Thin Air (Star Trek: New Earth, Book 5) (Mass Market Paperback)

by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Author), Dean Wesley Smith (Author) "THE CLEAR CANISTER sitting on the Enterprise science lab bench held no more than a few handfuls of brown soil, taken directly from a field..." (more)
Key Phrases: asteroid observation station, olivium ore, mule ship, Belle Terre, Gamma Night, Captain Kirk (more...)

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Product Description

Many light-years away from the safety of the Federation, the Starship Enterprise™ stands guard over an alien world whose unique natural resources could change the balance of power throughout the galaxy. The ship's crucial assignment: to maintain a Federation presence on the Planet below, to defend the world's newly arrived inhabitants from hostile aliens, and to fight a solitary battle against all who would claim the planet's riches for their own.

Thin Air

Against all odds, Kirk and his crew have preserved the struggling Federation colony on Belle Terre, but their heroic efforts may have been in vain In a last-ditch attempt to drive the entrenched settlers off their new home, the alien Kauld have contaminated the planet's atmosphere with a destructive biochemical agent that will soon render the entire world inimical to human life. With only weeks to spare, Spock races to find a scientific solution to their dire predicament, while Kirk takes the battle to the enemy, determined to wrest the secret of their salvation from the very forces out to destroy the future of this new Earth!

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter One

The clear canister sitting on the Enterprise science lab bench held no more than a few handfuls of brown soil, taken directly from a field just outside of Belle Terre's main colony on the island side of the planet. It was farm soil, nothing more. Recently tilled, the soil smelled of rich possibilities, seasons full of fresh, crisp vegetables, and the very future of Belle Terre.

Only there was something very wrong with this soil. And Spock was trying to figure out exactly what that was.

On the counter beside the canister were almost two dozen other canisters, all containing soil from different areas of Belle Terre. The soil from the explosion-blasted side of the planet seemed darker, almost black with the radiation damage from what the colonists were calling "the Burn." Two canisters seemed almost to be full of light sand.

But, from what Spock had been told, areas of soil around the planet were "going bad," as the colonists put it. Plants were dying, and in places the soil even smelled foul and rotten. Lilian Coates had asked Captain Kirk to look into it, and the captain had assigned Spock to help the colonist scientists discover what was wrong.

All the soil canisters in the lab were carefully labeled and sorted by region and continent. It had taken three Enterprise crew members most of a day to collect all of them for Spock. And he had spent the last two hours analyzing the data from scans of each sample. His findings had not been what he had expected. The soil contained polymers that just didn't belong logically on Belle Terre, let alone in every sample from every region of the planet.

Spock held his tricorder over the sample of rich soil from the largest island on the undamaged side of Belle Terre, then inserted a small silver probe into the soil. He again checked the readings of the soil, then stepped back and flipped a switch on a nearby panel, sending a slight jolt of electricity into the soil through the probe. What he had expected from his readings was a small puff of smoke as the electrical jolt broke down unknown gel molecules he had discovered in the soil.

That wasn't want he got.

The soil sample exploded with the force of a large bomb.

The impact smashed Spock back against the wall, knocking the wind from him. The room swirled with smoke and Spock's ears rang. He could feel a dozen cuts and gashes on his body from flying glass and debris.

He ignored the wounds, the shortness of breath, and his damaged ears and forced his attention completely on the explosion. He had not expected it, and did not know why it had happened. Simple farming soil did not normally explode when touched with electricity. Clearly the soil problem developing on Belle Terre was far worse than he had first thought.

Alarm bells were sounding throughout the ship as he slowly stood.

"Spock! Spock! Come in." Captain Kirk's voice carried over the alarms.

Spock stumbled a few steps through the glass and debris, and tapped the comm link on the wall. "Spock here, Captain." His own voice sounded hollow and distant in his ears, and he had to lean against the wall for support.

The captain's voice came back instantly. "Spock, what happened? Are you all right?"

Spock looked through the smoke at the completely destroyed science lab, then said, "I fared better than the science lab. And I made a discovery."

"What?" Kirk demanded as two emergency personnel shoved the jammed door aside and rushed into the lab. They stopped, clearly stunned at the destruction; then one moved toward him as the other moved to stop the small fire in a panel.

Spock understood the men's reaction. He was surprised as well by the force of the explosion. He had grossly miscalculated and it had cost them a lot of important scientific equipment. It was equipment that would not be easily replaced this far from Federation space. It was also lucky that he had been the only person in the lab at the time. A human would have had little chance of surviving such an explosion.

At that moment Dr. McCoy shoved in through the half-open door and glanced around. "For the love of -- " He instantly moved toward Spock, his medical tricorder in his hand. "What in green-blooded blazes have you done?"

"Spock?" Kirk demanded over the comm as McCoy scanned him. "What discovery?"

"Belle Terre is in trouble, Captain," Spock said.

"Explain," Kirk said.

"Jim," McCoy said to the comm unit on the wall before Spock could say a word, "if you want to talk to your first officer, it's going to have to be in sickbay."

McCoy waved over the two emergency crewmen to help him with Spock.

"I can walk, Doctor," Spock said, pushing himself away from the wall.

"I doubt that," McCoy said, his voice not hiding his disgust. "But you are more than welcome to try."

Three stumbling, painful steps later Spock realized the logical choice was to have help getting to sickbay. In fact, it was the only choice.

Spock was thankful that McCoy had the good sense not to say "I told you so."

Lilian Coates awoke with a start, gasping for air, sweat dripping from her forehead, her hair stuck to her cheeks. What an awful nightmare.

She looked around her bedroom, trying to get something familiar back while forcing herself to take a few deep breaths. That was the worst dream she had had since right after the Burn. For the weeks after that she had dreamed she was back in the cave with the children, trying to save them, but always failing. Luckily, in real life, she had been successful. She, her son, Reynold, and five other children had ridden through the explosion of the planet's olivium-filled moon inside a cave. After a month or so the nightmares of Reynold dying, just as her husband had done, ended. But the memory of them always seemed just below the surface of every minute of every day.

She took another long, deep breath and blew outward, letting the fresh air clear her mind. Then she swung out of bed and in the faint light she padded to Reynold's room, glancing in at him. Their cat, Nova, a gift from Dr. McCoy, lay curled around Reynold's feet. Both seemed to be sleeping fine, so she moved on into the kitchen area, trying not to think about the nightmare until she calmed down some.

A large glass of cold water helped and she sat at the kitchen table still cluttered with a few dishes left from last night's dinner with Reynold and Captain Kirk. Jim had returned to his ship shortly after dinner and she just hadn't felt like cleaning up. Right now she wished he were here. Someone to talk to, someone to tell her that staying on Belle Terre, not going back to Earth, was the right thing to do for her and Reynold.

Slowly she let the nightmare back into her thoughts.

She is outside, standing in her garden, under clear, sunny skies. Around her all her plants are dead and wilted. Suddenly her feet become rooted to the soil, as if she is a plant as well.

She can't move.

Then she feels pressure around her face, as if someone is putting a hand over her nose and mouth, choking off her air. But there is no one there.

She can't run.

She can't breathe.

She is dying, just as her garden is dying.

Reynold is beside her, also planted, also unable to breathe.

She can't save him either.

She knew they were about to suffocate when she awoke.

Awful nightmare.

Another long drink of water pushed the images back again. It seemed she was more worried about her garden, and other plants around the area, than she had even told Jim. No doubt the plants dying had something to do with the Burn and the extreme changes in climate and weather. She knew there was a logical explanation for it.

But it seemed her subconscious didn't.

She glanced at the time. Two hours until she and Reynold had to be up. There wasn't going to be any getting back to sleep now. Not after th

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Star Trek (August 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067178577X
• ISBN-13: 978-0671785772
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 3.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #223,057 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Star Trek, New Earth - Thin Air, August 7, 2000

By	C. Daniel Lucas (Cary, NC USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you're reading the Star Trek New Earth six-book trilogy like I'm foolhardy enough to be doing, then Thin Air is a breath of fresh air when to compared to its four predecessors. Now, having said that, this book, as far as Star Trek yarns go is only mediocre.

The writing of Rusch & Smith moves along at a comfortable pace and the characters stay within character and are standard-issue Star Fleet. Uhura, Sulu and Scotty play minor roles, as it should be. The "bad guy" is a Kauld silicone gel that gradully replaces the air on the planet Belle Terre. The menace is creative and the solution plays out rather well.

The things I could've done without: * The whole part about Tegan and her son. Who cares? This bit added nothing to the whole and actually could've been a useless sub-plot in books 2, 3 & 4. * I'm getting tired of evacuating the colonists every book. And Govenor Pardonnet seemed busy but not as abrasive. Is he just tired or mellowing out? * Scotty's plan to cripple the Kauld battle fleet was a great idea but I doubt he could've done it in 10 minutes. It came off a wee bit hokey, m'lad.

Anyway, if you survived the first four books where I'm sure the authors got paid by the word with an additional dime for every extra adjective they used, then this is your treat. Read it and thank your god that there is ONLY one more book to go!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fast paced and exciting, September 10, 2000

By	A. KAPLAN "Penelopecat" (Las Vegas, NV United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I'm not a regular Star Trek reader, but I decided to give this six-book summer series a try. Like the second volume, Belle Terre, Thin Air gives readers a thrilling race-against-the-clock adventure as Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise race to save the planet from certain doom (just like in the second and fourth books, although each threat has managed to be fairly distinctive). What really makes this book come alive is the way authors Smith and Rusch brought the supporting characters to life. They showed that these crises were happening to real people, not faceless, nameless cardboard cut-outs. I found myself on the edge of my seat with anxiety over certain characters' fates. As a page-turning adventure, this novel definitely satisfies, and had me looking forward to the next book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 3 1/2 Stars, September 5, 2000

By	Michael Hickerson (Augusta, GA) - See all my reviews

The concept of New Earth is, on paper, fascinating.

In execution, it's been a series that is, at times, utterly entertaining and frustrating. The frustration comes from the fact that there were a lot of potential conflicts brought up in book one that haven't yet been addressed by the series (methinks that Diane Carey will bring them up in the final leg of the series but that's honestly, not good enough).

This leg finds the Kauld attempting to get to New Earth for the olivium. Their ingenous plan this time is to destroy the atmosophere of New Earth, thus killing the colonists. Certainly the threat is a good one but it isn't as well realized as I'd hoped. Also, while we get some reactions from the colonists, none of them are really fleshed out enough. Indeed, it's the same reactions we saw in the other three books--horror and disdain at the fact they've come so far to possibly fail.

Kirk and company face a great dilemma and, as usual, must stop it. It's not that I don't like seeing Kirk and company in action. It's just that whole book as the been-there, done-that feeling to it. There's not much depth to the characters and while one of them faces a tragic loss a lot of balls are dropped in the course of the novels. (One potentially interesting plotline of Kirk and McCoy both being romantically drawn to the same woman and the possible conflicts this could bring up is simply dropped as McCoy just accepts that the woman chooses Kirk over him and moves on. There's a chance for drama here but it's not explored!)

This novel ends some of the on-going plotlines while leaving things open for Ms. Carey to finish up and then create a series of on-going adventures for the Challenger crew. I think that this series could have used one driving voice behind them--such as what happens with Peter David's New Frontier novels. For good or bad, they're all by one author and thus have a more rigid sense of continuity and character development. I'd gladly have endured a more long-term series of novels stretched out over several months or years that lived up to the promise that was set before us than this collection of disjointed novels.