Star Trek Typhon Pact: Plagues of Night
{4.5/5} “The idea of such obvious power, so distasteful to her in the way that it for so long had been applied in Romulan society, seemed to mock her. Though she did not crave leadership, neither did she wish to be deposed. Having risen to the office of praetor, she wished to fashion her government into a tool that would help all the people of the Empire, and not merely its elite. Under the best of circumstances, she faced a difficult task, but if her suspicions proved correct — if members of the Romulan Imperial Fleet had attacked a Federation facility without her knowledge or approval — she might soon be facing a coup.”
The Romulans have stolen the plans for the quantum slipstream drive, a key edge the Federation has over the Typhon Pact. Sikso has been ordered to find the Romulan ship, even though it has a new type of cloaking device and is undetectable. Meanwhile, on Romulus there’s a new praetor, Kamemor, and a new chairwoman of the Tal Shiar — Sela.*
Kamemor would like peace with the Federation, but her counterparts in the Typhon Pact aren’t satisfied with that — they will do whatever it takes to weaken the Federation. Like maneuvering Andor, one of the Federation’s founders, to secede. Even after all materials related to the stolen slipstream drive plans are destroyed, that doesn’t stop the Breen from proceeding with the project along a different avenue.
Plagues of Night by David R. George III is the sixth book in the Typhon Pact miniseries, following The Struggle Within.
The story is intertwined with the previous books in the series, so is best read after the others. If you don’t want to read all of them, though, this one does summarize the main events from the others.
This book skips around to a variety of viewpoints, but it all feels like the same story, as in Sailing to Sarantium.
It’s a big story, with galaxy-spanning events. Can peace be achieved between these groups whose distrust of each other goes very deep?
We get to see quite a few of our old friends this time — including Kira and Kassidy Yates on Bajor; Spock on Romulus; Bashir, Ro Laren, and Quark on Deep Space Nine; and Worf and Picard on the Enterprise.
The book ends with a fairly shocking cliffhanger. You are guaranteed to want to read the sequel.
George is the author of several great Star Trek books, including Allegiance in Exile (original series) and Rough Beasts of Empire (Typhon Pact).
*The daughter of alternate-universe Tasha Yar.