Star Trek: The Next Generation: Starfleet Academy #6: Mystery of the Missing Crew

An android is found in the ruins of a colony on Omicron Theta. The crew of the
Tripoli
reactivate the android and discover his name is Data, a name that suits his incredible curiosity. With the encouragement of his new friends, Data applies to Starfleet Academy™ and is accepted

Cadet Data begins his journey to Starfleet Academy aboard the science vessel,
Yosemite
. Even as he looks forward to the Academy, he struggles to find his own identity and to fit in with the other cadets.

But Data's worries are cut short when the
Yosemite
is suddenly attacked by an unknown vessel and suffers severe damage. When the power is restored, Data discovers that the adult crew has mysteriously disappeared, and only Data and the other Academy-bound cadets are left to face the wrath of a new alien race … who are demanding that Data and his cadet crew surrender their ship, or be destroyed!

Cover art by Catherine Huerta
Interior Illustrations by Todd Cameron Hamilton

Data was expecting to see a machine much like the one they had encountered earlier, with much the same abilities.

He was wrong.

And he would have been dead wrong if he hadn’t managed to pull his head back in time.

As it was, the intruder’s energy beam ripped away a large section of the bulkhead where he’d been standing, leaving only a smoking heap of metallic sludge in its place. Pulling Sinna along, Data took off back down the corridor.

“That blast—” the Yanna began.

“Was much stronger than those we have seen previously,” the android noted. “That is because we are dealing with a different sort of invader—”

Then there was no more time to speak, because the bulkheads on either side of them were turning into blazing slag under the intruder’s phasers….

Star Trek: The Next Generation
STARFLEET ACADEMY

#1 Worf’s First Adventure

#2 Line of Fire

#3 Survival

#4 Capture the Flag

#5 Atlantis Station

#6 Mystery of the Missing Crew

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

#1 The Star Ghost

#2 Stowaways

#3 Prisoners of Peace

#4 The Pet

Star Trek movie tie-in

Star Trek Generations

Available from MINSTREL Books

The sale of this book without its cover is unauthorized. If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that it was reported to the publisher as “unsold and destroyed.” Neither the author nor the publisher has received payment for the sale of this “stripped book.”

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

A MINSTREL PAPERBACK
Original

A Minstrel Book published by
POCKET BOOKS, a division of Simon & Schuster Inc.
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com

Copyright © 1994 by Paramount Pictures. All rights reserved.

STAR TREK is a Registered Trademark of Paramount Pictures.

This book is published by Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster Inc., under exclusive license from Paramount Pictures.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

For information address Pocket Books, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

ISBN: 0-671-50108-9

First Minstrel Books printing June 1994

10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2

A MINSTREL BOOK and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster Inc.

Cover art by Catherine Huerta

Printed in the U.S.A.

For Drew Leslie Friedman,
who took his own sweet Time

2264

The launch of Captain James T. Kirk’s Five-year mission,
U.S.S.
Enterprise,
NCC-1701.

2292

Alliance between the Klingon Empire and the Romulan Star Empire collapses.

2293

Colonel Worf, grandfather of Worf Rozhenko, defends Captain Kirk and Doctor McCoy at their trial for the murder of Klingon chancellor Gorkon. Khitomer Peace Conference, Klingon Empire/Federation
(Star Trek VI).

2323

Jean-Luc Picard enters Starfleet Academy’s standard four-year program.

2328

The Cardassian Empire annexes the Bajoran homeworld.

2341

Data enters Starfleet Academy.

2342

Beverly Crusher (née Howard) enters Starfleet Academy Medical School, an eight-year program.

2346

Romulan massacre of Klingon outpost on Khitomer.

2351

In orbit around Bajor, the Cardassians construct a space station that they will later abandon.

2353

William T. Riker and Geordi La Forge enter Starfleet Academy.

2354

Deanna Troi enters Starfleet Academy.

2356

Tasha Yar enters Starfleet Academy.

2357

Worf Rozhenko enters Starfleet Academy.

2363

Captain Jean-Luc Picard assumes command of
U.S.S. Enterprise,
NCC-1701-D.

2367

Wesley Crusher enters Starfleet Academy.

An uneasy truce is signed between the Cardassians and the Federation.

Borg attack at Wolf 359; First Officer Lieutenant Commander Benjamin Sisko and his son, Jake, are among the survivors.

U.S.S. Enterprise-D
defeats the Borg vessel in orbit around Earth.

2369

Commander Benjamin Sisko assumes command of Deep Space Nine in orbit over Bajor.

Source:
Star Trek
^®
Chronology
/ Michael Okuda and Denise Okuda

PROLOGUE

Earth Date 2338

Data opened his eyes for the first time and realized that he was lying on a stone slab in the middle of a large clearing. The sky overhead was a blanket of unbroken gray, the air still and unnaturally silent.

And he wasn’t alone.

There were four people standing over him—three men and one woman, all of them humanoid, all of them dressed in brightly colored Starfleet uniforms. One of the four, a thin man with blond hair and high cheekbones, knelt to get a better look at him. Of the entire group, he was the only one dressed in the cranberry of command.

“He’s awake,” the man said, his eyes widening. He seemed surprised at his own conclusion.

Data didn’t respond with a remark of his own. After all, he wasn’t sure that one was called for.

“Amazing,” muttered one of the other officers, a man with freckles and red hair. He was glancing at his tricorder. “Electronic activity in the area where his brain would be just jumped … to a whole other level.”

“Our presence must have tripped some sort of activation system,” commented the third member of the party, a broad man with hard, dark eyes and a black beard.

A fourth officer knelt beside the thin man. This one was a woman, with pleasant features and light brown hair. She was wearing the blue of the medical corps.

“My name is Dr. Reynolds,” she said, “but my friends call me Kathy Lou. And this,” she added, tilting her head to indicate the thin man in the command uniform, “is Commander Sahmes.
His
friends call him Tim.”

The android understood what they were doing. “I am called … Data,” he told them.

“Data…?” the thin man repeated. It appeared that he was asking for a surname.

“Just
Data
,” replied the android. He sat up on his slab and brushed a thin layer of dust off his clothing. He had no idea how long he’d been here, but it had to have been a while if he’d gotten this dirty.