The Autobiography of Benjamin Sisko: 3 things we want to see

The Autobiography of Benjamin Sisko by Derek Tyler Attico will arrive in 2023.

Last week, Titan Books announced it will publish The Autobiography of Benjamin Sisko later this year. The book is part of the franchise’s year-long 30th anniversary celebration of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. It also joins Titan’s steadily growing string of Star Trek “autobiographies,” including those of James T. Kirk, Spock, Jean-Luc Picard, and Kathryn Janeway.

The Autobiography of Benjamin Sisko is actually written by Derek Tyler Attico. A two-time winner (in 2005 and 2016) of Pocket Books’ late, lamented Strange New Worlds Star Trek short story contest, Attico has written for the official Star Trek Magazine and for the Star Trek Adventures roleplaying game. He’s also contributed to several original fiction anthologies as well as to multiple Outside In volumes of fan essays from ATB Publishing.

There’s no doubt, then, about Attico’s bona fides as a Star Trek fan or a writer. His Autobiography of Benjamin Sisko is sure to be a treat to read, helping us get to know this important Star Trek character—whom we haven’t heard from, canonically, since “What You Leave Behind”—even better.

Here are three of many things I hope The Autobiography of Benjamin Sisko includes:

How and why Benjamin Sisko joined Starfleet

We know Sisko initially studied engineering at Starfleet Academy. And we know he shares Starfleet’s passion for and commitment to exploring the unknown, as he eloquently explained to the wormhole aliens—the Prophets—in Deep Space Nine’s first episode. But why did he choose Starfleet at all? What or who, specifically, inspired young Ben Sisko to join Starfleet?

Perhaps he had an inspiring encounter with a Starfleet officer, as the Kelvin timeline’s Jim Kirk did in Star Trek (2009). Or perhaps his father encouraged him in the way Picard’s father most decidedly didn’t. Discovering what first set Sisko on his career path would add even more depth to this character who once proclaimed a Starfleet officer is “what I am, and … what I’ll always be” (“The Way of the Warrior”).

Untold tales of friendship with Curzon Dax

In “A Man Alone,” Sisko tells Bashir, “If I were to tell you some of the mischief [Curzon] and I got into…” As Deep Space Nine progressed, we did get to hear some stories of Sisko’s friendship with the “old man” in the years before Jadzia hosted the Dax symbiont. We even saw Curzon and Sisko reunite—kind of—when Odo embodied Curzon in “Facets.”

I’m certain Ben Sisko has yet more tales to tell and yarns to spin about the exploits he and “the best friend [he] ever had” shared. And they won’t be only stories along the lines of the gorgeous women they chased, but also about how Curzon taught Sisko about life. “Whatever sense of honor I have today,” Sisko said of Curzon, “he nurtured” (“Dax”).

Experiencing existence from a Prophet’s perspective

I’m eager to find out when The Autobiography of Benjamin Sisko is set. Did Sisko write it just after the Dominion War, but before he transcended this existence and essentially became a Prophet, as we saw in “What You Leave Behind?” It hardly seems possible he would have had time to do so. But any autobiography written too far before the series finale would leave out too many important events.

Perhaps Attico has chosen to have Ben Sisko writing this book from the Celestial Temple. I suspect Sisko could communicate to us what life among the Prophets is like as eloquently as he once communicated to them, all the way back in “Emissary,” what life is like for those of us who can only “explore our lives day by day.”