JULIO ANGEL ORTIZ: Destiny is being touted as a trilogy that will have long-term ramifications for Star Trek literature.  What was the reasoning behind doing a series like this? Why shake up the entire chessboard as opposed to a few specific pieces? 

DAVID MACK: Not to be glib, but why not? There are no movies or TV series set during the 24th century in production right now, and none appear to be in the works anytime soon. The furthest-forward edge of the shared Star Trek literary continuity is an open frontier. 

So we go west, young man. 
 

JAO: Could you take us through the genesis of this project?   

DM: In November 2006, my editors invited me to lunch at a pub and showed me an image from the book Ships of the Line. It was a painting by Pierre Drolet, based on the classic image “Flight of the Phoenix,” depicting the wreck of the Columbia NX-02 on the surface of a desert planet. The caption for the image said that the Columbia’s wreck had been found, empty and abandoned, in the Gamma Quadrant. 

Apparently, this image and its description had sparked a lot of fan interest, and it also had intrigued the editors. They pointed at the image and said to me that they wanted me to use that as a jumping-off point for an epic crossover trilogy, the likes of which Star Trek literature had never before seen. 

I sipped my beer and said, “Okay.”  Little did I know what I had just gotten myself into. 
 

JAO: You have stated in the past that, if this were “just another Borg story,” you would not have done it.  Was it a challenge to find a fresh approach with a well-established (and in some opinions, well-worn) enemy?  How did you tackle it? 

DM: For me, the hook was to realize that, overall, this story is not about the Borg. It uses the Borg as a plot element, and as a force-of-nature antagonist to impel our characters into action, but it’s not about them any more than a war story is about the bullets or the artillery shells. The Borg are merely the hammer in this story; our heroes are the nails. 

And man, do I pound their heads in good this time. 
 

JAO: Destiny looks to have a large cast of characters.  With the different sets of crews, how much of a challenge was it to balance their stories and keep their voices authentic? 

DM: Capturing their voices is pretty much the first trick one learns as a media tie-in author. It’s sort of the fundamental task of the profession. That said, sometimes one’s focus slips when the hours grow long and the number of voices competing to be heard become legion. I’ll just pray that everyone thinks that the characters they know and love sound like themselves all the way through the trilogy. 

As far as balancing the characters’ stories, to be perfectly honest, I didn’t even try. Early on, I realized that certain characters in this saga were going to merit more “screen time” than others, because they had more to contribute to the plot. I wasn’t going to shoehorn in a bunch of scenes for Character A or Character B just to serve some imaginary need for balance. Not all stories are about all characters equally.  That’s just the way it goes. 
 

JAO: You have stated that this project consumed 18 months of your life.  As a writer, was there ever a point at which you felt mentally fatigued by working on the same project for so long? 

DM: All the time.  When I started working on the trilogy, I was still working at a full-time job that frequently demanded serious overtime. And I had an almost hour-long commute in each direction bracketing that workday. Consequently, most of my work on Destiny was done between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m. each night, for months on end. 

Even as I answer these interview questions, I’m still not done working on the trilogy. I am still reading and revising the copy edits, the page proofs, the final proofs, etc.  I just e-mailed some minor text additions for Mere Mortals to my editor. The work never ends. 
 

JAO: Did you have a favorite crew in writing the trilogy? 

DM: Yes and no. Each one had its fascinations and challenges for me. Two crews came with a lot of established continuity: those of the Enterprise-E and Titan. The crew of the Columbia, on the other hand, was all but unknown, and I had carte blanche to establish the officers and crew of the Aventine. 

Naturally, because I got to invent so many new characters for the latter two ships, I have a strong attachment to them. In particular, the attention that I gave to Captain Erika Hernandez and her officers from the Columbia really made them come to life while I was working on Gods of Night and Mere Mortals (the first two books of the trilogy). 

I’ll just have to hope that the readers share my passion for and interest in those characters. 
 

JAO: The super-geek question: Was there a specific reason for creating a new class (the Vesta class) for Ezri’s ship, as opposed to using a pre-existing one? Any notes on what it looks like? 

DM: I had originally suggested putting Dax in command of a ship of a type that we’d seen before, maybe a Prometheus-class vessel.  My editors, however, felt that if we created a new class of ship, we could imbue it with technology not seen before on the show, and no one would be able to complain, “Hey! The show never said it could do that!” 

So, I bowed to their editorial wisdom and concocted the Vesta-class explorers. 

As far as what they look like, I don’t really know.  They’re big ships, with crew complements of more than 750 people. That puts them on a par with Sovereign-class ships such as the Enterprise-E, or maybe with a Nebula-class vessel.  They have some tricked-out engine technology, so I imagine they have unusual-looking warp nacelles and probably a sleek, arrowhead kind of styling.  But that’s just my opinion.  I could be wrong. 
 

JAO: There is a joke in online fandom about David Mack tales having high mortality rates. Once and for all: Are you sick of this perception? 

DM: Honestly, I don’t give a damn either way. As some media whore or other once said, “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.” 

I can only hope that readers of my work will be astute enough to realize that my stories aren’t about lots of people losing their lives, they are about the emotional impact and political consequences that follow from the loss of people’s lives. 
 

JAO: Could you give us a random sentence from the trilogy? 

DM: “His other hand shot forward, and sh’Aqabaa caught the glint of emerald light off a metallic blade.” 
 

JAO: In hindsight, how satisfied are you with the way the trilogy turned out? 

DM: Extremely satisfied. I feel that it covers a lot of ground, both narratively and stylistically. It has an epic quality, and because we don’t hit a “reset button” at the end of this grueling ordeal, I feel like it represents a significant contribution to the entire body of ongoing, shared-continuity Star Trek literature. 
 

JAO: Bonus question: It was announced that you would be writing the fifth Vanguard novel.  What else are you working on now that you can discuss?  Any hints about your Vanguard novel? 

DM: Currently, I’m drafting the manuscript of my first original novel, an urban fantasy-thriller known as The Calling. It’s about a man who hears when other people pray for help. One day he answers a life-or-death plea from a little girl, and winds up embroiled in a deadly mess involving crooked cops, the Russian mob, and some supernatural bad guys. 

When that’s done and in to my editor, my next manuscript due is The 4400: Promises Broken. It will be the fourth (and possibly last) novel based on the now-canceled series The 4400. It’s set after the show’s final episode, and I have been given permission by the licensor to proceed with an epic tale that will serve, in many respects, as a grand finale for the series.