Dyson Sphere

(Star Trek: The Next Generation 50)
by
Charles Pellegrino

and

George Zebrowski

Pocket, April 1999, 235 pp.
ISBN: 0-671-54173-0

Genre: Science Fiction
Subgenre: TV Tie-In
Reviewed: 3/22/2010

Reviewed by: Conan Tigard

Book Cover

Excerpt

Inside the Dyson Sphere, on board the U.S.S. Darwin,

hurtling out of control toward the Sphere's wall . . .

Picard asked himself if Captain Dalen was capable of taking the ship to its destruction, leaving no time for the crew to escape. The Darwin, an exploratory vessel, carried two smaller craft, but they were as large as small ships and carried equipment far in excess of standard shuttles. They would be enough to carry away the crew into the great space of the Sphere, and reach the lock, which would then be triggered; and the Enterprise would collect the emerging orphans.

Picard turned in the saddle, "Captain Dalen," he said, knowing that the shuttles had also been disabled by the attack, "repairs on the Balboa and the Engford?"

Dalen extruded a rocky digit and poked at a control panel on the side of her saddle. "I have spared all the crew I can to get the Balboa ready," she said, "just in case."

"Status?"

"Same as Darwin. She may be ready a minute earlier--two minutes at the outside--but the best answer I can give is maybe."

Picard did a quick volume, mass, and consumables calculation in his head. "Cramped," he said, "very cramped. But the Balboa is a big enough lifeboat for all of us."

"Ah," said Dalen. "But the Darwin is a great big lifeboat all by herself, isn't she?"

Picard realized that the Horta was resigned to regaining control of the Darwin. In the time left there was little choice but to wait out the repairs.

"And the small lifepods?" he asked.

"Beyond our control," Dalen replied. "We could send personnel out in the manual eject pods, but at this speed they would not gain enough velocity to prevent falling into the Sphere's atmosphere and going plasma."

They would wait out the repairs, Picard thought.

"Riker to Picard."

"Picard here."

"Captain, since the Darwin is not being abandoned, what can we do to help you?"

"In a word," Picard replied, "nothing."

Synopsis

The U.S.S. Enterprise returns to the Dyson Sphere where they had discovered Montgomery Scott a year before. This time, they are met by the U.S.S. Darwin, an exploratory vessel of the Voyager class, and commanded by Captain Dalen. The crew of the Darwin is comprised of Horta, the silicon-based rock creatures Captain Kirk and Spock ran across when miners were mysteriously dying on Janis VI in episode "Devil in the Dark."

While the Enterprise approaches the Dyson Sphere, a singularity opens up and a neutron star appears and is heading on a collision course with the Sphere. The neautron star will make contact in thirteen days. Someone sent the neutron star to destroy the Dyson Sphere and Picard fears it was the Borg.

Captain Picard, Georde LaForge, and Deanna Troi go aboard the Darwin. This ship of archeologists will be going inside the Sphere and gathering as much data as they can before the neutron star makes contact and destroys the Sphere. While they are inside the Sphere, they discover all sorts of intelligent life and are determined to save some of it.

Meanwhile, the Sphere begins the process of moving out of the way of the neutron star, but the sun on the inside of the sphere does not move. Eventually, the sun will pierce the hull of the Sphere leaving the inside of the Dyson Sphere without the life-giving heat and light it needs to sustain itself.

While approaching the sun to see if they can figure out how to make it move with the Sphere, the Darwin is attacked by the satellites that revolve around the sun and damaged as they are flung away. Heading toward the wall of the Sphere with no way of stopping, Picard fears that the Horta captain may not use her best judgment and will not be able to save her ship before they are smashed into the inside of the Sphere..

Dyson Sphere is a science fiction book in the Star Trek: The Next Generation world and was written by Charles Pellegrino and George Zebrowski. It is Star Trek: The Next Generation number 50.

Review

Dyson Sphere takes place during the seventh season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, about a year after the Enterprise  visited the Dyson Sphere in the episode "Relics," season six, episode four, where they found Scotty in stasis after 75 years.

The first problem I had with this story is the Horta. Sure, we know that when Spock mind-melded with the Horta in the episode "Devil in the Dark" that Spocks discovers that they are intelligent creatures. Now, 75 or so years later, they go from being miners and using no tools to commanding a starship. I found this to be a little far-fetched. They don't even appear to have hands or anything in the television episiode, but in this story they seemed to be able to make a starship function. See image on right. It is a Horta.

My second problem with this story was the amount of science in it. Man, sometimes there were just pages and pages of science. I found this all rather boring. I shouldn't have be a scientist to be able to enjoy a Star Trek book. Plus, there isn't much dialog in this story. It is more of what I call a descriptive story. Usually, when this happens, I tend to think of it as a boring story.

My third problem with the book was the lack of Star Trek: The Next Generation characters in it. Captain Picard and the others seemed like they were there just to support Captain Dalen and her crew. Also, the story seemed to focus a lot on the Dyson Sphere itself. Again, I got bored.

The idea of a Dyson Sphere is really cool. The Sphere in the story is incredibly huge. It is so big that I cannot even really imagine it. One of the lakes was so big that multiple Earth's could fit in it. That is big! The story could have been so much better if it was about exploring the Dyson Sphere. But the authors seemed to have gotten lost in wanting to tell us the science behind the Dyson Sphere, rather than entertain us. That is a shame.

The story is somewhat interesting. I had an okay time reading it, I just waited for something exciting to happen. I waited . . . and I waited . . . and I waited. As for the ending . . . I just went, "Huh? Really? That is how you are going to end it?" I felt totally gyped. I didn't like the ending at all.

Overall, Dyson Sphere is mediocre attempt at a Star Trek: the Next Generation book. The concept was cool, but the execution was lacking. it wasn't lacking in science, it was lacking in creating a reader connection to the story. I guess I was pretty disappointed by the story.

I rated this book a 5 out of 10.