The Buried Age
The Buried Age is a Pocket TNG novel – which also forms part of The Lost Era series – written by Christopher L. Bennett. Published by Pocket Books, it was first released in .

Summary 
From the book jacket

Jean-Luc Picard. His name has gone down in legend as the captain of the  and two starships Enterprise. But the nine years of his life leading up to the inaugural mission of the ™ to Farpoint Station have remained a mystery – until now, as Picard's lost era is finally unearthedFollowing the loss of the Stargazer and the brutal court martial that resulted, Picard no longer sees a future for himself in Starfleet. Turning to his other love, archeology, he embarks on a quest to rediscover a buried age of ancient galactic history… and awakens a living survivor of that era: a striking, mysterious woman frozen in time since before the rise of Earth's dinosaurs. But this powerful immortal has a secret of cataclysmic proportions, and her plans will take Picard – aided along the way by a brilliant but naive android, an insightful Betazoid, and an enigmatic El-Aurian – to the heights of passion, the depths of betrayal, and the farthest reaches of explored space. Memorable quotes 
"We do not do what we do to be safe. We do it for the reasons spelled out by Zefram Cochrane centuries ago: to seek out new life, and to boldly go where none has gone before. To seek out new life, gentlebeings. Not to face it timidly with our defenses up, but to approach it with an attitude of openness, a willingness to trust. That means coming into their star systems with our defenses down, rather than appearing to them as a threat. That means staying our hand and trying to talk even when attacked. And it means seeing unknown others as potential allies who may simply be eager to learn, rather than mortal enemies who must be deprived of our technological secrets at all costs."It is true that this attitude contains risks. But that is the meaning of 'to boldly go.' We choose to take on those risks, because they are usually justified by the rewards. Offering trust always carries the risk of betrayal," T'Lara said, meeting Picard's eyes briefly, "but is the only way to earn trust." - T'Lara, in her closing argument during the court martial of Jean-Luc Picard regarding the loss of the USS Stargazer''

Background information 
  is thanked in the  as an "invaluable resource."
 The beginning of the novel describes the Battle of Maxia, as well as retconning the supposedly threatening nature of the Ferengi in early  as a product of disinformation – viewing the Federation's moneyless economic structure as a sign of insanity, Zek ordered a military buildup and sanctioned the spread of malicious rumors so that when they did make contact, it would be from a position of strength. 
 An extract from this novel appeared in .

Cover gallery

Characters 
Jean-Luc Picard
Data
Guinan
Deanna Troi
Kathryn Janeway
Q
Phillipa Louvois
T'Lara

External links 
 
 

cs:The Buried Age
Buried Age