The war he had just begun would be a glorious one for the Romulan Star Empire and for Praetor Dderidex. But he had been setting up his own plans as well as he moved the Praetors agenda forward, with no small amount of aid from one very well-placed and trustworthy agent in the Tal Shiar. An agent he felt he could trust as much as he trusted anyone other than himself, or perhaps Nijil, or even the late, lamented Centurion Terix.
When the time was right, and the Empires victory had become all but inevitable, he would finally make his move. TLeikha, the First Consul who had once had him cast into one of the Praetors stinking dungeons, would pay for her crimes, as would the Senate that had ratified her decision.
And even Dderidex himself will tremble.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
W ITH THEIR THIRD S TAR Trek: Enterpriseliterary outing, the authors would again like to recognize the contributions of the many who enriched the contents of these pages: Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, who created Star Trek: Enterprise; uber-editor Margaret Clark, whose patience and enthusiasm kept us on track; Paula Block in CBSs licensing department, for her keen eye and perspicacious observations; Mikes wife, Jenny, and their sons, James and William, and Andys partner, Don, for both long-suffering patience and inspiration; the kind and indulgent folks at the Daily Market and Café, where much of Mikes portions of this novel were written.
Harve Bennett, Jack B. Sowards, and Nicholas Meyer, who conceived and executed the Starfleet Academy Kobayashi Marutraining test whose prehistory we have revealed in these pages; illustrator David Neilsen, whose 1983 conjectural designs and blueprints of the S.S. Kobayashi Maruinspired the descriptions of this novels eponymous neutronic fuel carrier; Ronald D. Moore, who christened two important warships, one Klingon (the YaVangfrom DS9“You Are Cordially Invited) and one Romulan (the Terixfrom TNG“The Pegasus), thereby supplying the names (and namesakes) of two characters who appear in these pages, and who also supplied the name (Qam-Chee) of the Klingon homeworlds First City ( DS9“Looking for parMachin All the Wrong Places).
David R. George III, whose 2003 novel Serpents Among the Ruinsintroduced one of the beverages in Admiral Valdores wine cellar on Romulus; David Mack, who unwittingly furnished us with an obscure Vulcan diplomat (Ambassador LNel), whom we stole from his 2005 Star Trek: Vanguardnovel Harbinger; Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore, for originating a Romulan unit of distance (the matdrih, roughly analogous to the kilometer), which we stole from their 2006 Star Trek: Vanguardnovel Summon the Thunder; Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, for creating the Vulcan VShar ( ENT“The Forge), supplying the original old Romulan name for the capital city of Romulus (in William Shatners Kirk novels), and (along with Manny Cotto) for shaping the canonical story arc that immediately precedes the time frame of Star Trek: EnterpriseThe Good That Men Doand this book ( ENT“Terra Prime and “Demons); Eric A. Stillwell, whose name became attached to a fictional Starfleet captain in the Enterpriseseries finale, a tradition that we have continued; Mike Burch of Expert Auto Repair, whose mechanical skills keep Andys own sturdy transport running and who graciously lent his name to Enterprises current chief engineer; actors Peter Miller and Frankie Darro, whose exploits in the Altair system in Forbidden Planet(1956) inspired the naming of Altair VIs Darro-Miller settlement; S. D. Perry, whose novel Star Trek Section 31: Cloakanticipated Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens canonical revelations about Section 31s distant past; Keith R. A. DeCandido and Susan Shwartz and Josepha Sherman, whose novels Articles of the Federationand Vulcans Heartenabled us to hide a historical Easter egg or three within these pages (as well as in The Good That Men Do); Keith DeCandido (again), for inspiring the name of a Klingon supernumerary (Qrad), as well as for insight into the Klingon calendar, both here and in Forged in Fire; Dr. Marc Okrand, whose seminal xenolin-guistic work The Klingon Dictionary(1992 edition) was an invaluable reference; the collected Romulan-related novels of Diane Duane (collected in 2006s Rihannsu: The Bloodwing Voyages), for guidance on Romulan culture, language, and naming customs; the online linguistic scholars who assembled the vast Rihannsu language database found at http://atrek.org/Dhivael/rihan/engto rihan.html, for furnishing various Romulan time and distance units, numerals, and word roots that helped us create several Romulan proper names. Wikipedia, Memory Alpha, and Memory Beta contributors everywhere, including the online codifiers of speculative Vulcan (and by extension Romulan) calendrical minutiae at Starbase 10; Franz Joseph, whose Star Fleet Technical Manual(1975) lent us the Vulcan outpost planet Trilan; Doug Drexler and Michael Okudas Ships of the Linehardcover (2006), which inspired certain events aboard Columbia, foreshadowed here and realized in detail in David Macks forthcoming Star Trek: Destinytrilogy; David Mack, for the extensive work he did on the aforementioned trilogy in creating the Columbiacrew members, which allowed us to debut them in these pages, and for establishing the location of the Kobayashi Marus demise in his 2004 TNG novel, A Time to Heal; Geoffrey Mandel, for his Star Trek: Star Charts(2002), which kept us from getting lost in the galactic hinterlands many times; Michael and Denise Okuda, whose Star Trek Encyclopedia: A Reference Guide to the Futureremains indispensable; Connor Trinneer and Jolene Blaylock, for breathing life into Charles Anthony “Trip Tucker III and TPol in front of the cameras; the legions of Trip and TPol fans out there eager to see what the fates (and the authors) have in store for Star Treks most star-crossed couple; Scott Bakula for leaping into not one, but two, of science fictions most compelling and conflicted heroic roles, and thus providing his excellent characterization of Captain Archer; and Gene Roddenberry (1920-1991), for having created the entire universe in which we now play in the first place.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
M ICHAEL A. M ARTIN ssolo short fiction has appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. He has also coauthored (with Andy Mangels) several Star Trekcomics for Marvel and Wildstorm and numerous Star Treknovels and e-books, including Star Trek: ExcelsiorForged in Fire; Star Trek: EnterpriseThe Good That Men Do; the USA Todaybestseller Star Trek: TitanTaking Wing; Star Trek: TitanThe Red King; the Sy Fy Genre Award-winning Worlds of Deep Space 9 Volume Two: TrillUnjoined; Star Trek: EnterpriseLast Full Measure; The Lost Era 2298: The Sundered; Deep Space 9 Mission: Gamma Book ThreeCathedral; Star Trek: The Next GenerationSection 31Rogue; Starfleet Corps of Engineers#30 and #31 (“Ishtar Rising Books 1 and 2, reprinted in Aftermath, the eighth volume of the S.C.E.paperback series); stories in the Prophecy and Change, Tales of the Dominion War, and Tales from the Captains Tableanthologies; and three novels based on the Roswelltelevision series. His work has also been published by Atlas Editions (in their Star Trek Universesubscription card series), Star Trek Monthly, Moonstone Books, Visible Ink Press, Grolier Books, The Oregonian, and Gareth Stevens, Inc., for whom he has penned several World Almanac Library of the Statesnonfiction books for young readers. He lives with his wife, Jenny, and their sons James and William in Portland, Oregon.