Vectors

Star Trek: Double Helix #2

by Dean Wesley Smith, Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Gul Dukat rules Terok Nor and all of Bajor with an iron (but compassionate) fist. When Bajorans both inside and outside of his labour camps begin dying of a new disease, his workforce is affected and his management looks bad. Bajoran rebels, convinced that the disease has been inflicted upon them deliberately by the Cardassians, strike back at their oppressors with increasingly desperate measures.But Dukat has an even bigger problem: although it seems medically impossible, the disease that originally targetted only Bajorans may now have begun to kill Cardassians as well. Dr. Katherine Pulaski of the USS Enterprise is allowed to work on Terok Nor to study the virus, which bears a disturbing resemblance to the one that ravaged Archaria III two years before. With the help of a Bajoran resistance fighter named Kira Nerys, will she be able to find an answer before an ailing Gul Dukat is forced to take the ultimate step to protect Cardassia: withdraw from the station and destroy the entire planet of Bajor?

Genres: Star Trek, Science Fiction, Star Trek The Next Generation, Fiction, Ebooks, Space, Media Tie In

260 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 1, 1999

About the author

Pen Names
Edward Taft
Dee W. Schofield
Sandy Schofield
Kathryn Wesley

Dean Wesley Smith is the bestselling author of over ninety novels under many names and well over 100 published short stories. He has over eight million copies of his books in print and has books published in nine different countries. He has written many original novels in science fiction, fantasy, mystery, thriller, and romance as well as books for television, movies, games, and comics. He is also known for writing quality work very quickly and has written a large number of novels as a ghost writer or under house names.

With Kristine Kathryn Rusch, he is the coauthor of The Tenth Planet trilogy and The 10th Kingdom. The following is a list of novels under the Dean Wesley Smith name, plus a number of pen names that are open knowledge. Many ghost and pen name books are not on this list because he is under contractual obligations not to disclose that he wrote them. Many of Dean’s original novels are also under hidden pen names for marketing reasons.

Dean has also written books and comics for all three major comic book companies, Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse, and has done scripts for Hollywood. One movie was actually made.

Over his career he has also been an editor and publisher, first at Pulphouse Publishing, then for VB Tech Journal, then for Pocket Books.

Currently, he is writing thrillers and mystery novels under another name.

Reviews

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 4 out of 5]

See my review of the entire Double Helix series here:

https://reading-rebel.blogspot.com/20...

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was surprised that I liked this story since it centered around Dr. Pulaski who got a bad rap on TNG for being the "replacement doctor." You get to see the moment of transition that we never saw on the show and an idea of where she went after serving on the Enterprise. This had a great story and didn't end so suddenly like Infection did. I thought seeing some of the characters from DS9 during this time period was interesting with great emphasis on Rom joining Quark at the bar. Overall, it had some neat ideas and a great story for a character who didn't really have a finale on screen.

[Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part medical thriller/part Star Trek, this is the second installment in the Double Helix series. The characters on the cover are Dr. Pulaski, of the Enterprise, Gul Dukat, the commander of Terok Nor (which will become Deep Space Nine) and Kira Nerys of Bajor (and Terok Nor).

The person or persons behind the first virus from the 1st book are at it again, but this time, changing how the virus works and infiltrating it on Terok Nor, a space station above Bajor. The Cardassians have been slave holders of the Bajorans for a while, but both get infected with a virus that begins to wipe them out. The Bajoran and Cardassian doctor on board need help. Call in the Bajoran's ex-wife, Dr Pulaski, who is about to transfer off the Enterprise, as Dr. Beverly Crusher is back.

Pulaski, along with 4 others from the Enterprise, travel to Terok Nor to try and solve this mystery virus. Turmoil ensues as Bajorans blame the Cardassians fro the virus, and vice-versa. Ferengi are also infected but not as critical.

Even though this is labled as The Next Generation, the crew from the Enterprise are not as involved, and its more a prequel story to Deep Space Nine.

Thought I wouldn't like it based on the cover, but it was a good story. Even though Kira is on the cover, her role is limited.

The ending and cure was a bit rushed, but we can tell in the epilogues there is more to come. Based on the next in the series, McCoy and Spock will be involved, which "should" be a bit more interesting.

[Shannon Silver · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this Star Trek book series. And this book happens on DS9 before the show so it’s a fun prequel and introduction to the characters.

[Mikayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised by this. Pulaski is not a character I enjoyed, but this story was a good way to showcase what she did well. I loved seeing the handoff between her and Beverly. Also a breif glimpse at Kiera and Odo were great!
this was a good Star Trek story about a plague without to much descriptions of it making it gross.

[Josiah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Plot: B-
Writing: C-
Vocabulary: C
Level: Easy
Rating: PG13 (subterfuge, extreme suffering leading to death, genocide, family dysfunction, terrorism, occupation & resistance)
Worldview: Whatever you choose is ok so long as you don't hurt other people.

The mysterious General has implemented Stage 2 of his plan, which is evidently to test the emergency-responding resources of the Federation, destabilize racial reconciliation, and coldly cause as much death as possible in the Alpha Quadrant.

On Terek Nor (soon to be Deep Space 9) a plague has broken out among the Bajoran and the Cardassians, who suspiciously blame each other for biological terrorism. Cardassian Dr. Narat & Bajoran Dr. Ton have called a truce so they can combine resources, but it's not enough. So Dr. Ton's ex-wife, Dr. Katherine Pulaski of the Enterprise, brings three assistants with her to handle the research.

Also featured in this story are Kira Nerys, Odo, and Quark, Rom, and Nog.

[Joshua Palmatier · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing in this is better than book 1, Infection, but the plot itself wasn't as clear. Or rather, the actual elements of the plot were clear, but I didn't follow how the plague was transmitted and in particular, how the Ferengi figured into the whole mess. I don't think the writers knew as much about viruses and infections and prions and how they work and interact with each other, and it showed in the writing. The fourth prion that was somehow produced by the Ferengi version of the disease somehow enabled the Bajoran virus to mutate into the Cardassian version of the virus . . . or something. How all of this happened needed to be made clearer.

[Patrick Hayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second book in a series of six that doesn't require reading of the first novel to enjoy.

Set between Seasons 2 and 3 of The Next Generation, Doctor Pulaski is leaving the Enterprise-D for Deep Space Five when she is asked by returning Doctor Crusher to assist the Cardassians, and Bajorans, on Terok Nor who are experiencing a virus that is killing them. An added push to Pulaski going is one of her ex-husbands, a Bajoran doctor stationed on Terok Nor, asks for her help.

I'm about to start watching the final season of Deep Space Nine and his book really resonated with me. Pulaski is not pleased that the Bajorans on the station are underfed and overworked, let alone dying and not getting the same care as the Cardassians. Gul Dukat is watching her and her three Federation doctors to be sure they are not spies. Kira comes up from Bajor to find out what's occurring on the station and has two run-ins with Odo that are brilliant. And at Quark's bar the owner, his brother, and nephew are having small issues that being to grow.

I loved the way the characters interacted, the tension between the Cardassians and Bajorans, and how a very fine line was walked with Dukat, making him appear to be a savior in his own mind. These writers have NAILED these characters!

Having read the first book in this series, I knew how the virus was acting, so that wasn't a surprise, but the characters are just so wonderfully written, they could be eating tea and crumpets at a table and I would have been in seven heaven. I recommend this book.

[Octavia Cade · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been reading the Star Trek tie-in novels, off and on, for decades. I don't know that I've read one where Pulaski was the main character before - or if I have, I've forgotten it. I liked her in TNG, for the year that she was there, so it was good to read a novel where she's the main doctor instead of Crusher. To mix it up even more, she's on a mercy mission to DS9, where a new version of the plague is affecting Bajorans, Cardassians, and even Ferengi. I liked her interactions with Dukat, and would have enjoyed more of them.

I do think, however, that this mini-series is already at risk of being a little repetitive: mysterious figure doses a random location with contagion, and a Starfleet doctor takes the lead in curing it, at which point the mysterious figure basically rubs their murdering hands together and thinks "I'll do better next time!" Hopefully book three breaks the pattern a bit.

Finally, although I always enjoy Kira - she was one of the best characters on DS9 - I wonder if her subplot here was really necessary. It didn't seem to do much, or to illuminate her character any.

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 4 out of 5]

This second book of the Double Helix series took a surprising turn being a TNG book that has Dr. Pulaski traveling to Cardassian-controlled Terok Nor to help with yet another killer disease that is somehow wiping up both Bajorans and Cardassians. How a virus is able to cross two different species is the core mystery here and the natural tensions between the two races aren't helping anything much.

As this is set around the end of the second season of TNG when Dr. Crusher returns as Chief Medical Officer for the Enterprise, we get a much-needed spotlight story for Dr. Pulaski. I always felt she was an interesting character cut from the same cloth as Dr. McCoy from TNG, and we could use more stories with her at the center.

The actual medical mystery was a little confusing but in the end, still tied to the designer disease from the first book, but the connection felt a little tenuous and arrived practically at the 11th hour.

[Frank Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was better than book 1. The cast in this is fantastic and they're pretty close to the way we know them for the most part. The set up in this story is perfect too.

The quarantine vibe is relevant to the current covid situation so it feels like an aptly timed reading of this series for me. The conspiratorial mistrust rings eerily true!

I was disappointed that our secret villain didn't get a closing chapter this time, I quite enjoyed that bracketing of book 1. I'm so keen to find out who is behind the terror and yet I want the chase to continue.

[S.J. Saunders · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice touch, setting this between seasons two and three of TNG, allowing for a passing (back) of the torch between Enterprise doctors. Plus, we get a reasonably compelling story set during the Cardassian occupation of Bajor.

3.5/5 Characters can be a bit slow connecting things, but then again, I guess they don't know these events are in a series. Also not really a lot of payoff for some threads I don't expect to hear from again.

[John Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun but rushed story. I liked the DS9 prequel stuff and wished there was more of it, even if not every scene landed. But the bulk of the story was focusing on Pulaski and a few others trying to cure a virus that attacked multiple species at once. Not all of the characters in the virus plot get equal screentime, and some of them don't even get mentioned in the final chapters, I would have liked to see them get more development. Generally a good and fast time tho.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty decent for a novel based around all of my least favorite characters in the Star Trek Lit-Universe. Almost gave up on this one about 20 pages into it as it features three of my very least favorite Trek characters, Dr. Polanski, Gul Dukat, and Kira Nerys. But gave it a second chance and before I knew it I was halfway through the book."

[Mike McDevitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pulaski’s ex-husband calls for help on Occupied Terok Nor when an upgraded interspecies virus strikes again. Ferengi ear hygiene plays a bigger role than it probably should. Ogawa came along. And Kira exists.

[Yvette · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not a Dr. Pulaski fan but this was good. It helps that I am a TNG/DS9 fan. I love when they get together...it just works. A fast paced medical drama.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic read and addition to the Star Trek franchise. Definitely recommend for anyone interested in Star Trek, Sci-fi, or just biology in general.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not bad. The mystery continues.

[Sean Randall · Rating 3 out of 5]

"we can assume that this plague is related to the one we dealt with on Archaria III, It almost seems like a second trial of an experiment. the stakes were escalated. There were three species involved. There was a new method of delivery." Beverly Crusher.

So, here we are again, people dying all over the place. This time it's Bajorans and Cardassians, perhaps this plague being one of the few things they've ever had in common.

The book is set mostly on Deep space nine, though before it was abandoned by the Cardassians, so naturally it's still called Terok Nor. Our central heroes don't take centre stage in this one - the protagonists are mostly extras, with the exception of Nurse Ogawa and Katherine Pulaski. of course old favourites are there (the Enterprise crew, Kira, odo etc), but it really is Pulaski's show.

What a well done show it is, as well - backstory for her thrown in so smoothly that next time I see her onscreen I'll think of her ex-husband, without remembering he isn't canon. There was clearly attention to detail from the screen, as well - vis data and Pulaski, which I always appreciate in a novel.

My one quibble is that it's very much a same old story. Plague, possible cure, not a proper cure, scratch heads (and ears), proper cure. Hurrah! seen this before on Archaria, didn't wee, folks? yes, and no, is the answer to that one. As crusher said, the stakes were escalated. One can only assume that the mysterious General of whom we hear vague hints about but don't actually meet is up to his old tricks again.

From this latest instalment we can surmise that the General's genetics are increasing in complexity and that next time, it won't be so easy to solve the problem. This book could have gone a little faster, had a little more punch, but as a 'general' rule it portrays the insidious progression of a set of experiments quite well, giving us a glimpse into the Cardassian occupation of bajor en-route. Where we go next - well: i'll find out soon enough.

[David Palazzolo · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the second book of Double Helix story arc, we catch a glimpse of life on Deep Space Nine as it was still under the Cardassian occupation and called Terok Nor. We also see Dr Katherine Pulaski's last days on the USS. Enterprise, which was a nice surprise.

It's been more than a year since book one and Dr Beverly Crusher is headed back to the Enterprise after her time at Starfleet Medical HQ. A plague has broken out on Bajor, one that has jumped the species barrier between Bajoran and Cardsssian. In an effort to prevent the possible destruction of all he has built (and to save his own life), Gul Dukat allows a Bajoran doctor, Kellec Ton, to call for help from his ex-wife, Katherine Pulaski. Pulaski agrees and is soon on her way.

Upon entering Cardassian occupied Bajor, Pulaski is taken directly to the orbiting station, Terok Nor, the hub of Cardassian power in the solar system. She quickly meets Gul Dukat and is immediately confronted by two of the things threatening her life and those of her assistants: the plague and Cardassian xenophobia.

What I liked best about this book is that we finally got a decent farewell to Dr Pulaski, who on TV disappeared with no explanation as abruptly as she first appeared. We also catch a glimpse of Rom and Nog shortly after they move in with Quark and see them start to bond as a (slightly dysfunctional) family. One of the things I liked least was the way that Kira Nerys was tacked on to the plot so we could have another major named character in the story. We really learn very little about her background.

Finally, on a picky-picky-picky note, since Bajoran nomenclature places family name first, personal name second, I found it odd that Pulaski would continually refer to her ex-husband by his surname. I don't think that at any time Kellec calls Pulaski anything other than "Katherine." Also I found the details on the behavior of the virus a little hard to follow, but I was ultimately able to get the gist of it.

The next in this series is Red Sector by Diane Carey.

[Jimyanni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story, well-written, with good pacing and good characterizations. One thing it does surprisingly well is that, being set in the early days of the Next Generation series, we see several characters (Gul Dukat, Kira Nerys, Quark, Rom, Nog, & Odo) at earlier points in their lives than we have in the Deep Space Nine series; it would have been very easy to either have those characters seem essentially the same as they were at later points in their lives (with Dukat, at least, there doesn't seem to be much change) or to have them have experiences here which should have changed them such that they would not have been who we saw later, experiences that they should have learned from lessons that we instead saw them learn for the first time later. Instead, the authors seem to have done a fine job of avoiding that pitfall, and instead have provided plausible early iterations of the characters, who could plausibly have developed into who we saw later from, in part, the lessons they learned here.

The other thing that they do well is that in spite of being book two of an ongoing series, this book is a reasonably complete story in and of itself; yes, the subplot involving the creator of the designer plagues is carried over from the first book, and Pulaski refers back to Crusher's cure of the first plague in book one while researching the cure for this one, but one could easily read this book without reading that one and not feel that one was missing anything important.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

PLOT OR PREMISE:
This is the second of six books dealing with biological terrorism by an unknown foe. This installment takes place at the end of Kate Pulaski's tenure on the Enterprise and before DS9 begins, and Pulaski goes to Bajor to help her ex-husband solve a plague that is infecting the Bajorans and the Cardassians during the occupation. The Cardassians believe it is the Bajorans; the Bajorans think it is the Cardassians. Again, however, the plague has an 100% fatality rate.
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WHAT I LIKED:
I am not a hard core sci-fi reader, but I do like Star Wars and Star Trek. Pulaski's character is fine, as are the "new" characters that are introduced.
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WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
Gul Dukat is far too mature and Kira Nerys is far too trusting of the Federation. In fact, her involvement makes almost no sense considering her character at the start of the DS9 episodes. The story doesn't have the same solid medical workup as the first one in the series, and while the characterization isn't quite as good, it is also not as jarring.
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BOTTOM-LINE:
A fast-paced storyline but without much depth
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DISCLOSURE:
I received no compensation, not even a free copy, in exchange for this review. I am not personal friends with the authors, but I do follow them on social media.

[Adam]

By no means a 4-star book, but it's a pronounced upgrade over Book #1 of the series.

Set towards the end of the Cardassian Occupation of Bajor, a crippling virus threatens to overtake both the Cardassians running Terok Nor and the Bajoran workers working in the ore processing plant. Dr. Pulaski, set to leave the Enterprise for her next assignment, travels to the station as a humanitarian observer to help her ex-husband, a Bajoran doctor, find a cure for the virus.

This feels like a much more fleshed-out story than Book #1. The characters are more believable, the stakes feel much more interesting, and the pacing feels cleaner and more direct. I enjoy getting to see Quark, Rom, Nog, Gul Dukat, Kira Nerys, and Odo in this pre-Deep Space Nine environment. Pulaski herself gets to shine, as we get to see more of the calm-under-pressure medical professionalism that was only hinted at during Season 2 of The Next Generation.

My only quibble would be that Kira's subplot (complete with conversations with Odo) seemed rather tacked on and tangential to the actual story. They feel like add-ons who were included solely because it might seem odd to have a story set on that planet and space station without either of them making an appearance.

A fun book with decent tension.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was really well done. It was focused largely on Dr. Pulaski, a character I never really warmed up to on TNG, but I liked her here a lot. I also liked the interactions between her and Dr. Crusher. The story on Terok Nor was interesting, if a little too fast paced to be believable (but isn't scifi medicine always like that?). The science towards the end of the book, with the virus, doesn't really hold up to actual science, but it was still a good story.

I was expecting more drama, but this book doesn't lay that on too heavily. It's there, but takes a back seat to the plot.

Overall a good, quick read that made me appreciate Katherine Pulaski a bit more.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

First off this is not a TNG book, its DS9. Terak Nor has a plague that kills Bajorans and Cardassians. Dr Pulaski goes there to cure it. A very good story that is well written, and you really want to know what happens next. Everybody isn't quite how you expect them to be, Rom and Nog are newly arrived and not used to things. Gul Dukat is barely keeping life orderly, and Kira is running about the resistance. Well worth reading, don't be put off that its the 2nd book in the series, you don't need to have read the first.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don't be fooled, Dr. Pulaski is the main character here. Kira has a subplot, as does Quark and Rom. Dukat does play a significant role. Nice added bonus of showing Pulaski's departure, and Crusher's return, to Enterprise-never shown on the show.
Good story though, I enjoyed it.

[Benjamin Plume · Rating 5 out of 5]

All of these were pretty good.

[Scott Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dr. Pulaski is far more tolerable on the page than she was on the show, even likable.