We’re counting down to the January 2020 return of Jean-Luc Picard by revisiting some of the pivotal stories about the beloved Starfleet captain from across the last three decades of Star Trek: The Next Generation published fiction.

Welcome to the next entry in our retro review series Prelude to Picard!

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Published in 2001, and set six months before the events of Star Trek: First Contact, Andy Mangels and Michael A. Martin’s Section 31 — Rogue is second in a series of four Section 31 series of novels published that year, which illustrated the first time Kirk, Picard, and Janeway each encountered the shadowy intelligence organization. By the time of this novel, Picard’s crew have moved onto their Sovereign-class home, getting used to life aboard the Enterprise-E.

Rogue is best described as a political thriller, in which the Enterprise is dispatched to explore the disappearance of a Federation starship in orbit of a planet that is currently in the middle of a referendum: to decide whether to align themselves with the Federation or the Romulan Empire.

Along for the ride is Admiral Marta Batanides, one of Jean-Luc Picard’s former Academy classmates, who we met aboard Starbase Earheart during the Q-assisted flashback episode “Tapestry.” Aboard the disappeared starship the USS Slayton was the third member of their Academy trio, Command Cortin Zweller.

The Enterprise discovers that the Slayton was destroyed by the Romulans, who are trying to keep under wraps their discovery of a subspace singularity near the disputed planet – Chairos IV – that could provide them with a new limitless power source.

On the planet, the Romulans are manipulating freedom fighters who oppose the ruling regime of the planet to stoke anti-Federation sentiment. And helping them is Commander Zweller, who is actually an agent of Section 31, who has made a deal with the Romulan Tal’Shiar to let control of Chiaros IV fall to the Romulans in exchange for valuable intelligence on Romulan spies active within the Federation.

Trapped in the middle of these political machinations are Picard, and the young Lt. Hawk — the Enterprise-E helmsman who later died at the hands of the Borg — who Section 31 tries to recruit. Picard finds his mission at odds with that of Zweller and Section 31, as the Romulans try to double cross both parties to achieve their ends.

Rogue is a great book for Picard speeches about morality. Section 31 is a great foil for Picard’s “the duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth” ethos, and it’s a shame that we did not get any on screen interaction between the two.

And even though a major character of the book is Lt. Hawk, his subplot also reflects back upon Picard. Hawk is torn by the offer presented by Section 31 to join their organization, and his moral compass and loyalty to Picard.

Ultimately, the latter wins out, and he brings the organization’s existence to the captain’s attention. As he does so, he explains that it was Picard’s example that he ultimately ended up following – including massaging the rules by not immediately reporting it to his commanding officer.

The most interesting relationship in the book, though, is that between Picard, Batanides, and Zweller. The trio were inseparable in their Academy days, as shown in “Tapestry,” and it was their rowdy behavior in a bar with a trio of Nausicaans that led Picard to make one of the biggest mistakes of his life that resulted in him being implanted with an artificial heart.

Time has not been kind to their relationship, though. Duty has taken each character in a different direction; Picard as captain of the Federation flagship, Batanides an admiral in Starfleet Intelligence, and Zweller a senior science officer and covert Section 31 agent.

For anyone who has reconnected with people from their past with whom they were close, the novel does a good job of replicating how awkward that can be. At once you want to fall back into old habits, but you’re also keenly aware of the time that has passed since your relationship used to be that way. I wonder if we’ll feel something similar about the return of beloved characters from The Next Generation in Star Trek: Picard.

It is also fun, in anticipation of the release of Star Trek: Picard, to see Picard facing off against the Romulans. Rogue nicely balances action, adventure, with political intrigue, questions of galactic importance, and some fun cameos from Tal’Shiar Director Koval and Senator Pardek. The Romulans remain an eminently interesting race, who are due for additional exploration. The trailers for Picard make me hopeful we’re going to get some.

Rogue does a good job of exploring the implications of an organization like Section 31 operating in Starfleet – about a decade before such stories had largely worn out their welcome – but smartly avoids too much sinister mustache twirling. This book reminds you that, before the premise of Section 31 was worn through and rendered pretty lifeless, it was a fascinating addition to the Star Trek canon.

Picard as a character often works best when he holds the moral high ground but is being undermined by those around him. Extra points if he has a personal connection to those people. Section 31 — Rogue easily serves up a great tale where one of Picard’s oldest friends is pitched against him, and he is forced to come to grips with the Federation’s dark side.