#reset button

274 pages (seven days to read)

First published 1994-09

Pocket Books TOS 71

Stardate 6251.1 (three months before the end of the five-year mission)

I think with how long I took to read this it's time for another break. Nearly 24 years since my prior read, and one of the books I've owned the longest from my Trek collection. I had some subconscious memory/expectations of what was coming as I read the early parts and saw the need for a reset button well before the half way point, some of my disinclination to read.

The Enterprise is observing a area of space, the Crossroad Nebula, with unusual stellar issues, and a planet that's under quarantine due to Prime Directive reasons. When a ship comes out of the nebula. The narrative also introduces an alien that nests in ships, resulting in some of the lost ships over the years, although they've never really been seen.

282 pages (three days to read)

First published 1994-02

Pocket Books DS9 05

Stardate: 47234.3 (part way through the story)

This was probably one of the hardest novels to read, after more than 100. I'll put why behind the read more due to spoilers. Back of novel hints at what's happening, Alien invaders and time travel, but not the specifics.

Quark buys a century old storage box, and after Odo forces him to get it scanned, by both Bashir and O'Brien, it's opened. A few items inside including a device that neither recognize at all.

During the events it is revealed that both Jake and Benjamin scratch notes into the corridor walls; with their initials, the stardate, and their intended direction of travel. Apparently they saw in in a movie, one of the many retellings of Journey to the Center of the Earth.

The main character is a young woman who has grown up in a very authoritarian system and is a True Believer in the ideas she was raised with. She lives in a small separatist community run under very strict military rules. In this world, the Earth was completely destroyed by aliens. Remaining human refugees now live on alien planets, but this small community of rebels broke off and refuses to accept peace. They live for a day when they will finish the war and avenge humanity.

Our MC has been training to be a warrior her whole life, she is one of the top of her class... and then when she comes of age they tell her "nope, sorry, we actually need to send you over to the Mothering department to have babies for the rest of your life. :)" So she flees... and then has to reexamine her world view when the facts of life in the outside world don't match the propaganda she's been taught.

This is also a world in which powerful AI were developed that are able to rewrite reality, and the MC eventually gets access to one. At which point she faces the choice: what if she rewrites reality so the Earth was never destroyed? What if she finally "wins the war" by restoring Earth and destroys all the alien homeworld planets instead?

Are you ready to reclaim your life… or are you still letting a screen decide how your days feel?

It doesn’t happen all at once.

It’s small.

You open your phone to check one thing. You blink, and it’s been 45 minutes.

You say “just one more game.” Now it’s 2am, and tomorrow is already ruined.

You sit down to relax… but somehow you don’t feel rested when it’s over.

Just… numb.

Behind. Disconnected. A little guilty, but not enough to stop.

So you try to be more “disciplined.” You tell yourself tomorrow will be different.

But it usually isn’t.

Because this isn’t just about discipline.

It’s about awareness.

It’s about noticing how much of your life is quietly being traded away for something that doesn’t actually give anything back.

No one wakes up and decides to lose hours of their life.

It just… happens.

Over and over, until one day you realize you don’t feel like yourself anymore.

So here’s your reset button:

Not a full detox. Not a dramatic life overhaul.

Just this—

Tonight, take one hour back.

No phone. No games. No scrolling.

Sit with the silence. Go outside. Talk to someone. Or don’t do anything at all.

Just be.

See what comes back when the noise is gone.

Because your life isn’t gone.

It’s still there.

A reset button—science is unable to manufacture such a thing. How right our dear Megamind is. I think he would have wished for this to be real just to battle Metroman once more, but it was already impossible.