Star Trek Books
Spoiler Alert Warning!
Fortunes of War (TNG – David Mack)
The whole Husnock species had been obliterated 20 years previously by the energy being, Douwd, (after they killed his wife) but their worlds, ships, weapons, etc., remained untouched. Some Nausicanns, led by Slokar, had found a fleet of Husnock ships, but had been unable to interpret their language, so they attacked a Federation research facility where discoveries related to the language had been made. Four of the researchers (Dr. Kilaris, Dr. Gav glasch Pek, and the Bynars 010 and 101) are kidnapped and others killed. Members of the Orion Syndicate (led by Nilat) kill the Nausicanns and take the kidnapped researchers to obtain the command codes from a crashed Husnock ship. The Titan and two support ships (Wasp and Canterbury) go after the kidnappers, and they are able to recover the kidnapped researchers, and end up chasing the Orions. But there is a spy on the Orion ship who calls in a Breen dreadnought (the Kulak, along with the heavy cruiser Sulica and battleship Tarcza), before killing the Orion crew and absconding with the Husnock command codes. The Breen (led by Thot Tren) use those codes to activate a Husnock ship and then a fleet that they had found in space, and then go to a Husnock space-based weapons manufacturing facility (which they take from the Ferengi, Gaila, who had previously taken it from the Pakled, led by Cherbegrod, who had discovered it not long before). The Pakled assist the Breen with ‘backdoor’ codes to the facility, enabling the Breen to arm their fleet. In the ensuing battle, the Wasp and Canterbury are lost, and Titan only escapes by hiding in a gas giant. When they emerge, they find most of the Husnock/Breen ships are headed towards the Breen Confederacy, a couple are guarding the manufacturing station, but the Kulak is heading off in a different direction, which it is guessed must be the Husnock home world (in the Eysaline Sector). The Breen plan to destroy a facility there that has the capability of remotely destroying the Husnock fleet (it had been built by the Husnock to prevent the possibility of their own weapons being turned on themselves). Titan goes after the Kulak, and by being able to access one of the orbital defense stations, is able to drive off Thot Tren’s dreadnaught, thwart the Breen’s Spetzkar commandos who were trying to destroy the command station, and Titan’s first officer, Dalit Sarai, orders the facility used to remotely destroy all Husnock ships and weapons facilities (except for one ship they isolate for study by Starfleet). Admiral Mata Batanides (of Starfleet Intelligence) had had Sarai assigned as first officer to spy on Captain Vale and Admiral Riker, and had also told her to try to save the Husnock fleet for Starfleet, so she is angry; she doesn’t know that Sarai has told Riker and Vale what is going on. The Titan had received some help against the Breen from the Ferengi named Brunt (who is now working as a bounty hunter, and was tracking down the escaped Ferengi convict, Gaila). [Timeline: September 2386]
(Oh for the days when you could keep track of what alien race was doing what, and sometimes even remember all the people involved in a novel)
