[This story is related to the ‘New Earth’ series.] Shucorion and Bonifay are rescued by Keller and his Challenger crew from a large Kauld-like ship they had been investigating that contained metallic-mummified remains of an alien race. Keller notices that one of the bodies on the grave-ship, which they call Pompeii, looks remarkably like Shucorion. Then Pompeii turns and spears Challenger, and Shucorion sends out a distress call to his Blood fleet. Soon after this, more ships are seen to come through a portal that opens up in space (a portal that Shucorion takes to be the same one his father had disappeared into during a battle with the Kauld). The leader, Riutta, of the people onboard the new ships (who call themselves the Living) causes Pompeii to stop its attack. Then the Blood fleet, led by Delytharen, turns up and a fight breaks out between Challenger and the Blood fleet over a disobeying of Shucorion’s orders by Bonifay. Riutta then surrounds the disputing vessels in a kind of chainmail, and plans to send them back to their planets and make sure they stay there. Keller comes to realize that Pompeii is based on old Kauld technology (the gateway had apparently sent Shucorion’s father and his crew, and the pursuing Kauld ship back in time, and 11,000 years had passed for them while 20 years had for Shucorion) and they find a way to take control of Pompeii. But then the gateway/portal starts to close, and Keller decides to rescue the others trapped on the other side, and he returns with the Living before the portal closes, and has about 30 hour to get the others out before the gateway closes finally.
[Continuing from Book Seven of Seven: What Lay Beyond] Keller has been trying to convince the Living to evacuate through the portal, and one of the current elders (Braxen) agrees, but one thinks it’s not time to do so, and another (Kymelis) is looking for a sign. Then one of the previous elders (Luntee) returns through the portal, and he wants to stay (having had trouble adjusting to the real world). The elders are now Braxen, Luntee and Kymelis, so the decision is still split, and a challenge is made between Braxen and Luntee, but Keller gets himself into it as well, and Kymelis decides that the three of them must face ‘random choice’ during a hunt. However, Keller manages to kill the descending free dancer and save all of them, at which point Kymelis sees that as a sign that they should leave, and all the Living board their craft and go through the portal. Returning to Challenger, Keller informs Bonifay that he will have to go with Delytharen, and Bonifay agrees it is necessary.
Kirk is at peace talks between the Federation and the Klingons on Starbase 49, and he is surprised to see the difference in appearance of Koloth, who he had first encountered in the incident with Tribbles. He notes that some Klingons are talking a lot more about ‘honor’ these days, and there is apparently a growing return to the ways of Kahless. Then it is discovered that Federation prisoners (from the USS Gagarin) are being secretly held in a Klingon prison facility, and Koloth is determined that honor requires the surviving Federation prisoners be released. He enlists Kirk’s assistance, and Kirk and Sulu get permission to join Koloth aboard his battle cruiser in an effort to liberate the prisoners. Komor, on the Klingon High Counsel, determines to have the prisoners and the prison facility destroyed, and has a warship sent out to complete the task. Kirk and Koloth find out where the prison facility is, and attack it and beam out the four surviving Federation prisoners, but their shuttle is damaged, and they crash-land in the forest. They initially hold off the forces sent to retrieve them, but are finally captured by the prison’s commander, Korax, who had been Koloth’s second in command at the time of the tribble incident. At that time, the ship that had been sent out to destroy the prison arrives and frees the prisoners. There had been a change in power on the Klingon homeworld, and Gorkon was now in power, holding to the beliefs of Kahless, and he had had the ship ordered to free the Federation prisoners. However, the ship’s captain had not been instructed not to destroy the prison facility, so he proceeds to do that, and Kirk is left wondering how there can ever be true cooperation with people who would do such things. [Timeline, Stardate 8461.7, year 2287, one month after Kirk had a near fatal fall in Yosemite National Park]
The Romulan are at war with the Earth Command, and trying to take the war to Terran space. Captain Daniel Hagedorn leads a mission to take the war to Cheron in Romulan space. His small fleet of Christopher ships (two of which are captained by the Stiles brothers, Jake and Aaron) are attacked by eleven Romulan ships and two Christopher ships are lost, including Jake Stile’s ship, but the Romulan ships are defeated. The Romulans finally surrender, and the Federation of Planets is brought into being. Related to that, a star fleet is formed, but not all the captains from the old Earth Command are appointed to it, and there is some animosity evident. The first class of ship specially designed for the new star fleet is to be called Daedalus, and six people are selected as the first of the fleet’s captains. Shumar, Hagedorn, Stiles, Matsura and Dane are called in to get their input into the design, and their input is often contradictory. Captain Beschta (who had not been offered a captaincy with the star fleet) starts a fight with Dane and Cobaryn, but Hagedorn arrives to stop the fight. [This was originally serialized in 12 parts, with Part 1 being in TNG#56 – First Virtue. It was later published as its own novel]