Okay - so at the end of the first book, the Titan and the Romulan Warbird Valdore (commanded by Commander Donatra) were investigaing "The Great Bloom" - an unstable rift in space near Romulus - which was being used by Donatra to hide her "secret fleet" - that is, it as being used, until the fleet's recent disappearance.

The rift transported Titan, the Valdore and a cloaked Klingon vessel over two hundred thousand light years into the Small Magellanic Cloud, a fate they presume also befell the missing Romulan ships. This is a space inhabited by the Neyel, genetically altered humans encountered by the Excelsior eighty years earlier.

The problem is that this rift is growing inside this satellite galaxy and it is rewriting the substance of local space - and that this space is occupied by many inhabited planets means that Riker and crew need to find a way of saving the inhabitants of the Cloud.

The problem is that even with the capabilities of the Titan and the Romulan warbirds there is simply no way they can save all the population of the planet the rift is threatening.

This is a dark little tale for a Star Trek book, and one where, you feel, the "nick of time" is not going to apply. This makes it feel all the more realistic, there will be no technobabble coated get-out-of-jail-free cards dealt in this book, and so Riker will be forced to do the best he can.

And once again, as with the first book the authors have brought back a race familiar to Trek readers - the Neyel, and unfortunately if things do not go well, they have brought them back for just a final swan song before their world is destroyed.

This is a different kind of tale to the first book. There are no battles involved, no politics nor intrigue - this is a rescue mission, an attempt to prevent the destruction of an entire culture. Refreshing change that - makes it a completely separate instalment in the series when compared to the previous book. That's a good thing, it keeps this fresh.

This crew is coming together, they are learning how to interact with each other, how to allow for each others differences and needs - both physically, culturally and personally. There is an openness, a desire for tolerance for all and complete acceptance.

This is most definitely true to the goal Roddenberry had for Star Trek, and so this book continues what seems to be a series of novels well worth following.

I just feel sorry now for Christopher L. Bennett, the author of the third book in this series has a lot to live up to. Let's hope he's up to it.

Synopsis
Following their harrowing mission in the first Titan novel, Taking Wing, in which they were thrust into the heart of the war-torn Romulan Empire, Captain Riker and the crew of the starship Titan join forces with a task force of former foes. Together they investigate an eighty-year-old mystery involving a strange offshoot of humanity known as the Neyel, introduced in the authors' best-selling Lost Era novel, The Sundred. Catapulted to a distant neighbouring galaxy, the task force of Klingons and Romulans is devastated by forces that have apparently already brought about the destruction of the Neyel civilization. Titan's intrepid crew must learn what really became of the Neyel before the force that felled them sets its sights on the Federation.