The Belly of the Beast (by Dean Wesley Smith): The Enterprise is the nearest vessel available to give assistance when a large spheroid vessel attacks an agricultural colony on Blossom IV. By a lucky shot, they are able to disable the giant vessel, hitting the control center and killing the twelve alien crew on board. The da Vinci is sent to take over the study of the vessel, and Geordi stays with the da Vinci to assist. Something prevents scanning very far into the vessel, so teams are sent over to investigate and it is soon realized that the vessel had been holding thousands of beings, and was a tourist ship, but there was no sign now of passengers or crew. After studying their initial findings, two teams are sent over to probe deeper into the vessel. When they reach the center of the vessel, it is discovered that it is a zero-gravity hold area, and it is filled with the bodies of the former passengers and crew, and it is then noticed that creatures are hatching within the bodies and devouring them. It is realized that these wasp/crab creatures form some kind of hive mind, and suddenly it is found that the vessel is powering up. From the auxiliary control room, the Bynars, 110 and 111, are able to interface with the vessel’s computer and remove control from the creatures and set it up to create a feedback that would destroy the vessel if it powered up again. Then the creatures emerge and start attacking. The teams escape, but 111 is killed by the creatures just before the team beams out. The vessel self-destructs, killing the wasp/crab creatures.
Fatal Error (by Keith R.A. DeCandido): The planet Eerlik had been controlled by a sentient computer, called Ganitriul, situated on the planet’s moon, but it didn’t seem to be working now, and consequently nothing else was working correctly either. The First Speaker of the Eerlik, Ansed, went to the temple to discuss the matter with the priests (who were in charge of Ganitriul) but finds all but one of them, Undlar, murdered. The survivor mentions that a spaceship that operates independently of Ganitriul was being constructed, and they decide to use that to try to get to the moon to establish what the problem is. Meanwhile, Ganitriul itself has been able to send out a call for help, and the da Vinci has responded, but the team that is sent down finds itself under attack by a group of Eerlik. 110 determines that a virus has been planted in Ganitriul, which is limiting its capabilities, but it is still able to provide some assistance to the da Vinci team, and they are able to remove the virus. While that has been going on, the ship with Ansed and Undlar has approached and contacted the da Vinci, but then Undlar kills Ansed. It turns out that Undlar is the leader of a group, called the Pevvni, that thinks they shouldn’t depend on Ganitriul, and is out to sabotage it. A battle develops between the da Vinci and Undlar’s ship, which ends in a stalemate until Ganitriul is cured and assists in the takeover of Undlar’s ship.
Hard Crash (by Christie Golden): It was fortunate that the planet Intar had an advance warning system, because when a large spaceship hurtled into their system and crashed into the main city, they had been able to evacuate the city in time and no one was killed. The da Vinci was sent to investigate the downed spaceship, and they find the pilot (later discovered to have been called Jaldark) dead in the control seat, but the craft itself was not seriously damaged, despite the violent impact. The pilot’s body is transported out for study, and 110 was trying to interface with the ship’s computer when he receives a jolt of electricity that throws him across the ship, and the ship starts to power up. The team beams out, taking what appears to be a kind of tricorder, which the pilot had previously used. The ship is found to have legs, and it starts trampling around the deserted city, also firing on the da Vinci. The da Vinci returns fire, but is unable to stop it until it finds a weak spot on the vehicle’s underside, and finally disables it. Study of the dead pilot initially leads to the conclusion that it is a Borg, because of implants found in the body, but when the ‘tricorder’ is decoded, it is found that the pilot had been searching for a new planet for her race, after their planet had been rendered almost uninhabitable after a war with another planet. However, something had gone wrong with the link between her and her sentient craft, and she could not receive nourishment from it, and had wasted away, but kept that information from the craft. She had also disabled the craft’s self-destruct mechanism, and the ship had actually crashed in an effort to commit suicide after losing contact with its pilot. The craft is able to repair itself, and the da Vinci finds itself under attack from it again. 110 had made a preliminary link with the craft during his initial attempt at connecting to the computer, and the ship, known as Starsearcher 7445, lets 110 tell it what really happened. Finally, 110 is able to convince the ship to let the Federation help it find a new home, to fulfill Jaldark’s mission, before returning home with Jaldark’s body. The ship leaves with the Enterprise (which also picks up Geordi) to try to locate a suitable planet. 110 comes to the decision not to rebond, preferring to respect 111’s memory, and he starts using the name Soloman.
Interphase: Book One (by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore): The Tholian captain, Nostrene, discovers the U.S.S. Defiant drifting in and out of a rift in space, and calls in the Federation, in the form of the da Vinci, to remove it. Nostrene’s ship accompanies the da Vinci, and a team (wearing environmental suits) led by Captain Gold boards the Defiant and they are able to power up the derelict and the da Vinci gets a tractor beam on it and start to pull the ship back fully into this universe. Before this, Pattie (P8 Blue, a Nasat) had noticed a shielded power source on the Defiant and, together with Dr. Lense, had been sent to investigate, and had discovered what appeared to be a piece of Tholian equipment. Gold had transmitted the information to the Tholians and, when Nostrene investigated what it was, it turned out to be a weapon that the Tholians didn’t want anyone to know about (it had previously wiped out a Klingon colony, when it had been intended simply to capture them) and Nostrene is given orders to destroy the evidence (and the Defiant and the da Vinci if necessary). He opens fire on the Defiant as it is being pulled out of the rift, and the da Vinci is forced to release the tractor beam, and the Defiant slips back fully into interphase. During the transition, part of the hull dematerializes, and Pattie gets thrown outside, and Dr. Lense follows to try to retrieve her. She succeeds in catching Pattie, but on returning to the ship, the hull is now solid again, and she doesn’t know where the airlocks are. The da Vinci managed to damage the Tholian vessel, which moves off, but the rift had now closed up.
Interphase: Book Two (by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore): Captain Gold and the others left stranded aboard the Defiant start working on ideas for reopening the rift and moving themselves out, while those aboard the da Vinci are trying to work out similar schemes from their side of the rift. Then six Tholian vessels are seen approaching with an energy web already in place between them, planning to destroy the da Vinci (and any record of the Tholian weapon found on the Defiant). However, just before the Tholians arrive, the Defiant emerges through the rift and uses its remaining power in firing on one of the Tholians. That is enough to disrupt the Tholian web, and one of the Tholian vessels ends up heading towards the rift and has to be rescued by the da Vinci. After that, the Tholians reluctantly allow the da Vinci and the Defiant (being towed) to leave. Although towed most of the way, the team gets the Defiant working sufficiently for Sonia Gomez to be able to bring it, under its own power, through the solar system for its triumphal return to Earth.
Cold Fusion (by Keith R.A. DeCandido): The da Vinci is called in to assist Nog with the removal of the core from Empok Nor and its transfer to DSN (although initially the da Vinci crew tend to ignore any ideas from Nog). Arriving at Empok Nor, the station is found to be unoccupied (as expected) but then it is found that the Androssi have been there and set a few traps, along with turning it into a mobile weapons platform. The Androssi, Overseer Biron, gets an automated signal that the station has been boarded by others, and sets off immediately to return to the station. A standoff ensues between the da Vinci and the Androssi, until a deal is reached whereby the Androssi could remove their technology from the station and go. It is found that it would be unsafe to transport Empok Nor’s core to DSN, but Nog comes up with the idea of towing the whole station. Sufficient ships are found to carry out that operation and allow the da Vinci to respond to an emergency call from Sonya Gomez, who has been on assignment in Sarindar. [Timeline: between the events of the DSN novel Avatar Book 2 and Section 31: Abyss, and simultaneous with Invincible].
Invincible (by David Mack & Keith R.A. DeCandido): Sonya Gomez has been assigned to help the Nalori (who have no love for the Federation but need help) to create a subspace accelerator so that they can transport chimerium off the planet Sarindar, which has silicon-based life-forms. The planet is believed by the Nalori to be cursed, but Gomez soon gets to be known as “Sanuul” (or ‘curse lifter’) after she gets the equipment working, the project near-enough on schedule, and especially when she kills the ‘monster shii’ (which had previously been believed to be mythological). However, an even larger monster shii turns up later, and in a series of attacks kills a large number of the project workers. It looks as though the project will have to be abandoned, and Gomez sends an SOS to the da Vinci, but is not sure if the message got through. However, she finally manages to trap the monster shii (by now known to be a shapeshifting robot that had been an assistant to an alien team that had died while exploring the planet in the distant past) on the project dish and vaporizes it by powering up the annular confinement beam. The da Vinci arrives soon after this. [Timeline: circa Stardate 53274.9]
The Riddled Post (by Aaron Rosenberg): The da Vinci responds to an emergency message from the mining outpost on BorSitu Minor, but on arrival at the dilithium mining colony they find the atmospheric shield is down, and all buildings except for the power station have holes drilled through them. Only two survivors are found, and they were unconscious in the power station. The worry initially is that whatever weapon caused the damage to the buildings had somehow managed to penetrate the shield unscathed. Careful analysis of the holes in the building, and measuring the remaining heat from the surrounding material, shows that they had all been caused by one object that had drilled the holes, and kept veering away from the power station and rebounding from the shields until it had drilled through the shield’s emitter array and escaped out onto the planet. It is discovered that the damage had been caused by an experimental piece of mining equipment that one of the scientists at the camp had been working on, and which had apparently been set in motion by one of the miners who was trying to steal it. Study of the scientist’s notes leads to the recovery of the missing piece of equipment (which had been programmed to veer away from the immediate presence of dilithium, which is why it avoided the power station).
Here There Be Monsters (by Keith R.A. DeCandido, timeline: shortly after the Gateway series): The da Vinci is sent to Maeglin after a number of large strange creatures emerge through one of the Iconian gateways on the planet. This is not the da Vinci’s normal kind of task, but it is the nearest ship that can render assistance. They discover there are seven massive creatures of various types, who seem to be trying to communicate sometimes, but the universal translator doesn’t work with them. One of the first discoveries is that the gateway seems to have brought them from another universe. Because of the damage that the creatures are causing, it is decided to try to capture and impound the creatures. It takes an effort, but they get all but one of the creatures rounded up inside a forcefield. Then it is realized that the creature’s language is a mixture of sound and gestures, and soon they are able to communicate. Then they discover that the creatures had let themselves be captured and could actually move through the forcefield. They had all been prisoners, who were sent through the gateway to test if it was safe. All of the creatures that had been rounded up had been political prisoners, but the one still loose is a psychopath. One of the creatures, Afredaspweotynerek, offers to assist the da Vinci crew in capturing the dangerous one, Natywpawerldatqwewob, and he ends up giving his life, but does succeed in killing the murderous creature. Since they can’t get back to their own universe, and might not want to anyway, the creatures are allowed to stay on Maeglin.
Ambush (by Dave Galanter & Greg Brodeur): The da Vinci is on its way to resupply the mining colony on Beta Argola which is having serious equipment breakdowns, when the da Vinci is intercepted by three Munqu ships that attack it. The da Vinci is outgunned, but the crew devises weapons from the mining equipment they are carrying, and finally escape from the Munqu. Arriving at Beta Argola, it appears that they are too late, as the power had failed, resulting in the containment field for the antimatter blasting charges collapsing and destroying the colony. The miners had actually escaped in EVA suits at the time of the blast and are located off the planetoid, and they get transported safely aboard. The Munqu had been after the cribintium that was being mined at Beta Argola and had decided to try to take the mining equipment aboard the da Vinci as well.
Some Assembly Required (by Scott Ciencin & Dan Jolley): The inhabitants of the planet Keorga have bought a planetary management computer to try to control the dangerous earthquakes the planet is suffering from. Professor Silveris is trying to get it working, because there is no instruction manual that anyone can read. The Keorgans unfortunately have no guile, so they didn’t realize the salesman might not have been completely truthful when selling them the computer. When the Federation learns of the problems that the Keorgans are having, they send the da Vinci to try to assist. Soloman soon realizes that the computer is an artificial intelligence, but he is unable to get into communication with it. The computer announces that it has completed Test Program One, then later announces that it has started Test Program Two, and then strange forms start to arise on the planet, apparently triggered by different people’s imaginations. The earthquakes start to intensify, but nothing that the da Vinci crew or Professor Silveris does seems to get the computer to do what they want it to do. Then Bart realizes that the computer is some form of educational tool, and that is responding to people’s desire to learn about particular things. Soloman lets the computer know he wants to study asteroids, to pull three asteroids into positions where they will affect the planet’s geology and stop the earthquakes. But when he then fails to actually study the asteroids, the computer starts to pull them down to the planet, so he can study them close up (which would, of course, be disastrous). Carol manages to put on a show to convince the computer that it had misjudged the maturity level of the population, and it shuts itself down and the asteroids do not get pulled down.
No Surrender (by Jeff Mariotte): The da Vinci is sent to Kursican when the orbital prison, the Kursican Orbital Incarceration Platform (known as the Plat) loses its stabilization, and its orbit starts to decay. Captain Gold is told that an old friend of his, Augustus Bradford, is incarcerated on the Plat, and was being visited by his daughter (Gold’s goddaughter) Deborah and her son, and that the Federation ambassador was also visiting the station (Kursican was applying for Federation membership). Arriving at the station, they have to spacewalk to enter the station. When they have the sabotage repaired and get it stable, they find the prisoners, with the exception of Augustus, and all the crew, guards and visitors are missing. It turns out that Augustus had been broken out of the prison platform with the intention of starting an uprising against the authorities, with the intention of keeping Kursican out of the Federation. Gold talks Augustus into releasing Deborah, her son, and the Federation ambassador, and they are beamed aboard the da Vinci shortly before the Kursican authorities destroy Augustus’s base, and kill all there. The Federation turns down Kursican’s application for membership because of the way the authorities handled the situation.
Caveat Emptor (by Ian Edginton & Mike Collins): They rescue a Ferengi, DaiMon Phug, in an escape pod, who really didn’t want to be rescued and wouldn’t admit to what had caused him to be in the pod. Backtracking on the pod’s route, they suddenly come across the Ferengi’s ship, the Ferengi Merchantman named Debenture of Triple-Lined Latinum, only to find that the Landru computer had been installed, and the crew were in the same state that Captain Kirk had found the inhabitants of Beta III in a hundred years previous. This time, the Landru had taken to calling itself Milia, after a philanthropic Ferengi. The Landru/Milia computer tries to take over the da Vinci computer, but Soloman (the Bynar) manages to hold it back until they let it loose and spring a trap on it, beaming it off the Merchantman and shutting Landru/Milia down.
Past Life (by Robert Greenberger): The da Vinci is called to the planet Evora when an alien object is uncovered at an archaeological dig. The inhabitants are wary of alien contact, even though they are a Federation protectorate, and the possibility of there having been an alien presence on the planet before intelligent life had developed there is very disturbing to some. A team is sent down to the site where the artifact was found but, while they are there, a group known as the Onlith stage a coup, taking over the government and the site of the discovery, and they blow up the artifact. Just after that, a violent earthquake occurs, and it is soon determined that the artifact was part of a planet-wide system used to stop the violent earthquakes that would almost prevent life on the planet otherwise. The crew of the da Vinci regains control of the site during the earthquake, and they are able to construct a replacement for the destroyed node. The leader of the Onlith, Helanoman, acknowledges his error and hands back control of the government to the real regent, Cuzar.
Oaths (by Glenn Hauman): Captain Gold has been getting worried about Dr. Lense, who has been passing more and more of her work over to the Emergency Medical Hologram, named Emmett. He discovers that her career had been disrupted after Dr. Bashir was revealed as being genetically enhanced, and because she had ended up ahead of him in the Academy, she had been suspected of also being genetically enhanced. She had been taken off her (then) ship, the Lexington, for questioning, and during that period many of the crew had died in battle against the Dominion. Then word comes in of an epidemic having broken out on Sherman’s Planet, and the da Vinci is sent there. It turns out to be a disease that has apparently infected everyone on the planet and appears to be a fatal disease. Every attempt at formulating a vaccine is thwarted by the virus, and it is after a chance comment by Fabian that Dr. Lense realizes that the only way to fight this disease is to genetically enhance the population, adding a 47th chromosome. Captain Gold is against the idea initially, but Dr. Lense threatens to have him declared medically unfit for command and do it anyway, so he relents and comes up with an argument to put to Starfleet to explain the reason for proceeding. The cure works, and Dr. Lense is also able to reverse the main part of the genetic engineering, and the whole experience seems to have been good therapy for her. [Timeline: circa Stardate 53661.9]
The da Vinci encounters an extremely fast-moving spaceship of a previously unknown design and, when they are able to contact the ship, they are told that the ship is out of control after an encounter with a severe ion storm. The da Vinci crew is able to find a way of disabling the ships engines and stabilizing it, and then they attempt to repair the damage so the crew (who are Senuta) can return home. Unfortunately, while attempting to restore the main computer, a security protocol gets activated, setting off the self-destruct sequence. While the crew gets evacuated from the ship safely, the ship itself is destroyed, and a way will have to be found to return the Senuta to their home world, which it is discovered is on the far side of the space occupied by the Klingon Empire. Events during this encounter recall stories of Scotty’s early encounters with the S.C.E.
Immediately before being posted to the Enterprise, Scotty is sent on a mission aboard the Lovell (a Daedalus class ship) to help restore Outpost 5 that monitors the Romulan Neutral Zone and had been badly affected by an ion storm. The power supply had been affected, isolating many of the base’s crew below ground, and the reactor itself was going critical. To reach the reactor meant boring down to it from the surface (due to cave-ins blocking the regular access), and the reactor is ejected into space through the same bored access. A temporary power source is cobbled together using the Lovell’s shuttlecraft.
Later, Scotty meets up with the leader of the team (Mahmud al-Khaled) that had handled the mission at the Neutral Zone when the S.C.E. is sent to assist the population of Beta III in getting their equipment operational again after Landru is put out of action. Everything seemed to be going well until Landru is reactivated by Hacom, who had apparently been ‘programmed’ ahead of time to carry out the reactivation if necessary. There is then an urgent need to disable the rouge planetary computer again before it regains full control, and they succeed in doing that, utilizing spacial torpedoes from the wreckage of the old Archon.
The Kelvans try out a new drive that they hope to use to allow them to meet up with others of their kind and locate suitable planets if more of their people turn up from Andromeda, and the development of the drive has been carried out in conjunction with Starfleet. Scotty and al-Khahed are aboard the ship (the Chandley) for its test flight, but the drive throws them into unexplored space. While they are attempting to make repairs, a ship of the Lutralian Hegemony arrives and tells them to leave or be destroyed. They negotiate some time to make repairs, and one lady Andorian Starfleet engineer, Talev Zh’Thren (who had been involved with the drive’s development), goes aboard the Lutralian ship to help gain a bit more time. Finally, repairs are made, and a reasonable first contact can be recorded with the Lutralians, and a new generation of warp drives is under way (leading to a recalibration of the Warp rating system).
[Timeline: Stardate 53675.1 for the da Vinci incident, Stardate 1197.6 for the incident at the Romulan Neutral Zone, Stardate 3176.9 at Beta III, Stardate 7981.3 for the incident aboard the Kelvan ship]
Enigma Ship (J. Steven York & Christina F. York): The Lincoln disappears while going to the assistance of the Arch-Merchant, and the da Vinci is sent to investigate and try to recover the Lincoln. It has already been determined that Lincoln disappeared into some form of void in space, and the da Vinci team also have records of the first officer of the Vulpecula, Wayne Omthon, somehow creating an opening into the void/object and disappearing inside. It is determined that the object is bounded by a form of holographic image, set to show the starscape behind it, and thus appear invisible, and it is suggested that a magnetic probe might open a way in. On arriving at the scene, the da Vinci team is able to obtain an image of the inside of the object, now being called Enigma, by a technique similar to an x-ray but using neutrinos, and they discover that the Lincoln is still intact inside it, so a rescue operation is put in motion. The team that enters Enigna loses contact with the da Vinci after a creature arrives and moves them to another location. They discover that there are many thousands of inhabitants of the object, but they are living in holographic fantasy worlds. The da Vinci team come up with a way to disable the object’s holographic projectors, and they are able to get a message to the away team about the plan, but the away team are not able to get a warning message out until too late, saying that shutting the holographic projectors down will likely result in millions dying. However, it turns out that the people behind the holographic craft had a more sophisticated set of projectors, and while the outside imaging and the fantasy programs are disrupted, the life support remains in place. The effect also ‘wakes up’ the Quanta from their fantasy world, and they realize that they have been absconding with a lot of people as they slowly traveled through the galaxy, and they release the Lincoln, and offer to return any of the other aliens that want to go to their home worlds. To do this, they use their holo-technology to form individual crafts.
War Stories (Keith R.A. DeCandido): The Androssi Overseer Biron has had a couple of unfortunate run-ins with the da Vinci team and manages to get hold of a set of logs related to crew, in the hopes of finding out things about them that will help him win the next encounter and put the da Vinci out of business. In reviewing the logs, he learns about Dr. Elizabeth Lense’s time on the Lexington during an attack by Cardassian and Jem’Hadar ships during the Dominion Wars, when the Lexington was almost destroyed. He also learns of Bartholomew Faulwell’s time on Starbase 92, where he had met Anthony trying to break a stubborn Dominion code. Sonya Gomez is another person he reads up on and finds out about her discovery of a way to imitate a Cardassian warp signature. That had come in handy during an incursion behind Cardassian lines, from which the ship she was on, the Sentinel, was the only one of three to escape from the mission. Fabian Stevens is another that Biron studies, learning of the time they used a Dominion ‘golfball’ weapon against the Jem’Hadar. Biron doesn’t get a chance at that time to use the information he has gathered but looks forward to doing so. [Timeline: Stardate 53675.1]
Wildfire (David Mack): The Orion is lost with all hands deep inside a gas giant planet, as it is about to test the Wildfire devise (designed to turn the planet into a small sun, and which is thought to be a possible energy source to sustain remote planets). The da Vinci is sent to recover the Wildfire devise and hopefully the Orion, and things initially appear to be going as well as could be expected, but then first the remains of the Orion gets hit by a strange energy beam (rendering Corsi unconscious) and later a strange turbulence throws the Orion at the da Vinci, and the da Vinci is seriously damaged, and more than half the crew are killed, Captain Gold loses a hand and loses consciousness for a time, and the da Vinci has to jettison its damaged warp core, severely limiting its energy supply, and it gets sucked deeper into the gas giant. A plan to recover the warp core from the Orion is devised, but then it is noticed that the Wildfire devise is nearing the depth at which it will ignite the planet. Kieran Duffy devises a way to reach the devise using an environmental suit, but realizes it will be a suicide mission because there won’t be enough power to return. However, he knows that if the Wildfire devise goes off, they’ll all die, and it is by now suspected that the light source they’ve seen is a life form that will also be obliterated if Wildfire goes off. Duffy succeeds in disabling Wildfire and, before he dies, he gets to converse with the Ovanim who live in the planet. After the da Vinci has escaped from the planet and is waiting to be rescued, the Ovanim emerge from the planet and return the Wildfire devise and Duffy’s body, and apologize for their actions (which had been in self-defense) and Captain Gold apologizes for Starfleet’s actions (which had been carried out in ignorance). [Timeline: Stardate 53781.3]
Home Fires (Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore): Domenica Corsi and Fabian Stevens make a trip to visit Corsi’s parents (Ulrika and Aldo) on Fahleena III. Corsi’s father, who runs a freight business, has no time for Starfleet, and Corsi is quite happy to hear that he has to leave on a freight run until Fabian informs her that the two of them are also going along. On the trip Corsi learns of how her uncle, Gi, was killed when Starfleet talked them into a mission that involved spying on the Cardassians, and the mission went wrong. Corsi helps her father get over the long-held hurt, as he realizes that Gi had been doing what he wanted to. Corsi also talks Fabian out of leaving the S.C.E. [Timeline: Stardate 53704.8, year 2376]
Age of Unreason (Scott Ciencin): Carol Abramowitz with Soloman and Bart Faulwell are sent to Vrinda to investigate a murder supposedly committed by a Federation citizen. Carol quickly discovers that the planet has discovered a means of ‘astral travel’, whereby a person can appear to be in two places at once, and the devise that allows the process was connected with the murder. While the technology has peaceful and helpfu