In the most recent Star Trek film, “Nemesis”, the Enterprise was destroyed (or at least very badly damaged), Data was killed, and Riker and Troi were on their way to a new assignment. The latter has been the subject of a series of Star Trek books on the USS Titan. This is the continuation of Picard’s mission on the rebuilt Enterprise.

He is joined by Beverly Crusher, now his lover, Worf, Geordi La Forge, a new counselor to replace Troi, and a handful of “redshirts” (that is, people we get to know just before they are killed off).

The enemy is an old one for Picard, the Borg. Defeated by him in the film “First Contact” and dealt what was thought to be a death blow by Kathryn Janeway at the end of the TV series “Voyager”, the remaining drones in the Alpha Quadrant, cut off from the Borg elsewhere, are trying to create a new queen. The story, by Star Trek veteran J.M. Dillard, is perfectly adequate. This is a readable Star Trek novel, but certainly not a memorable or groundbreaking one.

The ghost in the background is Seven of Nine, through-out most of the book sent by Admiral Janeway to assist Picard, but never actually present. At the end of the story are the first few pages of the apparent sequel, “Before Dishonor”, written by Peter David, another capable Star Trek veteran. That will apparently be a Janeway and Seven book, following up on the secrets in the cube discovered by Picard.

While not wonderful, this book is a good read, and sets us up for the continuation of the Enterprise’s missions after “Nemesis”. I sort of wish there had been more Geordi. The appearance of the Enterprise’s Chief Engineer here is minimal. (And the name for the new 10-Forward is really lame.)