Now, I don't usually do these, but for this particular story - it being my magnum opus in the Trekverse - I thought I should clear up a few things. Firstly, that nothing I write about belongs to me. I freely admit to having stolen it, but I blame Paramount and Gene Roddenberry and all that lot for creating something so damn well worth stealing. Secondly, that much as I adore Trek, I think most people would be with me in saying that, from time to time, continuity slips a little. Ergo, I had to twiddle a few things to make this story work, which will be explained as succinctly as possible later.
Okay.
Noteworthy point one: my reason for this story.
I wanted to write it. It wanted to be written. Peter David, wondrous demigod of Imzadi that he is, didn't have all the facts when he wrote the seminal text on it, because basically, the series hadn't finished yet. Imzadi is, of course, a brilliant book, and I stole mercilessly from it in preparing this story. For all intents and purposes, it is canon in the R/T world, but I personally didn't feel that it cleared up quite enough for me. Like the whole Risa thing, for example, which obviously hadn't even been thought of when he penned the book, but which I wanted to see dealt with. Lwaxana's turnaround from hating to loving Riker was also something I didn't quite get, and I'm sure a few other things I can't recall egged me on as well.
The second reason is that I firmly believe that while the writers, directors and producers did not intend to put Riker and Troi together during the series proper, Jon Frakes and Marina Sirtis damn well tried to do it. And to the trained eye (read: obsessed single fan) pretty much succeeded. Now, far be it from me to suggest that in the 'real' canon anything actually happened... okay, but, screw it, 'cos that's exactly what I'm suggesting in this story.
And, me being me, I just wanted to have my own play in the sandbox. This just seemed a great way to do it.
Noteworthy point two: continuity and me.
One thing clear before everything else - I am, to the world of professional anything, pretty much a nobody. My one joy in life is amateur, virtual, and on the slightly blacker side of illegal. I have no authority to change anything in the Trekverse, but this is fanfiction and my brain is my own... or at least sometimes. And to be honest, there are points of contention between different sources about exactly how things were before the Enterprise crew we all know and love came about. I picked and chose and generally wiggled them all around, and came up with a timeline that did what I wanted it to do with only a couple of major niggles.
Uno: Will Riker shipping out to the Hood straight from Betazed, stated in Imzadi, didn't fit. No Potemkin, no Risa, and a bit of a problem. Fixed by my judicious addition of the *Yorktown* to his resume, which I'm sure was mentioned in one or other of the novels as well and thus exonerates me from a tiddly bit of blame. Switch 'Hood' for 'Yorktown' every time in Imzadi and you're on my track.
Deux: Troi and Starfleet Academy. Oh dear Lord, the problems with this one. Going with the series ('Conundrum'), she graduated in 2359. This'd work if she and Riker had met on Earth, but Betazed makes it a no-no even if she was only there for 2 years (assuming she took classes on Betazed and bearing in mind that she didn't train for command or services). They meet in 2359 for the first time, and she's still a student. Did some twiddling, took a pinch of logic, and assumed she joined SFA on being dumped by Riker. Made sense to me, which probably means it's ludicrous, but there y'are. I put her graduating year at 2362/3-ish and left it all well alone after that.
And, I think we're pretty much clear. Timeline below for
all those interested or needing to get their head straight. (Oh, and btw, if
Riker's career is very choppy to anyone else - what can I say? The man gets
around! ::grin::)
Not great, but at least some semblance of order. Anything
to make it a little less crowded would be gratefully appreciated!
[END AUTHOR'S NOTES]