The Kobayashi Maru by Julia Ecklar (Star Trek #47, December 1989).

The shuttlecraft carrying Kirk, McCoy, Scott, Sulu and Chekov is disabled and adrift. There is little to do but wait for rescue and care for their injuries. As time passes, McCoy listens to each of the officers describe how they tackled the simulation known to StarFleet command cadets as the Kobayashi Maru. The test is as much about revealing character as managing a crisis. And some face death more nobly than others.

Julia Ecklar is one-half of the writing team that uses the pseudonym "L.A. Graf" and has written many Star Trek novels, but this is her first ST novel. It's an interesting change-of-pace feature, with the framing story of the shuttle incident and the problems it offers juxtaposed against the Academy stories of four Enterprise officers. The novel is set between the first two Star Trek movies, in the often-proposed "second five-year mission" and provides retroactive continuity for that second movie. Such as, how did McCoy know Kirk's story?

Kirk tells his story first, and little new detail is revealed here. Kirk makes a clever but rather obvious adjustment to the programming of the simulator, on his third try at the scenario, and manages to save the ship. Chekov does not take defeat very well, and his story also includes the next simulation of the Russian and his cadet class, when the young man learns much. Sulu's story is entertwined with his 103-year old great-grandfather, and is very poignant. Scott comes up with a solution to the problem worthy of an engineer. Never let it be said a Scotsman did not go down fighting.

The book is rather interesting, and provides depth to the characters involved. It is a story that would work well as a television episode, and it is perhaps surprising no one thought of using such a plot. It goes well, with more emphasis on character than plot, and moves along quite quickly.

The cover painting is a bit off-putting, as the perspective is poor. The Scott face looks OK, but Kirk and Sulu do not fare as well.

Nice writing, and a different approach to the Star Trek novel.