Search Worlds Without End

Before James T. Kirk, another captain stood on the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise, spearheading its mission of exploration into the uncharted reaches of the galaxy. He was a man driven to perfection, a brooding soul whose haunted eyes reflected the burden of the impossible standards he set for himself, and for whom his longtime science officer, Spock, one day would risk everything for him. Yet, little is truly known about the enigmatic Christopher Pike, the events that defined him... or the secrets that consumed him.

From the embers of his early childhood among Earth's blossoming interstellar colonies, to the terrifying conflagration that led him back to the world of his birth; from the mentor who would ignite young Chris's desire to return to the stars, to the career he blazed in Starfleet that would end in supreme sacrifice -- the path of Pike's astonishing life leads through fire again and again. But even amid the ashes of Talos IV, the forbidden world on which he would live out the remainder of his days, the dreams smoldering still within his aging, radiation-ravaged breast fan the flames of Pike's spirit to accomplish one final task.

A social experiment was conceived. Its goal was to breed the best, the brightest, the most malleable and most loyal soldiers to ever serve. To this end, the Romulan Empire used its own children, blinded by the belief that anything that would bring glory to the praetor was justified. And when the winds of politics changed, these children were abandoned, left to die on a world so horrifying that it was dubbed -- by those who dared to cling to life -- Hellguard.

One wild child, Saavik, was rescued by Spock. He took the half-Vulcan, half-Romulan child home to his parents, knowing that if anyone could reach and rescue Saavik, it was them.

Now a Starfleet officer, Saavik has striven to honor her mentor and her Vulcan heritage. But recent events have shaken her. Left behind on Vulcan while the rest of the Enterprise crew goes to face court-martial for stealing and destroying their ship, the young science officer is adrift when two men from her past confront her. Tolek, another Hellguard survivor, tells Saavik that the survivors are being killed one-by-one and only they can discover who and why. The other, a Romulan who claims to be her father, swears it is the Vulcans who are eliminating the Hellguard survivors because they are an embarrassment to all of Vulcan, but that she has the power to stop it, by bringing down the Vulcan ambassador, Sarek.

Not knowing where to turn, not knowing whom to trust, Saavik must find her own answers, and discover who she truly is.

Warrantors of Peace: the Federation's daring experiment to prevent war among its members. Each Warrantor, man or woman, is hostage for the government of his native world -- and is instantly killed if that world breaks the peace.

Now Romulans have kidnapped six Warrantors, to foment political chaos -- and then civil war -- within the Federation. Captain Kirk must send Sulu to infiltrate Romulan territory, find the hostages, and bring them back alive -- before the Federation self-destructs.

In the twenty-first century: Years before the formal first contact that would be recorded in Earth's history, a Vulcan space vessel crash-lands in the South Pacific, forcing humanity to decide whether to offer the hand of friendship, or the fist of war. Complicating matters is a second visitation: a group of people from two hundred years in the future, who serve on a starship called Enterprise.

In the twenty-third century: A new novel called Strangers from the Sky reveals the truth about this heretofore unknown first contact. Reading the novel leads to nightmares that torment Admiral James T. Kirk -- dreams of his dead comrades, Gary Mitchell, Lee Kelso, and Elizabeth Dehner, from his earliest days aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise; visions of a forgotten past in which he somehow changed the course of history and destroyed the Federation before it began.

In the aftermath of the visit of the mysterious probe to Earth in 2286, Starfleet is wondering what this strange visitor really was about, and who sent it. At the same time, a major political upheaval on Romulus has deposed a ruling party that has ruled for decades, and the new leadership is interested in more diplomatic relations with the Federation. With the probe headed towards Romulan space, it is a chance for the two powers to work together to understand who sent the probe, and why.

Eventually, the crew of the USS Enterprise, working with Romulan counterparts, tracks down the probe, and learns more about its background and history. Spock successfully mind melds with the probe, learning that it did not seek to be destructive to other races, instead they were so different from its creators that they were ignored as "mites" in "metal bubbles", and teaches the probe to be more aware of what it is doing to humanoid life in the galaxy as it travels, leaving the probe to continue to explore the galaxy, and the detente seeing Romulans with some of the first peaceful interaction they have ever had with the Federation.

Originally this novel was to be called Music of the Spheres. However, there was a great deal of controversy before its publication; it was given to two different rewriters (J.M. Dillard, Gene DeWeese) without the author's consent, and what was finally published contained only 7% of Bonanno's original book -- but she was not permitted to have her name removed from it. The story of how the book was changed can be read here (Word doc).