Shattered Light

Star Trek: Myriad Universes #3

by David R. George III, Steve Mollmann

It’s been said that for any event, there are an infinite number of possible out­comes. Our choices determine which outcome will follow, and therefore all possibilities that could happen do happen across alternate realities. In these divergent realms, known history is bent, like white light through a shattered prism—broken into a boundless spectrum of what-might-have-beens. But in those myriad universes, what might have been . . . is what actually occurred.

THE EMBRACE OF COLD ARCHITECTS. “Mister Worf—fire.” With thosewords, William T. Riker defeated the Borg—and destroyed Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Now, a heartsore Captain Riker must carry on the legacy of thecommanding officer and friend whose death he ordered. But crises face himat every turn, from Cardassian aggression to the return of Data’s creator,Noonien Soong. But it is Data’s creation of a daughter, Lal, that may prove to beeveryone’s undoing. . . .

THE TEARS OF ERIDANUS. Commander Hikaru Sulu of the Kumari —finest ship of the Interstellar Guard, the military arm of the Interstellar Union that includes Andor, Earth, and Tellar—is sent to rescue an observation team on a primitive desert planet. The world has many names—40 Eridani A-II, Minshara, T’Khasi, Vulcan—and its savage natives have taken the team hostage, including Sulu’s daughter, Demora. Even as Captain Sulu negotiates with the fierce T’Pau, Demora meets the elderly S’oval, and with him the only hope for the planet’s future. . . .

HONOR IN THE NIGHT. Former Federation president Nilz Baris has died. After losing Sherman’s Planet to the Klingons thanks to poisoned quadrotriticale, the agriculture undersecretary parlayed that defeat into years of political battles with the Klingon Empire, and eventually the Federation’s highest office. Now, the Federation News Service wants the story of his life, a quest that digs up many secrets—including the mystery of why his final words were “Arne Darvin.”

Genres: Star Trek, Fiction, Science Fiction, Adventure, Ebooks, Anthologies, Space

499 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 1, 2010

Reviews

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a nice dark edge to this set of 3 alternative history tales. It creates discomfort that ends up serving the unique examination of a number of characters you think you might know with deft skill. The opening story in particular manages to explore an idea that would be mined by the first season of "Star Trek Picard"...so great minds must really think alike.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

After finishing the first of the Star Trek "Myriad Universes" collection, Infinity's Prism (which I enjoyed immensely), I decided to read another in the series. While also a fun read, it wasn't quite as good, for reasons that I'll explain in my summary of the three novellas contained in this volume.

"The Embrace of the Cold Architects" by David R. George III — This story is based on a divergence in two episodes from the third season of Star Trek: The Next Generation: "The Offspring" and "The Best of Both Worlds, Part I" Data's daughter, Lal, survives her cascade failure and Picard dies in the Enterprise-C's encounter with the Borg. While the resulting developments are interesting, George just has too much going on in this to unpack within the space of a novella.

"The Tears of Eridanus" by Steve Mollmann and Michael Schuster — In the 23rd century Earth belongs to an Andorian-dominated "Interstellar Union," and Hikaru Sulu commands the Interstellar Guard's Kumari. When he learns that contact is lost with the observation post on Erdanus (also known as Vulcanis) where his daughter is stationed, Sulu orders his ship there to investigate.

This is the most interesting of the three stories in terms of its premise. It's divergence is a radical one — what if the Vulcans never embraced logic? This plays out on two levels: the consequences for the Vulcans and the shape of an Alpha Quadrant without their (and the Romulans') presence in it. There's a lot to like, but it doesn't gel quite as effectively as it might have.

"Honor in the Night" by Scott Pearson — Based on the classic Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Trouble with Tribbles," a engine failure prevents the tribbles from interfering with the Klingons' plan to sabotage the Federation's effort to colonize Sherman's Planet. Yet from that disaster the officious Federation bureaucrat Nilz Baris builds a career that leads to the Federation presidency and peace with the Klingons, yet Baris's death leads to a reporter's investigation that may undo his life's work.

On this surface this seemed the most unpromising of the three. After all, just how good can a novella be that's built around a two-dimensional character from a single episode? Yet this proved my favorite, thanks to it's reimagining of subsequent Klingon-Federation relations (which is different but not too different from what fans of the franchise will remember), its sympathetic take on its central character, and the role played by the Klingons in the story. The great trinity of Klingon commanders from the original series — Koloth, Kor, and Kang — all make extended appearances, and there's a great twist at the end of the story that caps it all off nicely.

Overall this is a story that is well worth a Star Trek fans time. Finishing it left me a little sad, as this was the final collection published and while the concept behind the series is a limited one I felt as though they hadn't quite exhausted some of the possibilities contained within it. I could even see myself reading novels spun out of the worlds the authors created for it, which is proof of the seemingly endless riches contained within the franchise.

[Sean O'Hara · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun collection of three novellas showing alt.history versions of the Star Trek universe.

1) The Embraces of Cold Architects (David R. George III) shows what would've happened if Best of Both Worlds had been a one part episode that ended with the Enterprise blowing up the Borg cube with Picard still on board. Or at least that's what it appears to be at first, though we soon learn that the real point of departure occurred months earlier and launched the Federation on a path almost as dark as a Borg victory. Once more Commander Riker has doomed us all.

2) The Tears of Eridanus (Steve Molmannand Michael Schuster) is the most radical departure. While the other stories in this volume show us alternate versions of the Federation, Tears imagines a galaxy in which Vulcans never embraced Surak's philosophy of logic and instead remained a dangerous child race, content to remain on Minshara nuking each other into the stone age. As a result the Andorians become the dominant civilization in the region, becoming the nucleus of the Interstellar Union. Nor does the Romulan Star Empire exist, the Romulans having remained on Vulcan to participate in the fun, which left extra room for the Klingons to expand in. But that is ending as the Klingons run out of breathing space and turn their gaze to the Union, which without the Romulan War to challenge it militarily, is much weaker than the Federation. Now Commander Sulu of the starship Kumari must contact the savage inhabitants of Vulcan, which lies on Klingons' most likely invasion corridor ...

3) Honor in the Night (Scott Pearson) is the best story of the bunch, but has the most seemingly inconsequential point of departure -- what if there'd been no tribbles on Space Station K7? At first glance, the only difference would seem to be in the number of lame puns Scotty gets to make, until you remember that it's the tribbles that twigged Kirk to the fact that the Klingons had poisoned the quadrotriticale. No tribbles, Kirk doesn't take the threat seriously and thousands of colonists die on Sherman's Planet, opening the way for the Klingons to grab that strategically important world. More importantly, it really pisses off Nilz Barris, who vows revenge against both the Klingons and Captain Kirk.

[Crystal Bensley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really loved the first two stories- one centred around Data, one on Sulu but the third one was a real slog for me.

[Jarryd Kalideen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The final one, sadly. A great sadness.

Story 1. My absolute favourite of the entire series. Primarily due to its focus on Riker, who is my favourite character in ST. This diverges from the cliffhanger episode of Picard becoming Locutus, instead of saving him, Riker orders the Borg destroyed. This is another multi-faceted story, focusing on Riker's mental & emotional torment over Picard's death, then onto Data's daughter Lal, and the fight for her freedom and rights. Not forgetting the pesky Cardassian's causing a ruckus again. This ends on a delicious cliffhanger.

Story 2. This one I felt could be expanded on a lot more. Plenty of lore that can be spoken off. It's a sort of reverse First Contact - humanity 'discovering' the Vulcans instead. It also shows a different side to the Vulcans/Romulans, a less logical side. Demora isn't likable at all, until perhaps right at the end.

Story 3. A long read. Or perhaps it just felt that way. Should have been called, "The Mystery of Arne Darvin". A reminder or note for those that may not know, earlier the Klingons looked like humans, just darker. No ridges etc. It's important here. This tales goes across a long period, covers the thin ice that the Klingons and Fed's have been on for ages and the fight for peace - even one built on lies.

[Vic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honor in the Night is the final story in this book and of all of the Myriad Universes series. It starts out with TOS events centered around the “The Trouble With Tribbles” episode, but unlike most stories in this series, you’re not following one of the captains around. Instead, it plays like a century-long mystery, dipping in and out of an alternate history that explores how a change in that TOS episode could elevate minor characters to critical players in galactic politics. (Imagine Citizen Kane but Star Trek.) The early bits can get confusing as the story skips around between different dates and characters, but it eventually gets very intriguing and does wind its way onto DS9 and Bajor. This may actually be my favorite of the Myriad Universes stories, precisely because we get to hang out with characters who aren’t one of the main cast of the TV show. But as much as I enjoyed all these alternate histories, I’m glad to wrap it up and get back to the DS9 relaunch books.

[Ramona · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed these three stories. There was background brought on on the Star Trek characters from the alternate universe that I didn't know about. Data and his daughter Lal, a young Dr. McCoy, and Sulu as a starship captain and his daughter are the main characters in this triad account.

[Nicholas Heinjus · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has peaked my interest in "else world" alternative universe stories within the Star Trek franchise. An amazing out look into three different eras with both subtle and drastic changes to history. All three short stories were well articulated

[Michael Prelee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this journey into alt Star Trek history. All three stories were inventive, imaginative, and very well written. My favorite was probably the third, "Honor in the Night". It's sweeping in scope after departing Trek lore by the smallest (and furriest) divergence.

[Paschalis]

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[Erica · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first heard about these Myriad Universes novels I loved the whole idea of it. What would have happened if...? is a question that has intrigued me and got me thinking more times than I could even remember. Both regarding my own life, life in general and Star Trek. It's just one of those things that gets me going. And, having finished this book, I can say that I'm not disappointed. This is a really good book and as a whole it gets 4 stars from me.

It will, however, be a whole lot easier to review the three different stories in this book individually. So that's what I'll do.

The Embrace of Cold Architects (TNG) 4 stars

This is a story that I fell for from the very beginning. It is very well written by David R. George III which played a huge part in how easily I got into it. To read Picard's assimilation process from his point of view was something that especially got to me, and in this universe where he was never saved it was also the focal point for how everything turned out very differently.

The story focuses on Data and his daughter Lal, which are two characters I have always found to be interesting and intriguing. I also like how the bond between the two of them is so clear and beautiful. I really enjoyed reading this.

The Tears of Eridanus (TOS) 4 stars

In this story we are presented with a very different universe than we're used to in Trek - a universe where the Federation never came to be. A universe where the powers in the galaxy are different. I found this to be very interesting. Here the Andorians are the head of an alliance involving Earth, and the Vulcans... well, they are still divided in different clans that's in a war that doesn't seem to have an end as it's been going on for about 10,000 years.

This is all so different that just that in itself makes the story intriguing. It makes you want to know more about this universe. Just think about how the Vulcans never made first contact with Earth and how instead a team of hidden scientist are studying them. Added to this we also have the hostage situation going on which makes it all a matter of life and death.

This is told in a way that alternates between Sulu's and his daughter Demora's point of view as he's captaining a ship that's sent to rescue the scientists on Vulcan when they're revealed and captured by one of the many violent clans. Demora, of course, being a part of this team located on Vulcan. This way of alternating between the two of them works perfectly here, and as a whole it's very well written as well.

Honor in the Night (TOS, sort of) 3 1/2 stars

This is one of those stories where what seems to be something minor really turns out to be a major game changer. Something like what if the tribbles brought to the station K-7 died in an accident... Without the tribble baby boom that wrecked havoc on the station a certain Arne Darvin would never have been exposed as a Klingon infiltrator. That is all turned into a mystery here. A mystery that needs to be solved concerning why the former Federation President Nilz Baris's last words before he died were "Arne Darvin". A mystery that a reporter is hell bent on solving.

The writing made it a bit confusing at times as to what's what, even though I figured it out after a while. But when reading a story that alternates between past and present and different locations I like to keep it simple and easy to follow without having to figure out for myself that the author switched to another time or place. I guess I'm kind of spoiled with Kirsten Beyer doing this so extremely well in the Voyager relaunch novels. :)

But still, it's all very intriguing with the reporter starting to come close to the truth, and of course there's a major plot twist in there as well. So in that regard I really liked this story. It makes you want to figure everything out and get to the bottom of it.

[Jimyanni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Presumably the reader is familiar with the concept of "Alternate histories", stories that explore the question of what the present would look like if some key factor in the past had not happened, or had happened differently, than it actually did. This book is comprised of three such stories, each of novella length, in which the "history" that has been altered is the "history" of the Star Trek universe.

The first story, by David R. George III, seems to this reviewer to be a bit unclear on the concept; there seems to be two major changes to the timeline, basically unconnected, so it's difficult to see why they are put into the same alternate history. The first change is that Picard is not rescued in the episode "The Best of Both Worlds", but rather the Enterprise under the command of Riker successfully destroys the borg cube with Picard/Locutus, and Riker remains the captain of the Enterprise. The second change, and the one that seems to have more "alternate universe" bearing, is that Data is successful in saving his "daughter" from the cascade failures that rendered Starfleet's desire to abscond with her moot, and she is taken away by Starfleet. An interesting story, but the dual change in the timeline muddles the issue.

The second story, by Steve Mollmann & Michael Schuster, explores the question of "what if" the planet Vulcan had never been converted to the following of logic by Surak, and remained barbarous and warlike, so that the first contact with earth was made by Andoria rather than Vulcan. A very interesting story with a moderately unsatisfactory ending.

The third story was also an interesting concept; told by Scott Pearson, it explores the question of "what if" an accidental explosion had killed Cyrano Jones and his tribbles before he had the opportunity to spread them about Space Station K7 in the Episode "Trouble With Tribbles", thus resulting in the poisoning of the Quatrotriticale grain and the imposture of Arne Darvin never being uncovered. Unfortunately, this was the worst-written (or at least, worst-edited) story of the three; there are a few editing slip-ups in the previous two stories, but twice as many in the third as in the previous two combined. Things like "helsman" instead of "helmsman", "Betazoid" rather than "Betazed" when referring to the planet itself, rather than a denizen of it, "whom" rather than "who", "looked way" rather than "looked away", "Darvis" rather than "Darvin" when referring to the character who is, after all, central to the story, a comma instead of a period (or at the very least, a semicolon) in the "sentence": "Kamuk, watching Krell stomping toward them, started laughing, Baris turned on him.", "peaking" rather than "piquing" somone's interest, leaving out the word "she" in the phrase "Jensen chuckled as sat down...", the phrase "Baris hurried away as if to make contact emergency sevices", which either needed to lose the "make" or to have the word "with" inserted between "contact" and "emergency", the word "breath" instead of "breathe", the word "get" omitted from the phrase "...needed to back to...".Any one (or even two or three) of these could be overlooked as trivial flaws in an otherwise good story, but the sheer volume of them was more than a bit distracting and definitely made the story less interesting, at least to this reviewer.

Overall, not a bad read, but this book definitely had lots of room for improvement.

[Alicea · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite episodes of The Next Generation was the one where Data created a daughter named Lal. Unfortunately, that episode ended rather sadly for the android but in David R. George III's The Embrace of Cold Architects this has been rectified. However, there have been other casualties due to the Borg and now Will Riker is captain of the Enterprise. This book continues the questions raised by the episode The Offspring mentioned above such as 'Do androids have rights or are they property of Starfleet?'. Full of moral dilemmas and governmental obfuscation, this story will have you shaking your fist at 'the man' in no time. 9/10

I'm going to be honest and say that The Tears of Eridanus by Steve Mollmann and Michael Schuster was probably my least favorite book from all 3 volumes. This universe's central power is controlled by the Andorians and Sulu is the captain of one of their ships. As mentioned previously, I had little to no knowledge of this alien species but from what I read they aren't going to be one of my favorites. Sulu is tasked with visiting a planet where the residents have captured a science team tasked with observing the native peoples. The inhabitants are viewed as primitive and dangerous with little chance of their being admitted into the Interstellar Union. Sulu has a vested interest as his daughter is one of the members of the captured team. This book ended without any kind of real conclusion and with a barely discernible plotline. It was pretty meh in my opinion. 5/10

And finally there's Honor in the Night written by Scott Pearson. This covers the events of Tarsus and the conflict between the Klingon Empire and the Federation. Dr. McCoy (yay Bones!) is a minor player in this book but it's really Nilz Baris who steals the show...and a certain man named Arne Darvin. A reporter is trying to piece together the story of Nilz Baris and his role in the Klingon-Federation alliance by interviewing key players in his past. There are a lot of flashback scenes and many, many secrets are revealed. It read just like an episode of Trek and felt totally believable as canon to me. 9/10

[Joseph Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been said that for any event, there are an infinite number of possible outcomes. Our choices determine which outcome will follow, and therefore all possibilities that could happen do happen across countless alternate realities. In these divergent realms, known history is bent, like white light through a prism -- broken into a boundless spectrum of what-might-have-beens. But in those myriad universes, what might have been...is what actually happened.

THE EMBRACE OF COLD ARCHITECTS: "Mister Worf -- fire." With these words, William T. Riker defeated the Borg -- and destroyed Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Now, a heartsore Captain Riker must carry on the legacy of the commanding officer and friend whose death he ordered. But crises face him at every turn, from Cardassian aggression to the return of Data's creator, Noonien Soong. But it is Data's creation of a daughter, Lal, that may prove to be everyone's undoing...

THE TEARS OF ERIDANUS: Commander Hikaru Sulu of the Kumari -- finest ship of the Interstellar Guard, the military arm of the Interstellar Union that includes Andor, Earth, and Tellar -- is sent to rescue an observation team on a primitive desert planet. The world has many names -- 40 Eridan A-II, Minshara, T'Khasi, Vulcan -- and its savage natives have taken the team hostage, including Sulu's daughter, Demora. Even as Captain Sulu negotiates with the fierce T'Pau, Demora meets the elderly S'oval, and with him the only hope for the planet's future...

HONOR IN THE NIGHT: Former Federation president Nilz Baris has died. After losing Sherman's Planet to the Klingons thanks to poisoned quadrotriticale, the agriculture undersecretary parlayed that defeat into years of political battles with the Klingon Empire, and eventually the Federation's highest office. Now, the Federation News Service wants the story of his life, a quest that digs up many secrets -- including the mystery of why his final words were "Arne Darvin".


*Another great set of "What If's"....My favorite was THE EMBRACE OF COLD ARCHITECTS.

[Strongsville Branch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still reading, but have finished two of the three alternate universe Star Trek stories. The first features Lal and rearranges events so that she survives and Picard is killed on the Borg cube. The second features Commander Sulu who goes to the rescue of daughter Demora on her first assignment observing a violent race on Eridani. The third story deals with Nils Baris. These stories are cool revisits to the Star Trek universe if the fictional history had gone just a bit different.

[Preston Pendergraft · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, it is similar to the first Myriad Universe book I read. I think the middle story is the best, the idea of the Vulcans being replaced with the Andorians as allies to Earth was fascinating. The first story with Data was okay, not a huge Data fan. The finally story was however very good too.

Overall enjoyed it and I like these “what if” types of books.

[Ann Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very disappointing and amateurish. It was recommended as one of the best of the Star Trek fan fiction books.

[Barry Hammock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting visions of what could have been that stay true to the spirit of Star Trek itself.