[Star Trek: Myriad Universes 03] • Shattered Light

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".