Spoilers ENT: Rise of the Federation: Patterns of Interference by C.L. Bennett Review Thread

Spoiler: Spoilers for Section 31: Control

Control established that part of how Section 31 managed to keep underground up to the 24th century without there ever being a hint as to its existence publicly was that what Harris described is exactly what the mysterious higher-ups he mentioned (read Control if you want to know more about them, I don't want to spoil the whole thing) end up doing; the organization purges itself and goes dead for generations at a time, re-emerging every so often and rebuilding from scratch with a false long-term history presented to newly-enlisted agents.

There's not really a single "Section 31" organization over the centuries, it just gets reborn every so often. The Harris-involved incarnation of Section 31 is legitimately dead.

Also it's not like Reed's going to be writing dictation or fetching Archer coffee, he's assistant to the chief of staff; he's going to be involved in directing fleet operations and advising the person in charge of the entirety of UESPA

Kirk was just terrified of sending people into danger instead of doing the danger himself because he had responsibility issues

Promoting good tactical minds to operational positions is a good thing for both the officer and the fleet

 

From their point of view, they did consider the consequences. The captain wanted to cultivate the dryads responsibly and sustainably, which would've been perfectly fine if they were just trees. The question was about whether they were sentient, which would change everything.

They'd already discovered the valuable compounds they could extract from the dryads. It was just a question of getting them out. Maybe I should've said "investors" rather than buyers, but people do buy things in advance.

But that was the whole point -- that he was doing things the wrong way all along, because he was thinking like a Section 31 agent. I didn't just want to tell another spy story, I wanted to critique the whole idea of espionage and dirty tricks as a valid approach.

No. Think it through. Bashir had never heard of Section 31 when it was introduced on DS9. The only way it could still be a secret in the 24th century is if the people who knew about it in the 22nd thought it was dead and gone.

As T'Pol and others discussed in the book, the idea of a huge, ongoing conspiracy staying secret for centuries is absurd. The longer a conspiracy operates, the more inevitable its exposure -- especially if it's known about by as many characters as were aware of it in ENT. The only way to make sense of Section 31's longevity, as both David Mack and I realized independently, is if it isn't always active -- if it goes through long periods of dormancy and only ramps up activity when it needs to.

Spoiler: Section 31: Control

Expanding on what Idran said, we know from Control Ch. 40 that the AI of that name "scuttled" Section 31 in the 22nd century -- a reference to the events of Patterns of Interference -- and did not see a need to revive it until decades later, sometime in the 2200s, as a response to the renewed threat of Romulan and Klingon hostilities -- suggesting it wasn't until midcentury, several generations after ROTF. So Section 31 is definitively dead and gone as far as the 22nd century is concerned, and good riddance. I inherited Trip's Section 31 status from the previous novels, but it was never something I was happy having to deal with, and I always intended to bring it to a decisive end as soon as feasible.

Going into this, I realized I had too many bridges already, especially with Paris getting a captaincy.

Spoiler: Patterns of Interference

Once I realized I'd be writing out Captain Williams -- a character I'd never really managed to develop because I just had too many characters -- it occurred to me that bringing Reed into Archer's inner circle and giving Pioneer to Paris would help me consolidate the casts and streamline the storytelling a bit, which hopefully should serve all the characters better.

 

@Idran, about your spoiler...

Surely you're not implying that the whole thing is going to start all over again, sometime in the future?

Spoiler: Spoilers for Section 31: Control

And by that I mean, further in the future than when Control takes place. I had assumed that Control was the FINAL end of Section 31 for all time. Was I mistaken?

 

Spoiler

Control was the one who was closing and opening those incarnations of Section 31. They're probably dead for good now since the AI went off on its own and all the files were released. It is possible another organization with similar goals could pop up again, but it wouldn't be S31.

 

Spoiler: Control

I get the impression that Control intended to use different, subtler methods to manipulate events from now on, rather than just going back to the same secret-conspiracy well yet again. It had concluded that Section 31's methods "no longer served the peace" and had in fact become a threat to the peace, so it would no longer use those methods, regardless of what name the organization used. Whatever it does in the future will be something entirely different and probably more invisible.

I have no idea where Dave plans for this to go, but what I'm hoping is that Control evolves to think like the "God" entity in Futurama's "Godfellas" -- "When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all." Just the lightest possible touch that doesn't infringe on free will, rather than the cruder, more violent methods that its predecessor used.

 

Thank you for the background and reasoning, It makes more sense. I was so excited about the book that I bought it last night and read it in one sitting, since my special needs kid had insomnia and we were literally up all night long . It will probably make more sense on a second read.

I'm sorry that Captain Williams won't be around as I did like his character.

Idran, thanks for the clarification. I Missed that part of Reed's job description. It makes more sense. I actually can also see him as a tactical instructor in the Academy.

Is Caroline Paris supposed to be the same family line as Tom Paris?

 

Yes. She was "created" by Jeri Taylor in Voyager: Mosaic, named as one of several Paris ancestors who had served in Starfleet over the generations. Two others on Taylor's list, James and Argonne, also get name drops in PoI. (The others were Bailey and Mackenzie.)

When I was first developing this series, I tried to find every reference I could to characters who were or might have been around in the 2160s, and it made sense that if the Parises had been in Starfleet from the beginning, somebody on Taylor's list of ancestors would've been around at that time. And I liked the name Caroline best out of the ones mentioned.

 

That seems unlikely, since Reed would've been 133 when Kirk entered the Academy. Sure, DS9 implied that 24th-century humans could expect to live to as much as 140, but life expectancy in the TOS era seemed lower (based on the age-equivalent estimates in "The Deadly Years" and on assumptions in TAS and the movies about what constituted retirement age), so there's no reason to think the life expectancy of people in the ENT era would be anywhere near that.

 

My copy has appeared.
I have informed them about the high level activities of Trip and Malcolm in past years.

 

I can't remember which novel it was, but wasn't there mention of a very old Trip running across a young James T. Kirk in a park? (I believe it was a memorial for the Xindi victims) Of course, Kirk was a kid then.

Speaking of Kirk, I get a kick out of the Val/Sam romance. I really like Sam. And I found it funny when Marcus makes a comment about his concern about his grandchildren! TOS Kirk would be his great great (great?) grandson?

I enjoy the family references.

 

Tucker would've been 117 at the time, which is more within the realm of possibility. And yes, there can be occasional extremes, but Trek fans/writers seem unwilling to acknowledge the mortality of any of the series leads. Look at TOS. Spock living into the 24th century makes sense given Vulcan longevity, Kirk and Scotty got there through unconventional means, but canon established McCoy living to 137 at least, and various novels have established both Uhura and Chekov as still being around and really, really old in the TNG era, and one novel strongly implied that Sulu was too. Statistically speaking, it doesn't make much sense for everyone who served on the same starship's command crew to have exceptionally long lives -- and it's exponentially more improbable if it's true of two different Enterprise crews.

That's nice to hear, since I was kinda basing him on myself here.

Only two greats. Marcus Williams > Valeria Williams > Tiberius Kirk > George Kirk > James Kirk.

 

Last Full Measure, maybe?

 

^ Yep, that's the one.

 

one third of the way through, really enjoying it.

 

I doubt I'll stumble upon this novel in person for quite some time but from what I can tell:

Spoiler

Trip might finally be returning

In all honesty, I've never taken the final episode of Enterprise too seriously.

I've always believed that the 21st Century holoprogram is basically a roleplaying format in which any character except Archer can be killed and Riker was the one running through the scenario that led to Trip dying. Others could have T'Pol, Reed, Hoshi, Travis, Phlox, even some minor crew member who would've been in the background all series and promoted to supporting during the Romulan War could take their place depending on what you do in it.

 

That happened eight or nine books ago, unless you're using "returning" in a different sense than I think.

 

As in returning to his actual identity and being alive.

 

I'm constrained by what TATV, Last Full Measure, and To Brave the Storm have already established about that.