Star Trek: Section 31: Shadow
Written by Dean Wesley Smith & Kristine Kathryn Rusch
250 Pages
First Published June 2001
No Law.
No Conscience
No Stopping
This is the fourth novel in the Section 31 Series. Each of the previous three novels is a stand-alone adventure, but I must say that each story added depth to the following novels. By the time I began to tackle Shadow, I was rather familiar with what Section 31 is capable of doing and I felt, I could handle this story and maybe catch the story tellers on a thing or two or seven or nine.
Wrong! Dang it, this story was well done and a great conclusion to this series. I don’t know if it was the best. Rogue (The Next Generation story) was my favorite up to now. If I had to choose, Shadow would end up being the without a doubt second best favorite.
This time, the setting is in the Voyager universe, just before the events in the episode “Equinox.” Dean and Kristine spin a wonderful tale that begins with agent Sloan assigning a Section 31 agent to the Voyager just prior to “Caretaker.” We don’t know her name yet, but we do learn of her mission:
“Director, I was wondering why I had suddenly been
assigned to Voyager?”
“Voyager has been conducting some antiterrorist
operations in the DMZ. We need for you to collect the intelligence that will
enable us to neutralize the Maquis once and for all.”
Voyager is near a binary star system where the two stars are about to collide, mere hours away and Voyager decides to conduct a scientific investigating. Ensign Harry Kim spots a disturbance on his sensors from a meteoric event and we discover a huge, 200-mile long colony ship with the remnants of a race that lives in this twin-star system. They have been traveling for ten years under atomic power – not enough to escape the impending celestial event. Some eight hundred million Rhawns will die.
Captain Janeway summons Lt. Torres to have Seven work with her in astrometrics and moments after Seven alights from her alcove there is an explosion wounding both Torres and Seven. Turns out that their injuries are minor. Tuvok finds no proof in his investigation and Janeway is not thrilled.
"Surely you found something, Mr. Tuvok?"
“No Captain, we did not.”
“You’re telling me that the alcove simply exploded.
There was no reason for it.”
Section 31’s handiwork? Sure smells like it. Not long after, Seven is summoned to the shuttle bay where the bay doors open but Seven is able to make it into the Delta Flyer just in the nick of time. No evidence of malfunction. Later, as Seven attempts to access an airlock panel, she is flung back and is injured. An apparent relay overload? Someone is out to get her and no intruders, malfunctions or suspects show through. Is it a crewmember? Who is out to do away with Seven of Nine? These attempts on Seven’s life do not help out Voyager in its attempt to save the Rhawns. Captain Janeway determines that while the Rhawns are not a warp-capable society, they are indeed a space-faring society and she must save this race, which only has hours to live.
As the story moves forward, Seven’s attacker is better than anyone aboard as they find no proof or person. At times, it seems possible that maybe Seven is not the intended victim and that she just happened to be at the wrong place and time. Is the killer after B’Elanna Torres or Tuvok? Is the ship in danger? Many questions and some really inspiring twists that leave you surprised and intrigued all the same.
Once Janeway uncovers the cause of the events, she is required to review all of the pertinent data:
“Janeway’s acceptance of the Maquis into her crew
has created a very high-risk situation . . . If Janeway and her officers ever
knew I was aboard, there’s no telling what they would do . . . Sometimes I
think that I am the only one on board who still really cares about Starfleet and
the Federation . . . I’m constantly faced with hard choices. I knew that I
would be when I agreed to this life, as so many other patriots have. We do the
dirty work that needs to be done. We do the dirty work that lets all the
citizens of the Federation sleep in blissful ignorance of the threats that we
are constantly dealing with . . . Sometimes I wish that I could tell Janeway the
truth . . . she’d probably toss me in the brig . . . None of these people seem
capable of understanding that they need people like me. The rest of the
Federation is no different. They all sleep like babies because while we are
here, committing these sins so they won’t have to.”
The personal logs cause Janeway to shake her head in disgust and sadness. Janeway stares at her combadge and thinks about all the good that it represents. But what kinds of hidden prices have been paid to achieve that good? She isn’t sure that she wants to know.
Each of the four stories stand on their own, but read together, they paint a picture on a canvas so large that by the end, the entire four stories seem to fit together, echo one another and form a fulfilling adventure that needs to be read.
I imagine that some hard-core Roddenberry purists would not care for these four books as they are an apparent affront to Mr. Roddenberry’s utopian future. Maybe they are, or maybe there are just adventures of some very ultra-sick individuals that do need to done away with. Janeway promises to deal with them upon her return to the Alpha Quadrant, just as Bashir, Picard and Kirk did before her. There is an implication that the adventure here is just beginning, the war with Section 31 has just begun and these four books were the opening shots to a huge epic adventure. If this does come to pass, I can’t wait for what is to come.
Roger’s rating on Shadow B+
I wish to add an additional rating for the entire four–book series: B+
