New Frontier characters
Characters from Star Trek: New Frontier (Pocket Books, by Peter David)

Regular characters

Mackenzie Calhoun 

Captain  is the central character of the New Frontier series, the commanding officer of the starship .

He was born named M'k'n'zy, in the town of Calhoun on the planet Xenex. The Xenexians were slaves of the Danteri race, and young Calhoun saw his father brutally murdered by them in public. After negotiations chaired by intervening Federation mediator Jean-Luc Picard of the starship Stargazer failed, M'k'n'zy, still only in his teens, led his people in a fierce uprising, completely defeating the overlords from Danter. Picard likened him to Alexander the Great, conquering his whole world before the age of 20. After this victory, M'k'n'zy accepted a sponsorship to Starfleet Academy from Picard, adapting his name to the more pronounceable "Mackenzie" and taking the name of his home settlement, Calhoun, as his family name. He is currently commanding officer of the  starship USS Excalibur NCC-26517-A.

At the beginning of his Starfleet career, he developed a close personal relationship with fellow officer Elizabeth Shelby, who eventually became his first officer for several years aboard his first command, the  starship USS Excalibur NCC-26517. Calhoun's career is not flawless, however: he has a reputation as a hot-blooded maverick, and resigned from Starfleet in anger following a fiasco aboard the , where he was posted as first officer. The Grissoms captain died while engaging in a clear and severe violation of the Prime Directive on Calhoun's watch. Even though he was cleared of any wrongdoing, Calhoun was angered by Starfleet's treatment of the situation, as well as his own, and actually assaulted Admiral Edward Jellico, beginning a long-running antagonism between the two. He spent several years working for Starfleet Intelligence on an as-needed basis as an undercover operative under Admiral Alynna Nechayev before recommendations from Ambassador Spock and Captain Picard placed him back in active duty, in the center chair of the Ambassador-class USS Excalibur charged with the mission of patrolling the politically unstable area of space formerly controlled by the Thallonian Empire, which fell in 2373.

In 2375, during this assignment, Calhoun discovered his son, Xyon, fathered in 2354 on Xenex.

In 2376 the Excalibur was destroyed by a computer virus. Calhoun was believed dead, but survived on the planet Yakaba, where he adopted 11-year old Moke as his son. He escaped the planet and returned to Starfleet to take command of the new Galaxy-class USS Excalibur-A. He married Elizabeth Paula Shelby at that time.

Elizabeth Shelby 

 was part of an elite unit assigned to assess weaknesses in the Borg during the Federation's early confrontations with that species. She served briefly as first officer of the , under the command of Acting Captain William T. Riker, following the abduction of Captain Jean-Luc Picard by the Borg. After helping rescue Picard, Shelby graciously relinquished her post as Enterprise first officer to Riker, who, though he often found Shelby to be frustrating, commended her as a highly skilled officer.

Shelby was a tough-as-nails officer who made no secret of her ambitions. She served under the Excaliburs previous captain, who was killed fighting the Borg, and was the top candidate to be its next commanding officer, until the post was given to her ex-fiancé, Captain Mackenzie Calhoun. She was less than thrilled when she found out about his new assignment. Shelby was assigned as Calhoun's first officer in hopes that she could keep him in line, but she soon established a modus vivendi with Calhoun, and served as his first officer with great distinction.

After the destruction of the Ambassador-class USS Excalibur in 2376, Shelby was promoted to captain of the . She later transferred off the Exeter, citing personality differences with her senior staff. She was offered, and accepted, command of the new, Galaxy-class Excalibur, and reassembled the crew from the prior Excalibur.

At the christening and launch ceremony for the new starship, Mackenzie Calhoun dramatically interrupted the proceedings to let it be known that reports of his demise were greatly exaggerated, and to propose marriage to Shelby. She accepted, and was married to Captain Mackenzie Calhoun on the bridge of the newly-christened Starship Excalibur. Captain Jean-Luc Picard performed the ceremony.

Shelby was given command of the USS Trident, which was assigned to Sector 221-G with the new USS Excalibur, captained by her husband. She was later promoted to the rank of admiral and given command of Space Station Bravo.

Burgoyne 172 
, a Hermat, was something of an anomaly among the Hermat people: extremely outgoing, playful, and prideful whenever s/he managed to solve some sort of problem or difficulty.

Burgoyne served as the chief engineer of the USS Excalibur under Captain Calhoun until the ship's destruction in 2376.

Burgoyne also enjoyed a brief romantic dalliance with Mark McHenry and described their association as a "friendship with fringe benefits." Burgoyne sired one offspring with Dr. Selar. They named the child Xyon, in honor of the son of Mackenzie Calhoun, who appeared to have been killed defending Tulaan IV from the Black Mass.

When Dr. Selar insisted on raising Xyon as a Vulcan citizen, Burgoyne sought legal remedy from the Hermat Directorate, but was refused. S/he was forced to plead the case for parental rights before the Vulcan Judgment Council, in opposition to Selar. The two parents eventually reached a mutually agreeable settlement.

Burgoyne was promoted to the rank of commander and assigned to the new USS Excalibur-A in 2376 as first officer under Captain Calhoun.

Selar 

 was the chief medical officer on USS Excalibur under Calhoun. An accomplished physician who trained under Dr. Beverly Crusher of the , Selar was accused of lacking a good bedside manner.

One of the most important moments in Selar's life was the death of her mate, Voltak, during the early moments of their pon farr joining. This premature disruption of the Vulcan mating ritual resulted in a delayed-reaction mating urge, which forced Selar to resume pon farr less than three years after the death of Voltak.

Although Selar initially selected Captain Calhoun to act as her mate during her unexpected pon farr, she ultimately mated with Burgoyne 172. She subsequently became pregnant, and named the child Xyon, in honor of Xyon of Calhoun, the ostensibly late son of Captain Mackenzie Calhoun. In After The Fall, which is set several years into the future from the previous novel, Stone and Anvil, it was discovered that she had become estranged with Burgoyne over their son. Selar was desperately trying to find a cure for Xyon's incredible aging rate which left him only a few years to live.

Robin Lefler 

The operations manager on USS Excalibur under Calhoun, , had previously served as a member of the engineering staff of the Enterprise-D. She was renowned for her off-the-cuff recitation of "Lefler's Laws," pithy observations and comments that mysteriously seem to suit whatever occasion was presented.

Lieutenant Commander Lefler served as Starfleet's representative to the New Thallonian Protectorate. She was married to Prime Minister Si Cwan of the Protectorate until his death at the hands of Fhermus, but continued to serve the New Thallonian Protectorate, helping Kallinda lead her people toward the rebuilding of Thallonia.

Mark McHenry 
The conn officer on USS Excalibur under Calhoun, , was a brilliant navigator, capable of performing calculations faster than the ship's computer while calculating  to the fiftieth decimal place.  He could also detect the slightest changes in direction of a ship at warp. He had short-cropped red hair, blue eyes, and freckles.

He, Zak Kebron, Soleta, Worf, and Tania Tobias all joined Starfleet Academy in 2357 and remained friends for all four years at the Academy.

During a confrontation witnessed by Zak Kebron, Q suggested that McHenry was not what he appeared to be, and might be considerably more than just a gifted Human. It turned out that he was, in fact, a direct descendant of Apollo (who had impregnated Carolyn Palamas). In 2376, he left the USS Excalibur in non-corporeal form to guard against his evil, divine relatives.

Zak Kebron 
The USS Excalibur Chief of Security, , was a member of the high-density race called the Brikar, and had to wear a small gravity compensator on his belt at all times. If he did not, his more-than-earth-normal mass made it impossible for him to move.

The Brikar were an inorganic race of sentient beings that were silicon-based, appearing to be made of living rock, humanoid in shape but substantially larger in stature than Humans. They were considerably stronger than Humans and were fairly impervious to physical attack due to their rocky composition. As such, Kebron was capable of enduring phaser blasts that would kill a normal humanoid, and he was a skilled player of three-dimensional chess. He underwent dramatic biological changes in 2376 and thereafter combined his duties as security chief with those of ship's counselor aboard the USS Excalibur. His roommate at Starfleet Academy was Worf. This was despite the fact that there was little love lost between the Brikarians and Klingons due to an unsuccessful attempt by the Klingons to enslave them.

Soleta 
 was the science officer on USS Excalibur. Her previous experience in Thallonian space made her uniquely qualified for service on the Excalibur when it was assigned to Thallonian space.

Early in her Starfleet career, during a visit to Plexus IV, she was detained for roughly 94 hours for failing, upon her arrival, to stand and listen to the local clergy extol the virtues of the Plexian deities. During her first mission in Thallonian space, she was captured on the planet Thallon while conducting geological research. She was rescued from a Thallonian prison by Spock, who was disguised as a Thallonian. On their way to safety they were intercepted by Thallonian prince Si Cwan – later known as Federation ambassador Si Cwan – who chose to facilitate their escape rather than sound the alarm. Si Cwan later asked Soleta to repay this favor by smuggling him aboard the Excalibur.

Because her natural father was a Romulan, Soleta had occasional difficulty controlling her emotions. Soleta was raised by her mother, T'Pas, and adoptive father, Volak.

Soleta first confronted Rajari, the Romulan criminal who raped her mother, while she was serving aboard the starship Aldrin. Years later, she tracked the terminally ill Rajari to the Titan Colony, following his release from a Federation prison. He duped her into traveling to Romulus on his behalf and triggering an explosion that killed several Romulan leaders and leveled a prominent landmark in the capital city.

She retired her commission after her Romulan heritage was discovered by Starfleet and returned to Romulus to start over as a member of the Romulan Empire. She was given the rank of commander and a Warbird tailored toward intelligence and espionage, acting directly under the orders of the Praetor. 

Soleta's loyalty to the Romulan Empire ended following the events of , after a coup replaced the former government. Using the Warbird that was given to her, she, along with her tribune, Lucius, offered their ship and their services to the New Thallonian Protectorate that Lefler and Kallinda were working to build.

Morgan Primus 

 was the mother of Starfleet officer Robin Lefler, who was conceived on Morgan's first date with Robin's father. A near-immortal being, Morgan faked her own death in a shuttle accident off the coast of New Jersey during her daughter Robin's teenage years. Morgan turned up alive ten years later as a prisoner of the Momidiums in the Gamma Hydrinae system, traveling under the nom du voyage Morgan Primus. She'd come to Thallonian space with her companion, Tarella Lee, in search of the Prometheans.

In 2376, Morgan "died" but her consciousness remained in the USS Excalibur computer.

Xyon of Calhoun 
 was the son of M'k'n'zy and Catrine of Calhoun, born during the Xenexian uprising against the Danteri. He captained the Lyla and possessed low-level, instinctual psionic abilities that proved sufficient to fool the Redeemer Overlord into believing Xyon was dead. He later faked his own death during the Excaliburs rescue of Tulaan IV from the Black Mass, by slipping away during a crisis using his ship's cloaking device.

Xyon returned to Thallonian Space in 2379 to tell Kallinda he was still alive and stop her from marrying Tiraud. When she told him to leave, Xyon kidnapped her, but she was taken from him by the Wanderers of Priatia. He returned to New Thallon, where he was tortured until Robin Lefler rescued him. He was then turned over to his father on the USS Excalibur.

Moke 
The son of Rheela,  was an impetuous young boy who idolized Tapinza, to his mother's great concern. He encountered the marooned Captain Calhoun in the Yakaban desert, and led him back to Rheela. He was later revealed to be the true source of Rheela's weather-affecting talents; members of their family acted as catalysts for one another, and were powerless when alone.

After his mother's murder, he was adopted by Captain Mackenzie Calhoun, who returned with the boy to Federation space.

Moke's real father turned out to be Woden, father of the Gods.

Xyon 
The half-Vulcan, half-Hermat offspring of Burgoyne 172 and Dr. Selar,  was named in honor of Xyon of Calhoun.

Although predominantly Vulcan in appearance, Xyon displayed such Hermat traits as early maturation of physical skills and a mode of locomotion that involved traveling on all fours rather than fully upright.

Xyon developed very rapidly, reaching a biological age in his twenties after just four years. He graduated Starfleet Academy and became a science officer aboard the USS Excalibur.

Si Cwan 
 was formerly a popular prince of a royal family in the Thallonian empire whose family was overthrown. Si Cwan actually was liked by the people; nonetheless, those around him were hated and reviled, which was one of the reasons that the Thallonian empire crumbled. He vowed that he would make the empire a better place for all its citizens, and not just the royal family once he ascended to the throne – unfortunately, he never got a chance to do so before Thallon was destroyed. Si Cwan and the survivors of the coup sought refuge in the Federation. Cwan, however, returned to the Thallonian empire to prove that the family is willing to work with the Federation and "by extension" the people of the Thallonian sector, in order to achieve peace. He stowed away aboard the Excalibur with the help of Soleta and was made the ship's unofficial ambassador by Calhoun upon his discovery. 

After a lengthy search, Si Cwan located his missing sister, Kalinda, who had been abducted by Zoran Si Verdin. Later, Si Cwan undertook a new quest to avenge the murder of his mentor, Jereme, who was killed by Nikolas Viola, son of Si Cwan's longtime rival, Sientor Olivan. He then became Prime Minister of the New Thallonian Protectorate and married Robin Lefler.

However, civil war erupted in Thallonian space, pitting Si Cwan against his former political ally, Fhermus, after Kallinda (or rather a "Wanderer" impersonating her) killed Fhermus's son on their wedding night, reigniting past grudges and old blood feuds. After confronting his sister and discovering that she was an impostor, Si Cwan attempted to surrender and presented proof to Fermus that other forces were at work trying to play them against each other. Despite this, though, Fermus called his evidence a complete hoax and used Si Cwan's moment of vulnerability to kill him.

Kalinda Cwan 
 was a former princess of Thallonia and sister of deposed Thallonian prince Si Cwan, who called her by her nickname, "Kally."

She was abducted by Zoran to the planet Montos where she was surgically altered to appear as a Montosian, and brainwashed into believing her name was Riella and that a Montosian woman named Malia was her mother. Zoran did this so that he could take advantage of Kalinda's Summons to locate The Quiet Place.

Kalinda escaped Montos with the aid of Xyon of Calhoun, with whom she had a short-lived romantic relationship aboard the USS Excalibur. Subsequent to her return from The Quiet Place, Kalinda's psychic connection with the recently deceased become much stronger.

Kalinda lived shortly on New Thallon with her brother. She was kidnapped from her home, first by Xyon and then by the Wanderers, and replaced with a fake by the latter.

Xyon and the crew of the Trident sped directly to her rescue after the destruction of the Warden ship and recovered her safely and without harm. After her brother's death, though, she had thoughts of suicide, but after communicating with her brother's dead spirit, realized that she still had work to do in the living world. She was the last living blood member of the proud Thallonian royal house and served in her brother's former role as the head of state with help from Lefler.

Edward Jellico 

 was the admiral serving over Sector 221-G. He had a rather hostile relationship with Calhoun, although this relationship softened over the years. It was he who suggested that M'k'n'zy change the pronunciation of his name to the more manageable Mackenzie, and to adopt the name of the town he grew up in – Calhoun – as his last name.

Janos 
 was originally mentioned as being a sentient Mugato, but his species was later described (in New Frontier: Stone and Anvil) as a mutation of several animal and humanoid species, including Caitian and Mugato. Although he served for a time as a security officer on the Excalibur, Janos was last known to reside on the world of Neural, and was no longer an active member of Starfleet.

Katerina Mueller 
Commander  originally served as the XO of the Excalibur (the equivalent of the first officer for the night watch), but later became the first officer and eventually captain of the Trident. She was of German ancestry and attended Heidelberg University on Earth. She had a fencing scar on her left cheek and was an inch taller than Captain Calhoun.

Arex 

, an Edosian, originally served on the  under Captain Kirk as a security officer (voiced by James Doohan in ). The three-armed, three-legged officer was stuck in time until he was later recovered by Starfleet. He last served as the chief of security on the USS Trident.

M'Ress 

 served with Arex on the USS Enterprise as a communications officer (voiced by Majel Barrett in Star Trek: The Animated Series). Like Arex, she was transported through time almost a century and eventually joined the crew of the Trident as a science officer. She had some difficulty adapting to the new time period, which was not helped when she was mind-raped by another member of the crew. However, she adapted well, and served as chief science officer on the Trident. M'Ress was a Caitian and had many cat-like features, including pointed ears, a mane, and a tail. She disliked wearing footwear, finding them confining.

Romeo Takahashi 
 served as the conn officer aboard the USS Trident  He got his nickname from his famous corned beef hash recipe. He spoke with a distinctive southern drawl that belied his Asian ancestry. According to Captain's Table: Once Burned, Calhoun met Takahashi for the first time on the  during the disastrous mission that resulted in Calhoun resigning from Starfleet.

Recurring characters 

Beth was an engineer serving in the engine room of the Excalibur. 

Korsmo was the previous captain of the Excalibur. He died in battle against the Borg in the short story "Making a Difference" in the New Frontier anthology No Limits. He previously commanded the Excelsior-class USS Chekov, with Shelby serving as his first officer on that ship. He attended Starfleet Academy with Captain Picard.

Yates
 An ensign.

M. Torrelli 

Polly Watson
 An ensign.

Christiano
An ensign on the Ambassador-class Excalibur, Christiano suffered an incredibly painful death as he was drawn into the warp core of the Excalibur by an energy being dwelling inside the containment field.

Scannell

Hecht

Karen Kurdziel
A doctor

Michael Houle
A lieutenant, junior grade.

Lieutenant Junior Grade Gold served on the Grissom with Calhoun. His sister went to the Academy with Calhoun.

Scott Fogelson  An ensign.

 An ensign.

Argyle

Boyajian

Mitchell
Mitchell was Burgoyne's assistant in engineering, and was promoted to chief engineer when Burgoyne became first officer.