Rindis.com

Julia Ecklar wrote a number of short stories (in Analog, and a few anthologies), but no novels, which might explain why this Star Trek novel is more of a short story collection. However, she did later write other TOS novels under the name L.A. Graf (the pseudonym seems to be from slightly after my time of active Star Trek reading).

We have a framing story of a disabled shuttlecraft stuck in an extremely messy system with plenty of gravitational anomalies. As usual, you have much of the command crew going to check a scientific outpost that has gone silent, and Enterprise is hanging back to stay clear of an area far tougher for a big ship to get through. Disaster strikes, and the shuttlecraft is disabled, with Kirk and Sulu badly injured, and everyone is left waiting while Enterprise tries to locate the shuttle for rescue.

The actual problem that caused the accident is briefly identified as a gravitic mine, which reminds Sulu of a command simulator test involving a freighter that has been disabled by one. So Kirk, Sulu, Chekhov and Scotty trade tales of the Kobayashi Maru to pass the time….

While a good setup for those stories, the resolution of the framing is all about the rescue (which actually is enough). We never find out what happened to the scientific outpost, nor any hints as to who thought this system needs mining in the first place.

Kirk tells his story first, and it is a step up from the version we get in the reboot movie. Both assume that he reprograms the scenario into an easy win, which doesn’t really feel correct for him, and TWOK only says he ‘reprogrammed the computer so it was possible to win.’ My feeling has always been that he just took out any “cheats” the simulated Klingons got, and otherwise set it to a more normal, if tough, scenario.

Chekhov and Sulu’s stories are next and more focused on other events with Kobayashi Maru merely being a side element. Sulu’s story is the best of the lot, with a lot of personal development of a young Hikaru, and having to deal with an actual death while at the academy. Scott’s tale is good on the personal side, and has the right idea and structure. It also features the actual titular test more prominently, with Scotty getting to pull out number of engineering “miracles” to stave off defeat, while showcasing more of the ‘bad’ form of the test which is popular in conceptions of it, but not how I think it’d work. I also have problems with the idea of one bit, but like the idea that Scott knows it doesn’t work, but knows the math says it should, so he bets the simulator will let it work is dead on to what’s needed.

So, it’s good, decently structured, does well with the characters, but the writing doesn’t get to the level of what could have been done with the high concept.