WARNING! Contains spoilers for Before Dishonor and Greater Than The Sum.
So, I was skimming through Before Dishonor a while back (just to see if it was still as bad as I recall – the answer is yes) and I came to the section with Picard at Janeway’s memorial service.
There’s been a lot of discussion about the use of the word “destiny” in the book, particularly regarding Janeway and in connection with Destiny, but I noticed this passage – in fact, it jumped right out at me…
Why? Why was he still here when so many others who were just as worthy as he had passed on before him?
Well, maybe it just hadn’t been his time yet.
“Destiny.” The word floated back to him, unbidden. If “his time” was something that could generally be pinpointed, then he’d been wrong. No matter what he did, he really was part of some grand game, a mere piece to be played rather than a player.
…and I suddenly had a thought.
Consider the quote from which KRAD’s A Singular Destiny, which will follow up on the events of Destiny, comes:
What a singular destiny has been that of this remarkable man!—To be regarded in his own age as a classic, and in ours as a companion! To receive from his contemporaries that full homage which men of genius have in general received only from posterity; to be more intimately known to posterity than other men are known to their contemporaries!
KRAD says it “fits the book nicely” (I tracked it down for the article on the novel at Memory Alpha). Now combine that with the above passage, and I came up with this bit of speculation.
Musings of a fandom geek 