Star Trek 863: Interphase: Book Two

863. Interphase: Book Two

PUBLICATION: Starfleet Corps of Engineers #5, Pocket eBooks, April 2001 (collected into print with S.C.E. ebooks #5-8 as Miracle Workers in February 2002)

CREATORS: Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore

STARDATE: Unknown (follows last book in the series)

PLOT: Inside the interphase rift, once Lense and Patty have been let back into the Defiant, Captain Gold and his crew have to create a warp pulse that will reopen the rift before power runs out and/or they start going insane from the interphase effect. Meanwhile, Duffy must repair warp drive and get his away team back before the Tholians show up with their energy web. As battle is joined, the Defiant crew's plan works out and the ancient ship gets one shot out that disrupts the Tholian web, allowing the da Vinci to get the jump on the others. As a damaged Tholian ship careens towards the rift, Duffy tractors it out and sends it back to its fleet, extending an olive branch. In the end, the Tholians allow the da Vinci to take the derelict Defiant and its evidence of a Tholian genocide.

CONTINUITY: See the last volume for the basics. Scotty mentions the time Kirk was lost in the interphase (The Tholian Web). The da Vinci has helped Pakleds (Samaritan Snare) in the recent past. Gomez uses what she learned in Peak Performance to generate the warp pulse. A 150-year-old McCoy puts in an appearance. Worf's post-DS9 ambassadorship is mentioned.

DIVERGENCES: See the last volume for the basics.

SCREENSHOT OF THE WEEK
REVIEW: Quite enjoyable! Interphase Part 2 has some strong character moments, like Scotty telling Duffy how he dreaded having to take the captain's seat on the Enterprise, and Corsi's strong opinions on Duffy's command, especially when he bolts to engineering at a crucial moment. In fact, Duffy's entire arc in this has been excellent, enough to completely redeem him in my eyes. There's a hair-raising moment of imagined violence when the interphase effect starts affecting Captain Gold, and in general, the scenes of horror are strong. And at the end, when Defiant comes home after more than 100 years, it's actually touching. My one problem with the novel is that Defiant's exit from the rift is confusingly told, usually as pertains to what other ships are doing at that moment. But otherwise, a strong character-driven entry in the series.