Challenger

Blurb

Challenger is a Star Trek: New Earth novel written by Diane Carey.
In Voyages of Imagination, Diane Carey remarked on leaving ending open for a new series: "The new 'sheriff' in these parts was Nick Keller, a first officer plagued with an unstable captain who was forced to take over a ship and dispossess his captain in order to save his ship and mission. The idea was for Kirk to leave Keller in the wilderness to be the Starfleet law enforcement force in the unstable Belle Terre system. Nick Keller's ship was destroyed, and he comes up with the idea of cobbling together a crew from the immediate reservoir. The ship Challenger was named after the space shuttle Challenger, a suggestion from John Ordover."