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Star Trek SCE (ebooks) Novellas #6
Cold Fusion
STARFLEET CORPS OF ENGINEERS
Following the catastrophic conclusion of Avatar, Lieutenant Nog -- the chief operations officer of space station Deep Space 9 ™ -- joins forces with the crew of the U.S.S. da Vinci!
With the station's future in doubt, Nog meets the da Vinci at Empok Nor, Deep Space 9's long-abandoned twin, in order to salvage vital technology. But they arrive to find that someone has beaten them to it -- an enigmatic and dangerous alien race known as the Androssi. When the S.C.E. crew learns what the Androssi have planned for Empok Nor, it threatens not only the lives of the da Vinci and Deep Space 9 crews, but galactic peace itself!
Following the catastrophic conclusion of Avatar, Lieutenant Nog -- the chief operations officer of space station Deep Space 9 ™ -- joins forces with the crew of the U.S.S. da Vinci!
With the station's future in doubt, Nog meets the da Vinci at Empok Nor, Deep Space 9's long-abandoned twin, in order to salvage vital technology. But they arrive to find that someone has beaten them to it -- an enigmatic and dangerous alien race known as the Androssi. When the S.C.E. crew learns what the Androssi have planned for Empok Nor, it threatens not only the lives of the da Vinci and Deep Space 9 crews, but galactic peace itself!
108 pages, Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
March 23, 2015
Star Trek: S. C. E.: #6 Cold Fusion by Keith R. A. DeCandido This novella deals with the aftermath of the Jem'Hadar attack on DS9 which left the station without a powersource. Nog decides to fetch the power source of Empok Nor - but he needs the S. C. E.'s help for that. However, the Androssi, a species who has crossed paths with the da Vinci before, have taken control of the abandoned station.
I've never been overly fond of Nog - but he works here in this context, among a group of people who search for ever more harebrained solutions to simple problems. And it's also easy to side with him, given that he's treated condescendingly, as though only the SCE-team knows engineering and no one else. So it's good to see him come up with the solution and have the others baffled for a change.
As for the characterdynamics: It's interesting to see the focus shift to the relationships on the da Vinci, Duffy and Gomez, now Fabian Stevens, the tactical specialist, and Domenica Corsi, the security chief who up until now came across as a bit wooden. But it's hinted here that there's some kind of past trauma that she has to work through yet. Quite hilarious were the problems P8 Blue and Abramowicz were facing over the latter's music of choice - an issue that Nog could solve through his negotiating tactics. Generally speaking, I liked Nog and his application of Ferengi rules quite a lot.
And the Androssi - well, I'm curious to see whether we'll ever get the back story of their conflict with the da Vinci. The only thing I'm quite wary of is the fact that alien, hostile species get rather generic in Star Trek. They are often mission-oriented, have little to no regard for other lifeforms, including the lives of subordinates, come from a hierarchical society etc. It would be good to see something different every now and then.
Overall, this is a strong entry in the SCE-series, with lots of fun (including the 5th Rule of Acquisition, "Always exaggerate your estimates", which Scotty used to apply decades prior to Nog's birth), a mildly interesting new foe and intriguing glimpses into the inner workings of the da Vinci that has whetted my appetite for more. Mission accomplished.
I've never been overly fond of Nog - but he works here in this context, among a group of people who search for ever more harebrained solutions to simple problems. And it's also easy to side with him, given that he's treated condescendingly, as though only the SCE-team knows engineering and no one else. So it's good to see him come up with the solution and have the others baffled for a change.
As for the characterdynamics: It's interesting to see the focus shift to the relationships on the da Vinci, Duffy and Gomez, now Fabian Stevens, the tactical specialist, and Domenica Corsi, the security chief who up until now came across as a bit wooden. But it's hinted here that there's some kind of past trauma that she has to work through yet. Quite hilarious were the problems P8 Blue and Abramowicz were facing over the latter's music of choice - an issue that Nog could solve through his negotiating tactics. Generally speaking, I liked Nog and his application of Ferengi rules quite a lot.
And the Androssi - well, I'm curious to see whether we'll ever get the back story of their conflict with the da Vinci. The only thing I'm quite wary of is the fact that alien, hostile species get rather generic in Star Trek. They are often mission-oriented, have little to no regard for other lifeforms, including the lives of subordinates, come from a hierarchical society etc. It would be good to see something different every now and then.
Overall, this is a strong entry in the SCE-series, with lots of fun (including the 5th Rule of Acquisition, "Always exaggerate your estimates", which Scotty used to apply decades prior to Nog's birth), a mildly interesting new foe and intriguing glimpses into the inner workings of the da Vinci that has whetted my appetite for more. Mission accomplished.
November 15, 2013
Another enjoyable entry in the S.C.E. series. The tie-in to DS9 was a nice touch, and while the attitudes of the da Vinci crew towards Nog were annoying, I appreciated that they came to respect him in the end. With this story, we begin to see the hints of a larger shared continuity beyond just the Deep Space Nine relaunch series, something that I greatly come to appreciate as the prime Trek universe continues to mature in the novels beyond Star Trek Nemesis.
Full review: http://treklit.blogspot.com/2013/11/c...
Full review: http://treklit.blogspot.com/2013/11/c...
October 11, 2014
This is a slightly odd story - it ties into the DS9 relaunch, where the SCE help Nog get some spare parts for DS9 from Empek Nor, but you don't need to read it to understand the DS9 stories (I read the related books a couple of years ago without any problems), and it portrays the SCE crew as a bunch of arrogant arseholes, so I'm not sure that any DS9 fans would be inclined to stick around afterwards.
January 9, 2016
Nice to see Nog again. Best part of this specific story. I'm not sure if I particularly like any of the main S.C.E. characters, and I know that I've developed a loathing of Duffy.
If able, I'd probably give this a 3.5 stars, a half star addition to what I did give. The story kind of had a big build up then things fizzled out. Then an abrupt ending. Caused things to slide down half a star.
If able, I'd probably give this a 3.5 stars, a half star addition to what I did give. The story kind of had a big build up then things fizzled out. Then an abrupt ending. Caused things to slide down half a star.
February 8, 2016
A short SCE book that fits into the DS9 relaunch.
December 4, 2021
Not as great as the first 5 books of the SCE. But, not bad either, ties in nicely to the DS9 relaunch series. Good to see Nog and Empok Nor again.
August 15, 2021
You know what? I really love these characters. Duffy has grown on me. Captain Gold is fun and engaging. A one-night stand subplot between Corsi and Stevens gives a lot of dimension to these two characters (and sparks off a mystery concerning Corsi). Bart, while kept off the plot, has a great scene with Stevens about it. And then there's Nog, perfectly captured by DeCandido. He's nervous and not being taken very seriously, but gets to shine in the end, as any student of O'Brien's should. It was actually very realistic that the SCE team, so used to working together, would hijack his whole process. One thing this series does well is setting up believable professional protocols without boring you with them. Cold Fusion also introduces a recurring enemy for the series, the appropriately tech-minded Androssi. Now, these ebooks are really short, so it's great how DeCandido is able to draw their portrait so well and this economically (leaving room for the plot, the guest-star's arc and the romantic subplot). They're given their own culture and their own technology (which has its own terminology, which the universal translator usually does away with, taking all cultural flavor with it) and I especially like how all their tricks are very much based on stuff we've seen before. There's no "new tech", only old tech used in a new and surprising way. The galaxy's other salvage experts, the Borg, adapt. The Androssi upgrade. I can't wait to see more of these "evil engineers".
February 26, 2018
A fun little distraction of a story featuring Nog from DS9.
This story takes place between SD Perry's Avatar two-parter and Weddle/Lang's Section 31: Abyss, which nicely does the job of placing the SCE books firmly in the expanded universe's "relaunch" continuity. Since that's basically what I'm interested in reading, in chronological order, I'm happy about this. (I guess in Avatar Kira ejects DS9's fusion core for whatever reason, and ... either it explodes, or you can't reuse them, because now they need to head out to Empok Nor and get one of its fusion cores to replace the DS9 one, or else everyone will freeze to death.)
I like that this SCE book brings back old adversaries in the form of the .... Androssians? Something like that. But the problem is just that: We're on book 6, and I'd honestly forgotten about them already, they left such a non-impression. So ... that's somewhat glum.
The best part of this book, in my opinion, is that Nog views the SCE crew as kind of pretentious & refuses their offer to join them.
Decent character bits, though none of the SCE crew "jump" out at me, still (Soloman has tons of potential, I think, but is mostly relegated to the background - which is fine, for now).
Also, the "solution" to this problem makes so much damn sense for the DS9 books. I'm really happy this happened.
This story takes place between SD Perry's Avatar two-parter and Weddle/Lang's Section 31: Abyss, which nicely does the job of placing the SCE books firmly in the expanded universe's "relaunch" continuity. Since that's basically what I'm interested in reading, in chronological order, I'm happy about this. (I guess in Avatar Kira ejects DS9's fusion core for whatever reason, and ... either it explodes, or you can't reuse them, because now they need to head out to Empok Nor and get one of its fusion cores to replace the DS9 one, or else everyone will freeze to death.)
I like that this SCE book brings back old adversaries in the form of the .... Androssians? Something like that. But the problem is just that: We're on book 6, and I'd honestly forgotten about them already, they left such a non-impression. So ... that's somewhat glum.
The best part of this book, in my opinion, is that Nog views the SCE crew as kind of pretentious & refuses their offer to join them.
Decent character bits, though none of the SCE crew "jump" out at me, still (Soloman has tons of potential, I think, but is mostly relegated to the background - which is fine, for now).
Also, the "solution" to this problem makes so much damn sense for the DS9 books. I'm really happy this happened.
May 19, 2023
My first reading of any of this Keith DeCandido's work & I rather liked it.
For a smaller e-book the story itself wasn't overly complicated or too basic either. Getting inside Nog's noggin every now n' then lubricated the plot sufficiently & the surprise appearance near the end of an original trek character made me smile.
Very much looking forward now to Demons of air.. & whatever.. the next book as it's the same author.
For a smaller e-book the story itself wasn't overly complicated or too basic either. Getting inside Nog's noggin every now n' then lubricated the plot sufficiently & the surprise appearance near the end of an original trek character made me smile.
Very much looking forward now to Demons of air.. & whatever.. the next book as it's the same author.
April 27, 2021
Wie die Nog behandelt haben, obwohl er als Chefingenieur bei Gomez' Abwesenheit eigentlich ihr Vorgesetzter sein müsste, ist unter aller Kanone. Und jetzt Wissen vorauszusetzen, was wir erst in Buch 10 kriegen, geht auch gar nicht.
Ansonsten nicht schlecht.
Ansonsten nicht schlecht.
April 4, 2022
Novellas are always hard to rate but I really like SCE books and I like the mini story of what happened on Empok Nor. Obvs Nog is great, and the little story between Stevens and Corsi was interesting.
September 9, 2022
This was a fast and fun read. And the SCE are rascals. It’s my first SCE book.
I love the tone. I love that the whole crew is dorks. It’s a fun read.
I love the tone. I love that the whole crew is dorks. It’s a fun read.
October 3, 2016
Felt good to be back in this series !! Kinda forgot the characters. Well.. will just take me a book more !
This was a great mission ! Lacked some color though.
This was a great mission ! Lacked some color though.
November 26, 2014
This is the first book in the Starfleet Corps of Engineers series that I have to rate at less than five-stars, but not because of the quality; this was the usual excellent and well-crafted novel. No, I'm giving this one three stars because it was far to dependent on reading specific other novels in order to really understand what was going on. This story features the alien race known as the Androssi, a race I was unfamiliar with, as they had appeared before in a TNG novel and a DS9 novel - neither of which have not read yet. It's one thing to have major plot elements based on Star Trek canon (movies and TV shows), but not everyone has read all the novels. Some of the plot points are contingent on reading another DS9 novel, as well. Just bad planning, in my view. Still, it is an interesting story. Just do a search on the Androssi before reading it so you can get a little background on them - they seem like crossed between the leaders of the Jem-Haddar and Ferengis.
April 2, 2014
Deep Space 9 need a new fusion reactor and Nog has a plan to get one. He needs the Da Vinci's crews help to obtain it. This is quite a fun, easy read with the Da Vinci crew underestimating Nog. It also sees the return of a villain from the SCE series too, and that is handled well. A good read.
November 25, 2015
Good, short.
February 17, 2014
Enjoyable, especially for DS9 fans who will easily be able to picture the station, in addition to the mannerisms of Nog. Good little Star Trek novella.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews