A Trekkie's Unofficial Book Summaries Volume 4 by Geoff Canham - HTML preview

Riker is trapped on the space station that has been swallowed by the rift in space, and he is being tormented by the insubstantial beings who keep telling him that there is no escape and that he will become like them. The only thing that Riker can find that works normally on the station is the shields, and when he sees a probe that the Enterprise had sent, he uses the shields to bounce the probe back out of the rift. LaForge realizes that Riker is pointing out that shields, and therefore a tractor beam would work inside the rift. Both also realize that the station is too far inside the rift to pull all of it out, but both also opt for the last part of the station that Riker had contacted them from – the Communication Center. That part gets torn off the station with Riker in it, and he is beamed off of it before it totally disintegrates. Riker’s escape gives hope to the other beings trapped on the station. Captain Okona is returned to his ship, but not before telling Riker that he envies him having friends that don’t give up on him. [Timeline: Stardate 45482.9]

The Next Generation #32, June 1992

Wet Behind the Ears, by Michael Jan Friedman

Sonya Gomez is horrified when she spills coffee over Captain Picard for the second time, and Picard is surprised (as is Gomez) when LaForge selects Gomez to accompany him on a mission to assist a group of cadets get an old Constellation class starship working again, then fly it through an asteroid belt. An Academy ship with Proctor Keane will be accompanying the cadet’s ship at a distance. LaForge is delighted at how quickly the cadets get the ship flying, and they head into the asteroid belt. They haven’t gone far, however, when they discover a secret Catarr base inside Federation territory and come under attack from a Catarr ship. Proctor Keane’s ship tries to intervene, but neither the cadet’s ship or the Proctor’s are armed. The Proctor’s ship gets disabled, and LaForge is rendered unconscious when the cadet’s ship is fired on, leaving Gomez as senior officer. She orders the ship deeper into the asteroid belt on low power, believing that the Catarr will be unable to track them, and she has a distress signal sent out. A little later, the Catarr are seen approaching, and Gomez has cadet Timmins (who had been the acting captain) analyze their shields, looking for a weak spot. Then she has some asteroid fragments beamed into their impulse drive, disabling the ship because they couldn’t use warp drive so close to the asteroids. At this point, the Enterprise arrives as a result of the distress call, and Gomez is able to direct them to the Catarr ship and secret base. Picard is full of praise for Gomez, and when an ensign accidentally spills coffee over her, she finds it highly amusing and says it could happen to anyone.

The Next Generation #33, Early July 1992

The Way of the Warrior, by Michael Jan Friedman

A delegation of Ysalanti, led by Sorban, comes aboard the Enterprise with only one demand, that they don’t get to see Worf because, as a warrior race, they can’t stand other warriors. Worf was 154

already aware of that requirement and Picard thanks him, saying that he wished he had a hundred people like him. Unfortunately for Picard, Q was listening in and changes the whole crew into Klingons, supposedly to fulfill Picard’s wish but really to stir up the situation. That starts to happen when the Ysalanti go to get some food at Ten Forward and pass some Klingons (actually part of the engineering team) along the way.

The Next Generation #34, Late July 1992

Devil’s Brew!, by Michael Jan Friedman

Enterprise is carrying a delegation of Ysalanti to Starbase 85 for a peace conference with the Malakhal, but Q thinks it would be amusing to turn the crew into Klingons (who the Ysalanti hate because they are another warrior race). The only people who are not affected are Worf, Data, and (much to Q’s chagrin) Guinan. Not being used to Klingon emotions, the crew (including Picard) soon get into dispute with the Ysalanti and amongst themselves. The Ysalanti demand to be returned to their home planet, but Picard decides to continue on to the starbase.

Worf shares his concerns with Guinan but then Picard accuses him of conspiring behind his back, so Worf bides his time, considering his options.

The Next Generation #35, Early August 1992

The Dogs of War, by Michael Jan Friedman

The situation aboard the Enterprise goes from bad to worse as the crew start to rebel when Picard, even as a Klingon, orders all phasers handed in to avoid escalating the troubles, and then Riker attacks Picard, knocking him out and taking over as captain. Meanwhile, Worf has prevented the Ysalanti from stealing a shuttle and leaving the ship. When Worf hears what Riker has done, he confers with Data and Data suggests that Worf (who had been holding his Klingon nature back) demonstrate to Q the benefits of the Klingon nature. So, Worf stands up to Riker, defeats him and declares himself captain. That leads to Q calling Worf a spoilsport and he turns the crew back to their normal selves. Sorban had been put in the same cell in the brig as Picard, and when he sees Q turn Picard back to his human self, he realizes that Picard had not been deliberately antagonizing the Ysalanti. Sorban and the others then dedicate themselves to the upcoming peace process, and Picard realizes that some good may come from Q’s actions.

The Next Generation #36, Late August 1992

Shore Leave in Shanzibar!, by Michael Jan Friedman

The Enterprise arrives at Shanzibar for shore leave, which Picard does not really approve of because the planet had a bad reputation and was only ‘cleaned up’ a bit to encourage tourism. He wasn’t going to take shore leave himself until it is noticed that Ardra’s ship is in orbit, and he wants to find out what she’s up to. Picard, LaForge, Troi and Ensign Ro beam down, but a comment by Ro about a native’s emotions leads to a fight that ends up with the four of them being arrested by the authorities and imprisoned along with a collection of other people, and their 155

communicators are impounded. One of the other prisoners is Ardra who announces her presence by embracing and kissing Picard.

The Next Generation #37, Early September 1992

Consorting With The Devil!, by Michael Jan Friedman

In prison, Ardra informs Picard that she had been on the planet to woo the aging king so that she could, as queen, inherit his wealth when he died, but she had discovered that his advisors were plotting to drug him and take over his wealth. Unfortunately for her, the advisors discovered what she knew and had her thrown in prison. When Troi says she seems to be speaking the truth, Picard goes along with the idea of them breaking out, and with Ardra’s con-artistry they succeed, but they are unable to locate their communicators. Meanwhile, Keiko has talked O’Brien into him taking shoreleave.

The Next Generation #38, Late September 1992

Schemes and Counterschemes in Shanzibar, Conclusion, by Michael Jan Friedman Picard, Ardra, and the others gain access to the king’s palace by hijacking a laundry delivery truck, and Picard and Ardra hide in the linen bin as it is wheeled into the king’s presence as he is bathing. There they warn him of the plot by Wizier. Using a hologram projector, they are able to appear like Wizier’s co-conspirators and get Wizier to unsuspectingly confess to his plot.

Meanwhile, Riker had led a team down to Shanzibar to find Picard and his team, but it was looking as if Picard’s team would have to extract Riker’s teams from the locals.

The Next Generation #39, October 1992

Bridges, by Michael Jan Friedman

The Enterprise is sent to investigate a moon-sized object that was by itself, and far from any planet or solar system. Approaching it, the object appears to be artificial but unoccupied, and an away team consisting of Worf, Data, and LaForge is sent across to investigate it. They find that it is indeed unoccupied and apparently at least a thousand years old but still has power. Then, six spacecraft emerge from behind it and approach the Enterprise and, when she sees them, Lieutenant Terry Oliver declares “It’s the Sztazzan! The cold-blooded killers who attacked the Grissom and left it for dead!”. [Timeline: Stardate 46253.3]

The Next Generation #40, November 1992

Bone of Contention, by Michael Jan Friedman

The Sztazzan contact the Enterprise and tell them to withdraw from their territory. Picard knows they have no right to claim that region of space, and that they are only making an issue because they want to investigate the object too. O’Brien is unable to beam the away team back because something is blocking all communication, so Picard orders the saucer section separated from the 156

battle bridge, and Riker is to take the saucer to Beta Cangelosi. One of the Sztazzan ships follows the saucer and fires on it but hits the object instead. An energy surge erupts from the object and Ensign Ro announces that the saucer section has disappeared, but no wreckage is seen.

The Next Generation #41, December 1992

Separation Anxiety!, by Michael Jan Friedman

The Enterprise had been studying a massive machine, something like an unmanned globular space-station, and an away team had been sent to investigate it. Then they come under attack by a fleet of Sztazzan ships, and the Enterprise separates its saucer and battle bridge sections. But then a stray shot from the Sztazzan hits the machine and it is discovered that the saucer section and the Sztazzan flagship have both disappeared. That, at least, causes hostilities to cease as both sides try to work out what happened. Data and Geordi, aboard the machine/space-station, establish that it serves as a form of giant transporter, but they are having problems working out how it operates and where it might have sent the saucer and the Sztazzan ship. Then they realize that the blast that set off the transportation had set up a cascade in the machine’s network that is building up towards an explosion, and the Sztazzan start threatening Picard again aboard the battle bridge. Meanwhile, aboard the saucer section, Riker is informed that there is a planet nearby, so they head for that and the Sztazzan ship follows them. The planet is found to be uninhabited, but an away team including Miles O’Brien is sent down to investigate.

The Next Generation #42, January 1993

Second Chances!, by Michael Jan Friedman

The Enterprise has been separated into saucer and battle bridge sections, but the saucer (with Commander Riker) has been somehow transported to regions unknown, and an away team is investigating abandoned structures on the surface of the planet that the saucer section is now in orbit of. O’Brien is able to connect to a computer in one of the buildings and learns that the same race that had built that facility had also built the transporter that had brought the saucer section there. It had originally been used by the race that built it to transport them all there after their original home had become uninhabitable, but then they got wiped out by a rogue comet. He also discovers that there is a receiver, somewhere outside the system, that could be converted to transport them back where they’d come from. Unfortunately, they then come under attack by a Sztazzan away team and have to beam back to the saucer. There, O’Brien has time to go through the data, and discovers that the receiver is a year away at impulse speeds and they don’t have enough fuel to reach it. Meanwhile, the battle bridge section has also come under attack by the Sztazzan, and Picard is having problems shaking off the attack and is unable to beam up their away team that has been trying to stop an energy buildup on the station that had been responsible for transporting the saucer section and a Sztazzan ship.

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The Next Generation #43, February 1993

Strange Bedfellows, Michael Jan Friedman

Riker realizes that the only way they can get to the receiver machine is by getting help from the Sztazzan ship which has a warp drive. The Sztazzan captain, Remaad, suspects a trick until one of his crew tells of Lieutenant Oliver saving a Sztazzan while on the planet. With the understanding that the Federation may have some code of honor, he agrees to work with Riker and the saucer section’s crew, and they agree to tow the saucer section to the receiver. Between O’Brien and the Sztazzan engineer, they manage to contact Data, Geordi and Worf on the transporter machine, just before the badly damaged battle bridge section is about to beam them off. Geordi works out how to transport the saucer and the Sztazzan ship, Zzin, back and defuse the Sztazzan attack on the battle bridge. Picard and the Remaad agree to cooperate on the study of the transporter machine, and Riker allows Mot and Alexander to take credit for getting the saucer back, even though Riker had been already implementing the idea.

The Next Generation #44, March 1993

Restoration, by Michael Jan Friedman

The Enterprise has rejoined its two parts after the altercation with the Sztazzan that ended with a treaty between them. Because of the memory of crewmates from the Grissom who had lost their lives in an earlier encounter with the Sztazzan, Terry is feeling guilt over her part in saving a Sztazzan that ultimately led to the treaty, but Dr. Crusher reminds her that the Federation does right, however they personally feel. Deanna Troi surprises her partner (Miles O’Brien) and her opponents in a snooker game. Data, Geordi, Worf and Guinan (and later Picard, Riker, Deanna and Beverley) join Lieutenant Ro in celebrating the Bajoran festival, Moga Nivan.

The Next Generation #45, April 1993

Childish Things, by Michael Jan Friedman

Federation territory abuts that of the Chorrtan and, although there have been some violent disputes between them, the Federation has offered to assist Crown Prince Allis, who is blind but will soon face a potentially deadly manhood ceremony that requires sight. The solution is to fit him with a Visor, like Geordi’s, and consequently the Enterprise is chosen for the place the operation will take place and the same team that carried out Geordi’s operation (John Anders, Felix Carter, Mara Chang, and Martin Kane) is brought in for task. Despite Allis’s bodyguards’

and personal physician’s concerns, Allis and Geordi start to get on well, but then an attack is made on Allis and his entourage by using the fire suppression system to remove the oxygen from the area where they are. Luckily, Geordi was with them when it happened, and is able to bypass the automated system. Then Anders is attacked and accuses Kane of carrying out the attack.

Kane admits to it, and to the attack on Allis, saying that he was the sole survivor of an attack by the Chorrtan on a research colony, and wanted revenge (Anders had suspected him of the attack on Allis). It is felt that the operation on Allis still needs to proceed, and Dr. Crusher offers to 158

assist Dr. Chang with the operation, but then Geordi realizes that someone else had to have been involved with Kane, and he confronts Chang. She admits to having assisted him, but Geordi needs to do little to convince her that killing Allis won’t right the wrong the Chorrtan did years ago, and not giving the boy his sight will be as much a death sentence as killing him outright.

She admits to her complicity, but Allis decides (inspired by Geordi) to continue with the operation. With his sight restored, he and his entourage are beamed back down to their homeworld, and Kane and Chang face the Federation justice system. [Timeline: Stardate 46301.8]

The Next Generation #46, May 1993

The Maze, by Kevin Ryan & Michael Jan Friedman

Zed, the tyrannical despot of the planet Farisi, says he has changed his ways and asks specifically for the Enterprise to be sent to open negotiations leading to Federation membership. But when Picard, Riker, Data and Geordi beam down, Zed has a forcefield erected so they can’t be beamed back. Riker, Data and Geordi are to complete a potentially fatal obstacle course, described as a maze, while Picard has to watch, because Zed enjoys the idea of displaying his talents against those who had beaten the Borg, among others. Picard is told that the only way to stop the contest is to kill Zed, who has an implant that will then disable the maze. Data and Geordi are rendered unconscious by specially designed traps and Riker ends up carrying them across a checkerboard where a false step will release a deadly poison gas. Picard tests the forcefield between him and Zed and finds he can get through, and he disarms Zed but finds that Zed’s weapon is not loaded anyway. Zed says Picard loses either way because, if he kills him, he’ll have shown that there’s no difference between the two of them, and if he doesn’t his crew die. Instead, Picard uses the weapon to smash the window between them and the maze, so if the poison gas goes off, then all die. Zed concedes defeat and disables the maze and the forcefield. Before beaming back, Picard warns Zed that the Federation will be keeping a very close eye on him. [Timeline: Stardate 46318.6]

The Next Generation #47, June 1993

Worst of Both Worlds! Part 1: The Bludgeoning of Chance, by Michael Jan Friedman The Enterprise is on its way to deliver supplies to Mardion Three, near Wolf 359 where the stand against the Borg had been made. Then Data notices a spacial anomaly that grows and pulls them in, and they find themselves at the same point they had been, but in a different universe. Then the battle section of a Galaxy-class starship approaches. That turns out to be what’s left of that universe’s Enterprise after the Borg defeated the Federation fleet and took over the Earth. Their Captain Riker has the crew on the bridge beamed aboard his ship, and it is clear that they are captives. He explains that they had no knowledge of the anomaly that brought the Enterprise through, but now they were going to use the crew that already defeated the Borg once to help them defeat the Borg in this universe and recapture Locutus (their Picard).

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The Next Generation #48, July 1993

Worst of Both Worlds! Part 2: The Belly of the Beast, by Michael Jan Friedman Captain Riker of an alternate universe has captured the command crew of our universe’s Enterprise and placed his own Commander Shelby, Miles O’Brien, and Ensign Wesley Crusher aboard the Enterprise to run it. He talks Picard and the rest on the command crew into assisting him in recovering Locutus from the Borg ship, and Picard and Data beam aboard the Borg ship and fight their way to the central communications chamber where Picard expected Locutus to be, but he’s not there.

The Next Generation #49, August 1993

Worst of Both Worlds! Part 3: The Armies of the Night, by Michael Jan Friedman Our universe’s Enterprise is assisting the alternate universe’s Enterprise as Captain Will Riker tries to recover their Locutus from the Borg. When Picard and Data beam aboard the Borg cube they find that Locutus isn’t where expected, and they barely escape being captured themselves.

Data does discover that Locutus is being held on Earth at the facility that used to be Starfleet Headquarters, and Captain Riker authorizes an assort to recover Locutus, with the team consisting of his Worf and our universe’s Picard, Riker, Data and Worf (because Captain Riker sees anything from our universe as more disposable). Our universe’s Enterprise (which has been left under the command of their Commander Shelby) is told to act as decoy to keep the Borg ship away. The team does succeed in capturing Locutus but then the alternate universe’s Worf is hit by Borg phaser fire.

The Next Generation #50, September 1993

Part 4: And Death Shall Have No Dominion, by Michael Jan Friedman

Alternate Geordi gets the transporter working just in time to beam back Picard, Riker, the two Worfs (although the alternate Worf had been fatally injured protecting Locutus), and Data (who was carrying the unconscious Locutus). Back on the alternate Enterprise, Data is attempting to work through Locutus to shut the Borg ship down, and it seemed to be working until the final stage. Picard tries encouraging anything that may be left of the alternate Picard in Locutus to exert control, but that also fails. On our universe’s Enterprise, Shelby decides to head for Earth, against instructions, and destroy the Borg’s assimilation facility, but the alternate Wesley turns the ship back and then O’Brien stuns Shelby, and she ends up in the brig. By the time they get back, the alternate Enterprise’s battle section was caught by the Borg ship and was being cut into, but the Enterprise causes some damage to the Borg ship before itself getting caught in a tractor beam. Then Picard realizes that his alternate probably also mindmelded with that universe’s Sarak, so he whispers “Spock” to Locutus, and Locutus told Data to transmit the command “Eat”. That caused all the Borg to drain power from the ship at once, leaving it powerless and cold, killing all the drones. Captain Riker honors his pledge to let the Enterprise go, and the recovering alternate Picard tells Picard that it was he who opened the rifts to try and 160

allow help for Captain Riker’s crew to get through, but the rift will close in half an hour. The return to the rift is delayed when the alternate O’Brien tries to replace his counterpart on the Enterprise and regain a family, but that is corrected, and the Enterprise gets back to its own universe just before the rift closes for good.

The Next Generation #51, October 1993

Lifesigns, by Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens

Enterprise is investigating the remains of the fifth planet after its star, Epsilon Miranda, had unexpectedly gone supernova. They discover what seems to be a shelter that had been two kilometers below the surface before the supernova. Apparently, some of the Mirandans were able to survive, because Troi can sense impressions of something in there although Geordi’s tricorder shows no lifesigns. It does show a forcefield inside the bunker, which is thought might be affecting the readings. When it is discovered that the star is going to go nova again in a matter of hours, Picard orders the use of the ship’s phasers to break into the bunker, but no Mirandans are found inside. After Data and Geordi beam back up to the ship, three energy beings appear, although they seem to die quickly as their energy wanes. However, just before the Enterprise intends to leave, ahead of the star going nova, the energy beings attach themselves to the warp core energy and start draining it. Through her link, Troi learns that they are not Mirandans, but are Vortek who had been confined in the bunker because of their insatiable thirst for energy.

They were responsible for the star going supernova in order to assuage that thirst. Data, who was feeling unsure of himself after Pulaski had said that his having no emotions meant he was not really alive, comes to realize that a dilithium field containment unit could be used to trap and hold them, and he traps two of the three but the third one then attacks Data and starts draining him. While the Enterprise escapes, Troi is able to locate and save Data by sensing something from him thanks to the enhanced ability that the Vortek had given her. Data is encouraged by the fact that Troi had been able to sense him in some way. [Timeline: Stardate 42102.5]

The Next Generation #52, October 1993

The Rich and the Dead!, by Michael Jan Friedman

Most of the crew are taking shore leave on the planet Beta Maradi Seven, while Picard involves Beverley in a holodeck Dixon Hill adventure that his father had sent him. Deanna Troi and Worf are among those visiting a circus on the planet, and when they both go to get a drink, Worf decides he doesn’t like the circus because they don’t serve prune juice. Picard, as Dixon Hill, gets a commission from Antonia Truscott to solve the murder of her half-brother, Daniel, and his wife, both of whom supposedly died in an explosion on a boat. If Dix can implicate her other half-brother, Eldon, that will please Antonia even more. Dix and Red (Beverley Crusher) are about to leave his office to start work on the case when they see someone lurking outside. That turns out to be Q.

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The Next Generation #53, November 1993

Reductions & Deductions, by Michael Jan Friedman

Deanna Troi, Worf, Riker, Geordi, and Alexander are down on a planet visiting a circus, and Picard and Dr. Crusher are taking part in a Dixon Hill holodeck adventure. Then Q intervenes to make the adventure more meaningful by reducing Troi and Worf to the size of dust motes and placing them in the clothing of the Kartakkan Cannonball who will fly through fire and land in water, so Worf and Troi will either burn or drown unless Picard can solve the Dixon Hill mystery in time. After following a couple of false leads, Picard believes he has worked out who murdered Daniel Truscott, but by that time the Kartakkan Cannonball is getting ready to be fired from the cannon. Meanwhile, Captain Louvois has had Data fly their shuttle through a free-floating radiation field in order to arrive at the legal conference in time, but that leads to engine failure and their shuttle is adrift.

The Next Generation #54, Late November 1993

Hidden Agendas, by Michael Jan Friedman

Picard (as Dixon Hill) and Crusher work out that Cantrell was the murderer in the holodeck mystery, and then Picard discovers that his client, Antonia, was also part of it. Having solved the mystery, Q is obliged to play his part and restore Worf and Deanna Troi to their normal size, but that doesn’t happen until they are being fired out of the cannon along with the humanoid-cannonball Kartakkan. Worf succeeds in grabbing a trapeze and saves Troi. They then inform Riker, Geordi and Alexander about the discovery they had made, that the circus was a cover for a smuggling operation. However, they are then confronted by the circus people, who are determined not to let their secret get out, but Riker had left his communicator open, so Picard and a security team arrive and stun the circus crew. There is speculation that Q had planned the whole situation to expose what the circus was doing. Meanwhile, Data has got Captain Louvois’s shuttle operable, but before he can get the engines powered up, they notice another ship headed straight for them, and it won’t respond to their warning messages.

The Next Generation #55, December 1993

The Good of the Many!, by Michael Jan Friedman

Data is accompanying Captain Louvois aboard the shuttle Magellan when they have an engine failure. A Terviorii ship directly approaches them and fails to respond to warnings to turn aside, and there is a crash resulting in more damage to the Magellan but also the death of the nine Terviorii aboard the other vessel. Then another Terviorii ship approaches and takes them into custody, accused of the murder of the nine. Terviorii laws date from a time when low birth rate and survival of the Terviorii as a race was an issue, and although the population is now stable and growing, the laws still reflect the needs of the many (say nine) over those of the few (say two). Data tries to defend their position in court by pointing out the benefits that Louvois brings, but the court dismisses all his arguments and sentences them to termination. That riles up 162

Louvois and she points out that Data is one of a kind, a race unto himself, and terminating him would be committing genocide. The court admits the validity of that point, and lets them go, but Louvois first lectures them on the need to update their laws and respect the rights of the individual. Meanwhile, the Enterprise meets up with the USS Bradbury, whose Captain Altima asks them to take aboard a diplomat that they are ferrying. That turns out to be ambassador Lwaxana Troi.

The Next Generation #56, January 1994

Companionship, by Michael Jan Friedman

Ambassador Lwaxana Troi is headed for a diplomatic conference on the third moon of the Sakerionites and the Enterprise is to send some crewmembers down as well, to show openness to the neighboring Eregeans who are applying for Federation membership. Alexander Rozhenko talks Lwaxana into allowing him and his class to attend as well, although Picard insists that the kids are brought back to the ship before the conference officially begins. However, soon after they beam down, the lights go out and someone attacks them, and some of them are abducted.

Lwaxana, Alexander, and Geordi awaken to find themselves tied to tables, but also find they are sharing the minds of Worf (Lwaxana), Deanna (Alexander), and Dr. Selar (Geordi). Alexander is able to free himself from the restraints and free the others. The Sakerionites tell Picard that they have discovered evidence suggesting that the Eregeans carried out the abduction.

The Next Generation #57, March 1994

Of Two Minds, by Michael Jan Friedman

Lwaxana, Geordi and Alexander find themselves hosting the minds of Worf, Selar and Deanna, respectively, but they escape from the Eregeans holding them and come across a transporter system that Geordi is able to use to beam them back to the Enterprise. The Sakerionites had told Picard that they believe the Eregeans planned to use the bodies of Worf, Selar and Deanna to allow the minds of the ancient ruling triumvirate to be given new bodies and reinstated. The current triumvirate adamantly deny that, but they refuse to drop the shielding on their holy place to allow the Enterprise to scan for the bodies. Deanna/Alexander believes she can sense where her body is being kept and believes that the other two will be able to do so as well.

The Next Generation #58, April 1994

Bodies of Evidence, by Michael Jan Friedman

Worf’s, Dr. Selar’s, and Deanna Troi’s bodies are being held in different holy places on the planet Eregeus while their minds reside in Lwuxana Troi, Geordi, and Alexander Rozhenko respectively. Since Selar, Deanna and Lwuxana all have some psychic ability, it is hoped that they can pinpoint where their bodies are being held on the planet, and each is sent down with two other crewpersons to recover the bodies. Meanwhile, Barclay checks the transporter confinement beam records to see if he can trace where Lwuxana, Geordi and Alexander had beamed back 163

from. The three teams successfully recover the bodies, surprisingly meeting no resistance along the way. The Sakerionites had offered to recombine the minds with their appropriate bodies, but before Picard can request them to do so, Barclay announces that the confinement beam hadn’t originated on the planet, but maybe a moon, suggesting that the Eregeans might not have been involved. The Eregeans recombine the bodies and minds and Worf is sent back down and lies as his body had been. There, he overhears the Sakerionites talking about their plot to discredit the Eregeans using Eregean mercenaries, and he also hears how they had been poisoning Eregeans’

atmosphere and profiting from treatments to cure the consequent ailment. The result is that it looks as if Eregeans’ application for Federation membership will definitely be accepted, and the Sakerionites’ continued Federation membership is in doubt.

The Next Generation #59, May 1994

Children of Chaos, by Michael Jan Friedman

Picard knew of the Chalnoth from his days on the Stargazer, and knew of their hostility, so, sixteen years later, when the Aquataine is reported missing near the area of space claimed by the Chalnoth, he suspects their interference. That appears to be confirmed when the Aquataine is found orbiting the second planet in the Beta Scoraata system, fairly close to Chalnoth space, and a smallish Chalnoth ship is also in orbit. However, neither ship shows any sign of a battle, but there are no lifesigns on either ship. An away team is being prepared to beam over to the Aquataine when a Chalnoth battle cruiser, the Bludgeoner, arrives, captained by Pathox who Picard had encountered on his first visit. Pathox tells Picard that the planet is Chalnoth territory, and therefore it is a Chalnoth issue alone, then cuts the signal. The Enterprise records six Chalnoth being beamed down to the surface of the planet, immediately below the smaller Chalnoth vessel, and Picard has the away team, which is led by Riker and includes Data, Troi, La Forge, Dr. Crusher, and Takamura, beam down to observe what they are up to. [Timeline: Stardate 47763.7]

The Next Generation #60, June 1994

Mother of Madness, by Michael Jan Friedman

An away team from the Enterprise, consisting of Riker, Data, Geordi, Dr. Crusher, Takamura and Deanna Troi have beamed down to a planet in order to search for the lost crew of the Aquataine. A Chalnoth away team is also there searching for the crew of the Blade. In space, the Enterprise is facing down the arrogant and aggressive Chalnoth ship, Bludgeoner, with Captain Pathox. On the planet, the Enterprise team follows the Chalnoth team into a cave system, which cuts off their contact with the ship. They find a giant creature, some of its broken eggs, and what appears to be the crews of the Aquataine and Blade who have been cocooned by the creature.

Riker assumes initially that the Chalnoth had destroyed the eggs for target practice and the creature had retaliated, but Troi senses contentment and pride from the creature and feels that it is trying to protect the cocooned crew. In a firefight between the two away teams, all of the Chalnoth get stunned. In space, Enterprise holds its own against the Bludgeoner, but then other 164

Chalnoth ships arrive and it’s four against one, and Picard is afraid that he will have to abandon his away team.

The Next Generation #61, July 1994

Brothers in Darkness, by Michael Jan Friedman

Data and Riker are able to free a Chalnoth and an Aquitaine crewperson and discover that the Chalnoth had fired on the creature, not the eggs, but that seems to have affected its brain and it started destroying its own eggs and cocooning the Chalnoth. The Aquitaine crew had arrived later and had rescued most of the remaining eggs, but then they got cocooned as well. The Enterprise had come under fire from the Chalnoth ships, but Picard comes up with enough tricks to come out on top. When Geordi reports in from the planet, Picard contacts Captain Pathox and tells him they have located the crew of the Blade and will return them. The creature had been stunned, and Dr. Crusher is able to unscramble its brain and it is left to look after its remaining eggs. While Picard had reached a working truce with the Chalnoth, he was happy to leave it to the diplomats to reach a final agreement.

The Next Generation #62, August 1994

The Victim, by Michael Jan Friedman

Troi finds herself being chased through an ornate building by a Thrakkite named Mentricat, who says he is going to kill her for the fun of it. She had already seen that Riker and Crusher had been killed, and then she comes upon Worf’s body with his phaser behind him. But when she turns a corner and sees that she now has the drop on Mentricat, she cannot go through with it because the phaser has got locked on one of the disruptor settings and can’t be switched to stun. In actual fact, the Enterprise team had been on a diplomatic mission to the planet Talquos, along with a number of Federation ambassadors, including the Thrakkite ambassador, Mentricat, and his assistant, Althanal. When Mentricat was found murdered, with only Troi and Althanal found to have been in a position to carry out the murder, both are arrested by the Talquosian authorities and subjected to their method of assessing guilt. That meant subjecting them to scenarios to assess their likelihood of committing the particular type of crime, and Troi had acquitted herself well, but Althanal had convicted himself. Apparently, Mentricat had treated him like dirt, and he just couldn’t take it anymore.

The Next Generation #63, September 1994

A Matter of Conscience, by Michael Jan Friedman

The Enterprise is patrolling the border of the Romulan Neutral Zone, and Geordi requests permission to do a new survey of Beta Argotha One, a planet where evolution is occurring very rapidly. He is given the runabout Yutcan to use, and his team consists of Deanna Troi (whose father had been on the original survey of the planet), Ensign Haspan, Jarvis Smithers, and Henri Gilette. Approaching the planet, they encounter a magnetic distortion field and crashland, 165

although they and the runabout survive well. Soon after landing, they find another runabout in worse condition which surprisingly is also called the Yutcan. A bigger surprise is when they encounter the surviving crew and find that it is led by another Geordi, although this one has a beard. Meanwhile, the Enterprise has encountered a derelict Cardassian transport ship and beamed aboard the sole survivor who turns out to be a Romulan named Tavorok who claims to have abandoned the Romulans after being told to work on a virus that will eat dilithium, which is to be used to bring down the Federation. Then a Cardassian warship arrives, demanding the return of Tavorok who they say is a criminal.

The Next Generation #64, October 1994

The Deceivers, by Michael Jan Friedman

Geordi learns from his counterpart that the team from the other universe were on a mission to stop a small rogue star from disrupting the system and destroying the inhabitants of a planet that doesn’t exist in Geordi’s universe. His counterpart wants to repair Geordi’s less damaged runabout and complete the mission, but Geordi points out that they don’t know whose universe they ended up in, and in his universe, it is a binary star system and diverting the smaller star will cause the same kind of damage they want to prevent. It is agreed to jointly repair the runabout then assess the system to establish whose universe they are in, but when the repairs are near completion the alternate universe team say they are taking the runabout by force to complete their task. On the Enterprise, Picard ends up facing a Cardassian and a Romulan warship, the commanders of both demanding that Tavorok be turned over to them for the crime of murder in their own respective empires. Worf thinks that Tavorok’s story makes the most sense, and a team led by Riker is sent over to the derelict transport ship that Tavorok had been rescued from to see what clues are available there. Then a Ferengi marauder approaches but turns away.

The Next Generation #65, November 1994

The Truth Elusive, by Michael Jan Friedman

Geordi and the others in his team are ready (thanks to Deanna’s abilities) when the other universe’s Geordi and his team try to steal their runabout, but then Ensign Haspan is able to show that the planet Beta Argotha One they are on is indeed in the one in the alternate universe.

That prompts Geordi to allow his counterpart to use the working runabout to attempt to destroy the rogue star and leave Geordi to try and repair the other universe’s runabout so that they can get off the planet and back through the anomaly that had brought them there. Meanwhile, Picard had uncovered the deception of the Ferengi, Romulans and Cardassians, and of Tavorok, and determined that Tavorok had indeed developed a virus that eats dilithium and that he had been planning to sell it to the Ferengi. Realizing his life was now in danger with that information known, Tavorok asks for asylum, which Picard grants while suggesting that Tavorok get to work on a cure for the virus. The Enterprise arrives back at Beta Argotha One in time to beam Geordi and his team off the runabout that had successfully made it off the planet but then lost power.

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The Next Generation #66, December 1994

Just Desserts!, by Michael Jan Friedman

The Enterprise is visiting the planet Utalabria, just as the space creature known as the Eater arrived back. The first time it had visited the planet, it had devoured all the nuclear waste that the inhabitants had allowed to accumulate and didn’t know what to do with. Happy that someone else was going to clear up after them, they let the waste accumulate again while they indulged in the arts. However, this time the Eater does go for the waste but then starts firing energy bolts off, all over the planet. The Utalabrians demand that Picard destroys the creature, but Dr. Crusher suggests that the Eater has developed an allergy to the waste and is reacting badly to it. A large batch of allergy treatment is produced and blasted into the creature using probes. At first, it doesn’t seem to be having any effect and Picard orders the creature’s destruction, but then it stops firing off the energy bolts and resumes clearing up the waste. Picard lectures the Utalabrians on becoming self-reliant.

The Next Generation #67, January 1995

Friends And Other Strangers, by Michael Jan Friedman

Riker had been part of a team from the Hood that visited Altair at the time of their civil war and had been given their five holy books contained in orbs. Now the war is over (the rebels having won) and Riker has joined up with four other ex-Hood crewpersons so that each can return the book/orb that they were entrusted with. They have to make a strenuous trek back to the monastery where the books had been housed, then a wood and rope bridge starts to break up under Orzon, the heaviest of the group, and Riker goes to try and rescue him. Meanwhile, Ro and Lieutenant Coltrane had delivering Ambassador T’Lix to a meeting of ambassadors and are returning aboard the shuttle Onizuka when they come under attack from a Tisatti ship and are forced to land on an uncharted M-class planet. Coltrane dies in the crashlanding and Ro is barely conscious but finds herself being carried away from the crash site by a mysterious hooded person.

The Next Generation #68, February 1995

The Bajoran and the Beast, by Michael Jan Friedman

Ro recovers after her shuttle had been shot down and finds herself in a kind of mansion, the guest being a hooded man who says he remains hooded because he would appear too disgusting to her. He says he has sent a message to Starfleet, so she should be rescued soon, but she is intrigued to find out what he looks like, especially when he compares the two of them to the Earth fairy tale of Beauty and the Beast. Then the Tisatti who had shot her shuttle down arrive, demanding that he turn over the Starfleet officer, but Ro’s benefactor denies knowing anything of such a person. His assistant shows Ro a cache of Cardassian weapons and says she can take any of them if she wants to protect the man. Although she does that, he gets mortally wounded and she is on the verge of being killed when an Enterprise team beams down and rescues her.

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She goes to see what she can do for the man, but he dies after identifying himself as Gul Sobrag who had been administrator of the Berenthar Labor Camp on Bajor. When Data asks who he had been, she tearfully describes him as her friend. Meanwhile, Riker and his friends are making their way on Altair Three, but then Randy Green somehow falls to his death in a ravine.

The Next Generation #69, March 1995

Dreams Die, by Michael Jan Friedman

Riker and a few of the previous crew of the Hood are on Altair Three returning the holy scripture bubbles that they had been entrusted with by the monks during a civil war that resulted in the monks dying. Riker’s friend, Randy Green, somehow falls to his death in a ravine. When they are restoring the scripture bubbles to their places, Riker notices that the bubble that had been found alongside Green’s body was not the one he’d been entrusted with and realizes that Orzon was probably responsible for the death. Orzon admits that he had planned on killing them all in a plot with a Ferengi to restore his family’s fortune, but he now regretted it. When all the bubbles are replaced, suddenly a monster robot breaks out. Meanwhile, Dr. Crusher had gone to a starbase for a medical conference where she also met up with Dr. Pulaski and a number of other doctors. Armed Thorsoon burst in, along with Dr. Stephen Granthos who had been nearly fatally injured in an explosion at his lab 15 years previously. He accuses another of the attendees, Dr.

McPhee of causing the explosion when he had been Granthos’s assistant and stealing the Rumellic Fever vaccine that he had devised. As revenge, he was going to kill all of them, himself included, with a bomb that McPhee recognizes as a plasma bomb.

The Next Generation #70, April 1995

The Last Verse, by Michael Jan Friedman

Riker is part of a team returning the holy scriptures of the monks of Marrayat, but he finds that the bubbles that supposedly just held the scriptures also released a monstrous weaponized robot.

Apparently, the monks had bought the robot from the Aud’Dich to wreak revenge on the rebels who the monks knew would kill them in the civil war that has now concluded. The robot proves to be immune to phasers but, as it crosses a bridge, Riker is able to almost cause it to fall over the side, and Orzon valiantly sacrifices himself to make sure it falls to its doom. Meanwhile, the combined efforts of Dr. Crusher, Dr. Pulaski, and others succeed in disabling the Thorsoon who were holding them on the starbase and prove that Stephen Granthos was really the one who had been wronged, and Dr. McPhee was the real culprit. The bomb is beamed safely off the station.

The Next Generation #71, May 1995

War and Madness, Part I: The First Casualty, by Michael Jan Friedman

The Tholians destroy a number of Federation colonies near their border in an attack spurred by revenge, although at least one of the Tholians involved does not go along with the slaughter of the innocents. Enterprise is called in to investigate, and they pick up Will Riker’s father, Kyle 168

Riker, who is an expert on the Tholians. He arrives with his wife to be, Brenda Sorenson, which takes Will Riker by surprise. The Enterprise is to head for the Alpha Unuria colony which has survivors, thanks to the intervention of the U.S.S. Stockholm, which sadly got destroyed while engaging the three Tholian ships. [Timeline: Soon after Q showed Picard a possible future for himself and the rest of the Enterprise command crew]

The Next Generation #72, June 1995

War and Madness, Part II: A Handful of Dust, by Michael Jan Friedman

The investigation at Alpha Unuria colony turns up no leads, and then a message is received that the Beta Barania colony is under attack, and the Enterprise heads there at maximum warp. There they find three Tholian ships which stop their attack on the colony and start creating their web around Enterprise. The Tholians have not been known to use their web technology for 50 years, and it seems they have improved it in the meantime, making it less susceptible to phasers and also having it drain energy from the entrapped vessel. Riker, while he was at the Academy, had discovered a sensory blind spot that the Tholians had but, when they try making use of that, it appears that the Tholians have corrected that flaw too. Riker and his father are coming to loggerheads over how to handle the Tholians. [Timeline: Stardate 48252.6]

The Next Generation #73, July 1995

War and Madness, Part III: The Dying of the Light, by Michael Jan Friedman

The Tholian web breaks through the Enterprise’s shields, but then Geordi realizes that Riker’s idea of a blind spot might be true, but the spot has moved since Riker’s Academy days. Aboard the Tholian flagship, the First Officer Nethrax expresses his doubts about the actions they are taking, and the Commander relieves him of duty. As pressure is mounting on the Enterprise’s shell, Geordi comes up with where the sensory blind spot should be, and they open fire on it and cut through the web at that point. Data uses a confinement beam to send the web’s energy back at the Tholian flagship, which causes a fair amount of damage to it. However, it is still able to join the other two Tholian ships in chasing the escaping Enterprise, which is now operating on very low energy levels. Success for the Tholians seems assured until several Klingon warbirds decloak behind them and drive the Tholians off. Picard is surprised to find Gowron on the lead Klingon vessel, and more surprised when Gowron accuses the Federation of starting a war with the Tholians that has led to the destruction of Klingon colonies.

The Next Generation #74, August 1995

War and Madness, Part IV: Ceremony of Innocence, by Michael Jan Friedman

Gowron is accusing the Federation of attacking the Tholians, leading the Tholians to retaliate with attacks against Federation and Klingon colonies but, when Picard checks with Admiral Quinn, he is told that no such thing has happened. Then Starbase One-Eight-Zero comes under attack and the Enterprise responds to the mayday and finds the same three Tholian ships that they 169

had recently escaped from were attacking the station. The Enterprise is able to counterattack successfully and the lead Tholian ship is disabled and its Commander and much of the crew rendered unconscious. Picard is able to contact the first officer, Nethrax, who shows evidence that Tholian colonies had been attacked by a Klingon ship and says Federation colonies had only been targeted because they were allied with Klingons. When Gowron is shown the evidence, he identifies the ship as the Taj which had gone missing several weeks before. When Gowron gives Picard the last known coordinates of the Taj, Picard realizes it corresponds with the planet that had been given to Hugh and his group of Borg.

The Next Generation #75, September 1995

War and Madness, Part V: Cry Havok, by Michael Jan Friedman

Data works out that the common denominator between the Tholian colonies that have been attacked is that they are predominantly manned by scientists. That allows them to work out where the captured Klingon vessel, the Taj, is likely to strike. Riker talks the Tholian first officer, Nethrax, into allowing him, his father, Data and Geordi to accompany them on his ship to track down the Taj, even though they will have to enter Tholian space. Despite Riker’s unwarranted doubts about the trustworthiness of Nethrax, the mission is successful, and it is discovered that the Taj is not being commanded by Hugh, but by the Borg named Enab who has been trying to find out the secret to the Tholian’s hive mind (which they actually don’t use any more). When the Tholian Commander recovers aboard the Enterprise, he believes they have been taken captive by the Federation and leads the other Tholians in demanding the return of their own ship. They take hostages, including Brenda, and threaten to kill them, but Worf is able to stage a successful rescue of the hostage. Then Riker returns and reports on the successful mission. The captured Borg had been turned over to the Tholians, and Geordi and Data were piloting the Taj to return it to the Klingons. [Timeline: Stardate 48276.8]

The Next Generation #76, October 1995

Suspect, by Michael Jan Friedman

Regina Campisi, special investigator, arrives aboard the Enterprise and tells Picard and the command crew that three previous chief engineers of the Enterprise, Terence Argyle, Sarah MacDougal, and Charles H. Logan, have been murdered aboard the ships they were serving on, and the suspect was Lieutenant Farrell who had recently joined the engineering team aboard the Enterprise, presumably to kill Geordi. Picard insists on more evidence, and hopefully a motive, before he will authorize action against her, and Geordi, Worf, and Troi say they will all try to gather information, but apart from finding that she has an interest in finding out about her new boss, there doesn’t seem to be much that’s in any way suspicious. It is decided to set a trap for her, and when Geordi uses the holodeck, Farrell does appear. But she is followed by another woman carrying a phaser, who turns out to be Campisi. Farrell had been there to protect Geordi and Campisi informs them that her real name was Tana Santu and her adoptive father had been chief engineer on the Enterprise during its trials, but MacDougal had been appointed as Chief 170

Engineer in place of him when the ship was commissioned. She had vowed revenge on MacDougal and on all others who had enjoyed what her father had been denied. Happily, Riker was also hiding in the shrubbery and stunned her after hearing her confession. He had known the real Campisi at the Academy and knew she was colorblind, but Santu/Campisi had commented on the colors associated with the wormhole that the ship was observing. [Timeline: Stardate 48319.4]

The Next Generation #77, November 1995

Gateway, by Michael Jan Friedman

The discovery of tetryon particles near a space station that’s similar to Promellian ship design makes Picard and his commend crew suspect that the solanagen-based aliens that they had encountered before were back. The USS Hornet, with Captain Nora Hagler, arrives claiming they had also been sent to investigate the phenomenon, but actually Hagler is seeking revenge for her younger brother, Lt. Edward Hagler, who had been the one fatality from the Enterprise’s previous encounter with the solanagen-based aliens. Geordi and the Hornet’s Chief Engineer McRobb locate a tetryon trail in space and following it leads to an alien vessel that has a probe (suspected of being the same probe involved in their previous encounter) caught in the ship’s tractor beam. The Hornet immediately attacks the alien vessel and then a second alien ship arrives and gains control of the probe. The second alien ship heads back towards the space station where the tetryon particles were seen, and the Enterprise, Hornet and the other alien ship are chasing it. Arriving near the space station, the first alien ship fires on the second and regains control of the probe, and the second alien vessel fires on the tetryon particles, opening up a gateway that it heads into and pulls the Hornet after it.

The Next Generation #78, December 1995

The Unconquered, by Michael Jan Friedman

One of the two ships of the solanagen-based aliens disappears through the gateway back to their own realm, towing the USS Hornet with it. Picard tries contacting the other alien ship, but the universal translator isn’t universal enough for their speech. However, Deanna Troi senses their sincerity and sympathy. Between Geordi and McRobb, the Enterprise is able to open another gateway, and the Enterprise and the first alien ship go through to find the second alien ship has attacked and boarded the bridge of the Hornet. Riker leads a rescue team that frees the Hornet of its invaders, although Captain Hagler dies in the melee. The first alien vessel also subdues the second, and then opens a gateway for the Enterprise and Hornet to return through. Once back, Picard has the gateway destroyed using photon torpedoes.

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The Next Generation #79, January 1996

Artificiality, by Michael Jan Friedman

At the funeral for Kendra Novak, Picard mentions her admiration of Data and comments on his durability and expresses a wish that all of his crew had such abilities. Unfortunately, Q was listening in and grants Picard’s wish, turning Picard and his crew into androids. Then the Enterprise gets called to the mining colony at Aurelia Seven who are experiencing a medical emergency. En route, the crew are puzzled by some of their possessions which they no longer have the emotions to be attached to, and Picard is getting overwhelmed by choosing between so many options. He thinks that using Data’s emotion chip will help, but Q considers that cheating and forbids it. Arriving at the colony, Dr. Crusher diagnoses the colonists as being infected by the incurable Menal Tasarin virus, while Data is puzzled by the colony’s computer malfunction that has wiped most of the data and the backups. He also notes the lack of stores of precious metals that the colony would supposedly have mined since the last transport vessel visit a month ago. Picard doesn’t know what to do with that information.

The Next Generation #80, February 1996

The Abandoned, by Michael Jan Friedman

The Enterprise was called in to assist a colony infected by a virus, but Q had turned all of the Enterprise crew into androids who were functioning well below par. Happily, Data was still his usual self and successfully stops the “colonists” taking over the Enterprise. He also identifies them as really being pirates and the infection they have as not being the fatal one that the Crusher android had identified. The actual colonists had been captured by other pirates who had abandoned the ones that the Enterprise had been dealing with after they had become infected.

With Data helping Picard in deciding how to best utilize the android crew’s abilities, they are able to free the real colonists and take all the pirates into custody. Q then restores Picard and the rest of the crew to their real human selves, since his experiment in demonstrating that androids were not sufficiently capable hadn’t really worked out as he’d expected.

The Next Generation Annual #1, 1990

The Gift, by John de Lancie

The Enterprise sees an energy field approaching, and some of the crew start having memory problems. Then Q appears on the bridge and tells Picard (who had been looking at an old picture of his family) that he is taking him for a “homecoming”. Guinan suspects that Q is trying to get revenge for Picard humiliating him in front of his fellow Q on their last encounter, and she knows Q very well. He first turns Picard into a goat and a few other creatures, then takes him back to when his parents were alive, and Picard has to convince his parents that he is their son, while Q is playing the role of an appropriately aged Jean Luc. Picard tries recalling events from his youth, but the young Jean Luc (Q) finishes the same stories. Then Q goes on to recount an event that led to the death of Jean Luc’s younger brother, Claude, when he fell in a well. Picard’s 172

mother realizes that the real Jean Luc would never torture his parents by bringing up that tragic event, and she accepts Picard as her real son. Picard thinks he has beaten Q, but then Q offers to change events so that Claude doesn’t die, and Picard accepts for his parents’ sake. Unfortunately, Claude grows up to be evil, ending up taking over the Federation and becoming a sort of interstellar Hitler. Jean Luc and Claude face off against each other, with Claude about to kill Picard but also about to step back into an open well. Q tells Picard this is his opportunity to set things right, but Picard cannot bring himself to be responsible for his brother’s death, but Q has less reservations and blows Claude backward into the well. It is the younger Claude that is lying dead at the bottom of the well, and history is reset. The only noticeable change is that Picard this time attends the crew party that Riker invites him too, as he’s now reconciled with his family history and feeling more content.

The Next Generation Annual #2, 1991

Thin Ice!, by Michael Jan Friedman

The Enterprise receives a distress call from the deep space exploratory ship Marco Polo at the Beta Marada system, which was beyond normal Federation borders and under attack by four vessels of unknown origin who did not respond to hails. The Marco Polo had already lost many of its systems and Captain Lyrinda Halk says they are coming under attack again and then the signal is lost. Enterprise heads out to render assistance, but they are almost two days away. En route they encounter gravitational objects which Riker calls super-strings, but they don’t have time to investigate. Riker had known Lyrinda while growing up in Alaska, and he’d also been at the Academy with her, and had always considered her a risk taker, and she had thought of him as being too much “by the book”. They find the Marco Polo badly damaged but still with survivors onboard and surrounded by the four ships. Riker leads a team including Worf, Geordi, Dr.

Crusher and two others. They are able to beam back most of the injured to the Enterprise, but then the Enterprise is attacked and has to retreat. It is realized that the ships are automated and were probably defensive weapons of the lost race known as the Darzun. Geordi gets the Marco Polo operational again and Riker tries to get the ship beyond the automated ship’s defensive region, but the ships continue following and attacking. Riker decides to head for the super-strings because the robotic vessels seem to take longer time to adjust their course. Consequently, while Worf is able to weave the Marco Polo safely through the super-strings, the four robotic ships are destroyed. Riker and Lyrinda come to agree that they learned from each other. [Timeline: Stardate 44612.3]

The Next Generation Annual #3, 1992

The Broken Moon, by Michael Jan Friedman

An Onglaatu ship (from the planet Glaa) rendezvous with the Enterprise. Kalonis, son of Kastren, beams aboard and requests a private meeting with Geordi. Years previous, Geordi had saved Kastren’s life by rescuing her and others from an Onglaatu ship that was being torn apart by a Murasaki Disturbance, and Geordi had been made a moon-brother to Kastren, which was a 173

singular privilege in that matriarchal society. But now, Kalonis is concerned because it seems that their planet is headed for civil war, and Kastren is one of those opposing the Imperatrix and is acting even more belligerently than normal. Geordi agrees to help in a private capacity but, when Geordi and Kalonis try to discuss the issue with Kastren, she has the two of them beaten and thrown in the dungeon before heading for a meeting with the Imperatrix. Kalonis and Geordi break out of the dungeon and, while disabling three guards, Geordi recognizes on the neck of one guard the breathing appendage of the same kind of parasite that had affected members of Starfleet Command a few years ago. When they arrive unannounced at the Imperatrix’s meeting and say that people there have been infested by the parasite, a fight breaks out, Geordi has to stun Kastren but, when the person infected by the mother parasite is killed, the other parasites die.

Kastren thanks Geordi for saving her life again, the Imperatrix thanks Geordi and Kalonis for their intervention, and there is a possibility that Glaa will join the Federation. [Timeline: Stardate 4598.8]

The Next Generation Annual #4, 1993

A House Divided, by Mike W. Barr

A runaway pulsar, PSR 2224 + 65, will pass close by the Tantalus VII penal colony space station, and the Enterprise is sent to pick up the one remaining criminal and the staff, plus a Trill representative who turns out to be Odan (who had an affair with Beverley Crusher as a previous host). The special criminal is Keb Dalor, a joined Trill whose symbiont is the actual devious criminal. Dalor had plotted with a renegade Romulan named Trelia, and the station and the Enterprise come under attack when her Romulan warbird decloaks (but the Enterprise is able to destroy it). The Trill host is mortally injured in the fight, so Dalor has himself implanted in Picard and takes control as the captain, getting himself and the others beamed aboard the Enterprise and disables the crew with intruder control gas. Between Crusher, Data, Geordi, Worf and Riker, they start to take back the Enterprise, but Dalor/Picard has the Battle section separate from the saucer, and escapes with Trelia and her team, along with Odan and Crusher. Riker manages to use the Saucer section to keep clear of the Battle section, knowing that Dalor’s hold on Picard will be weakening. As the pulsar is approaching, Riker has the crew beam from the Battle section to the penal colony space station to use its stronger shields and weapons.

Dalor/Picard becomes more erratic, until Data and Geordi are able to beam them off the Battle section and, before rematerializing them, transfer the symbiont from Picard to the seriously injured and comatose Trelia. Then they reconnect the two sections of the Enterprise and head off away from the pulsar to deliver Dalor to a Trill ship. [Timeline: Stardate 46759.5]

The Next Generation Annual #5, 1994

Brother’s Keeper, by Howard Weinstein

The Enterprise was taking Admiral Jane Kumar to a meeting in the Kimatran home sector because the Timatrans had been reporting that the Cardassians had been making incursions. At Kumar’s request/insistence they were ahead of schedule, so when an unusual radiation field with 174

unknown elementary particles is encountered, and then a large derelict space-station that had apparently been observing the field is discovered, they take some time to investigate it. Geordi, Data, and Worf beam over, but with the deteriorating condition of the station it is felt that they should return to Enterprise. Geordi gets five minutes to recover data from the station’s computer system, but then the radiation field has an eruption that damages the Enterprise and, when the away team are rescued, Data appears to be irreparably damaged. Geordi will not accept Data’s fate and gets permission to attempt to repair him. It is found that the odd particles in the field are causing Data’s positronic brain to deteriorate, and little progress at restoring him is made. Geordi believes that recovering information from the station’s computers will give clues to save Data, but Kumar insists that the Enterprise resume its journey to the Kimatran home sector. They get underway, but Geordi steals a shuttle and heads back towards the station. He is intercepted, but Picard takes the Enterprise back to the station against Kumar’s direct orders; she later admits that Picard made the correct decision, and she apologizes for her previous words. Geordi and Worf are able to recover the station’s memory core and the information allows Geordi to restore his friend, and Data shows his appreciation. [Timeline: Stardate 47512.3]

The Next Generation Annual #6, 1995

Convergence, Part Two: Future Imperiled, by Michael Jan Freidman

[Continued from Star Trek Annual #6, 1995, page 139] Gowron end up on a planetoid with Spock, Data, Harriman, and Tellius, and Kirk’s Enterprise and Picard’s Enterprise both converge on the Devidian’s homeworld, although in their own timelines. Geordi has devised a way to open up a portal to allow Picard’s team to go through to where Data is, and Exana uses Aegis technology to open a portal for Kirk’s group. Both groups find themselves on a foggy planet that interferes with their sensors and, while both groups realize the other is there, they cannot see each other well because the groups are slightly out of phase. Anyway, with Kirk’s team in the lead, they arrive at the “bubble” housing Spock, Data, and the others. Then Kirk’s group comes under attack from Devidians, but when Picard’s team joins the fray, the Devidians are defeated.

Exana sends Spock, Data and the other abductees back to their own timelines while obscuring their memory of the events, but then the Aegis turn up. Picard and Kirk both think that the Aegis are there to punish Exana, but instead they admit that they had been wrong about what the Devidians had been doing. Exana is also delighted to find that the Aegis had snatched Gary Seven from the timeline before he was killed, and they now restore him to her. The Aegis say that they will keep a better eye on the Devidians in future, but Picard comments that the Devidians have already fooled them once. Picard destroys the cave they had located that had been used by the Devidians in transporting the abductees. [Timeline: Stardate 48015.1 in Picard’s timeline, and 8854.3 in Kirk’s]

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The Next Generation Special #1, 1993

Good Listener, by Tony Isabella & Bob Ingersoll

Guinan had accepted an offer to set up a tavern on the mining planet Zahler Four, but people there start coming down with an ailment that produces hallucinations making them frantic, and many of them have to be kept sedated. Guinan calls on the Enterprise for help, and a shuttle arrives with Riker, Dr. Beverley Crusher, Worf, and xenobiologist Dona Stein and her husband, Steve Stein, who is in security. Steve is slightly telepathic and picks up distress from his wife who is suddenly mourning the loss of her homeworld, Earth, although she was born on a starship and doesn’t consider any planet home. Dona thinks her husband should be developing his talent, but he considers it invasive and hates using it. This is one disagreement that is starting to break up their marriage. Guinan advises each of them to actually listen to what the other is saying and try to understand their point of view. A solution to the malady affecting the mining colony doesn’t seem to be forthcoming until Steve senses that the native monkey-like creatures, the Tordohh, are reading their minds and bringing out fears and prejudices, and when Worf catches and threatens one, a form of truce emerges. The Tordohh used to be a technological race and had come close to ruining their planet, so they had abandoned technology, and had been trying to drive away the miners. Riker points out that it is their planet, and they should be left to look after it as they want. However, Guinan considered that the Tordohh should have communicated their wishes, rather than invade peoples mind, so as a ‘parting gift’ she shocks one of the Tordohh by entering its mind. Dona comes to understand her husband’s viewpoint better. [Timeline: Stardate 46541.2]

A True Son of Kahless, by Ken Penders & Anne Wokanovicz

Worf requests to take three days leave to take his son, Alexander, down to the surface of the planet Tallera III which had no sentient life forms, to teach him of Klingon ways. Picard grants the request, and Worf and Alexander beam down and start exploring the planet. What nobody had noticed was that the larger neighboring planet was about to pass close to Tallera III, bringing storms, earthquakes, and other disruptions to the planet. The electrical storms make it impossible for the ship to contact Worf or locate them on the planet, so Riker, along with Dr. Crusher and a couple of other crewpersons take a shuttle down, but they are affected by the storms and make a rough, but satisfactory landing. Worf had been hit by a branch blown in the storm and knocked out, but Alexander improvises a sledge and succeeds in dragging the comatose Worf to a cave for shelter. Alexander also remembers that he has a locator beacon in his gear and sets that up.

That enables Riker’s team to locate them, by which time Worf has recovered and is very proud of what his son achieved. Alexander is also praised by Riker’s team and by Picard, but he is most pleased by Worf telling him that he is a true Klingon.

Spot’s Day, by Diane Duane

Spot, the cat, wanders out of Data’s quarters while Data is talking to Worf, roams the ship including riding a turbolift with Picard and Riker, and finally ends up in a holodeck just after Geordi has tweaked one of Worf’s training programs to include the unexpected. Spot enjoys the 176

wilderness location, then gets faced with a large lion-like creature. Spot hisses at it, and the big cat turns tail and moves away. Deanna assists Data in recovering Spot by tracking the strong emotions the cat has been sending out from the holodeck.

The Next Generation Special #2, Summer 1994

The Choice, by Michael Jan Friedman

A team, led by Riker and including Ro and Geordi among others, beams down to Naxus Four to inspect the remains of an unmanned observatory that had been destroyed by particle beam weaponry. That suggested it was the work of either the Orelians, the Arascuu, or the Seriphami.

Ro had encountered the Seriphami before on Garon Two and had fallen for a trick by them, and that resulted in the deaths of a couple of the team she was on, along with Ro being court-martialed. Picard had been instrumental in restoring her to her position in Starfleet. On Naxus Four, Riker’s team comes under fire and Ro identifies the attackers as the Seriphami. Riker decides to implement the same flanking maneuver that had been tried on Garon Two, leaving Ro and Geordi to hold their original position. Once again, the Seriphami suddenly appear to go into their healing hibernation state, in which even a stun hit from a phaser can kill them. On Garon Two, this had been faked by the Seriphami but Ro thinks it may be real this time. To test her suspicion, she runs out to the Seriphami and does find them unconscious. Because Riker cannot hear her over a gathering storm, she stuns him to prevent him firing on the Seriphami, although she expects that to be the end of her career. A security team beams down to take the Seriphami into custody, and when Ro is called to see Riker, she is amazed and delighted to find that he commends her actions.

Cry Vengeance, by Chris Claremont

Colleen McMurphy boards the Enterprise using an Unlimited Travel Warrant but then the ship finds itself surrounded by Klingon warships commanded by Kurn and demanding that Collen be taken to the Klingon homeworld to face Gowron. McMurphy’s cabin is searched and Fleet Captain T’Kir beams aboard, and it is discovered that McMurphy isn’t who she said she was, and her papers are forged. She was really Jamie Finney who had served with Captain Kirk during his encounter with Captain Kor, and then been invited to join Kor’s crew. She had remained loyal to Kor even when all the smooth-foreheaded Klingons had been discommended and banished to the outskirts of the Empire. When Kor had been killed in a cowardly attack by a member of the Duras clan, she vowed revenge for his murder, and wanted to battle Gowron as head of the Duras clan. Picard is against such a fight, but Worf explains that it is required by Klingon tradition. In the fight, Gowron is wounded, but Finney (who was already dying with Reynard’s Syndrome) is killed. Gowron honors her valor, saying he will wear his wound with pride, and says that Kor and all other smooth-foreheaded Klingons should once again be considered true, honorable Klingons.

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Out of Time, by Michael Jan Friedman

Morgan Bateson, captain of the Bozeman that had been in a time-loop for 80 years before being pulled out of it by the Enterprise, is having a very hard time adapting to the twenty-fourth century and is ensuring that Counselor Bailey at the starbase has a hard time too. His crew are doing a bit better, but it is generally felt that if Bateson could adapt to his situation, then the crew would do a lot better. The counselor calls on Troi for help with a particular idea, and that results in a single-person spacecraft arriving at the starbase. Scotty, himself a fairly new arrival in the twenty-fourth century, had come to assist, and he tells Bateson he’s not leaving until he’s helped him adjust.

The Next Generation Special #3, Winter 1995

Pandora’s Prodigy, by Michael DeMerritt

Picard is called in to act as negotiator between the Colistarrs and the Phrea Elendren who had previous been at war with one another, but that had seemingly been resolved over 50 years ago.

Now they are trying to negotiate a trade agreement and Creal Izura represents the Phrea Elendren, and Bevron Tann represents the Colistarrs. Enterprise is also due to have its transporters upgraded, and David Dirvy (an old friend of Geordi’s) comes aboard and discusses some further developments he is working on. Data assists Dirvy in coming up with an analog method of recording a person’s complete waveform, and Dirvy tries it out on himself and is pleased to find it does record everything, but then starts having concerns about the technology.

Picard has concerns that Izura and Tann are just looking for an excuse to resume the war, as the

‘negotiations’ seem to be just a series of accusation. There is also a plot taking shape against Tann’s life, and a trap has been set by taking into account Tann’s interest in technology.

Unfortunately, Dirvy gets talking to Tann and agrees to demonstrate something for him, and he triggers the trap and gets electrocuted and disintegrated. Geordi uses the stored waveform to recreate him, but Picard is then given the means of deleting all records of the process. Picard understands Dirvy’s reservations and deletes the files. Izura and Tann admit to each other that they both would have used the technology to create the best warriors to use against the other side and agree that they both have growing up to do. Real negotiations begin with concessions on both sides, and an agreement is achieved.

Old Debts, by Kevin J. Ryan

Captain Scot flies his runabout to Starbase 122 which is a kind of starship museum housing the Enterprise-A among its exhibits, and where Scotty is due to give a talk to the Federation Historical Society. He had been hoping to explore Enterprise-A on his own, but Commander Sturges insists that the rules state he must be accompanied by a member of the station’s crew.

That turns out to be Lieutenant Lefler, who Scotty gets on well with because she has taken a personal interest in the ship. Then a warning comes on about an approaching Klingon vessel, but that turns out to be a simulation orchestrated by Koloth, who announces over the intercom system that he is seeking revenge for Scotty’s tribble attack on his ship. Koloth says he has planted an explosive on the ship that will trigger the dilithium reaction chamber and lead to the 178

destruction of the ship. With his knowledge of the ship, Scotty is able to prevent that, and they realize Koloth must have taken over auxiliary control and taken control of the computer and other systems. They establish that he has a cloaked ship docked to the Enterprise and they trick him into attempting an escape by setting the impulse engines on a timer and disabling the inertial dampeners. That allows them to intercept Koloth, and Scotty and Koloth end in a fist fight, which Koloth sees as an honorable battle, and he leaves Scotty to reinitialize the inertial dampers and then tidy the place up. [Timeline: Stardate 46225.4]

TNG The Modala Imperative #1, Early September 1991

In Memory Yet Green…, by Peter David

A hundred years previous, the rebels (with a little help from Kirk and members of his command crew) had taken control of Modala and turned it into a united planet that became a Federation member {see page 133, Star Trek: The Modala Imperative, Part 4}. Now they are planning a big celebration and the Enterprise is bringing the aged, but still cantankerous, Admiral McCoy as the only available surviving member of Kirk’s group that the Mondala authorities see as heroes. The Modalan leader, Stroyka, thinks that all of his citizens are well taken care of, so he cannot understand the protests led by Owz. However, Stroyka’s wife suggests that he takes a personal look at the conditions that his citizens are living under. On the Enterprise, McCoy is in Ten Forward and offers a toast to Kirk’s crew, including “that damned Vulcan”, at which point Ambassador Spock walks in, having found time in his schedule to join the Modala celebration.

[Timeline: Stardate 44375.7, about 4 years after McCoy first toured Picard’s Enterprise at Farpoint]

TNG The Modala Imperative #2, Early August 1991

Lies and Legends!, by Peter David

Ambassador Spock and the aged Admiral McCoy join the Enterprise to go to the celebration of Modala’s Centennial. Spock, McCoy, Troi and Picard beam down for the celebration, but the Enterprise gets called away to respond to a distress call from the freighter that had previously delivered Spock to the Enterprise. The freighter had been attacked by an unknown craft and left without propulsion and with limited life support. The celebration starts with a fanciful reenactment by children of the breaking out of Stroyka and others from the Krysaian prison by Kirk and Chekov (who they call the Will and the Way), but then an explosion interrupts the proceedings, and Daimon Tran and his Ferengi cohorts appear. Apparently, the Ferengi had been the ones to equip the Krysaians with relatively advanced weapons a century ago in return for which the planet would become Ferengi property now. Although the Krysaians are no longer around, the Ferengi are back to claim the planet as theirs. [Timeline: Stardate 44396.0]

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TNG The Modala Imperative #3, Late August 1991

Prior Claim, by Peter David

The celebration is faced with Ferengi claiming the rights to the planets as part of an agreement made with the defeated Modalan authorities 100 years previous, as payment for the weapons supplied. When the shooting starts, most of the Modalans panic and rush from the hall, Picard is injured and is rescued by Spock, but McCoy and Troi are captured by the Ferengi. Picard and Spock end up with Owz’s rebels in the disused sewers under the city, and Stroyka joins them there. It is believed that McCoy and Troi are being held in the Justice Building, which is adjacent to the sewer system, so, while Owz and his rebels are supposedly causing a diversion above ground, Picard and Spock lead the attempted breakthrough from the sewer. Unfortunately, when they get through, they find McCoy and Troi being held by armed Ferengi who demand that Picard’s team throw down their weapons. Meanwhile, the Enterprise had been called away to assist the freighter, Tornado, that had been attacked by Ferengi, and Riker suspects the attack was staged to draw them away from Modala. Consequently, as soon as the freighter’s crew and cargo are taken aboard, the Enterprise heads back to Modala at maximum warp. [Timeline: Stardate 44397.7]

TNG The Modala Imperative #4, Late October 1991

Game, Set and Match!, by Peter David

At first it looks as if Owz had betrayed them, but he was also a captive and his supporters had been killed. The Ferengi take all of them into custody, although Spock uses his mental and neck-pinch abilities to remain free and provide help. The Ferengi daimon is going to execute those who can’t be used effectively as hostages, but Picard challenges him, offering the Enterprise if he loses and says that the Ferengi will give up their claim to the planet if the daimon loses. The challenge involves each of them trying to hold onto a Ferengi challenge cube the longest and they are battered by mental images from the semi-sentient psychic cubes. Here was an opportunity for Spock, and he helped Picard shore up his mental defenses until the daimon had collapsed. The Ferengi now had no claim on the planet and Riker and a security team from Enterprise arrives in time to make sure they remember that. Stroyka sets about reestablishing order on the planet, this time with Owz as his second-in-command because he had proved himself to be honorable. [Timeline: Stardate 44398.7]

TNG Shadowheart #1, December 1994

Shadowheart, by Michael Jan Friedman

Worf’s elder brother, Nikolai Rozhenko, is believed to have died on the colony world, Lisarion, when it came under attack, and Worf is blaming himself because Nikolai had left Starfleet Academy when he became embarrassed by Worf constantly coming to his defense. An investigation at Lisarion turns up indications that Klingons had been involved. Then Admiral Quinn calls the Enterprise because Chancellor Gowron had contacted him about a rebellion 180

occurring at the Klingon-controlled world of Nothra, and it appeared that Nothrani were being led by a human who was using the name Shadowheart, which relates to a Klingon myth. Gowron didn’t want the human’s involvement to become common knowledge in the empire and sour the relationship between the Klingons and the Federation. Quinn had contacted Enterprise because the image of the human appeared to identify him as being Nikolai, and it’s thought he might be seeking revenge for what happened at Lisarion. Worf is also informed that his blood-brother, Kurn, will be joining him in the search for Shadowheart. [Timeline: 46479.9]

TNG Shadowheart #2, January 1995

Dealers in Darkness, by Michael Jan Friedman

Worf, Riker, and Kurn head for Nothra aboard a small Klingon ship, and meet up with an informant, Ibtoc, who sells them a map showing how to find Shadowheart. However, the planet’s head of security spots the informant and Worf’s team at the bar they met up at, and tries to take them into custody, but they escape into the forest although Worf loses his containment suit in the process. Luckily the atmosphere does not affect him adversely initially. Then they encounter a colony of warrior ants, and Riker trips while trying to escape the ants, and Kurn tries to stop Worf going back to assist him. Meanwhile, Governor Limadh has received a visit from the Duras Sisters. They have been paying Limadh to raid other colonies (such as Lisarion) to gather funds to restore the Duras family to power, and they are not impressed when he tells them that the troubles on Nothra have prevented him from continuing those raids recently.

TNG Shadowheart #3, February 1995

My Brother’s Keeper, by Michael Jan Friedman

Worf rescues Riker, and Ibtoc finds a river that stops the warrior-ants. Unfortunately, the river has its own problems, such as a water serpent that attacks them and kills Ibtoc. Worf is still exposed to the planet’s atmosphere, and something in the gases seems to be bulking him up and making him stronger and somewhat wilder. Seeing Ibtoc’s body floating down river tells the pursuing Klingon forces that they are headed in the right direction, but then a sudden fierce storm results in them losing a third of their number. Worf’s growing strength is instrumental in him, Riker and Kurn surviving, and they are approaching the place where the Nothrani rebels are supposed to be. Unfortunately, the rebels find them first and capture them.

TNG Shadowheart #4, March 1995

The Prince of Madness, by Michael Jan Friedman

Worf, Riker and Kurn regain consciousness to find themselves tied to stakes with energy loops in the Nothrani camp. They are confronted by Shadowheart, Worf’s stepbrother Nikolai who had come to Nothra seeking revenge on the Klingons who had destroyed the colony on Lisarion, but Nikolai had been affected by the Nothra jungle gasses and now doesn’t remember who he really is. He is about to pass judgement on them when the camp comes under attack by the force of 181

Klingon guards. The force generator is destroyed in the melee, freeing Worf and the others and they join in the fight. That spurs a memory in Nikolai and he goes to defend Worf but is badly injured by a Klingon blade. Kurn kills the Klingon commander and finds their remote-control bands, so he beams back to their ship and beams up Worf, Riker, and the injured Nikolai. By that time, the other Nothrani fighters had arrived and made short work of the other Klingons. On the commander’s body, Kurn had also found evidence linking Limadh, the Klingon governor of Nothra, with the Duras Sisters, and Limadh gets called back to face Gowron’s wrath. Nikolai recovers away from the Nothra gases.

TNG Ill Wind #1, November 1995

Ill Wind Part One, by Diane Duane

Enterprise is assigned to escort and protect competitors in the Centauris Cup solar sailing contest on the leg of the race starting at Andrew’s Star. This star is an unusual blue variable giving unpredictable bursts of activity that can suddenly change the solar wind. Also, one of the competitors is Mestral, hereditary ruler of the planet Eldelis, and it is known that some people are plotting against her, but she is, and acts, unconcerned. To add to the interest, all the competitors seem to have personal, financial, and/or politic agendas, rather than just being interested in participating in the competition, and that becomes very clear during a reception for the teams, held aboard the Enterprise. After the reception, while Picard contemplates the start of this leg of the race, someone makes their way to the shuttlebay and sets an explosive device on a countdown. [Timeline: Stardate 47960.3]

TNG Ill Wind #2, December 1995

Ill Wind Part Two, by Diane Duane

This zig-zag section of the course gets started but has to be stopped and restarted after Enterprise has to intervene to pull a bomb off the Schedart yacht. Then something falls (actually gets ejected) from the Lorherrin yacht damaging a wing of the Sauch vessel which leads to the Sauch yacht nearly ramming the Mestral’s vessel (Perhonen). The Mestral’s tender had been sent back to Capella, but it is reported that it has not arrived there. The Mestral’s husband, Rav, is part of her crew and he suggests that she abdicate her position on Eldis and live the life she wants, but she sees her position as her duty. Data has noticed unusual flare activity occurring on Andrew’s Star. [Timeline: Stardate 47961.2]

TNG Ill Wind #3, January 1996

Ill Wind Part Three, by Diane Duane

Geordi, Worf, and Dr. Crusher review the recording from when the bomb was planted after the reception and ascertain that it was a Carrig in a body suit designed to make it look human, but Picard decides not to do anything about it at this stage. Dr. Crusher is getting concerned about Deanna Troi who has reported feeling sleepy but not tired, and Crusher has determined that 182

something is interfering with Troi’s natural brainwave patterns. The Mestral’s tender is reported to be heading back to Andrew’s Star, and Mestral is using another of the star’s eruptions to take the lead in the race when Vendant (her bodyguard and crewman) pulls a phaser on her. Rav intervenes and Vendant is subdued, but Idra (the other crewperson is killed). Then Rav pulls a phaser on the Mestral and stuns her sufficiently so he can talk to her without her interrupting.

[Timeline: Stardate 47962.6]

TNG Ill Wind #4, February 1996

Ill Wind Part Four, by Diane Duane

The sailcraft race has rounded Andrew’s star and the unpredictable solar wind is driving them on the final leg. But on the Mestral’s yacht, Rav is holding a phaser on her, but she surreptitiously opens a sound-only channel to the Enterprise, and Picard hears Rav talking about having her mind-changed if she doesn’t cooperate voluntarily. The flares from the star make use of the transporter impossible at times, but they are able to beam Riker, Data, and Crusher aboard the yacht and take Rav into custody, although the Mestral has been stunned by that time. Then Data finds that the sails won’t retract, and a strong gust of solar wind is threatening to tear the yacht apart, and the Mestral’s missing support vessel turns up as the kidnappers’ get-away ship.

Enterprise disables the support vessel and successfully beams everyone off the yacht as it is breaking up. Troi senses some lifeform joyously thinking “Alive again!”, and the Enterprise shields the other yachts as an energy lifeform, looking rather like a flying dragon, emerges from the star and flies off towards a globular cluster. It is speculated that Enterprise’s warp engines and Troi’s empathic powers had awoken it. The Mestral says she will give up her hobby and concentrate on governing her world, Eldalis. [Timeline: Stardate 47962.6]

Malibu comics

Deep Space Nine #1, August 1993

Stowaway, by Mike W. Barr

Jake and Nog are exploring the station, as usual but, as they start to open one door, some gunk oozes through, so they beat a hasty retreat. The exploratory vessel, Armstrong, arrives and leaves a case of artifacts from the Gamma Quadrant for safe keeping on the station. As O’Brien is going to store the case in a safe location, he encounters the gunk and has to get emergency transport to the infirmary. It is determined that the gunk is a form of mold that absorbs oxygen and gives off a toxic gas, so the race is on to get rid of it before it overwhelms life support. Phasers and fungicide prove ineffective. It is speculated that the artifacts from the Gamma Quadrant might have something to do with triggering it, but Captain Johnson of the Armstrong and Dr. Wembley (who discovered the artifacts) adamantly refuse to let them be scanned. Jake wants to admit that 183

they let it loose, but Nog is against it. Then a fleet of Cardassian ships led by Gul Dukat arrive, saying the mold is the result of one of their old experiments and if they are not allowed aboard DS9 to get rid of it, then all aboard DS9 will die. [Timeline: Stardate 46257.8]

Deep Space Nine #2, September 1993

Stowaway, Part II, by Mike W. Barr

Gul Dukat basically offers Sisko the choice of handing over DS9 to him and let him clean up the mold, or of having the station overrun by it and have everyone die of suffocation. Sisko doesn’t believe they have any solution and tells Dukat that they’ll take care of it. Sisko still believes that the Gamma Quadrant artifact that Dr. Wembley had discovered had something to do with it, and Captain Johnson is being suspiciously evasive, so Dax and Odo are sent over to the USS

Armstrong to investigate. There they find that the artifact could have nothing to do with the mold, and that the evasiveness had simply been to cover up the fact that the Armstrong crew had actually discovered the artifact using the notes of Dr. Wembley who had died almost as soon as the ship arrived in the Gamma Quadrant. O’Brien’s efforts to clear the station of the gas from the mold only speeds the mold’s growth. Then it is discovered that the mold had been activated by an oxygen-rich mixture from chemicals spilled on Jake and Nog’s boots, and the gas waste product of the mold can be used to kill off the mold. When Gul Dukat’s ships arrive back at DS9, Dukat is very disappointed to find that everything is under control. [Timeline: Stardate 46258.2]

Deep Space Nine #3, October 1993

Old Wounds, by Mike W. Barr

Gul Trelar had been born on Bajor and, before he died, he wanted to visit the place he was born.

The Bajorans refused to let him visit the planet, but Starfleet allows him to visit his old command, DS9, and Sisko gets Quark to reserve a holosuite for him. Trelar arrives with his wife, son (Orm) and daughter (Rana), and he is delighted with the holosuite program that depicts the house he was brought up in and features his late mother. Trelar’s wife turned out to be a Bajoran named Shiri Rond (now known as Lady Trelar), who had been one of three Bajorans rounded up as suspects in a particular terrorist incident. Trelar had killed one of them at random, Darb Chalmon, and the third suspect had been Kira Nerys. Darb had been effectively forced into marrying Trelar, but had come to have affection for him, which did not endear her to Nerys. That night, after collapsing and having to be treated by Bashir, Trelar planned to sleep alone in the holosuite in the recreation of his old house but, in the morning, he is found dead from three stab wounds in his chest. The murder weapon provides no clues and Odo is faced with many potential suspects among the people on DS9 and even among Trelar’s family. Ultimately, Odo narrows it down to Orm, who had been Trelar’s science officer although he had wanted to go into medicine.

Jadzia discovers that he had reprogrammed the holosuite so that when Trelar asks his mother for a lullaby, she would stab him in the chest with a dagger.

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Deep Space Nine #4, November 1993

Emancipation, Part I, by Mike W. Barr

Dax and Bashir are on a mission studying the plant life of the Gamma Quadrant when a large craft decloaks before then and tractor-beams them aboard (although the cloaking wasn’t perfect, and the runabout could have broken away from the tractor beam had they wanted to). They find the ship crewed by aliens in need of medical treatment and asylum, so Jadzia and Bashir lead them to DS9. There, it is soon realized that the aliens were slaves showing signs of mistreatment, and Sisko suspects them of lying when no planet is located at the coordinates given as the aliens’

original home planet, but when they apply the coordinates to the Federation side of wormhole, a class-M planet is found there. Then a ship of the Chiarans arrives, and the captain, Rogon, demands the return of their property (the slaves), saying that the Federation’s Prime Directive prevents Sisko from interfering with their society. The leader of the escaped slaves, Mardak, is surprised to see his mother with Rogon, and she says the runaways should return. The runaways are split between freedom and wanting to return to what they knew. One of the slaves sets off an explosion that kills some of the others, and Mardak thinks they will lose their desire to return if they are unable to do so, so he hijacks a runabout and flies it into the wormhole, intending to destroy it.

Deep Space Nine #5, December 1993

Emancipation, Part II, by Mike W. Barr

The efforts of Mardak and Nomok are thwarted by Dax and O’Brien and the two are taken into custody, although Captain Rogon of the Emancipator pardons them, saying he also wants to bring peace to their planet. Even after an attempted assassination of Rogon by the escaped slaves, which also takes the life of Mardak’s mother, Rogon still grants them their freedom.

Undercaptain Caldor is totally against Rogon’s actions and leads a mutiny, taking over Rogon’s ship and firing on the station, even turning the station’s shields against it. But O’Brien comes up with a risky way of causing a feedback to the Emancipator, which disables the mutineers and let them be taken into captivity. Rogon and the Emancipator return to Chiara and the escaped slaves head for the planet Dax had discovered, and which might have been their ancestral home.

Deep Space Nine #6, January 1994

Field Trip, by Mike W. Barr

Sisko and Dax ferry Keiko and the kids from her school (including Jake and Nog) aboard a runabout for a field trip on a Gamma Quadrant planet. When they take off to return home, Dax notices that there is something wrong with the engines, and then the panels in front of her and Sisko erupt in sparks, rendering the two of them unconscious. Guidance and telemetry are rendered inoperable and life support is failing, and they are not sure exactly where the wormhole is. Jake becomes aware of the problem, but the other kids are not informed. Nog is larking about, but one thing he says inspires Jake to use Dax’s tricorder to search for the neutrinos emitted by 185

the wormhole, which enables Keiko to use the runabout’s remaining energy to set it headed in that direction and, thankfully, home.

Pickpocket, by John Vornholt

Odo was away at a security conference and the rest of the security team are protecting a Cardassian delegation when a pickpocket starts operating on the promenade. Bashir thinks that he can track him down with Quark’s assistance. Quark gets some of his customers who owe him to explore the promenade wearing some costume jewelry that Bashir has coated with molecular phosphor that can be tracked with his medical tricorder. That leads to a woman pushing a baby in a baby carriage equipped with a short-range transporter that the woman is operating to steal valuables. Bashir and Quark detain her, and they look like heroes when the woman turns out to be a wanted renegade and the baby had been kidnapped shortly before. Odo vows to never leave the station again.

Program 359, by Colin Clayton & Chris Dows

Bashir and Dax observe Sisko emerging from a holodeck looking quite content, although just recently his attitude has been concerning Dax and she was considering preparing an official report on him. They notice that he had inadvertently left the holoprogram active, so they go in and observe what had just been happening. What they observe is the scene at Wolf 359, but with Sisko in command and trying various methods of punching a hole through the Borg’s defenses, to no avail. Sisko comes back and finds them, and he demands an explanation of them for spying on his activities, and Dax explains their concerns about him. He explains that he now knows that there was no way to change the outcome of Wolf 359 and Jennifer would still have died, no matter what had been done. He now felt at peace with the situation.

Deep Space Nine #7, February 1994

Working Vacation, by Len Strazewski

Kira is getting too emotional in discussions involving the Cardassians and a mining contract, so Sisko orders her to take a vacation on Zaria 5 in the Gamma Quadrant which is trying to build up commercial development on its “pleasure planet”. At Zaria 5, Kira finds that there is the administrative class and the server class, and a contract states that their roles are established each year in a ritual battle or “negotiation” between a representative of each class, and this big event is about to come up. The fight is always one-sided because the servers are trained to defer to others, not to fight. Kira finds that her “personal servant” is going to be the one “negotiating” this year for the servers, but her efforts to teach him how to fight prove futile. So, on the day of the event, she ties him up and gets in the body-encasing battle suit and takes his place. Consequently, the servers win, which leaves them rejoicing, and in a position to negotiate a new and fairer contract.

Returning to DS9, she finds that the talks regarding the mining rights are on hold indefinitely while “certain conditions” are resolved, and Starfleet is patrolling the region to ensure nobody takes advantage of the situation. That satisfies Kira and she’s ready for another vacation.

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Deep Space Nine #8, May 1994

Requiem, by Mark A. Altman

Reactor 1 is put out of action when part of it explodes, and the station is relying on the backup Reactor 2. Knowing that if that one goes, the station will be rendered unusable and that any repair of Reactor 1 will take months at least, Sisko gets O’Brien to look into getting one of the four reactors, that are in an area dangerously contaminated by sodium, working again. Sisko also calls on the assistance of Dulath, who had been the Cardassian chief engineer on the station during the occupation, although O’Brien is very resistant of accepting help from him. One of the first things they discover is an active portable generator that is working in an access tunnel near the contaminated reactors, and also a recording device that is given to Kira to investigate. She discovers that it is the diary of the daughter of Malor Bet, who was leader of the Bajoran resistance on Terok Nor with the codename Trika. Dulath identifies the girl as Malor Ti, and Kira has the computer construct a holodeck program from the girl’s journal. [Timeline: Two years after Stardate 45123.8, which was when Malor Bet had been captured and then killed]

Deep Space Nine #9, June 1994

Requiem II, by Mark A. Altman

O’Brien is working with the Cardassian engineer Dulath, trying to get Reactor 5 operational before the backup generator fails. When the backup does fail, it becomes extra urgent, but then O’Brien finds a Cardassian bomb in a section of the reactor that Dulath had been working on.

Sisko is reluctant to let Dulath continue working on the reactor but relents after O’Brien says he can’t do the job in time without him. Meanwhile, Kira has come to the conclusion that the missing girl, Malor Ti, could still be alive, hiding possibly in the electrical conduits. Odo initiates a search, and after power is successfully restored to the station, the girl’s body is found along with a recording of her final diary entries. She had been the one to plant the bomb, thinking that the Cardassians had taken over the station and wanting revenge for her parents’

reported deaths. She had died of the radiation affecting the area. Dulath returns to his position at the dilithium mining platform on Elyssia 3 but leaves O’Brien his phase inverter, saying he might find it useful working on the reactors. [Timeline: Stardate 47295.3]

Hearts and Minds Prelude, by Mark A. Altman

The Klingon ship K’Tang, with Captain Krek, leaves DS9 after visiting the planet Keltata and heads to explore the region known as the Abyss. After beaming down an expedition team at Keltara they find themselves under attack from a Cardassian ship commanded by Gul Marel and, when they find that the ship has been sabotaged, Krek orders all shields dropped so that when they are destroyed the explosion will take the Cardassian ship with them. [Timeline: Stardate 47295.4]

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Deep Space Nine, Hearts and Minds #1, June 1994

Part 1 of 4, For the Glory of the Empire, by Mark A. Altman

DS9 suddenly finds itself surrounded by Klingon warships, and Captain Kol informs Sisko that they are there to protect the station because the Klingons have declared war on the Cardassians after a Klingon ship, the K’Tang, had apparently been destroyed by Cardassians. Admiral Kernwill informs Sisko that a Cardassian delegation will be arriving shortly at the station and tells him to send a runabout to bring a Betazoid negotiator, Tal Berel, to the station. Sisko sends Jadzia Dax and Dr. Bashir to the Gamma Quadrant to try to ascertain if the Cardassians are responsible for the attack on the K’Tang and, if so, why, and Kol has his officer, Koloth, join them. The Klingon and Cardassian delegations gather in the conference room, and Tal Berel starts to address them over a comm link from his shuttle, but suddenly he lets out an exclamation and the shuttle explodes.

Deep Space Nine, Hearts and Minds #2, July 1994

Part 2 of 4, On the Edge of Armageddon, by Mark A. Altman

After the K’Tang had been destroyed in the Gamma Quadrant and Tal Berel’s runabout had been blown up on its way to DS9, the peace talks between the Klingons (with Captain Kol heading the negotiating team) and Cardassians (led by Marok) appears on the verge of breaking up. Admiral Kernwill tells Sisko to take over as mediator, which is not a job he wanted. O’Brien hasn’t been able to find any evidence in the wreckage of Berel’s vessel to determine who carried out the deed, but notes that the explosion occurred in sight of DS9. In the Gamma Quadrant, Bashir, Dax and Toloth visit the planet Keltata which had been visited by the K’Tang, and then they go to Caldonia 3 where they learn that the ship was supposedly heading next to “The Abyss”, a region that no ship is known to have returned from. Meanwhile, Maura attempts to buy Quark’s bar off him. [Timeline: Stardate 47295.9]

Deep Space Nine, Hearts and Minds #3, August 1994

Part 3 of 4: Into the Abyss, by Mark A. Altman

Dukat is given permission by Central Command to prepare a Cardassian fleet to attack the Klingons and take back DS9 and Bajor, and while Marok isn’t happy about it, he has no option but to play along. Sisko orders the Klingons and Cardassians to remove their ships from the vicinity of the station, and they comply technically, but it doesn’t mean they go beyond easy reach of the station. Quark demands that Odo protects him from Maura, but Odo already has suspicions about her, and suggests that Quark goes through with the sale. That allows Odo to be onboard Maura’s ship, the Arvas, when her associate (Delgar) departs for the Gamma Quadrant in it. Morn had already ascertained that the cargo the ship is carrying is not standard EPS power grids but Romulan disruptors. Dax, Bashir and Toloth also discover the Romulan involvement when they investigate the planet Abyss and get taken captive by them. [Timeline: Stardate 47295.9]

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Deep Space Nine, Hearts and Minds #4, September 1994

Part 4 of 4: Masters of War, by Mark Altman

Dax, Bashir, and the Klingon, Koleth, are being held at a secret Romulan base in an area known as the Abyss in the Gamma Quadrant. Commander T’Alar tells Dax that the Romulans had destroyed the K’Tang, and that Maura on DS9 had helped fake it to look as if the Cardassians had destroyed the ship. Odo had been on Maura’s runabout and helped free Dax and Bashir, and Bashir frees Koleth as Odo and Dax prepare the runabout for a swift exit. Meanwhile, on DS9

the Klingons are making threats about the Cardassians, and Sisko orders all the station’s runabouts to position themselves between the Klingons and the Cardassians, but then more Klingon ships arrive. Then Dax’s runabout comes through the wormhole, chased by a Romulan warbird. Koleth broadcasts to the Klingons telling them what actually happened to the K’Tang, and the Klingons turn their weapons on the Romulan ship and destroy it. Kira had great delight in stunning Maura as she was trying to escape from DS9.

Deep Space Nine #10, June 1994

Descendants, by Dan Mishkin

The wormhole opens but no ship comes through, instead two humanoids appear, and Sisko makes an airlock available to them. They claim to be suffering from some form of amnesia and cannot say who they are, but the Bajorans on the station claim they must be Prophets, having come from the wormhole, and the couple play up to that role. Odo has his doubts about them, especially after seeing they don’t know how to use their hands normally, and he keeps them under observation as they travel around the station. At one point, he and Bashir discover something like a glowing crystal which Bashir’s tricorder identifies as a lifeform. Odo has it surrounded by a forcefield and it explosively erupts to reveal a young creature like a flying dragon. Other explosions occur around the station giving rise to similar creatures. Odo then has a phaser turned on the two aliens and they change into adult “dragons”. They had seen DS9 as a suitable place to give birth to their young and saw the crew as ideal food. Odo has O’Brien beam them out into space where the station could turn its phasers on them and drive them back through the wormhole.

Deep Space Nine #11, July 1994

A Short Fuse, by Charles Marshall

Jake and Nog discover that a bomb has been planted by some Bajorans on the station and, despite Sisko instructing them to go to their quarters – but not in explicit enough terminology -

they set out to find it. They do indeed locate something that matches the description of the bomb that Odo had given, and they take it to Jadzia in Ops, and she beams it off the station. Sisko then calls a halt to the search, but Jake and Nog are surprised when Odo is declared the hero of the 189

day for locating the bomb in a vent shaft over Quarks. When the object that the boys had found is brought up on the screen, O’Brien identifies it as the new sub-space field analyzer he had just got, and Jake and Nog are now trying to find a hiding place from an irate Chief Engineer.

Deep Space Nine #12, July 1994

Baby on Board, by Charles Marshall

Quark finds an abandoned baby in his casino when it closes for the night, and after getting tired out looking after it, he hands it off to Odo who ends up on the verge of collapse before handing it over to Sisko. A Federation inspector has arrived to check out the station, so Sisko hands off the baby to Jadzia, who passes her on to Kira, then to O’Brien who leaves it for Keiko. Keiko finds it and takes to Ops, and the inspector finally understands why the command crew are so off their game, and as a grandfather of seven he finds the child delightful. Then Bashir brings in the Bajoran mother who had accidentally abandoned the child when she fell ill with Thorillian fever and was unconscious for 24 hours.

Deep Space Nine #13, August 1994

Lapse, by Charles Marshall

A security exercise is to be run on DS9 where the crew has to locate a shapeshifter, namely Odo, but first Sisko insists that everyone (including Odo) be vaccinated against Bajoran flu that is doing the rounds. However, soon after the exercise starts, Odo begins to distrust everyone, become paranoid that they are all plotting against him. Attempts to reason with him or to trap him fail, but every exertion makes Odo more tired, and Bashir finally locates him in his liquid form. When he revives from his resting state, Odo is back to his old self, but this time he suggests that Bashir scan his anatomy and carry out any necessary tests (which he had not allowed before), so that Bashir will have the necessary information in future to assess if there might be side effects to treatments. He just insists that there are no shots.

Deep Space Nine #14, September 1994

Dax’s Comet, Part I, by Jerry Bingham

Every 2,000 years in Bajor’s past there appears to have been some catastrophe that has caused widespread destruction followed by a renewal on the planet. As the end of the current cycle is approaching it is causing panic among Bajorans on the planet and on the station, and it appears that trouble is being deliberately stirred up on DS9. One group of Bajorans live underground and are known as “they who wait” or as the Guardians, and they are religious zealots who rejoice as they see it as their time to emerge and be the ones to repopulate Bajor. Dax discovers the truth behind the story, namely a comet on a 2,000-year orbit that is on a collision course with the wormhole, and plans are discussed with Starfleet to redirect or destroy the comet. The Guardians intercept the message and send emissaries to DS9 demanding that they not interfere with the 190

comet that they call the Messenger. They also cause explosions on the station. [Timeline: Stardate 48273.5]

Deep Space Nine #15, October 1994

Dax’s Comet, Part II, by Jerry Bingham

The station is under attack by religious zealots who don’t want the Federation interfering with the comet (that they call Messenger) that is headed for the wormhole and could trigger mass destruction and death. With a lot of help from Odo, some measure of control is restored and three runabouts, including one piloted reluctantly by Bashir with Odo and Kira aboard, attempt to place themselves in position to deflect the comet. That works, and they think that they have got it back on its original course, but Dax is still concerned by the slight possibility that it might impact another planet sometime in the future. For his efforts, Bashir ends up a patient in his own sickbay. The religious zealots (who call themselves the Guardians) are disavowed by Bajor and taken into custody. [Timeline: Stardate 48278.3]

Deep Space Nine #16, November 1994

Shanghaied, by John Vornholt

A Jerakan freighter, the Sarpak, docks at DS9 and when Quark asks the Jerakan captain if there is anything he needs, he is told that they need a couple of crewmen and offers a bribe. Quarks sends over two Bajoran youths who had been looking for work at his bar, and the ship leaves without telling the Bajorans that it is a two-year trip in the Gamma quadrant. The Jerakans are known for shanghaiing crew. When the Bajoran’s parents come looking for them and another Jerakan ship, the Mekas, arrives, Odo discovers Quark’s involvement and gets his assistance in trapping the Jerakans. However, Quark decides to warn the Jerakans because he thinks that helping Odo will ruin his reputation, but that leads to Quark and Rom being shanghaied. When they are underway, Quark discovers that Rom is actually Odo in disguise (Odo hadn’t trusted Quark to do what he said). That leads to Odo taking over the Mekas and getting the Sarpak to return to DS9 with them. At DS9, the two Bajorans say they were treated well aboard the ship and were enjoying the adventure, and Kira says there could be a number of Bajoran youths willing to work for the Jerakans but it would have to be with a proper contract. Quark is not happy when he discovers that Rom has taken over his casino during his absence.

Deep Space Nine #17, December 1994

Images, by Laurie S. Sutton

Sueriel was half Bajoran, half Cardassian and had been taken from her mother and brought up on Cardassia where she had secretly worked as a Bajoran Special Security Forces operative. Now she was on DS9 on her way home to Bajor, but finds she gets a very unwelcoming greeting from Bajorans because of her Cardassian looks. She accepts the offer from Kira and Odo of secure quarters, but a member of the Circle (who believe in “Bajor for the Bajorans”) gets to her, and 191

she is seriously injured and ends up in sickbay. She tells Bashir that she hates her face. He is unable to make her look like a Bajoran because of her facial ridges but does alter her features so that she appears to be a Janduurian, and Sisko signs the official “death certificate” for Sueriel. As a Janduurian, she is able to move around freely and be treated well by the Bajorans, and she identifies to Odo the person that attacked her. She also identifies Magret, a Bajoran who had been a double agent working for the Cardassians and who had been manipulating the Circle members.

Deep Space Nine #18, January 1995

Hearts of Old, by Laurie S. Sutton

Gwyn (an ex-boyfriend of Jadzia Dax who she might have married except for his aversion to symbiosis) and a Klingon female named Tev arrive on the station and come under suspicion by Odo as a result of a number of their action. Dax is a bit of an emotional wreck after meeting her lost love, and that leads to her being in the vicinity when a Bharron criminal named Korin gets into a phaser fight with Gwyn and Tev, and Korin grabs Dax as a shield. Odo is able to free Dax, but Korin escapes, followed by Gwyn and Tev. Gwyn and Tev corner Korin and then Odo’s security team surrounds the three and is planning to take them all into custody. But then Sisko and Dax arrive, and Sisko informs him that Korin is wanted for a series of crimes and Gwyn and Tev are bounty hunters paid to bring him into custody, and they have the papers to prove it.

War Games, by Mark A. Altman

A team from the Grissom discovers Lieutenant Commander Kelloway locked in a storage cabinet on a planet in the Cardassian demilitarized zone. He claims to have been kidnapped on Risa and brought there to help restore some ships to flightworthy condition. In fact, he was a Marquis sympathizer who planned to kill Gul Evek (who was with Admiral Nechayev trying to trace the location of Chakotay). Kelloway’s plans are thwarted because his story about Risa had been checked out and found to be false. Then Evek hears from his men that Chakotay’s ship had been located, and he goes after him. Nechayev contacts Captain Janeway. [This story was a prelude to the Voyager television series]

Deep Space Nine #19, February 1995

Mission of Mercy, by Dan Mishkin

A truce in the long-running war between the Uradi and the Vantons in the Gamma Quadrant has been negotiated and Sisko and Bashir head there to provide assistance, however, as they approach, they are attacked and both of them are rendered unconscious. Bashir recovers consciousness to find that two aliens (one who describes himself as a doctor) are trying to treat Sisko, who is the most seriously injured. Bashir is suffering from concussion and lapses in and out of consciousness, but he is able to guide the aliens in human anatomy, allowing them to help Sisko. While he is unconscious, Bashir is reliving the incident that made him determined to understand as much about alien physiology as he could. After witnessing the two aliens execute 192

evasive maneuvers against a ship of the resistance faction, the holdouts against the peace treaty, Bashir asks Sisko if he will teach him about carrying out evasive maneuvers.

Deep Space Nine #20, March 1995

Last Remains, by Dan Mishkin

Electromagnetic pulses from inside the wormhole start to cause disruptions on DS9 and on Bajor. A probe shows that the cause is a singularity housed in the remains of a starship. The speculation is that it had been an early Romulan prototype that flew into the wormholes by accident and tried to reverse course, which got it destroyed. Then the recent traffic through the wormhole had affected the shielding to the singularity, leading to the recent disruptive pulses.

O’Brien and Dax take the Defiant to try to extract the wreckage from the wormhole, but with it inside the wormhole and the Defiant outside, they are working in the dark. Then Dax suggests using a pulsed phaser blast from the station to effectively turn the wormhole inside-out, which would leave it as it is but with the singularity and the ship’s remains outside. That works, and the Defiant is able to collapse the singularity.

Deep Space Nine #21, April 1995

Fadeout!, by Dan Mishkin

The crew of DS9 are trying to apprehend the crew of a Tzuweri ship that had transported illegal hallucinogenic devices to the station. Odo and his team are trying to gain access to the ship when the ship seems to suddenly vanish, and Odo loses contact with those in Ops. Strange portals to a parallel space also start appearing within the station and those who get caught in them start to see monsters. O’Brien realizes that the Tzuweri had tried to transport their whole ship away but had failed to complete the transport. The effects of the hallucinogenic devices were causing the hallucinations, but the Tzuweri (and Odo) were immune to them. O’Brien works out how to restore the Tzuweri ship, but first they need to recover all of the people from the station that had got caught in the portals. Odo, Sisko and a team (utilizing a technique devised by Bashir) enter the portal and have to drive back the Tzuweri who were planning to use the station transporters to restore their ship. Sisko’s efforts are successful, O’Brien restores the Tzuweri ship and holds it with a tractor beam, and the Tzuweri are taken into custody.

Deep Space Nine #22, May 1995

Mine!, by Dan Mishkin

The Sa’Arovians from the Gamma Quadrant have a planet-destroying weapon that they had demonstrated by destroying the moon of a neighboring planet, and that power kept the Sa’Arovians secure. But the two Sa’Arovians manning the ship housing the Shatterer of Worlds had qualms about possibly having to use it, and they absconded with it. The Grand Nagus had met up with them and brought them to DS9 to negotiate a deal to buy the weapon, and Sisko and Quark swap positions to make it look like a Ferengi station. Quark and the Grand Nagus start 193

negotiating when another Sa’Arovian ship arrives, demanding the return of the ship with the weapon, or they’ll destroy all the planets in the Bajor system. Quark says “No deal” because he’s worked out that they weren’t bright enough to develop such a weapon, but they had taken advantage of the situation when the moon blew itself up somehow. The Sa’Arovians agree to pardon the two who stole the ship that supposedly had the weapon and Quark agrees that the Federation will keep their secret.

Deep Space Nine #23, May 1995

Secret of the Lost Orb, Part I: The Search, by Dan Mishkin

Kira discovers that Vedek Solon, who had been pumping her for information about a “lost orb”, is actually a human named Crockett. It seems that an orb arrives once every 100 years, but one time nothing arrived. Sisko can find no reason to hold him, and he makes his way to a religious order on Bajor that had been instrumental in forming the Resistance against the Cardassians.

They also had an orb that they consulted, and Crockett is allowed to see it, but he then uses a sonic effect to disable the monks, steals the orb, and escapes through the wormhole. O’Brien and Dax use a runabout to chase him, but when they emerge in the Gamma quadrant they immediately come under fire from warships and have to retreat back to DS9. Kai Winn informs Sisko that the “lost orb” had been discovered centuries ago by a race in the Gamma Quadrant and they had used it to become warriors governed by their Warlords. Kira vows to get the stolen orb back.

Deep Space Nine #24, June 1995

Secret of the Lost Orb, Part II: Acceptable Losses, by Dan Mishkin

An orb has been stolen and taken to the planet Ares in the Gamma Quadrant. The Aresians have another orb of their own, which they say has directed them to become warriors. The Kai has directed Kira to recover the lost orb without any outside help, which Sisko is against, but a plan is worked out. Using an old freighter acquired by Quark, Kira is able to beam down onto Ares before their forces destroy her freighter. There, she hears that the Aresian warlords are planning to recover all the other orbs, then she gets “rescued” by Aresian dissidents who are just as bloodthirsty as the warlords. She is saved from the dissidents by Crockett (who had stolen the Bajoran orb) and beamed aboard his ship. When Kira discovers that the orb is still on his ship, she calls on Dax aboard the cloaked Defiant, and Kira, Crockett, and the orb are taken aboard and head back to DS9. Crockett informs Kira that the Aresian warlords are planning on invading Bajor.

Deep Space Nine #25, July 1995

Secret of the Lost Orb, Part III: Gods of War, by Dan Mishkin

Accompanied by Gul Param’s ship, the Defiant goes through the wormhole to take the battle to the Aresians, which seems to be going in favor of the Federation and Cardassians. Gul Dukat is 194

aboard the Defiant, as is Crockett (acting as an adviser on Aresian actions), but then Param’s ship loses its shields and is destroyed. When Dukat finds that Crockett had sold the secret of how the bring down Cardassian shields to Ares, Dukat immediately executes him. Then one of the three Aresian ships is destroyed, one crippled, and the other retreating, but the Defiant makes a strategic withdrawal to DS9 where Sisko is pleased to see that the Cardassians have sent reinforcements. Kira is questioning her beliefs after what she encountered on Ares and she goes through an orb experience where she encounters Kai Opaka. Another triad of Aresian ships arrive, including a more powerful vessel, and Kira wants to deliver a message to them. They are not accepting communications, but Kira suggests beaming aboard when the Aresians cycle their shields to use weapons. That allows Kira, the current Kai, and Sisko to beam aboard the main Aresian vessel where Kira presents their commander with the orb that Crockett stole, saying that the Prophets (as she knows them) have a right to communicate with whoever they want. Dukat doesn’t like it, but the Aresian commander finally accepts the offer and leaves. Sisko and Kira see it as a good start that the Federation and Cardassians had been working together, but Dukat sees it as just both sides working to their own advantage.

Deep Space Nine #26, July 1995

Genesis Denied, Part I, by Chris Dows & Colin Clayton

A Cardassian ship is headed at extreme warp speed toward the station but explodes before it gets there. An escape pod does dock safely, carrying Gul Akha, soon to be Grand Gul Akha, and a few of his men. Then, a massive pumpkin-shaped ship arrives and Akha claims that that ship had attacked them while in Cardassian space and demands that the ship be destroyed. Sisko has Akha and his men wait in his office, but when Akha demands they take action against the aliens, Sisko has him and his men escorted to the brig. Two other Cardassian vessels arrive, being Akha’s honor guard, but they seem to be unwilling to do anything without direct orders from Akha. The aliens on the large ship, who call themselves the Varahat while Akha calls them Face Peelers, say they live on the other side of Cardassian space, but admit that there is animosity between them and the Cardassians. They wear a living protective suit (Tok Govor), but the suit of their Controller is dying and the Controller cannot survive without it. They want Doctor Bashir to cure it, and Sisko agrees to let him try. Unfortunately, Akha and his men overpower the security team taking them to the brig, take their weapons and confront Sisko, Bashir, Jake, and the Varahat that had beamed over.

Mudd’s Pets, Part I, by Randy & Jean-Marc Lofficier

Horace Tiberius Mudd, grandson of Harcourt Fenton Mudd, arrives on DS9 and does a deal with Quark for two pairs of insatiable creatures called Meeps that he brought from the planet Rakhar V in the Gamma Quadrant, except that one pair had eaten their way out of their container through solid duranium and escaped into the station. At first, O’Brien thinks that trapping them will be easy, but when he finds that they’ve eaten through five main power cables, he changes his mind. Dax finds records that say that the Meeps were bread by one of two warring groups on the planet 5,000 years ago, but they had ended up destroying both sides. Bashir had been 195

studying the other pair and they had turned into voracious monsters that he was having problems keeping contained by forcefields.

Deep Space Nine #27, August 1995

Genesis Denied, Part II, by Chris Dows & Colin Clayton

The Varahat’s Controller and Gul Akha are both seriously injured and rendered unconscious in a fight, and they end up in the infirmary after Sisko orders both sides not to bring their war to his station. Akha has damage that Bashir hopes can be cured by a transplant from Garak, but when the damage proves to be too severe for that to work, Bashir does further investigation. That shows that the DNA of the Cardassians and the Varahat are virtually identical, and the DNA from the Controller saves Akha, and elements from the Tok Govor saves the Controller’s life.

When the Controller is recovered, the Varahat (who had been very reluctant to allow their Controller to be treated in the same room as a Cardassian) are about to leave, the Cardassian ships power up weapons to fire on them. Akha was eager for them to do so, until Bashir says he will report how Akha was saved using Varahat DNA over an open communications channel.

Then he orders his ships to stand down, and he leaves with them to be invested as Grand Gul Akha.

Mudd’s Pets, Part II, by Randy & Jean-Marc Lofficier

Mudd is conscripted into helping clear his “pets” (the Meeps) from the station, as is Quark along with his supply of System-K pest-control robots. Unfortunately, the Meeps prove very efficient at devouring the System-Ks, and it looks as if the station will have to be evacuated. Then Dax realizes that the Meeps’ saliva acts like a short-lived universal solvent, and Bashir develops a compound that changes the molecular structure of the Meeps’ bodies so that the solvent leaves the Meeps as blobs of goo throughout the station. When the judge on Bajor finds Mudd guilty, Mudd and Quark get assigned the task of clearing the foul-smelling blobs from DS9.

Deep Space Nine #28, September 1995

Friends and Foe Alike, by Dan Mishkin

Retired Gul Engor pays a visit to DS9 and is greeted by his old enemy, Kira. Then a phaser shot hits Engor and Odo thinks it came from someone he doesn’t recognize but who is wearing a Starfleet uniform. O’Brien recognizes her as Ensign Ro, but she escapes and Odo and two of his security team, soon joined by Kira and then by O’Brien, set out after her. Meanwhile, Gul Dukat is showing his concern for Engor by surrounding DS9 with warships. It is O’Brien who traps Ro, but she claims they are both on the same side. She says she is there to stop another Marquis, Aela, starting a war between the Federation and the Cardassians by destroying DS9 while making it look as if the Cardassians did it. Between them, Ro and O’Brien track down Aela and stun her, and Ro gives O’Brien a tool to help him locate the bombs that Aela has planted. Then Ro gets beamed out to a waiting ship, and escapes. Gul Engor recovers from his injuries.

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Deep Space Nine #29, October 1995

Sole Asylum, Part 1, by Mark Paniccia

Sisko is heading for Cardassia Prime to negotiate the release of Thomas Riker, who is being held prisoner there after planning an attack on the Cardassian government. Tom Riker is not simply being imprisoned but is being experimented on because the Cardassians want to ascertain how he was created so that they can use the technique to replicate an army of ideal soldiers. However, the efforts of Sem Veress, his assistant Gell Terr, and his colleague Ker Jaana, are not producing much in the way of results, so Dr. Duran Nol, a female Cardassian genetics expert, is brought in to find Riker’s secret. She asks to be left alone with Riker and then makes a comment about not allowing this kind of weapon to fall into the hands of the Cardassian military, but her comment is overheard by Terr. [Timeline: Stardate 48979.1]

Enemies & Allies, Part 1, by Tim Russ & Mark Paniccia

In the Mirror Universe, Klingons intercept a message that Tuvok sends, and then the runabout with Tuvok and Bashir gets surrounded by decloaking Klingon Battlecruisers. The Klingons search the runabout for a chip with data about a rebel base and an arms shipment that Tuvok had mentioned in the message, but it is not discovered so they scan Tuvok and Bashir and find that it is embedded beneath the skin on Tuvok’s wrist, and First Officer Tr’Anga is gleefully brandishing his knife, ready to cut it out.

Deep Space Nine #30, November 1995

Sole Asylum, Part 2, by Mark Paniccia

Tom Riker is being held by the Cardassians and Sisko goes to petition for his release to the Federation where he will be tried for assisting the Marquis. However, the Cardassians were interested in finding out if it was true that he was a clone created through a transporter accident involving two transporter beams trying to recover the same person, and they bring in an expert, Doctor Duran Nol, to make that assessment. Nol knew that the Cardassians were really interested in finding out how a transporter could create an army of clones, and she was totally against warfare after the deaths of her father and brother in a skirmish with the Federation. Sisko’s petition had made the Cardassians think that Tom Riker was important, and they tell Sisko that they will not be letting him go. They are surprised when Sisko immediately accepts their decision. Then Nol reports that Tom could not have been created in a transporter accident because that would violate the law of conservation of matter, and she hypothesizes that he came from an alternate universe, so the Cardassians decide to send Tom back to the labor camps. Tom prefers that to the solitary confinement and constant testing that he has been subjected to.

Enemies & Allies, Part 2, by Mark Paniccia & Tim Russ

In the mirror universe, Tuvok and Bashir are held aboard a Klingon/Cardassian Alliance ship, and the Klingons find a data chip embedded in Tuvok’s arm that supposedly tells the location of a Terran resistance’s weapons cache. The Klingon science officer manages to decode it and 197

transmits the information to the other two ships. That leads to all three ships having all systems except for life support shut down and enables Tuvok and Bashir to take command. Tuvok explains that the chip contained a program that was activated when the chip was tampered with, and it took command of all the systems and shut them down. Tuvok and Bashir had already been sowing doubts among the crew about the lack of honor in the alliance with the Cardassians and Bajorans, and a large proportion of the crew rebel against their captain and stand with Tuvok and Bashir, vowing to restore honor to the Klingon Empire.

Deep Space Nine #31, December 1995

Remembrance, by Leonard Kirk

Jadzia Dax travels to Kronos for a ceremony dedicating monuments to the memory of Kang and Koloth, and she meets up with Kor who ends up in the infirmary after drinking poisoned blood wine meant for Dax. Once Kor recovers, they realize it must have been the work of Chernoth who was seeking revenge for Kor and Dax being involved in her grandfather’s death. Chernoth ends up working with Toral to implement his plan to set off a bomb at the ceremony and kill a lot of the participants. However, Kor spots a “guard” in an ill-fitting uniform and rightly guesses that he must be one of the conspirators, which leads to Kor and Dax discovering the bomb.

Chernoth tries to intervene but dies from a blast from Kor’s disrupter. Toral is far from happy when he sees the ceremony completed by Kor and Dax. [Timeline: Before the TV episode “The Way of the Warrior”]

Rules of Behavior, by Jason Levine

Jadzia is on Starbase Montgomery for a conference on bi-linear wave variance of tetryon particles and is planning to give a presentation on her research, but an explosion occurs and she is reintroduced to Gwyn and his Klingon sidekick Tev. Gwyn explains that an extreme religious cult, the T’Dria, from the non-Federation world T’Waht wants to liberate (i.e., kill) all joined Trill, and Jadzia is their current target. Gwyn keeps Jadzia in seclusion for a couple days while Tev searches for the T’Dria. That search fails and Tev asks for ideas and Jadzia has one. At the conference, she is introduced on stage and begins to give her presentation and the T’Dria fire their phasers at her. But the beams pass through her harmlessly. It was a holographic image of her on stage, but the T’Dria are revealed and arrested. One escapes but is captured by Gwyn and Jadzia. Gwyn wants to kill him, but Jadzia won’t let him, pointing out that T’Waht now has provisional membership of the Federation and won’t let the T’Dria off lightly. [Timeline: Before the TV episode “The Way of the Warrior”]

Deep Space Nine #32, December 1995

Turn of the Tide, by Chris Dows & Colin Clayton

Gul Shyak has been working with Grand Gul Ekhart to get revenge on the Bajorans for the death of his brother, Tomorok, in a breakout from a Bajoran prison. They plan to use a converted asteroid to bomb Deep Space Nine and destroy the wormhole. The asteroid would then release 198

mutagenic compounds that would result in the death of everyone on Bajor. DS9 was hosting a delegation from the Federation that was discussing Dominion activity on the other side of the wormhole, although that activity was actually coordinated by the Ekhart - Shyak conspiracy. To add to Shyak’s pleasure, it is decided to stage a supposed accident to a ship carrying Kira Nerys and Dukat, but Kira and Dukat are able to use an escape pod and crashland on the planetoid (Seyom 6) that the asteroid is being launched from. Unfortunately, they get captured and are tied up and placed aboard the asteroid before it is launched. Kira frees herself and then Dukat, and they set off a timer on the protomatter explosives to cause the asteroid to explode in space, harmless to anyone but themselves. Miles O’Brien had noticed inconsistencies between what the Cardassians had reported happened to Kira and Dukat’s ship and what they are seeing of the remains, so he and Odo make an unauthorized trip to check it out. They observe the launch of the asteroid, and their sensors show that Kira and Dukat are aboard, and they beam them off just before the countdown reaches zero. Kira and Dukat are not exactly friends after that, but they may have a grudging respect for each other. Neither has any respect for Ekhart and Shyak, and Dukat says he’ll make sure neither of them cause problems for anyone in future.

Deep Space Nine – The Marquis: Soldier of Peace #1 of 3, February 1995

Vacation’s Over, by Mark Altman

Bashir was instructed by Sisko to take a vacation and headed for Risa. Aboard the Risa Express, by forcing his attentions on a woman, Tessa Blake, he gets himself kidnapped to serve as doctor for a Marquis team that believes it knows the location of where the crews of the U.S.S. Voyager and Chakotay’s Marquis ship (both of which went missing not long before) are being held. Using subterfuge, the team get beamed to the prison camp, but they find it was a trap and the missing crews are not there. Gul Dulcet tells them they can call the prison camp ‘home’. [Timeline: Stardate 48573.3]

Memoirs of an Invisible Ferengi, by Chris Dows & Colin Clayton

A Romulan science vessel docks at DS9 and, while members of the crew use one of Quark’s holosuites, they leave a box in his safekeeping. Naturally, Quark cannot resist checking on what is in the box, and when he opens it, he finds that it makes him invisible. That seemed to be the ideal opportunity to check up on what is happening in Ops, to find out what Odo’s safe combination is, and to spy on Jadzia Dax. However, he finds that being invisible also comes with disadvantages and he ends up with a few impacts and other injuries because people don’t see him there. He decides to return to his casino, but then finds he can’t turn the invisibility cloak off. But the Romulans are happy to do that for him and they thank him for testing the prototype, saying that it seems to give off radiation that could be harmful for a Romulan but would only give Quark’s more primitive anatomy extreme sickness and diarrhea for a few weeks.

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Deep Space Nine – The Marquis: Soldier of Peace #2 of 3, March 1995

Rats in a Maze, by Mark Altman

Bashir (who is now Worker 241) is taken to a prison camp run by Gul Dulcet, and his initial attempts at using his position as a doctor in Starfleet to get to see the camp commander simply results in getting punished by the guards. But his mention of having a friend in the Obsidian Order does get the attention of one guard who offers to help (hoping to get some reward). He gets a message through to Garak who then contacts Sisko. Sisko and Garak use a Cardassian shuttle that Quark got them access to, and they manage to get to the prison camp in the Likara sector, but their “welcome” is from a group of armed guards led by Gul Dulcet.

A Tree Grows on Bajor, by R.A. Jones

Sisko and Jake are invited to Bajor for a ceremony around the planting of a tree. Jake thinks the whole thing is ridiculous and a waste of time, but then he finds out that the area that the tree is to be planted in is a decimated area left barren by the Cardassians, and that the tree is a young hylyptus. Just before the Battle of Wolf 359, Jake had been visiting the arboretum aboard the Saratoga with his mother, and she and Jake planted a hylyptus tree there. By the time the tree is planted on Bajor, tears are rolling down Jake’s cheeks.

Deep Space Nine – The Marquis: Soldier of Peace #3 of 3, April 1995

Victims of Deceit, by Mark Altman

Sisko and Garak get put into a cell with Anderson, the Marquis leader. Bashir had been seriously injured by the prison guards and the Cardassian doctor didn’t know what to do to save him, but Tessa, who was also a doctor, understood human anatomy and took over. She had been tricked into believing Dulcet was holding her brother (who had been on Chakotay’s ship) and took part in Dulcet’s plan to lure Garak there for Dukat, but she ends up being killed by Dulcet. Bashir escapes and frees the others, but Garak gets beamed aboard Dulcet’s ship as he makes his escape.

Then they find that Dulcet had set explosives in the mines that would kill all those left on the planet, but (against Sisko’s orders) Kira arrives with the Defiant and beams everyone off, and Sisko has the ship head for Cardassia Prime and informs Dukat of what had happened. To save face, Dukat has Garak released to Sisko, and vows to have Dulcet punished.

Deep Space Nine Celebrity Series #1, May 1995

Blood & Honor, by Mark Lenard

Bashir, Jadzia Dax and Ensign Jamie Kirk arrive back at DS9 from the Gamma Quadrant with a special artifact. Bashir is immediately called in because a death has occurred that seems to involve a malfunction of a docking ring, but a Romulan Ambassador, Jannek, was also present.

Jadzia is pleased to see Jannek, which puzzles him a bit until he makes the connection with Curzon Dax who he had known. Jannek is also interested in Ensign Kirk, which puzzles her.

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Study of the artifact shows it has enormous power and seems to be some type of lifeform. Later, somebody tries to steal the artifact, but its energy thwarts the theft. The Romulans come under suspicion, but Quark tells Odo he thinks that Bajorans might be involved. That is given confirmation when Bashir, Dax and Ensign Kirk take the artifact out in a runabout to carry out tests on it, safely away from the station, and they get hijacked by Bajorans and taken to Bajor.

Sisko, Kira, O’Brien, and Jannek track the Bajorans and see them carrying out some sort of ritual over it (thinking that anything of power that had come out of the wormhole must have some connection to the Prophets). However, the energy erupts out of the artifact (that gets called a chalice) and renders the Bajorans sect unconscious before taking the form of Ayelborne, the Organian. Before he moves out of this realm, he wanted to move the humans and Romulans forward in their development, and Ambassador Jannek and Ensign Kirk were central to that plan.

Ensign Kirk accepts the position of Jannek’s liaison offer with the Federation.

Deep Space Nine Celebrity Series #1, August 1995

The Rules of Diplomacy, by Aron Eisenberg & Mark Paniccia

Sisko gives Nog the job of accompanying a diplomat’s son on a visit to Ferenginar, but Nog isn’t too happy about it when he finds that the person is a Klingon named Gronn, son of Commander Wartok. The relationship doesn’t start out well, but Nog believes that his entry into Starfleet Academy might depend on it, so he suppresses his prejudice against Klingons. Gronn asks to see a Ferengi combat facility, but he is very unimpressed by it. Since Gronn wants to see what gets a Ferengi’s spirit up, Nog takes him to the halls of commerce. Then one of Nog’s Ferengi acquaintances, Gek, challenges Gronn to a game of chance. Against Nog’s urgings, Gronn accepts, and Nog is thinking how badly things are going as Gronn loses most of his credits then gambles the remainder and what is supposed to be a very valuable jewel against all of Gek’s winnings and his latinum plated head shield. Nog realizes that the table is rigged and manipulates events to allow him to move the magnet controllers on the table, and Gronn wins. Nog forestalls an attack by Gek on Gronn by pointing out that after Gronn’s experience at the gambling hall, many more Klingons will surely be visiting it. Later, Gronn admits to Nog that the jewel was really only something he had gained in a skirmish and shows that he had been doing his own manipulating at the magnetic dice controller as well. Nog feels he had gained a valuable lesson in diplomacy.

Deep Space Nine Annual #1, January 1995

The Looking Glass War, by Mike W. Barr

A ship comes out of the wormhole, and Sisko and his people are amazed at this because it’s the Defiant which is already docked at the station. There is one person on board, who turns out to be Curzon Dax. He and the ship were from an alternate universe where the Federation had been negotiating a peace treaty with the Dominion. However, their Odo was murdered and the talks broke up, with each side casting aspersions against the other, and the Dominion took over the station and held that universe’s Sisko, Kira and Bashir as hostage. Curzon wants Odo to return 201

with him and pretend the murder was faked while he investigated what had actually happened.

Odo is willing to do that, but Sisko forbids it. However, Curzon is able to stun Odo while he was in his resting state and escape with him aboard this universe’s Defiant. Sisko, Bashir, Jadzia Dax, and O’Brien chase them in the other universe’s Defiant and make it across to the alternate universe where they find themselves under attack by Dominion forces. When Sisko shows himself to be aboard the Defiant, that confuses the Jem’Hadar who believe he is being held hostage. That starts a chain of events that leads to the hostages being freed and gives time for Subcommander T’Rul and Jadzia to come up with a gas that renders the Jem’Hadar unconscious, freeing the station of Dominion control. Odo works out that it was the alternate universe’s Kira that had murdered his counterpart because the proposed treaty would have left Bajor exposed. As the Jem’Hadar start to attack, this universe’s Defiant and staff escape back to their DS9 through the wormhole [Timeline: Stardate 48511.1]

Deep Space Nine Ultimate Annual #1, December 1995

No Time Like The Present, by Laurie Sutton

At the time that the Cardassians were evacuating Bajor, they discover a brightly glowing object deep in a uridium mine. Not having time to remove it, they rebury it but later send a team of spies back to recover it. When one of the Cardassians gets it out, it gets triggered and starts sending powerful temporal waves out that affect people physically and gets them experiencing other timelines. Far away, the Karg recognize the waves as coming from their long-lost Temporal Disruptor that had been at the center of the power behind their long-gone empire, and they are eager to recover it. By the time they arrive at Bajor, O’Brien (who had been on Bajor with Keiko) has identified the source of the radiation as being the object that a deranged Cardassian (Tartek) was carrying, and then the Karg arrive to claim it. O’Brien had already called for assistance from Sisko, and he is able to stun the Karg and the Cardassians from the Defiant, and O’Brien disables the Disruptor. From her knowledge of multiple lifetimes, Dax explains to Sisko that the Cardassians and the Bajorans had been united against the Karg three thousand years ago, and they had sent the Disrupter a million years into the past, bringing the Karg Empire to an end. Sisko is tempted to use the Disruptor for his own purposes, but then he decides to send it on a recursive temporal loop which will mean it will even be lost to time and can never be used again.

The Nagus’s New Clothes, by John Vornholt

The Grand Nagus arrives at DS9 for a reception and tasks Quark with finding accommodation for the 3,000 attendees, and for getting his ceremonial robe pressed and ready for the parade the following morning. When Quark opens the chest where the outfit is supposed to be, all he finds is a large pile of dust. While Odo investigates what has happened, Quark takes the Nagus to Garak’s tailor shop to get him fitted for a new outfit. That done, Garak lets the others go while he completes the final alterations, then hangs up the outfit. Two of the Nagus’s rivals burst into the closed shop, but Odo had been expecting something like that, and is able to arrest the two, but the outfit and Garak’s stock is irreparably damaged. The only thing Garak can come up with for the Nagus’s parade is his holographic device used to preview clothes, and that works well until 202

the clothes start fading. Then Garak remembers that he hadn’t charged the power supply for the device, and the Nagus ends up blithely parading stark naked.

Small Victory, by Mariano Nicieza

Worf decides to assist Odo in handling some drunken Bajorans on the promenade, even though Odo said he didn’t need help. In the process, Worf frightens the cat-like pet, named Lhen-Ny, of a young girl called Kattanne. He says he’ll find Lhen-Ny and tells Kattanne to wait at Quarks.

Lhen-Ny evades Worf’s efforts to grab it, and finally disappears into a conduit, but Worf is able to capture it there and return it to Kattanne. Checking in with Odo, Worf is told that the Bajorans have been sent home and everything is fine, and Worf says that he knows the feeling.

Deep Space Nine Special #0, January 1995

Terok Nor, by Mark Altman

The guide of a school trip tells the children the story of Charna Sar. Charna was due to be executed as a terrorist by the Cardassians in two days’ time when she (as a Bajoran architect/designer) was recruited by Kotan Darek to assist him with the design and construction of Terok Nor. Charna is reluctant to do so, but when Darek threatens to destroy the Barodeem (an archive of Bajoran culture throughout the millenia), she relents. She adjusts the design to improve conditions for the Bajoran workers, but her apparent collaboration leaves her in disfavor with the other Bajorans. Darek is likewise looked on with disfavor by the Cardassians for saving Charna from execution, and when the station’s construction is finished, Gul Dukar is sent to replace him as head of the station. Darek warned Charna of what type of man Dukar was, and when Dukar has the Bajoran workers gathered together on the hangar deck, intending to kill them by exposing them to the vacuum of space because they knew too much about the construction of the station, Charna is prepared and kills Dukar. She accepts that Darek will have to have her executed but he promises to make it painless, and she is now honored by the Bajorans.

Deep Space Nine Special #1, December 1994

Light Storm, by Mark Altman

Captain Kol is weary of surveying an area of the Gamma Quadrant that he considers unimportant and is not happy about having Katha aboard as an Imperial Adjunct appointed by Gowron to oversee him. Then Koloth picks up a distress call from the Federation colony on Gakora, and investigating they only found one human survivor, seriously injured, and they take him to DS9.

Kol intends to return to track down whoever carried out the attack, and Sisko insists on joining them, taking Dax with him. They come under attack almost immediately on returning to the area, but when Katha (in direct disobedience to Kol’s order) contacts the attacking ships, the attack stops, and they are invited to Myvock’s homeworld. There, they are informed by the planet’s leader, Malek, that the Gakora colony had been destroyed because they had been desecrating one of their holy sites, and that Klingons had warned the Myvock of the human’s treachery. When 203

Kevin Chiles, the sole survivor, recovers he tells Bashir that Lursa and B’Etor had accompanied the Myvock on the raid, so Bashir and O’Brien take a runabout to investigate what is happening with Sisko and the others. That ends up with Sisko, Dax, O’Brien and Bashir as prisoners of the Myvock, and when Kol, Koloth and Katha speak up for them, they also face execution. But Dax beams the prisoners and Malek off, and they go looking for a mining operation by Lursa and B’Etor on Gakora. They find it and, in the battle with the Duras sisters, Toloth dies honorably and Malek is injured. The Duras Sisters escape. When Malek questions his military commander, Hernai, he finds out that Hernai had worked with the Duras sisters because they promised to supply the Myvock with Klingon weapons. Malek fires him.

Deep Space Nine Special #1, August 1995

Collision Course, by Phil Crain

The station comes under bombardment by asteroid fragments resulting from a collision within the wormhole. Shields are protecting the station from most of the rocks, but one large asteroid chunk was headed for the station and the shields would not be able to deflect that. The Defiant was out of commission for repairs, and the station’s phasers would not have the power even if the power for the phasers wasn’t being diverted to reinforce the shields. Odo had been keeping an eye on a Klingon named Klag, who had partnered with Quark ostensibly for tourist trips to the Gamma Quadrant, although Odo knew of his reputation as a weapons smuggler. A scan of his ship indicates that there are explosives onboard, and Odo and O’Brien beam over to the ship to confirm it. Klag is arrested and O’Brien volunteers to fly the ship into the asteroid. Dax successfully beams O’Brien back, although it is touch-and-go for a while because the shockwave interferes with the transport. But the ship exploding against the asteroid breaks it into small enough pieces that the station’s shields could handle. [Timeline: soon after the Defiant is damaged after it had been stolen by Tom Riker in the TV episode “Defiant”]

Frozen Boyhood, by Bruce Costa

Jake is feeling frustrated with the lack of kids his own age to play with, his father constantly having to deal with matters on the station, and even the ability to say “Freeze program” on the holodeck simply leaves him with too much time on his hands. Then an old Earth ship that had been designed only for interplanetary trips drifts past the station and is captured by a tractor beam and docked at the station. It had held a couple and their 14-year-old boy, but all three had died when their cryogenic storage equipment failed. Among the ancient technology onboard is a CD player and a disk that has a record of a baseball match. Sisko had O’Brien disable the pause button on it, so that Jake could listen to the whole game without the opportunity of interrupting it. Jake enjoys it immensely, especially when it helps drown out the incessant chatter of the Bajoran woman, Su, who is helping out in their rooms.

Oaths, by Terry Pallot

A Bajoran girl, Bryth, fell into a coma while traveling on a Bajoran shuttle, and Bashir can’t find any way to bring her out of it. Dax finds records of an old Bajoran custom that resulted in 204

similar, but not so long-lasting symptoms. It was brought about by going into a trance using a mixture of plants and herbs. The shuttle had previously carried the orb that the Grand Nagus had sold to the Bajorans, and the girl might have come into contact with some radiation from it.

However, the required drug hasn’t been seen on Bajor since the Cardassian occupation. Then Quark obtains a sample of it from someone who Odo identifies as a member of the Marquis, and it is found that he had obtained it during a raid on the Cardassians. Odo is reluctant to allow Bashir to use stolen property, but Bashir points out that he has an oath to protect life while Odo has an oath to protect the law. The drug works, and Bryth is restored to her parents.

Honor, by Christopher Pelton

Nog has a dream of joining Starfleet but has doubts about whether he is up to it. Quark interrupts his musings to get him to take a small box to Cargo Bay 6 where a ‘business partner’ will give him 15,000 bars of latinum as payment, and Quark insists that Nog not look in the box. That almost ensures that Nog does look, and it contains a Cardassian data disk with a message saying that the vial of green goop (the other object in the box) is a poison that would wipe out the Cardassians. Nog refuses to hand over the box to the masked pair in the cargo bay, quoting the fact that even the Klingons were now working with the Federation, so the Cardassians might not be enemies forever. At that, the pair remove their masks revealing that they are Jake and Rom. It had all been a test by Jake to demonstrate to Nog that he was perfect Starfleet material. The

‘poison’ was pea soup.

Dangerous Times, by Joe Fielder

Someone causes an explosion on the promenade and attempts to beam Odo off somewhere, but instead ends up being arrested by Odo. It is ascertained that the person is human and attacked Odo because he is a Founder, however, there seems to be no record of the person anywhere.

Then another explosion occurs on the station and a supposed Andorian freighter leaves the station unannounced. It proves to have been more than a freighter when it warps away before Jadzia Dax can get a tractor beam on it and, apparently, they had beamed out the mystery man too.

Deep Space Nine Worf Special #0, December 1995

Bonds of Honor, by Dan Mishkin

Worf leaves Starbase 113 soon after an explosion that causes substantial damage occurs. There was also recorded evidence of Worf placing an explosive, and Admiral Nechayev ordered that Worf be taken into custody. Aboard the runabout Rubicon, Worf (who had been experiencing animosity since the Klingons had broken their pact with the Federation) uses a magnetic space anomaly to confuse sensors tracking him and then sets out to locate a Xanosian vessel that had left the Starbase just before he had, and which Worf had considered suspicious enough to have a locator device placed on it. Quickly tracking it down, he finds that the ship has been fitted with a cloaking device and a means of projecting an image of itself to disguise its location. The Xanosian captain tells Worf that they had used the same technology to fake the recording of 205

Worf placing the explosive. However, Worf works out how to track the ship and fires on it, disabling the cloaking effect. The Xanosian ship is about to fire on the Rubicon when a Klingon ship arrives and, against Worf’s instructions, destroys the Xanosian ship and then beams Worf aboard and disarms him of his phaser. The Klingon captain is Gurlag who wants Worf to abandon the Federation and join with the Klingons, but Worf considers Gurlag to be without honor. When Worf had left DS9, Odo had concealed himself aboard the Rubicon in the form of a phaser to test Worf’s ability to locate changelings. Worf had recognized that there was the extra phaser aboard, so that was the one he had taken with him and, between Worf and Odo, the Klingons are defeated. Worf had also worked out that Gurlag had been the one to employ the Xanosians and had used the same optical imaging technology to make it look as if the Xanosian ship was destroyed, but it was still there for Worf to capture and prove his innocence.

Unhappy Trails, by Moose Baumann

Jadzia Dax and Kira join Worf on the holodeck because Dax is looking forward to a rematch of a contest they had had previously. But they find Worf acting the part of a Wild West sheriff in the New Mexico desert, in a holo-program that Alexander had sent him. Dax and Kira take over the role of Worf’s deputies, although Kira wasn’t too enthused at the idea and gets bored by hours of tracking a gang of thieves through the desert. Finally, they find the thieves’ camp, but the thieves had set a trap for them. As the leader of the thieves is threatening to put a bullet through Worf’s head, Dax and Kira spring into action and quickly render the gang unconscious. Kira admits that the last bit was exciting, and the two of them decide to go and get something to eat while Worf in left quietly fuming at the rapid ending to his holo-program.

DC & Malibu comics

The Next Generation & Deep Space Nine #1, December 1994

Part 1 of 4, Prophets and Losses, by Michael Jan Friedman & Mike W. Barr The Enterprise delivers an Admiral to DS9 along with a team going to explore some of the Gamma Quadrant planets, however as they start out on their trip the wormhole starts behaving oddly, and it seems to pull the admiral’s runabout into it. It also seems to render the wormhole impassable to future traffic and even starts disrupting meteorological conditions on Bajor.

Captain Picard is placed in charge of the investigation by Starfleet Command, and Sisko promises to work closely with him. Then Odo detects unauthorized attempts to access an old Cardassian computer link on the station, and when he, Worf, and Kira go to investigate, they find some Cardassians. [Timeline: Stardate 47266.4]

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The Next Generation & Deep Space Nine #1, October 1994

Part 2 of 4, The Wormhole Trap!, by Michael Jan Friedman & Mike W. Barr The Cardassian attack on DS9 is driven off, but the Cardassians beam back to their previously hidden ship and somehow disappear into the malfunctioning wormhole. Between Data and Dax, they work out that the wormhole disruption is being caused by verteron particle chaos, and a runabout (the Mississippi) is adapted to allow a team led by Riker to travel through and follow the Cardassians. The team consisted of Riker, Data, Dax, Odo, and Troi, but Kira talks herself onto the team as well. Before they actually enter the wormhole, Dr. Crusher reports that the sample of “Cardassian blood” that they had obtained from the fight that ended the invasion of DS9, showed that it was some other alien blood adapted to look somewhat Cardassian. The transit of the wormhole is rough, and the Mississippi’s power is down to 11% when they emerge at the other end to find a fleet of alien vessels along with the missing Starfleet runabout.

[Timeline: Stardate 47269.1]

The Next Generation & Deep Space Nine #2, November 1994

Part 3 of 4, Encounter With The Othersiders!, by Mike W. Barr & Michael Jan Friedman The specially modified runabout carrying Riker and his team makes it through the wormhole, but the team find themselves under attack by the ‘Othersiders’ and taken prisoner. Thanks to Odo’s abilities they are able to break loose and try to disable the machinery affecting the wormhole.

They do manage to locate the power source for the alien’s stasis projector, and Dax turns the field on the aliens when they attack, but the power source then overheats and explodes. Troi’s team locates the Admiral, but they find it had been a trap and the Admiral is fired upon by the aliens when he tries to warn Riker. [Dateline: Stardate 47272.1]

The Next Generation & Deep Space Nine #2, January 1995

Part 4 of 4, The Enemy Unseen, by Michael Jan Friedman & Mike W. Barr

Riker, Odo, Kira, Dax, Worf and the others succeeds in fighting their way out of being captured again by the aliens on the far side of the wormhole, escaping on one of their shuttle and heading back through the wormhole along with the injured Admiral and the other Starfleet captives. On DS9, O’Brien and LaForge have established that the problems with the wormhole are the result of a strong beam emanating from the Gamma Quadrant interacting with a weaker beam from this side of the wormhole, and O’Brien identifies a likely source as a supposedly abandoned Cardassian outpost just this side of their territory. When it is investigated by the Enterprise, it is found to be far less unoccupied than reported, but they are able to destroy the equipment emitting the beam, and the wormhole returns to normal. Gul Adar blames some radical splinter group for trying to sabotage the wormhole and make the Federation lose interest in Bajor, and the aliens on the Gamma Quadrant side beat a hasty retreat before the Federation come after them.

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Tekno Comix

Gene Roddenberry’s Lost Universe is based on a concept by Gene Roddenberry (1921 – 1991) with additional character creation and development by Majel Barrett Roddenberry (1932 – 2008) and story development by D.C. Fontana (1939 – 2019). That gives the series some connection to the Star Trek universe, so I decided to include it.

Lost Universe #1, April 1995

O Brave New World, by Lawrence Watt-Evans

Dr. Grange had apparently been injured somehow and ended up in a coma and taken to Earth.

When he returns to his home planet of Malay with Penaltra, unsure of how long he has been away, he finds that the planet now has three moons instead of two, and no cities or indications of communication from the planet. He finds his family home overrun by nature and with wild animals (Payeru) nesting there. In trying to locate the underground Primary Base, they do find a group of human descendants that Grange insists would be peaceful, but first they get attacked by one of them who wants to take their weapons and their ship, then they find that the others are ganging up on them too.

Lost Universe #2, May 1995

A Riddle Wrapped in an Enigma, by Lawrence Watt-Evans

Turns out that the natives were only ganging up on Grange and Penaltra because they were wondering what had happened to Hamid (the one who had wanted to steal their weapons), and they are more understanding when they learn what occurred. But the adventure of Grange and Penaltra was actually a virtual reality simulation that the two were experiencing based on signals returned from a probe that had been sent to Malay. It is now year 2996, and in 2654 there had been an influx of ships from the Andromeda Galaxy, crewed by people who had fled Andromeda because of intergalactic warfare. They became some of the settlers on Malay and the planet thrived, and research got underway to understand what happened to “the Old Ones” who previously lived there. Then, in 2713 an asteroid was found to be headed for the planet and a missile was built to blast the asteroid off course, and that seemed to be successful although all contact with the planet (including the hyperspace beacon that located the planet in space) was lost. Now the planet had been rediscovered and Grange and Penaltra are part of a mission to (1) gain information about the Old Ones, and (2) find out what had cut the planet off from communication. It appears that the third moon of the planet is the remains of the asteroid that had been deflected. When Grange uses the VR system to visit the location of his laboratory on Malay, he finds that the site is completely bare, and after seeing a view of what the planet looks like, he steals a shuttle and heads down to the planet in person.

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Lost Universe #3, June 1995

Plan*Net Fall, by Ron Fortier

The mission had begun two weeks previous, when Penaltra had been called to Plan*Net’s headquarters on Earth Prime and told that what appeared to be Malay had been rediscovered and that she would be leading an expedition to it. She was given the explorer ship Deliverance, informed of who the crew would be, and told that she would be taking another team member who would be accompanied by Dr. Goldin. Now, she and Dr. Goldin were chasing that other team member (Grange) down to Malay’s surface in Shuttle 2. As they are flying down, they collide with two flying Payeru, which has the other Payeru preparing for war. But they get a friendly enough greeting from the human survivors at Base Camp Alpha, and Esteban, son of the camp’s leader, Ethan Frosthawk, offers to lead them to the old alien ruins where Grange had headed. Esteban had converted an old Mech-1000 anti-grav unit into a flying invalid carriage because of his disability. They track Grange to his old lab, where Grange shows them what appears to be himself in a stasis chamber.

Lost Universe #4, July 1995

Payeru Attack, by Ron Fortier

Aboard the Deliverance, a review of the planet’s features and what supposedly happened to it, seems to indicate that everything about it is scientifically impossible. Meanwhile, on the planet, Grange learns that he was cloned from DNA samples that had been kept for 500 years, and then the stasis chamber starts to revive the original Dr. Grange. That seems to trigger an attack by the

“Black Ghosts” that appear to be cyborgs linked to the lab’s computer. Penaltra’s team escape with the comatose original Dr. Grange but, arriving back at Base Camp Alpha, they find the place under attack by the Payeru. While Estaban flies the comatose Dr. Grange back to the shuttle, the others fight off the Payeru with a little help from a blue humanoid named Rane who was flying on a creature named Spin. When they learn what had caused the attack, Penaltra’s assistant, Duncan, walks out to apologize for accidently causing the death of one of them in the crash. He finds himself grabbed by the throat, and the female Payeru is raising a sword at him.

Lost Universe #5, August 1995

The Dreamer Awakes, by Ron Fortier

Duncan is saved when Purity (from another tribe on the other side of the mountains and known as The Witch of the Deep Woods by the Payeru) arrives riding a creature named Gerzon. She points out the courage of Duncan, and the Payeru adopt him as an honorary member of their tribe. Purity had arrived there because she’d had a vision of the Endless Dreamer awakening.

Penaltra explains to the two Granges that the original Dr. Grange had visited Earth just before contact with Malay had been lost and, as was customary, had given them an updated sample of his DNA and let them download his memories to their computer for safekeeping. When Malay was rediscovered about 500 years later, and not realizing the original Grange had implemented a 209

test of the cryogenic chamber he had been working on, Plan*Net uses the DNA and memories to rapidly create a clone to assist the mission to Malay. On hearing this, the original Alexander Grange (realizing all his family and friends are long dead) declares that he wished they hadn’t revived him, and the cloned Grange says that from now on he will be known as Xander and then storms off.

Lost Universe #6, September 1995

Contests, by Ron Fortier

At Fort Phoenix (as Alpha Base One is now known), the female leader of the Payeru had been challenged by a male Payeru because of her association with Duncan. There is to be a flying contest, and Estaban agrees to act as her champion. He comes to regret that choice, as he is attacked in flight by the male Payeru, but while he, his pride, and his flying machine may have got injured, all are reparable. Meanwhile, Dr. Alexander Grange and Xander demonstrate how alike they are by getting into a knock-down brawl.

Lost Universe #7, October 1995

Crash and Burn, by Ron Fortier

In orbit of the planet Malay, the ship Deliverance is hit by a magnetic wave from the planet and loses power. It starts to fall from orbit, but chief engineer Howard succeeds in restoring power and gets manual control to some thrusters. Pilot Tskare surprises everyone by having them thrust the ship forward, gambling that the planet would react as it had done when the asteroid was headed for it. She turns out to be correct, and the Deliverance is pushed back into orbit and power is restored. At Plan*Net HQ on Earth, when Lady Sensua hears that Grange was the Sleeper that had been revived, she orders her fleet made ready, along with a full troop of her personal guards.

Xander in the Lost Universe #0, November 1995

Fire from the Sky, by Ron Fortier

Xander is moping about the life he’s inherited, when suddenly the fort comes under attack by Lady Sensua’s fighter craft and then by ground troops. Penaltra Blue and Dr. Grange are among those who give their lives defending those at the fort, as does Purity’s dinosaur, Gerzon. The fort’s leader, Ethan, is seriously injured and his son, Estaban, dies. One of the colonists leads the survivors into the underground chambers, but something activates the machinery, and a Black Angel appears announcing that the Evil One has returned and that the planet Malay will be destroyed in 30 minutes. A hurried exit follows, and an alien shuttle is stolen in which Xander and other survivors escape. On the planet, Lady Sensua says she’s honored that they’d destroy a whole planet because of her, and then the planet explodes.

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Xander in the Lost Universe #1, Early December 1995

Survivors, by Ron Fortier

Actually, the planet hadn’t exploded but had somehow disappeared. Nevertheless, the effects seriously buffeted the ships in orbit. Xander’s shuttle was rescued by the Deliverance, that had been sheltering behind a moon, and they were surprised to find that they had about 300 survivors to find room for on the Deliverance. Only a few of Lady Sensua’s fleet survived, and one of them, the Hunter, finds itself being rapidly approached by an odd energy object that passed straight through the ship’s hull and stopped in the bridge. It then started collecting the bodies of some of those who had died in the mayhem and transfiguring them. That resulted in the return of Lady Sensua and two of her cohorts (Andre and Catchay). Aboard the Deliverance, Xander sees and runs after the colonist (Walker) who had led them into the caverns on Malay, but he soon discovers that Walker is far more than he looked.

Xander in the Lost Universe #2, Late December 1995

The Last Black Ghost, by Ron Fortier

Walker was actually a Black Ghost, who informs Xander that Malay was one of a series of identical planets built by a race known as the Wehni, who had moved on to a place beyond time and space, leaving the planet to evolve under the watchful eye of a God-Machine. The Black Ghosts were humans who had evolved on the planet and had discovered the God-Machine. The machine had changed them into the Black Ghosts who were nearly immortal computer maintenance technicians. They were told that the Wehni had been fleeing a “Great Evil” that could only be defeated by “the man born of science”, who is seen as being Xander. By the time the captain and crew of the Deliverance break into the room where Walker had taken Xander, they find the remains of Walker on the floor and Xander has been converted into a cyborg.

Xander in the Lost Universe #3, January 1996

Race for the Lost Universe, by Ron Fortier

Xander’s transformation to a Black Ghost cyborg doesn’t go down well with everyone on the Deliverance, such as Purity who attacks him for being one of those who destroyed Malay, but he convinces her otherwise. The real enemy, Lady Sensua (who Xander identifies as the Evil One), appears in a blinding light on the Deliverance and threatens Xander, but then disappears again back to her ship. Her two surviving ships are approaching the disabled Deliverance, but Xander uses the shuttle they had escaped on, booby trapped to deliver a plasma blast to damage Sensua’s ships, while the Deliverance escapes under solar sail.

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Xander in the Lost Universe #4, Late January 1996

Welcome to Paradise, by Ron Fortier

Xander wants to get on with the fight against Sensua but Pilot Tskare wants to find a home for the refugees and get room to move on her ship. They arrive at a likely planet, and Xander, Purity, and others take a shuttle down to check it out. Everything looks ideal initially, but then they encounter two smallish, frightened humanoids, Ulani, followed soon after by other humanoids led by Torly of the Mushara who claims ownership of the land and everything on it. He had been hunting the first two for the fun of the hunt and for food. Tskara is not happy about the way Xander seems to think he has the right to take command of her ship.

Xander in the Lost Universe #5, February 1996

Welcome to Paradise, Part 2, by Ron Fortier

Torly invites them to his estate for a feast, and Xander, Purity, and the doctor go with him. The male Ulani (Onn) had escaped, but the female Ulani is shackled and dragged along. In deference to the beliefs of Xander’s group, only vegetables are served at the meal, but the doctor refuses to eat even that. Purity meets with Torly’s daughter, Tasm, and Tasm says that she and some others only eat vegetables. Then Onn breaks his mate and the other Ulani out of the compound they are held in, and they leave Purity unconscious (she was spared because she had saved the Ulani couple from the hunters) but Tasm is taken. Xander is able to track the escaping Ulani, even though it’s night, but Tasm was already dead. Xander and his group decide the planet and its inhabitants are unsuitable for the survivors from Malay. Aboard Sensua’s ship, the crew are plotting a mutiny, but Sensua is aware of it and is quite gleefully looking forward to their attempt.

Xander in the Lost Universe #6, March 1996

Mutiny, Part 1, by Ron Fortier

Andre and Catchay seem to be taking care of the mutineers aboard Sensua’s ship Hunter, but then the surviving mutineers fight back by blasting a hole in the side of the ship and sending Andre and Catchay out into space. Aboard the Deliverance, Tskare insists on taking the ship to the nearest Plan*Net station for new orders, but Xander says that will be the death of them because Plan*Net is under Sensua’s control. Neither of them will give in, and when Xander goes to redirect the ship from its path towards the Plan*Net station, Lieutenant Butler (in charge of security) goes to intervene. Xander erects a shield of charged particles around himself, and when Butler comes into contact with her, it kills her by stopping her mechanical heart.

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Xander in the Lost Universe #7, April 1996

Mutiny, Part 2, by Ron Fortier

On the Hunter, Andre and Catchay manage to get back aboard and continue their killing spree.

Commander Randix leads a group of the crew in an attack on Sensua, only to find that she and her crew are holograms, which leads to Sensua turning Randix into her slave. He is left as captain of the Hunter to search for Xander and Deliverance while she returns to Earth aboard her other surviving ship, Marauder. Aboard Deliverance, Xander is able to restart Butler’s cybernetic heart, but the dispute between Xander and Tskare as to who runs the ship comes to a head. Dr.

Goldin and Benais propose a solution where Tskare is in control of the ship, but Xander is in control of the mission, since he seems to be the only one that has any idea of what Sensua is up to. That idea is adopted by the crew, although reluctantly by Tskare.

Xander in the Lost Universe #8, May 1996

Dark Angel Descending, by Ron Fortier

A thief successfully breaks into Castle Sensua in the Italian Alps but gets caught and is left suspended in midair as he has to listen to her story. She was formed by the universe as an energy creature and when she tasted a Wehni she got addicted to them, but they disappeared into a Lost Universe. Then she discovered humans and thought she could use them to find the Wehni. She had herself born as the baby girl, Ceila Montrose and, when she was grown, she used her seductive charms to attract and marry Ambassador Dalton Sensua, becoming Lady Sensua. She used her husband to start a war against the Camarians and build an alliance with other races that eventually became Plan*Net. She then seduced Colonel Atwood who headed up Plan*Net, before turning her husband into a statue.

The Big Crossover, by Ron Fortier

Sensua found a way to move between universes and took her ship through a portal or rift between dimensions. Xander had got wind of it, and he and Purity follow her in a shuttle, but the shuttle starts to break up while passing through the portal.

The story was set to continue in Isaac Asimov’s I-Bots #7, but the connection to Star Trek was already extremely tenuous, so I stopped following the series.

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About the Author

Geoff was eleven years old when Sputnik 1 launched the Space Age, and fourteen when Yuri Gagarin lifted off in Vostok 1 to start the era of manned space flight. Geoff had been interested in science and astronomy from an early age, and to find himself in the era of space exploration was extremely exciting to him.

By 1969, he had moved from England to Ireland, so he saw Neil Armstrong makes his ‘one giant leap for mankind’ while sampling poteen for the first time at a friend’s apartment in Cork. By that time, the original Star Trek TV series had completed its three seasons in the U.S., but it was several years later before Geoff finally saw it. Seeing that magnificent white starship sailing majestically through the galaxy endeared him immediately to the series.

His interests in science tend to center around neuroscience, cosmology and quantum physics, which are subjects that frequently come up in the Star Trek episodes, and in the novels. While that may not be a good reason for him spending decades summarizing the novels and collecting the comics, he thinks he can use it as a reasonable excuse.

His dissertation project for his MSc in IT was a learning management system for teaching computer technology. He runs a much-simplified version of that at www.LaraAcademy.com

which also contains a Star Trek section where most of his book summaries were first posted.

You can reach Geoff at gcanham@compuserve.com. You can find him on Facebook at

www.facebook.com/geoff.canham, but his Twitter account got Xed when a muskrat started damaging it.

He currently (2023) has three books available as paperbacks and Kindle ebooks through Amazon: “Free Will or Won’t … are we in charge of our lives or not?”, “It’s About Time …

Relatively Speaking”, and the latest is “Astronomical Alchemy” which takes you from the Big Bang to the distant future, showing how the universe created itself and us. “Astronomical Alchemy” is also available as a hardcover book.

Geoff’s Goodreads page can be found at

www.goodreads.com/author/show/18839749.Geoff_Canham, and his Amazon Author page at

www.amazon.com/-/e/B07TFBL3FC

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