Strange New Worlds 9 - The Long Road Getting From There to Here
Reviews of stories from Strange New Worlds 9 may contain minor spoilers. At least three stories deal with Earth's formative years that paved the way for Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets. The Enterprise episode "Carbon Creek" introduced the character Mestral, a Vulcan science officer who elected to stay on Earth in 1957. "Mestral" by Ben Guilfoy takes place a century later. The long-lived Vulcan has a significant impact on the events that paved the way for Star Trek:First Contact . It's a great use of the character and won third place in the collection. "The Rules of War" by Kevin Lauderdale opens with the line "A spray of bullets sent chips of cement flying from the building's wall across Archer's face." That very gritty opening leads into a story about the start of the Eugenics War and Jonathan Archer's grandfather. Archer described this incident briefly in the episode "Hatchery." Now we get to s...