Star Trek/Novels/Awesome

• Diane Duane seems to like giving these to Dr. McCoy in her Star Trek novels:
  • In Spock's World, the Vulcans are considering seceding from the Federation. During the debates, McCoy is asked to give a statement against secession. It ends up being a nine-page epic smackdown, culminating in him calling all of Vulcan a pack of cowards and threatening to bite an audience member in the leg. On the Vulcan equivalent of national television.
  • In Doctor's Orders, McCoy, left in command after Kirk disappears, faces down a Klingon captain with this memorable line:

"Think again, Commander. This is Enterprise. She is more than one man, though that one man may have made her famous -- or among you, infamous. She is four hundred thirty-eight people -- to whom you're an interesting enough problem, but one that we're long used to solving."

• • • Every interaction between McCoy and Kaiev is a Crowning Moment of Awesome.
  • In The Romulan Way, McCoy is put on show-trial in front of the Romulan Senate. By tradition, he has the right to speak his mind, before his sentence. McCoy steps to the lectern and proceeds to introduce the Romulans to the art of the Southern Filibuster. He gets through several hours nonstop before help arrives.
    • And what help it is. Horta Lieutenant Naraht burrows for miles throught the crust of Romulus and erupts through the Senate floor to rescue McCoy (and after chewing through all that rock, he's the size of a frigging bus), dissolving guards with acid left and right, and disruptor bolts bouncing off his skin effortlessly? This troper would pay serious money to see that sequence on film. JJ, take notes.
  • And in My Enemy, My Ally, McCoy manages to beat Spock in chess. From a position where Kirk was about to resign.
  • And then there's this gem of a passage from The Wounded Sky:

The doctor saw Jim's stunned look, spoke a word or two to a couple of the people who were keeping him company, and left them behind to see to Kirk. Jim literally had to squeeze his eyes shut as Bones approached. McCoy blazed, not with light, but with an intense compassion that could be felt on the skin, even from a distance, like sun in a desert. Jim had always known Bones cared deeply about people, but he was unprepared for the full truth of the matter - this passionate allegiance to life, this fierce charity that wished health and joy to everything that lived. Jim felt all the death in him, all the entropy, screaming and cowering away; it knew its enemy. It tried to drag Jim away with it, but he stood his ground, wondering whether he would survive McCoy's touch, or be able to stand the burning life it promised if he did.

• • • And, later on, this, which doesn't even come close to doing the moment justice:

"Kit," another voice said, and McCoy went down on one knee beside her, looking troubled. "One thing. When you write the equations - do you have to give them death.... [or] can we at least spare them pain?"

• • Her TNG novels are pretty awesome, too. In Dark Mirror, Deanna Troi has an awesome You Shall Not Pass mental battle againt her evil counterpart, who's been built up throughout the novel as a monstrously powerful, mind-raping psycho bitch. But where mirror!Troi has brute strength, our Troi has finesse, and she uses what can only be described as telepathic judo to reflect mirror!Troi's mental assault right back at her. Then, while mirror!Troi is frozen with shock, Deanna calmly strolls up to her and pistol-whips the shit out of her with a phaser. Fuck Yeah.

Troi: You have too much of the life of the mind.

• The Trek novel "How Much For Just the Planet?" is generally made of awesome, but things come to an utterly insane climax with an epic Starfleet vs. Klingon... pie fight. I couldn't possibly make that up.
• Although it was mentioned on screen, the story of how James T. Kirk beat the Kobayashi Maru Scenario wasn't revealed in its pure over-the-top awesomeness until one version appeared in the novel Kobayashi Maru: Kirk programmed the computer so that the ambushing enemy, upon hearing that he was James T. Kirk, promptly apologized for the misunderstanding, assisted in the rescue of the ship, and offered to host a diplomatic dinner in his honor.
  • Which is shortly eclipsed by Scotty's solution...He breaks the rules of physics, taking out an entire squad of Klingon ships with one torpedo. (A fan who hasn't read the book wants to know: did somebody say, "You can't do that!")
    • To give more detail: when Scotty's simulated starship got hit the Klingons did far too much damage, so Scotty gets peeved and decides that if the computer is going to cheat so is he. So although, as he has to admit to the Academy instructors, he knows the tactic doesn't work in practice, he tries it because he knew the maths said it should work and hoped it would work in the Kobyashu Maru simulation like it had in other computer simulations. What was awesome was when they looked up who it had been who had found it didn't work in practice...was Scotty, when he was 17, which had required him to build several shield generators and link them together. Also a touch of a Xanatos Gambit going on as the Engineering Instructor had set things up to provoke Scotty into cheating in that manner. That let him expose just how good an engineer Scotty was ("Oh! Imagine My Sur-prise! It was You who Did It!") and that he had remained on the Command Track despite being unhappy because he didn't want to disappoint his family by transferring. Result, because Scotty cheated he is "dropped" from the Command Track and transferred to Engineering like he wants.
• In Enterprise: The First Adventure by Vonda N. McIntyre (1986) we see the first meeting between Kirk and Spock. Kirk's just taken over command of the Enterprise from the departing Christopher Pike, and Spock is very unsure about his new captain. In the officer's lounge that evening, Kirk walks past Spock who is sitting alone with a 3-D chessboard in mid-game. Kirk first figures out from the configuration that it's black's move, then watches Spock make a move, and then announces "White to checkmate in three" and strolls away. Sometime later Spock comes over to Kirk and, after ascertaining that Kirk was serious ("One can never be certain when a human being is making a joke") asks to see the mate-in-three maneuver. Kirk makes the first move and then Spock sees it and resigns.

"Your move," Spock said, "risked your queen and your knights. It was... illogical."
"But effective," Jim said.
"Indeed," Spock said softly. "What mode of calculation do you use? Sinhawk, perhaps?" Or a method of your own devising?"
"One of my own devising, you might say. I didn't calculate it, Spock. I _saw_ it. Call it intuition, if you like. Or good luck."
"I do not believe in luck," Spock said. "And I have no experience of... intuition."
"Nevertheless, that's my method of calculation."
Spock cleared the board.
"Would you care," Spock asked, "for a complete game?"
[The next morning, a somewhat sleepy Kirk enters the Bridge:]
He had traded half the night's sleep for the hard-played chess game with Commander Spock. He had won with a flamboyant, one might even say reckless, series of moves. Mr. Spock had been winning until Jim's final, exhilarating rally.
"Good morning, Commander Spock."
"Good morning, captain."
"I enjoyed our game last night."
"It was..." Spock hesitated. "Most instructive."

• Peter David is good at these -- witness his novel Q-in-Law, in which Q gets his ass kicked all over the Enterprise and back again. By Lwaxana Troi. This is after he spends the whole novel seducing her and then dumping her in front of the entire senior staff so brutally it almost qualifies as Moral Event Horizon. After this, this troper was desperately hoping something terrible would happen to Q. He was not disappointed.
  • • The audiobook is notable for abraiging the scene, but it's made more funny when Q is turned into a tree. No mention is made of the Betazed Battleaxe from the novel...but there are chainsaw noises in the background. And the wronged party is aiming below the belt, as it were...
    • This troper couldn't enjoy it because of the aforementioned actions of Q - Character Derailment if ever there was any. Q's not above doing some pretty dark things at times, but going out of his way to doing something that petty isn't him. Even at his most villainous, he's not that kind of villain.
      • One of the last chapters (featuring Corbin Bernsen as Q2, awesome in of itself) implies that he did have feelings for Lwaxana, and was treating her badly because he couldn't deal with the idea that he had affection for a mortal. I'd say that's pretty in-character.
    • This troper considers the Crowning Moment of Awesome to be, not Lwaxana putting the beatdown on Q, but Worf's reaction. Riker asks Worf what they should do about Lwaxana's beatdown. Worf's response: "Sell tickets."
  • Also, in Q-Squared, Picard gets an epic sword fight with Trelane while reality is falling apart around them. He ends it by stabbing Trelane from under his arm while on the ground. Picard is Badass.
    • Guinan had one when she dumped the drinks on Trelane. Also when he sent Geordi into Troi's shower.
  • The Borg get a CMOA in Before Dishonor. They. Ate. Pluto. Considering the novel is one of the weakest novels David has offered, the fact that he made the Borg that Badass is pretty nice.
  • Imzadi should not be overlooked. The young Deanna's refusal to play the Sinardeen raider's game, pretty much challenging him to shoot her, is pretty badass. There's also the scene where Older Riker bluffs, bullshits, and bullies his way through the Enterprise to save Deanna.
• Star Trek Destiny. More specifically the latter half of the third book, "Lost Souls". The Borg cease to exist, and every single drone is freed from the Collective, all at once. The Collective entity is faded into nonexistance, and the liberated ex-Borg leave to travel the universe to fight on behalf of those who cannot. This Troper can't quite settle on who to assign the awesome to. Though Captain Hernandez seems the most deserving of it.
  • The entire plot of the Destiny trilogy is something of a polarizing agent on the Trek fandom at large.
• In Diane Carey's Ship of the Line TNG novel, Picard gets one that builds on his "There are four lights!" moment from the show: he goes back on a "diplomatic" visit to see Gul Madred, the Cardassian who had tortured him, to negotiate the release of illegally-held prisoners. Instead of trying to negotiate, though, Picard reveals he invited Madred's daughter along and pulls out a small device that he says will go off and fry the minds of anyone within range when it's done counting down, explaining that it's a Klingon device to test bravery -- the last person to get the heck out is the bravest. He then casually taunts Madred with the prospect of death and starts asking, "How many lights do you think there are?" Then the device counts down to zero... and nothing happens. Madred breaks down and gives Picard what he wants. Victory through reverse Hannibal Lecture!
• In the Deep Space Nine novel Fallen Heroes, Sisko's Heroic Sacrifice and the code wherewith he warns anyone still alive while making sure the Bekkir are none the wiser.
• Surprisingly, B-4 gets one in the Star Trek Online tie-in novel The Needs of the Many. Geordi has managed to access Data's memories inside B-4's head. Data, realizing that he is functionally dead, chooses to basically commit suicide rather than destroy his brother's consciousness. Geordi gives Data information on a threat to the Federation, believing Data to be capable of helping them, but Data is unmoved, wanting to give his brother the opportunity at life. Then, at the last moment, B-4 takes over the 'suicide command,' having read the same information sent to Data and believing that Data is more important to the than him. His last words are in the form of a message to Data are 'I love you brother. Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.'
• The first novel in the Star Trek: Vanguard series has an insane six-on-one battle between the overworked, underrepaired USS Bombay and a fleet of Tholian battlecruisers. They get destroyed eventually, but Captain Gannon and her crew go out like total badasses, taking out at least five Tholian ships with Crazy Awesome tactics like slamming Tholians into each other with the tractor beam, a nice does of Ramming Always Works, and creative use of the Self-Destruct Mechanism. Even Kirk is impressed.
• A troper above noted the final defeat of the Borg in Star Trek: Destiny as a Crowning Moment of Awesome. This troper thought it was....unimpressive, at best. Some truly Crowning Moments...however,
  • In the first book Gods of Night, the crew of the USS Ranger basically turn their entire ship into a transphasic torpedo and incinerate the Borg ship heading for the Klingon planet Khitomer. The Klingons are so impressed that they are spurred into joining the war effort against the invasion.
  • The Starfleet Corps of Engineers manage to thwart a Borg attack by causing an entire planet to disappear. For some inexplicable reason, we never learn how, we simply hear it mentioned. Epic Fail if there ever was one.
    • Consider it more of a Noodle Incident - it's more fun to speculate how in Captain Gomez and her crew pulled it off than see the trick.
  • In the lead up to the big face-off between Hernandez and the Borg Queen, the crew of the Aventine have to actually capture a Borg ship. Using tactics from their enemies they literally jump a Borg scout sphere, board it, and use old-school firearms to blast every Borg drone into the next space-time continuum. THAT'S Bad. Ass.
  • Captain Bateson (the time-lost Starfleet Captain from "Cause and Effect") gets to throw down with a Borg cube and save Vulcan from annihilation.

Bateson: Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more! Fire at will!

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