Title: Star Trek: Star Fleet Corps of Engineers #33, Collective Hindsight, Book 1
Author: Aaron Rosenberg
Release Date: October 2003
Format: eBook
ISBN: 0-7434-8083-X

Title: Star Trek: Star Fleet Corps of Engineers #34, Collective Hindsight, Book 2
Author: Aaron Rosenberg
Release Date: November 2003
Format: eBook
ISBN: 0-7434-8084-8

The latest Starfleet Corps of Engineers offering is a two-part story, Collective Hindsight, by Aaron Rosenberg. Rosenberg previously penned the S.C.E. story The Riddled Post, and once again he tells us an entirely enjoyable tale that’s a bit of a mystery.

In Collective Hindsight the crew of the U.S.S. da Vinci finds themselves attempting to stop a runaway ship. The vessel in question, the Dancing Star, was believed to have been destroyed during the Dominion War when the da Vinci encountered the same ship and was forced to destroy it to keep its technology out of enemy hands—at least they believed they had destroyed it. Now, over a year later, they find themselves with the same dilemma, how to stop the Dancing Star, while at the same time they must solve the mystery of how the ship was able to survive and return at all.

The two books that comprise Collective Hindsight effectively tell both parts of the story in a manner that makes for one cohesive tale. Book one recounts the events of the da Vinci’s first encounter with the mysterious alien vessel, which was before Gomez’s time. At this earlier time Commander Salek headed up the da Vinci’s S.C.E. team with Duffy as second in command and Solomon was still part of the bonded Bynar pair. In book two Gomez’s crew, comprised of most of the same individuals, must attempt to figure out what went wrong the first time as it becomes critical to obliterate this vessel that is seemingly indestructible.

Accomplishing the seemingly impossible is all in a days work for the crew of the U.S.S. da Vinci. And somehow, even after 34 installments, the authors and their editor keep finding innovative new ways to tell stories where these characters do exactly that. Collective Hindsight puts more than one new twist into the tried and try sci fi plot of a runaway spaceship.

I also appreciated the way that Rosenberg wrote the characters. Even though many of the same characters were involved in the first encounter with Dancing Star he is careful to portray the subtle differences in the characters then and now. Time and experiences have changed them and Rosenberg doesn’t fail to address that.

Both parts of Collective Hindsight are fairly short light reads, but both separately and together they add up to a satisfying and thoroughly entertaining read.

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