Gene DeWeese

Exploring a deserted alien spaceship, Lt. Commander Data and Lt. Geordi LaForge suddenly find themselves transported light-years away -- into the middle of a deadly conflict! While Captain Picard and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise™ search feverishly for the missing crewmen, Data and LaForge discover they are in a station almost identical to the one they were exploring, high in orbit around an earth-type world. Years before, the occupants of that planet accidentally stumbled onto the ship and its advanced technology -- and since then have used its weapons to keep the nations on the planet below disarmed, and at peace. Now their own arrival has precipitated a crisis on the station. Somehow, data and LaForge must find a way to restore trust between the planet below and the station's guardians up above -- before a final, destructive war breaks out!

Uncounted centuries ago, an unknown race from beyond our galaxy built a series of interstellar gates -- shortcuts through the cosmos -- and then disappeared, leaving no clues to their identity nor to the workings of their system. The "EnterpriseTM herself has used the gates twice before, without gaining any insight into the mystery. But now the secret of the gates must be solved, because they are disintegrating, cutting distant parts of the galaxy off from each other, and the "Enterprise's only hope lies in communicating with creatures from another universe altogether.