Star Trek #1579: Enigma Ship

Category: ST S.C.E.
Last article published: 28 March 2010
This is the 20th post under this label

PUBLICATION: Starfleet Corps of Engineers #20, Pocket eBooks, September 2002 ( (collected into print with S.C.E. ebooks #20-24 as Wildfire in September 2002)

CREATORS: J. Steven York & Christina F. York

STARDATE: Unknown (follows the previous novel)

PLOT: The USS Lincoln hits a strange invisible mass and is absorbed into it, leading Starfleet to call for the da Vinci to investigate and if possible, rescue the Intrepid-class ship. The mass, termed the Engima, turns out to be an amorphous ship made out of force-fields and holograms, but with no warp drive capability. When Sonya, Duffy and P8 find a way in, they are transported to various holographic "bubbles" inhabited by other space travelers who have found their way here, but because of the holographics' telepathic properties, don't seem to realize their journeys were interrupted. The disruptive engineers are finally sent to the Lincoln, whose captain not only believes their voyage never stopped, but is paranoid because the holo-reality taps into his love of spy fiction. Posing as Section 31 agents, the engineers try to recover people he put off the ship before the da Vinci explodes a hologram-disrupting torpedo that could let in the vacuum of space and kill the millions of beings aboard. They do recover all Starfleet personnel, but don't send a message to the da Vinci in time to stop the torpedo. Thankfully, this awakens the Enigma's owners who quickly reestablish their force fields and no one is killed (that we know of). The aliens thank Gomez and apologize for what happened, and now equipped with warp drive, they bring everyone they ever snagged home.

CONTINUITY: The fall of the Cardassian Union and end of the Dominion War have thrown that region into chaos, but created many lucrative opportunities. Scotty mentions his impossible survival to the 24th Century. Dr. Lense wonders if the Enigma is akin t the giant amoeba encountered by Kirk's Enterprise (The Immunity Syndrome). The crew is inspired to use a magnetic probe from the mission at the Kalandan outpost (That Which Survives). Reg Barclay offers a consultation from Jupiter Station where he is currently working on Project Voyager. The Lincoln's captain thinks Gomez and friends are Section 31 (they've never heard of it). The holographic technology's hypnotic effects aren't dissimilar to what the DS9 novel Warped proposed.

DIVERGENCES: Male Orions have powerful pheromones too? First I hear of this.

SCREENSHOT OF THE WEEK - The USS Lincoln only thinks it's flying through space

REVIEW: A usual with the S.C.E. novels, Enigma Ship provides a near engineering/anthropological mystery that is solved not by technobabble (exactly), but fun, logical extensions of the tech we saw on the show. Though the three Away Team members get the most love, the voyage TO the anomaly allows the rest of the cast to get scenes and keep them alive in the series. I do find the idea of Captain Gold rushing to the hanger bay to look out the door, as if not trusting the viewscreen, even in the middle of an emergency, quite a ridiculous bunch of moments. Once we get to the Enigma, things get more fun and exciting, especially Sonya's gambit to get the Lincoln's captain to trust her, the flirtation with the Orion, etc. I was a little stunned that the book seemed to veer into a terrible failure, but then it stopped just short of it. Not sure I like the deus ex machina, but then wouldn't have wanted the series to go so dark either. Or it might have laid in some trauma for future chapters, I don't know.