Michael Jan Friedman Books

Continuing the powerful story of Jim Kirk's lost friend, the man who helped shape a Starfleet captain... Gary Mitchell is dead, killed by his best friend for the sake of his ship. As Captain Kirk returns home in sadness, he recalls the first time he held Gary's life in his hands: Seven years earlier, the two men have been assigned to the U.S.S. Constitution, Gary as chief navigator and Kirk as second officer, when the starship comes to the defense of an alien world menaced by ruthless invaders. An early attack leaves both the captain and the first officer in comas, and Jim Kirk must take command for the first time. He finds himself with only one chance to defeat the heavily armed enemy -- but the cost may be Gary Mitchell's life!

Revealed at last, the full story of Jim Kirk's lost friend, the man who helped him become the captain we know... Stardate 1312.4. -- A young Captain Kirk, early in his legendary career, faces the crisis of his life when he must kill his best friend in order to save the Enterprise. Later, alone in his quarters, be cannot help recalling how he first met Gary Mitchell: At Starfleet Academy, Gary is reckless and fun-loving while Kirk is driven, ambitious, but awkward around other people -- especially women. Their friendship begins with a fistfight. Then their routine training mission on the U.S.S. Republic is diverted to a planet where centuries of bloody interplanetary conflict are about to end in a ceremony of reconciliation. Assigned to help with security on the planet's surface, Kirk and Gary quickly find themselves in the middle of a life-and-death struggle against terrorists determined to disrupt the ceremony. With the future of two planets at stake, Kirk and Gary must find a way to work together before a mission of life and peace becomes one of death and despair.

On the planet Xhaldia, ordinary men and women are mutating into bizarre creatures with extraordinary powers. But is this a momentous evolutionary leap or an unparalleled catastrophe? The very fabric of Xhaldian society is threatened as fear and prejudice divide the transformed from their own kin. Dispatched to cope with the growing crisis, Captain Picard and the crew of the "Starship Enterprise(TM)" receive some unexpected visitors from another reality -- in the form of the group of mutant heroes known as the uncanny X-Men(R). Storm, leader of the X-Men, offers their help in resolving a situation that is agonizingly similar to the human/mutant conflicts of their own time and space. But when hostile aliens appear in orbit around Xhaldia to try and abduct the transformed for use as a superpowered force in an attack on the Federation, even the combined forces of the crew of Starfleet and the X-Men may be unable to prevent an inferno of death and destruction. Starfleet's finest crew and Earth's greatest mutant heroes will need all their powers and abilities to save the Xhaldian people and stop a deadly threat to the Federation.

In 1893 a time-traveling Jean-Luc Picard encountered a long-lived alien named Guinan, who was posing as a human to learn Earth's customs. During this "first encounter," Picard saved Guinan's life, a favor she would never forget.Five centuries later, Captain Picard, now commander of the "Starship Enterprise" (TM), brought Guinan aboard as the ship's "bartender." The hope was that her wisdom and inner peace would provide a moral grounding for Picard's crew as they experienced the dangers of space.Because he hadn't yet made his trip through time, Picard had no knowledge of his nineteenth-century meeting with Guinan.But he did remember a different first encounter with the mysterious El-Aurian -- a tumultuous adventure in which Picard and Guinan would risk their lives in a maze of interplanetary intrigue, with the future of the known universe at stake.This is the story of that fateful meeting, and of a Guinan very different from the woman we think we know -- a person wracked by pain and longing, shaken to the roots of her soul.A Guinan who yearns for oblivion.

Ensign Andreas Nikolas, heartsick over the loss of his Mirror Universe lover, has resigned his post on Jean-Luc Picard's starship, the "Stargazer," to seek a home on the freighter "Iktoj'ni."All he wants of his new life is a chance to forget his troubles. And that's what he gets -- until the "Iktoj'ni" is taken over by a monstrous alien with unbelievable powers and a disdain for all forms of life.Without saying why, the alien sends the freighter hurtling toward a part of space inhabited by the Ubarrak, the Federation's deadliest and most xenophobic enemy. And Nikolas, who fears that the incident will start a war, can't convince his captor to turn back.Picard's only hope of stopping the alien menance is Serenity Santana -- a woman who once abused his trust in the name of her people's survival. Now she's back, asking for the captain's trust a second time.Picard desperately needs Santana's help in his struggle to save his galaxy. But will she justify his faith in her -- or once again twist it to serve her own shadowy ends?

In the tradition of UNIFICATION, here is the story that fans of the original STAR TREK series and STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION have been clamoring for -- Montgomery Scott's return to the Star Trek universe and his encounter with the crew of the "U.S.S. Enterprise(TM) NCC 1701-D." Missing in space for seventy-five years, Scotty manages to survive against incredible odds, only to be found by the crew of the "Starship Enterprise(TM) ." Though rescued, Scotty soon finds himself lost in a world that he barely recognizes, a world that has passed him by...But the adventure is not over for Captain Scott who must do the impossible when the new "U.S.S. Enterprise(TM) " faces a very old danger in a remote sector of space. This time, Captain Picard and his crew will need more than all of their courage and all of their skills to save the great Starship from destruction. This time, they will need a miracle worker.

Thirty years before the days of Star Trek: The Next Generation®, Captain Jean-Luc Picard was thrust unexpectedly into command of another proud vessel: the U.S.S. Stargazer. Surrounded by a crew he doesn't entirely know or trust, the young Picard must answer the challenges of leadership.... While Picard and his senior staff accompany Chief Engineer Simenon to his homeworld of Gnala to undergo a ritual, his second officer, Victoria Wu, is left in command of the Stargazer. Responding to a distress call from a nearby star system, Wu finds herself in the middle of a mystery involving a damaged ship and a peculiar interstellar phenomenon -- one that threatens to destroy the Stargazer if she can't learn its secret. Meanwhile, on Gnala, Picard must help his friend undergo the ritual -- and find out who is trying to sabotage their chances of completing it before they're all killed!

Gamma Xaridian is a peaceful Federation research colony that becomes the third Federation world to suffer a brutal attack at the hands of a mysterious alien fleet. With Lt. Uhura gone on an important mission of her own, Captain Kirk and the "U.S.S. Enterprise" TM are dispatched to investigate the attacks, only to find the planets completely devastated. When another nearby colony is attacked, the U.S.S. "Enterprise" is ready and encounters a fleet of quick, small and deadly ships. Though Kirk and his crew manage to turn the raiders away, the U.S.S. "Enterprise" is severely damaged and the aliens escape.As Kirk and his crew prepare for their next encounter with the raiders, Mr. Spock makes a startling discovery about the purpose behind the alien attacks, a purpose that, if realized, could have deadly consequences for the Federation and the U.S.S. "Enterprise."

Captain Picard goes undercover on a Starfleet mission to rescue a former officer who is now missing.

When the discovery of an ancient scroll places the Klingon legend of Kahless into doubt, the present-day emperor Kahless clone fears that his empire will be torn apart and turns to Picard and Worf for assistance. Reprint.