The untold story of Picard's first command! The first Stargazer adventure!
The Valiant is a Pocket TNG novel – and, retroactively, the first novel in the Star Trek: Stargazer series – written by Michael Jan Friedman. Published by Pocket Books, it was first released in hardback in April 2000.
Summary[]
- From the book jacket
- Three hundred years ago, the SS Valiant was destroyed during an ill-fated attempt to cross the legendary galactic barrier. Starfleet had always assumed that the Valiant had perished with all hands aboard, until a pair of unusual humanoids arrive at Starbase 209, claiming to be the descendants of a handful of Valiant survivors who found refuge on an M-Class planet beyond the Barrier.
- Even more shocking, the visitors warn that a hostile alien species, the Nuyyad, are preparing to invade the galaxy. Uncertain of how much of the strangers' story to believe, Starfleet orders the USS Stargazer to investigate at once.
- Lieutenant Commander Jean-Luc Picard is second officer on the Stargazer. A young man who has yet to command a vessel of his own, he soon develops a special bond with one of the visitors, a strikingly beautiful woman who has inherited mysterious psychic abilities from her alleged Starfleet ancestors. But can Picard truly trust her?
- Excerpts of copyrighted sources are included for review purposes only, without any intention of infringement.
Book One[]
The Valiant opens aboard the SS Valiant under the command of Captain Carlos Tarasco in the year 2069. A mysterious force has thrown the Valiant far from home and now the crew faces the grueling prospect of crossing the Galactic Barrier if they ever want to see Earth again.
The Valiant's primitive shields can do little to protect them from the Barrier though. Despite the fact that only the optical scanners can detect the Barrier, the effects it has on the crew are catastrophic.
Before Tarasco orders the ship to turn around, six crew are dead, one in critical condition, and the Valiant's systems have been badly damaged. In fact, the Valiant may not be able to repair her warp drive. Left to drift, the crew begins making their repairs. Relieved in part that Assistant Engineer Agnarsson is alive, the crew continues on their way.
It is only later that Agnarsson begins to manifest strange psychic powers. The Valiant's CMO realizes that the Barrier only affected those with extrasensory perception (ESP). Thanks to his advanced abilities, Agnarsson was able to survive and the Barrier somehow enhanced those abilities. They also caused strange personality aberrations however and Agnarsson soon begins to suspect the crew of plotting against him.
Faced with the possibility of being killed by the psychotic engineer, Captain Tarasco prepares to kill his crewman. Ordering the launch of a recorder (later retrieved by the USS Enterprise in "Where No Man Has Gone Before") Tarasco and his security officers then chase Agnarsson about the ship.
After Agnarsson kills several security personnel, Tarasco realizes the awful truth. He cannot stop Agnarsson on his own so he orders the evacuation of the Valiant and prepares to destroy his ship. The resulting explosion takes Agnarsson and Tarasco with it, leaving the survivors to drift on the opposite end of the Galactic Barrier with no chance of a rescue vessel.
Background information[]
- Having established most of the Stargazer crew in the novel Reunion, The Valiant revisits some of those characters, and explains how Picard takes command of the vessel (as discussed in TNG: "Tapestry"). The success of this novel would lead to the creation of the Star Trek: Stargazer series, written by Friedman, to which the paperback reprint is retroactively inserted as the first novel in the series.
- The audiobook version was abridged by George Truett.
- An extract from this novel appeared in Star Trek Monthly issue 66.
- The Science Fiction Book Club released a special edition of the hardback in May 2000.
- This novel was later collected, along with Reunion, in the Signature Edition omnibus, Pantheon.
Cover gallery[]
Characters[]
SS Valiant[]
- Carlos Tarasco (β)
- Captain of the Valiant
- Amir Rashad (β)
- First officer of the Valiant; killed in the encounter with the barrier
- Dennis Gardenhire (β)
- Valiant operations officer
- Hollandsworth
- Lieutenant, Valiant science officer
- Mary Anne Sommers
- Lieutenant, Valiant helm officer
- Womack
- Valiant chief tactical officer
- Jack Gorvoy
- Valiant chief medical officer
- Chantal Coquillette
- Medic; forms part of the initial Magnian colony
- Rudolph
- Medic
- Bill McMillan
- Valiant chief engineer
- Geirod Agnarsson
- Engineer's assistant; develops telepathy and telekinesis after encounter with the barrier, leading Tarasco to destroy the ship in order to stop him.
- Davidoff
- Engineer
- Dan Pelletier
- Valiant security chief
- Siregar
- Security officer
- Marc Offenburger
- Security officer
- Peavey
- Security officer
- Marciulonis
- Security officer
- Santana
- Security officer
- Williamson
- Valiant supply officer
- Daniels
- Astrophysicist
- Zosky
- Stellar physicist, signed onto the Valiant mission at the last minute; killed in the encounter with the barrier.
- O'Shaugnessy
- Crewman
- Maciello
- Crewman
- Kolodny
- Crewman
- Rivers
- Crewman
- Yoshii
- Crewman
USS Stargazer[]
- Daithan Ruhalter (β)
- Captain of the Stargazer; killed in the Stargazer's first encounter with the Nuyyad.
- Stephen Leach
- Commander, first officer of the Stargazer
- Jean-Luc Picard
- Lieutenant commander, second officer of the Stargazer; takes command after the Stargazer's first encounter with the Nuyyad.
- Carter Greyhorse (β)
- Chief medical officer of the Stargazer
- Phigus Simenon (β)
- Lieutenant, chief engineer of the Stargazer
- Pernell
- Engineer
- Zaffino
- Engineer
- Idun Asmund (β)
- Lieutenant, Stargazer helm officer
- Gerda Asmund (β)
- Lieutenant, Stargazer navigator
- Charlie Kochman
- Lieutenant, Stargazer secondary navigator
- Martin Paxton
- Stargazer communications chief
- Angela Cariello
- Stargazer sciences chief
- Gilaad Ben Zoma (β)
- Lieutenant, Stargazer security chief
- Ang
- Lieutenant, Stargazer security officer
- Peter "Pug" Joseph (β)
- Lieutenant, Stargazer security officer
- Garner
- Lieutenant, Stargazer security officer
- Iulus
- Lieutenant, Stargazer security officer
- Pierzynski
- Lieutenant, Stargazer security officer
- Pteffer
- Stargazer security officer
- Fox
- Stargazer security officer
- Sekowsky
- Stargazer security officer
- Hans Werber
- Chief weapons officer of the Stargazer
- Vigo (β)
- Pandrilite (β) lieutenant, Stargazer weapons officer
- Chen
- Stargazer weapons officer
- Ramirez
- Stargazer weapons officer
- Vandermeer
- Lieutenant, Stargazer transporter operator
- Montenegro
- Ensign
- Kotsakes
- Ensign
- Barr
- James
- Harras
Starfleet Command[]
- Mehdi
- Admiral, appoints Picard as commanding officer of the Stargazer after the resolution of the Nuyyad crisis
- Gardner-Vincent
- Admiral
Starbase 209[]
- Eliopoulos
- Captain, ranking officer on the base
Nalogen Four[]
- Najak
- Administrator of the colony
- Jomar
- An engineer, recently arrived at the colony
Magnian colony[]
- Shield Williamson
- Guard Daniels
- Serenity Santana
- Law
- Director of the colony medical center
- Armor Brentano
- Engineer
- Hilton-Smith
Referenced only[]
- James T. Kirk
- Gary Mitchell
- Osborne
- Captain of the USS Merced; Leach's former commander
- Goimard
- 21st century architect
- Matthew Joseph
- "Pug"'s brother
- Slattery
- Carter Greyhorse's roommate at Starfleet Academy
- Turan Relanios
- Betazoid scientist
References[]
Andromeda Galaxy; galactic barrier (TOS: "Where No Man Has Gone Before")
- Nalogen IV
- M class planet near the galactic barrier; location of a Kelvan colony, established after their abortive attempt to hijack the USS Enterprise (TOS: "By Any Other Name")
- Nuyyad
- Hostile alien species, operating beyond the galactic barrier
External link[]
- The Valiant at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
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