Have Tech, Will Travel

Starfleet Corps of Engineers #1

by Keith R.A. DeCandido, Dean Wesley Smith, Christie Golden

Follows a rapid-response team of the Starfleet Corps of Engineers: this group solves engineering problems in space that are too complicated, or take too much time, for a larger starship crew to handle. The action centers on the lower-decks crew of the USS da Vinci, a Saber-class ship that serves as the transportation of an SCE team. The SCE reports to Captain Montgomery Scott, who serves as their liaison with Starfleet Command and also pitches in when his vast store of knowledge can be of help.
1] HAVE TECH, WILL TRAVEL (S.C.E./STARFLEET CORPS OF ENGINEERS) Anthology series, Book 1. Join Starfleet's miracle workers for a wrenching journey through the new frontier! Need a gigantic, marauding starship explored? Is your global computer system starting to break down? Call in the crack team from the Starfleet Corps of Engineers. Overseen by Captain Montgomery Scott from his office at Starfleet Headquarters, the S.C.E. can build, rebuild, program, reprogram, assemble, reassemble, or just figure out everything from alien replicators to doomsday machines. Just don't expect them to perform miracles, unless they absolutely have to. Captain David Gold, his first officer Commander Sonya Gomez, and the crew of the U.S.S. da Vinci put their lives on the line to save a colony world threatened by a deadly alien and rescue a ship trappedin the ravages of interphase.
Contents:
The Belly of the Beast [Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers • 1] (2000) / novella by Dean Wesley Smith
Fatal Error [Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers • 2] / novella by Keith R. A. DeCandido
Hard Crash [Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers • 3] / novella by Christie Golden
Interphase: Book One [Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers • 4] / novella by Kevin Dilmore and Dayton Ward
About the Authors (Have Tech, Will Travel) • essay by editor

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Genres: Star Trek, Science Fiction, Fiction, Ebooks, Space Opera

392 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This could have been a four star book, it's made up of 3 and 1/2 novellas. I took a star off as the marketing department clearly made the decision to cut the last novella in half, moving the conclusion to book 2 series. I would have bought the next book anyway given the quality of the first 3 stories but now I'm not sure I will, I want to find out what happens but I don't want to reward such crappy marketing and if they cut the last story in the first book who's to say they won't do it again in book 2.

[Saphirablue · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like it.

I really like that Geordi LaForge plays a bigger role in the first three stories. He's one of my favourite TNG characters. :) But, I also really like the OCs (even though, I got the impression that more dedicated TNG watchers would know some of them). :)

I really liked the third story. I mean, I liked all of them but if I had to choose one. :)

The first story is really a classical horror story and therefore a bit predictable. I mean, I still enjoyed reading it but, yeah.

The second story has been really interesting in regards to the current development on dependence on computer and AIs for some stuff where it really isn't necessary.

The third one broke my heart in regards to pilot and ship. Wow. But, I also like the development of 110 during this one.

The fourth one? What an evil cliffhanger at the end of it. Eeeeevil! But, while I have no idea of the TOS eppy reference here, I really like the connection it creates between TOS and the current timeline. :)

All in all, I'm looking forward to getting the next part from my library and I also want to rewatch all the Star Trek shows. Ahhhhhhh.

[D. H. · Rating 3 out of 5]

These stories are action packed, and they give us the chance to reunited with lots of secondary characters from TOS, TNG and DS9. Still it's Star Trek minus the humanism.

[Shhhhh Ahhhhh · Rating 5 out of 5]

...It's all of the joy of space marine books but set in a comfortable and already familiar universe and technology schema. This is my first extended canon book... like ever.. for any franchise... I'M IN LOVE!

[Michael Hanscom · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of four novellas following the S.C.E. characters. More of Trek’s expanded universe.

[Dustin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Belly of the Beast by Dean Wesley Smith
"My ship, whom I love like a woman..." is my favorite line from the Futurama episode "Where No Fan Has Gone Before" because it is a perfect example of the majority of fan fiction. It's stilted, cliche, and renders the characters cardboard cutouts of the the characters from the original media. On every single page of this book I was reminded of that line. The dialogue is awkward and unnatural, the characters from the show are flat imitations, the new characters are uninteresting, and the mess is full of weird random blocks of exposition.
Frankly this is not a promising start to the S.C.E. series.
Fatal Error by Keith R.A. DeCandido
The second SCE book picks up almost where the first book left off, but it appears that in the brief break between stories the da Vinci stopped at Starbase Competent Writer and resupplied on plot, dialogue, and characterization.
The story is a bit of a homage to a few classic TOS episodes, with a massive central computer that controlled everything about an alien world and its civilization, but this time when things go wrong Starfleet is there to correct the issues and not talk the computer to death. Overall it was a fun little story that felt like it could have been slotted into one of the Trek shows. The author's exploration of the Bynar character's development without their bonded pair was a bit shallow, but that's to be expected from a 100 page long action/technobable story.
Compared to The Belly of the Beast the characters are more lifelike, the dialogue is feels natural, and when the previous book left Geordi on the da Vinci Mr. DeCandido wisely put him in the background to let the new characters shine.
Hard Crash by Christie Golden
It's not as bad as the first book in the SCE series, but it has put me off from wanting to read anything else by the author. Hard crash is the least action oriented of the SCE stories so far, but the characters haven't gotten enough development to carry a mostly dramatic story. While the premise is sound I think the awkward dialogue really turns this down to at best second tier daytime tv levels of melodrama near the end. The short length and steady pace are the only real saving graces of Hard Crash, so I'd recommend not bothering with this one
Interphase, Part 1 by Dayton Ward, Kevin Dilmore
It looks like the "Even Numbered Trek" rule is going to hold firm with the SCE books as the fourth entry into the SCE series is well written, with natural dialogue (well, as natural as sci-fi dialogue can be), and characters who feel like they exist for more than to just push around plot bricks. The authors make good use of the existing Trek setting and some dangling threads from the Original Series to tell a fun and fast paced first half of a story.

[Brian Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

A spin off novel in the universe of Next Generation/Deep Space Nine & Voyager.
Starfleet Corps of Enginners (SCE) are the uber techs of the Federation, under the command of Scotty (after being rescued from the transporter buffer).

It starts with a mysterious ship attacking the Entrprise, and SCE are tasked to investigate it. (The Enterprise lends LaForge to help, in the manner of a character from a previous series being in the opening episode of a new one).

The stories are well written, although different authors sometimes have different ideas of each character. There is a consistency in events from one story carrying on into the next, rather than just a set of unrelated tales.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Belly of the Beast – Good start, liked the new characters and bringing back some old characters. Starting with the Enterprise was a good idea and leaving Geordi to help bring along the new characters was an interesting idea but don’t know if they quite executed it very well. However, liked the idea of the ship and what was going on. 4/5 stars.

Fatal Error – Surprised they kept Geordi around and this ship seems quite busy going from one crisis to another but I went along. Liked how 110 had to deal with the separation from their other half and learning to try and move on. Thought they were going to connect to the big computer so surprised that didn’t happen. However, the plot and story were great. 5/5 stars.

Hard Crash – Wow, the title really speaks for itself. Definitely a big step back from the previous two in terms of quality. 110’s voice was all wrong and spoke too much like a regular person after learning how to speak for just themselves in Fatal Error it was too much of a shift where they were too regular in their speak. Why keep Geordi around if you barely use him? Glad he left at the end because he was barely in the past two books anyway. The sentient computer just happened in the prior book so that was not as much of a departure as I liked. Getting to know Lense and her EMH buddy was a nice part of this book along with the pilot’s story from the mystery ship. Probably could have used another round of edits and I think Golden got the timeline wrong for where these books fit in – especially referring to Picard and his Galaxy Class ship. It wasn’t completely terrible but the other two were so much better. 2.5/5 stars

Interphase: Book One – Great to have an adventure with just the new crew to see how they operate. Obviously a pre-Enterprise Mirror story about what happened to the Defiant and really makes a little more sense than it being tossed through time and universes but that was one of the better Mirror universe episodes. Anyway, this was the shortest of the bunch and the first of a two parter, so we’ll see how this ends but I like the dynamic of a smaller crew and everyone having to step into roles that they aren’t typically accustomed to – like Duffy. They also have Soloman talking as he should which Golden did a bad job of in the last book. So far I am liking this so we’ll see where it goes. 5/5

Overall 4 stars. I have enjoyed how this series starts out and look forward to getting to know these characters more and what makes them tick.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first four books from the Starfleet Corps of Engineers (SCE) series are collected here. Each is somewhere between the length of a short story and a novella. They are easy reads, but vary wildly in quality and tone.

The fact that each story is handled by a different author means that there is a lack of cohesion. The characters don't feel quite like the same people each time we encounter them. In fact, I have to say that the stories are far more focused on the adventures than the cast, so there isn't much character development to speak of at all. So far, I'm not invested in anyone involved and can't tell you that much about their personalities.

Each story is a mysterious adventure in which the crew need to use their technical skills. It's not quite as immature as that sentence makes it sound, but there's huge room for growth here. I hope the books get better.

[JJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read the first twenty "Corps of Engineers" novellas and I've found the series fun and interesting. The series invokes a feeling of reading about another, unmade, TNG era television series. Just like it's television counterparts, the individual episodes are not always high quality or 100% thoughtfully put together, however as a series, it's great. There are several great novellas with an interesting premise and some that are rushed or re-hashed.

Overall I highly recommend this series as a whole (at least through the first six omnibus volumes). It's got guest appearances from tv characters as well as references to other Star Trek novel events, which is fun to find. It's a neat diversion, similar to Peter David's New Frontier series.

[C.T. Phipps · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes you want an epic and intricate character-driven story about how various continuities line up in an Expanded Universe. Sometimes you just want a book where there's a problem, the characters endeavor to fix it, and they do. Starfleet Corps of Engineers is a good series for episodic TNG-esque adventures with weird problems as well as technobabble solutions. Despite my comments on character development above, there's actually some pretty solid bits spread throughout here. This is a book composed of four short novellas that contain decent Star Trek adventures in them and if you want some weird encounters that feel like the show, then this is the book for you. The characters are a bit stock but that's hardly a huge turn off for me.

[James Crawford · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book in a new series about Star Trek engineers, setting things up with the main characters and a star ship. It consists of a series of short stories involving how engineers work and solve problems such as parasites infesting a space ship, a massive computer that helps beings on a planet but where there is a faction that is anti-computer, a space ship that crashes into a city on a planet, a ship run by Friend and an old star ship trapped in a time warp/alternate space.

All of the stories are really interesting and the characters are well done.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Granted the first story isn't the strongest but the concept is excellent. The rest of the book proved to be quite entertaining. Also, it contains the first appearance of an adult gay human male character in Star Trek prose fiction, Bart Faulwell. That really means a ton to an old gay Star Trek fan like myself. Because Bart Faulwell's such a great character this book gets added to my all-time fav list.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an engineer myself, being a member of the Starfleet Corps of Engineers seems like the job I'd want to have if I was born a few hundred years in the future. Exciting to imagine.

Other Star Trek books have engineers doing creative problem solving too, but the Starfleet Corps of Engineers emphasize this aspect a lot more. There's also plenty of exploration too. These are the parts I like best.

[Nate Morse · Rating 2 out of 5]

Collection of short stories of a team of scientists who solve problems, with new characters with an occasional guest spot by a known character. The characters are not really grabbing me and seem kind of flat. Maybe that will change over the course of the series.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great spin-off series, a bit cliche but the stories are short enough that they are done before they wear off their welcome. Also read the 2nd half of the last story in here which made the error of wanting to be twice as long as it should have been.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first of the 4 stories in this collection takes a while to get going, but the remaining tales are a delightful mix of tech mysteries, diplomatic conundrums, and surprisingly emotional engagements. I look forward to continuing to follow the Corps of Engineers' adventures in volume two.

[Jedi Master Nate Lightray · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is good, but the cliff hanger has me upset that I’ll now have to look for the sequel in used book stores (it’s currently $25 on Amazon). Good in that the series carries itself well enough that I want to know what happens, frustrating that the book couldn’t be closed ending.

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good writing with interesting plots, strong well-developed characters and a story line that gets and holds my interest. Definitely reading the next one!

[Jonne Steen Redeker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ah, the Starfleet Core of Engineers, I feel like I am home again.

i just love these stories, I just love this crew. I have read through the series twice before, and loved it more each time. Seriously anyone reading this, if you have not read these books and are the slightest bit interested in Star Trek you need to read these.

This is what I describe as a Star Trek show published in the form of books. Unlike most trek books these stories are the same length and scope as your average star trek episode. No longer do we need universe defying stakes in every other books, this is episodic story telling at its finest. yet it still has a definitive overarching story arc for the characters, and reading this first one in the series was great because you can see them all being set up. In particular I would recommend new readers pay attention to the Bynar characters...

If I had to point out a problem with this omnibus it would be this, La forge sticks around too long... He is the crossover charcter like Mcoy appearing in the pilot of TNG, Picard in the pilot of DS9, Quark on the pilot of Voyager, and Cochrane in Enterprise. However these were little more than cameos, La Forge sticks around for 3 episodes. This is not necessarily bad, but the tension between him and the main engineer character of these new books is also repeated thrice, a side effect of the different authors I suppose. Other than that there are just a few inconsistencies with the later books, but that is true of all the shows to some extent. Nothing that truly breaks the immersion.

This will be my first time reading the series on paper, and I am proud to have the books adorning my shelves. I look forward to the emotional rollercoaster that is the SCE, especially Wildfire which I simultaneously want to read right away, but also want to delay as long as possible. ANyone who has read it will understand.

[reherrma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dies ist der erste Print-Sammelband der eBook-Serie, die bei CrossCult in den vergangenen Jahren auf Deutsch veröffentlicht wurde.
Er handelt von dem Ingeniuers-Corps der Sternenflotte, das von Montgomery Scott angeführt wird, dem legendären Ingenieur der ENTERPRISE unter Captain Kirk und Commander Spock. Die eigenliche Geschichte wird aber getragen von der DA VINCI (der Name ist Synonym) unter Captain Gold und Commander Sonya Gomez (die kennen wir aus TNG). Die vier Geschichten sind aufeinander abgestimmt und folgen einer Roten Linie, allerdings sind sie in sich abgeschlossen. In den ersten 3 Geschichten wird Geordi LaForge von der ENTERPRISE als Gast-Ingenieur auf die da Vinci versetzt und unterstützt das Team um Gomez. Die vierte Geschichte ist der erste Teil einer längeren Story um ein Schiff, das hinter einem Dimensions-Spalt geraten ist und nicht mehr herauskommt. Das S.I.K.-Team, das zur Hilfe herbeigerufen wird, gerät in einen diplomatischen Konflikt mit den Tholianern, die nicht gerade zu Freunden der Förderation gezählt werden können.
In welchem Zeitraum die Geschichten spielen wird nicht so genau klar, auf jeden Fall nach dem Dominion-Krieg und vor der Rückkehr der VOYAGER, dafür gibt es Belege aus dem Text.
Alles in Allem machen die Geschichten Spaß und für Treckies bereiten die Geschichten auch einige Aha-Effekte bereit, die Lust auf mehr machen...

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Contains 3 short stories and part one of another

Belly of the Beast : da Vinci explores a partially destroyed ship after it attacks a colony. They discover that it was a luxury ship and that all the crew and passengers were killed by giant bugs to feed their babies when they hatched

Fatal Error: da Vinci responds when they recieve a distress call from Ganitriul, an AI computer that controls everything on Eerlik (weather, communications, transportation). They end up stopping an extremist group attempting to destroy the AI b/c they think Eerlikians are too dependant on it.

Hard Crash: da Vinci is called to investigate an alien ship that crash landed on a planet. At first they think the dead pilot is some new type of Borg b/c she was had technology embedded in her to allow her to control the ship with her mind. After finding her log, they discover that she was bonded to her ship and her mission was to find a planet for her world to colonize. She died when her implants malfunctioned, leaving her ship without a pilot.

Interphase Part 1: da Vinci is called to Tholian space to investigate after the Defiant (original trek) reappears from the rift.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book most when it wasn't trying to tie into existing Trek characters. Having a conversation with Captain Picard or bringing Geordi along on an away mission felt too much like b-grade fan fiction to me. But having an original 24th-century ship with an original crew is fun! My other main complaint was too much 23rd-century (read The Original Series) Trek popping up. Scotty heads up the Starfleet Corps of Engineers?! I liked Scotty in TOS and the movies, but he just seems out of place here (just as I felt he was out of place in the TNG episode "Relics"). And a mission to save a constellation class ship? I know it's bad of me as a Trekkie, but I wish we could forget TOS ever happened instead of drudging it up all the time.

TLDR: Great when it's forging ahead as a post-Dominion-War adventure of its own; less great when it's borrowing from existing Trek franchises.

[Trev · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't sure what to make of SCE before I read this. Now I have I can say that I thoroughly enjoyed it but know it won't be to everyone's taste. It has the usual mix of what makes Trek books. Witty one-lines, random species that no ones ever heard of before, massive issues and problems solved by a handful of people etc. However I don't think this will be to everyone's tastes.

Do to my lifestyle and commuting I like books that I can get through quickly and this meets that criteria. With each novella only lasting about 100 pages it is no problem to fire through them within a day or two. The result of having such short stories is this means there is very little B plot and most of the time things are straight into the action. Whilst this suits me, I know it won't be for all.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only really read this because I recently got a new palm pilot, and the ebook reader with it came with a free copy, but I did end up enjoying it quite a bit.

This is a collection of four short stories revolving around the Starfleet Corps of Engineers - the people that get called in in the Star Trek world whenever some tech needs exploring or fixing.

That partially skewed my perceptions of this book - due to it being about engineers, I was expecting it to be more hard-SF (within the context of Star Trek, still, of course). It wasn't, but the characters were interesting enough that I didn't mind.

[Bryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this free when I downloaded eReader for my Palm Treo smartphone a few years back. It took a while to read (I always had other books on my phone that I wanted to read more than this), but actually it was quite good. For a free book, I really enjoyed it. Unfortunately only 3 of the 4 stories finished up, so now I have to find the next SCE book to finish off the "Interphase" story.

But it was time well spent. A very fast read, and entertaining - this wasn't too "guilty" of a pleasure. (Not a big Star Trek fan, usually, but I do read a few of the books if they are written by major SF authors.)

[Webstartm · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has 4 stories and 2. and 3. are great. Fourth story ends in cliffhanger and it resolves in next book of the SCE series "Miracle worker" . Star trek corpse of engineering as a concept I find intriguing and characters interesting enough. Stories are easy to read because they aren't full of technical terms as I was expecting. I recommend it firstly to all trekkies. Others should perhaps start with older TOS books.

[Mike]

So far, so good. Weird, fun Star Trek novel. The idea is that it follows a ship full of Engineers, the ones who have to go fix things on the fly, who have to figure out how alien technologies work, that sort of thing. It's really rather geeky, so I rather like it.

[Vic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting stories about the Starfleet Core of Engineers. Cameos by Geordi and Picard were cool. It was a pretty quick, easy read but enjoyable if you can use your imagination to get into the stories.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyable read. A smattering of series characters and some new. This is an anthology of stories about the Starfleet Core of Engineer who are generally called in for problems that need a heavier engineering crew than the usual starfleet ship compliment can afford.