Stone and anvil - Peter David

Captain MacKenzie Calhoun was not always destined for Starfleet. Look back twenty years...
A hardened killer, at nineteen years old he is already a leader of men: the maverick teenage figurehead of the revolt that will free his home planet from alien domination. But what will he do when his only goal -- his struggle to overthrow the Danteri rule -- is achieved? Discovered by Captain Picard of the USS Stargazer, who detects in him the seeds of possible greatness, he is given a choice which will change his life forever. Under the guidance of Jean-Luc Picard, he abandons the route that can only lead to an early death on his home world. Instead he chooses to enrol at Starfleet Academy, a place utterly opposed to the values of independence and rebellion he learned as a youth. The road from raw recruit to Starfleet Officer has never been rougher. And Mackenzie Calhoun's journey is never less than fascinating, told here as only Peter David can tell it.