by
Polly A. Bywater
Love is immortal
Death is but a horizon, and a
Horizon is only the limit of our sight
The Ubiquitous Disclaimer
Paramount/Viacom owns all rights to the Star Trek Universe and the characters therein, worlds without end, amen. Horizons of Fire is a not-for-profit piece of original fan fiction that is only partially based on that Universe. The planet ZaworthIa, Her legends, and Her inhabitants are products of my own mind.
All that being said, no author writes in a vacuum, and I owe heartfelt thanks to every sci-fi author whose works I ever read, from Anderson to Zelazney and in between.
I originally wrote Horizons of Fire in the late 80’s. I did the first draft by hand, 500 some odd ink-blotted pages on loose leaf paper. I’ve probably revised it 6 or 7 times since, and the final version bears little resemblance to the first one. The planet ZaworthIa and Her inhabitants changed very little, however, and remains as real to me as the world I live in.
Let me make this warning clear.
This is my first work of fanfiction and has not been betaed nor overly-edited except by me, although I have confidence in my grammar and spelling skills. This story is melodramatic, over-wrought in places, and could, quite possibly be guilty of Mary-Sue-ism (since I wrote it before I knew what a Mary Sue was). But I love my OFC and her world as much as I love Jim Kirk and Spock, and I still think they all belong together.
I have always believed that one writes what one wishes to read, and as much as I love Star Trek I adore the idea of romantic, deathless love. Interestingly enough, I once heard Harlan Ellison say that he basically wrote “The City on the Edge of Forever” as a love story. That’s what I wanted to do with Horizons of Fire, write a love story.
(not that I am comparing myself to Harlan Ellison, what hubris!).
The above verse is uncredited because I don’t know who wrote it. It wasn’t me.
This story is a distant prequel to my ST:Voyager Paris/OMC slash story 'I Can't Hear What You Say' and I've been told it helps to have read that story first.
