C.L. Nelson's
The Early Years
INTRODUCTION
This is not what you'd call your typical Star Trek novel. In fact, I'd say it's just barely within the parameters to qualify. I've been a big fan of the show for many years, however, I wanted to go somewhere "no man has gone before." What I was trying to do here was to delve into the past a little and flesh out some monumental events which took place in the show's distant past and directly influenced the outcome of the future. Think of this as historical fiction of the future. We know that the invention of the warp drive led directly to our first encounter with aliens and also touched off the Romulan Human war. You also know that the process of exploration continued on, despite that and many other wars. But how did it all come about? What were those people like? I've tried show all that here. You won't find any of the established Star Trek characters here, although some of the terminology and events from the show do appear.
The military service aspect came from the pilot episode for the original series, "The Cage." There was a ground warfare capability mentioned during their encounter on Rigel 7, where many of the crew were injured or killed. Incidentally, the idea behind using the military for NASA's space program was physical fitness and resilience. Today, NASA is moving more in the direction of scientists and engineering. It only stands to reason that future generations of humans would think the same way.
This story takes place five years after the Human Romulan war. The ship is a battleship by nature, and exploration is a relatively new prospect. The captain is a well-seasoned man with many years experience in space combat. How does a crew trained primarily in war making attempt to be successful at a peaceful activity like exploration? Since in all of the series, the underlying theme is exploration, it makes sense that it would have to start somewhere. There are numerous Star Trek episodes containing stories of other starships which had either been lost or had some sort of effect on a civilization, years before the original Enterprise appeared on the scene. On the show, there is evidence that Starfleet had transitioned from a war making force into an organization dedicated to space exploration. Think of it as "NASA joins the Air Force." I chose Starfleet's former name, Space Command, based on its ancestor, which started out in the US Air Force. I figured that before there was an emphasis on "star" there would be an emphasis on "command."
I got most of my information from the back stories take from episodes of the original series, the animated series and The Next Generation. Writer's guides are good for that sort of thing. Captain Robert C. April is in no way related to the Robert April who was the first captain of the original Enterprise. Actually, I didn't know that until after I'd started writing the book! The "saucership project" is based on the movie "Forbidden Planet," which I find to be very similar to the original Star Trek series, and would fit very well into its historical timeline.
The etherians are derived from different accounts of encounters of extraterrestrials. I have a whole bunch of reports stored on my hard drive that I downloaded from a local bulletin board, which I used as base to start from. I've taken some liberties with them but after all, this is fiction. I hope you enjoy this, I sure did. This is my version of how the first peaceful mission to explore space happened.
C.L. Nelson
Now, sit back, relax and enjoy...