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Robert T. Jeschonek

  

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To Boldly Go Where No Comic Has Gone Before!
10 Star Trek Comic Book Lost Treasures

Since its beginning as a television series in 1966, Star Trek has grown into a phenomenon. This science fiction adventure has been translated into nearly every medium including novels, feature films, animation...and comic books. In fact, Trek comics have been produced since the original TV series aired. Gold Key, Marvel, Malibu, DC, and IDW have all tried their hands at creating Trek comics with varying degrees of success.

Throughout its various four-color incarnations, Star Trek has inspired some downright horrendous stories--but it has been the wellspring of some excellent graphic fiction as well. The following list summarizes what I consider to be 10 of the best Trek stories ever published in comic book form.

This list has been drawn from Trek comics released by Gold Key, Marvel, and DC. Though these three publishers are represented, I've given the majority of slots of my Top Ten to DC's Trek series; I've done this simply because l feel that the DC stories listed here deserve their high rankings.

 

l) "Retrospect"— Star Trek Annual #3, l988, DC Comics—by Peter David, Curt Swan, and Ricardo Villagran

There are no bells or whistles in this story, no interplanetary menaces or

mysterious alien races...but it stands as one of the finest Star Trek tales l've ever read. This piece is a character study of Montgomery Scott. an insightful portrait of his life and his relationship with his one true love (and no, it's not the U.S.S. Enterprise).

As the story opens, Kirk and McCoy find a drunk and downcast Scotty draining bottles of scotch in his cabin; the Chief Engineer confesses than he's mourning his wife, Glynnis, who passed away recently in a shuttle accident (an accident which was caused, ironically, by an engine malfunction). The rest of "Retrospect" consists of scenes from Scotty's past, each one a turning point in his relationship with Glynnis. The scenes are presented in reverse-chronological order, starting with Scotty's recent past and shifting backward through the years, stretching the whole way back to his childhood.

This is a story with scope; in a mere 38 pages it manages to encapsulate Scotty's entire life and Glynnis Campbell's as well. Each vignette is poignant in its own way, and adds a fresh layer of emotional depth to the two main characters.

"Retrospect" celebrates the spirit of enduring love, the linkage between beings which surpasses time and distance and death. It is faithful to established Trek history, right down to the uniforms Scotty wears at different phases in his career.

"Retrospect" is Trek at its best—a story occurring in futuristic settings, with the human heart at its core.

 

2) "All Those Years Ago. . ."—Star Trek Annual #1, 1985, DC Comics—by Mike W. Barr, David Ross, and Bob Smith

One of the stories never told in the original Trek TV series was that of James T. Kirk's first mission on the Enterprise. "All Those Years Ago..." is notable because it delves into the untold story of that first mission, an event of great significance in the Star Trek mythos.

Most of this story is told in flashback form. In order to decide how to deal with a race of aliens returning to Federation space, Kirk recounts his first encounter with them, a mission which happened to be his first aboard the Enterprise. Jim's recollections provide glimpses of important and never-before-shown scenes: his first sighting of the Enterprise; his first meeting with his predecessor, Captain Pike, as well as Spock and Scotty; the gathering of Kirk's original "inner circle"—Dr. McCoy and Commander Gary Mitchell; the change of command from Pike to Kirk; and the departure of the Enterprise for the start of its fabled "five-year mission."

In the flashback sequence, Captain Pike is kidnapped by the Tralmanii, and Kirk and his crew set out to rescue him. When the Enterprise team finds Pike, they learn the reason for his abduction: years ago, he stopped the Tralmanii from feeding on the energy of a nova, and now their race is dying and hungry for revenge. By rerigging the alien ship's equipment, the Enterprise group enables the beings to generate their own nova energy so their race can be rejuvenated, and the encounter is peacefully concluded.

"All Those Years Ago..." is a splendid story, a wonderful piece which explores early Trek history. Though the plot involving the Tralmanii isn't overly original, the flashback itself is a treasure for Trek fans. This story answers a lot of questions which fans have asked through the years, and does so in an entertaining fashion; it explains the departures of original pilot characters like Captain Pike, Number One, and Dr. Boyce, and features characters like Gary Mitchell and Lee Kelso, who died in the second pilot episode, yet made strong impressions in their brief appearances.

 

3) "The Final Voyage"—Star Trek Annual #2, l986, DC Comics—by Mike W. Barr, Dan Jurgens, and Bob Smith

Whereas "All Those Years Ago..." depicts the beginning of Kirk's first five-year mission on the Enterprise, "The Final Voyage" portrays the end of that deep-space journey.

When the story opens, the Enterprise is on its way back to Earth after its five years in space. After picking up Commander Will Decker, the officer in charge of the ship's refitting, or so they think.

Instead of reaching Earth, the ship ends up in orbit around Talok IV, and is ambushed by Klingon vessels. It turns out that the Klingons have conquered Talok and forced the inhabitants to teach them how to cast illusions. The Klingons used their new powers to fool the Enterprise crew into coming to Talok, and plan to use the starship to attack the Federation.

When Kirk beams down to the planet with a landing party, he finds that the Klingons have also captured Captain Pike, who is living on Talok IV. (As depicted in the TV episode "The Menagerie," Pike went to Talok IV to live a life of illusion after being maimed in an accident.) Kirk and company are imprisoned by the Klingons and tormented by illusions, but manage to break free.

"The Final Voyage" draws together many elements of Trek history, tying in with Trek's origins (the first pilot, "The Cage," which introduced Pike and the Talosians), and its future (the feature films, like Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which introduced Will Decker). The story also holds some interesting bits of characterization, like Decker's overcompensation for being the son of a captain who destroyed his own ship; Spock's concern for Pike, and his furious leap into action when he sees the Klingons torturing his old captain; and Kirk's anguish when the Klingons force him to relive the death of Edith Keeler, whom he fell in love with during a time-trip to Earth of the 1930s.

"The Final Voyage" is an excellent Trek adventure, one which fills in some of the continuity gaps between the TV series and the films.

 

4) "The Return of the Serpent"- Star Trek #43-45, 1987, DC Comics—by Mike Carlin, Tom Sutton, and Ricardo Villagran

I'm a sucker for sequels to original Trek episodes, and this three-part sequel to "The Apple" is my favorite.

In "The Apple," Kirk and company visited the planet Gamma Trianguli VI, a veritable Eden inhabited by a peaceful and primitive race. The only catch in this paradise—the people were ruled by a super-computer called Vaal. Kirk managed to shut the machine down and left the natives to follow a more natural pattern of development.

In "The Return of the Serpent," the Enterprise travels back to Gamma Trianguli VI after 20 years. Kirk takes a landing party down to the surface, intending to observe the current condition of the race which he set free, but finds that the world has become a desolate wasteland and that the inhabitants have adopted a barbaric, medieval society.

Kirk and his party are caught up in the warfare between the planet's two tribes and are captured by Akuta, who possesses incredible powers derived from the Vaal computer. Akuta begins to drag the Enterprise out of orbit, and is only placated when Spock volunteers to help reactivate Vaal.

"The Return of the Serpent" highlights Kirk's human capacity for error, and the tremendous responsibility which falls on his shoulders every time he meddles in an alien culture. One wrong move on the surface of an undeveloped world and a starship officer can cause irreparable harm. "The Return" points out that an explorer like Kirk can't always make decisions based on his own values and beliefs because those personal feelings might not be applicable in an alien frame of reference.

 

5) "All the Infinite Ways"—Star Trek #13, 1981, Marvel Comics—by Martin Pasko, Joe Brozowski, and Tom Palmer

Dr. McCoy's daughter plans to many a Vulcan? That's the wonderfully ironic plot of this story, and it provides an intriguing character study of both Bones and his child.

The Enterprise crew travels to the planet Hephaestus to negotiate for mineral rights. While the Klingons engage in some nasty mischief, Bones has a chance encounter with his daughter, Joanna. Upset because her father hasn't been in touch with her for years, Joanna tells him that she doesn't want to have anything to do with him. Then she introduces him to her husband-to-be, a Vulcan named Suvak.

Suvak has a sudden relapse of a mysterious illness which Bones diagnoses as a fatal Vulcan blood disease. When the Klingons kidnap Joanna, however, Suvak comes to her rescue. Though weakened by his illness, he frees Joanna and sacrifices his life in a Klingon-triggered explosion.

"All the Infinite Ways" portrays a believable and fascinating relationship between Bones and his daughter. Though Joanna never appeared in the original TV series and was only mentioned briefly in one episode of the animated series ("The Survivor"), Martin Pasko brings her to life and develops her as a complex character.

Joanna has been deeply wounded by her parents' separation, yet she has conflicting feelings about her father. She claims to hate Leonard McCoy for driving her mother away from him and ruining her family; she condemns him for ignoring her for most of her life. By pledging to marry the emotionless Suvak, she seems determined to avoid the strife of her parents' stormy marriage.

And yet, Joanna seems drawn to her wayward father. Despite her professed hatred of him, she initiates contact with him on Hephaestus. Though she condemns his dedication to medicine and claims that it led to his break-up with her mother, she has chosen to become a nurse. Torn between resentment and attachment, Joanna is a confused and tragic figure.

In "All the Infinite Ways," Bones is also a tragic figure. He feels the need to make contact with his daughter, yet he is laden with guilt; for perhaps the first time in his life, he realizes how badly he has neglected and traumatized Joanna. In the end, he goes to make peace with Joanna; though he is flawed and guilty of hurting her, his saving grace lies in his recognition of his mistakes and his willingness to make up for them.

 

6) "The Wormhole Connection," "...The Only Good Klingon...," "Errand of War," and "Deadly Allies"—Star Trek #1-4, 1984, DC Comics—by Mike W, Barr, Tom Sutton, and Ricardo Villagran

This four-part story (which I will henceforth refer to as "Errand of War") begins with a battle between the Enterprise and a secret Klingon space station. Defeated, the Klingons destroy their own base; Kirk then learns that the Klingon Empire has declared all-out war on the Federation, ostensibly because of the starship's attack on the station.

Kirk takes his ship to the planet Organia, whose nigh-omnipotent residents have enforced a Klingon- Federation peace treaty for years. Joining forces with the captured Klingon captain Kor, Kirk learns the true cause of the war: the Excalbians, another all-powerful race, set up the conflagration as a galactic morality play to determine whether good—represented by the Federation—is stronger than evil (the Klingons), or vice versa. By imprisoning the Organians and manipulating Federation and Klingon leaders, the Excalbians instigated the war, which they refer to as a "drama."

Kirk outfoxes the Excalbians, however, convincing them that they need to get directly involved in a "drama" themselves if they want to gain the ultimate knowledge of good and evil. He persuades them to fight the only beings who can provide a challenge for them—the Organians. The Excalbians free the Organians and they disappear to begin their private war, leaving the Klingons and the Federation to make peace or war of their own volition.

"Errand of War" is an action-packed story full of surprising plot twists. It uses characters from the 'I'V series—Kor and the Organians from "Errand of Mercy," the Excalbians from "The Savage Curtain"—and combines them in a way which is fresh and dramatically effective.

Interestingly enough, the moral of this story seems to be the opposite of that of "The Return of the Serpent." "Serpent" implies that a powerful guardian entity can be beneficial to a race and that the removal of such an overseer can be destructive. In "Errand of War," however, godlike manipulators are shown to be detrimental, and Kirk applauds their extrication from the affairs of the galaxy.

 

7) "New Frontiers," chapters 2-7—Star Trek #10-15, 1985, DC Comics—by Mike W. Barr, Tom Sutton, and Ricardo Villagran

Klingons...Romulans...epic starship battles...evil twins of the Enterprise gang—this six-part story has got it all.

In the TV episode "Mirror, Mirror," Kirk and his compatriots traveled to a parallel universe in which evil counterparts of the beloved Enterprise crew work for a ruthless Empire instead of a benevolent Federation.

This time around, the doppelgangers come gunning for the Federation. Bad-Kirk and his thugs bring the Mirror Universe Enterprise into Federation space and attack the Excelsior, which is carrying Good-Kirk and his pals. Good-Kirk finally defeats the evil duplicates, then takes the Excelsior into the parallel universe to head off the coming invasion. There they enlist the help of some resident freedom fighters commanded by David Marcus, a Mirror Universe duplicate of his dead son.

As I said earlier, I'm a sucker for sequels, and this sequel to "Mirror, Mirror" is a real extravaganza. Though it lacks the warmth and poetry of my favorite Trek episodes, it's got more starship battles than you can shake a tribble at, and I just plain get a kick out of it. The closer look at the Mirror Universe and its history is interesting, and there is wonderful irony in the appearance of the Mirror Enterprise and David Marcus, right after the demise of their respective counterparts in The Search for Spock. The ending of the story, in which David survives to go on fighting the Empire, is also a nice touch; After the tragic death of "his" David, Kirk can console himself with the knowledge that another David is still alive in a parallel universe—"just next door," in a sense.

 

8) "Fast Friends" and "Cure All"—Star Trek (Vol. 2) #5-6, 1990, DC Comics-by Peter David, James Fry, and Arne Starr

In this two-part story, the crew of the Enterprise is sent to New Brinden, a world besieged by a deadly plague. New Brinden's society is structured into a rigid caste system, and the plague has primarily stricken members of the lower caste; happy to see the "surplus population" diminished, the ruling class makes no effort to find a cure or seek help...until a member of the higher caste finally contracts the disease and commits suicide.

Fearing that the plague could spread further into the ruling class, New Brinden's Prefect gives Dr. McCoy only a limited amount of time to cure the infected citizens. When a previously untested cure fails to reverse the disease, the Prefect announces that he will simply exterminate all the plague victims.

After learning that the Klingons and Nasgul have put a price on Kirk's head, the Prefect proposes a new bargain: he will postpone the extermination of the "Lowlies" and allow Federation doctors to continue seeking a cure...but only if Kirk surrenders himself to the New Brinden government. Thanks to a covert action by a mysterious crewman, Ensign Fouton, the crisis is averted. The Prefect himself is infected by the plague and rescinds all his previous threats to kill the Lowlies.

Like many of the finest and most thought- provoking Trek episodes, this story provides a parable based on a situation which exists in contemporary society. The New Brinden plague, like the AIDS virus, is fatal, and hits hardest in the lower levels of society; neither disease inspired widespread attention or extensive efforts to find a cure until it spread into the ranks of the higher classes. Like the victims of the New Brinden disease, the victims of AIDS are often shunned and treated like pariahs; some people would just as soon let those infected with AIDS die, just as the Prefect has done with the afflicted Lowlies of his planet.

By presenting an extreme solution to the epidemic on New Brinden, a solution which we recognize as horrific, the story brings our own inhumanities toward the victims of AIDS more clearly into focus.

 

9) "Vicious Circle!"—Star Trek #33, l986, DC Comics—by Len Wein, Tom Sutton, and Ricardo Villagran

Thanks to a time warp, the contemporary Kirk and company meet themselves as they were 20 years ago. Talk about your mid-life crisis!

Kirk and his crew (manning the Excelsior at this point in the comic series' continuity) encounter the old Enterprise and come face-to-face with themselves as they appeared during the original five-year mission. Unfortunately, the Enterprise's time-trip has caused a powerful temporal storm; if the ship isn't returned to the past, the time-storm could rip apart the entire universe.

The past and future crew join forces and manage to throw the Enterprise back in time by using the Guardian of Forever. The time-storm ends and the two crews forget that their meeting ever happened.

Though "Vicious Circle!" isn't a very substantive tale, it's still a lot of fun. The idea of the modern crew meeting the original crew is enticing, and it's carried off quite effectively in this story. There are certainly some memorable and well-written scenes, especially those between the two Dr. McCoys, like this one: Young Bones: "Please—give me some hope for the future. Tell me Spock gets better with age." Older Bones: "Wish I could help you—but you know how hard it is for me to lie with a straight face!"

There are plenty of special scenes in "Vicious Circle!": Captain Kirk is thrilled to learn that he's destined for the admiralty; Spock finds out about his future death and resurrection but doesn't bat an eyelash; and Lt. Uhura is upset when she learns that after 20 years she still won't have a husband or children.

 

10) "A Warp in Space!"—Star Trek #49, l9'77, Gold Key Comics—by George Kashdan and A. McWilliams

In the TV episode "Metamorphosis," the Enterprise crew met an energy being called the Companion who was in love with the shipwrecked creator of the Warp Drive, Zefram Cochrane. The Companion merged with Nancy Hedford, a fatally-ill Federation commissioner, to save that woman's life and physically express her love for Zefram.

In "A Warp in Space!" the crew of the starship returns to the Companion's world because some experimental hyper-warp ships have disappeared in the vicinity of the planet. Aided by the Companion, who separates from Nancy and reverts to her energy form, the Enterprise travels through "a rip in the fabric of our universe" and emerges in a starless void. In the void, which happens to be the Companion's original home, Kirk and company find the missing ships—but they also encounter a swarm of cloudlike beings similar to the Companion. After a show of force, the beings reveal that the crews of the ships were all killed when they accidentally passed through the space rift. Though the beings were willing to let the Enterprise return home, they insisted that the Companion stay behind.

Using engine modifications suggested by Cochrane, the crew of the Enterprise manages to escape with the Companion. The Companion then recombines with Nancy Hedford, who nearly died without the life-sustaining symbiotic being. Nancy/the Companion is reunited with Cochrane, and they presumably live happily ever after.

Though the plot is fairly simplistic, and Cochrane looks nothing like he did in "Metamorphosis," "A Warp in Space!" is still an interesting sidebar to the Trek TV series. The story provides some hypothetical background for the character of the Companion and gives the well-loved alien some welcome exposure. The creative team turned out some capable renditions of the starship crew and didn't make them behave in ways which would be contradictory to their established personalities; this is a major improvement over many of the old Gold Key Trek comics.

If you can overlook the holes in the plot and the discrepancies with "Metamorphosis," you'll find this to be an entertaining sequel to one of the finest original Star Trek TV episodes.

 

*****

The Next Generation:

Big Guns vs. Lower Deckers

 

Could Star Trek: The Next Generation do without Guinan? Reg Barclay? Ro Laren?

Mot the barber?

Of course it could. The Big Guns--Picard, Riker, Data, Geordi, Troi, Beverly, and Worf--carry the show.

So what, if anything, do the bit players from the Enterprise-D's lower decks add to ST:TNG?

Illumination of the Big Guns, for one thing.

The Lower Deckers shine a light on surprising facets of the Big Guns. Guinan, for example, brings out a soulful warmth in Picard. Miles and Keiko O'Brien help Data explore human concepts of romance and marriage. Reg Barclay pushes all the Big Guns' buttons with his Adrian Monk-style hyperphobic oddness.

But that's not all the Lower Deckers accomplish.

They also make great cast filler, giving the show the ensemble flavor so fashionable in late 1980s/early '90s television. In the era of Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, L.A. Law, and Thirtysomething, ensemble dramas were pure gold.

But ST:TNG is no Hill Street Blues. Picard still gets the lion's share of the attention, especially after the success of The Best of Both Worlds. The rest of the Big Guns dominate the remaining limelight, leaving the supporting crew to settle for scraps.

That's all the more reason to applaud the Lower Deckers. They do a lot with a little.

They're virtually nonexistent in season 1, and they fade out again in seasons 6 and 7. Still, in their limited appearances, they play a vital role in setting the course for the future of the Trek franchise.

They do it by adding diversity to a whitebread starship. 

In the beginning, the Enterprise-D isn't much of a melting pot. The crew reflects a colonial model of race relations, with whites in the majority (Riker, Beverly, Data, Tasha, and Wesley), and white alpha male Picard (French by name but with an accent straight out of the British Empire) leading "assimilated" lesser powers (Betazoids, Vulcans, a Klingon, etc.) in an illusion of egalitarian power-sharing.

The Lower Deckers change this by adding diversity to the crew. In their heyday in seasons 2 through 5, the supporting players make the Enterprise-D a more multicultural place.

In doing so, they blaze a trail for future series.

The Enterprise-D gains a black bartender (Guinan), a Bajoran navigator (Ro Laren), a Japanese botanist (Keiko O'Brien) and a Japanese nurse (Alyssa Ogawa), among others.

The next series, Deep Space Nine, features a black man commanding a diverse crew of aliens (Trill, Bajoran, Founder, Klingon, Ferengi), with only one white male cast regular--ironically, one of the original Lower Deckers, Miles O'Brien.

Voyager continues the trend. A white woman leads a Latin American Indian, a black Vulcan, a half-Klingon woman, a Chinese male, a holographic doctor, and a Borg female. Again, the main crew includes a solitary white male--Tom Paris.

In DS9 and Voyager, the world of Star Trek looks more like a believable far-future community of peoples. The humble Lower Deckers help make this vision possible.

Their reward? Some get a chance to shine. Guinan saves the timeline in Yesterday's Enterprise. Miles O'Brien prevents war with the Cardassians in The Wounded. Ro Laren attends her own funeral in The Next Phase. Reg Barclay whips up warped holodeck versions of the Big Guns in Hollow Pursuits.

Then, the Lower Deckers vanish as if struck by a cloaking device. Guinan, Ro, and the O'Briens disappear in season 6 (though Ro and Miles each bow once more in season 7). By season 7, ST:TNG turns its focus on the Big Guns and beams the Lower Deckers into space.

It hardly seems fair that the supporting crew members are discarded so easily. They accomplished so much: revealing new facets of the core crew; giving the show an ensemble flavor; boosting a trend in diversity.

However, as the supporting crew fades, an episode comes along that serves as a tribute to their experience. Lower Decks in season 7 tells the story of four junior officers (including Nurse Ogawa), one of whom dies on a secret mission.

Lower Decks makes the ultimate statement about the supporting crew: their lives go on in parallel with those of the command crew--sometimes intersecting, sometimes even affecting the lives of their superior officers. They live, and sometimes die, as bit players in the shadow of larger events. Ultimately, like most of us, they are important only to each other.

This time, the supporting cast's role is clear: they represent the common man.

They represent us.

*****

Deep Space Nine:

Past Tense

 

Time. The final frontier. These are the voyages of Deep Time Nine. Our mission: to boldly experience time travel as no human has experienced it before...

Okay, so the show is called Deep Space Nine, and it doesn't have an opening narration about time being the final frontier...but maybe it should. After all, when the ST:DS9 crew isn't busy fighting the Dominion War or dealing with Bajoran politics, Cardassian duplicity, or Ferengi monkeyshines, they're as likely to explore another zone of time as another zone of space. It's as if the show's producers feel compelled to overcompensate for setting the series on a space station, proving they can still push the storytelling boundaries of travel through history as well as the galaxy.

It's a time-honored Star Trek tradition. In ST:TOS, Kirk and company visit the 1930s and 1960s. Spock stops by his own childhood in the animated Yesteryear. Picard meets Mark Twain in the 1890s in Time's Arrow. Two of the most successful Trek films, The Voyage Home and First Contact, revolve around trips through time.

ST:DS9 doesn't let its stationary starbase setting keep it locked in one time frame. As with its predecessors, ST:DS9 devotes some of its best episodes to time displacement. ST:TOS has City on the Edge of Forever. ST:TNG has Yesterday's Enterprise and All Good Things. ST:DS9 has Far Beyond the Stars, The Visitor, and Trials and Tribble-ations...episodes that arguably stand among the best of all televised and cinematic Star Trek.

These episodes also illustrate the sheer variety and inventiveness of time travel techniques featured in ST:DS9. Forget about the "slingshot effect" and the Guardian of Forever. In The Visitor, Ben Sisko ping-pongs through his son's future when a warp core accident distorts his temporal signature. In Trials and Tribble-ations, the mystical Orb of Time whips up a trip to Kirk's Enterprise circa ST:TOS. Other time jumps come courtesy of a transporter accident (Past Tense) and warp drive sabotage (Little Green Men).

The definition of time travel expands further with visits to past eras via changes in perception. While the physical body remains fixed in time and space, the mind's eye swims the timestream. Why risk your body and defy the laws of physics when you can live history through dreams (Things Past), religious visions (Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night), or hallucinatory delusions (Far Beyond the Stars)?

If perception matters so much, aren't holosuite fantasies a kind of time travel, too? Thanks to the holosuite, the crew of DS9 visits 1960s-era Las Vegas, starring Vic Fontaine (His Way, It's Only a Paper Moon, Badda-Bing Badda-Bang). Bashir gets a taste of the 007-style life of a 1960s secret agent in Our Man Bashir. Then, of course, there are Bashir and O'Brien's offscreen holosuite adventures in historical settings like the Battle of the Alamo, the Battle of Clontarf, and the Battle of Britain. In each case, our heroes experience other eras so solid and authentic that they could just as well be the real thing, reached by old-fashioned slingshot effect or Guardian or Q.

It all goes to show that time and the traveling of it might not be as rigidly linear as some might have thought. Instead of a straight-arrow timeline running from past to future, the heroes of ST:DS9 inhabit a multidirectional, multidimensional timescape, accessible and perceptible by any number of means.

At the heart of this new timescape live the noncorporeal wormhole Prophets. These godlike entities experience time in a nonlinear way, seeing past, present, and future nonsequentially and opening doors for others to do the same. Their significance is obvious from the first episode, Emissary, in which they challenge Ben Sisko's notions of linear time. The central totem of ST:TNG might be Q, who warps conventional perceptions of reality, but the totems of ST:DS9 are the Prophets, who warp conventional perceptions of time.

The Prophets influence a crew who increasingly experience time in nonlinear ways: Miles O'Brien lives a 21-year prison sentence in his mind in the blink of an eye (Hard Time); 8-year-old Molly O'Brien instantly ages to 18 and back again thanks to a time warp (Time's Orphan); and the core crew meet a planetful of their own descendants in the here and now (Children of Time). In the show's final episode, What You Leave Behind, the Prophets' chosen emissary, Ben Sisko, undergoes the greatest temporal transformation, stepping outside time altogether by entering the Prophets' Celestial Temple, where "time doesn't exist."

All this temporal hopscotch leads to one big question: So what? Typically, time travel episodes of ST:DS9 end in the same way as time travel episodes of other Trek or science fiction TV series: the only change is that our hero or heroes learn a lesson. Otherwise, history is set right, the featured time displacement ends, and the timestream resumes its familiar course. ST:DS9 time travel stories are fun, but ultimately kind of pointless...unless their very abundance is itself the point. Perhaps, by featuring so many time-related tales, ST:DS9 suggests that time really is as much a final frontier as space.

If so, where's the advantage in conquering it? That it could enable us to confront the mistakes of yesterday, as Odo does in Things Past? That we could learn the truth about our lives and make peace with lost loved ones, as Kira does in Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night? Or does the shift in our perception of time hold the potential for a wider-reaching and more fundamental change?

By seeing time as a nonlinear, unified whole, humanity could see that the past and future are equally as important as the present. Maybe that's the one lesson we would do best to take from the Prophets and ST:DS9. We can no longer afford to dwell in an isolated moment in time, exempt from responsibility to learn from history and shape the future in positive ways.

*****

 

Voyager:

Woman in Charge

 

On one side of the Captain stands a man of emotion, a human who argues in favor of compassion. On the Captain's other side stands a man of logic, a Vulcan who advises in favor of dispassionate reason. It's a familiar template, one that works as well for Kathryn Janeway as for other notable Starfleet captains. After all, Janeway does bring Voyager all the way home from the Delta Quadrant with a little help from Chakotay and Tuvok.

But how much of an impact do they--and Janeway's other advisors--really have on her command style? Sure, their voices are prominent, but do they alter Janeway's approach to problem-solving? Do they temper her decisions...and if so, is it for better or worse?

To get to the answers, let's start with Star Trek: Voyager's first episode, "Caretaker." When Voyager and a fugitive Maquis ship are stranded in the distant Delta Quadrant, Janeway unites the surviving crews of both ships to form a single functional unit. She sets the stage by putting in place the command structure that will carry through the rest of the series, and she demonstrates the decision-making style that will also thread throughout Voyager's missions: Janeway turns to others for facts and opinions, but she always reserves final authority for herself. And she always knows best.

Her decisions can be controversial, but they lead to positive outcomes in the best interests of her crew and the Federation. In "Caretaker," for example, Janeway decides to destroy the Array, stranding Voyager and the Maquis far from home...not a popular choice to some crew members, but one that saves the Ocampa species in keeping with Starfleet's code of ethics. In "Tuvix," Janeway decides to split the merged being, Tuvix--created by a transporter accident--into his component parts, Tuvok and Neelix. It's another controversial call, one opposed by the Doctor...but it leads to the return of Tuvok and Neelix as independent entities and valued members of the crew. In "Equinox, Part II," Janeway decides to use an uncooperative member of the rogue starship Equinox's crew as bait for hostile phase-shifting aliens. It's a move Chakotay opposes so strongly, he disobeys Janeway's orders and intervenes...but things still work out for the best when the threatened crewman leads Voyager to a species with knowledge of the aliens' secrets.

As we see from the events of "Caretaker," "Tuvix," and "Equinox, Part II," Janeway is Voyager's final authority, equipped with decision-making skills and instincts that lead her to make the best decisions time and again. She looks to her advisors for expertise and novel insights, but they don't sway her decisions...usually.

Sometimes, Janeway does allow her advisors a stronger role in steering her decisions. For example, in "State of Flux," Tuvok convinces Janeway that Seska is the traitor supplying Starfleet technology to the Kazon...and as a result, Janeway is able to thwart Seska. In "The Omega Directive," Chakotay talks Janeway into confiding in the senior staff about an ultra-top-secret mission to destroy the Omega molecule...and it pays off. With the help of her team, Janeway obliterates the deadly molecule, which could have made warp travel impossible in the Delta Quadrant.

In "State of Flux" and "The Omega Directive," Janeway lets her advisors sway her decisions, and things work out well...but in other situations, the results aren't always so good. Case in point, "Alliances." When Chakotay and Tuvok get the bright idea to form an alliance with the Kazon and their enemies, the Trabe, Janeway gives in and decides to give it a try. The result? A debacle. The Trabe make a power play and betray everyone, making the Kazon hate Voyager more than ever.

"Alliances" is one example of the poor judgment exhibited by Janeway's senior staff...but there are plenty of others throughout the series. Tuvok, at one point, rashly mind-melds with a psychotic killer, unleashing his own killer instinct ("Meld"). Chief Engineer B'Elanna Torres seeks pain-inducing thrills in the holodeck with the safety protocols off ("Extreme Risk"). As for Chakotay, his instincts more than once leave something to be desired. In "Maneuvers," he takes rogue solo action to keep Starfleet transporter technology out of the hands of the Kazon, endangering Voyager's command codes in the process. He disobeys orders while saving an ancient Mars probe in "One Small Step," nearly killing himself and his salvage team when things go wrong. And then there's "Scorpion." When Janeway falls into a coma, Chakotay reneges on her deal to work with the Borg to stop an invasion by Species 8472...at least until Janeway wakes up and takes back the reins. If not for her, Voyager and the Borg would not have defeated Species 8472, and the galaxy itself could have been purged of life.

That's right. The galaxy itself. Species 8472's goal was to wipe out all life in the galaxy. If Janeway hadn't stopped them, they could have killed the Milky Way. All thanks to Chakotay.

Notice a pattern? Maybe some folks just aren't cut out for the captain's chair. Janeway, on the other hand, is the one person Voyager can't do without. Her final authority is what holds the ship and crew together and propels them to their destiny. Janeway might seek the counsel of her advisors, but she only really trusts one person: herself. Throughout Voyager's struggles, she holds true to her faith in herself and her judgment, never losing sight of her confidence and resolve.

She faces enemies from within and without--traitors from her own crew, hostile holograms, Kazon, Vidiians, Hirogen, Q, Captain Ransom of the Equinox, you name it. Janeway endures a "Year of Hell" in which her ship and crew are battered to the point of extinction. She pushes Voyager through the heart of Borg territory, battling the Borg at every turn...even being assimilated herself. She goes through all this and more, and she never loses faith in herself.

That's why it's so fitting that the one person who finally helps her get Voyager home is her future self, Admiral Janeway. Who else but a second Janeway could change the ship's destiny, sending it back to Earth decades early?

In the show's last episode, "Endgame," Admiral Janeway travels back through time and space, returning to Voyager in the Delta Quadrant with a plan to get the ship home early via the Borg's transwarp hub. Captain Janeway opposes the plan at first, preferring to destroy the hub and cripple the Borg...but Admiral Janeway brings her around. Together, they do it all--sending Voyager home and destroying the hub. They do it by sharing final authority the only way they ever can--with each other. With themselves.

Perhaps their command style is flawed. After all, is anyone else onboard Voyager really prepared to fill Janeway's shoes if she dies? And doesn't such a strong-Captain style increase the chance of disaster if the Captain's judgment becomes impaired?

One thing's for sure, though: Janeway uses the right style for the right ship at the right time in the right set of circumstances. She lets her staff do what they do best--advise and support--and always saves the last word for herself.

And no one can argue with her results.

*****

 

NOW AVAILABLE!

Untold tales behind the most mind-blowing epic fails—

and unfails—in Trek TV, fiction, and comics!

 

TREK FAIL!

 

FAIL OR UNFAIL?

You be the judge in this book that's also a game!

Then compare your FAIL CALL to what really happened!

 

*****

Special Preview: Universal Language

 

A Science Fiction Novel

By Robert T. Jeschonek

Now on sale!

Corporal Jalila bint Farooq bin Abdul Al-Fulani had had this nightmare before.

She was on the surface of an alien world with her captain and crewmates from the Ibn Battuta. They all turned to her for help, for understanding. Lives depended on her making sense of an alien language she'd never heard before, which should not have been a big deal, because alien linguistics was her specialty...

...but she found herself drowning in a sea of gibberish.

A tide of babble washed over her, a wave of seemingly disconnected sounds from a mob of creatures. Billions of phonemes, the smallest units of language, crashed together, mixing with millions of clicks and lip-smacks that could themselves be part of a language or just random biological noise.

The tide swelled and swirled and Jalila felt herself going under. Again and again, she grabbed at the current but could never make sense of it.

The display on the Voicebox interpreter device she carried blinked with indecipherable nonsense.

She had had this nightmare before. The only problem was, this time, she was wide awake.

Jalila's heart raced. She looked around at the crowd of beings who surrounded her, sleek-furred and slender like otters, and a chill shot down her spine.

Then, she felt Major al-Aziz touch her arm.

"Jalila?" He stared at her with his piercing green eyes, voice laden with concern.

She took a deep breath and gathered herself up. Enough of this.

She was on the surface of the planet Vox with Major al-Aziz and Colonel Farouk. The three of them had landed an hour ago in a scout barque jettisoned from the deep space exploration ship Ibn Battuta (named after the renowned Old Earth Arab explorer and scholar). It was up to them to warn the inhabitants of Vox about an approaching invasion fleet...the same fleet that had crippled and cast adrift the Ibn Battuta.

So it was time to start acting like a professional. Jalila had to forget her fears and nightmares. She had to forget that the stakes were so high, with so many lives in the balance.

And she had to forget that this was her final mission as linguist on the Ibn Battuta.

Jalila was being drummed out of the service. In fact, she would have been drummed out and sent home by now if the Ibn Battuta had not encountered the invasion fleet.

It was all because she'd mistranslated a message two weeks ago and gotten someone killed--a diplomat negotiating the end of a civil war on planet Pyrrhus VII. Jalila had made a mistake translating the complex Pyrrhic language, leading both sides in the war to believe the diplomat was working against them. They'd killed him, and the armistice had collapsed.

So here was Jalila, career over, confidence shot...and her shipmates needed her one more time. Somehow, she had to pull herself together and get the job done. All she really wanted to do was go home and languish in disgrace, but she had to hang on by her fingernails and do this one last thing.

Nodding to al-Aziz, Jalila smoothed the light gray jumpsuit uniform over her slender hips. She tucked her shoulder-length black hair behind her ears, then took a deep breath and turned to the crowd.

"Quiet!" she shouted, as loud as she could, her voice rising over the tumult.

She got her message across. Suddenly, the chaos of noise and chatter subsided. The gleaming black pearl eyes of the dozens of Vox in the city square all slid around to focus on her.

Jalila cleared her throat and took a step forward, fixing her attention on a single brown-furred being. "Hi." She mustered a smile.

The brown-furred Vox rattled off a stream of incomprehensible syllables, at the same time gesturing, clicking, and smacking at a furious pace.

For a moment, Jalila listened and watched the Vox's four-clawed hands flutter and weave. Then, she closed her eyes, blocking out the movement and letting the flurry of sounds rush through her.

Pared down from dozens of voices to one, reduced further from sound and motion to sound alone, the communication seemed less overwhelmingly chaotic. As Jalila absorbed it, she realized it could be simplified even further.

Opening her eyes, she interrupted the Vox by raising both hands, palms flattened toward him. "Only this," she said slowly, pointing to her lips.

Then, pronouncing each letter with slowness and clarity, she recited the Arabic alphabet. She hoped the Vox would get the idea: she wanted to hear pulmonic sounds only, those created with an air stream from the lungs...sounds like the vowels and consonants of the alphabet. All the clicking and smacking was getting in the way.

When she was done, she raised her hands toward the Vox, palms up, indicating it was his turn. (She guessed the Vox was a male because it was bulkier and had a deeper voice than others in the crowd.)

Message received. This time, the Vox's speech was slower and free of clicks and smacks. Finally, Jalila could pick out distinct syllables arranged in patterns. She had isolated a spoken language, one using pulmonic vowels and consonants alone.

Not that the other sounds and hand signs weren't part of a language themselves. Jalila was sure they were, which had been the problem. The pulmonic syllables formed one language. The clicks and smacks comprised a second language. A third language consisted of hand signs.

The Vox people had three different languages, she realized, and they used them all at once. They carried on three conversations at the same time, or one conversation with three levels.

No wonder Jalila and the Voicebox had been stumped. Neither was wired to process so much simultaneous multilingual input.

As the Vox spoke, Jalila's Voicebox took in everything, identifying repeated patterns and relationships between sounds...comparing them to language models in its database...constructing a rudimentary vocabulary and a framework of syntax on which to hang it.

Before long, the chicken scratch on the Voicebox's display became readable output--lines of text representing the alien's words, printed phonetically, laid out alongside an Arabic translation of those words.

At about the same time that the Voicebox kicked in, Jalila started to put it together herself. Her heart beat fast, this time with the familiar thrill of making sense of what had once seemed an indecipherable puzzle.

Listening and studying the Voicebox display for a few moments more, she collected her thoughts. Touching keys on the device, she accessed the newly created vocabulary database for the Vox tongue, clarifying the choice of words she would use.

Then, she interrupted the brown-furred creature (who seemed willing and able to carry on an endless monologue) and rattled off a sentence.

The Vox reared back, the whiskers on his stubby snout twitching. He gestured excitedly, then caught himself and clasped his hands together to stop the movement. Again speaking slowly, without the static of clicks and smacks, he released a few clear words; then he waved, beckoning for Jalila and the others to follow him. The assembled crowd parted to make way.

Jalila turned to Major al-Aziz and Colonel Farouk and repeated the Vox's gesture, waving for them to follow. "I think we're finally getting somewhere."

"What did you say to him?" said Major al-Aziz.

"'Take us to your leader,'" said Jalila.

 

*****

As Jalila, al-Aziz, and Farouk followed their guide through the Vox city, she again felt chills run down her spine...but this time, the chills were inspired by awe, not fear. Though Jalila had seen the wonders of many worlds as part of the Ibn Battuta's crew, she had never in her life seen anything as beautiful as this.

It was a see-through city made of pastel stained glass.

"This is beautiful." Her voice was a whisper...but the Voicebox caught it and translated for the brown-furred Vox at her side.

In return, the Vox, whose name was Nalo, whispered back at her. "Mazeesh."

Jalila smiled and nodded with understanding. Mazeesh meant "beautiful." She was making progress.

Returning her attention to the scenery around her, she let herself be overwhelmed by how mazeesh it all was. Towers scaled remarkable heights--some squared, some cylindrical, some spiraling into feathery clouds. Vast castles straddled block after city block, turrets shooting sky high. There were domes and cones and pyramids, spheres and cubes. All of it was connected from ground level to highest spire by a filigree of crisscrossing strands, a web of tubing laced around and over and through every structure.

And every tube, every wall, every surface was transparent and flowing with pastel color. Pale yellows and blues and reds and greens and violets swirled and rippled like the clouds on a gas giant planet, mixing and pulsing...never obscuring the perfect view of what lay behind them. Jalila could see right into every room and tube, could see fur-covered citizens in motion and at rest and staring right back out at her. Even more, because the floors and ceilings and walls and furnishings were all transparent, she could see through one building and into the next, could look all the way up through every level of every tower.

It was at once breathtaking and disconcerting to see such a city of people stacked to the heights and strung all around, all seemingly floating, supported only by whorls and bands and streams of color.

Jalila felt like she was floating, too, and not just because she was caught up in the spectacular surroundings. Thanks to the low gravity on Vox, she weighed only half what she did on New Mecca or onboard the Ibn Battuta. She felt airy and light on her feet, as if at any moment she could push off from the ground and rise up to glide and pirouette among the filigree and spires.

According to Farouk, the science specialist, it was the light gravity that made the city possible, enabling such fragile, lofty structures to stand. The chief building material was a light polymer with electrostatic properties that produced the colorful tints. Even stretched into impossibly thin sheets, its high tensile strength supported amazing weight...but on New Mecca, at twice the gravity, it would have shattered under a far smaller load.

As Jalila stepped lightly down crystalline walkways, her body lit with shifting pastel colors cast by sunbeams poured through rainbow walls, she was glad she wasn't on New Mecca. She was glad she'd come to Vox on this one last mission and had the chance to experience such wonders.

Alongside her, Nalo chattered away, but Jalila didn't pay much attention. Behind her, a growing mob of similarly vocal Vox generated a rising clamor, but she didn't listen.

For once, she was all eyes, not ears.

 

*****

 

When Nalo led the team into one of the soaring towers, Jalila gazed upward...and realized that her view was unobstructed by even the tinted, transparent walls and ceilings that honeycombed other buildings. She could see all the way from ground level to the distant pinnacle, seemingly a mile above. It was all one vast cathedral, walled in light and color, lined with a ring of slender, glassy pillars that corkscrewed into the heavenly heights.

As Jalila peered up into the otherworldly steeple, she half expected to see a host of angels drift downward, so she was startled when she noticed faraway figures descending from the upper reaches. At first, they were so distant that they were little more than specks, but even then, Jalila could see that they were acrobatically inclined. The five figures moved fast, zipping down the slender pillars, leaping from one pillar to another at high altitudes with perfect ease and grace. 

As the figures drew closer, she realized they were Vox, and they were climbing down headfirst, like squirrels descending tree trunks. They scurried downward fearlessly, skinny bodies twisting around the corkscrew pillars, making heart-stopping dives from pole to pole with no more visible effort than kids playing on monkey bars.

Jalila's shipmates craned their necks to watch the spectacle. Major al-Aziz whistled softly in amazement. Stern Colonel Farouk said nothing, which was no surprise, but there wasn't a peep out of Nalo or the mob who had followed them into the tower, either. If even the chatterbox locals maintained a respectful silence here, Jalila supposed the team was indeed in the presence of some kind of leadership.

Leaping and zipping down the pillars, the five acrobatic Vox closed the distance from the pinnacle in a twinkling. As they approached, Jalila could make out differences in their coloration: two had black fur, one silver, one gold, and one red. Like all Vox, they wore no clothing, though their fur coats were daubed with colorful designs on the scalp, back, and belly--circles, spirals, triangles, and starbursts in white and green and pink and black, whatever color showed up best on their coats.

The five Vox dropped further, then stopped a few yards overhead. They twined themselves around the pillars and hung there, peering down at the visitors with gleaming opal eyes.

Jalila was so dazzled by the wonders she had been witnessing, it took a moment for her to remember she had a job to do. When al-Aziz cleared his throat, she snapped back to reality and activated the Voicebox.

"Jalila," said al-Aziz. "Ask our friend here," and he indicated the brown-furred guide, "if these are the leaders of the Vox."

Touching keys, Jalila found the words she was looking for, then turned to Nalo and repeated the question in his language. Whiskers twitching, the brown-furred
otter-like being answered, speaking slowly and without clicks and smacks for her benefit.

Jalila watched the translation on her device, though she had picked up enough of the language to get the gist of what he had said. "Nalo says they are planetary ministers, and the red one is Regent Ieria. You should speak to her."

"Anything else I should know?" al-Aziz combed his fingers through his thick brown hair and looked up at the red-furred Vox wrapped around one of the pillars.

"Use her title when addressing her," said Jalila. "Don't talk with your hands. I'll take care of the rest."

al-Aziz nodded and stepped forward, turning his attention to the regent. Jalila posted herself alongside him, raising the Voicebox so its pickups could best catch the words of the Vox leader.

Clasping his hands behind him, al-Aziz spoke to the red-furred Vox. "Regent. I am Major al-Aziz of the starcraft Ibn Battuta."

Jalila read the translation from the Voicebox's display, taking care to speak loudly and clearly enough for the leaders to hear and understand. Though the Voicebox could have broadcast the audio itself, Jalila felt more comfortable doing the talking in this delicate situation. She was paranoid about making a mistake like on Pyrrhus VII and didn't want to rely too much on anyone or anything but herself.

al-Aziz nodded at Jalila. "This is my translator, Corporal Jalila Al-Fulani."

Jalila told Regent Ieria what al-Aziz had said, then smiled and bowed.

The red-furred Vox stared down at them, blinking her black pearl eyes...then fired off a storm of syllables, clicks, smacks, and gestures that baffled Jalila and the Voicebox alike.

Fortunately, Nalo came to the rescue. Appearing at Jalila's side, he let loose a sequence of chatter, noises, and hand signs of his own, directed at Ieria. It must have been an explanation of Jalila's conversational limitations, for when Ieria spoke again, it was without gestures or non-pulmonic sounds. The Voicebox resumed normal function, displaying its conversion of the leader's speech.

"Welcome," Jalila read from the screen to al-Aziz. "What brings you to Vox?"

al-Aziz considered his next words carefully. "A fleet of vessels is headed toward your world. Many ships, heavily armed."

Jalila translated, then delivered Ieria's response. "Your ships?"

"No," said al-Aziz. "We don't know who they are...but we know they are hostile. They disabled our own ship, the Ibn Battuta, and left it for dead."

Jalila translated. She was startled when the gold-furred Vox minister flung himself onto Ieria's pillar, interjecting his own streak of chatter. Apparently, the minister had caught on to the need for conversational simplicity, for his speech, though quick-fire, was free of extraneous sounds.

"The other Vox called you a liar," translated Jalila. "He says this is a distraction to hide your own dishonest intentions."

"Our only intention is to warn you," said al-Aziz. "We can provide you with the coordinates of the invasion fleet, and all the data we have on it." Casting his green eyes upward, he gazed into the dazzling heights of the tower. "Your world is filled with beauty. We will do everything in our power to help you preserve it." 

Referring to the Voicebox, Jalila carefully pronounced the Vox version of what al-Aziz had said. "Vox ilu aya sensay mazeesh. al-Azizlo anzish u'i yayla oonlo sah sueta amisansu."

For an instant, there was silence as the regent, ministers, and onlookers absorbed what she had said. Then, all at once, the assembled Vox erupted into chaos.

The outcry was deafening. All around Jalila, Vox were chattering, clicking, smacking, whistling, screaming. They gestured wildly, signing so fast and emphatically that their hands were blurs. Even Ieria and her fellow leaders howled and flailed, diving from pillar to pillar in a frenzy.

The uproar swelled and cascaded in the vast chamber, echo building upon echo with growing force. There must have been at least a hundred Vox in the tower, and every single one of them cried out at once.

Except one. Nalo stood quietly nearby, calmly meeting Jalila's terrified gaze.

For some reason, her eyes fell to the Voicebox in her hands. Somehow, amid the tumult, it must have miraculously tuned in one voice among many, or many voices saying the same thing. Or maybe it was a malfunction.

One word flashed on the display, again and again.

Death.

Death.

Death.

 

*****

 

What happens next? Find out in Universal Language, now on sale!

*****

 

About the Author

 

Robert T. Jeschonek is an award-winning writer whose fiction, comics, essays, articles, and podcasts have been published around the world. DC Comics, Simon & Schuster, and DAW have published his work. According to Hugo and Nebula Award winner Mike Resnick, Robert "is a towering talent." Robert was nominated for the British Fantasy Award for his story, "Fear of Rain." His young adult urban fantasy novel, My Favorite Band Does Not Exist, was named one of Booklist’s Top Ten First Novels for Youth. Visit him online at www.thefictioneer.com. You can also find him on Facebook and follow him as @TheFictioneer on Twitter. 

 

*****

 

E-books by Robert T. Jeschonek

Fantasy

6 Fantasy Stories

6 More Fantasy Stories

Blazing Bodices

Earthshaker – an urban fantasy novel

Girl Meets Mind Reader

Groupie Everlasting

Heaven Bent – a novel

Rose Head

The Genie's Secret

The Return of Alice

The Sword That Spoke

 

Horror

Bloodliner – a novel

Diary of a Maggot

Dionysus Dying

Fear of Rain

Road Rage

 

Humor (Adults Only)

Dick by Law – a novel

 

Literary

6 Short Stories

Getting Higher – a novel

 

Mystery and Crime

6 Crime Stories

Crimes in the Key of Murder

Dancing With Murder (a cozy mystery novel)

The First Detect-Eve

The Foolproof Cure for Cancer

The Other Waiter

Who Unkilled Johnny Murder?

 

Poetry

Flight of Ideas

 

Science Fiction

6 Scifi Stories

6 More Scifi Stories

6 Scifi Stories Book 3

Beware the Black Battlenaut

Give The Hippo What He Wants

Heaven Bent, Parts 1-12 – a serial

Lenin of the Stars

Messiah 2.0

My Cannibal Lover

Off The Face Of The Earth

One Awake In All The World

Playing Doctor

Serial Killer vs. E-Merica

Something Borrowed, Something Doomed

Star Sex

Teacher of the Century

The Greatest Serial Killer in the Universe

The Love Quest of Smidgen the Snack Cake

The Shrooms of Benares

Universal Language – a novel

 

Superheroes

6 Superhero Stories

7 Comic Book Scripts

7 More Comic Book Scripts

A Matter of Size (mature readers)

Forced Retirement (Forced Heroics Book 1)

Forced Betrayal (Forced Heroics Book 2)

Forced Partnership (Forced Heroics Book 3)

Heroes of Global Warming

The Dream Lord Awakens (graphic novel script)

The Masked Family – a novel

The Wife Who Never Was

 

Thrillers

Backtracker – a novel

Day 9 – a novel

 

The Trek It! Series

Trek This!

Trek Off!

Trek Fail!

Trek Script!

Trek Script 2

Trek Novel!

Trek You!

Trek It!

 

Young Readers

Dolphin Knight – a novel

Lump

Tommy Puke and the Boy with the Golden Barf

Tommy Puke and the World's Grossest Grown-Up

 

*****

 

Now on Sale from Robert T. Jeschonek

A Young Adult Fantasy Novel That Really Rocks!

One of Booklist's Top Ten First Novels for Youth

 

Being trapped in a book can be a nightmare—just ask Idea Deity. He’s convinced that he exists only in the pages of a novel written by a malevolent author . . . and that he will die in Chapter 64. Meanwhile, Reacher Mirage, lead singer of the secret rock band Youforia, can’t figure out who’s posting information about him and his band online that only he should know. Someone seems to be pulling the strings of both teens’ lives . . . and they’re not too happy about it. With Youforia about to be exposed in a national magazine and Chapter 64 bearing down like a speeding freight train, time is running out. Will Idea and Reacher be able to join forces and take control of their own lives before it’s too late?

 

School of Rock meets Alice in Wonderland in this fast-paced, completely unpredictable novel of alternate realities, time travel, and rock ‘n’ roll. If your favorite band does not exist . . . do you?

 

"Overall, My Favorite Band Does Not Exist is a wacky and enjoyable trip...full of intriguing, imaginative concepts that keep a reader hooked." –Thom Dunn, The Daily Genoshan

 

"This first novel has all the look of a cult fave: baffling to many, an anthem for a few, and unlike anything else out there." –Ian Chipman, Booklist Starred Review

 

"Chaos theory meets rock 'n' roll in adult author Jeschonek's ambitious, reality-bending YA debut." "...this proudly surreal piece of metafiction could develop a cult following..."–Publishers Weekly

 

"Reading this reminded me of authors like Terry Prachett and Neil Gaiman…" –BiblioJunkies

 

Now Available from Graphia Books!

Order now from your favorite bookseller.

 

 

*****

 

TREK OFF!

 

Copyright © 2012 by Robert T. Jeschonek

www.thefictioneer.com

 

Published in May 2012 by Pie Press by arrangement with the author. All rights reserved by the author.

 

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

 

Design by Pie Press

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