ST: TOS: Elusive Salvation By Dayton Ward - The Follow On To From History's Shadow Proves That Lightning Does Strike Twice! - Great Book

Star Trek: The Original Series: Elusive Salvation by Dayton Ward

A while back, I read and reviewed Dayton Ward’s From History’s Shadow, an original series novel in that covered and expanded on threads found in original series Star Trek (TOS: Season 2, Episode 26 “Assignment Earth”), Deep Space Nine (DS9 Season 4, Episode 8 “Little Green Men), as well as Enterprise (ENT: Season 2, Episode 2 “Carbon Creek). That one was a unique view not only bringing together three of my favorite episodes of Trek, but adding a lot more, including real-world history that resulted in a stand alone, fun, and entertaining bit of writing. It was sincerely my hope that the author would see fit to write a sequel.

Well, I am happy to say that Dayton did follow up with a new story entitled Elusive Salvation.

While History’s Shadow was set about a week after the events of Assignment Earth, Elusive Salvation takes place about two years before the events of Wrath of Kahn, but also spans three different time periods.

In 1945, around the around the time the UFO phenomenon was just in its infancy, an alien ship crash lands in the Arctic with members of a race of beings that are fleeing from oppression.  The aliens are able to survive thanks to their wits and their technology while waiting for rescue from their own people. In 2283, Admiral James T. Kirk is assigned to Starfleet Command performing some rather mundane duties including lecturing Starfleet Academy cadets as they prepare for their own careers. On board the Enterprise, Captain Spock takes trainees on cruises and Dr. McCoy conducts research on Jupiter Station. All is well until an unidentified ship enters the solar system and takes up orbit near Neptune, Kirk is reassigned to Enterprise and he and Spock go to investigate the new arrival. In 1970, Gary Seven’s now trained and very competent assistant Roberta Lincoln minds the office while Seven is away on assignment. She is surprised to receive a communication from the future asking for her aid in a situation involving the aliens that crash-land in 1945 as well as the new arrivals at Neptune.

Everything comes together as Kirk, Spock, and Roberta try to resolve a sticky situation all the while trying to avoid polluting the timeline and being pursued by U.S. Government authorities who are charged with investigating UFO phenomena.

As I mentioned earlier, I was hoping for another story in this vein and was not in the least disappointed in what Dayton has given us. As usual, in Dayton’s stories, there is plenty of Trek action and the exchanges between the characters are well within what I have come to know and feel comfortable with. As usual, Spock is the brains while Kirk is the brawn and McCoy contributes by finding out the answers to the big question of a medical issue placed upon one alien race by another. The story is very fast paced and easy to read and follow, especially during the switches in time lines, which were seamless.

For me, the star of the show in this story was Roberta Lincoln. She has grown up a lot from the young, idealistic woman in the TOS episode that introduced her. At that time, she was a little scramble-brained, but had a good command of her convictions as well as a great sense of humor. The only thing that has changed about her is that she does not appear a naive as she was in the episode Assignment Earth, but has become very intelligent and is able to handle difficult situations while her mentor serves on assignment elsewhere and out of touch.

While the entire story was entertaining and fun, I found the last two chapters of the book the most intriguing. The first of the two Dayton calls “One Last Thing,” in which Roberta witnesses an event that starts another whale of a tale from Trek lore that we who are Trekkies will understand immediately. The last chapter entitled “One More Thing After That” points to an the origins of a very notorious organization that will impact stories and lives in the Trek universe for decades, to come. It is my hope that perhaps the author might consider continuing with the seeds he planted in these final two chapters.

I recommend Elusive Salvation as a great follow-on to From History’s Shadow, but keep in mind that both of the books in this “series” are stand-alone tales that need not be read in order.

Well, there it is…

Qaplah!

Aliens Among Us - A Review of Dayton Ward's "From History's Shadow"

From History’s Shadow by Dayton Ward (2013)

Way back in April, Dayon Ward announced that his new novel, From History’s Shadow was to be released in July, and that it was available for pre-order.  So, it might not surprise you that I did pre-order.  Little did I realize at the time what a ride I was in for when it finally arrived on my Kindle, as promised on July 30^th.  

The action in the book is ever present, so therefore I am not going to go into a lot of plot details this time.  The plot is pretty well covered on the liner notes.

I liked everything about this story.  While it is a TOS era story, the Enterprise and Crew aren’t as dominant in the story as much as one would expect, but when Kirk and company are involved, it is an intricate part of a much larger story.  

Briefly, the Enterprise is depicted in the year 2268, about a week following the events of the TOS episode Assignment Earth.  The bulk of the story is follows events surrounding Captain Jim Wainwright from the DS-9 episode, "Little Green Men," and spans over twenty years of his life and his involvement with UFO and aliens residing on Earth, and with Project Blue Book.

A race of beings called the Certoss are convinced that if the people of the Earth learn to travel in space, they will cause the destruction of the Certoss.  The Certoss make it their mission to assure that this doesn’t happen by making sure that the people of the Earth get themselves into a nuclear war.  The US is launching a test flight of the Saturn V rocket (from "Assignment Earth"), but this test flight is actually a nuclear weapons platform.  The Certoss know that if they sabotage this rocket, it will trigger a global nuclear war.  The agents of the civilization that trained Gary Seven, as well as the crew of the Enterprise know that the Certoss and the people of Earth will have a good relationship and make have to make it their mission to be sure that the Certoss fail in their mission.  This is the main plot of the story, but there is so much more to the story.  Dayton Ward calls on his knowledge of all  the Trek episodes that are involved with alien presences on Earth.

The Roswell Incident in 1947 was actually a result of Quark, Rom, and Nog accidentally coming to earth of the past while transporting Nog to Starfleet Academy in the "Little Green Men" episode of DS-9.  In that episode, Nog tells General Rex Denning that the Ferengi are planning a full scale invasion of the Earth.  Captain Wainwright, witnesses this as an aid to the general.  Wainwright is transferred to another location soon after and becomes vigilant in monitoring alien activity, never forgetting the Ferengi threat.

Mestral, who arrives on Earth as the result of the accidental crash of a Vulcan surveyship, later decides to remain on Earth to observe.  He becomes fascinated the the people and the culture he learns about in "Carbon Creek", A small mining town in Pennsylvania, and decides that in order to get a complete picture of human culture, must travel and learn.  Eventually, he meets Wainwright, and also travels to the future to meet the Enterprise crew to assist in thwarting the Certoss plans.

Roberta Lincoln, who has begun her training as an agent under Supervisor Gary Seven, is thrust into also assisting the Enterprise crew in convincing the Certoss of their folly. Gary Seven and other agents all work to keep the Certoss at bay, and some lose their lives.

So what Dayton has done in his novel is to bring together a tapestry from the threads of several different stories in Trek lore.  I have seen all of the involved episodes, but never would have imagined how they could have been woven together so neatly.  It really speaks to the genius of the author for him to take all of the canon episodes he called on to make a story that is very coherent and logical, almost as though all of the separate stories were actually meant to be connected.

I should also mention that he calls on two other episodes not mentioned earlier in this review, those being the TOS episode Tomorrow is Yesterday in which Captain Christopher of the USAF is accidentally abducted by the Enterprise, and the Voyager two part Future’s End episodes.

I have read a lot of Star Trek novels, novellas, and short stories, and have to say that this is, in my opinion, one of the best and most enjoyable Trek stories I have ever read.

Well, there it is…

QaplaH’!