Michael Jan Friedman has the final frontier down. The second book in My Brother’s Keeper trilogy, Constitution continues the story begun in Republic, which details the friendship of James T. Kirk and Gary Mitchell.

Set following the events of Where No Man Has Gone Before, the first book saw Kirk relating the initial blossoming of friendship between he and Mitchell to Spock when he talks with his First Officer about having to kill Gary to save the ship.

In this book, he’s being debriefed at a local starbase, only a few days later. Kirk is trying to figure out how he will be able to face Mitchell’s parents at the funeral he’s agreed to attend. He also recalls being paired with Mitchell on the Constitution.

Kirk was assigned to it as Second Officer, Mitchell is the navigator, but Kirk isn’t the person Mitchell remembers. This is following Kirk’s horrifying experience on the Farragut (revisited in the episode Obsession).

They also brush up, once again, with a mystery that they only got a hint of in the first book. We are given another tantalizing hint in this one, but I imagine it will play out in the third novel.

While Kirk deals with a bit of shaken confidence, he is forced to lead his ship into battle as his captain, first officer, and the planet they are on fall under the assault of a strange alien force. Can Kirk give the orders that could send people to their death?

Will Mitchell be able to connect with his friend again? Will they boldly go?

Friedman works with all the established continuity, including Sulu’s change from botanist to helmsman, Piper’s retirement, and McCoy getting ready to join the Enterprise (whether he knows it or not).

The story moves along nicely, fills out the characters and their relationships, and deals with all manner of things that we know had to have happened in Kirk life following certain incidents but have never seen.

The Pocket Book series of Trek books have been getting progressively better and better, tying in strongly with everything we know about the universe. And arguably, this trilogy, admittedly I’ve only read the first two books, is the best of the series so far. And that’s something, because there have been some solid tales so far, but this one is surprising me on how much I’m enjoying it, and how much it just works!

I can’t wait to see how the story finishes up as I boldly go!