Assignment: One was a Star Trek: The Original Series short story by Kevin Lauderdale. It appeared in Strange New Worlds 8, the eighth edition of the Strange New Worlds anthology series which was published by Pocket Books in 2005.
Summary
Edit
From his office in New York City, Gary Seven prepared for his next assignment: surreptitiously saving the life of one man from the September 11 World Trade Center terrorist attacks. His target, Shaun Geoffrey Christopher, was one of several special people he'd been ordered to protect by the Aegis. Christopher was currently in Boston attending a conference, but would soon board a doomed flight if he wasn't stopped. Seven transported to Christopher's hotel in Boston early that morning, but was too late. Christopher had departed extra early to avoid construction traffic.
Seven transported to the airport and introduced himself to Christopher as a colonel from NASA. Seven knocked out Christopher with a servo, ensuring that he would sleep past his 7:49 a.m. departure. When Christopher awoke two hours later, his wife Debbie Lauderdale was calling him on his cell phone in a panic. Christopher caught sight of CNN news reports of planes having crashed into the towers of the World Trade Center. He reassured his wife that he was safe at the airport.
ReferencesEdit
CharactersEdit
- Referenced only
- Barquero • John Christopher • Katie Christopher • Tom Clancy • Isis • Roberta Lincoln • Jackson Roykirk • Agent 201 • Agent 347
Starships and vehiclesEdit
- Referenced only
- F-117 Nighthawk • SR-71 Blackbird
LocationsEdit
- Earth (Boston • Manhattan • Mojave • New York City)
- Referenced only
- Earth (Colorado • Edwards Air Force Base • Hiroshima • Los Angeles • Pearl Harbor • Tokyo • Washington, DC) • Saturn • Vulcan
Races and culturesEdit
States and organizationsEdit
- Aegis • Ambassadors Club • FAA • FBI • NASA • United States Air Force • United States Air Force Academy • United States Congress
Science and technologyEdit
- cell phone • hologram • laptop computer • metal detector • microgravity materials science • robot • servo • television • transporter • wormhole • X-ray
Ranks and titlesEdit
Other referencesEdit
- 1945 • 1968 • September 11, 2001 • airport • bank • Boston Logan International Airport • city • CNN • conference • identification card • East Sixty-Eighth Street • Ebola • Empire State Building • Eugenics Wars • government • hotel • novel • nuclear war • orbit • planet • pretzel • World Trade Center • World War III • Y2K
AppendicesEdit
BackgroundEdit
- The story cited an apparent death for Gary Seven's partner Isis a few years prior to 2001. However, she was seen alive after 2001. In particular, she and an aged Seven rendezvoused with Captain James T. Kirk in the 2260s in TOS - New Visions comic: "1971/4860.2". For Kirk the meeting was two weeks later. Seven claimed that for him it was 200 years later, although time travel may have played a role in both Seven's and Isis's personal timelines.
- Seven's hair had gotten whiter at the time of this story, and he expected his tour of duty on Earth to end prior to the coming nuclear holocaust.
- Roberta was noted as having retired as an agent in 2000 at the age of 52.
- Christopher recalled the historic 1945 plane crash into the Empire State Building.
- When Christopher considered that aircraft should be launched to control New York air space in response to the attacks, a F-117A was cited. However, the author may have been thinking about the F-117A video game. In reality, the F-117 stealth fighter has no A variant. (F-117 (disambiguation) article at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.)
Related storiesEdit
- TOS episode: "Assignment: Earth"
- TOS novel: Assignment: Eternity
- ST novel: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh, Volume 1
- ST novel: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh, Volume 2
- VOY short story: "Seven and Seven"
- TOS short story: "The Aliens Are Coming!"
- TOS novel: The Rings of Time
ConnectionsEdit
| published order | ||
|---|---|---|
| Previous story: "Shanghaied" | Strange New Worlds 8
| Next story: "Demon" |
| Previous story: "A Test of Character" | Stories by: Kevin Lauderdale | Next story: "The Rules of War" |
| chronological order | ||
| Previous Adventure: Spock vs. Q: The Sequel | Next Adventure: Project Blue Book | |
