A Time to Die (Spoiler)

S P O I L E R

*

*

*

*

*

*


At the end of "A Time to be Born", I wondered if my negative opinions
(minus some exceptions here and there) about Admirals and counsellors in
Star Trek will be confirmed in the next book. I wasn`t hopeful anyway
that there might be a change for the better and "A Time to Die" very
much delivered what I expected.

Starfleet is incredibly forgiving about matters concerning the
Ontailians. Nobody wants to stir the pot and in the name of politics,
things are kept quiet and are swept under the carpet. I still don`t
understand why it is so important to Starfleet to keep this species as a
member, it seems no matter what. Only because they are nonhumanoid? That
is really not good enough. Because Rashanar is in their territory? So
what? If this boneyard had been in Klingon or Romulan space and there is
a big thread to Starfleet hidden in there, Starfleet would not keep
away.

As I said before, this is not the idealistic Starfleet that is about the
truth and what is the right thing to do. Nobody still opposes Admiral
Nakamura and in spite it was revealed that Picard was right and Data was
not imagining things, Data didn`t get his emotion chip back. Nobody
apologized to Picard for the way he was treated, the contrary, Starfleet
Medical Mental Health still poses a threat to him.

The whole idea of the original Rashanar mission of risking lives for
bodies and shooing looters away who are looting things that nobody seems
to be interested to save still makes little sense to me. Returning in
order to eliminate the threat is at least a very good reason but
nevertheless, most of the foundation on which this two parter is built
is not very convincing. It is one thing to show another example of
Starfleet Admirals who are misguided or worse because that is nothing
new. There are also examples of counsellors I wouldn`t want to be a
patient of. But the rest of it - I had to wonder if Starfleet would
really waste so many resources for this and I most definitely wouldn`t
see the Ontailians as a valuable, trustworthy member.

At least Mr. Vornholt made no excuses in the story about these aspects,
so that I only find them irritating but not annoying. It is a different
matter with counselor Colleen Cabot. My very negative opinion of this
woman hasn`t changed one bit. But suddenly, after her trip with Wesley,
the "lovely" looking Cabot is suddenly also treated as a "lovely"
character. What she did seems to be forgotten and forgiven: She was only
following orders after all, and the "delicate", "beautiful" Cabot is
turned into a victim of circumstances. Only, she was much too eager to
follow her orders in the previous book and she even seemed to enjoy the
challenge to try to get past Picard`s defenses. Maybe this is not fair
but I can`t help feeling that way: I had to compare Cabot with what
happened in a certain prison in Iraq. I remember an interview with a
relative or friend of this woman shown on some of these infamous photos,
assuring reporters that she is really a very nice person. And the woman
herself said she was just following orders. Maybe, but that is no excuse
and I think everybody could see that she enjoyed what she was doing.
Seeing Cabot suddenly being treated like a kind of saint who was also
treated like that after her death didn`t sit well with me at all.

I already could see that I am not the only one who wondered why Wesley
fell in love with her. Love is not always logical, true. But my opinion
from this story is, this was not a healthy love from the beginning. It
was first of all based on physical attraction and obsession. Wesley is
not only very young, he is also very inexperienced. I can understand
that he found this woman overwhelmingly attractive. Cabot has a talent
to present the best side of herself, to manipulate others, even if she
isn`t really doing it on purpose. Wesley was blind, something love can
cause. I don`t care if Cabot actually loved Wesley because I don`t like
this character and I don`t regret her death at all. But I am sure Wesley
loved this beautiful woman deeply. I felt very much for him.

What Wesley did took a lot of courage and personal strength. I was
impressed. Now I am actually glad that Wesley returned in the Star Trek
book universe because although this two parter certainly has its
weaknesses, this is its big strength: It made Wesley interesting,
likeable and I very much care about what will happen to him now. I also
liked the scenes with his mother very much and am also hoping that this
time, they will indeed stay in touch.

When Wesley realized that the explosion of the fake Enterprise was the
same vision he had seen in the Pool of Prophecy, I wondered if Wesley
actually was meant to do what he did. That this is why he passed the
test. The book doesn`t give that answer but maybe it will be revealed in
a future book in the "A Time to..." series. At least I hope so. I read
that quite a few fans were disappointed about this reset button end. I
can understand that but I think it benefits Star Trek much more to have
Wesley as a Traveler because he adds something unique. As we could also
just see in NF again, as soon as a character reaches a certain power
level, they either die or disappear. I can understand why because it is
not easy to have a more powerful being in the crew who can solve
problems in miraculous looking ways. Wesley might just fit inbetween,
not being a normal human being but also not too powerful when he comes
back and joins Starfleet again as seen in Nemesis.

I didn`t understand fully what this mimic creature actually was, but it
made kind of sense and was interesting. To me there was never a doubt
that this was an animal, a very dangerous animal that was out of control
and needed to be killed. The idea to catch it and use it somehow was not
only unrealistic but also irresponsible. That Cabot favoured that idea,
also in the hopes to save her career, only added to my negative opinion
of her.

After this two parter, I left the next chapter for later and continued
with "Worlds of Deep Space Nine". I am in the middle of the Cardassia
story, which is so far excellent.

Baerbel Haddrell