Name: The Starless World
Author: Gordon Eklund
Publication Date: 10/1978
Publisher: Bantam Books
Page Number: 152
Historian’s Note:
Sometime between The Counter-clock Incident and The Motion Picture
Cast of Characters: Captain James T. Kirk Commander
Spock Dr. Leonard H. McCoy
AKA “Bones” Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA
“Scotty” Lieutenant Commander Gregory Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu Lieutenant Nyota Uhura Lieutenant Kyle Nurse Christine Chapel Ensign Pavel Chekov Crewman Nathan Boggs Crewman Arthur Kaplan Crewman Martin Thomas Clayton Alhamisi Uhura Princess Kyanna Captain Kree unnamed Klingon Officer Ola Domo Ay-nab
Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701,
unnamed Klingon K't'inga-class battle cruiser, unnamed Starfleet Shuttlecraft,
Planets: None
My Spoiler filled summary and review: The Enterprise is off exploring a new region of space. No planets in this area, just some interesting stars. The entire crew, including the Captain, is enjoying some time working on personal hobbies. Then they find something strange, Spock reports to Kirk that they have come across a Starfleet shuttlecraft whose sole occupant claims to be Jesus Christ. The shuttlecraft itself is from the USS Rickover, a ship that has been missing for thirty years. When they bring the shuttlecraft onboard, they discover that “Jesus Christ” is in fact Thomas Clayton, a former Starfleet cadet. He had been expelled from the Academy when his roommate, Jim Kirk, turned him in for cheating. He then when into the merchant service where he enjoyed a lot of success, until he disappeared. Now here he was saying the was the messiah and they all have to try to escape the wrath of a vengeful god.
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| Lost little shuttlecraft |
As the Enterprise proceeds, they come across something that they never thought they would see: a Dyson’s Sphere. It is basically a large megastructure built around a star, using most of the star’s energy to power itself. Fascination soon turns to fear as they are pulled into the structure by a powerful and all of their navigation and weapons systems are all off-line. Inside the sphere they discover that there exists a habitable world and a Klingon battlecruiser. When they try to communicate with the Klingons all they get is a young officer, who is clearly not the captain, who proceeds to threaten Kirk and the Enterprise. It is clear from his blundering that his ship is just as trapped, and he has no idea where his commanding officer is making Kirk suspect that he is on the planet. Clayton escapes from sickbay and ends up on the bridge and seems to worship the Dyson’s Sphere before being taken into custody again.
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| a nut |
Kirk arranges of landing party of
himself, Nurse Chapel, Lt. Uhura, Lt. Sulu, and a few red shirts to die in case
things go wrong. They beam down to the
planet and begin exploring its rather pleasant environment. Then a large predator shows up not only to threaten
them—as their phasers don’t work down here—but also some local natives. A small group of humanoids that scatter upon
the predator’s appearance, leave only one young one who fell to face the
creature. However, Kirk chases the thing
away and the native, who announces her name as Ola, is very pleased to be saved
and is grateful to now have a strong husband in Captain Kirk. Not familiar with local customs, Kirk
nevertheless convinces Ola that he is not her husband, but they could instead
be very good friends. Although a bit
disappointed she takes the landing party to her village and introduces them to
the elder who is known as the Domo. Domo
seem to be a type of priest who is responsible for overseeing the worship of
Ay-nab, their god. Kirk decides to
return to his original plan of talking to the Klingons and proceeds to go to
where the tricorder tells him they are.
He meets the Klingon commander, Captain Kree, who immediately comes off as the friendliest Klingon that the crew has ever met. With the Captain is a female Klingon who Kree introduces as Princess Kyanna, the rightful heir to the Klingon Empire who has been usurped by her uncle. Kree led his ship to rebellion trying to put the Princess on the throne. The Klingons believe that there is advanced weaponry to be found on this artificial world. They don’t believe Ola’s people to be the dominant race and think there is another more intelligent species of Lyrians who have produced such weapons. Ola thinks the weapons that the Klingons have found are just their sacred relics. What the Klingons seek is to find the other species on this world. Given that Starfleet sensory technology is superior to the Klingons, Kree thinks the Enterprise would have an easier time spotting these mystery beings than their own ship. If Kirk is willing to cooperate, then Kree will share whatever weapons are found with him. Ola wants to go as it is dangerous to be out at night. Kirk tells Kree he will think about it but heads back to the huts prepared for the landing party by the Demo. Ola asks to stay with the Captain in the hut he shares with some of the landing party.
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| Some Klingons are not so mean |
Up on the Enterprise Thomas
Clayton receives commands from Ay-nab and decides he must go back to the
surface. He steals a phaser and uses it
to kidnap Dr. McCoy and Spock. When they
beam down, they are attacked by a “stranger,” one of the creatures that roam
around in this world’s night.
Interestingly the phaser can work when Clayton is using it. However, in the confusion Spock is able to nerve
pinch Clayton. They are able to take
both Clayton and the stranger hostage and rendezvous with Kirk and the landing
party. It appears the “stranger” is
dressed in an old Starfleet uniform, with the rank of commander, and his ship
insignia is the Rickover’s. Kirk
tried to communicate with him, but the former officer is incoherent.
At this point they notice that Lt.
Uhura is missing, and it turns out her father is on this world—or something
that claims to be her father—and is now a “stranger” and her lures Uhura away
from their huts and brings her with him to wear the strangers hang out. Kirk goes to talk with the Demo and asks where
he can find Uhura. The Demo won’t tell
him. Kirk informs the Demo that the Enterprise
has confirmed that their world is on track to crash into a black hole. The Demo is upset by this and wishes to
communicate with Ay-Nab. Ola tells Kirk
she knows where the strangers go, and Kirk allows her to lead him which allows
him to rescue the Lieutenant. Ola is concerned Uhura is now a stranger, but
Kirk brings her back anyway.
At this point the Demo is done
communicating with Ay-Nab and is in a depressive state because his people are
all going to die. Kirk offers to bring
him on his ship, but he needs to communicate with Ay-Nab too. Ola once again steps up where Demo won’t and
teaches Kirk the meditation technique to communicate with Ay-Nab.
Kirk and Ay-Nab have a discussion
in which Ay-Nab explains that his people almost destroyed themselves with
nuclear weapons, rebuilt, and repeated.
That this Dyson’s Sphere was constructed to give his people a new world
with the understanding that he, Ay-Nab the sun, would be able to choose their
end. His choice was to fly toward a
black hole. Kirk explains to Ay-Nab that
his world view is completely stupid and proceeds to outwit Ay-Nab and convinces
him to let them all go. The Enterprise,
the Klingons, and Ola too. Kirk and
Spock finish the story with a conversation about the nature of Ay-Nab.
Additional thoughts: Overall I thought this was a great book. It reminds me a little bit of the classic episode “For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky.” In both cases you have a population that is living in a moving space vehicle that is on a collision course with another space object, so everyone is going to die unless they leave or do something to alter its path, but the people have been convinced a machine is their god and it won’t acknowledge that there is even a problem. Granted there are important differences. Lyra was much larger than Yonada physically, but Lyra had a much smaller population. Kirk, unlike McCoy, didn’t fall in love with the native girl and planned to live out the rest of his life with her. In addition to that no one from the Enterprise is dying of a strange disease this time. Also, in this story the crew has to deal with the double threat of the Klingons.
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| Not the first people to worship a computer |
One of the elements that makes this
book work so well is the author having a strong understanding of who all these
characters are and what makes them tick.
Not all Star Trek books can do this. While reading I felt as if I was watching the
original cast on screen. I appreciated
the elements of side humor as well, such as the rant about a needle in a
haystack. Another part about what makes
this book good is you don’t have to be familiar with Star Trek in order to
enjoy it. If this was your first
experience in the franchise, you would not feel lost as everything you need to
know is quickly and easily explained.
So, what is up with Kirk’s old classmates who wash out at the Academy, join the merchant service, make millions, get lost, lose their minds almost totally, and they try to capture Kirk and the Enterprise crew? In both cases they both end up dead in the end, although Clayton here was dead from the beginning, because according to Ay-Nab all the strangers were walking dead but they didn’t always realize it.
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| You can't trust Kirk's old classmate |
When Spock and Kirk discussed the
nature of Ay-Nab it was a moment of pride for me. I had thought throughout the
story the Ay-Nab was some kind of artificial intelligence and not some deity or
a sentient sun. So, when Spock proclaims
this belief as well, I felt good to have come to the same conclusion as Mr.
Spock. The only problem that when Spock
explained how Ay-Nab could communicate telepathically and told Kirk he received
a message from the self-proclaimed god that he and his children were fine. As soon as he said that I felt
disappointment, because I was sure this was another case of Kirk talked the AI
into killing itself again. He let the Enterprise,
the Klingons, and the locals go and flew into the black hole to die. However, by suggesting that he kept his
people and survived as if black holes are just gateways to other universes, and
that Ay-Nab has survived than Kirk didn’t talk him to death did he? Now granted maybe Ay-Nub just wanted to give
Kirk a comforting message prior to his death.
Yeah, that’s go with that.
So, the old ship was the USS
Rickover? As in Hyman G. Rickover,
the father of the nuclear navy? I can
see him having a ship named after him, what I find odd is when this book was
published, he was still actively serving and would still for another four
years.
So, is Ola now the last of her
kind? I didn’t hear of any of her people
escaping Lyra so she may be headed for a lonely future. Then granted the Federation is a wonderous
place it is possible that she might find that husband she was always looking
for. I hope so for her Ola was a very
nice young lady.
Should it be canon: Maybe, just maybe. Everything else is perfect but one little
thing. This isn’t the author’s fault either as Star Trek hadn’t explored the
inner working of the Klingon Empire yet.
(This is one of those rare exceptions where I talk about later elements
of Star Trek, which I mostly refuse to do.) However, we know the Klingons do
not have an emperor at this time period, and the chancellorship is not decided
by hereditary rights. It is selected by
the High Council. Yet, the other
elements of Star Trek contain non canonical elements yet the episode
itself is canon. (James R. Kirk,
Romulans not having Warp Drive, etc.) In
addition, Kirk himself is left uncertain about the validity of the “Princess’s”
claim. Kirk mentions that most of Starfleet
doesn’t really understand internal Klingon politics that well. It is possible that the entire story was a
ruse to gain Kirk’s sympathy and trust. So, let’s call this one a maybe.
Cover Art: Captain Kirk is on the front of the cover
with two Klingons aiming disruptors at him.
The Klingon closest to him looks angry.
There is a town of huts in the background, the sky is red and there is
fog on the ground. The cover is somewhat
misleading as Captain Kree was rather quite courteous with him the moments they
were together.
Final Grade: Final Grade 5 of 5
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