spencer Garrett (Tarses), Susan Gibney (Benteen), Max Grodenchik (Rom), John Hancock (Haden), J. G. Hertzler (Martok), Michael Horton (Daniels),