Long time listener, first time caller...
Just finished reading this collection, though I must admit to reading it out of order. Actually read Brave New World first (as a huge Data fan, I just couldn't pace myself to get to the end), which, honestly, was probably a good order to read the stories in, as the optimistic ending of that one would have probably been quite a letdown for me after reading the 'gray' 'Chimes at Midnight' and the 'dark' 'A Gutted World'...
I particularly enjoyed 'A Gutted World'. As DS9 is probably my favorite series, it was very interesting to see how things would have turned out had the Dominion's plan been allowed to play out as intended. The ending is particularly pessimistic in that, given the enormous setbacks the Dominion suffered in the story (but yet far from being defeated), that the eventual outcome of the war is total anarchy as the remaining powers slowly whittle away at each other until all parties are completely spent, even the Dominion. No one has the overwhelming force necessary to bring things to any kind of end...
'The Chimes at Midnight' was another darkly inspired look at what might have been. Once I caught on that the story was going to cover the span of ST: II-VI (as opposed to just II-III), I realized things were going to completely go to crap when the Probe came a'calling, and I was not disappointed. Of all the universes visited in the Myriad Universes anthologies, though, this was the one I would be most interested in seeing the 'future' of, given the political situation at it's ending. Congrats on the characterization of Thelin, as well. Having not yet seen the Animated Series, this was a character I was totally unfamiliar with, but really felt for by the end of 'Chimes'. As well, David Marcus, someone not elaborated on much in the films beyond being Kirk's son and an anti-Starfleet scientist, gets a lot of character-building here...
Something was bugging me, though... this wasn't the first place I remember David Marcus/Saavik, right? I'm not certain about this, but I remember it from the novelization of Star Trek III, right? Was that just a coincidence or an intentional nod to that work?
'Brave New World' is a bit of a different animal from the other two. Like others, though, I was a bit baffled by the MAD solution. Maybe it was just me, too, but I would have thought that, given the myriad expressions (in form and function) of the members of the android society, that they would have exhibited a bit more of the creative spark. Since positronic technology appears to be well-understood in this world, one would think Data, et. al, would have made more of an effort to incorporate some of the more esoteric aspects of humanity into their own designs, like creativity, genius, intuition, etc. (though I admit, that would have made them seriously outclassing organics on just about every level, so I can understand it from a narrative standpoint). It does sort of raise the question, however of why Grave's synaptic transfer technique never caught on in the 'real' universe... It did, in fact, work, and he did download his memories into the Enterprise-D's computer core, which meant the knowledge wasn't lost... Even without positronic technology, you'd think something could be done with that... Oh, well...
I'll reiterate, though, well done! I can definitely tell some writers were having a fair bit of fun playing in their own sandbox for a bit, and the stories are all the better for it...
The last story was really interesting. It was nice to see Ro and Sito again and Data.
MAD works with nuclear bombs, but not with something like this - Iconian tech can be used 'sneakily', i.e. you can get a garrison of troops into your enemy's capital *without their ever knowing* until the last minute. Giving it to everyone, friend and foe alike, seems extremely irresponsible.
