Star Trek TNG: Indistinguishable from Magic
{4.5/5} “It’s a sad truth, and one with no consolation to it, that someone must always be the last casualty of a war. All too often it’s an even more unfortunate truth that the last casualty of a war occurs after the armistice has been signed.”
Star Trek: The Next Generation — Indistinguishable from Magic by David A. McIntee, published in 2011
The Enterprise comes across an old ship, NX-07 — the Intrepid from 200 years ago. It seems like it’s the real thing, but there’s no sign of what happened to it or how it got here. Captain Picard sends La Forge over with an away team to check it out. They find the remains of the crew and Doctor Crusher dates them at 2500 years old. When Starfleet puts together some experts to investigate, one of the people they send is Montgomery Scott.
Although it starts aboard the Enterprise, this isn’t an Enterprise story — it quickly switches venue to the Challenger.
Guinan, Reg Barclay, Nog, Leah Brahams, and Berlinghoff Rasmussen also show up for this adventure. Sela, at this point the chairman of the Tal Shiar, also joins in.
The story is in 2 parts. The 1st part involves DaiMon Bok and Rasmussen. The 2nd part involves the Romulans and some unbelievable aliens. Both parts involve a technological mystery.
McIntee’s prose flows delightfully, and it’s a terrific story with old friends.
Although many aspects from other Star Trek adventures are included, it doesn’t feel jumbled — it feels natural. My only quibble is there’s a bit too much technobabble at times.
This is the 1st book by McIntee I’ve read.
December 6th, 2018 at 8:02 pm
I read this one out of order, but it’s very much a standalone story.