Star Trek: Stargazer

Thirty years before the days of Star Trek: The Next Generation®, Captain Jean-Luc Picard was thrust unexpectedly into command of another proud vessel: the U.S.S. Stargazer. Surrounded by a crew he doesn't entirely know or trust, the young Picard must answer the challenges of leadership. While Picard and his senior staff accompany Chief Engineer Simenon to his homeworld of Gnala to undergo a ritual, his second officer, Victoria Wu, is left in command of the Stargazer. Responding to a distress call from a nearby star system, Wu finds herself in the middle of a mystery involving a damaged ship and a peculiar interstellar phenomenon-one that threatens to destroy the Stargazer if she can't learn its secret. Meanwhile, on Gnala, Picard must help his friend undergo the ritual-and find out who is trying to sabotage their chances of completing it before they're all killed!

Captain Jean Luc Picard accepts a courageous mission which he soon finds could be a deadly trap in this Star Trek: The Next Generation novel. In 1893 a time-traveling Jean-Luc Picard encountered a long-lived alien named Guinan, who was posing as a human to learn Earth's customs. During this "first encounter," Picard saved Guinan's life, a favor she would never forget. Five centuries later, Captain Picard, now commander of the Starship Enterprise ™, brought Guinan aboard as the ship's "bartender." The hope was that her wisdom and inner peace would provide a moral grounding for Picard's crew as they experienced the dangers of space. Because he hadn't yet made his trip through time, Picard had no knowledge of his nineteenth-century meeting with Guinan. But he did remember a different first encounter with the mysterious El-Aurian-a tumultuous adventure in which Picard and Guinan would risk their lives in a maze of interplanetary intrigue, with the future of the known universe at stake. This is the story of that fateful meeting, and of a Guinan very different from the woman we think we know-a person wracked by pain and longing, shaken to the roots of her soul. A Guinan who yearns for oblivion.

Without warning, a Starfleet ship is overwhelmed by a mysterious, alien aggressor-one who appears to possess an intimate knowledge of the vessel's tactical technology. Then a second Starfleet ship is attacked. And a third. Twenty-eight-year-old Jean-Luc Picard, captain of the U.S.S. Stargazer-a Constellation-class starship-is ordered to help form a desperate line of defense against the aggressor. But it seems nothing can stop the aliens' headlong plunge into the heart of the Federation. Or rather, nothing in front of them can. Trailing one of the alien attack formations is a tiny Starfleet shuttle with a half dozen crewmembers aboard. One of them is Picard's first officer and best friend, Gilaad Ben Zoma. Another is Arlen McAteer, the ambitious admiral who has made it his business to relieve Picard of his command. Can Ben Zoma and McAteer work together to unlock the secret of the alien assault? Or will their differences sabotage their effort-and deprive the Federation of its last hope for survival?

Discover Captain Jean Luc Picard's first command aboard the Stargazer in this Star Trek: The Next Generation novel. Ensign Andreas Nikolas, heartsick over the loss of his Mirror Universe lover, has resigned his post on Jean-Luc Picard's starship, the Stargazer, to seek a home on the freighter Iktoj'ni. All he wants of his new life is a chance to forget his troubles. And that's what he gets-until the Iktoj'ni is taken over by a monstrous alien with unbelievable powers and a disdain for all forms of life. Without saying why, the alien sends the freighter hurtling toward a part of space inhabited by the Ubarrak, the Federation's deadliest and most xenophobic enemy. And Nikolas, who fears that the incident will start a war, can't convince his captor to turn back. Picard's only hope of stopping the alien menace is Serenity Santana-a woman who once abused his trust in the name of her people's survival. Now she's back, asking for the captain's trust a second time. Picard desperately needs Santana's help in his struggle to save his galaxy. But will she justify his faith in her-or once again twist it to serve her own shadowy ends?