Star Trek: S. C. E.: #17 Foundations, Part 1 by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore
This is the opening part of a trilogy where Duffy finds inspiration for an engineering problem in the log entries dating a century back when Scotty first worked with the Corps of Engineers on the USS Lovell (see Vanguard).
And actually, the glimpse back to the crew of the Lovell was the highlight of this story so far because I really enjoyed them in the Vanguard-saga. Otherwise it's a pretty straight-forward retelling of "We have a problem, let's come up with a genius solution", so nothing really noteworthy - and it took me quite some time to gather up enough enthusiasm to actually finish the technobabble-part. And that's not a good sign despite the good characterization. Apart from the characters themselves, the setting in the past is another nod back to TOS-times with one of the asteroids/outposts surrounding the Romulan Neutral Zone (Balance of Terror).
I hope this trilogy will pick up speed a bit in the next part - and I hope to get another glimpse at the SCE of the 23rd century.
