Balance of Power is a ' novel by Dafydd Ab Hugh.
When a famous Federation scientist dies, his son puts his inventions up for sale to the highest bidderâÂÂwhether Federation, Klingon, Romulan or Cardassian. Among the items at auction are medical devices, engineering advancesâÂÂand a photon pulse cannon capable of punching through a starship's shields with a single shot.
Meanwhile, at the Academy, Wesley Crusher comes to the aid of his best friendâÂÂand finds himself kidnapped by outlaw Ferengi bent on controlling the universe through commerce. When they also set their sights on the photon cannon, Captain Picard must find a way to save the Starship Enterprise and the Federation from the deadliest weapon ever knownâÂÂwith every race in the galaxy aligned against him.
Following Dafydd Ab Hugh's first Star Trek novel, Fallen Heroes, he discovered that he earned more money from writing these types of books than those outside of the franchise. This and the introduction of the gold pressed latinum as a currency in ' and ' influenced him to write a novel about this subject matter. He stated that since latinum could not be replicated in-universe, it seemed natural to have a plot where someone discovered how to. He believed that such a plot would eventually appear elsewhere by another writer, and so decided to use it himself.