Star Trek #1647: Aftermath

PUBLICATION: Star Trek: S.C.E. #29, Pocket Books, July 2003

CREATORS: Christopher L. Bennett

STARDATE: Unknown (soon after Breakdowns)

PLOT: San Francisco is still recovering from the raid conducted during the Dominion War when a dome-like building suddenly explodes out of the ground, causing further havoc. The crew of the Da Vinci is still on Earth and called in to help by Scotty, including their new Second Officer, the brusque Tellarite Mor glasch Tev. So is Miles O'Brien, though this causes friction between him and Keiko, who doesn't feel like they ever got the quiet life she was promised. As a still-grieving, and very distracted, Sonya Gomez leads her team into the building, Scotty, Tev and Stevens determine that it sprung out of a "cabochon", one of several mysterious artifacts housed in a destroyed museum, and who may have contained things shrunken in subspace, destabilized by the Breen's dampening weapon. They endeavour to ferry the rest to the asteroid field in Earth's system before they all go off. A ship from the Nachri Empire calls and convinces Earth Security that these cabochons are a precursor to a Shanial invasion and are heading to Earth to help. Meanwhile, Gomez's team meet the very alien Shanial who have an entire city inside subspace connected to the dome. After Bart translates enough of their language, they explain that the Nachri were the aggressors and want their cabochons to use as a weapon. Indeed, the Nachri captain is a rebel who means to take power against his "oppressors" and then their Federation "backers". They capture Scotty's shuttle and the spare cabochons. However, the Shanial detect further instability in their "gateways" and resign themselves to deactivating them, trapping themselves in subspace, possibly forever. Scotty, Tev and Stevens escape the Nachri ship using a shrinking warp field and in epilogue, Gomez seems to have come to terms with her loss through this adventure. Keiko, after a chat with Boothby, realizes her problem isn't with Miles volunteering for everything, but rather that she isn't contributing in the same way; she gets a job at a lab where work is being done to help worlds scorched by the Dominion.

CONTINUITY: During the Dominion War, when the Breen attacked Earth (The Changing Face of Evil), it destabilized subspace "cabochons", one of which now explodes in San Francisco, in the same tunnels where Data's head was found in Time's Arrow. Miles, Keiko and Molly O'Brien all appear, as does Admiral Ross. Keiko has a scene with fellow botanist (well, gardener) Boothby - who is said to be from Mars (My Favorite Martian) - where they plant Talosian windsingers (The Cage). Cardassia Prime's scorching (What We Leave Behind) is what gives Keiko new motivation. Shrinking tech is given precedents in One Little Ship and Requiem for Methuselah.

DIVERGENCES: None.

SCREENSHOT OF THE WEEK - Casting for Tev... How about Graham McTavish (The Hobbit, Outlander)?

REVIEW: Lots going on in this one, to the point where I wasn't sure it would wrap up in the allowed number of pages (which is still slightly higher than many of the S.C.E. books). The plot itself is a good one, with two alien races who approach life and technology differently than Starfleet does, making for some of interesting action and diplomacy. The non-humanoid Shenial in particular hold the key to Gomez's internal conflict about how to move forward. "Forward" is relative. This is generally the theme of the book, with Stevens also learning to work with and respect his new commander, and Keiko, so disappointed that she's still a nag, finding a way forward for her marriage. While it's realistic that Sonya would still be overwhelmed (no matter how good Federation counselors are), it did feel a bit repetitive that everyone had to have a conversation with her about it. You want to tell her to (Cher voice) "snap out of it" too, but also tell the rest of the cast to mind their own business. I similarly frowned at the O'Brien stuff because Keiko was once again a pain in the ass. Where Bennett excels here is in the creation of new characters, and not just the guest aliens. Commander Tev is deliciously blunt, but also quite brilliant, and he's a great injection into the series. Though the Tellarites are Federation founders, the TV shows have done very little with them (until Prodigy at least, and even there, Jankom Pog doesn't really know his own culture), so I'm excited to discover them through this to-date entertaining jerk. Hand-picked by Scotty, so he must have the stuff! S.C.E. is pretty good, especially given its page count, at creating lower decks characters too, and I'm very intrigued by Rennan Konya, a rate Betazoid in security. He has a very interesting non-violence philosophy and some cool powers that we haven't seen in Betazoids (or anyone) before, though they definitely make sense. I'm also looking forward to seeing more of him as part of Corsi's sub-team. We're still dealing with the death of a main character, but with the introduction of these new ones, Aftermath makes a fine transition between eras for the series. Not the jumping off point I might have feared it would be.