Reading Picard Countdown right after reading 2009 Star Trek Countdown is a little weird as we’re retconning some events covered then.

The Hobus Star supernova is central to both, but in PIC Countdown it’s something that was known for years vs something Nero and Spock warn about in what seems like days or weeks before. PIC tells us the Romulans knew and only once confronted by their own decoded messages by Starfleet did they allow help from outsiders for evacuation.

2009 Countdown had Picard as Ambassador to Vulcan something we knew was going to be changed, now as an Admiral aboard the Verity. The Verity by the way, is an Odyssey-class starship, seen only to date in Star Trek Online, which is an interesting nod:

Geordi also has a cameo here (as he did in 2009 Countdown), here he’s helping build an evacuation fleet to send to Romulus. We’re also introduced to Lt. Cmdr Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd’s character, his first officer.

The first issue lays it down well enough for us too. Picard is diverted to a Romulan Colony to assist with their evacuation, is greeted more warmly than expected but on top of the 10K or so Romulans to evacuate there’s a native population of over 5M that the Romulans don’t see the need to evacuate, despite their being sentient. They clash and Picard is thrown in Romulan jail.

So far it’s some good filler material.