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THE EDGE OF THE WORLD - Chris Soto
He was in a smoky room filled with tall, fair, mustachioed men in furs and torcs with weather-worn faces. The sound of their language was at once strange and familiar. The sound became words, the words comprehensible. The smell of burning peat, close-packed bodies and roasting meat assailed Kirk's nose. There was a bronze cup in front of him and someone asking if he wanted it refilled....
(Earth, Celtic Britain, 60 A.D.)
Chieftain Taran of the Wolf Clan, of the Tribe Setantii, reclined in the place of honor by the hearth, surrounded by his finest warriors. Taran was a tall man, with moustache drooping to collarbone and long, blond hair plaited into impressive twin braids. He was in his middle years, but still muscular and agile. Arms bespoke one who could wield a battle-axe without strain. Perceptive eyes took in everything with just one glance.
MUSIC TO DIE FOR - Karen Dates
Spock set a cup of tea in front of each of his partners. They had a difficult decision to make, and could no longer put it off. As he slid gracefully into the remaining place, he wondered how their great adventure, the long planned effort to escape the stifling expectations their families had for them, had ended here.
On Earth, at the perimeter of a cornfield in North America's Iowa. They had not even been able to convince B'tenr, of Big B'tenr's Space Tug Service, to take their damaged ship from the small, antiquated spaceport in Des Moines to the large, Intergalactic Spaceport facility in San Francisco. Apparently the one meter tall being had no use for the various items the four young Vulcans had offered in trade, turning his non-existent nose up at the enticement of all the plomeek he could carry.
ALLIANCE BORN - Deanna Gray
The solitary figure stood gazing out upon the stars. They shone as they always did, ever bright and mysterious, without care for the destruction below or the life that was lost this day. Not for the first time he wondered what powers had created the stars and what amusement they gathered at the plight of those they put upon this planet and then abandoned.
The sound of approaching V'Thlaks chased the useless speculation and he shifted his gaze downward. The beasts halted at the gates as their riders swung down and quickly entered the fortress. The foremost figure leapt from his mount before it even halted. A hint of a sword gleamed briefly in the starlight before the black cloak swirled over it, cutting off the light. Appropriate, Sarek thought grimly. He gave a final glance over the plain, seeing the fires of his people as they settled into the night, the slow walk of sentries as they stood guard. In the distance the great fire he had watched earlier was dead now, as dead as the one for whom it had burned.
