Tales of the Dominion War

One of the unique (as far as Star Trek TV series go, anyway) things about Deep Space Nine was the two-year "Dominion War," where the shapeshifters from the Gamma Quadrant allied with the Cardassians and waged war on the other Alpha Quadrant races (beginning with the Klingons and the Federation, and eventually, the Romulans). Of course, being a television series about Deep Space Nine, the series couldn't really delve into what was going on in other parts of the Federation. We get no clue what the crew of the Enterprise was doing, for example. We hear about some things, of course. Betazed, the home planet of Counselor Deanna Troi of the Enterprise, was conquered by the Dominion, prompting Captain Sisko to do whatever he had to do to get the Romulans to join forces. There was an attack on San Francisco. You get the picture.

Keith R.A. DeCandido, editor of Tales of the Dominion War decided that these holes needed to be filled. Since there is a lot of Trek franchises bouncing around these days (there is the Enterprise, the Starfleet Corps of Engineers, the Excalibur, and Original Series characters as well), why not have a book of short stories that tell some of these tales? You've got your title all made up for you, too, so you don't have to work very hard at that. DeCandido lined up the best and the brightest of the current crop of Trek authors to give us a sampling of the huge events that took place during this war. The stories are mostly good, but a few clunkers along the way as well as some good stories with questionable elements keep this from being a top notch book. It was interesting to see all the different facets of the Trek universe and how they dealt with the war. There are even a couple of Deep Space Nine stories as well, which was nice. Most of the stories are worth reading with some real gems in there as well. Good stuff.

The Stories

"What Dreams May Come" – by Michael Jan Friedman
This story just mystified me. "What Dreams May Come" is the story of a Vorta (one of the Dominion toadies who keep the footsoldiers in line) on an isolated Federation world conquered by the Dominion. It's a quiet little place and he's really set in his ways. He has made servants of some of the local populace, but one of them isn't who he says he is. He relates to the Vorta a dream that he had, one where his people attacked the Dominion base. A dream that turns out to be all too real. At its heart, the story is extremely basic, but that quality makes it really uninteresting. If Friedman was trying to say anything with the story or do anything with it, I didn't catch it. It just sits there. While it's only a few pages long and doesn't take any time to get through, it does begin the book on a wrong note.

"Night of the Vulture" – by Greg Cox
A Cardassian spy and some Jem'Hadar soldiers take a clandestine trip to Earth to pick up a Founder (shapeshifter), who has the codes to the mines that are keeping the Dominion from bringing reinforcements through the wormhole. Unfortunately, they happen upon the cloud creature from the Original Series episode "Day of the Dove," a creature that lives on violence. The cloud sets to work on everybody, heightening tensions until the bloody climax, not letting anybody die until it's had its fill. Unfortunately, it gets too greedy. This story almost broke my "unnecessary continuity" meter, but it ultimately is kind of interesting. It highlights the simmering tensions between Cardassia and the Dominion even before that tension manifested itself on the television show. Unfortunately, it was way too predictable.

"The Ceremony of Innocence is Drowned" – by Keith R.A. DeCandido
The invasion of Betazed, mentioned in the episode "In the Pale Moonlight," is shown here in brutal detail. Lwaxana Troi, Deanna's mother, is entertaining friends when the attack comes. It shows the devastation and the horrors that ensue when a world of telepaths is conquered. Those without good mental shields would go crazy with all the anguish and fear from everybody on the planet flooding into their brain. This is quite an effective story, and I say this as a decided anti-fan of Lwaxana. Perhaps that means that it's Majel Barrett I don't like? Anyway, in this story she's her normal arrogant self, but she's quickly cut down to size by the attack. She realizes that somebody has to help organize the resistance. DeCandido does a wonderful job with the characterization in this one, and the story is only marred by a bit of unnecessary continuity (I don't think it was established in the post-DS9 book continuity that Thriss had ever been stationed on Betazed, but if somebody can point me to a passage, I'll gladly correct this). It's tense and it's vivid, two very important things in a story like this. Well done.

"Blood Sacrifice" – by Josepha Sherman & Susan Schwartz
The Romulan emperor has been assassinated, and fingers are pointing all over the place. Some think the Praetor, Neral, had him killed to bring Romulus into the Dominion War. Others think that it may have been for religious reasons. Ambassador Spock, on Romulus trying to work toward Romulan unification with Vulcan, sets out to find the truth. Sherman & Schwartz bring Ruanek, their Romulan character from their Trek stories, back to Romulus to aid in the investigation. While I think they paper over too many details on how he could get back to Romulus since he's been exiled, and what happens to him after he's done, it's still an interesting story. The way Spock and Ruanek trip up the perpetrator is well done. I still find their characterization of Spock a little grating, but between this and Vulcan's Soul: Exodus,it's starting to grow on me.

"Mirror Eyes" – by Heather Jarman & Jeffrey Lang
Now this is more like it. I said in my review of This Gray Spirit that I loved Jarman's writing and I just wished that she gave me some characters to care about. Here, she does. Jarman & Lang tell the story of a Romulan spy on Deep Space Nine who is there when a ship full of sick Vulcans comes to the station. It seems they've been infected by an insidious Dominion virus which is beginning to affect others as well, but it hits Vulcans the worst. Of course, Seret is masquerading as a Vulcan, so it becomes an issue when she doesn't get as bad as all the other Vulcans. Told in the style of journal entries (which she admits that she shouldn't be recording), this is an interesting examination of who we are. She's a deep cover agent, so she doesn't even remember her real name. The story features Dr. Crusher from the Enterprise, Dr. Bashir from Deep Space Nine, with a guest appearance by Dr. McCoy. But the star of the show is Selet and her reactions to everything. I don't know which author was responsible for what, but given what I've seen of Jarman, I would bet Seret was mostly hers. This is an extremely well-done story.

"Twilight's Wrather" – by David Mack
Definitely my least favourite, "Twilight's Wrath" involves Shinzon, from the movie Star Trek: Nemesis, and how he was able to gain some of his power. He and his fellow Remans are ordered to mop up a Tal Shiar base that's been attacked by the Dominion, retrieving some items and making sure there's nothing left for the Dominion to find. Of course, being Remans, they're seen as expendable, and they're not expected to survive (even going so far as to have them killed once they have accomplished their mission). Shinzon outwits his Romulan superiors, however, and steals the information for himself. Along the way, he finds out information about his past, including his birthright, which will propel him into the events of the movie. This story was overly violent with a lot of hand-to-hand combat, severed limbs and other gut-wrenching things. That's ok by itself, but Shinzon is not even the least bit interesting. In fact, there's not a character in this story that I wanted to follow. I was hoping they would all fall victim to a grisly death. It does explain a couple of the inconsistencies in the movie, however.

"Eleven Hours Out" – by Dave Galanter
I've never heard of Galanter, so this is my first exposure to him. And this is a great story to begin with. Captain Picard is in San Francisco for his niece's graduation, along with Deanna Troi. The war is making him feel very detached from his family, especially since his brother and nephew were killed (in the movie Generations). He's beginning to question a lot of things. Then the Breen attack San Francisco, leaving Starfleet Headquarters and Starfleet Academy in ruins. The Enterprise has to get through an ion storm to get to Earth in time, and there is only one other ship available to help, but it's trapped in space dock. Galanter not only tells the story of Picard and a bunch of cadets trying to get resistance organized, but also the ship trying to get out of spacedock and the Enterprise racing against time, "eleven hours out." As you can probably tell, good characterization is one of my joys in reading, especially Trek books where the characters have been established for the most part. Galanter does a wonderful job with Picard, but especially with Troi. She's mischievous, sweet, able to take control when necessary, but also able to play second-in-command for Picard. She doesn't let him dwell too much on the demons in his psyche, and for once she acts like a true counselor. It helps that Galanter gives us a good new character in Picard's niece, too.

"Safe Harbors" – by Howard Weinstein
Probably the best story in the collection. Weinstein is the elder statesman of Star Trek books, having been involved with them since the very beginning (though I think he's been away for a while). He tells the story of Admiral Leonard McCoy and Scotty, trying to get back to Earth in a clunky old ship. It begins with a chilling image of a horrible attack on San Francisco, with Jim Kirk and Spock dying horrible deaths. This image quickly moves to McCoy waking up and ultimately realizing that he's really old and that his faculties may be beginning to desert him. They find safe harbor on a planet that prides itself on its neutrality in the war. They're able to wrangle a few hours for repairs, but then they have to leave. Soon, however, a badly damaged Federation ship also shows up, with all of its senior officers dead. McCoy has to counsel the extremely young acting captain as well as deal with the news that San Francisco actually was attacked. Dominion ships are in the area, searching. Will they be able to convince a young engineer on the planet to let them stay long enough to finish all their repairs and hide from the Dominion? This story had wonderful characterization (it should, as Weinstein always gets McCoy exactly right, even when McCoy's 150 years old) and an interesting dilemma. McCoy is wonderful both with the captain as well as with the engineer, and Scotty isn't bad himself. The story did have minor problems, however, which wrenched me out of the narrative. The first was the lack of an explanation for the dream. The dream was too exact for my taste, the only difference from real life being the involvement of Kirk and Spock. Is McCoy suddenly a prophet? And why isn't it mentioned again? Secondly, the ending is a little bit too treacly for my tastes, almost drowning in patriotic sugar. Still, it is a wonderful story.

"Field Expediency" – by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore
This story details a mission by the DaVinci, a ship from S.C.E. (the Starfleet Corps of Engineers). A couple of the engineers get their baptism by fire as they are on a remote planet attempting to retrieve a device to help read Breen communications. Unfortunately, the Breen don't want it falling into Starfleet hands, and it becomes a fight for their very survival as well as a race against time. Trapped on the planet, with their ship under attack above them, Duffy and Stevens (along with two Starfleet Intelligence agents) have to fight off a squad of Breen soldiers as well as try to get the device back. While this was a very good story, it didn't really make me want to search out the rest of the S.C.E. books, which is a shame. However, this particular story was well done. The characterization of Duffy and Stevens is quite good, as well as the two Intelligence agents. The action is tense and they have to be quite creative to get themselves out of the fix they're in. The only thing that jarred me out of the story for a moment is when, during the first attack, Duffy stuns one of the Breen. Excuse me? Stun? You're at war! An excuse could be made that he's an engineer and so didn't set the phaser to kill, but you'd think that it would have been mentioned. Still, the Breen does disappear from the story (he's included in the count of how many have been taken care of), so perhaps this is the new "super-stun" setting where it knocks its target unconscious for weeks? Otherwise, quite a good story.

"A Song Well Sung" – by Robert Greenberger
Keith DeCandido created a series about a Klingon captain, Klag, and his ship the Gorkon. While that series takes place after the War, this is the story of the fate of the ship on which Klag was first officer (as seen in the TNG episode, "A Matter of Honor"). He's the only survivor of his downed ship, he's lost an arm, and he's facing a bunch of Jem'Hadar soldiers who were on a Dominion ship that crashed. The story is basically a cat-and-mouse game between Klag and the soldiers. While Greenberger does a good job with Klag, I found the story to be rather dull. He alternates between Klag's hallucinations (brought on by the pain of his missing arm) and the fight itself. The fight was kind of interesting, but I didn't really care that much about the history that the hallucinations imparted. Perhaps I would have cared more if I had read the Gorkon series? I don't know. It was a serviceable story, but one that dragged on a bit too long.

"Stone Cold Truths" – by Peter David
Normally, I'm a big Peter David fan. I'm especially enjoying the New Frontier books (just trying to track down the hole I have in the series). This story is tied into the continuity of that series, along with the comic book that involves the Excalibur going back in time, and then returning, but overshooting their proper timeline by eighteen months. This brings them right near the end of the war. Told in a flashback story by Zak Kebron to his son, Cal, many years in the future, it attempts to show that war is not just glory, but also blood and sweat and misery. Cal needs a war story for his school project, so Zak tells him of the time, just after returning to their own time, when the Excalibur comes upon a Dominion ship. The tale is complete with spacesuited marines grappling and swinging over to board the Dominion ship as well as full broadside phaser blasts. When it comes out that Zak lied to his son about this story, he uses it as a springboard to counter Cal's mentor's lies about the war itself, in his own sarcastic way. "You haven't experienced the glories of war, Mentor, until heads have bounced off your viewscreen." Told in David's usual style of wit and sarcasm, I found the point of the story a little too heavy-handed. David usually uses a scalpel, but this time he used a hammer. Worse, it's a message that doesn't really need to be repeated. Perhaps David thinks that war is becoming too sanitized again? I don't know, but I do know that this story rubbed me the wrong way.

"Requital" by Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangels
This is a story of a man pushed to the brink by war and unable to let it end without retribution. Reese, the marine from the episode "The Siege of AR-558, is emotionally scarred from what happened there. The fighting was so intense and he lost a lot of good friends. One friend's death in particular haunts his dreams. He gets reassigned to Deep Space Nine and is there during the final battle over Cardassia. When the Founders surrender, Reese is unable to let it go. Tempted by a Cardassian rebel who was involved in the Resistance, he becomes part of a plan to make the Founder pay for what the shapeshifters did to Cardassia and the rest of the Alpha Quadrant. Unfortunately, this could lead to the war starting again, something that he can't bring himself to think about. This is a much subtler "war is hell" tale than "Stone Cold Truths" was, and I enjoyed it a lot more because of that. It shows how far Reese had been pushed, the nightmares that he's had to endure since that time on AR-558, and what a chance at revenge can lead a battered man to do. It does a wonderful job with the Deep Space Nine regulars too, especially Sisko. His experience with the Borg put him in the same space, and it took him years to get past the death of his wife during the Borg battle. He's been there, and he knows what Reese is going through. It's a poignant story, with Sisko reliving the beginning of his stay on Deep Space Nine, which is even more touching considering we know what happens to him very soon after this. There's only one problem with this story, and it's only a problem for a Trek fan. Did the writers even watch the episode? The description of the battle that takes place in the episode implies that it all happened outside, when it's obvious from the episode that it took place deep in a series of caverns. Still, this is a wonderful story on which to end the collection. Powerful stuff.