Star Trek: Strange New Worlds IV
{5/5} “The thought processes of individuals are overly and confusingly complex… influenced by innumerable factors and sometimes contradictory input, to the point where one cannot fully understand one’s own mental actions and reactions, let alone hope to comprehend those of others.” (Seven, from “Black Hats”)
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds IV edited by Dean Wesley Smith, published in 2001
“Countdown” describes the thoughts of the Enterprise computer, which has become self aware, in the seconds before it explodes over the Genesis planet. In “The Name of the Cat” McCoy crashes on Mars and runs into an alien who invites him to go back in time. In “The Promise” Kamin tells his daughter and son a story about space travellers Picard and Riker. In “Isolation Ward 4” a psychologist in 1953 reads the “Deep Space Nine” stories by Benny Russell. In “Uninvited Admirals” Gretchen Janeway comes to associate the arrival of admirals on her doorstep with the death of a loved one.
Some of these stories are OK, some are great, and some are astonishing.
Even a minor character like Lieutenant Hawk from Star Trek: First Contact can get an effective story in an anthology like this (“Seeing Forever”).
Authors include William Leisner and Ilsa J. Bick.
I’ve read 7 novels by Smith plus 5 anthologies he edited. I previously reviewed Star Trek: Strange New Worlds III.