"End Game"

written by Peter David.
Published in July 1997 by Pocket Books.
ISBN: 0-671-01398-X, 184 pages
cover by Keith Birdsong

Synopsis:
This book ties up most of the subplots and loose ends begun in the previous three books. The books opens with Calhoun making a very risky gambit to compel Laheera to back down. He launches two photon torpedoes at her city. She doesn't back down so at the last second, Calhoun detonates the torpedoes before they reach the city. She gloats and makes the statement that she wasn't in any danger since she was in a bunker. The rest of her people, she says, were expendable in her bid to get Federation technology. The confession of Laheera had been recorded by the bridge monitoring systems, and Calhoun has it broadcast over the Nelkarite capital city's communications grid. The people are outraged and they riot. They mob Governor Celter and Laheera's lairs and literally tear them apart. A new government assumes power on Nelkar. The new governor releases the refugees and they decide to stay. Excalibur heads to the Kayven Ryin.

On Thallon, Kebron and Si Cwan are thrown in a dungeon. It turns out that just after the Kayven Ryin exploded, before Zak and Si Cwan could be killed, they were rescued by D'ndai, Mackenzie Calhoun's brother. He picked them up in his ship and transported them to Thallon. Their captors decide to kill Si Cwan, but when they attempt to move him out of his cell, Zak Kebron breaks his bonds and wipes up the floor with them. Rather than flee the dungeon, Kebron decides to stand his ground until the Excalibur can come to their aid. The Thallonians try several times to extricate them from the cell but fail. Zoran, D'ndai and Ryjaan then decide to try Si Cwan for the crime of killing Ryjaan's father, which D'ndai secretly knows was actually done by his brother Mackenzie Calhoun. Thallon is racked by massive ground quakes and begins to break up.

On the Excalibur, Selar and Burgoyne talk. Selar asks Burgoyne to stop pursuing her. Selar and Soleta talk in the holodeck recreation of a mountain on Vulcan. Selar calls Soleta her friend. Excalibur reaches the wreckage of the Kayven Ryin and Marquand, but they do not detect any remains of Zak or Si Cwan. They detect a vessel's propulsion trail and follow it to Thallon. Once the Excalibur arrives, Zak and Si Cwan leave their cell and go to the site of Si Cwan's trial. The senior staff beams down and meet with Si Cwan and Kebron. As the new Thallonian government starts the trial and states the charges, Calhoun announces that it was he who killed Ryjaan's father, Falkar, and he produces Falkar's sword to prove it.

All hell breaks loose as Thallon's ground quakes become more intense. Many Thallonians evacuate the planet. Ryjaan demands the Danterian right of Final Challenge, and he and Calhoun fight to the death. Calhoun is injured, but wins after Ryjaan falls into molten lava. All Federation personnel leave the planet. Thallon then cracks like an egg and the legendary Great Bird of the Galaxy beam up and away. Selar realizes that Burgoyne may be her only hope to satiate her pon farr, and she seeks hir out. She spots Burgoyne and McHenry embracing, and heading into Burgoyne's quarters. She returns to her quarters and extinguishes her memory lamp. Calhoun and Shelby share a drink in the ship's Team Room.