Space, the final frontier…

So here I am three novels into the original novels released by Pocket Book (Simon & Schuster) and to date, this one feels like the best one I’ve read. Although I think when I read this when it first came out, it probably didn’t catch my interest as much as it did this time around. In fact there are some familiar themes in this one, in fact, they’ve been explored in Next Gen’s Suddenly Human, and Deep Space Nine’s Cardassians.

The Enterprise is ferrying a number of farmers to a terraformed planet, New Oregon. They are a little set in their ways, and aren’t big fans of technology, but they are willing to adapt if they have to until they reach their new home.

Unfortunately, Captain Picard and his crew are about to get pulled into an emergency assignment when they respond to a distress call. A Starfleet vessel was attacked by a strange alien ship, and as the stalwart crew investigates they learn that these aliens, the Choraii, are the same that committed the horrific Hamlin Massacre decades earlier.

With an ‘ambassador’ and his colleague, who is keeping a few secrets, aboard, the Enterprise is charged with tracking down the Choraii vessel and recovering the children of Hamlin, who were abducted from Hamlin after the rest of the colony was wiped out.

Picard and the rest are less than thrilled with the ‘ambassador’ but they are determined to rescue the survivors and when they do then comes the discussion of who the survivors are. They’ve spent their entire existence aboard Choraii vessels, living in a liquid environment, they may not want to live any other way, or they may not be able to live any other way.

Are they doing the right thing taking these people from the only home they’ve ever known? What if they aren’t even treated as prisoners, but important members of the community?

I really liked this one, I like that things don’t work out for everyone as well as you would want them to. It raises interesting questions, and feels like it could play out like an actual episode. Carter has a good handle on the characters, makes references to events from season one and works to tie the story solidly into the established Next Gen universe, more so than the first two novels (the first of which admittedly was in the process of being written before the series started airing).

This is definitely a Star Trek story, it has moments of adventure, nice little character beats, and some ethical questions to ponder. This is Trek, and I really enjoyed this one. We’ll see where the book series boldly goes after this.