Description[]
- Like an unstoppable cosmic storm, the dreaded Genesis Wave sweeps across the Alpha Quadrant, transforming planets on a molecular level and threatening entire civilizations with extinction.
- To combat the rushing terror of the wave, Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the Starship Enterprise have been forced into a tense alliance with the Klingon and Romulan Empires, both of which crave the forbidden secrets of the Genesis technology for themselves. Now the finest minds of three civilizations must race against time to find some way to halt the deadly wave before yet another world is transformed into something alien and unrecognizable....
Summary[]
On Myrmidon, the interphase generator keeps the colonists alive, though everything outside the field is destroyed and reconstituted into a dangerous new environment. Admiral Nechayev is badly injured, but the reanimated matter is used to heal her. Most of the 50,000 colonists want to relocate to the Panloa Sanctuary, which was also protected, but they overwhelm the small space and fall under the control of the moss beings. Picard and Data join Romulan Commander Jagron aboard the I.R.W. Darvok to assist the Myrmidon survivors. Data transports to the surface, where he saves La Forge and Dolores Linton, though the latter is also under the moss’s control. Mot inspires a scorched-earth policy to ward off the moss parasites, which use physical contact to take mental control of animal life-forms and telepathy to trick any non-hosts. La Forge concocts a plan to bend and diminish the Genesis Wave using basic physics and force fields.
The Neptune is evacuated before its destruction, but the crew is found to be in comas. They later recover from the effects of the moss creatures, who had taken over their minds. A moss creature makes it onto the Enterprise and incapacitates Riker, assuming his identity and control of the ship. However, Troi has an allergic reaction to the moss and realizes that Riker has been replaced. She flees him, finds the true Riker, and kills the impostor.
Aboard the I.K.S. HosH, Brahms and Maltz realize that the Genesis Wave is transforming planets into borderline Class-L environments and seek out an already existing similar world, Lomar, suspecting it to be the home of the culprits. They first travel to the dilithium mining settlement on Protus for intelligence. There, merchant Colin Craycroft captures Brahms, hoping to gain his own intel on Lomar, which he believes to hold great wealth, though Maltz and the other Klingons follow them. Two of the junior warriors are killed by the miners, but Maltz finds Brahms and they escape to the HosH with a new conscript, a young human named Herbert. Meanwhile, Craycroft kidnaps a Tiburonian who has been to Lomar and knows about the planet’s man-eating plants, beating the HosH to their target.
40,000 Federation, Klingon, Romulan, and allied starships assemble into a massive force to implement La Forge’s plan. They divert the Wave and it is consumed by the “Furnace” quasar within the Coalsack Nebula. The Enterprise investigates the Boneyard for further Genesis evidence, but the ship is disabled when a Romulan bomb explodes on the bridge. Meanwhile, the Darvok heads for Lomar. On Lomar, Brahms and Maltz find hundreds of humanoid captives in suspended animation, some who had been there for decades. The moss creatures had tricked them into accepting a dream reality in which they unknowingly developed the Genesis Wave technology. Brahms’ team is attacked by the moss creatures who kill Craycroft and are then killed themselves by Jagron’s soldiers. Herbert reveals himself to be an undercover Romulan agent and Brahms is captured and interrogated, though she can provide little new information. Maltz escapes to the moss creatures’ hangar bay, which holds dozens of starships captured from various cultures. He commandeers one vessel and follows its course to a hidden asteroid base within the Boneyard. He sets the ship on a collision course with the asteroid, but beams into the base before the crash. The Darvok follows Maltz, abandoning Brahms on Lomar.
Carol Marcus awakens from a fever, realizing that the disease has cleared her mind of her captors’ control. She remembers that David and Jim Kirk are actually dead and she vows to stop the impostors from carrying out their genocidal plans. She eventually distracts her captors and escapes her chamber, though she is quickly intercepted by Maltz. Marcus convinces Maltz not to kill her immediately, and the pair work together to activate the base’s self-destruct program before a second Genesis Wave can be fired. The base explodes, killing many moss creatures, Marcus, and Maltz, and destroying the docked Darvok and its crew.
The survivors of the emergency are recovered, including Linton and Brahms. La Forge parts company with both women on good terms, though he still holds out hope for a relationship with the latter. It is discovered that the moss creatures’ homeworld was becoming uninhabitable, and so they watched and infiltrated the Federation over decades, hoping to find a new home. Instead, they learned of Genesis and used the technology to create dozens of new homeworlds. The Federation decides to resettle the creatures on one of their terraformed planets.
References[]
Characters[]
- Alvarez • Leah Brahms • Beverly Crusher • Data • Deezer • Haberlee • The Humtamps • Johnson • Kelly • James T. Kirk • Kraner • Geordi La Forge • Dolores Linton • Mahzanor • Maltz • Carol Marcus • David Marcus • Mot • Alynna Nechayev • Alyssa Ogawa • Jean-Luc Picard • William T. Riker • Rhofistan • Tomalak • Deanna Troi
Locations[]
Starships and vehicles[]
- USS Unity (Defiant-class)
Races and cultures[]
States and organizations[]
Science and technology[]
- coma • Genesis Wave • interphase generator • starship • terraforming • ventilator
Ranks and titles[]
- captain • ensign • First Mother • soldier
Other references[]
Appendices[]
Connections[]
Timeline[]
| published order | ||
|---|---|---|
| Previous comic: The Genesis Wave, Book 1 |
TNG novels The Genesis Wave |
Next comic: The Genesis Wave, Book 3 |
| Previous comic: The Genesis Wave, Book 1 |
TNG hardcover novels | Next comic: The Genesis Wave, Book 3 |
| Previous story: The Genesis Wave, Book 1 |
Stories by: John Vornholt |
Next story: The Genesis Wave, Book 3 |
| chronological order | ||
| Previous adventure: The Haunting of Deck Twelve |
Pocket Books Timeline | Next adventure: Redemption |
| Previous adventure: The Haunting of Deck Twelve |
Memory Beta Chronology | Next adventure: Redemption |
External links[]
- The Genesis Wave, Book 2 article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.