Star Trek Destiny book 2: Mere Mortals (Spoiler)

S P O I L E R

After having read the first book of the Destiny trilogy I was very much
looking forward to the next book. Also “Mere Mortals” is excellent and a
lot is happening in this second part.

There are four main storylines in this book:


AVENTINE (Captain Ezri Dax)

I liked the meeting of Dax and Worf. There wasn`t anything that
surprised me but nevertheless, I think it needed to be said in the book
and it made me smile. I still think Worf did what was right when he
saved his wife and accepted the consequences. That he sees Dax promotion
as further confirmation that he made the right choice is a nice way to
look at it. Worf would be an excellent captain, I have no doubt about
it. I don`t want Picard to leave or even die which means I hope that one
day Worf will be offered a different ship. I don`t see any good reason
why Starfleet shouldn`t give Worf his own ship after the Federation lost
so many qualified captains in the war against the Borg.

This book also showed Worf`s abilities as a warrior. But it also showed
the bravery and determination of many other people, on the Aventine and
the Enterprise. The battle against the Hirogen was well written and it
was a good idea to include this Voyager element into this trilogy. The
Hirogen would be excellent allies against the Borg if they could be
convinced to join. Unfortunately that doesn`t seem likely, at least not
until they themselves are being threatened by them.

Ezri Dax is an interesting combination of a very young passionate woman
with an ancient symbiont. I think at the end it was more Ezri acting
than Dax when she was determined to continue the battle and return to
Earth, no matter what. I can understand that decision. I just hope that
her determination will also be combined with wisdom.


TITAN (Captain William Riker)

I am glad that my worries about Melora are being addressed in this book
and that she started using her supporting exoskeleton again.

Riker`s part is short but what a part it is! The appearance of Hernandez
on the bridge also surprised me but Riker`s decision was what I
expected. This was not the same situation Worf faced years ago when he
was forced to make the decision to leave his wife behind or to finish
his mission that would save others. Deanna was not alone on this world.
On the other hand I wondered if the special connection Riker and Deanna
have had been blocked as well because otherwise I would have thought
Riker would have felt Deanna`s turn for the worse. Maybe because he
didn`t feel anything Riker thought that Deanna is stable and in no
immediate danger. Or maybe he did and decided to leave anyway.

I think at the end it doesn`t really matter because staying wouldn`t
have helped Deanna but by using this unique chance maybe there is a way
to make some difference in this war.


ENTERPRISE (Captain Jean-Luc Picard)

In this second part there is not a lot I can write about his part of the
story. He played a good part but there is nothing new and nothing
unexpected. That doesn`t mean I was less fond of this part of the book.
Again he showed his long experience as captain and his special knowledge
when dealing with the Borg. Picard and Dax were a good team and I think
this will continue in the next book.

I very much enjoyed the parts with Geordi La Forge and Mikaela Leishman.
I welcomed it because inserting some humour into this serious trilogy
is a very good idea and I found it very funny! But I also welcomed it
because it is about time that also Geordi finds a love interest. Well,
it is not a love interest yet but at least it is a start.


COLUMBIA (Captain Erika Hernandez)

I could understand very well how much the few survivors of the Columbia
and captives of the Caeliar must have struggled with their captivity.
Although they were not physically mistreated the psychological strain
must have been enormous. I already noticed in the earlier chapters that
whenever Hernandez appeared outside of the flashbacks there was no
appearance of other crew members. I learned that one of them already had
severe mental problems at the beginning of the book and had a bad
feeling of what happened to the rest.

The longer the story continued, the more it gripped and moved me. In
many ways it showed a mirror image of what I have read in the first book
when Dr. Ree was close to force an abortion on Deanna. I know that he
wants to do this for her own good but what about her right of choice,
her right to refuse treatment? Until pretty much at the end of the book
Deanna was stubborn, emotional and, yes, also irrational but she was
mentally able to make her decision. I am still amazed and shocked about
the statement that Starfleet doctors have the legal right to do this.

The Deanna story has a dramatic cliffhanger in this book but it seems we
readers have to wait until the third and last part of the trilogy until
this topic gets explored further. After having read an excerpt of book 3
I think I can say that Dr. Ree did the right thing to save her life. I
could see that he acted out of desperation. I will wait until I finished
the trilogy before I add any more comments about this topic. I admit
that the Deanna story has a stronger emotional impact on me than it
probably should also because of my personal history but I don`t
apologize for it.

“Mere Mortals” showed that the Caeliar are very much pro-choice when it
is about the right to die with dignity, the right to choose how and when
to die if that is possible and what treatments to offer. They are
certainly not saints and I never forgot that they put heir prisoners
into this position in the first place but I welcomed it that they,
especially Inyx, didn`t deny them this choice in spite of being extreme
pacifists. Inyx gave Hernandez a choice that would tempt most people, I
think. The longer I read her story the more I admired her for her
strength and bravery. Erika Hernandez is indeed a remarkable woman and
now that I have reached the end of book two, I can only hope that she
will survive the trilogy. What would be even better is if she will also
be able to regain her freedom.

It was interesting to learn that Hernandez would be able to leave the
planet but would lose her virtual immortality. I don`t think I have to
guess what she would choose. But what I have learned also shows that it
is possible for Caeliar knowledge and technology to repair a lot of
damage to a humanoid body without automatically forcing him or her to
live with them. That means, theoretically they could repair the damage
done to Deanna Troi and maybe even to the baby without turning them into
prisoners.

As a prisoner my first priority would be to stay alive and to stay sane.
Escaping would be my second priority. I have no problems with any of
Hernandez decisions. I don`t know if I would have the strength to go on
for years, not to mention the length of time she has been imprisoned,
but I would have tried.

The confrontation between Hernandez, Inyx and the ruling body of the
Caeliar was very interesting. I very much agreed with what Hernandez had
to say. I also think (I am guessing here) that without the Caeliar there
is no way that the Federation and all the other civilizations threatened
by the Borg can survive. I hope it is not that simple that the Borg are
related to the Caeliar and that they feel responsible because of it. I
hope the reasons that the Caeliar will help are going deeper than that,
that a genuine understanding between this advanced civilization and
others on a less advanced level will develop. And that this will also be
the reason why they will let their prisoners go. Of course there is also
the question if the Borg are indeed eliminating all the lesser developed
species, where will new more advanced species come from, the ones the
Caeliar want to make contact with? Hm, speaking of more advanced
species, is the mass extinction of lesser developed species really in
their interest? I wonder if that topic will be mentioned in the next novel.

I see the irony that I was first opposed to see any character of the
Enterprise time frame placed into present day and now I am hoping
Hernandez stays. Sometimes it is nice to be wrong and this time I was
definitely very positively surprised. The Deanna and the Hernandez
threads are the elements in the trilogy I am most curious about how they
will end in the last book.


OTHERS

I like President Bacco a lot. She was also an impressive leader in this
book. The way she dealt with the various ambassadors in the meeting
about finding allies against the Borg showed this again. Meeting Garak
as the Ambassador of the Cardassian Union was unexpected. I loved it!
Garak is a natural for that job and like Bacco, I wonder what he is up
to. I am sure, he will continue to be full of surprises.

But this book also showed how heavy the burden of command can be. I
could see again what a remarkable woman Bacco is.

Garak`s part did not only make me curious but also provided the
entertainment I enjoyed so much in the past whenever he appeared.
Speaking of entertainment, it was a nice change to meet a Jellico who
didn`t annoy me at all but who even provided more precious entertainment
in this book. It is good to see that Jellico and Nechayev work well
together.

I don`t think Seven was out of character at all. If you don`t want to
consider morality but nothing else but survival her suggestion to use
the thalaron weapon makes a lot of sense. I think these scenes were a
missed opportunity because during the Dominion War Starfleet had much
less scruples and you could argue that the threat of the Borg is much
bigger than the threat of the Dominion was. At least under the Dominion
people would still be alive. What about the attempted genocide of the
Founders? Wasn`t that illegal and immoral, too? “The Federation won`t
endorse the use of genocidal tactics”. I welcome that but I think it
should have been mentioned that they don`t endorse them any more. The
way this confrontation was written gives a wrong impression. The
Federation is not as innocent as it might look when reading this book.

By the way, the scenes with Chakotay and Paris in this book were very
touching. What I regretted is that there was no mentioning of the
Excalibur this time. I hope that will change.

I also hope that it won`t be long now and I can read the last book of
this trilogy.

Baerbel Haddrell