Crossroad
Kirk must stop a power-hungry alliance from destroying the Federation.

Crossroad is a Pocket TOS novel – #71 in the numbered series – written by Barbara Hambly. Published by Pocket Books, it was first released in .

Summary 
From the book jacket
The crew of the Nautilus, a battered starship of mysterious origin, is beamed aboard the starship . The group claims they are freedom fighters from the far future working to save the Federation from the Consilium, a group of corrupt power-seekers.

When the Nautilus crew members then seize control of the USS Enterprise, and a starship from the future arrives to arrest the renegades, Kirk must separate his true allies from those who wish to destroy the Federation.

Memorable quotes 
"They have forgotten now– Kirk and his crew, who answer to no master but their duties as they see them, and the dictates of their judgments and their hearts. And this is as it should be. But I have not forgotten. Nor will I, so long as I live…"
 - Varos

"But friends do not forget their friends.
McKennon had let him die.
The Consilium had let him die."
 - Varos, contemplating his friend's demise

"You are my past, but I am not necessarily your future. There are a thousand possible futures, and one degree of difference in a trajectory can change a starship's path by thousands of parsecs, to destroy, or to save, a world. All we can do is try.

A thousand possible futures. Whether one was thirty-four going into a five-year mission, or thirty-nine coming out of one, wondering what the future would bring. Whatever the future actually was."
 - Unknown writer

Background information 
 This was the last Star Trek novel written by Hambly.

Characters 
 James T. Kirk
 Spock
 Leonard McCoy
 Montgomery Scott
 Uhura
 Hikaru Sulu
 Pavel A. Chekov
Lao Zhiming  21-year old Starfleet ensign
Mahásë
Communications lieutenant. 
Mahásë first appeared in Diane Duane's The Wounded Sky (Pocket TOS #13).

Tonia Barrows  Operations division lieutenant. Kirk noted, four years and nine-months into the five-year mission, that Barrows was one of the crew that had been there from the start.
Winfield  Engineering lieutenant
Dykstra  Bridge operations officer crewman.

DeSalle  Assistant engineer.
Kyle  transporter chief.
Rial Varos  Romulan starship captain. Commander of the Savasci.
Dylan Arios 
Sharnas 
Adajia

References 
Bowling alley  Recreation area aboard Enterprise.
  Type of Federation starship
Crossroad Nebula  Nebula. Following the disappearance of a Federation scout, the nebula was declared a "standing hazard".
  Federation starship.
gymnasium  Located on deck 8 of the Enterprise.
H.P. Lovecraft  Earth author who had described fantastic and detailed evil in his writings, which were similar to the real-life horror of the yagghorth. 
See also .
USS Harriet Tubman  Federation scout, crew of 12, disappeared near the Crossroad Nebula in 2265.
Nautilus  Alternate future  starship.
p'laaka  Vulcan language term for something prone to unpredictable events, like the Crossroad's sector.
Sagittarius  Free trader vessel lost near the Crossroad.
space buoy  Placed around Tau Lyra system.
Tau Lyra system  Star system.
Tau Lyra III  Planet.
Turtledove Anomaly Point  Type of spatial distortion reputed to exist in the Crossroad.
yagghorth

External links 
 

de:Kreuzwege
Novels