Review/Summary by Thomas Sharp
The new DS9 Relaunch book was released just the other day, as a part of the Gateways series. Demons of Air and Darkness was written by Keith R.A. DeCandido, whose previous contribution to the DS9 Relaunch were the post-finale ST: TNG Diplomatic Implausibility and the eBook ‘Cold Fusion’, set between Avatar and Section 31 – Abyss. The name for the book comes from one of the legendary names of the Iconian race that left the Gateways behind 200,000 years ago.
The story starts out with the next step of Gamma Quadrant exploration – Commander Vaughn and the Defiant crew have just successfully brought a communications array online that can transmit through the wormhole. While Shar had his doubts, Nog was confident in their success. And just about everyone knows about the connection between Vaughn and Ensign Prynn Tenmei. After the communications array was brought online, the Defiant was called back to the station, for a briefing from Admiral Ross about a new emergency.
In the Delta Quadrant, a Malon freighter has found a Gateway. And they have been found by a Hirogen hunter. A battle ensues, and the Hirogen ship is destroyed by the antimatter waste released by the freighter aimed at the Gateway. The Malon captain didn’t perform scans of the other side, instead, she was just happy to find a dumping ground for her toxic, theta-irradiated cargo.
Using one of Quark’s holosuites while he was away, Colonel Kira and Commander Vaughn were able to ‘attend’ a holo-conference held by Admiral Bill Ross. In attendance at the conference – Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Captain Mackenzie Calhoun, Captain Elizabeth Shelby, Captain Solok and Captain Montgomery Scott. Ross tells them that the Iconians have returned, an ancient race that has achieved the status as a legend. The Iconians have reopened all of their Gateways across the universe as a demonstration of their control of the technology, and the Gateways are going to the highest bidder. Starfleet and the Federation are suspicious, and the captains get their orders. The crew of Deep Space Nine is to assist the colony Europa Nova, which is suffering from theta radiation poisoning, and to find out why there aren’t any Gateways within ten light years of Bajor. Kira suggests that the Prophets are protecting her people, but Ross wants a more definite reason.
Meanwhile, Quark has taken a Dabo girl along with him to an Orion pirate’s Vulcan-built ship. Quark’s job is to negotiate a deal between the Orion Syndicate and the Iconians for the Gateway technology. However, the Iconians have brought a Ferengi of their own – Gaila, the former weapons merchant and Quark’s cousin.
As Colonel Kira leads a fleet of Starfleet, Bajoran and civilian ships to Europa Nova from the Runabout Euphrates (with Taran’atar the Jem’Hadar aboard with her), Nog and Shar are sent to find out what was causing the lack of Gateway activity near Bajoran space and Lieutenant Ezri Dax, the station’s second officer, is left in command of Deep Space Nine. The cause of the theta radiation is quickly found – it’s from antimatter waste coming out of a Gateway near Europa Nova. After the evacuation is started successfully, Kira takes her runabout through the Gateway, to find the cause of the antimatter waste being dumped. In the Delta Quadrant, they find the Malon freighter, and their ship is easily disabled, and Kira and Taran’atar are taken prisoner by the Alpha Hirogen whose ship had been destroyed by the Malon crew.
Nog and Shar find out why there aren’t any Gateways within ten light years, and it isn’t the wormhole. The two quickly begin to devise a plan to shut down the Gateways, to give the Federation a bargaining chip.
On the station, Ezri Dax is still on the road to improve herself, and taking the command track is just one way. However, using particular memories of past hosts like she has been doing is starting to have an effect, from her voice changing while talking to others to yelling at Europa Nova refugees.
On Europa Nova, one of the refugees picked up by the Defiant is Councilor zh’Thane, Ensign ch’Thane’s ‘mother’ and a friend of Vaughn’s.
There are quite a few different things going on in this book – especially related to the Europa Nova evacuation. Several new characters are introduced into the Relaunch Universe, and some old characters return. While ST: TNG Doors Into Chaos was full of ‘cameo’ appearances to help set up the other books in the series, Demons of Air and Darkness focuses on the Deep Space Nine crew, except for the holo-conference held in three of the books – Doors Into Chaos, Demons of Air and Darkness and ST: New Frontier Cold Wars. Demons is a very good book, and Mister DeCandido paced it very well, mixing the action of the story with character revelations. It was easier for me to believe than the coincidences that brought the crew of the IKS Gorkon together in Diplomatic Implausibility, but really, what are the odds that Shar’s mom was on the planet at the same time it was on the verge of destruction? Like the other Gateways books, this one ends in a cliffhanger that has Colonel Kira entering a Gateway that has only two destinations to choose from. We won’t know which she chose until Star Trek: What Lay Beyond the hardcover is released in November. And it answers a serious fanboy question – if a Hirogen and a Jem’Hadar got into a fight, who would win? Why, the one whose name is in the opening credits, of course.
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