PUBLICATION: Star Trek: S.C.E. #34, Pocket Books, November 2003
CREATORS: Aaron Rosenberg
STARDATE: 53852.1 (immediately after Book 1)
PLOT: Between Sonya and Tev putting fresh eyes on the problem of the overloading Dancing Star, and the rest of the crew putting now more experienced ones on it, the da Vinci is able to finally "disarm" the alien ship. Unfortunately, Androssi ships show up to forcibly "salvage" it, so the Starfleet crew has to hide it in a star. Ultimately, they must use the ship's last gasp to fight off one of the Androssi ships and make their escape.
CONTINUITY: The Androssi were last seen in War Stories, Book One (S.C.E. #21).
DIVERGENCES: None really, but I'm surprised P8 Blue knows anything about 1920s Earth and specifically the Prohibition.
SCREENSHOT OF THE WEEK - The Androssi pull an Icarus.
REVIEW: Okay, so Salek DIDN'T somehow turn up alive - I guess that was Duffy on the cover - but he still looms large as this is a story about absence and how we fill it. He's gone, Duffy's gone, Soloman's Bynar pairing is gone, the crew of the Dancing Star is too. And that's the theme that permeates Collective Hindsight, going so far as giving all the characters - big and small - the series has lost a kind of eulogy at the end. I think we've finally put the grieving period behind us and S.C.E. is ready to move on to other things. I'm not mad at that. I was even touched by the epilogue despite it being talky and on the nose. Now, of course, there's an engineering problem to solve, as usual, and this is done well, with the Tellarite Tev growing the most as a result and better integrating with the crew. The action gets short shrift in the climax, but I liked seeing the Androssi again, with new tricks to boot. All that to say that I definitely see where I would expand the ebook to full novel size. Like the theme, it's about filling the gaps that are felt. Of course, the format doesn't allow it. Now, let's see something good for Captain Gold (I see he's on the next book's cover) because this is yet another story where he seems completely overwhelmed and lets his engineers run the play. Come on, S.C.E., don't make him the worst captain in Starfleet.
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