PUBLICATION: Star Trek: S.C.E #36, Pocket Books, February 2004
CREATORS: Loren L. Coleman & Randall N. Bills
STARDATE: Unknown, follows from the previous book
PLOT: As each of Tev's plans falls apart, the da Vinci must make peace with the Resaurians - a small revolution has to happen on their ship, but Gold thankfully convinces the alien captain to go against the civilian leadership - to make a mad dash towards the space station/prison on the edge of a black hole's event horizon before it, and the Starfleet away team, slip into the "Demon". Meanwhile, Sonya Gomez finds out that the captive Resaurians are actually descendants of the original prisoners no longer deserving of their fate, and works to keep the damaged station in one piece until help arrives. The allied ships eventually do and evacuate everyone. By the end, Tev has integrated into the crew successfully, despite his Tellarite culture/attitude still causing misunderstandings.
CONTINUITY: The crew uses a "La Forge-Brahms" technique to harmonize [techno-babble], probably relating to the events of "Booby Trap". So it was nice of Geordi to credit Leah Brahms even though it was a fantasy version of her from the holodeck who helped the Enterprise escape the minefield.
DIVERGENCES: None.
SCREENSHOT OF THE WEEK - Slipping into the Demon!
REVIEW: I find that Book 2 of this story is much too concerned with the mechanics of black holes, which are hard to explain, and with the technobabble required to get the away team home, safe and sound. It FEELS like the authors did their research and that this babble has some grounding in real science, but it doesn't make it any easier a read for laypersons. And because everything is falling apart, on the ship and on the Resaurian station, the book seems caught in a never-ending "climax" that shows the whole "Book One/Book Two" format for S.C.E. novellas as lacking. It lacks balance and had this been one bigger (bust still short) story, say by tacking 20 pages of climax to the previous chapter, it would have worked better. Here, we have the same kind of plan being enacted with different details several times and it's rather exhausting. What worked in Book 1 is what works best here - the interesting points of view, especially for the non-human characters, but also Captain Gold who needed the love; Tev making a turn from Tellarite pride and belligerence to trust and respect; and the anthropological mysteries that must be solved. The Demon has a nice ending, but there's an awful lot of chaff to get through before we get there.
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