Star Trek #1694: The Demon, Book 1

PUBLICATION: Star Trek: S.C.E #35, Pocket Books, December 2003

CREATORS: Loren L. Coleman & Randall N. Bills

STARDATE: Unknown, soon after the previous book

PLOT: The da Vinci receives a time-dilated distress call from within the photosphere of a black hole locally called "The Demon". With no way to approach safely, an away team beams over to find a Resaurian station falling apart around its exiled inhabitants. This snake-like race's progressive movement have been imprisoned here for decades, if not centuries (depending on one what lies are being told and sensed), and the S.C.E. crew agree to help them escape. Meanwhile, Captain Gold is negotiating with Resaurian "traditionalists" who have a vested interest in preventing this, and as the da Vinci attempts to tractor the station out of there, the Resaurians interfere, sending the station (and Gomez's away team!) deeper into the maw of the Demon.

CONTINUITY: The crew still poke fun at Gomez for the "hot chocolate incident" (Q Who), which made her adopt Earl Grey as penance - she found out she liked it. Tev uses a technique developed by Telek R'Mor (Eye of the Needle) to clean up the transmission. The crew is naturally delving into reports obtained from the Voyager Project and is here inspired by Voyager escaping a singularity either in Parallax or Hunters. The Demon is in a sector close to the Thallonian Empire (New Frontier series, the USS Excalibur rates a mention). Captain Archer made first contact with the Resaurians. One of Corsi's new security people is Iotian (A Piece of the Action) and sounds like it; they still play fizzbin.

DIVERGENCES: I take exception to the fact that Abramowitz talks about Jonathan Archer as if he were some obscure historical figure when other sources plainly make him one of the fathers of the Federation.

SCREENSHOT OF THE WEEK - Resaurians

REVIEW: I quite liked this one! On the one hand, the writers are having fun integrating Trek continuity into the action, especially what's going on concurrently (like Voyager finally sending messages home). On the other, they have a real affinity for describing alien perceptions, which makes the chapters/sections told from the point of view of Resaurians, Betazoids and Tellarites (this is doing wonders for Tev's character) a real joy to read. The perspectives of Gomez and Gold are well used too, and I'm especially keen to have more of the captain's since he's been rather sidelined since the ship was repaired and refit. The introduction of an Iotian security guard is a hoot, though we haven't been in his head yet. As for the plot, well, interesting new alien race that was once subjugated by the Klingons, throwing their culture into disarray, which gives Abramowitz something to do - to me, S.C.E. is always better if there's an anthropological puzzle to solve in addition to the engineering puzzle - and the science around black holes is equally well used. The danger is grave and the fact that every faction seems to be withholding information makes the story more intriguing. Fun stuff!