1199. Foundations, Book TwoPUBLICATION: Starfleet Corps of Engineers #18, Pocket eBooks, July 2002 (Omnibus edition, March 2004)
CREATORS: Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore
STARDATE: 53675.5 (follows the previous novel) / 3176.9 (between The Return of the Archons and A Taste of Armageddon).
PLOT: The crew of the da Vinci manage to break the Senuta ship out of prolonged warp and start first contact protocols, helping the Senuta fix their damaged computer systems. Advised of the situation, Scotty remembers a story from his past regarding over reliance on computers, namely how he stayed behind on Beta III to help the USS Lovell's crew set up new automation after the destruction of Landru. When a back-up of Landru is activated, the population already in severe need of guidance is taken over and attempt to stop and absorb the engineers. Thanks to the quick thinking of Enterprise sociologist Lindstrom, enough time is bought for the SCE to create an EM pulse with spatial torpedoes salvaged from the Archon, destroying Landru one and for all. Back in the present, when computer repairs are done on the Senuta ship, an old security program is mistakenly activated, treating everyone aboard as intruders and threatening to auto-destruct the ship...
CONTINUITY: Admiral Nogura (The Motion Picture) was displeased with Kirk's destruction of Landru on Beta III (The Return of the Archons). Lindstrom, Tula, Hacom, Bilar, Reger, Marplon and the Lawgivers all appear from that story. Lt. Lindstrom is given the surname Christopher, presumably after the actor who played him, Christopher Held. During Scott's mission, the Enterprise has gone to get Ambassador Robert Fox (A Taste of Armageddon).
DIVERGENCES: None.
SCREENSHOT OF THE WEEK - From the omnibus book cover
REVIEW: Each story in Foundations tells the origin of something found in the SCE series. In this case, it's how cultural specialists (like Bart and Carol) were eventually included on SCE crews. Quite frankly, the book offers Lindstrom a better part than it does Scotty. And there's nothing wrong with that. The technobabble of Book One is replaced with real human situations as we examine the fallout of one of Kirk's most notorious Prime Directive violations. The Betans are a people broken because they have no will of their own, and much of our empathy for them comes from our familiarity with them. A quick click to Memory-Alpha and I had refreshed my memory for easy casting. By contrast, there isn't much to the present day scenes, and the many recaps would indicate the trilogy (and its Scotty covers) is being used to attract new readers to the da Vinci.
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