Star Trek Typhon Pact: The Struggle Within
{4.5/5} “Yeah, but after Andor, if I screwed up this alliance, Admiral Akaar would transfer me to maintenance detail in the center of the nearest star, and then put my vaporized atoms on report for dereliction of duty.”
Captain Picard is hoping the Talarian Republic will join the expanded Khitomer Alliance. Jono, the human who was raised as a Talarian, returns to the Enterprise with his father Endar who is now an ambassador. Jono indicates that the Talarians want assurances that the Federation won’t impose their point of view on them. But then a group of females on Talar demand and end to the current regime and an end to the dominance of males over females.
Meanwhile, Jasminder Choudhury takes a leave of absence to recover her balance — she and Worf have been seeing each other but she tells him she doesn’t know what will happen when she returns. Choudhury neglected to tell Worf that she will be going on a secret mission for Starfleet Intelligence — to ensure that the dissident movement among the Kinshaya remains peaceful. The Kinshaya is the least-known member of the Typhon Pact, and Choudhury enlists the help of contact specialist T’Ryssa Chen.
The Struggle Within by Christopher L. Bennett was published in 2011. It’s the fifth book in the Typhon Pact miniseries, following Paths of Disharmony. It’s a novella, and only available as an ebook.
Even though it’s short, there’s a lot going on — it shows why characters and societies do the things they do. As always, Bennett knows how to tell a great Star Trek story.
There’s some interesting discussion on the use of nonviolent versus violent resistance. A quotation from Surak: “With time and persistence, even a gentle trickle of water can erode a mountain.”
Bennett’s Star Trek novels are always worth reading, including Watching the Clock and Forgotten History.