The Star Trek The Next Generation #44: The Death of Princes

by John Peel

Overview

Dangerous assignments come in pairs when Captain Picard and his crew are confronted with two desperate missions on two different worlds in this thrilling Star Trek: The Next Generation novel.

On the planet Buran, newly linked to the Fedration, a mysterious disease devastates the population-and turns them against the visitors from the USS Enterprise. Meanwhile, on nearby lomides, a renegade Federation observer has disappeared, intent on violating the Prime Directive by preventing a tragic political assassination.

While Dr. Crusher struggles to find a cure for the plague ravaging Buran, Commander Will RIker leads an Away Team to lomides. Their forces divided, Picard and his crew find themselves the only hope of two worlds.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780743422888
Publisher:	Pocket Books/Star Trek
Publication date:	09/22/2000
Series:	Star Trek: The Next Generation Series , #44
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	824,796
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

John Peel, known as Jack, was born in Newcastle in 1943. He graduated from the Army Apprentice School as a Fitter and Turner in 1961, completing his trade training in the engine room of AV 1379 Tarra. For the next seven years, he was employed as an engine room watchkeeper with the Royal Australian Engineer’s Transportation service, where he served on all four Landing Ships Medium of 32 Small Ship Squadron and the cargo vessel John Monash, as the ships visited Papua New Guinea, Borneo, Singapore and South Vietnam. He attained the rank of Temporary Warrant Officer in 1969.
Commissioned as a Captain in 1981, Jack served as the Cadre Officer 33 Terminal Squadron and then as the Officer Commanding the Army Maritime School at Chowder Bay from 1985 to 1987, retiring as Second in Command 10 Terminal Regiment in 1988.   

Read an Excerpt

"There is an incoming transmission for you from Starfleet Command," came the gravelly tones of Worf. "It is marked as most urgent."

Picard straightened up in his chair. "Put it through to me here, please, Mr. Worf." "Aye, sir."

A second later, the communicator panel on his desk lit up with the Starfleet logo blinking to show a transmission was being received. Then Admiral Halsey's face blinked into existence. She looked tired and more than slightly irritated-pretty much how she always looked, whether she was declaring disasters or handing out commendations. "Captain," she said, nodding slightly. "I trust your crew would not be averse to fresh orders at this moment?"

Picard suppressed a smile. They had been mapping protostars for eight days, and most of the crew was bored of the constant views of ssv clouds.

Worf, for example, had been holding practice drills for his security team and demanding a five-percent increase in reaction times. He was driven by a frustration that most of the crew probably shared. "Well, Admiral," he answered carefully, "I suspect that stellar cartography would be the only department aboard that wouldn't exactly bless your name."

"It's always hard to keep them happy," Halsey answered, with no trace of humor in her tone. "And they won't like this either, I'm afraid. The Enterprise is ordered diverted immediately to the Buran System, Captain. Coordinates are being relayed as we speak. You are to head there at maximum warp and prepare to render all medical assistance possible."

Picard raised his eyebrows. "May I ask what, precisely, we will be heading into?"

"A plague, Captain." Halsey sighed, and ran a hand through her short, graying hair.

"The Buran are suffering terribly from a highly virulent plague that is apparently one hundred percent lethal to anyone infected. The death tolls are staggering, and Starfleet has promised all possible assistance in this situation."

"Of course." Picard nodded slowly. "I'll have my medical staff begin work, and head for Buran immediately."

"There's one more thing, Jean-Luc."

He narrowed his eyes and stared at the admiral's image. There was always "one more thing." "Yes?" he prompted.

"I don't know if you know much about the Burani," she replied, and waited for an answer.

Thinking hard, Picard shrugged. "They're a relatively new race to have joined the Federation, I believe," he answered. "Within the last two years, if I recall correctly. Nothing more than that, I'm afraid."

"You've hit on the salient point," Halsey informed him. "They were inducted eighteen standard months ago. An Andorian trader recently stopped at their world, and the plague began immediately after this visit. The Burani vote to join the Federation was almost evenly split, Captain, and there seem to be a lot of them who feel that it was a bad move.

Some of the more vocal opponents of Federation membership are claiming that the plague came from the Andorians, and they're screaming for Buran to pull out of the Federation."

Picard frowned. "Is that possible?" he asked.

"That they might pull out? Yes. That the Andorians somehow transmitted the disease?" She shrugged. "That will be up to you and your crew to discover, Captain." She paused. "As you probably know, Starfleet is actively seeking footholds in this sector o strengthen our borders. Buran is quite important to us, since there is only one other world already in the Federation in that area of space. And three others under scrutiny. If Buran should pull out-or worse, decide to ally itself instead with the Romulans-it would weaken our presence in the sector severely." She paused. "Not to mention, of course, the terrible consequences of this plague from a humanitarian perspective."

"I understand," Picard said softly. "We will, of course, do everything in our power to address both. aspects of the situation."

Copyright © 1996 by John Peel