^ Exactly. We had to start from a dark place in order to give the characters room in which to grow, change, and better themselves. Some of them had to hit rock bottom in book three so that they could begin again. Books four and five are about their journeys toward redemption, and the final volumes are about Starfleet and the Federation coming to terms with the consequences of their actions throughout the series, setting the stage for their collective/institutional evolution into the nobler incarnations we saw in TNG and beyond.