"All of us...should only be so fortunate as to have that opportunity," said Mackenzie Calhoun, five minutes before the Excalibur blew up..."
That was the final sentence of the previous New Frontier novel, Dark Allies. Requiem is the first book in the Excalibur (the emphasis there is on the "x") trilogy. It begins with the surviving members of the Excalibur's crew convening at a bar to reminisce and share their memories of the only person who apparently did not survive the destruction of the ship, her captain, Mackenzie Calhoun. We don't get any information as to what happened to cause the Excalibur's destruction, or how it came to be that Mackenzie Calhoun was killed while the rest of the crew survived. Instead, this initial scene serves as a brief introduction before the rest of the novel branches off along three parallel tracks, following some of the former Excalibur crew as they all go their separate ways. In this way, Requiem reads more like a collection of short stories than a single novel.
One storyline involves the half-Vulcan, half-Romulan science officer Soleta and her return to Vulcan, where she learns that her biological father, a Romulan criminal who raped her Vulcan mother, has been released from prison. She eventually tracks him down, and their relationship evolves in surprising ways. This storyline was particularly dark and violent, and probably the strongest part of the novel.
Another storyline finds Zak Kebron and Mark McHenry undercover on an alien world, investigating a series of alien abductions that have plagued this pre-warp civilization. Fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation should get a kick out of the resolution to this mystery, but, other than some intriguing hints about McHenry's past, there is not much substance to this story. A third storyline follows the former Thallonian nobles Si Cwan and Kalinda as they investigate the apparent murder of a former teacher. It is revealed in this storyline that Kalinda has developed some extrasensory powers as a result of her time in The Quiet Place. While the Soleta and Kebron/McHenry storylines are resolved in this novel, Si Cwan and Kalinda's story remains unresolved, and will presumably be continued in subsequent novels.
While I'll probably never give a completely negative review to a Star Trek: New Frontier novel, I have to say that Requiem was not one of my favorites in the series. I've said before that I like best those books that feature the entire crew together aboard the Excalibur, and obviously this trilogy takes a very different approach. While I appreciate the unique benefit offered by the New Frontier novels to alter the status quo so drastically, ultimately this book seemed a bit like a place holder until the full story of the Excalibur's destruction, and the fate of Mackenzie Calhoun, can be told.
