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This week I decided to review Star
Trek: Section 31: Control by David Mack.
The story has two main
plot lines. The smaller plot line is set in the 22nd
century beginning before Earth's governments unite, and continuing to
the aftermath of the Federation's founding. Professor Aaron Ikerson
has created Uraei, an AI software which observes any messages sent or
other activities using equipment carrying its software, which swiftly
becomes pretty much any electronics manufactured on Earth. The idea
is that Uraei will identify possible threats and pass the data to
humans who will decide what to do regarding the threats, but as the
program is secretly spread among humanity's neighboring worlds it
adapts and soon begins acting on its own, arranging accidents to
eliminate possible threats to its plans and creating an organization
to serve its goal of defending humanity and its allies at all costs.
This leaves Ikerson and his few allies in a desperate race to stop
his creation.
The main story takes place in the late
twenty-fourth century. A group of scientists have discovered Uraei,
which has spread throughout the Federation and beyond, evolving to the
point where it can pretty much manipulate the Federation at will
They inform reporter Ozla Graniv. Seeking a way to neutralize Uraei,
because she has been warned that trying to reveal its existence while
it is active would be futile and probably suicidal, she contacts
Julian Bashir and Sarina Douglas. They realize that Uraei must be the
key to Section 31's power, thus destroying it would be vital to
completing their goal of eliminating the rogue organization. The trio
sets out for Orion, one of the few local worlds where Uraei has
comparatively little influence, to meet with Data. Data agrees to
help them but their efforts alert the AI and they and Data's daughter
Lal are forced to flee from a Section 31 strike team. They travel to
Cardassia Prime where Garek, now leader of the Cardassian government,
offers them sanctuary while they plan their next move. But Section 31
follows them and they are again forced to flee with Douglas being
captured. Regrouping on a well-hidden rogue planet, the remaining
members of the group plot a desperate three-pronged strike to destroy
Uraei and bring down Section 31 even as their enemies try to
brainwash Douglas and turn her against her allies and her lover
Bashir...
I give this book 3 out of 10. There
aren't any real problems with the writing I see, but I have a number
of issues with the story itself. First and least there was an earlier
Star Trek novel which covered the origins of the organization that
became Section 31 and this book ignores that completely. Second and
by far the biggest complaint I have is that I feel Uraei is a
betrayal of everything the Federation and humanity in the Trek future
is supposed to represent. I was never entirely happy about the
existence of Section 31 but there were so many renegades and rogue
groups in Star Trek lore that I consider one long lasting group of
well meaning, out of control extremists acceptable. Giving that group
the capability to spy constantly on pretty much everyone in the
Federation and many in neighboring areas and placing it in the hands
of a rogue, killer AI pushes it far past the acceptable limit in my
opinion. Finally, I hate the ending with a passion. It is definitely
my least favorite ending to a Star Trek novel ever and right now its
a solid contender for my least favorite ending in a novel of any kind and is made worse because the authors of future books will have to
either write around the ending, deal with the long term effects of
the ending, or throw the ending out in favor of what is needed to
write their stories.
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