Starfleet: Year One

Starfleet: Year One is a Star Trek novel written by Michael Jan Friedman. Published by Pocket Books, it was first released in collected form in March 2002, having been released in serialized form between 1999—2000.

The novel depicts the first year following the end of the Earth-Romulan War and the foundation of the Federation, with the new Daedalus-class flagship being prepared for launch.

Summary[]

From the book jacket

Earth Command defeated the Romulans with the help of other races across the galaxy, and the Neutral Zone was established. Out of that necessary and uneasy collaboration came the United Federation of Planets and its combined forces, Starfleet. But the close quarters of a starship among so many races and personalities is discomforting to all the ranks. Control of what could grow to be the greatest power in the galaxy is at stake and no one is taking it lightly.

A powerful new class of starship, the Daedalus, flagship of the new Federation fleet, is up for grabs among the six new Starfleet captains. Admiral Ed Walker is determined to keep this jewel, and all of Starfleet, under military command and away from the scientists. He chooses Captain Aaron Stiles as his protégé in the endeavor. Stiles, bent on avenging the death of his brother Jake, faces stiff resistance from Walker's rebellious space jock nephew Dane and scientist Captain Bryce Shumar. But they face their biggest threat of all in an unknown alien race destroying the bases of the Oreias system. Can brains and brawn combine to win without killing each other in the process?

Excerpts of copyrighted sources are included for review purposes only, without any intention of infringement.

Background information[]

• This novel was originally published as a monthly serial, appended to Pocket Books' regular series books, over twelve months in 1999-2000. This collected edition was slightly rewritten, with some additional and extended scenes, featuring T'Pau and additional characters.
• Author Michael Jan Friedman began to develop the concept for Starfleet: Year One following his work on A Star to Steer Her By. When editor John Ordover was looking for additional original concepts following the success of Star Trek: New Frontier, as well as a back-up feature to serialize across the Star Trek novel range as an experiment, Friedman proposed his idea, a story set a hundred years before Star Trek: The Original Series. He had hoped to develop the concept into a seven-novel series, covering the first seven years of the Federation and following the characters introduced in this novel. Unfortunately, the development of Star Trek: Enterprise put paid to such a series, and Pocket Books assured Paramount that no further Starfleet: books would be published while the series was on the air. (Voyages of Imagination, pp. 419-417; Star Trek Magazine issue 138) As a result, this collected edition contains a disclaimer that the novel is "unrelated to the events in the television series Enterprise".
• The concept of establishing the Federation following the events of ENT is explored in the Rise of the Federation series by Christopher L. Bennett.
• This is one of the few novels not to feature any starring characters from any Star Trek series.
• The individual chapters appeared in the following novels:

  Chapter One (August 1999)

  Double or Nothing

  The First Virtue

  Chapter Two (September 1999)

  The Forgotten War

  Pathways (paperback version)

  Chapter Three (October 1999)

  Across the Universe

  Triangle: Imzadi II (paperback version)

  Chapter Four (November 1999)

  The Quiet Place

  Dark Allies

  Chapter Five (December 1999)

  The Badlands, Book One

  The Badlands, Book Two

  Chapter Six (January 2000)

  Strange New Worlds (mass market paperback version)

  Strange New Worlds II (mass market paperback version)

  The appearance of Chapter Six in the SNW reprints was a last-minute change, following delays to the pair of novels originally planned to carry the chapter. Editor John Ordover made an offer to ship out the chapter to anyone angered by the resultant need to repurchase the SNW volumes specifically for Starfleet: Year One.

  Chapter Seven (February 2000)

  Gemworld, Book One

  Gemworld, Book Two

  Chapter Eight (March 2000)

  The Fall of Terok Nor

  The War of the Prophets

  Chapter Nine (April 2000)

  Inferno

  Dark Victory (paperback version)

  Chapter Ten (May 2000)

  A Stitch in Time

  Vulcan's Forge (paperback version)

  Chapter Eleven (June 2000)

  Wagon Train to the Stars

  Belle Terre

  Chapter Twelve (July 2000)

  Rough Trails

  The Flaming Arrow

Characters[]

• Ed Walker
• Aaron Stiles
• Jake Stiles
• Dane
• Bryce Shumar
• Lydia Littlejohn (President of Earth)
• T'Pau

References[]

Daedalus-class; Earth-Romulan War

External link[]

• Starfleet: Year One at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works