Destiny and Enterprise (Spoilers!)

Is there ever a reference in the Enterprise books to the disappearance of the Columbia?

 

Choice Of Future's does mention Columbia's disappearance, but from the 2180's point of view, the ship is lost with all hands, most likely as a result of some un-transmitted battle.

 

Thanks. Is that just like a fleet report, or does Jonathan Archer (or another character) actually think about it, worry about Hernandez, etc.?

 

Archer thinks about, since he is an Admiral in the book, so he's seen the reports. But it's really a passing reference.

 

In fact, in RotF, the upgraded NX-class is renamed Columbia-class in memory of the NX-02.

 

Columbia disappears at the start of the Earth-Romulan War in 2155. By the time the second book in the Romulan War duology ends, Columbia has been missing and presumed destroyed by the Imperial Fleet for over five years. By the start of the first Rise of the Federation book, it's been over seven. So it's not a focus of those books -- it's been too long by that point.

 

There's a bit about Archer worrying about the fact that Columbia was overdue and presumed lost in the Romulan War duology. The first time is actually revealed to be a false worry (possibly in reference to the First 150 years account of Columbia's loss?) but the second time (and I think that reference was in To Brave the Storm) is probably a reference to the loss of the ship until the events of Destiny.

 

^The Romulan War came out before The First 150 Years. What happened was that Destiny and Kobayashi Maru both tried to portray Columbia's loss at the start of the war, but there was a miscommunication, so Destiny had it happen in 2156 while KM had the war begin and Columbia disappear a year earlier and in different circumstances. So Beneath the Raptor's Wing retconned it as a false alarm and had Columbia reappear and then disappear again on schedule in order to reconcile the inconsistency with Destiny (although there's no way to deal with Destiny's reference to the '56 attack being the first salvo of the war except to gloss over it).

 

Or it could be treated sort of like the start of WWII. For the US the first salvo of the war didn't come til 1941 when Pearl Harbor was attacked, and most people consider that as the "true" start of World War II (since before that, technically, only the countries on the Eurasia continent were at war, while no official act of war had been declared against the US). But for the rest of the first salvo of WWII occurred in 1938/9.

 

The US Navy was running escorts in the Atlantic against the U-boats in the Summer of 1941 too. By Fall 1941 it was on except for the paperwork from the POV of the naval commanders.

 

And the war in Asia was underway as early as 1931, when the Japanese invaded Manchuria. And Ethiopians would say it began in 1935 when Mussolini invaded them.

What you say is basically true, but unfortunately the Romulan War novels don't make an effort to present the situation that way. There does seem to be a consensus among the book's characters that the war is underway by 2155.

 

^That's right.

 

Don't forget that image even made it onto an early solicitation cover for Book 1.