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Star Trek/Novels/Awesome: Difference between revisions
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** In ''Spock's World'', the Vulcans are considering seceding from the Federation. During the debates, [[The McCoy|McCoy]] is asked to give a statement against secession. It ends up being a nine-page epic smackdown, culminating in him calling all of Vulcan a pack of cowards and threatening to bite an audience member in the leg. On the Vulcan equivalent of national television.
** In ''Doctor's Orders'', [[The McCoy|McCoy]], left in command after Kirk disappears, faces down a Klingon captain with this memorable line:
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*** Every interaction between [[The McCoy|McCoy]] and Kaiev is a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]].
** In ''The Romulan Way'', [[The McCoy|McCoy]] is put on show-trial in front of the Romulan Senate. By tradition, he has the right to speak his mind, before his sentence. [[The McCoy|McCoy]] steps to the lectern and proceeds to introduce the Romulans to the art of the Southern Filibuster. He gets through several hours nonstop before help arrives.
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** And in ''My Enemy, My Ally'', [[The McCoy|McCoy]] manages to beat [[The Spock|Spock]] in chess. From a position where Kirk was about to resign.
** And then there's this gem of a passage from ''The Wounded Sky'':
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*** And, later on, this, which doesn't even come close to doing the moment justice:
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** Her ''TNG'' novels are pretty awesome, too. In ''Dark Mirror'', Deanna Troi has an ''awesome'' [[You Shall Not Pass]] mental battle againt her [[Mirror Universe|evil counterpart]], who's been built up throughout the novel as a monstrously powerful, [[Mind Rape|mind-raping]] psycho bitch. ''But'' where mirror!Troi has brute strength, our Troi has finesse, and she uses what can only be described as telepathic judo to reflect mirror!Troi's mental assault [[Hoist by His Own Petard|right back at her]]. Then, while mirror!Troi is frozen with shock, Deanna calmly strolls up to her and '''pistol-whips the shit out of her with a phaser.''' Fuck Yeah.
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* The Trek novel "How Much For Just the Planet?" is generally made of awesome, but things come to an utterly insane climax with an epic Starfleet vs. Klingon... [[Pie in the Face|pie fight]]. I couldn't possibly make that up.
* Although it was mentioned on screen, the story of how James T. Kirk beat the [[Unwinnable Training Simulation|Kobayashi Maru Scenario]] wasn't revealed in its pure over-the-top awesomeness until one version appeared in the novel ''Kobayashi Maru'': Kirk programmed the computer so that the ambushing enemy, upon hearing that he was James T. Kirk, promptly apologized for the misunderstanding, assisted in the rescue of the ship, and offered to host a diplomatic dinner in his honor.
** Which is shortly eclipsed by Scotty's solution...He ''breaks the rules of physics'', taking out an entire squad of Klingon ships with one torpedo. (A fan who hasn't read the book wants to know: did somebody say, "You can't ''do'' that!")
*** To give more detail: when Scotty's simulated starship got hit the Klingons did far too much damage, so Scotty gets peeved and decides that if the computer is going to cheat so is he. So although, as he has to admit to the Academy instructors, he knows the tactic doesn't work in practice, he tries it because he knew the maths said it should work and hoped it would work in the Kobyashu Maru simulation like it had in other computer simulations. What was awesome was when they looked up who it had been who had found it didn't work in practice...was Scotty, when he was 17, which had required him to build several shield generators and link them together. Also a touch of a [[Xanatos Gambit]] going on as the Engineering Instructor had set things up to provoke Scotty into cheating in that manner. That let him expose just how good an engineer Scotty was ("Oh! Imagine My Sur-prise! It was You who Did It!") and that he had remained on the Command Track despite being unhappy because he didn't want to disappoint his family by transferring. Result, because Scotty cheated he is "dropped" from the Command Track and transferred to Engineering like he wants.
* In ''Enterprise: The First Adventure'' by Vonda N.
▲{{quote| "Your move," Spock said, "risked your queen and your knights. It was... illogical."<br />
"Indeed," Spock said softly. "What mode of calculation do you use? Sinhawk, perhaps?" Or a method of your own devising?"
▲"But effective," Jim said.<br />
"One of my own devising, you might say. I didn't calculate it, Spock. I _saw_ it. Call it intuition, if you like. Or good luck."
▲"Indeed," Spock said softly. "What mode of calculation do you use? Sinhawk, perhaps?" Or a method of your own devising?"<br />
▲"One of my own devising, you might say. I didn't calculate it, Spock. I _saw_ it. Call it intuition, if you like. Or good luck."<br />
▲"I do not believe in luck," Spock said. "And I have no experience of... intuition."<br />
▲"Nevertheless, that's my method of calculation."<br />
▲Spock cleared the board.<br />
▲"Would you care," Spock asked, "for a complete game?"<br />
He had traded half the night's sleep for the hard-played chess game with Commander Spock. He had won with a flamboyant, one might even say reckless, series of moves. Mr. Spock had been winning until Jim's final, exhilarating rally.
▲[The next morning, a somewhat sleepy Kirk enters the Bridge:]<br />
▲He had traded half the night's sleep for the hard-played chess game with Commander Spock. He had won with a flamboyant, one might even say reckless, series of moves. Mr. Spock had been winning until Jim's final, exhilarating rally.<br />
"Good morning,
▲"Good morning, captain."<br />
▲"I enjoyed our game last night."<br />
"It was..." Spock hesitated. "Most instructive." }}
* Peter David is good at these -- witness his novel ''Q-in-Law'', in which Q {{spoiler|gets his ass kicked all over the ''Enterprise'' and back again. By '''Lwaxana Troi.''' This is after he spends the whole novel seducing her and then dumping her in front of the entire senior staff so brutally it almost qualifies as [[Moral Event Horizon]].}} After this, this troper was desperately hoping something terrible would happen to Q. He was not disappointed.
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*** Guinan had one when she dumped the drinks on Trelane. Also when he sent Geordi into Troi's shower.
** The Borg get a CMOA in ''Before Dishonor.'' {{spoiler|They. Ate. Pluto.}} Considering the novel is one of the ''weakest'' novels David has offered, the fact that he made the Borg that [[Badass]] is pretty nice.
** ''Imzadi'' should not be overlooked. The young Deanna's refusal to play the Sinardeen raider's game, pretty much challenging him to shoot her, is pretty badass. There's also the scene where Older Riker bluffs, bullshits, and bullies his way through the Enterprise to save Deanna.
* ''Star Trek Destiny''. More specifically the latter half of the third book, "Lost Souls". {{spoiler|The Borg cease to exist, and every single drone is freed from the Collective, ''all at once''. The Collective entity is faded into nonexistance, and the liberated ex-Borg leave to [[Walk the Earth|travel the universe]] [[We Help the Helpless|to fight on behalf of those who cannot]].}} This Troper can't quite settle on who to assign the awesome to. {{spoiler|Though [[Star Trek: Enterprise|Captain Hernandez]] seems the most deserving of it.}}
** The entire plot of the Destiny trilogy is something of a polarizing agent on the Trek fandom at large.
* In Diane Carey's ''Ship of the Line'' TNG novel, Picard gets one that builds on his "
* In the ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Deep Space Nine]]'' novel ''Fallen Heroes'', {{spoiler|Sisko's [[Heroic Sacrifice]] and the code wherewith he warns anyone still alive while making sure the Bekkir are none the wiser.}}
* Surprisingly, '''B-4''' gets one in the Star Trek Online tie-in novel ''The Needs of the Many.'' Geordi has managed to access Data's memories inside B-4's head. Data, realizing that he is functionally dead, chooses to basically commit suicide rather than destroy his brother's consciousness. Geordi gives Data information on a threat to the Federation, believing Data to be capable of helping them, but Data is unmoved, wanting to give his brother the opportunity at life. Then, at the last moment, B-4 takes over the 'suicide command,' having read the same information sent to Data and believing that Data is more important to the than him. His last words are in the form of a message to Data are 'I love you brother. Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.'
* The first novel in the ''[[Star Trek: Vanguard]]'' series has an ''insane'' six-on-one battle between the overworked, underrepaired ''USS Bombay'' and a fleet of Tholian battlecruisers. {{spoiler|[[Dying Moment of Awesome|They get destroyed eventually, but]]}} Captain Gannon and her crew {{spoiler|go out}} like total badasses, taking out at least ''five'' Tholian ships with [[Crazy Awesome]] tactics like slamming Tholians into each other with the tractor beam, a nice does of [[Ramming Always Works]], and [[Taking You with Me|creative use]] of the {{spoiler|[[Self-Destruct Mechanism]]}}. Even Kirk is impressed.
* A troper above noted the final defeat of the Borg in ''[[Star Trek: Destiny]]'' as a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]]. This troper thought it was....unimpressive, at best. Some truly Crowning Moments...however,
** In the first book ''Gods of Night'', the crew of the USS ''Ranger'' basically turn their entire ship into a transphasic torpedo and incinerate the Borg ship heading for the Klingon planet Khitomer. The Klingons are so impressed that they are spurred into joining the war effort against the invasion.
** The [[Badass Crew|Starfleet Corps of Engineers]] manage to thwart a Borg attack '''by causing an entire planet to disappear'''. For some inexplicable reason, we never learn how, we simply hear it mentioned. [[Epic Fail]] if there ever was one.
*** Consider it more of a [[Noodle Incident]] - it's more fun to speculate how in Captain Gomez and her crew pulled it off than see the trick.
** In the lead up to the big face-off between Hernandez and the Borg Queen, the crew of the ''Aventine'' have to actually capture a Borg ship. Using tactics from their enemies they literally ''jump'' a Borg scout sphere, board it, and use old-school firearms to blast every Borg drone into the next space-time continuum. THAT'S Bad. Ass.
** Captain Bateson (the time-lost Starfleet Captain from "Cause and Effect") gets to throw down with a Borg cube and save Vulcan from annihilation.
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