The Rings of Tautee by Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Star Trek #78, May 1996).

Subspace waves are coming from the Tautee star system, home of a civilization capable of spaceflight but pre-warp technology. The Enterprise arrives to find rubble where planets and moons used to be. They also begin receiving a distress signal from amongst the rubble. A small group of Tauteeans is found, who have destroyed their system by means of a fusion power casting experiment. It is this experiment that still casts destructive waves through the system, and could in time destroy both Earth and Vulcan. With the help of the USS Farragut, but faced with four Klingon vessels convinced the system has been destroyed by a test of a new Federation superweapon, Kirk must find a way to rescue more survivors and stop the energy wave causing the rings of Tautee.

Smith and Rusch here write their first original series novel, but their third in the series overall after writing a Deep Space Nine novel under the name Sandy Schofield (which also involved destructive subspace waves). This book does little with the characters, but does keep some plot balls moving. Trouble is, we all know where this one is going. It uses the bag of cheap plot devices, such as key ship systems cutting out at inopportune moments, Kirk pushing everyone and everything to the limit, and a dispute over the Prime Directive. It seems like at each point, the writers decided to pull another card from the deck. "OK, insert a call from Scotty that the engines have failed." "Now, the Klingons show up and start making threats." It's all pretty by the book, the tired old book.

Nothing to see here. Just move along. For completists only.