Federation (novel)

Plot summary

The first half of the novel follows three parallel arcs. One arc depicts Zefram Cochrane completing the first warp speed voyage, a solo journey to Alpha Centauri and back, as his backer Micah Brack uses the warp drive to help humanity expand and counter the Optimum Movement, perfectionists seeking to improve upon Khan Noonien Singh's failed unification. A second arc follows James Kirk and his crew after the Coridan conference, when an admiral demands Kirk explain a subspace message about the supposedly dead Commissioner Nancy Hedford; Kirk learns Cochrane was kidnapped from Gamma Canaris. A third arc covers Jean-Luc Picard and his crew after dropping off Sarek of Vulcan, when a Ferengi ship leads them to a Romulan commander giving Picard a section of a Borg ship with a Preserver artifact. The Cochrane arc jumps to 2078, just before a devastating war on Earth, as Cochrane narrowly escapes the Optimum Movement leader Adrik Thorsen, who wants Cochrane's warp knowledge for a bomb. Cochrane later flees Alpha Centauri in 2111 and is taken by the Companion to her sanctuary. Kirk and the Enterprise rescue Cochrane from a hijacked passenger ship but battle Klingon warships commanded by Thorsen's robotic remnants. Cochrane and the Companion take a shuttlecraft toward a black hole's event horizon, with a course to escape via warp drive; a Klingon ship follows, Kirk takes the Enterprise in and destroys it, but both the Enterprise and the shuttlecraft cannot escape.