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PRIME DIRECTIVE - Karla Kelly

Why did he leave? she wondered, not for the first time. She would have sworn a holy oath that those two would always be together, were happy only with each other. I remember Spock's laugh just days before he left. It was the only time I ever heard him laugh.

DIRECT HIT - Gena Moretti

Alarm cries rose from every nearby creature as the craft screamed by overhead then ripped through the foliage, snapping tree tops and limbs skidding and spinning along the damp, leaf-carpeted floor of the jungle and slammed to a halt, once-powerful engines buried in the resilient trunk of a giant water-saturated succulent. The mangled hot metal sizzled, cooling rapidly in the oozing liquid and pulverized pulp of the ancient tree. The incredibly lucky survivors had been unconscious since the first fierce impact and did not yet know they were alive. J.T. blinked, puzzled by the blurry gray around him, and quickly recognized the deflated protective crash-gear draping the cockpit. "Gare?"

THE BALLAD OF THE RIVAL LORD'S SON - Ciana Mitchell

Then there came another/to sit beside the fire/making Shenar's eyes/smolder with desire. A youth of human blood/entered Shenar's lair/hazel were his eyes/and golden was his hair.

IRRESISTIBLE FORCE - Gena Moretti

Twilight was coming. Kirk wanted to bathe and still have daylight to build his fire by, and if he was to have that, he had to quit now. With a sigh the well-built young human rose and stretched to full height, arcing his back first one way, then another. His two partners had taken their ship and were getting supplies, since their survey was taking longer than they had anticipated. They were either low or out of darn near everything so he was saving his precious batteries for emergencies.

A TERRIBLE RIGHTNESS - Anne McClean

"How do you ensure their obedience?"

"Oh it's very simple, really." The two men paused in their stroll down the long, clinical, door-lined corridor. "All you've got to do is threaten the well-being of one of the others. It's pathetic really they seem to think their lives are worth any humiliation. Oh, unless you ask them to do something that doesn't square with their insane morality. They'll bend over and let you fuck them, but they'll defy you if you tell them to crush an insect. And they call themselves civilized."

THE RASPUTIN EFFECT - Janis E. Laine

The silvery, hourglass-shaped construct revolved slowly against the star-flecked blackness of space. It looked like any other space station, thought Jim Kirk. Save for the message buoys warning off unauthorized vessels, no one would suspect a maximum security prison was housed beneath the gleaming durasteel hull.

403 inmates soon to become, briefly, 404.

POETRY by Belle, H.R. Radei, Ruth Relons

COVERS by Deeb.

ART by Deeb, Chris Soto

June 1991