Mission Gamma
Mission Gamma is the German and English title of a four-part novel from the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine series of which it is part of the literary sequel . The novels were published in 2002 in English by Pocket Books and in 2010/11 in German by Cross Cult .
The novels set in 2376, the year after the plot of the seventh season of the television series ended. The plot is divided into two parts: An essential storyline takes place, explaining the title of the series, in the Gamma Quadrant of the Milky Way and is about an exploration mission of the star fleet spaceship U.SS Defiant . At the same time, the events on the space station Deep Space Nine are told, with the main focus being on negotiations for Bajor's accession to the Federation .
action
Part 1: Twilight
Converted into a research ship, the Defiant embarks on an exploratory expedition into the Gamma Quadrant that will last several months. Soon she will arrive on the home planet of the species Vahni Valthupali, which is not yet capable of space travel. A powerful pulse of energy destroys the planet's moon and triggers an earthquake on the planet, which kills 3000 Vahni. Since the impulse will return and threaten to completely destroy the planet inhabited by billions of Vahni in a few days, the crew is looking for a way to prevent the impulse. The crew discovers the origin of the impulse on a planet that is shrouded in a cloud cover and appears to be deserted, and sends an away team down to find and stop the trigger. It turns out that the inhabitants of a highly developed civilization are long dead. The clouds transform the matter of those who are in contact with them into people, places and events from their past, which Vaughn sees, for example, Captain Harriman of the Enterprise-C. The planet was once inhabited by the Prentara, who created virtual realities by connecting their computers to their minds, but thereby inadvertently invading the separate universe inhabited by the being Inamuri alone. The energy impulses are the Inamuri's attempt to get into the universe on this side in order to escape his previously unknown loneliness. In the process, the Inamuri's thought space also emerged in the form of the cloud cover. When Vaughn ignites several interdimensional bombs conceived by Nog at the exit point, the interface can be closed, the impulses terminated and the Inamuri locked back into its level of consciousness.
Meanwhile, a summit meeting of the Federation Council with Shakaar takes place on DS9, at the end of which, to everyone's surprise, Shakaar announces that Bajor will soon join the Federation. Kira is announced the promotion to captain. Ro and Quark get to know each other better privately.
Part 2: That gray ghost
The Defiant is hit in the Gamma Quadrant by a net weapon that comes from the Cheka species and is used to isolate the Yrythny species on their planet Vanìmel. The Yrytny were genetically enhanced a long time ago. A strict caste system arose , consisting of the native and the hikers. The latter are persecuted, marginalized, and in some cases killed by the indigenous people as lesser forms of life, and prevented from reproducing by controlling the gene pool . Ezri Dax accepts the offer of the Yrythny to act as an intermediary between the native and the hikers, and travels the planet with Shar. They get into all sorts of entanglements, including with an underground movement, and uncover a secret love affair between a native and a hiker. Ezri's investigation resulted in the recommendation to the Yrytny that the members of both castes should mate with each other so that they survive as a species and the house-borns do not perish from chromosome damage.
At the same time, the Defiant is traveling inside the Yrytny ship Avaril. The ultimate goal is to find materials with which the Defiant can fight off the Cheka's net weapon.
Meanwhile, the Cardassian ambassador Lang arrives with Macet and the Trager on DS9. For the purpose of long-term reconciliation between the two peoples, she brings the Bajoran government a gift consisting of works of art from the long-dead Cardassian-Bajoran Torah Ziyal. The works of art are exhibited on DS9, but soon partially desecrated by strangers. On the promenade deck there is a mass brawl between Cardassians and Bajorans. Shakaar and Asarem decide not to conclude any further peace negotiations with the Cardassians for the time being, but to let the Cardassians prove their worth until Bajor has established itself in the federation. Kira is stunned by this decision and feels that the timing is right now.
Meanwhile, Shar's ally Thriss has become so emotionally unbalanced because of her longing for Shar that she starts a fight at Quark's. As a result, she is temporarily detained and then undergoing psychotherapy. Thriss, his allies and Charivretha hope that Shar will come to Andor after his return from the Gamma Quadrant to perform the alliance ritual Sheltreth with them . Still, Thriss commits suicide.
Part 3: Cathedral
In the Gamma Quadrant, the Defiant crew gets into an argument between the D'Naali and Nyazem peoples. Both claim an object for themselves that visually resembles a Gothic cathedral . It rotates around a kind of interdimensional axis, depending on the point in time another part of its mass protrudes into this dimension. Nog, Ezri Dax and Bashir on board a Defiant shuttle examine the object from close up and slowly transform after their return to the Defiant: Ezri repels the symbiote Dax and from then on lives without him, Nog now has two healthy, complete legs, Bashir loses the talents that set him apart as a doctor. Eventually it is determined that the object was built to tap energy in other dimensions and that it has the side effect that individuals who come into contact with it experience an alternative version of themselves, that is, untrodden paths of life. This is what happened to Nog, Bashir, Ezri and Dax during their stay in the property. After they're back on the Defiant, they're back to being just the same. Without having fully examined the object, the Defiant continues its expedition.
Meanwhile, the Bajoran General Lenaris Holem asks Kira on DS9 for her support for the Ohalavau movement, which opposes Vedek Yevir's movement to support the Vedek Solis for the Kai election. After Yevir traveled to Cardassia with Macet and also met Garak, Bajor received back four rotating bodies that were previously on Cardassia. Preparations are underway on DS9 for the signing of the treaty for Bajor to join the federation. During the signing ceremony, Shakaar is murdered the moment he starts to sign, killing him instantly. The assassin Hiziki Gard escapes.
Part 4: The Lesser Evil
Captain Mello of the Starfleet ship Gryphon discovers a weak energy signature that fits a cloaking device, leads into the Trill system and possibly comes from Hiziki Gard, Shakaar's murderer and attaché of the Trill ambassador. Akaar lets Kira switch to the Gryphon to oversee the tracking of the signature. Shortly afterwards, Ro and Taran'atar discover Gard in a camouflage suit on DS9. It is established that Shakaar was apparently the host of a parasite of the symbiote-like variety that tried to infiltrate Starfleet 12 years ago (→ Starship Enterprise - The Next Century , Season 1 : The Conspiracy) . Faced with incriminating evidence, Gard testifies that the parasite was intended to induce Shakaar to bring Bajor to the Federation. Gard was sent by Trill to stop the parasite's attempt to infiltrate the Federation; for this he should murder Shakaar. Gard says DS9 was fooled by Mello into thinking that Mello is also ruled by a parasite and is seeking revenge on Trill for killing the Shakaar parasite. Meanwhile, the Gryphon flies to Trill. When Kira, informed of his findings by Akaar, wants to arrest the captain, it turns out that it is not Mello who is controlled by the parasite, but her first officer Montenegro. Kira can eventually kill both Montenegro and the parasite.
Meanwhile, the Defiant discovers a Starfleet transponder signal emanating from a planet in the Gamma Quadrant. An away team finds a Dominion spaceship wreck, a shapeshifter, and the wreck of the Starfleet ship USS Valkyrie, which went missing in the Alpha Quadrant in a battle against the Borg seven years ago . The wreck and the former crew have been almost completely assimilated by the Borg. In the wreck you can find the assimilated Commander Ruriko Tenmei, Prynn's mother and Vaughn's ex-wife. When Bashir begins to free Ruriko from the implants, she attacks the founder, who has meanwhile been brought to the Defiant, so that Vaughn is forced to kill Ruriko, whose human identity has long since disappeared through assimilation. As the Defiant approaches the wormhole, it finds that both the communications relay and the Idran star system have disappeared. At the same moment a Dominion spaceship from the latest appears Weyoun - clone is commanded and the Defiant passes the founder. Shortly afterwards, three people are beamed onto the Defiant's bridge, including Jake Sisko , who had disappeared for months without a trace, and Opaka, who was then still a Bajoran Kai, who was believed to be trapped on a planet.
publication
The first two parts appeared in September 2002 with Pocket Books, the other two in October 2002. Pocket Books published the first two parts again in 2008 in the anthology These Haunted Seas .
In German, Cross Cult published the novels one after the other in November 2010, March, June and September 2011, with the additional numbers 8.05 to 8.08.