Product Description

Captain Jean-Luc Picard, his ship repaired, must now reassemble his crew. With the departure of both William Riker and ship's counsellor Deannna Troi, the captain must replace his two most trusted advisors. He chooses a Vulcan, a logical choice, and for his new first officer, Worf. But the Klingon refuses the promotion and the new ship's counsellor appears to actively dislike Worf. A simple shake-down mission should settle everything. Except that once again, the captain hears the song of the Borg collective. Admiral Janeway is convinced that the Borg have been crushed and are no longer a threat. Picard believes she is wrong, and that if the Enterprise doesn't act the entire Federation will be under the domination of its most oppressive enemy.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #76081 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 320 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780743499552
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author
J.M. Dillard is the author of numerous Star Trek novels, including the movie novelisations GENERATIONS, FIRST CONTACT, INSURRECTION and NEMESIS, and the bestselling non-fiction pictorial history WHERE NO MAN HAS GONE BEFORE.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
1

By ship's morning, Picard woke to find Beverly gone and his mind clear, free of its nocturnal terror. He dressed, and by the time he mentally reviewed the tasks of the day, he had convinced himself that the Borg chatter had been no more than a vestige of the dream.

The first stop was engineering. Picard entered to find the android B-4 sitting, legs sprawled with unselfconscious gracelessness, clad in the mustard jumpsuit he routinely wore. His expression bland and benign, B-4 let his ingenuous gaze wander, without curiosity, over his surroundings. Picard could not determine whether the android had actually registered the captain's entry, or the presence of Geordi La Forge or Beverly Crusher.

"Captain Jean-Luc Picard," B-4 said at last, without inflection. From experience, Picard knew this was not a greeting; B-4 was merely parroting the name of an object he recognized. But for the sake of the others, the captain took it as such.

"Good morning, B-4," he said briskly, with false cheerfulness. Silently, he nodded a greeting to La Forge and Beverly.

Geordi stood next to the android. Beverly stood across from the two of them, her arms folded, her expression carefully professional, that of chief medical officer and nothing more. Technically, since B-4 was not human, what was about to occur could not be called a medical procedure. Nonetheless, Beverly had insisted on coming.

Geordi's features were composed as well, but there was a poignant undercurrent in his prosthetic crystalline eyes. Data had been his closest friend, and spending time with B-4 -- Data's double in physical form only, certainly not in personality, intelligence, or attitude -- had only served to underscore the loss of that friend. Geordi had worked the past few months with B-4 in hopes of summoning Data's memories -- to re-create, if possible, all that Data had been.

The effort had proved cruelly futile. B-4 had regurgitated names, snippets of events from Data's past, but had never put them into context, had never shown the slightest interest in their meaning.

But as he had wandered the Enterprise's corridors, Geordi so often in tow, B-4 had kept Data's ghost alive for them all. Picard still struggled with a sense of guilt: in the most human and loving of gestures, Data had sacrificed himself so that his captain and crewmates might live. Even months later, Picard was visited too often by the horrible instant of materializing on the bridge, of seeing the dazzling flash of the Scimitar's destruction, of knowing that Data was dead, incinerated into nonexistence...

There had not even been time enough to say good-bye. He missed Deanna Troi dreadfully; she was serving with her husband Will Riker aboard the Titan now, and only in her absence had Picard come to realize how much he had relied on her as a counselor not only in professional matters but in personal ones as well. He was limited now to remembering what she had told him shortly before she left the Enterprise with Will:

Data's final act was one that brought him the most happiness; it gave his entire existence the greatest meaning. Yes, he could have lived centuries longer...but what's the use of immortality if there's no meaning to it?

Case in point, Picard thought, looking at the android in front of him. As the captain took his place beside Beverly, B-4 sat staring vacuously, oblivious to the feelings of the humans surrounding him. Data, of course, would have been keenly aware. Picard tried, and was entirely unsuccessful, to suppress a memory: Data, standing in the scalded dust of the desert world Kolarus, lifting B-4's head from the sand and holding it before his eyes in unwitting imitation of Hamlet contemplating Yorick's skull. Brother, Data had called him. So like Data, to have yearned for the closest of human relationships.

"B-4," Geordi said, with the same gentle tone he had used so often with his old friend, "do you realize what we're about to do?" La Forge unconsciously fingered the laser wrench in his hand. Nearby sat open storage compartments: one the size of a torso, another that of a human cranium. A third was designed to house limbs. B-4 would soon return to the state in which they had first discovered him: disassembled.

The android looked in turn at each of them: Beverly, Picard, then back at Geordi.

"You are sending me away," B-4 said.

"Yes," Geordi answered, his tone infinitely patient. "You're going to the Daystrom Institute. They're going to study you and learn about your design, how you were made."

"How I was made," B-4 echoed tonelessly. He glanced at the storage compartments, then at the deck.

"We're going to deactivate you now," Geordi persisted. "Most likely permanently. We talked about all this, remember?"

"I remember," B-4 replied, distracted by the movement of another engineer passing by en route to her station.

Apparently more for himself than the android, Geordi added, "It's a good thing you're doing, B-4. You're helping science."

After a brief silence, B-4 looked up at La Forge and asked abruptly, "What is it like to be deactivated?"

Geordi was caught off guard; Beverly stepped in.

"It's like...nothing," she said. "Like being nowhere at all. It's not uncomfortable. Humans might compare it to a dreamless sleep."

"Nothing?" B-4 tilted his head in painful imitation of Data.

Geordi recovered and nodded. "You won't see or hear anything. You'll no longer receive any input."

B-4 blinked, considering this. "That sounds very boring. I do not think I want to be deactivated now."

Geordi shot an openly helpless glance at Picard. Beside him, Beverly shifted her weight, clearly uncomfortable.

"B-4," Picard said sternly, "it's too late to change your mind. You already agreed to be deactivated. That was a good decision, one you must abide by." Now was not the time for dialogue. True, the situation might trigger memories of a lost friend, but swift action was required lest it turn maudlin. B-4 was not Data, and that was that.

There followed a slight pause. "All right," B-4 answered mildly.

Picard directed a curt nod at Geordi. "Please deactivate B-4, Mister La Forge."

Geordi hesitated no more than a heartbeat, then with his free hand, reached for a panel at the back of B-4's neck, opened it, and pressed a control.

B-4 froze: his eyes no longer blinked, his head no longer moved, his limbs no longer fidgeted in realistic representation of human motion. Even the blandly pleasant expression had resolved into one of soulless vacancy. In less than a millisecond, he was transformed from sentient being to inanimate object.

Picard had expected the moment after to be the easiest. To his surprise, it was the hardest -- for there, in front of them, sat Data, just as he had appeared all the times they had been forced to shut him down. There was no longer B-4's vacant expression and witless repetition to remind them that this was someone, something else. Picard's throat tightened; he recalled a time, many years ago, when Command had wanted to deactivate Data for study. He remembered how hard and eloquently he and Data had argued against it, and won.

Now it felt as though he had ultimately lost.

Standing beside Picard, Beverly gave a few rapid blinks, then regained her composure. Geordi, his tone soft, his words forced, said, "I'll finish up here, Captain. He'll be ready for shipment within the hour." He lifted the laser wrench in his hand and fingered a toggle.

"Very good," Picard said. He turned on his heel and tried to leave Data's memory behind, in engineering -- just as he had earlier dismissed the dream about the Borg.

It had been a strange night, followed by a strange morning; Picard could not entirely rid himself of the odd feeling the world had somehow gone awry. Nothing more than mental phantoms, he exhorted himself. Nothing real: just ghosts. Ghosts and whispers...

As he rode the turbolift up toward the bridge, Picard's mood gradually began to lighten. His next task would be a far happier one: he had been planning an announcement with great care. The previous night, after he had received some anticipated news from Starfleet Command, he and Beverly had each enjoyed a glass of wine and laughed over his nefarious plan for delivering said news. They had planned, too, a small celebration of the senior crew after hours.

Picard was nearly smiling when the turbolift slowed and arrived at the bridge, but by the time the doors opened, he had already forced a frown in order to produce a properly grim expression.

The Enterprise bridge was a study in silent efficiency: a recent transfer from Security, Lieutenant Sara Nave, straw-colored hair loosely coiled at her neck, sat at the conn, studying the stars on the main viewscreen. Nave's serious expression and consummate professionalism belied her off-duty behavior. At the academy, she'd had a reputation as a fun-loving hellion -- the captain recalled that several senior officers had used the same label for him. Unlike her captain, Nave had graduated at the top of her class and was one of the best in her field.

Born on Rigel to human parents -- both of them high-ranking officers in Starfleet -- Nave had been a prodigy, convinced from early childhood that she wanted to follow in her family's footsteps. Her academic record was stellar enough to convince Starfleet Academy to grant her early admission; after an accelerated program, she graduated at the age of eighteen. She was now twenty-five, with seven years of outstanding service under her belt -- though it was hard sometimes for Picard to believe it, given the fact that Nave looked even younger than she was. Her pixielike features would always give her the appearance of youth, even into old age.

She was not a tall woman, though her limbs were lithe and long -- yet her strength was formidable, in part because she had started in Security. She regularly practiced mock combat with Worf using the bat'leth -- the quarter-moon-shaped Klingon scimitar -- albeit with a slight handicap. Picard was glad to see the two had formed a friendship. Worf did not take easily to new people.

A faint crease appeare...

Customer Reviews

Average At Best: A Review [Spoiler Free]
Star Trek: The Next Generation 'Resistance' is an okay novel. First, its strengths; finally, we get a TNG book that attempts to blend in elements and parts of the different shows into the plot. You have Worf dealing with his actions in "Deep Space Nine" and showing that he still hasn't gotten over the death of Jadzia Dax. You have Picard showing that even after 'First Contact', he still has issues with the Borg. The Enterprise is still reeling from the events of 'Nemesis' and trying to welcome in new officers, such as Counselor T'Lana who for me made this novel far more interesting than the premise set it up to be. Worf (as you can read from the premise) turning down a promotion. Picard 'losing it' which seems to be a theme with the whole 'A Time To ...' series. Crusher dealing with the events of Nemesis, the 'A Time To ...' series, and the novel 'Death in Winter.'

Another good point is that this really is an easy read. The tone of it is very much 'The Next Generation', even without Data, Riker and Troi, from start to finish, I felt as if I was reading and visualizing an episode of the show and it carried with it the feeling of 'Encounter at Farpoint' with the new crew members trying to blend in with officers (like Crusher, Picard, Worf and Geordi) who are already familiar with one another. Counselor T'Lana proves to be a point of conflict, not conforming or fitting in as Deanna Troi did. This was a welcome addition to the crew. But, it did feel as if she was a cookie-cutter Vulcan echoing Enterprise's T'Pol more than a truly original character. I actually enjoyed seeing Worf mature and grow with this novel. I was glad to see the Picard/Crusher relationship actually going somewhere. I enjoyed reading about Kathryn Janeway and Picard bumping heads after their rather friendly exchange from nowhere in "Nemseis".

What brought the novel down for me was the main conflict and premise. The Borg. I was waiting for something mind blowing, edgey, fresh, just as the premise promises. Yet, this felt like a continuation of "Best of Both Worlds" and "Star Trek: First Contact." By the end, I felt asif the plot was a let down. It's a rehash of dozens of episodes dealing with the Borg. Yes, the Borg and TNG go together nicely and it's an obvious choice to 'relaunch' TNG series, but really, it doesn't seem necessary. It seems dull, rushed, almost like a clip show. It was like reading a script for "Best of Both Worlds" with a footnote to Voyager's "End Game." There were parts when I felt it jumped the shark, from Picard having another "First Contact" moment and feeling as if he could hear and predict what they Borg were doing, to the entire crew except one person being in full support of him when as a reader it seemed like a very bad, reckless, "you can't be serious" idea. It doesn't come off as 'cool' or 'hip', it left me personally wishing they had chosen something original to launch this great series and characters on.

What was also distracting was the new host of characters. The plot is geared toward some and yet only works if you as a reader care for them or what happens with them. These aren't characters we've been following for 20 years. You really have no reason at all to care about them or 'feel' for them and so their actions and story arcs feel like a pointless, distracting plot. By the end, with the 'new people' plot intruding in the main plot, I kept yelling for the plot to go back to our main slew of heroes. Poor Geordi La Forge, yet again, is shafted in this novel, left with hardly anything at all to do or say. Thankfully, Crusher does get a beefed up plot, far better than that of "Death in Winter" or any TNG film besides "First Contact." Still, if you're expecting anything new with the Borg, don't set your hopes too high. It was a let down and, in my opinion, a waste of a novel. Like an 80s TNG episode, many of the problems are nice and cleanly wrapped up in the sum of 306 pages with predictable twists, cliches that'll make you cringe, leading you to pray the upcoming novels "Q&A" and "Before Dishonor" help this relaunch really take off.

Even with the rather unorignial plot, distracting extras, the feel of it being like professional fan-fic, many points that jump the shark, it's not a bomb and it was nice to read about the transition of what was to what will be 'The Next Generation' story and cast. Give it a read and be your own judge.

A good read
I was a HUGE ST:TNG fan in the early nineties, and - being an avid reader as well - really got into the books for a while. Death in Winter intrigued me (being a big Beverly Crusher fan; I'm also a redheaded female scientist), but it disappointed. I was looking forward to this book. The Borg cliffhanger is what got me hooked on the series to begin with, and I was anxious to see the Picard/Crusher relationship addressed.

After reading the reviews, I bought the book expecting disappointment. I got nothing of the sort. I really enjoyed this book. The central theme was emotion versus duty. It was reflected in: T'Lana/Wozniak, Worf/Jadzia, Picard/Crusher, and Lio/Sara. I found it a very good read.

This book has convinced me to start reading Star Trek novels again. I just love these characters too much to give them up!

Resist Buying
This book for me summed up much of what is wrong with the Star Trek franchise right now. Offering nothing new or fresh, the book is merely a rewriting of plots from earlier episodes and films. I realize that there are only so many ideas out there, but come on. It was like someone was handed a one paragraph summary of each character and was told to remind readers at every opportunity of the show's past successes like First Contact (Make sure you work in that Ahab line!), Best Of Both Worlds (Make him Locutus again! The fans loved that!), and the already well covered Worf "I Miss My Dax" storyline of DS9 season 7 and every Worf appearance since then.

Picard's "daring" plan isn't shot down immediately, because nobody mentions how poorly the idea worked out when Voyager's crew tried it. Everybody knows who Seven of Nine is, but didn't read the reports on Voyager's attempt at this same thing when Tuvok and Janeway tried it? I guess they don't have Tivo on the Enterprise. Or mission reports. Or common sense.

If you have watched Unimatrix Zero, and the episodes and films mentioned above, you'll have about twelve pages of new material in this book. The Worf's promotion storyline, which I thought would help the later parts of the story, almost became an afterthought.

Nothing New. Nothing Compelling. This book is a cash grab and will only eat away at more of the loyalty of the Star Trek fanbase. Avoid it and save some of your wallet's goodwill for their next try.

By the way, I didn't like this book.