This is the first in a long running series of Star Trek novellas originally released exclusively as e-books. The concept of S.C.E., as conceived by series creators John J. Ordover and Keith R.A. DeCandido, involves the Starfleet Corps of Engineers and their adventures aboard the starship da Vinci. The da Vinci is captained by David Gold, and the S.C.E. team is lead by Sonya Gomez, a character who had made a couple of appearances on early episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Many of the other members of the S.C.E. are also minor characters from TNG and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. There are also a pair of Bynars in the group, and Montgomery Scott works behind the scenes, assigning the group their missions.
The book opens with an intense battle between the Enterprise and a gargantuan alien vessel that is attacking a colony. Picard and his crew eventually manage to depower the massive ship, and the S.C.E. is called in to investigate. While the Enterprise departs on another mission, Geordi LaForge and Lieutenant Vale, the Enterprise's new chief of security, stay behind to assist the S.C.E. As the team penetrates ever deeper into the alien ship, they eventually uncover a frightening new enemy, and the story takes on the feel of a claustrophobic horror movie. Gomez and her team are eventually able to overcome this new threat to the Federation, but at a terrible cost.
I really love the idea of a series devoted to the engineers, as that branch of Starfleet has given us some of the most memorable and beloved Star Trek characters. I am also fond of Star Trek stories that are based in some part on real science, and it seems as though this series would be tailor made for such stories. This first entry in the S.C.E. series showed a lot of promise. I particularly liked the creepy atmosphere and gruesome aliens. The ending seemed rather abrupt, but that may have more to do with the fact that I am accustomed to reading full-length Star Trek novels. I have talked before about my ambivalence towards the writing of Dean Wesley Smith. His prose is very straightforward and workmanlike, and he doesn't tend to spend a lot of time on character development, which, especially for the first book in a series introducing many new characters, is a weakness. Compare the characters in this book to those in Peter David's first New Frontier novel, for example. David takes a lot of time establishing his cast of distinct characters, whereas in this book, few of the S.C.E. crew really distinguished themselves as individuals. Again, that may have something to do with the length of the book (which I'm assuming was dictated by the publishers or editors with the then relatively new e-book format in mind), but I hope future S.C.E. novels take a bit more time to flesh out the cast. Still, a promising start to what could be a very cool series.
****
Note: Belly of the Beast is also collected in the print anthology Star Trek: S.C.E., Book One: Have Tech, Will Travel.
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