Foreword

More than a few folks wrote me bemoaning the fact that I didn’t include a foreword in my first STAR TREK The Next Generation novel, Masks. That was my first published novel, and it never occurred to me that people would be interested in me. Plus, Masks was written under a much tighter deadline than this work. So, with all this leisure at my disposal, let me unwind and thank a few people.

Contamination could not have been written without the help of two people: Tom Cheyney and Cary Reich. Tom is the managing editor of a very fine trade journal called Microcontamination. In fact, it was while perusing an issue of Microcontamination that the idea for this novel was born. Cary, besides being an excellent brother-in-law, is an expert in the field of ophthalmic engineering: cornea transplants, semi-permanent contact lenses, and the like. Thanks to them, the mysteries of the cleanroom and ultraclean manufacturing techniques were revealed to me and, I hope, to you.

Speaking of mysteries, let me thank those mystery aficionados who added so much to that element of the book: Steve Robertson, Marilyn Dennis, Susan Williams, Janie Emaus, and Linda Johnstone. Their suggestions and tips were absolutely invaluable, and I have renewed respect for my friends who write mystery novels. Thanks to Peter David, and thanks to Andrea and Kevin Quitt, who must’ve read every STAR TREK book ever written. Jim Shaun Lyon and Stephen C. Smith are due a debt of gratitude from all of us for the way they promote STAR TREK novels.

I am forever grateful to Dave Stern and Kevin Ryan of Pocket Books for allowing me to start my novel-writing career at the top. Gene Roddenberry has been thanked so profoundly and so often that he probably won’t hear my little voice—but thanks anyway, Gene. I would even like to acknowledge an entity that gets more brickbats than thank-yous—Paramount. For a quarter of a century, they have risked their money to support STAR TREK. In the beginning and in resurrecting STAR TREK for the movies, it was hardly a sure thing.

I would love to supply a real address, but I may be moving soon. So please continue to send letters to Pocket Books and please be patient and understanding of the circuitous routing required.

Since this book is about contamination in scientific circles, I want to deliver a stun blast to those “doctors and scientists” who promote pesticide use. Come on, you guys, the writing is on the wall. Cancer pockets in farming communities, DDT-laden fish in Santa Monica and Hudson bays, nerve problems, eye problems—those poisons are killing us! Turn in those comfy salaries and get busy trying to find alternatives. Maybe I’m so irate because I live in California, where the pesticide pimps have repeatedly sprayed my house with Malathion (fighting the medfly, don’t you know). Coating schools, houses, and playgrounds in pesticide doesn’t do anything but increase the poison levels in our bodies and the food we eat. If we are ever to realize an optimistic future like STAR TREK, we have to get rid of the kill-’em-at-any-cost syndrome. I pray we see a day when all pesticides will be banned and we stop poisoning our planet and ourselves.

John Vornholt
Los Angeles