Star Trek 1122: No Surrender

1122. No Surrender

PUBLICATION: Starfleet Corps of Engineers #13, Pocket eBooks, February 2002

CREATORS: Jeff Mariotte

STARDATE: Unknown (follows the last novel)

PLOT: The da Vinci is dispatched to the Kursican Orbital Incarceration Platform, a prison sabotaged by rebels in a system looking for Federation membership. One of the political prisoners aboard is Captain Gold's old friend, Augustus Bradford, a pig-headed former Starfleet captain who has become a colonists and now wants the Federation well away from his adopted world. The crew bypasses the damaged prison's defenses and both restores its systems and brings medical aid. Bradford is missing however, and it is revealed that his people engineered the break-out and that he has brought his visiting daughter and grandson, as well as a Federation ambassador with him. Gold has a final argument with his goddaughter's father and convinces him to let the hostages go. Soon after he does, the rebels are wiped out by Kursican authorities, making their entry into the Federation less than likely.

CONTINUITY: The ambassador in peril is Deltan (The Motion Picture).

DIVERGENCES: None.

SCREENSHOT OF THE WEEK - Why is the rebel named after the 32nd governor of Maryland and staunch Union supporter Augustus Williamson Bradford?
REVIEW: Because of SCE's focus on engineers, Captain Gold must be the least featured captain in Star Trek, so I was happy to see him get some development here, in the 13th installment of the SCE series. Mariotte doesn't forget the other characters either, with the evolving relationships in the crew given "screen" time. And he's got a nice style, not as terse as some of these shorter ebooks often have. Sadly, I didn't think as highly of the story itself. The infiltration of the prison gives the crew something to do while you'd rather be with Gold on the political and personal side of things. Bradford only shows up at all in the final act, when he could have been a real presence throughout the novel. At the same time, this seems like a story we've seen before. It's The Maquis, complete with rogue Starfleet officer, all over again. The planet's called Val'Jon, which is too on the nose considering the more memorable Maquis/Eddington stuff. The characters are well used, but this is a plot that could definitely have benefitted from more pages.

Next for the SBG Book Club: Warped (DS9), Caveat Emptor (SCE), World Without End (TOS), A Rock and a Hard Place (TNG).