From History's Shadow Unveiled

Star Trek: The Original Series: From History’s Shadow, the latest Star Trek novel by Dayton Ward, is available today from Simon & Schuster/Pocket Books. Ward’s previous Trek adventures include Paths of Disharmony, That Which Divides and Summon the Thunder, among others, and he's a favorite guest blogger here at StarTrek.com. Below is a synopsis of From History’s Shadow direct from Simon & Schuster:2268: Following their encounter with the mysterious Gary Seven in the twentieth century, the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise is startled by two intruders who have transported through space and time from Earth circa 1968. Incredibly, one of the infiltrators is a Vulcan, who asserts that he’s lived among Earth's population for over a decade. The other represents a little-known race, and reveals to Captain James T. Kirk that she has spent that last twenty years working to bring about humanity’s destruction. It is then that Gary Seven’s young protégé, Roberta Lincoln, arrives seeking Kirk’s help.... 1947: In the wake of the infamous “Roswell Incident” involving a crashed alien craft and beings from another world, Captain James Wainwright finds himself recruited as one of the first members of Majestic 12, a secret organization with two goals: Collect evidence of extraterrestrial activity on Earth, and develop strategies to combat alien invaders. And it is this very mission that will consume Wainwright’s life for the next two decades, driven by the knowledge that the danger is as real as the aliens living among us....

StarTrek.com caught up with Ward, who told us he’d had one version or another of this story rattling around in his head for years, going all the way back to 1999 when he penned a story called The Aliens Are Coming! for the third Star Trek: Strange New Worlds writing contest. It involved James Wainwright confronting Captain Christopher in 1969 about the UFO he saw (in the episode "Tomorrow Is Yesterday"). “I'd always wanted to take a longer look at some of the ideas I put forth in that story,” Ward said. “I realized after I'd written and submitted it that there was so much more I could do with the basic premise of weaving elements of ‘Star Trek history’ in and around the era of the Cold War, UFO paranoia from the 1950s, and the early Space Race. I sat on that idea for a few years. Then, after Greg Cox wrote his two-part Star Trek: The Eugenics Wars, I'd revisit the notion from time to time. I submitted another version of the outline -- which utilized Deep Space Nine for the framing story, rather than The Original Series --  to Pocket, but it was rejected, and so I stuck it in a drawer and forgot about it.”Fast forward to 2012, when Ward’s editor asked him for a TOS novel idea. Ward pulled his outline out of mothballs, rewrote the parts calling for DS9 characters and situations to something appropriate for Kirk and gang, updated a great deal of the 20th century story elements, and off he went. “In truth, this novel in large part is a prequel to The Aliens Are Coming, as well as an updating and reinterpretation of key events from that original short tale,” Ward says. “And it only took me fourteen years to get around to writing it!”Star Trek: The Original Series: From History’s Shadow spans 400 pages, costs $7.99 and is available as both a mass market paperback and an eBook. Click HERE to order.