My deepest gratitude goes first to my wife, Kara, for her unflagging love and support, not just during the writing of this novel, but always.
I offer my sincere thanks to my good friend Kirsten Beyer, whose suggestions during story development helped elevate so many of the ideas that were foundational to this tale. Her sage counsel helped make it more than just another action story and more than just another tale of interstellar politics. It was Kirsten who made me dig deeper into learning what made Seven who she is, so that this story could be about Seven finding her way in the galaxy as both a newly independent adult and also a newly out queer woman.
I’m grateful to my editors, Margaret Clark and Ed Schlesinger, for their patience and for helping me obtain the research materials I needed for this book. My thanks are also owed to the team at CBS Studios for making those materials available.
I’m thankful for the assistance of Star Trek historian Larry Nemecek, who helped me acquire some behind-the-scenes star charts created for the production team at Star Trek: Picard, in order to help me pin down a location for the Alpha Doradus system and, with it, Freecloud.
Lastly, a special word of thanks to the readers of these tales—and this time around, especially to all of the LGBTQIA+ readers who have found hope and inspiration in Star Trek over the years. This one’s for all of you, with love and respect.
Live long and prosper, my friends.