First a bit of background - this was released in early 2002, before ST NEMESIS was in theaters later that year, and as a result before Data's onscreen death. As luck would have it, FF to 2012 and one of the best Trek authors working today, David Mack, has constructed a new trilogy based around Data and his possible resurrection in some fashion. Noted in his work on the trilogy was the fact that much of its story comes straight out of this novel so I had to pick it up when I scored one for a cheap price at the locale used bookstore.
Set sometime loosely between the movies Insurrection and Nemesis, Data has continued his personal growth with his emotion chip. He has begun to experience pain, loss, sadness while honing his skills of intuition. He is truly becoming more human every day, as much as an advanced android can be anyway. He keeps the bodies of his ancestors - Lore, his "daughter" Lal, and his "mother" Dr. Julia Tainer, in tubes in his lab and even cries in one scene when he remembers Lal's short but important life he helped to create.
The Enterprise is called in to investigate an mystery at a frontier lab where a Doctor and Bruce Maddox (from S.2's Measure of a Man episode) have seemingly suffered an accident and the android they are working on had been destroyed. Doctor Vaslovik has been killed. We get a flashback series of scenes where Vaslovik is seen with Data's creator Noonien Soong and Ira Graves (also from a TNG episode) as they explore the Exo III planetoid, referenced in the TOS episode "What are little Girls Made of?" featuring the immortal being Flint and his android companions Ruk and Rayna. They accidentally activate the Exo III androids left on the planet by some ancient race and barely escape, setting up events that connect to the TOS and TNG crews. There are a ton of continuity "porn" references here what with all the old characters name dropping and the common thread of AI existence.
Turns out that Vaslovik is actually Flint himself and has taken on the identity of the good Doctor in order to safeguard his newest creation - Rhea McAdams. He has smuggled her on board the Enterprise as a regular crewmember. Data happens to take a liking to her as his growth continues with human relationships thanks to her. The Exo III ancient droids return in present time, having tracked down Flint/Vaslovik and chaos ensues. The Enterprise is battle damaged, Data almost dies as Rhea saves his life and exposes her true nature to him. It is discovered that there is a "secret society" of AI sentient beings that has individuals living in all parts of the galaxy, some hiding in plain sight as humans or other races. They are from the Exo III planet and were created by The Old Ones (Ruk mentions them). They outgrew and killed their creators but due to their limited physical forms, are on an endless journey to better themselves over the eons. That Soong is inspired by them before he escapes in the past and Data eventually results is a nice result in the Star Trek timeline. Overall I really liked this book. It borrows heavily from a LOT of Star Trek history, but ties it all together in a very satisfying way. Fans of Mr. Data should be extremely excited about this one. It has great dialogue, emotion, and some great space battles towards the end with a new type of ship used by the Exo III droids. It's an added plus that this standalone novel now serves as a prologue to even bigger trilogy that I can't wait to dive into. Perhaps Mr. Data will return again very soon?
There are always possibilities...
5 out of 5 Khans!
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