2011 03 21 - Star Trek Voyager; Dark Matters (2000)
Star Trek; Voyager - Dark Matters (2000)
Author: Christie Golden
Published By: Pocket Books (a division of Simon & Schuster)
Copywrite: 2000 (by Paramount Pictures)
Years ago, near the beginning of its long journey, Voyager made contact with a brilliant Romulan scientist whose present was Voyager 's past. Now Telek R'Mor communicates with Janeway again -- to warn her of a dire plot to capture Voyager and turn its "future" technology against the Federation of yesterday. But more than just the timeline is at stake. Voyager itself may be carrying a menace deadly to all creation!
"What are we looking at, Seven?" asked Janeway.
"The red line," Seven said, "is the path that Voyager has been following for the past eighteen point six days. The white dots indicate lingering traces of verteron particles. I have graphed them in proportion to the strength of the radiant emanation. By my calculations, none of these wormholes was stable for more than nine seconds."
"But, we've only noticed the wormholes materializing over the past seventeen hours and twelve minutes," said Torres in a voice that was almost a growl. Her temper had been shorter than usual over the last several days, and that was saying something.
~ [Dark Matters; Cloak and Dagger (1 of 3)]
"Damn it." Angrily Torres rubbed her eyes and blinked. "I'm hoping I'm just tired and my eyes are playing tricks on me, but I don't think so. Seven, check this for me. Is it just me or is the radiation field around the orb growing larger with each dematerialization?"
Quickly Seven did the calculations, then gazed at Torres with new respect. "You have excellent vision, Lieutenant. You are correct. The circumference of the radiation field around the orb has increased point zero six percent with each transport." She looked at her colleagues in turn.
"I believe this has been occurring ever since the orb was activated. There is no indication as to the purpose for the manifestation of this field, or whether it is harmful."
Torres turned and stared at the hovering purple sphere. It was their only hope to remove the dark matter from these affected, infected people. And now it was emitting some sort of field that grew more powerful every time they used it. What were they going to do? The orb was all they had.
"That damned ball," Torres said, with feeling.
~ [Dark Matters; Ghost Dance (2 of 3)]
Okay, I admit, a theoretical science plot based on actual theoretical science would usually have no place in any incarnation of Star Trek. Nor is Voyager anything but the last Trek series to focus on the Romulan culture. Yet Christie Golden does both in the Dark Matters series, and what's more, she does it well. The characterization is spot on, the science fits both with current theory on dark matter and Star Trek's classic broken science, she gives more debth then any of the individual Trek series' managed to do in their whole run, and all of it was written well.
She was glad she thought of Lhiau, because the hatred that flooded her at the thought of his loathed, handsome face gave her strength and courage. She was here wrongly accused, and she was certain that almost everyone involved, save perhaps the Empress, knew it.
Ah, righteous anger. How often have I seen it in others? Jekri did not delude herself that all the prisoners she had had arrested, interrogated, imprisoned, or executed were true criminals or traitors to the Empire. Some were just inconvenient, and she had watched with cool detachment as they raged and pled.
As, no doubt, those in control of her fate were watching her. It was a dreadful thing, to be inconvenient.
~ [Dark Matters; Shadow of Heaven (3 of 3)]
images from Memory Beta
description from amazon.com on the Dark Matters; Cloak and Dagger page
excerpts from kobobooks.com