Star Trek: Tne Next Generation- The Battle of Betazed by Charlotte Douglas and Susan Kearney

During the Dominion War, Betazed, a planet of pacifists, was taken over by the Dominion, and the Cardassians. Easily subjugating the planet, they built a space station over it, Sentok Nor, and began rounding up Telepaths from the planet. At first, it was just for the construction of Sentok Nor, but with the Space Station complete, the Cardassians are still taking large numbers of people away from the planet and to the space Station.

The Council of Betazed doesn't know why the Cardassians are kidnapping their people, or why, despite a Jem'Hadar hatching station on Sentok'Nor, none of those Jem'Hadar ever seem to show up on Betazed. But they are being pushed to the breaking point by the Dominion and the Cardassians, and they have come up with a unique plan of fighting back against the Dominion.

At first, the Federation had hoped to free Betazed with a battle, but their task force was wiped out, along with the Starbase the fleet was being gathered around. Now, their only hope is a covert mission, under the command of Commander William Vaughn, part of Starfleet special operations. There will actually be two missions: one to destroy Sentok Nor, with Riker and Miles O'Brien, who will use his knowledge of Terok Nor/Deep Space Nine to destroy the station, and a second mission to one of the planets in the Betazed system, to retrieve a prisoner named Hent Teven.

Deanna is against using Teven at all. He's not some hero or great general, but a serial killer who discovered a way to use his mental powers to kill. He killed his parents and anyone else he wished to in a cold and brutal fashion. But he's not known on most of Betazed because news of his crimes were suppressed by the Council. Deanna only knows about him because she worked with him when she was assigned to the prison back when she first began working as a Counselor. He scared her, and she cannot believe that her people are willing to turn murderers simply to drive off the Cardassians and the Dominion.

But that is what the Council has asked Vaughn to do, and Deanna reluctantly acquieses, hoping to find some other way to save her people. But when the mission is underway, Riker and the others discover that the reason the Cardassians have been abducting telepaths from Betazed is to perform experiments on them involving some kind of brain surgery, And all the Jem'Hadar soldiers are dead, also after recieving brain surgery. They manage to rescue the remaining Betazed telepaths and the Glinn who was experimenting on them.

Meanwhile, Deanna, Data, Beverly and Vaughn go after Teven, who hasn't changed much since Deanna last knew him. When they are chased by Jem'Hadar soldiers, they must use Teven's ability to kill the Jem'Hadar on their tail. But taking off the inhibitor that kept Heven's power in check is slowly killing him, and before he dies, Deanna hopes he won't be able to pass on his knowledge of how to kill, but he does, pressing his knowledge into her, and she is sickened by it. But can she save her people without letting them all become murderers like Teven? Or will there truly be no other way to save Betazed? Can Deanna live with the knowledge that her mother and everyone she knew will become cold-blooded murderers?

Another very interesting Star Trek book, this one seemed like a melding of World War 2 and the Nazis (with the whole experiments on the Betazed Telepaths), including a scene with bodies stacked like cordwood in one of the docking bays of the station, with Betazeds and Jem'Hadar both, and a Hannibal Lecter-like figure in Hent Teven. But it also deals with that eternal question: "How canyou be proud of yourself if you give up everything you ever believed in to save your own life?"

The idea of the Betazed people, who have been pacifists because they can feel the pain of others, suddenly deciding that they must learn and pass on the knowledge of how to kill using their telepathic powers is very frightening. It almost comes across like Genocide, only they will be killing their own civilization and instituting a new one in its place. Admittedly, the Dominion and the Jem'Hadar are pretty scary all on their own, and the Betazoids know that they will soon die anyway, principles or no, but you definitely hope that something, some solution will be found that will allow them to keep their pacifist principles and yet defeat the Dominion and the Cardassians at the same time.

And yes, it does happen, but Deanna still has the knowledge in her brain to forever bedevil her. Although it's not mentioned in the novel, I am sure it will give her many bad nights of nightmares. This was another book that just blew my socks off (and I'm almost tired of retrieving them from the ceiling fan!), but it provided me with plenty to chew on afterwards. This is another book not to be missed, and definitely worth the read.