Elusive Salvation

Star Trek: Elusive Salvation
pub. 2016 Dayton Ward
365 pages

Buckle up, readers, this one is a fun one. In the 19th century, a group of scientists with a cure to saving their people from tyranny were forced to take refuge on Earth after their ship was injured. In the 23rd century, these scientists' people have appealed to the Federation to help them find the remains of their lost comrades, for they are still in need of the cure and it could be found within the scientists' bodies or ships. Because there's no way to find them in the 23rd century, Kirk decides to use his previous contact with 20th century personalities Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln to enlist their help, and -- fifteen years "later" in Seven/Lincoln's POV -- the action culminates in NYC, circa 1985. All the while, a secret government agency organized in 1947 to investigate and sequester all information regarding alien visits to the Earth, follows the trail of both the aliens, Lincoln, and -- finally, Kirk, wondering: WHY ON EARTH IS EARTH SO POPULAR WITH ALIENS?

The last time Dayton Ward played with history like this I enjoyed it enormously, and Elusive Salvation was in that same neighborhood. It wasn't quite as novel this time, but I liked the connections Ward tried to draw between the plot and what was happening in real life, like Reagan's "Star Wars" program. The last time Ward did this there were numerous connections to the Star Trek time-traveling shows; those are here as well, but they don't fit in the context of the actual story so they're moved to the epilogue. The big exception is Mestrel, the Vulcan left on Earth from ENT's Carbon Creek episode, who also had a big part in Ward's previous playing-with-history title, From History's Shadow. The epilogue also contains an oblique reference to Section 31, which has probably caused raging arguments on Treklit forums given that Ward is apparently advancing an alternate explanation for why S31 has that particular name.