New Frontiers

The transwarp conduit loomed ahead, the Borg vessel keeping its silent vigil over what had once been a wound in space. Now it was a gateway over which this splinter of the Collective stood vigil. The image of the woman who had once been Agnes Jurati, now a Borg Queen like none other, filled the other half of the viewscreen of the USS Caliburn.

Captain Kehinde Hargreaves had not expected to grow accustomed to her presence. This was not the Borg of old, not the endless drones of assimilation, but a voice that spoke of partnership and protection. Even so, her hulking ship’s shadow falling over his ship was something he doubted he’d ever stop noticing.

For months they had worked side by side, Starfleet and this splinter Collective. Probes had been hurled into the stabilised transwarp conduit, but one after another, their signals had faded into silence. Venture after venture had ended in failure.

Until now.

A chime cut through the stillness. Consoles bloomed with telemetry, the probe’s battered signal holding steady at last. Data scrolled, fast and clear, coordinates tumbling into a picture that drew the breath from the room. On the viewscreen, it coalesced into unfamiliar stars burning in distant, alien constellations.

From beside it, Jurati’s voice was quiet but firm. ‘The way is clear. At last.’

Hargreaves clasped his hands behind his back, his gaze fixed on the horizon no chart had ever marked. Beyond the reach of Klingon or Romulan territory, the corridor reached into a stretch of the Beta Quadrant none had touched.

For the first time, the waiting ended.

He swallowed. ‘We still don’t know who did this. Who created this.’

‘No. Or what’s on the other side,’ said Jurati, but when she tilted her head, that hint of humour, that sing-song levity he always found more disconcerting than when she acted like the Borg monster he expected, crept into her voice. ‘Shouldn’t you go find out?’

In Star Trek: Picard, Season 2, a fissure opened in the Alpha Quadrant, threatening devastation across whole sectors. It was stabilised in collaboration with the Borg Collective under the Queen who was once Agnes Jurati, an alliance between the Federation and a splinter group of their most formidable foe. For almost two years, the transwarp conduit has stood, mysterious and unused, watched over by these Borg and studied in tandem with Starfleet.

Finally, the way is open.

In our next major writing campaign, New Frontiers, the crews and captains of the Fourth Fleet venture forth into a new region of space in the distant Beta Quadrant. Here lies the unknown, terra incognita, a region rife for exploration, discovery, and study. But this mysterious region lies near the borders of Klingon and Romulan space, and the Federation are not the only one with their eyes on fresh opportunity. What will challenge Starfleet more – the wonders that await on the far side, or old troubles brought to new stars?

Breaking with tradition, this will be an eight-week campaign taking us up to the festive break. With this longer period, we hope to encourage a gentler pace, with more space for collaboration, joint writing, deeper planning, and taking time to enjoy the adventure, rather than the break-neck speed of Fleet Actions. After years of events focused on high-intensity peril, this campaign is an opportunity for tales of wonder and discovery, with an underbelly of dark mystery.

New Frontiers launches on October 25th and runs until December 21st. The full briefing and whole new Areas of Responsibility will be released in the weeks ahead.

Get ready to set a course.