The Return (Star Trek)

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The Return is a novel by William Shatner that was co-authored by Garfield Reeves-Stevens and Judith Reeves-Stevens. It is based on the Star Trek universe, but does not follow the timeline established by other Star Trek novels. The sequel to this book is Avenger (1998). The Return was touted as the official sequel to Generations, in that it directly succeeds the events of Generations and takes place, apparently, before the events of Star Trek: First Contact.

The working title for the book was The Fires of Olympus.^[1]

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The premise of this novel concerns Captain Kirk's resurrection by the Borg and a secret Romulan alliance, using some alien technology to bring Kirk's katra back to his body, but deliberately implanting false memories to turn him against the Federation. The goal of this secret alliance is to destroy Jean-Luc Picard, but, despite his conditioning, Kirk is able to resist commands to kill Worf, Data and Geordi La Forge, all of whom are attacked by him as he seeks Picard. Simultaneously, Picard and Doctor Crusher are participating in a Federation expedition to an assimilated colony, where they learn of the Borg/Romulan Alliance. Spock also learns of this alliance when he is captured, but the Borg do not assimilate him as, for some reason, they believe Spock is already a Borg.

Eventually, Kirk is captured on Deep Space Nine, the implant that was responsible for his false memories being removed by the joint efforts of Doctor Julian Bashir and Admiral Leonard McCoy, McCoy acting as an advisor while Bashir's younger, fitter hands perform the operation. Although Kirk retains the drives implanted in him by the device, leading him to a confrontation with Picard in a holodeck-recreated USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), Spock is able to remove the commands thanks to a mind meld. In the process, they learn that V'ger, the former Voyager 6, was actually upgraded by a division of the Borg collective, which explains why the Borg did not assimilate Spock; they assumed the trace of V'ger in his mind from their meld was an actual link to the Collective. This also gives them another advantage; thanks to the meld, Spock knows the location of the Borg homeworld.

Taking a Defiant-class starship (Renamed Enterprise for the mission), the Enterprise-D senior staff, accompanied by Kirk, Spock and McCoy, travel directly to the Borg homeworld thanks to a stolen transwarp drive. Once there, the Enterprise neutralises the ships around the planet while Kirk and Picard beam down. Using Picard's Locutus memories, they track down the Borg central node, which, when deactivated, will sever the Borg Collective; every Borg ship will be separate from every other ship, and what can defeat one will always work a second time. However, the result will cause a cataclysmic explosion that will kill whoever operates the node.

Knocking Picard out, Kirk has him beamed back up to the Enterprise as he hits the node, triggering a cataclysmic explosion. However, even as the crews watch, Spock — who has always been able to sense Kirk ever since they first mind-melded — still does not believe that his friend is dead.

And, somewhere, somehow, Kirk lives, awaiting the moment when he will be united with his old friends...