The Malkus Artifacts are deadly machines, wielded as weapons of absolute power by an ancient interstellar tyrant and scattered across the Alpha Quadrant when he was overthrown. Thousands of years later, in 2151, they are discovered by Captain Jonathan Archer of the Starship Enterprise, and all Starfleet vessels are warned to be vigilant for these most lethal devices. . .

One hundred years later, Captain James T. Kirk of the USS Enterprise and Commodore Matt Decker of the USS Constellation come across the first artifact on the plague-ravaged colony world of Proxima II. . .

One hundred years after that, Commander Benjamin Sisko of space station Deep Space Nine finds himself pitted against the Bajoran terrorist Orta, in a battle for far more than the future of Bajor, when the second artifact falls into dangerous and destructive hands.