After a half-century of vicious occupation, the Cardassian Empire is finally cutting bait and withdrawing from Bajor, pushed by aggressive resistance movements. The Federation has been asked to meditate the terms of a peaceful withdrawal and settlement and has asked Picard to employ his delicate touch. This is not easy for the captain, so recently tortured by the Cardassians to obtain intelligence for a military attack they later aborted — but Duty compels. Pliable Truths is an excellent bridge novel that links TNG to DS9’s beginning and accomplishes a few minor coups like explaining how O’Brien transitioned from transporter dogsbody in TNG to Deep Space Nine’s chief engineer.

Pliable Truths opens with two concurrent and gradually intersecting stories. As the Enterprise crew begins working with the new Bajoran government and militia to repair Terok Nor — which is to host the peace conference — a group of Bajoran prisoners on a planet removed from maps by the Cardassian military learns that their labor camp is hiding a secret science lab, and that the Cardassians have orders to destroy every portion of the camp rather than risk the returning prisoners’ drawing any attention to the planet. Doctor Crusher and Keiko O’Brian are also investigating some water pollution near a labor camp on Bajor, while Garak verbally spars with everyone to my constant glee. Meanwhile, a series of terrorist incidents and acts of sabotage hinder efforts to repair the station and stabilize Bajoran-Cardassian relations, setting the stage for its shambled status in “Emissary”. The result is a good mix of different drama — personal, political, espionage, and direct combat. and they’re not strictly separated: the Cardassians send Gul Madred to upstage Gul Dukat and at the same time rattle Captain Picard, as Madred had literally been torturing Picard a few weeks prior. There’s also an excellent mix of TNG and future DS9 characters, though admittedly O’Brien is both so that’s cheating a bit. Still, any book that has both Kira and Ro is a winner even though they don’t get to be surly action heroes together.

As a die-hard Niner and a longtime reader of Dayton Ward, I expected to like this novel and wasn’t disappointed. Characterization was solid, the drama was varied and well-paced, and Ward does a good job of portraying the Bajorans’ mixed feelings over the Federation’s presence without beating the reader over the head.

Highlights:

“I read her the story she likes, but she told me she likes the way you read it better.”
“That’s because you don’t provide the sound effects. Or the music.”

“It’s no surprise that victory over an opponent allows one to craft whatever version of facts they feel best serves them,” said Picard. “It could be as complex as the history of one civilization’s subjugation of another, or as simple as determining how many viewing ports are set into that bulkhead.” He pointed to the quintet of windows dominating the wardroom’s far wall before leveling his gaze at Madred. “Are there five ports, or only four?” Picard watched with satisfaction as the Cardassian’s smile faded, replaced by a look of irritation before Madred leaned back in his seat.

“This is interesting, meeting you here,” said Madred.
Placing his spoon next to his bowl, Garak clasped his hands on the table. “It was my understanding that being forced into exile meant never having to see people I don’t like. Leave it to Central Command to fail at something so simple.”

Related:
Day of the Vipers, Night of the Wolves, Dawn of the Eagles. The Occupation trilogy.
DS9 Millenium Trilogy, in which something that happened on the Day of Withdrawal is a key piece of the books’ plots

Coming up….kitties by prescription, hopefully a volcano, and Roman legal history.