The agents of the Department of Temporal Investigations are assigned to look into an anomaly that has appeared deep in Federation territory. It’s difficult to get clear readings, but a mysterious inactive vessel lies at the heart of the anomaly, one outfitted with some sort of temporal drive disrupting space-time and subspace. To the agents’ shock, the ship bears a striking resemblance to a Constitution-class starship, and its warp signature matches that of the original Federation starship Enterprise NCC-1701—the ship of James T. Kirk, that infamous bogeyman of temporal investigators, whose record of violations is held up by DTI agents as a cautionary tale for Starfleet recklessness toward history. But the vessel’s hull markings identify it as Timeship Two, belonging to none other than the DTI itself. At first, Agents Lucsly and Dulmur assume the ship is from some other timeline . . . but its quantum signature confirms that it came from their own past, despite the fact that the DTI never possessed such a timeship. While the anomaly is closely monitored, Lucsly and Dulmur must search for answers in the history of Kirk’s Enterprise and its many encounters with time travel—a series of events with direct ties to the origins of the DTI itself. . . .
Star Trek: DTI: Forgotten History
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About the Author
Christopher L. Bennett is the author of two previous works of Titan fiction, the novel Star Trek: Titan: Orion's Hounds and the short story “Empathy” in the Star Trek: Mirror Universe: Shards and Shadows anthology. He has also authored such critically acclaimed novels as Star Trek: Ex Machina, Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Buried Age, and Star Trek: The Next Generation: Greater Than the Sum, as well as the alternate Voyager tale Places of Exile in Myriad Universes: Infinity's Prism. Beyond Star Trek, he has penned the novels X-Men: Watchers on the Walls and Spider-Man: Drowned in Thunder and is also developing original science fiction novel concepts.
™, ®, & © 2012 CBS Studios, Inc. Star Trek and related marks are trademarks of CBS Studios, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
I
Starfleet Headquarters, San Francisco, North Am, Earth
Stardate 3113.7, Old System
December 2266
“I think you’re wasting your time here, Antonio,” said Commodore Burton Kwan. “This story Kirk and his crew are spinning is just too ludicrous.”
Commodore Antonio Delgado stroked his short, grizzled beard as he considered his colleague’s words. “Did you verify it in the ship’s computer logs?” he asked the younger man.
“Well, yes, but . . . the computer . . .”
“Yes?”
“It kept calling us ‘dear.’ If you ask me, the whole thing’s an elaborate practical joke.”
“Well, how else do you explain the Enterprise suddenly appearing in the Oort cloud, braking hard from high warp, just hours after disappearing without a trace from Sector 006? We’ve confirmed the presence of that ‘black star’ Kirk advised us of—it appears to be some new class of singularity. And we have found a passing reference in records from the period to an ‘unidentified flying object’ sighting by a Captain John Christopher, United States Air Force.”
“So you’re saying this is possible?”
Delgado hesitated. “I’m not saying anything on the record. And neither are you, is that clear?”
Kwan scoffed. “I’m happy to be left out of it. And even if I weren’t, I know better than to cross someone who plays golf with Admiral Comsol himself.” He came to a halt outside the door to Briefing Room 14. “They’re in here, waiting for you. I leave them and their mess, whatever it turns out to be, in your capable hands.”
Delgado shook his balding head as the younger commodore strode away. Kwan was the same kind of small-minded bureaucrat as the ones who’d dismissed the Enterprise’s first report of time travel earlier this year—an alleged seventy-one-hour backward jump resulting from a cold restart of the vessel’s warp engines to escape the breakup of planet Psi 2000—as a mere time dilation anomaly. If Kirk’s claim had been taken seriously sooner, valuable time might have been saved.
Delgado chuckled to himself. Then again, if this pans out, I may have all the time in the universe.
He entered the briefing room, and Captain Kirk and his first officer, the renowned half-Vulcan Commander Spock, rose to greet him. “Captain Kirk,” he said, shaking the younger man’s hand. “I’m Commodore Antonio Delgado, deputy chief of Starfleet Science Operations. Commander Spock,” he appended, merely nodding at the Vulcan, who returned the greeting in kind. Despite his executive position, Spock wore the blue tunic of the science division rather than the command gold worn by Kirk and Delgado, reminding the commodore that he served as Kirk’s chief science officer as well—a doubling of responsibility that would be difficult for anyone but a Vulcan to pull off. Delgado may have been second-in-command of Science Ops himself, but his role was chiefly administrative.
“Pleased to meet you, sir,” Kirk said, though his impatience was clear. “If I may, I’d like to ask—”
Delgado held up a hand. “I know you’re eager to get back to your ship. We’ve put you through enough of a runaround already, and I’m sorry to add to it. But I can tell you that this time, you will be listened to, and you will be believed.”
Kirk’s eyes widened, his stance easing. “I’m . . . glad to hear that. I appreciate that it’s an extraordinary thing to ask someone to accept, but we’ve offered you the data from our ship’s computers, and Mister Spock’s sworn testimony as well as that of the rest of my crew.” Kirk’s tone conveyed particular disbelief and offense at having the Vulcan’s account called into question. Delgado respected that level of loyalty and trust. It had been rare enough in his own experience. Political loyalty was something he knew how to bargain and barter for, but he knew it came and went as expediency demanded. Personal loyalty, the sort he sensed here, was far more elusive.
“Well, you understand we needed time to verify the corroborating evidence. It’s essential to be absolutely sure of something like this.”
“Naturally,” Spock replied, his voice a rich baritone. “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”
“So with that in mind, I hope you won’t mind going over your account one more time for me.”
Kirk suppressed a sigh. “Of course, sir.”
The three men sat around the polygonal briefing table and Kirk began. “As I said in my log, the Enterprise was en route to Starbase 9 for resupply when we were caught in an intense gravitational pull from an uncharted black star. Like a black hole, but different somehow.”
“As though its gravitomagnetic effects extended into subspace,” Spock added. “Even at warp, all subspace geodesics tended to spiral in toward the singularity. Only by employing maximum warp power were we able to reverse course and break free.”
“We hurtled out of control,” Kirk went on. “Most of us blacked out from the acceleration. When we recovered, we found ourselves inside Earth’s atmosphere. We were lucky we didn’t crash into the surface. Attempts to contact Starfleet Control failed, but my communications officer picked up a broadcast on an old EM band, announcing that the first manned moon shot would launch the following Wednesday.”
“And from that,” Delgado asked, “you concluded that you were in 1969?”
“Not from that alone, sir,” Spock told him. “It only reinforced the conclusion I had already drawn from reviewing the sensor logs. Our trajectory on breaking free of the singularity was consistent with the theoretical predictions for a closed timelike curve around a Tipler object, which the dense, rotating mass of the singularity might well approximate. My scans of Earth and the Sol system revealed no traces of antimatter use or transtatorbased technology, no orbital facilities or habitations beyond Earth, and no verifiable indications of extraterrestrial life on Earth itself. The configuration of the stars and planets established a date of July 12, nineteen hundred and sixty-nine Common Era in the Gregorian calendar—four days before the launch of Apollo 11.”
“We then detected the approach of a military aircraft of the period,” Kirk continued. “We attempted to retreat to avoid detection, but our systems were damaged, sluggish. The aircraft was armed with missiles, and from what I recalled of the tense political climate of the period, I knew we were in danger of being preemptively fired upon. I ordered the tractor beam activated to hold the aircraft at a safe distance.”
“Were you aware that the aircraft might be damaged by the tractor beam?”
“To be honest, no, sir, it didn’t occur to me,” Kirk said. “Since the aircraft was small enough to fit entirely within the beam, I assumed it would simply feel a uniform attraction, no shear or strain.”
“In the captain’s defense, sir,” Spock pointed out, “few people today are accustomed to dealing with non–antigravity-based aircraft.”
“But you recognized the danger, Commander.”
“Yes, Commodore. Considering the relationship of gravity, thrust, and lift in the operation of a fixed-wing aircraft, I realized that altering the effective gravity vector with our tractor beam would throw off the balance and cause the aircraft to tumble out of control. I promptly alerted the captain to the risk, but at that point the tractor beam had already been engaged, and the aircraft quickly began to break up.”
Delgado turned back to Kirk. “So you felt you had no choice but to beam the pilot aboard.”
“Captain John Christopher, yes. He was only in danger because of my mistake, sir,” the captain told him. “I couldn’t let him die.”
“So instead you thought it was a good idea to give him a guided tour of a starship from centuries in his future. Thereby exposing him to knowledge far beyond what his society was ready for.”
“Naturally I considered beaming him back immediately, before he knew what had happened. But if he arrived intact on the ground before his aircraft even crashed, I knew that would raise a great many questions.”
“Did you consider sedating Captain Christopher until he could be returned to the crash site? Perhaps with some minor injuries consistent with ejecting from a crash?”
Kirk frowned. “With all due respect, Commodore, he was a human. A military pilot from the same country that first put humans on the Earth’s moon. He was a spiritual ancestor, perhaps even a literal ancestor for all I knew. I’d wronged him enough tearing his ship out from under him. I wasn’t going to knock him out and give him a beating as well.” He took a breath, gathering himself. “I felt I owed him an explanation. And owed it to myself to assess what kind of man he was before deciding on his disposition.”
“And the temptation to meet a ‘spiritual ancestor’ wasn’t a factor?”
The captain gave a wry smile. “Would you have felt any differently, sir?”
Delgado’s expression softened marginally. “Probably not, Captain.”
As Kirk’s account continued, it became more and more a comedy of errors. Every attempt he and his crew made to resolve the situation only made things worse, leading to the point at which a second individual from 1969 had been accidentally beamed aboard, Kirk had been captured and interrog...
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I'm left with mixed feelings regarding Forgotten History. As a Star Trek fan, I enjoyed how well this book made sense of Original Series and Animated Series episodes just as Watching the Clock made sense of Enterprise's Temporal Cold War and time travel in general. However, as a trek literature reader, I found the book a little dry and the characters not very engaging.
I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. I have enjoyed all of Christopher Bennett's novels, especially how well he handles complex science fiction subjects, but with regards to the Department of Temporal Investigations as a series, I was afraid it would be a one trick pony. Through the entire read of Forgotten History, I was never able to get into the DTI characters like I did with Watching the Clock. The new characters Grey and Delgado were interesting original characters but for some reason, they weren't as engaging as Garcia and Ranjea were in Watching the Clock. I also had a problem getting hooked with the Original Series characters largely because their story often jumped through spans of months or years.
Even though I wasn't gripped by the story or characters, Forgotten History was still interesting because of what it took from and added to the Star Trek saga. What significantly impressed me was how well The Animated Series episodes and elements were incorporated into the novel. Often TAS stories are ignored but Bennett did a great job making some of the strange TAS stories fit into a modern novel targeted to adults. For example, the Animated Series life support belts are mentioned as is why what appeared to be a great technology would have been discarded by Starfleet.
Though these details are of interest to a Star Trek fan, they tended to bog down the flow of the story.... Read more ›
I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. I have enjoyed all of Christopher Bennett's novels, especially how well he handles complex science fiction subjects, but with regards to the Department of Temporal Investigations as a series, I was afraid it would be a one trick pony. Through the entire read of Forgotten History, I was never able to get into the DTI characters like I did with Watching the Clock. The new characters Grey and Delgado were interesting original characters but for some reason, they weren't as engaging as Garcia and Ranjea were in Watching the Clock. I also had a problem getting hooked with the Original Series characters largely because their story often jumped through spans of months or years.
Even though I wasn't gripped by the story or characters, Forgotten History was still interesting because of what it took from and added to the Star Trek saga. What significantly impressed me was how well The Animated Series episodes and elements were incorporated into the novel. Often TAS stories are ignored but Bennett did a great job making some of the strange TAS stories fit into a modern novel targeted to adults. For example, the Animated Series life support belts are mentioned as is why what appeared to be a great technology would have been discarded by Starfleet.
Though these details are of interest to a Star Trek fan, they tended to bog down the flow of the story.... Read more ›
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is not the novel I was expecting. From my interpretation of the blurb, I expected to read about Kirk and company galavanting across the ages in the timeship Enterprise. This is not what happens. Forgotten History is a story about time travel, and it certainly contains time travel, but it is not a time travel story. Those who have read the earlier DTI novel Watching the Clock (or possibly just seen 300 Days of Summer) should have a good idea about what I mean.
Forgotten History works very well as a Trek novel. The scenes and characterization feel spot on. The story takes place across ten years of TOS history. It involves many episodes (including several from the animated series) and references several other novels, but is definitely capable of standing on it's own. Similarly, it serves as a follow up to both Ex Machina and The Darkness Drops Again, and it builds upon them without requiring the reader to be familiar with either. Best of all in my opinion though, is the material linked less directly to previous works. There is a scene that takes place after TOS but manages to capture the same feel, it's like watching an episode from season 5. There is also some excellent material regarding Spock's personal relationships. Finally, the original characters, both antagonists and TOS era DTI personal managed to feel real and true to period while subverting my expectations.
The one major weakness of the novel in my mind is the "modern" TNG era section.... Read more ›
Forgotten History works very well as a Trek novel. The scenes and characterization feel spot on. The story takes place across ten years of TOS history. It involves many episodes (including several from the animated series) and references several other novels, but is definitely capable of standing on it's own. Similarly, it serves as a follow up to both Ex Machina and The Darkness Drops Again, and it builds upon them without requiring the reader to be familiar with either. Best of all in my opinion though, is the material linked less directly to previous works. There is a scene that takes place after TOS but manages to capture the same feel, it's like watching an episode from season 5. There is also some excellent material regarding Spock's personal relationships. Finally, the original characters, both antagonists and TOS era DTI personal managed to feel real and true to period while subverting my expectations.
The one major weakness of the novel in my mind is the "modern" TNG era section.... Read more ›
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
As with the first book in this DTI series, this book spent quite a bit of time pulling in all the other examples of time travel already used in the Star Trek universe. This lead to a fairly dry first half where it was more of a reunion episode than a new story line. It was somewhat interesting to see some events explained and fit into the overall ST universe; it was illuminating but not exciting.
The story itself doesn't get going until the second half of the book where different time periods and timelines meet and bleed into one another. A 'new' parallel timeline is introduced that is interesting enough I'd like to see it fleshed out a bit further in future visits. But, that may also count as a minus; by the time the story started, there wasn't enough time for detail. The story line developed, reached a critical point and was resolved fairly quickly.
Overall, I liked the book but I'm not sure how much longer I'll keep reading this series
The story itself doesn't get going until the second half of the book where different time periods and timelines meet and bleed into one another. A 'new' parallel timeline is introduced that is interesting enough I'd like to see it fleshed out a bit further in future visits. But, that may also count as a minus; by the time the story started, there wasn't enough time for detail. The story line developed, reached a critical point and was resolved fairly quickly.
Overall, I liked the book but I'm not sure how much longer I'll keep reading this series
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Let me start by saying that I don't often read Star Trek books, not because they aren't good but because without a handy timeline map like the one provided for Star Wars licensed books it's often more work than it is worth for me to figure out where a particular Star Trek book fits in continuity. However I was a big admirer of Peter David's New Frontier and have always liked Star Trek books that take place on the fringe of the overall storyline and focus upon lesser known characters or brand new characters, so I decided to give this one a try.
Let me start by saying that I was blown away by Mr. Bennett's research (I mean I really thought I was a Star Trek nerd, but he makes me look like a light weight) and I loved the journey through so much of Star Trek History, especially the 3 or 4 page post script where he explained where each segment of the book took place in continuity. This was very helpful for me because I was unaware of some of the story elements that came from the books.
Unfortunately despite his wonderful research this story has little or no characterization and it was impossible for me to get into it. I need to care about what happens to the characters and this book reads like a movie or TV show which is all action, nothing else really happens other than the primary storyline.
Still I read this book rapidly in one sitting and it might serve to fill a lazy afternoon if you aren't looking to work too hard and want something familiar (Kind of like comfort food).
Let me start by saying that I was blown away by Mr. Bennett's research (I mean I really thought I was a Star Trek nerd, but he makes me look like a light weight) and I loved the journey through so much of Star Trek History, especially the 3 or 4 page post script where he explained where each segment of the book took place in continuity. This was very helpful for me because I was unaware of some of the story elements that came from the books.
Unfortunately despite his wonderful research this story has little or no characterization and it was impossible for me to get into it. I need to care about what happens to the characters and this book reads like a movie or TV show which is all action, nothing else really happens other than the primary storyline.
Still I read this book rapidly in one sitting and it might serve to fill a lazy afternoon if you aren't looking to work too hard and want something familiar (Kind of like comfort food).
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Kirk, always Kirk!
I'm thrilled that i finally was able to see why DTI hates Kirk so much. The many time violations, conflict and web of events that led Kirk to be the responsible for the creation of... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Flavio Carmo
4.0 out of 5 stars
Easy Read OK Content
It not like a voyager or enterprise book but its new and different. I like it but its not really my kind of Trek book. I will keep reading them to see how the storyline progresses.
Published 4 months ago by jhk
5.0 out of 5 stars
A look into the background of Enterprises time travel
Bennett wrote another top novel. Except for the calender dates in various incarnations that made me crazy. I enjoyed the novel.
Published 5 months ago by David Miraglia
5.0 out of 5 stars
So much fun!!!
Ok so I'm a major fan of stories involving time travel paradoxes and such but this one is cool because you get to see more of the amazing duo of Luscsly and Dulmer. Read more
Published 5 months ago by OokamiMoon
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tied a lot of loose ends together.
I so enjoyed this, many places made me laugh out loud. A lot of loose ends from the series were tied together in this.
Published 5 months ago by E. Collins
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book that ties in events from the original series, the animated...
This book is a terrific one for anyone who is a fan of the original Star Trek series and its movies! Read more
Published 6 months ago by R. Kindall
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good read
It tied in a lot of old TOS stories very nicely. Answered quite a few questions about the 'refit' stage
Published 6 months ago by KoverA
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Story!
If you are a fan of Star Trek The Original Series, you will love this novel! You will not want to put this book down until you come to the end. I wanted the story to continue.
Published 7 months ago by Bradley Proffitt
4.0 out of 5 stars
Star Trek DTI
Very good story. I've been a Star Trek fan for many years, but have just gotten into reading the books. I'm hoping they are all as well written as this one is.
Published 10 months ago by lucifer369
4.0 out of 5 stars
Gets windy, but great read.
This book does get off track a bit, and there are times it is hard to read, however setting that aside it's a good summer read for Star Trek fans. Read more
Published 10 months ago by MHall
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