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The USS Voyager is running
low on supplies and the warp drive will not be available after
another day. Neelix suggests that a planet called Alcawell may
have the resources that they need to effect repairs. Upon arrival
at the planet, they find hundreds of square miles of abandoned,
ancient, tiny ships. Upon entering one of the ships, Neelix activates
the ship and they are thrown back in time 310,000 years. In doing
so, they have violated Control Ordinance 852.61. After finding
out that the punishment for this violation is death, they attempt
to escape, which is another violation. All attempts to escape
are thwarted when the police force, Control, jumps back to a
time before they attempt their escape and stop them even before
it starts. Meanwhile, on Voyager, the crew is working frantically
to figure out where their crewmates have disappeared to when
the ship that B’Elanna and crew was in returns with a humanoid,
Kjanders, onboard. After taking Kjanders onboard, they learn
about time travel and how it works on this planet. They also
learn that their crewmates are sentenced to death. Janeway orders
an investigation on the time ships to figure out how they can
use them to rescue her people. While on the surface of this extremely
cold and wind-propelled sand planet, a ship begins to hover and
move around, frightening Tom Paris, but not Tuvok. Unbeknownst
to them, a Control agent, Drickel, has attached anti-gravity
pods to the bottom of the time ship and is trying to scare them
away. He has never failed before…and doesn’t plan on
failing now.
This is the first original novel
starring the crew of the USS Voyager. The number of the
book is 2. It is based upon the characters on the television
show Star Trek: Voyager. This story takes place during the first
season of the show, so Kes is still on board and Seven of Nine
has not yet joined the crew.
The characters are a little rough
in this novel. Chacotay does some empath-like thing at the beginning
of the story, like Deanna on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
I don’t ever recall seeing that happen in the show, but
it may have. Another interesting thing is that the Doctor has
a name. It is probably the name of his creator, but as I recall,
he decided later in the show not to have a name because he couldn’t
decide on one that he really liked. Other then those two discrepancies,
I did enjoy the story. It has an interesting plot and I had no
idea how Janeway was going to rescue her crew. I also liked the
way the whole time travel thing worked on Alcawell…it’s
a pretty neat idea. Overall, this was a pretty good read. If
you watch the show, it is a must read. If you just like Star
Trek, you will enjoy the book. If you just want some light science
fiction, this novel could also be up your alley.
I rated this book a 7½
out of 10. |
