Name: The Covenant of the Crown
Author: Howard Weinstein
Publication Date: 12/1981
Publisher: Pocket Books (Star Trek #4)
Page Number:191
Historian’s Note:
The events take place after Star Trek: The Motion Picture and before
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Cast of Characters: Rear Admiral/ Acting Captain James T. Kirk Commander
Spock Dr. Leonard H. McCoy
AKA “Bones” Commander
Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”
Lieutenant Commander Hikaru
Sulu Lieutenant Commander Nyota
Uhura Lieutenant Pavel Chekov Lieutenant
Jaye Byrnes Lieutenant Michael Howard Lieutenant Shirn O'tay Lieutenant Maria Spyros Dr. Christine Chapel Admiral Paul Harrington King Stevvin Queen Meya Crown Princess Kailyn
First General Haim Nars Poder Tolah Captain Kaidin Commander Kon Keast Kera
Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, Galileo
III NCC-1701⁄7, USS Normandy NCC-4309, Starbase 22, unnamed Klingon spy ship,
and IKS Nightwing
Planets: Shad, Zenna Four, Sigma 1212
My Spoiler filled summary and review: The story
begins with Dr. McCoy complaining about getting old on his birthday. To McCoy’s annoyance Kirk had thrown him a
surprise birthday party. We aren’t told
how old McCoy is, but it’s old enough for McCoy to claim that he is going to
get back at Kirk one day. The party is interrupted by an emergency call from
Starbase 22. When they get there,
Admiral Harrington lays out the stakes.
A sector of disputed territory is in danger of falling to the Klingons.
The most prosperous planet of the J sector, Shad, is in the middle of a civil
war.
The Klingons caused this civil war by arming a dissident group, the Mohd Alliance, against the central government. The Federation backed Loyalist Coalition had been on losing end of this conflict but have now turned the tide. The Loyalists would like the return of their monarch who had been forced into exile eighteen years ago. Kirk has a personal connection to this war. As a lieutenant commander, he served as an officer on USS Normandy when it visited Shad. In his diplomatic role, he befriended the royal family and earned the respect of the King. It was Kirk who convinced the King to go into exile with his family rather than have them all be dead martyrs.
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| Kirk needs to let them know its time to go! |
The Enterprise is sent to
Zenna Four, where the King and the rest of the royal family have spent the last
eighteen years. When they get there,
however, they run into some disappointing news. First the Queen has been dead a
few years, the King is dying, and the Princess does not yet seem able to take
the throne. With the King clearly in his
final hours he told Kirk he never blamed him for his exile but wanted him to
help his daughter continue his dynasty and restore peace to the planet. Two
issues arise. The first is the Princess
Kailyn is sick. She has choriocytosis
the same condition that nearly killed Spock a number of years ago. The disease affects each species differently,
humans are immune, Vulcans start to die, but Kailyn becomes something like a
diabetic, she needs daily shots to function and survive. The other issue is the
sacred crown of Shad, which has been handed down since its first King, Keulane,
received it from the gods and went on to unify the planet. If the Princess
wants to rule, she will need the crown. When they went into exile King Stevvin
hid the crown on the planet Sigma 1212. 
Looking for the missing crown
Kailyn is taking a very strong liking to Dr. McCoy; McCoy does his best to remain professional but it her crush is as plain as day. Kirk realizes the Klingons will try to kill the royals and also, if necessary, find and destroy the sacred crown. Kirk decides that the Enterprise will serve as a decoy. They will make a big show of hosting the King and giving him a ride home, ignoring the fact that he is dying in sick bay, while Spock and McCoy take Kailyn in a shuttlecraft to search for the crown. This was a good plan, but the Klingons had already been tipped to the truth of the matter.
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| Klingon here and causing trouble |
A sneak attack causes their shuttlecraft to
crash on Sigma 1212. All three people
survive, but the planet is cold so they will have to bundle up. With their food supply spoiled they are
forced to look for food. While foraging
the landing party finds themselves captured by these primitive aliens.
Back on the ship, there is major
concern about the missing shuttlecraft.
Kirk talks with Admiral Harrington via subspace radio. It is determined that the Klingons had to
have been tipped off by a spy.
Considering the information that was provided it is clear that the spy
had to have come from the King’s own staff.
They make it a priority to find him or her. The best course of action, reasoned by Kirk,
is to the give spy room to out themselves.
It turns out that the local who
captured the two Starfleet officers, and the Princess was hoping to sell them
as slaves for a profit so he could by the latest spear with a metal tip. He doesn’t make the sale, so their captor
changes his plan and decides tomorrow he will have them as food. The three prisoners didn’t know of this but
if they did it would have just added to their desire to escape, which they
do. Once they escaped, they return to
the wrecked shuttlecraft to salvage some supplies, when they find themselves
attacked by wild animals. The good news
is they recovered the phasers and were able to fight them off. The are then found by another indigenous
tribe of Sigma 1212. These however were
friends of the late King Stevvin. 
Klingons on the way
Back on the Enterprise,
Kirk’s plan was successful. The
traitorous spy tried to make contact with his Klingon handler, and they were
both caught. While on Sigma 1212,
Princess Kailyn confesses her love to Dr. McCoy, and he tries to let her down easily,
but she takes it hard. They also
discover that the Princess must pass a test set up by her late father in order
to be given the sacred crown. She fails
at first but then passes after a prep talk from Mr. Spock. In an added bonus the Klingon spy crew that
were following hoping to kill the Princess were captured by the same individual
who tried to sell the heroes earlier. He
is selling the Klingons and Spock encourages their new friends to
purchase. Using information taken from
the Klingon captives they are able to locate the not-damaged small Klingon
scout ship in order to escape from the planet with the crown in hand.
As they leave the planet the stolen
Klingon ship comes between the Enterprise and the IKS Nightwing. Spock gets a message to the Enterprise,
and they pull an emergency beam out and warp away leaving the Klingons with an
empty spy ship.
On Shad, Kailyn is crowned Queen
and all that was lost is now restored.
Additional thoughts: One of the first things I want to acknowledge is when it takes place. At the end of The Motion Picture the Enterprise and her crew stood restored waiting for their next adventure. At the start of the movie the Enterprise was just finishing up its re-fit and prepping for its next five-year-mission under Captain Decker. Now they are fully ready to go on that mission with Captain Kirk in command. Except as fans know we never get to see any of that. The next film will have a time jump (yes, I am breaking my rule of not talking about later Trek) but it is important to point out we are getting to see something that we don’t normally. To me this one of the great things about Star Trek books is they allow glimpses into time periods we don’t get to interact with much, and the missing second five-year mission is the first of those missing time periods.
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| Always good to get stories from this time period |
The main story itself was
good. The themes of the episode have
been seen many times throughout the series. It reminds me of the episodes Friday’s Child, A Private Little War, and Elaan of Troyius. All three of those episodes and this book
have the Klingons trying to destabilize a local planet or region of space so
that they can exploit everything when it falls apart. In all these stories either Kirk or McCoy has
a connection to the ruling families, and one of the women in said family falls
for one of the two men. That itself
isn’t a bad thing if formula works, I don’t blame them if they want to use it
again. In addition, the details in each
of these stories are different enough to keep them interesting.
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| 1660-1685 not the time of myth |
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| 2022-current |
Also, I thought maybe the royal
family puts too much stock in the crown.
How do they know it’s the same one handed down the generations? Maybe it has fallen apart or been lost before? I think the technology on the Enterprise
exists just to make a whole new crown.
Who would know?
Nice name for the Klingon ship. Since it is called the Nightwing if they were not big fans of the comic book character, Dick Grayson. Then I remembered that the book came out in 1981 and he hasn’t become Nightwing yet. Still, they could be Superman comic fans, as that is the origin of the name.
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| Why not name a ship after him? |
Should it be canon: Yes, I have no problem with this
story as canon. In fact, it begins to
fill a necessary niche in the Star Trek timeline.
Cover Art: The cover has Kirk, Spock, and McCoy
standing at the bottom of the page dressed in Motion Picture landing party
gear. In the background is a red son
over a mountain range. In front of the
sun is the Enterprise with the Nightwing in pursuit.
Final Grade: Final Grade 3 of 5
