No Surrender - SCE #4

No Surrender SCE #4
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The fourth omnibus release from the Star Fleet Corp of Engineers series contains four stories continuing the timeline as set down in the original release of the individual tales.

The first story is "No Surrender" written by Jeff Mariotte in which the Da Vinci's Captain has a face from his past come back to haunt him as the Kursican Orbital Incarceration Platform suffers some damage and while not part of the Federation there are Federation citizens onboard and thus the SCE are tasked with securing the facility.
In Caveat Emptor written by Ian Edginton and Mike Collins a Ferengi trading vessel is abandoned by her Captain and when picked up by the Da Vinci they learn that a piece of technology from Beta III is involved. The Ferengi crew seem pleased to see these new arrivals but there is more going onboard as the landing party soon find out.
Past Life written by Robert Greenberger has a soon to be Federation member world request help after they discover a piece of technology which may have been buried on their world long before their race gained sentience. The concept of a third party guiding or intervening in the development of the Evoran people causes civil unrest and so the Da Vinci has to balance learning the purpose of this device and how to maintain relations between this worlds people and the plant with the Federation.
The final story is Oaths written by Glenn Hauman and deals with an serious outbreak on Sherman's Planet which has the potential to spread amongst the stars thanks to it's long incubation rate which allows the contagion to spread before symptoms can be identified. Dr. Elizabeth Lense has the whole world on her shoulders and we learn she had reasons for being assigned on to the Da Vinci and the story is equally balanced between the plot and a character piece.

Once again this omnibus offers a variety of Star Trek stories making use of the abilities the SCE bring to the franchise. My favourite story is probably Oaths as I had not realised Dr. Elizabeth Lense was the character first brought to screen in Deep Space Nine and how the revelations of Bashir would impact others within the service. Former Captains gone bad, Kirk's never look back philosophy and truth versus dogma all form the basis for some good Trek.

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