"Shades of Gray," a short story penned by Charlene Newcomb, represents the most recent addition to her extensive Alex Winger saga. It acts as a connector between the occurrences in Betrayal by Knight and Vision of the Future. Originally, this narrative was featured on the Starwars.com Hyperspace platform. It was then re-released on Suvudu, a sister site to Random House publishing, on October 1, 2012.
The central theme of the story explores the circumstances surrounding Alex's acquisition of her cybernetic fingers, an element first introduced in Vision of the Future by Timothy Zahn.
Its creation began back in 2005. By July 2008, LFL publishing had given the green light to Charlene's idea for a fresh short story, with editing slated for August/September 2008.
In August 2009, Charlene suggested that Betrayal by Knight, the story before it, would be available on Hyperspace, with "Shades of Gray" following sometime in the autumn season. However, Passages was uploaded after a slight postponement. The story finally made its debut on Hyperspace on December 22, 2009. The story was then re-published on Suvudu, a subsidiary website of Random House publishing, on October 1, 2012.