Background and Author's Notes
This is the 'Director's Cut' of this story. Every chapter includes significant revisions and additions that have:
· New and expanded battle scenes
· New and expanded dialog
· New character scenes with expanded dialog
· Numerous corrections and corrections to grammar and general sentence structure.
I have read this story as a fan several times, and each time I've come away with new ideas on how to improve the story. Those thoughts and ideas have been realized in the following story.
I have decided to reboot this story instead of simply continuing with the previous version. This is to significantly expand the scope of the storytelling while not increasing the story's scope. In the original version, the concept for this story was larger than the story I wanted to tell at the time. I have corrected that here.
I received lots of valuable feedback from the first version of this story, much of which I included in this version.
Finally, I wanted to continue this story because I have struggled to find any SCIFI stories to read that weren't heavily slanted towards fantasy or just didn't flat-out insult my intelligence. I also wanted to tell a very character-driven story. There are a few space battles, but those battles aren't the story's focus. Someone looking for a heavy battle story will be disappointed with this and shouldn't waste their time. Instead, this story follows the journeys of several characters as they learn to accept a new reality.
This is a story that I've wanted to tell for a while. The basic premise, on the surface, has been done before: Enterprise C & D go into the B5 universe. However, the dynamics and situations will be very different than other stories.
This story begins:
Star Trek – TNG: Season 3, Episode 15 "Yesterday's Enterprise"
Babylon 5: Season 3, Episode 18 "Walkabout"
This story should be considered AU for both TNG and B5. This is because neither show was perfect, and I made several changes to tell a more entertaining story, IMO. For example, here are some of the changes for this AU.
TNG:
Picard commands a small group of 5 ships on their way from a starbase to rendezvous with a larger battlegroup, preparing to strike at critical facilities deep within Klingon territory. All ships have just completed repairs and are ready for battle. This group includes Captain Ben Maxwell and the USS Phoenix, a Nebula class strike cruiser. This character is taken from Season 4, Episode 12, "The Wounded." He will serve as a main character in this story. Also changed will be the survival of Rachel Garrett of Enterprise C. She will also be a main character.
B5:
In this story, Sheridan will need diplomatic help to bring the alliance together. He's a fine leader, but he doesn't have the diplomatic chops necessary to bring together such a varied group of races. Delenn has some diplomatic chops, but she's too inexperienced and will need help. He also has no experience (to my knowledge) as a fleet commander or performing fleet-wide deployment operations. Again, he will need help here. Expect Starfleet to step in and assist in both. Finally, the thought that Ivanova, a fighter pilot, can step in and lead a fleet into combat is ridiculous to me. A single ship or a fighter squadron, sure. Anything else? Not in this story. Don't expect her to be leading any fleets here. Command of a White Star is about as far as she will go.
Don't expect everything to go well for Starfleet, as there will be tension between the captains, with some VERY difficult decisions to be made. Don't expect them to sit on the sidelines of either the Shadow War or the Earth Civil War.
Chapter lengths will vary depending on what the topic or theme is for that chapter. I won't pad chapters to reach some sort of arbitrary word count.
Special thanks to Skeet/AlbertG for allowing me to loosely base my Garrett and Sisko characters on his interpretations of these characters and for providing me with some ideas that helped flesh out the story. Also, a very special thank you to my beta and friend Ross, who was a tremendous help throughout the creative process for this story, both in grammar review and story ideas.
Disclaimer:
This story is a "fan fiction" work and is not intended for commercial distribution. No copyright infringement is either implied or intended.
"Star Trek," "Star Trek: The Next Generation," and all related Star Trek-related references and characters are the copyright of CBS/Paramount.
"Babylon Five" and all related Babylon 5-related references and characters are the copyright of Time Warner.
All original content (c) 2016-2022 justjoe
