Author Ward Talks Post-Destiny
3 min readAuthor Dayton Ward shared his thoughts on the state of the Star Trek universe after the events of the Destiny Trilogy and subsequent books, where Starfleet were weakened substantially and danger looms from foes united in an alliance against the Federation.
A new power bloc is in town. The Typhon Pact is an alliance of Romulans, Tzenkethi, Breen, Gorn, Tholians as well as those from the Holy Order of the Kinshaya and this group of xenophobes means business when it comes to the Federation and the Klingon Empire.
In Paths of Disharmony, Andor is trying to recover from a devastating Borg invasion, as well as problems of their own which predate the invasion but which have worsened after the Borg attack. “[Paths of Disharmony is] “set just over a year after the events of David Mack‘s Star Trek Destiny trilogy, and features Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-E visiting the planet Andor,” said Ward. “The planet got hit pretty hard by the Borg in Destiny, which only served to exacerbate the existing fertility problems plaguing the Andorians for generations. One medical approach that seemed to hold promise is falling well short of hopes and expectations, and there’s a growing sense among the Andorian people that the Federation isn’t doing enough to help them.”
The influence of the Typhon Pact is growing and in Paths of Disharmony, the 
Federation is in for an unpleasant surprise. “It was one of a few scenarios tossed about as a means of demonstrating the sort of influence the Typhon Pact could have,” said Ward. “They’ve been nipping around the edges for quite some time by this point, and the editor was looking for something ‘big’ that could fuel further stories as the Federation continues its recovery and the Pact keeps getting bolder.”
This series of books shows a darker, bleaker Trek universe and fans have mixed reactions to that. But according to Ward, part of what makes Star Trek what it is, is the ability to work through difficult times to emerge into a bright future. This attitude dates back to the very beginning of Trek’s history, back to a post-WWIII Earth where in a post-apocalyptic world, instead of giving up and just scrabbling for survival like most around him, Zefram Cochrane looked to the stars and invented warp drive. “Well, Destiny was a game-changer, and dealing with the fallout of those events will take a while to sort through,” he said. “One of the core tenets of Star Trek is that at some point in the not-so-distant future, we’ll emerge victorious from one of the darkest, most trying times in our history, and eventually become part of something greater and grander than our little planet here.”
More on the Star Trek universe, Vanguard books and Ward’s other projects will be found in the interview, located here. Readers who have not yet picked up Paths of Disharmony, which released in January, should note that the interview contains a major spoiler about the book.
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