The Valiant
The untold story of Picard's first command! The first Stargazer adventure!

The Valiant is a Pocket TNG novel – and, retroactively, the first novel in the Star Trek: Stargazer series – written by Michael Jan Friedman. Published by Pocket Books, it was first released in hardback in .

Summary 
From the book jacket
Three hundred years ago, the  was destroyed during an ill-fated attempt to cross the legendary galactic barrier. Starfleet had always assumed that the Valiant had perished with all hands aboard, until a pair of unusual humanoids arrive at Starbase 209, claiming to be the descendants of a handful of Valiant survivors who found refuge on an M-Class planet beyond the Barrier.

Even more shocking, the visitors warn that a hostile alien species, the Nuyyad, are preparing to invade the galaxy. Uncertain of how much of the strangers' story to believe, Starfleet orders the  to investigate at once.

Lieutenant Commander Jean-Luc Picard is second officer on the Stargazer. A young man who has yet to command a vessel of his own, he soon develops a special bond with one of the visitors, a strikingly beautiful woman who has inherited mysterious psychic abilities from her alleged Starfleet ancestors. But can Picard truly trust her?

Book One 
The Valiant opens aboard the SS Valiant under the command of Captain Carlos Tarasco in the year 2069. A mysterious force has thrown the Valiant far from home and now the crew faces the grueling prospect of crossing the Galactic Barrier if they ever want to see Earth again.

The Valiants primitive shields can do little to protect them from the Barrier though. Despite the fact that only the optical scanners can detect the Barrier, the effects it has on the crew are catastrophic.

Before Tarasco orders the ship to turn around, six crew are dead, one in critical condition, and the Valiants systems have been badly damaged. In fact, the Valiant may not be able to repair her warp drive. Left to drift, the crew begins making their repairs. Relieved in part that Assistant Engineer Agnarsson is alive, the crew continues on their way.

It is only later that Agnarsson begins to manifest strange psychic powers. The Valiants CMO realizes that the Barrier only affected those with extrasensory perception (ESP). Thanks to his advanced abilities, Agnarsson was able to survive and the Barrier somehow enhanced those abilities. They also caused strange personality aberrations however and Agnarsson soon begins to suspect the crew of plotting against him.

Faced with the possibility of being killed by the psychotic engineer, Captain Tarasco prepares to kill his crewman. Ordering the launch of a recorder (later retrieved by the  in ) Tarasco and his security officers then chase Agnarsson about the ship.

After Agnarsson kills several security personnel, Tarasco realizes the awful truth. He cannot stop Agnarsson on his own so he orders the evacuation of the Valiant and prepares to destroy his ship. The resulting explosion takes Agnarsson and Tarasco with it, leaving the survivors to drift on the opposite end of the Galactic Barrier with no chance of a rescue vessel.

Background information 
 Having established most of the Stargazer crew in the novel , The Valiant revisits some of those characters, and explains how Picard takes command of the vessel (as discussed in ). The success of this novel would lead to the creation of the Star Trek: Stargazer series, written by Friedman, to which the paperback reprint is retroactively inserted as the first novel in the series.
 The audiobook version was abridged by George Truett.
 An extract from this novel appeared in .
 The Science Fiction Book Club released a special edition of the hardback in .
 This novel was later collected, along with Reunion, in the Signature Edition omnibus, Pantheon.

Cover gallery

Characters

SS Valiant 
 Captain of the Valiant
 First officer of the Valiant; killed in the encounter with the barrier
 Valiant operations officer 
Hollandsworth Lieutenant, Valiant science officer
Mary Anne Sommers Lieutenant, Valiant helm officer
Womack Valiant chief tactical officer 
Jack Gorvoy Valiant chief medical officer 
Chantal Coquillette Medic; forms part of the initial Magnian colony
Rudolph Medic
Bill McMillan Valiant chief engineer
Geirod Agnarsson Engineer's assistant; develops telepathy and telekinesis after encounter with the barrier, leading Tarasco to destroy the ship in order to stop him.
Davidoff Engineer
Dan Pelletier Valiant security chief 
Siregar Security officer 
Marc Offenburger Security officer 
Peavey Security officer 
Marciulonis Security officer 
Santana Security officer 
Williamson Valiant supply officer
Daniels Astrophysicist
Zosky Stellar physicist, signed onto the Valiant mission at the last minute; killed in the encounter with the barrier.
O'Shaugnessy Crewman
Maciello Crewman 
Kolodny Crewman 
Rivers Crewman 
Yoshii Crewman

USS Stargazer 
 Captain of the Stargazer; killed in the Stargazers first encounter with the Nuyyad.
Stephen Leach Commander, first officer of the Stargazer
Jean-Luc Picard Lieutenant commander, second officer of the Stargazer; takes command after the Stargazers first encounter with the Nuyyad.
 Chief medical officer of the Stargazer
 Lieutenant, chief engineer of the Stargazer
Pernell Engineer
Zaffino Engineer
 Lieutenant, Stargazer helm officer
 Lieutenant, Stargazer navigator
Charlie Kochman Lieutenant, Stargazer secondary navigator
Martin Paxton Stargazer communications chief 
Angela Cariello Stargazer sciences chief 
 Lieutenant, Stargazer security chief
Ang Lieutenant, Stargazer security officer
 Lieutenant, Stargazer security officer
Garner Lieutenant, Stargazer security officer
Iulus Lieutenant, Stargazer security officer
Pierzynski Lieutenant, Stargazer security officer
Pteffer Stargazer security officer
Fox Stargazer security officer
Sekowsky Stargazer security officer
Hans Werber Chief weapons officer of the Stargazer
  lieutenant, Stargazer weapons officer
Chen Stargazer weapons officer
Ramirez Stargazer weapons officer
Vandermeer Lieutenant, Stargazer transporter operator 
Montenegro Ensign
Kotsakes Ensign
Barr
James
Harras

Starfleet Command 
Mehdi Admiral, appoints Picard as commanding officer of the Stargazer after the resolution of the Nuyyad crisis
Gardner-Vincent Admiral

Starbase 209 
Eliopoulos Captain, ranking officer on the base

Nalogen Four 
Najak Administrator of the colony
Jomar An engineer, recently arrived at the colony

Magnian colony 
Shield Williamson
Guard Daniels
Serenity Santana
Law Director of the colony medical center 
Armor Brentano Engineer
Hilton-Smith

Referenced only  
James T. Kirk
Gary Mitchell
Osborne Captain of the USS Merced; Leach's former commander
Goimard 21st century architect
Matthew Joseph "Pug"'s brother
Slattery Carter Greyhorse's roommate at Starfleet Academy
Turan Relanios Betazoid scientist

References 
Andromeda Galaxy; galactic barrier ()
Nalogen IV M class planet near the galactic barrier; location of a Kelvan colony, established after their abortive attempt to hijack the  ()
Nuyyad Hostile alien species, operating beyond the galactic barrier

External link 
 

cs:The Valiant

Novels
Audiobooks