Star Trek: Enterprise — To Brave the Storm
{4.5/5} “Home wasn’t usually far from his mind, but on this day of all days — Valentine’s Day marked not only the fourth anniversary of the successful resolution of the Xindi crisis, but also the passage of three years since his ‘death’ aboard Enterprise — he was particularly aware of the immense gulf that separated him from everything and everyone he’d ever cared about.”
Star Trek: Enterprise — The Romulan War: To Brave the Storm by Michael A. Martin, published in 2011
The Enterprise is stuck close to home, and Captain Archer is giving away food and other supplies to any ship their encounter. He hasn’t been able to convince any official government to join Earth against the Romulans, but he has some unofficial support — from Shran, and even the Klingons. Meanwhile, Trip undertakes a mission to find Terix, a Romulan disguised as a Vulcan.
It’s a bit unusual for a Star Trek novel, as the story (apart from the epilogue) takes place over a period of 5 years.
It provides an explanation of why the technology on the bridge on The Original Series was so much different than Enterprise. The systems on the NX-01 are vulnerable to the Romulans’ weapon, and the NCC-1701 systems were specifically created to defeat it.
The story builds to a satisfying conclusion, and the next author of the continuing story of Enterprise certainly has many options about where it could go from here.
I’ve read 4 books by Martin, plus 6 books by Martin and Andy Mangels. The previous entry in the story of the 22nd century is The Romulan War: Beneath the Raptor’s Wing by Martin.