Book picks similar to
The Empty Chair by Diane Duane


star-trek
science-fiction
sci-fi
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Captain's Peril


William Shatner - 2002
    The Federation is at peace. What better time for two legendary starship captains to set aside the demands of duty and take some well-deserved time off? When Kirk and Picard arrive on Bajor to dive among the ruins of an ancient sunken city, things are far worse than they had planned.

The Case of the Colonist's Corpse


Bob Ingersoll - 2004
    Cogley, a cranky old man who prefers books to padds and people to computers. Now, once again, it's SAM COGLEY FOR THE DEFENSE!The planet Aneher II sits in the middle of the Neutral Zone, and neither the Klingon™ Empire nor the Federation can claim it. Under the terms of the Organian Peace Treaty, any such contested colony world will go to the party -- Federation or Klingon -- which shows it can best develop the planet.At first the two colonies live in peace, but it's a fragile peace, one shattered when Administrator Daniel Latham, the head of the Federation colony, is found murdered, and Commander Mak'Tor, the head of the Klingon colony, is found crouched over Latham's body, discharged phaser still hot in his hand.When Lieutenant Areel Shaw of Starfleet is assigned to prosecute Mak'Tor, Sam Cogley volunteers to defend the accused Klingon. But when Cogley's own investigation provides the prosecution with its key piece of evidence and his courtroom tactics unexpectedly backfire, can even the galaxy's most brilliant defense attorney win the day in...The Case of the Colonist's Corpse

Seeds of Rage


Kevin Ryan - 2005
    Even as Federation Ambassador Robert Fox engages in tense negotiations with the Klingon ambassador to maintain the peace, Captain James T. Kirk of the "Starship Enterprise"(TM) sees his vessel refit from a ship of exploration into a ship of war. The coming conflict will take its toll on many personal lives as well...Leslie Parrish: The security supervisor is stunned to learn that she is pregnant by her recently killed lover, Jon Anderson -- and that Anderson was, in fact, a Klingon spy, surgically altered to pass as human.Karel: Brother of the Klingon agent posing as Anderson, and responsible for his death, Captain Koloth's new first officer faces a crisis of faith as he sees the Klingon Empire falling into dishonorable ruin.Michael Fuller: Father of "Enterprise" security supervisor Sam Fuller, who was killed in a battle with the Klingons, his son's death reminds him of Donatu V, of which he was one of the few survivors. Has Fuller reenlisted in Starfleet and joined the "Enterprise" security team out of loyalty -- or vengeance?The first in an all-new seriesSEEDS OF RAGE

Harbinger


David Mack - 2005
    Enterprise™ journeys through the Taurus Reach, a vast and little-known region of space in which a new starbase has been unexpectedly established. Puzzled by the Federation's interest in an area so far from its borders and so near the xenophobic Tholian Assembly, Captain James T. Kirk orders the Enterprise to put in for repairs at the new space station: Starbase 47, also known as Vanguard. As Kirk ponders the mystery of the enormous base, he begins to suspect that there is much more to Vanguard than meets the eye. It's a suspicion shared by the Tholians, the Orions, and the Klingon Empire, each of whom believes that there are less than benign motives behind the Federation's sudden and unexplained desire to explore and colonize the Taurus Reach. But when a calamity deep within the Reach threatens to compromise Starfleet's continued presence in the region, Kirk, Spock, and several key specialists from the Enterprise must assist Vanguard's crew in investigating the cause of the disaster and containing the damage. In the process, they learn the true purpose behind the creation of Vanguard, and what the outcome of its mission may mean for life throughout that part of the galaxy. Inside: Bonus diagrams of Vanguard station!

Serpents in the Garden


Jeffrey J. Mariotte - 2014
    Kirk found himself caught up in a growing conflict on the planet Neural. To maintain the balance of power against a force being armed by the Klingons, he provided weapons to his friends, the Hill People. Years later, Admiral Kirk learns that the Klingon presence on the planet has grown considerably, in possible violation of the Treaty of Organia. Did his impulse as a young captain turn out disastrously wrong? Should he–could he–have done more to eliminate the Klingon threat? To find out, he embarks on a secret mission back to Neural–where he might just be the only person who can prevent an interstellar war.

Hollow Men


Una McCormack - 2005
    What began as a desperate attempt to save lives became a descent into an abyss of deception, moral compromises, and outright criminal acts, as Sisko sacrificed every ideal he held dear in order to preserve the civilization that espoused those selfsame principles.Now the aftermath of that choice is revealed for the first time as Sisko is summoned to Earth to take part in the first Allied talks to come out of the Federation's new partnership with the Romulans. But Sisko's conscience weighs heavily on him, compelling him to seek some kind of penance for what he has done...while elements within Starfleet itself set in motiona scheme to use Elim Garak as a pawn against a human political dissident who may hold the key to the outcome of the war.HOLLOW MENA TALE OF THE DOMINION WAR

McCoy: The Provenance Of Shadows


David R. George III - 2006
    In that split second, defined paradoxically by both salvation and loss, they will destroy the world and then restore it. Much had come before, and much would come after, but nothing would color their lives more than that one, isolated instant on the edge of forever.IN A SINGLE MOMENT…Leonard McCoy, displaced in time, saves a woman from dying in a traffic accident, and in so doing alters Earth's history. Stranded in the past, he struggles to find a way back to his own century. But living an existence he was not meant to, he will eventually have to move on, and ultimately face the shadows born of his lost life.IN A SINGLE MOMENT…Leonard McCoy, displaced in time, is prevented from saving a woman from dying in a traffic accident, allowing Earth's history to remain unchanged. Returning to the present, he encounters a medical mystery he is committed to solving. But the echoes of an existence he never lived haunt him, and the specter of a premature death will bring him full circle to the shadows he has never faced.

The Lost Years


J.M. Dillard - 1989
    Spock, and Dr. McCoy struggle to establish new lives apart from each other and the starship. The newly-promoted Admiral Kirk is placed in charge of a specially-created Starfleet division and attempts to defuse a critical hostage situation; Mr. Spock, who, in the midst of a teaching assignment on Vulcan, finds the one thing he least expected; and Dr. McCoy, whose unerring instinct for trouble lands him smack in the middle of an incident that could trigger an interstellar bloodbath.

Infinity's Prism


William Leisner - 2008
    Our choices determine which outcome will follow, and therefore all possibilities that could happen do happen across countless alternate realities. In these divergent realms, known history is bent, like white light through a prism -- broken into a boundless spectrum of what-might-have-beens. But in those myriad universes, what might have been...is what actually happened.A LESS PERFECT UNION: More than a hundred yeas after the Terra Prime movement achieved its dream of an isolated Earth, humanity is once again at a fork in the river of history...and the path it follows may ultimately be determined by the voice of a single individual: the sole surviving crewmember of the first Starship Enterprise.PLACES OF EXILE: Midway through Voyager's journey across the galaxy, Captain Kathryn Janeway and Commander Chakotay must choose whether to brave a deadly war zone or abandon their quest for home. But an attack by Species 8472 cripples the ship, and the stranded crew must make new choices that will reshape their destinies...and that of the Delta Quadrant itself.SEEDS OF DISSENT: Khan victorious! Almost four centuries after conquering their world, genetically enhanced humans dominate a ruthless interstellar empire. But the warship Defiance, under its augmented commander, Princeps Julian Bashir, makes a discovery that could shake the pillars of his proud civilization: an ancient sleeper ship from Earth named the Botany Bay.

Devil's Bargain


Tony Daniel - 2013
    Kirk and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise are sent to evacuate the Omega sector frontier colony Vesbius—a pioneer settlement that is on the brink of an extinction-level event threatening not only all of the colonists, but biological products that are vital to Starfleet. However, rescue efforts are being thwarted by the colonists themselves, who refuse to abandon Vesbius, claiming that their lives depend upon staying, while giving no reason why. It is after these irrational decisions that First Officer Spock makes a radical suggestion: Perhaps an unexpected ally could aid the colony and help complete the mission. . . .

Gemini


Mike W. Barr - 2003
    Kirk and Dr. McCoy must stretch themselves to the limit as assassination attempts threaten the war-ravaged world of Nador's fragile hope of peace. The starship Enterprise is assigned to attend the ceremony that will unite a world. The focus of the ceremony is a pair of Siamese Twins named Abon and Delor who represent the united factions of the planet Nador. Disaster strikes when assassination attempts are made against the twins, who embody the hopes and dreams of the formerly war-torn planet's entire population. Captain James T. Kirk must root out the assassins from whatever hiding places they are striking from - whether they be hidden in deep places or even in plain sight. Meanwhile, Dr. McCoy must perform a radical surgical procedure in a desperate attempt to save Abon and Delor's lives.

The Art of the Impossible


Keith R.A. DeCandido - 2003
    To the Klingons, a matter of honour. But the eighteen-year cold war between these two empires -- euphemistically remembered in later years as the Bretaka Nebula Incident -- creates a vortex of politics, diplomacy and counterintelligence that will define an age, and shape the future. What begins as a discovery that would enable the Klingon Empire to reclaim a lost piece of its past becomes a prolonged struggle with the rapidly expanding Cardassian Union, which has claimed dominion over a region of space that the Klingons hold sacred. Enter the Federation, whose desire to preserve interstellar space leads Ambassador Curzon Dax to broker a controversial and tenuous peace -- one that is not without opponents, amongst them Lieutenant Elias Vaughan of Starfleet special ops. But there are wheels within wheels to the drama unfolding in the Betreka Nebula. Within the shadowy rooms of the Cardassian Obsidian Order, Klingon Imperial Intelligence, and even the Romulan Tal Shiar, secret scales are being balanced -- and for every gain made for the sake of peace, there will come a loss.

Enterprise: The First Adventure


Vonda N. McIntyre - 1986
    Kirk is the youngest man to be promoted to the rank of captain in Federation history. His crew consists of a first officer who finds him impetuous; a chief engineer who finds him arrogent; a chief medical officer who finds him trifling; and a helmsman who wants a transfer. But the young crew, which would later become the legendary space explorers, quickly puts aside their differences when a monstrous starship appears on their nascent flight path.

Well of Souls


Ilsa J. Bick - 2003
    But while her exploits are legend, little has been revealed about Rachel Garrett, her vessel, or the unusual men and women of her crew. Until now. When the archeological find of the decade hints at an earlier Cardassian civilization, it attracts not merely academics and knowledge-seekers but also those with far less noble interests. Among them is Asfar Qatala, a notorious criminal cartel with a disturbing connection to one of the highest-ranking officers on the Enterprise. Captain Garrett and her crew find themselves swept in to a maelstrom of kidnapping, extortion and murder -- as well as a desperate, secret struggle between the Qatala and its chief rival, the fledgling Orion Syndicate. And beneath the surface of the frozen world on which the proto-Cardassian discovery was made, another drama is playing out that will force Captain Garrett to make the most difficult decision of her career...amid ruins reputed to link the living with the dead.

Spock Must Die!


James Blish - 1970
    Spocks! One is the true First Officer of the Enterprise. The other is his complete opposite, a traitor whose very existence poses a grave threat to the crew, the ship, and the Federation itself. One of the Spocks must die. But which one ... ?