Created by an incalculably ancient civilisation whose transcendent technology is quantum levels beyond that of the Federation and its allies, the newly discovered Gateways offer instantaneous transportation across the stars. Their sudden reactivation has destabilised relations between planets and cultures hitherto separated by countless light years. Starfleet's finest have coped with the crisis as best they can, but circumstances have forced a handful of valiant commanders, one after another, to make the leap through separate Gateways into the unknown. Each of these brave heroes has taken the ultimate gamble and hurled themselves bodily into a Gateway with no knowledge or forwarning of what they will find on the other side. Each must face a unique personal challenge and find their own way back to the ships and the homes they left behind. And beyond at least one of the Gates are their mysterious and primordial architects, the ageless Iconians themselves... THE AUTHORS of the Gateways saga are: Diane Carey, Peter David, Keith R.A. DeCandido, Christie Golden, Robert Greenberger and Susan Wright.

Created by the incalculably ancient Iconians, whose transcendent technology is quantum levels beyond that of the Federation and its allies, the Gateways offer instantaneous transport across unimaginable distances. Throughout the known galaxy, from Deep Space Nine™ to the New Frontier, from the Delta Quadrant to the bridge of the Starship Enterprise™, the sudden reactivation of the Gateways has destabilized interstellar relations between planets and cultures previously separated by countless light-years. Starfleet's finest have coped with the crisis as best they can, but circumstances have forced several valiant commanders to leap through separate Gateways into the unknown. Captain James T. Kirk of the original Starship Enterprise Captain Jean-Luc Picard of Star Trek: The Next Generation® Colonel Kira Nerys of Deep Space Nine Captain Kathryn Janeway of the U.S.S. Voyager™ Captains Calhoun and Shelby of Star Trek : New Frontier Commander Nick Keller of the U.S.S. Challenger All of these heroes, for their own reasons, have taken the ultimate gamble: hurling themselves personally through a Gateway without any knowledge or forewarning of what lay beyond. Each must face their own unique challenge, struggling to find a way back to the ships and homes they left behind. And waiting behind at least one of the Gateways are the ageless Iconians themselves, the primordial architects of the mysterious portals causing chaos throughout the Milky Way galaxy. Where did they disappear to, many long eons ago, and what do they want now? The answer lies on the other side.... What Lay Beyond brings the Gateways saga to a spectacular finish, in an all-star collaboration by six popular, bestselling Star Trek authors. Among them, Diane Carey, Peter David, Keith R.A. Decandido, Christie Golden, Robert Greenberger, and Susan Wright have written dozens of Star Trek novels. This is their first mega-collaboration.

Dangerous remnants of an extinct interstellar civilization, the Gateways connect the Alpha Quadrant with the farthest reaches of the galaxy. Hidden away in various corners of the universe, the ancient portals could be the future of space travel, but they may also provide a open doorway for an invasion from beyond! Twenty years ago, in the space near Belle Terre, a caravan of alien vessels disappeared into a gigantic Gateway. Now the descendants of those aliens have returned, armed with incredible new weapons and abilities. Captain Nick Keller of the U.S.S. Challenger, already struggling to maintain peace in the troubled sector, must now cope with a fleet of hostile aliens driven by their own fanatical agenda!

Missing for two hundred millennia, the legendary Iconians have returned, bringing with them the secret of interdimensional teleportation across vast interstellar distances. Awakened once more, their ancient Gateways are rewriting the map of the galaxy, and nowhere more than in the New Frontier®.... A century ago, the imperial Thallonians separated two feuding alien races, depositing each of them on a new world safely distant from that of their ancestral enemies. Now, however, the Gateways have made it possible for the long dormant blood feud to begin anew. Captain Mackenzie Calhoun of the U.S.S. Excalibur and his partner, Captain Elizabeth Shelby of the U.S.S. Trident, find themselves fighting a losing battle to keep the horrific violence from escalating, even as they gradually realize the catastrophic danger posed by the Gateways themselves!

When a deadly force from the Delta Quadrant threatens to annihilate a world near DS9, Colonel Kira Nerys and her crew battle to avert a planetary disaster, while Lieutenant Nog and Ensign Thirishar ch'Thane race to shut down the spatial portals forever.

Many of us, especially since 9/11, have become personally concerned about issues of security, and this is no surprise. Security is near the top of government and corporate agendas around the globe. Security-related stories appear on the front page everyday. How well though, do any of us truly understand what achieving real security involves? In Beyond Fear, Bruce Schneier invites us to take a critical look at not just the threats to our security, but the ways in which we're encouraged to think about security by law enforcement agencies, businesses of all shapes and sizes, and our national governments and militaries. Schneier believes we all can and should be better security consumers, and that the trade-offs we make in the name of security - in terms of cash outlays, taxes, inconvenience, and diminished freedoms - should be part of an ongoing negotiation in our personal, professional, and civic lives, and the subject of an open and informed national discussion. With a well-deserved reputation for original and sometimes iconoclastic thought, Schneier has a lot to say that is provocative, counter-intuitive, and just plain good sense. He explains in detail, for example, why we need to design security systems that don't just work well, but fail well, and why secrecy on the part of government often undermines security. He also believes, for instance, that national ID cards are an exceptionally bad idea: technically unsound, and even destructive of security. And, contrary to a lot of current nay-sayers, he thinks online shopping is fundamentally safe, and that many of the new airline security measure (though by no means all) are actually quite effective. A skeptic of much that's promised by highly touted technologies like biometrics, Schneier is also a refreshingly positive, problem-solving force in the often self-dramatizing and fear-mongering world of security pundits. Schneier helps the reader to understand the issues at stake, and how to best come to one's own conclusions, including the vast infrastructure we already have in place, and the vaster systems--some useful, others useless or worse--that we're being asked to submit to and pay for. Bruce Schneier is the author of seven books, including Applied Cryptography (which Wired called "the one book the National Security Agency wanted never to be published") and Secrets and Lies (described in Fortune as "startlingly lively...¦[a] jewel box of little surprises you can actually use."). He is also Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Counterpane Internet Security, Inc., and publishes Crypto-Gram, one of the most widely read newsletters in the field of online security.

Epic in its sweep and peopled by the remarkable women who have always inhabited Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword of Avalon expands the legendary saga that has enchanted countless readers over the years and is sure to please Bradley's loyal readership and anyone who loves wonderfully told stories of history, myth, and fantasy.