In today’s episode, while Captain Calhoun fears he might be getting soft, Zak Kebron remains solid as a rock. But a new challenger might hatch a plan of its own before the captain can dispense old-school justice. Who’s the least developed Excalibur crew member so far? Can New Frontier fix the Prime Directive? And when does Star Trek get human nature wrong? All this and more in End Game, the book blessed by the Great Bird of the Galaxy him itself.

End Game
Author: Peter David
Pages: 184
Published: August 1997
Timeline: Immediately following The Two-Front War
Prerequisites: The previous three installments

Last time on Star Trek New Frontier, Calhoun was threatening to open fire on Nelkar, and here he makes good, ordering photons unleashed on a densely populated region. However, Laheera, the person he’s been negotiating the asylum for the Thallonian refugees with, calls his bluff, and he detonates it just early enough to prevent real damage. Calhoun gets the last laugh by playing Laheera’s own words back for the populace, which foments rebellion, gets her and the governor killed in a riot, and leads to the installation of much friendlier leadership—but the damage to his ego is done, and he’s left licking his wounds and feeling like he has to prove himself all over again.

Zak Kebron and Si Cwan survive being blown up on Zoran’s ship thanks to another last-second transport—this one initiated by D’ndai on behalf of Chancellor Yoz, a character from book one that I had forgotten completely about by this point, who wants them executed on Thallon rather than allow Zoran his petty revenge. That doesn’t mean that they’re going to sit quietly while waiting for the hangman’s noose, however, as Zak Kebron gets up to entertaining and clever antics in the interim. Meanwhile, Soleta and Robin Lefler investigate the quakes that are shaking Thallon with increasing frequency and intensity and make an unexpected discovery: a heartbeat—one that’s quickening and ready to break out of its earthly shell.

D’ndai tells Ryjaan that Si Cwan killed his father Felkar, a move that serves multiple purposes—namely, to hasten the removal of Si Cwan from the picture, position himself to benefit even more from the alliance between the Danteri and the Thallonians, and diminish the role of Mackenzie (who, you might recall, actually killed Felkar) in Xenexian lore. Naturally, Calhoun can’t help but set the record straight during Si Cwan’s execution, enraging Ryjaan enough to issue a Final Challenge, which Calhoun—who we know has been champing at the bit for a chance to prove he’s still a big strong tough guy—immediately accepts, plunging the two into a duel to the death that the planet might not even last long enough to host.

After four novellas and roughly 650 pages of establishing setting and backstory, we know at least some of what to expect going forward. Si Cwan will be driven by the search for his little sister, having been taunted by Zoran with the revelation of her aliveness. Calhoun is slowly learning, with Shelby’s help, that the beauty of being a Starfleet captain is that he has friends to help him out, and that he doesn’t have to carry the weight of the entire world on his shoulders like he did when he was a Xenexian rebel leader. Selar finally accepts that Burgoyne can in fact help her clear out her plumbing issues, only to find hir hooking up with Mark McHenry, the more-than-friends window seemingly slammed shut. The planet-egg Thallon is no more, having hatched the not-so-mythical-after-all Great Bird of the Galaxy, and its erstwhile royalty dispersed and planning their next moves. These are all promising threads that I think we can expect to see more of in future NF novels, and I’m excited both for them and all new ones.

As far as character introductions and development, I think David did a good job solidly establishing most of the senior crew in the space used. Some of the characters are somewhat one-note so far, like Burgoyne and McHenry, but they’re at least strong notes. The only one I’m still a little shaky on is Robin Lefler. Other than her chipper demeanor and her trite “Lefler’s Laws”, I’m not clear on what she’s bringing to the table that makes her an indispensable part of this particular crew. I’m sure some of that sunshine will come in handy as ballast if things threaten to get too grimdark, but I’m not as sold on her perspective providing clearer lines of sight to solutions as I suspect this story hoped I would be.

I also thought this one felt rushed toward a conclusion, and that the Great Bird of the Galaxy reveal was a tad goofy, even if its name is a nice tribute. I also hope the miracle-growth Thallonian soil comes up again in a future book, as I thought that had some interesting possibilities. But we’ll just have to wait and see, won’t we? Overall, I’m having a good time with this series so far, and I’m definitely on board for more adventures with the Excalibur.

MVP & LVP

• The MVP for this one is, once again, Zak Kebron. Kebron is quickly becoming one of my favorite NF characters; he’s like Worf if Worf didn’t get jobbed all the time, which, turns out, goes a long way toward cultivating respect for a chief of security. In End Game, he pulls an extremely clever move by declaring his and Si Cwan’s cell a Federation embassy; most people were already afraid of getting too close to him and getting the crap beaten out of them even with him in shackles, and now on top of that they’re afraid of violating Federation law as well. He also attempts a noble if misguided gesture when he tries to take responsibility for Si Cwan and be executed along with him after Yoz remands Kebron to Calhoun’s authority, and literally has to be ordered by Calhoun to stand down. I don’t know, man, I just really like the cut of his jib.
• Our LVP for End Game is (the former) Chancellor Yoz. I had honestly forgotten he existed, though maybe I wouldn’t have if I read these all as one unified story. Regardless, he cuts a total non-presence as a villain. What a nothingburger.

Stray Bits

• There was never really a good place for me to talk about this, so I’d just like to mention that the Nelkarites, both as described physically and in the ice-cold veins hiding beneath their beautiful, golden, polite exteriors, remind me a lot of the Sovereign from Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2.
• “‘People want to believe in their leaders, Laheera,’ Calhoun said quietly. ‘You betrayed them, put them at risk, were willing to write off half a million lives on a whim. People don’t take kindly to such betrayals.'” Well, maybe one person doesn’t, but if COVID-19 taught us anything, it made it pretty abundantly clear that on the whole, people in fact don’t mind such betrayals that much at all. So Calhoun’s plan to turn the Nelkarite citizenry against Laheera and Governor Celter doesn’t ring quite as true today as it might have in more innocent times. (p. 47)
• Calhoun tears the Prime Directive a badly needed new one: “Isn’t that what the Prime Directive is all about? Sitting around, doing nothing, tiptoeing around the galaxy and trying not to leave any footprints behind?” Sometime during TNG—not sure when, exactly—the Prime Directive somehow turned from a helpful if imperfect guideline for not unduly disrupting pre-warp cultures or meddling in civilizations’ internal affairs to “we must withhold assistance that would not put us out at all whatsoever and turn a blind eye while this blameless culture gets genocided in a ridiculously lopsided conflict, lest they accidentally learn what a tricorder is.” Of course, Calhoun’s specific grievances here are not really about the Prime Directive, but here’s hoping NF manages to interpret it better than 90s Trek generally did. (p. 54)

Final Assessment

Good. While there were a couple of cylinders that didn’t quite fire along with a bit of a rush toward a conclusion, this last part of the NF “pilot” was still pretty solid. We have our stakes established and our tone set, and I think we’re primed to have some good times up ahead with the first ever novel-exclusive crew.

Final assessment of the first four parts as a whole (not an average): Excellent

NEXT TIME: Quark pulls back the curtain to share the Legends of the Ferengi